ã€ŠCorruption Wielder (book 4 stubbing on 3/15 (FOR REAL THIS TIME))ã€‹


 Chapter 1: New Beginnings

    The original owner of this work is Aaron Shih, whose Amazon author page is https://www.amazon.com/stores/Aaron-Shih/author/B0BZD955WP</a>.

    The world ended sometime after 3:46 AM, Eastern Standard Time. Will knew this because that was what he¡¯d seen the last time he¡¯d checked the time on the cracked screen of his six-year-old laptop.

    He continued typing up the final report for his internship. Allie, one of his fellow research assistants, had been supposed to finish up the part about her admittedly impressive findings, but she was irresponsible as she was intelligent, so she¡¯d gone out drinking and he¡¯d gotten one more assignment on top of everything else due in the morning.

    ¡°Another night on four hours of sleep,¡± he muttered into his battery-acid-tasting energy drink. ¡°Only two more to go. Then I can do this at an office instead. Yay.¡±

    Coming into university, he¡¯d been told that he¡¯d been meant for greatness. Solid GPA, almost a perfect SAT¡ªthe result of literal months of non-stop studying¡ªand so much time invested in his projects that he¡¯d alienated all of his friends.

    The result of all the hard work he¡¯d needed to achieve that? More expectations. Graduate college at the top of the class, get a high-paying job, always keep working. He struggled to pass his classes now, and he needed to burn the candle at both ends to make ends meet.

    If this was what ¡°greatness¡± was supposed to be, Will didn¡¯t want any part in it. Endless nights barely sleeping, working his ass off to debug and write code that would earn someone else more money¡ªwhat kind of life was that? He had no free time, his only friends were the ones who were equally as lost in the grind, and no hopes for anything more.

    Will was looking at years or decades more of this. And, of course a premature grave when the wombo combo of long nights, sedentary lifestyle, and energy drinks caught up to him.

    But his family needed him. A few years back, his dad had hurt his back so bad that he was incapable of working any of the jobs he¡¯d had, and his mom¡¯s treatments weren¡¯t going to pay for themselves.

    So he worked. If he didn¡¯t, he would have nothing to go back to except the shitty retail job he¡¯d quit a month into because the customers were mad.

    His phone buzzed.

    Lev: srry I couldn¡¯t make it today, massive headache

    Lev: can u cover my bit its almost done

    Damn it. Will buried his face in his hands. Lev was a good friend, but this was absolutely not the time.

    Will: seriously?

    Will: you owe me big time for this

    Lev: u know it man

    He¡¯d hit the gym early tomorrow, Will decided. He could squeeze out a couple hours between classes. Rock climbing, lifting, and beating the shit out of a training dummy always soothed him for a bit.

    That would come after a night of awful sleep that he knew would be interrupted by the wastes of oxygen that spent their entire night partying, but that was an issue for later. For now, he had not one but two people¡¯s reports to finish.

    Planet Sol-3 ¡°Earth¡± has crossed chaos threshold.

    Multiversal defensive system initiating.

    Prepare for impact.

    ¡°Great,¡± he told himself. ¡°Hallucinations are a new one.¡±

    Impact in [3] seconds.

    Will blinked, rubbing his eyes.

    [2].

    ¡°That¡¯s a little too coherent to be made up.¡± He moved his head, and the number moved with it.

    [1].

    [0].

    Impact confirmed at local coordinates [1.35 N, 103.82 E]. System activating.

    The words hung there in the air, and Will realized that his music had stopped. He took his earbuds out and tossed them aside.

    Was the ground underneath him rumbling, or was that just his imagination?

    Please stand by for tutorial zone placement. Those within enclosed spaces are advised to exit at all costs.

    Will stood up, suddenly awake.

    ¡°Am I dreaming?¡± he asked aloud. ¡°Or¡ªow.¡±

    He had stubbed his toe on the desk.

    ¡°Nope. Ow. No way I¡¯d be that cruel to myself in my own head.¡±

    With his toe and pride slightly wounded, Will shut his laptop lid and waited.

    Definitely rumbling.

    Shit. This part of the country didn¡¯t get earthquakes often, but he¡¯d grown up in California and he knew that you weren¡¯t supposed to stay in high places. Something was up.

    He grabbed his laptop and bag and left.

    Halfway down the stairwell, Will saw the horizon shatter through a window.

    It was a cloudless night. The stars shone coldly millions of light-years away, providing Will with just enough light to see the cloud of what looked like dust kicking up far off in the distance. The bursts of debris shot up so high that they soon occluded the sky.

    In times of crisis, people tended to fly, fight, or freeze. As adrenaline pumped through his veins, bringing his sleepy mind into hot, sharp focus, Will clenched his fists.

    As it turned out, he was the second. That shouldn¡¯t have come as a surprise. When another kid had intentionally dumped his water bottle on Will¡¯s head in high school, he¡¯d socked him in the face so hard the other guy broke his nose.

    He was a born fighter stuck in the wrong occupation.

    But how was he supposed to fight this?

    Do not panic. The tutorial zone selection abnormality is within bounds.

    ¡°Do not panic,¡± Will muttered. ¡°Has telling someone that ever worked?¡±

    The noise of the rumbling earth finally reached Will¡¯s ears. It resembled what he imagined a tsunami would sound like mixed with a healthy helping of nails-on-chalkboard.

    The building around him shook. The lights died as the wave got closer, and then the only way he could tell what was happening was by how quickly the stars in the night sky seemed to blink out. The sound permeated his entire body, shaking him so hard he thought his bones might liquefy.

    A spike of dread ran through him¡ªthen, oddly enough, calm.

    For some reason, the last coherent thought he had was, thank god I don¡¯t have to show up for work tomorrow.

    Then he was spinning. Pain coursed through his body, though not as much as there should have been given that he must have just been hit by a force that had been chewing through an entire city.

    His heart leapt into his throat, which was odd. Wasn¡¯t he supposed to be dying? Panic surged through him once more, but it slowly faded into confusion and dizziness before that too dissipated.

    The panic that had dominated him fell away entirely, replaced with a whole-body sense of awe.

    ¡°Whoa. What the hell¡­¡±

    Will was in space.

    He could see the entirety of Earth beneath him¡ªand, he realized, around him.

    Whatever ¡°impact¡± the strange words had been talking about had in fact been real. Two massive plumes of rock, ash, and assorted other used-to-be-Earth material marked the entry and exit points of whatever had just hit the planet, and huge chunks of the planet had simply broken off and were now flying in space around him.

    Welcome to the multiverse, [William Li-Brown].

    The world as you know it has just expanded. Your planet has fallen under the jurisdiction of the multiverse defense system.

    8,792 years ago, your planet joined the Chaos Defense Contract. Due to your failure to produce a sufficient defense system of your own prior to crossing the chaos threshold, the alternative option as described in Provision III has been enacted.

    Chaos threatens the integrity of all of our worlds. You may choose to fight against it by entering the tutorial with survival odds of [ERROR] percent or instead be teleported to a safe zone and serve [40 years] of labor, after which you will be released to a peaceful life.

    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    Entering the tutorial will awaken your personal system, enabling you to wield magical powers and to increase your level and rank. Entering the safe zone will awaken your personal system after your term is complete.

    You will no longer be required to serve when your universe has been secured.

    The system is not cruel, but the world is. Choose.

    Enter the tutorial?

    [YES / NO]

    The messages flickered across his vision, disappearing after he finished reading them. All except the last two.

    Enter the tutorial?

    [YES / NO]

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m stranded in space, very confused, and talking to myself,¡± Will said. ¡°I probably have severe brain damage, but this is definitely real.¡±

    His night had been off to an awful start already. This was something else entirely.

    Yet as he settled into his breathing cycle, he felt¡­ surprisingly good. His night had begun with vanishingly few options remaining to him, and now?

    He looked down at Earth. The old world was dead, and a new one had marched in to replace it.

    Will had been looking down the barrel at a dead-end life full of monotony. Now, no matter how crazy this situation was, he saw opportunity.

    Work. Commute. Sleep. Just minutes ago, his life had been set for him¡ªa drone in a corporate world who would be forgotten within two generations.

    Fuck. That.

    He wasn¡¯t going to repeat his mistake.

    Will reached out and selected [YES].

    Initializing tutorial¡­

    ERROR: User [William Li-Brown] is not in a recognized tutorial zone.

    Recalibrating¡­

    Deviations in tutorial detected. Repositioning subject to nearest viable tutorial zone.

    Will felt a sense of unease rise as his surroundings suddenly shifted, but it was quickly overpowered by excitement.

    He was going to make the most of this. Or he was going to die trying. Either way, he wasn¡¯t going to end up a wage slave.

    Suddenly, he stood upon a chunk of land about the size of a football field. Strangely enough, he still seemed to be far off from the Earth, judging by the fact that he could still see the ruined planet dominating the sky when he looked up.

    He could breathe here, which was odd enough. Even stranger than that was the relatively intact decor here. Will stood amongst living trees overlooking a grassy field dotted with rocks and facing what looked to be a cave with a quaint red wooden door opposite from him.

    Text scrolled across his vision, and this time, a mechanized androgynous voice accompanied it.

    Tutorial Zone - Corrupted Fragment

    Difficulty: Extreme

    This tutorial zone was originally part of Planet XZ-771, more commonly known as ¡°Arcadia.¡± Arcadia was a land of swords, sorcery, and space travel, but as with 98% of planets, they failed to protect themselves. As one of many planets that failed to defend against chaos, Arcadia was able to save itself by choosing to be repurposed into part of the system¡¯s initiation package.

    Fragments of this planet have now been fused with yours. If you look up, you may notice that the occupied surface area of Earth has expanded by roughly 250 percent. Pieces of this planet and its people are now part of your world.

    This fragment is tutorial-viable, but only barely. As it has been exposed to a significant amount of chaos, this segment of Arcadia has been corrupted. Each successive level of the dungeon beneath the cave possesses increasing levels of chaos and corrupted items.

    Due to the location of this tutorial, you may select any point on your home planet to return to upon completion.

    WARNING: Extended exposure to a high corruption zone is lethal.

    Before he could ask what any of that meant or how he was supposed to survive in a place meant to kill him, another pop-up appeared in front of his eyes.

    Spawn protection disabled.

    ¡°That¡¯s not ominous at all.¡±

    The ground rumbled in an uncomfortably familiar way under his feet. Will took a defensive stance instinctively, flashes of the unstoppable wave of destruction flashing through his mind.

    ¡°It¡¯s not exactly the same,¡± he told himself. ¡°For one, I¡¯m in space on a magic rock.¡±

    For another, the rumbling seemed directed, snaking its way from left to right and steadily approaching him. This wasn¡¯t an earth-shattering impact.

    Will crouched, prepared for the field to split beneath his feet.

    He evaded the fissure that formed under him, but though he¡¯d been ready for that, he wasn¡¯t for what popped out of it.

    Given the experiences he¡¯d had today, he¡¯d thought it reasonable to assume it¡¯d just be another earthquake-adjacent thing.

    Instead, a glistening arachnid the size of his torso leapt out from the fresh hole it had burrowed in the ground, jumping toward his face.

    The original owner of this work is Aaron Shih, whose Amazon author page is https://www.amazon.com/stores/Aaron-Shih/author/B0BZD955WP</a>.

    New quest: Begin the tutorial

    Your new life has begun. Accept it or face life in a factory.

    - Enter the tutorial cave within the next 15 minutes. [0/1]

    - Failing this quest automatically ends the tutorial.

    Reward: 10 bronze credits. Gain the tutorial helper. Gain the ability to earn achievements.

    Will flinched at the sight of two things, one real and one hologram-like, popping into view at the same time. He stumbled backwards, narrowly avoiding it. He¡¯d taken enough martial arts courses throughout his childhood to know how to turn his fall into a roll that ended with him in a crouch.

    The¡­ thing, whatever it was, gave him the shivers, and he was pretty sure that wasn¡¯t just because it was more than a little creepy. It looked like a cross between a spider and a scorpion, and its carapace glistened with some smoky black substance that looked wrong, as if it was a texture in a game that hadn¡¯t been fully rendered. The creature flickered as it moved, pieces of it distorting in his vision.

    ¡°Oh, hell no,¡± Will spat, stumbling backwards. ¡°Spiders? Seriously?¡±

    At least it didn¡¯t look too much like a spider. It still had way too many legs, but with the scorpion-like tail, it was recognizably something else. Spiders creeped the shit out of him.

    He continued moving backwards, looking for something he could crush it with. There were plenty of rocks here, weren¡¯t there?

    The not-spider thing skittered towards him faster than he could run backwards. Seeing this, Will stopped looking for a rock he could carry and let his focus narrow to just him and the arachnid.

    As he focused on it, time seemed to slow, and a red tooltip appeared over the creature¡¯s head.

    Cave Scorpider. Level: Unformed 1.

    Originally from Arcadia, these creatures are the result of a genetic experiment that evolved a unique way to reproduce. A favorite snack of cave goblins, these poor abominations have no armor on their undersides.

    WARNING: This entity has been corrupted. Extended exposure to this entity may inflict the [Corruption] condition and may be lethal.

    ¡°Alright, asshole,¡± Will said, ignoring the parts of the text he couldn¡¯t do anything about. ¡°Come at me.¡±

    He remembered how the scorpider had leaped at him the first time, and he waited. The thing¡¯s body was super close to the ground, protecting its weak body.

    Its legs tensed, and Will readied himself.

    As it leapt for his face once again, adrenaline coursed through his body and he hit the ground on his knees, throwing his hands up above him like he was an outfielder trying to slide into a catch. He¡¯d never been great at baseball, but the scorpider was a lot bigger than a ball.

    He grabbed onto two slimy legs, forcing himself to ignore just how gross the creature was, and he swung it over his head.

    The scorpider was surprisingly light¡ªabout the weight of the bowling balls at the dinky alley in the local shopping mall.

    That mall probably didn¡¯t exist anymore, did it?

    He pushed the thought away. No time for distractions.

    Will arced the corrupted monster into the ground. The impact of it briefly stunned the creature. Its legs flailed, exposing a discolored portion of its body that Will immediately identified as the vulnerable underside.

    He didn¡¯t think twice. Will stomped as hard as he could on the soft flesh, his blood running hot with excitement.

    The creature¡¯s abdomen popped like a water balloon filled with ink, splattering monster blood over Will¡¯s sneakers with a satisfying squelch.

    You have defeated a Cave Scorpider.

    ¡°Gross. Your corpse smells about as nice as you looked.¡±

    The dark blood of the scorpider sizzled as it hit the grass, which reminded him that he had, in fact, stepped straight into the center of the thing¡¯s abdomen.

    ¡°Damn it,¡± he sighed, withdrawing his foot. ¡°I bought these shoes last week.¡±

    He wiped his hands and feet off as well as he could on the grass, then gave up when he decided he wasn¡¯t going to be able to get any more of the gunk off.

    The odd smoke-like component to it was still there, he noted. The black distortion was slowly expanding, crawling across his skin and shoes even though he¡¯d already wiped it off.

    ¡°That can¡¯t be good.¡±

    You have been afflicted with one level of [Corruption].

    Will winced in pain as a burning sensation tore through his entire body.

    ¡°The hell is that?¡±

    Condition: [Corruption]

    Brought on by extended exposure to chaos. May also be inflicted by those wielding the Chaos or Corruption elements.

    - All incoming damage is drastically increased.

    - Continually applies chaos damage, which increases proportionally to the time the target has been corrupted.

    - All attributes are reduced.

    - Target cannot be magically healed.

    The ground hadn¡¯t stopped rumbling. Now that Will knew what that meant, he wasn¡¯t keen on staying here. Especially since the supposed tutorial zone had dropped him right in what appeared to be the magical equivalent of Chernobyl.

    He took one more look at the corpse¡ª

    Would you like to loot Cave Scorpider (Unformed)?

    ¡°Huh. Yes, please.¡±

    Will watched in fascination as the creature¡¯s flesh seemed to dissolve into the air, producing a thicker cloud of the corrupted smoke it had already been admitting. He took a few steps away to avoid breathing it in.

    5 credits have been added to your inventory.

    Scorpider Tail (Corrupted) has been added to your inventory.

    Scorpider Fang (Corrupted) has been added to your inventory.

    Before he could further interrogate what that meant, the earth cracked in another place. Then another.

    Will took another step forward, then hissed in pain as the [Corruption] effect wracked him with a full-body shock. A silhouette diagram of the human body popped up in the top right of his vision, glowing a light greenish-yellow.

    He couldn¡¯t afford to deal with the rest of them now. Judging from context, that diagram represented his health, and in only a few seconds, the yellow-tinged green had darkened into stoplight yellow.

    Will looked at the new scorpiders, then the door.

    He made a run for it.

    When he was really, properly sprinting, the arachnids couldn¡¯t keep up with him, but they were in his way.

    He leapt over one, cursing as a gash of pain sprouted in his leg, and he didn¡¯t stop.

    Further pain shot through his body as he ran, nearly making him double over, but he made it to the door without crumpling. Every part of his body diagram was glowing an angry reddish-orange.

    Will opened the door. Whatever was on the other side was too dark for him to see, but he knew instinctively that this was the entrance into the tutorial cave.

    He stepped in.

    Quest complete: Begin the tutorial

    Congratulations. You have now demonstrated mental and physical competence on or above the level of the average sapient 5-year-old.

    Reward: You have earned 10 bronze credits. You have gained a tutorial helper.

    Achievement earned: User

    Whether you decided immediately or agonized for hours, you have entered the tutorial and have awakened your system. Fight, survive, and advance.

    Reward: You have earned the Omnilingual universal ability. You have earned the System User universal ability. You have earned 100 credits. You have been granted 1 random elemental gem.

    Achievement earned: Trailblazer.

    You were one of the first 10,000 Users to select [YES] on the Tutorial. Congratulations on your decisiveness.

    Reward: You have earned 100 bronze credits.

    ¡­

    Achievement earned: Out of Bounds.

    Your tutorial is occurring under abnormal circumstances. Please accept this formal apology from the Administrator. This adaption will prevent you from perishing due to a Tutorial Zone that is inherently lethal to your race.

    Reward: Your random elemental gem has been changed to a superior elemental gem of [Corruption]. Would you like to bind the gem immediately? [YES / NO]

    Magic. I¡¯m getting magic.

    Hell yes.

    Congratulations, [William Li-Brown]. You may die today, but it will not be due to corruption.

    Element: Corruption has been bound to the [Affinity] attribute.

    You have earned the [Corruption Resistance] skill at bronze rank.

    Initiating tutorial¡­

 Chapter 2: Phase 2

    Achievement earned: Forerunner

    You were one of the first 100 Users on this planet to kill another living being. You¡¯re either in a very unforgiving Tutorial Zone or you¡¯re a bloodthirsty maniac. One way or another, you made an early move, but this is only the beginning.

    Reward: You have earned the [First Blood] title.

    Title: [First Blood]

    Legendary

    Doubles the power of the first blow you deal against any creature. Increases the chance of getting a critical hit if you strike a creature before it strikes you.

    Achievement earned: Reckless Beginnings

    You reached orange or worse damage status across your entire body and had a near-death experience before entering the Tutorial. How?

    Reward: You have earned a bronze Potion of Superior Healing.

    The notifications came to an end as Will stepped into a dark, damp room.

    He was sore from head to toe like he¡¯d just finished a six-hour-long workout and then been repeatedly jabbed with needles, but the pain wasn¡¯t actively getting worse like it had been.

    The silhouette indicating his health was still an angry orange all over, but it wasn¡¯t actively getting worse, at least. Right next to it, a line of text that had read [Corruption] now had a line crossed through it.

    ¡°Indicating it¡¯s still active, but nullified?¡± Will theorized out loud.

    He winced. The act of talking hurt his throat. And his mouth. And his head. And¡ªyeah, everything.

    Where the hell was he?

    Corrupted Fragment - Safe Room

    This area is safe from corruption. Take your time to rest and recover here. Your tutorial helper will familiarize you with basic system functions.

    NOTE: As this Tutorial Zone¡¯s difficulty is ranked Extreme, your tutorial helper has been upgraded accordingly.

    New quest: Continue the tutorial

    New Users must be able to use the system to at least a semi-proficient level.

    - Complete the following tasks within 60 minutes [0/X]:

    > Open your inventory [0/1]

    > Extract an item from your inventory [0/1]

    > Place an item into your inventory [0/1]

    > Open your status page and examine it [0/1]

    > Bind your elemental gem [1/1]

    - Failing this quest automatically ends the tutorial.

    Reward: 100 credits and continuation of the tutorial.

    ¡°Tutorials are supposed to be the easy part of a game. Did you base your system around Dark Souls? Because it definitely feels that way.¡±

    To access your inventory, select the [Inventory] icon with your eyes, hands, or a mental command.

    This line of text came in a bright red, contrasting the light, inoffensive bluish text that the rest of the messages had been in.

    ¡°Jeez. Is that the ¡®upgraded¡¯ tutorial helper? You really think I couldn¡¯t figure that out myself?¡±

    This is standard procedure for all tutorial helpers. The upgrades will be displayed later.

    ¡°Hold on, you can talk? You can hear me?¡± The voice that accompanied this text was more feminine than the standard system text. Was that his helper?

    A new pop-up opened, startlingly fast.

    FAQ: How can the tutorial helper hear me?

    Tutorial helpers are managed by administrative non-Users serving their labor sentences from a remote location. Should you perish in the tutorial, your tutorial helper will be reassigned to another User.

    ¡°I don¡¯t plan on dying.¡±

    Then you should open your inventory, biped freak.

    ¡°Yeah? You jealous because you picked wrong? And what¡¯s wrong with being a biped? Humans normally are, in case you didn¡¯t notice.¡±

    Implying that my helper isn¡¯t, Will thought.

    The text and accompanying digitized voice did not respond. Will counted that as a victory.

    The system must have been monitoring him somehow. He made sure to flip off the air as he tried to open his inventory for the first time.

    ¡°Come to think of it,¡± he muttered, ¡°if the system can do all of this, why use people for this part?¡±

    FAQ: Why is the system not handling the tutorial?

    After [REDACTED] system cycles of A/B testing, the multiverse defense system has found that Users with sapient helper assisted tutorials have a 3-5% higher 1-year survival rate than those with system-only tutorials.

    ¡°I¡¯d be impressed if I didn¡¯t come out here with a worse survival rate,¡± Will said, glaring at the inky darkness beyond the small square of light in the room.

    25%.

    ¡°Excuse me?¡±

    My tutorials give you a 25% better chance on average. Now hurry up before you die.

    If that was true¡­ it was probably better to work with the helper.

    Will¡¯s skin twinged, reminding him of his current predicament.

    Alright, he thought. Inventory.

    Inventory [3/10]

    - Potion of Superior Healing (Bronze)

    - Scorpider Tail (Corrupted)

    - Scorpider Fang (Corrupted)

    A quest update popped up, notifying him that he¡¯d completed the first part.

    To access an item in your inventory, mentally designate it and focus or use your hands to extract it.

    The inventory was pretty standard¡ªbasically exactly what he remembered inventories from his RPGs being like. There were ten slots, with three of them occupied by small icon representing each of the items he had placed there.

    ¡°Health potion. Yes, please. Oh, and thanks, by the way.¡±

    He and the faceless stranger managing his tutorial hadn¡¯t gotten off to a great start, but he didn¡¯t want this dude¡ªthis lady, rather, based on the voice¡ªto screw him over. That would be an awesome start to a revenge story, but he was more focused on surviving the next few minutes.

    The potion was contained in a corked glass bottle about the size of two shotglasses. It was filled with a thick, metallic liquid, which sloshed around with a dubiously sludgy consistency.

    ¡°Is this drinkable?¡±

    To consume a health potion, you may drink it or mentally select and use it. Drinking a potion manually will slightly increase the effects of the potion.

    That was actually useful information, but Will noticed that she had not actually told him whether or not it was drinkable.

    The helper remained suspiciously quiet.

    ¡°Eh, screw it.¡±

    He uncorked the bottle and tipped it back.

    It tasted like applesauce¡ªthe good kind, the sort where it was clear someone had put time and effort into making it. Will had a soft spot for the snack, but the prepackaged preservative-laden garbage that the school¡¯s convenience store sold just wasn¡¯t the same.

    A warm, tingly feeling suffused his body, intensifying to the point of full-body stinging pain before fading entirely.

    Will experimentally flexed an arm. No pain. His health diagram was back to green.

    You have consumed a potion above your rank. You will not be able to benefit from healing potions for the next [5 minutes].

    That one came in the same blue text as before. Definitely not from the helper.

    ¡°So bronze is above me? What am I, then?¡±

    You may identify your rank by opening your status page.

    ¡°Or you could tell me.¡±

    Or you could open your status page and get it over with.

    ¡°Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, boss.¡±

    Before he proceeded with opening his stats, he placed the empty potion back into his inventory slot. It worked as intuitively as taking something out did. Just placing it into the slot worked.

    With that done, there was only one more task to go.

    Do not open your status page yet.

    ¡°Hmm? You just told me otherwise. What¡¯s wrong?¡±

    You just completed the last inventory task, leaving only opening your status. As you already have an elemental gem bound, opening your stat page will complete this segment, and you will automatically be sent to the next stage of the tutorial, which is combat-focused.

    ¡°I see. Thanks. Could¡¯ve told me that earlier, but thanks.¡±

    Believe it or not, I prefer not to see new initiates dying constantly.

    ¡°I¡¯ll try not to disappoint. Do you have a name, by the way? I keep on thinking of you as ¡®it¡¯ and ¡®the helper.¡¯ Also, your messages keep on clogging up my feed. Could you turn your font size down?¡±

    The User interface¡¯s visual appearance is decided by you, not me. ¡°Helper¡± is an appropriate address. You may tag my messages as such.

    It took him a bit to familiarize himself with the elements of the system, but there was in fact something equivalent to a settings screen.

    ¡°How long do I have in here? The last time I updated my settings, it took me like three hours of testing.¡±

    Helper: You will automatically fail in 54 minutes.

    If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ¡°Nice! It works!¡±

    He gave himself half an hour to fiddle with his settings, though he managed to finish in less than half of that time. Will had always been a power-gamer, and he knew better than most how important minor settings could be. There were a lot of elements of the UI that were still greyed out¡ªhe assumed that he would gain access to things like the minimap later in the tutorial¡ªbut he could see what they would eventually look like, so he placed and sized them until he had a non-intrusive, functional system.

    Will could guess what Helper wanted him to do. The room he was in was entirely devoid of matter aside from him, the tiled platform he stood on, and the darkness beyond. That left him with no resources but what he¡¯d already gathered.

    He extracted the scorpider tail and fang from his inventory. Strangely enough, they appeared to have been cleaned and extracted from the corpse¡¯s body. The fang, which was as long as his entire forearm and tapered to a point, was dry, when it most certainly hadn¡¯t been when he¡¯d messily slaughtered the creature, and the tail¡¯s venom sac was clearly visible and similarly cleaned of all gore.

    If the looting system could do that for him automatically, he wasn¡¯t going to complain. Sure, it was a bit odd, but this was much better than having to manually dissect a spider. The last time he¡¯d done anything like that had been when he¡¯d had to dissect a shark in Ms. Lark¡¯s 4th</sup> grade class, and he hadn¡¯t particularly enjoyed that.

    ¡°What am I supposed to do with these?¡±

    The scorpiders had displayed tooltips when he¡¯d focused on them. Maybe the same would hold true for the items.

    To his delight, they did.

    Item: Scorpider Fang (Corrupted)

    Common, unformed

    Don¡¯t let their pleasant demeanor fool you. Scorpiders utilize these retractable fangs to latch onto their prey. Though the edges are rounded, the point is deadly sharp.

    WARNING: This item has been corrupted. At your current level, you can use this item for [60 seconds] before gaining a level of [Corruption]. Has a moderate chance to inflict one level of [Corruption] upon targets hit by this attack.

    Item: Scorpider Tail (Corrupted)

    Common, unformed

    Fun fact: scorpider tails are vestigial. The laboratory experiment that created them was a resounding failure. They were meant to use their tails as a combination assassination and mobility tool, and they ended up being used for neither. Instead, they store one of the three sacs of venom that the scorpider injects with its fangs. When carefully handled, these tails are a delicacy amongst cave goblins.

    This item can be used as a crafting ingredient for potions of the Poison or Corruption elements. This item can be combined with a Scorpider Fang.

    WARNING: This item has been corrupted.

    Sure enough, after a bit of time, the [Corruption] effect showed up next to his health diagram, though it was once again crossed and greyed out.

    ¡°That resistance skill looks like it¡¯s coming in handy.¡±

    Helper: I would advise combining the fang and tail. It will not be an optimal weapon, but anything is better than starting off an extreme-difficulty tutorial with nothing.

    ¡°I was on my way to doing that,¡± Will said. ¡°And now that you¡¯ve told me to do it, I don¡¯t want to.¡±

    Helper: Don¡¯t be a child.

    He snorted. ¡°Cut me a break. The world just ended with everyone on it. I have literally never been this alone.¡±

    Helper: Your profile states otherwise. You appear to have been quite alone for some time.

    ¡°Not. Helping.¡±

    Helper: If it helps, approximately 2.5 billion Earth humans have chosen to become Users. This is a record high percentage. Your race may have potential.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure if that¡¯s more or less than I expected. Wait. Earth humans?¡±

    Helper: Did you think you were alone in the universe? The impact should have freed you of that delusion.

    Will took a moment to think about that, then another moment to reflect on the fact that he definitely didn¡¯t want to think about it.

    ¡°I¡¯ll figure it out later,¡± he declared, changing his focus to the task of putting tail and fang together.

    A red outline highlighted the venom sac, and another one did the same for the base of the fang.

    Helper: Some items will have crafting guides, but once you leave the tutorial, the majority will not.

    ¡°Ten-four,¡± Will said, carefully twisting the sac off from the tail and placing it into the apparently hollow part of the fang.

    Helper: Ten-four? I took some time to examine Earth¡¯s culture prior to arrival, but you have quite a diverse range of media. I am unfamiliar with this expression.

    ¡°It¡¯s a police thing. I got it from Rush Hour. Or was it Brooklyn Nine-Nine?¡±

    Getting the sac to insert into the fang was easier than Will expected. It slid together as if by magic, venom gland easily slotting into the makeshift weapon.

    ¡°Maybe it is magic helping it along,¡± Will theorized.

    You have crafted Poisoned Scorpider Fang!

    Poisoned Scorpider Fang (Corrupted)

    Common, unformed

    If you weren¡¯t using it as a weapon before, you definitely are now. Has a high chance to inflict stacking levels of [Poisoned] alongside the possibility of inflicting a level of [Corruption].

    Don¡¯t stab yourself.

    ¡°Hmm. That wording makes it seem like I can only do one level of the corruption debuff.¡± Will thought back to how much pain he¡¯d undergone with that single level. ¡°I guess that should be enough for now.¡±

    He made to put his new weapon into his inventory.

    Helper: I wouldn¡¯t do that if I were you. Taking items out of inventory is free right now, but as an unformed with no combat skills, you will have seconds of delay during a battle. Three seconds could be the difference between life and death.

    ¡°Noted.¡± Will did not put the weapon away. ¡°You talk like you¡¯ve seen battle before. Have you been through this place already? Done the same shit?¡±

    Helper: I am not at liberty to disclose that.

    ¡°Also noted.¡± He frowned. ¡°That¡¯s more than a little suspicious.¡±

    No response. That was more damning than anything Helper could have said.

    Oh well. He added it to the mental checklist of important shit I need to get to later, which was expanding a lot faster than he¡¯d hoped for.

    With that done, Will returned the de-venomed tail to his inventory, double-checked to see if there was anything else he needed to do (which there wasn¡¯t), and opened his status page for the first time.

    Name: William Li-Brown

    Level: Unformed 0

    Race: Human

    Class: None

    Titles: [First Blood]

    Attributes:

    [Power]: Unformed 6

    [Speed]: Unformed 7

    [Affinity]: Unformed 5 (Bronze 2)

    [Soul]: Unformed 2

    [Resistance]: Unformed 5

    [Perception]: Unformed 7

    Universal Abilities

    - Identify

    - Omnilingual

    - System User

    Skills

    [Power]: Unbound

    -

    [Speed]: Unbound

    -

    [Affinity]: Corruption

    - Corruption Resistance (Bronze)

    -

    -

    [Soul]: Unbound

    -

    [Resistance]: Unbound

    -

    [Perception]: Unbound

    -

    That was¡­ a lot of information. Okay. Name, level, race, and class¡ªthis was starting to look more and more like the RPG games Will liked to play on occasion. The ¡°Unformed¡± tag had been brought up a few times before, but it was slightly more apparent what it was now.

    ¡°I¡¯m the lowest rank,¡± he said. ¡°Makes sense. But one of my stats has been boosted to bronze? Is that because of the Corruption thing that bound itself to me?¡±

    Helper: Yes. [Corruption] bound to [Affinity] is very strong.

    ¡°Sick.¡±

    Helper: You have the [First Blood] title. That¡¯ll be helpful. Get ready. I will not be able to speak to you as freely in the next area.

    Quest complete: Continue the tutorial

    You completed the system preparation phase in 24 minutes and 37 seconds, which puts you at the 60<sup>th</sup> percentile of system speed. Note: the majority of Users who survive longer than 1 year are in the 80<sup>th</sup> or higher percentile.

    Reward: You have earned 100 credits. The tutorial will now continue.

    The floor disappeared.

    #

    Will barely had time to register that he was falling before his stained sneakers touched ground again.

    Unlike the smooth tile of the weird space he¡¯d been in during the system prep phase, this was obviously a cave. Will had been an Eagle Scout during high school, and he¡¯d done his fair share of light caving¡ªthe type where you could just walk into a well-mapped area, explore for a bit, and come out.

    This cave was not like those. This was the type of cave that would get him put into a YouTube video essay years later detailing the tragedy of him getting trapped there.

    Ominous, sickly green light emerged from narrow nooks and crannies barely wide enough to maybe squeeze through if he chopped off his arms. Iridescent crystal growths spiraled out from the cave walls like vegetation, giving the entire area an eerie, otherworldly feel. Unseen creatures skittered, crawled, and walked through the tunnels, casting twisted shadows on the walls and doing nothing to help Will¡¯s sense of unease. The scent of smoke mingled with the sweet

    There was corruption present here, too. It was more obvious in some places than others¡ªmany of the gems had the same smoky, half-rendered distortion effect that had plagued the scorpider.

    Corrupted Fragment - Arcadian Caves

    The first phase of the tutorial familiarized you with the mechanics of the system. The second phase will introduce you to what you must do to survive.

    The Arcadian cave system holds one of the greatest subterranean empires throughout the multiverse. This fragment only contains a fraction of its smallest outskirts, but it holds a wealth of treasure from times long past. Weapons, credits, and equipment are plentiful here.

    But make no mistake: it is not safe. These caves have long since been overrun by monsters, and they are very, very hungry.

    Your current location is: floor 1 of 3.

    New quest: Phase 2

    Prepare yourself as much as you can while you¡¯re alone. You¡¯ll thank yourself for it in the next phase.

    - Reach Bronze 0 [0/1]

    OR

    - Reach Unformed 20 [0/1]

    - Kill 100 monsters [0/100]

    OR

    - Reach the exit on floor 3 [0/1]

    Reward: 1000 credits. 1 random elemental gem.

    Achievement earned: The Deep End

    You are in a region that is ranked at least one full rank above you. The average survival rate of unformed Users in bronze rank areas is: [0.07%].

    Good luck. You¡¯ll need it.

    Reward: You have gained 3 bronze Potions of Superior Healing, 3 bronze Potions of Strength, and 100 bronze credits.

    Helper: This is not a good starting location. Prioritize fighting weak monsters. Make heavy use of your Identify. Pick your fights well. One mistake, and you¡¯re dead. There are no retries. May the gods be with you.

    Your minimap has been enabled.

    As the deluge of messages swarmed in, Will tightened his grip on his makeshift knife.

    He knew about the existence of the minimap. It had been one of the many UI elements that had been greyed out in the previous phase, and he¡¯d moved it into a non-intrusive area in the bottom left of his vision.

    It populated, revealing a mind-bogglingly warped map that Will could have spent hours decoding it if he was poring over it in the school library.

    He did not, in fact, have hours to read it.

    Red dots appeared on the map. A couple of them at first, and then dozens, hundreds of them in the area, scattered throughout the massive cave system.

    The closest of them, if he was reading it right, was in the narrow crack right in front of him.

    Not wanting to be taken off guard again, Will crouched up close to the crack, which looked barely wide enough to put an arm through.

    The red enemy dot crept closer towards the blue icon that he assumed represented himself. Will as much as confirmed this when he heard the sound of something hard scraping against the stone¡ªbone or armor or something similar.

    Without any sort of prepared that he could create traps with, Will had to improvise. There were rocks lying around everywhere, and he saw that every time he was capable of fully lifting one off the ground, he received a prompt to place it into his inventory.

    ¡°This would be a great time for some extra strength points,¡± he groaned, heaving a rock the size of his head into his arms. ¡°Good thing I kept going to the gym.¡±

    By the time the eerie light that had been coming from the crack started to fade, blocked by the creature coming through the vent, his inventory was nearly full.

    Inventory [9/10]

    - De-venomed Scorpider Tail (Corrupted)

    - Empty Potion Bottle

    - Potion of Superior Healing (Bronze) [x3]

    - Potion of Stamina Restoration (Bronze) [x3]

    - Medium Rock

    - Medium Rock

    - Medium Rock

    - Medium Rock

    - Large Rock

    Interestingly, the potions stacked but not the rocks. Maybe it was because they weren¡¯t identical? He made a note to look into it later.

    For now, he had a monster to kill.

    Helper had told him that using the inventory during an actual battle was a death sentence for someone like him, but he wasn¡¯t in battle. Yet.

    Will had no idea if this was going to work, but there was surely no better time to experiment than during the tutorial.

    Mental commands worked as well as his hands did for moving things in and out of his inventory. If he could do it all at once...

    As the red dot emerged from the tunnel on his minimap, he drew out the four watermelon-sized rocks and the child-sized boulder that had pushed him to his limit to lift.

    To his delight, the rocks tumbled down with a satisfying crunch, smashing whatever enemy was crawling through it.

    And then, all of a sudden, the dot disappeared. No accompanying notification told him that he¡¯d defeated, it though, and his hackles raised. Will gripped his blade tighter.

    A moment later, that dot reappeared¡ªbehind him. A moment after that, hot pain flared in his calf.

    ¡°Shit!¡±

    He operated on pure instinct, pushing through the pain in his leg and taking a step back, putting his weight behind a devastating blow with the fang.

    The makeshift dagger glanced off something hard, then sank into flesh. Will twisted, yanking it out and slashing once more, eliciting a pained, reptilian hiss from the creature. A foot came up and kicked him in the chest, sending him stumbling back, but he managed to stick it one more time with the poisoned scorpider fang as he recovered.

    Across from him, a four-foot-tall gremlin straight out of a haunted house hissed, a bow in its hands. It was bleeding freely from an arm, and its head looked like it had been half caved in. Will could see where he¡¯d scratched its shiny metallic armor with the blade, though the parts that he¡¯d deformed with his makeshift landslide made it hard to tell if that was just a trick of the light.

    ¡°Comic-Con was six months ago,¡± he told it. ¡°It¡¯s a little late to be playing dress-up.¡±

    Remembering his helper¡¯s advice, he looked at it closer.

    Arcadian Cave Goblin. Level: Bronze 2.

    Goblins live for three reasons: eating, stealing, and killing, oftentimes all involving the same poor victim. Arcadian Cave Goblins do the same, but with their own unique twist. With their racial ability to teleport through the strange portal-like vents of their cave system and their surprising resilience against ambient corruption, they are an utter menace to unprepared Users.

    This monster is suffering from two levels of the [Poisoned] effect.

    This monster is suffering from one level of the [Corruption] effect.

    WARNING: This monster¡¯s rank is 1 higher than yours!

    ¡°A rank higher, huh? You don¡¯t look a rank higher.¡±

    Its skin was grey, but there was a greenish-black pallor suffusing it. That definitely wasn¡¯t a racial trait, judging by the way it seemed like it could barely move. Whether that was because of the broken bones, the cut, the poison, or the corruption, Will couldn¡¯t tell.

    He remembered how much just one level of that corruption had hurt. For a moment, he wanted to wince in sympathy.

    But then its arms moved, weakly raising its bow to shoot him again, and the reality of the new world sank in.

    It was kill or be killed.

    And Will was not going to sit around and die.

    He took advantage of its weakness, feinting forward. The creature flinched backwards, screeching, and it disappeared again.

    There!

    Will struck at the nearest active vent of light immediately.

    His lips split into a feral grin.

    ¡°You¡¯re predictable when you¡¯re hurt, monster,¡± he said, sinking the fang into its eye.

    You have defeated an Arcadian Cave Goblin.

    A living being, dead at his hands. This one wasn¡¯t just an insect. It had been humanoid, intelligent, and ready to kill him.

    Will had never felt so alive.

    Level up!

 Chapter 3: Ambush!

    Your level has increased to [Unformed 1].

    2 Attribute points earned.

    Inventory maximum capacity increased by 1.

    Will¡¯s vision flashed with bright light, and soothing warmth filled him for a brief instant. As it faded, he realized that the throbbing pain in his leg had dissipated, too. He glanced down, and to his complete surprise, the flesh had healed over. His blood was gone.

    ¡°So this is a level up?¡± he wondered. ¡°That¡¯s better than a healing potion. A lot better.¡±

    ¡­the arrow, however, was still stuck inside his leg.

    ¡°Shit. This is going to hurt.¡±

    He took a healing potion from his inventory with one hand and gripped the shaft of the arrow with the other.

    ¡°Three, two, one, OW,¡± he grunted, slamming down the potion as he tore flesh and muscle with the arrow.

    The tingling sensation of magical healing coursed through him again.

    You have consumed a potion above your rank. You will not be able to benefit from healing potions for the next [5 minutes].

    Hopefully, the next fight would go better. Will really didn¡¯t want to enter combat with an arrow still stuck in his leg, but that came with the tradeoff of losing one of his valuable healing potions.

    Helper: Congratulations on your first tutorial kill and your first level.

    ¡°I was wondering where you were. I was getting a little too used to the peace and quiet.¡±

    Helper: Ha ha. Goblins make for terrible company. Trust me. They¡¯re like humans except extremely neurotic, murderous, and tribal.

    ¡°So like humans.¡±

    Helper: ¡­basically.

    ¡°Why not help me while I was actually fighting the thing?¡±

    Helper: During the tutorial, helpers are only permitted to engage when Users are not currently in combat and are not within a certain distance of a hostile.

    ¡°Oh, so it¡¯s like not being able to sleep when monsters are nearby.¡±

    Helper: Minecraft! I do know that one. Horribly addicting game. I lost half a year of preparation to that one.

    ¡°Tell me about it.¡±

    Helper: Back on topic: Will, you are going to need every single possible level to survive here.

    ¡°That was made clear to me, yes. Is it really going to be that bad, though?¡±

    Helper: Yes. Good thinking with the rocks and stacking debuffs, but you¡¯re not going to be able to consistently accomplish that every time. These are bronze enemies, and you¡¯re unformed. You must have noticed how many hits it took you to kill one.

    ¡°It didn¡¯t seem that bad.¡±

    Helper: It didn¡¯t seem that bad because you got the jump on it and got lucky with inflicting [Corruption] within your first three hits. That¡¯s a very strong status effect.

    ¡°I was under that impression. It felt like my skin was melting when I had it. What does it actually do?¡±

    Helper: I am not at liberty to disclose that information.

    ¡°Great. Tell your bosses they suck.¡±

    Helper: I wish I could.

    ¡°So do I, Helper. So do I.¡±

    Helper: On your minimap, you¡¯ll see red dots. You know by now that those are enemies. If you haven¡¯t noticed, there¡¯s a lot of them.

    ¡°No shit.¡± As a matter of fact, Will had been keeping an eye on his minimap for a while now. There were enemies in literally every possible direction he could go, but other than the one he¡¯d just jumped, it didn¡¯t look like many of the dots were actively pursuing him.

    Helper: Anyway, the enemies here will be more durable, stronger, and have more options than you. It¡¯s a good thing that you have Corruption Resistance. You would already be dead without it, and it gives you more options. Rather, I should it say that it gives you options in general. The majority of useful magical items and loot here will be corrupted due to the nature of this zone.

    ¡°The system was talking about chaos. Is corruption the same thing?¡±

    Helper: Corruption is the result of chaos. This shouldn¡¯t even be a tutorial zone. Where even were you when you ended up here?

    ¡°Low Earth orbit, I think.¡±

    Helper: Okay, that might do it.

    ¡°So I¡¯m noticing that you haven¡¯t actually given me any advice so far.¡±

    Helper: Here¡¯s your advice. You get those two points at every level. Unformed 5 is considered to be the starting point of an average sapient being. Right now, the only attribute that you have an element bound to is [Affinity], which is bound to corruption. The good news is that corruption is a very rare and very powerful element. If you examine your [Affinity] stat, you¡¯ll see that it¡¯s being artificially boosted a rank to bronze. Place both of your points in [Affinity] and focus it until it reaches the peak of unformed. If you can somehow survive that long, I believe that will give you your best odds for survival.

    Will put his two free points into his Affinity attribute as instructed, raising it to a functional level of Bronze 3.

    ¡°Okay. Done. What does that actually do?¡±

    Helper: I¡¯m running out of time. You can find it in your own system if you look.

    On the minimap, red dots were beginning to make their way towards Will¡¯s position. Whether that was just because of random chance or because they¡¯d realized that one of their goblin friends here were dead.

    Helper: Monsters are approaching. There are areas highlighted in green are tutorial safe zones. Increase your [Affinity], loot EVERY body you can find and make it to one. I look forward to talking to you again. Try not to die.

    Further text fizzled out into nothing as half-formed letters began to appear on his interface.

    The dots weren¡¯t approaching from the same direction this time. From the looks of it, they were trying to pinch him, cutting him off in a short patch of tunnel without any forking paths.

    With what Will had on him at the moment, it was unlikely that he¡¯d be able to do anything significant against what was looking to be four enemies, which were possibly the nasty teleporting goblins or the scorpiders or possibly something else entirely. Helper wasn¡¯t wrong about that. Even taking one had taken a trap, poison, and taking an arrow to the knee.

    Well, not actually the knee, but close enough that he¡¯d count it.

    Thankfully, he had slightly more than that.

    Would you like to loot Arcadian Cave Goblin (Bronze)?

    ¡°Of course.¡± Will was pretty sure that verbal confirmation was unnecessary, but it felt more natural to speak anyway.

    Just as before, the creature started to dissipate away into formless smoke as the notifications stacked up.

    3 bronze credits have been added to your inventory.

    Cave Goblin Bow (Corrupted) has been added to your inventory.

    9 Cave Goblin Arrows (Corrupted) have been added to your inventory.

    Iron Dagger of the Sunken World has been added to your inventory.

    Awakening Shard of the Delver has been added to your inventory.

    Will raised an eyebrow. Three of the five of those sounded simple enough, but the last two piqued his interest. They weren¡¯t corrupted, for one, and they sounded magical.

    He didn¡¯t have time to do a thorough examination of everything he had. Will wasn¡¯t entirely sure how real-world distances compared to the minimap, but he ballparked the approaching dots to be around thirty feet away.

    A quick check revealed that there were, in fact, a scattering of zones highlighted in green throughout the cave system. Will picked the direction that looked closer to one of those zones.

    He was going to have to do this carefully. During his time participating in combat sports, Will¡¯s instructors had drilled the idea of numerical superiority into his head. In a fight, most people not named Mike Tyson would struggle against even two or three people.

    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    When his enemies were likely stronger than him, he definitely couldn¡¯t afford to pick a fight against a ton of them.

    As he started creeping towards them, he examined his options. The inventory rockslide was potentially an option to give him an upper hand, but there was no guarantee they would stay still long enough for him to manage it. Will picked up a couple of large-ish rocks as he moved, but he was really interested in his new items.

    Item: Iron Dagger of the Sunken World

    Uncommon, bronze

    Daggers of the Sunken World are given to cave goblins for one of two reasons. First, jade versions are sometimes custom-made for great warriors of a tribe after a conquest to indicate their status.

    More often, they¡¯re given to children. These iron knives supplement their racial abilities, enabling them to use their underdeveloped signature feature.

    Grants access to the [Eerie Step] skill at bronze rank.

    WARNING: This item is above your [Affinity] rank! Using it may lead to permanent soul damage.

    Note: [Affinity] bound to [Corruption] allows you to use this item without penalty.

    ¡°What does Eerie Step do?¡±

    Skill: [Eerie Step]

    - Spell (movement).

    - Cost: Low to moderate mana.

    - Cooldown: 1 minute.

    Bronze

    A favorite spell of Arcadian cave goblins. By the time they reach maturity, this skill will become part of them. Lucky for you, this dead goblin was still but a child.

    Effect: When in eerie light, you briefly shroud yourself in mist and teleport to another area shrouded in eerie light within 60 feet of you with your equipment and up to 1 willing creature.

    ¡°So that¡¯s how that dude got the jump on me,¡± Will mused, pointedly ignoring the part where the system was trying to make him feel bad.

    Child or not, the goblin had been trying to kill him. He wasn¡¯t going to lose any sleep over that.

    An ambush was exactly what he needed. Will palmed the weapon from his inventory. A tingling rush of energy surged through him. When he experimentally passed a hand into one of the many vent-like cracks in the wall, that tingle clarified into a sure sense of the area around him. Twinkling dots flared to life in his mind¡¯s eye like stars in the night sky.

    ¡°That¡¯s a lot of destinations.¡±

    The nearest safe zone was way more than sixty feet away, judging by a combination of the minimap and the locations his new skill was telling him were valid locations to teleport to.

    Teleportation. The scientific part of his brain told him that it was impossible, but the louder, more realistic part told him that he¡¯d seen far crazier shit by now and just to accept it.

    And the third part, which was by far the dominant one, said teleportation is sick as shit.

    Judging by the density of the dots and the speed at which they were moving, he had the option to break into a dead sprint. The safe zone was, at an estimate, a quarter mile away. If he just ran for his life, there was a pretty solid chance he could just take damage and make it.

    But that was what he would have thought before. Risk mitigation, finding the path of least resistance¡ªthat was how he¡¯d been going through life.

    He wasn¡¯t living that life anymore. Nobody was.

    There was a vent of eerie light right behind the pair in front of him. They didn¡¯t know he had the knife, and they hadn¡¯t seen him yet.

    ¡°Here goes nothing.¡±

    Using the skill was surprisingly easy, as if it was a limb he just hadn¡¯t bothered to use in a while.

    Eerie Step.

    His vision flashed a luminous green, and his stomach dropped like it had the first time he¡¯d hit the drop on the biggest rollercoaster at Six Flags.

    Will¡¯s entire body lurched, and then it faded. Exhaustion permeated his bones, but it was less a just-ran-a-mile tiredness and more a six-AM-on-a-Monday. In the top right corner of his vision, a blue bar had been halfway depleted.

    The description said it cost low mana, he thought. Then again, I guess the magic attribute might be [Soul], and that¡¯s my lowest stat.

    His feet landed on soft, mulchy dirt.

    Though he knew he was still in the same cave system, the tight tunnel he dropped in felt like a different world entirely. There were fewer crystalline growths here, which made him wonder if he should have spent some time looting them, and there were more vents here, casting an alien light across the narrow tunnel.

    The passageway was just wide enough for him to draw both of his sharp weapons as he crept up on the two dots from behind.

    They traveled in single file. Even if the goblins were smaller than humans, they weren¡¯t small enough that they wanted to walk side by side.

    Will moved as quietly as he could, thankful for the way the mulch absorbed his footsteps. Soon enough, the armored back of another goblin came into view.

    Arcadian Cave Goblin Warrior. Level: Bronze 4.

    Most goblins that reach maturity choose one of a select few classes. Warrior is the foremost amongst them. Grey and prone to disobey orders, these creatures are notorious for their inability to let an issue go. If you fight a Warrior, be sure to put it all the way down, or it will never stop chasing you until one of you dies.

    Wasn¡¯t planning on letting it go, Will thought.

    He approached with bated breath. The goblins thought they were sneaking up on him, so they were also taking it quietly, but they were too focused on the tunnel ahead that they ignored him approaching.

    Ambushing the ambushers. There was a delicious irony in that.

    Will had always been good at being silent. For most of his life, it had been a skill used to get around his family¡¯s restrictive rules. It had never been a point of pride for him, but his years of sneaking through a strict life that had been perfectly planned for him had inadverdently prepared for this.

    One step, then two, and he was behind the goblin. Unlike the last one, this one had a helmet on, but there was a strip of exposed flesh where the pieces of armor didn¡¯t sit perfectly together.

    Will raised his hands high above his head.

    He¡¯d gotten on a self-improvement kick a few years back when he¡¯d gained a few too many pounds after a depressive episode, and the work he¡¯d put in at the gym had paid off. Hopefully, that skill translated over.

    No, not hopefully. It would.

    This¡ªthis, right now, would work. It had to. A violent ecstasy surged through his veins as he brought his blades with all the force he could muster.

    Will drew first blood.

    [First Blood] doubled the power of your attack.

    Critical hit!

    Power coursed through his muscles, and the knife cut into flesh like hot butter. The fang slid in cleanly, skittered off a bone, and buried itself deep in the goblin¡¯s throat.

    You have defeated an Arcadian Cave Goblin Warrior.

    It was dead before it hit the floor.

    Its companion whirled around, hissing with surprise, but Will was already executing part two of his makeshift plan.

    Step one was killing the first guy. Step two took a second, but that moment of surprise he¡¯d just bought himself was enough for that.

    He dropped both of the big rocks in his inventory right on top of each other. They didn¡¯t perfectly block the passageway, but they formed something of a shield right in front of the corpse he¡¯d just created.

    Metal crashed against stone, creating an ear-ringing scratch that Will cringed at, but he didn¡¯t let that stop him.

    12 bronze credits have been added to your inventory.

    Cave Goblin Mace (Corrupted) has been added to your inventory.

    Awakening Shard of the Delver has been added to your inventory.

    Bronze Potion of Lesser Healing has been added to your inventory.

    That, charitably, could be called step three.

    And now for the coup de grace.

    Will high-tailed it. Judging from the sound, he was pretty sure the other goblin was using a sword of some kind, which likely meant that it wasn¡¯t going to have a ranged weapon.

    Not that he was going to take the chance that it did. As soon as the cooldown on his Eerie Step skill ended, he found the nearest available vent and prepared to use it¡ªjust as the other cave goblin materialized next to him.

    Will reacted on instinct, slashing at its face with the fang in his dominant left hand. It staggered as the tip drew blood, but it recovered with staggering speed.

    At five foot flat, this goblin stood taller than the other ones, and judging by the straight-up evil glint in its eyes, it wasn¡¯t any nicer for it.

    Arcadian Cave Goblin Chieftain. Level: Bronze 6.

    This is a solo boss.

    Goblin chieftains are more than willing to get down and dirty with the rest of them. In fact, they often work their way to the top by defeating the former chieftain in a chaotic, messy brawl to the death. They are not to be trifled with.

    Especially at your level.

    Achievement earned: Bit Off More Than You Could Chew

    You encountered your first boss alone. Foolhardiness or unfortunate circumstances? They¡¯ll wonder about that at your funeral. Assuming someone cares enough to have one, that is. And finds your body, which doesn¡¯t seem very likely here.

    Reward: You have earned 10 silver credits. Not that you¡¯ll be able to spend them.

    The notifications flashed at the same time the chieftain¡¯s axe caught the glint of the light. Will raised his arms to defend, but the goblin moved faster than him, twisting the blade and burying it in his side.

    Hot pain flared just underneath his ribs, and Will decided he¡¯d overstayed his welcome.

    Eerie Step.

    The angry growl of the goblin chieftain accompanied the flash of green light as Will teleported as far as the skill would let him go.

    He reappeared in a small clearing resplendent with the glowing gems from before. There were vents aplenty here as well, and most importantly, no monsters. The nearest safe zone¡ªassuming Helper hadn¡¯t been lying to him and the green marks on his maps were actually safe zones¡ªwas to his right, just down a short footpath.

    The blue bar¡ªhis mana, he guessed¡ªwas near empty. His energy drained from him. Will wasn¡¯t sure whether mana depletion would exhaust him, but the blood he was losing certainly wasn¡¯t helping.

    A heavy weight dragged his right side down, and he realized belatedly that he¡¯d taken the axe with him.

    ¡°Huh,¡± he said, dazed. ¡°That helps matters. It¡¯s not touching the ground, so maybe I¡¯m carrying it? Let¡¯s see¡­¡±

    It went into its inventory, which was a delightful surprise, and his side started gushing blood, which was not.

    ¡°Shit.¡± Will started limping towards the green zone, and he checked his inventory for his healing potions. ¡°Wait. Has it been five minutes?¡±

    He tapped on it, and a small hourglass indicator appeared in the center of his vision. It read 3 minutes, 12 seconds.

    ¡°Double shit.¡±

    Will put the teleport dagger back into his inventory, then continued forward. There weren¡¯t too many obstructions, which was good. His head was rapidly getting woozy from the blood loss, and it was hard to tell which way was which. The minimap guided him along.

    ¡°One foot in front of the other. It¡¯s not hard.¡±

    Behind him, a goblin screeched in confused fury. Judging by the cadence, that was the chieftain.

    ¡°Confused about your axe, are you? You should think twice about where you leave your gear.¡±

    Will picked up the pace as well as he could as he heard footsteps and saw a red dot approaching him from behind. Wait, no, not a red dot¡ªthree.

    He rounded the last corner and came face to face with a wildly anachronistic modern door that could have come straight out of his college coinciding directly with where the green zone was.

    Will didn¡¯t think twice. The chieftain and its two goons were gaining on him, and he didn¡¯t want to fight like this.

    The door handle swung open, revealing what Will absurdly thought was a Pok¨¦mon center.

    Achievement earned: Safe at last¡­ for now

    You have found your first tutorial safe zone. Rest easy, traveler. Until you¡¯re forced to leave, your ills will be tended to.

    Reward: You have access to a safe zone.

    He stumbled into a chair, vision fraying at the edges. An arrow came whistling through the air behind him and bounced off thin air at the boundary to the door.

    Will¡¯s eyes went to the entrance, where three very angry cave goblins were trying and failing to scrabble through the empty barrier, then to the floor, where an awful lot of blood had tracked across the floor.

    ¡°Is that mine?¡± he muttered woozily.

    Will passed out.

    #

    When he woke up, there was enough dried blood on him and the floor that he thought someone had died. Will then realized that it was his own blood, followed subsequently by the realization that his wound had closed entirely.

    ¡­Unfortunately, the number of goblins outside had gone from three to¡­ thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. Not good.

    Helper: Congratulations! You made it to a safe zone. That¡¯s better than I was expecting. I should point out that unless otherwise specified, all safe zones have exactly one exit.

    ¡°Has this one otherwise specified?¡±

    Helper: Guess.

    ¡°Damn it.¡±

    Helper: You¡¯ll be forced out 24 hours after you enter. It¡¯s been 3. There are some useful features in here you might like, and we need to talk about your new items. Let¡¯s get you out of here alive.

    ¡°You¡¯re not so bad, Helper. Let¡¯s get this done.¡±

 Chapter 4: Abusing Safety

    Will got the rundown of the place as the number of goblins outside steadily increased. He really wished he had more to work with, but beggars couldn¡¯t be choosers. Not that he planned to beg, but there were quite a few goblins out there preventing him from going anywhere.

    At least the safe zone had enough stuff in it to make the child in Will practically jump with joy. He¡¯d passed out (and bled all over) a couch in the lounge, but there were signs in the back of the room with hotel-style iconography that made him think there were better places to rest here.

    He¡¯d compared it to a Pok¨¦mon center when he¡¯d come in, and now that he was fully awake and lucid, he saw that it wasn¡¯t perfectly apt.

    Helper: Safe zones exist in both the tutorial and on planet, but there are key differences. First¡ªon-planet safe zones kick you out after 8 hours, not 24. Second¡ªyou will automatically heal in a tutorial safe zone, but not on an on-planet one. The rules of ALL safe zones are as follows:

    - Neither monsters nor their attacks can enter.

    - Users cannot intentionally inflict damage upon other Users within the confines of a safe zone. Doing so will cause you to be forcibly ejected.

    ¡°Fantastic. Can I attack out of a safe zone?¡±

    Helper: Good question. No. What qualifies as an ¡°attack¡± varies by circumstance and safe zone.

    ¡°Okay. That makes getting out of this a lot harder.¡±

    Helper: Not necessarily. In extreme difficulty tutorials, only about 10 to 15 percent of Users make it to the first safe zone, but over half of those continue to survive to the second. There are a number of tools and services available to you here.

    The most important part of the safe zone apart from the healing and the, well, safe part, was the shop.

    It didn¡¯t look like a traditional shop. This safe zone was entirely devoid of people besides Will. There wasn¡¯t even a robot shopkeeper to peddle wares.

    Instead, the ¡°shop¡± was a wall that looked like it had been converted to a floor-to-ceiling plasma TV screen. It displayed a variety of items in the same format as his inventory, though the framing was different and every item had a name, description, and price under it.

    ¡°So all I do is select something from the shop and confirm that I want to buy it?¡±

    Helper: Correct. Not all shops will be in safe zones, but every safe zone will have a shop of some kind, and all shops will carry the same set of basic items. Many will also carry additional wares reflecting the area you find them in.

    ¡°Gotcha. Let me see if there¡¯s anything I want¡­¡±

    There was a lot of stuff for sale. It was split into multiple segments, and he found that he could scroll through them to look for more stuff.

    Corrupted Fragment Safe Zone 1C - Store

    Weapons

    - Bronze Weapon Box (Melee) - 100 bronze credits

    - Bronze Weapon Box (Ranged) - 100 bronze credits

    - Bronze Bladed Weapon - 75 bronze credits

    - Bronze Ranged Weapon - 75 bronze credits

    There was a similar set of purchases available for each rank. There were a lot of ranks.

    ¡°Holy hell,¡± Will said. ¡°How long does it take to get up there?¡±

    Helper: A long time. 50% of Users never make it past the metal tier¡ªBronze, Silver, Gold, though almost everyone is able to select their class by achieving bronze. Of the remaining, 75% stop progressing or die at the gem tiers¡ªPlatinum, Emerald, Diamond.

    ¡°Platinum is a metal, not a gem.¡±

    Helper: I get that a lot. I didn¡¯t choose to name the ranks. After the gem tiers are the sovereigns¡ªLord, Prince, King, or Lady, Princess, Queen. The final tier¡ªEmperor/Empress, Ascendant, and Transcendent¡ªare considered inaccessible to all but a sacred few.

    ¡°Well, shit. And I¡¯m all the way down at bronze, huh?¡±

    Helper: Unformed, actually. The reason you can access the bronze store is because of your abilities. Examine your [Affinity] attribute, will you?

    ¡°Right. My stat sheet does say unformed. That¡¯s the lowest?¡±

    Will opened his stats and examined his Affinity closely, trying to focus the same way he had when he¡¯d seen monsters.

    [Affinity]

    - A measure of your capability to wield external magic and ease of attunement. Using items of a higher ranks than your [Affinity] is nearly impossible, and a higher tier is simply out of the question. Using items of a higher level will cause permanent damage to your soul without attunement.

    - Bound to [Corruption]: You may use items of up to 1 rank higher than your [Affinity] stat without penalty, functionally increasing your [Affinity] stat by 1 rank. You may use items without attuning to them first. You may use corrupted items.

    ¡°Ah, I see. The system told me that because I was loading into a corrupted tutorial, it was going to give me some protection.¡±

    Helper: The corruption element is possessed by less than 0.00001% of Users. It¡¯s not unique, but it¡¯s very rare. Treasure it.

    ¡°I¡¯ll treasure it if I¡¯m alive to do so. Hold on, isn¡¯t corruption bad? Like the whole defending against chaos thing. Why does the system give out an ability that uses it?¡±

    Helper: A handful of corruption-element Users help alleviate the pressure. It¡¯s like venting a high-pressure pipe. Letting a bit of chaos through prevents the bulk of it from annihilating the multiverse. Not that most of the Users there care, but the system does.

    ¡°Makes no sense to me, but if it¡¯s keeping me alive, sure. I¡¯ll question it after I ¡®m sure I won¡¯t die in the next few hours. Anyway, I assume the weapon boxes are random drops? Loot box kinda deal?¡±

    Helper: You assume correctly.

    ¡°Hmmm. Assuming those weapons have the same level of power as the teleport dagger, I don¡¯t think they¡¯ll be enough to get out of this. How much money do I have, by the way?¡±

    Helper: Scroll down on your inventory.

    ¡°Oh.¡±

    Credits

    Base: 305

    Bronze: 225

    Silver: 10

    Everything past that was 0.

    Helper: It¡¯s a 10 to 1 conversion for every rank.

    ¡°Oh, so my base credits are worth jack and shit, then.¡±

    Helper: Not necessarily. Up until the gem tiers, an unformed weapon can still be a threat. Even at the gem tiers, you¡¯re not necessarily safe. For instance, one of your Earth¡¯s ¡°AK-47s¡± is considered unformed but possesses enough firepower to threaten a weak platinum-rank. Especially when combined with the class you will awaken at bronze, any weapon can be a threat.

    ¡°Huh. Okay. I¡¯m going to look for some more stuff, then.¡±

    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    The Items and Miscellaneous tabs were much, much longer than the weapons. Items included healing, armor, food and water supplies, and a lot more. Will wasn¡¯t sure why they were there and not under Miscellaneous, but that became clear when he scrolled to the third segment.

    Damn near everything under the sun was there. Rocks, beer bottles both empty and full, potted plants, crates, barrels of oil¡ªyou name it, they had it.

    Well, electronics seemed to be at a premium. There were a few, but nothing complex or computer-like. Will wondered what that meant. His phone was dead, but it wasn¡¯t broken¡ªjust out of battery. That ruled out EMPs, but¡­

    Eh. That was a problem for later.

    Going back to Items, armor looked like a good investment, given the fact that literally every monster here seemed to have weapons that could cut through his skin like hot butter, but¡ª

    - Bronze Armor Box (Heavy) - 2500 bronze credits

    - Bronze Armor Box (Medium) - 2000 bronze credits

    - Bronze Armor Box (Light) - 1000 bronze credits

    Yeah. No way could he afford that.

    For now, he used 300 of his base credits to buy 10 basic health potions and a week¡¯s worth of ¡°rations,¡± which turned out to be a crate of dull grey bars that looked more like lithium-ion batteries than food and several liters of water.

    He experimentally tasted one, and his eyes flew wide in surprise. It tasted exactly like steak and potatoes. It had the consistency of chalk dust, but the resemblance to a real meal otherwise was near perfect.

    ¡°Not ideal, but I guess it¡¯ll work.¡±

    The entire crate fit into his inventory, taking up only one slot, which gave him an idea. The crate of supplies was full, but an empty wooden crate cost only 5 credits. He put his empty potion bottle, the de-venomed scorpider tail, the goblin bow (which he didn¡¯t know how to use and was too small for him besides), and the arrows in it before placing the full crate back into his inventory.

    Helper: Good call. Your only element binding works well with items, so you should save on inventory space as much as you can.

    ¡°Obvious enough, but thanks.¡±

    Will examined the final set of items.

    Additional Items

    - Corrupted Bronze Weapon Box - 90 bronze credits

    - Corrupted Bronze Bladed Weapon - 65 bronze credits

    - Corrupted Bronze Ranged Weapon - 65 bronze credits

    Helper: You should purchase a corrupted bronze weapon box. The boxes give magical items, while the weapons alone don¡¯t. Corrupted items tend to be stronger than regular items and have a chance to inflict your enemies with corruption. Since the downside is negated by your bound element, it¡¯s ideal for you. Also, it¡¯s cheaper.

    ¡°Are you sure about that?¡± Will asked. ¡°Actually, why should I trust you? I realize this is a bit late to be asking, and I also realize you¡¯re not the least biased option to ask, but I also don¡¯t want to fully go along with what a voice in my head has been saying.¡±

    Helper: 25% boost, remember? Look, biped, you¡¯re not the only User here. I spent 75 years down there. You might not trust me, but if you ignore me, you will die.

    ¡°And now you¡¯re a non-User? How did that happen?¡±

    Helper: I am not at liberty to disclose that information.

    ¡°Is it the same deal with your name, then?¡±

    Helper: I am not at liberty to disclose that information.

    ¡°So it is.¡± Will sucked in a breath. ¡°Seventy-five years is a long time.¡±

    Helper: You live longer at higher ranks.

    ¡°What rank were you?¡±

    Helper: I am not at liberty to disclose that information.

    ¡°Christ, alright. I¡¯ll buy the damn box. I have plenty of credits anyway.¡±

    You have purchased a [Corrupted Bronze Weapon Box]!

    This came in the form of a suspiciously small black crate marked, even more suspiciously, with DO NOT OPEN.

    Helper: Open it. All corrupted items have that warning.

    Will mentally focused on the box and selected Open.

    The lid clicked open with an ominous hiss, white mist flowing off of it in waves.

    It fizzled away like the monsters did, revealing a rubber-packed¡­ gun.

    ¡°The hell?¡±

    Will had been in the Boy Scouts for long enough to handle guns a fair few times, but this didn¡¯t look like anything functional. His new prize was a revolver straight out of an old spaghetti western, rust and all.

    He drew it from the case. The grip was startlingly comfortable in his hands, and the weight¡ªnot bad, not at all. Will would need to do some test firing.

    Item: Seven-Shot Six-Shooter (Corrupted)

    Rare, bronze

    Torn from the desolated wastes of the Crystal Desert, this type of weapon is a favorite of gamblers, backstabbers, and scoundrels for its unpredictability, power, and most importantly, the surprise of having one extra shot.

