《Assimilate All Talents》 Chapter 1: Stubborn (Revised) At the break of dawn in the town of Initium, located at the fringes of the human kingdom of Crestelia, began the daily routine of a young man. Leaving a small house at the southern edge of town was a young man with short, dark brown hair. He was skinny, but it could be seen that it wasn¡¯t from malnourishment, as evidenced by his well developed muscles. He had no outstanding features besides a thin scar that started from his left cheek and ended at the bottom of his chin. The cause of the scar was an ident that happened many years ago, and while he had the chance to remove it, he chose not to for the memories it contained. He was wearing cheap everyday clothes and was equipped with a backpack and a worn down sword given as a gift by a shop owner out of pity. This young man was Sol. He was heading out to do the same thing he had been doing for the past four years. He started by heading to the Adventurers Guild. As he passed by a bakery owned by an elderly couple, the elderly woman saw him walk by and couldn¡¯t help but sigh under her breath. She turned towards her husband inside and said, "It¡¯s a pity such a hardworking young man was given such a fate." Her husband poked his head out from the kitchen as he was tending to the oven. He nced at Sol and shook his head. "Not much we can do about it. Life sometimes just screws certain people over. We can only hope he moves on and stops risking his life daily." The elderly woman knew Sol wouldn¡¯t give up anytime soon. "It¡¯s been four years since his leveling ceremony, and he hasn¡¯t stopped yet. I don¡¯t know what level he is now, but he has surely surpassed level 10. No one has ever unlocked their talent after that. Even the legendary talents are obtained at level 5." The elderly man shrugged. "Can¡¯t me him for trying. I don¡¯t know what I would do if I never got my talent," her husband replied as he continued to watch the young man go on his way. The elderly woman watched as well until she smelled a slightly burnt scent from the kitchen. "Dear?! The bread!" "Oh!" As his wife called out to him, the elderly man¡¯s focus returned to the oven. He noticed the bread he was baking had been cooking for too long and was slightly burnt on the bottom. "Looks like it¡¯s still good." Sol, who was oblivious to the conversation that took ce, headed towards the Adventurers Guild with a determined look. He kept opening and closing his status page, looking at the experience required for his next level up with a determined expression. Being too focused on his status screen, he suddenly bumped into someone and fell to the ground. "Ah! Sorry, I wasn¡¯t paying attention." Sol apologized as he looked up at who he bumped into and immediately regretted having chosen this path to the guild. The man in full body armor and a tower shield strapped to his back was still standing unfazed. His gaze shifted downward as he looked at Sol and, upon realizing who it was, smirked, "If it isn¡¯t Mr. Talentless. What are you up to today? Going to gather some herbs? Kill a goblin if you¡¯re lucky?" The man looking down at Sol was Jayce, who was the same age as him. He knew this because they both took their leveling ceremony together alongside other kids in the town. Town guards brought weak monsters that allowed the children to easily kill them and gain their talents. That day Jayce unlocked the rare talent of [Iron Wall], which specialized in defensive skills, making him one of the best shieldbearers in the town. That day, all the kids got their first talent, which marked the beginning of their journeys, all except for one. Sol was the only child unable to unlock his talent even when he was helped all the way to level 5, which annoyed many guards who had to keep heading into the forest to find easy creatures for him to y. This wasn¡¯t the first time this had happened; there had been extremely rare cases where children didn¡¯t unlock their talent at level 5. Children who couldn¡¯t discover their talents were simply regarded as the Talentless, their numbers even fewer than those with the rarest level 5 legendary talents. People treated Sol as a lost cause, unlucky to not have any talent. He became the ck sheep of the town as he was considered more useless than someone with amon talent like [Boot Shining]. But most simply treated him like an unlucky child; some even had pity for him and helped him out when they could. Most didn¡¯t go actively out of their way to belittle him, except for Jayce. Sol stood up andughed it off, "Haha, maybe Jayce, let¡¯s talk some other time. I have to get to work." Jayce scoffed, "Work? You call what you do work? How about I offer you a real job." From a bronze colored ring he wore on his right hand, multiple items ranging from backup weapons to tools were dropped on the ground. "Carry my stuff for a day and I¡¯ll pay you 20 copper. It¡¯s a good offer, no? Four times the amount you get from your so-called work." Clearly, Jayce didn¡¯t need Sol to carry that for him as he already had a costly spatial ring that carried it all for him. If he epted the offer, there was no doubt in his mind Jayce would actually pay him to carry that but it would be just to humiliate him in front of his party and anyone else they met on the way. ¡¯Gods, how do I get out of this?¡¯ Sol thought to himself as he looked around. Luckily, he didn¡¯t have to look for long as he saw a group of people heading towards them: a wizard, a huntress, and two swordsmen. "Hey Jayce, let¡¯s get going. We don¡¯t want to lose that monster to another party," said one of the swordsmen. Jayce looked back and said, "Yeah, yeah. Let¡¯s head out." He walked past Sol, intentionally bumping him into the ground again as he met up with his party. A few party members frowned as they saw Jayce¡¯s actions but turned a blind eye to it to prevent conflict just as they were about to head out. Sol waited for the party to walk away before standing up once more and heading towards his destination, the Adventurers Guild. As he entered the building, he saw it full of people either drinking or talking with other adventurers, while others were looking at the quest board for their next job. ¡¯Drinking in the morning¡­ That¡¯s adventurers for you.¡¯ Sol thought to himself as he saw a group already wasted before the day even began. Sol looked around a bit as he made his way over to a short, red haired receptionist who instantly recognized him. "Hey Sol! Same quest?" the receptionist asked him. "Yep, thanks Annabel. Also, you don¡¯t have to tell me the details. I already know them." Annabel grabbed a paper from under the desk she had prepared for him ahead of time and handed it to him, saying, "Nope, too bad, rules are rules. 5 copper per Laturn Herb you find. You need to find at least five, and they can be found outside the west gate and a bit north from the road." Sol nodded as he received the quest paper from her. He didn¡¯t even nce at what the paper said as he already knew all the details by heart. "Alright, thanks as always. I¡¯ll see youter." He turned around, ready to head out, until he heard her calling out to him. "Wait! Before you go, can we talk for a minute?" "Huh? What¡¯s wrong?" n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "Well¡­ I¡¯m worried about you. Doing this every day for the past four years. I¡¯ve always admired your dedication, but eventually, you won¡¯t be able to ovee the difference between skills and talents. Just one good attack skill can kill you in one hit even if you¡¯re both at the same level." Sol wasn¡¯t a fool; he knew the risk he faced increased with each level he gained as he needed to fight even stronger enemies to reliably level up. But even so, he just couldn¡¯t give up. "I know, but for some reason, I feel it somewhere inside of me that I do have a talent and that if I keep at it, eventually it will appear." Annabel sighed and said, "But Sol, you have been at this for years. Maybe it¡¯s time to consider other paths, you know? What level are you at right now anyways?" "19, almost 20." "What?!" Annabel eximed, causing a few adventurers and receptionists to look over in curiosity. She red at them to look away. Those who knew how she could get when she was angry, which was all of them, immediately looked away. Seeing everyone was minding their business, she turned to Sol again and asked in a hushed tone, "Sol, you are much closer to that limit than I thought. After level 25, even the mostmon monster will have multiple skills and start gaining special talents that weaker monsters don¡¯t have. You won¡¯t be able to defeat them at that point; please don¡¯t do anything rash." Sol looked at the sincere concern on Annabel¡¯s face for a minute in silence. Though he didn¡¯t want to give up, of all the people he knew, no one cared more about him than her. Her concerns made him realize that maybe his hunch was wrong. After all, he never had any concrete reason to continue leveling besides his belief that there was such a thing as a talent after level five. He took a deep breath and said, "You¡¯re right, I don¡¯t want to worry you any more. Okay, Anna, how about this: this next level up will be myst. If I don¡¯t unlock a talent, then I¡¯ll give up." Annabel stared at Sol for a minute. She would rather him stop now but eventually agreed with an added condition, "Okay, fine! But if you don¡¯t unlock anything, you will apply to work here as a receptionist." "As a receptionist?" She nodded, "You have practically spent most of your free time here when you are not on this quest anyway and know much more about how the guild operates and this area than the average adventurer. Trust me, you¡¯ll be perfect for the job!" He never really thought his time spent helping her in the guild and researching the area for easy monsters to y would make him great receptionist material. But now that he thought of it, it did make sense. "Alright. If I don¡¯t obtain a talent at my next level up, I will apply for the job." Sol got ready to leave, and before he went, he looked back at her once again. "Thank you for always believing in me, Anna." Hearing his sincere words, Annabel ran out from behind the counter and smacked him on the back of the head. "Why are you talking like you¡¯re gonna die?! Go ande back quickly!" "Ow¡­ Okay, I¡¯ll be back soon." Sol made his way through the streets and straight to the west town gates, this time uninterrupted, and handed the quest paper to the gate guards who gave it a quick nce and let him through. ¡¯Can¡¯t leave town without a quest or merchant order. Thankfully, this simple quest can be taken by anyone even if they haven¡¯t unlocked their talent,¡¯ Sol thought to himself as he walked out of the town. Most towns and cities implement these measures as it was very dangerous to leave town and venture into the wilderness. Monsters could appear at any moment, and if one wasn¡¯t strong enough, they could only ept their fate. This didn¡¯t mean that people were unable to leave if they wanted to; like with the adventurers guild, there were other loopholes one could use to gain passage out of the town. This obstacle mostly functioned to prevent children and those unprepared from leaving the town. Sol headed out on the road, and once far enough away from the town, instead of heading north like Annabel advised for the quest, he headed south, towards the forest called Direwood Forest, named after the dire wolves that reside in it. Before entering dangerous territory, he checked his status page one more time. [Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: N/A Level: 19 Exp: 19880/20000 HP: 200 MP: 100 Str: 25 Vit: 20 Agi: 30 Int: 10 Wis:10 Avable Stats: 0 Talent Skills: Passive Skills: [Basic Swordsmanship] Lv 2, [Basic Trapmaking] Lv 1 Active Skills:] [[Basic Swordsmanship] Lv 2: Increases sword damage by 10%] [[Basic Trapmaking] Lv 1: Increases trap effectiveness by 5%] ¡¯It took so much effort to gain just these two skills,¡¯ Sol thought to himself as he remembered how it took him a full year to learn swordsmanship, and it took even longer to gain trapmaking. If one doesn¡¯t have a rted talent, the skill grows much slower, and some skills are impossible to attain without a talent for them. "I¡¯m just a little short of level 20, so I only need to kill one or two wolves," Sol told himself as he walked into the forest. Sol slowly made his way into the woods and searched for a good ce to set a trap. Thirty minutester, he found a gap between two trees that looked like it was often used by dire wolves in the area based on the tracks he found. Sol took out some rope from his backpack and looped it over a branch of the tree above him, then pulled down on the branch to create tension. Identifying where on the ground Sol believed the dire wolves step on based on the tracks, he made a noose and disguised it with leaves and dirt. "Now all that¡¯s left is the trigger." Sol grabbed another piece of rope and tied it between the two trees so that when stepped over, it would release the mechanism to pull the dire wolf who stepped on it into the air, making them unable to attack. After setting the trap, Sol climbed up the tree and began to wait patiently. After waiting around 20 minutes, Sol was alerted by the movements of the bushes. He held his breath to not alert whatever creature wasing and patiently waited. What came out of the bushes was, in fact, the dire wolf Sol was hoping to catch, in its mouth a recently killed rabbit, and it seemed to be making its way back to its group following the path it originally took. As it slowly approached the trap, Sol¡¯s body tensed and prepared his sword to kill it as swiftly as possible. ¡¯This dire wolf looks pretty big. Should be around level 21, maybe even 22,¡¯ Sol thought to himself as he got ready. The dire wolf passed between the two trees and stepped directly over the trap, instantly triggering it, and the rope yanked on the dire wolf¡¯s leg, sending it up to the trees. In shock, it dropped the rabbit it was biting onto and looked around in panic, but before it could even howl, a shadow swooped down and shed at its throat. The dire wolf, still alive, tried to bite and w at Sol but was unable to do so thanks to the trap. It was unable to put up any real resistance and was repeatedly stabbed and shed by Sol. Many attackster, the dire wolf perished under his de, unable to retaliate even once. [You have in a Lv 22 Dire Wolf! Gained 160 Exp (160%)] [You have leveled up! +5 Attribute points] "Nice! I thought I would have to kill two, but luckily, this one was a higher level." Sol eximed. For every level under the in creature, the experience gained is increased by 20%. Sol quickly checked his talent screen, but once he did, his excitement waspletely gone. He sighed, "Still nothing. Guess I¡¯m the crazy one for believing¡­" Not in a great mood after failing once more, he packed up the trap and moved to harvest parts from the dire wolf so he could head back to the town. He nned to talk to Annabelter about that receptionist job. Sol tried to look at the bright side of it all. ¡¯Who knows, maybe I¡¯ll enjoy it.¡¯ Just as he finished packing up, he heard a loud howl and explosions not far from where he was. Wanting to get away as quickly as possible, he ran in the opposite direction until he heard howling from where he was running towards. It was the sound of a dire wolf pack! Chapter 2: Silver Wolf Without any other choice, he dropped his backpack and ran away from the wolves as he searched for a tree to climb before they caught up to him. As he was running, Sol also allocated his avable stats into agility, hoping it would give him a better chance of running away. As he ran, he saw a tall tree that was thick enough to not be easily felled by the wolves and quickly climbed it. When he got to the top of the tree, Sol looked down below as the wolves ran past the tree he was on, not paying him any attention. His gaze followed the pack of wolves and eventuallynded on a small clearing up ahead where a confrontation was taking ce. ¡¯It¡¯s them!¡¯ A massive wolf with silver hair stood in the middle of the clearing facing a man with a tower shield and full-body armor; just behind him stood a wizard, a huntress, and 2 swordsmen. It was Jayce and his party. It seemed the fight just started, and the Silver Wolf called in for support. The Silver Wolf charged towards the group and got met with Jayce¡¯s tower shield blocking its approach to his otherpanions. The wizard cast massive fireballs andunched them at the giant wolf while the huntress shot a barrage of arrows. As this happened, the two swordsmen split up and attacked the Silver Wolf¡¯s sides, trying to neutralize the limbs. As this was happening, Sol kept quiet up on the tree, hoping he wouldn¡¯t be caught up in this or spotted by another dire wolf. As the dire wolves from all sides arrived, they were enraged at the sight of their leader being attacked and joined the fray, with almost a hundred wolvesunching at them. "I will focus on the wolves!" Screamed the huntress as she started firing rapidly at the wolves. There were too many to take on alone, and the wizard had to help in attacking the grouped-up wolves with area spells. Many wolves quickly died by thebined might of these two strong adventurers. Seeing its pack ughtered, the Silver Wolf¡¯s mane began changing color from silver to dark yellow and it howled with rage. When this happened, all the dire wolves¡¯ eyes started changing to red, and their attacks became much more powerful and erratic. N?v(el)B\\jnn One of the swordsmen warned his party, "The leader has a group buff skill! We need to clear these wolves quickly!" The two swordsmen left the Silver wolf to focus on finishing off the dire wolves. This left Jayce alone on the task of keeping the Silver Wolf back, and he couldn¡¯t keep it under control for much longer. While injured from the attacks from the group at the beginning, the Silver Wolf caused it¡¯s hair to start crackling as electricity coursed through its hair. It raised its w and mmed down onto the shield. What followed after was a st of lightning thatunched the man away and knocked him out. "Jayce is down! We need to leave!" The Wizard screamed as he cast another fireball, clearing out thest of the dire wolves. One of the swordsmen returned to confront the Silver Wolf and said, "Not yet! I will handle the Thunder Wolf King¡¯s attention; we can still beat it!" The group decided to stay and fight, to the dismay of the wizard, but he wasn¡¯t going to abandon his party and kept fighting as well. The wolf began charging up another electric attack. With her sharp eyes the huntress noticed immedietly and warned the others, "The wolf is charging another big attack; get ready to dodge!" The swordsman nodded his head, and when the wolf raised its w, he dodged out of the way in anticipation. But contrary to the parties expectations, the Thunder Wolf King didn¡¯t m down and attack. It instead sted the charged electricity behind it, propeling itself forward into the parties backline. "Watch out!" Yelled the Wizard, but before anyone could react, the Silver Wolf wed the huntress and mmed down on her, crushing her instantly. The wizard tried to quickly make space between the two, but it was toote as the wolf approached and made quick work of him as well. The two Swordsmen knew the fight was unwinnable at this point, but escape wasn¡¯t an option as the Thunder Wolf King was much faster than both, even if already heavily injured from the long confrontation. The two men decided to fight till the end, as even then there was a small chance of survival. While the two traded blows with the Thunder Wolf King, they eventually both sumbed to their grave injuries and died as well. The Thunder Wolf King wasn¡¯t in much better condition, being so close to death after a drawn out fight. It also fell onto the ground next to the two swordsmen. Sol, seeing this whole fight, gave him a new perspective on how lucky he was to not have encountered that creature before. He made his way down and walked towards the clearing. Seeing the dead bodies of the adventurers made his face pale as he walked over to the Thunder Wolf King. ¡¯Although I feel bad stealing the corpse of another group¡¯s kill, I will make it up to them by giving them a proper burial.¡¯ Sol thought to himself as if almost trying to find justification. Sol inspected the body of the Thunder Wolf King and thought to himself, ¡¯A wolf boss¡¯ teeth, hide, and ws should go for a lot of money back in the city, but with it being so massive, I will just have to settle for the teeth.¡¯ Sol grabbed his sword and stabbed through the jaw into the head of the Thunder Wolf King to remove the jaw from the body, but as he did that, the Thunder Wolf King¡¯s eyes shot open and stared directly at Sol. "Shit!" Sol screamed as he jumped back and faced the wolf. The Thunder Wolf King struggled to slowly get up to face Sol, but as it did with the sword still lodged in its jaw, it opened the wound even more. With blood seeping out of its jaw, it slowly walked towards Sol as each step seemed to cause more blood to fall out. Two steps away from Sol, it raised its w trying to muster any sort of attack, but before his strike could decend on Sol it instead copsed onto the ground. Any semblence of life it had before vanished as the light in it¡¯s eyes dimmed. You have in a Lv 50 Thunder Wolf King! Gained 140,000 Exp (700%) You have leveled up! +5 Attribute points You have leveled up! +5 Attribute points You have leveled up! +5 Attribute points You have leveled up! +5 Attribute points You have leveled up! +5 Attribute points Talent Unlocked- [Siphoner]! Chapter 3: Siphon "What?!" Sol eximed as he looked at the notification screen. Immediately opening the status page, Sol saw what he had striven for thest 4 years. Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner] Level: 25 Exp: 10,060/35,000 HP: 200 MP: 100 Str: 25 Vit: 20 Agi:30 Int: 10 Wis:10 Avable Stats: 25 Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 1, [Analysis] Lv 1 Passive Skills: [Basic Swordsmanship] Lv 2, [Basic Trapmaking] Lv 1 Active Skills: "Haha¡­ Hahaha!" Sol startedughing, and tears flowed out as he felt the weight that had been holding him down for the past 4 years disappear. After a few minutes, he calmed himself down and looked back at his status screen but this time confused. "I have never heard of this talent and the skill that shares its name, though I have heard of analysis. It¡¯s amon skill usually given to talents in production or inspections. Is my talent rted to production?" Sol then opened the description of his talent to gain a better understanding. [Siphoner]: The body has a high affinity for adapting and learning from others. Able to take the skills of recently in beings and adapt their abilities to your body. Unlocks [Siphon] and [Analysis] skills. [Siphon] Lv 1: Siphon 1 skill from a recently dead being. [Analysis] Lv 1: Allows one to view the status of items and others. "So I can essentially learn every skill?! No wonder this took so long to unlock." Eager to try out his new skill, he looked back at the Thunder Wolf King and used [Analysis] on it. Name: N/A Race: Thunder Wolf King Talents: [Natural Leader], [Lightning Affinity] Level: 50 Talent Skill: [Group Enrage] Lv 5, [Thunder st] Lv 8 Passive Skills: Active Skills: [Leap] Lv 4, [Body m] Lv 4, [w Attack] Lv 7 "So the attack that one-shotted Jayce was [Thunder st]... The way the Thunder Wolf King used it to attack and move quickly is incredible. I have to grab that skill." Sol then used [Siphon] on the Thunder Wolf King and selected [Thunder st]. He then got a system prompt. Siphon failed, unable to obtain talent skill without rted talent. "What? Does that mean I can only go for general skills?" Sol then contemted a bit and decided to go with [w Attack] as he didn¡¯t have any active attack skills. Siphoned [w Attack], adapting technique to body¡­ Suddenly Sol¡¯s mind was flooded by the technique. He saw himself holding a sword as he gathered mana on the edge of his de and shed downwards. The effects were in to see; it was much faster and stronger. It then showed himself using [sh] in a myriad of directions. This went on for what felt like months until suddenly the Sol in his mind sheathed his sword. Learned [sh] Lv 2! Sol then opened his eyes and looked around himself but saw that nothing had changed at all; it all happened in an instant. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "I see¡­ I can learn general skills, and [Siphon] will ingrain them into my mind and body. It also seems like it adapted the [w Attack] into something I could actually do, since I don¡¯t have ws to perform it." Sol said as he then went to check his new skill. [sh] Lv 2: Gathers mana in the de to increase the power of an attack. 20% increased damage. Mana cost: 10 While Sol was d to finally have a real skill, he then gazed at the dead direwolves nearby and got an idea. "[Siphon]!" Siphoned [w Attack], adapting technique to body¡­ ¡­ After siphoning the skills of 60 dire wolves, Sol maxed out [sh] and got a prompt. [sh] reached max level, evolve skill? Sol immediately nodded his head and said, "Of Course!" [sh] evolved into [Cross sh]! [Cross sh] Lv 1: Gathers mana to the de to increase the power and speed of an attack, shing twice. 150% increased damage. Mana cost: 25 Every level of [sh] increased the power of the attack by 10%, but when it evolved, it directly jumped by 50%! "It needed way more dire wolves than I thought it would take." Sol contemted as he realized that the reason it took more and more for each level up is not just the experience required but also that lower-level skills have diminishing returns on increasing a higher-leveled skill. "For the rest of the wolves, I¡¯m going to focus on siphoning a [Leap] rather than [Body m], as all of them also have it and only a few have body m." "I also can¡¯t imagine myself mming my body into my opponents¡­" After another round of [Siphon], he managed to gain and level [Leap] to level 6. [Leap] Lv 6: Launches the user in a burst of Speed. Distance: 11 feet. Cooldown: 5 minutes. "This can be used for approaching or escaping enemies quickly." There was also another gain from his repeated siphoning. [Siphon] leveled up! (1 -> 2) [Siphon] Lv 2: Siphon 2 skills from a recently dead being. Increased efficiency in retaining levels. Once done with all the wolves, Sol then looked towards the dead party members. After contemting for a minute, he then gathered his resolve and walked towards the closest person, the huntress. "I am sorry, but I hope you understand. I will still try to give you a proper burial." Sol said as he used [Analysis] on the nearest body. Name: Juliana Race: Human Talents: [Hunter], [Wind Archer] Level: 42 Talent Skill: [Tracker Vision] Lv 6, [Wind Shot] Lv 2 Passive Skills: [Intermediate Bowmanship] Lv 2, [Basic Trapmaking] Lv 4, [Silent Steps] Lv 4, [Tracking] Lv 6 Active Skills: [Power Shot] Lv 6, [Rapid Fire] Lv 6, [Basic Wind Magic] Lv 1 The huntress, Juliana, had way more skills than the Thunder Wolf King that it made it difficult to decide which two to take. Eventually, Sol decided on [Basic Wind Magic] and [Silent Steps], as he doesn¡¯t have a bow to use half the skills avable and would rather not steal from a corpse. That was a line he wasn¡¯t willing to cross. Learned [Silent Steps] Lv 2! [Silent Steps] Lv 2: Reduces noise made by 20%. Learned [Basic Wind Magic] Lv 1! [Basic Wind Magic] Lv 1: Can cast basic wind spells, mana cost varies. After that Sol repeated the process with the two Swordsmen choosing the same skills they both had, [Intermediate Swordsmanship] and [Parry]. Learned [Intermediate Swordsmanship] Lv 3! [Intermediate Swordsmanship] Lv 3: Increases sword damage by 130%. Learned [Parry] Lv 4! [Parry] Lv 4: 20% to parry attacks with a weapon. After that Sol made his way to the wizard¡¯s body and used [Analysis] on it as well. "Huh, I thought the wizard would have loads of different skills but he has fewer than the huntress." Name: Nathan Trevant Race: Human Talents: [Fire Affinity], [Fast Comprehension] Level: 46 Talent Skill: [Combustion] Lv 7, [elerate Mind] Lv 5 Passive Skills: [Quick Cast] Lv 6, [Increased Mana Regeneration] Lv 5, [Intelligence Up] Lv 2 Active Skills: [Intermediate Fire Magic] Lv 6 "I guess that¡¯s why he essentially only casted explosions during the fight." The wizard seemed to have focused on a few skills and leveled them higher than spending his energy on multiple skills like the huntress and swordsmen did. With not many options Sol quickly decided on [Intermediate Fire Magic] and [Quick Cast]. Learned [Intermediate Fire Magic] Lv 4! [Intermediate Fire Magic] Lv 4: Can cast intermediate fire spells, mana cost varies. Learned [Quick Cast] Lv 4! [Quick Cast] Lv 4: Increases spell cast speed by 40%. Finishing up with the wizard, he finally made his way to Jayce that wasunched far away from the fight with a somber look. ¡¯I know he treated me like worthless trash, but he never crossed the line ormitted any heinous acts. And whenever there was trouble in the town he was the first to step up. As much as I didn¡¯t like him, he doesn¡¯t deserve death for it.¡¯ Sol then sighed as he used [Analysis] on his corpse. Name: Jayce Race: Human Talents: [Iron Wall], [Robust] Level: ??? HP: 25/??? MP: ??? Str: ??? Vit: ??? Agi:??? Int: ??? Wis:??? Talent Skill: [???] Lv ?, [Grit] Lv ? Passive Skills: [Intermediate Shield Mastery] Lv 6, [???] Lv ?, [???] Lv ? Active Skills: [???] Lv ?, [???] Lv ?, [???] Lv ? Showing apletely different status from all the previous bodies, Sol was at first confused. But as he stared at Jayce and saw the very slow rising and falling of his chest, the truth dawned upon him. "He¡¯s alive?!" Chapter 4: Hanging by a Thread "God, I¡¯m such an idiot. I was so focused on my talent I didn¡¯t check if any survived." From the little he could gather of Jayce¡¯s status, likely due to the level disparity between them, Sol noticed that Jayce was hanging on by a thread. ¡¯I don¡¯t even have any way to heal him. If only I had some potions...¡¯ ¡¯Ah, wait!¡¯ He remembered that there were other adventurers nearby. Sol immediately got up and ran to the bodies of the other dead party members, hoping one of them stocked up on potions. "Sorry, but it¡¯s to save a life." He then quickly started rummaging through their belongings, in their bags and pockets, for anything to help Jayce. The two swordsmen did have potions, it seemed, but all that was left were empty bottles, probably consumed during the fight. He then moved on to the wizard, but he only had mana potions which would not help right now. Finally moving on to the huntress, Sol found a single health potion in her bag. ¡¯I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s lucky or unlucky that you died before you could even use it, but thank you.¡¯ He headed back to Jayce and poured the contents of the vial into his mouth. Once done, Sol checked his status with [Analysis]. Name: Jayce Race: Human Talents: [Iron Wall], [Robust] Level: ??? HP: 59/??? He watched as his health slowly rose out of danger and sighed in relief. "I gotta get him back to town." Sol then lifted up Jayce and realized the man was too big and heavy with his armor. Sol didn¡¯t know how to remove the armor nor did he want to take the time to find out and instead used his avable stats to increase his strength by 25 and his vitality by 10. Giving him a boost enough to carry Jayce all the way to the town. Twenty minutester, Sol finally saw the town walls and waved to catch the guards¡¯ attention. The guards sent 2 people to meet him halfway and helped him take Jayce back to the town to receive medical attention. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om ¡¯Hopefully, there is a priest avable that can quickly heal him.¡¯ Sol thought as he waited in the guardhouse. Sol was told to wait as he needed to answer a few questions over the events that urred. "Good Evening, Sol. My name is Phillip, guard captain of the western gate. I know we haven¡¯t met before, but I have heard of you before." "You have?" "Yes, multiple times, in fact. From the leveling ceremony and your daily outings over the past 4 years. If it wasn¡¯t for the guildmaster asking me to let you pass, I wouldn¡¯t have let you outside the gate even if you have that silly excuse for a quest." Sol chuckled nervously, "Haha, guess it wasn¡¯t just a loophole in the rules." Phillip smiled back and shook his head. "Though today I hear of you about another matter, so please do tell me why you were in the Direwood forest?" "I was trying to unlock my talent," Sol stated, as there was no point in covering up such an obvious lie. Phillip stared at him for a bit then shook his head, "I would reprimand you, but after doing this for 4 years, I don¡¯t think it would dissuade you from continuing." "So besides your dangerous outings, please exin what happened to Jayce and his party." Sol recounted all the events that took ce from him climbing up a tree to hide and witnessing the entire fight against the Thunder Wolf King. "Jayce and his party managed to y the Thunder Wolf King in the end?" "...Yes." Sol contemted saying that he finished the monster in the end but decided not to because all he did was finish it off by pure luck. He also felt it wasn¡¯t right to take credit and reward for that quest. "You are a terrible liar, did you know that?" Hearing Phillip call out his lie made Sol freeze on the spot and look back at him nervously. "Rx, kid, you got lucky, right?" Sol nodded rapidly. Nodding his head back, Phillip said, "It¡¯s okay. I will send men to collect the bodies and bring them back to town. I will also make sure the quest reward is given to their family." "Thank you, Phillip." "Don¡¯t thank me; if it weren¡¯t for you, Jayce would have died out there along with his party members, and we wouldn¡¯t know until muchter. Now get out of here; it¡¯s gettingte, and I want to clock out." Sol was then quickly kicked out of the guardhouse by Phillip. With the sun setting soon, Sol was left thinking about how much had happened today. He then made his way into town and towards his home, nning to visit Annabel at the guild tomorrow. Stopping on the way to buy some food to eat at home, he arrived just as the sun finally set. His house located in the southern part of town could barely be considered a house. It was only a single room that was 4x4 meters. While small, it had all his basic necessities, a bed in the corner, a shelf for his tools, a small closet, and a small table with one chair. Spending most of his time outside either in the guild or in the forest, it was more appropriate to call it a ce where he eats and sleeps. Sol put the food he bought on the table and quickly ate it in silence. The moment he was done, he went to his bed and instantly fell asleep. Chapter 5: Purpose The next morning, Sol woke up a littleter than he normally did. The first thing he did upon waking up was check his status screen: Name: Sol Race: Human Talent: [Siphoner] Level: 25 Exp: 10,060/35,000 HP: 300 MP: 100 Str: 40 Vit: 30 Agi: 30 Int: 10 Wis: 10 Avable Stats: 0 Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 2, [Analysis] Lv 1 Passive Skills: [Intermediate Swordsmanship] Lv 3, [Basic Trapmaking] Lv 1, [Silent Steps] Lv 2, [Parry] Lv 4, [Quick Cast] Lv 4 Active Skills: [Cross sh] Lv 1, [Leap] Lv 6, [Basic Wind Magic] Lv 1, [Intermediate Fire Magic] Lv 4 Sol smiled, "It wasn¡¯t a dream." He then got up and got ready to head over to the guild, passing through the same route as yesterday. The elderly woman in the bakery watched as he passed by and then looked to her husband, "Honey, he seems different today." "How so?" "Not sure, but he is smiling and acting as if he is about to fly. Do you think he got a girlfriend?" "Him? Impossible, all he does is leave town every day. When would he find time to meet a girl?" The couple kept gossiping as Sol arrived at the guild and made his way in. Once inside, Sol headed straight to Annabel¡¯s counter. As he approached, he saw Annabel ring at him, and he braced himself for this unwinnable situation. "You fought the Thunder Wolf King? What were you thinking?!" Annabel reached over the counter and smacked him over the head. "Ow! Hey! I didn¡¯t know it was still alive. I thought I could gather its teeth to sell them back in town." Sol rubbed the area that got hit as he then realized something. "Wait, how did you know what happened; it¡¯s only been a day?" "Did you forget who my father was?" "Right¡­" Annabel¡¯s Father, William Deliban, was the current guildmaster of Initium. It would not be surprising if he was the first informed of the incident, being themissioner of the quest on the Thunder Wolf King. "I¡¯m not mad at you, Sol. I¡¯m mostly mad at the fact that you could have died yesterday, and I could have stopped you if I was more insistent." Annabel then grabbed some papers from under her counter and presented them to Sol. "Here, I got the application form to be a guild receptionist. My dad already knows that you are qualified for the role, and if he dares to deny you, I will not talk to him for a month." Sol nced at the papers and gave a nervous chuckle. "About that, Annabel¡­" "Oh no you don¡¯t! You said if you didn¡¯t unlock your talent you would apply. You are not getting out of this!" "But I did unlock my talent¡­" Annabel chuckled, "Haha, nice one," but as she kept looking at Sol¡¯s expression, she realized he wasn¡¯t joking. "Seriously?" "Seriously." "We should talk somewhere else." Annabel then got up from her chair and brought Sol to one of the private rooms in the guild. Once they arrived at the simple meeting room with a table and 6 chairs, they both took a seat. "You actually unlocked your talent at level 20?" "No. When I got to level 20, nothing changed." "Wait then how?" Annabel then pondered for a second but quickly realized based on yesterday¡¯s events what happened. "Was it the Thunder Wolf King?" Sol nodded, "Yes, when I killed him, I gained 5 levels and unlocked my talent at 25." Annabel stared at him for a moment and with a serious expression told Sol, "This is serious, Sol, I believe you, and if what you are saying is the truth, then the whole kingdom may be after you." Confused by what she meant, Sol asked her, "Huh? Why?" "You understand how talents are unlocked, right?" "Yeah, the system looks at the body of the person and determines their highest aptitude. It then gathers energy from each level up to optimize and improve the body to make better use of that aptitude, eventually unlocking their talent, right?" She nodded and asked another question. "Now tell me what is the most powerful talent you know?" "Wouldn¡¯t that be Princess Valerie¡¯s [Avatar Summoning]? When it was discovered, the entire kingdom held a celebration for her." "Right. Do you remember what level she was at when she got it?" "Level 5¡­ I¡¯m starting to understand what you mean." Annabel sighed in relief, finally making him understand. " I don¡¯t know what talent you obtained, but if it required your body to arrive at level 25 to unlock, then it would have to be something absurdly ridiculous." "Well, you are not wrong in assuming that." "Exactly! So what do you n to do?" Stumped at her question, Sol sat there in silence, unable toe up with a good answer. "I¡¯m not sure, I haven¡¯t thought much past obtaining a talent. I grew up thinking there was nothing I am good at, and I was hoping that the moment I unlocked my talent, I would finally know what I am good at." "Did it then?" "Honestly, no. If anything, it left me more confused than before." She looked Sol in the eyes and saw the sincerity behind them. With a sigh, Annabel shook her head at him. "Sol, do you really think talents given by the system are everything that defines that person?" "I mean, kinda?" "Wait here for a second." Annabel stood up and walked out of the room, leaving Sol alone to his own thoughts. ¡¯Isn¡¯t it impossible to be the best at anything if you don¡¯t have a talent for it? You could spend years learning cksmithing and produce lower quality goods to someone who had a smithing talent for a few months.¡¯ n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om A few minutester, she returned holding a metal te and a small bag. "Answer me something real quick, what do you think I am good at?" About to ask what it has to do with the current situation, Sol held himself back and instead thought of an answer. "Um¡­ You are the best guild receptionist I know?" "Why is that a question?!" Sol continued, "Your memory is wicked good. You are able to perfectly transcribe documents you had only seen once and keep everything organized. You are also really good at throwing things, never missing, which is why I can never beat you at darts." Annabel chuckled at his description of her. "Look at this." Annabel then handed over the metal te she was holding. Looking at the te, he saw it filled with information. More specifically, Annabel¡¯s status. Name: Annabel Race: Human Talent: [Cooking] Level: 14 Exp: 6,750/15,000 HP: 100 MP: 70 Str: 15 Vit: 20 Agi: 15 Int: 13 Wis: 7 Avable Stats: 0 Talent Skills: [Preserve Ingredients] Lv 3 Passive Skills: [Cooking] Lv 5, [Basic Bowmanship] Lv 1, [Calctions] Lv 2 Active Skills: [Rapid Cook] Lv 1 "Cooking? Why do you work as a guild receptionist then?" "Because I want to." "Huh?" Annabel smiled at his confusion and borated, "Just because one has a talent for something doesn¡¯t mean that¡¯s what they have to do. You might not believe me, but I actually wanted to be an adventurer. I dream of being able to go on adventures and travel the world like my dad used to. After gaining that talent in my leveling ceremony, dad would take me out of the city every so often to protect me while I leveled up, hopefully my next talent will be with bows as I really enjoy using them." The image of Annabel wielding a bow and sniping enemies made Solugh in his head as he had never seen her fight, but he understood her point. Annabel continued, "Just because I had a talent for cooking, it doesn¡¯t mean I have to go and open a restaurant. Even when you didn¡¯t have a talent, you could do whatever you wanted, the same thing applies now." "What I want to do¡­" Chapter 6: Night Visit "I don¡¯t know, Anna. I need to think hard about this." "Of course, this is your future," Annabel said as she nodded. "But Sol, you should not tell anyone about your talent, at least not yet." "You¡¯re right, but I trust you, Anna, and maybe if you know a bit more, you can help me figure out what to do." Annabel shook her head; while curious, she knew that whatever it could be would be extremely dangerous to simply know about. There were also many ways to extract such information from a person, so the fewer who knew, the better. "I know you can figure it out, Sol, but before you go, there is something I want you to take. To protect you from others finding out your secret." She then handed over the small bag to Sol. Wondering what was inside, he opened it to see a small locket. Knowing there was more to it than meets the eye, Sol used [Analysis]. Locket of Safekeeping Rare Skills: [Block Perception] Lv 5, [Mind Shield] Lv 3 [Block Perception] Lv 5: Renders the user immune to the effects of [Analysis] Lv 5. [Mind Shield]: Protection against Lv 3 and below mind-rted abilities. Ex. [Read Thoughts], [Mind Invasion]. Realizing how precious this item was, Sol was left speechless. "Anna¡­ Thank you." Sol then thought to himself, ¡¯I have only ever touchedmon items my entire life. This must cost hundreds of gold.¡¯ Annabel then put her index finger over her lips and said, "Just don¡¯t tell my dad." She then stood up and looked at Sol. "Alright, that should be everything. I need to get back to work." Sol also stood and started heading to the door to leave, and on the way out, he realized something. "By the way, Anna, one of the skills I gained was [Analysis]." Hearing Sol say that, Annabel¡¯s face went red in embarrassment. The next thing Sol saw was a hand smacking him on the back of the head. "Idiot! Why didn¡¯t you tell me sooner!" "Ow! How was I supposed to know you were going to share your status page?" Having no goodeback to his question, Annabel smacked him again before heading back to work. Sol, having no more reason to stay, walked out of the guild as he thought about what he could do with his life. Not having any set direction, Sol just wandered through the town, seeing all kinds of people in their day-to-day lives. He passed by a group of adventurers as they celebrated their recent victory. He saw a cksmith dedicating all his focus to his creation. He watched as guards patrolled through the town, keeping a vignt eye out for any suspicious activity. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Soon the sun began to set, and Sol headed back to his home, with no answer to Annabel¡¯s question. Soly in bed and let his mind wander, thinking of what he had achieved so far in his past as to maybe help him figure out his future. ¡¯I haven¡¯t done anything really. I guess you can call it an achievement to dedicate the past 4 years to unlocking my talent, but that doesn¡¯t leave any impact.¡¯ His gaze then fell onto his worn-down sword and shook his head as well. ¡¯I may have in the Thunder Wolf King, but that was by pure luck and not something I can do even now with my new talent.¡¯ As Sol kept pondering, he suddenly heard a knock at the door. "At this hour?" He got up from his bed and walked to the door to answer it, and when he did, he was surprised by who it was. "Jayce?! What are you doing at my house?" It was Jayce in his casual clothes, which let one see how he truly looked under all his armor. Tall and toned is the best way to describe him as he was taller than most men and has muscles that can put even the strongest guard to shame. "Hey, is now a good time?" Jayce asked as he took a nce inside Sol¡¯s home. "Yeah, sure. Come inside." Sol led him in and then realized a problem. There was only one chair. "Sorry, I don¡¯t have a lot of guests. Take a seat, I will sit on the bed." Nodding his head, Jayce then took a seat by the table. What happened after that was dead silence as the two young men stared at each other, not knowing who should speak first. Eventually, Sol asked, "So¡­ What are you doing here at this hour?" Jayce then took a deep breath before he said, "I know we never were on the best terms. We had our leveling ceremony together, and when we didn¡¯t get our talents at level 2 I was happy we were lucky. Then I unlocked my talent at level 3, but you still didn¡¯t. When I saw that, I was jealous. I thought you would unlock a unique or even legendary talent that would put mine to shame. So when I saw that after level 5 you still didn¡¯t unlock your talent, I was relieved. In that feeling of superiority, I took every chance I could to make sure you knew I had a talent and you didn¡¯t. For years I did this, I knew it was wrong, but I did it anyway." "What are you trying to get at?" Sol asked, as this is something they both already know. "What I am trying to say is that you had every right to leave me there; I would have died, and nobody would know. But you didn¡¯t. When I woke up this morning, they told me it was you who dragged me, armor and all, back to town." Jayce took a moment to pause, thinking back to when he woke up in the church. "My first thought when I heard that was, ¡¯Why?