    Carries seven bullets, which are randomly selected from the following list. The bullets can be reloaded by hand, but will automatically reload once every hour. Once loaded, the order that the bullets are shot in is random.

    You may also fire a mundane bullet.

    Possible shots:

    - Piercing Shot: The bullet does not slow down when it hits a living target.

    - Explosive Shot: On impact, the bullet detonates with the force of 1 kg of dynamite.

    - Gaseous Shot: Activates the effect of the [Fog Cloud] spell at bronze rank.

    - Rebounding Shot: When the bullet hits a surface, its momentum is instantaneously reversed at 50% the value of its impact speed.

    - Machine Gun: Shoots 7 bullets at once.

    - High Caliber: After being fired, bullet size increases by 100%. Bullet speed increases by 100%.

    - Incendiary: Activates the effect of the [Create Oil], [Thicken Oil], and [Produce Fire] spells at unformed rank.

    - Instant Death: Has a 1 in 1,000 chance to be loaded. Bullet velocity is quadrupled. Ignores magical resistances up to gold rank. Destroys magical protection of up to gold rank. Always crits. Don¡¯t miss.

    WARNING: This weapon is corrupted. Each bullet has a small chance to inflict one level of the [Corruption] condition.

    ¡­or not. That was definitely not safe to test inside.

    ¡°Is there even a firing range in here?¡±

    Helper: Not in this one. Many do.

    ¡°Alright. This is handy, but¡­¡±

    Will looked to the door,, which he hadn¡¯t bothered closing. Outside of the safe zone, there were now a solid sixteen or seventeen cave goblins staking out the area. They weren¡¯t just gathered in the center, either. The footpath had cover on either side of it and in alcoves above, and goblins had taken up residence everywhere.

    Archers lay waiting up high in the vents, warriors surrounded the exit, and what Will could only assume were wizards were chanting something in a circle around a burning circle.

    A single bullet wasn¡¯t going to take all of them out.

    Helper: Check all your options. You need to be adaptable to survive as a User.

    She wasn¡¯t going to give him the answer right away. That was fair. Given the title ¡°tutorial helper,¡± Will assumed Helper was going to be gone after all this was done.

    The options here lay entirely in the shop. Would another weapon do it? Maybe, but he didn¡¯t want to immediately commit to that. Unless he rolled insanely well, he doubted a single weapon would be enough to clear out this entire encampment.

    ¡°Hey, Helper. You said that I can¡¯t attack from the inside out. Can I attack immediately when I exit? Will any aftereffects of my attacks be stopped from entering? Can I push non-attack items out while I¡¯m inside?¡±

    Helper: Yes to all three.

    An evil idea took root in Will¡¯s mind. He grinned.

    You have purchased 15 [Large Casks of Oil]!

    ¡°I learned this one from one of my favorite games,¡± he said, moving to the Miscellaneous tab of the store. ¡°They call this ¡°barrelmancy.¡±

    #

    All told, it only cost him 300 credits, which translated to 30 of his bronze currency. He still had enough to get another weapon if necessary, though he hoped the other items he had were sufficient.

    Will checked his inventory. It seemed like 10 was the maximum he could fit of any one item into a slot¡ªthere was one stack of 10 and one of 5. Good to know.

    He stored the scorpider fang and teleport dagger into his inventory and drew the seven-shot revolver.

    The constant clamor of the goblins setting up for their ambush faded as he walked closer.

    ¡°You know,¡± he said, ¡°part of an ambush is making sure your target doesn¡¯t know it¡¯s coming.¡±

    The tallest of the goblins¡ªthe same chieftain whose axe he¡¯d inadvertently stolen¡ªrose to its (his?) feet.

    ¡°You will die knowing that death comes for you,¡± he¡ªdefinitely a he¡ªgrowled. His voice sounded like someone had dragged his throat over a quicksand belt. ¡°You will die in pain, and there is nothing you can do about it.¡±

    ¡°So you do speak English.¡±

    Helper: You¡¯re hopeless. You have the Omnilingual skill, dumbass. I¡¯m writing in your native language because I¡¯ve prepared for this. The goblins are speaking cave Arcadian.

    ¡°Oh. Right.¡±

    ¡°Come out now or when the lights refresh in the morning,¡± the chieftain said, pointing a short spear straight at Will¡¯s throat. ¡°I promise you that you will die a terrible death.¡±

    ¡°Your axe looked nicer than whatever that baby sensory toy is,¡± Will taunted.

    In the chieftain¡¯s moment of incoherent rage, Will acted.

    He dumped all fifteen oil barrels out of his inventory. They were almost the same size of him, and they were near the limit of what he could carry. The first couple stacked on top of each other, but then there was no room and the barrels clattered to the ground, rolling towards the goblins.

    A reptilian wave of panic swept over the grey creatures as they refocused towards the barrels moving towards them. Will used the distraction to step out.

    He had only fired a revolver once or twice, but he¡¯d watched enough movies and understood enough about the theory of shooting guns to know how to fan the hammer. By holding the trigger down with one hand and rapidly cocking the gun with the other, he could shoot each one of the seven bullets in rapid succession.

    In history, fanning the hammer was nearly useless. Its accuracy was garbage, it wasn¡¯t great for shooting from cover, and it spent all your bullets really, really fast.

    But Will only needed one bullet to hit, and he had a lot of targets.

    Incendiary, instant death, explosive, and high caliber would all theoretically do the trick.Those were four out of the eight possibilities. The chances of not rolling one of them in any of the bullets was near zero.

    He fanned the hammer, and pandemonium erupted. The crack of the shot firing was deafening without ear protection, and the ping-ping-ping and fleshy thwacks of his bullets making contact didn¡¯t help with the sudden ringing in his ears.

    Then, he heard a massive whump like the crash of a massive wave and his vision flared white.

    The explosion sent Will flying backwards into the safe zone. He smacked straight into a table, and white-hot pain ignited throughout his whole body before he slammed down an unformed rank healing potion. In combination with the safe zone¡¯s passive healing effect, the pain subsided quickly.

    Helper: Good one. You might survive this after all.

    His vision took a while to return, but the system was active even while his eyes were too blinded by light to see.

    You have defeated a large number of enemies! Please standby¡­

    Achievement earned: Actually, You Could Chew It Just Fine

    You have killed your first solo-level boss while actually solo. The average survival rate of day 1 battles against solo-level bosses is [26%].

    Reward: Check the boss¡¯ body for its Vault Key.

    Achievement earned: MULTIKILL

    You have killed more than 10 sapient beings in less than one minute. You¡¯re blowing up!

    Reward: You have gained a Tablet of Slaughter.

    You have leveled up 6 times!

 Chapter 5: Theres Always a Bigger Fish

    Ecstatic energy surged through Will¡¯s system as his sight returned to normal. Coming down from the high of the first level-up had been a trip. Six was what he imagined taking MDMA might be like.

    Apparently, exiting the safe zone for less than an hour meant that the timer didn¡¯t reset, so he was at nineteen hours and counting until this one kicked him out. Plenty of time to sort himself out.

    Will hadn¡¯t realized how tired he was up until this moment. Now that his life was no longer immediately in danger, the built-up exhaustion of everything leading up till this point piled upon him. As it turned out, passing out was not an appropriate substitute for sleep, which meant that in terms of real rest, he¡¯d gone something like thirty hours without.

    He wanted to crash, but the flames were dying down outside and the scorched bodies of the goblins he¡¯d slain lay burning amidst the blackened dirt and stone, illuminated by the alien light even in death.

    If they were all like the goblins he¡¯d personaly killed, then each and every one of those bodies had loot on them. Will wasn¡¯t sure about the sociopolitical state of the corrupted fragment of the Arcadian cave system, but he doubted that the other mobs in this area were going to politely leave the corpses alone.

    There definitely wasn¡¯t enough space in his inventory to fit everything in, even after he¡¯d just gained six new slots from his level-ups, but thanks to the shop, he had a way to circumvent that.

    Armed with ten large wooden crates and a fully functional fire extinguisher¡ªboth purchased from the Miscellaneous section of the store¡ªalongside the teleport dagger, he ventured back out into the flaming outdoors.

    The extinguisher wasn¡¯t enough to put out all of the flames. One of the random bullets he¡¯d fired must have been the incendiary option, which he was pretty sure just created napalm. The gun had been a high risk, high reward weapon, and he was glad to see it had paid off.

    It made looting the bodies a pain, though. Some of them were so thoroughly destroyed that when he looted them, all he got was a handful of credits.

    Will kept a careful eye on his minimap as he cleared the bodies out, looting each of them for everything they were worth and dropping the spoils of battle in a crate.

    ¡°If you can call dropping a fuel-air bomb on a bunch of prehistoric goblins a battle, anyway.¡±

    He wasn¡¯t going to be able to replicate that stunt easily. Will marked it as a strong option if he had access to a safe zone and a high density of enemies, but he doubted he was going to manage it a second time under different circumstances.

    Will was definitely still going to buy more barrels.

    Thankfully, it seemed that any lingering monsters in the area had been scared off by the sound of roughly six hundred gallons of oil exploding. With some fire extinguisher action, he was able to access every body. The ones in the vents were trickier to get to, but the teleport dagger was still functional.

    By the time he was done, Will had fully packed four crates and gotten halfway through another. He stuffed everything back into his inventory, exhausted but satisfied, and headed back into the safe zone.

    Once inside, he found his way to a comfortable-looking couch and promptly fell asleep.

    #

    Will woke up feeling more rested than he had in years.

    Helper: Good morning, William. It has been 9 hours. You have 10 hours remaining in the safe zone before you are automatically ejected.

    ¡°Great. Is there a shower anywhere? I have goblin ash all over my clothes. And in my hair. And in my mouth.¡±

    Helper: Yes. Find it yourself. Are you sure you¡¯re a sapient?

    ¡°Very funny.¡±

    There was, in fact, a bathroom. The shower was spartan, but the pressure was good and the water was hot, which was a lot more than Will could say for the ones at his overpriced apartment. When he was done, he discarded the clothes he¡¯d been wearing since he¡¯d woken up ready for a day of work yesterday. At this point, they were fit for burning.

    A simple shirt and pants only set him back 20 credits. He¡¯d gotten over a thousand base credits and just under two hundred bronze from the goblin clan, so the price was negligible.

    It was a strange sensation, having disposable income. Will had sent the majority of his paycheck back home and spent the bulk of what remained on rent, so his personal spending money had always been tight.

    He hoped Mom and Dad were doing alright¡ªeither going through easy tutorials or, more likely, choosing the safer life as a non-User.

    Will put that out of mind. He could worry about them all he wanted, but none of that would matter if he didn¡¯t make it out of his own tutorial alive.

    The loot and the levels could help him with that.

    With the six new levels, he had 12 unused points.

    ¡°I¡¯m not putting all of these into Affinity,¡± he said, thinking out loud. ¡°I can use the bronze rank items already, and I¡¯d really like to be able to not instantly run out of mana.¡±

    Helper: Your [Soul] attribute is indeed quite low for a sapient. You must not have been in touch with your inner self before this. Loser.

    ¡°Wow, screw you.¡± It wasn¡¯t like she was wrong, to be fair, but still¡­

    Will decided to put 3 points into his Soul stat to bring it up to par with his second-lowest stat, then put the other 9 in Affinity, raising it from 7 to 16. The functional level it was at jumped from Bronze 3 to 8, confirming Will¡¯s suspicion that it was equal to half the unformed level rounded down.

    He asked Helper about it.

    Helper: Unformed is the only rank that goes from levels 0 to 20. Every rank onwards is 0 to 10. Before you ask, I am not at liberty to disclose that information.

    ¡°Interesting,¡± Will said, resisting the urge to ask why anyways.

    Putting points into stats didn¡¯t have as noticeable an effect as leveling up, but Will still felt a refreshing wave pass through him. When he held the seven-shot six-shooter, his grip on it felt more natural. A pressure that he hadn¡¯t even realized was there had been lifted.

    Helper: As your [Affinity] increases, you will find it easier to use items of the rank it is at. You will also find yourself capable of using more items.

    ¡°Noted.¡±

    The loot in the crates wasn¡¯t anything terribly special. The chieftain¡¯s spear was just a normal (albeit corrupted) spear, though the axe that still gleamed with Will¡¯s blood when he took it out of his inventory was a different story.

    Item: Chieftain¡¯s Axe of Despair (Corrupted)

    Rare, bronze

    Passed from father to son to the guy who murdered the son, then the guy who murdered him, then¡­ you get the idea. They say the axe forgets and the tree remembers, but this axe definitely has not forgotten.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    Has a moderate chance of inflicting stacking levels of [Altrien¡¯s Despair]. Has a high chance of inflicting stacking levels of [Bleed].

    WARNING: This item is corrupted.

    ¡°That¡¯s an Earth saying. How does it know Earth sayings?¡±

    Helper: The system adjusts how it presents itself to all individuals. Mine was written in my native language. I am at liberty to disclose how: I have no idea.

    Altrien¡¯s Despair, as it turned out, was an effect that temporarily reduced the Soul attribute and worsened all injuries. Bleed dealt ongoing damage, reduced the Power attribute, and made the target more susceptible to further slashing attacks.

    ¡°This thing¡¯s kind of nasty.¡±

    Will tested it. With his increased Affinity attribute, it felt as natural as the practice swords he¡¯d used in kung fu. It looked like a greataxe, but it was meant for goblins. He could manage using it in one hand.

    Aside from that, the bulk of the loot was on the same level as the stuff he¡¯d looted from the first one. They didn¡¯t possess any particularly unique characteristics beyond being corrupted.

    None of the other weapons were up to par with what Will already had, but the more esoteric items were interesting.

    There were a few items labeled as grimoires that he couldn¡¯t read. Apparently, his Soul attribute had to be higher to try to learn from them. That was a concern for when he had more levels.

    More presciently, he now had 15 Awakening Shards of the Delver, and he hadn¡¯t forgotten the Tablet of the Slaughter that he¡¯d gotten earlier.

    ¡°What are these?¡±

    Helper: Awakening Shards are pieces of tablets. Depending on the tablet, it can take anywhere from 3 to 100 shards to assemble. The Delver is a fairly common one, so I have data on it. You should be able to create three tablets with 15 shards.

    ¡°And what do tablets do?¡± Will had a suspicion, but if he had access to a living Wikipedia, he wasn¡¯t going to try to make his decisions without information.

    Helper: They are the primary method for obtaining skills. Each tablet has a certain subset of skills that it will tend to give. When you activate one, you may choose any attribute that has open skill slots and awaken a skill for that attribute at the functional rank as the attribute, though you cannot unlock skills that are more than 1 rank above you. For you, that means the highest-rank skill you can unlock will be bronze.

    Unbound attributes have two skill slots. Bound ones have three. When you gain a class, you will be able to select secondary attributes, which have four slots, and a primary attribute, which has six.

    If your attribute is unbound, the skill you receive is likely to be more general. Your only bound attribute is Affinity, which is bound to Corruption. Therefore, if you awaken an Affinity skill, it will relate to Corruption as well as whatever the tablet is.

    Will examined the Tablet of Slaughter. It was listed as rare.

    ¡°Are higher rarities better?¡±

    Helper: Not necessarily. They have a higher floor, and are better for achieving certain defined results¡ªfor instance, the Tablet of Slaughter will almost certainly give you a strong offensive skill¡ªbut skills from common tablets sometimes prove to be the most useful. 3/4 of my skills were from common tablets when I was a User.

    ¡°Huh. Okay.¡±

    Helper: You have a vault key in your possession somewhere. Take it.

    Oh, right. The boss had dropped one of those. Will fished around in the crates and found it.

    As he did, a new point flashed yellow on his minimap.

    ¡°That¡¯s the vault, I take it. Is there good treasure there?¡±

    Helper: Vaults always have solid loot. In the tutorial, you may also find elemental gems in them, which is critical for creating a more defined skillset and a stronger class. Every class is based on a minimum of three elements, and the initial options that present themselves to you will be based on what elements you have bound.

    ¡°Got it. So I get more options if I bind everything. Sounds like there¡¯s a catch.¡±

    Helper: The catch is in surviving long enough to get to the gems. You should use the Tablet of Slaughter on Affinity because you need an offensive skill, but I would advise saving the shards until you enter the vault.

    ¡°Makes sense. The vault doesn¡¯t look too far on my minimap, either. That¡¯s a lot of monsters, though.¡±

    Will wasn¡¯t afraid of fighting more goblins now. Compared to how unequipped he¡¯d been coming into the tutorial, he was practically a walking arsenal now. If he¡¯d managed to deal with monsters with only the fang of an unformed rank spider, he could manage with all of this.

    Just one more task remained for him before he could set off.

    Helper: You may want to be sitting down for this.

    #

    The Tablet of the Slaughter was about the size of an iPad, though the back was inscribed with a pattern so complex that Will¡¯s head swam looking at it. It glowed faintly with blue and black light, which he was pretty sure wasn¡¯t supposed to be possible.

    ¡°Magic is bullshit,¡± he murmured fondly, then did his best to focus on it.

    Would you like to use [Tablet of the Slaughter]?

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    Select an Attribute.

    Will picked Affinity, and the glow intensified. Mist rose from the tablet, rising up over him and sinking into his skin.

    Helper: Do not panic.

    ¡°What is it with you system freaks and saying not to panic? You know that doesn¡¯t work, right?¡±

    The mist covered his whole body, sinking into his flesh and becoming one with him, and¡ª

    #

    Three planets orbited each other. Their revolutions were constantly changing, no path ever tread twice, but the three never collided. It was, in the purest form, controlled chaos.

    Until the fourth. It appeared seemingly out of nowhere, but once it existed, it had always been there. It folded in on itself, shifting in space like no matter should have been able to, and it spread.

    The unleashed chaos was hungry, and it consumed.

    #

    You have awakened an [Affinity] skill at bronze rank!

    Skill: [Chaos Transfer]

    - Spell (enchantment).

    - Cost: high mana.

    - Cooldown: 10 minutes.

    Bronze

    Let others suffer as you have.

    Cleanses you of all levels of the [Corruption] affliction and transfers it to a designated weapon. The next target the weapon strikes will gain all levels of [Corruption] that you cleansed.

    ¡°What the hell was that?¡± Will said, breathing hard. The vision burned itself into his brain, refusing to leave.

    Helper: Everyone¡¯s vision differs. They¡¯re believed to be glimpses of the system¡¯s past, but no consensus has been reached. Ignore it for now. It won¡¯t help you.

    Right. He went through a breathing exercise, counting to fifty as he did. By the time he reached thirty, he was back to the state of excited calm he¡¯d been in.

    ¡°Back to the important stuff! I have a new skill!¡±

    Helper: It has powerful synergy with your resistance skill. Vanishingly few creatures are immune to the [Corruption] affliction. Many monsters here will be immune to the passive chaos in the air, but they will still suffer from this affliction if struck with it.

    ¡°Awesome,¡± Will said. Even as he spoke, he could see that there was a level of corruption on his status diagram that was greyed out thanks to his resistance.

    He used the skill, focusing it on the axe of despair. The signifier that he was suffering from corruption disappeared, and the rune-engraved axe, already corrupted thanks to its time here, redoubled in its eerie smoky quality.

    ¡°Sick. Let¡¯s see what this vault business is all about.¡±

    #

    With his Soul attribute up to Unformed 5, Will no longer struggled to use the teleport dagger multiple times. He moved stealthily, killing and looting a handful of the goblins, scorpiders, and assorted creepy-crawlies that lined the twisting tunnels of the cave system.

    The axe of despair proved to be very handy for this. In combination with the fang, he had a high chance to inflict one crippling debuff or another on his target, which lowered its stats enough that he could take it down.

    He didn¡¯t take every fight he could, since it was still a bit of a struggle to kill the monsters with his lower stats, but teleporting and ambushing creatures proved to be a very viable tactic.

    By the time he reached the periphery of the vault, he¡¯d reached Unformed 8. He put the 2 new points in Affinity, bringing him up to a functional Bronze 9.

    The vault was in an open area of the caves. Several tunnels fed into a cavernous clearing with a ceiling high enough that Will could toss a knife up and not it the top. There had clearly been an encampment here, judging from the collapsed tents, still-burning embers, and spilled food. Judging from the fact that the goblin chieftain had given him the key, he thought there were decent odds that it was where the teleporting cave goblins had come from.

    At the other end of the clearing, maybe a hundred feet from Will, there was a single metal door with DO NOT ENTER scribbled over it in messy handwriting. It corresponded exactly with the location of the vault on his minimap.

    Unfortunately, that was the end of the good news.

    The goblins had left this place to go raiding, and in the meantime, something else had taken up space.

    A chill ran up Will¡¯s entire body as he looked up. And up. The thing had to be fifteen or twenty feet tall. How did it even fit in the tunnels?

    ¡°Oh, hell no,¡± he muttered. ¡°Fuck spiders.¡±

    Giant Cave Spider. Level: Bronze 8.

    This is a solo boss.

    Behold! The giant enemy spider. One of the natural predators of cave goblins, these spiders are capable of shrinking their bodies down to innocuous sizes before growing to a devastating size and feasting on their prey. Once trapped by their webs, cave goblins often find it impossible to even attempt teleporting away.

    Don¡¯t get caught.

    WARNING: This boss is more than 1 full rank above you!

    ¡°Mind if I go around you?¡±

    The spider twitched, and a spout of thick fluid shot forth from its abdomen. Will dove to the side instinctively, looking up just in time to see the massive web that exploded out onto the ground right under him.

    ¡°Guess that¡¯s a no.¡±

 Books 1 and 2 are out on Amazon

    It''s release day for book 2! If you can spare a rating, it would be greatly appreciated to support the novel!

    - Amazon: https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B0D7MPS9C3</a>

    Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    - Audible: Coming soon

    </a>

    If you''re looking for book 1, you can read it here: https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B0D59MBXCF</a>

 Stats + Skill Glossary as of [B4 Chapter 1]

    Name: William Li-Brown

    Level: Silver 10

    Race: Human

    Class: Reaper

    Titles: [First Blood], [User Killer], [Envoy of Mercy], [Shattersoul], [Outcast], [Heretic]

    Attributes:

    [Power]: Silver 5

    [Speed]: Silver 10

    [Affinity]: Gold 7 (Platinum 7)

    [Soul]: Silver 10

    [Resistance]: Silver 10

    [Perception]: Silver 10

    Unused Points: 0

    Universal Abilities

    - Omnilingual

    - System User

    - Identify

    - Marked for Death

    Skills

    [Power]: Storm

    - Wind Walker (Silver, high)

    - Thunder Wraith¡¯s Grasp (Silver, high)

    - Abyssal Tempest (Silver, mid)

    [Speed]: Space (secondary)

    - Escape Artist (Silver, high)

    - Weapons Free (Silver, high)

    - Wraith Cloak (Silver, high)

    - Sanctuary (Silver, high)

    [Affinity]: Corruption (primary)

    - Corruption Resistance (Gold, low)

    - Chaos Transfer (Gold, low)

    - Destructive Synthesis (Silver, mid)

    - Attune Corrupted Item (Silver, mid)

    - Decaying Touch (Gold, low)

    - Desecrated Bond (Gold, low)

    [Soul]: Death (secondary)

    - Mark for Death (Silver, high)

    - Ghostflame (Silver, high)

    - The Bell Tolls (Silver, high)

    - Wail of the Forgotten (Gold, low)

    - One Foot in the Grave (Gold, low)

    [Resistance]: Balance

    - Equilibrium Mantle (Silver, mid)

    - Favored Element (Silver, low)

    - Guardian Angel (Silver, low)

    [Perception]: Time

    - Time in a Bottle (Silver, high)

    - Pages of the Past (Silver, mid)

    - Thousand Eyes (Gold, mid)

    [Sigil]: The Hunger

    - Hunger Aura (Silver, high)

    - Hunger Phantasm (Gold, low)

    - Ravenous Feast (Silver, mid)

    [Sigil]: The Crown

    - Eternal Throne (Silver, low)

    Skill Glossary

    Affinity/Corruption:

    Skill: [Chaos Transfer]

    - Spell (enchantment).

    - Cost: high mana.

    - Cooldown: 5 minutes.

    Gold

    Let others suffer as you have.

    Cleanses you or a weapon of all levels of all afflictions and transfers it to another designated weapon or back to yourself. Increases the strength of the transferred afflictions to silver rank if they are lower than silver. The next target the weapon strikes will gain all levels of all afflictions that you cleansed.

    Gold-rank addition: You can now apply this effect to any being or item. You may cast it simultaneously on any and all items or beings you are currently touching.

    Skill: [Destructive Synthesis]

    - Spell (consumption).

    - Cost: variable.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Silver

    Activate this skill to consume an item. Consuming an item grants mana restoration proportional to the power of the item.

    Consuming an item grants a temporary skill reflecting and magnifying the item¡¯s use for a variable time depending on the item¡¯s rarity and power.

    [Effect Transference] (silver) - You can also shift the temporary skill to another item. All skills transferred, whether to an item or yourself, will be upgraded one rank to a maximum of the rank this skill is at.

    Skill: [Decaying Touch]

    - Spell (affliction).

    - Cost: high mana.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Silver

    Deals necrotic damage. Inflict one level of silver-rank [Corruption] on a creature or item you touch. This skill cannot stack afflictions.

    Skill: [Attune Corrupted Item]

    - Attunement.

    - Cost: very high mana.

    - Cooldown: 1 day.

    Silver

    Attunes an item of silver rank or lower, purging the [Corruption] from it if applicable. All attuned items become growth items. If the attuned item was not already a growth item, it will become irreversibly corrupted.

    Skill: [Desecrated Bond]

    - Intervention.

    - Cost: high mana to extreme mana.

    - Cooldown: 1 minute (Insight) to 24 hours (Weaken, Strengthen, Corrupt).

    Gold

    ¡°Meddle back.¡± - Anonymous corruption wielder, cycle [REMOVED].

    [Insight] - Detect the sigil link between a User and their god within a 300-foot radius.

    [Weaken] (bronze) - Allows you to contest a sigil link with your soul. A successful contest will result in the User being cut off from their divine abilities for the next 24 hours.

    [Strengthen] (bronze) - Allows you to strengthen a sigil link for 24 hours. Results may vary.

    [Recharge] (silver) - All facets of this skill operate on separate cooldowns. A cooldown is reset if the target it was used on dies.

    [Corrupt] (gold) - Allows you to contest a sigil with your soul. A successful contest will result in the User being permanently cut off from their sigil as the link is corrupted. This also alerts all sigil-holders of the god within 1,000 miles to your current position.

    Space:

    Skill: [Escape Artist]

    - Passive (body).

    - Cost: none.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Silver

    Never look back.

    Your movement speed is increased at a rate inversely proportional to the amount of equipment you are wearing (maximum of 100% increase).

    Your movement speed is increased by up to an additional 100% if you are currently being attacked.

    Silver-rank addition: If you are being attacked, you gain greatly increased control of your aerial mobility.

    Skill: [Weapons Free]

    - Spell (movement, teleportation).

    - Cost: high mana (moderate mana).

    - Cooldown: 12 seconds (6 seconds).

    Silver

    ¡°What¡¯s yours is mine. What¡¯s mine is mine. What¡¯s nobody¡¯s is mine.¡± - Lacrymeus, famed pirate of the Great Arcadian Ocean.

    Teleport any weapon within a 120 foot radius to your hands (if you can carry it) or your inventory (if you cannot). If a target is holding the weapon, they can attempt to prevent this spell from succeeding.

    You can also teleport to any weapon within a 60 foot radius.

    Silver-rank addition: The previous range of this skill has been doubled.

    [Warp Strike] (silver): When making an attack, you can use this skill to make your attack originate from any weapon within a 120 foot radius.

    Skill: [Wraith Cloak]

    - Spell (invisibility, movement).

    - Cost: low mana-per-second while not moving. Mana cost increases with speed.

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    - Cooldown: none.

    Silver

    While in areas with low light or no light, you can have shadows surround you and render you invisible. This invisibility ceases to function if you move too quickly, use an attack, or cast a spell.

    Also increases your speed while in shadow.

    Silver-rank addition: You can move more effectively without breaking the cloak. While you are cloaked, you can see perfectly in the dark.

    [Ethereal] - For a high mana cost, you can pass through very thin barriers while invisible.

    Skill: [Sanctuary]

    - Ritual (dimension, Beyond).

    - Cost: extreme mana, equivalent of 1,000 silver credits (first cast). Varies (subsequent casts).

    - Casting Time: varies.

    - Cooldown: varies.

    Silver

    There doesn¡¯t have to be an end.

    This ritual opens a link to your sanctuary in the Beyond. Opening a second link on either side will allow you to travel to and from the sanctuary at different points in your bounded reality.

    Further effects will be revealed under the correct conditions.

    This skill will not evolve until it ascends to the gem tier.

    Death:

    Skill: [Mark for Death]

    - Spell (affliction).

    - Cost: moderate mana.

    - Cooldown: 1 hour.

    Silver

    Target any creature you can see or sense and mark them for death. During the next hour, the effectiveness of attacks and afflictions against the creature are increased, and you can track the creature through your minimap and through walls. This skill¡¯s cooldown resets if the targeted creature dies.

    [Soul Link] (bronze) - A fraction of all damage dealt to the marked creature is converted to healing for you.

    Silver-rank addition: When using this skill, you can target any number of creatures that you can see. You must kill all of them to trigger this skill¡¯s cooldown automatic reset.

    Skill: [Ghostflame]

    - Spell (enchantment).

    - Cost: extreme mana.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Silver.

    ¡°Death comes for you all. Your pitiful defenses cannot even conceive of stalling it.¡± - Dread Executor Cyna V, cycle 377.

    Draws from your blood, afflictions, and lifeforce alongside your mana. Cleanses all afflictions from you and all creatures living or dead in a 10 foot radius. Wreathe your fists in ghostflame. Inflict true damage upon any enemies you strike.

    [Phantom Pyre] - Increases the base damage of this skill for every affliction cleansed.

    [To Strike the Soul] (silver) - The damage inflicted by this skill ignores barriers of silver-rank or lower. Damage cannot be lessened or negated by skills of silver-rank or below.

    Skill: [The Bell Tolls]

    - Spell (esoteric).

    - Cost: high mana.

    - Cooldown: 1 hour.

    Silver.

    ¡°Run. Hide. Fight. Try every last desperate play you have. In the end, the bell still tolls.¡± - Dread Executor Illona III, cycle 950.

    Cleanses all afflictions from you and targets a creature you can see. The creature cannot benefit from magical healing for the next minute. Inflicts necrotic damage scaling with the consumed afflictions and any injuries the target is suffering from.

    [Withering Decay] (bronze) - Death approaches. Increases any affliction on the target by one level. Inflicts one level of [Wither].

    [Escape is Futile] (silver) - Cooldown resets if the target dies.

    Skill: [Wail of the Forgotten]

    - Spell (sound).

    - Cost: moderate mana.

    - Cooldown: 1 minute.

    Gold

    Over 100 billion humans have lived on your planet. Of those, less than a billion remain alive and on its surface today. How many of the dead are remembered today? How many will be forgotten in a year? A decade? A millennium?

    The forgotten are restless, and they are angry. They will not be ignored.

    This skill releases a concentrated scream directed at an enemy or area. Skill propagation increases with sound propagation. You may choose to widen the area of effect of this skill in exchange for reduced efficacy. This scream deals psychic damage.

    [Manifest Despair] (bronze) - By increasing the amount of mana you spend, you can distill the essence of the forgotten into a beam of energy that does not require sound to travel. This beam inflicts necrotic damage. Both attacks will stun enemies, overwhelming them with the voices of the forgotten. This stunning effect can be resisted.

    [Lament of Agony] (silver) - This attack also inflicts stacking levels of [Wither] and [Weakness] upon those affected. These effects can be resisted. The difficulty level of resisting these afflictions lowers the further the target is from the center of the effect.

    Condition: [Wither]

    - Deals slow necrotic damage over time.

    - Weakens necrotic resistances. If the target does not have a resistance to necrotic damage, they gain a weakness to necrotic damage.

    Condition: [Weakness]

    - Removes resistances to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing attacks. If the target does not have a resistance to physical attacks, they gain a weakness.

    [Dark Harvest] (gold) - The voice of your victims will become forgotten eventually. You can do so faster. Upon killing or knocking unconscious any User through the usage of this skill, you learn the current positions of all members of their current primary party or guild.

    Skill: [One Foot in the Grave]

    - Skill (augmentation).

    - Cost: extreme mana per second. Lifeforce may be substituted for mana.

    - Cooldown: varies, minimum 24 hours.

    Gold

    ¡°Someone¡¯s dying today. I don¡¯t plan on it being me.¡± - An anonymous King shortly before killing Dread Executor Azathoth IX and taking their mantle, cycle 1038.

    The cost per second of this skill decreases the more damaged you are.

    If you kill an enemy while this skill is active, your maximum mana capacity temporarily increases. If you do not kill an enemy while this skill is active, you will experience soul backlash proportional to the amount of mana and/or lifeforce expended on maintaining this skill. This backlash may be lethal.

    While this skill is active, you become intangible and are immune to all conditions of gold rank or lower and resist higher-rank conditions. Your magic cannot be suppressed by means of gold-rank or lower. You also gain significant resistance to physical damage and do not feel pain.

    You cannot be healed while this skill is active, even from your own skills and attributes, but you can regenerate mana.

    Storm:

    Skill: [Wind Walker]

    - Spell (stealth, movement).

    - Cost: very low mana.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Silver.

    At the eye of any violent storm, there is silence. Draw upon the power of the winds to lighten your step and increase your speed.

    [Zephyr¡¯s Cloak] (bronze) - While this skill is active, you gain a slight blur effect, making you harder to see and target while moving.

    [Galeforce Dash] (silver) - While you are not touching the ground, you can spend mana to send yourself flying forward with wind-aided dashes. This also imbues you with storm power, increasing the amount of damage you deal to foes afflicted by [Charged].

    Skill: [Thunder Wraith¡¯s Grasp]

    - Spell (augmentation, evocation).

    - Cost: low mana.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Silver

    A haunted storm gathers, and it grows mighty. Channels ghostly lightning into your fists or melee weapon, grasping an enemy to deliver successively greater amounts of lightning and necrotic damage.

    Inflicts stacking levels of [Charged].

    [Charged] - Target takes increased damage from lightning attacks. Target is easier to hit with lightning attacks.

    On a critical hit, all levels of [Charged] are expended, inflicting exponential amounts of lightning damage for each charge cleansed.

    Silver-rank addition: [Charged] now causes a spark of lightning that chains to nearby enemies upon landing a strike on the target.

    Skill: [Abyssal Tempest]

    - Spell (augmentation, evocation).

    - Cost: moderate mana per second.

    - Cooldown: 1 minute.

    Silver

    When a storm arrives at sea, it leaves behind only wrecks and struggling survivors. In their darkest hour, when all hope is lost, the abyss begins to take its toll, laying claim to the lives of those who have weathered one disaster.

    Then, sometimes, a storm strikes once more.

    This is a channeled skill. The cooldown for this skill will begin when you stop using it.

    Increases your [Power] attribute sharply. This effect increases the longer you use the skill, which also increases the mana cost. This effect is also dramatically increased when attacking an enemy that has been afflicted with [Charged].

    [Abyssal Fury] (bronze) - While this skill is being channeled, you gain a resistance to elemental damage. You also deal increased damage to enemies afflicted with [Charged], even if you are using another skill.

    [Thundershock] (silver) - When you hit a target that is afflicted with [Charged], lightning strikes that target and deals damage in a small radius. This bolt spreads to any nearby enemy that is also afflicted with [Charged]. Any enemy caught in the radius of each attack is inflicted with a stacking level of [Charged].

    Time:

    Skill: [Time in a Bottle]

    - Spell (chronomancy).

    - Cost: high mana per second.

    - Cooldown: scales based on how long the skill is used.

    Silver

    Accelerates your perception of time, enabling you to experience twenty seconds for each second that passes outside.

    Silver-rank addition: previous effect of time dilation is doubled. At high mana cost, you can increase your movement speed for one objective second, though this effect ends if you use another skill or an attack.

    Skill: [Pages of the Past]

    - Spell (divination).

    - Cost: moderate mana.

    - Cooldown: 6 seconds.

    Silver

    Allows you to detect magical effects that were used in your immediate surroundings in the last 24 hours. If the rank of the effect is at or below the rank of this skill, you can also glean insight into what the effect is.

    [Traces of the Past] - Also allows you to detect footsteps and read conversations made in the area during the same time window.

    [Lingering Resonance] - You gain insight into the ambient magic of the area. Strong auras that were present in the last 24 hours as well as any active magical wards or traps will also be visible to you.

    Skill: [Thousand Eyes]

    - Familiar (time, perception).

    - Cost: extreme mana. 1,000 gold credits. 100 gold-rank Monster Cores or equivalent. 1,000 silver-rank Monster Cores or equivalent.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Gold

    Summons an avatar from an alternate universe that is perpetually locked in a single instant. This familiar is incorporeal. This familiar is a non-continuous entity.

    This familiar currently possesses gold-rank attributes but will not have access to [Remote Domination] until it is resummoned.

    This familiar possesses truesight.

    [Synchronicity] - You can use all senses through the Thousand Eyes, relying on either yours or your familiar¡¯s. The eyes can access echoes of recent past events (5 seconds or less) within its vicinity, showing you spectral images of events even if you cannot see your target.

    [Time-Locked] - By existing outside the normal timestream, your familiar can expend mana to become imperceptible to non-magical means and aura senses.

    [Remote Anchor] (gold) - For the purposes of skills with a range, you can use a large enough collection of eyes as a focal point for that skill, extending your range.

    [Remote Domination] (gold) - You can project your aura through any of the thousand eyes. After reaching a sufficient threshold of eyes in one area, you may attempt to afflict the [Stunned] condition upon enemies within range.

    Balance:

    Skill: [Equilibrium Mantle]

    - Passive (body).

    - Cost: very low mana over time.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Silver.

    Nullifies extreme environmental conditions in a small radius around the user¡¯s body. Drastically reduces the effect of adverse conditions.

    [Harmony of Self] (silver) - Your mantle affects your internal world as much as it does the environment outside. Your body will remain in balance at all times, preventing you from suffering from illness and removing the need to breathe. This skill does not protect against external attacks.

    Skill: [Favored Element]

    - Ritual (resistance).

    - Cost: moderate mana.

    - Casting Time: 10 minutes.

    - Cooldown: 1 day.

    Silver.

    Allows you to pick one favored element and one hostile element. Until this ritual is no longer on cooldown, you gain extreme resistance to attacks using your favored element if they are of your rank or lower. If this resistance completely nullifies the damage you would have taken, you are instead healed proportionally to the power of the attack.

    You take increased damage from the hostile element, but if an attack is made upon you using that element, your next attack against that enemy will be greatly increased in power.

    [Augmented Resistance] (silver) - Your resistance ignores rank boundaries.

    [Elemental Intuition] (silver) - If you do not pick a favored element, it will automatically select the most prevalent element in your area upon casting. This is currently aligned to Electricity.

    Skill: [Guardian Angel]

    - Familiar (radiance, protection).

    - Cost: extreme mana. 10,000 silver credits. 100 silver-rank Monster Cores or equivalent.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Gold

    Warning: this skill does not summon an angel. You do not want to summon angels for the same reason you do not want to summon demons. The system takes no responsibility for the propensity of certain factions naming themselves after real, world-shaking threats.

    Please ignore that the system determined the name of this skill. This skill was named based on the conceptions of your planet. The system takes no responsibility for poor cultural taste.

    Summons a gold-rank humanoid avatar. This familiar is corporeal and continuous.

    [Radiant Shield] - This familiar can create a protective barrier around you and your allies using its body.

    The remaining skills will depend on the familiar summoned.

    Skill: [Guardian Angel] (Summoned Familiar: Aza)

    Gold

    [Radiant Shield] - This familiar can create a protective barrier around you and your allies using its body.

    [Restorative Body] - This familiar has life force. If its life force is entirely expended, it must be re-summoned. WARNING: You are not guaranteed to receive the same familiar upon a second summon. Familiars may choose to turn down a second summon. This familiar can expend a portion of its life force to heal you or an ally.

    [Guardian¡¯s Sacrifice] (bronze) - This familiar can absorb damage on behalf of you.

    [Balancing Act] (gold) - This familiar can expend a portion of its life force to negate or lessen the effect of afflictions or demonic influence upon you.

    Sigil:

    Skill: [Hunger Aura]

    - Aura (sigil).

    - Cost: none.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Silver

    Your aura changes, gaining elements of Kadael, the Hunger.

    [Insatiable] - Enemies within the aura passively lose stamina and mana. You and your allies restore stamina and mana proportional to the amount drained. This amount can be increased with application of mana. Excess stamina and mana is discarded.

    [Devouring Embrace] (silver) - Enemies within the aura also passively lose health. You and your allies within the aura gain health proportional to the amount drained. Excess health is discarded.

    Skill: [Hunger Phantasm]

    - Spell (sigil, conjuration).

    - Cost: low mana.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Gold

    Conjures a dark phantasm with a volume of 40,000 cubic feet. You have fine control over this phantasm within a moderate range of your body. You can control parts of the phantasm at a range of up to 2,000 feet. Lasts until dispelled or destroyed.

    [Starvation] - The phantasm counts as a weapon and doubles the effect of all drain conditions. Every attack you successfully land on a target that is touching a phantasm drains their stamina and mana, restoring yours. This also restores your health if your stamina and mana are full.

    [In the Flesh] - For a moderate mana cost, the phantasm can take physical form. For the purposes of touch-range spells, you can use the phantasm. At silver-rank, the physical form increases in its ability to affect the material world.

    [Echo of Despair] (silver) - When a target that the phantasm is touching reaches critical levels of stamina, mana, or health, the phantasm emits a pulse that applies the [Wither] condition on the target and any other enemies within a short distance.

    [Desperate Famine] (gold) - Vastly increases the volume, speed, and range of the phantasm as well as the durability and flexibility of its manifested form.

    Skill: [Ravenous Feast]

    - Spell (sigil).

    - Cost: very high mana. Life force (varies).

    - Cooldown: 12 hours.

    Silver

    If you truly hunger, you can devour anything, but every feast comes with a cost.

    When a magical effect targets you, you can attempt to contest it with this skill and your aura. If you are able to match or overpower the skill, you can attempt to resist it with life force in order to negate a portion or all of its effects.

    Upon a full negation of the skill, you are refunded all of the mana expended to cast this skill (but not life force). You also gain mana and stamina proportionate to the amount of resources placed in the negated effect.

    [Overflow] (silver) - Excess mana and stamina is not discarded.

    Esoteric:

    Item: [Demonic Eye of Death Perception]

    Mythic, platinum (growth, prosthetic)

    This item can only be attuned to the User that holds a contract with the demon that provided it. You are attuned to this item.

    [Visualize] (bronze) - You sense death. With this eye, you see the weakest points of an object or being.

    [Cut] (silver) - Hitting these lines with the correct angle and force automatically results in a critical hit.

    [Envision] (gold) - You now also see the weakest points of a magical skill.

    [Sever] (platinum) - With sufficient force, hitting the weakest point of a magical skill will cut magical bonds.

 Chapter 145: Pre-Dungeon Prep

    They didn¡¯t go immediately, of course. Everyone was at least a bit beat up from the events of the day, and none of them were so eager to run a potentially depowering dungeon without taking a proper break first.

    Regina was willing to post them up for a while, which Will appreciated. While he¡¯d been thinking about establishing a more permanent place for him and his people, he also didn¡¯t have the time nor the skills to create that place himself. He remembered the community that Lev, Ally, and other members of his college had created for themselves in the monster-infested forests near what had once been his university. Just like so much else, it had been overrun by complications resulting from the beginning of the cycle and was no longer active.

    Building something that lasted was so much harder than breaking it down, and Will wasn¡¯t especially well versed in the former. He wanted to get better at it some day, but the role of a Dread Executor wasn¡¯t exactly to form long-lasting homes. It was to eliminate threats to them.

    For the time being, he was content to spend time in a creation someone else was maintaining.

    ¡°Newer¡± York was a city with a name bad enough Will had to wonder if he¡¯d wandered into an alternate timeline where they¡¯d handed over the ability to name important things to himself. Name aside, though, it was a fairly well designed city¡ªas far as Will could tell. He had been a computer engineer, not a city planner.

    He¡¯d only been to New York once or twice before the apocalypse had come and the one time he¡¯d come afterwards had involved killing a whole bunch of gold-rank monsters that had wrecked the city. Will wasn¡¯t sure how faithful the recreation of the city was to its old self, but he could tell that Regina had done some great work in rebuilding it since the last time he¡¯d seen it.

    When he¡¯d come hurtling out of the sky like an evil meteorite¡ªokay, bad analogy, but close enough¡ªWill had come into a bombed-out husk of a city, skyscrapers collapsing on themselves and each other as monsters had overrun the place. Now, though, Regina had cleared the dungeons out and reconstructed a good portion of it. Though they didn¡¯t stretch nearly as high as Will was sure they once had, she¡¯d done a great job of working with what she had.

    He didn¡¯t exactly have access to the same resources she did, but he could tell that a good deal of the construction had been done magically. There was an aura emitting off some of the materials that Will was fairly sure spoke of artificial synthesis and assembly.

    Not that he was complaining. Although Newer York wasn¡¯t quite as big as the city whose bones it had been built on, it looked for all intents and purposes like a high-tech modern metropolis, albeit with a fair few details that were a bit out of place. The subway system had been removed due to how thoroughly infested it had become by dungeons, and most people were now traveling either via short-range portals or launch devices that literally threw them from one building to another, a second magical item catching them there. It wasn¡¯t quite as efficient as a train system, but it was also much less susceptible to monster attack.

    Living arrangements had also been changed. Every building had living quarters within them, spacing out the population so that there would always be someone ready to respond in case of sudden monster manifestation while also minimizing the casualties if something big broke through.

    Since they were one party and had a direct connection to the Supreme Commander, Will¡¯s group got assigned a pretty solid building¡ªthirty stories tall and built out of the remnants of what Nathan was reasonably sure had been the Chrysler building.

    Will neither knew nor particularly cared about what the building had been pre-apocalypse, but it was now a bustling multipurpose shopping center with some areas cut out for training. Most places were like that, with a few buildings centralizing around certain specialties. Will had specifically requested one more suited towards active Users like them, and it showed. All the shops here¡ªeven the ones meant specifically for non-combat purposes like restaurants and clothing stores¡ªwere imbued with silver-rank magic or above, offering items that were significantly more expensive than they would be elsewhere in the city.

    While Yui, Wisteria, and the Australians decided to hit the training facilities immediately and a couple of the others went to get some proper rest, Caiyeri didn¡¯t seem like she wanted to do either.

    ¡°I¡¯ve never gotten to explore a proper human city,¡± she told Will. ¡°I¡¯m going to walk around this one for a while.¡±

    ¡°This isn¡¯t exactly what I¡¯d call a proper human city,¡± Will said. ¡°Actually, it might be. I think there¡¯s a few normal cities out there that made it out mostly intact, but I imagine most of them are broken mash-ups like this one.¡±

    ¡°It has enough of the trappings your friends led me to believe it would,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°Do you think there¡¯s a casino in here?¡±

    Will sighed. ¡°Of course you would go to that first.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going to go look,¡± she announced. ¡°Care to join?¡±

    ¡°That might be the first time you¡¯ve invited me to do something that didn¡¯t involve violence,¡± Will said, putting a hand to his heart. ¡°I¡¯m touched.¡±

    ¡°Fuck you too. Are you coming?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I am,¡± Will said. ¡°Hopefully this one stays more intact than the last one I explored.¡±

    Though they¡¯d stopped in cities from time to time, that had always been a brief visit. Usually, his purpose in being there was specifically to meet up with the people he knew or had been assisting, and he typically didn¡¯t stay for long.

    The last time he¡¯d actually stayed somewhere¡­ that probably would¡¯ve been Geneva, and he¡¯d accidentally glassed a fair portion of that city on his way out thanks to the measures he¡¯d taken against Peace¡¯s sigil-holders.

    This was different, though. Will wanted to trust in that. He had Sen monitoring the entire place, occasionally sending out bursts to check for hidden Peace sigil-holders, and none of his allies who normally would have noticed an issue bothered him. Even Ayla had been quiet about what to expect when he¡¯d transported everyone through the Beyond, which was usually a good indicator that he was actually safe for a while.

    Despite all of that¡­

    ¡°You¡¯re doing that thing again,¡± Caiyeri said.

    ¡°What thing?¡± Will asked.

    ¡°Existing outside of yourself,¡± she said, waving her fingers around. ¡°Thinking about the step after the step after the step after taking a break even when you¡¯ve just come off a fight. You do it a lot.¡±

    ¡°Do I now,¡± Will said. ¡°It¡¯s been pretty reasonable so far.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s a thousand early-warning systems that will trigger throughout the entire party, yourself included, before something actually hits you.¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t when we got nuked from orbit.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what her defenses are for,¡± Caiyeri said, pointing a finger in the general direction they¡¯d come from. ¡°You can¡¯t operate like this all the time. There¡¯s more to life than being a weapon.¡±

    ¡°Funny for you to say,¡± Will said.

    ¡°I think it makes more sense coming from me,¡± she said. ¡°I was made to be one, and I¡¯m the only one left. Part of that is because I took the time to be my own elf instead of just another blade.¡±

    ¡°By gambling.¡±

    To Will¡¯s surprise, she nodded emphatically. ¡°Yes, among other things. Now are you coming or not?¡±

    ¡°I suppose so,¡± Will said. ¡°Is there anywhere in particular you want to see? I have the place mostly mapped out.¡±

    ¡°Do a lap,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°The point of seeing the city is to see it, not to scope it out.¡±

    She approached this venture with a strange childlike curiosity that Will had only seen out of her a few times. It was a stark reminder that despite how well-adjusted and snarky Caiyeri was, she¡¯d spent the majority of her life in a series of dark tunnels learning how to be the most effective killing machine possible.

    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Trying to keep as much of his attention off his various perception skills, Will joined Caiyeri in exploring the city.

    While there were a good deal of silver-rankers and even one or two golds within the building they were in, the distribution was significantly different throughout the rest of the city. While it was still largely silver-rankers, the majority of them were core users. The effect of the cores on them was less than Will would have thought, which led him to believe that the ESNA had some way to mitigate the rot that they put into a powerbase¡ªeither that, or they were using cleaner monster cores somehow.

    There were also a significant chunk of bronze-rankers. Most of them were slowly progressing, very few using monster cores, but they were behind the wave. There were no unformeds anywhere, which was interesting but expected. Anyone who was still at that rank was either dead or had been pressured into using monster cores to rank up. They were liabilities if they couldn¡¯t defend themselves at all.

    Stores were mostly owned by silvers and non-core-using bronzes, though the latter tended to sell less magical equipment and more practical stuff. Most of the people with item crafting classes had long since ranked up to silver thanks to the sheer amount of use they¡¯d gotten out of their skills.

    The crafting economy here had been capable of replicating old Earth technology, which made for a bit of a disconcerting experience for Will. He¡¯d gotten used to the system being the most advanced piece of technology he typically witnessed, but while he was inside, he would have been hard-pressed to tell the difference between some of these places and a normal shopping mall on pre-apocalypse Earth.

    Well, Caiyeri made a good bit of the difference, and he made up the rest. While some people had chosen to shift races, it had been a very small minority of mankind, so Caiyeri naturally drew attention as an elf¡ªa visibly high-ranking one at that, even if she was suppressing her aura.

    Will, on the other hand, drew attention for all the wrong reasons. Even with his aura suppressed, the effects of his various titles slipped through, disquieting the people around him.

    There was one shopping area in particular that caught Caiyeri¡¯s attention. This building was less populated, mostly only by high-level silvers who were carrying specialized equipment and walked around like they owned the place.

    ¡°This place looks like it has some fun stuff to do,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°No gambling, though.¡±

    ¡°Probably didn¡¯t set up anywhere to do that,¡± Will replied. ¡°None of the games you can usually play are very fun when everyone has a unique way to cheat.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s just unimaginative,¡± the elf complained. ¡°I will say that it¡¯d be nice to get some food and equipment for our dungeon run.¡±

    Will didn¡¯t disagree. Strictly speaking, he could sustain himself off of system rations¡ªand after reaching gold rank, he wasn¡¯t sure he even needed those anymore. That just wasn¡¯t the same as a good meal, though, and magically prepared food had some benefits besides.

    They approached a small food court¡ªif you could call it that. Each of the establishments had the facade of a Michelin-starred restaurant, though they weren¡¯t quite as expansive as Will would have expected one of those to be. Tantalizing scents floated this way and that, almost surely enhanced by a skill of some kind.

    This place was absolutely filled to the brim with magic if the lines Will¡¯s demonic eye was showing him were any indication, which was possibly promising in terms of the quality of food offered there.

    Caiyeri seemed particularly drawn to a place that advertised exotic meat skewers. Not having any particular preference himself, Will decided to go there with her before he could get paralyzed by the number of decisions here.

    A system screen popped out as he got closer, though it appeared in such a way that Will was reasonably sure it was either a skill or custom item doing so instead of an actual system prompt.

    Matt¡¯s Monstrous Meats. 1,000+ positive reviews!

    Choice cuts of deluxe meat from exotic monsters sliced into cubes and roasted over hellfire with onions, peppers, and mushrooms. What¡¯s not to love? This meat isn¡¯t just the tastiest you¡¯ve ever had, though¡ªwe only use the finest fresh kills, and that magic doesn¡¯t just run off. Bronze, silver, and GOLD rank temporary buffs available!

    In addition to that sign was a menu with a dizzying array of options.

    ¡°You two,¡± a man that Will assumed was the titual Matt said, appearing at the counter. ¡°What can I get for you fine silvers?¡±

    Will and Caiyeri looked at each other, doing their best not to burst out laughing. They¡¯d both suppressed their auras so as to not overwhelm anyone they were passing by.

    Will: I swear I used to better at doing this.

    Caiyeri: Suppression gets harder at higher ranks. Shouldn¡¯t that be obvious?

    Will: No?

    Caiyeri: Humans.

    ¡°I¡¯ll have the¡­ flaming landshark skewer,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°The gold-rank one, please.¡±

    Matt, a middle-aged man who looked exactly like what Will would expect out of a redneck who¡¯d gotten into exotic meats, scratched the back of his neck. ¡°You did check the price, right?¡±

    ¡°Two hundred gold, right?¡± Caiyeri asked. ¡°It¡¯s got to be pretty good if it can provide a temporary skill.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll take the gargantuan raven one,¡± Will said. ¡°Same rank.¡±

    ¡°Uh, I do have those orders, but¡­¡± Matt said. ¡°Sorry to ask, but I will have to ask you to pay¡ª¡°

    Will flipped him a pair of platinum credits from his inventory. ¡°Yeah, yeah, got it. That enough?¡±

    Matt¡¯s eyes bugged out. ¡°That¡¯s¡­ five times what I needed¡­¡±

    ¡°Eh, whatever,¡± Will said. ¡°Consider it a measure of trust.¡±

    After all, the man¡¯s aura had been wavering this entire time thanks to the passive effects of Will¡¯s own. He¡¯d still sold them his wares in good faith even as some of the other places around them had tried to subtly alter the auras in front of their stores, looking to drive them away.

    ¡°If you say so, sir,¡± Matt said dubiously, tacking on the honorific at the end almost as an afterthought. ¡°I¡¯ll get on it right away.¡±

    While Matt dipped away to make their food, Will messaged Caiyeri as he spoke.

    ¡°So,¡± he said aloud, ¡°Do you think you¡¯re going to want to do the challenge dungeons alone or together?¡±

    Will: You sense them, right?

    ¡°Alone first, for sure,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°I know what¡¯ll happen if we do our first run together. I¡¯ll have to see you claim credit for everything all the time.¡±

    Caiyeri: Of course I do. I didn¡¯t figure it was worth mentioning. Not everyone is an actual threat, Will.

    ¡°That¡¯s not fair,¡± Will said, replying to two sentences at once. ¡°I would never. Still, I do think it¡¯d be a good idea to run it alone first. Just to see how it goes, of course.¡±

    Will: I mean, they could be suppressing their power.

    Caiyeri: I figure you¡¯ll see in a moment. Here they are.

    A trio of high-leveled silver men sauntered into the plaza with the exact same swagger Will had seen in far too many arrogant dickheads¡ªwith the crucial difference that these people did not, in fact, have that much power.

    ¡°Oi,¡± one of them called out towards Will and Caiyeri. ¡°You there. Deathy guy, yeah?¡±

    Will regarded him with disinterest. Silver 8. Poison Archer. Not a bad class, but inflexible. ¡°I assume you¡¯re talking to me?¡±

    ¡°Oh, so he does speak,¡± another one of the silvers said. Silver 9. Rogue Healer. His aura wavered in a way that Will knew indicated some level of inebriation. ¡°Hey, my guy. How much for the elf? Don¡¯t see chicks like that around here much.¡±

    ¡°Please,¡± Caiyeri snorted. ¡°I¡¯d pay you to take him off my hands, but no amount of money would convince me to spend more than a couple minutes with you.¡±

    ¡°The fuck¡¯d you say?¡± the first silver shouted. ¡°Do you know who I am?¡±

    Caiyeri looked at Will, who shrugged.

    ¡°Wait,¡± Will said. ¡°Lemme check what we¡¯re allowed to do.¡±

    Will: Hey, Regina. Got a couple of dicks here. Uhhh¡­ lemme send over their names real quick. How mad would you be if I killed them?

    Regina: Don¡¯t kill my people. No harm that¡¯ll last more than a day, or we¡¯re going to have problems.

    Will: Roger that.

    ¡°Aw, that¡¯s no fun,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°I¡¯d punch them out or something, but I think our food is almost ready and I don¡¯t want to get my hands bloody. Can you deal with them?¡±

    ¡°Hey, bitch,¡± the healer snarled, aura pulsing outwards. ¡°You don¡¯t just deal with us. We¡¯re the motherfucking¡ª¡°

    Will stopped suppressing his aura.

    A second later, he started pushing it out through Sen, redoubling the effect of his aura just on these three specifically.

    All three of them froze, though whether that was because of fear or the Stunned condition was anyone¡¯s call.

    The first one dropped to his knees, blabbering something incomprehensible. The second seemed to have pissed himself.

    The third one, the one who had yet to say anything, was the only one who managed to stay standing.

    ¡°That¡¯s¡ªyou¡¯re¡ªshit.¡±

    ¡°Wait, you know who I am?¡± Will asked curiously, stepping forward.

    The standing silver nodded frantically, scrambling back as Will approached. ¡°Dark angel. Reaper. The fucking end of days, man. I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m so¡ª¡°

    Will snapped his fingers¡ªnot strictly necessary, but it looked cool. He didn¡¯t use any offensive magic, instead just swarming them with his hunger phantasm and intensifying his aura yet again.

    When they stopped screaming, he presumed that he had successfully knocked them unconscious and shut it off.

    ¡°Got them!¡± Caiyeri said cheerfully, holding up two massive skewers, each of them almost as long as her arm and twice as broad. Behind her, a somewhat terrified-looking Matt looked on in silent horror.

    ¡°Awesome,¡± Will said, looking disdainfully at the random silvers who¡¯d been a bit too full of themselves. New Yorkers, I swear.

    The meal was delicious.

    #

    Relaxing was nice, but there was only so long Will could feel comfortable chilling out before he needed to get something done. They spent a total of two days recharging and restocking. Caiyeri ended up buying about a dozen more of those skewers¡ªboth just to eat and so she could use them in a fight if necessary¡ªas well as half a hundred hand grenades with various effects, a strangely large amount of nonmagical flour, and a few magical odds and ends to make her potion economy more manageable.

    Every last person in Will¡¯s party had decided to take the challenge dungeon on, so Regina had flown them all out to Boston.

    Now, they stood in front of an ominous gate carved into the side of a now-derelict skyscraper.

    ¡°You first,¡± Caiyeri said to Will. ¡°If this is an elaborate trap, you¡¯re definitely the only person here stupid enough to bullshit your way out of it.¡±

    ¡°I both appreciate your confidence in me and dislike how sure you seem that this could be a trap,¡± Will said. ¡°Regina could¡¯ve stabbed us in our sleep if she wanted to.¡±

    Regina: I can hear you, you know.

    Caiyeri: He knows.

    ¡°Welp,¡± Will said, opening the gate to reveal a dark portal behind it. ¡°Here we go.¡±

    Welcome, [William Li-Brown]. You are challenger number [4859] of this Challenge Dungeon and challenger number [93501] of Challenge Dungeons worldwide.

    Entering Challenge Dungeon - Boston.

 Chapter 146: Challenge Dungeon

    It had been a while since Will had entered a dungeon that felt like this. Though he¡¯d cleared a few here and there, he had mostly done those in externalized dungeons. He hadn¡¯t done many portal-types in a while, which meant that it was a bit of adjustment just to enter that portal and walk into a new dungeon.

    That was less noticeable than the visceral change in the surrounding mana, though. Will had gotten pretty deeply accustomed to the art of constantly probing the area around him, using his greatly enhanced aura control and senses to get an idea for the atmosphere and the attitudes of the people he was facing.

    Most of the world carried a pretty similar mana signature. It was almost always colored by who the dominant force in a given area was, but the base beneath that was similar. Even the dungeons Will had been in¡ªthe ones he remembered, at least¡ªhad been like that. Cinder¡¯s domain might have been a hell on earth, but there was still that distinctive Earth-Arcadia background mana under it. The superdungeon, of course, had its own flavor¡ªthough again, the base was familiar.

    This dungeon was different. The magic in the air was sterile. Even crossing crazy thresholds like the ones in the superdungeon had brought a gradual change as the ambient mana shifted to match the dominant force in the area. This¡­ Will could remember two times he¡¯d felt something like this.

    Once at the trial of the champion, long after they¡¯d realized that there was an outside force beyond the sponsors interfering. The other time¡­ Will couldn¡¯t be sure because his aura senses hadn¡¯t been nearly as good back then, but he thought he might remember this sensation from the void that the tutorial had transported him into.

    The area around him was reminiscent of that time, too. Will found himself in an empty white room, a single door on the other side.

    Ayla: Wow, it has been a while.

    The message popping into Will¡¯s otherwise calm system screen actually startled him, as was the actual voice accompanying it. It had been a long time since he¡¯d heard that voice and seen those messages outside the Beyond.

    ¡°Jesus,¡± he said aloud. ¡°Can you hear me?¡±

    Ayla: Yes. It¡¯s almost exactly like it was in the tutorial.

    ¡°How the hell are you here?¡± Will asked.

    Ayla: I¡¯m not. I¡¯m in a dead zone so far away from Earth that if you left right now, you still wouldn¡¯t be halfway before Inanis-5 hit your planet.

    ¡°I¡¯m aware,¡± Will said flatly. ¡°That¡¯s why I haven¡¯t gone for it just yet. How are you in my chat right now?¡±

    Ayla: You entered a challenge dungeon, didn¡¯t you?

    ¡°Yeah. I figured you had me under 24/7 surveillance. You didn¡¯t see that?¡±

    Ayla: I see significant things. My best observations come in things that have an impaact so outsized that they make in impact in the land of dreams. Having a microscopic understanding of everything in your life is more effort than it¡¯s worth even if I was at the peak of my power.

    ¡°Land of dreams? You can just say the Beyond, you know? I get to go there too.¡±

    Ayla: Let me use a fun turn of phrase every now and again. Yes. The Beyond.

    ¡°You still haven¡¯t explained how you¡¯re watching me right now.¡±

    Ayla: I have hooks set in every User I¡¯m assigned to be a tutorial helper for. The system sets a trigger at a number of possible cycle-internal events, challenge dungeons included. If no hook is set, it picks a random helper that might be available at a nearby labor facility. Helpers sometimes choose to set a hook and sometimes not, depending both on the helper and the User they are assigned to.

    ¡°Pleasure to know that you¡¯re still sticking with me,¡± Will deadpanned. ¡°Aren¡¯t you out of the system now? You¡¯re in a dead zone and shit too, aren¡¯t you?¡±

    Ayla: I hijacked the system a little more than usual. They didn¡¯t restrict me quite as much as they thought they did, and I had some help from a Dread Executor in the end. I don¡¯t have all the permissions of a standard system helper, but I¡¯ll at least be able to guide you along some.

    ¡°What if I told you that I¡¯d rather have had some bum carry me through this?¡±

    Ayla: I would tell you that you¡¯re a terrible liar.

    ¡°Oh, please. I¡¯m a great liar.¡±

    Ayla: You terrify people enough that whether you¡¯re lying or not is immaterial. Do you want me to start the dungeon or not?

    ¡°Yeah, yeah,¡± Will said, smiling ruefully. ¡°Let¡¯s get this done.¡±

    #

    Regina was not a woman who had the time to be watching a single man clear a challenge dungeon, but that changed once she factored her skills in. When she could lend eyes, ears, and hands from her subordinates, she was able to do a lot more with the time she had.

    Besides, it wasn¡¯t only her who had an interest in what the corruption wielder and his group had to show for themselves. Commander Charlie was one of a small number of elites from the ESNA who had witnessed William Li-Brown¡¯s raw power firsthand, and even he was curious to see what Will could do when he wasn¡¯t holding himself back. That went double for those who¡¯d only heard about the devastation this one man had been able to unleash through secondhand accounts and official reports.

    One of the reconnaisance rooms near Boston had been temporarily converted into something that looked more suited for a convention than a military facility.

    The third or fourth thing Regina¡¯s regime had discovered about the challenge dungeons after they opened was how easy it was to gain a live feed into them. Early drops in the challenge dungeons included a certain raw magical ore that, once refined, created a gem that could be used to watch current participants in that challenge dungeon. Since the early stages were pretty easy, it had been trivial to manufacture mass quantities of that.

    News of the corruption wielder¡¯s arrival had spread like wildfire, bringing with it the rumors that accompanied any legitimate news. Regina had been sure to squash the more harmful ones¡ªno, William Li-Brown had not eaten anybody¡¯s baby nor murdered three silvers in cold blood, though the latter had been a pretty close call. The ones where he could bring the temperature of a room down just by being in it or where he was secretly the last survivor of another world? That was fine.

    It came as no shock, then, just how many people were tuning into the challenge dungeon. Since Regina had spread the gems pretty widely, a lot of people were able to watch on their own. Those who couldn¡¯t afford them still had the options of watching a publicly televised feed. Just off word of mouth alone, Regina estimated that there were in excess of ten thousand people watching this single contestant.

    ¡°He¡¯s just sitting there and chatting to the air,¡± Charlie remarked, watching Will¡¯s feed on the large screen someone had thrown up in the recon room. ¡°Everyone else has started already.¡±

    Of course, Will wasn¡¯t the only person that people could watch. There were nine beings in Boston¡¯s challenge dungeon¡ªHua Fang, Liam Wilson, otherworlder Yui, otherworlder Nathan, Lily Teneli, a gestalt being recognized by the system as ¡°Jessie,¡± Wisteria Blake, elf Caiyeri Seven, and William Li-Brown himself. Regina hadn¡¯t assumed that Teneli had been part of their group, but Will had nonchalantly let the silver-ranker join him despite her relative lack of power.

    The corruption wielder drew the largest crowd, of course, but the other feeds were getting some traction amongst the military personnel watching. Regina could sense betting pools forming already, which she didn¡¯t mind. Encouraging a casual atmosphere amongst her people was generally a good idea for a number of reasons.

    Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    ¡°Pleasant,¡± a smooth voice came from beside her. ¡°I do think some of your people are overvaluing how good the devouring gestalt is at clearing a dungeon, however. An incredible killing machine is not necessarily a perfect being to clear out traps meant for more complex beings.¡±

    Regina started, looking to her right. She hadn¡¯t seen or heard anyone come close to her, and her passive perception skills were always on. The man was something like seven feet tall and obsidian black¡ªnot exactly easy to miss.

    Her danger sense hadn¡¯t even triggered, not even in the slightest, which was an alarm bell in itself.

    Primal instinct took over. She reached out¡ª

    ¡°Not necessary,¡± the stranger said. ¡°My name is Nynn. You should have a dossier on me.¡±

    Regina paused, analyzing the man for the first time. Her analysis skills were more detailed than the supermajority of Users¡¯, but it would take an idiot not to recognize the first few words out of it.

    Dread Executor.

    ¡°I see,¡± Regina said, mentally refactoring the situation. She¡¯d seen one of his kind before, though not from up close. ¡°My apologies, though I hope you don¡¯t expect me to offer a drink.¡±

    ¡°Apologies are unnecessary,¡° Nynn said. ¡°I am trespassing, after all. Besides, I am no Dread Executor. Not anymore.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not showing up as much of anything to me,¡± Regina said, smoothing over how off-balance she¡¯d been.

    ¡°I still know a few tricks. Do carry on. I was looking forward to watching this group.¡±

    ¡°You came in with them,¡± Regina said, not bothering to question how yet another person had been able to sneak through defenses that had proven ironclad against specialized infiltrator classes in the other world. ¡°Not doing it yourself?¡±

    ¡°Oh, I¡¯ve done my fair share,¡± Nynn said. ¡°Ages and ages ago. I¡¯m just here to watch.¡±

    On the feed, William Li-Brown was finally done talking. Regina heard the faint sound of cheers throughout the city as he finally entered the dungeon.

    She sighed. ¡°Have a seat, then. I have some preparations to do.¡±

    #

    Ayla: Since I¡¯m not actually sitting in front of a system console right now, I¡¯m going to have to play a lot of this by ear.

    ¡°Yeah, I figured. Maybe I should¡¯ve taken the bum.¡±

    Ayla: Stop whining. I¡¯m no novice when it comes to the system. The standard screens and leaderboards will show up for you. I haven¡¯t entirely hijacked this, I¡¯m just in the helper role.

    ¡°Yeah, yeah,¡± Will said, stepping across the gate into the first room. ¡°We¡¯ll see about that.¡±

    Welcome to the Challenge Dungeon.

    World Tier: [Metal]. Dungeon starting difficulty has been set to [Gold]. Maximum dungeon difficulty set to [Diamond].

    Location: [Boston].

    Worldwide Top Score: 76 rooms. Set at the [Antarctica] Challenge Dungeon by leaderboard rank 2, [Draken].

    This dungeon has been attempted [18,294] times by [4,859] people.

    Local Leaderboard:

    1. 31 rooms, set by leaderboard rank 10, [Regina].

    2. 29 rooms, set by leaderboard rank 97, [Alexander].

    3. 26 rooms, set by leaderboard rank 31, [Charlie].

    Current Room: [0].

    You have gained a [Escape Ticket].

    Item: [Escape Ticket]

    Common, gold

    Only functions within a Challenge Dungeon. Consuming this item activates magic that will evacuate you from the dungeon over the course of a minute. You will not be able to attack or use other magic while using the [Escape Ticket], so using it to run away from a fight is not advised.

    Punishment for Failure: [-1 level on death]

    Now entering Room [1]. Room selected: [Antigrav].

    [Antigrav] has been cleared [2,738] times. The current fastest clear time is [37.028 seconds] by [Amelia, alias ¡°Telescope¡±].

    The median clear time is [258.485 seconds].

    Will raised an eyebrow as the system messages continued to scroll as he traveled in the tunnel between the two rooms. He recognized that name. Hadn¡¯t she been one of the fighter pilots in New York when he landed?

    Funny how those little coincidences happened.

    The room started to materialize into existence as he got further along, the rules still displaying themselves.

    Reward for clearing room 1: 10 gold credits. Challenge Ore x1.

    Clearing with a time faster than the median also grants your choice of a basic gold-rank item. Clearing with a time faster than the current fastest clear time grants a gold-rank treasure.

    True to the title of the room, Will quickly felt his steps launch himself into the air, a somewhat familiar sense of weightlessness taking hold of him.

    This was a strange way to enter the next phase of the dungeon. Rather than passing through a door or portal to get into it, it seemed as if the Antigrav room was just coming into existence around him. Will¡¯s magic senses were getting very good, but he could only just barely comprehend the broader strokes of what was happening. The place was drawing on the Beyond as well as some spatial and creation magic beyond his comprehension to get this working.

    He wished he had more time to study it. There had to be something useful in there, but he just didn¡¯t have the senses to understand it, even with the demonic eye.

    Will floated as the room came into existence around him. It was wide¡ªmaybe the length of a football arena with the height to match. Free-floating debris clouded the entire place, reminding him eerily of the final fight at the trial of the champion.

    Room: [Antigrav]

    Objective: Eliminate all hostile entities. [0/10]

    Hostiles: 9 silver-rank monsters. 1 gold-rank solo boss.

    That was pretty simple. Will could already see the monsters coming into existence both through Sen and his demonic eye.

    He smirked, dark clouds exploding across the entire arena.

    ¡°Finally,¡± he said. ¡°Something straightforward.¡±

    #

    Charlie frowned at the display. He¡¯d cleared the Antigrav room himself a number of times, but he still hadn¡¯t managed to get his time under two minutes. The room itself wasn¡¯t terribly complex¡ªthe monsters never changed, just their positions. The solo boss wasn¡¯t even too hard, even for a silver-ranker.

    The main difficulty in this room came from finding and defeating everything. This boss was a master-type boss, with the nine silver-rank monsters acting both as sensory organs and minions. Said monsters were virus-like blobs that clung onto the debris floating around, each of them moving with deceptive speed. Until the minion viruses were all dead, the boss was both invisible and invincible, making it a pain in the ass since it was difficult to tell where they were coming from.

    That made this room a kind of search-and-destroy mission. Charlie¡¯s skills were more suited for a full-frontal assault, so he struggled a bit with it, but he was durable and strong enough that his current best strategy was just to devastate the entire room. The problem with that laid in how the viruses were able to redirect themselves to protect against sudden damage, rendering AoEs less effective.

    Telescope, one of the best Pilots in the ESNA air force, held the fastest time by nearly fifteen seconds, and that had been because she¡¯d taken an element that was intended specifically for low or zero-grav environments and affixed it to her Perception stat. Her unique combination of skills let her kill the viruses almost immediately, letting her wail on the boss right from the start.

    Her aside, the strategy for this room was fairly standard. Go as fast as possible, burn AoEs, and try to smoke out the viruses. Anti-gravity made standard speed skills not work for most

    There were two people who¡¯d rolled the Antigrav room this time, but neither of them were following anything near the standard strategy. One of them was almost done already, though she¡¯d entered a bit earlier.

    Caiyeri Seven had two gold-rank guns out, both of them of a make that Charlie didn¡¯t recognize. She handled them with frankly terrible form, but it hadn¡¯t taken long for him to realize that the improper form was intentional¡ªthe elf was piloting herself through the air, narrowly avoiding hard-to-sense attacks. Somehow, every shot she fired found a target, and the main boss was already visible.

    A point of light formed behind her, and a forcefield shimmered into existence, shattering just as blinding red force detonated into her.

    Moments later, that same light exploded outwards again, this time aimed at a seemingly random part of the room.

    [Caiyeri Seven] has cleared room 1, [Antigrav] in [Challenge Dungeon - Boston] in [47.181 seconds], setting a new #2 fastest time.

    Murmurs passed through the viewing room at that. With most of the immediate threats dealt with, a lot of the ESNA military had turned to the challenge dungeons to train, and there were entire subcommunities that were extremely focused on it. For an outsider to walk in and clear a room that had been run so many times at that speed¡­

    That surprise was rapidly overtaken by people realizing what was happening on another one of the feeds.

    William Li-Brown¡¯s feed had gone entirely dark, shrouded in an oily shadow. From certain perspectives, Charlie could see the formation of an iridescent shape that might¡¯ve been an eye.

    Even through the viewing crystal, he could sense the raw evil in that power.

    When the darkness cleared, there was nothing. The monsters were gone¡ªbut so was everything else in the room. The only thing remaining was William Li-Brown, floating in place with his arms crossed and his eyes closed.

    ¡°What the hell¡­¡±

    [William Li-Brown] has cleared room 1, [Antigrav] in [Challenge Dungeon - Boston] in [23.019 seconds], setting a new record.

    #

    ¡°I did not think that would blow up as hard as it did,¡± Will said.

    Ayla: I told you that more of this room would be interactable than you thought it was. Instance dungeons are often like that.

    ¡°Yeah, you said they¡¯d be more interactable, not that I¡¯d be able to kill the rocks!¡±

    Ayla: That was implied. Shouldn¡¯t you be moving on?

    ¡°Implied my ass.¡± Will grinned. ¡°This is fun, though.¡±

    He used an air-dash to propel himself to the next door, passing through it.

    You have set a new record time for [Antigrav]. You have been awarded a gold-rank treasure!

    Select your treasure below:

    Will¡¯s grin grew wider.

    ¡°It¡¯s been a while since I got good loot,¡± he said. ¡°Let¡¯s see what we¡¯ve got here.¡±

 Chapter 147: T Minus One Month

    Select your treasure below:

    - [Gravity Manipulator] (gold)

    - [Inverted Boots] (gold)

    - [Topsy-Turvy Grenade] (gold) x3 + gold-rank health and mana potions (x10)

    - Full reset + platinum-rank health and mana potion + 1,000 gold credits

    Will whistled. The challenge dungeon rewards were on the level of late-game rewards in the trial of the champion. To be fair, he was pretty sure the latter scaled to when in the cycle the trial occurred, and he was well aware just how early this one had happened. Still, this was no small reward.

    Then again, he couldn¡¯t always assume he¡¯d be the fastest person on the leaderboard. This room had been particularly easy for him because it had turned out that the rocks were also living organisms and therefore susceptible to corruption. There was no guarantee the rest of the rooms in this dungeon would be similarly easy.

    It was also pretty doubtful that he¡¯d be able to make it to the end of it. Gold-rank challenge dungeons got into platinum-rank difficulty pretty quickly, and though Will was reasonably sure he could cheese a win or two out against monsters not just a rank but a tier higher than him, he doubted his ability to do so for extended periods of time, especially if the difficulty was going to continue ramping up. Once it hit emerald, it was surely going to be a no-go.

    He¡¯d take the wins where he could get them, though. Will hadn¡¯t used a lot of the loot he¡¯d gotten since the trial of the champion¡ªEclipse¡¯s ability to recycle skills from people he¡¯d killed combined with a restriction on the amount of armor he was able to use meant that he¡¯d largely just stuck with his one sword and assorted skills to fight.

    Items had been an integral part of Will¡¯s early fighting style, though, and he¡¯d seen firsthand just how devastating some of them could be. It couldn¡¯t hurt to collect a few.

    Item: [Gravity Manipulator]

    Very rare, gold

    A common weapon in more civilized worlds. Some call this a more humane way to kill than a projectile. Ask anyone killed by a thousand-foot fall if they consider that ¡°humane¡±.

    Fires a gold-rank beam that can be resisted. A successful hit allows the user of this weapon to change the gravitational forces being exerted on the target by a magnitude of up to a unit that translates to roughly 21.484291 Gs for as long as the beam continues tracking the target. Resisting the beam grows easier the further the target is from the beam.

    Will frowned. ¡°Isn¡¯t that copyrighted?¡±

    Well, he hadn¡¯t played the game he was pretty sure his idea of a gravity gun had come from. The appearance of the item on the system screen looked more like an Earth assault rifle than anything akin to a weapon he¡¯d expect out of a post-apocalyptic science fiction shooter game.

    Concerns about the system stealing from old games (or vice versa) aside, this was a decent weapon for someone not named William Li-Brown. The problem with this item was that¡ªat least in this cycle¡ªthere sure were a whole lot of enemies for whom a several thousand foot fall would be no trouble at all.

    Ayla: That item¡¯s trash.

    Will: Thought so. Is it usually?

    Ayla: It¡¯s usually pretty solid, but still not an amazing choice. On any other planet, that would probably be a common item, though an expensive one. Your cycle has an absurdly high rate of extreme movement skills being handed out a lot earlier than usual. Disproportionately so.

    Will: Yeah, cycle¡¯s fucked, blah blah blah, been there killed that. Let me read the rest of these.

    Item: [Inverted Boots]

    Very rare, gold

    Mostly popular with delinquent youths and microgravity parkour champions, these boots are perfect for running on walls and/or breaking your neck trying to run on walls.

    Carries a charge that steadily depletes when active. While active, the user¡¯s personal gravity is shifted such that any surface they are running on is considered to be ¡°down.¡± If the user is not currently standing on a surface, their personal gravity is shifted towards the nearest solid object.

    Okay, this one was a lot neater. They were a little goofy-looking, sure, but that had never stopped Will.

    Ayla: The look reminds me of Sonic.

    ¡°You can¡¯t have played those games,¡± Will said. ¡°Surely their impact on human culture wasn¡¯t that significant.¡±

    Ayla: We had a lot of free time to prepare for the Earth cycle. It was one of the longer gaps between them.

    He thought about replying to that out loud, but judging from the amount of passive magic in here, it was reasonable to assume he was being watched.

    Will: I do recall you saying you spent 75 years up there. How much of that was spent waiting for Earth?

    Ayla: About 10, which is a lot more prep than we got for most of the other ones.

    More disquieting information about the cycle and Ayla¡¯s personal predicament in that respect, but nothing that Will could act on right now. He had a lingering suspicion that the system organization that had ostensibly stayed in the shadows thus far was not quite as hands-off as Ayla had claimed, but it was clear that he was nowhere near the power required to do anything about it.

    Besides, he had his own fires to put out first.

    The last gold-rank item was a grenade with colorful polka dots plastering so much of it that it was impossible to tell what the original color was.

    Item: [Topsy-Turvy Grenade]

    Very rare, gold (consumable)

    Useful for making an escape or causing an incredible amount of chaos. Getting caught in the midst of one of these is typically lethal for anyone without specialized self-sustain or durability skills.

    You can define a blast radius between 1 and 1,000 feet when activating this grenade, which can be detonated at range.

    Gravity is fully randomized at random intervals inside the blast radius. This effect lasts for 24 hours or until dispelled.

    ¡°Really sticking with the anti-gravity theme, huh?¡±

    As a one-time use item, it made sense why there were more of these offered than the other, permanent ones. The description certainly sounded powerful¡ªWill himself wasn¡¯t sure if he¡¯d want to be caught in one of these, especially if he got caught out without his boons.

    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    That said, he wasn¡¯t sure this was the best choice. He was a fan of dropping grenades, and the wide range on these certainly seemed helpful, but they¡¯d also help him exactly three times. They were an unconventional way to attack people, sure, but so was corruption.

    On the other hand, it was definitely better than the gravity manipulation gun. Using the gun just sent people flying, while the grenade had a good chance of tearing someone apart if they were caught in the effect.

    It was a toss-up between the boots and the grenade¡ªthe former was more generally useful and could add more dimensionality to his existing movement, but he already had a ton of options when it came to that kind of thing.

    Ayla: Flip a coin or hurry up. You don¡¯t have forever.

    Will sighed. She wasn¡¯t wrong. Though they were free for the time being, the point of the challenge dungeons was to run them quickly and run them often so that Will¡¯s party could grind their way up their ranks.

    The Contractor was still active, and every second Will had was also a second that asshole could make use of. He hadn¡¯t heard a peep out of the man in a while, which was more cause for suspicion.

    Will flipped a coin.

    #

    It had been a challenging few months for the Contractor, but he could not have been happier with the developments.

    As with many of those who had been banished to another world and back, his skills were perfectly suited towards monitoring a great deal of land under one set of eyes. His contracts made it trivial to keep track of what was happening throughout his territory.

    Ever since he had been abruptly withdrawn from his other planet when he¡¯d been so close to greatness there, the Contractor had been pushing to re-establish himself here¡ªand so he had.

    Across just over five months back on his home planet, he had taken control of a fair chunk of the country he¡¯d been born in. If the map of the United States from before the apocalypse had remained anywhere near accurate, roughly forty percent of the continental states were now under his control alongside large chunks of what had been Canada and some of Mexico.

    There had been resistance, of course. The ESNA was the largest roadblock to total domination, but there were a number of military and governmental units who had stayed together through the tutorial and the ensuing phases of this cycle, some of them proving to require the Contractor¡¯s personal attentions to oversee.

    With the kind of patrons he had, though, said holdouts typically did not last long against what he could bring to bear. He was never unhappy to see one of those, either. Peace was always looking for new recruits.

    Besides, the Contractor didn¡¯t need the world. He just needed enough.

    Even now, one part of his mind was dedicated to handling the complex interplay of his underlings, managing the logistics of running an empire. Whether or not said empire had the conditions necessary to be a great one was relatively immaterial to him; no, what mattered was that he had one.

    After all, he had much bigger fish to fry.

    The gold-ranker, one of a growing group of individuals who had learned how to remove themselves from the leaderboard, looked down upon the summoning circle he had wrought. Hidden from the outside world by a force so powerful that not even a sigil could peek into it without permission, Peace¡¯s angel continued to grow. It was near completion now, and the raw power coming off of it was such that even in its unfinished state, it was only several unique parts of the Contractor¡¯s own magic that was keeping him from simply disintegrating in its presence.

    This was still just the first step. It was a massive first step, no doubt, but the real game would come afoot when this masterstroke was finally complete.

    As if it had been waiting for his thoughts to get to this point, a message reached him.

    [Name hidden by sponsor request]: Contractor. You presume much, reaching out when you are yet on your level.

    The man in question grinned, conjuring another cigar. I have you right where I want you.

    ???: I know enough to tell you that your impression of me isn¡¯t quite complete. Feel free to back out of the meeting, but I¡¯ll have you know that you aren¡¯t the only interested party on my list, Drowned Ghosts.

    [Name hidden by sponsor request]: You should not know that title.

    ???: Yeah.

    That was usually the breaking points for the ones he was reaching out to.

    Sure enough, the request came in within the minute.

    [The Lord of Drowned Ghosts] requests a meeting. Accept? [YES / NO]

    An acceptance took the Contractor through a space-time tunnel that he had grown familiar with.

    Corruption wielders weren¡¯t the only ones who knew of the Beyond.

    Like most of his tier, the Lord of Drowned Ghosts was not present in person. The meeting he presented was in a venue he had created¡ªfittingly, a small, transparent space that looked out onto a submerged cemetery¡ªand the being that the Contractor was to speak to was nothing more than a proxy.

    It was well done, of course. If it wasn¡¯t for experience, it would have been impossible for a gold-ranker like the Contractor to even understand that the being he was facing right now wasn¡¯t the Lord himself. It was a high gem-tier creation, but the raw force it exuded was so great that anyone without a great deal of high-tier experience wouldn¡¯t be able to tell the difference.

    ¡°Please,¡± the Contractor said, opening the conversation. ¡°You don¡¯t need to tone yourself down. I am perfectly capable of withstanding your true presence.¡±

    The copy in front of him, a veiled seven-foot man with nearly translucent skin and glowing bones, tilted its head. Its mouth¡ªmore of a maw, really¡ªopened.

    ¡°What makes you think,¡± it rasped, ¡°that you are worthy of my full attention?¡±

    ¡°My backers, of course,¡± the Contractor said pleasantly. ¡°And a number of facts that I¡¯m sure you are already aware of.¡±

    ¡°Do enlighten me.¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± he continued, ignoring the power of the aura pressing down on him. ¡°You¡¯re aware of the corruption wielder?¡±

    That wasn¡¯t even a question. Everyone on this planet and several others had heard of the man. How could they not? William Li-Brown was arguably not just the most influential User in the country but possibly the entire cycle. The Contractor knew enough to tell that it had been a long time since any corruption wielder had made it out of the tutorial.

    ¡°I am aware,¡± the copy of the Lord of Drowned Ghosts said, a hint of anger entering his voice.

    ¡°Killed one of your sponsored, didn¡¯t he? What was it again?¡±

    ¡°Lance,¡± the copy said. ¡°A promising one. He would have been invaluable in certain gem-tier conflicts.¡±

    ¡°Shame. You¡¯re aware of his alliances, yes?¡±

    ¡°Unfortunately. Five others of my caliber, including the Order of the Striker. A non-aggression agreement. How do you know this?¡±

    ¡°Pays to have friends in high places,¡± the Contractor said. ¡°Low ones, too. I¡¯m sure not many of you thought that before this cycle.¡±

    ¡°You had an offer to make,¡± the Lord said. ¡°If you are going to do nothing but waste my time, I suggest you make it or leave before you find your internal organs less internal than you would like.¡±

    ¡°If you want me to show you courtesy,¡± the Contractor said, putting his legs up on the table between them, ¡°Do me the same. I¡¯m not dealing with a simulacrum.¡±

    A flash of magic swept through the room, and the atmosphere notably changed. The living skeleton¡¯s flesh melted away, the bone structure seemingly walking out of its shell of flesh before regenerating everything that had dissipated. The magic pressure from its aura went from oppressive to powerful enough to stop any gold-ranker from breathing in an instant.

    ¡°There we go.¡± The Contractor smiled, withdrawing his legs and putting out his cigar. ¡°Now we can do business.¡±

    ¡°The offer.¡± Even an idiot could tell that the sovereign-tier¡¯s patience was running out.

    ¡°Of course. You might be aware by now, but a couple major gods have agreed to be my sigils for the time being.¡±

    "Peace, Fate, and their associates. We are aware. It is an impressive feat, but nothing that far out of the ordinary. Certainly not enough to warrant you calling upon someone of my power.¡±

    ¡°Except I did.¡± The Contractor smiled, remembering to engage the right muscles in his face to make it a genuine one. ¡°See, the corruption wielder messed up. You could say that¡¯s because he¡¯s made a whole lot of enemies, which he has, but that¡¯s not it. You¡¯re familiar with plausibility, right?¡±

    ¡°You do not become a Lord without this knowledge.¡±

    ¡°Perfect. Our little corruption wielder here tried a bit too hard to open up his power and accidentally opened up the floodgates for Peace, Fate and I to start a little project of their own. One that¡¯ll sap up all his power.¡±

    ¡°You think much of yourself.¡±

    ¡°I know what I can do, and I know the ritual I¡¯m using. This is a lot bigger than some half-hearted attempt at killing a gold-ranker who can punch above his weight. Have you ever been able to stop an angel?¡±

    At the word angel, the Lord of Drowned Ghosts tensed, his aura turning lethal. ¡°That is forbidden magic.¡±

    ¡°Not when it¡¯s a god doing it,¡± the Contractor countered. ¡°It also won¡¯t stop you from entering into a contract with me. Those who began the ritual are now dead, after all. The only rulebreakers have already been punished.¡±

    ¡°You have answers prepared, but you have yet to explain a single reason as to why I should care.¡±

    And so the trap was set. ¡°That¡¯s simple. Once the power is absorbed, my faction will be the one with the strength of that User¡¯s power and potential, alongside an angel whose plausibility will be considered perfectly acceptable for the cycle.¡±

    ¡°You mean to push yourself into the gem tier,¡± the Lord said, quickly realizing the implications the Contractor had laid out. ¡°You mean to launch your planet into a stage where it is ready for a new kind of warfare.¡±

    ¡°Something like that. Notably, the groups who formed a sort of bloc around their potential to be allied with the corruption wielder in future cycles will no longer have a reason to be together. In that case¡­¡±

    ¡°Chaos,¡± the Lord said. ¡°A gold-ranker should absolutely not have this kind of detailed information.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not the first one to see opportunity,¡± the Contractor said. ¡°And let me tell you this: there¡¯s plenty of people out there who are willing to risk a contract with someone like me.¡±

    ¡°So you say.¡±

    ¡°And so I do. I¡¯m not asking for much. I¡¯ve already given you a good deal just by telling you as much as I have so far. It¡¯s an opportunity. All I¡¯m asking for is some cooperation. When the dice fall and the corruption wielder¡¯s bloc disappears, I want you to leave the Order of the Striker for me.¡±

    ¡°Ambitious, aren¡¯t we?¡±

    More than you will ever know. On the other planet, the Contractor had come so close to greatness. He had been on the edge of worming his way into a position typically held by diamond-rankers when he¡¯d been thrown back.

    His ambitions didn¡¯t stop at this planet. The corruption wielder was a major player, but more than that¡ªhe was an opportunity. The Contractor knew how the game was played, and he fully intended to take himself off the board as soon as possible.

    ¡°Realistic, I¡¯d like to say. Would you like to discuss details?¡±

    Far below them, back on the planet, an angel¡¯s consciousness began to stir.

 Chapter 125: Plausibility Curse

    Before Nynn could fully recover from the effect of the stolen Peace skill, Will called Aza, drawing the familiar to his side, and teleported as far away as he physically could, which meant all the way to the few of Sen¡¯s eyes he¡¯d stored in Australia.

    Aza, sensing a connection to the Dread Executor he¡¯d split off from, understood his purpose and clung onto Will as he slipped into the Beyond once again.

    Even doing it from the other side of the planet, Will couldn¡¯t help the thread of uncertainty that rang through him while he opened the portal. Now that he was aware of Nynn¡¯s folly, he could sense its reverberations throughout the Beyond. It was small reassurance that it was ¡°only¡± potentially a solar system-sized mistake, especially when that meant they wouldn¡¯t be receiving any help from external Dread Executors beyond the little that Azathoth had managed.

    The corruption was a pervading rot, and even Will, whose entire kit centered around using that rot, could tell how wrong it felt here. The sensation was as if he had stared up into the night sky and seen the sun.

    Dread Executor Azathoth was no longer in the Beyond¡ªor, if he was, he was no longer anywhere near the area that Will frequented.

    Ayla, however, was. She looked healthier than she had before, which was unexpected.

    ¡°You¡¯re back,¡± she said, sounding very unsurprised. ¡°Brought your familiar with you?¡±

    ¡°At your service,¡± Aza said. ¡°Dreamer, if I have it right?¡±

    ¡°I have to admit, being recognized is getting a bit old,¡± Ayla said drily. ¡°It was nice at first, but I¡¯ve met the rest of you already.¡±

    ¡°Ah, my apologies. I was sure I felt a tug, but no memories have been reintegrated, so I couldn¡¯t be sure. You know how it is.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t, mostly by virtue of your friends chasing me down and tossing me into space jail.¡±

    ¡°Um, guys,¡± Will said. ¡°I hate to break up a nice bit of banter, but we do remember the massive ticking time bomb in the room with us, right?¡±

    ¡°A few minutes isn¡¯t going to make a difference in when it goes off, especially in a plane where time isn¡¯t properly linear,¡± Ayla said, dismissing his concern with a wave of¡­ was that a flipper? Changelings were weird. ¡°That said, I do agree that we should get moving.¡±

    ¡°As the lady says,¡± Aza agreed. ¡°I assume that the burgeoning mass of corruption is the current issue?¡±

    ¡°It is,¡± Will said. ¡°We don¡¯t have a safe way to eliminate all of it, since we think that feeding the demon in my head is probably a bad idea, so we have a stopgap. Well, the stopgap isn¡¯t what I¡¯d call safe either, but it¡¯s much less likely to go catastrophically wrong.¡±

    As Dread Executor Azathoth had so kindly explained, skills were etched onto the soul. Passive skills like Equilibrium Mantle would work while in the Beyond because they were part of the soul expression that everyone manifested themselves as, while active skills were substantially harder. Richard the demon had integrated into his soul, which carried unfortunate implications but also meant that Will could see the lines of death while within this plane, which was very helpful when it came to dealing with everything here.

    Most importantly, he was going to be able to use his freshly platinum-rank ability to deal with this situation.

    One critical exception to active skills generally taking much more effort to use in the Beyond was familiars. Will had brought Sen¡¯s eyes through the plane before in an effort to spread his sphere of surveillance that much further, so he¡¯d known that on some level, but Azathoth had expanded his knowledge to include the fact that familiars represented themselves in the Beyond. While they had a soul link to Will, their summoner, both Sen and Aza would be perfectly capable of doing their own thing because they had their own souls.

    Essentially, that meant that he could use them at will here, which in the case of Aza meant that Will could use the Guardian Angel skill to strengthen himself against demonic influence.

    Aza, being a fragment of the Dread Executor who had thought all of this up, understood this all, and he pieced two and two together before Will was even done explaining.¡±

    ¡°It is certainly risky, but that¡¯s why I¡¯m here,¡± his familiar said. ¡°That said, at silver, I might be hard-pressed to give you the strength necessary to survive.¡±

    ¡°Is there a way to fix that?¡± Will asked uncertainly. ¡°I was thinking the same, and I was wondering if I would have to use cores, but I don¡¯t want to contaminate my power like that.¡±

    In the wake of the trial of the champion, a fair chunk of the world¡¯s elite had discovered the true cost of cores when the Tears of Absolute Purification had corrupted them. Though Will had cleansed them of that corruption, it had left them with damaged, dead portions in their soul where the monster cores had held them up before, hampering the depth and breadth of progression. People like Hua and Liam who had relied less on cores and more on their training had been less affected, but there had been many leaderboarders who had fallen off, replaced by those who hadn¡¯t lost power.

    Will didn¡¯t want that, and judging from their auras, neither Ayla nor Aza thought that was a good idea either.

    ¡°Fortunately for you, I am a Dread Executor.¡±

    ¡°A fragment of one,¡± Ayla reminded the familiar. ¡°Don¡¯t go around forgetting where you are, now.¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± Aza said pleasantly. ¡°A fragment that carries around a whole lot of knowledge, though, which means¡­¡±

    Will started as tendrils of power reached through his soul. If he hadn¡¯t been so in touch with his power, he might not have noticed that it wasn¡¯t the system moving things around¡ªno, this was his familiar.

    [Guardian Angel] (Aza) is requesting power.

    ¡°I can¡¯t make power out of nothing, but your soul is strong,¡± Aza said. ¡°You have skills that I could skim off of without impacting your effectiveness at all.¡±

    Will closed his eyes, looking inwards. His perception of his own soul had only grown stronger with continued training, and he could understand the various facets of himself that represented skills. Aza was startlingly close to gold already, though many of Will¡¯s skills were closer. As Will watched, the familiar¡¯s link extended to brush over a few other skills.

    ¡°Okay,¡± Will said. ¡°That seems fair. Let¡¯s do it.¡±

    [Corruption Resistance] has been lowered from high gold to mid gold.

    [Decaying Touch] has been lowered from mid gold to low gold.

    [Guardian Angel] has advanced to gold!

    ¡°Since this is a rough reallocation of power, I am purposing it all solely for the benefit of this task,¡± Aza said. ¡°I will be similarly more powerful outside the Beyond, but I would not expect any flashy attacks to start coming from my wings.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I figured,¡± Will said. ¡°You got it, though?¡±

    Aza¡¯s aura was stronger now, so the question was wholly unnecessary, but the familiar nodded anyway.

    ¡°Shall we?¡±

    Ayla raised a hand, forming a bridge from their shared sanctuary towards the expanding mass of corruption. It was still being held at bay by a protective layer of what Ayla had called ¡°null energy¡± and Azathoth had called ¡°the Great Barrier¡± that was keeping it from interfacing with the positive energy of the Beyond, but even Will could see that the barrier was slowly being eaten away.

    If it had been up to him, he would have done this alone. Will had no idea of the ramifications, but not only did he not want someone else potentially interfering with him, he also didn¡¯t want someone to get hurt if his demon went wild.

    Ayla, however, was someone he couldn¡¯t say no to. Her expertise in the Beyond was unparalleled, which made her presence mandatory for this operation, and Will trusted her to know what she was doing. She¡¯d taken risks like this before, if the changeling was to be believed.

    Though Will was the one who would actually be performing the cut here, they had determined that the Void Dreamer was necessary to make it possible.

    Dread Executor Ramiel, Ayla¡¯s mysterious benefactor, had apparently communicated with Azathoth enough to find something of a plausibility loophole. Releasing restraints on her just for a short period of time was possible without giving Peace a leg up. Since she was in a system dead zone, she didn¡¯t count as part of the cycle and was thus fair play.

    There was only so much that a Dread Executor could do without actively entering the dead zone that Ayla was in, however, which wasn¡¯t possible for some metaphysical reason that had gone way over Will¡¯s head.

    That brought them to where they were now, approaching the mess of corruption in the Beyond. It was a stark contrast to the rest of the plane¡ªwhereas Will had grown accustomed to the iridescent colors of the deep magic that ran through the Beyond, the corruption was a colorless void, a blank space in the magical energy that swirled throughout.

    It hadn¡¯t spread that far yet, but the fact that Peace¡ªor Fate, whoever¡ªhad packed it into an overpowered bomb had exacerbated how bad this was. The affected area was, to Will¡¯s best current estimate, half again the size of the island ecosystem that the bomb had detonated within.

    If they didn¡¯t do anything, it was obvious that it could and would get worse. This was still the first stage of detonation, and it was only going to keep spreading. Now that he was taking a proper look at it, Will could respect Nynn¡¯s decision to throw it away. Will might have been able to tank this, but even he wasn¡¯t sure, and anyone without his ridiculous resistances would have definitely been dead in the minute or so it would have taken to get to them.

    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ¡°You can stop gawking now,¡± Ayla said. ¡°We¡¯re only going to get one shot at this.¡±

    ¡°Whenever you¡¯re ready,¡± Will said.

    Ayla¡¯s form, amorphous as ever, began to glow with a dull but persistent light, and new bridges emerged from the Sanctuary. Will started taking on the brunt of maintaining the sanctuary while she constructed bridges the likes of which he¡¯d only seen from afar.

    Slowly, they surrounded the corruption, encasing it in an egg of magic invisible to the naked eye but vivid and bright to anyone with even a hint of aura sense.

    With that came crimson lines, the color of which Will was much more familiar with.

    Connections. Lines of death. There were more of them now than there were before, brighter and thicker.

    The theory of this operation had also been mostly incomprehensible to him, but after several attempts at explanation, he¡¯d gotten the general gist of it.

    The Beyond was, strictly speaking, not entirely manifested in reality. That was why physical material didn¡¯t exist and all living beings presented only as their soul projections, and it was also why active skills were much harder to use. Magic didn¡¯t want to exist in a plane full of energy and nothing else; no, it preferred to be actualized in the real world.

    It was because of this that they had to constantly supply soul power to their sanctuaries and bridges, because not doing so would make that mana wink out and return to the real world. Will had experienced that.

    What they were doing now amounted to encasing the corruption in magic, which was a bit of a risky maneuver given the possibility of breaching the barrier that was keeping it from a matter-antimatter reaction, but Ayla and Azathoth had both assured him that it was very doable.

    The first problem with that was that the mana would simply trace its way back into Ayla once she let go of it and render the containment null. The second, obviously, was that it was still in the beyond. With Ayla¡¯s fine control over the mana, she could make this mana-egg a barrier of its own, but because it was in the Beyond, it would still be at high risk of detonation.

    That was where Will came in.

    Item: [Demonic Eye of Death Perception]

    Mythic, platinum (growth, prosthetic)

    This item can only be attuned to the User that holds a contract with the demon that provided it. You are attuned to this item.

    [Visualize] (bronze) - You sense death. With this eye, you see the weakest points of an object or being.

    [Cut] (silver) - Hitting these lines with the correct angle and force automatically results in a critical hit.

    [Envision] (gold) - You now also see the weakest points of a magical skill.

    [Sever] (platinum) - With sufficient force, hitting the weakest point of a magical skill will cut magical bonds.

    The upgrade he¡¯d gotten from the demon felt wild, which made sense. It was more powerful than anything else in his body by two full ranks, and it was only his overtuned Affinity that let him handle it at all.

    Will targeted the lines connecting Ayla to the spell she¡¯d woven over the corruption. This would have been substantially harder with resistance, but with her cooperating, he was able to cut her control of the skill away from her, leaving the magic without an owner.

    With nobody to return to, the mana just sat there, slowly siphoning back into the real world.

    This was step one of the band-aid fix Azathoth had suggested, but it wouldn¡¯t be enough on its own.

    They had two options for step two. One of them was to attempt to portal the entire thing back into real space, which thanks to the containment case no longer ran the risk of the corruption imploding as that magic stripped away the null energy stopping it from interacting with the Beyond. That was patently impossible for Ayla, who would simply die the moment she entered reality, where the corruption would devour her magic and then her, and Will was not yet at the stage where he could make portals that large.

    Nynn might have been able to, but the path he took into the Beyond had been torn to shreds by the corruption he¡¯d thrown that way. Azathoth definitely could have, but that would have just been inviting Peace to fuck them up.

    That left them with option two, which they were considerably less sure of but was the best they could get.

    When any given person entered the Beyond, they tended to do so by entering through a similar path that bridged reality and this plane¡ªNynn, for instance, would currently enter through a tunnel that ran smack dab into enough corruption to kill a continent.

    That tunnel was exactly what they sought to exploit. Since these paths weren¡¯t exactly in reality and not exactly in the Beyond, they didn¡¯t have the same amount of explosive risk with corruption that the entire positive energy plane did.

    With the last of the mana boost Azathoth had given her, Ayla summoned one final bridge, extending it towards the contained corruption and shoving it back where it came from.

    Even if Nynn¡¯s connection had been open, this wouldn¡¯t have worked to return it to the real world, partially because he would die so fast that the corruption would start overwhelming baseline reality and then also blow up in the Beyond anyway.

    But Will had cut Nynn¡¯s end off, meaning this tunnel had an end to it. Once they got it in, Will could use his new demonic power to seal the other end, making a temporary containment chamber attached to Nynn¡¯s life.

    As he followed the mass of magic and corruption in, splitting off from Ayla with his own Sanctuary, Will wondered idly if this would make Nynn the most important person in this cycle instead of him.

    ¡­probably not, unfortunately. It was still Will that Peace wanted, and the interest of a major goddess was¡ª

    Shit.

    Things started going wrong as soon as they were past the threshold of Nynn¡¯s tunnel.

    Earlier, Will had acknowledged the demonic influence on him, but at gold rank, Aza had been enough.

    That was nothing compared to this now. If it had just been pain, Will could deal. He at least knew there was an end to that.

    No, this was far worse. It was an abrupt loss of control. His magic started swirling around him in ways he had never commanded it to do before, and the demon inside him was practically howling, its incoherent communication blasting through Will¡¯s mind, barraging him with meaningless information.

    Ayla¡¯s influence had long since left the mass, and the changeling herself was just watching from the last of her Sanctuary. She was too far to help him in any meaningful way, and given her current state and what they were up against, Will wasn¡¯t sure that her being close would have helped.

    His magic spiraled towards the corruption, power entwining with a demonic source emerging from the part of his soul it had attached to, and he sensed the containment begin to leak.

    Oh hell no.

    Will: Ayla. Get the fuck out of here.

    Ayla: You don¡¯t need to tell me twice. You too.

    Will focused his will through his shattered soul. He couldn¡¯t stop the demon from doing this, but he could cut.

    ¡°Aza!¡±

    The familiar didn¡¯t need to be told twice. Life force flowed from him into Will, reinforcing the corruption wielder¡¯s ability to resist.

    Aza died in the process, his body crumbling into glowing ashes and dissolving into Will¡¯s essence, but to the familiar, that was fine. He was just a vessel, after all, and he could always be summoned again.

    Mind fraying at the edges, Will used Aza¡¯s sacrifice to fight through the demon¡¯s influence and take aim at as many lines as he could see.

    Strictly speaking, he was on the wrong side of the tunnel. The plan had been to confirm its presence here, leave, and seal it from the other side¡ªbut the demon was absorbing corruption, it was getting stronger, and there was no time to do this properly.

    Will cut, and he cut, his soul manifesting itself sharper and sharper.

    All the while, more corruption permeated through the containment. Small mercies¡ªthe demon¡¯s power wasn¡¯t breaking the magic itself, just pulling corruption through it and fueling itself.

    In a twist of fate that he might have found amusing another time, the demon powering itself more just made Will¡¯s cuts more efficient, and in a matter of moments, he had cut the other end of the tunnel off from the Beyond.

    The damage had already been done. That much was clear.

    And it would continue to worsen if Will didn¡¯t leave.

    The instant he finished sealing the tunnel, Will let his connection to the Beyond lapse.

    For a long, terrifying moment, it didn¡¯t, and he could sense the demon¡¯s fragment calling out to its full body¡ªand then the last fragments of Aza¡¯s life force ran through him, and he was spiraling back into reality.

    Achievement earned: Plausibility Curse

    You have become the first human in your cycle to expend plausibility.

    Reward: This achievement is your reward. Consider yourself warned.

    Special quest: Gold Challenges (Reaper)

    Sub-task completed.

    - Kill or subjugate three sources of corruption [3/3]

    Except, as Will reappeared in Australia, corruption blossoming around him and swirling straight into his demonic eye, he wasn¡¯t so sure he had subjugated it after all.

    I need to get stronger.

    In the real world, the demon¡¯s influence was significantly lessened, since its real body was nowhere to be seen, but Will could tell that his relationship with it had been altered.

    It was a blessing and a curse in one, but for now, it was mostly the latter.

    He¡¯d been putting off his own progression in favor of dealing with shit as it came, but he couldn¡¯t ignore it any longer.

    Will needed to get gold rank.

    ¡°And,¡± he said to himself, looking over the burning, undead city ruled by one of the greatest mass murderers this world had seen since the cycle began, ¡°I think I know where to start.¡±

    #

    On a planet that had formerly only been known in its unified native language as ¡°Home¡± and was now designated Inanis-5, gold-rank equipment that had pointed at the skies since they¡¯d become aware of the sudden change in their planet¡¯s spatial orientation registered an anomaly.

    At once, alerts spread across the Unification Front. With the technology they¡¯d developed through their waves of returners coming back with wisdom from other worlds, delivering a message to the plentiful gold-rankers and even the rare platinum-ranker could be done in minutes.

    Across the planet, which was now a year and ten months from colliding with Earth, a single line ended up in front of everyone who mattered for their coming trials.

    Plausibility anomaly detected: William Li-Brown. Silver 10. Reaper. Corruption wielder.

    Demonic activity detected.

    That second line was enough to frighten even the most powerful platinum-ranker their world had to offer, but they were all glad for the warning.

    Into the dungeon anomaly some of them went. They would encounter people from the other world there. They would see whether they were worth uplifting.

    And all the while, they would prepare for war.

    #

    The Contractor¡¯s abilities were not so finely tuned to the world as to detect a plausibility surge when it happened, but Fate¡¯s were, and so were Peace¡¯s.

    There were two core gods at his shoulder now, and the direction he received from them was clear.

    He had no issue operating like this. Yes, he was a mastermind, but he was a contractor. It was implicit that he would not always be the one issuing them, and there was no worthier master than two of the finest deities to exist.

    They guided his hand as he contacted a certain set of individuals that he had spread his influence to. His contracts included tens of thousands, now, spreading from person to organization until his fingers were in so many pies it¡¯d make an early 20th</sup> century oil mogul blush.

    Of those, he had found what Fate knew this would require.

    Before him, arrayed in a circle in the Mojave Desert, were nine hundred ninety-nine silver-rankers and ninety-nine gold-rankers, none of whom were on the leaderboard.

    From the observation tower in the needle-like tower he¡¯d harvested from Vegas, a thousand feet in the air, he raised a hand.

    Everyone below performed an identical gesture, raising all kinds of weapon to their throats¡ªblades, guns, esoterica from other worlds.

    ¡°Nine hundred ninety-nine silvers,¡± he verbalized, tasting the words on his tongue. ¡°Ninety-nine golds.¡±

    The Contractor lowered his hand as if he was a conductor, and down below, his contracts painted the desert with a symphony of blood.

    Warmth spread through him.

    You have been granted plausibility.

    He left the tower before his next wave of contracts came to begin the ritual in the mess of the dead.

    It was a simple one, but not one that could be completed without more plausibility to spend than even Peace could conscience. Fortunately for him and Peace, their target had just inadvertently introduced a great deal of it into the world.

    Now, it was not only possible, but plausible. It would not be a true summoning, but it would be enough.

    Six months. In six months, an angel of Peace would descend to Earth, consume William Li-Brown in his entirety, and grant a blessing unlike any other to the Contractor himself.

    He grinned, conjuring a cigar and taking a self-congratulatory puff from it.

    I can¡¯t wait.

    #

    Dread Executor Ramiel looked at Earth, then to Azathoth.

    ¡°I told you,¡± Azathoth said. ¡°That boy is not making it past gold rank.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure about that?¡± Ramiel asked gently. ¡°Do you remember the last person you made such a bold assertion about?¡±

    ¡°I do, and I was correct,¡± Azathoth said. ¡°She was taken in by the organization just as she made sovereign.¡±

    ¡°And where is she now?¡± Ramiel replied.

    ¡°With the boy,¡± Azathoth admitted. ¡°In some sense.¡±

    ¡°Still here,¡± he said. ¡°She will return, one day, and perhaps he will be with her.¡±

    ¡°I will believe that when the time comes.¡±

    ¡°Then watch,¡± Ramiel said, directing their attention towards a certain dead zone where a changeling was ever so slowly coming back into her own power. ¡°You may be pleasantly surprised.¡±

    ¡°I will watch,¡± Azathoth conceded. ¡°If nothing else, this should prove entertaining.¡±

 Stats + Skill Glossary as of [B4 Chapter 1]

    Name: William Li-Brown

    Level: Silver 10

    Race: Human

    Class: Reaper

    Titles: [First Blood], [User Killer], [Envoy of Mercy], [Shattersoul], [Outcast], [Heretic]

    Attributes:

    [Power]: Silver 5

    [Speed]: Silver 10

    [Affinity]: Gold 7 (Platinum 7)

    [Soul]: Silver 10

    [Resistance]: Silver 10

    [Perception]: Silver 10

    Unused Points: 0

    Universal Abilities

    - Omnilingual

    - System User

    - Identify

    - Marked for Death

    Skills

    [Power]: Storm

    - Wind Walker (Silver, high)

    - Thunder Wraith¡¯s Grasp (Silver, high)

    - Abyssal Tempest (Silver, mid)

    [Speed]: Space (secondary)

    - Escape Artist (Silver, high)

    - Weapons Free (Silver, high)

    - Wraith Cloak (Silver, high)

    - Sanctuary (Silver, high)

    [Affinity]: Corruption (primary)

    - Corruption Resistance (Gold, low)

    - Chaos Transfer (Gold, low)

    - Destructive Synthesis (Silver, mid)

    - Attune Corrupted Item (Silver, mid)

    - Decaying Touch (Gold, low)

    - Desecrated Bond (Gold, low)

    [Soul]: Death (secondary)

    - Mark for Death (Silver, high)

    - Ghostflame (Silver, high)

    - The Bell Tolls (Silver, high)

    - Wail of the Forgotten (Gold, low)

    - One Foot in the Grave (Gold, low)

    [Resistance]: Balance

    - Equilibrium Mantle (Silver, mid)

    - Favored Element (Silver, low)

    - Guardian Angel (Silver, low)

    [Perception]: Time

    - Time in a Bottle (Silver, high)

    - Pages of the Past (Silver, mid)

    - Thousand Eyes (Gold, mid)

    [Sigil]: The Hunger

    - Hunger Aura (Silver, high)

    - Hunger Phantasm (Gold, low)

    - Ravenous Feast (Silver, mid)

    [Sigil]: The Crown

    - Eternal Throne (Silver, low)

    Skill Glossary

    Affinity/Corruption:

    Skill: [Chaos Transfer]

    - Spell (enchantment).

    - Cost: high mana.

    - Cooldown: 5 minutes.

    Gold

    Let others suffer as you have.

    Cleanses you or a weapon of all levels of all afflictions and transfers it to another designated weapon or back to yourself. Increases the strength of the transferred afflictions to silver rank if they are lower than silver. The next target the weapon strikes will gain all levels of all afflictions that you cleansed.

    Gold-rank addition: You can now apply this effect to any being or item. You may cast it simultaneously on any and all items or beings you are currently touching.

    Skill: [Destructive Synthesis]

    - Spell (consumption).

    - Cost: variable.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Silver

    Activate this skill to consume an item. Consuming an item grants mana restoration proportional to the power of the item.

    Consuming an item grants a temporary skill reflecting and magnifying the item¡¯s use for a variable time depending on the item¡¯s rarity and power.

    [Effect Transference] (silver) - You can also shift the temporary skill to another item. All skills transferred, whether to an item or yourself, will be upgraded one rank to a maximum of the rank this skill is at.

    Skill: [Decaying Touch]

    - Spell (affliction).

    - Cost: high mana.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Silver

    Deals necrotic damage. Inflict one level of silver-rank [Corruption] on a creature or item you touch. This skill cannot stack afflictions.

    Skill: [Attune Corrupted Item]

    - Attunement.

    - Cost: very high mana.

    - Cooldown: 1 day.

    Silver

    Attunes an item of silver rank or lower, purging the [Corruption] from it if applicable. All attuned items become growth items. If the attuned item was not already a growth item, it will become irreversibly corrupted.

    Skill: [Desecrated Bond]

    - Intervention.

    - Cost: high mana to extreme mana.

    - Cooldown: 1 minute (Insight) to 24 hours (Weaken, Strengthen, Corrupt).

    Gold

    ¡°Meddle back.¡± - Anonymous corruption wielder, cycle [REMOVED].

    [Insight] - Detect the sigil link between a User and their god within a 300-foot radius.

    [Weaken] (bronze) - Allows you to contest a sigil link with your soul. A successful contest will result in the User being cut off from their divine abilities for the next 24 hours.

    [Strengthen] (bronze) - Allows you to strengthen a sigil link for 24 hours. Results may vary.

    [Recharge] (silver) - All facets of this skill operate on separate cooldowns. A cooldown is reset if the target it was used on dies.

    [Corrupt] (gold) - Allows you to contest a sigil with your soul. A successful contest will result in the User being permanently cut off from their sigil as the link is corrupted. This also alerts all sigil-holders of the god within 1,000 miles to your current position.

    Space:

    Skill: [Escape Artist]

    - Passive (body).

    - Cost: none.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Silver

    Never look back.

    Your movement speed is increased at a rate inversely proportional to the amount of equipment you are wearing (maximum of 100% increase).

    Your movement speed is increased by up to an additional 100% if you are currently being attacked.

    Silver-rank addition: If you are being attacked, you gain greatly increased control of your aerial mobility.

    Skill: [Weapons Free]

    - Spell (movement, teleportation).

    - Cost: high mana (moderate mana).

    - Cooldown: 12 seconds (6 seconds).

    Silver

    ¡°What¡¯s yours is mine. What¡¯s mine is mine. What¡¯s nobody¡¯s is mine.¡± - Lacrymeus, famed pirate of the Great Arcadian Ocean.

    Teleport any weapon within a 120 foot radius to your hands (if you can carry it) or your inventory (if you cannot). If a target is holding the weapon, they can attempt to prevent this spell from succeeding.

    You can also teleport to any weapon within a 60 foot radius.

    Silver-rank addition: The previous range of this skill has been doubled.

    [Warp Strike] (silver): When making an attack, you can use this skill to make your attack originate from any weapon within a 120 foot radius.

    Skill: [Wraith Cloak]

    - Spell (invisibility, movement).

    - Cost: low mana-per-second while not moving. Mana cost increases with speed.

    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    - Cooldown: none.

    Silver

    While in areas with low light or no light, you can have shadows surround you and render you invisible. This invisibility ceases to function if you move too quickly, use an attack, or cast a spell.

    Also increases your speed while in shadow.

    Silver-rank addition: You can move more effectively without breaking the cloak. While you are cloaked, you can see perfectly in the dark.

    [Ethereal] - For a high mana cost, you can pass through very thin barriers while invisible.

    Skill: [Sanctuary]

    - Ritual (dimension, Beyond).

    - Cost: extreme mana, equivalent of 1,000 silver credits (first cast). Varies (subsequent casts).

    - Casting Time: varies.

    - Cooldown: varies.

    Silver

    There doesn¡¯t have to be an end.

    This ritual opens a link to your sanctuary in the Beyond. Opening a second link on either side will allow you to travel to and from the sanctuary at different points in your bounded reality.

    Further effects will be revealed under the correct conditions.

    This skill will not evolve until it ascends to the gem tier.

    Death:

    Skill: [Mark for Death]

    - Spell (affliction).

    - Cost: moderate mana.

    - Cooldown: 1 hour.

    Silver

    Target any creature you can see or sense and mark them for death. During the next hour, the effectiveness of attacks and afflictions against the creature are increased, and you can track the creature through your minimap and through walls. This skill¡¯s cooldown resets if the targeted creature dies.

    [Soul Link] (bronze) - A fraction of all damage dealt to the marked creature is converted to healing for you.

    Silver-rank addition: When using this skill, you can target any number of creatures that you can see. You must kill all of them to trigger this skill¡¯s cooldown automatic reset.

    Skill: [Ghostflame]

    - Spell (enchantment).

    - Cost: extreme mana.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Silver.

    ¡°Death comes for you all. Your pitiful defenses cannot even conceive of stalling it.¡± - Dread Executor Cyna V, cycle 377.

    Draws from your blood, afflictions, and lifeforce alongside your mana. Cleanses all afflictions from you and all creatures living or dead in a 10 foot radius. Wreathe your fists in ghostflame. Inflict true damage upon any enemies you strike.

    [Phantom Pyre] - Increases the base damage of this skill for every affliction cleansed.

    [To Strike the Soul] (silver) - The damage inflicted by this skill ignores barriers of silver-rank or lower. Damage cannot be lessened or negated by skills of silver-rank or below.

    Skill: [The Bell Tolls]

    - Spell (esoteric).

    - Cost: high mana.

    - Cooldown: 1 hour.

    Silver.

    ¡°Run. Hide. Fight. Try every last desperate play you have. In the end, the bell still tolls.¡± - Dread Executor Illona III, cycle 950.

    Cleanses all afflictions from you and targets a creature you can see. The creature cannot benefit from magical healing for the next minute. Inflicts necrotic damage scaling with the consumed afflictions and any injuries the target is suffering from.

    [Withering Decay] (bronze) - Death approaches. Increases any affliction on the target by one level. Inflicts one level of [Wither].

    [Escape is Futile] (silver) - Cooldown resets if the target dies.

    Skill: [Wail of the Forgotten]

    - Spell (sound).

    - Cost: moderate mana.

    - Cooldown: 1 minute.

    Gold

    Over 100 billion humans have lived on your planet. Of those, less than a billion remain alive and on its surface today. How many of the dead are remembered today? How many will be forgotten in a year? A decade? A millennium?

    The forgotten are restless, and they are angry. They will not be ignored.

    This skill releases a concentrated scream directed at an enemy or area. Skill propagation increases with sound propagation. You may choose to widen the area of effect of this skill in exchange for reduced efficacy. This scream deals psychic damage.

    [Manifest Despair] (bronze) - By increasing the amount of mana you spend, you can distill the essence of the forgotten into a beam of energy that does not require sound to travel. This beam inflicts necrotic damage. Both attacks will stun enemies, overwhelming them with the voices of the forgotten. This stunning effect can be resisted.

    [Lament of Agony] (silver) - This attack also inflicts stacking levels of [Wither] and [Weakness] upon those affected. These effects can be resisted. The difficulty level of resisting these afflictions lowers the further the target is from the center of the effect.

    Condition: [Wither]

    - Deals slow necrotic damage over time.

    - Weakens necrotic resistances. If the target does not have a resistance to necrotic damage, they gain a weakness to necrotic damage.

    Condition: [Weakness]

    - Removes resistances to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing attacks. If the target does not have a resistance to physical attacks, they gain a weakness.

    [Dark Harvest] (gold) - The voice of your victims will become forgotten eventually. You can do so faster. Upon killing or knocking unconscious any User through the usage of this skill, you learn the current positions of all members of their current primary party or guild.

    Skill: [One Foot in the Grave]

    - Skill (augmentation).

    - Cost: extreme mana per second. Lifeforce may be substituted for mana.

    - Cooldown: varies, minimum 24 hours.

    Gold

    ¡°Someone¡¯s dying today. I don¡¯t plan on it being me.¡± - An anonymous King shortly before killing Dread Executor Azathoth IX and taking their mantle, cycle 1038.

    The cost per second of this skill decreases the more damaged you are.

    If you kill an enemy while this skill is active, your maximum mana capacity temporarily increases. If you do not kill an enemy while this skill is active, you will experience soul backlash proportional to the amount of mana and/or lifeforce expended on maintaining this skill. This backlash may be lethal.

    While this skill is active, you become intangible and are immune to all conditions of gold rank or lower and resist higher-rank conditions. Your magic cannot be suppressed by means of gold-rank or lower. You also gain significant resistance to physical damage and do not feel pain.

    You cannot be healed while this skill is active, even from your own skills and attributes, but you can regenerate mana.

    Storm:

    Skill: [Wind Walker]

    - Spell (stealth, movement).

    - Cost: very low mana.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Silver.

    At the eye of any violent storm, there is silence. Draw upon the power of the winds to lighten your step and increase your speed.

    [Zephyr¡¯s Cloak] (bronze) - While this skill is active, you gain a slight blur effect, making you harder to see and target while moving.

    [Galeforce Dash] (silver) - While you are not touching the ground, you can spend mana to send yourself flying forward with wind-aided dashes. This also imbues you with storm power, increasing the amount of damage you deal to foes afflicted by [Charged].

    Skill: [Thunder Wraith¡¯s Grasp]

    - Spell (augmentation, evocation).

    - Cost: low mana.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Silver

    A haunted storm gathers, and it grows mighty. Channels ghostly lightning into your fists or melee weapon, grasping an enemy to deliver successively greater amounts of lightning and necrotic damage.

    Inflicts stacking levels of [Charged].

    [Charged] - Target takes increased damage from lightning attacks. Target is easier to hit with lightning attacks.

    On a critical hit, all levels of [Charged] are expended, inflicting exponential amounts of lightning damage for each charge cleansed.

    Silver-rank addition: [Charged] now causes a spark of lightning that chains to nearby enemies upon landing a strike on the target.

    Skill: [Abyssal Tempest]

    - Spell (augmentation, evocation).

    - Cost: moderate mana per second.

    - Cooldown: 1 minute.

    Silver

    When a storm arrives at sea, it leaves behind only wrecks and struggling survivors. In their darkest hour, when all hope is lost, the abyss begins to take its toll, laying claim to the lives of those who have weathered one disaster.

    Then, sometimes, a storm strikes once more.

    This is a channeled skill. The cooldown for this skill will begin when you stop using it.

    Increases your [Power] attribute sharply. This effect increases the longer you use the skill, which also increases the mana cost. This effect is also dramatically increased when attacking an enemy that has been afflicted with [Charged].

    [Abyssal Fury] (bronze) - While this skill is being channeled, you gain a resistance to elemental damage. You also deal increased damage to enemies afflicted with [Charged], even if you are using another skill.

    [Thundershock] (silver) - When you hit a target that is afflicted with [Charged], lightning strikes that target and deals damage in a small radius. This bolt spreads to any nearby enemy that is also afflicted with [Charged]. Any enemy caught in the radius of each attack is inflicted with a stacking level of [Charged].

    Time:

    Skill: [Time in a Bottle]

    - Spell (chronomancy).

    - Cost: high mana per second.

    - Cooldown: scales based on how long the skill is used.

    Silver

    Accelerates your perception of time, enabling you to experience twenty seconds for each second that passes outside.

    Silver-rank addition: previous effect of time dilation is doubled. At high mana cost, you can increase your movement speed for one objective second, though this effect ends if you use another skill or an attack.

    Skill: [Pages of the Past]

    - Spell (divination).

    - Cost: moderate mana.

    - Cooldown: 6 seconds.

    Silver

    Allows you to detect magical effects that were used in your immediate surroundings in the last 24 hours. If the rank of the effect is at or below the rank of this skill, you can also glean insight into what the effect is.

    [Traces of the Past] - Also allows you to detect footsteps and read conversations made in the area during the same time window.

    [Lingering Resonance] - You gain insight into the ambient magic of the area. Strong auras that were present in the last 24 hours as well as any active magical wards or traps will also be visible to you.

    Skill: [Thousand Eyes]

    - Familiar (time, perception).

    - Cost: extreme mana. 1,000 gold credits. 100 gold-rank Monster Cores or equivalent. 1,000 silver-rank Monster Cores or equivalent.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Gold

    Summons an avatar from an alternate universe that is perpetually locked in a single instant. This familiar is incorporeal. This familiar is a non-continuous entity.

    This familiar currently possesses gold-rank attributes but will not have access to [Remote Domination] until it is resummoned.

    This familiar possesses truesight.

    [Synchronicity] - You can use all senses through the Thousand Eyes, relying on either yours or your familiar¡¯s. The eyes can access echoes of recent past events (5 seconds or less) within its vicinity, showing you spectral images of events even if you cannot see your target.

    [Time-Locked] - By existing outside the normal timestream, your familiar can expend mana to become imperceptible to non-magical means and aura senses.

    [Remote Anchor] (gold) - For the purposes of skills with a range, you can use a large enough collection of eyes as a focal point for that skill, extending your range.

    [Remote Domination] (gold) - You can project your aura through any of the thousand eyes. After reaching a sufficient threshold of eyes in one area, you may attempt to afflict the [Stunned] condition upon enemies within range.

    Balance:

    Skill: [Equilibrium Mantle]

    - Passive (body).

    - Cost: very low mana over time.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Silver.

    Nullifies extreme environmental conditions in a small radius around the user¡¯s body. Drastically reduces the effect of adverse conditions.

    [Harmony of Self] (silver) - Your mantle affects your internal world as much as it does the environment outside. Your body will remain in balance at all times, preventing you from suffering from illness and removing the need to breathe. This skill does not protect against external attacks.

    Skill: [Favored Element]

    - Ritual (resistance).

    - Cost: moderate mana.

    - Casting Time: 10 minutes.

    - Cooldown: 1 day.

    Silver.

    Allows you to pick one favored element and one hostile element. Until this ritual is no longer on cooldown, you gain extreme resistance to attacks using your favored element if they are of your rank or lower. If this resistance completely nullifies the damage you would have taken, you are instead healed proportionally to the power of the attack.

    You take increased damage from the hostile element, but if an attack is made upon you using that element, your next attack against that enemy will be greatly increased in power.

    [Augmented Resistance] (silver) - Your resistance ignores rank boundaries.

    [Elemental Intuition] (silver) - If you do not pick a favored element, it will automatically select the most prevalent element in your area upon casting. This is currently aligned to Electricity.

    Skill: [Guardian Angel]

    - Familiar (radiance, protection).

    - Cost: extreme mana. 10,000 silver credits. 100 silver-rank Monster Cores or equivalent.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Gold

    Warning: this skill does not summon an angel. You do not want to summon angels for the same reason you do not want to summon demons. The system takes no responsibility for the propensity of certain factions naming themselves after real, world-shaking threats.

    Please ignore that the system determined the name of this skill. This skill was named based on the conceptions of your planet. The system takes no responsibility for poor cultural taste.

    Summons a gold-rank humanoid avatar. This familiar is corporeal and continuous.

    [Radiant Shield] - This familiar can create a protective barrier around you and your allies using its body.

    The remaining skills will depend on the familiar summoned.

    Skill: [Guardian Angel] (Summoned Familiar: Aza)

    Gold

    [Radiant Shield] - This familiar can create a protective barrier around you and your allies using its body.

    [Restorative Body] - This familiar has life force. If its life force is entirely expended, it must be re-summoned. WARNING: You are not guaranteed to receive the same familiar upon a second summon. Familiars may choose to turn down a second summon. This familiar can expend a portion of its life force to heal you or an ally.

    [Guardian¡¯s Sacrifice] (bronze) - This familiar can absorb damage on behalf of you.

    [Balancing Act] (gold) - This familiar can expend a portion of its life force to negate or lessen the effect of afflictions or demonic influence upon you.

    Sigil:

    Skill: [Hunger Aura]

    - Aura (sigil).

    - Cost: none.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Silver

    Your aura changes, gaining elements of Kadael, the Hunger.

    [Insatiable] - Enemies within the aura passively lose stamina and mana. You and your allies restore stamina and mana proportional to the amount drained. This amount can be increased with application of mana. Excess stamina and mana is discarded.

    [Devouring Embrace] (silver) - Enemies within the aura also passively lose health. You and your allies within the aura gain health proportional to the amount drained. Excess health is discarded.

    Skill: [Hunger Phantasm]

    - Spell (sigil, conjuration).

    - Cost: low mana.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Gold

    Conjures a dark phantasm with a volume of 40,000 cubic feet. You have fine control over this phantasm within a moderate range of your body. You can control parts of the phantasm at a range of up to 2,000 feet. Lasts until dispelled or destroyed.

    [Starvation] - The phantasm counts as a weapon and doubles the effect of all drain conditions. Every attack you successfully land on a target that is touching a phantasm drains their stamina and mana, restoring yours. This also restores your health if your stamina and mana are full.

    [In the Flesh] - For a moderate mana cost, the phantasm can take physical form. For the purposes of touch-range spells, you can use the phantasm. At silver-rank, the physical form increases in its ability to affect the material world.

    [Echo of Despair] (silver) - When a target that the phantasm is touching reaches critical levels of stamina, mana, or health, the phantasm emits a pulse that applies the [Wither] condition on the target and any other enemies within a short distance.

    [Desperate Famine] (gold) - Vastly increases the volume, speed, and range of the phantasm as well as the durability and flexibility of its manifested form.

    Skill: [Ravenous Feast]

    - Spell (sigil).

    - Cost: very high mana. Life force (varies).

    - Cooldown: 12 hours.

    Silver

    If you truly hunger, you can devour anything, but every feast comes with a cost.

    When a magical effect targets you, you can attempt to contest it with this skill and your aura. If you are able to match or overpower the skill, you can attempt to resist it with life force in order to negate a portion or all of its effects.

    Upon a full negation of the skill, you are refunded all of the mana expended to cast this skill (but not life force). You also gain mana and stamina proportionate to the amount of resources placed in the negated effect.

    [Overflow] (silver) - Excess mana and stamina is not discarded.

    Esoteric:

    Item: [Demonic Eye of Death Perception]

    Mythic, platinum (growth, prosthetic)

    This item can only be attuned to the User that holds a contract with the demon that provided it. You are attuned to this item.

    [Visualize] (bronze) - You sense death. With this eye, you see the weakest points of an object or being.

    [Cut] (silver) - Hitting these lines with the correct angle and force automatically results in a critical hit.

    [Envision] (gold) - You now also see the weakest points of a magical skill.

    [Sever] (platinum) - With sufficient force, hitting the weakest point of a magical skill will cut magical bonds.

 Chapter 126: What Kind of Monster

    Cross had been Xavier Jenkins once, but that man had been weak. Willing to compromise. He had been forged in the crucible of another world, and now he had strength. The years away had been long but fruitful.

    When he had come back, he had curled his lip at what he saw. The world had ended. It was every man for himself, and yet his nation had fallen to helping the weak? Cross had practically soiled himself laughing when he had learned that the powers that be had decided to put a teenage girl on the top of their elite task force.

    Said powers hadn¡¯t lasted very long after he¡¯d brought his strength to bear, and now Sydney was his. The city had been devastated by the emergence of the dungeons during the earlier cycle, but the new Australian government had tried to reclaim it just in time for him to take it over. They had managed to evacuate much of the city, but not enough.

    Now, Cross had just under two hundred thousand. Most of them were no more than fodder, but thousands upon thousands of the bronze and unformed-ranks he¡¯d slaughtered had possessed a strong enough foundation to be upgraded all the way to gold.

    At Gold 7, Cross knew that he was already at the top tier of this planet. He hadn¡¯t been in his other world, but even then, it had been rare that a platinum-ranker would actually dare to challenge him.

    One thing that set him apart from others at his rank was the force multiplier that his necromancy represented. A single gold-ranker was trivial for a platinum-ranker to take down. Even a group of them would be¡ªthe jump between tiers was substantially larger than the gaps between ranks.

    There was power in numbers, though, and when a single platinum ranker had to contend with a thousand gold-rankers, the story was different.

    And that meant that back on Earth, Cross was right there at the top.

    ¡­unfortunately, there were still a lot of pesky silver-rankers here that were better at using their powers than the silvers on the other world had been.

    This one in particular was really getting on his nerves. Cross had killed his ilk by the tens of thousands. Fast-moving attackers with perception skills worked well to evade his attacks at first, but there were only so many times they could have near misses with death until they got a bit too close. One hit was all it would take to down a bird like that.

    Somehow, this bird still hadn¡¯t been hit. For the first few minutes of the fight, he had evaded everything that Cross had thrown at him. Death beams, necrotic wyrm attacks, and even various esoteric skills that his resurrected minions could mash together at gold rank had all just barely missed, and the silver-ranker was making it look easy.

    Alongside that, his aura was strange. Cross had been tracking the silver by the rank above his head¡ª32¡ªbecause every time he tried to use his combined aura powers to suppress him, there was a strangely powerful resistance that felt like a god¡¯s presence.

    That had been before the silver had vanished. He¡¯d flashed out of existence, then less than five minutes after, he had reappeared.

    There was definitely something wrong with that aura. The silver-ranker looked like he¡¯d come straight out of casting for the antagonist of a superhero film. Cross wasn¡¯t one to talk there, but with the dark wings that seemed to stretch on for hundreds of feet but somehow never took real damage, the iridescent flying eyes that fluttered in and out of existence, and the lightning coursing in his trail, the silver-ranker looked like an angel of death.

    Even miles away, Cross could see that this ¡°William¡± had changed. There was a blazing presence emerging from the top half of his body that had been there before but was now an order of magnitude brighter. It was a type of energy that Cross hadn¡¯t seen himself, but it was powerful and clearly evil-aligned.

    A man after his own heart.

    When he tried to poke the silver¡¯s aura, Cross¡¯ life had flashed before his eyes. There was something in there that could not be touched at any cost, and he was not so bold in his power to risk that. His aura suppression had never been the strongest, and this was an obviously special silver.

    They were at something of an impasse right now. The silver was using corruption, which was obviously strong, but the dark clouds that he spread it through were much easier to destroy than the silver himself.

    This was¡­ hmm. Cross wanted this silver badly. It was like he¡¯d been sifting through mounds of horse shit looking for gold and had just found a diamond.

    Perhaps direct force was not the best way to accomplish this.

    ¡°William,¡± he said, using his necromantic constructs to amplify his voice. Outside, over a hundred thousand souls spoke as one, an eerie chorus of voices resounding simultaneously. ¡°Should we talk?¡±

    The flying silver paused a thousand feet in the air, crimson sword in hand. ¡°Sure. Will is fine, by the way. So, catch the last season of¡­ I dunno, Sword Art Online? What was out when you left?¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°You asked if I wanted to talk. This is me talking.¡±

    Cross frowned. ¡°I was going to propose a partnership. And last season? There was only one.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I thought you were a politician,¡± Will said. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect you to actually watch anime. It wasn¡¯t even cool back then, was it?¡±

    ¡°That time doesn¡¯t matter anymore,¡± Cross said, changing the subject. ¡°I left that part of myself behind. Killed it. I forged myself anew in the flames of another world. You have, too. I can sense the stench of death on you. We both knew what had to be done, and we¡¯ve done it. We could work together, you and I. You¡¯re the first I¡¯ve seen who looks like they might actually know the truth of this world. Come with me, and we can push this planet into a new era.¡±

    ¡°Wow, you really did watch SAO,¡± Will said. ¡°Have you been practicing? That was a pretty great evil monologue.¡±

    Cross rolled his eyes. ¡°If you aren¡¯t going to take this seriously¡ª¡°

    ¡°Oh, this is me taking it seriously,¡± Will said. ¡°Look, I came here to do a couple of things, but it¡¯s taken a bit longer than I expected, so¡ªwhatever, you don¡¯t need to hear about that. The long and the short of it is that I have this whole thing about doing justice for the world, yada yada yada, kill the evildoers and make things better, that kind of stuff.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t seem to hold those convictions very strongly.¡±

    ¡°Things have changed,¡± Will said, slowly gliding towards the ground¡ªand Cross¡¯ towers of bone¡ªon dark wings. ¡°I realized recently that there¡¯s a lot of pretty terrible shit coming Earth¡¯s way, and I¡¯m pretty willing to let a lesser evil slide to support a greater one. If I can get you on the side of humanity to fight back against what I know is coming, then sure, we can work.¡±

    Cross grinned, knowing Will couldn¡¯t see him. He hadn¡¯t realized that Will would be a nice person, but it seemed that he was.