¡¯ and suspected that you had an ulterior motive for doing so. But when the guard captain came and told me your ount of the events, including you forfeiting the reward, I realized something." Sol tilted his head at what he said. "What did you realize?" "Regardless of what the system says, you are special. You have more heart and determination than anyone else. These past 4 years, you could have given up at any moment, from my treatment orck of results, but you didn¡¯t. There is no one in this town who can beat you in that department, so even if you have no system-given talent, I believe you will eventually do something great." Jayce then stood up and faced Sol. "I am sorry for the way I have treated you; if you ever need anything, anything at all, let me know, I will be the first to stand beside you." Finishing what he wanted to say, Jayce then walked out of the house, leaving Sol alone. ¡¯This feeling¡­¡¯ A warm feeling rose from his chest and spreaded to the rest of his body, Sol felt a sense of fulfillment. "I know what I want to do." Chapter 7: Newfound Purpose The next day, Sol woke up and started his day as he normally did, heading straight to the Adventurers Guild. Most who saw him paid little mind, as they were used to seeing him every day. But little did they know that that day marked the end of this routine. Upon arriving at the guild, Sol sought out Annabel. Instantly noticing the change in his demeanor, she inquired, "Hey Sol, did you figure out what you wanted to do?" "Yes, I think I want to help people. But to do that, I need to be stronger." Seeing the determination in his eyes, Annabel chuckled. "Hahaha! Why does that not surprise me at all? That¡¯s just like you, Sol." "Huh? What do you mean?" "I mean, it¡¯s something you have already been doing every day. It¡¯s funny how you didn¡¯t notice until now." "What? Since when have I been helping people?" "Every day after youe back from outside, gaining experience, you end up helping around in the guild one way or another. From helping me with documents, advising new adventurers about local monsters, and even taking over as a receptionist when I was sick on more than one asion. That¡¯s why I thought you would make a great guild receptionist." "When you put it like that, I guess I always found myself helping others." "Exactly, but now I¡¯m curious: what made you finally realize that you love to help?" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Sol then recountedst night¡¯s encounter with Jayce to Annabel and how he felt afterward. She knew how Jayce treated Sol and personally disliked him for it, but hearing how he tried to make amends made her see him in a new light. "I see. In that case, I think the perfect profession for you is obvious. Be an adventurer. You get to explore thends and take quests that help others. Though there is one issue." "What is it?" "Hmm, we should speak in private, as it is more sensitive, and you know how people love to eavesdrop around here. I have my break in an hour so wait a bit till then." Sol nodded his head. "Alright, I will be by the quest board then." He then left to check out the new quests while he waited for Annabel to be free. An hourter, they met again in the private meeting room. "Your circumstances are a bit different, Sol; registering you would be dangerous." He quickly understood what Annabel meant, as he knew how guilds operate. "The guild will record my status information. With an irregr talent like mine, it will be quickly picked up." She nodded her head, relieved he grasped the situation. "With the way guilds operate, if you register and someone notices your anomaly, they will report it to their respective kingdoms. Essentially, the whole world will know your name overnight." Guilds kept tabs on adventurers using a card system. When a new adventurer registered, usually around level 1-5, they recorded the information of their status and gave them a card that they could use at any guild branch to bring up their record. The information of any adventurer could be essed from any guild branch in the world. Sol shuddered at the thought of everyone knowing his abilities. "So then I shouldn¡¯t be an adventurer?" "Who said that you can¡¯t? You have a very cute and kind receptionist here who can simply make you a guild record and issue a card." "Oh! A fake!" "Can it be called fake if it was issued by the guild itself? The only thing you have to do is make sure you never lose that card. It will be a mess to reissue." If an adventurer lost their card, they needed to show their status page again to obtain a new card, effectively updating it with thetest information. If Sol did that, it would immediately spell trouble. Most people don¡¯t lose their card, so their records tend to show when they were low level, hiding their skills and abilities. "Wait Anna, while I appreciate that you are willing to do that for me, won¡¯t you get in huge trouble if you get caught?" "While this may be the first guild rule I ever break, I doubt my dad would ever let anything happen to me if I get caught," Annabel said with a smirk. ¡¯Shameless. Even dragging the guildmaster into this.¡¯ Sol shook his head and gave in. "Thank you Anna, I don¡¯t know what I would do without you." "At best, get dragged to the capital and be treated as a hero. At worst, killed before you could grow." "Yikes, really giving it to me straight." "Yep, to make sure you remember when you be a big deal to not forget about the one who made it possible." "Of course, I could never forget about the cute and kind receptionist who made it all possible." Blushing a bit at being called cute, Annabel quickly said, "I¡¯m gonna go get your card now." then immediately darted out of the room. After 10 minutes of waiting, Annabel returned with a bronze card and handed it over to Sol. "You already know the rules, and my break is running out, so I will keep it short. You are starting out in E rank; if I put you any higher, it would be suspicious as you have no previous record, so you will have to start from the bottom like everyone else. I would suggest you keep your level a secret until you rank up once or twice. But there is one more thing you need to do." Annabel¡¯s face saddened a bit, and Sol quickly picked up on what he needed to do. "I need to leave town." She nodded. "It would bring a lot of attention if you suddenly became an adventurer. Everyone here already knows you didn¡¯t gain your talent, and if you started taking quests, people will connect the dots. Come with me to the counter, I have an idea." They both then headed over to the main area of the guild building. Annabel got behind her counter and grabbed two papers from underneath and showed them to him. "First, you need to ept the quest for Lanturn Herbs," Annabel then said in a low voice, "Use it to leave town. Don¡¯t worry about it impacting your record, as we don¡¯t keep track of people who ept these simple gathering quests, just who turn them in." Annabel then presented another paper. "This second paper is for a quest that I think you will be interested in. Kobolds from the Andor mountains have left their cave and have been piging a small farming vige up north. Kobolds are rtively weak, being around level 5. Additionally, their numbers are rtively few, so it was designated as an E rank quest. Now, here is the best part: this quest has not been put on the board yet; this quest is just for you." He took the paper and confirmed the details of the quest. "Huh, this is odd. It says that they have been stealing a lot of food. But that¡¯s not normal for kobolds to do." "I thought the same. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if it were goblins, but kobolds are cowards; they hate fighting. Maybe they ran out of food?" "That¡¯s impossible; they are omnivores and can easily sustain themselves off cave moss and rodents. That¡¯s why they don¡¯t even have to leave their nests. Either way, these kobolds are attacking these vigers and stealing their food. I¡¯ll take the quest." "Great! When you doplete it, you should then head north to Noctside. There you can turn in the quest and focus on getting stronger." Nodding his head, Sol put away both quest papers and got ready to leave. But before heading out, he walked around the counter, surprising Annabel, and quickly hugged her. "Thank you for everything, Anna." They hugged each other as Annabelid her head onto Sol¡¯s chest, and this momentsted for a while, other receptionists and adventurers looked at them but they didn¡¯t care. But as time passed, Sol reluctantly separated himself from her. Annabel looked up into his eyes and said, "Promise you wille visit." "I promise. See youter." He then walked out of the guild without looking back, afraid that if he did, he would stay. Chapter 8: First Quest Once outside the guild, Sol took out the bronze card Annabel gave him and used [Analysis] on it. Name: Sol Race: Human Talent: [Sword] Guild Rank: E ¡¯Looks realistic, really gotta hand it to Anna.¡¯ Sol put the card away and headed home to begin preparing for his journey. Arriving at his house, Sol grabbed his worn-down sword and headed to his bed. He jumped on the bed and with his sword, he jammed it into the wooden nks in the ceiling, dislodging one of the nks. Reaching inside, he grabbed a small leather pouch and looked inside. "240 copper. Not a lot, but I should have enough for the basic necessities." With the money in hand, Sol headed to the cheapest general store in town and bought a backpack, since he dropped hisst one when he was chased by dire wolves. While there, he also bought other basic supplies and tools he might need on his journey. In total, it cost him 180 copper. The leftover 60 copper were spent on non-perishable food, and with that, he was ready to go. Sol then made his way over to the west gate to leave the town and was stopped by a guard as usual. "Papers?" He then handed over the papers for the Lanturn Herbs; the guard gave it a quick nce and handed it back to him. "Alright, but before you go, someone wants to talk to you." The guards led Sol to the guard station where he was interrogatedst time; inside, he saw Phillip. "Hey kid, take a seat." Finding it suspicious to be called back here, especially after the Thunder Wolf King incident ended, Sol sat down and trembled a bit in fear of the worst. "Is there any reason why I was stopped?" "Heh, calm down kid. It wasn¡¯t me who asked to see you; he should be here soon." "What? Who?" Phillip smirked at Sol and said, "You¡¯ll see." He then walked out of the room, leaving Sol nervous. Being alone with only his thoughts, Sol started thinking of reasons he could have been stopped for, and he could only think of one. "Did they figure it out that fast? Oh no! Is Anna okay?!" "I¡¯m at least d you care about my daughter after the stunt she pulled for you." Sol quickly looked around the room but didn¡¯t see anyone, but he recognized that voice. "Guildmaster William¡­" On the other side of the table, a man appeared as if he just came out from behind a curtain made of air. A towering figure easily reaching 7 feet with long red hair that looked like a lion¡¯s mane faced down Sol. "Hmmm, she even gave you the locket I gave her¡­" As he said that, the Locket of Safekeeping flew out from his person andnded on William¡¯s hand. "Tell me Sol and be truthful, why did Annabel forge your adventurer record?" Sol knew there was no point in lying and on top of being a bad liar already, William knew that whatever it was that made Annabel willingly break the rules must be big. Taking a deep breath, he answered, "I unlocked my talent." William¡¯s deadpan face showed a hint of surprise upon hearing his answer. He stared at Sol for a while longer before sighing at the mess he got himself involved in. "Shit¡­ What level?" "25." "By the gods¡­ and here I thought you did it in desperation to level up faster." Sol shook his head and responded strongly, "I would never do anything that would put Anna at risk." "I know kid, that¡¯s why I came and gave you a chance to exin." "So¡­ What do we do now?" William handed the locket back to Sol, "You will leave as you nned, and I will approve your adventurer registration." "Wait, approve?" "Of course. All applicants that register with the guild need to be given the final approval by the guildmaster. Not many know of that rule, but I am surprised Annabel forgot about it." "I see. But you aren¡¯t going to report me to the Kingdom." "If it was any other person, yes. But if I report you and Annabel finds out, she will be furious with me." A guildmaster afraid of a receptionist¡­ In reality, it¡¯s a father afraid of his daughter¡¯s wrath. "Thank you, Guildmaster." William waved his hand dismissively, "Don¡¯t mention it, now get out of here." Sol nodded his head and left the guard house. He walked past the guards unobstructed this time and left town. Walking on the path leaving the town, he eventually took it up north towards the vige that sent the request for help. The trip to the vige went by peacefully as monsters were regrly swept, so they have learned to stay away, and there are also no bandits near Initium town. While Sol spent a lot of time in the nearby forests training and doing simple quests, he never really left Initium. So the only knowledge he has to go off is the maps he studied back at the guild. Luckily, the road that headed north had no forks, and he could simply follow it the whole way. Hours passed as Sol arrived at the vige right before dusk. He walked past the farnd as he noticed a good amount of it was empty and full of holes. When he got nearer to the vige, he saw a humble wooden sign with a single word: Nestral. From the quest information, he knew he was at the right ce. Entering the vige, he approached the first person he saw and talked to them. "Hello, my name is Sol, and I am here to help you with your Kobold problem." "Oh! You arrived fast; we only just sent the requestst night. You should speak with the vige guards; they will fill you in." Given directions, Sol headed to a house where the two guards of the vige resided and quickly met them. One of them was a short man carrying a spear while the other was a woman with a sword. "So you are the one that took our quest? You look a little¡­ under-equipped," the woman said as she looked at Sol¡¯s casual clothes and worn-down sword. Sol tried to act more confidently to reassure them and responded, "It¡¯s all I need to take care of some kobolds." Neither of them were fully convinced, but they nodded their heads anyways as kobolds were very weak, so evenplete beginners could defeat them. "Alright, I will exin more as the quest description didn¡¯t cover all the details. The kobolds, as of 10 days ago, have been heading out of their cave and taking our crops. At first, we didn¡¯t really mind as they only took a little from the edge of the farnd, but every day since theye and take more and more. We tried to stand watch and kill them when they tried toe again, but whenever they saw us, they ran away. We could personally go and kill them in their nest, but if we do, we leave the vigepletely defenseless. That¡¯s why we need you, I¡¯ll show you on the map where to go, and then it¡¯s all up to you." "Sounds simple enough; I¡¯ll rest for an hour then head there." If Sol said that he would head there immediately, the two guards would have found that extremely foolish. Even if kobolds were weak and could be easily killed, one should not fight when they weren¡¯t at their peak if given a choice. Sol spent hours walking to the vige, and a short rest would put him at peak condition. Unknowingly by saying this, Sol gave the guards much more reassurance that they aren¡¯t dealing with aplete rookie. "Would you like some food before you go?" epting the offer, Sol received a warm meal and got some rest. An hourter, Sol left Nestral and headed to the cave where the kobolds reside.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Chapter 9: Variant Kobold Heading out of the vige, Sol made his way to the cave where the kobolds lived. Being informed that their numbers were around 20, he felt confident about being able to take them all on, as his basic sword attacks, which did more than double damage from [Intermediate Swordsmanship], would kill them in a single strike. Sol then toggled his passive ability [Silent Steps] to minimize the sound he made and snuck towards the kobold cave. Once the cave was in sight, he hid behind a tree and peeked over to see 3 kobolds loitering outside and used [Analysis] on one of them. Name: Jib Race: Kobold Talent: [Throwing] Level: 4 HP: 30 MP: 10 Str: 5 Vit: 3 Agi: 7 Int: 3 Wis: 1 Talent Skills: Passive Skills: [Basic Throwing] Lv 2, [Foraging] Lv 3 Active Skills: Sol inspected the other two kobolds but found nothing too different from the first. One had the [Throwing] talent while the other had [Nimble], neither with talent skills. This didn¡¯t surprise Sol, as not all talents gave talent skills, and even if they did, it was not guaranteed to gain one. Even for talents that had multiple different talent skills avable, one could simply be unlucky and get none. Watching the kobolds for a while longer, he saw one of them take a nap and judged it as the best time to attack. Sol quietly approached, trying to keep his presence as low as possible, and once he got close enough, he wielded his sword and used [Leap] at them. Not given any time to react, the nearest kobold was swiftly struck. You have in a Lv 4 Kobold! Gained 30 Exp. "Eek?!" The other kobold yelled in surprise but was instantly met by Sol¡¯s sword and also killed before it could muster any resistance. You have in a Lv 4 Kobold! Gained 30 Exp. The final kobold that was still sleeping throughout the fight was then silently killed, clearing the cave entrance. You have in a Lv 4 Kobold! Gained 30 Exp. ¡¯Normally, I wouldn¡¯t have anything to gain from these low level enemies, but with my talent, there is a lot to obtain.¡¯ Sol used [Siphon] on their bodies and took all the skills they had, as each only had 2. In total, he obtained [Basic Throwing] Lv 2, [Foraging] Lv 4, and [Agility Up] Lv 1. ¡¯I can even obtain attribute skills easily.¡¯ Skills like [Agility Up] were ones that give a direct increase to one¡¯s base stats,monly known as attribute skills. There was one for every stat, and theoretically, anyone could gain the skill. The problem was that attribute skills required years of training to gain even the first level of the skill. Unless you have the talent for it. In those cases one can gain it easily, and leveling took much less effort. If it would normally take the average person 4 years of dedicated training to increase [Agility Up] from level 1 to 2, someone with the talent for it would be able to raise it in less than a week. [Agility Up] Lv 1: Body bes faster and more flexible. Agility +5. ¡¯Since these attribute talents aremon, with some effort, I should be able to easily max out all the attribute skills. This is insane; it¡¯s rare to max out one, but to be able to max out all of them?¡¯ While Sol wanted to think about the incredible possibilities he could do with his talent, he had a more urgent task at hand. Sol grabbed the bodies of the in kobolds and hid them away from the entrance. Once done, he looked towards the cave and headed in. The cave itself had a very narrow entrance, likely to preventrger monsters from entering, but once inside, he found it much more spacious. There was lighting provided by glowing moss, and a few crude torches were ced in areas devoid of moss. Trying to be as quiet as possible to avoid alerting the entire kobold group, Sol slowly made his way deeper, asionally killing random stray kobolds, siphoning their skills and hiding their bodies. Sometimes there were no good hiding ces and Sol had to drag them to the darkest corner away from sight and hope they weren¡¯t found anytime soon. In total, Sol killed 8 kobolds and eventually found a passage that led to arge area that had been dug out. There he saw 6 kobolds kneeling on the ground before a muchrger kobold, and unlike normal kobolds who only had a few scales on their shoulders and back, this one had them covering its entire body like armor. Never having heard or read of this type of kobold before, Sol used [Analysis] on it to learn more. Name: Rak-Un Race: Variant Kobold Talent: [Draconic], [Gluttonous] Level: 21 HP: 1000 MP: 300 Str: 55 Vit: 50 N?v(el)B\\jnn Agi: 20 Int: 15 Wis: 30 Talent Skills: [Scale Armor] Lv 3, [Dragon w] Lv 4, [Endless Appetite] Lv 8 Passive Skills: [Basic Unarmed Mastery] Lv 4, [Leadership] Lv 2, [Foraging] Lv 1 Active Skills: [Charge] Lv 2, [Rapid Consumption] Lv 4, [Snap Punch] Lv 3 ¡¯That answers why the kobolds have been stealing food; a variant appeared among them.¡¯ Variants were beings who had been born with mutations that made them significantly different from their brethren. Variant strength could vary wildly, as it could make them much stronger than their peers or weaker but they¡¯re always special in some aspect. In this case, it greatly enhanced the overall power of the kobold, which was bad news for Sol. ¡¯While I think I can take it solo, with those normal kobolds, it will be much harder. I¡¯m gonna need to figure out how to draw them out.¡¯ As he was thinking of a n, he heard the variant kobold speak. "Bring food." One of the normal kobolds replied nervously, "Others g-getting food." "NOW" "Y-yes, we bring food!" The kobolds quickly stood up and headed to the exit, not wanting to stay and face the wrath of their leader. The problem was that the kobolds were heading straight to where Sol was hiding. ¡¯They¡¯reing towards me! I need to move!¡¯ Sol immediately backed away from the room and headed to another passage that didn¡¯t lead to the entrance, hoping none of the kobolds would stop by where he was hiding. The ce he ended up hiding in was where the kobolds seemed to sleep, with a lot of small mounds of sticks and leaves which he assumed were simple beds. There, Sol also found 2 sleeping kobolds, which he quietly took care of, and waited for the group to leave the cave. After waiting for 15 minutes and deeming it safe, he left the resting area and snuck back to where the variant kobold was. This time there were no other kobolds, making it the best time to attack. Chapter 10: Magic Using the less illuminated parts of the cave to his advantage, along with [Silent Steps], Sol closed the distance to the variant. The variant kobold,pletely unaware, waited with an impatient attitude, likely waiting for the kobolds to bring more food. The moment he got within 10 feet, Sol went into action using [Leap] to bridge the remaining distance and used [Cross sh] on him. "Argh! Who?!" The variant kobold survived the attack and responded with [Snap Punch], firing his fist fast at Sol. Using his sword to parry the blow, Sol seeded and was left unharmed but wasunched back 5 feet. N?v(el)B\\jnn Once separated, the variant finally got a better look at his assant and shouted, "Human! Die!" Keeping [Analysis] active to monitor the variant kobold¡¯s health, he saw how much damage his strongest attack did. HP: 743/1000 ¡¯I would need tond 3 more of those to win. This might be tougher than I expected.¡¯ While the variant was much stronger and tougher than Sol anticipated, on the bright side, Sol was much faster and able to react to his attacks and find more openings. Both parties exchanged more blows as Solnded a few decent normal attacks but couldn¡¯t find an opening to execute another [Cross sh]. Wanting to finish the fight before any other kobolds appeared, he started brainstorming. Sol then got an idea that would tilt the odds in his favor. "Make the wind move in my favor, [Tailwind]!" Suddenly, he felt much lighter as wherever he moved, he faced no resistance and was instead assisted and pushed by the wind. He checked his mana reserves and noticed this basic spell only cost him 15 mana. This left him with more than enough to use [Cross sh] two more times. With an even higher speed advantage, Solnded many more blows and even found an opening tond [Cross sh] once. He no longer needed to even risk parrying attacks as he could dodge them with ease, thanks to the buff he received from the spell. "Slippery human! Stay still!" The variant kobold was getting frustrated at his antics but had no way to stop him. If it used [Dragon w], Sol dodged to the side and got a quick attack in. If it tried to use its fastest move [Snap Punch], it was either dodged or parried. It didn¡¯t even bother trying to use [Charge] as when it tried it once, it gave Sol the opening for [Cross sh]. After fighting continuously for 30 minutes straight, Sol managed to lower the variant¡¯s health to 230, making it one well-ced [Cross sh] away from victory. But Sol didn¡¯t get cocky or reckless to try and finish the fight faster. If he risked it and took a full blow from the variant, its abnormal strength would severely wound him. He also had no need to risk it as the fight was almost over with the variant helpless against him. But as fate would have it, Sol would soon have another problem. "Human! Human!" The group of kobolds had returned alongside the other kobolds who had left to find food. In their hands, they were carrying crops, wild nts, and a few dead rodents but dropped them the moment they saw their leader attacked. The variant kobold, seeing his reinforcement finally appear, ordered them to attack. "Attack! Kill human!" The kobolds, having no powerful fighting strength, resorted to throwing rocks, crude spears, and even the food they gathered at Sol. While it would do little to no damage to Sol, he had no choice but to evade to the best of his abilities as getting hit would slow him down, leaving an opening for the variant kobold to exploit. Sol ran around the variant, trying to position himself so that the variant stood between him and the group of kobolds at the entrance. This forced the kobolds to slow down their attacks in fear of hitting their leader. ¡¯This stopped the attacks for now but they will eventually spread out and attack me from multiple angles. Think Sol, how do I get out of this.¡¯ He then took a quick nce at his skills as he looked for a solution to his dilemma and spotted one. ¡¯It¡¯s risky but it¡¯s better than taking them down one at a time.¡¯ Springing immediately into action, Sol ran past the variant towards the kobolds at the entrance, prompting it to chase after. Sol dodged and parried the attacks thrown at him as he got close enough to use [Leap], jumping over all the kobolds. The variant then joined the group of kobolds and prepared to charge after him, but Sol was already one step ahead, casting a spell. "mes gather and condense to one, expand outwards and st my foes, [Explosion]!" Sol felt all his remaining mana in his body leave at once,manding the fire element to gather in a single point. A small dot of light shed in the middle of the group of kobolds onlysting for a second. The next moment, a sudden st of fire erupted from that point, incinerating all the kobolds. Yet one still remained, the variant. While standing, it was still stunned from the explosion. HP: 23/1000 Sol, feeling absolutely spent, gathered his remaining energy to run up and sh at the variant with all his might. His sword entered through the left shoulder of the variant kobold and traveled down all the way to the heart, cutting it in half. The sword, already worn down from years of usage, could notst any longer and snapped at the hilt, leaving the de stuck in the heart of the variant. You have in a Lv 21 Variant Kobold! Gained 2500 Exp. "I¡­ did it¡­" Seeing the notification message confirming its death, Sol¡¯s vision immediately went dark. Chapter 11: Mana Overdraft When Sol woke up, he felt as if he had been tossed around by a troll. With his body in pain, he mustered the energy to get up and assess his surroundings. The bodies of the kobolds were scattered everywhere away from where the st took ce, and the variant koboldy near the center with a metal de stuck in its chest. "Why do I feel so exhausted¡­" Trying to figure out why he felt this way, Sol opened his status page to find out more. MP: 0/100 "Ah¡­ I overdrafted." Mana overdraft is amon symptom many inexperienced mages face. When the spell they use costs more mana than what they have, it will most likely fail. But if the mana cost of the spell and the amount of mana the user has are not too far apart, the spell may seed using ambient mana to finish the spell. The downside of this is that it leaves the user with no mana, which makes them feel as if they ran a 24-hour marathon. The other symptom of mana overdraft is that the user¡¯s mana will not recover for a period of time. Sol had never used mana before, so he was not used to feeling these symptoms. "I need to take time to properly practice the skills I learned before using them in battle like that." When Sol used [Siphon], he gained the skills by experiencing them being used in his mind. While he could cast the spells without issue, he didn¡¯t have a proper understanding of the cost each spell had, nor had he properly incorporated them into his fighting style. Willing himself to move, he made his way to the variant¡¯s body. He smiled proudly and said, "At least it was worth it." Sol then used [Siphon] on the variant. Learned [Basic Unarmed Mastery] Lv 3! Learned [Snap Punch] Lv 2! ¡¯Now I don¡¯t need a weapon to fight enemies, though I would rather have one.¡¯ Slowly walking around the room, Sol used [Siphon] on all the kobolds. With them having almost no skills, there was no need to choose. Learned [Strength Up] Lv 1! [Basic Throwing] leveled up! (2 -> 4) [Foraging] leveled up! (4 -> 7) [Agility Up] leveled up! (1 -> 2) Once Sol finished learning the skills of the kobolds, he sat back down to rest and recover a bit more before heading out. Resting for 30 minutes, Sol felt better and decided it was time to leave. He walked out of the cave and headed back to the vige. On the way out, he didn¡¯t spot any other kobolds, so he judged they had all died, and the few that lived had escaped already. If a few kobolds really did escape, it wouldn¡¯t be an issue; they had no more reason to attack the farms with the variant dead, and even if they did, they were too few to pose a threat. Making it outside, Sol noticed that the sun was already up, and it was midday. From the moment Sol entered to the end of the fight, not much time actually passed, being only an hour. The rest was him passed out from the mana overdraft. "My first quest, and I spent the majority of it sleeping? What a grand start to my journey¡­" Eventually arriving at Nestral, he headed directly to the guards¡¯ house and met with them. The woman, upon hearing Sol¡¯s report, asked, "You found a variant? Well, that exins the odd behavior of the kobolds." The man nodded his head and said, "When you left, we wereter attacked by kobolds again. For a second, I thought you had perished." "I¡¯m sorry about that. I made a small mistake, but I managed to take down the variant along with most of the kobolds." "It¡¯s okay; things can¡¯t always go ording to n. But thank you; with this, your quest isplete. We will sign your quest paper so you can receive your reward at the guild." Sol handed over his paper to the man, and he walked away to find a pen to sign it. The woman still in the room asked Sol about his future ns, "Where do you n to go from here?" "I will keep heading north to Kerman city, where I n to stay for a while." The man walked into the room again and handed the quest paper to Sol. He then said, "On foot, the trip to Kerman city is 8 hours. Are you going to head out tonight? We have a spare bed here if you wish to stay the night and leave early tomorrow." Contemting his offer for a second, Sol decided to ept. Sol would rather not travel while having mana overdraft. "Thank you; that would be great." "No problem, I will show you where you can stay tonight." Led to an empty room, Sol finallyid down on the bed and rxed. Although Sol slept at the cave, it was on the floor and it wasn¡¯t real sleep as instead he was unconscious. Even though it was still daytime, Sol quickly fell asleep. On the morning of the next day, Sol woke up. Feeling much better than yesterday, he checked to see if this change is also reflected on his status. Name: Sol Race: Human Talent: [Siphoner] Level: 25 Exp: 13,200/35,000 HP: 300 MP: 100 Str: 45 (+5) Vit: 30 Agi: 30 (+10) Int: 10 Wis: 10 Avable Stats: 0 Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 2, [Analysis] Lv 1 Passive Skills: [Intermediate Swordsmanship] Lv 3, [Basic Trapmaking] Lv 1, [Silent Steps] Lv 2, [Parry] Lv 4, [Quick Cast] Lv 4, [Agility Up] Lv 2, [Foraging] Lv 7, [Basic Throwing] Lv 4, [Basic Unarmed Mastery] Lv 3, [Strength Up] Lv 1 Active Skills: [Cross sh] Lv 1, [Leap] Lv 6, [Basic Wind Magic] Lv 1, [Intermediate Fire Magic] Lv 4, [Snap Punch] Lv 2 "My mana is full again, and I don¡¯t feel the symptoms of mana overdraft anymore." Getting out of bed, Sol washed his body and changed to another set of clothes he had in his backpack. He then headed out to the kitchen and saw the two guards already there chatting with each other. "Morning, we¡¯re about to have breakfast; want to join us?" Sol nodded his head and took a seat. The trio ate their food and had some light discussion. It was a simple meal but Sol was never one to be picky and was starving after yesterday¡¯s encounter. "Thank you so much for letting me stay the night." n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "No worries; are you going to head out soon?" "I n on leaving right now actually." "Really? Well then, we wish you safe travels." "Thank you." Sol walked to leave the house but abruptly stopped after remembering something and turned around. "This is a bit awkward, but I never got your names." The guards looked at each other andughed. "Name¡¯s Jessie, and the idiot over there is James." "Who you calling an idiot!" The threeughed. "It¡¯s been nice meeting you two. Hopefully, we¡¯ll meet again in the future." After saying their goodbyes, Sol left the vige of Nestral and resumed his journey north towards Kerman city. Chapter 12: Fundamentals of Magic Following the dirt path up north, Sol continued on his journey. While having never traveled these parts or anywhere for that matter, he found it simple as he only needed to follow the path. While traveling, Sol started reflecting on his performance in the kobold cave and decided that while walking, he would practice some of his magic to gain a better understanding of them. He didn¡¯t want to enter another battle and identally spend all his mana and pass out like before. "I only know two spells from [Basic Wind Magic], [Tailwind] and [Wind Cutter]. The huntress I learned the skill from seemed to have recently picked up the skill." When Sol siphoned a skill, he obtained all the experience from the previous owner. For physical skills, this tended to not be an issue as it mainly improved his techniques and increased power. For magic, it worked a bit differently. Each level of any magic skill did not actually give the user new spells upon reaching them. The spellcaster needed to learn the spells on their own by studying under other mages or from magic books. The other, much harder way to learn spells was to research and create them from scratch, which was also a very dangerous endeavor. Luckily for Sol, he had a third way to learn them, with [Siphon]. Having already cast [Tailwind] before and knowing its effects, Sol chose to try out [Wind Cutter] first. "Gather and sh forward, [Wind Cutter]!" Holding his hand forward, Sol saw air gather in front of his palm beforeunching itself. It flew faster than an arrow and collided with a tree. Inspecting the mark left on the tree, Sol saw that the spell cut a third of the way through the tree before stopping. "It took 10 mana to cast, and it looks about as strong as my basic attack." While Sol had a much lower intelligence stat, being only 10, its power rivaled his 40 strength. The downside being that such a spell costs mana and could only be used 10 times before he ran out. Unlike his normal attack which he could use hundreds of times before getting tired. Getting a better understanding of his wind magic, Sol then moved on to try out his fire magic. Siphoning it from an experienced wizard, the fire spells he knew outnumbered his wind spells by a lot. The only problem was that all the spells were mostly for dealing damage,cking a lot of variety. "[Fire Bolt], [Fire st], [Fireball], [ming Sphere], [Explosion]. These all serve the same purpose, the only difference being the mana cost and power. It seemed the wizard only had a one-track mind for just doing the most damage possible." The only two non-attack fire spells he learned from the wizard were [Control me] and [Fire Wall]. "Last time I used [Explosion] as it was the strongest spell I knew, but I should stick to these weaker ones until I raise my wisdom a bit more." After giving every spell a try to gain a better grasp on their cost and impact, Sol had to stop for now as he was running low on mana. By the time the sun was at its peak, Sol guessed he was a little over halfway to the city. On the way there, he encountered other people traveling south but only exchanged greetings before the travelers continued on their way. Eventually, Sol did encounter some friendlier people willing to approach him. They traveled with a carriage, being pulled by 2 horses. There were 4 adventurers guarding the carriage, and when the merchant driving noticed him, he stopped the horses and greeted Sol. "Hey there, young man, are you heading to Kerman alone?" "Yeah, I am. I n to stay there for a while." "Really? I wouldn¡¯t rmend going there at this time." "Huh? Why?" "Frostaxe n has been getting real active at the bordertely. There might be another invasion soon." The Frostaxe n was the Kingdom of Crestelia¡¯s northern neighbors. They were a n of Orcs who had made the freezing Orna Mountains their home. While called a n, their numbers were simr to a small kingdom, and theirnd was much bigger than the Kingdom of Crestelia. The problem with their territory was that the majority of it was located in harsh Orna Mountains, making it hard for any civilization to truly prosper. The orcs who made it their home had developed special resistance against the cold, but even so, they wish to constantly expand to more habitablends. This ced them at eternal odds with Crestelia as they had plenty of rich soil and good weather almost all year round. The Frostaxe n had tried to invade and take thesends for the past 40 years to no avail, but every time they invaded, they caused a lot of casualties and destruction. Though Sol was from a small town, even he had heard of these invasions. "So soon? Didn¡¯t the army push them back a year ago?" "Yeah, but they¡¯re back again. On top of that, the bandits have been getting more active near the city, likely taking advantage of the chaos. Do you still intend to go?" After contemting for a second, Sol nodded his head. The other nearest town was a week away and he didn¡¯t have enough supplies to travel such a distance. The merchant helplessly shook his head at his response. "Alright, don¡¯t say I didn¡¯t warn you. Good Luck." The merchant then pulled on the reins, making the horses start moving again. The adventurers didn¡¯t say anything but gave Sol a nod of acknowledgment before following their employer. Sol watched them leave for a moment before turned around to continue on his way. ¡­ In a forest located not far from the city, four men hid behind some trees and watched the road. One of the men had a bored expression as he looked at their leader. "I still think we could have taken them." "Are you crazy? Why take the risk when half of our normal crew isn¡¯t here today. It¡¯s better to wait for easier prey." "But no one is going to leave the city at this time, and with those orcs causing trouble at the border, who woulde to the city?" "We know that, but news hasn¡¯t spread far yet. We can still catch a few unlucky people heading to the city, speaking of which." The man who seemed to be the leader looked at the path as he saw a skinny young man wearing simple clothes carrying a backpack making his way towards the city. They did notice he had a sword strapped to his waste, but who wouldn¡¯t travel with some iron for self defense? What really mattered was if they could wield it well and the young man¡¯s appearance they didn¡¯t believe it to be the case. "What about him boss?" "Look at him, he¡¯s got nothing on him, why bother?" Theckey insisted, "Hear me out boss, we can capture and sell him to the ck Market. Should fetch us a few gold. If he has a good talent, it might be hundreds of gold." "We don¡¯t do that Isaac, you know this." "Boss, c¡¯mon. We haven¡¯t got anything good recently and we even let that carriage slip past. You want us to starve?" The men all looked at their leader for his decision. The leader knew from their expressions that he had to make a choice he didn¡¯t agree with. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "Okay. Let¡¯s get in position then." The men then spread out to all directions to prevent any chance to escape, and when they were in position, the boss signaled them to start. Chapter 13: Bandits After his encounter with the merchant, Sol continued along the path and entered the forest. He encountered new creatures he had only read about before, and seeing them in person was an enjoyable experience. Sol had his guard down. Not being used to traveling, he was more focused on taking in the new sights, like a tourist. Even though the merchant had warned of bandits, Solpletely forgot, as it was overshadowed by the news of the Frostaxe n preparing to invade again. Suddenly, an arrow flew past Sol¡¯s face. Then, the four men moved into sight as the boss yelled at him. "Don¡¯t move, or the next one won¡¯t miss! Drop the bag!" Being threatened by bandits for the first time in his life, Solplied out of instinct and took off his backpack, tossing it on the ground. "I don¡¯t have much money, just some copper. Please let me go." The bandit who was bored before the encounter twirled his dagger while looking at Sol and, with a sinister smile, said, "Let you go? We don¡¯t want your damn copper, we want you." ¡¯What? What could they want from me?¡¯ Feeling he had to do something before they captured him, he used [Analysis] on the middle-aged bandit who looked like the leader. Name: Brock Race: Human Talents: [Axe], [Strong] Level: 22 HP: 310 MP: 110 Str: 41 (+10) Vit: 31 Agi: 21 Int: 6 Wis: 11 Talent Skills: [Fell Cleave] Lv 3 Passive Skills: [Basic Axemanship] Lv 9, [Strength Up] Lv 2 Active Skills: [Heavy Swing] Lv 4, [Leap] Lv 2, [Charge] Lv 2 ¡¯Wait, is he actually the weakest?¡¯ Quickly using [Analysis] on the other three, Sol discovered that the others were even weaker, being a level or two lower, and one hadn¡¯t even unlocked their second talent yet. ¡¯I would be more confident if I had a sword. My damage would increase greatly.¡¯ "Hey! Stop looking around, get on the ground!" Noticing that the banditcking a second talent was holding a sword, Sol sprung into action. "Make the wind move in my favor¡­" "Shit! He can use magic, shoot him!" "[Tailwind]!" Sol then dashed towards the sword-wielding bandit and, before the man could react, met him with a [Snap Punch] to his face. [Snap Punch] Lv 2: Throw a straight punch at high speeds. Chance of stunning target. Cooldown: 2 minutes. The bandit was knocked out andunched backward, dropping his sword. Sol quickly picked up the sword and kept running to make it difficult for the bandit archer tond a shot. Brock and the other bandit with a knife tried to give chase, but Sol was too fast for them. Before taking on the leader, Sol decided to go for the bandit archer first and remove him from the equation. Dodging an arrow and parrying the other, he quickly reached the archer. Unable to put up proper resistance, he was shed by Sol, breaking his bow in the process. Giving a regr punch to knock the archer unconscious, Sol returned his focus to Brock and the knife wielding bandit. "Leave, you can¡¯t win." "You¡¯re just a fast rat, get him, Isaac." The knife bandit, Isaac, sprinted forward much faster than before, and Brock used [Charge] to elerate as well. Seeing both run at him, Sol moved his empty hand towards Isaac and cast a spell. "Gather and sh forward, [Wind Cutter]!" A de of wind flew out and cut into Isaac¡¯s leg, making him fall to the ground. Brock charged past Isaac, getting close enough to attack, and used [Fell Cleave] on Sol. Deciding that parry might not work on such a strong attack, Sol decided to meet it with his strongest sword skill and used [Cross sh]. As the heavy axe met Sol¡¯s sword, sparks flew, and the weapons bounced off each other. "How?! That skill more than doubles my damage!" ¡¯Thebined effect of [Intermediate Swordsmanship] and [Cross sh] increases my damage by almost 300%.¡¯ Brock didn¡¯t use [Fell Cleave] again, likely because it was on cooldown. Sadly, Sol couldn¡¯t verify that as his [Analysis] skill was not high enough. Using his massive speed advantage, Sol attacked his limbs to neutralize him. After a few basic attacks, Brock couldn¡¯t fight anymore and dropped his axe, too weak to wield it. Sol took a moment to look around at the scene of the brawl. The bandit swordsman was still knocked out, with his body leaning against a tree. The bandit archer was sprawled on the ground, with a broken bow by his side. Isaac was awake but reeling in pain from his legs. Brock was kneeling on the ground, out of energy, with a defeated expression. "I guess this is where it ends. I guess you were right, Isaac. Should have gone for the carriage." "Nah boss, who could have guessed this would happen." With both bandits talking as if they had already died, Sol felt a bit awkward and interrupted. "Umm, I¡¯m not killing you guys." "Huh?" "You¡¯re not?" "Uhh, no. I was just going to take you to the city and turn you in." Both bandits looked at each other in disbelief. Brock then shook his head at Sol. "Kid, I would rather you kill me now." "What? I don¡¯t recall hitting you in the head." The thought, ¡¯How naive is this kid?¡¯ ran through Brock¡¯s mind. "Listen, it doesn¡¯t matter if you kill me now or turn me in to the city, as the oue will be the same. If the guards don¡¯t execute me on the spot, I will be jailed, and if lucky, I will be sent to the mines to work until I die. At worst, we will be killed at ater date. There is no good oue for us." "I see¡­" "If you understand, then it would be a mercy to kill us now rather than send us there. That or let us go." Sol was conflicted. He understood the truth, and the "good" solution would be to kill the bandits and move on. He would even gain benefits from doing so by using [Siphon]. But Sol couldn¡¯t muster the resolve to kill another human, he had never done it before. Sol had at most seen dead bodies of adventurers who died against wolves or other monsters but this was a step too far. If he didn¡¯t kill them and let them go, it was very likely the bandits would keep attacking others on the road. It¡¯s not like they can retire, move to the city, and live a simple life. There was still the option to turn them in to the city, but that would simply be taking the burden of killing them off him. The bandits would still die in the end, and that didn¡¯t sit well with Sol. Contemting for a long while, the bandits awaited his decision. "Let me ask you something, why did you be a bandit?" "...We all have different reasons. I used to be an adventurer, but a quest went awry, and a noble died. Since my party couldn¡¯t even catch the killer, the noble¡¯s family directed their anger toward us. I was the only one of my party to survive. Didn¡¯t have anywhere to go, had to make money somehow. One thing led to another, and¡­ well, here we are." "In Isaac¡¯s case, while he can be annoying at times¡­" "Hey! What does that have to do with why I became a bandit?" "Heh. Isaac is your average alley kid, used his [Quick Hands] talent to pickpocket. Got caught, but luckily escaped and joined our group. Very few choose to be bandits; it¡¯s simply the hand they were dealt." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "I see, I think I know what to do." Sol then backed away from Brock as he moved to where he had dropped his backpack. He picked it back up and began to walk away. "Wait. You¡¯re actually going to let us go?" "Yeah. It might be something I regret in the future, but right now it feels right." In shock at being given a second chance, Brock warned Sol. "Kid, you¡¯re naive as hell. Even if most didn¡¯t choose to be ouws, we have allmitted sins. We will likely go back to robbing others. Acting like that will eventually bite you in the ass." Brock didn¡¯t know why he was trying to give justification to Sol to kill them. Unknowingly to Brock, Sol reminded him of himself when he was younger and that made him want to warn him, to prevent Sol from repeating the same mistakes. "Maybe so, but I hope you take this opportunity to change your future. How long do you n to keep robbing others? Eventually, you will encounter another strong person like me and die at their hands instead. But I believe you can do better. You did not get a choice to be a bandit, but now is your chance to change that. Once I leave, you have a choice; you can choose to go back to banditry, or you can choose to do better. You can choose to do something that you truly want to do." Having no response to his rebuttal, Brock was silenced. "What I want to do¡­ I see¡­ In that case, I thank you for this chance." Sol waved as he walked away, hoping this was the right choice. Chapter 14: There is Always a Choice After Sol left the bandits, Brock gathered them all and retreated back to their base. Their base was located deep within the forest inside an abandoned mine. The mine itself was very small, initially believed to have gold but instead had a simr-looking ore called pyrite, better known as fool¡¯s gold. The mine was then quickly abandoned andter discovered by bandits, making it their home. Inside, a stench of alcohol lingered in the air as five men lounged around a makeshift table, drinking. Upon seeing Brock, one of the men waved him over. "Hey Boss! Got anything good today?" Brock, still in deep thought over Sol¡¯s words, didn¡¯t respond to their question. Isaac spoke up instead. "Man, we got messed up today. We found this guy who we thought was an easy mark, but hepletely whooped our butts. Luckily, he was an idiot and let us go, ain¡¯t that right, boss?" Still unresponsive, the bandits grew a bit worried, and Isaac nudged his shoulder. "Boss, are you good?" "Uhh, yeah. I¡¯m gonna go lie down in my room; it¡¯s been a long day." Brock then left the men and headed towards his room, lying on his bed. From his bed, he looked around his room and saw the state it was in. Originally the storage room of the mine, it was rather spacious and sparsely decorated with wooden furniture. The only two things of note in this room were the desk with letters sent between other bandit groups and ck market merchants and a rather big chest full of "spoils of war." ¡¯What¡¯s the point of all this money if I can only use it in the ck market? They upcharge the prices and only sell me things like weapons and crappy furniture. What¡¯s the point? At first, I became a bandit because I had nowhere to go, but is that true now?¡¯ The amount of money he had was more than enough to sustain a whole family for an entire year, but here it was rotting away. Wondering if this was all his life would amount to, he started to wish for something better. It might be toote to be an adventurer, but that wasn¡¯t the only option. ¡¯I can leave, go to another city, or even leave the kingdom. The Holy Kingdom of Delvania is a bit away, but it¡¯s doable. I can start from scratch.¡¯ With newfound determination, Brock decided to break the news to his men. "Boss, you¡¯re leaving? Why?" "That kid gave me a lot to think about, and I realized he was right. I may not have chosen to be a bandit, but that doesn¡¯t mean I have to stay as one. I don¡¯t want to be hunted by thew every day, nor do I want to die stealing gold." The bandits, hearing his deration, were speechless. They didn¡¯t know what to say, whether to encourage or dissuade him from leaving. After a moment of silence, one of the men asked a question. "Where will you go?" "Delvania. While I can¡¯t be an adventurer, as I have probably been cklisted, I can apply as a guard with my skills or something else. I am not totally sure yet. What I am sure of is that it will be on my terms." Seeing the resolute expression, they knew they couldn¡¯t persuade him to stay, and his words even affected some of them as well. Some of them, though, believed Brock was making a mistake. They believed that what they had going on right now was a pretty sweet deal. No responsibilities, a lot of money, booze, and some even liked ying with their captives. Brock, having led these men for years, knew what each of them was thinking. He then decided to give them all two options. "Boys, I¡¯m old, but I still want to live however many years I have left how I want to. You all, on the other hand, are still young, you have your entire life ahead of you; why waste it here? If you wish toe with me to Delvania, feel free to join me; let¡¯s turn over a new leaf." The bandits were stunned at his proposal, to just up and leave the kingdom. It was a big decision. After 30 minutes, half of the bandits decided to join Brock; the other half decided to stay. Of those who chose to stay, Isaac was included. He didn¡¯t believe he was fit for society with a talent like [Quick Hands], which he only believed was good for daggers and stealing. With that, the bandit group officially disbanded, with half leaving the next day hoping for a better future while the other half simply joined another bandit group, continuing the vicious cycle. ¡­ While a certain bandit group was making a big decision, Sol arrived at Kerman city, surrounded by a 10-meter high stone wall. ¡¯Woah, thispletely overshadows the wall back in Initium. That one was only 3 meters.¡¯ Upon getting closer to the city, he saw the gate with a small line of only 5 groups entering. Queuing up as well, the line moved quickly and was eventually facing a guard. The guard appeared very bored but proceeded with his job. "Identification?" Sol then showed his adventurer¡¯s card, silently hoping they didn¡¯t figure out it¡¯s a fake. "Alright, 5 copper." "Huh, there¡¯s a fee?" "What did you think? All visitors need to pay to enter the city." Opening his backpack to find his money, Sol sighed in relief to find out he had enough and paid the guard. The guard confirmed the money and responded monotonously. N?v(el)B\\jnn "Pass on in." After encountering a man who clearly didn¡¯t enjoy his job, Sol entered Kerman city and looked around. He saw a big cobblestone road wide enough to fit two carriages that stretched all the way into the heart of the city. On the sides, there were buildings of all kinds, and from the distance, he saw two incredibly tall towers which he believed were mage towers. ¡¯Finally, I made it.¡¯ Chapter 15: Kerman City Making it to the city, Sol was a bit overwhelmed and didn¡¯t know where to go at first, but soon decided to simply head to the Adventurers Guild. After getting directions from a friendly passerby, he quickly made his way and arrived at the building. The Adventurers Guild of Kerman was much grander than the one in Initium. Instead of wood, the building was made from bricks, and it was almost double the size, reaching four stories tall. Sol almost missed the ce until he saw the sword, cane, and shield emblem that represented the Adventurers Guild. Walking inside, Sol saw multiple receptionists attending the adventurers and noticed that some lines were ridiculously long. ¡¯Why is everyone lining up over there? There are 3 other lines with almost no people.¡¯ Peeking at the front of the line out of curiosity, Sol noticed that all the long lines had a beautiful receptionist attending them. Understanding the reason why those lines were long, Sol chuckled as he made his way to a male receptionist who looked bored as he waited for someone to approach. Seeing Sol approach, the male straightened himself as he smiled at him. Now standing straight, Sol saw the receptionist¡¯s name tag which read: Trevor. "Wee! What can I help you with?" "Hey, I want to turn in a quest." Sol handed over the quest papers, and Trevor checked over the details. "Oh wow, that was fast. We just put that quest up on the board. Did you ept this somewhere else?" "Yeah, I was nning to stay in this city for a while and I took this quest on the way." "I see, it also says here that you encountered a variant kobold? Did you obtain any proof?" "No, was I supposed to?" Trevor nodded his head. "While you can stillplete the quest, encountering a variant could raise the grade of the quest, giving you more points to rank up. Just cutting off a piece of their body like an ear or finger would be enough as we have people who can use [Analysis] and identify the level and type of creature." ¡¯Ah, that¡¯s unfortunate, Ipletely forgot about that as encountering a variant is unbelievably rare.¡¯ "Welp, if there is a next time, I will make sure to bring proof." "Sorry I can¡¯t be of more help. Here¡¯s the reward for the quest." Sol then received the 5 silver reward and pocketed it, but before leaving, asked Trevor a question. "I n to stay here for a while. Do you know any good ces to stay?" He nodded with a friendly smile, "There is a good inn called The Rusty Bed. Don¡¯t let the name fool you, the owner just has a bad sense of humor. It¡¯s pretty cheap, only being 50 copper a night, breakfast included, and they usually have rooms avable." Not knowing how to react to that name, Sol simply nodded his head. "... Alright, I¡¯ll trust you on that." "Trust me. You won¡¯t regret it." Sol then said his farewells and left the guild building and looked at the sun nearing the horizon. ¡¯I wille check the quests avable tomorrow. It¡¯s alreadyte, so I should head to the inn.¡¯ He hesitated on following Trevors advice but decided to trust the man¡¯s suggestion. At worst he would simply go to another inn. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Arriving at The Rusty Bed, Sol noticed it appeared to be a normal inn. Besides the odd name that stands out, the other thing of note is that on the signboard instead of a normal picture of a bed, it is instead a bed with a leg broken being tilted to the side. Beginning to find the humor in the theme they were going for, Sol chuckled. ¡¯Ok, that¡¯s a bit funny.¡¯ Entering the inn, Sol saw a wide room with tables scattered around and a stage on the far end. Near the entrance was a counter attended by a middle aged woman. "Hello dear, wee to The Rusty Bed." "Hi, do you have any rooms avable?" "Yes, of course! How many nights would you be staying?" While Sol ns to stay in the city for a while, he doesn¡¯t have enough money to stay for a long time. "For now, four nights. Would it be possible to extend my stayter?" She nodded, "You can extend your stay however long you want, though you need to pay in advance." Finding it fair, Sol handed over 2 silver and received a key. "Your room is the 3rd door on the right. Breakfast is at any time before noon; just let us know, and we will whip something up for you. Also, every Friday is open stage night, feel free toe and enjoy the shows." ¡¯A show?¡¯ He¡¯s never been to a show before and was curious to attend one. "Sure, I¡¯ll go if I have time." Sol then went to his room. Upon entering, he found it was actually much nicer than his actual home back in Initium. Although the room was the same size, the furniture was much nicer, and there was even a table with 4 chairs. Leaving his backpack on the table, Sol threw himself onto the bed and enjoyed the soft mattress. ¡¯With this, I truly begin my adventure. Currently, I am too weak to really make an impact, so I should focus on getting stronger first. Tomorrow I will head over to the guild and see what quests I can take.¡¯ The next day, Sol woke up early in the morning and ate the breakfast provided by the inn. He then made his way over to the guild. Going to the E rank quest board, Sol looked at his options. ¡¯Find Frost Thistles¡­ obtain Moonlight Water¡­ rescue a missing cat?¡¯ Looking through the E rank quest, almost all of them didn¡¯t involvebat and were mostly gathering type quests. Only three quests involve any sort of fighting. ¡¯y Goblins, Pest Control: Giant Termite, Gather Wolf Teeth. These are the only quests I can take that involvebat. In other words, it¡¯s the only quest that will gain me skills and experience.¡¯ While Sol has siphoned skills off his enemies, he couldn¡¯t actually level them up himself. For example, Sol¡¯s [Intermediate Swordsmanship] level would take years of dedicated training to level up once, unlike someone who had the talent [Sword] who could reliably increase its level from training. The only skills Sol was actually able to level by training were [Siphon] and [Analysis]. So to keep improving, he had to take on quests that allowed him to use [Siphon] to gain and increase the level of his skills. ¡¯Speaking of which I need to use [Analysis] more. While [Siphon] has leveled up, I have barely used [Analysis] unless I¡¯m inbat. I should use it whenever I can.¡¯ Sol then realized that he hadn¡¯t even inspected his "new" sword either and quickly checked its details. Iron Sword Common Attack: 15-20 Durability: 250/275 ¡¯It¡¯s still better than my old sword.¡¯ Bringing his attention back to the quests, Sol decided to take all three of the fighting rted quests and in addition to that, he took every quest rted to herbs. ¡¯While I¡¯m outside I can use [Foraging] to find the herbs easily while looking for enemies. Completing so many quests will rank me up faster so I can take on better quests.¡¯ Taking the small bundle of papers, Sol went to the reception area to ept those quests. Finding Trevor¡¯s counter empty again, he went to him. "Hey! Did you stay at The Rusty Bed?" "Yeah, you were right. It was surprisingly good." Trevor nodded his head in agreement. "So what can I help you with?" "I nned to ept these quests." "Sure, let me just see them real qui- woah man! Why so many?" "Well, I nned toplete the gathering ones while I searched for the goblins, termites, and wolves." "Do you have [Foraging] or something?" "Yeah." "Ah, that makes sense then. Alright, I will process it. Just give me one moment." Sol was then given a single paper with the information of all his epted quests. "Alright, with that, you should be able to leave the city, and the guards won¡¯t charge you for it." Trevor advised as there have been cases before where gate guards would trick new adventurers to pay for the entrance fee anyways and pocket the money. "Thank you, Trevor." "Just doing my job. Stay safe out there, Sol." Parting ways with Trevor, Sol made his way out of the city to begin his mass questing spree. Chapter 16: E-Rank Quests As the ranks of the quests were all E-rank, Sol did not have a hard timepleting them. When he found the targets of the quests, he could kill them in a single attack. The only problem he faced was taking too much time finding the enemies to kill for his quest, but when he did, they were killed easily. On the bright side, it gave him a lot of time to use [Foraging], finding all the herbs to turn in all his gathering quests; some could even be turned in twice with the amount he found. [Foraging] Lv 7: Ability to find food, herbs, and other wild nts. Range of detection: 7 meters. For every level up, it increased the range he could detect, andbining it with [Analysis], he quickly found all he needed. Sol would have gathered more, but his backpack was already full to the brim, and trying to stuff any more would crush them. While he was done with the gathering quests, it took Sol 3 more hours toplete the monster ying quests. As an additional benefit from using [Siphon], he gained a few new skills, mostly thanks to the goblins. [Basic Bowmanship] Lv 2: Increase damage with Bows by 10%. [Sprint] Lv 2: Temporarily increase base movement speed by 10%. Duration: 10 seconds. Cooldown: 3 minutes. Surprisingly, the giant termite gave Sol a good skill. [Harden] Lv 4: Hardens the user¡¯s skin, increasing defense by 20. Duration: 40 seconds. Cooldown: 5 minutes. ¡¯When active, it will be the same as wearing leather armor.¡¯ Defense is a stat that ismonly seen in armor, with a fullmon leather set usually providing around 20 to 25 defense. Sol sadly had never been able to buy armor as it was expensive, and he never had the funds to spend on what he used to consider a luxury. In addition to gaining new skills, he had leveled up old ones too. Repeated use of [Analysis] had brought it up to level 2, increasing its potency. At higher levels, [Analysis] could even work on those higher levels than him and prate through skills like [Block Perception]. The only thing that [Analysis] wouldn¡¯t work on was the equipment people were actively wearing. From the skills he has siphoned, [Leap] and [Agility Up] leveled up once, but sadly the number of wolves he killed was not enough to raise [Cross sh]. "All in all, the gains from this one trip are great. If I do this a few more times, I should also be able to rank up." Sol then made his way back to the guild to turn in the quests, once again seeing Trevor alone while the lines for three beautiful receptionists have at least 15 people in each of them. At this point, Sol feels that it has to be more than just their beauty, right? Even women line up for their line instead of other shorter ones. "Hey Trevor, I¡¯m back. I have been meaning to ask, but why are most people lining up at their lines? It can¡¯t be just because they are beautiful." "Well, that may be the reason for some of them, but the majority line up for their talents." "What talents do they have?" "They all have the [Nurturer] talent." "All three of them have the talent? Isn¡¯t [Nurturer] a rare talent?" Rare talents are talents people unlock at level 3. While talents are not officially ranked by the system, people have implemented the same ranking of items to them as it seemed appropriate. Level 2 talents aremon, level 3 is rare, level 4 is unique, and level 5 is legendary. This does not necessarily mean that higher-ranked talents equal more powerful, but generally are considered better by most. The [Nurturer] talent is especially rare even for its level as it gives them the talent skill [Nurture]. The skill increases the growth of skills and makes them level up much faster. There are only two downsides: the first being that it will eventually run out, having to be reapplied every 24 hours and the other is that it has a level cap on who it can be applied to. As the skill level increases, the growth percentage rises, and it also increases the level cap. "Yeah, our guild branch really lucked out in discovering those three; currently, they can give their buffs up to level 50 people." n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om ¡¯Wow, that¡¯s insane, I am a little tempted to line up now as well, but it would not do much for me.¡¯ As Sol¡¯s talent only made leveling [Siphon] and [Analysis] possible there was no real reason to gain the buff. Instead of lining up, he could spend it spamming [Analysis] or using [Siphon] the dead. Trevor asked Sol with some resignation. "Do you n to line up as well?" "I thought about it, but no, I don¡¯t think it would be worth it for me." Hearing his response, Trevor was ted. "Really?! I¡¯m d!" "Huh? Why?" "Well, it¡¯s because I rarely get to do anything whenever it¡¯s their shift. So I just spend it doing nothing. While at first I was fine with getting paid to just sit here, eventually, it just became so boring that I started to hate it." "Damn, sorry to hear that, man." "It¡¯s okay, luckily a few people stille to my counter. Speaking of which, how can I help you?" "Oh yeah. I n to turn in my quests." "Sure, which ones?" Sol opened his backpack showing it packed full of herbs, wolf teeth, goblin ears, and termite antennae to Trevor. "All of them." "Woah, you really went all out. Are you past level 10?" Sol nodded. "Ah, I see, well, let me get this processed real quick." After verifying the parts and counting them, Sol in totalpleted all 23 quests and 6 repeatpletions. "Alright, the total reward is 78 silver and puts you one fourth of the way over to D-rank." Sol received the reward and asked Trevor. "Really? So I just need to do three more rounds of these quests and I rank up?" "Yep, soon you¡¯ll be able to take better and more lucrative quests." "Sounds great! I¡¯ll see if I can rank up in the next few days then. Thanks, Trevor." "No problem, Sol." Leaving the Adventurers Guild, Sol grabbed something to eat before heading back to The Rusty Bed to rest for the night. Chapter 17: A Mistake Sol spent the next 3 days repeating the quests. He took the chance to buy a bigger backpack to store more items to bring back as well. Overall, his gains from doing these E-Rank quests had already surpassed what Sol used to gain in a year back in Initium. Granted, he only took one quest, and it was to just leave the town; he still was amazed by how much money he was making. Currently, Sol was on his fourth trip doing the quests, making this thest one he needed to rank up. Normally, it would take a normal E-Rank adventurer at least a month to produce these results, but by making use of a single skill for gathering herbs, it created outstanding results. In addition to that, thanks to [Siphon], Sol was able to level up [Leap] and [Strength Up] by one, [Harden] and [Sprint] by two, and [Analysis] by one from repeated usage. Halfway through the day, he was traveling through the forest, with a better grasp of theyout, he knew the better spots to search for his quest targets. "All I am missing from the monster quests is the termites; I always find them near the road to the city." Making his way to the road he initially took when he arrived at Kerman, he heard the sounds of fighting. At first, it didn¡¯t surprise Sol as he had encountered other individuals and parties hunting in these woods, but it sounded like it came from the road. Finding it odd, he went to investigate. Upon arriving Sol saw a carriage being attacked by bandits. 6 guards were defending against 14 bandits, and the guards were losing ground. Sol was about to leap in to help the guards until he was shocked at who the bandits were. He recognized two of them from when he was attacked on his way to Kerman city. ¡¯No¡­ I let them go, and they really just went back to stealing. Was I wrong? Should I not have let them go?¡¯ Hundreds of thoughts raced through his mind as he felt regret from his actions. He truly thought he might have convinced them to strive for a better future, but seeing them still in their ways, Sol was stunned. The fight did not wait for Sol as eventually, one of the guards was struck down by the dagger-wielding bandit Isaac. Seeing this brought Sol back to reality. ¡¯Now is not the time! I need to help them, and I can¡¯t hold back!¡¯ Sol then used [Sprint] as he dashed into the fray, using [Leap] to quickly approach and sh down with his sword at the nearest enemy, killing him instantly. The bandits were surprised but kept fighting as it wasn¡¯t the first time someone intervened in their robbery. The guards, on the other hand, were ted at the reinforcements and fought with more vigor. Blocking out the fact he just killed another human, he focused on the fact he was saving others. "Make the wind move in my favor, [Tailwind]!" Casting a spell to move even faster, Sol dashed between the bandits, shing at them with a force he didn¡¯t know he had, killing most bandits in one hit. Those who survived the initial attack were quickly met with a second, sealing their fate. Seeing his friends die to Sol, a bandit screamed at their leader. "This guy is too strong! We gotta get out of here!" Isaac, who was focused on fighting the guards, turned to look at who was interfering with them and was shocked upon seeing Sol. "Fuck! It¡¯s you!" Seeing three more bandits fall to his de within seconds, Isaac started running away. ¡¯Shit! He isn¡¯t holding back this time! I need to hide!¡¯ Before he could get very far, Sol chanted from a distance. "Burn my foe to cinders, [Fireball]!" From Sol¡¯s extended hand, a ball of fire a meter wideunched towards Isaac. He tried to dodge out of the way but was still hit by half of the sphere, burning his body. "AHHH! IT BURNS!" Still living after the st, Isaac was left rolling on the floor in pain. Seeing that he was out ofmission for now, Sol focused his attention back to the bandits still fighting, wanting to prevent any more innocent deaths that he caused. Making quick work of the remaining bandits, the carriage and the people were finally safe. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Knowing the area was now safe, a chubby middle-aged man walked out of the carriage and introduced himself. "Thank you for saving us! My name is Hughbert, a merchant of the Ster Trading Company. While I thank you on behalf of thepany for saving my merchandise, I truly wish to thank you for saving my son and daughter. Come out, children, and say thank you." Out from the carriage, two little heads peeked out, still a little shook from the encounter. Both were still children looking around 10 to 12 years old. The little girl spoke out first. "Thank you!" "Yeah! Thank you, mister!" Hearing the word mister, Sol cringed a bit as he wasn¡¯t even 20 yet. "I¡¯m sorry I couldn¡¯te sooner." The guilt from letting the bandits go still weighed heavily on his mind. "Nonsense! If it weren¡¯t for you, those bandits would have killed us." Being reminded of the bandits, Sol turned to look at the scene of the fight with bodies of the dozen bandits dead on the ground. The fact he killed them all made Sol feel nauseous. "Speaking of which, young man. What do you n to do with them?" "Pardon?" "The bodies. You basically killed them all on your own, so I say you earned it. Do you want us to help you take them back to the city for the reward?" Not having dealt with bandits before, as Initium was lucky to rarely have bandits, Sol was unaware that bandits could be turned in for a bounty. The reward itself could be considered very generous to the point people have dedicated themselves to doing it for a living,monly known as bounty hunters. "No, it¡¯s okay. I just need a moment." Seeing the look on his face, Hughbert started to understand this may have been his first kill. "I see, young man, I have an offer for you." Chapter 18: Profiting off The Dead "Hmm?" "If you don¡¯t wish to take them to the city, that¡¯s fine, but they still need to be buried or incinerated to prevent them from rising as zombies and attacking others. We can bury them for you, but in return, I ask you to allow me to take their weapons and armor as those can still be sold. Of course, you will be fairlypensated. How does 50 gold sound?" The guards were shocked at the offer. Not at the burying of the bodies but at the gold he offered. Fifty for a few used weapons and armor? That amount could get someone 2 rare-ranked items. Could it be as thanks for saving their lives? Out of professionalism, none of the guards spoke up. Sol, on the other hand, thought a bit negatively of the merchant for exploiting the dead. But not wanting to leave the bodies out to rot or even worse, rise back as undead, he decided to ept his offer. Little did Sol know that Hughbert gave these terms on purpose to ease the burden of his first kill. "Great! Here is 50 gold." Sol epted the money silently and watched as the guards stripped the bandits of their gear one by one and took them to one side of the road. It was done quickly and efficiently like they had done this many times before. As he watched the guards move the bodies, a thought crept up from the back of his mind. ¡¯I should [Siphon] the bodies.¡¯ He was stuck in a predicament. While he knew he needed to use [Siphon] to grow stronger, more specifically use it on humans who had more skills and variety, he couldn¡¯t bring himself to profit off their deaths. He went back and forth between siphoning and not until he realized something. ¡¯I have already done it once before and I need to do it more to be stronger. If I hold myself back, I will never achieve anything.¡¯ With shaky resolve, Sol went and siphoned the skills off all the bodies. Since it had no visual effects when using [Siphon], it just looked like he was walking and seeing everybody one by one as if inspecting the people he killed. Seeing this, Hughbert shook his head and sighed, thinking Sol was feeling regretful for killing a bandit. Eventually, they arrived at the body of Isaac and noticed he was still alive, breathing irregrly with burn marks covering half of his body. "This one is still alive, Sir Hughbert. Should I finish him?" Giving a nce at Sol, Hughbert looked back at the guard and nodded. Sol winced as the guard¡¯s sword stabbed into Isaac¡¯s chest quickly ending his life. "Young man, this may be hard to watch, but we cannot show mercy to these people. If we let them go, they will go on to attack others." Sol nodded his head as he understood exactly what Hughbert was saying. After all, he just experienced it first hand what would happen if he let them go. Sol then looked at the guard¡¯s lifeless body being ced in the carriage and hardened his resolve. ¡¯Never again. I will not let this happen ever again.¡¯ Once all the bodies were buried, Hughbert started preparing to move. He then saw Sol looking at the dirt mounds and decided to help him out. "Young man, would you like to join us heading back to the city?" Snapping Sol back to reality, he responded to the merchant. "Yes, thank you." Sitting inside the carriage on the way back to the city, the children kept pestering Sol. "It was so cool! The way you ran so fast between them, ending in a single hit!" The boy then mimicked sword shes with whooshing sounds. Sol denied it, "It wasn¡¯t that impressive." "Yes, it was! And then when one was getting away, you made that big ball of fire! It flew so fast and took him out!" Sol throughout the ride back was being constantly praised by the children who saw him fight, and at some point during the trip back, he started ying with them andughing. Upon seeing this, Hughbert smiled and gave himself a pat on the back. ¡¯The boy¡¯s dark thoughts seem to have been pushed away for now.¡¯ On reaching the city, they decided to part ways. The children said their thanks again, and Hughbert had a quick chat with Sol. "It¡¯s been nice meeting you Sol. Remember toe visit my shop; I¡¯ll be sure to give you a great discount." "Haha sure, thank you, Hughbert. I¡¯ll be sure to stop by if I need anything." The store Hughbert managed was an exotic herbs shop under the g of the Ster Trading Company. He profited off importing herbs that didn¡¯t grow in the kingdom from the neighboring territories. Because it involved crossing borders, it was way more lucrative than simply moving goods within the kingdom. The downside was it was much more dangerous. Many apothecaries and alchemists frequented his store as his merchandise was one of the most varied in the city. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Parting ways with the group, Sol was feeling much better and headed straight for the guild. Like usual, he went straight to Trevor¡¯s counter and turned in the quest items. "32 E-Rank questsplete for a total of 1 gold and 6 silver. Congrats Sol! With that, you have officially ranked up to D-Rank!" "Phew, I was worried for a second as I didn¡¯t get to finish them all today." Trevor shook his head. "You were just shy of ranking up, so even 10 more would have done it. Hand over your adventurers card and I¡¯ll change it to your new rank." Handing over the card, Trevor went away to process his new rank. While Sol was mentally exhausted after today¡¯s events he couldn¡¯t help but feel a little excited to finally reach his first milestone. It didn¡¯t take long for Trevor toe back and present to him his new card. Looking much better than his previous bronze card, this one was made of iron instead. The status information on the card did not change except for the rank stating D instead of E. ¡¯With this I can now take on better quests; I should go check on the D-Rank board tomorrow and see if any quests stand out.¡¯ Thanking Trevor for his help, Sol made his way back to The Rusty Bed to sleep and recover. Chapter 19: Gearing Up Next day, Sol felt much better and, with renewed energy, headed over to the Adventurers Guild to check out the new quests. Looking through the avable quests, Sol noted that they were generally meant for adventurers who were around level 15 to 25. While he was within that range, he felt that the difficulty increase didn¡¯t go up by much, but the real issue came with the time it took toplete them. Some required clearing out encampments, others obtaining items from dungeons, and a few were to hunt down bosses or variants. ¡¯Overall, these quests look rather easy, but that¡¯s because of my current status, which is much stronger than the average D-Rank.¡¯ Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner] Level: 25 Exp: 14,430/35,000 HP: 400 MP: 100 Str: 45 (+10) Vit: 30 (+10) Agi: 30 (+10) Int: 10 Wis: 10 Avable Stats: 0 Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 2, [Analysis] Lv 3 Passive Skills: [Intermediate Swordsmanship] Lv 3, [Basic Trapmaking] Lv 3, [Silent Steps] Lv 5, [Parry] Lv 5, [Quick Cast] Lv 4, [Agility Up] Lv 2, [Foraging] Lv 7, [Basic Throwing] Lv 6, [Basic Unarmed Mastery] Lv 3, [Strength Up] Lv 2, [Basic Bowmanship] Lv 4, [Basic Axemanship] Lv 4, [Iron Stomach] Lv 2, [Tracking] Lv 5, [Vitality Up] Lv 2 Active Skills: [Cross sh] Lv 1, [Leap] Lv 8, [Basic Wind Magic] Lv 1, [Intermediate Fire Magic] Lv 4, [Snap Punch] Lv 2, [Sprint] Lv 5, [Harden] Lv 6, [Power Shot] Lv 2, [Concealment] Lv 3, [Wide Swing] Lv 4 ¡¯Sadly, I cannot take the rank-up test to skip this, as they will also check my status page to confirm if I qualify. On the bright side, the number of quests needed to rank up from D-Rank is much less than E-Rank because the quests take longer toplete. I can also take on dungeons, but currently, I don¡¯t need to level up; I need to rank up and gain more skills.¡¯ Starting at D-Rank, adventurers¡¯bat capabilities were proven enough that they could challenge dungeons. These dungeons were created by the God of Transformation, Proteus, by using the raging mana in the atmosphere and focusing it into one location. The end result was dungeons, semi-sentient creations that produced monsters and traps. These ces, while dangerous, were perfect for people to level up. They just had to be careful not to be killed and consumed by the dungeon. After looking through all the options for a while, Sol eventually decided to take the Goblin Camp Extermination quest. His reasoning was that goblins are humanoids and tend to use weapons, so their skills would be rted to them, and it would be more beneficial to Sol to [Siphon] those than clearing out another monster nest. In addition to that, the quest stated that the group was led by a goblin shaman, and Sol hoped to obtain its magic skills from them. After epting the quest, Sol headed out, and before leaving to the location, he decided it was best to spend some money buying armor and a new weapon. Even if it was an easy quest killing goblins, it was better to be safe than sorry. Stopping by an armor shop, Sol outfitted himself withmon leather armor, increasing his total defense by 25. Common rarity gear did not provide any skills or special traits, but it was rtively cheaper, only costing Sol 3 gold. With the rest of the gold in Sol¡¯s possession, he decided to spend it on acquiring a rare weapon and headed to a cksmith to see their selection. Overwhelmed by the number of weapons at first, Sol used [Analysis] on them all to find the best weapon that suits him. After going through them, he found two that stood out the most. Warhawk¡¯s Talon Rare Attack: 50-60 Durability: 750/750 n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Skills: [Sharpness] Lv 4, [Pration] Lv 4 Crystal de Rare Attack: 45-50 Durability: 600/600 Skill: [Spell Focus] Lv 4, [Mana Regen] Lv 4 Warhawk¡¯s Talon was focused on pure physical damage. The skill [Sharpness] increased damage by a further 40%, and [Pration] ignored 20% of the enemy¡¯s defense. If Sol wielded this weapon, his damage would increase by more than double. Crystal de, on the other hand, was created for swordsmen who could also use magic. [Spell Focus] increased magic damage by 40%, and [Mana Regen] increased the regeneration speed by 40%. This weapon would make magic much more viable to cast more duringbat as he was currently only able to cast it once or twice. After deliberating the options, Sol ended up buying Warhawk¡¯s Talon. Sol¡¯s current strengthy in his swordsmanship and physical skills. While magic has the potential to be incredibly useful, Sol doesn¡¯t have the current stats and skills to use it like a proper mage. He iscking important skills that increase regen, empower spells, and doesn¡¯t even have [Intelligence Up] or [Wisdom Up]. The sword ended up costing him 32 gold, being one of the better rare-ranked weapons in the store. This left Sol with a little over 18 gold. Taking the chance to look around item stores for any interesting tools or items he could use, he ended up buying nothing. The only item he found he truly wanted was a rare space ring that had a pocket space that one could store whatever they wanted inside. Sadly, the cost of the cheapest 1-meter cube space ring started at 100 gold. The only item of simr nature he could find with his budget was a porter¡¯s backpack with a spatial enchantment cast on it. The weight of the backpack didn¡¯t change, but it could hold triple of what his old bag could hold. It only cost him 5 gold for the backpack, so Sol took the deal. With his newly increased carrying capacity, Sol went and bought a few more things he would need on the road and left toplete his first D-Rank Quest. Chapter 20: Goblin Camp Deep in the forest outside of Kerman city existed a small encampment created by goblins. Originally spread throughout the forest, not posing much of a threat, they had gathered under the banner of a leader. Their leader was a goblin shaman who was believed to be around level 18. ¡¯Or at least that¡¯s what the description says.¡¯ Sol was currently hiding in the branches of a tree, using the vantage point to look over the small encampment. The goblins were surprisingly decent at building simple structures, as their camp was surrounded by a fence with tall trees being used as lookout towers. Inside the camp, Sol saw a few simple huts and one which was twice the size of the others. ¡¯That one should be the shaman¡¯s.¡¯ While Sol could burst into the camp, killing all goblins on the side, he learned from his previous experience with the kobolds to never underestimate a quest. Things could always go sideways with unexpected variables, so he nned to watch the camp until he saw the shaman and used [Analysis] on him. Name: Werble Race: Goblin Talents: [Water Affinity], [Rituals] Level: 19 HP: 150 MP: 350 Str: 10 Vit: 15 Agi: 20 Int: 25 Wis: 30 (+5) Talent Skills: [Aqua¡¯s Protection] Lv 3, [Healing Ritual] Lv 1 Passive Skills: [Quick Cast] Lv 2, [Increased Mana Regen] Lv 3, [Leadership] Lv 1, [Wisdom Up] Lv 1 Active Skills: [Basic Water Magic] Lv 6, [Basic Rituals] Lv 2 ¡¯It¡¯s not strong; if I can surprise attack it before it can cast any spells, it will die in one hit.¡¯ Looking around for the best area to sneak in, Sol made his way through the back of the camp with [Silent Steps]. ¡¯Once I take out the shaman, all the other goblins will be lightwork.¡¯ Sneaking through the back of the encampment, Sol tried to do it as quietly as possible, but there were moments he had to silence goblins who were in the way. The most problematic goblin was one who was up in a tree keeping lookout. Sol had to use [Basic Throwing] to throw a rock to knock it down from the tree and [Sprint] to run up and quickly finish him off. ¡¯I should buy something to deal damage from a distance; I don¡¯t want to make noise casting spells. Maybe knives or a bow would work.¡¯ After quickly using [Siphon], Sol proceeded to sneak into thergest hut. He saw no one was currently inside and looked for a good hiding spot. With ack of furniture, it made it hard to find a good ce to hide. Luckily while looking around, Sol noticed the roof of the hut had a support beam he could fit in if he squeezed himself. Getting up the beam, Sol got in position. All that was left was to wait until the shaman decided to go back to his home to rest. Unfortunately for Sol, after waiting for over an hour, he regretted choosing this spot. ¡¯Damn, this is way more ufortable than I thought.¡¯ Having to stay there for an extended period, his body got a sore, but luckily not long after thinking that, a figure made its way into the hut. It was the goblin shaman; it walked towards one of the fur rugs on the ground and lifted it, seemingly looking for something. ¡¯This is my chance!¡¯ Dropping from the support, Sol fell on the shaman and with a sword in hand used [Cross sh]. "Gree?!" Against Sol¡¯s expectations, the shaman survived. The moment his sword was about to end the shaman, a veil of water protected him at thest moment and shattered. Not too surprised since Sol saw his status beforehand, he immediately followed up with another [Cross sh]. You have in a Lv 19 Goblin! Gained 300 Exp. Confirming its death, Sol then left to clear out the rest of the camp. The sounds of goblins dying filled the air for the next half hour. "Heuman!" n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "Arghh!" "Ree!" Eventually, Sol cleared them all, and silence returned to the forest. After sheathing his sword, Sol wiped his brow. "Phew, that was pretty easy. They didn¡¯t know what to do once I killed their leader." Once done, he then proceeded to use [Siphon] on all the bodies. There were almost a hundred goblins in the camp, and likely because of having a leader to guide them, the quality of skill was higher than random goblins in the forest. Many skills leveled up, but the two most important that leveled up were [Intermediate Swordsmanship] and [Siphon]. [Intermediate Swordsmanship] Lv 4: Increases sword damage by 140%. [Siphon] Lv 3: Siphon 2 skills from dead beings. Increased efficiency, lowers the longer they are dead. ¡¯It took much longer to raise my swordsmanship by only siphoning the basic version of the skill. If I am correct, the amount needed to increase its level by one takes 10 times more effort. Siphon also changed, but sadly it didn¡¯t increase the number of skills, though it seems I am no longer limited by the time of death.¡¯ Compared to the level 3 version of the skill, [Siphon] did not seem to have changed much, but it no longer required the bodies to be recent. Another thing that Sol almost missed was that it can be used on multiple bodies at a time. The bodies still needed to be close, around 10 meters, but it made siphoning bodies much faster and easier. Once done with all the normal goblins, Sol made his way back to the hut of the goblin shaman and siphoned him too. Between the four options avable, Sol decidedly chose [Basic Water Magic] for the first one, but the second one was a bit harder to choose. He didn¡¯t need [Quick Cast] as it wouldn¡¯t be enough to level it up, but he was very curious at what [Basic Rituals] could do. In the end, he decided to pick a skill he was reallycking, which was [Increased Mana Regeneration], as it would allow him to use not only magic but skills that cost mana like [Cross sh] more often. Finished with the shaman, Sol was just about done with the camp but remembered the shaman looking for something in the hut before attacking him. Looking under the fur rug, he found a dug-out hole with a small box inside. Opening the box, he found a leather-bound book and a small idol. On reading the cover, Sol realized it is an introductory book on water magic. From the spells he learned from the shaman, it seemed they only got halfway through the book. If Sol wished to learn the rest of the spells, he would have to use [Siphon] on someone who knew the rest of the spells or start reading himself. Either option didn¡¯t bother Sol as he could study in his free time. Regarding the small idol, Sol wasn¡¯t sure what to make of it. It looked like a goblin except much taller. It was wearing a crown and a cape, making it look rather regal for a goblin. Using [Analysis] on it just returned a bunch of question marks giving him no real answers. ¡¯Maybe I need to level up [Analysis]?¡¯ Until Sol leveled up [Analysis] he wouldn¡¯t know what it was meant to be, so for now, he put it away in his backpack. Sol looked through the goblin camp one more time, trying to see if he missed anything of note. It was a wasted endeavor as Sol didn¡¯t find anything else of interest, but that didn¡¯t bother him. The book itself is already valuable as he can sell that for at least 20 gold, so he has noints. Having nothing more to do here, Sol headed back to the city to turn in the quest. Chapter 21: Approaching Invasion Back at the guild, Sol turned in his quest to Trevor. "Wee back. How did it go?" "Nothing much, really. These quests weren¡¯t too difficult for me." "Huh? That was one of the harder D-Rank quests, and you found it too easy?" "Yeah, I took out the goblin shaman, then everyone else was light work." "Hmm¡­ Have you considered taking the rank-up test? You clearly seem to be stronger than your current rank." Sol shook his head and said, "I did, but it really isn¡¯t an option for me." "Why? "I don¡¯t want to update my status page." "That¡¯s fair. Most people want to keep such things a secret. There is another way to rank up fast, but it¡¯s a little riskier." "What is it?" "Join the frontlines. Currently, Duke Ferdinand is recruiting any adventurer starting from D-Rank and up to join the frontline against the iing invasion. If you outperform, the reward can go up ordingly." Because of the uing invasion of the Frostaxe n, a mass recruitment campaign had started. "I see, it sounds like a good deal, but I don¡¯t think I can handle the chaos of a war." Trevor nodded and exined further. "You don¡¯t need to actually fight; there are many roles one can take. They need all kinds of people to support the fighters. You can register as a healer, messenger, trackers, repairers, etc." ¡¯Hmm, healers? I did learn a healing spell from [Basic Water Magic].¡¯ "Can I register as a healer?" "Yes, but I didn¡¯t know you can also heal. Your second talent must be special." "Haha¡­ Yeah." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "Alright, I can register you. In a week¡¯s time is when they believe the invasion will start, so you don¡¯t have to leave the fort yet. Till then, I rmend you visit the dungeon and increase your level. Anything can happen, and being a bit stronger can be the difference between life and death." "Mhm, you¡¯re right. Can I get more information on the dungeon?" "Sure, the dungeon guide is 5 silver. Sorry, I would give it for free, but I don¡¯t want to get in trouble." "No worries, it¡¯s just 5 silver." Sol paid for the guide and put it away in his backpack to readter tonight. "I also rmend you take some quests rted to the dungeon before you go. Since you are heading inside, might as well make the most of it." Agreeing to his suggestion, Sol took on three quests that could bepleted while delving into the dungeon. Finishing all he had to do for the day, he said his farewell to Trevor and headed back to the inn. On the way to his room, he waved at Miriam, the middle-aged woman who co-manages the inn. After staying for a few nights, he talked with her and her husband, Harvey, on more than one asion. "Hello dear, are youing to open stage night tonight?" "Oh! I forgot it was today; I¡¯ll be sure to go." Making his way to his room, Sol spent the rest of the evening studying the guide to the dungeon. After reviewing all the relevant information, Sol learned about theyout, monsters, traps, and items. He felt much more reassured to delve into the dungeon. By the time he was done, Sol heard musicing from downstairs and realized the event started and headed down. At the first floor of The Rusty Bed, a lot of people mingled and ate food as others took turns going on stage to perform. There were no real rules on what to do on stage but to simply have fun. The majority of people sang, yed music, or danced, but there were a few other performances. One did magic tricks, and someone else did real tricks with magic. Sol found an empty table and ordered food while enjoying the environment. While waiting for his food, someone walked up and spoke to Sol. "Hey, do you mind if we sit here?" The man who asked was apanied by two other men, all wearing the casual uniform of the army. After sitting down, they ordered some food and made friendly conversation with Sol. As they drank more, the soldiers loosened up, and the conversation tilted into them letting out theirints. "Maaaan, we held them back a year ago and they¡¯re already back. Can¡¯t we catch a break¡­" "You said it, brother. I wish we could just take the fight to them." One soldier shook his head, "We would if we could, but they live up in those cold ass mountains. We would struggle bringing the whole army there, and the supplies needed would be insane." "At least we have the adventurers helping out," one of the men sighed, then looked towards Sol and asked, "Speaking of which, you¡¯re an adventurer, right Sol? Are you going to join us in defending the border?" Being suddenly brought into the conversation, Sol nodded his head. "Yes, but not as a fighter. I will be healing the wounded." Hearing him say that made the soldiers happy. One of them patted him on the back, "Hahaha! d to hear that! If I ever get wounded, I¡¯ll be sure to find you." Sol nodded, "Of course, I will make sure to heal you good as new." The other men also spoke up. "Hahaha, we¡¯ll hold you to it." Sol enjoyed the atmosphere, taking this chance to rx after working hard for the past few days. As the evening reached the end, one more person went up to the stage. It was Harvey himself, the other co-owner of The Rusty Bed. When people saw him going up on stage, some took this as the chance to leave as quickly as possible, confusing Sol. One of the soldiers noticed Harvey walking up and spoke quickly, "Alright, time for us to go. I am already going to war; I don¡¯t want to suffer any more than I have to." ¡¯Is it because of Harvey? Is he kicking us out?¡¯ The group quickly left, leaving Sol at the table, and soon he understood why. Harvey cleared his throat. "How do you make holy water? You boil the hell out of it." ¡¯Oh, no.¡¯ "What does a zombie vegetarian eat? GRRRAAAIIINNNNS!" ¡¯No, no, no.¡¯ "What do you call a fish with no eye? Fsh!" ¡¯It¡¯s so much worse than I thought.¡¯ "What was thest thing grandpa said before he kicked the bucket? ¡¯How far do you think I can kick this bucket?¡¯" Unable to withstand any more jokes, Sol quickly escaped back to his room and prepared for his dungeon trip for tomorrow. Chapter 22: C-Rank Dungeon The next day, Sol made his way to the northern part of the city. Right outside of the city walls, a small mound jutted out of the ground with an entrance inside. That was the Osuga dungeon of the city. Almost every city had a dungeon within close proximity, as there were many benefits to doing so. The first obvious one was the easily essible leveling location, allowing many adventurers, guards, and anyone able to enter and grow stronger. The other one was the effect a dungeon had on the nearby area. A dungeon fed off ambient mana to sustain itself, calming the wild mana in the area. If there was no dungeon, the mana could keep gathering and eventually create natural disasters. From violent storms to creating elementals, it could cause a lot of damage. This was why most cities were built near a dungeon, with the rank ranging from at least D-Rank to A-Rank. While there was one more dungeon rank above A which was S-Rank, almost no city was built next to them for the dangers they posed. Not only was the risk of dungeon outbreaks higher, but higher ranks produced stronger monsters. At a certain point, the dungeons would begin to emit their own mana that could cause the surrounding environment to take simr properties as itself. A famous example was the A-Rank Antus dungeon, which was an underwater dungeon. When it ranked up to S-Rank after consuming the mana of many strong adventurers, it started to naturally terraform its surroundings, causing the nearby area to flood, sinking an entire city. Learning from their mistakes, no nation dared to build their cities near high-ranked dungeons unless their properties were rtively tame. Some dungeons didn¡¯t have any special environments, and very rarely did they even have beneficial environments that positively affected their surroundings. Arriving at the dungeon entrance, Sol saw it guarded by two soldiers. After verifying his rank, they allowed him through and gave him a friendly tip as well. "Be sure not to go past floor 5. That¡¯s where C-Rank monsters start appearing." Already knowing this information from the guide, Sol nodded his head and ventured into the Osuga dungeon. Once inside, Sol was surprised by what he saw. A wide expanse of cave systems, simr to what he saw in the kobold cave, but muchrger. The passages to other rooms could even fit an entire carriage easily. The open areas and passages were illuminated by glowing rocks scattered throughout the ceiling of the dungeon. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. "If I remember correctly, the enemy of this floor is rock beetles.¡¯ It didn¡¯t take long to find one. Race: Rock Beetle Talents: [Defensive] Level: 5 HP: 140 MP: 10 Str: 6 Vit: 14 Agi: 3 Int: 1 Wis: 1 Passive Skills: [Scuttle] Lv 2, [Physical Resistance] Lv 1 Active Skills: [Harden] Lv 1, [Bite] Lv 2 (A/N: Omitting nk sections of the status page for ease of reading) The first floor only consisted of these beetles, an easy enemy for most people to take down. Sol made quick work of the beetle. You have in a Lv 5 Rock Beetle! Gained 30 Exp. The moment the body touched the ground, it rapidly sunk into the ground and disappeared. "This is why I thought it would be a bad idea to [Siphon] in this dungeon." The dungeon consumed all dead beings quickly. This was why when someone died in the dungeon, their body was never recovered, converted to mana and never to be seen again. That was the main reason why one couldn¡¯t enter the dungeon without at least being D-Rank, as at least then the adventurers had more experience and wouldn¡¯t die as easily. ¡¯Though there was a small gap before it was consumed. I wonder¡­¡¯ Sol searched for another rock beetle, and when he found one, he killed it as easily as the first one. He was constantly monitoring the beetle¡¯s HP, and the moment it hit 0, he used [Siphon] as quickly as possible. Learned [Physical Resistance] Lv 1! He also siphoned [Harden], but there was no message. He did receive the skill experience, but it wasn¡¯t enough to level it up. "Hoh? This changes everything." Originally, Sol didn¡¯t believe that going to the dungeon would be very beneficial as the bodies were rapidly consumed by the dungeon. But if he timed it just right, he could use [Siphon]. This meant the dungeon would not only solve his leveling needs but also his skill growth. Testing it out with a few more beetles and failing every so often, he eventually got the hang of it. With small enemies like the beetles, an ideal strategy was to kick them up in the air and siphoning before they hit the ground works to dy the dungeon from absorbing it. N?v(el)B\\jnn In the process, he leveled up [Physical Resistance] to level 3. [Physical Resistance] Lv 3: Reduces Physical damage by 15% ¡¯If I max it out, it will cut all physical damage by half. The dungeon¡¯s theme is earth-themed, so there is a good chance many of the monsters have this skill as well.¡¯ But then Sol realized something. ¡¯Wait. What if I max it out? Will it stay at max, or does it evolve to a stronger version? Has this even been done before?¡¯ To level up skills, one has to use them often. The speed in which it grows also depends on if one has an associated talent, but some skills like [Physical Resistance] rarely get leveled. The reason for that was because to level it up, one must be physically attacked a lot. Few people have the ability to endure such a punishment, and even if they can, would they? No one was willing to take a beating for a 5% physical damage reduction. ¡¯But with [Siphon], I can find out. I¡¯m really curious what it will be.¡¯ Following the map provided in the guide, Sol quickly maneuvered through the fastest path to the next floor, killing any beetles he saw on the way. Chapter 23: Boss Floor SLASH After delivering the final blow to an earth slime, Sol quickly kicked it up and used [Siphon] on it. [Physical Resistance] leveled up! (7 -> 8) [Mana Perception] leveled up! (5 -> 6) "Phew, these slimes gave surprisingly good skills." When Sol first entered the 4th floor and saw the earth slimes, he found it weird that they were on ater floor. However, this variant of slime had solid defense that required at least four sword attacks and could even manipte rocks,unching them at fast speeds. He would have grabbed the skill that allowed him to control rocks if he could, but it was a talent skill, unfortunately. That didn¡¯t mean he wasn¡¯t happy with [Mana Perception] as this was a skill he was sorelycking. [Mana Perception] Lv 6: Can perceive the mana around you. Range: 30 meters. While the description was rather short, it allowed Sol to see mana, which is usually invisible to most people. Since slimes don¡¯t have eyes, this is the way they perceive their surroundings. What is especially useful is being able to see other people and monsters, as they contain dense mana in their bodies, making it easy to spot and prevent being surprised. Sol also started using magic more often in his fights using his wind and fire magic, as this dungeon featured a lot of creatures with [Physical Resistance], making them slightly harder to kill. ¡¯While I could keep killing these slimes, they are too easy, and I could gain more experience and levels if I delve deeper.¡¯ So far, the strongest monster Sol has encountered were these slimes ranging around level 18. To gain more experience that can significantly increase his leveling speed, he should go deeper. Though, to do that, Sol must first beat the 5th floor boss. On the 5th floor, there exists only a single passage and a doorway; upon crossing it, one is transported to one of the many separate rooms on that floor and must defeat the boss inside. On the bright side, onceplete on the entrance of the 6th floor, there is a teleport circle that can take one back and forth to the main entrance. ¡¯Theter floors, the enemies are around level 30, and with my abilities, I believe I can take them on. The boss should also not be an issue.¡¯ Heading to the next floor, Sol confidently passed through the gate and was taken to a long room that looked like the bottom of a canyon. The walls had different-coloredyers all the way up to the roof, which had the glowing rock much bigger than the ones he had normally seen in this dungeon. It shone brightly like the sun down on Sol with the heat making sweat form on his forehead. There is one other being in this room with him. A giant monster the size of an ogre with hard brown skin with cracks throughout that show yellow lines throughout its body. It had no weapon but was wearing a belt with many teeth and bones hanging off it like trophies. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it¡¯s taken without the author¡¯s consent. Report it. Sol used [Analysis] on it. Name: Firma-Ter Race: Earth Giant Talents: [Terraformer], [Mighty] Level: 20 HP: 1050 MP: 250 Str: 100 (+20) Vit: 95 (+10) Agi: 30 Int: 30 Wis: 25 Talent Skills: [Landslide] Lv 5 Passive Skills: [Intermediate Unarmed Mastery] Lv 2, [Strength Up] Lv 4, [Vitality Up] Lv 2, [Physical Resistance] Lv 5 Active Skills: N?v(el)B\\jnn [Harden] Lv 5, [Rock Buster] Lv 4, [Earth Wall] Lv 4, [Rock Throw] Lv 6 ¡¯120 strength?! While I can use [Harden], [Parry], and [Physical Resistance] to mitigate the damage that will definitely hurt a lot. It also has [Intermediate Unarmed Mastery] multiplying its damage¡­¡¯ "I just have to not get hit then, right? Make the wind move in my favor, [Tailwind]!" Casting a spell to be more agile, he ran towards the Earth Giant. Seeing the tiny human approach, it roared and threw a nearby rock at Sol. It traveled frighteningly quickly, but Sol was more than fast enough to dodge out of the way andbined [Sprint] and [Leap] to close the distance. Now within melee range, Sol used his strongest attack, [Cross sh]. Hoping it did a lot of damage, Sol quickly checked the Earth Giant¡¯s HP. HP: 982/1050 ¡¯That did almost nothing¡­ It is simply too strong against physical attacks.¡¯ Sol then jumped back, and a fist mmed where he was just standing. "Alright then, let¡¯s try this then. Burn my foe to cinders, [Fireball]!" A sphere of fire then flew andnded directly on the stomach of the Earth Giant. Checking the HP once again, Sol saw the difference in attacks. HP: 903/1050 ¡¯The number was just barely higher. If my intelligence was higher, this wouldn¡¯t be an issue¡­¡¯ While magic is much more effective on the Earth Giant, with his pitifully low intelligence stat, even if he is using a powerful spell, there is only so much damage it can do. While formting the ideal strategy, Sol sidestepped as arge rocknded right beside him. The Earth Giant roared in anger at the slippery human. ¡¯Sadly, I don¡¯t know any spells that can add elemental damage to my weapon, so for now, I should just use basic attacks and cast [Fireball] when my mana recovers. At the current rate my mana recovers, I should be able to cast it once a minute.¡¯ That is how Sol¡¯s drawn-out fight with the Earth Giant truly began. Sol approached and shed at it dealing pitiful damage ranging around 10 to 20. Whenever he recovered enough mana, he would then make distance and throw a [Fireball] at its face. At one point when Sol was closing the distance after he casted a spell, the Earth Giant surprised him and used its talent skill [Landslide]. The walls of the room shook as chunks dropped all over the ce. "Woah!" Dodging as many as he could, he still got hit by one but used [Harden] to reduce the damage. He still took 60 damage from the blow and took him out of his rhythm. The rocks and debris that fell from the walls did not disappear, so Sol could luckily use it as cover and recover hisposure. Using the rocks to his advantage, Sol weaved through the obstacles and continued the fight. 5 minutester, Sol cast his final [Fireball] finishing the Earth Giant. It groaned as its enormous body fell toward the ground. Before the body hit the ground, Sol remembered to use [Siphon] just in time. You have in a Lv 20 Earth Giant! Gained 12,500 Exp. Learned [Intermediate Unarmed Mastery] Lv 1! [Strength Up] leveled up! (3 -> 4) "Phew, I was scared for a minute. Hopefully, these deeper floors will be worth it. But before continuing, I should head back and rest; it¡¯s been a long day." Making his way to the entrance of the next floor, Sol touched the sigil on the ground marking it with his mana pattern. This allowed him to be able to teleport directly to the 6th floor from now on. Teleporting back to the entrance, Sol returned to The Rusty Bed and got some rest for tomorrow. Chapter 24: Monster House Back the next day with renewed energy, Sol felt ready to tackle these next floors. Taking the teleport sigil at the entrance to the 6th floor, he looked at the passage that led deeper into the dungeon. "Today I will definitely level up, but whether I can again depends on how many higher-level enemies I can beat." After killing the Earth Giant, Sol was 3000 experience shy of leveling up, and these next floors would consist of monsters from levels 25-40, which was around the same level as the average C-Rank adventurer. From the dungeon guide Sol bought, there were two monsters he really wished to [Siphon]. The first was the Sentient Gems and Earth Elementals. The first because they knew earth magic, being thest of the four basic elements Sol still didn¡¯t have, and Earth Elementals, the strongest monsters in this dungeon. They were known for being incredibly durable, not only having the [Physical Resistance] skill but [Natural Armor] as well, which he wanted to obtain for himself. While Sol usually fought with the intention of not getting hit, he wasn¡¯t perfect. For example, when he was fighting the Earth Golem and was surprised by thendslide attack which took out a fifth of his HP, if not for taking cover, a direct hit from the golem could have finished him. This was why he needed higher defense to cover for this weakness. His n was to first evolve his earth magic to intermediate and then descend for the Earth Elementals. If he saw any other good skills, he would also pick them up along the way. With the n in mind, Sol ventured forth into the dungeon. ¡­ On the 8th floor of the dungeon. Sol faced a glowing orange gem with multiple rocks floating around it. It conjured rock spikes andunched them his way. Sol rolled out of the way and began casting a spell. "Burn my foe to cinders, [Fireball]!" A ball of fire whizzed through the air andnded directly on the Sentient Gem, dealing the final blow. Sol quickly used [Siphon] as usual just before it was consumed by the dungeon. You have in a Lv 35 Sentient Spirit! Gained 1400 Exp (280%) [Basic Earth Magic] leveled up! (8 -> 9) [Increased Mana Regeneration] leveled up! (7 -> 8) "Phew. It really was worth it toe deeper into the dungeon. The experience gained alone is insane; I only need around 40 kills for each level up at this rate. I can reach level 30 by today if I am fast enough. Not to mention the skills I have gained as well." This story has been uwfully obtained without the author¡¯s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Sol opened his status screen to see his progress. Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner] Level: 27 Exp: 24,380/45,000 HP: 400 MP: 150 Str: 45 (+20) Vit: 30 (+10) Agi: 30 (+15) Int: 15 Wis: 15 Avable Stats: 0 n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 3, [Analysis] Lv 3 Passive Skills: [Intermediate Swordsmanship] Lv 3->4, [Basic Trapmaking] Lv 1->4, [Silent Steps] Lv 5->7, [Parry] Lv 5->6, [Quick Cast] Lv 4, [Agility Up] Lv 2->3, [Foraging] Lv 7->8, [Basic Throwing] Lv 6->9, [Intermediate Unarmed Mastery] Lv 1, [Strength Up] Lv 4, [Basic Bowmanship] Lv 4->7, [Basic Axemanship] Lv 4->7, [Iron Stomach] Lv 2, [Tracking] Lv 5, [Vitality Up] Lv 2, [Increased Mana Regeneration] Lv 8, [Physical Resistance] Lv 8, [Mana Perception] Lv 6 Active Skills: [Cross sh] Lv 1->2, [Leap] Lv 8, [Basic Wind Magic] Lv 1, [Intermediate Fire Magic] Lv 4, [Snap Punch] Lv 2, [Sprint] Lv 5->7, [Harden] Lv 6->9, [Power Shot] Lv 2, [Concealment] Lv 3->4, [Wide Swing] Lv 4, [Basic Water Magic] Lv 5, [Basic Earth Magic] Lv 9 (A/N: Some skills have leveled from his raid on the goblin camp and others from the dungeon itself.) These past two level ups Sol spent his avable stats on his intelligence and wisdom as he wanted to be able to use magic more reliably. If he had ess to more mana, the fight against the Earth elemental would not have been that tedious and risky. ¡¯I think around 10 more should rank up earth magic and I can also max out [Increased Mana Regeneration].¡¯ About to move to the next area to find more Sentient Gems to defeat, he heard the sounds ofbat not far away. This didn¡¯t surprise Sol, as it was probably a party of adventurers, and it wasn¡¯t the first time he had encountered them. Usually when he bumped into other parties, at most they greeted each other before quickly parting ways. No adventurer liked to meet others while diving into a dungeon in fear of being robbed and killed. If they ended up perishing, no one would even know as the dungeon consumed all who died inside. Sol, about to head to a different passage to avoid confronting the group ahead, overheard them. "There are too many goddammit! We walked into a monster house!" ¡¯Monster house?!¡¯ A rare urrence in a dungeon where the dungeon produces too many monsters in a single area. The amount of monsters ispletely dependent on the avable space and mana the dungeon has, but it¡¯s at least 10 times the normal amount. The reason why a dungeon would create so many monsters clustered together still eludes the greatest researchers. What people do know is that it is extremely dangerous and requires arge group to deal with it so that it may return to normal. Sol knew the dangers of a monster house but hearing the screams of the party in danger he ran in their direction. Entering the area, he saw a party of four being besieged by 30 Sentient Gems casting spells towards the group. The shield bearer at the front was doing his best to protect his allies, but with so many, he could not block from all directions. The mage, priest, and warrior stood behind him trying to push back the attackers to little effect. The shield bearer despaired, seeing this hopeless situation, and faced his teammates, "RUN! I will hold them back as much as I can! We don¡¯t all have to die here!" The adventurers behind him were not foolish; they knew it was impossible to turn this around but were reluctant to abandon their teammate. Chapter 25: Radiant Historia Before they could decide to fight or flee, they heard running from a distance, quickly followed by a chant. "Rise from the ground and create an imprable shield, [Stone Wall]!" The ground in front of the shield bearer shook as a wall of stone rose from the ground, blocking off all of the Sentient Gem¡¯s attacks. Sol shouted at them, "This way, quickly!" The adventurers, without hesitation, ran towards the passage Sol was at. The wall Sol created was hit by a barrage of stones that broke it down within 10 seconds, but it gave the group all the time they needed. The moment the party entered the passage, Sol cast another spell. "Rise from the ground and create an imprable shield, [Stone Wall]!" And another. "Rise from the ground and create an imprable shield, [Stone Wall]!" And one more for good measure. "Rise from the ground and create an imprable shield, [Stone Wall]!" Three walls back to back blocked the entire passage, draining almost all of Sol¡¯s mana. By cing the walls against each other, he hoped the thickness would reinforce the defense of the wall. "That should hold them back for now, but let¡¯s not stick around; follow me!" Sol led the party through the route he came from and arrived at the entrance of the floor. The entrance and exit of every floor are the only safe spots where no monsters can appear, as the monsters don¡¯t travel between floors, with the exception of dungeon outbreaks. Finally getting a chance to breathe, the adventurers copsed on the ground, with the mage even sprawled out on the floor. The warrior caught his breath and talked to Sol. "Huff, Huff. Thanks man. You saved our asses." Sol smiled back at him, "No problem, I¡¯m d we all got away safe and sound." The shield-bearer then spoke up, "Hey, thanks for saving us, but I¡¯m still bleeding. Can you heal me, Maddie?" The priest shook her head. "Sorry, Frederick, I am absolutely spent, so you gotta wait a bit while I recover some mana." If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the vition. "Ugh¡­ Fine, it¡¯s not life-threatening anyways." Sol then interrupted and suggested to him, "If you don¡¯t mind, I can heal you." With [Increased Mana Regeneration] at level 8, it allowed him to recover a decent amount of his mana by now. More than enough to cast a healing spell or two. Surprised, Frederick nodded, "I won¡¯t ever turn down a heal." Sol searched through his mind for the water-based healing spell and cast it on him. "Form a veil of water to mend and restore, [Aqua Ring]" Water then appeared above Frederick, and like a curtain, flowed through his body downwards. His cuts and bruises disappeared as the water coursed through his body. 5 secondster, the spell wasplete, and it left Frederick healed and conveniently dry. "Woah, never experienced a water element heal spell before. Feels weird, thanks!" Maddie then asked, "Thank you for saving us, what¡¯s your name?" "I¡¯m Sol, and no problem, I just happened to be in the area." "No one simply dives into a monster house to save others. Most would escape to report it as soon as possible to prevent more deaths. So truly, thank you." Unsure how to respond to her statement, Sol responded with another question instead. "What do you all n to do now?" "Us? Head back. I think we had enough life or death encounters for one day." The mage sprawled on the floor, sat up and yelled, "For a day? More like a week, gonna take a break after this and just stick to easy quests." The warrior shook his head, "Spooked so easily from a small setback, how are we supposed to be the number one party in the city with that mentality." Sol tilted his head curious at what the warrior meant, "The number one party?" Frederick nodded, "Yep, it¡¯s pretty self exnatory; we just have to be considered the strongest and most active party in the city. I know it¡¯s a bit embarrassing to gloat after being saved, but we are one of the top five parties in the city right now, Radiant Historia." The warrior spoke with a determined expression, "We actually came to the dungeon to level up to catch up to the number one party in terms of levels, and when we participate against the invasion, we will definitely umte enough merit to reach B-Rank. Then we will hold the number one spot." The mage interrupted, "That¡¯s if we don¡¯t die before then. We stumbled into a monster house because someone confidently said there was ¡¯nothing to worry about, it¡¯s just some floating rocks¡¯." The warrior being called out defended himself, "T-that was just a fluke, Caiden! What are the odds of walking straight into a monster house!" The mage, Caiden, shook his head, "It¡¯s that kind of careless mentality that will prevent us from reaching the top. We need to take a step back and analyze the situation." "If all we do is ¡¯analyze,¡¯ we will never get anything done! We should just go and do it!" Thinking he had heard enough bickering, Sol tried to change the conversation. "If you are heading back, do you want me to apany you all and protect you?" Frederick, taking it as a chance to stop the two from fighting, responded, "No thanks. You have done more than enough for us. Once we rest up, we can make the trip back with no problems." Sol thought to himself, ¡¯I am just a bit away from maxing out my skill, so I should stay and finish it.¡¯ He then told the party, "I understand, I will head back in then." Sol began to walk back into the 8th floor of the dungeon to get thest Sentient Gems as he heard Maddie yell at him. "It was nice meeting you Sol! Hope we see you again." n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Sol nodded back, "Me too." Sol then headed back to the dungeon to gain more levels and finally started maxing out some of his skills. Chapter 26: Max Mana Regeneration After his encounter with Radiant Historia, Sol returned to his routine in the dungeon, this time staying far away from the monster house to avoid being overwhelmed by more than 30 Sentient Gems. After killing 20 more Sentient Gems, Sol was able to evolve [Basic Earth Magic] into [Intermediate Earth Magic] and maxed out [Increased Mana Regeneration]. [Intermediate Earth Magic] Lv 1: Can cast intermediate earth spells; mana cost varies. [Increased Mana Regeneration] Lv MAX: Increases mana recovery speed by 500%. Sol was d upon reading the descriptions of these two skills. ¡¯With [Increased Mana Regeneration], my worries of running out of mana during a fight have greatly lessened. While I still am unable to cast any intermediate earth spells, as the Sentient Gems did not know any for me to learn, I have be much more efficient in casting basic earth spells.¡¯ This not only covered his weakness regarding having enough mana but also opened the doors for him to be able to use earth magic almost as well as his fire magic. "Now I am able to defeat the Earth Giant ten times faster than what it originally took me. But that¡¯s enough fighting for today; I shouldplete the quests I have been postponing and turn them in." When Sol originally bought the guide to the dungeon, he also epted three quests at Trevors. While one can¡¯t easily take monster bodies out from the dungeon, there are other things one can find inside. When the dungeon creates the environment, it also produces many other by-products that have various uses. For example, this dungeon has plentiful minerals and gems one can find and mine. Even the glowing gems that are found all over the roof and walls of the dungeons providing a light source are a crucialponent to make magicmps. Sol then spent his remaining time collecting the requested items that are found throughout the dungeon. Having already walked through the floors and having the guide as a reference, he was able to finish it by the end of the day. With his backpack full of minerals and gems, Sol made his way back out of the dungeon and turned in his quests. When leaving the Adventurers Guild, Sol was contemting how he could increase his leveling efficiency with the few days he has left. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the vition. ¡¯If I want to make the most of it, I should not spend time on any more quests. At least for now. I also noticed that some people set up camp in the dungeon. If I can afford the items for it, I should camp in the dungeon as well.¡¯ With a n in mind, Sol toured the different camping and adventuring shops in the area and got all the essentials needed to stay overnight in the dungeon: a sleeping bag, preserved food, and other tools to make sleeping on the cold stone floor of the dungeon more bearable. Surprisingly, he found all the items cheap until he realized they also sell items that have high rarities like the Warding Tent. Warding Tent Rare Skills: [Camouge] Lv 3, [Temperature Control] Lv 3, [Energizing] Lv 3 ¡¯It was very tempting, but it was more than double the price of Warhawk¡¯s Talon¡­ I can¡¯t buy it even if I wanted to.¡¯ After his shopping, Sol went back to The Rusty Bed but unlike his normal routine of immediately going to bed, he actually sat by the desk and took out a book. It was the basic water magic book he obtained from the goblin camp. N?v(el)B\\jnn "Magic and You: The Road to Discovering Your Water Talent" Using the knowledge he already gained from the goblin shaman, Sol was able to skip to the second half of the book. Starting from the point the shaman left off, Sol began to read with his full attention. ¡­ 2 hourster. "Enchant my weapon with the strength of a typhoon, [Water de]!" Moisture from the air started gathering around his Warhawk¡¯s Talon and slowly covered all the de. Just as more water gathered, it started to swirl and expand, creating a strongplementary force to his sword. Just as Sol was about to celebrate, the water swirl started shaking and bing unsteady. He tried to correct the spell but quickly lost control, and the water sshed in all directions, getting everything in the room wet, including himself. "... This is much harder than I thought it would be. I thought magic was easy because it¡¯s just a simple chant but it takes a lot of control to form and maintain the spell." Because Sol learned all his spells from siphoning off enemies, the techniques and knowledge of that specific spell were ingrained into his body. Subconsciously, Sol has been casting these spells with no issue because of that, but now that he is learning a new spell, hisck of true knowledge and talent is stopping him from sessfully casting. If he had talents affiliated with the type of element he was studying, it would make the process of learning much easier. There are also skills that magic talents are able to gain that increase their reading proficiency and their magic maniption. Both of which would make the challenge of learning spells much easier. "While I know I can learn the spell, it will take me significantly longer than the average mage to do so. Maybe I should just sell the book." In the end, Sol decided not to sell the book as he can use it to learn slowly at his own pace if he ever had some free time. It¡¯s not like he was in desperate need for gold. Closing the book for tonight, Sol jumped into bed, appreciating the soft feeling of the mattress as he wouldn¡¯t have this luxury when he delved back into the dungeon. Chapter 27: Earth Elementals Back in the dungeon, Sol proceeded to the 9th floor, the floor after the Sentient Gems. This floor was the final normal floor with regr enemies, as the final 10th floor was the boss floor of the Osuga dungeon. Sol walked out of the stairway that led back to the 8th floor and looked around. Unlike lower floors where Sol had seen many people camping, this floor only had 4 groups. It seemed they were all packing up and getting ready to head deeper into the floor. Even though there was no light this far underground, adventurers kept a clock to keep track of time so that when they left the dungeon, their sleep schedule wasn¡¯t affected. After giving a friendly wave to his soon-to-be roommates, Sol ventured into the floor. ¡¯Earth Elementals are not only the strongest normal enemy of this dungeon but also have [Physical Resistance]. I can max that skill and even if it doesn¡¯t evolve, I still gain a 50% physical damage reduction.¡¯ Setting his n in motion, Sol began searching for his first Earth Elemental, and it did not take long to find one. Even without [Mana Perception] to find them by their mana signature, it was easy to spot as it was essentially a huge boulder with arms and legs, each loud step it made caused the earth to shake a bit. Once within line of sight, Sol then used [Analysis] on it. Name: N/A Race: Earth Elemental Talents: [Rock Solid], [Unbreakable] Level: 39 HP: 900 MP: 100 Str: 65 (+20) Vit: 70 (+20) Agi: 40 Int: 10 Wis: 10 Talent Skills: [Gaia¡¯s Favor] Lv 3, [Grit] Lv 3 Passive Skills: [Natural Armor] Lv 5, [Strength Up] Lv 4, [Vitality Up] Lv 4, [Physical Resistance] Lv 6 Active Skills: [Earth Hammer] Lv 7, [Rock Throw] Lv 5, [Burrow] Lv 3 Seeing the Earth Elemental¡¯s skills, Sol¡¯s jaw dropped. ¡¯Not only does it have [Physical Resistance], but it also has both [Vitality Up] and [Strength Up]!¡¯ Looking at the skills, Sol quickly arranged an order he wished to acquire them in. ¡¯I don¡¯t know if I have enough time to max out all the skills before I have to go. Definitely want to get [Physical Resistance] first since I¡¯m close to reaching the max level for it. Then the attribute increasing skills, and after that, I will get one of each to see which is best to focus on next.¡¯ Knowing this enemy is purely built against physical attacks, Sol started casting the intermediate fire spell [Explosion]. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. "mes gather and condense to one, expand outwards and st my foes, [Explosion]!" A small dot shed right in front of the Earth Elemental, and before it could even react, an explosion suddenly burst forth. BOOM Even though the Earth Elemental easily weighed more than a ton, it flew back and smashed against the rocky wall. Sol then checked how much health it had left andpared it to his mana supply. Health: 654/900 Mana: 95/200 ¡¯I only need 3-4 casts to kill it, with my mana regeneration rate, I can cast it every minute. Then I only need 4 minutes for each kill.¡¯ Sol then did just that, dodging its attacks with his speed advantage. The Earth Elemental only had single-target attacks and very slow speed, so it wasn¡¯t very difficult to dodge, unlike the Earth Giant boss. You have in a Lv 39 Earth Elemental! Gained 6000 Exp (300%) 4 minutester its body was falling to the ground, and Sol quickly used [Siphon]. [Physical Resistance] leveled up! (8 -> 9) [Vitality Up] leveled up! (2->3) ¡¯Oh? I didn¡¯t know I was that close to leveling up [Physical Resistance]. Also, for the highest level enemy in the dungeon, it was pretty easy, this is the perfect floor to level up.¡¯ Although it was easy for Sol, that was all thanks to his magic which the Earth Elemental had no resistance to. For a normal party of adventurers with aposition of tank, melee, mage, range is anything but easy. The physical damage dealers having no way to reliably deal damage have to keep the attention of the Earth Elemental while the mage waits to regain enough mana to cast a hard-hitting spell. The mage themselves is also always in danger of being on the receiving end of a rock flying towards them and critically injuring them with their pitiful amount of health. Few people have the mobility to quickly move and deal great damage, and those that do usually have unique or legendary talents. Sol even goes a step beyond them and fights such a monster when it¡¯s 10 levels above him. ¡¯Looking at what I have gained so far, it¡¯s ridiculous. I originally entered the dungeon to level up, add points to wisdom and be able to heal more reliably the soldiers and adventurers at the fort when I go. But with the skills I have gained, it¡¯s more like I am training to be an unkible tank. Not that I¡¯mining.¡¯ With the area clear, Sol then proceeded to the next area to find more Earth Elementals, and it did not take long as every passage had one or two loitering in them. In addition to that being on the deepest floor that requires parties to be around level 40, it was rtively barren. Meaning there was no issue in finding plenty of enemies to kill. ¡­ Hours passed as Sol searched and killed almost a hundred Earth Elementals. THUD You have in a Lv 39 Earth Elemental! Gained 6000 Exp (300%) [Natural Armor] leveled up! (Lv 7 -> 8) "Nice! It leveled up again." [Natural Armor] Lv 8: Increased defense value by 80. ¡¯This skill is insane, it gives me the same amount of defense as heavy armor without any downsides. Though it is weird it wasn¡¯t included in the guide, all the other skills were. Maybe its because it¡¯s a passive that only increases armor? But [Strength Up] and [Vitality Up] are simr to that as well.¡¯ After thinking about it for a minute, Sol shook his head. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om ¡¯Regardless of whatever the reason was, this is a great boon. I will keep leveling it up alongside the other two attribute skills. But that¡¯s for tomorrow; I should head back and set up my camp at the entrance.¡¯ Giving onest look at where the Earth Elemental died and disappeared, he returned back to the floor entrance to rest for the next day. Sol repeated this for the next 2 days until it was time to leave the dungeon and join the border army against the Frostaxe n¡¯s invasion. Chapter 28: Sunshine Leaving the dungeon, Sol took in the fresh air and basked in the evening sunlight. "Ahhh... The sun feels so nice." n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Having spent three whole days inside the dungeon, Sol was feeling a bit gloomy by the end of it. Sol wasn¡¯t used to spending so much time without the warmth and light of the sun, and while he didn¡¯t notice it at first, each consecutive day felt slightly more depressing, with him almost losing motivation to stay down there. While walking back to the city, Sol opened his status page. ¡¯It was worth it in the end.¡¯ Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner] Level: 35 Exp: 14,380/165,000 HP: 900 MP: 400 Str: 45 (+60) Vit: 30 (+60) Agi: 30 (+15) Int: 30 Wis: 40 Avable Stats: 0 Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 3, [Analysis] Lv 3 Passive Skills: [Intermediate Swordsmanship] Lv 4, [Basic Trapmaking] Lv 4, [Silent Steps] Lv 6, [Parry] Lv 5, [Quick Cast] Lv 4, [Agility Up] Lv 3, [Foraging] Lv 8, [Basic Throwing] Lv 9, [Intermediate Unarmed Mastery] Lv 1, [Gargantuan Strength] Lv 1, [Basic Bowmanship] Lv 7, [Basic Axemanship] Lv 7, [Iron Stomach] Lv 2, [Tracking] Lv 5, [Endless Vitality] Lv 1, [Increased Mana Regeneration] Lv MAX, [Physical Resistance] Lv MAX, [Mana Perception] Lv 6, [Natural Armor] Lv MAX Active Skills: [Cross sh] Lv 2, [Leap] Lv 8, [Basic Wind Magic] Lv 1, [Intermediate Fire Magic] Lv 4, [Snap Punch] Lv 2, [Sprint] Lv 7, [Harden] Lv 9, [Power Shot] Lv 2, [Concealment] Lv 4, [Wide Swing] Lv 4, [Basic Water Magic] Lv 5, [Intermediate Earth Magic] Lv 1, [Earth Hammer] Lv 5, [Rock Throw] Lv 4, [Burrow] Lv MAX ¡¯With a higher mana pool and max level [Increased Mana Regeneration], I will definitely be able to pass as a healer. I also maxed out the armor, strength, and vitality skills, and luckily, the two attribute skills evolved.¡¯ [Gargantuan Strength] Lv 1: After rigorously training your body, your base strength has increased by 60. [Endless Vitality] Lv 1: After rigorously training your body, your base vitality has increased by 60. He also gained three new active skills, but they weren¡¯t that useful. [Earth Hammer] could only be used with a hammer, which he was not proficient in nor had. [Rock Throw] paired well with [Basic Throwing], but it only empowered attacks made with rocks. It was powerful for the Earth Elemental because of its size, essentially acting like a catapult, but Sol isn¡¯t going to start carrying around giant rocks just for this skill. The only useful skill he gained was [Burrow]. [Burrow] Lv MAX: Travel underground unimpeded by dirt, rocks, and metals. While underground, travel at half movement speed. Mana cost: 5 mana per second. A situational but nheless great skill for escaping or moving past obstacles. That¡¯s why Sol focused on maxing it out over the other two skills. Sol made his way through the city, watching how people went about their lives, and eventually arrived at the Adventurers Guild. Like usual, Sol walked towards Trevor¡¯s counter. "Hey Trevor, I¡¯m back!" "Hey man! How was the dungeon?" "I gained way more than I could imagine." Trevor¡¯s expression showed his sincere happiness. "d it helped. Does that mean you are ready to join the border defense?" Sol shook his head, "Mostly, I just have to buy some supplies before heading out." "Of course, make sure you prepare as much as you can. War can get very messy." Trevor then realized something and asked Sol with a smirk on his face, "By the way, did youe to visit little old me? I don¡¯t recall you taking any quests after you turned in thest ones." "Yeah, that¡¯s true, but is the quest for glowing rocks repeatable?" "It is. Did you bring some back to turn in?" Sol nodded. On his way back from the dungeon he had to pass by floors 9 to 6 to use the teleport sigil to leave, Sol decided to gather the glowing rocks on the way back to make the most of the trip. Handing over the glowing rocks, which were no longer glowing after being removed from the mana source which was the dungeon, looking like normal rocks. Trevor then took them all and with a magnifying ss, he inspected each one. The magnifying ss Trevor was using is amon tool used by any business rted to items. While it is amon grade item, it has one skill which is a level 1 [Item Analysis]. It is a weaker version of Sol¡¯s [Analysis], but it can be used easily by anyone to see the details of any unique and below rarity item. "Woah Sol, the quality of all of these is high. Did you go past the 5th floor?" Not knowing there was a difference in quality of the glowing rocks, he used [Analysis]. Glowing Rock Common Quality: High "I did, but does the quality go up the deeper you go?" "Yes, while it¡¯s not confirmed as there are some exceptions, it is generally believed that the quality increases the closer one is to the dungeon core. I don¡¯t know much about it, but I heard it had something to do with mana purity." As Trevor exined, he had some questions regarding Sol¡¯s status page as some things didn¡¯t add up. With his initial talent being recorded as amon talent in swords, he was also proficient in water magic and could delve deep into the dungeon alone where it normally took a party of C-Rankers. He kept these doubts to himself as it was rude to ask about an adventurer¡¯s talents, and he didn¡¯t want to make things awkward between them. "Alright, with the quality and amount you brought, the reward is 5 gold and 50 silver. Here you go." Not knowing Trevor¡¯s thoughts, Sol simply thanked him and took the money. "By the way, where is the meeting ce to leave for the fort?" "It¡¯s by the north gate; there is an open courtyard normally used for guards to train their skills. Can¡¯t miss it. They are heading out tomorrow at dawn, so wake up early." "Thanks for the heads up." "No problem, stay safe out there." Not too worried as he would stay back in the fort, Sol confidently assured Trevor he would be fine and headed out to make somest-minute preparations. Chapter 29: Joining the Group The next morning, Sol headed to the northern gate and saw a big gathering of over a hundred people. Most of them were adventurers, easily spotted by their clothes and armor of different styles and colors with no real cohesion as a group. The other people were soldiers who had a different air to them. They all wore standardized leather, metal, and cloth uniforms depending on their specialty, and they weren¡¯t randomly all over the ce but instead surrounding the perimeter and entrance of the courtyard. Three lines of different lengths formed at the entrance, but not knowing which one to wait behind, Sol walked to the nearest posted guard to ask them. ¡¯He looks familiar, but it¡¯s hard to tell.