    Nice people were so easy.

    ¡°Come on down, then,¡± Cross and his city said. ¡°Let me meet you in person.¡±

    As Will descended, Cross prepared his ultimate skills. With the amount of power he had established in this city, he would be able to focus a truly incredible quantity on evacuating Will¡¯s soul from his body, giving him what was sure to be a fantastically interesing addition to his powerbase.

    Will touched the ground, and Cross activated a skill he¡¯d used over a hundred thousand times by now.

    Extract.

    He reached out for Will¡¯s soul¡ªand then wavered, because Will was no longer where he¡¯d been.

    You have been marked for death.

    Inside the castle Cross had erected for himself, an eye appeared, and with it, so did William Li-Brown, a sword in either hand. One glowed a bloody crimson, while the other was so dark it seemed to suck the light out of the room.

    ¡°I forgot to mention something,¡± Will said, voice cold as ice. ¡°The second reason I was here.¡±

    If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    He raised the dark sword. At the same time, Cross became aware of a thousand eyes manifesting throughout his city. He sent necrotic energy at all of them, but they weaved out of the way before the attack even started, easily threading through the gaps of his attack.

    ¡°I have a rank up to get to,¡± Will said. ¡°And if the people in my way are unredeemable pieces of shit, all the better.¡±

    [Eclipse] has spent the echo of a Peace-aligned user. Skill selected: [Pacify].

    The aura of a god exploded from the sword¡ªthen from each and every eye as well.

    Cross froze, the pressure exerted on his soul stopping him from moving.

    How could a silver-ranker be this powerful? What kind of monster had this powerful of an aura?

    Will advanced, slowly but inexorably. His swords scraped against the ground as he walked, throwing up sparks.

    Cross refused to die like this. He drew on his necromancy, sacrificing constructs to feed himself more power, and he empowered his soul enough to break through the aura and teleport elsewhere in the city.

    Will was just behind him, that same dark cloud sprouting from the impossibly agile eyes as well as the corruption wielder himself.

    Now that Cross was closer, he could see the blazing blue eye through the darkness, the one that had been carrying the ominous, evil power.

    Demon.

    For the first time since he had landed in the other world, Cross knew fear.

    He immediately pulled out all the stops, commanding his skyscraper-sized towers to expend as much as their power as possible. They would damage each other in the process, which he had strictly avoided in the past but no longer cared about. Terror gripped his body and soul, which was even now barely throwing off the effect of what Will was doing.

    ¡°Oh, is something wrong?¡± Will asked, following Cross with each teleport the Necromancer did. ¡°Seems to me like you only want to take a fight when you think the other person¡¯s not watching, you fucking COWARD.¡±

    The last word came accompanied by a blast of sonic energy and a dark beam. The latter was easy enough to absorb, since it was a same-rank necrotic attack, but the former clipped Cross, echoing in his head and increasing in volume until he could hear nothing but screams.

    You have been afflicted with a gold-rank level of [Despair].

    You have been afflicted with a gold-rank level of [Wither]. [Necrotic Resistance] has absorbed [Wither].

    You have been afflicted with a gold-rank level of [Weakness].

    Will didn¡¯t give him any time to let up, blurring into motion. Though Cross used his skills to defend himself against the physical attacks that assailed him, he couldn¡¯t stop some of the phantasm from slipping through the cracks and touching him.

    You have been afflicted with a gold-rank level of [Corruption].

    A bell tolled, and Cross¡¯ mind crumpled in on itself.

    Fire, he commanded, not caring that he might be in the blast zone. Fire everything.

    Gold-rank towers fired the built-up energy of the souls he¡¯d put in them, sending scouring beams of pure white and midnight black light wide enough to absorb a neighborhood in every direction.

    There was no way anything could sruvive this. Cross was giving up months of progress and tens of thousands of kills just for this one attack. He would be forced to rebuild, but that was fine, because he could always¡ª

    A sword pierced the small of his back.

    ¡°See, here¡¯s the thing,¡± Will said, bringing a second blade to Cross¡¯ neck. ¡°Your skills are pretty strong as a whole, but they¡¯re all made up of stolen power. You know what that means? Plenty of weak points, which means plenty of ways to kill them.¡±

    Cross was at a point where a mere stabbing alone wouldn¡¯t be enough to kill him, but Will¡¯s words gave him pause. He extended his senses outwards, and his heart sank as he realized what had come of the energy he had expended.

    Corruption crawled over the beams, weakening them, diluting them until there were areas that could be survived.

    Even then¡­

    ¡°What kind of monster are you?¡± Cross croaked, focusing on gathering his power to teleport again.

    As Will opened his mouth to answer, Cross attempted to blink away, but Will thrust a hand out, and dark, hungry energy swirled around the Necromancer. Their souls connected for the briefest of instants, and Cross began to scream in agony.

    The skill dissipated, sucked into Will¡¯s magic.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking about that myself,¡± Will said. ¡°Here¡¯s a thought. I¡¯m the one who doesn¡¯t know when to stop.¡±

    Cross¡¯ eyes widened, recognizing the tone of finality. ¡°Wait, wait, we can¡ª¡°

    His vision tumbled, rapidly fading at the corners.

    The last thing Cross saw was his headless body collapsing to the ground. It tried to reach him, his emergency skills kicking into play, but with every inch of progress it made, the corruption devoured more of it.

    ¡°No, that doesn¡¯t sound right,¡± Will mumbled to himself. ¡°Too edgy? Nah. I¡¯ll have to think on it.¡±

    He looked over to where Cross¡¯ head was, then made a finger gun pointing at it.

    ¡°Bang.¡±

    Cross died.

    #

    Progress to [Eternal Throne]: [522/1000]

    Special quest: Gold Challenges (Reaper)

    Sub-task advanced.

    - Kill 7 beings with a killcount of 10,000 or higher [2/7]

    Special quest: Pre-Impact Leaderboard

    Maintain your position on the leaderboard. Eliminate threats to it.

    - Stay within the top 100 of the world leaderboard.

    Reward: 1,000 gold credits per day. 14 gold-rank monster cores per day.

    - Bonus: Kill others on the world leaderboard. For the duration of this quest, you can see the leaderboard ranks of everyone you encounter.

    You have killed leaderboard rank 3.

    Reward: 1,000 platinum credits. Platinum Attribute Potion.

    Will: Hua. Is now a good time?

    Hua: We just wiped the floor with a bunch of silver-rankers and one gold. You¡¯d be surprised how effective a regular sniper rifle is. Nobody¡¯s looking for Liam.

    Will: I¡¯m assuming that¡¯s a yes, then. Sydney is¡­ free is probably a bad word for it. Cross is dead. A lot of the pieces of his necromantic empire are still there, but they¡¯re operating independently now. I¡¯ll leave that up to the rest of you.

    Hua: Heard loud and clear. I¡¯ll pass it up the line. I might ask for transportation to help with cleanup, if that¡¯s alright.

    Will: Sure thing. Give me the call whenever.

    Hua: Are you coming back?

    WIll: No. There¡¯s at least five more names on my list, and I¡¯m not going to stop ¡®till they¡¯re gone. I¡¯m not sure how long I¡¯m going to be out, but it¡¯ll be a while. Weeks, at least, if not months. People are hard to find.

    Hua: Good hunting.

    #

    The time since the first human summit had been a tumultuous one. Supreme Commander Regina of the ESNA had spent much of the ensuing month and a half on damage control. As it turned out, suddenly losing top members of every powerful nation to Peace¡ªboth as kidnapping victims and as traitors¡ªwas severely damaging towards humanity¡¯s ability to operate as one.

    Regina had, at least, secured cooperation from the all-native Australian faction, formerly the Human Defense Force, as well as some of the west European factions. Together, they¡¯d been able to form some kind of response to Peace, but they¡¯d encountered new problems every day. Monsters escaping the superdungeons were abnormally powerful, and Regina suspected that the sigil-holders within them had something to do with that.

    She had spent the bulk of her time trying to shore up the ESNA¡¯s presence, taking control of more land and eliminating threats to her people amongst it. This was still her home country, no matter how much it had changed, and she would be damned if she let it fall to the dogs while she controlled it.

    The world was not making that easy.

    ¡°Supreme Commander,¡± now gold-ranker and Commander Charlie said, walking into her office and snapping her a sharp salute.

    ¡°I told you to stop calling me that, Charlie,¡± she said. ¡°What do you have for me?¡±

    ¡°Bad news, sorry to say,¡± Charlie said, pulling a lit cigar from his inventory behind his ear and puffing from it.

    Regina waved her hand, confining the smoke into a small sphere so she didn¡¯t have to breathe it in. She was reasonably certain that she no longer had to worry about detrimental health effects from tobacco, but she had never quite gotten used to their scent.

    ¡°The news is all bad these days,¡± she said. ¡°Lay it on me.¡±

    ¡°Jacksonville,¡± he said. ¡°Lance hit it.¡±

    Regina clicked her tongue. ¡°Damn it. How bad?¡±

    ¡°Better than it could have been. We got about ten minutes of warning when the sea pulled back. When the tsunami hit, I think we got more than half the city out. Lost everything there, though. I had a couple of birds sent in. High fliers. Lance shouldn¡¯t be able to hit them.¡±

    ¡°Good,¡± Regina said. ¡°I want eyes yesterday.¡±

    ¡°Patching you in,¡± Charlie said. He tapped the air, fiddling with the system. ¡°Dreamcatcher 1 flight, this is Command. Patching the SC in.¡±

    You have joined the [Dreamcatcher] communication group.

    ¡°Roger that, Command,¡± the Pilot said.

    ¡°Give me eyes,¡± Regina said, closing her own as she identified which of her people this was. ¡°Dreamcatcher 1, taking your right.¡±

    ¡°One moment, SC,¡± Dreamcatcher 1 said. ¡°Okay. Ready.¡±

    Regina used one of the skills that had propelled her to the heights she was at today, linking with her people to share their senses. Using Dreamcatcher 1¡¯s right eye, she was able to see what was happening in Florida all the way from her base up in New Jersey, and she could even use her own senses to some extent.

    Twenty thousand feet below the jet, the situation was as bad as she¡¯d feared. The ocean had reclaimed Jacksonville. Lance had moved the coastline in by miles, and the city was fully flooded, brown water surging through the streets. The water had already obscured much of the city from view, only the roofs of what had been two-story buildings peeking out above. Downtown was collapsing in on itself¡ªit hadn¡¯t been built for a flood of this proportion.

    In short, it was the worst-case scenario, saved only by the fact that they¡¯d evacuated a fair chunk of the city before impact.

    Except, Regina realized, that there were survivors. Groups of them were in vessels ranging from dilapidated speedboats to full-on ferries. Cars floated above water, somehow buoyant, and in areas, there were hovering platforms that were clearly magical.

    ¡°SC, you seeing this?¡± Dreamcatcher 1 asked.

    ¡°I am,¡± Regina said, disbelief creeping into her voice.

    The flood continued to rage, but even as she watched, parts of it were slowing. That wasn¡¯t what was surprising. There were plenty of skills that could do that or something similar, and it was possible that it was fading on its own.

    No, it was the manner in which the water was being pushed back that shook Regina to her core. Dark, twisted energy that she recognized as corruption crept over the waves, seemingly freezing them in place before the water simply dissipated.

    Atop the raging waters, a single figure flew, dark wings spread to each side.

    Do you even know what you look like right now? Regina thought.

    If she didn¡¯t know better, she would have said that William Li-Brown was killing the flood.

    ¡°Hold the fort,¡± she told Charlie, keeping an eye on Dreamcatcher 1. ¡°I¡¯m going to Jacksonville.¡±

    On the other end of her connection, the corruption wielder looked up to a seemingly random point in the sky.

    Will: You could¡¯ve just asked me what I was doing.

    He winked, and Regina shuddered.

    I¡¯m glad he¡¯s on our side.

 Chapter 127: I Have a Lot of Haters

    Lance was a slippery piece of shit.

    Granted, Will had expected that to be the case. Killing Cross had been¡ªwell, easy was the wrong term for it, because he¡¯d still needed to push himself to the limit to chase the Necromancer through all of his constant teleports as well as avoid the frankly absurd amount of power he¡¯d been putting out. He¡¯d managed to make it look effortless, of course, because he was just that cool, but it hadn¡¯t been a walk in the park.

    Anyway, the point was that Lance was way harder to track down. Cross had been mobile, but that was just within the context of his own city. He had by and large been a stationary target after taking over Sydney. Hell, he¡¯d even had a throne room, that arrogant bastard.

    Will figured he should try getting one of those some time. Even if Cross had been an evil piece of shit, it had been a badass setup.

    Lance, on the other hand, had been playing this with guerrilla tactics. His domain was the sea, and he¡¯d dipped in and out of the water at frankly absurd speeds. There had been a few points during the fight where Will had fully lost track of the gold-ranker. The water itself had been charged with enough magic to interfere with Sen¡¯s eyes and even destroy some of them.

    After Will had figured out that Lance was not, in fact, immune to electricity, things had gotten a lot easier. Sen¡¯s eyes couldn¡¯t spend much time in the water, but they could get there long enough to act as a range extender that could trigger Thunder Wraith¡¯s Grasp, spreading charge to the water. With Abyssal Tempest augmenting Will¡¯s Power attribute and triggering lightning strikes every time he hit anything that had been charged, it had been easy to start smoking Lance out of hiding spots.

    [Envoy of Mercy] has activated. You have gained one level of [Blessed] and [Purified] for each life you saved. 121 instances of each have been gained.

    Of course, Will couldn¡¯t just go around turning the flood even deadlier without keeping the civilians in mind. That had probably been the worst part of the fight, and the reason why it had taken so long that he¡¯d alerted the ESNA.

    As it turned out, one-manning a rescue operation was a massive pain in the ass, even if it was¡ªjust barely¡ªdoable. If Will had been able to find a way to get full boats into his inventory, he would have absolutely done that, but he still hadn¡¯t been able to prompt anything that big to fit.

    He frowned at that mental wording. I mean, it¡¯s not wrong.

    [Envoy of Mercy] has activated. You have gained one level of [Blessed] and [Purified] for each life you saved. 8 instances of each have been gained.

    What had turned out to be the best stopgap was just moving as fast as possible, creating portals to the Beyond, shoving massive amounts of equipment through them, and using his hunger phantasm to move as many people as possible. Fortunately, nobody was helpless now, which meant that once he tossed out that rope, the bronze-rankers that made up the majority of the city¡¯s population were able to use their simple movement skills to get onto the boats, vehicles, and various other pieces of abandoned unformed-rank garbage he¡¯d found floating around the portals he¡¯d left in London, New York City, and half a dozen other cities.

    [Envoy of Mercy] has activated. You have gained one level of [Blessed] and [Purified] for each life you saved. 27 instances of each have been gained.

    Will couldn¡¯t save everyone. He had accepted that maybe a little too easily, to the point where he didn¡¯t even feel anything when a particularly nasty wave completely annihilated a building that he knew had held at least a hundred people in it. Seeing enough death could condition anyone, it seemed.

    Or maybe it was the demon. At platinum rank, his demonic eye was by far the strongest part of himself and was a primary driver of his ability to keep up with Lance, who was almost a full rank higher than him. Being able to see and cut the lines of the skills the gold-rank water mage was using made it much easier to find and counter him.

    Unfortunately, it had also changed him in ways that he still wasn¡¯t sure of. Richard was taking up more real estate in Will¡¯s soul than it had before, and that worried him. Not enough to make it his number one priority, especially since Aza, his Guardian Angel familiar and offshoot of the Dread Executor Azathoth, had been re-summoned and was more than capable of managing the demonic influence on Will, but he was still keeping an eye on it.

    For now, Will was focusing mostly on preserving what he could of the city and its people. He¡¯d stuck Lance with his good ol¡¯ wither plus corruption plus despair combination after clearing several layers of protection against afflictions. Lance had escaped afterward, but Will had successfully marked him for death and could therefore see his exact location through any defenses he¡¯d put up.

    That also meant that Will could see him getting steadily slower and more desperate. The waves had intensified, deadly whirlpools forming in the muck. Will did what he could to stop them, of course, but he was fighting an uphill battle.

    He was beginning to consider the merits of going around tossing busloads of Users through the Beyond when the mana infusing the flood abruptly stopped.

    Three soft chimes alerted him to the notifications he¡¯d gotten from the kill.

    Progress to [Eternal Throne]: [609/1000]

    Special quest: Gold Challenges (Reaper)

    Sub-task advanced.

    - Kill 7 beings with a killcount of 10,000 or higher [3/7]

    Special quest: Pre-Impact Leaderboard

    Maintain your position on the leaderboard. Eliminate threats to it.

    - Bonus: Kill others on the world leaderboard. For the duration of this quest, you can see the leaderboard ranks of everyone you encounter.

    You have killed leaderboard rank 2.

    Reward: 1,000 platinum credits. Platinum Attribute Potion.

    That made two platinum attribute potions now. The credits were nice, though he already had a lot more of those than he needed thanks to scamming his sponsors. Will had yet to use the one he¡¯d gotten from killing Cross, though he¡¯d been half-tempted to while helping Natalie eliminate a few major threats to her country.

    Looking at the devastation Lance had wrought in just under an hour, Will wondered if it would have been worth going to kill him first. How many deaths had occurred because he¡¯d been busy completing sidequests?

    Nah, that¡¯s not important. Will wasn¡¯t going to bog himself down in moral dilemmas when there was only so much he could do. The weight of worlds rested on his shoulders. No matter what choice he made, people were going to die. Besides, the ESNA had been managing this situation decently well so far if what Regina had said was anything approaching the truth. They¡¯d lost a lot of land, but not that many people.

    High above him, another sonic boom alerted him to the presence of a new aircraft accompanying the other three that had already been observing the area.

    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    Will: Regina? That you?

    Regina: Yes. Do you need assistance?

    Will: One moment.

    The plane started circling above them, meaning its speed relative to Will was significantly lower than the speed of sound, giving Sen¡¯s eyes plenty of leeway to catch up to it. With the range extending ability, Will could target the guns inside and outside the ship.

    He chose the Pilot¡¯s sidearm, then activated Weapons Free.

    To his credit, the guy driving the plane did not visibly panic. His aura told Will that he¡¯d just about shit his pants, but the flight pattern didn¡¯t waver.

    ¡°Nice and roomy for a fighter,¡± Will said, looking around the inside of the plane. ¡°Unless it¡¯s not one?¡±

    ¡°I would appreciate it if you didn¡¯t try to give my people heart attacks, Will,¡± Regina said. ¡°It¡¯s a modified recon unit. Silver-rank frame, gold-rank internals.¡±

    ¡°Good stuff,¡± Will said, nodding approvingly. ¡°Anyway, Lance is dead.¡±

    ¡°I saw,¡± Regina said. ¡°Two months, two top-tens dead. You¡¯re making waves.¡±

    ¡°I would be surprised if I wasn¡¯t,¡± Will said carefully, eyeing the 10 leaderboard rank above Regina¡¯s head. ¡°You¡¯re not on the list of my targets, if you were concerned.¡±

    ¡°If I was, this plane would be in a million pieces by now,¡± the Supreme Commander of the ESNA said. ¡°Set us down, Coyote.¡±

    ¡°On it,¡± the Pilot said. ¡°Where at?¡±

    ¡°Anywhere large enough to land.¡±

    ¡°So,¡± Will said. ¡°I¡¯m assuming you¡¯re not just here for leisure.¡±

    ¡°No. I had hoped to talk. And thank you, of course. Lance has been a plague upon the southern half of our faction for far too long.¡±

    ¡°You know what his goals were?¡± Will asked.

    ¡°Who knows? It could be a sigil or a sponsor driving his actions, or maybe whoever took him in in his other world. He could just be insane. Intentions matter less than result.¡±

    ¡°Fair enough.¡±

    ¡°I was thinking on the subject of rewards,¡± Regina said. ¡°Or gifts, if you prefer to think of them that way. You did us a great service.¡±

    Will perked up at that. ¡°I do like the sound of that. First things first, though¡ªI need planes, or boats, or anything you¡¯ve got for mass transport. Mine does not play nice with huge groups, and it¡¯s gotten even worse recently.¡±

    ¡°How many survivors?¡± Regina asked. ¡°We were expecting double digits or lower. Most of those not fast enough to make it to evacuation sites in time weren¡¯t people who could survive a flood on this scale. We were projecting casualties in the tens of thousands.¡±

    ¡°Your projections weren¡¯t wrong,¡± Will said grimly. ¡°Let me count.¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    The plane came to a gentle stop as Sen¡¯s eyes flew around the ruined city, landing atop a mostly-intact roof on what had been an office building.

    ¡°15,761,¡± Will said at last. ¡°I¡¯m not sure how many of them died during our fight, but it was a lot.¡±

    Regina blew out a breath, which Will decided to interpret as her being impressed. ¡°Fantastic work.¡±

    ¡°Thanks. So, about those planes¡­¡±

    ¡°Already on their way,¡± Regina said. ¡°With more on the way. I called the first wave of them when I saw you were here, but I expected a tenth of the survivors.¡±

    ¡°I did what I could,¡± Will said. ¡°And I think you might be underestimating how tenacious some of these people are.¡±

    He¡¯d received about a total of three thousand levels of Blessed and Purified, which he was very grateful for but knew from experience could be spent all too quickly. That was the number of people he¡¯d directly saved, while the others had all managed to use the equipment he¡¯d teleported in for them.

    Regina caught the implication there, but didn¡¯t directly address it. Neither of them particularly liked the other that much, but they respected each other. Will wasn¡¯t going to tell her how to go around running a country, and she wasn¡¯t going to defend abandoning a city with nearly thirty thousand people still in it.

    ¡°We¡¯ll look into better evacuation techniques for future incidents,¡± she said instead. ¡°There are enough threats to us that there is a very real chance we¡¯ll need them.¡±

    ¡°That could be helpful,¡± Will said. He had no real horse in the race, but he did prefer outcomes that resulted in less loss of life.

    ¡°Something tells me that¡¯s not your greatest priority,¡± Regina said, opening the olane doors with a wave of her hand and stepping outside. ¡°Pardon me for a moment.¡±

    As they stepped outside, Regina activated a number of skills in sequence, calling on large-scale telekinesis and what seemed to be mild mind influence to get people moving towards relative safe spaces.

    ¡°Administrator-type class, huh,¡± Will said. ¡°Seems useful.¡±

    ¡°In some cases, certainly. Less suited to direct combat than the Reaper himself, of course.¡±

    ¡°My class comes with baggage,¡± Will said. ¡°But we don¡¯t need to compare. We were on the subject of rewards?¡±

    ¡°We were,¡± Regina said. ¡°I¡¯m not sure what you want, but if it¡¯s within our power to do and doesn¡¯t actively impair our ability to function as a nation¡­¡±

    ¡°Intelligence,¡± Will answered immediately. He didn¡¯t want to do this whole political dance where both of them had to read between the lines and adhere to dusty social customs to figure out who wanted what. ¡°For progression purposes, I need the ability to find and locate threats, and I also need at least a small group focusing on finding Peace sigil-holders.¡±

    ¡°We already have the latter,¡± Regina said, nodding approvingly at Will¡¯s straightforward approach. ¡°I can assign more people to them, but we¡¯ve had too many fires on our hands. I suppose that identifying those fires falls under intelligence.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Will said. ¡°Transportation as well. I¡¯ve been making my way around okay enough because I can call on one of my friends, but he¡¯s gone onto a super deep delve into the superdungeon. It took me three separate planes to get to Florida, and all three of them blew up in the process. I have a lot of haters.¡±

    ¡°I can see that,¡± Regina said. ¡°Why us? You have allies in Australia and a teleportation ability, do you not?¡±

    ¡°You and I both know that the ESNA has some of the most effective remaining technology infrastructure,¡± Will replied. ¡°My support network is getting further apart because we also have our own fires to deal with. I want open access to your planes if we need them.¡±

    ¡°Done,¡± Regina said. ¡°No promises on response time for the rest of your team, but you¡¯re a valuable enough fighter to warrant immediate movement.¡±

    ¡°Fantastic,¡± Will said. ¡°Now, intel. Let me get out the notebook on what I need.¡±

    #

    Will flipped through the brief Regina had given him as he walked through a grey, dead field of burnt-down trees, brushing off the ashes that rained down upon him.

    Name: Cinder Solace

    Gender: F

    Original Nationality: unknown, likely American, records wiped after disappearance

    Class: Infernal Plaguespreader, Gold 9

    Threat level: S

    Location: Yellowstone supervolcano

    Casualties: 1m+

    Notes: Do not directly engage if possible. Since her emergence ~1 week after the ESNA¡¯s establishment, plague-carrying gas has actively spread from Yellowstone. Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho have suffered 90%+ losses. All active ESNA and Pacific Alliance Users with air purification skills have been assigned to active duty to prevent further spread.

    DO NOT APPROACH YELLOWSTONE WITHOUT PPE. There are no documented survivors that have gotten closer than 1 mile to Solace. (1/20)

    You have been afflicted with a level of gold-rank [Firepox].

    You have been afflicted with a level of gold-rank [Red Death].

    Two levels of [Purified] have been consumed to nullify these afflictions.

    Regina hadn¡¯t been willing to risk any of her pilots on this, so he¡¯d been dropped from the sky roughly in the area of Yellowstone.

    They hadn¡¯t been joking when it came to how powerful Cinder was. Sen¡¯s eyes couldn¡¯t even tolerate being in the same area as her, so he¡¯d left most of them behind. Will was burning levels of Blessed and Purified just being within a few miles of the caldera, which was so thickly obscured by red-hot ash that he couldn¡¯t even see it properly.

    He still had plenty of blessings to burn, though, so he continued dashing towards it blindly, using his aura senses instead of Sen to scout out his surroundings.

    Just like the report stated, there was nothing living in this area. Equilibrium Mantle kicked into overdrive just for Will to be able to exist here, and even then it wasn¡¯t able to fully take effect. He could breathe the air, which was more than most other people who came here could say, but it was still taking a toll on him.

    It only got hotter as he approached, which was also not terribly promising, but it was more than manageable.

    Cinder Solace was currently the number one ranked User on the global leaderboard, and given the other offenders there and her class name, Will had been pretty certain that she would easily reach the 10k mark in terms of kills. The casualty count on the brief he¡¯d been given backed that up, as did the constant deluge of afflictions and damage coming from the volcano.

    He did have a skillset that was suited towards surviving in hostile environments, though, and he was able to negate some of the damage by simply cutting the weak points apart with Eclipse and the slayer sword.

    Soon enough, he was in the thick of the ash, the heat growing so great that it was penetrating through his skills.

    This was the kill zone described in the brief. One mile out.

    From here, Will relied primarily on his aura senses, moving towards where the mana seemed more concentrated. It took a couple of hours with several false starts, but Will had a few hours. So long it wasn¡¯t on the order of months, he was unconcerned.

    It had been two months since he¡¯d returned from the trial of the champion, and he was still no closer to finding a solution for what to do about the entire other planet, nor how to counter Peace. Getting to gold wouldn¡¯t solve anything, either, but it would hopefully get him the tools he needed to take action.

    There was a certain point of ashen granite that had more focused mana in it than the others. When Will stepped onto it, it crumbled beneath his feet, sending him falling. With no sight to orient him, Will relied on his aura senses and skills to catch him¡ªunfortunately, not all of the volcano walls were infused with mana, and he hit a wall, tumbling downwards in a rough slide.

    He recovered before he hit the end of the pit, sensing a sudden spike in the ambient mana.

    The strength of Cinder¡¯s aura was incredible, rivaling his own. There was a certain sense of malice to it that sent a shiver down Will¡¯s spine, instantly setting his senses on edge.

    Was this what it was like to fight him?

    He focused his senses, spreading his hunger phantasm to keep himself oriented¡ªbut no attack other than the terrible heat of the surroundings came.

    From a distance below him, he heard something, and he struck immediately, opening the ground beneath him.

    The sound got louder as he disrupted the ground beneath him, and he realized it was a voice.

    ¡°Stop!¡± she shouted, voice cracking with obvious stress. ¡°You¡¯re still alive, right? Please. Please go. Get out of here now and you might still have a chance.¡±

    Will paused, frowning.

    ¡°Cinder Solace?¡±

    ¡°William Li-Brown?¡± came the reply.

    What the hell was going on here?

 Chapter 128: Monster

    Will reabsorbed the bulk of the corruption he¡¯d thrust outwards, focusing it around him and using his demonic eye to spot and kill the worst of the ash-plague that was everywhere in here. His passive mana expenditure was even higher in here than it had been when Equilibrium Mantle had been working overtime to protect him from deep space, which was saying something.

    Despite that, he didn¡¯t think he was going to need to fight. Not just yet.

    Though there was malice in the air, it was overwhelmed by a different emotion that Will hadn¡¯t seen expressed through aura very often. Part of it was instantly placeable, though, because he¡¯d seen it coming from Jessie when it had been under the control of the late Nymlera Brooksoul.

    This was the sensation of despair. Taken as a whole, the aura gave him the impression of a sleeping monster that hadn¡¯t been able to move in ages, not the cold killing machine that the report had stated she was.

    ¡°You know my name,¡± he said. ¡°How?¡±

    ¡°I saw it on the leaderboard,¡± Cinder said, her voice surprisingly loud for how hollow it sounded. ¡°And we were briefly on the national math competition team together during high school.¡±

    Will frowned. ¡°I feel like I would have¡ªoh, wait, you¡¯re an otherworlder, right? I guess you weren¡¯t always Cinder.¡±

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t,¡± she said. ¡°Why are you still here? I don¡¯t know what resources you¡¯re burning to be here, but you¡¯re going to die. Nobody survives this close, even with a medic.¡±

    Pinpointing her location through her aura and her words, Will started navigating further down the tunnels. He was as blind as he¡¯d ever been right now¡ªvision was unreliable at best in the thick clouds of ash, and he¡¯d grown to rely on Sen enough that not having the familiar made him feel naked.

    He mentally thanked himself for focusing so much on developing his aura. Without it, Will actually would have gotten lost instead of just turned around.

    You have been afflicted with a level of gold-rank [Blightfire].

    You have been afflicted with a level of gold-rank [Hollow Hunger].

    Sensing the magic make contact with him, Will immediately activated Chaos Transfer. While Blessed triggered nigh-automatically to negate damage, Purified took about half a second to fully activate. He¡¯d been relying mostly on his built-up charges because he hadn¡¯t wanted to waste mana when Equilibrium Mantle was chugging so much, but he wanted to see how sustainable doing both was. If he couldn¡¯t maintain both Mantle and Chaos Transfer, then there was a real possibility that he would actually need to leave this place.

    As it was, though, it looked like he¡¯d be able to manage the mana loss thanks to Destructive Synthesis and an inventory chock-full of items he didn¡¯t need.

    Will realized shortly after that he hadn¡¯t replied to Cinder. ¡°Well, I¡¯m not dead yet, am I? I feel like I know the current state of my body a bit better than you do.¡±

    He slid further down, growing closer to the central aura. It was even hotter here, to the point where the rock beneath him looked like it was beginning to melt. The grey ash had a decidedly red-orange tint to it now.

    Slowly but surely, he found his way to an area where the ash thinned and the heat rose to a temperature that was nearly unbearable even through his high-silver skill. Will cycled his hunger phantasm over himself, which helped a little but probably made him seem at least three times as evil as he actually was.

    Okay, maybe twice as evil. His body count was pretty high.

    The clearing he¡¯d entered was a small cavern about the same size as his studio apartment back in college, though it was mostly spherical instead of rectangular. The walls glowed red with heat, and even as he watched, parts of the stone crumbled, melting into the growing pool of lava that marked what passed as the floor.

    Sitting in the center of it all, face buried in her knees, was Earth¡¯s number one ranked human. Cinder Solace had acquired gold-rank equipment that synergized with her skillset, it seemed, because her seemingly leather armor was the only other item in this magma well that hadn¡¯t gone up in flames.

    Even from here, Will didn¡¯t recognize her. Had they actually been on a team together?

    To be fair, he didn¡¯t carry many fond memories of that time, so maybe he¡¯d just blocked her out. She was a redhead, though, and he didn¡¯t remember any redhead women from the team.

    Whatever. The old world had so little relation to this one that he couldn¡¯t be bothered to cross-examine that.

    ¡°Cinder,¡± he said. ¡°Or Solace, I guess. Which do you prefer?¡±

    ¡°Cinder is fine,¡± she said. ¡°How the hell are you alive?¡±

    ¡°Same way you are. Magic.¡±

    She raised her head out of her knees, turning to look at him. A tear leaked out of her eyes and instantly evaporated.

    When Cinder spoke, her voice was barely above a whisper. ¡°Nobody else¡¯s worked.¡±

    That would be the plague, most likely. Will didn¡¯t voice it, but just like him, Cinder had a uniquely powerful skillset. Plenty of people could defend against the elements, and some could protect themselves against afflictions, but those who could do both at a high level were few and far between, amounting basically to Dread Executors and their candidates.

    ¡°You¡¯re not fighting me,¡± Will said. ¡°Given the attitude of the last two leaderboarders I went after, that¡¯s a bit surprising. What were you planning on doing if I was here to kill you?¡±

    In the corner of his vision, the Reaper challenges for reaching gold hovered, reminding him that he was still at three out of seven on his list of targets who¡¯d killed ten thousand or more. Judging from the report and the ominous 1 hanging over Cinder¡¯s head, she would very much be a valid target for this.

    The gold-ranker¡¯s aura stirred at that, though not by much.

    ¡°Kill you, I guess,¡± she said, her voice unsteady. ¡°Are you here to kill me?¡±

    ¡°That depends,¡± Will said honestly. ¡°I had assumed you were like Lance or Cross.¡±

    ¡°The Hydromancer and the Necromancer? I saw them disappear off the leaderboard earlier. Was that you?¡±

    ¡°It was. You¡¯re monitoring it?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s lonely and quiet in here. I have the leaderboard and the books I downloaded onto my system, but I¡¯ve read all of them a dozen times over by now. Why did you kill them?¡±

    ¡°They needed killing. Lance was throwing tsunamis at the East Coast and Cross had a body count of something like two hundred thousand.¡±

    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    That was the wrong thing to say. Cinder flinched at him mentioning Cross¡¯ killcount, her aura fluctuating with such power that Will had to actively contest it with his own to keep his life-preserving skills from faltering.

    ¡°Intentionally, I should add,¡± he said, hoping his guess was on point. ¡°They were monsters. You don¡¯t seem anything like them, for what it¡¯s worth.¡±

    ¡°Does it make a difference?¡± Cinder sounded like she was on the verge of tears now. ¡°Whether I meant to or not? Two hundred thousand, you said. Do you know where I¡¯m at?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Will said, sensing that he had to tread carefully here. Given what they knew about each other, he was sure there was a resolution to be found, but this could easily turn violent.

    ¡°One million, four hundred sixty seven thousand, eight hundred three,¡± she said morosely. ¡°I¡¯ve gotten so many achievements for what I¡¯ve done. I didn¡¯t even realize it until ten thousand were already dead, and I buried myself as much as I could, but¡­ they just keep dying.¡±

    Briefly, Will considered if that number was simply too high. It was clear that Cinder was the person with the single highest kill count that he¡¯d seen so far, and just from traversing ¡°her¡± territory, he could tell that her power was the monstrous kind that would just keep on killing if left alone.

    On the other hand, there was no way he could stomach killing someone that had apparently been¡ªnot quite a friend, but close. She was nothing like the remorseless mass murderers he¡¯d eliminated thus far.

    No, he decided. If there was a way to resolve this peacefully, he would take it. Everything else aside, she seemed amenable to speaking, and when push came to shove, he would much rather have someone on Cinder¡¯s power level to call upon when Peace came knocking.

    ¡°There is a difference, and that does matter,¡± Will said. ¡°I give second chances to people who deserve them, and you seem to fit that.¡±

    ¡°Do I?¡± she asked flatly. ¡°Can you look me in the eye in this little slice of hell I¡¯ve made and tell me that I deserve a chance? You don¡¯t even remember who I used to be¡ªand I¡¯m okay with that, because I didn¡¯t like that person either¡ªbut how can you judge me for who I am now?¡±

    Will took a moment to assess the situation, slowly realizing the headspace the gold-ranker was in.

    She didn¡¯t want to live anymore, but she was too scared of death to let someone walk in and kill her. Cinder kept trying to get him to move to action, then sabotaging her own efforts. She couldn¡¯t decide what she wanted.

    But most importantly, she needed someone to talk to. Will didn¡¯t know what her situation was¡ªhe¡¯d assumed she was an otherworlder, given her sudden rocket to the top of the ranks, but he knew nothing about the other worlds. Given the way she¡¯d been talking so far, though, the rust of disuse clear in her voice, it had likely been a long time since she¡¯d had a living human to speak to.

    He could talk. That was doable.

    ¡°Tell me about yourself, then,¡± he said. ¡°Give me the story, and then we can both be confident in my judgment.¡±

    ¡°I could lie,¡± she said, but her aura betrayed her. Cinder could, but she wouldn¡¯t. If anything, she¡¯d do so in a way that made her look worse than she actually was.

    ¡°I¡¯m pretty good at finding the truth,¡± Will reassured the gold-ranker. ¡°I have some time. Let¡¯s talk.¡±

    He sat, consuming a silver-rank dagger he¡¯d picked up from an assassin for mana, and he listened.

    #

    Cinder Solace was not, strictly speaking, an otherworlder.

    That surprised Will, but it explained why she still had a first name and last name instead of just the one name that every otherworlder currently had entered into the system. During the first stage of the system integration, she¡¯d been on vacation in Yellowstone. She and two of her college friends had been one of a million who had been thrown into the extreme difficulty tutorials at the same time Will had been thrown into space.

    Their first stage had also taken place outside the atmosphere of the planet. They might actually have been in the same cave system as him for some time, but theirs had connected to a pocket dimension of some kind. Eventually, it had led them back into the volcano, which had integrated with Arcadia¡¯s caves. Her first friend, a college sophomore named Sophia, had died valiantly holding off a silver-rank enemy at unformed.

    That had left two of them at the time of class selection. Cinder hadn¡¯t quite managed to make it to bronze yet, since Alice, her grad student companion, had done the bulk of the work in keeping them alive.

    She had gotten the class of Reaper.

    Will had noticed some strange magic during the tutorial, and he¡¯d gained more insight into it when space had started shattering to the Beyond during the trial of the champion. Alice and Cinder had experienced this firsthand when their portal out of the altered space led into another world, one that was neither Arcadia nor Earth. It had been a volcanic hellscape that Cinder compared to the surface of Venus. Their skin had started melting within minutes.

    Alice had gained the same class Will had, but hadn¡¯t gotten the same type of tools. Cinder, desperate to keep them alive, had consumed stored skill tablets to gain skills that shaped themselves towards the situation in an attempt to survive. Even then, it had turned near-instant death into a guaranteed demise in hours.

    They¡¯d slaughtered as many monsters as they could find, struggling to do so given their abnormally high rank, and Cinder had finally entered class selection.

    Of the classes she could pick, there had only been one that had carried a passive that could keep her alive: Infernal Plaguespreader. It was a legendary rarity class, and a powerful one at that, but it came with the caveat of her universal abilities, Epidemic and Flameheart. Essentially, her magic would be empowered every time she killed someone, but while she wasn¡¯t killing, she needed to be in a flame or disease-affinity area (say, for instance, the Yellowstone supervolcano) or her mana would rapidly deplete. The moment she hit zero mana, she would die.

    To make matters even worse, every time she had excess magic power, which occurred when she was either killing someone or in a particularly hot or diseased area, she would involuntarily trigger as many of her Fire and Plague affixed skills as possible, continuing the cycle.

    ¡°It took me about five seconds to realize that it was going to kill Alice,¡± she said dully. ¡°She told me it was okay. That at least one of us would make it out alive.¡±

    Given her class now, it was clear what she¡¯d done.

    ¡°This was the end of the tutorial, wasn¡¯t it?¡± Will asked. ¡°You didn¡¯t get back after that?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Cinder said. ¡°I wandered around that planet for what must have been a month. I thought I was there for years. Every day was the same. Everything near me died. Everything that didn¡¯t die ran.¡±

    ¡°Then the portals,¡± Will surmised.

    ¡°Then the portal. I walked back onto my home planet and realized I couldn¡¯t breathe. All I could focus on was the heat in the distance. I didn¡¯t even realize it was Yellowstone until I faceplanted straight into an inactive supervolcano.¡±

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t seem so inactive anymore,¡± Will said.

    ¡°Which is all my fault,¡± Cinder said. ¡°And then the notifications started coming and they didn¡¯t stop coming. I know exactly how awful an excuse for a human being I am. I know I¡¯m a monster.¡±

    ¡°But.¡±

    ¡°But I don¡¯t want to die,¡± she admitted, looking anywhere but Will¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°And you shouldn¡¯t need to,¡± Will said. ¡°You did what you had to survive.¡±

    ¡°Did I? Did I really? Could I have¡ª¡°

    ¡°No.¡± Will cut her off. ¡°Stop second-guessing yourself. Maybe you could have picked a better skill. Maybe you could have tried harder. Maybe, maybe, maybe, but we don¡¯t live in yesterday. Hell, I have the Time element and even I can¡¯t undo anything I¡¯ve done. What¡¯s done is done. We just have to pick up the pieces as much as we can.¡±

    ¡°I have no pieces to pick up,¡± Cinder said. ¡°I was planning on just staying here¡­ forever, I guess. I don¡¯t need to eat or drink, so¡­ I can just read the same series again and again until the sun goes out. You¡¯re the first real person I¡¯ve talked to in so long.¡±

    ¡°And you¡¯ll be able to talk to me again,¡± Will said. ¡°I have friends in high places. I¡¯ll make sure we keep them from sending any more extermination teams.¡±

    ¡°I would appreciate that,¡± Cinder said.

    ¡°Also, I¡¯ll get you some new books. Reading the same series sounds nice for a bit, but it¡¯s got to be making you go crazy.¡±

    ¡°Like you can¡¯t even imagine.¡±

    The rank one gold-ranker was holding her composure pretty well, but her aura betrayed her. She was on the verge of breaking.

    ¡°So,¡± Will said, diverting the topic. ¡°What kind of book do you want me to bring back?¡±

    Cinder visibly brightened, which increased the temperature again.

    They chatted for a bit¡ªshe was into fantasy and romance, which wasn¡¯t quite Will¡¯s taste but was within the realm of fiction he could appreciate. He resolved to find what was left of the libraries of this world and bring some back.

    Unfortunately, they did still have business to address.

    ¡°Oh, quick question,¡± Will said. ¡°Are you alright with potentially using your magic to help against some really evil motherfuckers?¡±

    Cinder barked out a harsh, sharp laugh, her aura teetering. ¡°I¡¯m not alright with any of this, but if you bring someone in, they¡¯ll probably die. If it¡¯s a monster like me, then maybe I can actually do some good with my life.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll hold you to that, then,¡± Will said. ¡°Now then. I don¡¯t have any useful shit on me right now, but I can grab some stuff from outside.¡±

    ¡°How long will you be gone?¡± Cinder asked.

    ¡°Days, hopefully. I need to get to gold, and I have a few more monsters to take down before that¡¯s possible. Natalie Blurr of the independent new UK has a couple names for me.¡±

    Will turned to leave.

    ¡°Wait,¡± Cinder said, extending a hand.

    He paused, looking back.

    ¡°Can you¡­ can you stay and talk a little more?¡±

    Right. Everyone Cinder had ever known had died before they could so much as link up chat with her. She was, perhaps more than anyone else on this planet, alone.

    Will stood there for a moment, deliberating, then sat back down.

    Will: Blurr. Give me another hour or two. Something just came up.

    Natalie: Not a problem. Looking forward to your arrival.

    ¡°Sure,¡± he said. ¡°Just a little bit.¡±

 Chapter 129: Good Will Hunting

    Will ended up staying an extra three hours, but Natalie didn¡¯t mind after he told her exactly why he was going to be so delayed. During that time, he made some arrangements with Regina. She wasn¡¯t exactly happy that he was practically giving orders to the nation, but she¡¯d acknowledged that short of requisitioning Lu Jie, who was quite unlikely to cooperate with the ESNA, to drop a nuke on top of Cinder, this wasn¡¯t a problem that was going to go away. Already, her people were drawing back, establishing a more stable perimeter instead of trying to push back in and reclaim land.

    Liam and Hua updated him on the state of their superdungeon adventure as well. They were encountering magic relics that didn¡¯t look like they¡¯d come from Earth or Arcadia amongst their regularly scheduled contests against the Peace sigils. There was something strange going on in there, but since those who had chosen to remain part of the anti-Peace guerilla force were still holding their own, he decided against doing another investigation that was unlikely to pan out.

    He also took some extra time to clear up a few details with Cinder and try a couple things. She was very open to finding a way to turn off her passive, though she obviously didn¡¯t want to give up her power in its entirety because doing so would mean death in this brutal world they now shared.

    Attempting to use his demon eye to cut off her connection to the passive didn¡¯t work. Sufficient violence would temporarily disable the passive, but it came back after less than a minute. ¡°Constantly stay by Cinder¡¯s side or she either dies from lack of mana or kills everyone by accident¡± was not exactly a viable plan for either of them.

    Will had brought up the Geneva suppression field, but they¡¯d agreed that until the situation was more stable, they didn¡¯t want to potentially put her in a place where she would both be vulnerable to Peace¡¯s forces and risk killing new targets.

    They also considered transporting her to an uninhabited volcano, but¡­

    ¡°Wait, isn¡¯t Yellowstone already uninhabited?¡±

    Cinder looked down. ¡°Yes. I emptied it.¡±

    ¡°Well, nothing we do can turn back the clock on that, but we¡¯re making good steps moving forward. Here seems like the best option for the time being.¡±

    ¡°I agree,¡± Cinder said. ¡°Please do come again sometime. Even if it¡¯s just to deposit more monsters, this was nice. It¡¯s been a long time since I got to talk to real people.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll come by for more normal reasons too,¡± Will promised. ¡°Plus, I can probably tag you into some chat groups so you actually have some people to talk to.¡±

    She nodded emphatically. ¡°That would be fantastic.¡±

    ¡°Now, if you¡¯ll excuse me¡­¡±

    ¡°By all means,¡± Cinder said.

    Without Sen in the area, Will didn¡¯t have a great range extender, so he came back the way he¡¯d entered. Navigating out was easier than coming in had been, mostly because the tunnels he¡¯d formed out of collapsing stone were already visible and available to him. It also helped that while he and Cinder had been experimenting, they¡¯d found that using a combination of corruption and the demon eye could temporarily clear the diseased fiery ash around him, granting him more visibility.

    He would have opened the portal to the Beyond in Cinder¡¯s room, but he didn¡¯t want her accidentally tumbling into it and potentially getting obliterated by the demonic forces that plagued the place since he wouldn¡¯t be there to protect whoever got in.

    Also, Will did plan on bringing more Users here once they figured out a better way to deal with Cinder¡¯s situation, and he didn¡¯t want the only Beyond portal to open straight into the closest thing to hell Earth currently possessed. Equilibrium Mantle was strong enough to keep others alive out on the surface. Next to Cinder? Unlikely at best.

    He picked a nice, flat section of ash that was only a little bit on fire and portaled out.

    Ayla was in the Beyond now, which was growing to be more common than not. After Dread Executor Azathoth had done the most he could without enabling Peace to use significantly more plausibility, a portion of Ayla¡¯s power had been restored to her, enough that she could once again somewhat serve as a helper.

    ¡°Three out of seven,¡± she said as he entered, all business. ¡°You didn¡¯t kill the rank 1.¡±

    ¡°Nope,¡± Will said. ¡°Would you have? She¡¯ll be more useful on our side than dead, and her intentions aren¡¯t violent.¡±

    ¡°Depends on the circumstances. If, for instance, I was being pushed by my class to get kills of that type in order to rank up, which I hypothetically very much needed because I was on a timer both because of a core goddess¡¯ machinations and an additional planetary impact, I could be convinced to do so.¡±

    ¡°Wow,¡± Will said drily. ¡°Can¡¯t imagine what kind of situation that would be.¡±

    ¡°You should be fine,¡± Ayla said. ¡°My people were more desperate ones. As a people, we tended to lack the human tendency to band together in crisis.¡±

    ¡°Explains why you¡¯re such a dick when I¡¯m in the process of dying,¡± Will joked.

    ¡°I would consider myself particularly empathetic for my species,¡± she said pointedly.

    ¡°I¡¯d make a clame about changelings there, but that feels racist.¡±

    ¡°It probably feels that way because it is.¡±

    ¡°Fair point. Anyway, I think I¡¯m on track to hit seven. I¡¯ve got Blurr¡¯s deal, who should be a 10k-er if I remember correctly, then possibly Pixie and Warr. Regina and the superdungeon group have info, too, which should make the last one pretty easy.¡±

    ¡°And if one of them turns out to be sympathetic?¡± Ayla asked. ¡°Peace burned plausibility to begin a ritual two months ago. Do you know how bad that is?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ve been over this, so yes,¡± Will said. ¡°Yeah, yeah, if she didn¡¯t hide it from us, then it means she doesn¡¯t need to. I still have four months.¡±

    ¡°So what if those four months become one and you still don¡¯t have them? What if Pixie and Warr are fellow fighters like you? Your life isn¡¯t the only one riding on surviving Peace, Will, and even you aren¡¯t going to be able to manage that kind of fight as a silver.¡±

    ¡°I know, I know,¡± Will sighed. ¡°You know, it¡¯d be nice to have one objective that doesn¡¯t involve the possible destruction of everything I know and love.¡±

    ¡°Aw, you love me? That¡¯s sweet.¡±

    ¡°Everything I know and love and Ayla Dreamer, former system fugitive,¡± Will corrected himself. ¡°To answer your question, if it comes down to that, I¡¯ll do what I have to do. I¡¯m not a naive idiot.¡±

    ¡°I know you aren¡¯t,¡± Ayla replied. ¡°But even the most pragmatic of us have moments of weakness.¡±

    ¡°I appreciate it.¡±

    ¡°Good hunting out there, Will.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s almost the title of a movie,¡± he said. ¡°Matt Damon, Robin Williams. You see it?¡±

    ¡°No, but I read the summary, so I know it¡¯s good.¡±

    ¡°Dear god, you people have no taste,¡± Will said, shaking his head. ¡°Alright. See you when I see you.¡±

    While he¡¯d been working his way back stateside, he¡¯d passed through the UK to keep up with what was going on there. Fortunately, he¡¯d had the presence of mind to also drop a Beyond portal, so he emerged straight into gloomy, bombed-out London at the base of the fourth Big Ben. Honestly, he wasn¡¯t sure why they kept on putting it up, but if the Brits wanted to do dumb shit with their magic, that was their choice.

    Will: In the area. Where should I be heading?

    Natalie: Michael and I are in a chopper about five miles north of London. Want us to pick you up?

    Will: Just slow down a little. I¡¯ll catch up.

    If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    The difference between Yellowstone and London was night and day. The previous place had been a hellscape because of magic. This city was just like that because it was England. It was grey and raining, just like always, but that didn¡¯t affect Will at all. He welcomed an easier environment to use Equilibrium Mantle on.

    The city itself had been destroyed and reassembled a couple times, and it was now stable enough to support a population of about a million, which was honestly pretty impressive given the average size of post-apocalypse cities. There were three or four distinct factions controlling different parts of the city, Blurr¡¯s included, but they had mostly hashed out boundaries now.

    After a tumultuous period at the start of the cycle and shortly after the trial of the champion, the worst elements had been excised. Will had been part of the the most recent excursion. He didn¡¯t regret joining it, since they had been deplorable people¡ªon the level of the Iron Boys back from just after the tutorial, except with actual power this time. Unfortunately, they hadn¡¯t had anyone with ten thousand or more kills, which meant he hadn¡¯t gained much out of it personally apart from some expendable loot and a portal location in the UK.

    At least Sen was usable here. Will¡¯s familiar alerted him to the presence of several hundred particularly perceptive Users in various parts of the city looking up at him as he used Wind Walker to air-dash up and away, forming wings with the hunger phantasm afterwards to propel himself. Expendable items could create small explosions behind him, propelling him forward at higher speeds. With the combination of Equilibrium Mantle functionally negating air resistance and Wind Walker continually boosting his speed, he could get up to very high speeds with ease.

    Sen found Blurr before long. True to her word, she was in a helicopter about a thousand feet above the ground alongside her second, Michael Cunningham.

    They slowed the vehicle for him, which was considerate of them but wholly unnecessary. Will¡¯s senses of timing and proprioception was at the point where he could have done this with his eyes closed. He matched their speed, then slid in, taking a seat inside.

    ¡°The blades are silent this time,¡± he noted. ¡°That¡¯s nice. If I had to do one more goddamn text exchange while you two are right across from me, I was going to lose it.¡±

    ¡°Good to see you too,¡± Michael said from the pilot¡¯s seat, saluting sardonically. ¡°You know the headsets were here for a reason, right?¡±

    ¡°They were unformed rank and uncomfortable. You might as well text at that point if the sound is going to be compressed that much. Pleasure to see you again, Michael. Blurr.¡±

    ¡°Do you ever plan on using my first name to talk to me?¡± the latter asked, amused.

    ¡°No. Your parents should¡¯ve picked a name better than Blurr if they wanted people to use it.¡±

    ¡°You¡ªglad to see you¡¯re the same as always, Will.¡±

    ¡°So, who¡¯re we jumping today?¡± Will asked. ¡°It¡¯s the 10k-er, right?¡±

    ¡°His total count¡¯s something more like fifteen thousand now,¡± Natalie said. ¡°That¡¯s the one, though.¡±

    Will had let it slip to a number of his allies that he was looking for specifically hostile elements with kill counts of over ten thousand for unspecified reasons. They¡¯d looked at him weird for that, but it wasn¡¯t the strangest request for combat they¡¯d seen, and Will had built up enough goodwill for them to not pry further.

    ¡°I think I remember this guy,¡± Will said. ¡°He was a top ten earlier, right?¡±

    ¡°He was rank 8 at the time of the human summit, which he attended and left,¡± Natalie confirmed. ¡°We weren¡¯t able to ambush him in time then, but he hasn¡¯t grown that much in power since. Like we said then, he stopped hunting people down as actively after he got ten thousand.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve confirmed that you get something at that mark,¡± Will said.

    ¡°There¡¯s no way your kill count is that high,¡± Michael said. ¡°Or should I crash this chopper now and do the world a solid?¡±

    ¡°First of all, I¡¯d survive that. Second, it isn¡¯t. I talked to the first-ranked leaderboarder earlier. Blurr can fill you in on that.¡±

    ¡°You what?¡±

    ¡°Anyway,¡± Will continued. ¡°What¡¯s he now?¡±

    ¡°Rank fourteen,¡± Blurr said. ¡°Henry. Blizzard Arcanist.¡±

    ¡°I see him,¡± Will said, looking down the leaderboard himself. ¡°Gold 4. Sponsored by some random chucklefuck, looks like. Any more info?¡±

    ¡°Otherworlder, but you knew that already,¡± Blurr said. ¡°Appeared during the trial of the champion in Birmingham. I was stuck up on the tournament asteroid, but Michael here was scouting the place out.¡±

    ¡°Following a lead,¡± Michael said. ¡°Missing folks from the town I took the tutorial in, see.¡±

    ¡°Let me guess,¡± Will said. ¡°The town froze over.¡±

    ¡°The town froze over,¡± Blurr confirmed. ¡°Not fast enough to kill everyone, but by the time I got back to England, the kill count was at over ten thousand.¡±

    ¡°What is it with these dickhead otherworlders and killing cities?¡± Will asked.

    ¡°Area of effect powers are the most effective way to level up quickly,¡± Blurr said. ¡°Trust me on this one.¡±

    She was at the same level Will was, though the Brit was a couple ranks lower on the leaderboard now.

    ¡°I guess so,¡± Will said. ¡°They¡¯re the ones that stick out and level fast.¡±

    ¡°Hasn¡¯t done it to any other cities, though,¡± Michael interjected. ¡°Used to be rank 8, but he slid even when people above him died.¡±

    Cunningham was a newer acquaintance of Will¡¯s. They¡¯d met during his brief stint clearing out London. The other man was a Silver 7, but he had gotten there without any core usage, and he was a deadly mark with his sniper rifle, an epic-rarity growth item he¡¯d picked up at the conclusion of a dungeon he¡¯d cleared as part of Blurr¡¯s squad.

    He was also one of the few people Will knew who could track a single target down faster than he could with Sen, which bumped his importance up a lot.

    ¡°Are we not going to bring a larger team?¡± Will asked. ¡°Gold-ranker, city-level AoE, 15k killcount, you don¡¯t want more people?¡±

    ¡°Do you?¡± Blurr asked. ¡°I seem to recall you being a solo player.¡±

    ¡°Never claimed to be,¡± Will said. ¡°Actually, I¡¯m pretty aware of the power that numbers can bring.¡±

    She arched an eyebrow. ¡°But?¡±

    He sighed. ¡°But you¡¯re right. Anyone else would probably get in my way. There¡¯s a few exceptions to that. Actually, you mind if I pick one of them up? She¡¯s been getting antsy about not getting involved.¡±

    ¡°Hasn¡¯t your elf friend been dealing with the Everest superdungeon?¡± Blurr asked. ¡°I remember you saying that last time.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, but there¡¯s only so much they can accomplish there with the firepower they have. Most of their time is spent grinding. She¡¯ll probably hit gold with the next major fight she takes.¡±

    ¡°Feel free to invite her along,¡± Blurr said. ¡°I distrust her about the same amount that I do you.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s hurtful,¡± Will said, feigning a deep wound. ¡°You should trust her less. I guarantee that you wouldn¡¯t be saying this if you saw her play a hand of blackjack.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure,¡± Blurr said drily. ¡°Your sense of humor hasn¡¯t improved since we last met. I¡¯m actually impressed. It might be worse.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m worse,¡± Will replied airily. ¡°You can¡¯t go around killing the worst humanity has to offer without losing a few marbles.¡±

    He thought he¡¯d made that statement jokingly enough, but even Will could feel the ripple in his own aura. Blurr and Michael both quieted, their own auras indicating that they¡¯d gone on edge. The Chaos Summoner unconsciously reached for a knife at her belt.

    Maybe a bit too truthful of a joke, Will decided. Without the atmosphere to continue his particular brand of slightly morbid, slightly dated jokes, he decided to return to business. A quick exchange of messages later, he had a plan.

    ¡°My portals don¡¯t move with vehicles, so I¡¯m going to pop in and out once we¡¯re over Birmingham,¡± he said. ¡°We are going to Birmingham, right?¡±

    ¡°Yes, though it looks a bit more like Arendelle now,¡± Blurr said.

    Will frowned, processing the sentence. ¡°Your ability to call me out on my pop culture references is officially revoked. You can¡¯t say shit about me making a bad reference and then go for fucking Frozen.¡±

    ¡°Calling you out, as you call it, has yet to work. I¡¯ll force-feed you your own medicine until you¡¯re as sick of it as I am.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not how medicine works.¡±

    ¡°Speeding up the chopper,¡± Michael announced, wisely not paying Will and Blurr¡¯s conversation any mind. ¡°Should be there in under an hour.¡±

    Will cycled Sen in and out of the helicopter as they picked up speed. Aza, on the other hand, did his own thing. If anyone from the monster-infested countryside cared to look up at them as they passed over at nearly the speed of sound, they might catch a Guardian Angel familiar clinging to the bottom of the vehicle.

    Most of the monsters and people dotting the countryside didn¡¯t bother with them. A good chunk of the disparate civilizations here were either friendly towards the primary UK factions or just wanted to be left alone, while the wandering monsters weren¡¯t fast enough to catch up to them. Once or twice, they slowed down so Michael could gun a problematic-looking monster down. When that happened, Will used the phantasm to deliver corruption, never needing to leave the chopper.

    Eventually, they reached what Will would only presume was Birmingham. Equilibrium Mantle once again proved itself to be a remarkably helpful skill, negating the chill in the air, but it was clear from the surroundings that they were approaching. The plant life was dead for miles out, and the ground became colder and frostier the closer they got towards the city.

    It was an eerie sight. There were people still moving within it, but the bulk of the humanoid figures had simply been frozen in place, rendered into dead, icy statues.

    ¡°Michael, can you work with this?¡± Blurr asked.

    ¡°Not without something belonging to him,¡± he said. ¡°There¡¯s a lot of crap blocking the way, and it doesn¡¯t help that there¡¯s still a solid fifty thousand people alive in here.¡±

    That did surprise Will, but he supposed he couldn¡¯t see inside the mind of a sociopath mass murderer.

    ¡°Then it¡¯s a good thing we have some,¡± Blurr said, conjuring a bloody scrap of cloth from her inventory. ¡°We weren¡¯t able to kill him at the summit, but our efforts weren¡¯t all wasted.¡±

    ¡°Fantastic,¡± Michael said, accepting it. Magic swirled around him as he triggered a skill that Will had witnessed many times during his last outing with him.

    It took less than a minute.

    ¡°Inside the Council House, Victoria Square,¡± Michael said. ¡°Should I rain fire?¡±

    ¡°One second,¡± Will said. He vanished, a black portal abruptly appearing before passing through the back of the helicopter.

    A few moments later, dark shadows crept into the helicopter, followed by two people.

    ¡°Natalie,¡± Caiyeri Seven said, inclining her head. ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve met the other one. Pilot?¡±

    ¡°A bit better than that,¡± Will said.

    ¡°Three and a half seconds, by the way,¡± Blurr said. ¡°You¡¯re late.¡±

    ¡°Caiyeri was in the middle of a game,¡± Will said.

    ¡°Was not. I was fighting.¡±

    ¡°Your inner demons, maybe.¡±

    ¡°Enough of that,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°When do we start killing?¡±

    Michael took that as his cue, firing the twin bronze-rank machine guns mounted on the helicopter. A silver-rank missile followed.

    In the center of the city, a blizzard formed in reverse, snow rising from the ground.

    ¡°Now,¡± Will said, jumping out of the helicopter.

    Caiyeri watched him fall, then turned to Natalie. ¡°He¡¯s so dramatic about these things.¡±

    Natalie sighed. ¡°He really is.¡±

    ¡°Keep us updated,¡± Caiyeri said, walking backwards. ¡°We¡¯ll let you know when¡ª¡°

    The rest of her words went into the wind, stolen as she simply fell off the edge of the chopper.

    Natalie Blurr, Chaos Summoner and leader of a coalition of Users over ten thousand strong, groaned in defeat, waving her hands to activate her summons.

    ¡°Birds of a fucking feather,¡± she complained.

 Chapter 130: Freeze

    Will hadn¡¯t read up much on Henry, but information on him was apparently scarce. He hadn¡¯t been anyone important before the apocalypse had hit, just like Will. What little they did know about the Blizzard Arcanist wasn¡¯t even enough to pick him out in a lineup, though it did confirm that initial assumption of insignificance¡ªBritish, born and raised, a few years out of college, working some dead-end job in a consulting firm. Exactly college-student-Will¡¯s failure state.

    To be fair, Henry was still pretty much Will¡¯s failure state. Lord of a city, ruling through terror and overwhelming power, and killing everyone who got in his way¡­ Will couldn¡¯t say he hadn¡¯t been tempted to do the same at points.

    Sen¡¯s eyes spread across the city, revealing the depth to which Henry had taken over it. Everything was freezing cold, and the rare areas that weren¡¯t were already primed with ritual magic that would explode with ice when the right kind of mana was passed into it. The population of Birmingham was significantly lower than it had been, but there were still people here. Most of them were bronze rank or low silver, cowering in safe spots and presumably acting as Henry¡¯s agents in exchange for their lives.

    Will didn¡¯t even bother dealing with them. Any number of bronze ranks put together couldn¡¯t threaten him. If all the silvers here put their efforts together, they¡¯d probably be able to break past his defenses, but they were so spread up and cowed by Henry¡¯s ongoing blizzard that there was only one real threat here.

    [Michael Cunningham] is attempting to share [Eye in the Scry] with you. Accept? [YES / NO]

    Familiar with how the Tracker¡¯s skill marker worked, Will accepted. A marker popped up in his vision, outlining a human figure about half a mile out.

    Caiyeri: I should accept that, right?

    Will: Yeah. Do you need a ride?

    Caiyeri: I see the target. I should still be good.

    The elf had gotten dramatically better at making use of her defensive skills for movement during the course of her time in the superdungeon. Unlike Will, who was very much a slippery, mobile, ranged attacker, Caiyeri was mostly agile in close quarters. For longer distances, she relied on momentum redirection with her Emergency Shield alongside a couple of other skills that were intended to make her a harder target to hit but also served to increase her overall mobility.

    While Will used the harsh, freezing wind to fuel his hunger phantasm¡¯s wings, Caiyeri ping-ponged from ground to building to the air, using the distance from the helicopter to the ground as her starting speed.

    Behind them, Blurr began providing support. Dark figures slipped out of the vehicle, slithering and gliding down towards the ground. Chaos energy infused them, protecting them from the gold-rank chill that infused the whole city. Her summons were a reliable force multiplier. Will would have been comfortable fighting this alone, but Blurr worked great as a support for his fighting style. Her creatures were largely okay with navigating through the darkness he spouted, and they targeted everything he corrupted with extreme prejudice.

    It was a bit absurd that he considered one of the single most powerful native Earth faction leaders as a ¡°decent support¡± for him, but Will wasn¡¯t fighting the same battle that most people ont his planet were.

    In any case, they didn¡¯t need their skills immediately. Henry noticed they were coming pretty quickly, judging by the way the aura that passed over the entire city shifted, but no attacks hit them. As a matter of fact, the winds actually seemed to lessen to some degree, letting them in without problem.

    ¡°I think he wants to talk,¡± Will said. He relayed the message to Blurr.

    Natalie: Aren¡¯t you here to take heads?

    Natalie: Well, if you want to talk, you can talk. We¡¯ve been at a de facto standoff for a while. Peace would be preferable to drawn-out war if the assassination fails.

    Will: I¡¯m not so fond of Peace myself, but I see your point. I suppose it can¡¯t hurt. I¡¯ll be closer to him anyway.

    Caiyeri got the memo too, evident in the change from a chaotic, destructively unpredictable movement pattern into a relatively straightforward bounce along the streets that mostly ignored influence in the area.

    The Council House, presuambly one of the city¡¯s former government buildings, was a pretty nice and intact building given that the apocalypse had come and gone, but it wasn¡¯t much compared to what a few silver and gold-rankers had erected in Geneva or in any of the capital cities. Will landed on the roof, looking for a door. Not seeing one, he used Decaying Touch on a portion of the floor below him and stomped on it, sending the ceiling crumbling in on the floor below.

    Caiyeri was a second behind him, crashing through a window not ten feet from him like a human¡ªwell, elven¡ªwrecking ball. She rolled to a stop, deftly landing on her feet with a conjured warhammer in her hands.

    ¡°Four floors down,¡± Will said.

    Will: Blurr, you gonna come in person or no?

    Natalie: No. Summons are on standby as well. The last time we approached, he was quite hostile. We¡¯re in a holding pattern high above. Tell us when to deploy if necessary.

    Will: You got it.

    Caiyeri: You can drop the ¡°if¡± from there. Have you met this man?

    Will: Hey.

    Natalie: Yeah, I know. They¡¯re very close.

    Will: Hey!

    ¡°Stairs?¡± Caiyeri asked, tilting her head over to a set of them.

    Sen¡¯s eyes flew through the stairwell, checking for any obvious traps. Will avoided a couple of sensors using Pages of the Past, which he hadn¡¯t used quite as much recently thanks to Sen¡¯s expanded capabilities but did have some additional features that the familiar lacked¡ªfinding pre-set magical effects, for one.

    It didn¡¯t look like there was anything terribly lethal pointed at them, which was promising for negotiation¡¯s sake.

    Ayla¡¯s words came to mind. What are you going to do if one of them isn¡¯t a monster?

    Blurr and Caiyeri¡¯s were probably more applicable in this situation, though. Will was not planning on leaving this place without blood on his hands. Henry had demonstrated the ability to control his magic with more precision and less lethality than most could manage, which almost certainly meant that those first ten thousand had been intentional. What was he at now? Fifteen thousand?

    Still, Will just kept his swords at the ready instead of fully charged, keeping his corruption swirling in hunger phantasm outside of the building rather than enveloping himself in it. He and Caiyeri took the stairs down.

    ¡°You seem excited,¡± he told the elf, who was practically bounding down the stairs.

    ¡°I finally get to deal with a regular human again,¡± she said. ¡°Fighting alongside the others is nice, but the superdungeon is strange in ways that are a lot more annoying to deal with.¡±

    ¡°Yeah?¡± Will asked. ¡°I suppose murdering one guy¡¯s a lot easier than that.¡±

    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Talking to,¡± she corrected him. ¡°And murdering him afterwards, I suppose. It¡¯s good training, that¡¯s for certain. I have an armory of loot on me now and I¡¯m on the brink of my gold rank-up, which is a pace unheard of amongst elves.¡±

    ¡°Something stopping you?¡±

    ¡°Nothing in particular,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°We¡¯ve just run into a bit of a wall. The monsters are getting harder, and though the cultists are sort of falling off, we¡¯re running into traps set by technology we¡¯ve never seen before. I thought it might be Earthen tech at first, but¡­¡±

    Will cocked his head. ¡°You¡¯re implying that the other planet has access to the superdungeon, too.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s our best guess, yes,¡± she said. ¡°But again, no progress on that. There¡¯s too few of us to risk our lives on something like that. We can talk more later, though. We¡¯re here.¡±

    They followed Michael¡¯s mark, finding themselves in an entirely intact room that looked like it might¡¯ve been a governor¡¯s headquarters at some point. Will, an American, could only liken it to something like the Oval Office, except there were massive paintings in the place of any windows.

    Said paintings were of the same person who was standing at attention behind a mahogany desk, his blue steel armor glimmering with frost energy. He looked like an arrogant dickhead with a poorly trimmed mustache in the paintings, which said a lot about the character of the guy who¡¯d commissioned it.

    ¡°Henry,¡± Will said.

    The Blizzard Arcanist turned, his face obscured by a flat visor. ¡°The famous Reaper himself. William. A pleasure to meet you.¡±

    He extended a hand.

    ¡°It¡¯s Will, and I¡¯m not shaking that,¡± Will said. ¡°The last guy who shook my hand planted a bomb on it.¡±

    It had been a silver-rank one and therefore easy to dismantle with Ravenous Feast, but Will wasn¡¯t looking forward to seeing his arm get frozen off or something.

    ¡°Of course,¡± Henry said. ¡°Could I offer you anything to drink? I have the frostiest beers this side of the date line.¡±

    His British accent was smooth and buttery, which made Will assume he¡¯d been high-class or something¡ªhe had little education on the subject, and he didn¡¯t particularly care. It reminded him of how the Hunger had spoken when they¡¯d just met.

    ¡°I¡¯m good,¡± Will said. ¡°You called us here to talk, didn¡¯t you? Let¡¯s talk.¡±

    He didn¡¯t advance, but he held a sword in each hand. Eclipse crackled with the power of every soul he¡¯d fed to it, while his trusty slayer sword remained as reliable as ever. To be honest, he probably could have swapped it out for a different sword by now, but the sheer intimidation factor of the red glow and its Unstoppable feature was very nice to have.

    Also, it appealed to the edgelord in him. Guilty.

    ¡°Could I first ask who your elven friend here is?¡± Henry asked, oily charm oozing from his words. ¡°I haven¡¯t had the opportunity to meet so many of them since my return.

    ¡°Caiyeri Seven,¡± Caiyeri introduced herself. ¡°The last abyssal elf.¡±

    Will: That is definitely not true.

    Caiyeri: It isn¡¯t, but everyone else remaining is hiding. I¡¯m the only relevant one left. You make shit up all the time to make yourself sound cooler.

    Will: Fair.

    ¡°A pleasure to meet you, Caiyeri,¡± Henry said, looking at her like he was trying to picture how her head would look mounted on a wall.

    ¡°Get on with it,¡± she said, toying with two guns¡ªone the seven-shooter Will had gifted her a while back and the other a high silver-rank one that he didn¡¯t recognize.

    ¡°I have been monitoring the leaderboard,¡± Henry said. ¡°I¡¯ve noticed a few names go missing from it recently. Lance. Cross. Karina.¡±

    The last hadn¡¯t crossed the 10,000 kill line before Will had executed her, but she¡¯d needed killing all the same.

    ¡°People die all the time,¡± Will said, shrugging. ¡°Are you trying to suggest there¡¯s a correlation there?¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to treat me like an idiot, Will. I know why you¡¯re here, and I¡¯d like to have a civilized discussion. Perhaps we can avoid some unnecessary bloodshed.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m listening,¡± Will said. ¡°Not very closely, but I¡¯m listening.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m no monster.¡±

    Caiyeri snorted. ¡°Kill count?¡±

    ¡°Fifteen thousand,¡± Will replied.

    ¡°Fourteen thousand, six hundred and four, thank you very much,¡± Henry said. ¡°The most recent waves haven¡¯t been my decision, either. You understand how it is.¡±

    Will stared at the gold-ranker, dead-eyed. ¡°Yes. That¡¯s why I have fourteen thousand fewer dead to my name than you do.¡±

    ¡°Please,¡± Henry said, raising his hands placatingly. ¡°Allow me to explain.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m giving you ten to get on with your goddamn explanation, which you seem to keep sidestepping,¡± Will said. ¡°Nine. Eight.¡±

    ¡°Alright, alright. Will. Caiyeri. Have you received any achievements for killing yet?¡±

    Will recalled getting one back in the tutorial, but that had been for killing a particularly large number of goblins in one burst. He¡¯d also gotten First Blood for being one of the first to kill anything, but that was a different story.

    ¡°For one thousand, yes,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°Nothing much came of it, though. A slight increase in my power, perhaps.¡±

    ¡°That effect continues as the numbers get higher,¡± Henry explained. ¡°While I was in the other world, I learned this. The leaders I served under all had tens of thousands of kills. Some even reached six digits. At ten thousand User kills, you unlock a certain new kind of ability.¡±

    ¡°Is that so,¡± Will said flatly. ¡°So you went and murdered a city.¡±

    The visor hid Henry¡¯s explanation, but Will could feel him rolling his eyes through his aura. ¡°Not even close to a city. I killed ten thousand people who were net negatives on society. Criminals. Murderers. Thieves. Rapists. The kind of folk that we were already trying to keep off our streets, I got rid of¡­ forever.¡±

    Somehow, Will doubted Henry had been so circumspect as to what kind of person he¡¯d eliminated. He himself possessed one of the strongest sensory abilities in the world, and even he wouldn¡¯t have that level of confidence killing a thousand, let alone ten.

    ¡°All so you could reach that ten thousand,¡± Will said. ¡°What exactly does that do for you, again?¡±

    ¡°Quite a bit,¡± Henry said. ¡°Your pool of power expands, and it can expand much further when you¡¯re at the end of your rope. I found a new fire within myself that lets meaugment my magic. It permits me to expand the breadth and depth of my skills, enabling me to hold dominion over a city. I can use items beyond my rank, and I can temporarily overcharge my own items to go above and beyond.¡±

    Oh, god, Will thought, slowly realizing why he¡¯d been growing more and more familiar with the explanation Henry had been giving. Killing ten thousand people lets you spend plausibility.

    No wonder so many of the leaderboarder otherworlders were utter sociopaths and also such widespread influences with their power. They quite literally were not playing the same game as the rest of them.

    ¡°Make no mistake, this was no impassioned killing,¡± Henry continued, apparently on a roll. ¡°When you consider that these were bronze-rank and unformed individuals, I was doing the world a service. You of all people should know that the human race has not even begun to face its greatest challenges.¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± Will said. ¡°Planet coming in a couple of years minus a few months, gods taking interest in the place, otherworlders fucking shit up and killing tens of thousands¡ªoopsies.¡±

    ¡°Tell me this, Will,¡± Henry said, ignoring the not-so-thinly veiled insult. ¡°When the angels descend, when aliens come to compete with us for our limited resources, would you rather have ten thousand weaklings, not a single one of them higher than bronze, or a single terrifyingly powerful gold-ranker?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re farming XP off shitters by murdering them all,¡± Will said. ¡°You do know this isn¡¯t an RPG, right? This is real life.¡±

    Caiyeri: I have no strong opinions on this apart from the fact that this was once a life elf program too. I don¡¯t think they ever hit the 10k mark, though. We¡¯re operating on a different level from the elves back then. Makes our conflicts look silly in retrospect.

    Will: Good to hear. I¡¯m going to hear this guy out just a little longer.

    Caiyeri: Guns still locked and loaded, then. Heard loud and clear.

    ¡°I don¡¯t plan on killing any more that I don¡¯t have to,¡± Henry said. ¡°Birmingham¡¯s streets are free of crime. Our people are safer under me than they would be under anyone else save for a small handful of people. When the monsters come knocking, my citizens will be grateful for what I did, as much as it pained me.¡±

    ¡°So, your sales pitch is¡­ let you keep doing what you¡¯re doing?¡±

    ¡°I have no illusion that you¡¯ll join me,¡± Henry said. ¡°Just like me, you¡¯re doing important things, and I wouldn¡¯t dare impose while you have the fate of the world in your hands. What I do ask is that you let me protect my people in peace. I don¡¯t plan on doing anything that might be disruptive in the same sense that my original spree was. Not unless I get closer to a hundred thousand kills, but I expect that to take decades, if not centuries.¡±

    ¡°Leave you alone and you¡¯ll do the same for us?¡±

    ¡°Essentially.¡±

    Will stopped for a moment, considering the matter. Like he¡¯d thought of earlier, Henry¡¯s path was scarily similar to ones he¡¯d considered going down before. At face value, the gold-ranker wasn¡¯t even terribly wrong. Ten thousand bronze rankers would be less effective against, say, a platinum-ranked Peace summon than Will or Henry alone would be.

    But was Will fighting for that kind of society? Where the defenceless just perished and only murderers could survive?

    No. Almost exactly the opposite, in fact.

    Will looked at Henry and saw a road that had once been parallel to his but was now something more than that. Left to his own devices, the gold-ranker would become a warlord, killing more with the justification that he could protect them all with his enhanced power.

    In some ways, that fulfilled the Dread Executor motto. Certainty through death. Order through chaos. Peace through dread.

    But Henry was nothing like Will or Yui, Aza or Nynn. He was a loose cannon. One could only be so cavalier with life before they became what they wore they were protecting the world from.

    For this kind of person, Will referred to the last line of that motto.

    Eliminate. Eradicate. Execute.

    Will: Go.

    With a single thought, darkness exploded out from all of Sen¡¯s eyes, blanketing the city. Caiyeri fired off two shots as Will dashed forward, swords in hand.

    Henry¡¯s body crumpled before he could get there, the shots blowing it apart¡ªand revealing the melting ice that had made up the copy that had been speaking to them.

    All across the city, the air began to freeze.

    Will: Michael, Blurr. Hit it.

    Michael: Heard. Tracking again.

    Natalie: Summons out.

    ¡°Fight¡¯s on,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°Ready?¡±

    Will smiled coldly. ¡°You know it. Henry is a dead man walking.¡±

 Chapter 131: Dead Man Walking

    Sen was going to have to put in a lot of work here, but it seemed that Henry was at least somewhat aware of Will¡¯s familiar. While his city-wide influence wasn¡¯t on the same level of Cross¡¯, the Blizzard Arcanist had a skill that reduced parts of the city to a temperature so low that Sen¡¯s eyes began suffering damage even in their intangible state.

    Natalie: Twelve summons active. Three are dead already. Others are adjusting. Check the northside. Think he¡¯s hiding there.

    Michael: Can¡¯t get ahold of him. Did he leave? His signature¡¯s jumping all over the place.

    Will: It was a decoy. He might be traveling between them.

    That also seemed to be a constant between the 10k killcount Users. Almost all of them had huge area-of-effect powers that went far beyond what someone of their rank should have reasonably been able to accomplish, and that package seemed to include powerful movement abilities within their range of influence. Cinder hadn¡¯t shown any signs of the latter, but she also hadn¡¯t wanted to kill anyone, so Will assumed she wouldn¡¯t have used any.

    Henry¡¯s was looking to be a pain in the ass. Cross and Lance had both stopped their respective Sen-countering abilities when they¡¯d started moving around, but Henry¡¯s passives were rendering entire areas uninhabitable for his intelligence and hiding amongst them.

    Unfortunately, it seemed like they were dealing with a competent opponent here. Fortunately for them, their collective bullshit was almost certainly more than the sum total of what the gold-ranker could toss out.

    Will: Stay close-ish to me and I¡¯ll get rid of the adverse weather. Gonna try to clear out the coldest bits. Smoke him out.

    Caiyeri: Roger roger.

    Will: There is no fucking way you watched that series. We don¡¯t even have functional TVs in most countries.

    Caiyeri: Nathan said it would annoy you.

    Will: Remind me to punch him the next time I see him.

    The elf fell in line with him, bouncing off a building and through a section of Will¡¯s phantasm wings. He solidified that section of the phantasm as she started to fall, giving her a section to hold onto.

    ¡°Oh, this is much warmer,¡± she said, getting into a crouched ready position. ¡°You get the most randomly useful skills.¡±

    That was a fair complaint. Will had honestly not expected to find much use out of Equilibrium Mantle when he¡¯d first gotten it, but it had shown itself time and time again as a sleeper power play in his repertoire.

    Though he didn¡¯t actually nullify the effect of Henry¡¯s skills, it gave him some leeway to throw Sen through the temporarily warmed area behind him, giving him more avenues to attack and investigate.

    Will slashed through weak points when he saw them, his magic flashing through the air at seemingly nothing and making contact with crystallized mana, shattering the bonds between User and magic in a flash of dark energy.

    ¡°Nathan isn¡¯t here to complain about your abilities being, and I quote, ¡®incredibly unfair bullshit,¡¯ so I¡¯ll do it for him,¡± Caiyeri said. She ducked her head to one side, narrowly dodging an icicle that manifested out of thin air, charged with spatial energy. ¡°What kind of User gets to kill magic?¡±

    ¡°You should try bullying a few more gods,¡± Will advised. ¡°That gets unexpectedly good returns.¡±

    Caiyeri snorted. ¡°If anyone normal took your advice on half the things you do, there wouldn¡¯t be a body left to find.¡±

    ¡°Hey, you did it once. That worked out, didn¡¯t it?¡±

    ¡°When I was younger, I tried cutting a hand off to see if a healing potion would reattach it if I still had the hand. It ended up succeeding, but I wouldn¡¯t try that again.¡±

    ¡°That is worryingly absurd.¡±

    ¡°We had very little in the way of entertainment in the facility.¡±

    Even as they bantered, Will cut off more parts of the blizzard, slowly eliminating Henry¡¯s influence. The Blizzard Arcanist replied, of course, using various ranged skills to teleport massive amounts of ice around and even casting a lightning strike or two, but Will chained Ravenous Feasts into each other, using the restored mana and life force from each consumed skill to eliminate the next. Normally, that skill took twelve hours to cool down, but with the levels of Blessed that Envoy of Mercy had given him, he could negate the cooldown with the same title.

    Bullshit indeed.

    Michael: Hey. I think he¡¯s realized what you¡¯re doing. I got eyes.

    Will and Caiyeri both stopped chatting as a fresh marker appeared half a mile from them.

    Will: On it.

    #

    Henry was very annoyed.

    The conversation he¡¯d had with Will hadn¡¯t gone to plan. Obviously, Henry had heard a lot about the corruption wielder. William Li-Brown was a topic often spoken of in hushed whispers behind closed doors.

    Henry had a number of connections to prominent figures in other countries, many formed during the global summit, which had been a resounding success. Sure, on the surface, nobody wanted to talk to the supposed mass murderer, but when leaders thought their peers weren¡¯t looking, they all preferred to have power on their side.

    He¡¯d built a pretty thorough profile of the corruption wielder from that. Despite his relatively low position on the leaderboard until recently, Will was one of the most disproportionately powerful Users this planet had to offer.

    Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

    It had been hard to believe until he¡¯d witnessed the man¡¯s aura himself. Henry had a whole city comfortably under his thumb, and even he¡¯d been staggered by how potent Will¡¯s aura had been. Hell, he¡¯d had to check the leaderboard to be completely sure that the man was somehow still silver.

    Despite that, Henry had figured that there was a decent shot at convincing him to leave Birmingham alone. All signs had pointed towards Will having an understanding about what was necessary for the greater good.

    Not enough of one, evidently. Henry had been playing with kid gloves on, trying to get a message through to the corruption wielder, but that wasn¡¯t working.

    Silver-rank chaos summons from Natalie Blurr proved to be more annoying than he¡¯d thought at first, but Henry had spent a good deal of time preparing for her. The Tracker that she so obstinately kept employing was finding him no matter how many times he swapped between frozen bodies, which was acceptable.

    Henry triggered Deep Freeze, the skill that he¡¯d used to rend ten thousand people apart in the span of a single hour. Rather than target his entire town, he chose the specific spots where he detected enemies, slowing and crippling the summons. He didn¡¯t even check to see if the skill affected Will and hius elf companion.

    By now, he was beginning to accept that he only had one option here.

    Run.

    As a gold-rank with otherworlder benefits and the boosting effect of his 10,000 kill title, Henry knew he was powerful. There were very, very few nations on this planet who could challenge him, let alone people. By all rights, a Silver 10 shouldn¡¯t have even been a threat.

    But Henry wasn¡¯t dumb. He¡¯d been tracking the gossip, the underground news networks. He¡¯d watched the leaderboard as he¡¯d slowly slid up the ranks without doing anything.

    Henry was strong, but he wasn¡¯t the strongest. There were those above him that he wouldn¡¯t even have thought of challenging.

    One by one, they were dying, and it was this Reaper who was killing them.

    You have received a message request from [William Li-Brown].

    Finally. Maybe the stronger magic burst had been enough to catch his attention.

    Will: So I was thinking about what you said. 10,000 dead to save however many more?

    Henry: Yes. You¡¯ll understand when you get there.

    Will: What are you thinking about your odds against me?

    Henry: What?

    Will: Don¡¯t answer that question, because I can tell. You¡¯re not fighting to win. You¡¯re fighting to run away.

    Henry: Take it as a compliment.

    Will: I¡¯ll take it as an answer, actually. I was wondering earlier. Thinking about whether your strat was legit or not. There¡¯s plenty of people in the world who need saving, and maybe, just maybe, it¡¯d be worth getting rid of a few of them to keep the rest from dying.

    Henry: You¡¯re getting it.

    Will: Then I thought about it some more. See, I haven¡¯t been doing that so far. I just kill the people who need killing. You, on the other hand, have. It¡¯s a great test case. One person with your strat, one with mine. See who comes out on top.

    Will: So far, seems like I¡¯m winning. Unfortunately for you, that means the list of people who need killing only gets to expand by one.

    Shit.

    Darkness exploded from Henry¡¯s immediate surroundings. Recognizing the skill as the one that allowed the corruption wielder to teleport, he deployed immediate countermeasures.

    I won¡¯t die here, he chanted to himself, digging deep within himself to find that new pool of power he¡¯d gained. Enhanced skill: Absolute Zero.

    Matter around him stopped moving. Darkness shattered. Not even a protective skill could shield against this magic, which plunged his surroundings into such absolute cold that they would never move again.

    Will: That¡¯s cute. I should introduce you to a couple of my friends.

    Henry heard an explosion from a distance, followed by an arrow that slipped through the tiniest gaps in his layers of automatic defenses, nearly reaching him before Absolute Zero stopped it.

    A second later, the remaining darkness around him coalesced into a starry portal. Before he could adjust his efforts to dispel it, a sudden impact slammed into him, knocking his senses awry. Henry¡¯s world went black for a moment, confusion joining the shock of the sudden impact.

    What was this? Absolute Zero froze matter so effectively that anything that got near him was near-guaranteed to simply die on the spot.

    To make matters worse, a second arrow broke through his shields. This time, he didn¡¯t have the presence of mind to do much more than protect his vitals. It pierced his shoulder, freezing before it could detonate its payload.

    The truck that had apparently slammed into him early did so again, and it was only this time that Henry caught what it was¡ªan enormous monstrosity larger than the house he¡¯d grown up in.

    Will: That arrow is courtesy of Caiyeri Seven. I believe you¡¯ve met.

    A thread of magic connected from¡ªsomewhere, Henry couldn¡¯t see¡ªto the arrow, and that frozen tip melted.

    You have been afflicted with a gold-rank level of [Wither].

    Henry tried to teleport, but he¡¯d broken focus on Absolute Zero. Shadowy darkness swirled out of a hundred suddenly-visible eyes, overwhelming his skill, shattering it.

    Devouring it.

    That darkness crept towards him, too, and before he could counter it, sudden motion alerted him to a flurry of spear-like bone shooting towards him from the monstrosity.

    The only safe place to dodge was the darkness.

    Will: And that¡¯s Jessie. Do forgive its manners. It¡¯s not very well-socialized yet, but we¡¯re working on it.

    Except the darkness wasn¡¯t safe either, was it?

    You have been afflicted with a gold-rank level of [Corruption].

    And just as Henry had seen in after-action reports a dozen times, a bell tolled.

    The darkness parted, revealing a cloaked angel of death, midnight wings glistening with an evil light.

    ¡°I¡¯ve thought your proposal over,¡± Will said. ¡°Here¡¯s my answer¡ª¡°

    His wings spread wide, revealing the swords he¡¯d brought with him. One shone a glistening blood-red, while the other seemed to suck in the light itself.

    ¡°NO.¡±

    Henry never heard Will¡¯s declaration, the wails of the forgotten filling his mind instead.

    The last coherent sentence he heard was from an elven woman¡¯s voice.

    ¡°Well, that was disappointing.¡±

    #

    Progress to [Eternal Throne]: [619/1000]

    Special quest: Gold Challenges (Reaper)

    Sub-task advanced.

    - Kill 7 beings with a killcount of 10,000 or higher [4/7]

    ¡°Job¡¯s not done,¡± Will said. ¡°Thanks for the assist, guys.¡±

    ¡°Neither Jessie nor I are guys,¡± Caiyeri pointed out. ¡°Natalie isn¡¯t, either.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, yeah, whatever,¡± Will said. ¡°How did you feel about that?¡±

    Jessie shook like a wet dog, its aura radiating with enthusiastic approval.

    Will winced. ¡°Don¡¯t go too hard on that. You¡¯ll break another building. We¡¯ve done enough property damage as is.¡±

    Natalie: Saw the leaderboard shift. It¡¯s done?

    Will: Yeah. Thanks for helping out.

    Michael: Thank god. That man was a cancer on our country.

    Natalie: I cannot properly emphasize how little I did during that fight. I owe you.

    Will: You¡¯re good. Debts matter less than trust.

    Will: Actually, I might have a favor to ask.

    Natalie: Go for it.

    Will: You¡¯ve got good intelligence, right? Good transportation?

    Natalie: Yes.

    Will: Fantastic. I¡¯m about¡­ fifty-seven percent done with my challenges. I¡¯m looking for Pixie, Warr, and any other leaderboarders you know of who might be a problem. There¡¯s a lot more shit coming our way, and you can be damn sure I¡¯m not going to be silver when it does.

 Chapter 132: Im Kind of a Big Deal

    Before Will left the UK, he sat down for a somewhat awkward cup of tea with Michael, Natalie, Caiyeri, and Jessie. It was mostly only awkward because they a) couldn¡¯t figure out how to fit Jessie in a tea room and b) Jessie appeared to like the taste of tea, but regular teacups didn¡¯t work for it. They¡¯d ended up having one of Blurr¡¯s underlings duplicate the liquid until there had been enough to stick into a firehose.

    ¡°We need to talk,¡± Michael said over his cup. ¡°Is everyone here good with you?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re talking,¡± Will replied. ¡°If I didn¡¯t trust them, they wouldn¡¯t have come with me.¡±

    ¡°Fair point,¡± he replied. ¡°Uh, that includes¡­¡±

    ¡°Jessie can hear you,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°I would not suggest acting like it can¡¯t.¡±

    Jessie nodded its head, smashing through the forcefield that Caiyeri had set up in lieu of an actual room.

    The elf sighed, snapping her fingers. A new forcefield went up to replace the last, this one an extra ten feet higher. ¡°Mind your manners, Jessie. We¡¯re in polite company.¡±

    Blurr was poorly attempting to suppress a laugh. For someone usually as dark and serious as her, it felt strange to see her expression in anything that wasn¡¯t broody. ¡°I¡¯ll admit that this wasn¡¯t on the list of things I expected to see my lifetime. I thought that one of you would be dead by now.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve gotten good at not dying,¡± Will said. ¡°I¡¯m pretty good at dying, too, but that¡¯s another story. Michael, you had something to say, right?¡±

    ¡°I did,¡± the Tracker said, growing serious. ¡°When I picked this class, it wasn¡¯t just to follow monsters. I finished the tutorial as part of a group, and one of the things we were sure about was that the future was going to carry more surprises for us. I picked up a sponsor early, and I¡¯m a sigil-holder of Sight, who is a lesser god in Fate¡¯s orbit.¡±

    Will tensed. He¡¯d sensed the sigil connection, but he hadn¡¯t identified that.

    ¡°He doesn¡¯t serve Fate, if that¡¯s what you¡¯re worrying about,¡± Michael said. ¡°I have no affiliation with Peace. Swear it on my life.¡±

    His aura seemed to indicate that was the truth.

    ¡°Carry on,¡± Will said. ¡°You were talking.¡±

    ¡°Right. So obviously you noticed the big fuckoff planet showing up in the sky, right?¡±

    Time to impact: 1 year, 8 months, 14 days.

    ¡°Got a little counter in the corner of my vision that reminds me in case I ever can¡¯t be bothered to look up,¡± Will said.

    ¡°Right. But a couple months ago, something changed. I hear about it when I dream. Sight tells me. There¡¯s a whole other civilization up there, and I think they know we¡¯re here.¡±

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t surprise me, given what I¡¯ve heard about the cycle,¡± Will said.

    ¡°More importantly, I think they know about you.¡±

    ¡°Wow, look at you go,¡± Caiyeri said drily. ¡°You¡¯re famous. Again. This keeps happening to you, for some reason.¡±

    ¡°Why do you think that?¡± Will asked.

    ¡°They¡¯re preparing for war.¡±

    Will and Caiyeri sighed in cadence at that.

    ¡°Of course they are,¡± Caiyeri said.

    ¡°Just once, I¡¯d like someone¡¯s reaction to me to be hey, cool, let¡¯s work together to fight monsters and shit,¡± Will said.

    ¡°That was my reaction.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t count. I mean someone with actual political relevance.¡±

    ¡°Watch where your mouth is going, human. Don¡¯t think I¡¯ve forgotten how many times you would¡¯ve died without me during your tutorial.¡±

    ¡°I did die, remember? Whose fault was that again?¡±

    ¡°I just gave you the poison. It¡¯s not my fault you drank the entire vial.¡±

    ¡°Excuse me,¡± Blurr said, cutting in sharply but politely. ¡°Are the two of you going to get a room, or should we leave?¡±

    ¡°We were just finishing up,¡± Will said.

    ¡°I don¡¯t like what you¡¯re implying,¡± Caiyeri added. ¡°That said, we were about done. Do you have the information on the people that you¡¯re adding to Will¡¯s murder list?¡±

    ¡°We are not calling it that,¡± Will said.

    ¡°Assassination list? Hit list?¡± Caiyeri suggested. ¡°I¡¯d just say leaderboard, but there are people we like on there.¡±

    ¡°We do have information on Pixie and Warr, if that¡¯s what you¡¯re asking,¡± Blurr said. ¡°Pixie leads a faction in what used to be Bosnia. They¡¯re full of affliction-based classes, and they¡¯ve cleared a fair chunk of Eastern Europe of human and monster life. Motivations unknown, but given what we know now, I think we can guess.¡±

    ¡°Fantastic,¡± Will said. ¡°Warr?¡±

    ¡°Brazil superdungeon. We lost eyes on him after he went in. He has a confirmed killcount of at least ten thousand, though.¡±

    ¡°How¡¯d we get that?¡±

    ¡°He reappeared in the remnants of Sao Paulo. That city no longer exists.¡±

    ¡°Ah.¡±

    ¡°So, thoughts?¡± Caiyeri asked. ¡°We can take them, right?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s not many people we can¡¯t take,¡± Will said. ¡°We should probably get going. This is going to take a while.¡±

    #

    Time to impact: 1 year, 7 months, 29 days.

    Locating Pixie¡¯s faction took over two full weeks. Will had to draw on a half dozen separate connections to lend him resources. It ended up being a combination of four non-combat Users from the ESNA, a small army¡¯s amount of detection devices from Australia, and a whole bunch of using Nathan as a glorified taxi to finally find their base of operations. They were spread out across about a hundred miles, but their core group was centered in a desolate wasteland surrounded by several dozen open dungeons.

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Killing them all took eight minutes.

    Every time he¡¯d found an offshoot of the group, Will left a single one of Sen¡¯s eyes near them, keeping it cloaked. Since most of them were also silver-rankers, they didn¡¯t have the means to detect the familiar, let alone destroy it.

    Ninety-seven members of a group known colloquially as the Long Death experienced a quick, brutal death at the hands of gold-rank corruption applied by darkness that swelled out of their shadows without warning. Across the countries they were spread across, one by one, bells tolled to end their lives and reap the next one.

    Pixie survived longer than the rest. As a gold-rank Chronopoisoner¡ªone of the classes Will had been offered during the tutorial, and one that had the potential to evolve to Dread Executor¡ªshe had methods to counteract certain afflictions, slowing down her own personal time to prevent them from taking hold quickly.

    Unfortunately for her, the combination of Envoy of Mercy and Chaos Transfer meant that her entire primary kit was useless on Will. She also added a layer of traditional combat to it, but there was only so much she could do to prolong the inevitable.

    ¡°Hey,¡± he said in front of her dying body, casually slicing through another poison skill that shot forth from her trembling hands. ¡°Does the phrase certainty through death mean anything to you?¡±

    ¡°W-what?¡±

    ¡°No wonder they didn¡¯t make you a candidate,¡± Will said, shaking his head. ¡°Only thing it looks like you¡¯re good for is killing people weaker than you.¡±

    Progress to [Eternal Throne]: [725/1000]

    Special quest: Gold Challenges (Reaper)

    Sub-task advanced.

    - Kill 7 beings with a killcount of 10,000 or higher [5/7]

    #

    Time to impact: 1 year, 7 months, 3 days.

    Time slowed down as Will finally closed in on Warr, and a system notification clued him into the fact that it wasn¡¯t him doing it.

    [The Order of the Striker] requests a meeting. Accept? [YES / NO]

    That was somewhat unexpected. Will frowned. He¡¯d been forced to accept a sponsor meeting when he¡¯d been in the trial of the champion, but the system wasn¡¯t transporting him off-planet this time. He¡­ didn¡¯t actually know the protocol for this.

    You have consumed one level of [Purified] to negate the cast time of [Sanctuary].

    ¡°Hey, Ayla,¡± he said, stepping into the Beyond. ¡°Anything new?¡±

    ¡°Besides your rapidly approaching deadline? No.¡±

    ¡°Great. Could you tell me what the deal is with sponsors asking to meet me outside of the trial of the champion?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s strange,¡± the changeling said, her aura expressing a frown. ¡°They usually don¡¯t take interest in people beyond trial events. It¡¯s likely that you¡¯ll be brought off-planet briefly, but it¡¯s expensive on their end, and they can¡¯t kill you without risking more than even a Lady or Lord can afford to lose.¡±

    ¡°So accepting it is fine, then?¡±

    ¡°It is. Did you just spend a thousand credits to ask me if it was safe to accept an invitation?¡±

    ¡°A thousand silver, yeah. I mean, thanks to the sponsor incident back in the trial, money means basically nothing to me up until we get into the gem tiers, so it¡¯s pretty much free. See you soon.¡±

    He slipped back out of the Beyond and into reality, then accepted.

    Meeting accepted.

    You will be transported off-planet in [10 seconds].

    He arrived in an unfamiliar building, already standing at the head of what looked like an ordinary boardroom with substantially more powerful auras than any executive office would have ever had in the before times. Three figures hidden by shadow were sitting at the table already, larger than life and radiating power.

    ¡°Very edgy,¡± Will said, nodding approvingly. ¡°Not the kind of venue I would¡¯ve picked, though. It kinda offsets the vibe. Also, do y¡¯all have names, or¡­¡±

    ¡°We had a deal, corruption wielder,¡± one of them ground out, his voice infused with so much power that Will had to brace himself to not be blown back by it.

    ¡°Ah, so that¡¯s what this is about,¡± Will said, finally realizing what the meeting had been called for. ¡°You sponsored this asshole, didn¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°We did,¡± another one of the figures said. This voice was more even. She was also visually indistinguishable from the others, which wasn¡¯t helping Will be any less irritated by this. ¡°He will make a good member of the Order, one day.¡±

    ¡°Nah, I¡¯m thinking he won¡¯t,¡± Will said. ¡°I got details over time. Looks like your standard murderhobo type. Make the numbers go up, no matter who you have to go through to get there. Very lone wolf, which I can respect, but also very sociopathic and very fond of killing people who¡¯ve done nothing wrong, which I can¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°WE. HAD. A. DEAL.¡± This from the first voice again.

    ¡°Jesus, calm your tits,¡± Will said, holding his hands up. He glared at the figure that he assumed it was coming from. ¡°Well, you might not have them, depending on your species. Calm your soul, dude. Not cool to try to suppress mine when we¡¯re at your house. You know there¡¯s a little thing called plausibility that might be an issue for you, right?¡±

    ¡°Hezen is out of line, but he does bring up the heart of the issue,¡± the woman said.

    ¡°Sounds like an issue, not an iss-me,¡± Will said. ¡°No? Does that not translate? Okay. Here¡¯s the thing. That deal you brokered with me? I fucking remember it, because that¡¯s what laid the basis for a lot of the gear I have now. It protects you, and it protected your charges while we were in the trial. You¡¯re not going to get me on some technicality here. I know what you signed. I know what I signed.¡±

    ¡°I told you that wasn¡¯t going to work,¡± the third voice said, sounding exasperated. ¡°This one will never listen.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m listening,¡± Will said. ¡°I¡¯m just not someone who¡¯s going to roll over because you presented yourself as someone more powerful than me. Do you know how long it took me to get here? I have fought my way through every asshole under the sun. I didn¡¯t even know Earth had that many gold-rankers. My friends are helping, but this wasn¡¯t easy.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re going to regret this,¡± the first man said.

    ¡°Somehow, I don¡¯t think I will. Let me tell you what you might regret. Are you familiar with Peace?¡±

    ¡°Do you take us for fools?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll take that as a yes, then. Right. What you might regret is getting in my way and realizing a few years later that oops, you just let Peace annihilate my entire fucking planet, including every single promising candidate you might¡¯ve picked out from either mine or the one about to hit it. How is it that I¡¯m two tiers lower than you shitheads and still fighting for a greater good than you can even think about? Hell, there are Peace sigil-holders in this superdungeon trying to, I don¡¯t even know, subvert it or some shit?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re being emotional,¡± the woman said flatly. ¡°You need to consider the situation you¡¯re in.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve considered my situation plenty,¡± Will said. ¡°And you know what I¡¯ve decided? Humor me.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± she replied.

    ¡°I¡¯m kind of a big deal, and that means I don¡¯t need to entertain this BS anymore.¡±

    With that, he selected the return option, vanishing before any of the representatives could get a word in.

    In the wake of his departure, the third voice spoke again.

    ¡°This is exactly why we have that deal with him in the first place. Had we not made it, could you imagine what would happen when he reaches the higher tiers?¡±

    ¡°You have no guarantee he¡¯ll even make it to gold,¡± the first one replied angrily.

    ¡°Then why did you call this meeting?¡±

    The others had no response to that.

    #

    Progress to [Eternal Throne]: [945/1000]

    Special quest: Gold Challenges (Reaper)

    Sub-task advanced.

    - Kill 7 beings with a killcount of 10,000 or higher [6/7]

    The fight had been surprisingly hard. Will had gotten into melee range of Warr, who was a simple Warrior, and he¡¯d absolutely lost the close-quarters battle. It was only thanks to Envoy of Mercy that he¡¯d managed to avoid losing a limb, and he was down to only a handful of Blessed and Purified levels remaining.

    Will was not a swordfighter. He was just a very powerful User who happened to have a pair of swords. When fighting against someone with actual CQC skills and training, he wasn¡¯t even close to a match.

    Once he¡¯d gone to long-range combat, it had been easier, but Warr had a ton of magic items to burn, and it had been Jessie and Caiyeri who¡¯d been key in negating those effects. Working together, though, they¡¯d managed to find a gap in his defenses and corrupt him. It had been a hop, skip, and a jump to killing him from there.

    Will took Jessie and Caiyeri into the Beyond from the Brazil superdungeon, not wanting to stay there too long. Peace had established a more thorough presence there, and the only reason that they hadn¡¯t been overwhelmed by her people was that Warr had already dealt a great deal of damage to them on one specific path.

    Ayla met them in his Sanctuary.

    ¡°Your soul feels cold,¡± she told him. ¡°Lethal.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s what it needs to be,¡± Will said. ¡°One to go.¡±

    ¡°One to go,¡± she agreed. ¡°I have news.¡±

    ¡°Oh, lovely,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°What is it this time?¡±

    ¡°Aliens. More accurately, the other planet. They¡¯re looking at you. They are watching.¡±

 Chapter 133: The Worst Possible Time

    ¡°You know, by some definition, Will is already an alien,¡± Caiyeri said.

    ¡°That¡¯s just not true,¡± Will said. ¡°Your planet hit mine. Doesn¡¯t that mean that mine counts as the ¡®base¡¯ planet here? That means you¡¯re the alien, no?¡±

    ¡°Well, I never moved from my own planet.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s besides the point,¡± Ayla said. Her voice was patient and polite, but irritation radiated through her aura. ¡°Do you know anything about the third planet? The one currently bound for future impact?¡±

    ¡°Not really, no,¡± Will said. ¡°Most of our preparation has just been for what we think will come. I doubt first contact is going to be peaceful, so it doesn¡¯t really change much what their civilization is, especially since we all have universal translators.¡±

    ¡°An understandable sentiment that I would expect any given mortal to have,¡± Ayla said.

    ¡°You say that like you¡¯re not mortal yourself.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s besides the point. Until recently, I was still under restrictions created by a soul contract that prevented me from speaking about it.¡±

    ¡°Soul contracts?¡± Will asked. ¡°I¡¯m assuming that has something to do with the organization you¡¯ve mentioned before.¡±

    ¡°Correct,¡± Ayla said. ¡°They have a number of preventative measures from preventing their labor from escaping and compromising organizational policy. Because of my unique circumstances, some of those don¡¯t apply to me as much as they did before.¡±

    ¡°I assume it¡¯s rare one of your kind manages to escape,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°Not so much a god in the machine as I thought you were.¡±

    Back during the tutorial, Caiyeri and Ayla had shared a healthy dislike for each other¡ªCaiyeri because she¡¯d regarded Ayla, Will¡¯s tutorial helper at the time, as an extension of the system itself and therefore a malevolent entity and Ayla because Caiyeri was exactly the kind of system native from a relatively undeveloped planet that would think that.

    ¡°My kind, as you say, were largely put to death for my transgressions against the system,¡± Ayla said lightly. ¡°Your kind, on the other hand, has never even managed to make it off your home planet.¡±

    Maybe some part of that was still there.

    ¡°That¡¯s fair,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°I¡¯m working on that part.¡±

    Ayla nodded, her form rippling. ¡°So you are. You¡¯re certainly with the right people to do so, and your growth is nothing short of exemplary given the failure you came from. You¡¯ll be gold soon.¡±

    ¡°I feel it,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°One more good fight, maybe.¡±

    Or maybe not.

    ¡°Hey,¡± Will said. ¡°I know it¡¯s partly my fault we got off track, but can you keep explaining what you were talking about?¡±

    ¡°Of course. None of us have unlimited time here.¡± Ayla¡¯s aura pulsed inwards, then spread out as if she¡¯d just taken a deep breath. ¡°The other planet is from the Inanis star system, originally located roughly two hundred thousand light-years from you.¡±

    ¡°How the hell did they get into our solar system so fast?¡± Will asked.

    ¡°You¡¯re asking this while you and I stand in a positive energy plane where time works in ways that not even sovereign tiers understand and the laws of space are more of a suggestion,¡± Ayla said flatly.

    ¡°You¡¯re forgetting someone,¡± Caiyeri said drily.

    ¡°Of course. You, me, and an elf that by all means shouldn¡¯t be able to be here without her god ripping her soul out. Oh, and an artificially created gestalt that doesn¡¯t seem to want to speak in my presence, but that¡¯s a whole other story. Are you in a place to be asking about a simple two hundred thousand lightyear jaunt?¡±

    Will sighed. ¡°Jessie¡¯s just shy around you. But yeah, I guess not. Continue.¡±

    ¡°Their society is a bit of a special case. They were integrated shortly after you were. I was a tutorial helper for some of them, even.¡±

    ¡°That soon after?¡± Will asked, surprised. ¡°It hasn¡¯t even been half a year since we began, and you¡¯ve been active with us for a while now.¡±

    ¡°Their integration actually began during your own tutorial,¡± Ayla said. ¡°I was a helper for several weeks. Inanis, however, has the unique attribute of being a star with a strange kind of microgravity and a truly abnormal lack of movement. Relative to your world, Inanis-5¡¯s time passed faster.¡±

    ¡°Oh, like Interstellar,¡± Will said.

    ¡±Like¡ªare you talking about a movie?¡± Caiyeri asked. ¡°Do you not know basic astrophysics?¡±

    ¡°You do?¡±

    ¡°This is basic shit!¡± the elf exclaimed. ¡°I learned this when I was three!¡±

    ¡°Yes, like Interstellar,¡± Ayla said. ¡°I didn¡¯t particularly care for that movie. Earth¡¯s humans have interesting ideas of space exploration and extraterrestrial life. They¡¯re all a touch¡­ self-centered.¡±

    ¡°You know us,¡± Will said happily. ¡°Anyway, as you were saying. Time dilation?¡±

    Caiyeri breathed a sigh of relief. ¡°At least you know something. I don¡¯t know why I expected more.¡±

    ¡°Time dilation,¡± Ayla confirmed. ¡°A significant amount, actually, and it wasn¡¯t helped by the fact that they had otherworlders returning from the first day. Despite how abnormal their situation started as, their tutorial actually ended up being more typical than yours. It lasted two years by their time, and there were a good number of Users who came out of it silver-rank, with the odd gold-ranker too.¡±

    ¡°Wait, that¡¯s a regular tutorial?¡± Will asked. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s bullshit. You¡¯re telling me we got scammed?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve been telling you that your cycle is extremely abnormal for some time. Their society integrated into the system in a much more usual manner than your planets did. If I had to guess, they¡¯ll maintain course to become a fully integrated system civilization. Whether your planet¡ªmore accurately, you¡ªwill interfere with that is yet up to question.¡±

    ¡°A regular, integrated civilization,¡± Will said, pieces falling into place. ¡°So not the kind of people that¡¯ll be happy with me.¡±

    ¡°That is correct. I received some statistics from the tutorial shortly before I was given the opportunity to escape by the Dread Executor Ramiel. On Inanis-5, out of a total of three billion eligible Users, sixty-four were corruption wielders, compared to Earth¡¯s seven. All sixty-four were dead by the end of the tutorial, mostly because of action from other native Users. On Earth, there were three survivors.¡±

    ¡°Wait, there¡¯s others?¡± Will asked. ¡°Me, obviously, and then two more?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what happened to them,¡± Ayla said. ¡°I assume they¡¯re dead or in hiding, because I would have noticed if they had any plausibility.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re saying that they¡¯re going to come after Will¡¯s life,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°Timeframe? Details?¡±

    ¡°Likely before the Contractor carries out Peace¡¯s ritual,¡± Ayla said. ¡°Your friends in the superdungeon can likely tell you more, since that¡¯s where it¡¯s most likely for early rifts between the two. I can¡¯t see there. Even dreamers have limits.¡±

    ¡°Lovely,¡± Will said. ¡°Any thoughts on whether or not they¡¯re going to have anyone above ten thousand kills I can take a swing at?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s possible that they have Reaper equivalents, albeit ones that play nicer with what the organization expects out of the system,¡± Ayla said. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t count on it, though.¡±

    ¡°So the plan remains the same for the time being, then,¡± Will said. ¡°I need to find one more 10k-er and rank up to gold, hopefully bringing Caiyeri up at the same time. This just gives me one more pile of shit on the shit plate.¡±

    ¡°That roughly sums it up, yes,¡± Ayla replied. ¡°One more thing to watch out for. I would also advise coalescing your powerbase sooner or later. It¡¯s good to be able to be as mobile as you are, but with your friends as isolated as they are, you¡¯re practically asking for someone to get to one of them in an effort to reach you. Ask me how I know.¡±

    If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    ¡°I can guess,¡± Will said grimly. ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind.¡±

    ¡°Take over the next place we hit,¡± Ayla suggested. ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be too hard to clear everything out and take it for yourself.¡±

    Jessie finally contributed for the first time in its raspy, ethereal voice. ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°It speaks,¡± Ayla said, sounding completely unsurprised.

    ¡°It does,¡± Will said. ¡°Also, can you two not suggest wanton mass murder as the solution to everything? It works for, like, fifty percent of situations at best.¡±

    ¡°Sixty,¡± Caiyeri countered.

    ¡°Fifty-five?¡±

    ¡°More,¡± Jessie added.

    Will sighed. ¡°You two are impossible. Ayla, thanks for the advice. We¡¯re going to go out and look for some more evil to eradicate or whatever now. Hopefully I don¡¯t get too much of the wrong blood on my hands.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s as much as many of us can ask for,¡± the changeling said. ¡°Don¡¯t lose track of who you are.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll do my best,¡± Will said. ¡°See you when I see you.¡±

    They dipped out of the Beyond. After a good deal of commiseration with their allies, they¡¯d determined that a good chunk of the other leaderboarders were more sane or had killcounts that weren¡¯t quite high enough to meet Will¡¯s requirements.

    There was one option that was still open to them. They were going to visit an old not-quite-enemy of Will¡¯s.

    ¡°Next stop,¡± Will announced to his miniature death squad. ¡°Actually, next stop is probably the superdungeon to find anyone else who wants to go. The stop after that one is what used to be Shanghai, China.¡±

    #

    Iridium had been waiting for this moment for years. He¡¯d been steadily rising through the ranks since the tutorial, and he had finally earned his gold rank just about six months ago alongside his brothers. They were elites amongst the elites. Even when considering the returner golds, Iridium and his trio easily outclassed all but the platinum ranks.

    It was finally time to spread the Unification Front¡¯s will to another planet.

    There had been forward squads deployed already. Some had been peaceful. Others had been less so, especially after those who had been guarding dungeon anomaly on the other planet¡ª¡°Sol-3,¡± according to the system¡ªhad wholly annihilated and subsumed a handful of the advance parties.

    The Unification Front had benevolently decided against wholesale erasure of the human species for their transgressions. It understood that more primitive civilizations still operated in clans without purpose or a shared goal, just like their world had in the dark before times.

    Thus, Iridium¡¯s trio was not meant for eradication of a race. Nor was it even for revenge.

    No, their goal was much more specific. There was a corruption wielder on Earth, and it was one that possessed the power of a demon.

    Anathema.

    That was a power that the Unification Front knew could not exist. Iridium¡¯s mission, as he¡¯d accepted it, was to find it, speeding past all of the god-aligned clans in the dungeon anomaly. His destination was the other planet, and his target was already as good as dead.

    You have defeated the former [Speaker of the Soul].

    Your class is evolving.

    Evolution parameters met.

    [Fear Mage] has been consumed.

    Level up!

    A burst of energy swelled into him, the body at his feet slowly melting into the ritual circle that he had killed it in.

    ¡°Rise, Iridium of the Ninety-Sixth Sector,¡± a sourceless voice intoned, power rippling through the sound. ¡°Rise, and take your brethren to cleanse this new world.¡±

    Iridium smiled.

    Name: Iridium

    Level: Gold 10

    Race: Hive

    Class: Speaker of the Soul

    ¡°As you will it, Mother,¡± he said.

    #

    Will hadn¡¯t actually been to China in a long time. His mom was Chinese, but they¡¯d rarely gone to the mainland before the apocalypse, and now¡­ well, all Will could do was hope that she was somewhere safe and not dying in forced labor like Ayla had been.

    He had indistinct memories of a rapidly urbanizing country choked with smoke and people. Part of that impression was still true, but like most of the rest of the world, it was now largely unrecognizable.

    Shanghai had been the most populous city in the world before the apocalypse. While Will wasn¡¯t sure if that was still true, it certainly seemed like it. At the start of the apocalypse, millions of tutorials had been initiated here, and it had resulted in a mess of territorial conflicts as new factions had formed faster than one could count them.

    That chaos had proven to be perfect for a strong outsider to step in. Shortly after the end of the trial of the champion, Lu Jie¡¯s Sichuan faction had started moving in, propelled largely by the gold-rank otherworlder who had strong-armed his way into the faction. With Lu Jie¡¯s power allowing for such insane mobility, eliminating logistic problems altogether, they had taken Shanghai with relatively little bloodshed, positioning themselves as the dominant power in southern China.

    Fan Laozi, currently a Gold 5 Titan Driver, was now sixth on the leaderboard after Will¡¯s actions had caused it to adjust a bit. Information on him was sparse, since the Chinese factions¡¯ dealings were largely isolated from the factions that Will had better relationships with, but his influence was clear from the outset.

    Will had had to run this through his impromptu strike team as well as at least three major nations and Lu Jie before he¡¯d started his flight.

    Even from hundreds of miles away, Will could sense the enormous mechanical titans that locked onto the plane that he, Nathan, Hua, Yui, and Caiyeri were using. Jessie had stayed to guard their temporary situation in the superdungeon, though thanks to Will¡¯s Sanctuary skill, the gestalt could theoretically be brought in at any time once he established himself here.

    Every major faction that was still in play right now had some kind of X factor to make them capable of holding territory in an age where every idiot possessed potentially explosive skills. Lu Jie¡¯s had been his portals, which he¡¯d used to act as a Big Brother-like figure just like Will could. Now, their faction relied heavily on Fan Laozi¡¯s titans, which were somewhere between summon and engineered construct so far as Will could tell. There were five of them¡ªthree here in Shanghai, two in Chengdu where Lu Jie¡¯s faction originated.

    Each was a high gold-rank force multiplier in its own right. They were semi-autonomous, confirmed by the ESNA when they¡¯d tried flying in surveillance at each hour of the day and confirmed that even though Fan Laozi was sleeping, his titans were still active and easily capable of shooting down the ESNA¡¯s unmanned drones.

    They were also responsible for the deaths of at least a hundred thousand people, which made Fan Laozi a valid target for Will.

    Lu Jie had come into conflict with Will during the trial of the champion, promising his death for the grievous sin of killing someone who had sworn to torture Will and all his friends to death. Afterwards, at the global human summit, he¡¯d calmed down on the topic.

    The reason for that, Will suspected, was twofold. The first was the one that Lu Jie himself had stated. Xie-ren Jie, his sister, was a Peace sigil-holder and had been amongst the Peace-aligned Users to vanish alongside dozens of abductees from the summit.

    Even as they approached now, Will could sense traces of Peace¡¯s magic lingering in the air. Information from Australia and correspondence from Lu Jie had confirmed that beyond the encampments in the superdungeons, Peace sigil-holders were using hit-and-run tactics against existing settlements wiht increasing frequency, largely focused on causing structural damage and abducting further targets over simply killing. Lu Jie had decided that his enemy¡¯s enemy could be his temporary ally, and he¡¯d realized that he had bigger problems than one of his idiot family members dying in a messy attempt to save face.

    The second reason was Fan Laozi. The otherworlder was reportedly deranged in a very human way. While many others had gone insane thanks to the reception of their powers and whatever horrors they¡¯d undergone in their other worlds, this one had the good ol¡¯ problem of purity.

    In a way, he was similar to the Iron Boys that Will had dealt with way back in the beginning. Fan Laozi appeared to respect two things: people who looked, spoke, and acted like he did, and absurd amounts of power. Will partially fell into the first category, but the otherworlder had really only indirectly showed him deference because he¡¯d witnessed Will kill hundreds of Users in the span of two minutes.

    Unfortunately, the category of people that were neither was large enough that it was becoming a sticking point for Lu Jie, who was at worst a regular amount of evil. As someone who relied on the otherworlder to protect his people, he hadn¡¯t been able or willing to make a real move, but he¡¯d acknowledged that the number of dead had piled up too far. On top of the fact that the titans were currently actively in use to protect them from the Peace terror groups spearheaded by his own sister, Lu Jie had found himself paralyzed.

    Will had brought in two other gold-rank leaderboarders, both of whom had been critical in past large-scale maneuvers. Now that they were here, they had the opportunity to kill several birds with a single stone.

    Well, by ¡°stone,¡± he meant ¡°superheated balls of plasma, corruption, and various kinds of death from above,¡± but it was close enough conceptually.

    ¡°It¡¯s been a while,¡± Yui said to Will. ¡°I don¡¯t believe we¡¯ve had the chance to work together in combat very frequently.¡±

    ¡°Not particularly, no,¡± Will said. ¡°You know how to work with Nathan though, right?¡±

    Yui made a face. The two of them had gotten over the initial awkwardness that had resulted from Nathan being a little bit of a high school boy over his former relationship with her, but they still preferred not to speak to each other when possible.

    ¡°Noted,¡± Will said. ¡°Anyone have opinions on who we should go after first?¡±

    ¡°Peace,¡± Caiyeri voted. ¡°I guarantee that if you don¡¯t, they¡¯re going to involve themselves at the worst possible time.¡±

    ¡°They do have a nasty habit of doing that,¡± Hua agreed. ¡°They¡¯re awfully persistent. Plus, I¡¯m not far from reaching gold, and I¡¯d like to hit that against people I know how to fight against. I¡¯ve never fought one of those mechs before.¡±

    ¡°I doubt the Peace sigil-holders here are doing the same thing they are in the superdungeons,¡± Caiyeri said.

    ¡°There¡¯s an awful lot of them,¡± Nathan said. ¡°Seriously, we¡¯re at, what, a thousand kills now? More? How do they still have more?¡±

    ¡°You should know why,¡± Will said drily. ¡°Gods cheat.¡±

    ¡°Fair.¡±

    They were still a hundred miles out from the edge of the city proper, but Lu Jie had received notice of their arrival and was preparing for them. Fan Laozi had expressed a desire to ¡°learn from¡± Will at some point, so the otherworlder was ready for him¡ªthough admittedly not the others on board, who were currently being obscured from observation skills through Yui¡¯s Void Reaver class.

    Just to be safe, Will had Sen¡¯s eyes rotating in and out of the plane, monitoring about a quarter mile out.

    They were ninety miles out when the message came.

    ???: China, eh? Not a bad choice.

    Will recognized the chat immediately. That was the Contractor on the other end, using whatever system fuckery he used to hide his name.

    Will: The hell do you want?

    ???: Say hello to my comrades.

    Roughly five seconds later, Sen¡¯s eyes detected an incoming projectile.

    Will cursed, activating Time in a Bottle to speed up his senses.

    Gold rank. Supersonic. It¡¯ll be here in under a second.

    No, he realized. Not it.

    As the first of Sen¡¯s eyes began to crumple from the mixed effects of the missile, sensory information reached Will in the nick of time.

    It was a barrage. Thousands of missiles, all well on their way towards them. From their trajectory, they¡¯d been in motion for a while already.

    Caiyeri¡¯s words came to mind. The worst possible time, huh?

    Will shook the thoughts off.

    The game was on, and he had no intentions of letting them lose.

 Chapter 134: Living Legend

    The problem with missiles, Will mused, was that people kept on figuring out ways to hurtle at them faster.

    Actually, no, that wasn¡¯t the biggest problem with missiles by a long shot, but it was one of the more annoying ones on his mind at the moment.

    The plane was probably toast. Will had entertained the idea of trying to take down all the missiles like he had when a silver-ranker on the Contractor¡¯s payroll had used a single set of gold-rank bullets to try to shoot down his plane, but there were way more missiles now, and they were moving much faster. With Sen¡¯s eyes in the position that they were, it wasn¡¯t likely that Will would be able to spread out his skills fast enough to destroy any of the missiles without the plane also being in the blast radius.

    Even if he could get a few safely, there were too many to deal with in one go. The bulk of Sen¡¯s eyes were very close to the plane, since they weren¡¯t quite capable of keeping up with the hypersonic jet they were in.

    That meant that his focus was not on preventing the missiles from impacting the plane but instead not dying when it blew up.

    He wasn¡¯t the only one moving. Yui also had a skill that let her slow down her perception of time, though hers appeared to be a more offensive oriented one. She had a curved sword out, glowing with the mana she was spending in droves.

    Will: Status?

    Yui: Not good. If I were Nathan, I could do something, but that damn fool doesn¡¯t have any way to quicken himself. I can get myself and maybe one other person off. It will cost most of my remaining mana to use my large-scale movement skill in conjunction with my acceleration.

    Will: We¡¯re going into a fight right after this. Save it.

    Yui: Got it. Do you have a defense for us?

    Will: I think I can keep us alive, but the plane¡¯s definitely cooked.

    Yui: Cooked?

    Will: Uh, lost, doomed, that kind of feeling? I¡¯m assuming that didn¡¯t translate.

    Yui: No. I¡¯m going to protect myself. Focus on keeping the others safe.

    Will: Got it.

    Technically, one way of approaching this was by using Sanctuary on all of them at once, but Will was going to save that as a last-ditch effort. Since he didn¡¯t have any other Sanctuaries in place in China, activating one here would mean that their only options would be to emerge from the same spot¡ªwhich would surely be monitored by the Contractor¡¯s forces¡ªor attempt the same approach with another plane. The latter was certainly possible, but even with the goodwill he¡¯d earned, there were limits on the number of planes individually worth more than the GDP of several lesser nations that he could borrow.

    Also, this was as unprepared as either side would get. Will trusted his hit squad to adapt more easily in a pinch. After all, that was why he¡¯d selected them. The Contractor and Peace, on the other hand, only grew more dangerous the more time they had to prepare.

    Basically, that meant that his options boiled down to two.

    One: use the phantasm to gather everyone together quickly and teleport the entire group outside with one usage of Weapons Free. Will wasn¡¯t sure how feasible that would be, though, especially given how finicky the movement skill was when it came to bringing his allies along.

    Two: his Guardian Angel.

    Will called Aza to him. Fortunately, the fragment of a Dread Executor was quicker to respond than any other skill he could pull. Wings filled the inside of the plane, radiant energy forming around them.

    Unlike Will, Aza seemed to have no trouble operating in the accelerated time without spending a good chunk of extra energy on Time in a Bottle.

    ¡°I¡¯m curious,¡± the Guardian Angel said. ¡°Did you have a plan if I wasn¡¯t able to traverse half the globe in an instant?¡±

    Will checked his mana reserves, decided he had enough to waste some on frivolous activity, and triggered the silver-rank feature of Time in a Bottle, speeding his body up to match his mind. They had about a subjective minute before the missiles hit them, but there wasn¡¯t much else he could actually do beyond softening the impact some.

    ¡°I would¡¯ve figured something else out,¡± he said. ¡°Besides, if you weren¡¯t able to do that, would you really be able to call yourself a Dread Executor?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not a Dread Executor,¡± Aza pointed out. ¡°I¡¯m a piece of one currently operating as your Guardian Angel familiar.¡±

    ¡°Technicalities,¡± Will dismissed. ¡°Can you protect us all or not?¡±

    Yui was vibrating, magic infusing her as a skill phased her partially out of reality. Will didn¡¯t recognize the skill, nor did he want to use Pages of the Past on it to identify what it was, but it was clear that she was going to be able to weather the oncoming storm just fine.

    ¡°Oh, easily,¡± Aza said. ¡°If I couldn¡¯t, I would have told you to run by now.¡±

    ¡°Great,¡± Will replied, letting time speed up.

    Will: Brace.

    Nobody except Yui processed the message quickly enough to actually do anything about it, so most of them were thrown off their feet as roaring thunder and brilliant light flashed through the plane. Yui, already ready to take the blast, was completely unaffected. Will kept himself balanced thanks to his attribute. The other three slammed into the radiant shield but were otherwise unharmed.

    When Nynn had shunted the full force of a corruption bomb into the Beyond, Aza had siphoned power from some of Will¡¯s other skills to advance himself to gold, which gave him enough protective power now to absorb the force of a massive bombardment of the same rank. Will wasn¡¯t idle, of course¡ªsome of Sen¡¯s eyes avoided the bursts, so Will spat out lightning, darkness, and corruption from each of the range extenders, prematurely detonating a good chunk of the bombs.

    Even then, he had to give it to Aza. The familiar¡¯s shield was strong for its rank, only flickering slightly against the esoteric bombardment that tore the plane apart around them. It was over in moments, but in the span of those moments, a perfectly functioning silver-rank plane was reduced first to its component pieces, then wreckage, then atomized it.

    The sudden burst of damage wasn¡¯t enough to deal any real damage to them, but it did exhaust Aza entirely. To keep all that up, the familiar had depleted two-thirds of Will¡¯s mana supply.

    ¡°I won¡¯t be doing that again anytime soon,¡± he said cheerfully as the explosions outside died down and his wings started to fold in on himself. ¡°Good luck.¡±

    Also, Aza had no ability to keep them from falling to their deaths.

    That was much less of a problem than keeping themselves from blowing up, though. As they plummeted from twenty thousand feet in the air, each member of Will¡¯s squad fired messages back and forth.

    Hua: Plane blew up.

    Nathan: Yeah, no shit.

    Will: Contractor¡¯s behind it, I¡¯m pretty sure. There¡¯ll be a stronghold or a detachment nearby that the missiles came from. I sent Sen after it already.

    Hua: I can¡¯t fly.

    She sounded awfully calm for someone who was actively free falling, but time and violence had accustomed all of them to life-or-death situations.

    Will watched as Nathan jetted over, equipment materializing from his inventory to link himself to Hua and keep her from falling as hard.

    Nathan: I got you. You don¡¯t have a way to catch your fall?

    Hua: I do. I just said I can¡¯t fly. I¡¯d rather still be mobile once we spot out whoever¡¯s here.

    It wasn¡¯t just Sen¡¯s eyes that Will was making use of here. Each of the missiles left a bit of a trace back to the point where they¡¯d originated, though the lines of death they¡¯d painted on the air were fading fast now that there was no magic actively propelling them. He trusted that once he did get in the general area of other people, the demon in his head would alert him. It was only because of Aza that he was even functional at this point, and even then the affectionately named Richard was more disruptive than ever.

    Caiyeri: I¡¯ll redirect once I hit the ground. No more attacks coming in, right?

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    Yui: Not that I can see.

    Will: Yeah, can¡¯t see any more at the moment. Think they fired the missiles and ran immediately.

    Yui: Likely.

    Will: Speaking of which, don¡¯t you have an ability that nullifies skills? [Null Zone] or whatever?

    Yui: Yes. Which doesn¡¯t work on missiles.

    Will: Oh.

    Nathan: So, uh, three of you are still falling. You¡¯re about a minute from the ground, just letting you know.

    Yui: I can cancel or redirect my momentum.

    Caiyeri: Hey, don¡¯t steal my gimmick.

    Will: I¡¯ll start gliding once I get closer to the ground. Focusing on looking for our targets right now.

    Hua: Missiles came from the west, so we already passed them. Judging by the trajectories, I¡¯d say¡­ ten klicks west-northwest.

    Will: Damn. Where¡¯d you pull that from?

    Nathan: She has a skill that lets her track details of weapons for a while after they¡¯ve been used, which you would know if you¡¯d been fighting with her instead of prancing around the world playing superhero for the last three months.

    Will: Four months, and don¡¯t tell me you weren¡¯t tempted to do the same. I have requirements I need to meet.

    Nathan: Yeah, I definitely was. Superdungeon still needed us, though.

    Caiyeri: I hate to be the voice of reason, but somehow it always falls to me to remind you that we are still falling? Should we redirect?

    Will: Yeah, yeah. Follow the phantasm. Hua, guide me if I¡¯m missing.

    Though Sen¡¯s eyes hadn¡¯t been able to keep up with the plane entirely, the four hundred surviving ones were easily able to match the pace of regular human terminal velocity. They came hurtling down and out, darkness forming a path for all of them to follow.

    Will used Wind Walker to redirect himself, using some of the extra hunger phantasm to form dark wings for himself.

    I should really see about upgrading this skill to make these more proper wings, he mused. Will would never let it be known that he had any positive feelings towards the ¡°dark angel¡± moniker he¡¯d picked up, but it was kind of badass. It was a shame that he was still missing pieces of that particular puzzle.

    Everyone else made their way in different ways. Nathan flew, dragging Hua on a tether about twenty feet under her. The Australian girl had a crossbow at the ready, but it did look a little comical when she was practically sitting cross-legged as her hair blew behind her, tornado-speed gusts battering her. Yui used one of her chaos skills to manifest a crackling circle of power around her, and suddenly all her vertical speed changed to horizontal, sending her rocketing off at terminal velocity.

    Caiyeri, as per usual, hit the ground and came back up with a lot more momentum. She accepted help from Will¡¯s hunger phantasm, pushing her higher and faster with each bounce.

    Will had to wonder what they looked like to anyone observing. They were over mostly flat desert, which made it a bit easier on Caiyeri, but they had to look ridiculous. Only Nathan was flying normally, and his image was being undercut by a nineteen-year-old practically meditating right under him.

    I¡¯d be embarrassed if I lost to us right now, Will thought. I wonder what the Contractor¡¯s people are thinking right now.

    #

    ALERT. ALERT. Users [William Li-Brown], [Hua Fang], [Caiyeri Seven], [Nathan], and [Yui] have detected the location of [Shanghai Forward Base 7]. Prepare for attack.

    SFB-7, built in conjunction by the Contractor¡¯s people and Peace¡¯s, flurried with activity. There were just under a hundred people in this base, the majority of them silver-rankers with a single trio of golds.

    ¡°Get me camera!¡± one of those gold-rankers shouted. ¡°Fire all remaining missiles!¡±

    On a massive screen in the control room, several hidden camera feeds appeared. A couple of them had already gone blank, having been spotted out and destroyed by the approaching Users or by the aftereffects of the initial bombardment.

    ¡°Camera forty-three live!¡± a silver-ranker called out. ¡°Projecting wide.¡±

    This one was a high-definition magical one placed about three miles outwards. It zoomed in on a certain area of the desert, overlaying a trajectory onto five blurs.

    Dread swept the room as they observed. Three of them were hardly visible, cloaked by the swarming void of shadows as they were, but they could occasionally catch a crackle of chaos energy or see the manic energy of an elf seemingly leaping hundreds if not thousands of feet into the air.

    The only ones that were easy to track were a pair that were flying straight, but those inspired no less terror. Information on the corruption wielder and his companions had been widely disseminated, and the trademark black and gold armor that covered the gold-rank otherworlder Nathan was well known amongst the Contractor¡¯s organization. He flew arrow-straight because there was nothing they could threaten with from range. Even in close combat, it would take the gold-rankers to even scratch that armor.

    The silver-ranker girl under them was slightly less fear-inspiring, but she was a known problem too. Hua Fang had racked up almost a quadruple-digit kill count of Peace sigil-holders and contracted over the course of months. The fact that they could even see her coming was a relief.

    It was often said amongst those who were on superdungeon teams that most people only ever saw Hua Fang once. Their first impression, as the stories went, would be that she was a regular teenage girl, unsuited for the battlefield.

    They would never get a second impression.

    ¡°Remaining missiles fired, sir,¡± the head of the ordnance team called out. ¡°En route for collision in ten seconds or less.¡±

    On the screen, a hundred red dots blinked to life, each of them representing a missile that had cost the old-world equivalent of millions to construct. Gold-rank projectiles, just like the ones that had been supposed to kill them with their ship.

    Even as they fired, there was a sense of resigned fear amongst the control room. Though they knew their organization was powerful and had acted against countries with abandon, and though they knew that even Fan Laozi¡¯s Shanghai-Chengdu faction was weeks from falling to them, this was a threat on a different level.

    The projectiles entered sight of camera forty-three, detonating with such force that the clouds of smoke they threw up drowned out the darkness.

    ¡°Direct hit!¡± an ordnance team member cried.

    Even then, the entire room¡¯s breath seemed to be held. They knew how deadly their weapons were. In fact, they¡¯d worked countless nights ensuring just how lethal they would be.

    And yet, none of them could quite believe that they would be the ones to take down the corruption wielder. He was a living legend in all the worst ways, and his team was no less.

    So when the smoke cleared and the darkness remained, all five threats remaining untouched, nobody was surprised. Disappointed, yes. Terrified, possibly. But surprise?

    Being surprised by William Li-Brown was how you died.

    ¡°They know the location of the base,¡± the gold-rankers said, communication from the Contractor himself confirming the fact. ¡°Prepare for battle.¡±

    Fear gave way to resolve as triggers in each of the Users there activated. It wasn¡¯t mind control¡ªit was more of a suppressant. A mild magical drug administered through a contract, dulling their fear response while focusing them. In the long term, it would do permanent damage to someone¡¯s mind, but the Contractor knew well that there would be no long term to worry about with these.

    When the threat reached the base, there were one hundred and nine Users ready to face them¡ªthree gold-rankers on the roof, their power unified in a holding pattern.

    They might as well have been one User.

    These were no true gold-rankers. Boosted by Peace and contracts, they did not hold the same kind of power that a true leaderboarder would have, even though they would decimate a regular battalion of silvers.

    Against them, though? That was a different story.

    SFB-7 was built to defend against missiles and other explosives. Even a nuclear bomb detonated a quarter mile away would barely scratch its facade.

    What it wasn¡¯t built to withstand was an Orbital Engineer warping space and delivering a Void Reaver¡¯s specially designed anti-magic zone directly into the core of their defenses right before a silver-rank Warrior let loose with all of the new, fancy items she¡¯d gotten from the superdungeon. It wasn¡¯t prepared for choking darkness to flood the base as an elf bowled into three gold-rankers at half the speed of sound, executing one of them with a bullet from a bronze-rank revolver before continuing onwards.

    After the first gold-ranker went down, there still seemed to be some hope. The silvers mounted their own offensive, producing one group ritual to support the remaining two and another to form a counterattack.