¡¯ Before Sol could ask the guard where to go, the guard addressed him first. "Line up ov- oh wait! You¡¯re that man we met at The Rusty Bed. Sol, right?" Sol realized that the man looked familiar because he was one of the soldiers he met at the open stage night. "What a coincidence! I almost didn¡¯t recognize you with your armor, Oliver." "d you¡¯re here. So what¡¯s up?" "I just wanted to ask which line I should get behind." Oliver nodded and then pointed over to the shortest line. "That¡¯s the one for healers. As you can see, we are sorelycking in healers, so any and all are appreciated. I¡¯ll be counting on you." Smiling back, Sol responded, "Of course. I will do my best." Sol then went to the shortest line and waited for his turn. As he waited, he overheard the conversations between the soldiers and the adventurers of other lines. The female soldier attending the fighter¡¯s line was running on autopilot and asked, "Name, rank, and specialty?" The adventurer brandished his sword and proudly eximed, "D-Rank, and I am the best swordsman in my rank." Not even addressing thetter half of what he said, the soldier responded, "Alright, you¡¯re in the backline, protect the ranged adventurers." Clearly not happy with his cement, the adventurer grumbled, "Wait, put me in the frontline. I can take down those orcs easily." "Yeah, I think not. Even if I wanted to, D-Rank can only be ced in the backline, so go to that group or leave." Simmering in his anger, the adventurer begrudgingly nodded and walked over. He originally wanted to be part of the vanguard to rue a lot of merit for the rewards but was shut down before he could even try. Sol¡¯s line kept moving, and he arrived in front of a male soldier. The soldier looked at him with a displeased expression. "Hey man, you¡¯re in the wrong line; fighters are in that one." "Huh? I¡¯m here as a healer." Hearing the word healer, the soldier did a 180, and his attitude became significantly nicer. "Wait, really? Sorry about that; your outfit confused me. Do you have a type of sword talent as well?" n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Sol looked down and saw his leather armor and sword strapped to his belt. Realizing what caused the confusion, heughed and exined. "Haha. No worries, I also have the [Sword] talent." "I see, again my bad, too many fighters have tried lining up here thinking it would be faster. What¡¯s your name, rank, and specialty?" "Sol, D-Rank, and Water magic." "Great! You will be put in the second healer group. Your group will stay at the fort to take care of any wounded." "Where does the first group go?" Not bothered by the question, he responded, "The first group will apany us to the frontline for immediate medical attention. Those who are wounded but aren¡¯t as urgent will be transported back to the fort for you to heal. If you really want to, I can move you to the first group, but I wouldn¡¯t rmend it unless you were C-Rank." "Isn¡¯t there a rule that doesn¡¯t allow D-Rank in the frontline?" The soldier nodded, "Yeah, but that only applies to regr fighters. If they aren¡¯t strong enough, they will simply get in the way. Healers are different; while you are closer to the action, a lot of soldiers will be protecting you. But even if we are protecting you, I wouldn¡¯t rmend it as anything can happen in battle, so you need sufficient strength to protect yourself as well." Sol then contemted on what to do. ¡¯While I am probably stronger than the average C-Ranked adventurer, that¡¯s only if I use all my skills at my disposal. Currently, the talents I¡¯m pretending to have are [Sword] and [Water Affinity], so I can¡¯t use any other magic or skills. Let¡¯s not risk it before I can protect myself from powerful forces.¡¯ "You¡¯re right; I¡¯ll stay with the second group." "I¡¯m d. You have a bright future ahead of you; there is no need to risk your life so soon for some merit." He then looked over to the first healer group. "Sadly, not everyone listened to my advice." ¡¯I declined for apletely different reason¡­¡¯ Obviously, Sol won¡¯t disclose the real reason for declining, so he thanked the soldier and made his way to the second healer group. On the way, he recalled how differently they treat normal fighters and healers. ¡¯It makes sense; while these fighters are here to simply beef up the numbers, healers are essential, and nobody wants to antagonize them.¡¯ If a soldier is bold enough to pick a fight with a healer and they happen to get injured, the healer can just choose not to heal them. There have been cases before of this happening, and it has led to very humiliating deaths. The healer would also get in trouble, but as they are too important, the punishment tends to just be a decrease in payment. People have learned from these incidents to never mess with the healers. Nearing the second healer group, Sol saw a total of 50 cloth-wearing people gathered around and talking between themselves. Sol¡¯s arrival was received a little awkwardly as he does not look like your average mage or priest. One of the healers walked up to Sol and asked, "Umm, are you a healer?" "Yep, nice to meet you all." Sol then joined the second healer group and got to know them. Eventually, one spoke up over his equipment. "Weird you don¡¯t have any spellcasting equipment; will you be okayter?" "I should be, why?" "Well, having nothing to increase your mana or mana regeneration will affect how much you can cast; I don¡¯t know if you can keep up with the wounded without it." Unlike normal leather or metal armor, cloth or robes tend to be the favorite choice for spellcasters. Not because of their defense values, as even rare robes only add 10 defense, but the additional effects it provides to casting magic. The effects provided vary depending on the equipment, but the mostmon ones are increasing wisdom, mana regeneration, and empowering spells to do more for less. So while mages and priests can wear heavy metal armor, it doesn¡¯t benefit them as much as a good robe. While dressed unconventionally, Sol has the advantage of maxing out [Increased Mana Regeneration], which is much stronger than the average robe¡¯s effects. "It¡¯s fine. I think I¡¯ll manage." "Alright, if anything, others can pick up the ck anyways." After an hour of waiting for everyone to be registered, their group got on carriages and left towards the fort. Chapter 30: Fort Northwind It didn¡¯t take long to arrive at the fort. A structureposed of solid stones with its walls reaching 10 meters and thick enough for soldiers to patrol on it. Built to be the barrier to prevent invasion from the Frostaxe n, it was designed in a way to make it as inconvenient as possible for creatures of their size to use in case of it being captured. Besides the main gates and courtyards that needed to be big enough for carriages, all the rooms were around 7 feet tall. For a human, it might be a bit ufortable, and taller people would bonk their heads every so often, but it was much worse for orcs. An adult orc¡¯s height started at 7 feet, making it impossible to navigate and even worse to live in. If captured, the orcs would be unable to realistically mount a proper defense against the kingdom from retaking the fort, so they would only have two choices. They could try to defend it with its disadvantages or destroy the fort, either way, the Kingdom of Crestelia would be able to easily regain thend. Sol, along with all the recruited adventurers, was led into a courtyard where the soldiers usually train. All the training equipment like training dummies and specialized equipment for leveling certain skills had all been moved to the sides, and in the middle, a small wooden tform had been erected. Without all the equipment in the middle the courtyard was actually pretty spacious, easily having enough space for the 300 adventurers and more. Being herded in like cattle, the adventurers didn¡¯t know where they should go and wandered around until a man dressed in their officer¡¯s uniform walked onto the tform and took out a green crystal that had runes engraved onto it. When he spoke into it, his voice was amplified, and everyone in the courtyard could hear him. "Everyone gather around!" The man then patiently waited as the unorganized mob gathered around the podium and quieted down. After 15 minutes of waiting, the man decided it was time to talk. "Wee, I thank you for assisting us in our time of need. My name is Xander Pared, Commander of Fort Northwind. It has barely been one year since the Frostaxe n attempted to breach into our kingdom. I even see some familiar faces among you who stood alongside us during thest invasion, and to you, I sincerely thank you for your service. Now, I know you are all adventurers and have more¡­ unrestrained nature, but this is an army you are joining. While we don¡¯t expect you all to have the training on military formations and discipline, we do expect you to follow the orders of your designated leaders. You will advance and retreat on their orders. Some of you might think this is beneath you, but there is no negotiating over this; if I see anyone going against orders or trying to be a hero, it won¡¯t end with just failing the quest but also military punishment." He paused as he scanned the crowd for their reaction. Seeing nobody openly speaking against him, he borated further. "Think of it as fighting a boss monster; one individual cannot beat a boss. Only with thebined effort of adventurers with different talents can one safely defeat one. The same principle applies here; we work as a team, and together we will push them back with minimum casualties." He then smirked at the crowd. "After all, we have thwarted them once before and we will do it again. For Crestelia!" The adventurers caught up in his speech also started cheering along. "For Crestelia!" "For Crestelia!" "For Crestelia!" Letting the crowd calm down once more, he gave instructions. "Everyone already knows what group you are a part of. I will now dictate where each group should go." One by one different groups were called ranging frombatants like melee fighters and archers to supporting groups like scouts and messengers. Most groups were called in two different batches, one being the frontline group consisting of C-Rank at the very least and the backline group which was mostly D-Rankers. Then Xander called for the group 2 healers to go to their designated leader. Sol followed instructions and went there as well. The leader of his group was an older woman noticeable by the slight wrinkles on her face and with long blond hair and wearing priest robes that dragged against the floor. She had a kind motherly aura to her that made those who were in her group feel reassured and safe. Once all the healers of group 2 gathered around her, she introduced herself. Sol also felt a simr sense of security, but he didn¡¯t dare to underestimate her because of what he saw with [Mana Perception]. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om With [Mana Perception], he could see the invisible and intangible mana in the air and in people. If everyone around him had an amount of mana to fill a bucket, then this woman had enough to fill an entire bath. Sol knows that mana isn¡¯t the only determining factor of strength but when he used [Analysis], he was left even more surprised. Name: ??? Race: ??? Talents: [???], [???], [???] Level: ??? HP: ??? MP: ??? Str: ??? Vit: ??? Agi: ??? Int: ??? Wis: ??? Talent Skills: [???] Lv ?, [???] Lv ?, [???] Lv ? Passive Skills: [???] Lv ?, [???] Lv ?, [???] Lv ?, [???] Lv ?, [???] Lv ?, [???] Lv ? Active Skills: [???] Lv ?, [???] Lv ?, [???] Lv ?, [???] Lv ? Sol was barely able to hold in his surprise. For a second, he believed all group leaders were as strong as her and used [Analysis] on a few of them but quickly realized that she was different. ¡¯Not a single detail was revealed? When I used it on Jayce even when he was 20 levels above me I could still see some information. The skill has leveled up since then so I should be able to see something, anything, right?¡¯ As if detecting Sol¡¯s attempt at [Analysis], the woman looks directly at him and smiles. ¡¯Crap.¡¯ "It¡¯s rude to stare, young one." "I¡¯m sorry! I was just curious after seeing the mana density!" Making no attempt to deny herment or y dumb, Sol immediately fessed up not wanting to anger her and incur her wrath. "You can see mana? Interesting¡­ It¡¯s fine, but tread lightly, others might not be as easy going as me." Feeling relieved as Sol felt like he just survived a near death encounter, he immediately thanked her. "Yes! Thank you!" Chapter 31: Medical Ward The other healers of the group were confused at the interaction that took ce between them, and some thought he might be a pervert, but others who were more astute noticed something more took ce. Noticing the weird stares, Sol could only respond with a nervous chuckle, but luckily the woman spoke up, grabbing everyone¡¯s attention. "Greetings, everyone. I am Diana, a humble priestess of the Church of Ca, and I will be the leader of this group." Hearing the mention of the Church of Ca, another priestess wearing simr robes as Diana asked a question. "Sister, may I ask why you are in the army? I don¡¯t recall us being ordered to join any forces." Diana nodded. "I was not sent here by the Church, but how can I just stand by and watch as my country gets invaded by the orcs? The least I can do is tend to the wounded; isn¡¯t that the same for you?" Blushing a bit from being called out, the priestess looks away in embarrassment. Diana smiled and continued, "It¡¯s okay. We don¡¯t vite any rules as long as we don¡¯t take any lives in this encounter, so you needn¡¯t worry. Now follow me. I will show you where you will stay these next few days and where we will take care of the wounded." The group is led inside through one of the fort¡¯s many interior entrances, and they immediately see a wide room with many beds lined up one after the other. Diana then gave a rundown of how things will work. "This is the medical ward. When they bring the wounded back from the field, they wille from the entrance we just took in here. It is up to you to treat them in whatever way you can. Overall, it won¡¯t be very difficult for those who can use healing spells, but remember that it may heal wounds but not exhaustion. Give them time to rest and properly recover before discharging them. Also, whenever you tend to your patient, remember to take their information and record it on a notepad forter; this is just to keep track of those who are not currently on the frontline and so we have a better idea of how many are wounded." Reaching the end of the room, Diana then turned around and continued. "There is one more thing you should all know. I may be designated as your leader, but I will not be here to manage you all." Confusion rose from the group. One of the healers then asked. N?v(el)B\\jnn "Why, miss?" "Our group is a bit special in the fact that we aren¡¯t facing any realbat. You don¡¯t need anyone to tell you what to do as you only have one job. While I can stay here and supervise, it would be better if I used my powers granted by Ca to assist the more urgent cases along with the first group." Hearing her exnation, the group understood it made the most sense. "Would we be fine without any leader then?" Diana shook her head. "No, one is still needed. Which is why one of you will need to step up to fill that spot. To manage the overall operations and resolve any disputes that arise. Whoever thinks they are up to the task, speak up." Diana¡¯s gaze then swept past everyone as if judging whether they were able to lead the rest. When she looked at Sol, it stayed on him for a brief moment before continuing to the rest. Silence filled the medical ward; no one seemed to want to speak up at first. Sol was reluctant to volunteer as well. ¡¯All I know is how to cast a basic healing spell; how am I supposed to know how to manage a group of healers¡­¡¯ Eventually, one of the healers dressed in mage robes spoke up. "If no one can decide, what if we choose whoever is the highest level? At least they have more experience and could resolve things better." Other healers nodded at his argument, finding it eptable and decided to choose that way. Diana smirked but did not say anything to influence their decision, leaving it in their own hands. ¡¯I will let them learn the hard way that level is not associated with capability.¡¯ One male healer in mage robes then spoke up. "If that is the case, then I should be the leader." "Huh? What level are you?" The man then proudly stated, "Level 32." Out of confusion, one of the healers blurted out, "What, aren¡¯t you C-Rank then? Why are you in this group?" Heughed at the question and borated, "I am still technically D-Rank as I rarelyplete quests and work as a private contractor. I just happened to hear about the invasion happening again this year and joined." Sol was intrigued by what he meant as a private contractor but didn¡¯t ask. "So is me being the leader eptable for everyone?" People in the group started nodding, not having a problem with him being the leader. Seeing the matter was settled, Diana then spoke. "Perfect, but you forgot something." The man, confused by what she meant, tilted his head. "Your name?" "Oh, right! Sorry about that everyone, my name is Hilbert." Diana nodded her head and then spoke to the group. "Okay, with that settled, let me show you all to your living quarters." The group was taken deeper into the fort to a hallway filled with many doors not too far apart from one another. "You can just choose whichever room you want. You are lucky as most people in this fort have to sleep inmunal areas." Diana shrugged, "One of the small privileges of being a healer." Everyone then split up and chose their rooms. Most imed their rooms without any problems, but somehow discord arose. Two women were arguing at the doorway to one of the rooms. "Hey! I already put my stuff there!" "I called dibs on it first!" "I didn¡¯t hear that!" Diana saw them arguing but did nothing as she stood by smiling and watched. Hilbert was cing his personal belongings in his room unaware of the events transpiring. Sol watched as no one went to intervene and shook his head. ¡¯Oh brother.¡¯ Chapter 32: Discord Sol saw as nobody moved to intervene between the two women, so he decided to see what he could do and walked towards them. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "Hey, what¡¯s the problem?" The two looked at him a bit annoyed at first at someone intervening, but the woman with brte hair answered. "I put my stuff in this room, and when I left to talk with someone, I saw hering in and taking it like her own." The other woman with light blue hair responded to her im. "Yeah, but that¡¯s because I called that room, and you went and took it anyways!" "And I told you I didn¡¯t hear any dibs! I already put my stuff there; can¡¯t you find another room?" The two women then began arguing again right in front of Sol. "Hey! Hey! Calm down, I¡¯m sure we can solve this." Hearing this, the two women quieted down to hear what he had to say. "I get that you both want the room, but is there a specific reason why you want this one?" The brte shook her head. "No, I just put my stuff in the first room I saw." Sol then looked at the other blue-haired woman, and she nodded. "I have insomnia, so I tend to walk outside at night as it helps me sleepter. This room is close to the exit, so I don¡¯t have to worry about waking others up at night." Hearing her response, the brte felt guilty. "Why didn¡¯t you say anything?" "I¡¯m sorry; I overreacted and should have led with that." "No worries, I¡¯ll get my stuff and choose a different room." The brte then went into the room and picked up her personal belongings and ced them in her bag. The blue haired woman saw this and looked towards Sol. "Thank you, what¡¯s your name?" "Sol, and no worries; we are all on the same boat." The brte walked out with her bag in hand and also thanked Sol. "Yeah, thanks. Fighting with each other is not how I wanted to start this quest. See you around, Sol." Sol smiled in response. Diana, watching the entire interaction from afar, showed an expression of approval and walked away to attend to other matters. Sol, having defused the situation, also left to go find his own room and quickly chose from one of the few avable rooms. He entered the room and dropped his bag on the ground. The room had no decorations, and it was even smaller than his old home back in Initium. It had just enough space for a bed, a desk, and a closet. Sol unpacked all his things which took not long as he didn¡¯t bring much to begin with. Once he was done, he left and joined a small group of healers who invited him to check out the other areas of the fort. The small group, consisting of 8 of the healers, explored different parts of the fort, gaining a better understanding of their surroundings and each other. The brte and blue-haired woman were also part of the group, and Sol learned their names while talking with them. The brte is Nataly, and the blue-haired woman is Caroline. Both women got along surprisingly well. After their argument got resolved, they started talking and found out they had a lot inmon. They chatted about many different subjects, and eventually, the other healers were curious and asked Sol about his sword. "Hey Sol, so are you a magic swordsman? If so, why did you choose to join us healers?" When Sol epted the quest to join the battle, he initially chose a healer to avoid the chaotic battlefield, but now he isn¡¯t so sure that¡¯s the sole reason. Still unsure of the real reason himself, he just gave a nomittal answer. "I wanted to take this as an opportunity to practice my water magic." They weren¡¯t fully convinced that was the reason, but no one questioned it. Eventually, their conversation led into spellcraft and healing knowledge, which Sol feltpletely out of the loop on. "So you modified [Life Dew] to make more sap? How?" "At first, I thought it was just a matter of increasing the amount of mana I put into the spell, but that just made it stronger. It was only until I started changing the chant by including the keyword bountiful to the spell that it produced more. Still haven¡¯t figured out the mana consumption part out because now it costs way more than what it should." "Have you tried¡­" As their conversation went deeper into spellcraft theory, Sol couldn¡¯t keep up. While [Siphon] does give him the spells and the unconscious control over the spell, he does not know anything about the fundamentals. He thought one just had to say the chant and move the mana to where it needs to go, but apparently there is much more to it. Eventually, Sol just tuned them out as he paid more attention to theyout of the fort andmitted it to memory. As the group made their way throughout the fort, they saw many different professions being briefed on their tasks, and some of them were learning basic drills to get in the flow of working with their group. They even stumbled into the first healer group, and they seemed to also be going over their positioning and responsibilities. Some are able to directly heal people in the middle ofbat, but others have spells like Sol¡¯s [Aqua Ring] that are more effective but hinder movement during the healing process. As the evening came, all the healers of the second group met up once again in the medical ward. The reason for their gathering was because Diana summoned them for an announcement. "Good evening, everyone, I have some important news. Our scouts have spotted the Orcs advancing down from the mountains, we expect them to arrive tomorrow. As we discussed before, I will be joining the first group to assist the more urgent cases. Rest up; tomorrow is going to be a long day." Everyone was then dismissed and was left to their own devices to prepare for tomorrow. Chapter 33: First Patient As the sun rose on the open snowy field, two armies were stationed facing each other. The kingdom forces numbered over a thousand strong and were positioned with their backs against the fortress 500 meters away, giving enough space to advance and retreat as needed. The orc army faced the human army 1000 meters away, their numbers not lesser than the humans. Even though both armies were a fair distance from each other, one could still feel the pressure each army exuded at each other. Tensions ran high as adventurers, soldiers, and orc warriors alike waited for the signal from their superior. One orc broke from the army and moved to the middle between the two forces. While it was wearing leather armor and wielded arge hammer on its back, it also had a g symbolizing it was a messenger. A messenger from the human side ran to meet him in the middle and received a letter, which he then confirmed was nothing dangerous and took it back to the Commander. Xander on his horse towered over nearby soldiers, making it easy for the messenger to find him and deliver the letter. Upon receiving it, Xander dismissed the messenger and opened the letter. "Hmm¡­ Usually, they don¡¯t bother with letters." After reading its contents, Xanderughed, making the other soldiers wonder what the contents of the letter were. "Hahaha. Now you won¡¯t hold back? What have you been doing these past forty years, Chieftain Kuruck? ying pretend?" He recalled the messenger. "Send a letter back to them. Tell them they can try whatever they want, and we will push them back every time." The messenger wrote down the short message and delivered it to the orc army. Xander waits until the message has been delivered to start ordering his men. "Tell the vanguard to get ready for their charge. Have earth mages roughen the terrain, make it as hard as possible for the orcs to run at us. We should be wary, they appear desperate." ¡­ Between a group ofrge orcs stood another orc who looked as if he was a different race. Towering over his brethren at 10 feet tall stood Chieftain Kuruck. Wearing full metal armor that covered even his face made his expression indiscernible. The surrounding orcs looked at him with respect and dared not to make much noise in his presence, which goes against the normal nature of rowdy orcs. They all waited in silence as their orc messenger brought back the response from the humans. Receiving the letter, Chieftain read its contents and scoffed. "I gave them a chance. We are running out of time, so we can¡¯t fight with our previous tactics. From today onwards, we are throwing away our pride as orcs for our survival." The orcs frowned hearing his statement, but as much as they wanted to fight and die like an orc, they needed to think of their children and their future. Chieftain Kuruck then faced a very short orc who was barely 7 feet tall and gave him his orders. "Tell them to begin the operation. The rest of you, with me!" The Chieftain then led the orcs as he charged into battle as all his men roared behind him. The short orc ran to the back of the army to finish a n they had started a year ago. ¡­ Meanwhile, at the medical ward. Solid down on the bed staring at the ceiling. Since the battle hasn¡¯t started yet, no wounded havee, leaving him bored. He then flipped over to Nataly, who was sitting on the bed next to him and asked, "Do you think the battle has started yet?" She shook her head, "Trust me, you¡¯ll know when it starts." Almost as if on cue, Sol felt the ground slightly tremble along with the battle cries of orcs and humans alike. "CHAAAARGE!!!" "RAAAAAH!!!" Sol sat back up. "Guess it started." "Yep, now we just wait to see who is brought in." The group did not have to wait long as 15 minutes after the battle started someone was already brought in. "Help! This man took an axe to his leg and the axehead got stuck in his thigh!" All the healers stood up to attend to the man, but it quickly became a mess. "Come here, I will tend your wound." "ce him on the bed first, what are you doing?" "Oh, rejuvenating light plea-" "Wait! At least take the axehead out before closing the wound!" It was absolute chaos as 30 healers scrambled to take care of one wounded person. The soldier who was carrying the wounded man did not know what to do. Eventually, their leader Hilbert spoke up. "Everyone stop! This isn¡¯t getting anything done. One healer per patient, nothing more. I will take care of him for now so ce him on the bed." The healers backed away knowing that stumbling over each other is not going to help anyone, and they let Hilbert take care of him. Once ced on the bed, Hilbert skillfully removed the axehead from the man¡¯s leg and proceeded to cast a healing spell to close the wound. "Benevolent light, gather and cleanse this wound, [Healing Light]." A ray of light shined from his hand towards the man¡¯s leg, and the wound started to slowly close. As Hilbert was healing the man, a wounded soldier was brought in. The healers, having learned from the previous experience, decided to just let one person tend to the soldier. Time passed as more and more wounded were brought in, and eventually everyone was taking care of someone. Then even more issues arose. "Hey, watch it!" "Sorry, I have to get to my other patient." As the medical ward got more and more wounded, the healers and other personnel kept bumping into each other as they had to move to their patients that were spread out in the different beds. Sol was also having to move around as his two patients were a few beds away. On one of his rounds to check on his other patient he bumped into another healer. ¡¯This is ridiculous; we just keep getting in each other¡¯s way. I spend more time moving between people than actually tending to them.¡¯ The medical ward is not even at maximum capacity, but every healer had at least two people they are currently treating, but because they were all taking turns in who treated the next patient, where they were ced was haphazardly all over the ce. N?v(el)B\\jnn ¡¯I wish I could just stay by the same two or three beds. It would be so much easier¡­ Wait, that¡¯s it!¡¯ Chapter 34: Bringing Order Sol stopped in his tracks as he thought of a solution and was about to call the other healers, but someone bumped into him. "Woah Sol! Why did you suddenly stop?" "Sorry about that, Caroline, but I just got an idea. Can we gather all the healers for a minute?" "Are you sure? We are all kinda busy." "Yeah, I know, but these people aren¡¯t critically wounded and I just need a minute. It will save us a lot of timeter." "Ok sure, I¡¯ll let the others know." Caroline and Sol split up to gather the other healers, and it did not take long as most were shuffling between their patients. "Why did you gather us all?" "Well, I¡¯m sure we are all tired of having to run between patients and bumping into each other." All of the healers nodded in agreement, even though it has not even been an hour since the battle started, they have been bumping into each other left and right. "In that case, instead of us taking turns with who gets the next patient and cing them in the nearest bed, let¡¯s assign each of us a work area. There are 30 of us and 100 beds so if we all have 3 beds that are next to each other we won¡¯t have to run around anymore and can just stay in one spot." A surprised expression appeared over the healers. One healer in blue mage robes spoke up. "Damn, why didn¡¯t we think of this before? But what about our current patients?" "We are going to have to change who is taking care of them. Once we reorganize we will have a much easier time managing new patients." "Makes sense, but how do we make sure we all get patients equally? We can¡¯t just send them to the nearest bed." Not having thought about that, Sol could only think of one solution. "Someone will have to stay near the entrance to guide the patients to where they should go." Nataly then asked, "Who would be willing to do that, though? We are supposed to heal the wounded. Wouldn¡¯t the person directing not have enough time to take care of patients? They might get penalized." "Well, this was my idea, I will do it. I think I am able to take care of one person while also guiding people in." Another healer worriedly asked, "Are you sure you wanna risk that?" Sol nodded, "I will take responsibility in case anything happens." With everyone agreeing to the new setup, Sol assigned all the healers to 3 beds and he took a single one by the entrance. As more wounded came, Sol assigned them where they should go, and a semnce of order finally arrived at the medical ward. Few people walked around now, freeing the area and saving a lot of time having to run around. This didn¡¯t mean there weren¡¯t any problems. Every so often a healer had difficulties with a patient and they didn¡¯t know what to do. A healer was having trouble removing an arrow wound and went to ask Hilbert what he should do. "Hey Hilbert, one of my patients has an arrow wound lodged in his tendons. I would remove it but it¡¯s a barbed arrow and I don¡¯t know if my healing spell would be able to restore torn tendons." Hilbert, who was at the moment casting [Healing Light] did not stop and while healing answered. "Don¡¯t know, busy. Ask someone else." "But it-" "Not now, I need to concentrate to not waste mana." Coming no closer to solving his problem he began looking around to someone who was free to help him. As he scanned the room he saw Sol just finish leading a patient to another bed and went to ask him for his help. "Sol, can I borrow you for a second?" "Yeah, something wrong?" "Well, this patient¡­" After exining his dilemma Sol did not know how to help. ¡¯I am the worst person to ask this¡­ How am I supposed to know¡­¡¯ Either way Sol decided to see the patient to see if he coulde up with something. The wounded soldier was just as the healer described. An arrow was lodged into his right arm and prated deep into his tissue. The barbed arrow was designed in such a way that pulling it out would tear tendons and that kind of damage would require a much stronger healing spell. With no one here having ess to such spells making such actions ill-advised. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om After staring at the wound for a long minute Sol got an idea from his hunting experience. ¡¯When I was experimenting with different types of traps for the wolves I once tried to use a barbed spear that once attached to the wolf they couldn¡¯t remove it. Although it seeded it was hard tond the spear half the time and when I was done trying to remove it was a pain as well. I found it easier to just push the spear all the way through the body, but would that work here as well?¡¯ Sol saw that the arrow was already more than halfway through the arm; it seemed easier to just push it rather than drag it all the way back. "What if we push it out instead of pulling it?" When the wounded man who was lying on the bed heard Sol¡¯s suggestion his face paled. The healer on the other hand put his hand on his chin as he looked back at the wound pensively. "You know, that actually might work. From the wound the arrow made in the entrance, it seemed it entered cleanly. If we just push it out the exit should be the same. Let¡¯s try it." The man wanted to protest as he wasn¡¯t really in the mood to experiment on treating his wound but it seemed the two healers made up their minds. Sol looked at the healer and instructed, "Alright you prepare the spell I will push it out, on my mark." The healer nodded and prepared to cast, "Water filled with life gather in my hands as I pass your blessing to others-" Sol then pushed the arrow out the other side and thenpletely removed it. The wounded soldier yelled, "Mother fucker!" before passing out. "Now!" "[Sacred Water]!" Casting the healing spell the moment the arrow left the body the wound started closing before blood could escape the wound. The hole on both sides rapidly closed leaving only a small scar where the wound used to be. The healer, done casting the spell, looked at Sol and smiled. "Thanks Sol, I was worried since no one was avable to help me." "No problem, if you need anything else let me know." Sol nced back at the now healed soldier who was still passed out and left to return to his duties. Chapter 35: Emergency It had been 3 hours since the battle started, and the group of healers had gotten into the rhythm of things. When any trouble urred, healers went to Sol to ask for his opinion, and while not a medical expert, he could give his opinion, and if he truly had no idea, he would ask others for their opinion. Together they all filled each other¡¯s gaps in knowledge and know-how, making them all learn and improve rapidly. "Hey Sol, can youe check this out?" Sol nodded, "Yeah, I¡¯ll be right there." n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Sol had just finished guiding another wounded to a bed and was about to head over to see the issue when he noticed something weird. Being able to see mana thanks to his [Mana Perception], he saw quite a few mana signatures moving underneath him. At first, he thought he was just seeing things and moved close to investigate. He exited the medical ward into the courtyard outside and moved directly on top of where he saw the mana figures. Seeing the shape of the mana figures, he noticed they were humanoid in shape, but that brought up even more questions. ¡¯Who are all these people down here?¡¯ Suddenly he heard a voice behind him. "What are you looking at?" "Ah!" Sol jumped as he turned to see who spooked him. It was Nataly; she followed him outside as she saw him leave and was curious if something happened. "Haha, sorry didn¡¯t mean to scare you." Sol shook his head. "It¡¯s fine. I noticed something strange below us." "Huh? Below?" She looked at the ground but seeing nothing odd, she looked back at him with a confused expression. Not wanting to make Nataly think he was crazy, Sol borated. "I can see mana, people, nts, anything really. While the range is rtively short, I noticed multiple mana figures underground. Do you know by any chance if the fort has a basement?" Nataly shook her head. "No, when we explored around yesterday, I don¡¯t recall anything like that, though." "How odd¡­" Sol then looked back at the ground and saw that the mana signatures were slowly moving upwards. "I¡¯m going to check it out. I¡¯ll be right back." "Huh?" Before Nataly could ask what he meant by that, Sol used [Burrow] to sink into the ground. After moving 5 meters downward, his head popped out into an underground passage. It was dark and hard to see with only torches faintly illuminating the immediate surroundings. In the darkness, Sol looked at the figures he saw above ground and almost yelled in shock. There he saw orcs digging a passage upwards leading into the fort. Loud sounds of pickaxes smashing the dirt and rocks as other orcs shoveled them into a cart and took it away. There were also orcs who were handling small sacks and cing them a few meters apart from each other. Not wanting to risk detection, Sol immediately ascended back up before any orc walked near him. Sol then rose out of the ground, eliciting a yelp from Nataly who was as surprised to see him appear as she saw him disappear a few seconds ago. "Woah Sol! Didn¡¯t know you could do that. Was that a spell?" Sol faced Nataly with a grave expression. "I¡¯ll exinter; there are orcs digging under the fort!" "What?! We need to let the Commander know!" Agreeing with Nataly, Sol called for the nearest soldier to bring a messenger immediately. Seeing the urgency in both of the healers¡¯ faces, the soldier obliged and ran looking for one. When the messenger arrived, Sol exined what he saw and urged him to let the Commander know as quickly as possible. Sol even debated whether or not to cast [Tailwind] on the man to go faster but held back as he already has shown a lot of his abilities. Having done what he could to inform themander, Sol then faced Nataly as there was one more thing they had to do. "Let¡¯s go; we need to move all the wounded." Sol started to walk but Nataly stopped him as she didn¡¯t understand. "Slow down Sol; you need to exin a bit more than that." "Sorry, you¡¯re right. I saw the direction they were digging and it was ramping up towards the medical ward. I think that¡¯s where they are going to appear from." Both of them then headed back into the medical ward and started to mobilize all avable people to help transport the wounded to the canteen. It was the most ideal location that was furthest from the medical ward but had enough space for the 80 currently wounded men and women. As they were relocating the wounded from the medical ward, Hilbert angrily stopped Sol. "What do you think you are doing?!" "Orcs are digging underneath us. We need to move all the wounded away from here." "That¡¯s ridiculous! Even if it¡¯s true you don¡¯t have the authority to move everyone." "What authority! People will die if we don¡¯t do anything!" "Fine! Move them if you so insist, but my patients are staying right here!" If Hilbert wanted to stay Sol didn¡¯t care that¡¯s his choice, but to also risk the lives of other people is taking it too far. As they were arguing Hilbert saw one of the healers move his patient and barked at him to stop. The healer who was the one that Sol helped with removing the arrow shook his head. "No, I will take them to the canteen. I trust Sol, and if he says orcs are digging underneath us, I believe him." Other nearby healers also nodded in agreement. Hilbert wanted to argue back, but with all the healers siding with Sol, he had no choice but to go along with them. There was also no point in Hilbert staying as his patients were taken so he decided to evacuate with them. "Fine, but I will let Diana know this was all you." "Have it your way." Not wanting to deal with Hilbert anymore, Sol continued to help facilitate the transfer. Because everyone acted quickly and orderly the whole process was done in under 10 minutes. The transfer was done just in time as when thest patient was ced in the canteen Sol heard a loud explosion. KA-BOOM "ATTACK!" Chapter 36: Collapse Moments before the explosion. The orcs stopped digging and finished their preparations. The short orc who was assigned to this operation by Chieftain Kuruck inspected the dug-out area when another short orc came up to him to report. "The tunnel is done, and the powder is in ce, by your orders Daruck." The short orc, Daruck, was the fifth son of Chieftain Kuruck. The reason he was so shortpared to the average orc was not because of his growth but because he was a child. Even as a child, he had already taken a leadership role among his people and led this n. "Get all the men ready and send word to my father we are starting." All the orcs then moved away from the end of the tunnel as one orc lit a fuse before joining the rest of his men. The spark of the fuse moved until it reached one of the small bags ced on the end of the tunnel, and the moment it made contact with the bag, a huge explosion shook the tunnel. KA-BOOM The roof of the tunnel copsed, taking along the room that was above it. The passage then gave way to a path upwards. Daruck then gave the order to charge. "ATTACK!" The orcs roared as they ran out to the surface, weapons at the ready. Hearing the explosions, Nataly ran to Sol. "They are already here! Did you hear back from the Commander yet?!" With a serious expression, Sol shook his head. "What do we do? We barely have any soldiers stationed here. It¡¯s just a skeleton crew!" Thoughts raced through Sol¡¯s mind, trying to figure out what to do. Sol then mumbled to himself. "We need to protect the wounded, the nonbatants and stop them from taking the fort until reinforcements arrive. The only way to do that is¡­" Sol nced at Nataly and made up his mind. "Nataly, keep an eye on the others." "Wait, me?" "Yeah, I¡¯ll be back." "Sol don¡¯t g-!" Before Nataly could finish talking, Sol had already used [Sprint] and was running towards the now copsed medical ward. As Sol ran through the open courtyard, he saw a few other soldiers running towards the explosion with the same intentions as himself. They all ran with weapons drawn, ready to hold back the intruders as long as they could. Arriving at the now-demolished medical ward, the dust just settled as orcs charged out from the entrance. They looked around but were surprised to find only soldiers with weapons ready to meet them. Orcs, not being ones to shy away from a fight, charged directly at Sol and the soldiers. Before trading blows with the orcs, Sol scanned them all with [Analysis] to gain a better understanding of his opponents. Name: Nargol Race: Orc Talents: [Strong], [Hammer] Level: 33 Name: Sodagh Race: Orc Talents: [Axe], [Undying] Level: 31 Name: Abbas Race: Orc Talents: [Spiritualist], [Wise] Level: 38 ¡¯About as Strong as a C-Ranker. If it was just a few, then it¡¯s not a problem but¡­¡¯ Sol looked at the hole in the ground as he saw more and more orcs appear. The faces of the soldiers who came to help paled as they saw over a hundred orcs. The 20 soldiers and Sol were at a clear disadvantage. Regardless, they had to fight and resolutely charged at the orcs. Sol ran ahead of the group and met the first orc with his Warhawk¡¯s Talon and used [Cross sh]. As his sword moved, it made deep gashes in his chest in an X shape. Because of his massively increased strength from [Gargantuan Strength], which was the equivalent of dumping 12 levels into his strength, his sword showed no mercy as it instantly slew the orc. ¡¯No notification¡­ I have heard of it before but it¡¯s the first time I¡¯ve seen it.