    When the second one ate a dose of corruption and then a series of critical hits in a row by both Caiyeri Seven and William Li-Brown, things started looking worse.

    When the last one went down, the silvers finally released their attack¡ªjust in time for the corruption wielder to kill their ritual.

    From there, even with their fear suppressed, the lines of SFB-7 broke. They could not run. They could not hide. All they could do was fight for survival.

    ¡°Fight¡± was a generous word, though. They didn¡¯t realize that they were only trying to fight four people back. After achieving kill credit two of the three gold-rankers, Caiyeri Seven was undergoing an ascension to gold rank herself, rendering her incapable of properly battling inside.

    There were one hundred and six silver-rankers when Hua Fang entered the building, courtesy of a new hole carved by Nathan and Yui. She was one woman, but with the darkness cloaking her and her speed greatly augmented, the residents of the base thought she was a dozen.

    There were forty-one of them remaining when William Li-Brown left.

    Some of the five of them had had notions of mercy once, but they now knew after months of experience that those aligned with Peace were one moment away from a god hijacking their body and forcing them to fight until their corpse gave out. They did not let any of them run away.

    The most common last words that a silver-ranker from SFB-7 said were ¡°what the fuck,¡± though they typically didn¡¯t get the full sentence out before Hua.

    The most common last words that one of them heard, on the other hand, were ¡°leave this one alive for me.¡± Technically, if one counted the Wails of the Forgotten, the last words they heard were actually something more like ¡°AUUUUUUUUGH,¡± but by then their minds were usually gone.

    From start to finish, eliminating the base took seventeen minutes, and that was only because they stopped halfway through to try to undo some of the self-destruct measures that had been triggered.

    Fortunately for the other members of the Contractor¡¯s organization¡ªand less so for the residents of this base¡ªthe true self-destruct had been primed from the moment that the corruption wielder had been spotted.

    Recognizing this, his team evacuated the building before it simply crumbled in on itself, pacifying the data and bodies within by disintegrating them into a fine ash.

    In the wake of the destruction, five bloodied people stood in a rough circle around a now-desolate, ruined bunker. Only one of them was breathing hard, and that was because she had just shed the impurities of silver rank.

    ¡°So,¡± Nathan asked. ¡°What next?¡±

    ¡°Wail of the Forgotten has a very nice feature that lets me find where someone¡¯s allies are,¡± Will said. ¡°I was thinking Fan Laozi first, but it¡¯s now looking like we have a much better opportunity to kill both birds. Slight complication, unfortunately.¡±

    #

    SFB-1 was roughly two and a half kilometers from the nearest Titan, but one of those kilometers was straight down.

    Xie-ren Jie witnessed the destruction of SFB-7 without emotion. She had no personal connections to any of them, and they had been expendable.

    Their diversion had taken the corruption wielder¡¯s team from Shanghai long enough for final preparations to be made.

    Today, they moved on Shanghai. They moved on her brother.

    With any luck, by night¡¯s end, there would be Peace in the largest city in China.

    You have received a message from [William Li-Brown].

    Less out of curiosity and more in the interest of obtaining information on the enemy, she opened it.

    Will: Big brother¡¯s looking out for you. This would¡¯ve just said ¡°you¡¯re next,¡± but I figure I owe it to him for betraying his country to me. Let¡¯s talk.

    She scoffed and deleted the chat with him.

    There were more important matters to attend to.

 Chapter 135: Dont Be A Hero

    Will clicked his tongue.

    ¡°It¡¯s not every day you find someone willing to tell you to shut up,¡± Nathan said.

    ¡°No, he has those people already,¡± Caiyeri replied. ¡°How many times have you told him to shut up since you met him?¡±

    Nathan counted on his fingers, then the backs of his fingers, then gave up. ¡°Okay. Fair. It¡¯s not every day you see someone who can¡­ I dunno, resist telling Will to shut up?¡±

    ¡°Shut up,¡± Will said. ¡°There are lives on the line, in case you¡¯ve forgotten.¡±

    ¡°I would buy that if it weren¡¯t for the list of jokes about fictional heroes I was forced to learn from you during our fights,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°I¡¯m gold rank now. I can tell when you¡¯re lying.¡±

    ¡°That has nothing to do with your rank¡ªcongratulations, by the way,¡± Will said. ¡°You can tell that I¡¯m lying because you¡¯ve spent too much time with me.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s not wrong, though,¡± Hua said quietly. ¡°Xie-ren is a threat. We might be at odds with Fan Laozi¡¯s regime, but not everyone who lives under him deserves to die. You said you had the positions of their forces, right?¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Will said. ¡°Perks of the most evil shit I¡¯ve seen in a skill so far. There¡¯s a lot of them. Way more gold-rankers than there should be, Xie-ren among them.¡±

    ¡°Do you know what she is?¡± Hua asked.

    ¡°She¡¯s not on the leaderboard,¡± Will said, shaking his head. ¡°Looks like Peace has a way to take them off. Or maybe the boosting just means that they don¡¯t properly count. Whatever the case, I don¡¯t know what she¡¯s packing.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t put it like that, please,¡± Nathan said.

    ¡°Stop encouraging him,¡± Caiyeri admonished. ¡°Should we go after her first, then?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think we¡¯re going to end up getting much of a choice,¡± Will said. ¡°Judging from how she¡¯s moving, I think she¡¯s going to be attacking the city quite soon. We might enter a bit of an all-out melee.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m a bit hesitant to do that,¡± Hua said. ¡°There¡¯s raiding a base like this, and there¡¯s getting in between a leaderboarder and the spearhead of this particular Peace faction. I don¡¯t throw down for that type of fight without a proper plan. Or an army.¡±

    ¡°I dunno,¡± Nathan said. ¡°We¡¯ve always been pretty good at beating the odds.¡±

    ¡°My brother was, too,¡± Hua replied.

    ¡°Do you ever think before you open that mouth of yours?¡± Yui hissed at Nathan.

    ¡°No,¡± Nathan said honestly. ¡°Sorry, Hua.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. People die. It¡¯s what we do. I¡¯m just saying¡­ maybe we should call in everyone else?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a good point,¡± Will said. ¡°Caiyeri¡¯s feeling good right now, so we¡¯re going to be riding that high, but I imagine Jessie and Nynn might want to get in on this.¡±

    ¡°You forgot Liam,¡± Hua said.

    ¡°I haven¡¯t seen him in like three months,¡± Will said. ¡°My bad. Does he actually do stuff other than shoot things with a sniper?¡±

    ¡°He has great sigil skills,¡± Yui offered.

    ¡°I¡¯m wary of those now that I have a better grasp on what sigils entail,¡± Will said.

    ¡°He¡¯s better with ranged weapons than I am,¡± Hua said. ¡°I¡¯m an assassin. He¡¯s a wallbreaker and sometimes a sniper. You¡¯d have to see him in action, which I¡¯m pretty sure you could do.¡±

    ¡°You also completely forgot about Wisteria,¡± Yui pointed out.

    ¡°Is she even silver yet?¡± Will asked.

    ¡°As of a week ago, yes. She¡¯s progressing along quite nicely, actually.¡±

    ¡°Can you just hurry this up?¡± Caiyeri asked. ¡°You¡¯re just going to decide to take everyone anyway. Here, let me guess your objection: we¡¯re leaving our base in the superdungeon unguarded. Now, my counter: we¡¯re strong, I¡¯m gold now, and we can just retake it when we get back, which we can do since you have a bullshit portal power you can use.¡±

    Will opened his mouth, then closed it. ¡°Yeah, actually, that¡¯s fair. I¡¯ll be right back.¡±

    He didn¡¯t have any more levels of Blessed or Purified to spend, so he spent the actual time casting Sanctuary, slipping into the Beyond.

    To his slight surprise, Aza entered with him.

    ¡°Not often I see you in here, especially with Ayla not around,¡± Will said. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s about Nynn,¡± Aza said. ¡°I conversed with him.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s never a good way to start off a conversation,¡± Will said. ¡°If you¡¯re not leading with the reason for it, it¡¯s gotta be something bad.¡±

    ¡°It pains me to say that it is,¡± Aza said. ¡°Nynn has always been an exemplar of what it means to be a Dread Executor. He moves to save cycles at great personal cost. This isn¡¯t the first time he¡¯s sealed his power to interfere, you know.¡±

    ¡°Interfering seems like the name of the game when it comes to your kind,¡± Will said.

    ¡°Our kind. Don¡¯t pretend like you¡¯re not going to be there one day right alongside me.¡±

    Will scoffed. ¡°Even if I live that long, which I¡¯ll remind you is nothing near a guarantee at this point, what makes you think I¡¯d join you?¡±

    ¡°Simple,¡± Aza said. ¡°You cannot tolerate not having the power to end injustice. You and Nynn are alike in that way.¡±

    ¡°So that¡¯s what this is about,¡± Will said. ¡°Nynn. He¡¯s never been sealed this badly, has he? He used up everything to kill Ataraxis back in the trial of the champion, and he lost his access to the Beyond.¡±

    Aza gave him a look that said don¡¯t think we¡¯re done with the other topic before nodding. ¡°Correct. He wishes to affect change, which I am sure you can understand.¡±

    ¡°He is, isn¡¯t he?¡± Will asked with a frown. ¡°He¡¯s preventing Peace from getting a foothold in the superdungeon. Presumably, he¡¯s also helping stem the aliens from charging straight in, though I haven¡¯t been back in the dungeon recently.¡±

    ¡°He is, but when you are a Dread Executor, helping in a User¡¯s normal capacity seems like nothing,¡± Aza said. ¡°You, even, have been traveling the world, putting down threats to your species. You prepare for a grand summoning ritual. Stars, you are containing a mid-tier demon as a silver.¡±

    ¡°You can¡¯t seriously be telling me that Nynn¡¯s savior complex is giving him performance anxiety,¡± Will said flatly. ¡°I¡¯m not a therapist. I can¡¯t dig someone out of a hole they put themselves into.¡±

    ¡°I was making neither request nor demand,¡± Aza said. ¡°This is a warning.¡±

    Will raised an eyebrow. ¡°You think Nynn¡¯s going to be a threat to me?¡±

    ¡°Not only to you. To himself and to everyone around him. True precognition does not exist, but I know my allies well enough to model their behavior. He will almost certainly make an extraordinarily risky play the next time one of your lives is at risk. Under normal circumstances, this would be a small issue, but do remember the condition you have reduced him to.¡±

    ¡°Ah,¡± Will realized, putting the pieces together. ¡°I cut his connection to the Beyond, but that¡¯s not the same as erasing it. His tunnel in is containing the corruption bomb, but if he tries to open it¡­¡±

    ¡°I do not know what would happen,¡± Aza admitted. ¡°I do know that it would threaten the lives of all of your allies, yourself included. Not even you are fully equipped for the level of corruption that could induce.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll keep it in mind,¡± Will sighed. ¡°Thank you.¡±

    ¡°Of course. I¡¯ve spent enough of your time. Go retrieve your allies.¡±

    #

    The remaining people who¡¯d been posted at various encampments through the superdungeon included some that Will hadn¡¯t seen for a while, but he was happy to have them on his side. They were spread out across two locations, which seemed a bit risky. The littered corpses of Peace sigil-holders helped dissuade him of the idea that they were in trouble, though.

    He still wasn¡¯t sure how exactly they were not just surviving but thriving, even as uniquely lethal as they were, but he suspected it had something to do with the Inanis system and the forces that Ayla had said they were sending into the superdungeons.

    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    That wasn¡¯t what was important at the moment, though. What mattered now was assembling the team he needed to attack Fan Laozi and Xie-ren Jie with.

    Lily Teneli, Hunter. Silver 10, just like him, but not even close to breaking through to gold at the moment. Will was hesitant to call her an ally, but according to Nathan, her murderhobo instincts had calmed down after she¡¯d been given plentiful targets to exercise them on.

    She was with Liam, who was a level behind her. His class had evolved at some point while Will hadn¡¯t been watching¡ªhe was now a Siege Engine, and he had proved to be devastatingly effective against fortifications. He was still blind, unfortunately, but his magic senses had grown stronger than Will¡¯s in the duration, compensating for some of that.

    Jessie, a devouring gestalt who needed no introduction. Gold 10. As far as Will was aware, it was the highest-ranked creature on the planet, but its core was impure thanks to the number of external souls it had consumed and absorbed into its own. Now, one of its focuses on compacting down those impurities so that it would be a true terror at its current level. Its other one was on speaking in recognizable language, which Will was happy to report included almost-complete English sentences now.

    It was with the other remaining Users in one of the larger areas that they¡¯d successfully purged of Peace sigil-holders.

    Wisteria, Void Knight, had indeed leveled up to Silver 3 under Yui¡¯s tutelage. She¡¯d come a fair way since Will had first seen her under the sea at the Point Nemo research ship, and she agreed to come with Will almost before he asked the question. It was looking like she wouldn¡¯t be dead weight, which was always nice to see. Yui was a terror on the battlefield. Even if Wisteria was an inferior version, one and a half Yuis was nothing to scoff at.

    That left only Nynn. Gold 10. Once a Dread Executor, he was now classless, though he retained the skills he¡¯d had¡ªalbeit sealed down to gold rank. He was a force multiplier first and foremost now, since all the attacks he¡¯d grown used to using required too much mana to just use willy-nilly. Even in a support role, he would prove critical in a large-scale battle, but Will was worried that Aza¡¯s predictions would come to pass.

    At length, he did get them to assemble and pass through the Beyond, which was the important part.

    Shepherding all five of them into the positive energy plane at once proved to be trickier than he¡¯d hoped, but fortunately, nothing went wrong. He had briefly been worried that Nynn¡¯s connection being what it was posed a threat to their venture into the Beyond, but a quick chat with both Aza and Ayla reassured him that it was fine.

    Speaking of the latter, she sensed the tug of all of them traveling through the domain she was the most experienced with and chose to make an appearance in front of the six of them, helping stabilize Will¡¯s Sanctuary.

    ¡°What¡¯s the occasion?¡± She asked Will. ¡°You brought a whole party with you.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m putting the gang back together,¡± Will said. ¡°We¡¯ve got, what, ten people in all? And we¡¯re facing off against probably a few hundred, maybe thousands. It¡¯s almost a fair fight.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not against the primary Peace force,¡± Ayla said. ¡°You¡¯ll be fine. That one, I¡¯ll remind you, is about a month from completion.¡±

    ¡°And I¡¯ll get there when I get there,¡± Will said. ¡°Which should hopefully be today, if nothing goes wrong.¡±

    ¡°You should know better by now than to say that,¡± Nynn said.

    ¡°Thought you weren¡¯t superstitious,¡± Will shot back.

    ¡°Superstition¡¯s one thing,¡± Liam said. ¡°Even I know not to line myself up like that, though.¡±

    ¡°Something will go wrong, because something always goes wrong,¡± Ayla said. ¡°Just be wary that you¡¯re not the only group interested in third-partying this particular battle.¡±

    ¡°Wait.¡± Will frowned. ¡°Third-party as a verb¡­ you played battle royales? How the hell did that work while you were a system helper?¡±

    ¡°Magic works wonders even in non-integrated societies,¡± Ayla replied. ¡°And to answer your next question, better than you. The salient point here is that I sensed movement from a high-priest equivalent. Gold-ranks, almost certainly capable of fighting up a rank given the power I sensed.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re coming for me and me specifically, aren¡¯t they?¡± Will sighed. ¡°Thanks for the heads up. Does that change anyone¡¯s plans?¡±

    ¡°No change,¡± Jessie said.

    ¡°Oh, wow,¡± Will exclaimed. ¡°That was actual, coherent English. You¡¯re doing great!¡±

    ¡°Thank.¡±

    Nobody had any other concerns, so he sent them hurtling back into reality, giving Ayla time to recover her strength.

    The situation had changed a bit in the minutes he¡¯d been gone. Not in any way that actually mattered, but Will was pretty sure the desert sand hadn¡¯t been painted with quite that much blood before.

    ¡°Turns out there were a few that got away,¡± Caiyeri said, conspicuously splattered with blood that definitely wasn¡¯t hers. ¡°They started glowing, which I figured was bad, so I tested out my new skills. Hello again, everyone.¡±

    ¡°Oh, gold rank,¡± Wisteria said, clocking the difference immediately. ¡°Congratulations, Caiyeri. You¡¯re the first of your generation to make it that far, aren¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m also the last of my generation to be alive, but I appreciate the sentiment,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°Actually, it¡¯s possible that I¡¯m the only gold-rank elf alive today.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s definitely not true,¡± Nathan said. ¡°There¡¯s still a few elf settlements holding out in various parts of the world, not really interacting with humans much. There¡¯s a couple with gold-rank matriarchs.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯d say that¡¯s good to hear, but I don¡¯t know how much of an elf I am at this point,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°Being gold rank is pretty great, by the way. You should try it some time, Will.¡±

    ¡°Oh, fuck off,¡± Will said, grinning. ¡°Alright. Everyone¡¯s got the general idea of what we want to do. You¡¯ve been working with each other for a few months, mostly. That should overpower people who are essentially roided-up drones of Peace. I¡¯m less sure about Fan Laozi and his gang, but if we can get Xie-ren Jie alive, we get Lu Jie on our side.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re not killing the lady?¡± Liam asked.

    ¡°If it¡¯s your life or hers, kill her. Ideally we don¡¯t get to that point, but do what you have to. Don¡¯t do anything dumb. Don¡¯t be a hero if you can just call in one of us. Everyone clear?¡±

    Will looked at Nynn as he said that. Even though the Dread Executor was good at controlling his aura, he wasn¡¯t quite as good as managing his body. Will could see hints of the restlessness Aza had pointed out.

    ¡°I believe we¡¯re all prepared,¡± Nynn said, meeting Will¡¯s gaze. ¡°Should we get on with it?¡±

    #

    Iridium, Osmium, and Rhodium, all of the Ninety-Sixth Sector, emerged from the dungeon anomaly with a hundred more kills to each of their names.

    Though they had done their best to avoid the concerted efforts of the priests within, they had come into conflict with them eventually.

    The Unification Front understood that gods had their agendas, but they had also learned from their gods that to deny a god¡¯s followers was not the same as denying a god itself. Killing the followers of Peace would not bring her wrath upon them, and kill those followers they had.

    They emerged on the side of a snowy mountain almost as tall as the Great Canyons were deep. Osmium, Speaker of the Flesh, activated his passive skill, regulating all three of their bodies from the inside out. Even without it, the cold would have been easy to weather compared to a hard winter at home, but it was much appreciated.

    Iridium had sensed traces of corruption throughout the dungeon anomaly, but in accordance with the orders of the Unification Front, he had not slowed to analyze potential hiding spots. They had passed through one particular location with almost no resistance¡ªthe corruption was stronger there, and there were many dead priests around it, which led Iridium to conclude that their target had been here before as well.

    Now that they were outside, the trace was fainter. Under normal conditions, that would not make sense, but Iridium had been briefed upon the different powers that this world could wield.

    ¡°The corruption wielder can travel-move instantly,¡± he said.

    ¡°Will you be able to find-detect him?¡± Rhodium asked.

    ¡°Of course,¡± Iridium said. ¡°If you would just give me one moment.¡±

    Unlocking his new class had been a massive boon to him. All his previous skills had not only upgraded¡ªthey had evolved.

    Trace Terror, a tracking skill he had used to find the targets of his lethal fear, now extended towards anything whose soul he could comprehend, not just what he had left a magical marker on.

    In conjunction with another skill that let him analyze souls from their magic traces, he could find the corruption wielder nearly instantly.

    The force of the soul shocked him as he entered the skill. Even through a skill that did not interact directly with the soul, Iridium was rooted to the ground by the sheer presence in William Li-Brown¡¯s being.

    ¡°Demon,¡± he hissed, retracting from the skill as if he had been burnt.

    ¡°Did he best your detection, brother?¡± Rhodium asked.

    ¡°No,¡± Iridium replied. ¡°Check your maps. We are less than eight hundred distance-lengths from the corruption wielder.¡±

    ¡°Then let us hurry,¡± Osmium said gravely, ¡°before he can corrupt this pure world further.¡±

    #

    Will¡¯s group came at the perfect time to interfere with a battle, which meant they were a lot later than they had hoped.

    With no plane at the ready, they had been forced to make do with their movement skills. They were able to move quickly, but it had been awkward. Caiyeri and Liam both needed momentum to move the fastest, so Will had taken the former and Nathan the latter, dropping them from about five thousand feet up to start their engines, so to speak.

    Wisteria and Yui could tag-team using the latter¡¯s access to the Beyond. Unlike Will¡¯s skill, Yui could travel to places she hadn¡¯t been before, but she could only use that movement with a very limited load and couldn¡¯t stay in the Beyond for long.

    Jessie just ran, capable of moving at deceptively fast speeds across long, flat distances.

    All in all, that meant it took them about half an hour to make it from the ruins of SB-7 to the outskirts of the city proper.

    They were engaged in active warfare. Battles between large groups of Users were always hard to follow, and this was no exception. The dominant force was obviously Fan Laozi¡¯s titans, two of which were actively deployed in this area. They crushed buildings a quarter mile tall with casual ease, magical weapons of various types firing from every surface. As they got closer and Sen¡¯s eyes gave Will a closer view of the battlefield, he realized that the titans were moving weapons systems, each of them filled to the brim with gold-rank equipment.

    They were being partially manned by silver-rank Users, too. Defenders from the Shanghai side swarmed the side of the titans like so many ants, occasionally popping out of the side to dump a few offensive skills or try to counter one of the Peace side¡¯s coordinated attacks.

    Lu Jie was participating, which was evident once a massive white beam of energy that Will recognized as Peace¡¯s Pacify sigil skill distilled into a ranged attack fired on a collected mass of Users on the arm of one of the titans. A portal opened under them, ejecting them atop a crumbling skyscraper. A heartbeat later, a second portal opened, shunting them away as a lumbering sweep of the titan¡¯s arm finished cleaving the building apart at the middle.

    The Peace group was operating as a more cohesive unit than Lu Jie¡¯s faction was, which was a bit strange when Will considered that they were the ones with the gigantic titans that were currently dictacting the flow of the fight.

    The general trend of the battle became clear as the ten of them drew within striking range of the fight, about a mile from the back of the largest Peace force. Though both sides were losing people fast, the Peace side didn¡¯t seem to care at all. They continued pushing forward, consolidating ranks, and they continued firing the same grouped-up standardized rituals that Peace had granted her followers.

    Every time Shanghai¡¯s side lost a person, however, a key part of their strategy went down. They were playing tower defense, mostly, trying to keep the titans in the game, but the problem with groups like theirs or Will¡¯s was that they weren¡¯t units. They were people, and though figuring out a fighting style that played into the synergies between each other worked better than just doing what you could on your own, it also meant that when your teammate died, combat got a lot harder.

    Bit by bit, Peace¡¯s forces were making progress. Casualties were mounting on both sides, but if this continued as it was, Peace was going to overrun the city just by sheer force of numbers. Her forces might not be able to take down Fan Laozi or Lu Jie, but the entire rest of the population? That was a very possible failure state.

    ¡°Well,¡± Will said to his assembled group.

    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t you dare get into a speech,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°I¡¯ve never been so ready to fight in my life.¡±

    ¡°Let me put the script away then,¡± Will said drily. ¡°Let¡¯s go fuck their shit up.¡±

 Chapter 136: Ten-Man Army

    The former rank one User was panicking.

    That wasn¡¯t a reaction many would have associated with him, not in the times before or now. He had been a high-powered executive and the oldest man in his family when the screens had come. At the end of a life well lived, he had chosen to stay and fight while most of the rest of his family had preferred safety. Regaining his strength and going far beyond what he had ever dreamed of as a young man had been a pleasant surprise, and he had applied the same ruthless drive to his skills that he had towards his normal life.

    Most of his family had taken that approach. Xie-ren, who had immigrated to the United States when they had been young, had also stayed, joining up with him when she¡¯d confirmed that he was still alive. Though she had operated more independently than under Lu, she had stayed in touch with him, reveling in the benefits of new youth alongside him.

    Right up until the global human summit.

    Now, he defended a nation run by a murderous sociopath that had once been of Earth but no longer was against someone who was supposed to be family.

    He did not recognize this Xie-ren anymore. Jie Xie-ren was gone. There was a monster in her place.

    Or, perhaps more terrifyingly, she had decided that blood mattered less to her than her god.

    Jie Lu could not protect his people from her onslaught. There were simply too many Peace sigil-holders. More than half of his attacks were stopped in their tracks, their momentum pacified by a group cast. Every time he killed a group of them with a portal-accelerated projectile, more of them seemed to creep out of the ground like ants.

    Even the terrifying Fan Laozi¡¯s power was only enough to protect the titans themselves. The Peace sigil-holders operated with tremendous coordination. Every time a User poked their head out to attempt to return fire or protect against a barrage, over a hundred silver to gold rank skills converged on them, guaranteeing death if Lu couldn¡¯t get them out of the way in time.

    This was a losing fight, and the worst part of it was that Lu knew in his heart of hearts that part of the reason it was that way was because he was not willing to accept that his sister was gone. He still hoped, perhaps foolishly, that she was still there and could still be reasoned with.

    Another part of him was worried that he would activate the strongest combination he could try and it wouldn¡¯t be enough.

    All his life, he had been enough. Nothing had been able to stand in his way.

    What would become of him if he tried this and failed?

    He was shaken out of his thoughts by the telltale magical signature that he knew would be followed by a mass cast of the Pacify sigil skill. Lu cursed, spending another chunk of mana he wouldn¡¯t be able to recover quickly.

    Gold-rank skill¡ªPortal Overcharge. It was a very efficient skill that he¡¯d used a good number of times to enhance the number and range of the portals he¡¯d been using, but the number of times he could use it without backlash had decreased since it had hit gold. He was running out of remaining uses.

    This was worth it, though. In a span of instants, he repositioned almost the entire Shanghai coalition, repositioning them just out of range of the Pacify before returning them to their original positions. Their numbers were dwindling at an alarming rate, but Lu knew that if it weren¡¯t for him, that pace would have been far faster. If he hadn¡¯t been present to act as a life tether it was very possible that Lu and the otherworlder would have been the only ones remaining.

    It was becoming clearer that he was going to have to take drastic action soon. He didn¡¯t know if he could bring himself to do it, but¡ª

    Darkness flooded the city, and Jie Lu found himself filled with an odd combination of terror andrelief.

    For months now, he had feared this familiar sight. He still remembered the terror of trying to exact revenge upon William Li-Brown and realizing that it was his men who were dying, not the corruption wielder¡¯s.

    This time, though, he was not the greatest enemy. Jie Lu was not the scariest fighter on the battlefield, not the strong man he had always believed himself to be¡ªand for possibly the first time in his life, he was okay with that.

    Within moments, the oily, magic-absorbing darkness blanketed so much of the city that it covered the titans up to their knees. Both sides were firing blind now, but it was clear that the tide had turned.

    Will: Miss me?

    #

    Will wondered if the way he felt fighting Peace sigil-holders was the same way everyone else felt about him. They were frustratingly good at staying alive, and they were slippery. Anyone that got caught out of position instantly ate a blast of gold-rank corruption to the face, which was usually enough to kill them once Caiyeri got wind of their general location, but they were very good at not getting caught out of position.

    In sufficiently large groups, their collective sigil skills were sufficient to deny entire blocks of space, preventing the hunger phantasm from entering the space they occupied and dealing with them.

    Will was fifty-fifty on the idea of triggering One Foot in the Grave to try to brute force his way through, but the extreme cost of that skill wasn¡¯t worth it if he couldn¡¯t finish it here and now. It was a fantastic enhancement, but it also eliminated his ability to passively heal by damaging and killing people, which meant that he would be doing an all-or-nothing play for zero guaranteed return.

    Xie-ren Jie was clearly one of the Peace force¡¯s elites. Will had been able to find her amongst the chaos with Sen, but she¡¯d noticed and eliminated his surveillance on her almost instantly.

    Her primary attack was also not the generic Peace sigil-holder template¡ªshe¡¯d already been a strong User before the goddess¡¯ influence, and it showed in how lethal she was against the lesser Users on Shanghai¡¯s side.

    As best as Will could tell with Pages of the Past, she had a combination of skills that were primarily driving a fleet of arrows around her, infusing them with different powers and flying according to her desires. Blinding her with the hunger phantasm had helped somewhat, but she had perception skills to help, so it wasn¡¯t perfect.

    Fortunately, Will wasn¡¯t alone. He kept holes open in his hunger phantasm for his allies who needed it and pointed the way to the nearest groups of Peace sigil-holders. The silver-rankers largely stuck together, operating as a lethally effective unit. Magical defenses bent under the combined forces of several silvers who had spent the last few months fighting against these very same forces like their lives depended on it¡ªwhich it had.

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    And when they took an inch, they took a mile. Will hammered in on every wavering shield, extending the Warp Strike feature of Weapons Free to swing an attack out into those defenses from miles away, often doing so from a thrown knife from one of his own.

    Caiyeri was putting in a lot more work now than she had before. At silver, she had already been a force to contend with. Her trials and tribulations had forged her into a deadly, chaotic assassin. Her Gambler class hadn¡¯t evolved, but her fighting style had. She took every risky opportunity, using her skills to turn a miniscule chance into a guarantee.

    Now, those traits had been magnified a hundredfold. At gold, she was dodging attacks that she couldn¡¯t even see, moving with a fluidity that Will could only dream of. Her skills must have all upgraded at the same time as well, because she was spamming magic like there was no tomorrow. Will didn¡¯t even know that half the consumable magic items she was using existed, but there she was, flitting through his darkness like a living shadow just to drop a gold-rank hand grenade with a one percent chance to inflict true damage on anyone in its radius.

    In the opening engagements, she was the most lethal by far, even more than Nathan and Yui.

    Despite only being ten strong, Will could tell that they had easily shifted the tides of this battle. The amount of chaos they had added was key, and since it was primarily Will upsetting the order of things, it gave his gold-rankers a much easier time picking off enemies like fish in a barrel.

    Will didn¡¯t personally kill all that many people, instead relying on his wide-range spells to weaken defenses until either Caiyeri, Nathan, Yui, or Jessie steamrolled through them.

    The Shanghai group was probably breathing a deep sigh of relief, he figured. Lu Jie should probably have warned his Users about what attacking into the darkness would risk, and now their casualties had been reduced to almost nothing. From what he¡¯d heard of the man, Fan Laozi might not like that, but Will probably had time before the Titan Driver took so much offense that he started firing back.

    One of the strange things about this new world order was that more was not always better. Just because Peace was forcing its thralls to work together didn¡¯t mean that their vast numbers and coordination could defeat Will¡¯s group. In fact, with no objective to project and no real limitations on where they could attack, he would have taken these ten powerful, adaptable Users over Peace¡¯s army any day of the week.

    Armies worked well against armies, but in a world where one man could be a battalion on his own, they weren¡¯t always the best fit against¡­ heroes? No, that didn¡¯t sound quite right.

    Will decided he¡¯d think on that one. There was definitely a title in there that fit his haphazard group somewhere, but sociopathic murder machines didn¡¯t roll off the tongue quite as well.

    As lightning flashed through the darkness, Will started searching for his target again.

    Lu Jie¡¯s one condition for not shooting him down had been the same as what he¡¯d asked of Will back when he¡¯d dropped his blood feud against him, and sure enough, it was for the same reason¡ªblood.

    Where are you, Xie-ren?

    #

    Jie Xie-ren was losing this battle.

    That much was plain to see. She had been slowly but steadily winning without even participating all that much, simply directing waves upon waves of silver and gold-rankers forward. Against the disorganized, impure forces that her brother and the one who had transgressed the boundaries of worlds, her strategy had worked. Peace¡¯s hand had guided her way throughout, granting her troops the presence of mind needed to act as a unit. It had been nearly evenly matched, but she had been on a certain path to victory.

    That was no longer the case now. Even as she observed her people through Peace¡¯s connection, she watched as a group of twenty was overrun by a single elf who always seemed to be in the right place, avoiding attacks by mere centimeters and returning devastating critical attacks with pinpoint accuracy. A duo of gold-rankers who¡¯d been using their stilling attacks to stop the hearts of a gathered group of Shanghai Users died screaming, run over by an unfathomably grotesque creature of some sort that vanished from her perception almost as fast as it entered.

    Elsewhere, she recognized the work of otherworlders. Though she could only see the impact craters and zones of null magic that they left behind, there was a particular stench to them that Peace had taught her to recognize.

    She decided that she would start mounting her counteroffensive by targeting the weakest members of their group. There was a group of silver-rankers that were utilizing similar tactics but were noticeably slower. Towards them, she sent a hundred arrows, each of them approaching from different angles. Flurry, a skill that had been boosted to gold-rank by Peace¡¯s influence, was a violent way to end fights, but violence in the service of a lasting Peace was acceptable.

    Xie-ren wished more people could have opened their eyes to the goddess¡¯ truth, but thus far she had only seen them truly understand when their choices had been Peace or peace in eternal slumber.

    It couldn¡¯t be helped. These attackers would not listen to reason, so they would have to die.

    Arrows swarmed at a group of three silver-rankers¡ªand they saw them coming somehow. One of them possessed a sniper rifle that seemed to never miss, and a slow null-magic skill from another slowed the arrows enough for the third User to use magic to overclock the sniper¡¯s gun, giving him the speed and ammunition necessary to shoot most of the arrows out of the sky.

    There were still a handful, though, and she only needed one to be lethal.

    Except none of them were. Out of nowhere, a winged familiar appeared, a radiant aura surrounding him, and the arrows crashed into his wings, losing their power and falling inert.

    A moment later, a message came.

    Will: Getting impatient, are we?

    Will: Thanks for making this game of cat and mouse a little easier. It¡¯s not like my enemies to not try to come out to fight me.

    Will: Then again, most of my enemies have been strong, and you¡­ you¡¯re not strong.

    Xie-ren did not allow herself to get provoked by such an obvious trap, instead focusing on doing what she could to eliminate them. She sent a group of weak silvers towards the enemy silver-rank trio, baiting out their attacks before using one of her own. This time, the swarm converged into three massive single strikes¡ªthe first to break defenses, the second to dispel magic such as familiars, and the third to kill.

    She was no more successful the second time than the first. Partway through their flight, the dispel arrow simply vanished.

    Will: Oh, huh. Turns out that a big enough piece of ammunition does count as a weapon. Thanks for the big-ass anti-magic¡­ errr¡­ swarm? I¡¯m not sure what to call it.

    Will: I¡¯d tell you to stop trying to kill my friends, but I guess we¡¯re doing the same.

    Will: Not that these people are your friends, are they? They¡¯re thralls. They all act with one mind, don¡¯t they? You all lost something when you joined with Peace. Maybe you less than most, but these grunts aren¡¯t entirely human anymore. Some of them are literally walking corpses piloted by someone else¡¯s intelligence¡ªthanks for that, by the way, those are really easy to kill.

    Xie-ren¡¯s eye twitched. There was a level of arrogance she could brook, but the amount of sheer disregard for anything that this man was demonstrating was something else.

    Xie-ren: What are you doing?

    ¡°Distracting you,¡± a voice said from behind her.

    Xie-ren whipped around. She hadn¡¯t been involved in the fight itself, having decided to determine the path of the fight from a mountainside a kilometer away. One of her skills had allowed her to create copies of herself, one of which had distracted the corruption wielder, but he¡¯d found her.

    And it was clear that this was, in fact, the one who Peace despised so much. If his sickeningly wrong aura and dark wings weren¡¯t enough to tell her that, the way her goddess seemed to grip her shoulders confirmed it.

    ¡°Handy dandy skill I¡¯ve got,¡± Will said. ¡°Wail of the Forgotten. It lets me find allies of someone once I kill them with it. Commanders, by the by, count as allies.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ve come here to kill me,¡± Xie-ren said. Avoiding my senses, too.

    She checked in on the status of her copies that she¡¯d used as surveillance. Xie-ren should have felt them die if he¡¯d killed them, but¡ªno. Some of them were gone, but she could still feel in some faint part of her soul that their mana still existed.

    It was their connection to her that he had killed.

    ¡°Not quite,¡± Will said. ¡°I¡¯m here because Peace will not stop fucking meddling with me, and I won¡¯t take that lying down. Plus, I promised your brother.¡±

    What?

    ¡°Here we go!¡± Will said, aura bursting with heretical arrogance.

    [Desecrated Bond] has been activated on [Xie-ren Jie], sigil-holder of [Peace].

    [William Li-Brown] has chosen to use [Corrupt].

    [William Li-Brown] will now contest [Peace].

 Chapter 137: Just Not Yours

    Will was starting to feel a bit like a broken record. He was pretty sure that it wasn¡¯t exactly normal to be someone who was getting used to otherworldly dimensions in which he was meant to contest a god, but that was just his life now.

    He briefly wondered how many other people on Earth or the other planet had come into contact with gods even a tenth as many times as he had. Of those, he wondered if they¡¯d come out unscathed or had gone insane from having their soul broken to shreds repeatedly. There had been points where he¡¯d thought the latter result would be his life¡¯s ultimate ending, but here he still was, alive and kicking and contesting Peace.

    She was the same as he remembered her, taciturn and so blindingly bright that she couldn¡¯t be looked at directly. There was a hint of increased danger to her now, though, as if the time since she¡¯d last seen him had given her the drive to actually kill him.

    Given the fact that last time, she¡¯d said that she was bored, Will counted this as a step up.

    He remembered contesting her with his intervention skill Desecrated Bond back at the first global summit. Then, he¡¯d used it on some inconsequential silver ranker to make a point, and he¡¯d been stunned by how little Peace cared about his general existence even if he annoyed her. It had been a departure from so many other gods where their sheer hatred for him made them predictable and gave him leverage.

    Then, he¡¯d had nothing to use against her. Now¡­ well, that was still mostly true. Her forces were widely spread out, and nobody had disrupted the preparations that the Contractor was making on account of her spending plausibility to hide them from all possible surveillance.

    This time, though, Will didn¡¯t feel the same desperate urgency he did before. He knew more of the ground rules now. This carved-out area of space they were represented the soul-space that they had to contest. Peace had all of Xie-ren¡¯s power to use in this contest, but she could wield the gold-ranker¡¯s soul with a strength that Xie-ren could never even dream of. Will knew how much pain he¡¯d be withstanding, and he knew that he would likely even be able to sever the bond because Peace was ultimately limited by the amount of power that her User could output.

    He¡¯d also gained the Heretic title since the last time they¡¯d met, which granted him more resistance to the divine magic that Peace would be using to push back against Will¡¯s efforts to sever her from this place. In essence, he knew that he¡¯d be able to complete the primary objective he was here for, although it would be painful in a level that few mortal minds would be able to comprehend.

    Will was somewhat of a connosieur when it came to soul torture, though. Though the Crown refused to open its domain to him when he dreamed, the Hunger still did, and that god had been growing its influence and power as the cycle progressed, using Will¡¯s accomplishments to fuel itself. In a self-sustaining cycle, its increased power let it wreak further havoc on Will¡¯s soul every night, forging it stronger again each time, which in turn increased Will¡¯s ability to accomplish great deeds and empower the Hunger more.

    There was always the concern that Xie-ren being a rank higher than the last one he¡¯d contested of this sort would make the Peace able to utilize her power to a far greater extent, but Will had prepared for this as much as he could.

    Now, the real question was what he could extract from Peace before this encounter ended. Desecrated Bond was one of the few chances he had to interact with gods that weren¡¯t his own sigils, and Peace was one in particular that he would greatly appreciate insights into evil plans about.

    To his surprise, he didn¡¯t have to badger her with insults for minutes on end before she spoke this time. Instead, it was Peace that opened the conversation.

    ¡°Humans are tiring,¡± she said, each word reverberating with godly power. ¡°This one accepted peace. Why can you not?¡±

    ¡°Ooh, breaking policy, are we?¡± Will said. ¡°I seem to recall you calling me ¡®predictable¡¯ last time. Still feeling that?¡±

    ¡°An insect¡¯s actions are predictable,¡± the goddess said. ¡°It lives. It finds food. It mates. It infests. It dies. It is irritating nonetheless.¡±

    ¡°Some insects are real good at not dying,¡± Will said. ¡°I¡¯ve found a lot more in common with the cockroach than I thought I ever would.¡±

    ¡°Your kind only ever seeks defiance for the sake of it,¡± the goddess said. ¡°The truth lays in front of your eyes, but you would refuse to acknowledge that the sky was blue if it was a god saying it.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s pretty definitively not been blue for a few moments here and there,¡± Will said. ¡°I¡¯m reasonably sure part of that has to do with the planet hurtling towards us, which isn¡¯t something that my cycle is supposed to be dealing with.¡±

    ¡°The cycle falters,¡± Peace acknowledged. ¡°A trend that has been only increasing in intensity and frequency with each new integration.¡±

    ¡°So you admit that¡¯s true,¡± Will said. ¡°I¡¯m going to wrap around to an earlier point you made. You think I¡¯m defying you just because I want to? Are you dumb? I have sigils, you know.¡±

    ¡°One of which you have made no contact with in months.¡±

    ¡°Because he¡¯s working for you, dumbass,¡± Will said. ¡°The only interest I have in the Crown comes from the skill he gave me. I bet he felt real good giving that to me only to realize that I¡¯m not the weak-willed pacifist he thought I was.¡±

    ¡°Peace requires a stronger will than violence,¡± the embodiment of the concept itself said. ¡°It is easy to push mana into a skill. Before the system, it was easy to pull a trigger. To swing a blade. True will is having the opportunity to end a life and not taking it.¡±

    ¡°And yet here you are,¡± Will said. ¡°Taking lives like candy from a baby.¡±

    ¡°No peace comes without its cost.¡±

    ¡°Yeah? What do you think you¡¯re going to accomplish here? Congratulations, your little summoning ritual over in bumfuck nowhere is going to work out because you cheated the cycle and orchestrated a way to use divine power without someone else having to make the first move. Let¡¯s say you kill me. When that¡¯s done, you¡¯ve rid the world of its corruption wielder, sure, but also one of a very, very small group of people that care about keeping this place running. I don¡¯t see a way a greater peace comes from my death.¡±

    ¡°You think on far too small a scale,¡± Peace said. ¡°Very mortal of you. What is one world amongst trillions? If the cycle is allowed to continue on, yours is not the last that will fall into conflict. I seek a lasting peace.¡±

    ¡°Starting by taking my head,¡± Will said drily. ¡°A favored of your sister¡¯s, if my theology is correct.¡±

    ¡°Correct.¡± The goddess offered no further explanation.

    ¡°You care to elaborate how that¡¯ll help?¡±

    ¡°Not particularly,¡± Peace said.

    As always, she was entirely unphased by what he had to say, contrasting other gods and even powerful mortals who would lose their shit at anything other than total, unquestioned obedience. In some ways, that made her scarier. Anger was predictable. Peace wasn¡¯t.

    A bit of time passed in which neither of them said anything or made any moves, both watching the other in case they might offer up a nugget of information¡ªWill looking to make any more sense of Peace¡¯s plan, the goddess trying to find¡­ he didn¡¯t really know. Insights into his psyche? He supposed he should be flattered that a core goddess wanted to poke at his brain, but he was getting a bit sick of that by now.

    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    ¡°If that¡¯s all, then?¡± Will said, expanding his soul-space outwards. ¡°Let¡¯s dance.¡±

    After Will had experienced the inside of a Desecrated Bond once, the second go round was just retreading old ground. Peace was using a stronger vessel this time, but Will had also grown stronger and number since the last time he¡¯d done this. Pain was a familiar companion to his soul now.

    And when it came to a contest of the souls, he knew who would win every time. Peace wasn¡¯t torturing her subordinates to maximize their soul power. That was something that could and would result in brain damage or death in those who weren¡¯t able to handle it. A brittle sword held up to the heat of a forge could break.

    Will had not broken yet, and he would not break now.

    Peace made an effort, but even she recognized that the fight was lost from the beginning.

    ¡°For every one of these you cut me off from,¡± she warned Will as he strained with effort, pushing back against the all-consuming shattering sensation that her soul-space inflicted on him, ¡°there are ten thousand more. You cannot defeat me every time, and there are many who seek peace.¡±

    With a roar of exertion, Will pushed through another layer of the goddess¡¯ defenses, corruption spreading through the sigil link.

    ¡°Yeah, I know,¡± he panted, soul exhausted even if his body was in baseline reality and completely rested. ¡°I¡¯m one of them.¡±

    ¡°Yet you have not considered our point of view.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I have,¡± Will said. ¡°I want peace. Just not yours.¡±

    He shattered Xie-ren Jie¡¯s link to her goddess.

    #

    Iridium, Osmium, and Rhodium of the Ninety-Sixth Sector slid to a halt as a collective, their antennae quivering as a wave of raw, dirty power rang like the tolling of a funeral bell.

    All three of them shuddered with revulsion as their senses processed the foul stench of magic being torn asunder.

    ¡°The corruption wielder¡¯s work, no doubt,¡± Iridium said. ¡°Our hunt-race is coming to a close.¡±

    ¡°We are close,¡± Rhodium agreed. ¡°I sense minds. Tens of thousands. Many of them are united in purpose.¡±

    ¡°Not of the Great Purpose, I presume.¡±

    ¡°From preliminary investigations, they are of the same kind that we encountered within the dungeon anomaly,¡± Rhodium said. ¡°Though that first impression was negative, they may yet prove not to be hostile. They are, just as we are, but servants of a greater cause.¡±

    ¡°Then we will avoid-prevent the deaths of abundant-overmuch of their kind,¡± Osmium said. ¡°Iridium. You can handle this, yes?¡±

    ¡°With pleasure, brother-comrade,¡± Iridium said. ¡°We will strike the instant his defenses are lowered. Advance with me.¡±

    As the Speaker of the Soul, Iridium had gained skills that the previous Speakers had possessed, all of them amplified by the sheer weight of the role.

    His predecessor had possessed a singular skill by the title of Atmospheric Cannon. Designed to depopulate moons, it absorbed chunks of a celestial body¡¯s atmosphere to fuel itself, firing a devastating attack that could wipe out small cities. What the previous Speaker had used it as, however, was an instrument of assassination. With the assistance of another Speaker, the beam could be aimed and calibrated in such a manner that its only victim would be a single target, the area around them protected.

    With Iridium¡¯s own signature skills, that effect would be compounded. Even if the stricken user survived the first blow by some miracle, he would be slaughtered in moments by a fast-acting fear virus that targeted the soul itself, bypassing all defenses.

    William Li-Brown wasn¡¯t going to know what hit him until he was little more than a smear of blood on the ground.

    #

    All sigil-holders of [Peace] within 1,000 miles have been alerted to your current position.

    Will stumbled on dead grass as he collapsed back into his material body. It was always disorienting coming back from spaces like the Beyond or the strange soul-space that Desecrated Bond shunted him off to, but this time had been particularly rough. Xie-ren had possessed enough power for Peace to make it particularly painful for him.

    Judging from Xie-ren¡¯s reaction, it seemed like he¡¯d gotten the better end of the deal. The Chinese woman fell to her knees, clutching at her head as if she was going to find a wound there. Unlike the last Peace sigil-holder he¡¯d done this to, she didn¡¯t scream, instead just cycling through her magic in shock.

    Will had to respect the amount of power she had. Even with Peace gone, she still seemed to be gold rank, and she¡¯d been effective against an entire city of silver and gold-rank defenders with just her skills and Peace¡¯s shitty disposable troops. Before she could collect herself enough to try turning those skills on him, he screamed at her as politely as he could.

    ¡°PLEASE GET STUNNED BY THIS,¡± he bellowed, activating Wail of the Forgotten as he did.

    Instead of the usual enhancements that he poured into it, Will weakened the skill intentionally, widening the area of effect so that the damage would be lowered.

    The stunning effect on the skill was one that he rarely used since strong enemies could typically resist it and weaker ones would usually just die under the weight of his relentless assault, but with Xie-ren as scatter-brained as she was right now, he figured she¡¯d be at a moment of critical weakness.

    He predicted correctly. She froze up, eyes going wide as haunted voices overwhelmed her.

    It wouldn¡¯t last forever, but it would last long enough. Will dearly hoped that there weren¡¯t any Peace sigil-holders in the area who could teleport here in under a minute. He¡¯d be able to deal with them, but it would get in the way of his other task here.

    Will: Job¡¯s done, mostly. Doubt she¡¯ll be immediately cooperative, but I have her.

    Nathan: Got it. Already on my way.

    Sen¡¯s eyes patrolled the mountaintop and the area immediately around it, giving Will a general idea of what was going on. Some of the Peace sigil-holders in the area¡ªgold-ranks, mostly¡ªwere fast. They were within minutes of finding him and presumably engaging him in a fight.

    Nathan, fortunately, was faster. The otherworlder was a tinkerer with a class meant for extraterrestrial travel and attack, and it showed in the sheer speed he demonstrated in getting to Will¡¯s side. A sonic boom accompanied his arrival.

    ¡°I can carry both of you,¡± Nathan said, ¡°but I¡¯m not great at taxiing more than one person while also keeping weapons systems online.¡±

    ¡°Can you handle her?¡± Will asked.

    Nathan looked Xie-ren over dubiously. ¡°Probably. Worst comes to worst, I can just drop her, yeah?¡±

    ¡°She might be able to fly,¡± Will said.

    ¡°Might?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Will admitted. ¡°But it feels like every asshole can fly these days. Or at least hover. Makes dramatically throwing people off towers so much less effective.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ve been doing a lot of that?¡±

    ¡°I tried. Twice. Once in Moldova, once in New Zealand. First guy just healed off the damage, second guy didn¡¯t even move.¡±

    Nathan snorted. ¡°You¡¯re not helping the sociopathic serial killer image, you know.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, yeah,¡± Will sighed. ¡°Just get her and go. I¡¯ll catch up to you. We don¡¯t have long before her backup gets here.¡±

    Some of them were already climbing the mountain at rapid speeds. Will had Sen spit out hunger phantasm at them and occasionally used the familiar¡¯s gold-rank feature to project his aura through the eyes. It wouldn¡¯t kill any of them right off the bat, but it forced them to group together to keep his corrupting darkness away from them, buying Nathan enough time to take off unmolested.

    Will followed, a decent distance behind. He wasn¡¯t at supersonic levels yet, not even close, but he managed to get some good speed by plummeting hundreds of feet and converting the downward momentum into a glide with wings made of hunger phantasm.

    As he glided, he sent off messages to Lu Jie and the rest of the squad. Most of the others he¡¯d brought were still fighting off Peace sigil-holders, doing just as a good a job here as they had in the superdungeon, but they were occupied enough that they probably weren¡¯t going to be able to come with him to meet the Portal Mage. Liam in particular expressed a wish to ¡°pick off the stragglers¡± before grouping up again.

    That was fine by him. Will needed to be the one to kill Fan Laozi anyway. That was his final requirement to rank up to gold. The last few months had been a tumultuous time, but he¡¯d acquired enough treasures from dungeons during that time to meet the other Reaper challenges.

    All that remained now was one more kill between him and a rank that might let him actually survive. It didn¡¯t escape his notice that he was also within thirty kills of a thousand for Eternal Throne, a number he could have barely dreamed about months ago. That promise of resurrection was incredibly appealing now that it was within reach.

    Distantly, Will had to marvel at just how much he¡¯d changed. When he¡¯d first gotten the Crown¡¯s sigil, he¡¯d firmly decided against becoming the type of monster that would murder just to get a bonus from a skill. Now, here he was, hundreds of kills later, doing just that. He¡¯d found a lot of targets worth killing, but he had to wonder how many of those kills had just seemed like nails when all he had was a hammer.

    Not important, he reminded himself, a throbbing pain in a hollow eye socket reminding him of the demon there and the stakes at hand. If he had to become a monster to protect himself, his friends, and the world, then he would.

    He glided straight over the battlefield and deeper into the heart of the city, where Nathan had raised a smoke signal of sorts, using magical flares to spark a beacon that stretched more than twice as high as any of the skyscrapers in the area.

    Will: You know I can see you on my map, right? You definitely didn¡¯t need to do that.

    Nathan: C¡¯mon, let a man roleplay Hatchet every now and again.

    Will: Dude, the smoke signal didn¡¯t work in that book.

    Nathan: Yes it did. Did we read the same thing?

    Will: You¡¯re impossible sometimes. I¡¯m settling down. Are you with them?

    Nathan: Yep, with Lu Jie. Bit of a heads-up, though¡­ Fan Laozi is coming, and he doesn¡¯t seem very happy.

    #

    High up in the sky, further than any Earth native could sense, air began coagulating, sucked into the effects of a gold-rank orbital weapon.

 Chapter 138: A Gathering of Sociopaths

    Will was a bit late to the party, having had to dodge the pursuit of several thousand Peace sigil-holders who had suddenly lost their primary leader.

    Caiyeri: You left us with your entire mess to clean up, you dick.

    Will: My bad. It¡¯ll be good practice, right? You get a relatively safe space to practice your gold-rank upgrades in.

    Caiyeri: Stop trying to make it sound like you¡¯re doing us a service. Sending however many thousand silvers and golds after one group? Back on Arcadia, we could call that a war. Or an execution, I suppose.

    Will: Oh, come on. Arcadia had no idea what they were doing. You solo right now versus your entire nation one year ago? I know who I¡¯d have my money on.

    Caiyeri: True.

    Will: Your nation, of course. They wouldn¡¯t have complained as much about having to kill a whole bunch of humans.

    Caiyeri: Fuck you too. See you in a few hours?

    Will: If nothing goes wrong, an hour. Since something is definitely going to go wrong, let¡¯s call it three. Good hunting.

    Caiyeri: To you as well.

    Well, he was fortunate to be able to foster all of his problems off to a very capable group of¡­ friends? Friends sounded like the wrong word for alliances that had been forged through blood and battle, but ¡°brothers-in-arms¡± sounded like it belonged in a period movie and ¡°comrade¡± made him imagine his parents telling him off for invoking communism.

    He hadn¡¯t thought of his parents in some time. With his knowledge of the multiverse expanded as it was now, he imagined they were working in some labor camp in a planet far away alongside the rest of Earth.

    Ayla had been in something like that once, though Will was pretty certain hers had been punitive labor, not voluntary.

    There was still so much he didn¡¯t know about the worlds, so many injustices and universe-wide problems that needed to be corrected.

    None of that was going to matter if he didn¡¯t survive the next few months, which wouldn¡¯t happen if he remained a silver. Will focused on that fact, setting aside his nebulous worries for the future in favor of a concrete goal.

    Fan Laozi¡¯s venue of choice was atop the palm of one of his titans. It was transparently a power play, even if said hand was able to create a pretty neat meeting room from a rather unique viewpoint. The palm was larger than Will¡¯s dorm had been in college, decorated by a traditional-looking tea table. Someone had even set out a fresh pot and cups on the table, though only one person was partaking.

    As Will glided to a stop at the tip of the palm, he saw that there was already an argument ongoing. Nathan was standing with an unconscious and handcuffed Xie-ren at his feet some distance away from the table, his arms raised in a position that Will knew meant he was ready .

    He recognized Lu Jie from his previous encounters with the Portal Mage, standing next to a seat at the head of a table that looked suspiciously like a throne with its gilded frame and red cushions.

    At that seat, chin resting on one hand while the other gently brought a teacup to his lips, was a man straight out of one of the Chinese TV dramas his mom had always loved¡ªthe ones where a bunch of long-haired masters of the sword fought each other and spat such pithy phrases as ¡°you dare?¡± or ¡°you court death!¡±

    Fan Laozi. Gold 6 Titan Driver.

    Leaderboard Rank: 4 (+1 in the last 24 hours)

    He didn¡¯t look much older than Will himself did, and his demeanor was calm, but Will instantly realized that he was more of a threat than many of the others he¡¯d seen on the leaderboard.

    They had last been in the same area during the first human summit, but Fan Laozi and Will had never actually met. Will had fought off a ton of Peace sigil-holders and decided to beeline it out of a summit that had proved itself useful for little other than beating down stupid assassination attempts just before the Chinese ranker had made it in.

    Lu Jie¡¯s attempt on his life and his blood grudge at the time had also made Will hesitant of approaching their faction to scope them out, but now he was actually getting an idea of who this Titan Driver was. With their auras both casually radiating out into the air around them, he instantly understood how this man had been almost single-handedly controlling two massive cities as far apart as Shanghai and Chengdu.

    Fan Laozi exuded power in a way that few others did. That was nothing particularly worrying on its own¡ªWill had faced plenty of abnormally strong people.

    What worried him was that this abnormality was a very familiar one. Even restrained, this aura was concentrated and particularly sharp in the same way Will¡¯s was.

    He wasn¡¯t the only one who had shattered his soul.

    Will¡¯s arrival alerted everyone at the meeting room, his Outcast title imbuing his aura with a particular malice that none of them could ignore. Nathan flinched as Will landed, half-forming a skill in his right hand before letting it dissipate.

    ¡°I¡¯m never going to get used to that,¡± Nathan muttered.

    Fan Laozi was the only one who didn¡¯t noticeably react¡ªwell, unless you counted Xie-ren, who was still suffering the aftereffects of Wail of the Forgotten. Will was honestly impressed by how good the skill was at knocking someone out. He¡¯d rarely left a target alive after using Wail of the Forgotten on them, so this had actually been his first time using it on a gold-ranker he wasn¡¯t planning on immediately killing.

    ¡°Li,¡± the gold-ranker said simply, his aura serene but quietly threatening, infusing the area and preventing Will¡¯s from overpowering them all. ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you properly.¡±

    ¡°I wish I could say the same,¡± Will said drily.

    He opened a chat window to Nathan.

    Will: I take it there¡¯s been a problem?

    Nathan: Yeah. I didn¡¯t want to alarm you, but there¡¯s a decent shot he doesn¡¯t intend on me getting out of here alive.

    Will: Why would I be alarmed? If I thought he had a real shot at killing you, I wouldn¡¯t have had you come along.

    Nathan: Appreciate the vote of confidence, but if I took that attitude towards every fight, I would¡¯ve been six feet under a long time ago.

    Will: Have you tried being better?

    Nathan: Shut up.

    ¡°I appreciate you taking the pains to spend a portion of your power to support a defense that you did not need to,¡± Fan Laozi said. ¡°The terror you inflict upon enemies is a thing of glory. I have been studying it.¡±

    Will frowned at that, but refrained on immediately commenting.

    Will: So what¡¯s the issue?

    Even if the gold-ranker¡¯s aura strength was immense, he didn¡¯t have quite the right amount of control over his soul to hide everything. Though he projected serenity, Will could sense burning, angry hatred underneath that exterior. That was a murderous kind of emotion.

    As Nathan composed a response, Will answered Fan Laozi. ¡°That¡¯s a little creepy, dude. And not in the horror-monster all-your-friends-are-dead vibe I think you want. That¡¯s just the kind of weird you get from a guy following you at night.¡±

    Nathan: He¡¯s not very fond of traitors. Or anyone who¡¯s not his own, really.

    The Titan Driver laughed, an unnatural sound from his throat. ¡°True, that. I suppose the kind of terror you wield is only effective from a man of your talents. There are elements of your style that I seek to incorporate in my own, I must admit.¡±

    Will: Okay. I¡¯m going to try diplomacy first.

    Nathan: That never works. Also, didn¡¯t you come here to kill him anyway?

    Will: I¡¯m waiting for him to give me a reason to. Or a convincing enough one not to.

    Nathan: Judge, jury, and executioner, huh? Who gave you that power?

    Will: I did.

    ¡°I find that it¡¯s harder to copy me than most people think,¡± Will said with his second favorite shit-eating smirk, patent pending¡ªthe first one was reserved for people and entities that were indisputably stronger than him, like gods and sponsors.

    Stolen story; please report.

    ¡°I assure you, I know just how difficult imitating you is. Now, if you would excuse me for a second, I have a quick matter to tend to before I speak with you more.¡±

    ¡°Would said matter perhaps involve this fine young gentleman and this less fine, less young woman?¡± Will asked, pointing at Nathan and the still-stunned Xie-ren in succession.

    ¡°Perceptive,¡± Fan Laozi said, smiling in a way that bared his teeth more than it showed any sign of pleasure.

    ¡°Wow, seeing that smile really makes me wonder if I should be doing that whole arrogant smirk thing,¡± Will said. ¡°That¡¯s some real Hannibal Lecter shit you got going on there, man. Also, I¡¯m with this guy, so¡­ can¡¯t really just let you deal with him, if you know what I mean.¡±

    ¡°He means trying to murder me,¡± Nathan added unhelpfully. ¡°And I do mean try. You wouldn¡¯t get very far.¡±

    Will rolled his eyes. ¡°Nathan, I have a thing going on here.¡±

    ¡°Do you think you invented being a smartass? You¡¯re not the only unfunny defiant leaderboarder in town, you know.¡±

    Fan Laozi laughed, though there was no humor in the sound. ¡°You are an interesting one indeed, master Li. I have no quarrel with your friend. Though he is not of a good bloodline, he is powerful and an ally of yours. That is enough to let him live.¡±

    Nathan: Isn¡¯t that good enough?

    Will: We already knew he was a blood purist kind of ethnic cleanser going into this.

    Nathan: Surely that¡¯s a trigger to attack him, isn¡¯t it? Didn¡¯t Han Solo shoot first? You¡¯re, like, at least twice as evil as him.

    Will: It feels like I get reminded that the world is in the process of fully ending every time I wake up. Let me have a moment of fun, will you?

    Nathan: Fiiiiine. Just give me a signal when you decide to commit.

    ¡°I¡¯m not even of a good bloodline,¡± Will said, frowning. ¡°Assuming by ¡®good¡¯ you mean Han Chinese, that is, which I¡¯m assuming is right because Nathan is whiter than the most flavorful bread he can handle.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s that even supposed to mean?¡± Nathan protested.

    ¡°Your parentage shows in your strength,¡± the Titan Driver said, his aura growing ever so slightly strained. ¡°This is not the most important issue at the moment.¡±

    ¡°I dunno, seems important to me,¡± Will said. ¡°Enough for you to found your nation on, at least.¡±

    Fan Laozi¡¯s aura shifted, and one of the other arms of the titan they stood on moved in accordance, an open palm aiming towards the hand they were standing on. Gold-rank mana began to gather at a cannon built within it.

    ¡°Maybe we can talk about family trees and racial fundamentalism later,¡± Will conceded. ¡°Something bothering you?¡±

    Fan Laozi was getting irked, but he was either hiding the extent of that well or he had strong control over his emotions, because his aura wasn¡¯t shifting that badly.

    ¡°Blood is one thing,¡± the Titan Driver said. ¡°Betrayal is another. This woman your friend brought me is a shame to the Han Chinese. She gave up our country for a false goddess.¡±

    Will looked up to the sky at that, then huffed out a complaint when nothing happened. ¡°Oh, come on. Am I the only person that warrants getting smited for shit-talking a god?¡±

    To be honest, he couldn¡¯t entirely fault that chain of logic. Especially given what Peace ended up doing to most of her sigil-holders, it was generally safer to just kill a Peace sigilholder. Will wouldn¡¯t have been particularly happy if one of his allies had turned tail and switched sides either, though obviously he would have made an effort to turn them back before making a further decision.

    When it came to Xie-ren, even Will was unsure of what to do. Nynn had helpfully provided suppression devices from his inventory, explaining that they were occasionally used by Dread Executors when simply killing everyone wouldn¡¯t do. The ones Nathan had slapped on Xie-ren were gold-rank so as to not violate plausibility, so they would do the job in preventing her from attacking any of them, but Will couldn¡¯t tell how much of her was still affected by her time under Peace. He wondered if Lu Jie would make any inroads on trying to deprogram her.

    Well, whatever. That wasn¡¯t his problem to deal with. Will¡¯s motive here was to get Lu Jie on his side. The Portal Mage was no longer as high up on the leaderboard as he had been, but his skills were incredibly useful for utility and damage in a way that Will just couldn¡¯t quite mention yet. While he could be a terror to people, he couldn¡¯t demolish a city in the way that Lu Jie could with his constantly accelerating kinetic weapons.

    ¡°Master Laozi, please,¡± Lu Jie said, sounding more pathetic than Will had ever heard him. ¡°She is no longer a threat to you. Xie-ren is all I have.¡±

    ¡°Quiet, old man,¡± the Titan Driver said serenely, his aura pulsing with a burst of rage that silenced the Portal Mage. ¡°You were not asked to speak. Sister or no, she is a traitor. There is only one sentence for those.¡±

    Will felt Lu Jie gather mana before he cast the spell. It was a strange sensation, having senses that strong. As Will slammed on Time in the Bottle, he realized that even at the trial of the champion, he wouldn¡¯t have been able to do this. He had built upon his own power and hijacked others, and it had paid off.

    Crimson lines flashed into focus. They were always there, of course, but Will had gotten good at ignoring them. When he let himself see them, they were angrier than they had once been. Their intensity was vastly greater than they once had been, and the lines of death had never looked more like blood.

    Just like Will, Fan Laozi had also detected the skill activating. Even in the accelerated time, Will could sense the killing intent spreading from the other¡¯s aura. He rarely got to see an aura like his own in action, and seeing it from the outside¡­ yeah, he could see why so many people were terrified of him. Laozi¡¯s aura was one of the few pieces of magic in the area that wasn¡¯t criss-crossed with those lines of death, though they did start extending outwards when he started casting a skill.

    Will didn¡¯t need to be a genius to tell where that line was going. Magic speared straight outwards towards the charging outstretched titan hand.

    To gain a better idea of what he was dealing with, Will activated his own Pages of the Past, expending extra mana to quickly cast it while his perception was accelerated.

    Skill: [Mass Driver]

    - Spell (enchantment on first cast, trigger on others).

    - Cost: high mana + varying gold credits (enchant). Low mana (trigger).

    - Cooldown: 1 hour (enchant). 5 minutes (trigger).

    Gold

    This is an evolved skill. Previous iterations: [Railgun], [Enhance Ranged Weapon].

    In other civilizations, this skill can be substituted with technology. Humans never learned to fight among the stars, so you will make do with magic.

    On the first cast, this spell creates an enchantment on a sufficiently large weapons platform, allowing it to initiate the active segments of this skill. Subsequent casts activate the weapon.

    Upon activation, this skill fires up to 10 projectiles with a total mass not exceeding 1,000 kg at 10,000 meters per second.

    That wasn¡¯t the only skill he was using, of course. The other ones were less critical, though¡ªthose were the ones he was using to direct the bullets and minimize damage to his own titan.

    No wonder the gold-ranker was willing to antagonize Lu Jie so directly. Will¡¯s physics had rusted in favor of knowing how to properly take down boss monsters and dangerous Users with powers beyond human comprehension, but he was pretty sure that a thousand kilograms at ten kilometers a second¡ªwhat was that, thirty-six thousand an hour? That kind of force could obliterate cities.

    And he was using all of it to target three people.

    Unfortunately for Laozi, who must have been keeping this as a trump card up his sleeve, Will had more sleeves and more cards.

    Sure, he could have tried summoning Aza, but with an impact this large, the familiar was certain to expend all of its power, which Will preferred not to do if he could help it.

    The platinum-rank demon his eye was containing ranked somewhere in the top three threats to the Earth-Arcadia conglomerate, and it wasn¡¯t third. While that meant that Will had a terrifying responsibility and a frankly ridiculous duty to uphold, it also came with benefits.

    [Visualize] (bronze) - You sense death. With this eye, you see the weakest points of an object or being.

    Will focused his vision on a specific set of lines, feeling his way through the impenetrable wall that was Laozi¡¯s aura.

    [Envision] (gold) - You now also see the weakest points of a magical skill.

    Using the Pages of the Past he¡¯d activated, Will had a direction to follow, and he lasered in on the correct line. Magical lines had a different edge to them than physical ones did, and this one was strong.

    [Sever] (platinum) - With sufficient force, hitting the weakest point of a magical skill will cut magical bonds.

    This was a powerful skill, so he needed to respond in kind, but Will was well versed in delivering strong single hits.

    One of Sen¡¯s eyes was in the area, hunger phantasm already gathered on it, so Will shaped it into a weapon and swung out with Eclipse, the midnight-black sword he¡¯d scammed out of the Lord of Loss.

    Instead of teleporting to the weapon like he normally would have, he activated a subskill of Weapons Free he hadn¡¯t used in a while.

    [Warp Strike] (silver): When making an attack, you can use this skill to make your attack originate from any weapon within a 120 foot radius.

    To take down a skill that accelerated matter, Will decided to use one that slowed it down.

    [Eclipse] has spent the echo of [Henry]. Skill selected: [Absolute Zero].

    The British Blizzard Arcanist had been a disappointing fight, but his skills had held great potential. In death, he accomplished more than he had throughout his entire killing spree in life.

    As time accelerated back to normal, Will¡¯s sword swung out at a seemingly random spot about two hundred feet from him. Around it, the air froze, and even normal onlookers saw a brief red flash accompanied by a burst of corruption. When Will cut skills, it was like the world itself was bleeding.

    It wasn¡¯t enough to fully nullify it, but it weakened it greatly, so when Will used Ravenous Feast through Sen, the creeping darkness was able to contest Laozi¡¯s Mass Driver. Their souls clashed for a brief moment, but it wasn¡¯t long enough for Will to get much of an impression of Laozi except that he was strong. The damage he¡¯d done to the skill was too great, though, and it collapsed, the cannon faltering before it could shoot.

    Lu Jie, now uninterrupted slipped into a portal, taking Xie-ren with him.

    Lu Jie: You have my thanks.

    ¡°Can¡¯t get it up?¡± Will asked Fan Laozi, smirking as he looked pointedly in the direction of the failed attack. ¡°It¡¯s okay. I¡¯m sure there¡¯s a doctor around here somewhere. They might be able to prescribe you something.¡±

    ¡°Fucking finally,¡± Nathan said. ¡°You took long enough.¡±

    He rocketed into the air, twin missiles ejecting from his armor as he did. The titan¡¯s defenses kicked in on the missiles, defusing them with anti-magic and vaporizing them shortly after.

    ¡°This is a shame,¡± Fan Laozi said, watching Nathan fly. ¡°I had hoped to speak with you for longer, but I can¡¯t say I¡¯m surprised.¡±

    ¡°You saw this coming, huh,¡± Will said.

    ¡°Yes. Your aura control isn¡¯t perfect either, my friend.¡±

    The Chinese gold-ranker¡¯s aura pulsed out like the world¡¯s largest heartbeat, and crushing pressure rained down on Will. Up in the sky, Nathan froze, his skills puttering to a stop.

    Will yawned.

    ¡°What?¡± Fan Laozi asked, taken off guard for the first time.

    ¡°Not used to people fighting back?¡± Will asked. ¡°Alright. Let¡¯s run this. Hopefully you¡¯ll show me a better fight than¡ª¡°

    Nynn: WATCH OUT.

    #

    Nynn saw it coming too late.

    He kicked himself for missing it the microsecond his perception caught it. Even after months without the power he had once wielded, Nynn was still too used to having access to the entire breadth of options he¡¯d held as a proper Dread Executor.

    Still, his passive senses were beyond anyone in this world, so he did finally notice when an alien skill activated in the lower atmosphere.

    He sent a message to its likely target immediately, then sped up his perception.

    What options did he have? The Beyond had been lost to him, cut off by the very person he needed to save now. All of his other quick movement skills tied into it or his weapon, which had expended all of its power now.

    The only remaining source of strength he could draw on¡­ was life.

    Nynn looked at his Dreadscythe, a shadow of what it had once been. As he stood there, his mind raced at a million galaxies a second, running through what had been, what was, and what could be.

    He made a decision.

    William Li-Brown cannot die today. No matter the cost.

    And he moved.

 Chapter 139: Third Party

    Nynn had been around for a very long time. When the cycle had come to join his planet, his world had been ready for it. Their civilization had been more advanced than Earth¡¯s, and they had known about worlds that lay beyond them. Then, his rate of advancement had been nothing short of extraordinary. Within decades, he had ascended past the metal and gem tiers.

    Over the course of the centuries since he had become a Dread Executor proper, he had learned a great deal and gathered a significant amount of probability. Nynn had spent as quickly as he had earned power. Strength without direction was pointless, and he had seen no greater purpose than preventing cycles from degenerating. His own cycle had involved both a low-tier angel and a low-tier demon summoning, though by that time enough of his planet had been in the gem tiers that it had been only devastating instead of apocalyptic.

    As such, compared to Dread Executors who chose to intervene less or act in chaotic ways¡ªthat damned Ramiel came to mind¡ªNynn had a significantly smaller reserve of plausibility to spend. He¡¯d consumed a good chunk of it to forcibly seal himself down to gold rank in order to oversee this particular cycle from within. It had proven to be well worth it, but that hadn¡¯t come without cost. In order to stop Ataraxis and his corruption cult from irreversibly degenerating this cycle, Nynn had been forced to spend almost all of his remaining plausibility to activate his Culmination, a technique two tiers above the strongest beings currently present in this cycle.

    All this was to say that his reserves were nearly entirely dry. He drew deep, consuming the entirety of his remaining plausibility in a flash, but that wasn¡¯t nearly enough to feed his Dreadscythe what it needed to get him to move.

    So he gave it his soul. Nynn winced at the agony that sacrificing parts of himself caused, compounded by the corruption that immediately started eating away at the rest of his body for his violation of it.

    Even like this, his Dreadscythe would hold only a fraction of the power it once had. Tainted by the corruption he was forcing into it, it would not be able to draw upon the same sovereign-tier magic he had once bid it to.

    But it would do enough.

    Greedily consuming its owners life force to sustain itself, the Dreadscythe shone with magic.

    This weapon was a soul-bound one, and so its skills augmented his own instead of simply existing as separate pools of magic.

    Nynn¡¯s sealed Augment Skill ability was currently limited to gold rank. He¡¯d been using it to support others in the superdungeons, amplifying their output and granting their skills further effects. At higher ranks, that skill became a proper menace¡ªit didn¡¯t just adjust skills but mana itself, giving Nynn a terrifying degree of control over any battlefield.

    He wasn¡¯t going to be able to restore it to the heights that his Mana Control skill had once had, but with his Dreadscythe, he could bump the skill up to emerald for a single usage.

    Two ranks above the gold rank that was the functional limit of this current cycle so far. One entire tier above. The aftershock would almost certainly kill him.

    Nynn didn¡¯t care. How could he? He had already given everything he had in the service of protecting the worlds. What was one more sacrifice?

    With mana manipulation techniques thought lost in most star systems, Nynn used an emerald skill to simulate one of an even higher rank. Magic was an act of lying to the world with such confidence that it would allow one to do that which should not have been possible, and this was no different. Before he had learned the ways of the Beyond, he had traveled like this. It was wasteful, yes, but it was effective.

    For a brief moment, Nynn convinced the world that he was in two places. Immediately after, he banished the part of him that remained at his starting location.

    Exhaustion overwhelmed him as he completed his non-skill teleport to William Li-Brown¡¯s side, pain shooting through his body and soul as he manifested.

    I¡¯m not done yet.

    Nynn had made it with no time to spare. The orbital attack was less than a hundred meters away from the corruption wielder, who had made an attempt to move but would not be fast enough to escape the blast radius.

    One of the few upsides of his once-high rank that Nynn had kept when he had sealed himself into the Earth cycle was his incredible mana pool. Even after burning through an emerald-rank skill that he knew would cost his life, he had enough left to continue casting.

    The only problem was that he was already corrupted. Further usage of magic would layer him with so much of it that it would be a miracle if his mind was functioning half a second from now. Nynn had seen it happen before. It wasn¡¯t a pleasant way to go.

    Memories flashed through his mind¡ªcomrades he¡¯d kept, friends he¡¯d lost (and oh, there were so many lost)¡ªand resolve took its place.

    With every last bit of remaining power in his soul, Nynn cast Counterspell.

    Darkness immediately overtook him, his focus on his magic and sped-up perception breaking as pain unlike anything he had ever experienced crashed down upon his soul like one of his home planet¡¯s great waves. There was little sensation after that other than chaos and pain.

    #

    Except there was still sensation.

    Nynn¡¯s mind struggled to piece itself together, ruined as it was by the colossal amount of corruption he had infected it with.

    Everything hurt, and moving hurt more, but Nynn¡­ opened his eyes. His senses hurt to use, but he realized that he was under the influence of an aura.

    The former Dread Executor was on the ground, looking up at a figure that he could have sworn was one of those he¡¯d lost. An angry, defiant angel who killed without remorse, a being broken beyond all belief but masking it all with a cocky smile.

    Then, excruciatingly slowly, Nynn blinked, and he saw William Li-Brown, dark wings spread. Corruption blazed from one of his swords, while the other glowed blood red.

    Will: I said not to do anything dumb, you fuck.

    #

    Will¡¯s perception caught up to what had happened in the moments immediately following it. Someone¡ªnot Fan Laozi, judging by how caught off guard he¡¯d been by the blast¡ªhad fired an insanely powerful skill at him from the lower atmosphere. That had been followed by a second, more intense burst of magic, then the impact of a greatly weakened and re-directed skill.

    Fan Laozi¡¯s other titan had fallen, its upper half utterly obliterated. Even with a frankly absurd amount of magic poured at it, the weapon had been strong enough to break through a gold-rank titan like it was nothing.

    Caiyeri: Mother¡¯s grace, what was that?

    Hua: Everyone alright?

    Liam: We¡¯re good here. Broke a leg, but I¡¯m healing.

    Yui: Shielded in time. Wisteria is also up.

    Will had almost thought that he¡¯d imagined that burst of magic. He hadn¡¯t felt anything like it since he¡¯d witnessed a pair of Culminations during the climax of the trial of the champion. When he¡¯d sensed Nynn¡¯s aura distorted so badly by corruption that he¡¯d almost thought it was another one of Peace¡¯s bombs, he had realized exactly what had happened.

    Even with Time in a Bottle, it had been a very near miss. Will now had a single level of the Blessed and Purified conditions from using Chaos Transfer to shove all of Nynn¡¯s corruption onto Will¡¯s sword Eclipse, and even as is, Nynn was actively dying. Whatever he¡¯d done had damaged his soul in a way that Will was pretty certain he¡¯d only seen when he¡¯d had it shattered himself.

    Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    Nynn: You¡­ cannot be allowed¡­ to die.

    Speak of the devil.

    Will: Neither can you, dude. Did you even think about what happens if you die? There¡¯s a corruption nuke in the Beyond with your name on the containment container. Even if you¡¯re not connected to it anymore, it¡¯s still yours. I am not taking risks with that.

    Nynn: They¡¯re¡­ still active.

    Will didn¡¯t need to ask who they were. Obviously, he had no clue to their actual identities, and they were out of range of Sen¡¯s eyes¡ªmany of which had been obliterated by the strike¡ªbut they were here, and they wanted to kill him.

    ¡°Sorry,¡± he said, turning to Fan Laozi, who was just now recovering from where the force of the distant blast had knocked him into the side of his own titan. ¡°Looks like we¡¯re going to have to cut this short. I was looking forward to it, too.¡±

    Will stabbed his sword into the ground and activated Weapons Free.

    In the past, he had encountered some issues with what this skill defined as a ¡°weapon.¡± It sometimes counted missiles and projectiles, but sometimes it didn¡¯t. There must have been a clear criterion somewhere, because all attempts to delude himself into believing that an arrow was a weapon and not a projectile hadn¡¯t worked.

    Will was grimly pleased to report that the entire titan counted as a weapon.

    Warp Strike triggered, and the tip of Eclipse appeared from the ground just under Fan Laozi. The gold-ranker moved quickly, but Will was faster. Laozi had strong enchantments in his clothes and a bevy of personal protection skills, but they all crumbled beneath the power of corruption that came from the system rebelling against magic that should not have been in this world.

    A good deal of the leaderboarders had countermeasures against corruption now, aware of how large an existential threat Will was, but there was no gold-rank countermeasure that could protect against this.

    Will had cheated death time and time again, and he was damned if he wouldn¡¯t do the same for his friends.

    You have marked [Fan Laozi] for death.

    The corruption he¡¯d stolen from Nynn¡¯s fate pierced the bottom of Fan Laozi¡¯s foot.

    You have inflicted a level of emerald-rank [Corruption] on [Fan Laozi].

    A bell tolled.

    #

    Iridium cursed in the Unification Front¡¯s precursor tongue.

    ¡°Brothers,¡± he said. ¡°Did you sense that?¡±

    Of course they had. Osmium and Rhodium were both Speakers of the Unification Front. They were exceptional Hive specimens. It went without question that their sensory abilities were top-tier.

    ¡°Emerald,¡± hissed Osmium, Speaker of the Flesh. ¡°It was not the corruption wielder. It was a different being.¡±

    ¡°You sense his flesh, brother?¡± asked Rhodium, Speaker of the Mind. ¡°I believe I see the one you seek. An otherworlder.¡±

    ¡°No mere otherworlder,¡± Osmium countered. ¡°Even our great wise ones do not possess this kind of power.¡±

    ¡°An outsider, then,¡± Rhodium said. ¡°We were warned of this possibility. Interference-saboteurs.¡±

    ¡°The outsider is strong,¡± said the Speaker of the Flesh. ¡°Platinums, we can defeat. Emeralds, a different story-result.¡±

    ¡°Iridum,¡± Rhodium urged. ¡°Weaknesses. Find them?¡±

    ¡°I know,¡± Iridium said, eyes closed. He traced the souls in the area through their magic traces, using the skill that had led him to the ominous presence of corruption wielder William Li-Brown¡¯s soul. His eyes flew open as he found what must certainly have been the outsider. ¡°He is weak. His soul falls apart even as we speak. The outsider is not long for this world.¡±

    ¡°Then we must move at once,¡± Osmium declared. ¡°We cannot allow them to recover. Your skills remain strong, brother?¡±

    ¡°They do,¡± Iridium said. He had been preparing the Orbital Cannon for quite some time, and thanks to the advances of the Unification Front, he had mana to spare. ¡°Then advance. Strike before the opportunity vanishes.¡±

    They were not so far from the corruption wielder themselves, so they moved as one, gold-rank skills propelling them faster than most humans on this strange planet could envision.

    Partway through, however, Iridium stopped short. His two companions stopped not long after, joining him.

    ¡°What is it, brother?¡± Osmium demanded. ¡°Every moment wasted is one where they can recover.¡±

    ¡°Quiet,¡± Iridium said, antennae going very still. ¡°Did you hear it?¡±

    It was no sound that he had sensed, but it seemed like one nonetheless. As if this world had pulsed with an unchanging heartbeat all this time, then stuttered for a brief, terrifying instant. A moment where the fabric of reality itself stopped.

    Not half a minute later, a message arrived for them all.

    EMERGENCY UPDATE

    Activity spike from plausibility anomaly William Li-Brown detected. Corruption advances.

    Demonic spike detected.

    All units on Sol-3, CONVERGE ON THE FOLLOWING COORDINATES AND ATTACK IMMEDIATELY.

    #

    ¡°Witness,¡± Dread Executor Ramiel said. ¡°The boy survives still. He reaches heights you thought he could not.¡±

    ¡°I won¡¯t believe it until he¡¯s made it to the gem ranks,¡± Dread Executor Azathoth replied. ¡°My fragment seems to be entertained, but my impression remains the same. He attracts much attention. Do you not see the planet focused upon him? The gold-rankers who fight like they are already a tier above? The plausibility curse? Peace?¡±

    ¡°This is not the first time a planet has sought a candidate dead, friend,¡± Ramiel said gently. ¡°Remember the circumstances of your own ascension.¡±

    ¡°That was different.¡±

    ¡°Everything is different,¡± Ramiel replied. ¡°These are changing times. The ramifications of this cycle could break all of them. Much hinges on that one boy¡¯s survival, but even should he die, our universe will not remain the same.¡±

    ¡°Careful, Ramiel,¡± Azathoth said. ¡°Nynn sacrificed much to ensure he was not violating the rules when he took a side.¡±

    ¡°The rules?¡± Ramiel laughed. ¡°Azathoth, my friend, you are young yet. There have never been rules.¡±

    With that, he disappeared, leaving Azathoth alone to wonder.

    #

    ¡°It has been a while since you were here for a reason other than to have your soul pummeled,¡± said the Hunger, observing as a certain corruption wielder entered his dream domain. ¡°Much less requested an audience.

    ¡°Things are changing,¡± Will said. ¡°I don¡¯t think my soul likes how many things have been glued onto it.¡±

    ¡°No, it does not,¡± the god said, observing. ¡°The skills that Sadareth and I affixed to you will adjust on their own given time, but you do not have time. I will fix it.¡±

    ¡°¡®Ppreciate it,¡± Will said. ¡°One more thing. My other sigils.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± the Hunger said. ¡°One active. One not.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯d almost forgotten about them, but recent events have made it clear that I can¡¯t be ignoring them,¡± Will said. ¡°How does the Crown¡¯s skill work with me? And what the hell is that other sigil? A corruption cultist gave it to me and it¡¯s just been sitting there ever since.¡±

    ¡°Once given, not even a god can revoke a skill without a new deal,¡± the Hunger said. ¡°The Crown likely assumed you would not allow yourself to be the kind of monster who would kill so many.

    ¡°Thought wrong, I guess,¡± Will said. ¡°Gods seem to have a nasty habit of doing that.¡±

    ¡°So it did. As to the other sigil¡­ that, I cannot discern. You have not formed a connection with it.¡±

    ¡°Figured. It¡¯s corrupted to high hell. Even the description doesn¡¯t make any sense. It¡¯s just question marks and ciphered text. Tried to get Ayla to figure it out, but nothing.¡±

    ¡°It is unlikely to be useful to you,¡± the Hunger advised, adjusting Will¡¯s soul. ¡°If not for your challenges, I would have long since advised eliminating it.¡±

    Secretly, the god worried that the owner of the other sigil was connected to Peace. If there was a sigil, there was always a chance that his sigil-holder would take it, deepening that bond and removing Kadael from one of the most influential Users he could have.

    There was no way the corruption wielder could know this, of course.

    ¡°You¡¯re thinking it¡¯s Peace, aren¡¯t you?¡± Will asked.

    Kadael did not show surprise.

    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t look so surprised. There¡¯s nobody else in play who¡¯s so certifiably insane that they¡¯d give a sigil to corruption cultists and then not retract their offer after I got my hands on it. Sure, if I¡¯d used it right away, that¡¯d be one thing¡ªthat¡¯s how you and the Crown got stuck with me. But after this long? Yeah, no.¡±

    Kadael did not sigh, but he did express irritation by way of a soul-crushing attack that Will brushed off as little more than a particularly nasty glare.

    ¡°Good talk,¡± Will said, flashing the god a lopsided smile. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. There¡¯s no way I¡¯m leaving you for that crazy shithead. Just don¡¯t let her creep in on me, okay?¡±

    ¡°I am a god,¡± Kadael said, affronted. ¡°I do not let others do things.¡±

    ¡°Do you know who you¡¯re talking to?¡± Will asked. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure you¡¯re wrong.¡±

    ¡°As you say, human,¡± said the Hunger. ¡°Your skills have been adjusted. They will advance properly alongside you.¡±

    ¡°Thanks, boss,¡± Will said. ¡°That¡¯s me, then. Still have a bunch of otherworldly assassins to deal with, then Peace and whatever the hell the Contractor¡¯s cooking up, so I¡¯m out.¡±

    ¡°Will,¡± the Hunger said, interrupting the corruption wielder¡¯s exit.

    ¡°Yeah?¡±

    ¡°Congratulations. Devour them all.¡±

    Will gave Kadael a familiar smile. The corruption wielder might have described it as ¡°shit-eating,¡± but the Hunger knew better.

    This was the expression of an apex predator.

    ¡°Already on it.¡±

    #

    Will stepped back into the real world with a weight off his shoulders. His soul had started burning after Fan Laozi had died. The gold-ranker was nothing more than ash now, reduced to nothing in instants by the corruption.

    That burning was still there, but thanks to the Hunger¡¯s efforts, it was no longer painful.

    A list of notifications scrolled through Will¡¯s eyes. For the first time in a while, he took the time to read them.

    You have defeated [Fan Laozi]. As you have slain leaderboard rank 4, you have gained 400 platinum credits and 40 platinum-rank monster cores.

    Progress to [Eternal Throne]: [1003/1000] (+10 from killing a gold)

    [Eternal Throne] has gained [1] charge. Progress has reset.

    Special quest: Gold Challenges (Reaper)

    2.73% of Reapers pass their first special quest. You have beaten the odds, but you are yet in your first steps.

    - Kill 7 beings with a killcount of 10,000 or higher [6/7] -> [7/7]

    - Possess 3 or more sigils [3/3]

    - Kill or subjugate three sources of corruption [3/3]

    Level up!

    All attributes raised to a minimum of Gold 0. All skills raised to a minimum of gold.

    Advancing to gold rank¡­

 Chapter 140: Whoevers Coming

    When Caiyeri had advanced to gold rank only hours earlier, she had reveled in the experience of it. It had been long enough since either of them had achieved a rank-up that they had both almost forgotten what it felt like to reach such a milestone.

    It was like being reborn. Will had never tried any drugs, but he imagined this must have been something like what they felt like. A deep sense of crystal clarity and surging euphoria infused his senses, his aura stretching out with a fresh strength that seemed to make the air itself shake.

    [Power] advanced from Silver 5 to Gold 2.

    [Speed] advanced from Silver 10 to Gold 4.

    [Affinity] advanced from Gold 7 to Gold 10.

    [Soul] advanced from Silver 10 to Gold 4.

    [Resistance] advanced from Silver 10 to Gold 4.

    [Perception] advanced from Silver 10 to Gold 2.

    All silver-rank skills have increased to gold.

    Impurities purged. Soul adjusted.

    If Will had been an unstoppable reaper before, he was a force of nature now. Throughout the city, he sensed soldiers who had just sensed one of their leaders die stop short, consider fighting, and bear witness to a hunger phantasm that spread an aura that had already seemed gold-rank before and now simply appeared monstrous.

    Skill: [Hunger Aura]

    - Aura (sigil).

    - Cost: none.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Gold

    Your aura changes, gaining elements of Kadael, the Hunger.

    [Insatiable] - Enemies within the aura passively lose stamina and mana. You and your allies restore stamina and mana proportional to the amount drained. This amount can be increased with application of mana. Excess stamina and mana is discarded.

    [Devouring Embrace] (silver) - Enemies within the aura also passively lose health. You and your allies within the aura gain health proportional to the amount drained. Excess health is discarded.

    [Truth of the Flesh] (gold) - Enemies within the aura also passively lose soul protections. While an enemy is within range of your aura, you may attempt to attack their soul.

    Before his rank up, the cruel god¡¯s aura had already been one of Will¡¯s strongest weapons. The hunger it was infused with had been as effective a suppressant as the draining effects of the skill. Now, though, that hunger roiled with a dark malice that made the lower-rank soldiers question if striking back was really worth their lives.

    A pained groan brought him back into reality, though nothing short of death would come close to bringing him down from this high.

    Right. Though Will had saved Nynn¡¯s life by absorbing and redirecting the incredible amount of corruption the former Dread Executor¡¯s plausibility violation had infected him with, Nynn had still taken a great deal of both soul and body damage in the moments he¡¯d been corrupted.

    Will did not have a true healing ability. Throughout his time in this apocalypse, he and most of his allies had relied on evasion, self-healing skills, and health potions to keep them going. All of those had their downsides, all of which were now visible and unfortunately relevant. Nynn couldn¡¯t evade an effect he¡¯d taken on himself. His self-healing abilities, like Will¡¯s, relied on doing damage. Health potions had cooldowns, and even the finest health potion they had wasn¡¯t strong enough to repair him in one go.

    On the other hand, Will had just unlocked an entire arsenal of new tools.

    ¡°Hang on,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯m going to be thoroughly pissed if you die now.¡±

    Over the course of the past few months, Will had gone throughout the world putting down threats and clearing out dungeons. At silver rank, only the superdungeons had been any threat to him. Will doubted that any dungeon could kill him now, but that was a different story. The point was that he had obtained a great deal of mediocre treasure that he¡¯d slapped into a bunch of containers before inventorying them.

    He popped out a supply crate almost as tall as he was. Instead of opening it regularly, he wasted no time in slashing out with his slayer sword, targeting the most prominent line of death on the box. It collapsed from that one cut, pouring out health potions by the dozens.

    Individually, each one would do little to heal Nynn. Will wasn¡¯t going to feed them to him, though. Instead, he activated Destructive Synthesis.

    Skill: [Destructive Synthesis]

    - Spell (consumption).

    - Cost: variable.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Gold

    Activate this skill to consume an item. Consuming an item grants mana restoration proportional to the power of the item.

    Consuming an item grants a temporary skill reflecting and magnifying the item¡¯s use for a variable time depending on the item¡¯s rarity and power.

    [Effect Transference] (silver) - You can also shift the temporary skill to another item. All skills transferred, whether to an item or yourself, will be upgraded one rank to a maximum of the rank this skill is at.

    [Limit Break] (gold) - Cooldowns and other limitations from consumed items no longer apply. All randomized damage or healing from a consumed item is now maximized.

    Thanks to his rank-up, Will¡¯s mana had already been full, but the other benefits came into play as he consumed every single health potion in the crate.

    You have gained the [Heal] skill at bronze rank for [1 minute] with [1] charge.

    You have gained the [Heal] skill at gold rank for [1 minute] with [3] charges.

    You have gained the [Heal] skill at silver rank for [1 minute] with [1] charge.

    Every single consumed potion came with an accompanying message.

    ¡°This looks like game chat after the jungler ints,¡± Will muttered, pouring his accumulated Heal spells into Nynn.

    The obsidian-skinned User gasped as Will patched up what he could. It wasn¡¯t going to be a full heal¡ªsoul damage wasn¡¯t something that a healing potion or the Heal skill it granted would be able to easily repair¡ªbut within moments, he was far from the precipice of death that he¡¯d been at.

    ¡°We¡¯re going to have to talk about this,¡± Will warned. ¡°How are you?¡±

    ¡°Alive, thanks to you,¡± Nynn said. ¡°Congratulations on ranking up.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t you fucking dare try that again,¡± Will said. ¡°I prefer it when my friends don¡¯t die. Especially if them dying means the possibility of losing the Beyond in this solar system.¡±

    ¡°I had not thought about that,¡± Nynn admitted. ¡°It was imperative that you survive. Even without it, I am sure you would manage.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, yeah,¡± Will said. ¡°We¡¯re going to have to fight whoever those dickheads were, right?¡±

    ¡°Almost certainly,¡± Nynn said. ¡°We should contact the others.¡±

    ¡°Good point.¡±

    Will: Hey y¡¯all. Xie-ren captured. Fan Laozi down. Nynn almost got himself killed.

    Nynn: That last part is irrelevant. Everyone almost gets themselves killed in half the fights they take. More importantly, there are more enemies coming.

    Nathan: I don¡¯t suppose they had anything to do with that blast just now.

    Will: Oh, it¡¯s definitely them.

    Liam: Well, shit. This has been fun, but if they can do that, I¡¯m pretty sure this fight¡¯s above my paygrade.

    Hua: It might be beyond mine as well. I think I¡¯ll sit this one out, unless you need me.

    Will: That makes things easier. I don¡¯t want us all grouped up in one spot for them to take us all out, especially when I¡¯m pretty sure they¡¯re aiming for me.

    Hua: Take care. Haoyu told me to make sure you stayed alive half an hour before that demon got him. Don¡¯t disappoint him.

    Will: I won¡¯t. The same goes for you. We need as many good people as we can get.

    Yui: Wisteria is going to take them out. She can¡¯t fast-travel the way I can, but she can raise speeds enough to be well out of range by the time anyone gets here.

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    Will: Can you take Nynn as well?

    Nynn: I can still fight.

    Will glared at Nynn. ¡°Look at yourself. There¡¯s no way you¡¯ve got any gas in the tank.¡±

    Nynn held out a hand, and a small, dark token manifested in it.

    Will recognized it immediately. He had one that looked exactly the same in his inventory still. It hadn¡¯t awakened since the trial of the champion, though to be fair there hadn¡¯t been a reason for it to be active since then. It had triggered when Ataraxis and his corruption cult had seen fit to interfere.

    An Executor Token.

    ¡°I swore an oath,¡± Nynn said, letting the item disappear back into his inventory.

    ¡°To who?¡± Will asked. ¡°Last I checked, the whole point of Dread Executors is that you¡¯re not bound to the system organization.¡±

    ¡°Myself.¡± Nynn got to his feet, aura blazing. Though it was noticeably weaker than it had been earlier today, it still burned strong. ¡°This is my fight as much as it is yours. This isn¡¯t your choice to make.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m staying,¡± Nathan said as the otherworlder landed back atop the now-ruined meeting room atop the titan¡¯s hand. ¡°This isn¡¯t going to be very pretty.¡±

    Yui: By my count, that makes Caiyeri, Nynn, Nathan, myself, and Will.

    Will: And Jessie. Don¡¯t leave Jessie out.

    Yui: And the gestalt. Yes.

    Caiyeri: Will, I just checked the party tab. I feel like you missed out on something pretty significant when you were explaining the situation.

    Will: Oh, yeah. Right. I hit gold.

    Yui: Ah.

    Caiyeri: Hahahahaha okay never mind. I was worried for nothing. Whoever¡¯s coming is FUCKED.

    #

    Will detected the three gold-rankers long after they spotted him out. At least, he assumed that was the case based on the information he got from that brief glimpse. They had destroyed Sen¡¯s eyes almost as quickly as Will had seen through them, but during that time, Will caught sight of multiple lines of death moving from them to him, likely indicating skills.

    That moment, however, had been enough to activate one skill.

    You have marked [Iridium, Speaker of the Soul] for death.

    You have marked [Osmium, Speaker of the Flesh] for death.

    You have marked [Rhodium, Speaker of the Mind] for death.

    Skill: [Mark for Death]

    - Spell (affliction).

    - Cost: moderate mana.

    - Cooldown: 1 hour.

    Gold

    Target any creature you can see or sense and mark them for death. During the next hour, the effectiveness of attacks and afflictions against the creature are increased, and you can track the creature through your minimap and through walls. This skill¡¯s cooldown resets if the targeted creature dies.

    When using this skill, you can target any number of creatures that you can see. You must kill all of them to trigger this skill¡¯s cooldown automatic reset.

    [Soul Link] (bronze) - A fraction of all damage dealt to the marked creature is converted to healing for you.

    [Inevitable Fate] (gold) - You see the skills of a marked creature as well as its weaknesses. Marked creatures have a disadvantage against resisting your skills. You have an advantage against resisting the skills of a marked creature.

    Even a cursory examination flooded him with information. These three were all Gold 10, and their classes seemed to be specialized. Although they were humanoid, they looked more like praying mantises had learned to follow a human¡¯s way of living. Their skin was more chitin than flesh, and their antennae seemed to be the source of their auras.

    Will: Looks like we¡¯re getting some cross-pollination from the other planet a bit early. I¡¯m sharing their location and skills with you now. Does everyone see it?

    Caiyeri: Yep. Glad to see that the big attack isn¡¯t going to be coming out again anytime soon.

    A wave of acknowledgments met him.

    With the understanding that their attackers were likely to have wide-range area of effect skills, they¡¯d split up as a party. Each of them had sufficient movement to make it to someone else if they needed help¡ªalbeit at a delay

    Nynn: Prioritize the Speaker of the Mind. I recognize the class and some of those skills. They¡¯re difficult to activate, but if someone gets caught out alone, there is the possibility of a permanent personality change.

    Will: So you¡¯re saying the asshole¡¯s got mind control. Name checks out.

    Nathan: Didn¡¯t that one old sci-fi author have a book series with a title like this? Heinlein or whatever?

    Will: Orson Scott Card, Speaker of the Dead, and now is not the time, Nathan. Save it for when you need to annoy someone to death.

    Caiyeri: Never thought I¡¯d live to see the day where Will¡¯s the voice of reason. What¡¯s the plan?

    Will: These are all high-level gold-rankers. I¡¯m sure they can fight up a rank. How long do you think you can hold two of them off?

    Nynn: I faced a similar set of elite heritage class Users when we were all diamond. They¡¯re tricky and powerful, but with our skillset, we should be able to buy at least a few minutes. At full power, I could probably take one on alone.

    Caiyeri: Knowing their skills helps a lot. I figure I can take one out, but it¡¯s hard to call. Keeping them on their toes? That, I can do for a while.

    Nathan: This isn¡¯t my first rodeo either. There were a bunch of elites on Selethnir too.

    Will: Fantastic. Let me explain this real quick.

    At the edge of the range of Sen¡¯s eyes, Will sensed Lu Jie emerge from a portal sans his sister.

    Will: Lu Jie. Are you alright? Where is Xie-ren?

    Lu Jie: Safe. I returned because I sensed a great deal of magic that was neither yours nor Fan Laozi¡¯s. I presumed it was your fault.

    Will: I¡¯d say that¡¯s unfair, but it¡¯s true.

    Lu Jie: I owe you a life twice over. Should you need my assistance, I am willing to fight alongside you, young master.

    Will paused, then sent a message back to his party chat.

    Will: This is going to be easier than I thought.

    #

    Will and the opposing aliens knew each other¡¯s location. They didn¡¯t make a show out of pretending to be stealthy, at least. The three Hive came to a gliding stop about a mile above the city. From the Marked for Death infodump, Will knew that their flight was a buff that Iridium, Speaker of the Soul, had applied to all three of them. He briefly considered changing his first target, but Nynn¡¯s words stuck in his mind.

    Anyone with the potential to brainwash one of their own was the first priority. Each of Will¡¯s remaining squad were far too dangerous to risk them changing sides.

    Rhodium, Speaker of the Mind, cast an illusion skill that projected enlarged versions of their bodies out in the sky. When he spoke, his voice radiated down towards land. Thanks to the translation built into the system, Will and everyone else with him heard the words in their native tongues. The accent was strange¡ªit was as if the voice was made up of a thousand buzzing bees instead of vocal chords.

    ¡°Citizens of Sol-3,¡± the voice boomed. ¡°We have no quarrel-dispute with your people. Execute or surrender corruption wielder and demon user William Li-Brown and we will depart peacefully.¡±

    ¡°Hey,¡± Will shouted upwards. ¡°Sorry if this is racist, but is there a way to tell you apart other than the aura? I have no idea which one is talking when.¡±

    A pause.

    ¡°Corruption wielder. Come peacefully, and¡ª¡°

    Will leapt forward.

    Skill: [Wind Walker]

    - Spell (stealth, movement).

    - Cost: very low mana.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Gold.

    Draw upon the power of the winds to lighten your step and increase your speed.

    [Zephyr¡¯s Cloak] (bronze) - While this skill is active, you gain a slight blur effect, making you harder to see and target while moving.

    [Galeforce Dash] (silver) - While you are not touching the ground, you can spend mana to send yourself flying forward with wind-aided dashes. This also imbues you with storm power, increasing the amount of damage you deal to foes afflicted by [Charged].

    [Tempest Force] (gold) - You can chain dashes in the same direction to sharply increase your speed and form a miniature storm around you. Passing an enemy while in this state inflicts it with a level of [Charged].

    Will still couldn¡¯t properly fly, not the way he¡¯d been told a diamond-ranker could. So far, he¡¯d been making up for that by falling great distances before turning the momentum into a glide. That had served him well, but with the new addition to Wind Walker, he could now truly move.

    He didn¡¯t travel straight up, of course. Presenting himself as an obvious, predictable target to three gold-rankers that he couldn¡¯t immediately teleport to thanks to their judicious elimination of any part of the Thousand Eyes that got close to them? Flying a mile up with a skill that, though empowered, was not meant for true flight? That would be suicide.

    Still, he could get himself up to a very respectable speed, and he could still let gravity do a chunk of the work.

    Lu Jie did the rest.

    The last time Will had gone through one of the Chinese leaderboarder¡¯s portals, it had been been during a failed assassination. They¡¯d come a long way.

    This time, he emerged just over a mile above the ground, rocketing towards the trio of gold-rankers. Darkness exploded from his body as he passed them by.

    You have inflicted three level of gold-rank [Charged].

    Iridium sparked with power, dark energy of his own emerging and dispersing the hunger phantasm closest to the three of them.

    ¡°Did your homework, huh?¡± Will said, redirecting his momentum with another air-dash. ¡°Unlucky for you, though. Assignment¡¯s out of date.¡±

    He snapped his fingers, and lightning struck from a clear sky.

    Critical hit!

    Critical hit!

    Critical hit!

    Skill: [Thunder Wraith¡¯s Grasp]

    - Spell (augmentation, evocation).

    - Cost: low mana.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Gold

    Channels ghostly lightning into your fists or melee weapon, grasping an enemy to deliver successively greater amounts of lightning and necrotic damage.

    Inflicts stacking levels of [Charged].

    [Charged] - Target takes increased damage from lightning attacks. Target is easier to hit with lightning attacks.

    On a critical hit, all levels of [Charged] are expended, inflicting exponential amounts of lightning damage for each charge cleansed.

    Inflicting [Charged] causes a spark of lightning that chains to nearby enemies upon landing a strike on the target.

    [Poltergeist] (gold) - At distances up to 10 miles, you can attack an enemy with [Thunder Wraith¡¯s Grasp] as long as they are afflicted with [Charged].

    Landing a crit was child¡¯s play with the demonic eye, which made this upgrade utterly deadly.

    Even gold-rank lightning enhanced by the critical hit and Marked for Death wasn¡¯t enough to kill or even severely wound any of them, but he had expected as much. They had gold-rank protection skills and equipment, after all.

    What he had needed it to do was distract them.

    Will activated Weapons Free.

    Skill: [Weapons Free]

    - Spell (movement, teleportation).

    - Cost: high mana (moderate mana).

    - Cooldown: 12 seconds (6 seconds).

    Gold

    Teleport any weapon within a 1200 foot radius to your hands (if you can carry it) or your inventory (if you cannot). If a target is holding the weapon, they can attempt to prevent this spell from succeeding.

    You can also teleport to any weapon within a 600 foot radius.

    [Warp Strike] (silver): When making an attack, you can use this skill to make your attack originate from any weapon within a 120 foot radius.

    Gold-rank addition: The range of this skill has been multiplied by 10.

    [Simultaneous Swap] (gold): When activating this skill, you can both teleport to a weapon and teleport a weapon to you. You may also instead attempt to swap the position of two weapons.

    The Speaker of the Flesh and Mind both carried weapons, though Iridium didn¡¯t. Will chose the Speaker of the Mind to teleport to while attempting to swap both of their weapons with each other. With the lowered resistance against his own skills, it was harder for them to prevent the skill from going off, but they did, keeping ahold of their weapons as warp magic manifested around it.

    Swapping their weapons, of course, was never Will¡¯s aim. They would be just as lethal with one gold-rank item as another.

    What he needed was, once again, a distraction.

    To their credit, all three reacted immediately when Will teleported onto the Speaker of the Mind¡¯s back, but portals opened up around them and attacks from Will¡¯s party flew in, forcing the Speaker of the Soul to throw up shields to defend them.

    That gave Will a window to grab onto his mark before he could start using mind-affecting skills.

    ¡°Tag,¡± Will said with shit-eating grin number two. ¡°You¡¯re it.¡±

    You have inflicted a level of gold-rank [Corruption] on [Rhodium, Speaker of the Mind].

    You have consumed one level of [Purified] to negate the cast time of [Sanctuary].

    With his attention so fragmented, Rhodium was not able to resist as Will dragged him into the Beyond.

    Already knowing where his destination was, Will didn¡¯t waste a single moment in the Beyond. Had it been any other person, he might have sat there and talked with them. Whether that would result in taunting or an actual productive conversation about exactly what the fuck was going on, Will would have enjoyed it.

    With a mind controller, though, there was no such thing as being too safe. Will had one adverse influence in his head already. He did not need another.

    The two of them emerged in the heart of the Yellowstone supervolcano.

    Will: Sorry to call on you like this, but we¡¯ve got a job to do.

    Cinder: Leave it to me.

 Chapter 141: Type Chart

    You have been afflicted with a level of gold-rank [Blightfire].

    Just being in the same area as Cinder¡¯s power was painful even for Will. He snapped Equilibrium Mantle on as quickly as possible, regulating the environment around him so he didn¡¯t burn to a crisp in an instant. At gold rank, it now also eliminated some of the viruses from the air, though Cinder¡¯s magic was strong enough that a good deal still made it through. Half a breath later, he used Chaos Transfer, removing the magical disease from him and transferring them to his sword.

    He knew from experience that he would need to carefully manage his resources in order to maintain Equilibrium Mantle while occasionally ridding himself of afflictions before they could affect him. Thanks to a rather illustrious few months, Will was entirely out of boons from Envoy of Mercy besides a single level of Blessed. The last level of Purified had gone into instantly throwing both himself and Rhodium into the Beyond.

    Cinder had gotten stronger alongside Will. She didn¡¯t get much active improvement, but she¡¯d had access to a great deal of boons from her frankly ridiculous killcount. A lot of that had been floating around as loose experience and mana. Will hadn¡¯t even known that was possible, but then again he¡¯d only ever killed targets in groups of less than a hundred. There had been single days where Cinder¡¯s kills had been in the five digits.

    She was still world rank number one. At the peak of Gold 10, she was theoretically a match for the Speaker of the Mind.

    Just looking at the stats on paper didn¡¯t do either side justice, though. Will knew what Rhodium could do thanks to the gold-rank effect of Mark for Death. While he didn¡¯t have details for everything, it was clear that the Speaker classes that all three of the aliens possessed carried a whole host of extra benefits to them. The breadth and depth of Rhodium¡¯s skills were breathtaking.

    On the other hand, Will and Cinder were also much stronger than their ranks implied. Will, now freshly a Gold 0, had been punching well above his weight class for some time¡ªhell, as a silver, he had been containing the same platinum-rank demonic eye within him that he was now.Cinder was an otherworlder with an absurd kill count, both factors that Will knew could provide insanely lopsided power boosts.

    And of course, there was the matter of both Cinder and Will possessing classes and elements that would have been banned in a traditional system-adherent society like the Hive¡¯s. They had both discovered that there were reasons, some of them good, for banning the affixation of those particular elements, but nobody could deny that they were strong.

    Case in point: Rhodium was already afflicted by gold-rank corruption. His aura barely flickered at the pain, a self-regulating skill activating to prevent him from feeling pain, but he was on a timer now.

    Condition: [Corruption]

    - All incoming damage is drastically increased.

    - Continually applies chaos damage, which increases proportionally to the time the target has been corrupted.

    - All attributes are reduced.

    - Target cannot be magically healed.

    Will had already cut off Rhodium from his support network, then done so further by eliminating a chunk of the options he had. Corruption was a deadly combo with any outside help, and Cinder was quite possibly the best option he had.

    Not that Rhodium was going to go down without a fight. The alien might have been driven into a trap with no way out, but cornered rats bit the hardest.

    Will presumed there was a rat equivalent on the Hive¡¯s home planet, but he wasn¡¯t going to bother asking the alien for entomologically accurate idioms. This was Earth¡ªor at least, it had been.

    Rhodium snarled, adjusting to his new surroundings with stunning speed. Even with his attributes diminished by corruption and his flesh flaying off his bones from the passive plague-infested heat, he had the presence of mind to assess the situation around him and identify and execute the skill best suited to dealing with it.

    Will knew the general bent of the skill thanks to his upgraded Mark for Death. A wave of energy pulsed out of Rhodium, his aura increasing in strength. This skill, Soul Fracture, was a wide-range aura-like stunning spell that targeted the mind instead of the soul as the name would suggest. Though it wouldn¡¯t be immediately lethal or worse, it would be a devastating blow. It was also one of the only plays the Speaker of the Mind had when he couldn¡¯t properly sense one of his attackers.

    Cinder¡¯s magic infused her surroundings to a far greater depth than even Will¡¯s did. Her skills made the entire supervolcano so brilliantly violent that it all seemed like one being.

    As an ally, however, Will knew exactly where she was.

    He activated Time in a Bottle.

    Skill: [Time in a Bottle]

    - Spell (chronomancy).

    - Cost: high mana per second.

    - Cooldown: scales based on how long the skill is used.

    Gold

    Accelerates your perception of time, enabling you to experience twenty seconds for each second that passes outside.

    At high mana cost, you can increase your movement speed for one objective second, though this effect ends if you use another skill or an attack.

    [Take One Down, Pass It Around] (gold) - You may now halve the efficacy of this effect to split it with one ally within 120 feet of you.

    Time slowed down for him and Cinder at the same time.

    Cinder: This feels¡­ strange. Is this one of your skills?

    Will: Yeah. Giving us a bit of breathing room to get rid of the incoming attack.

    Cinder: It¡¯s nothing I can¡¯t handle. Do you know how man competing plagues infest my body?

    Will: 38?

    Cinder: Don¡¯t remind me. That was rhetorical.

    Will: Sorry.

    Cinder: They tried this on me. The¡­ ESNA, I think you called them.

    Will: Regina¡¯s group.

    From the bent of her messages, Will assumed that she was going to be fine. He didn¡¯t mind chatting with her in the slowed time. Having his perception shattered into a thousand and one eyes had done wonders for his ability to multitask.

    Cinder sent a reply in the slowed time just as Will identified the weak point of one specific part of the Soul Fracture.

    Cinder: Yes. Long before you got them to back down. Early on, in the¡­ when things were bad. They dropped a range extender item next to me and tried to shut me down with a collective effort from a dozen mind mages.

    Will: I didn¡¯t even know the ESNA had mind mages. I haven¡¯t been dealing with them much as of late.

    Cinder: It didn¡¯t work. Every compulsion they set in my mind burned. When it comes to an implanted disease, the ones already built into me are stronger.

    Will: Good to know.

    Cinder: I can¡¯t complain.

    Increasing the amount of mana he was spending let him increase his mobility for a short period of time, and he took the opportunity to activate Destructive Synthesis.

    This particular line of death was in an awkward spot. Will knew from his scouting skills that Rhodium had a bevy of personal defense skills that would trigger if he got too close, potentially stacking the deck against him, but the weak point of the skill was right next to the Hive alien. Killing the skill with a sword strike would almost certainly trigger failsafes.

    Fortunately, Will didn¡¯t only have blades.

    The item he consumed this time was his Demonic Blast Scepter. Awarded in the trial of the champion as a top 32 reward, it was a silver-rank growth item that he had decided not to waste monster cores on upgrading. Those could be saved for his primary weapons, though he admitted to himself that Eclipse aside, his other sword was in dire need of some actual upgrades.

    This scepter in particular no longer served any real use for Will. It could attack with demonic magic, yes, but what use was that when he had the real deal in his head? He considered keeping it just in case he found a use for it, but he needed this attack to be at gold rank to match the Speaker of the Mind¡¯s energy. Destructive Synthesis would grant that upgrade.

    Mana restored.

    You have gained the [Infernal Wrath] skill at gold rank for [24 hours].

    You have been inflicted with a level of [Corruption].

    Stolen novel; please report.

    [Corruption Resistance] (gold) negates gold-rank [Corruption].

    Why the corruption? In the past, when he¡¯d gained the affliction from using this skill, it had been because the item he¡¯d been absorbing was too high a rank for him. What was the problem now?

    Then, a pulse of energy ran through his head, and he realized exactly what it had been as a foreign entity withinhim expressed something like a satisfied burp.

    Damn it. Richard, you dick. The demon in his eye had sensed energy that matched its own affinity and latched onto it, twisting the skill. Strenghtening it.

    At least it wasn¡¯t interfering with him.

    Will fired the skill. It was almost identical to the one that had been in the item¡ªa simple, concentrated blast of demonic energy that worked on line of sight. Will poured enough mana into it to make the detonation hit Rhodium, but the Speaker of the Mind wasn¡¯t his main target. That was the skill, which didn¡¯t die when he hit the weak point but was sufficiently weakened not to hit Will.

    You have inflicted a rank of gold-rank [Despair] on [Rhodium, Speaker of the Mind].

    [Mind Blank] negates gold-rank [Despair].

    Yeah, figures.

    As time accelerated again, Will fired off a second, then third activation of the same skill. He noted with some satisfaction that Rhodium¡¯s condition was steadily getting worse. Even if he could shake off the pain, the combination of a mark, corruption, and the hellish landscape of what could only be described as the single most lethal location on Earth would have been an immediate death sentence for just about anyone else.

    As it was, Rhodium was not holding up well. He retaliated, but with his focus weakened by heat so scorching that it melt stone and his stats lowered by corruption, it was easy enough for Will and Cinder to fend it off or simply avoid the attacks.

    ¡°Someone hasn¡¯t been studying their type charts,¡± Will taunted. ¡°Bug is weak to fire and rock. That¡¯s a 4x weakness right there.¡±

    Cinder: You¡¯re fighting an alien in a plague-infested supervolcano and the best you can do is a Pokemon joke?

    Will: You can hear me?

    Cinder: I can hear everything that happens within my range of influence.

    Will winced at the unsaid implication. She¡¯d heard everything she¡¯d done, powerless to stop herself.

    Will: Would you have preferred Digimon?

    Cinder: Just finish this.

    He could sense her aura fluctuate throughout the entire volcano. His shitty attempt at distracting her had worked well enough, thankfully.

    That still left him with a gold-rank elite to deal with, but it was seeming like that wasn¡¯t going to be much of a problem. Will and Cinder both had skills that made fights increasingly difficult for their enemies as they went along, and the particular circumstances of this one had proved to be overwehlmingly lopsided in their favor.

    Cinder: Also, I¡¯m pretty sure your magic¡¯s doing a lot, and I would class that as dark, which makes you weak to bug, so the entire analogy sort of falls apart.

    Will: You played Pokemon? Every novel request you¡¯ve given me is for the steamiest romance I¡¯ve ever seen. I still don¡¯t know what exactly the appeal of a ¡°reverse harem¡± is. That doesn¡¯t mesh.

    Cinder: People can have one more than one personality trait.

    Will: Fuck. Why can¡¯t you just make this simple?

    Cinder: Life rarely is.

    Rhodium must have sensed that he was on the losing end of this, because he quickly shifted from trying to throw out more offensive spells to chittering out something else, which Will¡¯s translation skill roughly equated to ¡°help me.¡±

    When the next skill came, Will sensed the magic come not from Rhodium but from outside.

    Caiyeri: I¡¯m assuming one of the gold-rankers turning and leaving is your fault.

    Right. Humans weren¡¯t the only ones who could use the chat, and Rhodium¡¯s fellow Speakers were no slouches when it came to power. Neither had followed their companion through the Beyond, rightly assuming that this was a trap, but their magic had range unparalleled by any human.

    Will: Yeah, that was me. Everything alright there?

    Caiyeri: Just peachy, as your friends would say. They¡¯re tough, but so are we.

    That probably meant Caiyeri and the others were at their limit. A woman after his own heart, the elf always shit-talked an enemy¡¯s capabilities if she could find a single flaw with them.

    Will: Hang in there. If you¡¯re evenly matched right now, I should be able to turn the tides once I get back. I¡¯m almost wrapped up.

    Caiyeri: ¡°I should be able to turn the tides.¡± Do you hear yourself? The day your ego shrinks smaller than Arcadia is the day our sun dies.

    Despite his ongoing fight, Will grinned. There was the Caiyeri he knew and loved.

    Will: Well, it¡¯s definitely not going to be today. See you soon.

    Caiyeri: Looking forward to it.

    The skill¡ªone of the other Speaker¡¯s, presumably the Soul¡¯s¡ªmatched the Speakers¡¯ tendencies to have gold-rank magic that spanned distances far greater than any gold-ranker¡¯s should have. At least there was precedent for this¡ªall the otherworlders universally seemed to be stronger than someone of their rank should be, and Will was sure he¡¯d get there eventually.

    This skill was an evacuation one. Just like Rhodium¡¯s stunning spell, this wasn¡¯t magic that the Speaker of the Soul had naturally gained. It was part of the expanded skill list that must have had something to do with the mechanism by which they¡¯d gained their classes. Rather than the fear-oriented skills that made up the bulk of his ¡°main¡± spell list, Iridium was casting a long-range summon. Intended to drag enemies closer to him, he was repurposing it as a way to get an ally out of danger.

    Unfortunately for both of them, Will could sense the magic coming from miles away. When he¡¯d hit gold rank, his aura senses had exploded, months of intense training making themselves known as he¡¯d adapted to his expanded power instantly.

    Will activated his next skill before the teleport even came close to hitting.

    You have spent one level of [Blessed] to negate the cooldown of [Ravenous Feast].

    Skill: [Ravenous Feast]

    - Spell (sigil).

    - Cost: very high mana. Life force (varies).

    - Cooldown: 12 hours -> 6 hours.

    Gold

    When a magical effect targets you, you can attempt to contest it with this skill and your aura. If you are able to match or overpower the skill, you can attempt to resist it with life force in order to negate a portion or all of its effects.

    Upon a full negation of the skill, you are refunded all of the mana expended to cast this skill (but not life force). You also gain mana and stamina proportionate to the amount of resources placed in the negated effect.

    [Overflow] (silver) - Excess mana and stamina is not discarded.

    [Bottomless Hunger] (gold) - A skill does not need to target you for you to devour it. If you successfully negate the skill, you can choose to redirect it instead of devouring it.

    Darkness exploded outwards. The incoming skill would have been ordinarily difficult to find weak points in even with Will¡¯s power increase, but the raw power of Cinder¡¯s environment weakened it enough for him to destroy the skill. He briefly considered redirecting it to target himself instead, but he decided that it was better to confirm this first kill before taking what would almost certainly be a very dicey one-on-one.

    He consumed the skill, restoring the mana and life force expenditure it had cost to do so.

    Rhodium¡¯s defenses finally ran out, and he caught on fire. His carapace was melting and burning and dissolving from the inside out at the same time, painting a morbid picture of exactly what the two most evil powersets on Earth had to offer.

    Cinder: You should take this kill. You need it more than I do.

    Will: Got it. One more attack should do it.

    Skill: [The Bell Tolls]

    - Spell (esoteric).

    - Cost: high mana.

    - Cooldown: 1 hour.

    Gold.

    Cleanses all afflictions from you and targets a creature you can see. The creature cannot benefit from magical healing for the next minute. Inflicts necrotic damage scaling with the consumed afflictions and any injuries the target is suffering from.

    [Withering Decay] (bronze) - Death approaches. Increases any affliction on the target by one level. Inflicts one level of [Wither].

    [Escape is Futile] (silver) - Cooldown resets if the target dies.

    [The Clock Strikes Twelve] (gold) - Inflicts true damage instead of necrotic damage. You may now also target any creature that you have affected with a skill in the last 24 hours.

    A bell tolled, and the Hive alien¡¯s suffering ended.

    You have defeated [Rhodium, Speaker of the Mind].

    Achievement earned: First Contact

    You are the first Earth native to kill an extraterrestrial User* during your cycle. Given your previous achievements, it is reasonable to assume that you have set the tone for future negotiations. Congratulations on first contact. It won¡¯t be the last.

    *This does not count extraterrestrials that interfered with the cycle. This also does not count extraterrestrials that were killed on their native planets.

    Reward: You have earned a platinum-rank [Full Restore Potion]. You may need it.

    The bug-like humanoid crumpled into diseased ash, corruption eating away at even the bones of what had once been a powerful gold-ranker.

    Will sensed a great deal of magic releasing from the corpse, though this wasn¡¯t the kind that was attached to a skill and therefore relatively simple to kill. Ranking up didn¡¯t reset cooldowns, so he¡¯d had to use his last level of Blessed in order to use Ravenous Feast just moments ago. As such, he didn¡¯t have a way to eliminate the unfiltered magic from simply escaping.

    Though he couldn¡¯t trace it, he could identify what it was. At gold rank, Pages of the Past, an intelligence skill he hadn¡¯t had reason to use very frequently, now gave more detail than it had before.

    His suspicions as to what it was were confirmed once he scanned it.

    Will: One gold-rank elite down. Looks like his power¡¯s returning to his planet, though. Looks like this is a hereditary class of sorts. Whoever was second in line for the position is going to receive most of his power, but hopefully they¡¯re a good deal weaker than he was.

    Caiyeri: Heard loud and clear. Are you done on your end? Think the other dickhead¡¯s coming back.

    Will: Yeah. One moment.

    Rather than address Cinder through the chat, he made his way down to her chamber, inventorying Rhodium¡¯s corpse and the various pieces of equipment he¡¯d had on.

    ¡°Good work,¡± he told her, glad for his upgraded Equilibrium Mantle. With it at gold rank, it felt like a slightly uncomfortable warmth instead of a near unbearable heat in here. ¡°I appreciate your willingness to help.¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± she said, letting the cocoon of magma around her fall into the lava pool around her. ¡°That thing wasn¡¯t human. Does that have to do with the other planet?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. They came from the other planet, which I¡¯m pretty sure is a lot less tolerant of people like us there.¡±

    ¡°I can imagine why.¡±

    ¡°So can I, but the fact remains that we¡¯ve still got a world to save,¡± Will said, shrugging. ¡°That was the only one that one hundred percent needed to die. The others¡­ well, we¡¯ll see. Stay on standby if you can?¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± Cinder said. ¡°I¡¯m always ready. Thanks for the last dump of books, by the way. They¡¯ve been nice.¡±

    ¡°Thank god the system lets me scan books,¡± Will sighed. ¡°I think I would have gone insane trying to copy down¡­ what was it, a milking farm?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s called romance and it¡¯s art,¡± Cinder said haughtily.

    Will chuckled, happy to see that she was slowly recovering. ¡°I¡¯ll take your word for it. I¡¯m gonna bounce now. See ya.¡±

    ¡°Good luck out there.¡±

    Caiyeri: Other dickhead¡¯s definitely coming back. Take your time, though. It¡¯s only a bunch of lives on the line.

    Will: I¡¯m coming, I¡¯m coming. Jeez.

    He slipped into the Beyond, then back to the portal he¡¯d come in through.

    And then immediately started falling.

    Will: Oh, I left my portal like two miles up.

    He did see the other two Speakers, though. They weren¡¯t quite where he¡¯d left them. Both of them were far closer to the ground now and practically swamped in magical effects both friendly and hostile.

    Will: I¡¯m going to try taking a page out of their playbook.

    While he didn¡¯t have a skill to project his voice like the Speakers did (fittingly enough, he thought), he did have another option.

    #

    ¡°Rhodium is dead,¡± Iridium said. ¡°There will be a new Speaker of the Mind, now.¡±

    ¡°Regrettable, but inevitable-doomed,¡± Osmium replied. ¡°He was always too careless. The corruption wielder¡¯s fault?¡±

    ¡°Yes. He has returned. Ignore the others. Kill the corruptor.¡±

    A flash of mana besides them had Iridium acting on instinct, firing a blast of fear at it.

    ¡°I would appreciate if you didn¡¯t do that,¡± said a new presence. It barely registered to Iridium¡¯s eyes, even though it was a gold-rank. A familiar.

    ¡°You are interfering,¡± Iridium said. ¡°Step aside. Our only quarrel-business is with the corruption wielder.¡±

    ¡°What a coincidence,¡± said the presence, who Iridium now registered was a winged angel-like familiar. ¡°The name¡¯s Aza. I have a message from him.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going to kill it,¡± Osmium said.

    ¡°Wait,¡± Iridium interjected, antenna twitching. ¡°Speak, familiar.¡±

    ¡°You got it,¡± Aza said. ¡°He says, and I quote: ¡®hey, fuckass. Can we stop killing each other for fifteen seconds and talk? I¡¯m not the biggest threat to the cycle on this planet by a long shot.¡¯ End quote.¡±

    The familiar disappeared, leaving a very two confused Hive members behind.

 Chapter 142: Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

    Will wondered if this would be the time someone finally listened to him asking for them to talk. Historically, that hadn¡¯t gone over well.

    To be fair, a number of times, it was him deciding that the other person wasn¡¯t worth trying to save and going ahead with a field execution. He did have to admit that part of it, at least, was his own fault.

    That said, this did seem like a situation that would be ideally resolved a different way. There was the sticky part where he¡¯d murdered one of the three immediately, which would certainly make any negotiations more challenging, but in all fairness they had tried to orbital strike him first.

    He summoned Aza back to his side right as the Guardian Angel finished transmitting what Will had ordered him to say.

    ¡°You realize that I¡¯m not going to hear a response if I¡¯m by your side, right?¡± the Dread Executor aspect said.

    ¡°Right,¡± Will said, forming a pair of wings and air-dashing to redirect his momentum. ¡°I¡¯ll go talk to them myself, then.¡±

    ¡°You truly do have a talent for bad ideas,¡± Aza said. ¡°You are aware of what those two are, right?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I know,¡± Will said, answering both parts of his familiar¡¯s question in one go. ¡°I¡¯m riding a high right now. Can¡¯t let a good rank up go to waste.¡±

    ¡°I should have known better than to think the early cycle optimism would be beaten out of the likes of you,¡± Aza sighed.

    ¡°Yep. You should have.¡±

    Will dove.

    As expected, the two Speakers didn¡¯t exactly take his invitation with resounding agreement, though that might have also been because they¡¯d been briefed on Will¡¯s favorite way to enter a fight¡ªnamely, with his opponents deeply confused and him traveling at subsonic speeds.

    They didn¡¯t respond with their full power either, which was promising. Granted, their full power involved a good deal of preparation and an orbital cannon, but Will had read through a good deal of the skill list of both. While the defensive skill the Speaker of the Flesh was using was a pretty top-tier gold-rank one, the offensive one from the Soul wasn¡¯t. It was a pretty standard death beam with little finesse to it.

    Will grinned. Under a certain lens, one could view that as a warning shot. Maybe negotiating wasn¡¯t a total lost cause.

    That beam would, of course, still kill him if it hit, so he navigated away. Wings and dashes weren¡¯t the only tool he had anymore¡ªa quietly powerful passive he¡¯d been relying on since the goblin caves had been upgraded once again.

    Skill: [Escape Artist]

    - Passive (body).

    - Cost: none.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Gold

    Never look back.

    Your movement speed is increased at a rate inversely proportional to the amount of equipment you are wearing (maximum of 100% increase).

    Your movement speed is increased by up to an additional 100% if you are currently being attacked. If you are being attacked, you gain greatly increased control of your aerial mobility.

    Gold-rank addition: if you are under attack, you can temporarily treat non-solid surfaces as solid.

    Will had never been particularly acrobatic, but his stats and skills were doing a damn good job at making him look like he¡¯d been practicing this all his life.

    Caiyeri: What are you doing up there? I¡¯ve seen untrained goblin berserkers look more graceful than that.

    Okay, maybe not that good, but put him against any Olympic gymnast and he was sure he¡¯d be the better one at avoiding a beam that would overload his nerves until he was a paralyzed brick dropping at terminal velocity.

    Will: You can see me up here?

    Caiyeri: [Gambler¡¯s Intuition]. Class skill. Gives me pretty great senses, and sight got upgraded a ton once I got to gold.

    Will: Great. Tell the others not to shoot until I start shooting. I might be able to scrounge something out of this.

    Caiyeri: Your history does not inspire faith in me.

    Will: Hey! I mean, fair, but hey!

    At gold rank, Escape Artist let him paint his path downwards using anything as a canvas. He used the air as a springboard, spreading hunger phantasm around him as he dropped. Will didn¡¯t extend it aggressively¡ªinstead, he acknowledged the incoming shots and tried making the Speaker of the Soul¡¯s job a bit harder.

    Skill: [Wraith Cloak]

    - Spell (invisibility, movement).

    - Cost: low mana-per-second while not moving. Mana cost increases with speed up to a cap of moderate mana-per-second.

    - Cooldown: none.

    Gold

    While in areas with low light or no light, you can have shadows surround you and render you invisible. This invisibility ceases to function if you use an attack or cast an offensive spell.

    Also increases your speed while in shadow.

    You can move more effectively without breaking the cloak. While you are cloaked, you can see perfectly in the dark.

    [Ethereal] - For a high mana cost, you can pass through very thin barriers while invisible.

    [Intangible] (gold) - No longer ceases functioning when you are moving too fast. If you are not moving, you may make yourself temporarily intangible for a very high mana cost.

    The intangibility part didn¡¯t matter to him much at the moment. Even Will himself had a dozen different ways to attack something intangible, and he didn¡¯t doubt that the Inanis contingent had the same. What mattered here was dispersing his aura signature into the hunger phantasm and rendering himself invisible, minimizing the targets the Speaker of the Soul had to target. Without Rhodium alive, the aliens no longer had someone who could precisely find where Will was when he was deliberately obfuscating his position.

    The Speaker of the Soul didn¡¯t use any wide-range attacks, reinforcing Will¡¯s belief that he was, in fact, open to something of a parlay. He doubted that it would be nearly as easy as any of his conversations with humans had gone, but he figured it was worth a shot.

    To be fair to them, Will didn¡¯t even fire a warning shot in return. That was mostly because he didn¡¯t want the rest of his party to resume attacking before negotiations could even start, but he figured it was a nice gesture.

    When he started getting closer to the pair of them, he slowed himself down with Wind Walker and a quick formation of wings. Just to be safe, he activated a ritual that he usually kept attuned towards corruption but typically didn¡¯t bother thinking much about.

    Skill: [Favored Element]

    - Ritual (resistance).

    - Cost: moderate mana (very high mana).

    - Casting Time: 10 minutes (10 seconds).

    - Cooldown: 1 day.

    Gold

    Allows you to pick one favored element and one hostile element. Until this ritual is no longer on cooldown, you gain extreme resistance to attacks using your favored element if they are of your rank or lower. If this resistance completely nullifies the damage you would have taken, you are instead healed proportionally to the power of the attack.

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    You take increased damage from the hostile element, but if an attack is made upon you using that element, your next attack against that enemy will be greatly increased in power.

    [Augmented Resistance] (silver) - Your resistance ignores rank boundaries.

    [Elemental Intuition] (silver) - If you do not pick a favored element, it will automatically select the most prevalent element in your area upon casting. This is currently aligned to Fear.

    Gold-rank addition: for a very high mana cost, you can now cast this ritual at a greatly enhanced speed.

    It proved to be useful when Will entered the area of effect of the Speakers¡¯ aura. Earlier, he¡¯d come into contact with one of the few humans who could even come close to matching his own. He¡¯d dealt with Fan Laozi without ever learning what the man was fully capable of or why his aura had been the way it was, and he was thankful for that¡ªhe was sure a direct aura-on-aura contest would have been a massive pain.

    Iridium and Osmium, unfortunately, were also stronger than their rank suggested.

    It wasn¡¯t quite in the same way as Laozi and Will, though. The humans had power that spoke of repeated reforgings. Hell, Will¡¯s soul had been literally torn apart by one god and barely patched back together by another.

    These two, on the other hand, had power in multitudes. Will¡¯s analysis of their classes had shown them to be hereditary ones, passed from User to User. Their cycle had been going on for years on their side already, according to Ayla, and the results of that were clear in these two¡¯s auras. They were built from the powers of literal dozens of past owners of the class, consolidating and multiplying their powers many time over.

    Thanks to Shattersoul and his damnable Outcast title, his aura had been buffed and trained enough that it wouldn¡¯t just shatter in the face of even two of these monstrous presences. Still, he was going to have a damn hard time trying a soul attack or even general aura suppression on either of them. He hadn¡¯t noticed this with the Speaker of the Mind, but that had almost certainly been because of the circumstances he had managed to force. Absurd amounts of corruption would make anyone¡¯s ability to focus worse.

    Will came to a steady stop about a hundred feet from the hovering duo, forming a solid platform for himself under his feet.

    ¡°I¡¯m surprised you agreed to a talk,¡± he called out.

    Since he didn¡¯t actually have a voice amplification skill, he started walking towards them, forming shadowy platforms under his feet with each step. Shouting got tiring after a long fight.

    The Speakers, fitting for their name, did. Iridium was the one apparently designated either as a leader or their spokesperson for the time being. He¡¯d been the one to announce that everyone else would be okay if they let the two aliens kill Will, too.

    ¡°Conversation favors us,¡± he said. ¡°The stealth-assassination attempt failed. Our abilities may recharge by the end of this.¡±

    Iridium was not-so-subtly threatening a second use of the orbital cannon, Will could tell. Was he trying to provoke him into an early confrontation? Reading the aliens¡¯ aura was harder than reading a human¡¯s not just because of their raw power but also because the insectoid Hive were so different from his species. Elves and elementals had had human-like reasoning, at the very least, but according to Ayla, this planet operated in a completely different way from Earth or Arcadia.

    ¡°If you say so,¡± Will said. ¡°Hopefully, by the end of this we won¡¯t have to use those recharged skills.¡±

    ¡°You are a corruption wielder,¡± Iridium said. ¡°Unclean. Against the cycle. You must die.¡±

    Oh, excellent, Will thought. He¡¯d gotten the general idea of what a cycle-complaint society would be like from Ayla, but he hadn¡¯t expected it to be this¡­ direct. Maybe something was translating wrong?

    He could spin this, though. There were real concerns that anyone concerned with upholding the cycle should have been focusing on¡ªit was just that at the moment, he was the loudest. Some beings (like, for instance, a goddess who¡¯d lived through a million cycles) knew when to be quiet.

    ¡°Alright,¡± Will said. ¡°Let me get this clear. You need me dead just because I play around with corruption?¡±

    ¡°The demon as well,¡± Osmium interjected.

    ¡°Oh, the fuckin¡¯ demon,¡± Will said, throwing his hands up. ¡°Have you ever considered why I might have a demon inside me?¡±

    Well, he supposed it shouldn¡¯t surprise him that they had a way to detect Richard. They¡¯d been able to identify Earth¡¯s sole corruption wielder and come after him, after all. Demons were likely noticeably more impactful on the mana around them.

    ¡°No,¡± Iridium said. ¡°It is pointless.¡±

    ¡°Fantastic,¡± Will sighed. ¡°Please tell me you¡¯re not the brains of this operation.¡±

    The insect tilted his head, antennae twitching. ¡°Do you have anything of substance-matters to say?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I do. Do you think I wanted a demon inside my head? I know what your answer to that is going to be, so I¡¯ll reply for you¡ªno, I didn¡¯t! Here¡¯s another question. Given the choice between containing a mid-tier demon and letting it devour an entire planet, what would you choose?¡±

    That actually gave them pause, which was kind of disappointing. Will had hoped that they would have at least considered a few basic possibilities before full-sending the assassination attempt.

    ¡°Then your presence is what maintains the demon¡¯s presence in our reality,¡± Iridium said. ¡°You contain it within yourself and use its power for your own.¡±

    That was true, which made this a bit inconvenient. Will was well aware of what Richard could do if unleashed. In a very real way, making that contract had saved the world. Still, he had to admit that he hadn¡¯t exactly exercised restraint when he¡¯d utilized the demonic eye for his own purposes.

    ¡°I sure do,¡± Will agreed amiably. ¡°But you know what that means? It means that there¡¯s a demon¡¯s power in me. If you kill me now, that power isn¡¯t just going to disappear.¡±

    ¡°This is known,¡± Iridium said. ¡°After your death, the fragments of your magic will be contained, isolated, and ejected into deep space until there is no longer a threat to our worlds.¡±

    ¡°Our worlds, you say,¡± Will said. ¡°Do you mean Inanis?¡±

    ¡°The three planets,¡± Iridium said. ¡°We have no desire to crush your peoples. The Unification Front welcomes all.¡±

    ¡°Holy evil empire name,¡± Will snorted. ¡°Alright. So, hypothetically, if there was a threat greater than a single corruption wielder with a contained demon, you would look towards that instead?¡±

    ¡°That would depend on whether or not it was a fabrication-fake by another,¡± Iridium said. Though Will couldn¡¯t read the alien¡¯s expression, he recognized the universal emotion of I don¡¯t believe you in the Speaker¡¯s aura.