¡¯ There is only one way to level up with the system, and that is by killing other creatures and gaining experience, but there are exceptions to this rule. Humans, elves, orcs, dwarves, and many other races do not give experience if they kill each other. Because of this, a term has be poprized to refer to them as a whole, the privileged races. This is not the only difference of being one of the privileged races; another big difference is the ability to distribute avable stat points wherever they choose. At first, people theorized it was a matter of sentience, but that was quickly shut down as races like goblins, kobolds, and lizardfolk are very much sentient. Able to create societies,nguage, and culture, these races even sometimes trade with the privileged races yet they for some reason aren¡¯t included and can be in for experience. After killing the orc, Sol felt a tinge of guilt at killing again but he did not stop. Maybe it was because of the urgency of the situation, the fact he had killed others before or that they are not human but he has be less averse to killing. He also did not forget out of habit and used [Siphon], taking the two most useful skills before continuing to his next target. Sol used [Cross sh] on every enemy without worrying about the cost as he had drastically improved thanks to his dungeon experience. Thanks to his wisdom increasing the amount of mana and [Increased Mana Regeneration] influencing the rate in which he absorbs mana from his surroundings he was able to cast the skill with no regard. Orcs fell one after another to his sword as he moved between the orc group using [Siphon] on any body he spots be it orc or human. He focused on increasing skills he already had but if he saw a good or interesting skill he didn¡¯t hesitate to learn it. [Tracking] leveled up! (5 -> 6) Learned [Wisdom Up] Lv 2! Learned [Heavy Blow] Lv 4! [Agility Up] leveled up! (3 -> 4) [Silent Steps] leveled up! (6 -> 7) Learned [Crippling Strike] Lv 3! Even though Sol was killing them quickly, their numbers were too much, and they were slowly losing ground. As more soldiers died eventually Sol was surrounded on all sides. He used [Parry] and blocked as many attacks as he could while still dishing out damage, but he still took many hits. If not for the fact he has the incrediblebination of [Endless Vitality], [Physical Resistance], and [Natural Armor], he would have died by now. Even so, the hits added up, and his health was entering worrying levels. Health: 367/900 Mana: 285/500 n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om While it was true Sol was holding back in fear of exposing too much, even if he wasn¡¯t, the oue would have still been the same. If he tried to use magic, the surrounding orcs would interrupt his chant, and he didn¡¯t have the weapons to use half of his other skills like [Power Shot] or [Earth Hammer]. Skills he could use were uselesspared to [Cross sh] and [Parry], so that was all he really could do. Luckily for Sol, he was not fighting to win. The orcs who saw he was getting more and more wounded taunted Sol. "Hahaha! You were a worthy foe; it took many of our finest warriors to take you down. Too bad you die here!" Hearing their preemptive celebration, Sol chuckled back at them. "What¡¯s so funny, human?" "Heh¡­ I was never fighting to win, just until they showed up." With his [Mana Perception], he saw through the crowd of surrounding orcs a group charging towards him. They were the soldiers and adventurers from the frontline who came back to help. The humans yelled as they charged at the orcs. "Die orc scum!" Chapter 37: Reinforcements One hulking giant of a man wielding a ridiculouslyrge sword led the charge as the soldiers ran behind him. Orcs were never one to turn down a fight, but when they saw that huge brute running at them, they knew they were screwed. The moment the man reached the orc group, he mmed the t side of hisrge sword into the chest of the nearest orc, sending him flying back, knocking down 16 orcs behind him. Daruck, who was overseeing the fight from the back, stumbled back in fear when he saw that man. "Why?! Why are you here?! What happened to Champion Teldgulg?!" The giant manughed and spun his de in a circle, taking down 4 orcs before responding. "Teldgulg? Haha! You should have seen his face when the A-Ranker we recruited and I beat him to a pulp! I have never seen an orc run away so fast!" Daruck¡¯s face paled, knowing he had failed the mission entrusted to him by his father. The moment this man showed up, all hope was lost. The soldiers who followed behind the man caught up and joined the fight. They broke into the group of orcs and made a beeline toward Sol to rescue him. The orcs stood no chance as they were against the elites of the army. One of the soldiers who broke the encirclement around Sol spoke to him. "Follow us, kid!" Sol nodded and ran behind but not before using [Siphon] on all the bodies that had just dropped, courtesy of the giant man. [Basic Axemanship] leveled up! (7 -> 9) [Endless Vitality] leveled up! (1 -> 2) Learned [Increased Health Regeneration] Lv 3! [Cross sh] leveled up! (2 -> 3) Learned [Charge] Lv 4! Sol saw many notifications appear in his vision, but he had to ignore them for now. He followed the soldiers that cleared the way and quickly escaped the fight. Back in the brawl, the orcs flew left and right, smashing into walls, floors, and other orcs. Daruck watched with a heavy heart as his nsmen fell to one single man but did not give the order to retreat, and no orc tried to run away. The reason for not doing so is that there is no point. All the orcs knew that they could not escape once that monster of a man set his eyes on them, and without any equally strong warrior to hold him back, there was nothing they could do. Another thing the orcs could do is surrender, but that will never happen. Orcs are a very prideful race, the fact that they had nned a sneak attack on the fort was shocking enough as they detest fighting dirty. Even so, they would rather die than surrender, at least then they would die a proud orc death. The giant man did not stop his de for even a moment as more and more orcs fell. Eventually, only 5 orcs remained as they stared the man down. The man then looked at the remaining orcs. "I won¡¯t bother asking for you to surrender, so just answer one question. Who gave you the ck powder?" Daruck scoffed at him, "Just kill me now, Olfred." The giant man, Olfred, sighed, "So be it." Mana gathered into Olfred¡¯s giant sword as he swung it horizontally. A thick wave of mana then left his sword as it traveled rapidly towards the orcs. Daruck saw this and did not try to resist and instead simply closed his eyes and murmured something. "Sorry, father, I tried." SLASH The wave of mana cleanly cut through all 5 orcs, and their bodies copsed on the ground with their upper and lower bodies separated. Olfred finished with thest of the orcs, made his giant sword suddenly disappear, and then turned back to join his men in assessing the situation. ¡­ "Why did you run in there?!" Sol was currently lying on one of the spare beds in the canteen surrounded by worried healers as he was being treated by Nataly, who was taking the chance to also reprimand him. "Do you know how lucky you are? If it wasn¡¯t for the reinforcements, you would have died!" Sol saw the sincere worry in her eyes and in the eyes of all the healers. "Sorry about worrying you all, but I had to do something. If we didn¡¯t stop the orcs at the tunnel exit, they would have killed everyone and destroyed the fort." "Yeah, but-" "It¡¯s okay, I survived. Speaking of which, what of the other soldiers who joined me?" Nataly froze at his question, not knowing how to answer. Before she could say anything, a deep voice answered for her. "Dead, only you survived." Sol looked to where the voice came from and saw the giant man who single handedly beat over a hundred orcs. Having heard of the fate of the other soldiers who went with him to protect the men and women of this fort, Sol looked downwards and clenched his fist. His nails dug into his skin, almost drawing blood, but Sol did not notice. ¡¯I wasn¡¯t strong enough¡­¡¯ Suddenly, a big callused hand pped him on the back with a strong force that almostunched him off the bed. "Cheer up, kid, you¡¯re a survivor. Celebrate the fact you are alive." While Sol knew these words were to make him feel better, it didn¡¯t help. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om ¡¯I only had enough strength to protect myself, and even then I could have died here if they took any longer.¡¯ This event showed just how weak he truly was. That no matter how strong he was against individuals when against an army or those who were truly strong, he does not stand a chance. ¡¯What a fool I was to think I was strong. I am only stronger than the average C-Ranker, maybe B-Ranker if they¡¯re on the weaker side. Even if I am strong, I can still be overwhelmed by numbers¡­ If I was stronger, none of those soldiers would have died¡­¡¯ Seeing his encouraging words did not improve the young man¡¯s mood, Olfred was unsure of what to do. He wanted to help Sol feel better since he knew how hard this young man fought to protect everyone but felt helpless. ¡¯Man¡­ I am a fighter, not a therapist¡­¡¯ No one said anything as they did not know how tofort Sol, but someone spoke up. "Why the fuck are you ming yourself for their deaths?" "Huh?" Chapter 38: Weak The one who spoke was Hilbert. He pushed through the healers and onlookers and approached Sol. "Don¡¯t ¡¯Huh?¡¯ me. You know exactly what I mean. They chose to run in there to stop the orcs alongside you. If they didn¡¯t join the battle, I can assure you that you would be dead right now." Nataly was about to interrupt him as she felt he was going too far, but a hand fell on her shoulders, holding her back. She turned back to see it was Olfred who silently ced a finger on his lips. "But if I was just strong-" "But you¡¯re not. You¡¯re weak, I¡¯m weak, most of us in this room are weak. But you know what you did even though you are weak. You warned us, moved us to a safe ce, and then proceeded to protect us. Even when some of us were resistant to your help." Hilbert was clearly referring to himself, but no one pointed that out. "I know your type. You know what you should do instead of wallowing in your self pity? You could stand back up, go thank the men and women who died for us and train harder so it doesn¡¯t happen again." While Hilbert¡¯s words were rude, they resonated with Sol. "Ha¡­ You¡¯re right. I¡¯m such an idiot." "d you understand, now if you will excuse me, I have to get back to work." He then turned around without hesitation and returned to his patients to tend to them, not caring what the other healers and onlookers do or think. Sol watched as he left before chuckling to himself before turning to face the rest of the onlookers. "Alright, everyone, I¡¯ll be fine, so you all should get back to your duties as well." The healers nodded and left to return to their tasks. Olfred stayed as he wanted to ask Sol a question. "Sol, right? Have you seen Diana anywhere?" n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Sol shook his head, "She said we could handle this on our own and left to join the first healer group on the frontlines." "Haha! Did she now? Sounds just like her." "Did you not see her there?" "No, I don¡¯t doubt she is there though. But I won¡¯t get a chance to see her unless I seek her out." "Why?" He grinned at Sol with an expression that told him he was asking a very silly question. "Because I doubt the orcs are strong enough to make me fall back for healing." "Ah¡­" Sol was very curious about exactly how strong Olfred was but did not dare to use [Analysis] as he already learned from his mistake with Diana. Instead, he decided to ask upfront. "Umm, sir-" "Just call me Olfred. I don¡¯t care about formalities." "O-Olfred, if you don¡¯t mind me asking how strong are you?" Olfred, not bothered by his question, answered. "Hmm, if I had to put an adventurer¡¯s rank to it, I would be in the upper levels of A-Rank." "Really?!" A-Rank adventurers are very rare. It is not a simple matter of leveling up and having high stats, but one also needs to train their skills and talent skills to a very high degree. The reason for this is that monsters tend to be inherently stronger than people of the same level for a variety of reasons. There were a lot of B-Rank adventurers who managed to get to a high level but were unable to reach A-Rank because of the limitations of their skills and talents making them unable to fight against monsters of simr levels. That is why people who reached A-Rank tend to have unique or even legendary talents; not only do they have an advantage with better skills but their growth tends to be faster as well. That meant it was very likely for Olfred to have a unique talent at the very least. Olfred nodded at Sol, "Yup, anyways I need to go. I will leave half of my unit here to help secure the fort, we can spare that much at least since the battle is almost over. By the way, kid, I saw a bit of your performance holding them off on your own, impressive. So chin up, I know you¡¯re gonna go far." Olfred gave Sol one final pat on the back, this time knocking him off the bed. "Haha! My bad, you should take this as a sign to gain some weight and build some muscle. Defense and vitality won¡¯t help against force like this; you should keep that in mind for the future." Getting up from the floor in pain, Sol nodded. "Will do¡­" "Good, see ya around." Olfred casually waved as he walked away without a care in the world. Seeing him finally leave, Sol sighed in relief. "Phew, I am d he is easygoing, but I swear if I hang out around him, he might just identally kill me." Sol looked at his status page and saw his recently healed health drop by 100. ¡¯He didn¡¯t use any skills and yet he did that much damage when I had [Natural Armor] and [Physical Resistance]...¡¯ Finally left alone, Sol climbed back onto the bed and saw the many notifications on his status page. When Olfred killed the remaining orcs, Sol used [Siphon], gaining a lot of skill levels and a few new ones as well. Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner] Level: 35 Exp: 14,380/165,000 HP: 902/1000 MP: 500 Str: 45 (+60) Vit: 30 (+70) Agi: 30 (+20) Int: 30 (+10) Wis: 40 (+10) Avable Stats: 0 Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 3, [Analysis] Lv 3 Passive Skills: [Intermediate Swordsmanship] Lv 5, [Basic Trapmaking] Lv 7, [Silent Steps] Lv 7, [Parry] Lv 9, [Quick Cast] Lv 5, [Agility Up] Lv 4, [Foraging] Lv 10, [Intermediate Throwing] Lv 1, [Intermediate Unarmed Mastery] Lv 1, [Gargantuan Strength] Lv 1, [Basic Bowmanship] Lv 7, [Intermediate Axemanship] Lv 2, [Iron Stomach] Lv 4, [Tracking] Lv 10, [Endless Vitality] Lv 2, [Increased Mana Regeneration] Lv MAX, [Physical Resistance] Lv MAX, [Mana Perception] Lv 6, [Natural Armor] Lv MAX, [Wisdom Up] Lv 2, [Increased Health Regeneration] Lv 3, [Intelligence Up] Lv 2, [Basic Spearmanship] Lv 8 Active Skills: [Cross sh] Lv 3, [Leap] Lv 9, [Basic Wind Magic] Lv 4, [Intermediate Fire Magic] Lv 4, [Snap Punch] Lv 2, [Sprint] Lv 10, [Harden] Lv 9, [Power Shot] Lv 4, [Concealment] Lv 4, [Wide Swing] Lv 7, [Basic Water Magic] Lv 5, [Intermediate Earth Magic] Lv 1, [Earth Hammer] Lv 5, [Rock Throw] Lv 4, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Heavy Blow] Lv 8, [Crippling Strike] Lv 7, [Charge] Lv 6, [Rage] Lv 5 A lot of skills leveled up, and a few even gave Sol a prompt to evolve them. Without hesitation, he selected yes to all of them. [Foraging] evolved into [Nature Sense]! [Tracking] evolved into [Pursuit]! [Sprint] evolved into [Blurry Steps]! [Nature Sense] Lv 1: Vast experience in foraging allows you to easily find anything mother nature can provide. You are also able to sense the general direction of any foragable as long as you have enough knowledge about it. [Pursuit] Lv 1: Nothing can escape you when you are on the hunt. With a variety of tracking methods and experience, you will know the best way to track someone. If the trail runs cold, there is a small chance to intuit where to go next. [Blurry Steps] Lv 1: Your legs have adapted to the strain from high bursts of speed. When activated, your movement speed increased by 300%. Duration: 5 minutes. Cooldown: 30 minutes. Although Sol felt stronger, he didn¡¯t let it go to his head. Today clearly showed how weak he was for many reasons and he needs to work much harder to improve. Finishing with his status page, Sol closed it andy back down in the bed hoping to get some rest. Chapter 39: Time of Death Sol tried to rest, but it didn¡¯t take long for someone toe and ask for his help. The battle outside the fort had ended with the humans¡¯ victory, and they had arrived back at the fort. A lot of wounded were brought along with them, and it was up to his team to take care of them. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om With a low sigh, he got back up to help the healers. While exhausted, his job was not very physically demanding. Sol did what he was doing before the orcs infiltrated the fort and directed the wounded where they should go while casting [Aqua Ring] on his patients. Time flew as the evening light approached. The healers had finished their job, and the wounded were left to rest while they took a much-needed break. They all decided to join the soldiers and adventurers who were eating dinner in the courtyard as the canteen was currently being used as the new medical ward. Sol sat alongside his fellow healers as he ate a warm meal. The chefs prepared a simple but filling meal of tri-horn deer meat with frost beets thatbined to make a very savory dish. Sol took a bite of the meat as it melted in his mouth. "Wow, how is this so good?" Caroline, who was sitting near him, answered. "The chefs probably have a high skill level, check your stats." Opening his status page, Sol saw he gained 3 temporary points in vitality. He then used [Analysis] on his te. Tri-Horn Deer with Frost Beets Common Effects: +3 vitality for 30 minutes "The effect doesn¡¯t seem that great¡­" Caroline shook her head and exined, "A friend of mine who had a cooking talent told me how it works. When cooking a dish, one can add their own mana to enhance its properties, granting greater effects. But when the skill gets high enough, they don¡¯t need to add their own mana for a dish to gain effects as their skill allows them to naturally draw mana from the surroundings into the dish. I doubt the chefs wasted their energy making mana-enhancing dishes for us normal people so for every dish to have even a basic enhancement is impressive." One of the healers then chimed in, "I heard that if they evolve their cooking skill, they can even enhance some ingredients that don¡¯t require cooking. Can you imagine eating an apple and it gives you 20 agility?" A fewughed at the concept, and jokes kept being tossed around. Eventually, everyone finished their meals and retired for the night. Sol would have joined them if not for having to do one more thing. He split from the others and went towards a very isted area of the fort. Away from the canteen and dormitories was a walled-off section of the fort guarded by two soldiers. Seeing Sol¡¯s approach, the two men stopped him. "Halt! What is your business here?" "I wish to see the fallen and thank them." The two soldiers looked at each other, and without any verbal confirmation, they let him pass. Sol passed through and into the enclosed area where he saw bodies lined up from wall to wall. A stale air permeated the entire area as Sol approached the bodies. He looked at them with a solemn face but with a hardened resolve underneath. ¡¯I¡¯m sorry, but for me to improve, I must do this. I hope you will forgive me.¡¯ Sol then raised his hand and used [Siphon], grabbing the most useful skills he saw. Learned [Meditation] Lv 1 [Rage] leveled up! (5 -> 6) [Snap Punch] leveled up! (2 -> 3) From left to right, Sol was methodologically siphoning skills, but after the 50th body, he noticed something. ¡¯The skills are rising way too slowly.¡¯ To confirm something, Sol opened the skill description for [Siphon]. [Siphon] Lv 3: Siphon 2 skills from dead beings. Increased efficiency, lowers the longer they are dead. ¡¯I know it said it had lower efficiency the longer they were dead but it¡¯s not even been a day¡­¡¯ In total, after siphoning 50 bodies, he could only increase the level of 5 skills by one and gained only 2 new skills. If the skill level isn¡¯t at least 7, Sol couldn¡¯t even gain the first level of the skill and needed multiple tries of the same skill to gain it. ¡¯While it loses in quality, I can at least make it up in quantity.¡¯ After going through 50 corpses, there were still over 200 more to go, so the gains can still be considerable. Because [Siphon] at level 3 allowed Sol to siphon multiple bodies at a time, he was able to go through them all rather fast. 15 minutester, he was already done. From all the skills he gained, Sol was able to raise [Leap] and [Parry] to level 10 and was given the prompt to evolve it. Without hesitation, he epted. [Leap] evolved into [Ground Shrink]! [Parry] evolved into [Counter]! [Ground Shrink] Lv 1: Launch yourself in a designated direction with blinding speed. Maximum distance: 10 meters. Cooldown: 5 minutes. [Counter] Lv 1: Skillfully able to deflect an attack and create an opening. If the user attacks in that window it will deal 50% more damage. ¡¯While the cooldown for [Ground Shrink] increased, the distance and speed which I can cover it is near instant. If I didn¡¯t own the skill and know exactly how it worked, if I saw someone else use it I would think they are teleporting. They don¡¯t even leave an afterimage. With [Counter], it will enable me to deal insane damage by not only creating more openings but ifbined with [Cross sh], not even the tankiest person can survive that.¡¯ Besides a lot of general skills leveling up, [Analysis] also gained a level. Though its description did not change. With all the bodies siphoned, Sol gave the bodies one final thanks before heading back to his room. While it was still evening and people were celebrating, Sol was exhausted. Not only was he healing and dealing with problems all day, but he also had to fight as well and he wasn¡¯t used to such long fights. The only reason Sol hasn¡¯t passed out yet is thanks to his high vitality, but mentally he was already checked out. Sol did not make any stops on the way and even avoided people in fear of being asked to do something and headed straight to his bed. The moment Solnded on his bed he instantly fell asleep. Chapter 40: Private Meeting The next morning all the healers from the second group were summoned by Diana for a meeting. Since their medical ward was currently reduced to rubble, they simply chose to meet outside in the courtyard. The area was a tad chaotic from people training and sparring, but there was a rtively quiet area at the end of the open area where they could talk in peace. Diana looked at all the healers with an undecipherable expression as they silently waited to hear what she had to say. "So¡­ who wishes to give me a rundown of what happened? Hilbert?" Being called out, Hilbert took a step forward and spoke with a serious expression. "I¡¯ll be honest, Miss Diana, this experience showed some inadequacies. I knew I wasn¡¯t leader material, but thought I could try my hand at it again. Anyways, the one you should be asking is not me, it¡¯s him." Hilbert pointed with his thumb backward towards Sol. Not expecting this from Hilbert, Sol tilted his head and asked, "You sure?" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Without hesitation, he nodded, "Yeah, go ahead." Sol walked forward, towards Diana, as she watched his approach with an undiscernible smile. "At first, our group had organizational issues as we took patients in without order, causing problems¡­" Sol narrated yesterday¡¯s events all the way till the orc breach in the fort. The only thing he reported differently was his personal actions against the orcs. He made no mention of his performance not because he wanted to hide his ability but because he felt weird talking about himself. Even though he was downying his role in the defense, Diana had already received a report of the events and knew how he was the one to warn everyone and the first to jump in to fight. "Thank you for your report, Sol. Now with today¡¯s news, it looks like we all get to go home today." A few healers gasped in disbelief. One of them spoke up and asked, "So soon? Doesn¡¯t it usuallyst 3 to 5 days?" Diana nodded, "Normally yes, but it seems their entire invasion hinged on taking the fort and nking the front lines. The moment they found out their group infiltrating the fort perished, they retreated." Having heard the exnation, most healers took it at face value except for Sol. Wanting to clear his doubts, he asked, "Miss Diana, a few things don¡¯t add up. For example-" "Wait, Sol." Before he could continue, Diana stopped him. "Come talk to me after the meeting." ¡¯Maybe it¡¯s sensitive information?¡¯ Not wanting to overstep, Sol held his questions forter. Diana then continued the meeting, informing all the healers of a few things they should know. It was mostly mundane information like at what time they leave, where to eat now that the canteen is a temporary medical ward, and other minor things. It was wrapped up rtively quickly, and everyone left to do their own things before heading back to the city. Unlike the others, Sol followed Diana to a part of the fort he hadn¡¯t been in yet. When he explored the fort yesterday, they went to most areas but were stopped by soldiers from entering this small section as only higher-level personnel were allowed. Here is where the more important rooms are located like the war room, the vault, and even the Commander¡¯s room. Diana led him through the hallway until they reached a door indistinguishable from the rest. Pulling out a key, Diana opened the door, which led into a room simr to the dormitory Sol stayed inst night but at least five times bigger. Because it was much bigger than the standard dormitory room, there was also a round table with four seats and a walk-in closet. It was also much better decorated with chandeliers emitting a meless light, paintings ofndscapes, and a small shrine by the window that Sol could only assume is for her goddess, Ca. "Come, sit down." Diana gestured for Sol to take a seat by the round table. When he sat down, Diana produced a teapot from thin air and made some simple tea. She poured a cup for Sol and herself and then sat on the opposite side of the table. "We can talk here without anyone except Ca hearing in." Sol grinned as he doubted a goddess would eavesdrop on their conversation and asked the doubts that gued his mind. "I have not personally met orcs before yesterday, but from what I have read, they aren¡¯t the type to use these tactics. There must be a reason why they would go against their ideals and risk such a n, right?" Diana nodded. "You¡¯re not wrong. Why do you think they are going against their honor, which is all they stand for?" Sol took a sip from the tea as he thought about her question. "Well¡­ For the past 40 years, they have been trying to invade the kingdom. I originally thought it was because there was some diplomatic dispute, but from what I saw yesterday, it seemed that they are desperate." "That¡¯s because they are." "Huh? Do you know why?" Instead of answering, Diana took out a translucent crystal that had symbols engraved onto it. Sol saw as a thin thread of mana entered the crystal making it shine a little brighter and from it he heard words. "What?! It wants 4000 this month? He wanted 3000st month, does his hunger know no bounds?!" "Y-yes, Chieftain. He said we must send more as he already ran out¡­" "Fucking monster!" "What will we do, Chieftain?" "Let Daruck know and prepare. May Ragnar forgive us¡­" The crystal¡¯s light dimmed likely to show the message isplete. Sol with wide eyes looked back at Diana. "Was that¡­" "The current Chieftain of the Frostaxe n, Chieftain Kuruck. The recording from the Sonoran crystal came from one of our church assets. For now, I can¡¯t say anything else regarding the issue, the only reason I am showing you because I felt you would go investigate on your own and get in trouble." "Even so, isn¡¯t this a big secret? Won¡¯t you be in trouble for showing this to me?" Diana chuckled, "It¡¯s fine, the news will spread eventually, but I don¡¯t suggest you go around telling people about this." "I understand, but why do you have that?" She does not answer and gave Sol a simple smile that lets him know that she won¡¯t tell him why. Understanding he won¡¯t get an answer out of her, Sol took another sip from his tea. "Instead let me ask you something, What outer god do you follow?" Sol felt his body stiffen as an invisible pressure overwhelmed him. He struggled to breath as he felt a hot wave from his stomach travel to his head as he lost control of his body. He tried to fight back against whatever was causing it, but it was useless as he instantly answered the question against his will. "I don¡¯t know what an outer god is." "Huh?" The pressure holding Sol down faded away as he looked at Diana¡¯s confused expression. Chapter 41: Outer Gods "Wasn¡¯t expecting that answer¡­" No longer being pressured by that invisible force, Sol was panting as if he had just run a marathon. He was able to quickly recover thanks to his high vitality, but it was a harrowing experience nheless. Once Diana saw that Sol had recovered, she apologized. "I¡¯m truly sorry about drugging you with Verdanera, but this is a matter of our world¡¯s safety." The tea Sol drank had been spiked with a rare drug called Verdanera, which induced the body to answer a question truthfully. This was different from a normal truth drug where one could choose not to answer or give half-truths. The only downside of Verdanera was that only one question could be asked, and after that, the body became immune to its effects for the next 24 hours. Still reeling a bit from the after effects of the drug, Sol asked, "The world?" Diana nodded as she pulled out a small stone idol. It looked like a goblin wearing a crown and a cape. Sol immediately recognized it as the idol he had found at the goblin shaman¡¯s hut from the quest he had taken a while back. What confused Sol was the fact that Diana had gotten a hold of it, as he had left it in his room back at The Rusty Bed. "Did you break into my room?" "Not me personally, but that¡¯s beside the point. Where did you get this?" Not wanting to be forced to drink that drug again, Sol simply told the truth about where he found it. "I found it in a goblin camp near Kerman city. The goblin shaman who had it treasured it alongside a book on basic water magic, so I took them both." "I see¡­ I¡¯m d I verified beforehand before informing the pdins." "The pdins?!" Sol didn¡¯t know he was that close to getting the strongest warriors of the Church of Ca to hunt him down. Each pdin went through rigorous training by their church to be their strongest sword in times of need. Their numbers were few, but even their weakest pdins started at B-Rank, with the majority being at the peak of B-Rank and only limited by their talents. That didn¡¯t mean they didn¡¯t have any A-Ranks. Each church had multiple A-Rank pdins at their disposal to enforce justice. Even if they sent a squad of their weakest B-Rank pdins, Sol knew he stood no chance and would get killed if he couldn¡¯t escape. "Why would pdins get involved? What even is an outer god that would cause such a reaction?" Having felt that she owed him an exnation, Diana borated. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "Pdins purge the world of evil, which includes followers of evil gods, but there is another category of gods they hunt as well. The other type of gods are outer gods; they are gods not from our world. We are not sure where theye from, but every time one appears, they cause trouble by bringing foreign beings, causing destruction, or, worst of all, choosing a champion." "A champion, is that the outer god version of chosen?" The chosen were people the gods designated to be their representatives. They had a direct line ofmunication with their god and were able to borrow power directly. If the chosen was strong enough, they might even be able to channel their god through their body and allow them to possess them for a limited time. While this rtionship between man and god was very powerful, it was not easy to create. The chosen needed to have an affinity for the god¡¯sw, which meant having a talent in a simr domain. They also needed to align with the god¡¯s personal beliefs, as when they shared the power, it conflicted if they had opposing natures. The biggest limitation was that there could only be one chosen per god; the only way to select a new one was with the passing of the previous chosen. "Yes, they are the same as a chosen, but we call them champions to differentiate those selected by our world¡¯s gods and outer gods. Another way to differentiate them is by their status page." "How will it be different? Is it a unique talent?" "No, the chosen of outer gods are bestowed unique skills that the system can¡¯t recognize. When you use your [Analysis] on a champion, you will know." "Ah, really? But that goblin shaman had a very normal status page." Diana¡¯s face made a grave expression when she heard that. "Then he wasn¡¯t a champion, and if that¡¯s the case, they are still out and about." "Why did that shaman have the idol?" "The champion must have been spreading the faith of¡­" Diana pointed with a hint of disgust at the idol. "This thing. The faith this idol emits can maybe be used to track him¡­" She raised her head and looked back at Sol, "I know you may not trust me after this, but you must understand that when outer gods are involved, disaster always appears. If you are able to forgive me, please find me when you head back to Kerman city. Go to the church of Ca and ask for me. I will need your help to find the harbinger." ¡¯What?¡¯ While he could understand being drugged and pressured to answer as he was suspected to be the harbinger, Sol found it ludicrous to be asked to help them find it. He thought he could trust Diana, especially after she forgave him for using [Analysis] on her, but this soured whatever rtionship they had. The crux of the problem was that if what Diana was saying was to be trusted, then this harbinger could cause a lot of damage. He only felt slightly responsible over the matter, not because of Diana, but the fact he found the idol in the goblin camp and did nothing with it. If he had turned it in to the right authorities or the church, this wouldn¡¯t have happened to begin with. Resolutely, Sol declined, "No, trust is hard to build but easy to break. While I understand why you poisoned me, that doesn¡¯t mean I will let bygones be bygones. I wille visit you back in Kerman but only to tell you what I know. After that, I want nothing to do with this." Disappointment was evident in her expression, "You¡¯re right, I¡¯ll try to make it up to you someday. Either way, I¡¯m thankful for whatever information you can provide." With the matter settled, Diana stood up and escorted Sol to the door. Before Sol could leave, Diana remembered somethingst minute. "Oh, I almost forgot. The Commander wishes to speak with you. Remember to stop by his office as soon as you can." Sol nodded and parted ways with Diana. Since he was already close to his office, Sol decided to just head there now. After asking for directions from a nearby soldier who was guarding the hallway, Sol quickly arrived at the door to Commander Xander Pared. Chapter 42: An Offer Sol lightly knocked on the door. A mature, rough voice answered through the door. "Enter." The door creaked open as Commander Xander came into view. Wearing the same uniform as when he did the orientation speech, the man was sitting behind an ornate wooden desk, processing a tall stack of papers. As he passed another paper to his finished pile, which was almost double the size of the other stack, it made Sol wonder how long he had been working. "Sorry for intruding, but I was told you called for me." His gaze rose from the paperwork as he took a good look at the young man who had entered his office. "Hmm, you¡¯re Sol?" "Yes, sir." "I see. Take a seat. I¡¯ll be with you after I finish this requisition form." Sol sat down and let his gaze wander around the room as he waited for Xander to finish. He noticed that while the room was finely decorated, there was a distinctck of personal belongings. While he had never worked in an office environment before, from his time with Annabel, he knew she tended to have a few things on hand and kept them around her work area for convenience. Sol let his thoughts wander as to why this was the case until Xander signed the paper and faced him. "I summoned you to my office to thank you. Without your message warning me of their ns, I would have been none the wiser. They would have taken the fort and led a nk on my men, which would have caused untold amounts of casualties. Not only that, you also ran into the fray to hold back the orcs until the reinforcements arrived, not even knowing when they would get there. Very few would be willing to risk their lives like that for the greater good, and for that, I offer you a ce under my wing. Would you like to be the Lead Healer?" While Sol knew he was called for his actions to warn him the previous day, he didn¡¯t expect to be offered a position with actual power. If he took the position, he wouldmand over all medical staff in the fort and be paid very well for doing so. Most, if given the opportunity, would take it in a heartbeat, but unlike most, Sol could only shake his head. "I¡¯m sorry, Commander, but I will have to decline your offer." As if expecting this answer, Xander just nodded. "Understood, may I know why?" "While I was tempted to ept, I won¡¯t be able to realize my goal if I do." "And what is your goal?" With hesitation, Sol answered, "I, uh, still don¡¯t know¡­" "Hahaha!" Hearing the outrageous answer, Xander couldn¡¯t help butugh loudly. His deep voice reverberated through the room until he managed to calm himself down. "Hah... So you don¡¯t ept my offer because it would impede your goal, but you don¡¯t know what you¡¯re trying to achieve¡­ Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?" Embarrassed as he couldn¡¯t deny his statement, Sol nodded. "I know it sounds crazy, but it¡¯s how I truly feel. At first, I thought what I wanted to do was simply help others, but after yesterday¡¯s events, I feel that while I do want to help others, it¡¯s not in that way." "Hmm. There are many ways one can help others, Sol. You could be a savior who fights the strong to protect the weak. You could also be a charitable man who uses his wealth and affluence to raise others around him. As many ways as there are to hurt others, there are to help as well; it may take you a while to find it." "I know, and that¡¯s why I can¡¯t stay in this fort. I need to go to new ces, meet new people, and hopefully gain a better understanding of what I truly want." As Xander heard Sol speak with determination, he understood there was no way to convince him to stay. In that case, there was something else he could do instead. "I hear your resolve. I would still like to reward you somehow, so how about I give you the same reward as the A-Rank adventurer we recruited?" Surprised at being given the same reward as an A-Ranker, Sol asked in disbelief, "Wait, really? Was what I did so important to bepared as what the A-Ranker was recruited for?" Pondering his question, Xander shook his head, "You¡¯re right, what you did was actually more than what he did. How about double the A-Ranker¡¯s reward?" "That¡¯s not what I meant!" Xander knew that Sol was underestimating his impact on the battle andughed, "Haha. Even so, you did much more than him. He was hired to help us win the battle, but if the orc n seeded, we could have lost in the end, and even if we won, the casualties would have been enormous. If wepare what he did, which was just kill exactly 159 orcs and team up with Olfred to make their champion retreat, to you warning us of the infiltration and holding it long enough for reinforcements, you created the most impact on the overall oue of the war." Having no way to refute that logic, Sol could only relent, "Fine¡­ In that case, what was the reward?" "For the A-Ranker, it was to select one item from our vault. So you get to select two." "Really?!" The vault was where the most valuable and rare items were stored. Either taken from the enemy or ced there as a reward to be given to soldiers for their service to the kingdom, this vault had many magical and rare items. There were not a lot of items stored inside, but each item stored in the vault went for at least 500 gold. For Sol, who only had 13 gold and 54 silver to his name, it was a ludicrous amount. One could almost see gold coins appear in Sol¡¯s eyes as he was blinded by the money, which made Xanderugh. "You gotta work on hiding your facial expressions. Also, remember you are not allowed to sell the items selected from the vault." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Being brought back to reality, Sol could only sheepishly chuckle, "Sorry, I was a bit overwhelmed as I never had anything so expensive before. I promise I won¡¯t sell them." Xander nodded with a smile, "d you understand. Come with me then to select your reward." Chapter 43: The Vault The Commander himself led Sol to the vault that was heavily guarded. Four elite soldiers guarded the main entrance while four more were stationed in the vicinity as they vigntly watched the area. As Xander neared the soldiers, they all saluted and made way for him as he approached the vault. The entrance of the vault itself was two ck metallic doors covered in blue lines and drawings. Sol didn¡¯t know what they meant, but he correctly identified them as runes. With the amount of runes etched onto the door, it was clearly done by an advanced engraver. Once near the door, Xander took out a small metal orb and pressed it against the door, and as if reacting to its presence, the doors slowly opened. Xander turned back as he beckoned Sol, "Come in." "Woah¡­" The vault was a ratherrge room with pedestals and wall mounts presenting all sorts of items, from weapons and armors to odd objects that served a niche purpose. Sol was overwhelmed at the many options avable to him. Seeing how stumped he was, Xander spoke, "Take a look around. There are descriptions written on the ques so you know what they do. Take your time, but don¡¯t make me wait too long." Not wanting to waste the Commander¡¯s time, Sol immediately left to find the best two items that would suit his needs. He also didn¡¯t have to read from the ques as he could use [Analysis] to quickly learn of its details. There were slightly under 100 items to choose from, so to speed the process up, Sol decided to ignore the defensive items and armors. ¡¯I already have insane durability, so I currently don¡¯t need anything like that.¡¯ Eventually, Sol narrowed down his selection to four items, two weapons, and two items. Pollen Bow Unique Attack: 150-200 Durability: 1250/1250 Skills: [Mana Arrow] Lv 8, [Pollen Cloud] Lv 8, [Grappling Vines] Lv EX n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om [Mana Arrow] Lv 8: Create an arrow from the user¡¯s mana. Mana Efficiency: 80%. [Pollen Cloud] Lv 8: Launch a flower arrow that bursts into a pollen cloud. When inhaled, it will cause poison, nausea, confusion. User is immune to its effects. Mana Cost: 150. Cooldown: 10 minutes. [Grappling Vines] Lv EX: Shoot an arrow of twisting vines that wraps around the target, immobilizing them. Strength and duration of roots are proportional to mana used. Lavamancy Staff Unique Attack: 40-60 Durability: 1100/1100 Skills: [Increased Mana Regeneration] Lv 8, [Fire Amplification] Lv 8, [Eruption] Lv 4 [Fire Amplification] Lv 8: Increase power of fire spells and abilities by 160%. [Eruption] Lv 4: An engraved spell. Create a split in the earth whereva will erupt from, scorching everything within 20 meters. Requires [Intermediate Fire Magic] or [Intermediate Earth Magic]. Mana Cost: 250. Spatial Ring Unique Skills: [Pocket Space] Lv 8, [Time Dtion] Lv 5 [Pocket Space] Lv 8: The ring is connected to an 8x8x8 meter pocket space to store items for safekeeping. Creator has ced restrictions to not allow living organisms inside with the exception of nts. [Time Dtion] Lv 5: Time within [Pocket Space] can move 5 times slower or faster. Immunizing Belt Unique Skills: [Poison Resistance] Lv 8, [Status Cleanse] Lv 4 [Poison Resistance] Lv 8: Increases resistance and recovery to poison. [Status Cleanse] Lv 4: Cleanse the user from one current ailment. Cooldown: 12 hours. After scouring through the entire vault, Sol found these items to be the most useful to the current him. The Pollen Bow was an option because Sol had a wide variety of skills but couldn¡¯t use some of them without the right weapon. There were hammers, axes, and spears as well, but with his sword covering his melee fights, he needed a ranged option for when he can¡¯t use magic or cannot cast. It also had the interesting skill of [Pollen Cloud], which can poison a group of enemies, making them easier to defeat. On the other hand, instead of spreading out his variety, he could go about improving his strongest magic, which was fire magic. The Lavamancy Staff would drastically increase the power of his fire spells and give him ess to another powerful spell. While he wasn¡¯t sure if [Increased Mana Regeneration] would further increase his regeneration overall, the staff would drastically increase his magical might. The Spatial Ring was chosen as a quality of life item making his life easier. It allowed him to store a lot, and he wouldn¡¯t have to carry his backpack around anymore. It also could elerate or decelerate the time flow inside the space, but he personally had no use for that. Sol could see it being useful for preserving food or elerating nt growth, but he has no need for that. Immunizing Belt was also something he chose that had a niche use. The only reason he was now considering it is because of his recent experience with Diana. Although he understood why she drugged him and the severity of the matter he did not enjoy it. If anything it taught him a lesson to be more wary of others and with this item he will have a way to counter poison and status afflictions should it ever happen again. After weighing the pros and cons, Sol decided on taking the Pollen Bow and Immunizing Belt. While the Lavamancy Staff could increase his power of fire spells, he didn¡¯t only have ess to fire magic. Fire magic may be his strongest magic right now, but that¡¯s only because he hadn¡¯t learned any intermediate spells for the other elements. As Sol siphoned from other spellcasters that would change, even yesterday he learned a fair amount of new spells from siphoning the bodies of the dead soldiers and adventurers. If he ever did get a staff it would be one that enhanced all types of magic, not just one. The belt was picked over the ring because he still has no need for such a big space. While useful, his backpack with the basic spatial expansion fulfilled all his needs for now. If he ever wanted a ring in the future Sol believed he could make enough money to buy the one eventually. The belt catered to his needs better as it could save him if he was poisoned or afflicted with status effects as currently even with his high defense he had no way to counter such things. Sol grabbed the bow and belt and brought them to Xander who was waiting by the entrance. Although Sol searched through the entire vault, thanks to using [Analysis], it only took him 10 minutes to decide. "Commander, these are the items I will select for my reward." Xander looked at the belt and already knowing what every item in this vault does he simply nodded his head. When he saw the bow the man was confused. "A bow?" Realizing his blunder, Sol didn¡¯t know what to say. Itpletely escaped his mind that he was portraying himself as a swordsman with ess to water magic. Sol tried to quickly make up an excuse. "This is¡­ for a friend." "A friend you say?" "Yes, she has always wanted to be an archer but her first talent didn¡¯t help her in that aspect. Hopefully with this bow and unlocking her next talent she will be able to pursue that." The first excuse that came to Sol¡¯s mind was Annabel. She said she had always wanted to an archer but her talent did not develop in her favor. Thinking back on it now, Sol felt like an idiot for never knowing. He always thought he was unlucky for never gaining a talent when people like her gained talents in things they never wanted. "I see, she is very lucky to have a friend like you." Sol shook his head. "No sir, I¡¯m the lucky one." Chapter 44: Back to Kerman Sol parted ways with Commander Xander, but not before the man mentioned that the offer for a permanent position would always be avable to him. Politely declining onest time, Sol made his way back to his room to pack up as the caravan to head back to the city left soon. He made his way down the hallways wearing a new dark brown belt with an emerald buckle and a braided vine bow with fluffy ends simr to dandelions over his shoulder. While the belt looked rtively normal, he still drew the eyes of a lot of strangers, as someone wielding a bow and sword was an oddbination. Once Sol noticed the stares, he grabbed the bow and held it in his hands as if he was delivering it to someone, which lessened the overall attention on him. Arriving at his room, Sol quickly packed his belongings in the backpack. Thanks to the spatial expanded backpack he bought a while back for the gathering quests, he had more than enough space to store all his personal belongings. As he was about to ce the Pollen Bow in the bag, he stopped as he stared at it and thought back to what he had said to the Commander. ¡¯Should I head back and help her unlock her second talent?