    ¡°You came here through the superdungeons, didn¡¯t you?¡± Will asked.

    That was a question he already knew the answer to. Ayla would¡¯ve notified him if there were people making the many-million-mile trip between the alien planet and Earth, not to mention how easy it would be to spot with aura senses. At gold rank, there weren¡¯t yet movement skills that were strong enough to make that trip both stealthily and quickly. The only possible explanation, then, was the spatial anomaly that connected them both¡ªand hadn¡¯t the group who¡¯d been fighting the Peace sigil-holders in the superdungeon talked about seeing technology from an alien society in there?

    ¡°We passed through the dungeon anomaly,¡± Iridium said. ¡°You are aware of it?¡±

    ¡°I was in there for a bit. If you came through it, I¡¯m sure you came into contact with a certain goddess¡¯ followers.¡±

    ¡°The servants of Peace,¡± Osmium spoke. ¡°I recall them. They attempted to slow us. They were ineffective.¡±

    Caiyeri: This has to be the longest I¡¯ve seen you talk with someone without at least one murder attempt going down.

    Will: Oh, come on. I¡¯ve definitely made it longer.

    Will: That said, it¡¯s going surprisingly well. Given their initial response, I thought that they would just jump straight to killing, but they¡¯re hearing me out more than a human would. Or an elf, for that matter.

    Caiyeri: Looks like bugs have their upsides. Have you told them that you killed their brother yet?

    Will: One step at a time.

    Caiyeri: Got it. Weapons ready.

    Will: Shut up.

    Realizing he still needed to respond, Will spoke aloud again before the two Speakers could start preparing attacks of their own. ¡°Their forces aren¡¯t concentrated in the superdungeon. I¡¯m not actually sure what they¡¯re doing there, but it¡¯s far from their only endeavor. Iridium, you have like fourteen different lie-detection skills. Am I bullshitting you?¡±

    ¡°You speak the truth,¡± the Speaker of the Soul said reluctantly, unsurprised that Will had detected his skill list. ¡°Continue.¡±

    ¡°Peace herself is directing a contingent of her factions to summon something from beyond our world,¡± Will said. ¡°Judging from her usual repertoire, we¡¯re almost certain that it¡¯ll be an angel summoning.¡±

    That got a reaction from the two Speakers. Fortunately, it looked like angels were as anathema to their idea of what was acceptable as demons were. Ayla had said as much, but he¡¯d still half-expected them to just ignore it.

    ¡°You believe this,¡± Iridium said.

    ¡°I know this,¡± Will shot back. ¡°That contingent is targeted at me.¡±

    ¡°Only because you are the only possible target,¡± Iridium inferred. ¡°This kind of power is only possible to counterbalance-destroy another transgressor.¡±

    That was probable. Will didn¡¯t know how much the two Speakers understood the concept of plausibility, though it seemed like they had more understanding than most Earth Users did.

    ¡°Yeah, because I saved the world,¡± Will growled. ¡°It was transgress or let seven hundred million people die screaming. My fault for doing a good thing, honestly. Now I¡¯m facing a god again and she wants to tear me apart and use everything inside me as fuel.¡±

    ¡°More reason to eliminate you sooner than later,¡± Iridium said.

    ¡°Except without me, you¡¯re not going to have anyone to deal with the angel,¡± Will said. ¡°Unless one of you has a whole lot of magic outside what the system considers permissible? Because last I checked, you¡¯re not going to defeat a demon with fear.¡±

    ¡°You are not speaking of a demon.¡±

    ¡°No, I¡¯m not, but the same principle applies. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve got a lot of tech you can apply, too. You two are strong, and you¡¯ll be pretty critical if you actually fight against a cycle-breaking cult.¡±

    ¡°Your information is appreciated,¡± Iridium said, his aura showing Will that he was actually genuine about that. ¡°After your death, we will bring this information to the high council.¡±

    Will barked out a laugh. ¡°Have you listened to a single word I¡¯ve been saying? I¡¯ve been around for almost six months now and haven¡¯t even tried to shatter the cycle. Hell, if anything, what I do has been closer to what you do. This angel is going to break it immediately.¡±

    ¡°We will fight the angel alongside your people,¡± Iridium said. ¡°Your sacrifice will not go unheard.¡±

    Will laughed in the Speaker¡¯s face. ¡°You think so? This conversation isn¡¯t about begging for my life. It¡¯s a last ditch effort for me to not waste another pair of promising lives. This is for your sake, not mine.¡±

    Iridium and Osmium flickered, suddenly appearing directly in front of Will. Their auras overlapped, reinforcing each other and pressing down on his.

    ¡°You overestimate yourself,¡± Iridium said. ¡°We have more than the capability to eliminate you and the angel alike.¡±

    Will looked at the two Hive aliens and glared. He rarely had an opportunity for his various titles that rendered his aura more evil than anyone else¡¯s on the planet, but he made full use of them now, pushing back their auras without wasting much effort.

    ¡°I killed your brother,¡± he said coldly, taking advantage of their surprise at having their auras repelled. ¡°It took me less than five minutes. I tell you what I know about Peace because I have faced her down in single combat before and won. Do you really think you¡¯re going to kill me here? You¡¯re putting yourself at the end of a long line of people who¡¯ve failed. My own sigil tore my soul apart, and I¡¯m still here. That demon you¡¯re so scared about? I faced that fucker down alone and walked away stronger. I¡¯m already giving you a chance by letting you walk away alive right now because I think you¡¯ll be helpful against a mutual enemy. Don¡¯t waste it.¡±

    With each word, Will increased the amount of energy he put into his aura. He¡¯d faced gods and pushed back. These two insignificant shits might have been at the top of their food chain, but compared to what Will had faced so far? They barely registered as a threat.

    He pushed far enough that he could sense his aura starting to brush up against their souls. There, their defenses consolidated enough that he couldn¡¯t pop them without further exertion, but his point was made. Will stared them down, his aura as steady and inevitable as ever.

    ¡°Your execution can wait until after the angel¡¯s,¡± Iridium allowed.

    I can sense your fear, Will thought. Was that a new emotion for them? He found that he didn¡¯t particularly care.

    ¡°See?¡± Will asked, flashing them a smile that didn¡¯t reach his aura. ¡°Wasn¡¯t that easy?¡±

 Chapter 143: Home?

    Achievement earned: Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes

    You avoided a scenario that would have started a cycle-wide interplanetary war quest. Congratulations would be in order if the possibility of that scenario occurring wasn¡¯t your fault to begin wtih.

    Reward: [Peacemaker] title has already been rewarded. You have instead received experience.

    Level up!

    Your level has increased to [Gold 1].

    1 attribute point earned.

    ¡°Seriously?¡± Will said aloud. ¡°It literally wasn¡¯t.¡±

    The level up was appreciated, though, and he decided to allocate the attribute point to Power, his current lowest stat.

    With the immediate threat gone, Will sent a message to the rest of his party to stand down.

    Yui: Unfortunate. I had hoped to fight them.

    Will: You¡¯ll get your chance. Give it a few months.

    Yui: I know I will.

    Nathan: I, for one, am glad we didn¡¯t immediately gank them. The skills and tech they¡¯ve got are absurd, even for Selrethnir.

    Yui: Not quite absurd, but they are powerful. It would be a boon to study their bodies.

    Will: Let¡¯s not get too ahead of ourselves here. We do have an angel summoning in the next few months.

    Nynn: The corruption wielder is right, for once.

    Will: For once?

    Caiyeri: What was that about getting ahead of yourself?

    Banter was good. It meant that despite a terrifyingly close brush with death, they were all managing. They¡¯d scraped by another fight without losing one of their own.

    Lu Jie: I cannot call this debt repaid, but I have matters of my own to attend to.

    Lu Jie: Contact me if you need my assistance. For the time being, I must clean up this mess you left me.

    Will: I¡¯d say my bad, but I¡¯m pretty sure I saved your life twice.

    Lu Jie: Which is why I did not request an apology.

    Will: Fair.

    Both of the Speakers had beaten Lu Jie to the punch. Kudos to them, they actually acted on their decisions when they made them. The moment Iridium agreed to stand down, they both started flying away, ruffling Will¡¯s hair and cracking the air with a sonic boom as they left.

    Will had achieved what he¡¯d come for and then some. His initial goal in coming to Shanghai had just been to eliminate Fan Laozi and complete his ascension to gold¡ªand he¡¯d done that, but that wasn¡¯t it. Caiyeri had increased a rank as well, which had major implications for every fight moving forward. Now, he¡¯d also secured the potential cooperation of two extremely powerful aliens in holding Peace off.

    Whenever the Speaker of the Mind came back, though, Will could expect problems. The class had passed onto whoever was next designated to receive it, and they would almost certainly know the details of their predecessor¡¯s death.

    That was a problem for the Will of several months from right now, though, and the Will of right now wanted nothing more than to consolidate his power and take a nice, long shower.

    Will: Let¡¯s wrap it up here and head¡­

    He paused partway through the message. He¡¯d meant to say home, but he realized abruptly that he didn¡¯t really have a sense of what that was.

    During the past four or five months, ever since the end of the trial of the champion and the beginning of the doomsday timer between the two planets, Will had gone from location to location almost without stopping. Sure, he¡¯d slept, but that had mostly been in safe zones or in whatever housing his allies in the area had whipped up.

    During that time, his party also hadn¡¯t been posted up anywhere permanent. They¡¯d had decent living conditions, but that had been carved from their own inventories and non-combat skills, not any real attempt at establishing a base. The superdungeon was far too hostile towards life of any kind to consider a real home, and yet it was also where they¡¯d spent the majority of their time.

    This entire time, Will had been focused entirely on what would come next. Dealing with Peace, the burgeoning demon inside him, and now also the looming threat of the other planet¡ªto do that, he¡¯d had to single-mindedly focus on being the Reaper he was.

    Caiyeri: Not the superdungeon, I think. It was good practice, but I doubt that there¡¯s anything in there that we haven¡¯t found already.

    Nynn: I concur. If anything, I would suspect that the goal of the rogue goddess would be establishing contact with the other planet, but that has clearly occurred.

    Will: Yeah. She keeps pulling more Users out of a hat, and she obviously doesn¡¯t care if a ton of them die, so I¡¯m starting to think that even if there are legitimate goals, it¡¯s more of a diversion than anything else. Maybe it¡¯s even a training camp of some kind.

    Nathan: I could buy it being for training. After acclimating to the monsters there, it was a pretty good way to get good loot and do free stat and skill leveling.

    Will: Where to next, then? A good chunk of us still have grinding to do, but the deadline for Peace¡¯s bullshit is approaching pretty quickly.

    Yui: I am going to continue training with Wisteria. Though her power is not yet at a fully acceptable level, she will eventually prove her worth.

    Nynn: I will likely join them. Will, whatever you get involved in is likely going to be too much for me. My soul is too damaged to do anything but gradually recover for the time being.

    At least the former Dread Executor was finally realizing that he had limits. Will hadn¡¯t wanted to say that Nynn would be an active liability out loud, but it was obvious to anyone with eyes. He¡¯d given up a lot to end the leader of the corruption cult that had interfered with the trial of the champion, and he¡¯d given up even more to save Will this one last time.

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    Will didn¡¯t need to publicly admit that he¡¯d been saved. They both knew that he wouldn¡¯t have tanked that shot alone. He had, however, held a single charge of Eternal Throne, which Nynn didn¡¯t know about. For the time being, he had decided to keep that quiet¡ªin part so that Nynn wouldn¡¯t realize he¡¯d done a ton of damage to his own soul for something that wouldn¡¯t actually have fully killed Will but mostly because a resurrection was exactly the kind of thing you kept up your sleeve.

    He had to wonder whether the Crown had foreseen this when it had given him this. It had been pretty clear that the god had wanted nothing to do with Will¡ªat least, so he thought. Back then, a thousand kills had seemed like an absurd number, but it was steadily becoming clear that this was to survive and protect the people he cared about, that number was never going to stop growing.

    Another thousand kills, even if they had to all be gold-rankers? That seemed plausible. Will was more worried about his lack of worry than the knowledge of what that would entail.

    This was getting pointless to think about. Will could agonize about his morals and what the gods were planning all day, but the latter was more useful and that could only be wild speculation when he hadn¡¯t even seen a hint of the Crown¡¯s existence in months aside from the skill he¡¯d gotten from it.

    For the time being, he just needed to figure out where to go next. Will drifted down from the sky, using his newly buffed movement skills to control his fall.

    ¡°I should really get some wings,¡± he muttered to himself. ¡°Need to figure out if I scam Kadael into giving me some.¡±

    The rest of his party had been scattered around the city, using various parts of it as cover as they simultaneously fought back against the Speakers and cleared out the remaining Peace sigil-holders, but they all had their ways of moving quickly as well. Without a leader to amplify their power and direct them, the Peace group had been rendered toothless. The same went for Fan Laozi¡¯s titans¡ªwhile they were still semi-active, they responded to threats on their own bodies and nothing else.

    It took a few minutes, but Will got most everyone remaining gathered just outside the city. Lu Jie had a pair of cities to deal with, so he wasn¡¯t there, but the rest of the party remained.

    Hua: I¡¯m hearing it¡¯s over? That¡¯s disappointing. I was hoping to get damage in. I¡¯m close to gold, I think.

    Will: Aren¡¯t you supposed to have been leaving?

    Hua: Liam and Yui are like ten miles off on a sniper mount. I¡¯m still in the city.

    Will started at that, then looked at his minimap as a single extra allied indicator appeared on it.

    He¡¯d been able to see through her sigil skill disguise back during the trial of the champion, but that had been with Pages of the Past, which he only used on his immediate surroundings. It took extra effort and mana to pass it to any of Sen¡¯s eyes, let alone all of them. Add on the fact that he rarely had to deal with stealth and most traps could be dodged after he triggered them, and Will hadn¡¯t been passively scanning the area with the skill for a while.

    She wasn¡¯t even a quarter mile from them, and with her movement items and skills, it didn¡¯t take long for her to get back.

    ¡°You know, you didn¡¯t have to go to the effort of hiding yourself from me,¡± Will said. ¡°We wouldn¡¯t have known you were here if you went down.¡±

    ¡°And you wouldn¡¯t have had to,¡± Hua countered, a silver-rank glow on her boots fading to nothing as she arrived at their loose gathering. ¡°That¡¯s exactly how it was before I grouped up with you, and that¡¯s how I like it.¡±

    Will frowned. ¡±That¡¯s¡ª¡°

    ¡°How the world works,¡± Hua said. ¡°I left Australia to join your little black ops party because we¡¯re making more of a difference here than we were there. Military tactics worked great for military purposes, but we kept letting problems go. You¡¯re part of one of the few groups cutting out the rot in the world, and I¡¯m not going to get in your way.¡±

    ¡°You weren¡¯t getting in my way.¡±

    ¡°Be serious,¡± Hua said. ¡°You look at everybody like an obstacle, and you care too much about some people. I wasn¡¯t going to leave, but I wasn¡¯t going to make you prioritize me over the actual fucking fight.¡±

    ¡°You should think a little less of him,¡± Caiyeri advised drily. ¡°He¡¯s not nearly that kind.¡±

    ¡°Kind? No. He¡¯s practical in a way that makes him act more for others than himself,¡± Hua said. ¡°You saw he tried to send an asset away.¡±

    ¡°Surprisingly insightful for someone so young,¡± Nathan said.

    ¡°I¡¯m within three years of Will,¡± Hua said. ¡°Probably of you, too.¡±

    ¡°Three years or thirty since birth makes little difference,¡± Nynn said tiredly. ¡°Your time in the system is the same, and that ages us the fastest.¡±

    ¡°I would believe you if Will acted anywhere near his age,¡± Caiyeri said.

    ¡°I¡¯m right here,¡± Will said, vaguely offended.

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be saying it if you weren¡¯t. You were saying something about next steps earlier?¡±

    Will glared at her, though he couldn¡¯t muster up enough actual anger to make it count. ¡°Yeah. I was. We¡¯re clear of the immediate threats and two of us have gotten rank ups. Our next deadline is Peace, which comes in about a month and a half. The aliens come again after. Past that¡­ probably not worth worrying about.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m assuming you don¡¯t want to grind the superdungeon for the next six weeks,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°There¡¯s good monsters in there, but¡­ diminishing returns.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I figured,¡± Will said. ¡°Actually, I was thinking something a bit different. Yui, I know you said you were going to train with Wisteria, but I think there¡¯s a better place to go than the superdungeon.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m listening,¡± Yui said. ¡°The journey matters less than the destination in this case. I would like to get our group to a level where we can properly compete with what is coming.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s part of what I¡¯d like to do. We¡¯ve been reacting to threats for a while, and this next one¡¯s going to be the same. We still don¡¯t know exactly what to expect, but we do know the general shape of it. Since we do, why don¡¯t we get the upper hand for once?¡±

    ¡°That was the idea,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°You have anything special in mind?¡±

    Will shrugged. ¡°Sort of. I was thinking that an ambush is probably optimal for whenever the summon completes, since I doubt the Contractor is going to be able to hide something that big.¡±

    ¡°I concur,¡± Nynn said. ¡°The summoning process may be hidden, but an actual angel will have ripples so deep that even your dreaming friend will likely see it.¡±

    ¡°Not a high bar,¡± Will replied. ¡°She sees everything.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯re you thinking?¡± Nathan asked.

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s a rough concept more than a plan so far,¡± Will said. ¡°But I was thinking a really, really big gun. And I know a place that can do them pretty damn well.¡±

    #

    Regina¡¯s day had been going considerably better before Earth¡¯s number one pain in the ass had teleported right into the middle of one of her most heavily guarded cities.

    Oh, sure, the mostly-rebuilt city dubbed by most in the ESNA as Newer York wasn¡¯t her headquarters¡ªthat would have been an abysmally stupid move, given the fact that a potential enemy had an indestructible portal smack dab in the middle of the city¡ªbut it was a pretty critical one.

    At the moment, William Li-Brown, gold-ranker and corruption wielder extraordinaire, was not, in fact, an enemy of her state. Regina was, however, very aware of how tenuous an alliance could be. She hadn¡¯t been the leader of the faction that had come to be known as the ESNA at first, but she¡¯d been forced to take control after far too many betrayals.

    Still, he had been useful and cooperative and generally understanding¡ªa fantastic ally, if not for the fact that he was terribly, terribly unpredictable.

    Case in point.

    ¡°Let me get this correct,¡± she repeated to a group of some of the least conventional, most lethal fighters on Earth¡¯s surface. ¡°You want to build a gun.¡±

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t have to be a gun,¡± Will said. ¡°Could be some other doomsday device. I had a friend, briefly, who had access to a whole bunch of nukes he stole from his country¡¯s stock. If we have a supernuke or something on hand, that could probably help.¡±

    ¡°A bomb would almost certainly fail,¡± a strange, dark man she¡¯d been told was called Nynn said. ¡°Angels have defenses against wide-range attacks like that.¡±

    ¡°You heard the man, then,¡± Will said. ¡°Gun.¡±

    ¡°Or a very long bow, which I suppose amounts to the same thing,¡± the elf named Caiyeri said.

    Regina still had to tamp down on her reflex to blow her away every time she saw the elf. They¡¯re not the same here.

    Okay. She had been given information already about what the corruption wielder suspected a contingent of the fuckers that controlled the west were doing. In exchange for that, he¡¯d gotten information out of her, but they both knew it was information that he could¡¯ve gotten himself if he had more time.

    Overall, she was fairly sure their arrangement had been about equal up until this point, with neither of them going much further than staying out of each other¡¯s way. Will had solved some of her problems, and she¡¯d solved some of his¡ªbut neither had done anything that they couldn¡¯t alone.

    This was asking for something that Will certainly could not do, so in exchange¡­

    Hmm. Regina could think of something. This could tie up one of her ongoing pain points quite nicely, actually.

    ¡°You can¡¯t just ask me to commission you a superweapon without anything in exchange,¡± Regina said, recovering her focus. ¡°William Li-Brown. Have you heard of the special instance challenge dungeons?¡±

    The corruption wielder¡¯s aura control was too good for her to read his emotions properly, but the look on his face told her everything she needed to know. He was hooked.

    ¡°Nope,¡± he said casually. ¡°I¡¯m assuming there¡¯s something in there you want me to kill.¡±

    ¡°Something like that. Are you in?¡±

    ¡°Show me what it is, and then we¡¯ll talk.¡±

    Regina smiled pleasantly, radiating an aura of satisfaction.

    Well, this would either kill him and remove a potential threat, or it would solve one of her problems. Win-win!

 Chapter 144: This Guy Blew Me Up Once, But Were Cool

    Regina. Gold 4 [CLASS HIDDEN BY SKILL].

    Leaderboard Rank: 10 (+1 in the last 24 hours)

    Will really didn¡¯t like dealing with Regina.

    The self-styled Supreme Commander of the Eastern States of New America or whatever name the nation that controlled most of what had been the eastern seaboard was named now was an ally, but she¡¯d always rubbed him the wrong way. There was just a level of suspicion that he couldn¡¯t help but feel around her.

    To be fair to her, it was entirely possible that this was just a function of something her class did. Will¡¯s Reaper class as well as a number of other features he¡¯d gotten from dealing with gods and demons had rendered him unsettling to literally everyone. If his allies had to deal with the looming sensation that he was going to snap and kill them at any given time, he supposed he could find it within himself to work with someone he found a bit suspicious.

    Besides, the offer she was in the process of detailing to her wasn¡¯t terrible. In exchange for what was essentially grinding a dungeon, Will would get her cooperation and considerable resources put towards the purpose of building a weapon that would be capable of downing an angel.

    That was how it was supposed to go, at least. Only time and a lot of violence would tell if she held up her end of the deal. The consequences for her violating a good deal were pretty dire, though, and Regina was savvy enough to know that. Will got the impression that neither of them wanted the other as an enemy, which had been enough to ensure their cooperation up until this point.

    ¡°Challenge dungeons, you say?¡± Will asked. ¡°Gonna have to get a bit more detail on that one, I think.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s difficult to explain,¡± Regina said. ¡°They emerged about a month ago. We suspect that they¡¯re related to the superdungeons.¡±

    ¡°Makes sense,¡± Will said. ¡°That¡¯s the only big dungeon-related thing I can think of that happened recently.¡±

    It had been a while since he¡¯d even entered a dungeon. He¡¯d cleared out a few to gain the treasures he¡¯d needed to hit gold, but Will had been far too focused on dealing with external User interference and finishing the Reaper challenges for his rank-up to bother with dungeons. He¡¯d looted them, but he¡¯d rapidly been reaching the point where he didn¡¯t need loot from an average dungeon.

    That said, he was very willing to do so if it meant he had a quick way to power-level, especially if it also meant that he could get Regina to build a superweapon.

    Will was reasonably sure that creating said superweapon was just begging for someone to interfere and subvert it, destroy it, or otherwise interfere with the process, but that was fine. He only needed one good fight out of anything the ESNA¡¯s leader could cook up.

    ¡°They¡¯re more difficult than standard gold-rank dungeons, though that much should be obvious,¡± Regina said.

    ¡°Right,¡± Will said, returning to the topic at hand. ¡°It was either that or some shit about resetting each time you leave them.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s both,¡± Regina said. ¡°They resemble certain manifestations of spatial phenomena that I grew familiar with while we were on our other world.¡±

    ¡°Yeah?¡± Will asked. ¡°System hasn¡¯t been very detailed about the places you were transported to.¡±

    ¡°You won¡¯t find many of us wishing to be any clearer about it,¡± she said. ¡°Suffice it to say that it was extremely lethal, largely devoid of friendly sapient beings, and full of nasty surprises.¡±

    ¡°Gotcha,¡± Will said. His own tutorial had been of that sort, though he¡¯d found a friendly partner in Caiyeri, but he hadn¡¯t spent anywhere near the three years that Regina and her group had inside one of them. He could imagine how mcuh that would have sucked. ¡°So. Challenge dungeons.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Regina said. ¡°Within the ESNA¡¯s boundaries, there are three. One in old Boston, one in DC, one in some bumfuck nowhere town that got glassed before we ever got there.¡±

    Will frowned. ¡°Didn¡¯t we level DC a few months back?¡±

    ¡°The necrotic wyrm,¡± Regina recalled. ¡°Yes, but the dungeon appeared long after that situation stabilized and the city was condemned.¡±

    ¡°Wait, what happened to that thing?¡± Will asked. ¡°The otherworlder riding it tried to kill me at the first human summit, but the wyrm got away. Thing was pretty powerful, wasn¡¯t it?¡±

    ¡°Wherever it is, it¡¯s not in our territory,¡± Regina said. ¡°I figured one of your gang here would have heard of it. Weren¡¯t you running around hunting everything above Gold 2 the past few months?¡±

    ¡°Leaderboarders with high kill counts, yes,¡± Will said. ¡°But that was mostly just me, and the wyrm isn¡¯t originally from Earth so it¡¯s not there.¡±

    Regina¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°I¡¯m an otherworlder with a high kill count.¡±

    ¡°Not an evil one, last I checked. I¡¯m trying to do good things, believe it or not, and plunging the entire east coast into chaos isn¡¯t on my to-do list.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s somewhere in central America,¡± Liam volunteered, reminding the two of them that there were, in fact, still several other people in this room. ¡°Contact in the area told me.¡±

    ¡°You have contacts in central America?¡± Will asked. ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°Your contacts are from space and an elven empire that doesn¡¯t exist anymore,¡± Liam said. ¡°I¡¯m not the weird one.¡±

    ¡°The abyss elven faction arguably continues to exist for as long as I do,¡± Caiyeri said.

    ¡°That is cope,¡± Will said. ¡°You¡¯re not doing any empiring from where you¡¯re at, are you? Do you even have the tech to keep cloning yourself?¡±

    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t be using it if I did,¡± the elf said. ¡°You¡¯re getting off track, though, and I¡¯m sure the nice lady with the anti-magic bombs under our feet would rather we hurry it up.¡±

    Regina did not show any surprise in her expression, but a hint of it got into her aura.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± Will dismissed. ¡°Regina wouldn¡¯t pop it on us, and she has to know that alone wouldn¡¯t work.¡±

    ¡°I would appreciate,¡± the Supreme Commander of the ESNA said slowly, ¡°if you did not speak about my personal protections in front of me as if I were not present.¡±

    ¡°You got it, boss,¡± Will said.

    ¡°Can I say that I like the satellite?¡± Nathan asked. ¡°It¡¯s pretty simple, but if whoever was engineering that didn¡¯t have a class like mine, it¡¯s impressive. Keeping it in the same spot in orbit above you to drop a laser¡¯s pretty neat, though I¡¯m not sure how much that would help if we decided to fight you right now.¡±

    If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    Regina did sigh this time. ¡°Evidently I need to increase the security of my defensive countermeasures. I appreciate the compliments, but the elf¡ª¡°

    ¡°Caiyeri,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°I don¡¯t think we¡¯ve had the pleasure of meeting, actually.¡±

    ¡°Caiyeri,¡± Regina continued. ¡°You are correct. We do have more important things to get to. Thanks to how my class works, I have not yet had the opportunity to enter the challenge dungeons without risking too much. As such, I am not the best person to convey this information to you is not me but one of my subordinates. Allow me to re-introduce you to him.¡±

    #

    Charlie. Gold 1 Vanguard.

    Leaderboard Rank: 31 (-7 in the last 24 hours).

    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s Charlie!¡± Will exclaimed.

    The first time he¡¯d met this otherworlder, Commander Charlie had been Silver 10¡ªsignificantly higher than Will at the time¡ªand had been Will¡¯s first point of contact with the ESNA after he¡¯d come crashing down onto gold-rank monsters in New York. Charlie had also tried to kill him, but he¡¯d apologized almost immediately after the dust from the pre-placed explosives had cleared. Instinct, he¡¯d said, and he¡¯d paid Will back for it.

    They¡¯d met again at the global human summit, but Will had barely paid attention to the man then. He¡¯d been busy.

    Now, the commander had ranked up. He still looked the same down to the brand of the cigar he smoked, but his aura had intensified significantly.

    Their meeting point was the empty airfield where they¡¯d parked Jessie before entering Regina¡¯s headquarters. It was unlikely that they were going to leave immediately since they¡¯d just finished off a pretty major fight, but Will had wanted to include everyone in this¡ªand besides, it made everyone a little less antsy when they knew they weren¡¯t standing on traps.

    Not that the traps the ESNA was using would have done anything to them when Will, Caiyeri, Yui, and Nathan were all there, but it was a bit more comforting knowing that not even the option was there.

    Will was a bit surprised to see that Charlie had fallen ranks on the leaderboard in the last twenty-four hours. The only significant change that had happened at the higher ranks had been Will¡¯s killing of Fan Laozi, which should have shifted him up.

    The older American did not look happy, though he brightened when he saw Will before immediately getting a bit confused as he saw the rest of his party.

    ¡°What the fuck is that thing?¡± he asked.

    ¡°What thing?¡± Will asked, looking behind him. He scanned over humans, an elf, a biologically and magically engineered devouring gestalt whose current existence had been built out of the corpses of hundreds, the otherworlders, Nynn. Everything seemed right.

    ¡°That monster,¡± Charlie said, pointing.

    ¡°Jessie?¡± Will asked.

    ¡°Wait, that¡¯s Jessie?¡± Charlie asked, eyebrows shooting into the stratosphere. ¡°Well, fuck me. I read about your companions, but I wasn¡¯t expecting that.¡±

    ¡°Oh, there are after action reports on it?¡± Will asked. ¡°It¡¯s a sweetheart, honestly. It mostly avoids eating humans these days. Also, it¡¯s getting pretty good at comprehending speech. Talking still isn¡¯t its strong suit, but it¡¯s learning.¡±

    Jessie nodded its massive head, agreeing.

    ¡°You¡¯ve got me on the back foot here,¡± Charlie admitted. ¡°I thought I had the stranger thing to report.¡±

    ¡°You probably do,¡± Will said. ¡°It¡¯s a bit odd at first, but you get used to Jessie. Wanna get on with what you were saying?¡±

    ¡°Right¡­¡± Charlie said, looking over the rest of Will¡¯s group. ¡°I don¡¯t recognize most of these guys. Except the Aussies. It¡¯s been a bit, Hua. Liam.¡±

    ¡°Nice to see you too,¡± Liam said. ¡°Everything holding up alright on your end?¡±

    Charlie sighed. ¡°Been better, been worse. I just burned another challenge dungeon attempt.¡±

    ¡°Burned an attempt?¡± Will asked.

    ¡°Right, you don¡¯t know about them yet,¡± Charlie said. ¡°So. I¡¯ve been on the Boston challenge dungeon for the most part, but it seems like the rules are pretty consistent across all three of them. I¡¯ll try to make this explanation quick.¡±

    It wasn¡¯t the fastest, given Charlie¡¯s propensity to dramatically huff on a cigar after every important line and Will¡¯s party¡¯s habit of asking questions of dubious necessity every now and again, but they got the gist of it pretty quickly.

    The challenge dungeons were at the minimum as hard as the toughest gold-rank dungeons they¡¯d seen so far. Unlike those dungeons, there was a limit to the number of people you could send in at one time, though that was less of a hard limit and more about the fact that these dungeons changed.

    A regular dungeon typically started spawning monsters again after a period of time. If improperly cleared or left to fester, it would repopulate itself and stop there. Not so with this dungeon type. The challenge dungeons seemingly fully reset instantly¡ªor, rather, they opened up another instance of themselves the moment someone entered. A party could enter as one group, but if there was a delay between two people entering, they would end up in separate instances of the same dungeon.

    Said dungeon was dramatically harder than a standard gold-rank one and scaled up quickly, rapidly throwing platinum-rank monsters and bosses at the participants¡ªunheard of anywhere but in the superdungeon.

    Including more people in a single go didn¡¯t make it any easier¡ªin fact, it did the opposite.

    Regina had done a fair amount of experimenting already and determined that two was the maximum party size that could reasonably enter. When a pair entered, the dungeon simply doubled itself, though whether that was in power or quantity varied from instance to instance.

    Anything more than that started turning it weird. According to Charlie, Regina had burned ¡°several dozen attempts¡± getting information and gained that as the primary conclusion.

    In those larger parties, paths started turning on themselves. Space distorted, making normal rooms miles long and stranding people who¡¯d been walking side by side. Traps went from difficult to outright unfair, with such highlights as the air abruptly being replaced by concrete or a trapdoor leading to a room that spawned monsters at a rate faster than the eye could see.

    It was around this point where Will asked one of the few actually substantive questions he¡¯d come up with so far.

    ¡°You keep talking about burning attempts and losing people,¡± Will said. ¡°But you¡¯re not talking about these people like they¡¯re dead. Dead people wouldn¡¯t have been able to relay that information.¡±

    Though Regina did have a way to monitor her subordinates through their senses, if Will¡¯s memory served him right, so maybe it was that. He didn¡¯t mention that, of course.

    ¡°They¡¯re not,¡± Charlie said. ¡°That¡¯s part of the reason we¡¯re still going after them. When you die in the dungeon, you don¡¯t actually die. You get transported out, refreshed, and cleansed¡ªbut you lose a level.¡±

    That got everyone¡¯s interest.

    ¡°Is that why you dipped so far on the leaderboard today?¡± Will asked.

    ¡°Yep,¡± Charlie grimaced. ¡°Bit off more than I could chew. Thought I had the prep to take on a platinum militia boss solo, but I didn¡¯t. Blew myself up, if you can believe it.¡±

    Will thought back on his history of interactions with the man. ¡°Yeah, I think I can.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not very polite of you.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not a very polite person.¡± Will¡¯s mind was whirring with this information, so he excused himself for having poor comebacks. ¡°Nynn, you know anything about this?¡±

    ¡°Dungeon anomalies are already fairly uncommon this early in the cycle,¡± Nynn said. ¡°Since the cycle is already so abnormal, it may well be an offshoot.¡±

    ¡°You say that like anybody¡¯s got an idea of what it means,¡± Nathan said.

    ¡°Like a secondary effect born from the superdungeon,¡± Caiyeri surmised. ¡°An aftershock of sorts? It¡¯d have to happen thanks to further deviation inside the first one, right?¡±

    At the bewildered looks from everyone else except Nynn, she said, ¡°Just because my nation was idiotic in certain matters didn¡¯t mean we were uneducated.¡±

    ¡°You are largely correct,¡± Nynn said. ¡°The mechanics of an offshoot are less important than what it means. If these are, indeed, anomalous offshoots, it is simply further proof that this cycle is broken.¡±

    ¡°We all knew that,¡± Will said dismissively. ¡°Is there anything else we need to know about them?¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Charlie said. ¡°Couple more things.¡±

    Those couple more things were a lot more important than the Vanguard made them seem.

    One: the rewards present were much better than they were anywhere else with the possible exception of the superdungeon. Unlike the superdungeon, they tended to be customized towards the person or pair who entered the challenge dungeon.

    Two: each User¡¯s performance was measured by the dungeon. They were judged for time per room, time per kill, number of kills, and a dozen other metrics, all of which had active leaderboards. Breaking certain thresholds and breaking records granted further rewards.

    ¡°I do recognize this now,¡± Nynn said after that part, frowning. ¡°This¡­ is not something I have witnessed in a cycle. Certain Dread Executors participate in gem-tier dungeons with similar constraints outside the cycle. How did it¡­ I suppose the answer to that is immaterial to me for a long time.¡±

    ¡°Then it¡¯ll be perfect for power-leveling,¡± Will said. ¡°You can ditch the dungeon if you need to, right?¡±

    ¡°You can,¡± Charlie said. ¡°That¡¯s what we¡¯ve been doing. The first few rooms of the challenge dungeons are fairly optimized because we keep on leaving them and grinding our way through.¡±

    ¡°Excellent,¡± Will said. ¡°Alright. Anyone up for a bit of dungeon running?¡±

 Chapter 145: Pre-Dungeon Prep

    They didn¡¯t go immediately, of course. Everyone was at least a bit beat up from the events of the day, and none of them were so eager to run a potentially depowering dungeon without taking a proper break first.

    Regina was willing to post them up for a while, which Will appreciated. While he¡¯d been thinking about establishing a more permanent place for him and his people, he also didn¡¯t have the time nor the skills to create that place himself. He remembered the community that Lev, Ally, and other members of his college had created for themselves in the monster-infested forests near what had once been his university. Just like so much else, it had been overrun by complications resulting from the beginning of the cycle and was no longer active.

    Building something that lasted was so much harder than breaking it down, and Will wasn¡¯t especially well versed in the former. He wanted to get better at it some day, but the role of a Dread Executor wasn¡¯t exactly to form long-lasting homes. It was to eliminate threats to them.

    For the time being, he was content to spend time in a creation someone else was maintaining.

    ¡°Newer¡± York was a city with a name bad enough Will had to wonder if he¡¯d wandered into an alternate timeline where they¡¯d handed over the ability to name important things to himself. Name aside, though, it was a fairly well designed city¡ªas far as Will could tell. He had been a computer engineer, not a city planner.

    He¡¯d only been to New York once or twice before the apocalypse had come and the one time he¡¯d come afterwards had involved killing a whole bunch of gold-rank monsters that had wrecked the city. Will wasn¡¯t sure how faithful the recreation of the city was to its old self, but he could tell that Regina had done some great work in rebuilding it since the last time he¡¯d seen it.

    When he¡¯d come hurtling out of the sky like an evil meteorite¡ªokay, bad analogy, but close enough¡ªWill had come into a bombed-out husk of a city, skyscrapers collapsing on themselves and each other as monsters had overrun the place. Now, though, Regina had cleared the dungeons out and reconstructed a good portion of it. Though they didn¡¯t stretch nearly as high as Will was sure they once had, she¡¯d done a great job of working with what she had.

    He didn¡¯t exactly have access to the same resources she did, but he could tell that a good deal of the construction had been done magically. There was an aura emitting off some of the materials that Will was fairly sure spoke of artificial synthesis and assembly.

    Not that he was complaining. Although Newer York wasn¡¯t quite as big as the city whose bones it had been built on, it looked for all intents and purposes like a high-tech modern metropolis, albeit with a fair few details that were a bit out of place. The subway system had been removed due to how thoroughly infested it had become by dungeons, and most people were now traveling either via short-range portals or launch devices that literally threw them from one building to another, a second magical item catching them there. It wasn¡¯t quite as efficient as a train system, but it was also much less susceptible to monster attack.

    Living arrangements had also been changed. Every building had living quarters within them, spacing out the population so that there would always be someone ready to respond in case of sudden monster manifestation while also minimizing the casualties if something big broke through.

    Since they were one party and had a direct connection to the Supreme Commander, Will¡¯s group got assigned a pretty solid building¡ªthirty stories tall and built out of the remnants of what Nathan was reasonably sure had been the Chrysler building.

    Will neither knew nor particularly cared about what the building had been pre-apocalypse, but it was now a bustling multipurpose shopping center with some areas cut out for training. Most places were like that, with a few buildings centralizing around certain specialties. Will had specifically requested one more suited towards active Users like them, and it showed. All the shops here¡ªeven the ones meant specifically for non-combat purposes like restaurants and clothing stores¡ªwere imbued with silver-rank magic or above, offering items that were significantly more expensive than they would be elsewhere in the city.

    While Yui, Wisteria, and the Australians decided to hit the training facilities immediately and a couple of the others went to get some proper rest, Caiyeri didn¡¯t seem like she wanted to do either.

    ¡°I¡¯ve never gotten to explore a proper human city,¡± she told Will. ¡°I¡¯m going to walk around this one for a while.¡±

    ¡°This isn¡¯t exactly what I¡¯d call a proper human city,¡± Will said. ¡°Actually, it might be. I think there¡¯s a few normal cities out there that made it out mostly intact, but I imagine most of them are broken mash-ups like this one.¡±

    ¡°It has enough of the trappings your friends led me to believe it would,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°Do you think there¡¯s a casino in here?¡±

    Will sighed. ¡°Of course you would go to that first.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going to go look,¡± she announced. ¡°Care to join?¡±

    ¡°That might be the first time you¡¯ve invited me to do something that didn¡¯t involve violence,¡± Will said, putting a hand to his heart. ¡°I¡¯m touched.¡±

    ¡°Fuck you too. Are you coming?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I am,¡± Will said. ¡°Hopefully this one stays more intact than the last one I explored.¡±

    Though they¡¯d stopped in cities from time to time, that had always been a brief visit. Usually, his purpose in being there was specifically to meet up with the people he knew or had been assisting, and he typically didn¡¯t stay for long.

    The last time he¡¯d actually stayed somewhere¡­ that probably would¡¯ve been Geneva, and he¡¯d accidentally glassed a fair portion of that city on his way out thanks to the measures he¡¯d taken against Peace¡¯s sigil-holders.

    This was different, though. Will wanted to trust in that. He had Sen monitoring the entire place, occasionally sending out bursts to check for hidden Peace sigil-holders, and none of his allies who normally would have noticed an issue bothered him. Even Ayla had been quiet about what to expect when he¡¯d transported everyone through the Beyond, which was usually a good indicator that he was actually safe for a while.

    Despite all of that¡­

    ¡°You¡¯re doing that thing again,¡± Caiyeri said.

    ¡°What thing?¡± Will asked.

    ¡°Existing outside of yourself,¡± she said, waving her fingers around. ¡°Thinking about the step after the step after the step after taking a break even when you¡¯ve just come off a fight. You do it a lot.¡±

    ¡°Do I now,¡± Will said. ¡°It¡¯s been pretty reasonable so far.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s a thousand early-warning systems that will trigger throughout the entire party, yourself included, before something actually hits you.¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t when we got nuked from orbit.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what her defenses are for,¡± Caiyeri said, pointing a finger in the general direction they¡¯d come from. ¡°You can¡¯t operate like this all the time. There¡¯s more to life than being a weapon.¡±

    ¡°Funny for you to say,¡± Will said.

    ¡°I think it makes more sense coming from me,¡± she said. ¡°I was made to be one, and I¡¯m the only one left. Part of that is because I took the time to be my own elf instead of just another blade.¡±

    ¡°By gambling.¡±

    To Will¡¯s surprise, she nodded emphatically. ¡°Yes, among other things. Now are you coming or not?¡±

    ¡°I suppose so,¡± Will said. ¡°Is there anywhere in particular you want to see? I have the place mostly mapped out.¡±

    ¡°Do a lap,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°The point of seeing the city is to see it, not to scope it out.¡±

    She approached this venture with a strange childlike curiosity that Will had only seen out of her a few times. It was a stark reminder that despite how well-adjusted and snarky Caiyeri was, she¡¯d spent the majority of her life in a series of dark tunnels learning how to be the most effective killing machine possible.

    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    Trying to keep as much of his attention off his various perception skills, Will joined Caiyeri in exploring the city.

    While there were a good deal of silver-rankers and even one or two golds within the building they were in, the distribution was significantly different throughout the rest of the city. While it was still largely silver-rankers, the majority of them were core users. The effect of the cores on them was less than Will would have thought, which led him to believe that the ESNA had some way to mitigate the rot that they put into a powerbase¡ªeither that, or they were using cleaner monster cores somehow.

    There were also a significant chunk of bronze-rankers. Most of them were slowly progressing, very few using monster cores, but they were behind the wave. There were no unformeds anywhere, which was interesting but expected. Anyone who was still at that rank was either dead or had been pressured into using monster cores to rank up. They were liabilities if they couldn¡¯t defend themselves at all.

    Stores were mostly owned by silvers and non-core-using bronzes, though the latter tended to sell less magical equipment and more practical stuff. Most of the people with item crafting classes had long since ranked up to silver thanks to the sheer amount of use they¡¯d gotten out of their skills.

    The crafting economy here had been capable of replicating old Earth technology, which made for a bit of a disconcerting experience for Will. He¡¯d gotten used to the system being the most advanced piece of technology he typically witnessed, but while he was inside, he would have been hard-pressed to tell the difference between some of these places and a normal shopping mall on pre-apocalypse Earth.

    Well, Caiyeri made a good bit of the difference, and he made up the rest. While some people had chosen to shift races, it had been a very small minority of mankind, so Caiyeri naturally drew attention as an elf¡ªa visibly high-ranking one at that, even if she was suppressing her aura.

    Will, on the other hand, drew attention for all the wrong reasons. Even with his aura suppressed, the effects of his various titles slipped through, disquieting the people around him.

    There was one shopping area in particular that caught Caiyeri¡¯s attention. This building was less populated, mostly only by high-level silvers who were carrying specialized equipment and walked around like they owned the place.

    ¡°This place looks like it has some fun stuff to do,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°No gambling, though.¡±

    ¡°Probably didn¡¯t set up anywhere to do that,¡± Will replied. ¡°None of the games you can usually play are very fun when everyone has a unique way to cheat.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s just unimaginative,¡± the elf complained. ¡°I will say that it¡¯d be nice to get some food and equipment for our dungeon run.¡±

    Will didn¡¯t disagree. Strictly speaking, he could sustain himself off of system rations¡ªand after reaching gold rank, he wasn¡¯t sure he even needed those anymore. That just wasn¡¯t the same as a good meal, though, and magically prepared food had some benefits besides.

    They approached a small food court¡ªif you could call it that. Each of the establishments had the facade of a Michelin-starred restaurant, though they weren¡¯t quite as expansive as Will would have expected one of those to be. Tantalizing scents floated this way and that, almost surely enhanced by a skill of some kind.

    This place was absolutely filled to the brim with magic if the lines Will¡¯s demonic eye was showing him were any indication, which was possibly promising in terms of the quality of food offered there.

    Caiyeri seemed particularly drawn to a place that advertised exotic meat skewers. Not having any particular preference himself, Will decided to go there with her before he could get paralyzed by the number of decisions here.

    A system screen popped out as he got closer, though it appeared in such a way that Will was reasonably sure it was either a skill or custom item doing so instead of an actual system prompt.

    Matt¡¯s Monstrous Meats. 1,000+ positive reviews!

    Choice cuts of deluxe meat from exotic monsters sliced into cubes and roasted over hellfire with onions, peppers, and mushrooms. What¡¯s not to love? This meat isn¡¯t just the tastiest you¡¯ve ever had, though¡ªwe only use the finest fresh kills, and that magic doesn¡¯t just run off. Bronze, silver, and GOLD rank temporary buffs available!

    In addition to that sign was a menu with a dizzying array of options.

    ¡°You two,¡± a man that Will assumed was the titual Matt said, appearing at the counter. ¡°What can I get for you fine silvers?¡±

    Will and Caiyeri looked at each other, doing their best not to burst out laughing. They¡¯d both suppressed their auras so as to not overwhelm anyone they were passing by.

    Will: I swear I used to better at doing this.

    Caiyeri: Suppression gets harder at higher ranks. Shouldn¡¯t that be obvious?

    Will: No?

    Caiyeri: Humans.

    ¡°I¡¯ll have the¡­ flaming landshark skewer,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°The gold-rank one, please.¡±

    Matt, a middle-aged man who looked exactly like what Will would expect out of a redneck who¡¯d gotten into exotic meats, scratched the back of his neck. ¡°You did check the price, right?¡±

    ¡°Two hundred gold, right?¡± Caiyeri asked. ¡°It¡¯s got to be pretty good if it can provide a temporary skill.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll take the gargantuan raven one,¡± Will said. ¡°Same rank.¡±

    ¡°Uh, I do have those orders, but¡­¡± Matt said. ¡°Sorry to ask, but I will have to ask you to pay¡ª¡°

    Will flipped him a pair of platinum credits from his inventory. ¡°Yeah, yeah, got it. That enough?¡±

    Matt¡¯s eyes bugged out. ¡°That¡¯s¡­ five times what I needed¡­¡±

    ¡°Eh, whatever,¡± Will said. ¡°Consider it a measure of trust.¡±

    After all, the man¡¯s aura had been wavering this entire time thanks to the passive effects of Will¡¯s own. He¡¯d still sold them his wares in good faith even as some of the other places around them had tried to subtly alter the auras in front of their stores, looking to drive them away.

    ¡°If you say so, sir,¡± Matt said dubiously, tacking on the honorific at the end almost as an afterthought. ¡°I¡¯ll get on it right away.¡±

    While Matt dipped away to make their food, Will messaged Caiyeri as he spoke.

    ¡°So,¡± he said aloud, ¡°Do you think you¡¯re going to want to do the challenge dungeons alone or together?¡±

    Will: You sense them, right?

    ¡°Alone first, for sure,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°I know what¡¯ll happen if we do our first run together. I¡¯ll have to see you claim credit for everything all the time.¡±

    Caiyeri: Of course I do. I didn¡¯t figure it was worth mentioning. Not everyone is an actual threat, Will.

    ¡°That¡¯s not fair,¡± Will said, replying to two sentences at once. ¡°I would never. Still, I do think it¡¯d be a good idea to run it alone first. Just to see how it goes, of course.¡±

    Will: I mean, they could be suppressing their power.

    Caiyeri: I figure you¡¯ll see in a moment. Here they are.

    A trio of high-leveled silver men sauntered into the plaza with the exact same swagger Will had seen in far too many arrogant dickheads¡ªwith the crucial difference that these people did not, in fact, have that much power.

    ¡°Oi,¡± one of them called out towards Will and Caiyeri. ¡°You there. Deathy guy, yeah?¡±

    Will regarded him with disinterest. Silver 8. Poison Archer. Not a bad class, but inflexible. ¡°I assume you¡¯re talking to me?¡±

    ¡°Oh, so he does speak,¡± another one of the silvers said. Silver 9. Rogue Healer. His aura wavered in a way that Will knew indicated some level of inebriation. ¡°Hey, my guy. How much for the elf? Don¡¯t see chicks like that around here much.¡±

    ¡°Please,¡± Caiyeri snorted. ¡°I¡¯d pay you to take him off my hands, but no amount of money would convince me to spend more than a couple minutes with you.¡±

    ¡°The fuck¡¯d you say?¡± the first silver shouted. ¡°Do you know who I am?¡±

    Caiyeri looked at Will, who shrugged.

    ¡°Wait,¡± Will said. ¡°Lemme check what we¡¯re allowed to do.¡±

    Will: Hey, Regina. Got a couple of dicks here. Uhhh¡­ lemme send over their names real quick. How mad would you be if I killed them?

    Regina: Don¡¯t kill my people. No harm that¡¯ll last more than a day, or we¡¯re going to have problems.

    Will: Roger that.

    ¡°Aw, that¡¯s no fun,¡± Caiyeri said. ¡°I¡¯d punch them out or something, but I think our food is almost ready and I don¡¯t want to get my hands bloody. Can you deal with them?¡±

    ¡°Hey, bitch,¡± the healer snarled, aura pulsing outwards. ¡°You don¡¯t just deal with us. We¡¯re the motherfucking¡ª¡°

    Will stopped suppressing his aura.

    A second later, he started pushing it out through Sen, redoubling the effect of his aura just on these three specifically.

    All three of them froze, though whether that was because of fear or the Stunned condition was anyone¡¯s call.

    The first one dropped to his knees, blabbering something incomprehensible. The second seemed to have pissed himself.

    The third one, the one who had yet to say anything, was the only one who managed to stay standing.

    ¡°That¡¯s¡ªyou¡¯re¡ªshit.¡±

    ¡°Wait, you know who I am?¡± Will asked curiously, stepping forward.

    The standing silver nodded frantically, scrambling back as Will approached. ¡°Dark angel. Reaper. The fucking end of days, man. I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m so¡ª¡°

    Will snapped his fingers¡ªnot strictly necessary, but it looked cool. He didn¡¯t use any offensive magic, instead just swarming them with his hunger phantasm and intensifying his aura yet again.

    When they stopped screaming, he presumed that he had successfully knocked them unconscious and shut it off.

    ¡°Got them!¡± Caiyeri said cheerfully, holding up two massive skewers, each of them almost as long as her arm and twice as broad. Behind her, a somewhat terrified-looking Matt looked on in silent horror.

    ¡°Awesome,¡± Will said, looking disdainfully at the random silvers who¡¯d been a bit too full of themselves. New Yorkers, I swear.

    The meal was delicious.

    #

    Relaxing was nice, but there was only so long Will could feel comfortable chilling out before he needed to get something done. They spent a total of two days recharging and restocking. Caiyeri ended up buying about a dozen more of those skewers¡ªboth just to eat and so she could use them in a fight if necessary¡ªas well as half a hundred hand grenades with various effects, a strangely large amount of nonmagical flour, and a few magical odds and ends to make her potion economy more manageable.

    Every last person in Will¡¯s party had decided to take the challenge dungeon on, so Regina had flown them all out to Boston.

    Now, they stood in front of an ominous gate carved into the side of a now-derelict skyscraper.

    ¡°You first,¡± Caiyeri said to Will. ¡°If this is an elaborate trap, you¡¯re definitely the only person here stupid enough to bullshit your way out of it.¡±

    ¡°I both appreciate your confidence in me and dislike how sure you seem that this could be a trap,¡± Will said. ¡°Regina could¡¯ve stabbed us in our sleep if she wanted to.¡±

    Regina: I can hear you, you know.

    Caiyeri: He knows.

    ¡°Welp,¡± Will said, opening the gate to reveal a dark portal behind it. ¡°Here we go.¡±

    Welcome, [William Li-Brown]. You are challenger number [4859] of this Challenge Dungeon and challenger number [93501] of Challenge Dungeons worldwide.

    Entering Challenge Dungeon - Boston.

 Chapter 146: Challenge Dungeon

    It had been a while since Will had entered a dungeon that felt like this. Though he¡¯d cleared a few here and there, he had mostly done those in externalized dungeons. He hadn¡¯t done many portal-types in a while, which meant that it was a bit of adjustment just to enter that portal and walk into a new dungeon.

    That was less noticeable than the visceral change in the surrounding mana, though. Will had gotten pretty deeply accustomed to the art of constantly probing the area around him, using his greatly enhanced aura control and senses to get an idea for the atmosphere and the attitudes of the people he was facing.

    Most of the world carried a pretty similar mana signature. It was almost always colored by who the dominant force in a given area was, but the base beneath that was similar. Even the dungeons Will had been in¡ªthe ones he remembered, at least¡ªhad been like that. Cinder¡¯s domain might have been a hell on earth, but there was still that distinctive Earth-Arcadia background mana under it. The superdungeon, of course, had its own flavor¡ªthough again, the base was familiar.

    This dungeon was different. The magic in the air was sterile. Even crossing crazy thresholds like the ones in the superdungeon had brought a gradual change as the ambient mana shifted to match the dominant force in the area. This¡­ Will could remember two times he¡¯d felt something like this.

    Once at the trial of the champion, long after they¡¯d realized that there was an outside force beyond the sponsors interfering. The other time¡­ Will couldn¡¯t be sure because his aura senses hadn¡¯t been nearly as good back then, but he thought he might remember this sensation from the void that the tutorial had transported him into.

    The area around him was reminiscent of that time, too. Will found himself in an empty white room, a single door on the other side.

    Ayla: Wow, it has been a while.

    The message popping into Will¡¯s otherwise calm system screen actually startled him, as was the actual voice accompanying it. It had been a long time since he¡¯d heard that voice and seen those messages outside the Beyond.

    ¡°Jesus,¡± he said aloud. ¡°Can you hear me?¡±

    Ayla: Yes. It¡¯s almost exactly like it was in the tutorial.

    ¡°How the hell are you here?¡± Will asked.

    Ayla: I¡¯m not. I¡¯m in a dead zone so far away from Earth that if you left right now, you still wouldn¡¯t be halfway before Inanis-5 hit your planet.

    ¡°I¡¯m aware,¡± Will said flatly. ¡°That¡¯s why I haven¡¯t gone for it just yet. How are you in my chat right now?¡±

    Ayla: You entered a challenge dungeon, didn¡¯t you?

    ¡°Yeah. I figured you had me under 24/7 surveillance. You didn¡¯t see that?¡±

    Ayla: I see significant things. My best observations come in things that have an impaact so outsized that they make in impact in the land of dreams. Having a microscopic understanding of everything in your life is more effort than it¡¯s worth even if I was at the peak of my power.

    ¡°Land of dreams? You can just say the Beyond, you know? I get to go there too.¡±

    Ayla: Let me use a fun turn of phrase every now and again. Yes. The Beyond.

    ¡°You still haven¡¯t explained how you¡¯re watching me right now.¡±

    Ayla: I have hooks set in every User I¡¯m assigned to be a tutorial helper for. The system sets a trigger at a number of possible cycle-internal events, challenge dungeons included. If no hook is set, it picks a random helper that might be available at a nearby labor facility. Helpers sometimes choose to set a hook and sometimes not, depending both on the helper and the User they are assigned to.

    ¡°Pleasure to know that you¡¯re still sticking with me,¡± Will deadpanned. ¡°Aren¡¯t you out of the system now? You¡¯re in a dead zone and shit too, aren¡¯t you?¡±

    Ayla: I hijacked the system a little more than usual. They didn¡¯t restrict me quite as much as they thought they did, and I had some help from a Dread Executor in the end. I don¡¯t have all the permissions of a standard system helper, but I¡¯ll at least be able to guide you along some.

    ¡°What if I told you that I¡¯d rather have had some bum carry me through this?¡±

    Ayla: I would tell you that you¡¯re a terrible liar.

    ¡°Oh, please. I¡¯m a great liar.¡±

    Ayla: You terrify people enough that whether you¡¯re lying or not is immaterial. Do you want me to start the dungeon or not?

    ¡°Yeah, yeah,¡± Will said, smiling ruefully. ¡°Let¡¯s get this done.¡±

    #

    Regina was not a woman who had the time to be watching a single man clear a challenge dungeon, but that changed once she factored her skills in. When she could lend eyes, ears, and hands from her subordinates, she was able to do a lot more with the time she had.

    Besides, it wasn¡¯t only her who had an interest in what the corruption wielder and his group had to show for themselves. Commander Charlie was one of a small number of elites from the ESNA who had witnessed William Li-Brown¡¯s raw power firsthand, and even he was curious to see what Will could do when he wasn¡¯t holding himself back. That went double for those who¡¯d only heard about the devastation this one man had been able to unleash through secondhand accounts and official reports.

    One of the reconnaisance rooms near Boston had been temporarily converted into something that looked more suited for a convention than a military facility.

    The third or fourth thing Regina¡¯s regime had discovered about the challenge dungeons after they opened was how easy it was to gain a live feed into them. Early drops in the challenge dungeons included a certain raw magical ore that, once refined, created a gem that could be used to watch current participants in that challenge dungeon. Since the early stages were pretty easy, it had been trivial to manufacture mass quantities of that.

    News of the corruption wielder¡¯s arrival had spread like wildfire, bringing with it the rumors that accompanied any legitimate news. Regina had been sure to squash the more harmful ones¡ªno, William Li-Brown had not eaten anybody¡¯s baby nor murdered three silvers in cold blood, though the latter had been a pretty close call. The ones where he could bring the temperature of a room down just by being in it or where he was secretly the last survivor of another world? That was fine.

    It came as no shock, then, just how many people were tuning into the challenge dungeon. Since Regina had spread the gems pretty widely, a lot of people were able to watch on their own. Those who couldn¡¯t afford them still had the options of watching a publicly televised feed. Just off word of mouth alone, Regina estimated that there were in excess of ten thousand people watching this single contestant.

    ¡°He¡¯s just sitting there and chatting to the air,¡± Charlie remarked, watching Will¡¯s feed on the large screen someone had thrown up in the recon room. ¡°Everyone else has started already.¡±

    Of course, Will wasn¡¯t the only person that people could watch. There were nine beings in Boston¡¯s challenge dungeon¡ªHua Fang, Liam Wilson, otherworlder Yui, otherworlder Nathan, Lily Teneli, a gestalt being recognized by the system as ¡°Jessie,¡± Wisteria Blake, elf Caiyeri Seven, and William Li-Brown himself. Regina hadn¡¯t assumed that Teneli had been part of their group, but Will had nonchalantly let the silver-ranker join him despite her relative lack of power.

    The corruption wielder drew the largest crowd, of course, but the other feeds were getting some traction amongst the military personnel watching. Regina could sense betting pools forming already, which she didn¡¯t mind. Encouraging a casual atmosphere amongst her people was generally a good idea for a number of reasons.

    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    ¡°Pleasant,¡± a smooth voice came from beside her. ¡°I do think some of your people are overvaluing how good the devouring gestalt is at clearing a dungeon, however. An incredible killing machine is not necessarily a perfect being to clear out traps meant for more complex beings.¡±

    Regina started, looking to her right. She hadn¡¯t seen or heard anyone come close to her, and her passive perception skills were always on. The man was something like seven feet tall and obsidian black¡ªnot exactly easy to miss.

    Her danger sense hadn¡¯t even triggered, not even in the slightest, which was an alarm bell in itself.

    Primal instinct took over. She reached out¡ª

    ¡°Not necessary,¡± the stranger said. ¡°My name is Nynn. You should have a dossier on me.¡±

    Regina paused, analyzing the man for the first time. Her analysis skills were more detailed than the supermajority of Users¡¯, but it would take an idiot not to recognize the first few words out of it.

    Dread Executor.

    ¡°I see,¡± Regina said, mentally refactoring the situation. She¡¯d seen one of his kind before, though not from up close. ¡°My apologies, though I hope you don¡¯t expect me to offer a drink.¡±

    ¡°Apologies are unnecessary,¡° Nynn said. ¡°I am trespassing, after all. Besides, I am no Dread Executor. Not anymore.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not showing up as much of anything to me,¡± Regina said, smoothing over how off-balance she¡¯d been.

    ¡°I still know a few tricks. Do carry on. I was looking forward to watching this group.¡±

    ¡°You came in with them,¡± Regina said, not bothering to question how yet another person had been able to sneak through defenses that had proven ironclad against specialized infiltrator classes in the other world. ¡°Not doing it yourself?¡±

    ¡°Oh, I¡¯ve done my fair share,¡± Nynn said. ¡°Ages and ages ago. I¡¯m just here to watch.¡±

    On the feed, William Li-Brown was finally done talking. Regina heard the faint sound of cheers throughout the city as he finally entered the dungeon.

    She sighed. ¡°Have a seat, then. I have some preparations to do.¡±

    #

    Ayla: Since I¡¯m not actually sitting in front of a system console right now, I¡¯m going to have to play a lot of this by ear.

    ¡°Yeah, I figured. Maybe I should¡¯ve taken the bum.¡±

    Ayla: Stop whining. I¡¯m no novice when it comes to the system. The standard screens and leaderboards will show up for you. I haven¡¯t entirely hijacked this, I¡¯m just in the helper role.

    ¡°Yeah, yeah,¡± Will said, stepping across the gate into the first room. ¡°We¡¯ll see about that.¡±

    Welcome to the Challenge Dungeon.

    World Tier: [Metal]. Dungeon starting difficulty has been set to [Gold]. Maximum dungeon difficulty set to [Diamond].

    Location: [Boston].

    Worldwide Top Score: 76 rooms. Set at the [Antarctica] Challenge Dungeon by leaderboard rank 2, [Draken].

    This dungeon has been attempted [18,294] times by [4,859] people.

    Local Leaderboard:

    1. 31 rooms, set by leaderboard rank 10, [Regina].

    2. 29 rooms, set by leaderboard rank 97, [Alexander].

    3. 26 rooms, set by leaderboard rank 31, [Charlie].

    Current Room: [0].

    You have gained a [Escape Ticket].

    Item: [Escape Ticket]

    Common, gold

    Only functions within a Challenge Dungeon. Consuming this item activates magic that will evacuate you from the dungeon over the course of a minute. You will not be able to attack or use other magic while using the [Escape Ticket], so using it to run away from a fight is not advised.

    Punishment for Failure: [-1 level on death]

    Now entering Room [1]. Room selected: [Antigrav].

    [Antigrav] has been cleared [2,738] times. The current fastest clear time is [37.028 seconds] by [Amelia, alias ¡°Telescope¡±].

    The median clear time is [258.485 seconds].

    Will raised an eyebrow as the system messages continued to scroll as he traveled in the tunnel between the two rooms. He recognized that name. Hadn¡¯t she been one of the fighter pilots in New York when he landed?

    Funny how those little coincidences happened.

    The room started to materialize into existence as he got further along, the rules still displaying themselves.

    Reward for clearing room 1: 10 gold credits. Challenge Ore x1.

    Clearing with a time faster than the median also grants your choice of a basic gold-rank item. Clearing with a time faster than the current fastest clear time grants a gold-rank treasure.

    True to the title of the room, Will quickly felt his steps launch himself into the air, a somewhat familiar sense of weightlessness taking hold of him.

    This was a strange way to enter the next phase of the dungeon. Rather than passing through a door or portal to get into it, it seemed as if the Antigrav room was just coming into existence around him. Will¡¯s magic senses were getting very good, but he could only just barely comprehend the broader strokes of what was happening. The place was drawing on the Beyond as well as some spatial and creation magic beyond his comprehension to get this working.

    He wished he had more time to study it. There had to be something useful in there, but he just didn¡¯t have the senses to understand it, even with the demonic eye.

    Will floated as the room came into existence around him. It was wide¡ªmaybe the length of a football arena with the height to match. Free-floating debris clouded the entire place, reminding him eerily of the final fight at the trial of the champion.

    Room: [Antigrav]

    Objective: Eliminate all hostile entities. [0/10]

    Hostiles: 9 silver-rank monsters. 1 gold-rank solo boss.

    That was pretty simple. Will could already see the monsters coming into existence both through Sen and his demonic eye.

    He smirked, dark clouds exploding across the entire arena.

    ¡°Finally,¡± he said. ¡°Something straightforward.¡±

    #

    Charlie frowned at the display. He¡¯d cleared the Antigrav room himself a number of times, but he still hadn¡¯t managed to get his time under two minutes. The room itself wasn¡¯t terribly complex¡ªthe monsters never changed, just their positions. The solo boss wasn¡¯t even too hard, even for a silver-ranker.

    The main difficulty in this room came from finding and defeating everything. This boss was a master-type boss, with the nine silver-rank monsters acting both as sensory organs and minions. Said monsters were virus-like blobs that clung onto the debris floating around, each of them moving with deceptive speed. Until the minion viruses were all dead, the boss was both invisible and invincible, making it a pain in the ass since it was difficult to tell where they were coming from.

    That made this room a kind of search-and-destroy mission. Charlie¡¯s skills were more suited for a full-frontal assault, so he struggled a bit with it, but he was durable and strong enough that his current best strategy was just to devastate the entire room. The problem with that laid in how the viruses were able to redirect themselves to protect against sudden damage, rendering AoEs less effective.

    Telescope, one of the best Pilots in the ESNA air force, held the fastest time by nearly fifteen seconds, and that had been because she¡¯d taken an element that was intended specifically for low or zero-grav environments and affixed it to her Perception stat. Her unique combination of skills let her kill the viruses almost immediately, letting her wail on the boss right from the start.

    Her aside, the strategy for this room was fairly standard. Go as fast as possible, burn AoEs, and try to smoke out the viruses. Anti-gravity made standard speed skills not work for most

    There were two people who¡¯d rolled the Antigrav room this time, but neither of them were following anything near the standard strategy. One of them was almost done already, though she¡¯d entered a bit earlier.

    Caiyeri Seven had two gold-rank guns out, both of them of a make that Charlie didn¡¯t recognize. She handled them with frankly terrible form, but it hadn¡¯t taken long for him to realize that the improper form was intentional¡ªthe elf was piloting herself through the air, narrowly avoiding hard-to-sense attacks. Somehow, every shot she fired found a target, and the main boss was already visible.

    A point of light formed behind her, and a forcefield shimmered into existence, shattering just as blinding red force detonated into her.

    Moments later, that same light exploded outwards again, this time aimed at a seemingly random part of the room.

    [Caiyeri Seven] has cleared room 1, [Antigrav] in [Challenge Dungeon - Boston] in [47.181 seconds], setting a new #2 fastest time.

    Murmurs passed through the viewing room at that. With most of the immediate threats dealt with, a lot of the ESNA military had turned to the challenge dungeons to train, and there were entire subcommunities that were extremely focused on it. For an outsider to walk in and clear a room that had been run so many times at that speed¡­

    That surprise was rapidly overtaken by people realizing what was happening on another one of the feeds.

    William Li-Brown¡¯s feed had gone entirely dark, shrouded in an oily shadow. From certain perspectives, Charlie could see the formation of an iridescent shape that might¡¯ve been an eye.

    Even through the viewing crystal, he could sense the raw evil in that power.

    When the darkness cleared, there was nothing. The monsters were gone¡ªbut so was everything else in the room. The only thing remaining was William Li-Brown, floating in place with his arms crossed and his eyes closed.

    ¡°What the hell¡­¡±

    [William Li-Brown] has cleared room 1, [Antigrav] in [Challenge Dungeon - Boston] in [23.019 seconds], setting a new record.

    #

    ¡°I did not think that would blow up as hard as it did,¡± Will said.

    Ayla: I told you that more of this room would be interactable than you thought it was. Instance dungeons are often like that.

    ¡°Yeah, you said they¡¯d be more interactable, not that I¡¯d be able to kill the rocks!¡±

    Ayla: That was implied. Shouldn¡¯t you be moving on?

    ¡°Implied my ass.¡± Will grinned. ¡°This is fun, though.¡±

    He used an air-dash to propel himself to the next door, passing through it.

    You have set a new record time for [Antigrav]. You have been awarded a gold-rank treasure!

    Select your treasure below:

    Will¡¯s grin grew wider.

    ¡°It¡¯s been a while since I got good loot,¡± he said. ¡°Let¡¯s see what we¡¯ve got here.¡±