¡¯ Sol considered the possibility of heading back to Initium and helping her level up to unlock her talent. While he knew it would greatly elerate her growth, he quickly threw away the idea. ¡¯Anna would be furious if I even offered to level her up.¡¯ While Annabel did not mind being helped, she drew the line with handouts. Sol remembered the time her father, Guildmaster William Deliban, offered to give her pocket money to buy a dress she really wanted. Sheter ranted to Sol that she didn¡¯t want it if it was simply given to her; she had a perfectly good job and could buy it herself when she got her next payment. Sol at the time thought it was weird, as her father and boss were the same person, so the money came from the same source, but he was not stupid enough to mention that in front of her. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om ¡¯She did mention her father was helping her level up in his free time, but I doubt he is doing anything besides watching over her in case something happens. She probably got to level 14 all on her own.¡¯ After discarding the idea to head back to Initium, Sol stowed the bow in his backpack and slung it over his shoulder. Although the backpack weighed a lot for an average person, thanks to Sol¡¯s abnormal strength, he could easily carry it on his back. There was not much time left before they had to leave, so Sol decided to head there early and wait. On arriving, he noticed that he wasn¡¯t the only one who had that idea and saw some of the healers grouped together by the gates. One of the healers noticed him and waved over, "Hey Sol! Come join us." "Hey Mitch, are you all waiting for the carriages?" The healer who called him over, Mitch, nodded. "Yeah, we have nothing to do, so some of us decided toe here and talk while we wait." Along with Mitch were 15 other healers Sol worked with, including Nataly and Caroline. Nataly then asked the group, "What do you all n to do back at Kerman?" "Hmm¡­ I¡¯m not from Kerman, so I will probably do an escort quest that heads back home." "I¡¯ll just rejoin my party and head into the dungeon." Everyone discussed their ns for when they headed back to the city, and from their answers, most were originally from Kerman and would simply join back with their parties, while others had their own ns. Caroline asked Sol, "So you n to stay in Kerman for a while?" He nodded, "Yeah, just until I be C-Rank." "Why don¡¯t you join a party then while you¡¯re here?" Nataly chimed in. "Maybe, but I don¡¯t really know any parties¡­" Before he continued his sentence, he remembered that he did get acquainted with a party, Radiant Historia. Maybe he could team up with them toplete a few quests, and although they almost perished from the monster house they seemed fairly strong. They mentioned they were almost B-Rank, since Sol saved them from the monster house, there was a good chance they will let him join their party. "Actually, I may know a party who is willing to take me in." Nataly seemed disappointed by his answer, "Aww... really?" ¡¯Did she want to ask me to join her party?¡¯ Seeing her disappointment, Caroline looked at her in disbelief, "You wanted to invite him to your party? Won¡¯t that be a waste with two healers; the experience will be split even more." "Well, I was thinking he could act as a swordsman, you know? He¡¯s very strong, and my partycks a swordsman." The two girls went on a tangent about his versatility in not only being able to deal damage but also cast magic, which could open up a lot of possibilities. Sol didn¡¯t even say anything as they just made their own conjectures, not wanting to identally spill anything unnecessary. By the end, they simply concluded that he was too good for their party and deserved a C-Ranked party, which was what he was originally going for, sparing him the need to decline Nataly¡¯s invitation. The group of healers talked for over an hour until it was finally time to hop on the carriages and leave. Sadly, they weren¡¯t able to pick who they sat with as they were evenly distributed among the carriages. Even more unfortunate was the fact Sol was ced in a carriage filled with moody and quiet people and had to awkwardly endure the whole ride back in silence. Thankful that Kerman was not too far from the fort, Sol arrived as the evening light covered the city. He hopped off the carriage and was going to head to the adventurers guild until he noticed the hordes of adventurers doing the same. Not wanting to spend the entire evening in a line, he decided to just head over tomorrow and went to a nice restaurant to eat dinner. While the food at the fort was not bad, it had a very mass produced feeling, and all he wanted right now was a warm hearty meal. Chapter 45: More Rewards The next morning, Sol left The Rusty Bed and made his way to the Adventures guild. The rowdy atmosphere of the guild reminded Sol of the one back in Initium but much louder. Even so, it was nice to know that one thing was constant no matter where he went. Seeing Trevor working behind his counter with few customers as usual, Sol headed over and was quickly attended. "Wee back Sol! How did the defense go?" "A few bumps along the road but overall a sess. I was told I could im the quest reward from the fort defense here." Trevor nodded, "Sure can, I already knew you would ask for that and got your records ahead of time." He then reached under the counter as he pulled out a file. "Haven¡¯t read it yet so let¡¯s see¡­" As he skimmed the paper, Trevor¡¯s eyes widened a bit, "Woah, says here they wished to elevate the reward to A-Rank." "Really?!" Although the Commander said he would give him the double the reward as the A-Ranker they recruited, Sol didn¡¯t think that also included the quest rewards¡­ "Yeah, I don¡¯t know what you did but this paper with the seal from the Commander says you earned it. With the amount of points the A-Rank reward gives, it¡¯s more than enough to rank you up to C-Rank. Sadly, while point wise it couldunch you all the way to B-Rank, the rules won¡¯t allow it." Sol nodded as he already knew that was going to happen. While it was normal for certified guild partners like military organizations or nobles to raise the quest reward for outstanding performance, there are limits to prevent it from being abused. One of them was that when ranking up, the surplus points that are left over from ranking up are null and void. This rule was put in ce because of the actions of nobles abusing the system to quickly rank up their own people. There were other rules tobat the loopholes, as no one wanted to see a bunch of A-Rankers that had no actual ability. For example, the physical test for B-Rankers to rank up; if they couldn¡¯t demonstrate the power of an A-Ranker, then it would be quickly seen in the test. "That¡¯s fine, that still means I¡¯m a C-Ranker." Trevor smiled as he also pulled out a heavy pouch, "Yep, and you still get the full mary reward. It¡¯s out of their pockets after all." epting the heavy bag of 200 gold, Sol thought to himself he would have to go shopping to get some new gear. Sol also handed his adventurer¡¯s card to get it changed to reflect his new rank. Trevor then left to process the new card as Sol started to ponder his next course of action. ¡¯I originally wanted to party up with Radiant Historia till I got to C-Rank, but that happened way sooner than intended. Should I go to a new city? Maybe soon but not yet. There are still parts of the city I haven¡¯t seen yet and would like to explore.¡¯ He also remembered another matter he had to attend to, ¡¯I¡­ also have to stop by the church and tell them what I know.¡¯ Trevor promptly returned with a shiny new silver card. The craftsmanship of the card itself was also of a much higher quality with no scuffs or abnormal bends on the edges. "Alright, that should be everything Sol, need anything else?" "No, I might check the board to see any interesting quests." "Let me know- ah wait. Sol, I should probably warn you." N?v(el)B\\jnn "Hmm? Warn me about what?" "Well, you have been rising in the ranks pretty fast, you have only been here for a little under 2 weeks and made more progress than most. But thates with some negative attention, I¡¯d be careful not to go around telling others about your progress." While Sol had seen some super rookies back in Initium he never thought it was a bad thing; if anything, people celebrated having another capable person, "Has something happened?" Trevor was conflicted on whether or not to borate, eventually he decided it was better to warn him, "Well¡­ I¡¯m not supposed to speak of this, but for the past 5 years, many rookies who have been ranking up fast eventually disappeared. At first, everyone thought they died outside adventuring, but some have disappeared when evidence showed they never left the city. A huge investigation wasunched, but that was years ago and nothing came from it. What I¡¯m trying to say is be careful, nobody knows where they go, but none have been seen since." Not expecting to be suddenly brought into a conspiracy, Sol felt a bit helpless and could only reassure Trevor, "I won¡¯t tell anybody so don¡¯t worry okay? I actually nned on leaving Kerman in a few days." Trevor felt saddened by the fact Sol was leaving but also relieved as it would be safer. "I¡¯m sad you¡¯re leaving so soon, but it will be safer if you did. When do you leave?" "Not sure yet but probably in a week¡¯s time." "Alright let me know when, we can go out for drinks before you go." Although Sol wasn¡¯t much of a drinker, he agreed as he wouldn¡¯t know the next time they would see each other. Saying goodbye to Trevor, Sol headed over to the board just to see the quests avable to him here. ¡¯y rat king, gather midnight essence, escort caravan¡­¡¯ A lot of these quests either fell in the party-required category or required long travel time. While he could probably go and kill the rat king himself, it was a quest that required a party to prevent foolish adventurers from fighting it alone for the high reward. Eventually Sol¡¯s gazended on one that piqued his interest. ¡¯Sparring practice?¡¯ If it was just normal sparring he wouldn¡¯t mind, but this quest says that it specifically required someone with talents in both magic and a weapon. A rarebination as is, but it on the paper the quest giver is apparently the noble house of Valencia. While he didn¡¯t recognize the family name as he wasn¡¯t from this city he wondered why they would put up this quest when they likely had personal guards who could act as sparring partners. Sol shook his head, ¡¯While interesting, I should probably slow down on questing for a while. I don¡¯t know who could be kidnapping all these rookies, but better not give them a reason to go after me.¡¯ Turning away from the C-Rank board, Sol left the Adventurers guild and made his way to the Church of Ca. He already told Diana he would head there to tell them all he knows of the harbinger, so he might as well get it out of the way. Chapter 46: Church of Caela In a dimly lit room with only the blue glow of a gem functioning as its only light source, an older looking man with neck length grey hair sat on arge couch as he patiently waited for something. Not long after, a younger but sharp eyed man came in with a folder. "You have it?" The sharp eyed man did not respond but instead handed over the file to the older man. Not minding theck of verbal response, the older man opened the file and read the contents. "Hmm¡­ Only 4 this time around." He then grabbed a quill and crossed off two names. "These two are too old; likely already worked as a private mercenary before, hence their quick rise. Thesest two, though¡­ get Red Sands and Weaver on this; they should suffice." Responding with only a grunt, the sharp eyed man left to do asmanded. The old man, alone once more, looked back at the file. "Fewer every year¡­ Maybe we should start expanding to Initium¡­" ¡­ Sol already knew where the Church of Ca was located. From his time in the city, it was hard to miss the towering cathedral made of pristine white marble. As he entered therge weing doors, he saw that the inside did not actually have a roof, and each section closer to the altar at back of the church was more elevated than thest. It was simr to a giant staircase, as if trying to get a little bit closer to the skies. While Sol was not a follower of any god, he did know a fair amount about them, including Ca, the Goddess of the sky. Back when the world was still new, thend, skies, and seas were in constant turmoil, life found it very hard to survive and thrive. It was not until the appearance of Ca, Kem, and Naria that stabilized the rampant energies of the world. Naria calmed the seas, Kem stilled the earth, and Ca silenced the skies. Once they brought peace to the, that was when the different races could finally flourish, bringing about the rise of civilizations. Sol knew the stories and believed them as well, but he never became a true follower of any god. When he failed to receive his talent at the leveling ceremony years ago, his first reaction was to pray and ask for any god to help him and give him a talent like everyone else. But no matter how much he prayed and offered, his plight was ignored. Eventually, Sol subconsciously started ming the gods for never gaining a talent and stopped praying to them. Although he finally gained a talent yearster, he knew it was not because of the gods¡¯ intervention, and that it was likely the gods themselves had no control over it. That revtion broke the image of the gods he initially had, making him realize they were not as omnipotent as he was taught to believe. After sorting out his personal feelings, Sol went to the nearest priest he saw to ask to meet with Diana. Upon seeing his approach, the elderly female priest talked to him with a gentle tone, "Wee, sky child. Are you here to remove your scar?" Instinctually, Sol¡¯s hand moved to touch the sharp scar that ran from his cheek to the bottom of his neck. It was thest thing he had of his parents and while a sad memory, he would never part with it regardless of how it looked. "No thanks. I¡¯m here to meet with Diana." Not expecting that name toe up, the elderly priest was shocked, "S-sky Touched Diana?! W-wait right here." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om ¡¯Sky Touched?¡¯ Sol saw as she scurried off in a rush; it seemed he underestimated how much influence she had here. While Sol knew about the general details of the church, he never heard of that rank. From what Sol remembered, in ascending order was Sky Watchers, Sky Speakers, and Sky Chasers. So he was not sure how much higher Sky Touched was, but from the priest¡¯s reaction, it had to be fairly high ranked. Diana never mentioned her status in the church before and Sol honestly didn¡¯t really care what role she had here so he didn¡¯t bother asking. It did not take long for the elderly priest to return as she briskly walked towards him. "Please follow me." Initially believing he was going to be taken up theicallyrge stairs, Sol was surprised to actually be led to the far left side where a door led underneath the stairs. Inside were hallways leading to different rooms for sleeping, supplies, and more. ¡¯Well¡­ I guess they still need a roof for sleeping and day to day matters.¡¯ Being led through the winding passages, they quickly arrived at a door. The elderly priest quickly excused herself and left Sol outside the door. Sol mentally prepared himself as he knocked on the door. "Come in, Sol." Entering the room, Sol saw Diana sitting on a light blue couch as she gestured for him to take a seat on the couch in front of her. Taking her offer, Sol sat down as he waited for Diana to speak first. After a minute of silence, she eventually spoke, "Would you like some tea?" Sol¡¯s body tensed up as he stared daggers at Diana. "Haha¡­ Sorry, bad joke. I was just trying to lighten up the mood." Realizing he had been too on edge, Sol took a deep breath to calm his rapidly beating heart. "Haaa. It¡¯s fine. Let me just tell you what I know." Sol then narrated his journey from the moment he epted the quest to heading to the goblin encampment to hiding in the hut of the shaman and waiting to kill it quietly, and finally clearing out the rest of the camp. He also marked on the map where the camp was and anything else of note on the way. "So at no point did you find anything that could be from the Harbinger?" Sol shook his head, "No, the only thing that stood out was the idol you now have." Not pushing for more information, Diana nodded, "We have already been to the camp and found nothing, but now with more context and the idol, hopefully we will be able to track it down." "Alright, hope you find them." Deciding to try to bring him along one more time, Diana asked, "Is there any way to convince you to join our search? We will issue a quest if needed and pay generously." "No, I already told you I want nothing more to do with this. I¡¯ll be heading out now." Diana sighed. "Alright. May Ca bless you." Not interested in any rewards, Sol left and headed out of the Church. Even if the rewards matched the ones given by themander, he simply didn¡¯t feel he could trust Diana. Outside of the church, Sol pondered what he could do now. Taking this time to slow down a bit he decided to go do some shopping as he gained a surprising windfall earlier today. Chapter 47: Odd Shop Sol walked towards the market district as he thought about what he needed to buy. ¡¯Some new clothes, a quiver, and arrows for the bow, what else¡­ Ah, it would be nice to buy a weapon of every type just to try them out, but that¡¯s too much to carry around. Maybe I should buy a small spatial ring since I have the money.¡¯ Originally, Sol did not pick the unique Spatial ring as a reward because he could easily find one in the city as long as he had money. Now thanks to the money he gained from the quest reward, he had more than enough to buy amon spatial ring, which would make his life much more convenient. Since he nned on buying multiple things today, Sol decided to get a ring to store things first and went searching for a magic item shop. As he looked around for a good shop, he thought about using [Mana Perception] to simply pick the store with the most ambient mana surrounding it. What surprised Sol was that when he did search this way, the shop with the most mana surrounding it was not a building but a small carriage parked between other stalls in the market street. On the side of the carriage, an opening was made, creating a makeshift counter. Behind the counter was a young girl no older than 12 with silver hair that reached down to her neck. She looked very bored as she leaned on the counter and stared at a toy windmill as its des spun from the wind. Sol saw no wares being disyed, which made him doubt whether they even sold anything, but the mana he saw led him to believe they definitely had something special. Seeing his approach, the young girl straightened up, "Customer! What would you like?" Sol was confused; she asked what he wanted before he saw any of the wares? "What do you have?" "Oh umm¡­" She looked around behind her, "A lot of things!" ¡¯Is this her first time selling anything? Where are her parents?¡¯ Most would have left by now, but Sol knew she had something interesting back there, so he stayed. "Okay¡­ how about we start from the basics, do you sell food, armor, items, weapons?" She looked behind the counter and turned back, "Things!" "... Can I see one of them?" "Sure!" She turned around again and grabbed the first thing she saw. "Here, look!" It was an earring with a small feather hanging off it. Sol used [Analysis] to find out more. Harpy¡¯s Fall Rare Skills: [Glide] Lv 5, [Wind st] Lv 6 [Glide] Lv 5: Activating will decrease the user¡¯s weight to be as light as a feather. The user will be able to glide across the air to traverse obstacles. Duration: 5 minutes. Cooldown: 4 hours. [Wind st] Lv 6: Use stored mana to create a vicious st of air pressure. Damage increases based on intelligence. Cooldown: 30 minutes. ¡¯The effects are pretty good¡­¡¯ Sol returned the earring to her, which made the little girl sad. "Are you not going to buy it¡­" The little girl started sniffling and looked like she was about to cry, in an attempt to distract her before she did, he asked to see more "things". "Do you have any rings?" The girl sniffled a bit before nodding and bringing out a box full of rings. ¡¯Spatial rings, magic amplifying rings, status resistant rings¡­ Gods, why are there so many¡­¡¯ Although a lot of them piqued his interest, he ended up choosing the spatial ring he was initially searching for. Spatial Ring Common Skills: [Pocket Space] Lv 2 [Pocket Space] Lv 2: The ring is connected to a 2x2x2-meter pocket space to store items for safekeeping. The creator has ced restrictions to not allow living organisms inside with the exception of nts. "How much for this one?" The girl stared at it for a while but did not answer; instead, she grabbed a thick book from under the counter. She opened it, revealing a cute picture book which seemed to act as an item catalogue with small descriptions written next to them. It took the girl a while to find the page with the rings, but eventually, she did find the right one. "It¡¯s umm¡­ 120 gold! But it says I can lower the price by 20 gold if they are nice. You seem nice!" Sol was honestly speechless; were her parents so irresponsible to just leave her here alone? He even looked around to see if he was being watched and it was some borate prank, but it simply wouldn¡¯t make sense if it was. Another thing that didn¡¯t add up is that his [Mana Perception] is showing a mass of mana throughout the entire carriage himself, but so far no items had such dense mana. Putting that thought aside, he took 120 gold from his backpack and handed it to the girl. "No, it¡¯s ok. I¡¯ll pay in full." Sol just couldn¡¯t bring himself to take advantage of her. The girl excitedly put away the money, "Wow! Mom will be so proud!" "Speaking of which, where is your mom?" "Mom¡¯s busy with work, but it¡¯s ok! I will run the shop while she is gone." "She left you to manage the store on your own?" "Yes! She said it would be good¡­ good¡­" It seemed the little girl forgot what her mother told her but it wasn¡¯t hard for Sol to figure it out. "Practice." "Practice!" This conversation really took a lot out of Sol. While he liked children he sometimes found them to be a bit exhausting. The only reason he hasn¡¯t left yet is because he is still worried over her safety. "Will you be okay here? What if someonees to bully you?" "Bob will protect me!" "Bob?" "Yep! Bob say hi!" No voice responded, but instead the carriage itself started shaking as one of the front wheels wiggled as if they were¡­ waving as Sol. ¡¯No way¡­¡¯ N?v(el)B\\jnn Bob (Living Rune Construct) Unique Skills: [Physical Resistance] Lv Max, [Reinforced Armor] Lv Max, [Rune Algorithm] Lv 6, [Spell Matrix] Lv 6 ¡¯What the-¡¯ Having never seen such a thing in his life, Sol had no idea what to say. At least he was assured of the little girl¡¯s safety. He also now knew the source of the mana he saw, originally thinking it was something inside the carriage it was actually the carriage itself. Afterposing himself, Sol spoke, "I see¡­ Thank you for looking after her, Bob. I should get going, take care of yourself¡­ umm what¡¯s your name?" "Chloe! Oh and tell your friends toe to my shop!" Embarrassed to tell the little girl he had almost no friends in this city, he nodded his head, "Haha¡­ will do Chloe." Leaving the little girl and living rune construct behind, Sol, equipped with his new spatial ring, went to do some light shopping. Chapter 48: Porra The bell on the doorway chimed as Sol exited the weaponsmith with a new hammer and spear crafted by one of their apprentices. The weapons were of simplemon rarity, but he bought them to practice with the passive and active skills rted to other weapons. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om After meeting Chloe and buying the spatial ring, Sol went to a few other shops, buying clothes, some tools, and a quiver with some arrows. Although Sol bought arrows and weapons to try out new skills, it was unlikely he would find a good time to do so. He couldn¡¯t go to the guild training grounds to practice, because it was open to the public, so that option was immediately crossed out. The only option Sol could think of was heading out of the city to a secluded part of the forest, but after receiving the warning from Trevor, he didn¡¯t believe isting himself and giving the rookie kidnappers an ideal time to strike a good idea. Luckily, the skills gave him a basic understanding so he could sufficiently use any weapon if needed, but it¡¯s one thing to have the knowledge and muscle memory crammed in your body and another to actually use it and feel it for real. As Sol left the market district, he looked upwards and saw the evening light spread through the sky. It seemed his meeting with Diana and shopping took longer than he thought. He was about to head to the inn until he realized that he hadn¡¯t really explored the nightlife of the city. ¡¯It should be fine, I can¡¯t stop living just because of a warning. Besides, there¡¯s probably going to be a lot of people out and about, from what Trevor said they disappeared without a trace.¡¯ Not wanting to be held back by fear, Sol decided to stay out tonight just to see what this city had to offer. Back in Initium, the town had a ratherckluster nightlife with the most popr activity being drinking and on the rare asion festivals. He was curious about what was different in this big city. ¡­ Crunch "Wow! This is really good! Can I have another?" A big bearded man gave a heartyugh as he handed Sol another fried dough stick the man called Porra. "Sure, but don¡¯t ask how it¡¯s made. It¡¯s grandpa¡¯s secret recipe." The man said and gave a small wink. Sol nodded and took another bite and savored the rich cinnamon vor. He then paid the man for the second Porra before continuing his walk. ¡¯I guess this is what they meant by the city never sleeps.¡¯ Originally, Sol thought there were going to be at most two or three more activities to do at night in the city, but he was very wrong. Just from what Sol had seen, there were theater ys, colosseum matches, art exhibits, and even a night market which was where he was currently at. As he walked through the market, he saw a lot of unique goods imported from other nearby nations. From fine elven woodworks and jewelry to even orc weapons and materials that were somehow smuggled across the border without being caught by the orc soldiers. Sol didn¡¯t buy any of the items though as none really interested him. He did overhear from one of the merchants that there was an auction held every month that had really unique and interesting items which did pique his interest, but he didn¡¯t have the funds to even attempt buying something from there so he gave up on the idea for now. By the time Sol realized it was already well past midnight. Thinking it was a good time to call it a night and head back to the inn, Sol began to make his way past the busy streets. Even at thiste hour, many people crowded the market district and some were even just beginning their night activities. As Sol left the market district, the crowd of people started thinning until fewer and fewer people were in the vicinity. At first, Sol didn¡¯t find it odd until he noticed that it waspletely barren; there weren¡¯t even guards patrolling the streets and although he was knowledgeable of the city patrol routes he found it weird he hadn¡¯t seen a single guard in the past 5 minutes. ¡¯Am I overthinking it?¡¯ Sol scanned the area with [Mana Perception], but with the limited range of 30 meters, the most he could see was the mana signatures of people in their homes. It was also hard to differentiate if they were hostile or not so he could only question whether his gut feeling was wrong. ¡¯I probably am.¡¯ It was then at that moment that Sol let down his guard that they struck. A blood-red blur jumped from the roof of a far building as they dashed towards him. Sol wasn¡¯t even given a chance to react before the red figure threw a bag of red powder that covered his entire body. Once hit by the powder, Sol finally reacted and took out his Warhawk¡¯s Talon from his space ring to strike back. The red figure hopped 10 feet back, exiting Sol¡¯s range with his sword, but he didn¡¯t let that stop him. Sol activated [Ground Shrink], instantly closing the distance with what appeared to be a single step but was a powerful singr burst of speed and used [Crippling Strike], targeting their legs to prevent them from escaping. Though Sol couldn¡¯t see their expression behind the red hood they wore, he knew they would be surprised by his instant attack. But as fate would have it Sol ended up being the one surprised as when his sword shed their leg, it went through as if it was made of sand. Some of it even flew and got in his eyes confirming he wasn¡¯t imagining it. The red figure moved like the attack did nothing to them and instead of following up an attack, kept its distance. It watched Sol like a wolf stalking its prey, walking around him waiting for the opportune time to strike. Seeing that they weren¡¯t escaping nor attacking, Sol took this chance to use [Analysis] on them. Name: Alex Race: Human Talents: [Gathering] Level: 6 HP: 100 MP: 30 Str: 6 Vit: 10 Agi: 8 Int: 3 Wis: 3 Talent Skills: [Herb Preservation] Lv 4 Passive Skills: [Foraging] Lv 5, [Pathfinding] Lv 2 While [Analysis] did show him the results, he instantly knew they were aplete fabrication. The opponent must¡¯ve had some kind of skill or item that deceived the results. Not able to get any more insight from [Analysis], Sol was left with either getting it from their mouth or simply getting away while he could. He also doesn¡¯t understand the purpose of the red powder they tossed at him in the beginning but from the fact they seem to be waiting for something he assumed it was some sort of poison. Luckily it seemed the level 8 [Poison Resistance] from the Immunizing Belt had done its job perfectly as Sol didn¡¯t even feel its effects. The enemy might¡¯ve had more tricks up their sleeves but from what Sol had seen so far he liked his odds. "Now then. Are you ready?" Chapter 49: Poke Realizing the red powder had no effect on their target, the red figure decided to knock him out physically. Though they would rather not damage the product, if it happened they knew the boss would understand. Unsheathing two short curved daggers from the back of their cloak, the figure pounced toward Sol. Like a jaguar going in for the kill, they burst at an incredible speed that easily doubled Sol¡¯s maximum speed. Just before their daggers entered Sol¡¯s shoulder, he used [Counter] to knock back their attack. The blow was easily repelled thanks to his much higher strength, but the counter window it created was nonexistent as the assant immediately recovered. The red figure abused their much higher speed tounch more attacks on Sol, and he was unable to [Counter] all of them, taking some minor damage. Luckily, the daggers were barely able to prate his skin from thebination of his multiple defensive skills. After enduring 20 stabs from his opponent, Sol¡¯s health still sat at afortable 884/1000. There were times Sol took a hit on purpose to guaranteending one of his attacks, but the assant easily predicted when he was doing so on purpose and didn¡¯t fall for it, easily dodging or using the sand skill to nullify it. Multiple shes and strikester, Sol had yet tond one single blow on the red figure, and it was really starting to annoy him. ¡¯Now I know how the Earth Giant Boss from the dungeon felt. I¡¯m going to get poked to death at this rate.¡¯ His health dipped a bit further to below 400, and while he did have [Increased Health Regeneration], the effect wasn¡¯t too pronounced to really impact his recovery rate. Sol took a step back, and the opponent did the same. The red figure¡¯s thoughts eluded Sol, so he instead focused on how best to counter his opponent. Currently, Sol¡¯s life wasn¡¯t at risk from their attacks as they were too weak to really do anything besides light cuts. He could use magic to supplement his attacks, but considering their speed, he doubted any projectile wouldnd. Sol was also unwilling to use any magic but water as he didn¡¯t know who was watching, and if these assants believed he was a greater threat, they would send more skilled assassins after him. It seemed the red figure was now noticing the little effect their daggers were doing and produced a small murky green vial. They popped it open and poured it on one of their daggers. Obviously, Sol wouldn¡¯t let them do as they pleased and approached to stop them before they could continue preparing. The assant seeing his charge didn¡¯t pour the liquid on the other dagger and instead prepared to meet his attack. Sol¡¯s used [Wide Swing], a skill suitable for all weapons to prevent them from sidestepping his attack. The red figure activated the sand skill again, neutralizing his attack, and shed at his swinging wrist with the coated dagger. A sharp burning feeling coursed through his arm. It wasn¡¯t poison but acid. "AHH!" Sol recoiled from the pain and backed away from the enemy. N?v(el)B\\jnn ¡¯This is bad¡­ I just can¡¯tnd a good hit, if I could justnd one clean hit then I can finish it.¡¯ His mind raced as he thought of all his avable skills and spells. He was even tempted to use a new spell [Fire Wave] to sweep the area and burn the enemy. But before he could do so he remembered another spell. ¡¯I may not need any other magic. If their body turns into real sand then maybe¡­¡¯ With a n in mind, Sol ran at the enemy while casting a spell. "Enchant my weapon with the strength of a typhoon, [Water de]!" As water gathered on the de, Sol used [Ground Shrink] to appear next to the red figure. The assant, having already seen this move before, jumped sideways, perfectly sidestepping his approach. Sol was ready for this as the moment he arrived at his destination, he used [Blurry Steps], a skill he had kept hidden until now, to stay close to the assant. With his speed three times faster than before, Sol was able to close the gap quickly andnd a [Crippling Blow] on the assant. The same sand neutralized the damage from the blow, but the water from the de had a very interesting effect on it. The sand got wet, and the left leg of the red figure was sted off. Even as the skill that turned the assant¡¯s body to sand deactivated, the leg did not reform. Bncing themselves on one foot, the red figure could only hop to move, making it much easier for Sol tond attacks. This did not mean the opponent would make it easy for Sol, as even with one leg they could dexterously bob and weave his rtively slow attacks and with no intention to retreat the assantnded two more attacks with their acidic dagger. The burning feeling did not spread through his body but instead lingered. While the adrenaline was helping with the pain, it was impossible to ignore itpletely. Sol¡¯s left wrist, right shoulder, and waist burned as the acid kept eating away at him. Hoping this counted as a status effect, Sol used the Immunizing Belts skill [Status Cleanse], and the painful feeling went away as the consuming acid stopped working, but the damage it had already done couldn¡¯t be erased. Luckily for Sol, the rity from no longer feeling the burn allowed him to carefully n his next attack to finish the fight. Wielding his sword with one hand, Sol used [Snap Punch] to force them to activate that sand skill. Then with his sword, he followed up with a [Crippling Blow] on their remaining leg, breaking their ankle. Having no way to stand, the red figure fell onto the ground, and with somehow their face still shadowed by the cloak, turned up to look at him. Sol pointed his sword at their neck to prevent them from trying anything funny. While Sol could finish the assant here and now, what he wanted wasn¡¯t death but answers. "Surrender. Just tell me who sent you-" "Oh my¡­ Sandy lost? Hahaha, I can¡¯t believe it! I can¡¯t wait to tell the others." Chapter 50: Strings Sol turned to the source of this mboyant voice that interrupted him and saw a rather gaudily dressed man in a blue suiting out of a nearby alley. Over his shoulder was an unconscious young woman. Instinctually, Sol used [Analysis] on the man to hopefully find out more. Name: Sonya Race: Goddess Talents: [Seduction], [Sex], [Lovemaking] Level: ¡Þ HP: ¡Þ n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om MP: ¡Þ Str: ¡Þ Vit: ¡Þ Agi: ¡Þ Int: ¡Þ Wis: ¡Þ Talent Skills: [S S] Lv Max, [Prostitution] Lv Max Passive Skills: [Bedwarming] Lv Max, [Kama Sutra] Lv Max, [Seduction] Lv Max, [Bargaining] Lv Max, [Goldigging] Lv Max Active Skills: [Thrust] Lv Max, [Charming Gaze] Lv Max ¡¯D-did he really change his status page just to call the Goddess of Love a whore? Is he crazy? If the church finds out their pope mighte to personally kill him¡­¡¯ Sol obviously didn¡¯t believe the man was the real Goddess of Love, Sonya. He was still amazed at the fact someone had the courage to write such sphemy on their status page. Did he have some sort of grudge against her specifically or is he just getting some kind of sick kick out of doing this? The mboyant man turned to Sol and asked, "So tell me, darling, how did you do it? Catch her by surprise with a rare skill? Skillfully struck when her [Sand Shift] was on cooldown?" Sol didn¡¯t answer, not knowing how to deal with this psychopath. His first instinct was to save the unconscious girl, but if that man was anywhere near as strong as the red-cloaked person he just fought, then he was unsure if he could save her and escape. He also feared the man using her as a hostage, and Sol wasn¡¯t willing to disregard her safety or even life just to win a fight. Sol stood still, sword still hovering over the neutralized assassin on the ground, hoping it would stop the man from doing anything reckless. The red cloaked figure, not fearing the de to their throat, finally spoke for the first time, breaking the silence. "Water. Fast." Short and to the point. It was a rather androgynous voice, making it hard to tell what the gender of the cloaked figure was. Sol wasn¡¯t sure if it was their real voice or another deception from a skill or item simr to what he saw with their status page. "Hahaha! No way you¡¯re telling me you lost in terms of speed!" The mboyant man¡¯s arms waved around as he pped his knee. Afterughing for a few more seconds, he stopped and wiped a single tear that formed from theughter. "Alright, alright, enough joking around. Do you want help or not?" "High physical and poison resistance." "Hoh? So not a good matchup for you, fair enough. I¡¯ll also take that as a yes." Frustrated by the mboyant man¡¯s nonchnt attitude, Sol wanted to already run him and smack him with his sword but held back because he wasn¡¯t confident in not hurting innocent woman slung over his shoulder in the process. He was expecting the man to not fight while carrying the woman so when he put her down, Sol nned to strike fast and hard the moment he did. The mboyant man raised his right hand towards Sol. Not knowing what the man nned to do, he got ready to dodge out of the way. The mboyant man knew what he was thinking and let out a chuckle in response. "Hehe, toote darling. You¡¯re already in my web." As he finished his sentence, he moved his index finger slightly. Suspicious of the mboyant man¡¯s confidence, Sol used [Charge] to run away and make some space between them. He wanted but couldn¡¯t use [Ground Shrink] or [Blurry Steps] as they were both still on cooldown. Sol was only able to take one step before almost imperceptible strings made of unknown materials closed in and wrapped around his body. The strings constricted as they stopped all his movements. Even his sword was wrapped in these strings holding it tightly in ce. "What the-!" Sol struggled as he tried to use his strength to break the strings and a few did from the sheer force, but seeing this the man used more mana to reinforce the strings, bing even harder to break. The mboyant man walked towards the immobilized Sol with a cocky look on his face. "Did you really think I was talking just to make fun of Sandy over there? While I do take any chance to do so, I was also setting up my web the entire time. You¡¯re still wet behind the ears, darling, but don¡¯t worry, your new owner will teach you soon enough." Sol stopped struggling as he couldn¡¯t break free from the strong bindings and instead decided to conserve his strength. The mboyant man saw the still determined fighting spirit behind Sol¡¯s eyes and chuckled. "Hehe, I truly can¡¯t wait to see what bes of you." "What do you mean? What do you want with us?" "Don¡¯t worry your pretty little head about it. Speaking of which, let¡¯s keep you quiet for now." The man then moved his fingers again, and a bundle of strings braided together to create a sort of rope. The rope moved to Sol¡¯s neck and wrapped around, choking him. Sol gasped as he struggled to breathe, but with his windpipes closed, there was nothing he could do and passed out. "Now with that settled¡­" The mboyant man lightly kicked the red-cloaked assassin on the ground. "Hey, how long do you n to stay on the ground? Grab some sand and reform your leg already." Not responding to the man¡¯s provocations, the red-cloaked assassin monotonously gathered the sand on the ground around their leg, and it slowly reformed back to normal. They also took a red potion vial from another hidden pocket and drank half and poured the other half on their injured leg, quickly closing the wound. Now with both legs fully recovered, they stood back up, their expression still unreadable under their hood. "You just gonna stand there? Stop dwelling on the fight and pick him up, the obfuscation barrier you set up is going to dispel soon, and I¡¯m not carrying both targets." In an almost mechanical way, the assassin lifted Sol in a princess carry, and with both targets in their possession, they disappeared into the nearby alleyway. Chapter 51: A Dark Place A damp smell permeated the area. Sol¡¯s chest rose and fell fast as his body was unused to such humid air. That in turn roused him from his slumber; he rose and looked at his surroundings. The room was almost pitch ck, only illuminated by the light that escaped from under a metal door. Everywhere else he looked was a solid stone wall with no windows except for one that had a full metal door. Sol¡¯s hand passed over his throat, still feeling the fresh bruise from being choked unconscious. Taking into consideration his fast health regeneration speed, he surmised he wasn¡¯t knocked out for long. After gaining a better feeling of his surroundings, he checked whether he had any of his personal belongings. As expected, everything of value was gone, including the spatial ring. To most people, this would be a hopeless situation, but the moment Sol saw the stone walls, roof, and floor, he actually felt reassured. He activated [Burrow] and watched as his hand easily submerged into the cold hard floor. ¡¯At least I can easily escape, but even if I do, I would no longer be able to stay in this city. They will chase me to either silence me or capture me for whatever they wanted in the first ce.¡¯ Sol didn¡¯t immediately escape, not only because he didn¡¯t want to go into hiding or leave until however long it would take to fully crush whatever operation they had going here. He wanted to stop them now permanently, but he wasn¡¯t sure how. So he decided to wait a bit and see to gain a better understanding of what he was up against while he nned a way to stop them from doing this again. ¡¯Trevor said they have been doing this for years¡­ Kidnapping people who simply stood out amongst their peers were taken to do god knows what. That other girl too¡­ I can¡¯t just abandon her¡­¡¯ Sol wasn¡¯t the type of person to leave someone behind. Even if he didn¡¯t know a single thing about them, not even their name, now that he knows they are in trouble, he will save her while trying to prevent this from happening again. ¡¯Unfortunately I lost all my stuff but I can get it back soon enough if I y my cards right.¡¯ Sol used [Mana Perception] to gain an understanding of his surroundings outside of his room. Though hard to make out based on just mana signatures, there was one he recognized, his spatial ring. Sol had noticed this from his repeated usage of this skill that everyone and everything had a slightly different mana signature. Initially, Sol believed that mana was just mana, but that couldn¡¯t be further from the truth. Mana existed mixed into everything and in turn slightly changed and in a way polluted the mana. People, for example, would have different quantities, shapes in the way it¡¯s stored in their body, they pulsate in different ways, and even their colors can vary. The same applied to items, and Sol remembered the colors and shape his ring gave off. There is a chance it could just be another spatial ring, but the way it pulsated reminded him of his. Sol memorized the location he saw it forter and focused on trying to find his other belongings. ¡¯Nope, the rest look unrecognizable. Though it seems the girl who was kidnapped alongside me is right next to me.¡¯ Sol saw the mana signatures of a few people moving out and about above him, some moving into his range of perception and others leaving it. It seemed that wherever he was held, there was a good amount of traffic. Next to him, he saw one long mana signature of a light purple that darkened the further it left the center of the body. It looked rather densepared to the ones above and on top of that, they seemed to be lying down on the same level as the ground next to him. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Using [Burrow], Sol poked his head through the wall, and his suspicion was proved right. He saw lying on the ground the same young woman that got taken along with him. At the time, he didn¡¯t get a good look at her, and even in this darkness, it made it a bit hard to see, but he could barely make out her general features. Her hair started light brown, but as it passed by her shoulders, it changed to a really light orange. She had an average height slightly below 6 feet and looked to be around 18, simr to Sol. The young woman was still alive, evident by the gentle rising and falling of her modest chest. Sol pulled his head back from the wall and returned back to his room. At least he knew she was fine, for how long still remains to be seen. Having nothing to do in the empty room, Sol moved to one of the walls of the room and sat down using it to rest his back. He then opened his status page to see if there was anything he could do while waiting. Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner] Level: 35 Exp: 14,380/165,000 HP: 1000 MP: 500 Str: 45 (+60) Vit: 30 (+70) Agi: 30 (+20) Int: 30 (+10) Wis: 40 (+10) Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 3, [Analysis] Lv 4 Passive Skills: [Intermediate Swordsmanship] Lv 5, [Basic Trapmaking] Lv 7, [Silent Steps] Lv 9, [Counter] Lv 1, [Quick Cast] Lv 7, [Agility Up] Lv 4, [Nature Sense] Lv 1, [Intermediate Throwing] Lv 1, [Intermediate Unarmed Mastery] Lv 1, [Gargantuan Strength] Lv 1, [Basic Bowmanship] Lv 7, [Intermediate Axemanship] Lv 2, [Iron Stomach] Lv 5, [Pursuit] Lv 1, [Endless Vitality] Lv 2, [Increased Mana Regeneration] Lv MAX, [Physical Resistance] Lv MAX, [Mana Perception] Lv 6, [Natural Armor] Lv MAX, [Wisdom Up] Lv 2, [Increased Health Regeneration] Lv 3, [Intelligence Up] Lv 2, [Basic Spearmanship] Lv 9 Active Skills: [Cross sh] Lv 3, [Ground Shrink] Lv 1, [Basic Wind Magic] Lv 6, [Intermediate Fire Magic] Lv 4, [Snap Punch] Lv 4, [Blurry Steps] Lv 1, [Harden] Lv 9, [Power Shot] Lv 4, [Concealment] Lv 4, [Wide Swing] Lv 8, [Basic Water Magic] Lv 6, [Intermediate Earth Magic] Lv 1, [Earth Hammer] Lv 5, [Rock Throw] Lv 4, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Heavy Blow] Lv 8, [Crippling Strike] Lv 8, [Charge] Lv 7, [Rage] Lv 6, [Meditation] Lv 2 ¡¯Practicing skills won¡¯t increase any of the skill levels, but maybe meditation can be useful.¡¯ [Meditation] Lv 2: Calms the mind and enters into a state of peaceful meditation. Increases mana regeneration by 10%. Increases concentration by 6%. It was a skill he gained when siphoning from the bodies at the fort. Feeling like giving it a try, Sol changed to a cross legged position as he activated the skill for the first time. Sol found his senses dulling, and the slight pain from the bruise on his throat disappearedpletely. He also found it much easier to think and used this time of calm to reflect on his skills and spells. He hadn¡¯t had much time to analyze his skills and especially spells on how best to use them. For example, when he was fighting the assassin, he spent too much timeing up with a proper n. If he simply had a better acquaintance with his spells, he would have been able to solve the fight much faster. Starting from the element he knew the least spells for, wind, Sol contemted the usage and applications of each spell. Time passed as he gained a better understanding of each spell beyond simple memorization; eventually, Sol saw a mana signature heading towards his room and stopped practicing. By then, Sol was already done with wind and was in the middle of water spells. A light knocking sound came from the metal door. ¡¯Why knock? I¡¯m the prisoner¡­¡¯ "Come in?" The door creaked open, flooding the room with light, and in walked the mboyant man. His outfit had changed from his blue suit to a leather polka dot jacket and green pants. "How you doing sleepy head?" Chapter 52: Small Window "I don¡¯t believe I¡¯ve introduced myself. Name¡¯s Weaver, and no, it¡¯s not my real name but everyone calls me that so it basically is." "..." Sol really didn¡¯t know how to deal with this man, Weaver. He acted at his own pace, but after being tricked by him once, Sol didn¡¯t let his guard down. After meditating his new spells, Sol had a spell he believed would be a great counter against Weaver¡¯s strings, at least before he hardened them. "This is the part where you introduce yourself, you know? Well, I already know who you are so it doesn¡¯t matter, just know we are gonna go overbat techniques these next few days." n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om ¡¯He is going to teach me?¡¯ "Why?" "It¡¯s to raise your value, silly." Though he didn¡¯t like being treated like amodity, if what he said was true then wouldn¡¯t this be a pure benefit for him? At least up to the whole being sold part. Trying to find out more, Sol prodded for more information, "Who am I being sold to?" "Couldn¡¯t tell ya. The highest bidder who wants you, I guess. But maybe the boss decides to keep you if he finds you useful, but I doubt it, you don¡¯t seem to have any covert skills." Weaver turned back to the door. "Just wanted to check in on you. I¡¯ll be back in two hours, don¡¯t have too much fun without me, darling~." The heavy metal door creaked back shut as darkness enveloped the room once more. "Two hours, huh¡­ Good thing I only need one." While meditating, Sol came up with a few possible ns and with this two hour window, he had more than enough to execute the one he believed had the highest chance of sess. Sol used [Burrow] as he sank into the ground below him and using [Mana Perception] to avoid any people, he traveled upwards to the surface. After giving onest check to make sure no one was near, he ascended through the dirt and popped his head out of the ground. The light of dawn basked in his face as he looked around to see where he was at. Shoddily constructed homes littered the area with badly maintained roads full of holes and cracks. Sol was in the slums of the city. Taking onest look to remember where the base was located, he dove underground and headed towards the adventurers guild. No matter the hour, the guild was always rowdy from the constant flow of adventurers either starting or ending their day. Sol looked for Trevor and saw him casually conversing with a few other guild receptionists at a table. He briskly walked towards him as he had no time to waste. "Yo Sol. You¡¯re a bit early, give me a minute to clock in." "We need to talk, it¡¯s an emergency." Catching on to the severity of the situation from Sol¡¯s tone, Trevor¡¯s face hardened as he followed Sol to one of the meeting rooms. It was only now Trevor noticed that Sol¡¯s clothes looked scuffed and torn with a fresh bruise surrounding his neck. "You good? Where did that bruisee from?" "You were right, they came for me." A look of surprise was shot back at Sol, "The rookie kidnappers?!" Sol nodded, but he wasn¡¯t here just to inform Trevor what happened. "I need you to inform the guildmaster. I know where they are located." "Holy shit, alright man. Wait here. Should I also bring a healer?" "No. I¡¯m fine, just hurry." Sol needed that bruise to stay there for now with the n he had in mind. "Okay, okay." Trevor scurried to report this matter as fast as he could. Maybe it was the level of urgency or that it involved the rookie disappearances but Trevor returned quickly with a tall woman in tow. The woman was easily half a foot taller than Trevor and had straightced silver hair rolling down to her waist. The way it perfectly covered her back sort of resembled a silver shield. Trevor stayed by the doorway as the woman moved closer to Sol. She sat down on the opposite side of the table and asked, "Is it true?" Sol gestured towards his cut and burned clothes, his bruised neck, and overall dirty appearance. "Is this enough proof?" "Not really, but I will take any chance I get to finally solve this. Tell me everything you know." Obliging to her request, Sol narrated how he and another young girl got kidnapped. "Both of them were strong, I would say mid to high B-Rank in terms of strength." "I see the girl you described¡­ sounds a lot like Reba. Now I¡¯m sure you aren¡¯t lying to me. And you¡¯re telling me you defeated these B-Rank kidnappers?" While she knew that Sol wasn¡¯t lying she found some parts of his tale suspicious. Sure he had been climbing the guild ranks much faster than normal but that didn¡¯t mean he should be able to square up against B-Rankers just yet. He shook his head, "I had an advantageous matchup against the red-cloaked one, while she was much faster her attacks and poison didn¡¯t do much to me. The weird man who is called Weaver is apletely different story, he defeated me in a second. He could control near-invisible strings and I stupidly let him set up a trap while he was talking. I was then captured and taken to the underground base in the slums I told you about." "So you escaped? How?" Not nning to hide [Burrow] anymore, he answered, "I have a skill that lets me travel through the ground, and their base is located underground." "Interesting¡­" "Now I need your help." Assuming what Sol was going to ask, she waved her hand dismissively, "Sure, I¡¯ll send a squad of B-Rankers and two A-Rankers on the case." "No, not that. I want you to rescue me and Reba. Oh and to get my stuff back, I don¡¯t want any of the adventurers who raided the ce to im it was theirs." The Guildmaster was befuddled, "Rescue you? Are you going to sneak back in?" "Yes. I thought about it and I know nobles have to be involved in this somehow. I don¡¯t want to attract the ire of an angry noble who had his base destroyed so I just want to be treated like someone rescued in the raid. That way I won¡¯t end up being targeted by whoever orchestrated this." Hearing his reason, the Guildmaster smirked. Not many knew the involvement of nobles in this case and the fact this young man figured it out so quickly put a smile to her face. If he truly did n to go back in, there may be more he could do than just sit and wait to be rescued. "Sure, both requests can easily be epted, but if you n to go back in I actually have a proposition you might be interested in." Chapter 53: A Quest? Unsure of how he could help while pretending to be a prisoner, Sol let her continue. The guildmaster began by confirming his suspicions, "You¡¯re correct in thinking nobles have yed a hand in this. We¡¯ve known this since weunched the investigation years ago. It¡¯s because every month, all the noble families of the city requested the monthly rank report. It was a record of all the adventurers who had ranked up in thest month. When the nobles received it, they sifted through andparedst month¡¯s report to find the recent youths who had rapidly risen in the ranks. "Originally, this wasn¡¯t a problem. It¡¯s amon way for noble families to find promising talents and recruit them. It was until 5 years ago that from that list they targeted youths and kidnapped them. We checked everywhere in the city and even sent investigators to nearby towns and cities to search, but we simply couldn¡¯t find any of the missing adventurers. We even checked every ve we found and verified their identities and after months of searching, no leads turned up." Sol couldn¡¯t help but interject, "Why didn¡¯t you stop giving them the rank report? Or remove any possible targets from it?" A sigh escaped her lips as she shook her head, "I wish we didn¡¯t have to give it to those nobles, but their influence is too great to ignore. Near the beginning of the investigation, I did attempt to change the report to remove those who could be in danger, but they quickly found out." As The Guildmaster recalled the events, she had a pained expression. "That year, the guild was forced to cover half of the quest reward nobles put up, and they got their damn list in the end." ¡¯Why do you look more pained over the loss of money than the missing people¡­¡¯ This brought his opinion of the Guildmaster down a bit, but he understood why. Running a guild wasn¡¯t cheap, and to be forced to cover half of the quest reward might not be a lot for one quest, but it quickly added up. The nobles would also likely take advantage of this by doubling the reward for the quest they nned to request, increasing the likelihood of a better adventurer taking it while not impacting their bottom line as the guild will cover it for them. Compared to the giant loss in gold, losing a few adventurers doesn¡¯t seem as big of a deal. Sure, they were up anding rookies, but adventurers die every day in this line of work. The reason she seemed so invested seemed more likely attributed to the fact that such crimes are happening consistently under her watch. Her reputation had most likely taken a big hit, leaving this case unresolved. Not knowing Sol¡¯s opinion of her, the Guildmaster continued, "The likelihood of a noble family being involved is undeniable. The crux problem is not whether a noble family is behind this but which. Kerman is home to multiple noble families, some muchrger and more influential than others. We can¡¯t use any family without undeniable proof. "This is where youe in. Since you already n to go back in to be "rescued" and can travel through the facility unhindered, I would like to give you a quest. There will be two objectives: obtain proof of the noble or noble family involved and find where all the kidnapped adventurers have gone. I dont have a reward in mind yet but be sure it will rival an A-Rank quest, I will find something appropriate for you." Sol took a moment to process all this information. She wanted him to snoop around and find the evidence, but that¡¯s much riskier than what he initially nned. If he got caught at any point while searching, it was over, and he would have to escape by himself and leave that girl behind. There was also one more thing that didn¡¯t add up to Sol. "But why not gather the evidence when you raid the base? I already told you where it was." "If we simply raid the base, they will have more than enough time to hide or destroy any evidence. Not only that, I suspect that there are a few guild employees who work at the behest of the nobles. If any warn them, then the whole raid will be for naught. We may destroy the base, but the noble will be fine by the end of the day, and if they really wanted to, keep doing the kidnappings." Silence overtook the room as Sol debated whether he should ept or not. He was already involved whether he liked it or not and personally didn¡¯t want this crime ring to continue existing. Sol wasn¡¯t a vengeful person, but these people were truly evil and deserved what wasing to them. The A-Rank reward is also a nice cherry on top. While Sol wanted to consider the proposition for longer, he was still on a short timeframe and decided to follow his gut. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "Alright, I¡¯ll do it." The Guildmaster¡¯s eyes lit up; she finally felt a spark of hope after 5 years of failing to solve what had been guing her guild. "Perfect! I will prepare a spatial ring with a few necessities and a weapon for emergencies." She then signaled to Trevor, "Go grab one of the spatial rings from storage and fill it with dungeon raid set C and add a rare sword as well." Not expecting to be suddenly ordered, Trevor¡¯s eyebrow twitched, ¡¯You said "I" but I gotta do it?¡¯ Holding back his inner thoughts from showing on his face, he replied, "On it Guildmaster." It only took Trevor 5 short minutes toe back to the room. He appeared out of breath from rushing around the guild. He presented a in gray ring to the Guildmaster, which she epted with a simple nod. "Thank you, Trevor." She brought the ring closer towards another more expensive ring that was on her right hand. A gentle glow emanated as the two rings made contact. Once the glow ended, she handed the gray ring to Sol. "In addition to food, tools, and a weapon, I added a few things you will need for the quest. The most important being a memory crystal which I want you to ce wherever you believe their leader resides, a meeting ce would be a good ce as well. The second item you should keep in mind is a short distancemunication gem. Whether you believe it¡¯s time to start the raid or you have something important to report, don¡¯t hesitate to use it." Sol received the ring knowing that was not the only thing received. He felt a heavy weight of responsibility of not only his life and Reba¡¯s but of every future victim these criminals set their eyes on. With a determined expression, his gaze moved from the ring to the Guildmaster. "I will do my absolute best." Chapter 54: Return to the Base Sol left to return to his cold dark cell under the slums, leaving the Guildmaster and Trevor in the meeting room. With Sol gone, the Guildmaster focused her attention on her receptionist. She stood up from her chair and handed Trevor anothermunication gem. "Trevor, I am going to assign you to this quest. Stay in touch with Sol and report to me anything of note. I will be busy for the next few days." Trevor respectfully took the small gem, "Yes Guildmaster, but may I ask what you will be doing?" She gave a small smirk, breaking from her normal serious face, "I¡¯m going to gather some old friends. Can¡¯t gather adventurers through normal means so as to not alert these nobles. If you can¡¯t find me, you can report to Abigail; you can trust her." "Will do Guildmaster." The Guildmaster was about to leave the room but suddenly stopped, "Oh and one more thing." "Yes Guildmaster?" "This is an around the clock assignment, but if youplete this sessfully, I will give you that extended vacation you¡¯ve been working towards." Trevor almost jumped out of happiness, "Really Guildmaster?!" Responding with a simple nod, she left the room, leaving onest parting message, "Don¡¯t let me down Trevor." Trevor saw her leave and pumped his fist in the air from excitement. ¡­ Sol avoided as many people as he could on his trip back to the underground base. The fewer people who saw him out and about, the better, as he didn¡¯t want his kidnappers to somehow hear of him being out and about. Traveling only via [Burrow], Sol also used [Silent Steps] and [Concealment] to lower his sound and presence as much as he could. Sol soon arrived at the slums and moved through the dirt and stone towards the mana signature of Reba, who was his cellmate. Once closer, he saw that she was already awake, evident by her mana signature pacing around the room with a wobbly gait. Sol struggled on whether or not to let Reba know of the n, and after some deliberating, he decided not to. If she knew, there was a chance of identally leaking it to their captors. The risk was already high enough with Sol having to pretend with his poor acting skills, and it wasn¡¯t a gamble he was willing to take. Sol continued further and came out of the back wall of his prison. There was a small worry at the back of his mind that someone came to check up on him while he was gone, but evident from the still tightly shut door, Sol believed it was fine. The only loose end from his quick expedition was the spatial ring he brought. On the way back, Sol had already inspected the insides of the ring. The Guildmaster said the truth; it contained supplies like food and equipment for all asions and a rather nice dark blue sword. Blue Ripple Rare Attack: 45-55 Durability 587/650 Skills: [Water Amplification] Lv 4, [Twin Water Magic] Lv 4 [Twin Water Magic] Lv 4: When casting projectile-based water magic, a second projectile is created with leftover mana. The second projectile has 40% efficiency. ¡¯Trevor probably picked this because he knew I could cast water magic.¡¯ The [Water Amplification] skill was the same as the one Sol saw from the Lavamancy Staff back when he was choosing his rewards in the fort¡¯s vault. The only difference being this one boosted water rather than fire, and it¡¯s at a lower level. Mentally organizing all the new things he had acquired, he still needed to hide this somehow. The problem was there was no furniture or anything really in the room. He could try to chip away at a small area to hide the ring in, but he had a better idea. ¡¯Not sure if this will work, but might as well give it a try.¡¯ n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Holding the spatial ring between his fingers, Sol used [Burrow] to submerge his right hand under the stone. There he let go of the ring and retracted his hand. The ring no longer being held by Sol was no longer under the effects of [Burrow] and stayed 4 inches under the floor. Sol¡¯s idea worked and he could hide the ring perfectly, but it also gave him a new fear. ¡¯If I ever run out of mana while underground, I will have effectively buried myself alive¡­¡¯ With that thought now living rent free in his mind, Sol tried to distract himself by continuing his mental organization of spells. Last he left off, Sol was halfway through his water spells, so he picked back up where he left off. He activated [Meditation] to give him a boost to concentration, which surprisingly helped out a lot, and began. ¡­ Time flew, and before Sol knew it, over an hour had passed. Just as Sol was starting to tackle his earth spells, a knock came from the door. "Darling~, I¡¯m back~!" ¡¯Oh brother¡­¡¯ Sol truly wished he had the other assassin that barely spoke over Weaver, but likely based on the fact he beat them, they weren¡¯t going to be left alone in a room with him even if he had no weapon. Well, no weapon as far as his captors knew. This time Weaver didn¡¯t wait for a response before opening the door, wearing apletely different outfit. This time he was wearing a tacky button-up white shirt with an apple pattern and white cloth pants. It made Sol wonder how many outfits this man had for him to change so many times within mere hours of each other. "Did ya miss me? Don¡¯t say no, I don¡¯t think my heart could handle it¡­" Not even bothering to respond, Sol stood up and patiently waited for him to actually do what he came here for. Seeing no reaction from his captive, Weaver chuckled as he shook his head. "Tsk, you¡¯re no fun. Fine, let¡¯s get started." His tone changed, and what could only be exined as the vibes the man gave off shifted, taking a more serious tone. Sol had already felt something simr to this when Weaver used his strings to instantly capture him. Still keeping the smile on his face, Weaver produced a wooden sword from his spatial ring and tossed it over to Sol. "Let¡¯s see where you¡¯re at." Chapter 55: A Brute Grabbing the wooden sword midair, Sol didn¡¯t expect much but used [Analysis] to see what he was working with. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Practice Sword Common Attack: 1-3 Durability: 100/100 ¡¯Yeah, I doubted they would give me a real weapon.¡¯ If Sol was given this sword and told to fight another C-Ranker, he could easily clobber them. While the attack damage was the worst he had ever seen on a weapon with his monstrous strength, sword passive and active skills, his damage would rival or maybe even surpass the average C-Ranker with a rare weapon. The problem is that he is fighting no C-Ranker. Weaver stood confidently in front of Sol, waiting for his first move. Sol was unsure if it was cockiness or confidence, but there looked to be no worry of being overpowered by him. ¡¯It doesn¡¯t matter, I guess, since I don¡¯t n to escape.¡¯ After hyping himself up, Sol brandished the wooden sword and ran towards Weaver with no skills besides [Intermediate Swordsmanship], just to test the waters. Seeing the young man running at him, Weaver maintained his smile as he took out something else from his spatial ring. It was a human, and the moment it came out, it sprang forward to meet Sol¡¯s charge. It approached frighteningly fast and met Sol¡¯s sword with its fist. The strength its fist carried almost rivaled Sol¡¯s, but after Sol put a bit more force into it, the human pulled back. Not expecting his opponent to suddenly pull back, Sol fell forward following the trajectory of his attack. This created an opening the human did not miss, and it sent a jab into his stomach, sending Sol flying back to the back of his cell. "Gaaah!" Gasping for a second before recovering, Sol got a better look at his opponent now that they have separated. A look of shock came over his face as he realized he wasn¡¯t fighting a human but some kind of wooden puppet. It reminded him of the wooden dolls sold at toy stores, the difference being this one is much bigger and dressed in the blue suit Weaver had the night of his abduction. "Ohh? That was quick, I was expecting a bit more out of you." Although Sol knew he was saying that to rile him up, he couldn¡¯t help but get angry and want to prove him wrong. He got back up and moved his wooden sword in front of his torso, gripping it tightly with both of his hands. "Again." Sol said as he faced the puppet with fierce eyes. The smile Weaver had grew slightly bigger, "That¡¯s the spirit~!" ¡­ Sol was lying on the ground, his wooden sword a foot away as the wooden puppet stood two feet away holding an uppercut pose. Just a few moments ago, Sol thought he had the puppet on the ropes, but then it swept its leg. Sol managed to sessfully parry with [Counter], but while his sword was near the legs, the puppet threw an uppercut while bnced on one leg. It came fast and strong, smashing into Sol¡¯s jaw, sending him on his butt. Weaver recalled the puppet into his spatial ring and waited for Sol to recover. Still reeling from the blow, Sol managed to at least sit up straight. He noticed the wooden puppet was gone and looked towards Weaver. "Well¡­ Gotta say, darling, you are awful at fighting." Sol wanted to rebuke, but after getting his butt whooped for the past three hours, he found it hard to retort. Weaver continued, no longer having his peppy tone, "You¡¯re strong, I give you that, all your stats look to be around early B-Rank though your skills are a bit behind. If that was all, I¡¯d say you¡¯re a premium product, but goddamn. Your fighting experience is nonexistent. It¡¯s all or nothing with you." Although Weaver was correct, Sol couldn¡¯t help but grumble, "It¡¯s not like anyone has taught me¡­" Weaver immediately switched back to his upbeat tone, "That¡¯s why you have me, darling~!" ¡¯Does he have multiple personalities or something? Switching on the dime like that¡­¡¯ Unaware of Sol¡¯s thoughts, Weaver continued, "Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll make sure to whip you into shape in these next couple of days. Ohh~ I just can¡¯t wait to see how much you sell for; you might be our best product yet!" ¡¯Shouldn¡¯t they know how much I¡¯m worth based on my skills? Wait a minute, he said a while ago he assumed my stats to be around B-Rank. Did they not use [Analysis] on me?¡¯ Realizing that didn¡¯t add up, Sol couldn¡¯t help but ask, "Have you not used [Analysis] on me yet?" With a childish grin, Weaver shook his head, "Nope and we don¡¯t n to." "What? Why?" Weaver looked around as if making sure no one was eavesdropping, but the action was pointless as it was just them in the enclosed room, "Well~, when we sold products before, the clientsined we showcased all their skills and abilities to hype up the price. Since when they bought it everyone in their circle knew all~ their abilities effectively lowering their value. So we implemented a new policy, no [Analysis]. Our description of you is based on what the guild records state and our assessments. I even came up with a fun term for it! Mystery Box!" Seemingly proud ofing up with the name all by himself, Weaver gloated some more, "The name caught on quick so they even renamed the auction from Rising Talents Auction to Mystery Box Auction!" In an attempt to dig up more information, Sol asked a follow up question, "Where is the auction even held? Never heard of it before." "Jeez~ you really ask a lot of questions. Oh! How about this, to make training more fun let¡¯s make a deal. If by the end of the training session you win against the puppet, I¡¯ll answer all your questions. Deal?" A chance to have all his questions answered appeared before Sol, and he wasn¡¯t going to let it escape him. "Deal!" "Hehe¡­ Good luck then! See you tomorrow!" Weaver twirled around and in a light skip arrived at the door, opened it in an excessive manner, and left. The door closed, and the sound of a heavy lock reverberated around the room. No longer feeling the adrenaline after the training session, Sol¡¯s stomach started growling. Hoping Weaver was still nearby and could hear him, he tried to call out to him. "Hey! When do I get to eat!" Chapter 56: Showroom In a humid dark room, a young man with messy dark brown hair in torn clothes sat on a small stool as he took a bit of preserved jerky. It was a nd salty taste that made him wish he was eating anything else at this moment. ¡¯In the end, they didn¡¯t bring any food¡­¡¯ Sol was grumpy as he waited for three hours, hoping they would bring him anything to eat, but he simply couldn¡¯t wait any longer and retrieved the ring hidden under the stone. From the spatial ring, he took out two jerky strips and a wooden stool so he could at least stave off the hunger until they remembered their prisoner needed to eat too. ¡¯If no one ising till tomorrow, then maybe now is a good time to explore a bit.¡¯ Finishing off thest chunk of jerky in one single bite, Sol stored the stool back in his spatial ring and checked his surroundings with [Mana Perception]. Since Weaver left him here, Sol had yet to deactivate the ability in fear of being caught red-handed, and it was starting to hurt his eyes a bit. Even so, he ignored the strain in his eyes and made sure there was nobody moving about in the base. From what Sol could see, there were at most 8 other mana signatures besides Reba¡¯s that were also underground with him. For now, Sol only nned on exploring areas void of people while also remembering the unique mana signatures of all the people he saw. ¡¯Alright, no more dying it. I got this!" With a quick mental pep talk, Sol walked towards the iron door and used [Burrow] to phase through it. He appeared in a narrow hallway lit by crude wall sconces. The passage was not much different than his cell, save for the fact the air was much more bearable. Still humid but overall preferablepared to his cell. Sol saw that besides his cell and Reba¡¯s situated next to his, there were 3 more cells. He knew for a fact there was nobody held in them from his [Mana Perception], so he ignored the cells for now and headed down the passage that only had one exit. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Outside the passage was a much nicer hallway that extended to his right and a door on the opposite side of where he left. Since heading right was where all the mana signatures were, he decided to just head forward for now. Maybe some other time he would check that area when there were fewer people or no other ce to explore. There, he found two more rooms. The first was a shower, which Sol was very tempted to use but managed to hold back. He didn¡¯t want to touch anything as he didn¡¯t really know how attentive the captors were. Besides, if he truly wanted to wash himself, he knew a good water spell to clean his body. Since they knew of his ability to use water magic, it wouldn¡¯t be an issue if he used it when he was back in his cell. The next room was muchrger, almost four times the size of his cell, and in it was a fancy stage with red velvet curtains. The stage itself took more than half of the room, and the other half there was a simple stand with a crystal ball on top. Curious to know what it was, Sol used [Analysis] on it. Transmission Orb Rare Skills: [Image Transfer] Lv EX, [Sound Transfer] Lv EX ¡¯It¡¯s simr to themunication gem I got from the Guildmaster, but this one also sends images. This should be where we are going to get auctioned at.¡¯ The room was too small to amodate the buyers of the auction, but with the orb, Sol surmised that the attendees all watched remotely to maintain anonymity. It made him wonder how many people attended this event and how deep this went. Having nothing else to do here, Sol was going to explore other parts of the base but stopped as he saw a mana signature moving down the hall. They were heading towards the cells, so Sol quickly dived underground with [Burrow] and returned to his cell. Back in his cell, Sol waited as the figure approached his cell, but before reaching his door, they entered the one next to his. Worried of what they nned to do to his cellmate Reba, Sol watched through the wall as he saw the light purple mana burst towards the dark brown mana. An exchange could be seen from how the mana flowed from each person, but Reba¡¯s purple mana signature was blown to the back wall. Although worried for her wellbeing, Sol knew they wouldn¡¯t go too far based on how much Weaver emphasized his value. He doubted they would do anything permanent. Sol still kept watching as the two figures interacted based on the movement of their mana, but it was overall very hard to make out what he was looking at. From the movements of mana signatures, he guessed they were doing simr training to what he did a while ago. Sol wanted to watch more, but the pain in his eyes from constant use of [Mana Perception] was starting to really hurt. He had no choice but to deactivate the ability for now and get some rest. Storing his spatial ring under the stone ground again, Sol decided to clean himself before sleeping and casted a cleaning spell. There were a few spells to pick from, but Sol simply chose the one that left the least mess. "Watery mist sweep away all dirt and grime, [Cleansing Mist]." The water from the humid air gathered into a small misty cloud that passed through Sol¡¯s body, picking up any dirt and dried blood from not only his body but his clothes as well. After the spell was done, he felt much cleaner and ready to finally get some rest. Sadly, with no furniture of any kind, he had to settle with sleeping on the cold hard ground. After finding a good spot, Solid down as he closed his tired eyes and gently drifted to sleep. Chapter 57: Second Day of Training Sol woke up to the grinding sound of the metal door opening as Weaver came in. "I¡¯m baaaack, darling~!" Weaver was now dressed in a formal white suit with a lot of unnecessary tassels. The sound of his wooden boots echoed in the cell. Still groggy and sore from sleeping on the hard stone floor, Sol begrudgingly sat up as he saw the man enter. Weaver produced a chair from his spatial ring and gestured for Sol to take a seat. As Sol sat in the chair, he couldn¡¯t help but ask, "What about breakfast? Or lunch, I don¡¯t even know what time it is down here anymore." Weaverughed, "Of course, you¡¯ll get to eat! Buuuut only after you finish today¡¯s lesson." After saying that, Weaver took out a ckboard and wore some obviously fake sses. With his usually yful tone, he said, "ss is now in session!" "..." "While I know you can cast water magic, I am not an expert in it as my magic is a bit unique. I am well versed in fighting and that is what we will focus on today. So let me begin ss by asking my favorite student a question, what does the swordsmanship skill do?" Not knowing why he asked such a basic question, Sol answered anyway. "Umm, it helps me improve my techniques and power carried in each attack, increasing the damage?" "Ding Ding Ding! Correct! But I¡¯m gonna let you in on a little secret ¡­" Weaver leaned into his ear and Sol shuddered a bit as he whispered, "You don¡¯t need to go all in on every attack." Holding back the urge to smack the weirdo, Sol asked, "Why not? Won¡¯t it end the fight faster?" "Maybe if you were fighting a low leveled monster or another newbie like you, then sure. But as you fight stronger enemies they will have more experience and with just pure technique can close the gap in skill levels and even stats. Though I doubt you will be fighting anyone like that in the near future, you still need to work on the basics." Weaver took out a white chalk stick and began to write on the board. "We don¡¯t have too~ much time for the auction, so let¡¯s focus on the basics. First, we have your strong attacks, these are the ones you use to deal the actual damage or even finish the fight in one blow if aimed at a vital area. You mostly do this already, but we will go over improving where you should focus on actuallymitting your strikes, I saw yesterday how you went all in on attacking the puppet¡¯s limbs and while it may incapacitate your opponent, there are enemies who can keep fighting after losing a leg. For example, Sandy tends to lose her limbs often during tough fights because of her [Sand Shift] skill." Sol nodded as he witnessed that first hand when "Sandy" lost her one leg but was still able to fight and evennded two more acidic strikes on him. Although he won in the end, that was still mostly thanks to having passives that countered the damage of all of her attacks. "The second type of attack will be a weak attack. These are to wear down your opponent by inflicting smaller injuries when you can¡¯tmit ornd your main attack. These attacks can be faster, focusing onnding a hit over dealing a lot of damage while notmitting too much power into it. When fighting someone equal or stronger than you, it is especiallymon to use weak attacks to force them to block or parry and you quickly recover from it to follow up with even more light attacks or a bigger attack." Weaver with his chalk stick wrote on the board "Weak Attack" and circled it seven times. "You really gotta work on this one, darling~. But there is one more attack we will go over." He continued writing, and below "Weak Attacks", there now was "Feints". "Feints are simr to weak attacks in the fact that you don¡¯tmit your all into the attack but with a different purpose. Weak attacks are meant to be numerous and to bother your opponent but feints trick your opponent into thinking that it is your real attack. You would make a grand motion as if you aremitting to a real attack but with no real force behind it. The opponent will react with a block or focus their attention on it and then you will move your sword into position for a real attack that bypasses those defenses." ¡¯Ahh, that¡¯s what Sandy did with me¡­¡¯ Before getting captured by Weaver, Sol fought the red cloaked assassin which used simr tactics. Fake attacks that tricked him to block them and in turn created an opening they exploited. They also peppered him with quick but low effort attacks that would have eventually worn him down if he didn¡¯t turn it around in an instant. Weaver recalled both the ckboard and the chair sending Sol to his butt. With a grunt, Sol stood back up and red at Weaver. N?v(el)B\\jnn "So, for today¡¯s training, we are going to work on the two different kinds of attacks you¡¯recking in, weak attacks and feints. Let¡¯s~! Get~! To~! It~!" Summoning the same wooden puppet and wooden sword from yesterday, Sol was once again made to fight. Although it was his captor teaching him, since thesebat techniques were an overall good thing to learn, Sol didn¡¯t hesitate to fully focus on learning them. There is also the ongoing bet he had with Weaver to get all his questions answered if he won against the puppet which motivated him even more. So after organizing his thoughts Sol grabbed the wooden sword and charged towards the puppet. Chapter 58: Songbird The moment Weaver left his cell, exhaustion overtook Sol as he slumped to the ground. Four hours of intense training where a single mistake led to a hard beating wore him down. It wasn¡¯t just physically intensive but also mentally as he had to learn to read his opponent and differentiate a real attack from a weak one or a feint. Feints overall were the worst if hemitted himself to using [Counter] on them as it would not connect and he would be leftpletely open to a solid jab in his stomach or a kick to his sides. By the end of the session, Sol did not win once against the dummy, though that was taking into ount that he didn¡¯t use any non-sword rted skills. While Sol did want to win to gain answers he doubted Weaver would ept that loss if he didn¡¯t use what he was taught to win. The man would likely have a fit and go harder on him. On the bright side before Weaver left he did leave Sol with some food. Sol was starving from his training and excitedly opened the box he received to finally eat a nice meal. His expectant expression was destroyed the moment he saw what was in the box. There was a hard piece of bread and broth, not even meat or vegetables but the leftover broth. Sol rarely cursed but upon seeing this he wanted to shout every expletive in the book at whoever made this meal and ban him from entering a kitchen ever again. ¡¯What the fuck is this? I don¡¯t even know if it¡¯s safe to eat!¡¯ Even though Sol had [Iron Stomach], a skill that reinforced his digestive system to handle more and worse food he really didn¡¯t want to eat the food provided and luckily he didn¡¯t have to. After retrieving the hidden spatial ring Sol took out more dried jerky and a pouch of water. Even though it tasted nd it was infinitely more preferable than eating that poor excuse of a meal. While eating Sol decided to take this chance to contact the Guildmaster and inform them of what he knew so far. From the spatial ring Sol took out themunication gem and he wanted to examine it more but the room was too dark to do so. But luckily Sol remembered of a fire spell he knew and decided it was better now than never to try it. "Summon a small wisp to light the dark, [Candlelight]." A small red wisp of fire came into existence gently illuminating the surroundings. The fire hovered over Sol¡¯s shoulder as he further inspected themunication gem. It wasn¡¯t a raw gem but processed with almost invisible lines traced across. While Sol wasn¡¯t an expert in magical items he had heard from others that when mana is inserted into the gem it resonates with its identical twin and essentially echoes whatever is said from one to the other. That¡¯s as much as Sol knew and he just wanted to look at it out of curiosity as he had never seen amunication gem before. Once he had seen enough Sol inserted a small amount of mana. The gem vibrated softly as if linked with its twin on the other side of the city. ¡­ In the Adventurers Guild Trevor was leaning against his counter bored at theck of people approaching him for assistance. Just as he contemted taking a break a gem under his counter started vibrating. Surprised at the timing he stumbled to grab it but luckily did so before it fell to the ground. Trevor inserted a bit of mana toplete the resonance connection and answered. "Songbird here, what do you need Molerat?" A voice emanated from the crystal. "Songbird? Molerat? Is that you Trevor?" "Shhh we aren¡¯t supposed to use our real names." "What? Why?" "Umm, I actually don¡¯t know¡­ My girlfriend said that¡¯s what spies normally do." The voice didn¡¯t respond as they tried to find the logic in what he said. "I guess I am spying on these people but where did she hear that from?" "A book..." Upon reflection, Trevor realized that he maybe shouldn¡¯t have taken her advice. "...I see. Anyways, I found out a few things." "Oh really? Let me write it down." Sol, speaking from the small gem, narrated his findings of the auction room and how he believed they were sold. He put a greater emphasis on the transmission orb he found thinking it could maybe be used to track down the buyers in the auction. Trevor did have some knowledge of how these types of magic objects worked and knew it could not be done. "Hate to break it to you Sol but that item sounds like it is modified for open transmission. Which means anyone who gets an orb with that frequency will be able to watch and send messages back. While it can¡¯t be tracked directly, there is a limit to how far the transmission reaches. If we get the orb we can figure out how far it goes and narrow our search, I doubt it reaches to the far ends of the kingdom." N?v(el)B\\jnn "Well, at least that¡¯s something¡­ That¡¯s all I have for now, I¡¯ll try sneaking around againter and hopefully find something else." "I wish you the best of luck, stay safe." The other party seemed to have cut off the connection as themunication gem stopped vibrating. Trevor put the gem back where it was and put away the report he wrote to turn inter. It wasn¡¯t urgent and the Guildmaster wasn¡¯t in the building so he decided to wait tillter. ¡­ Back in the dark stone cell Sol deactivated themunication crystal and put it away. He doubted anyone would check in on him until tomorrow so he was free to snoop around. After hiding away the ring Sol once again used [Burrow] to leave his cell and continue exploring the underground base. Chapter 59: Upping the Difficulty RIP Sol¡¯s sword quickly jabbed into one of the puppet¡¯s shoulder joints, making its arm move slightly slower. The wooden puppet, unfazed by the damage, tried to kick him, but Sol was already out of its range by the time it could even attack. "Oh my~!" Weaver sat by the metal door on a reclining chair, sipping a cold drink as he willed the puppet to move in a half-assed manner. Watching Solnd a fast attack impressed him; this was the third weak attack in a row he sessfully did. It wore down the wooden puppet and made it move slower, making each attack easier than thest. If Weaver did nothing, then it was possible for Sol to eventually win, but as the young man still hadn¡¯t done a sessful feint yet, he decided to increase the difficulty. Taking onest sip of his drink, Weaver put it down as he used a skill on the puppet. Mana coursed through the near-invisible strings controlling the puppet as threads grew and entered the damaged areas. The strings then wrapped around the torn joints of the puppet and weaved into it, repairing all the damage. Once finished using the skill, Weaver produced a real sword from his spatial ring and tossed it to the puppet, who grabbed it and, with renewed vigor, faced Sol once more. Sol looked at the puppet fully fixed and with a real weapon in its hand, while he had a wooden sword, and couldn¡¯t help but feel the injustice. "Hey! This isn¡¯t fair!" "Life isn¡¯t fair~. If life was fair, you wouldn¡¯t be here in the first ce, darling~." n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Sol was going to refute, but before he could, the wooden puppet charged at him, and he had no choice but to focus on the fight at hand. ¡­ "You¡¯re getting better, too bad you couldn¡¯t win today~." Sol sprawled on the floor again, and he could barely respond. "You¡­ gave it¡­ a weapon¡­" "Well, it would be too easy if you won the bet that way, and that would be no fun. But congrats! You can now understand the fundamentals of a weak attack so all you have to work on is your feints!" Leaving on that note, Weaver retrieved all the items, left a box on the ground, and left the cell, locking the door once more. Sol, still too tired from the training, stayed on the ground for a few minutes before getting up and retrieving the box. Upon opening the box, it was moldy ck bread with broth, but this time it had a meat chunk in it, likely whoever was pouring it identally let it fall in. Sol opened the box, knowing this was the standard of the food, and after seeing it, he tossed it into his spatial ring before taking out some dried jerky. It¡¯s been three days since he had been "trapped" in this cell, and at this point, Sol no longer cared about the food, but still checked because of his bad habit. He already knew what was in the box, but if he didn¡¯t open it, there would be a lingering thought at the back of his mind whispering that maybe it¡¯s not what he expected. After finishing his jerky, Sol took out a piece of paper from his spatial ring and, after casting [Candlelight], he examined his work. It was a map that crudely detailed all the areas he had explored as he found it easier to draw a map than to memorize it. The map currently had a few areas he had discovered these past few days, each outlined withbels. There was the prison area that he and Reba currently had the pleasure of staying in. A halfway away was the showroom and shower which he found on the first day. On his second day, he traveled in the other direction and found a canteen, storage room, and kitchen. Yesterday Sol found some kind of lounge room and dormitories which he was only able to see because he found a new way to use [Burrow]. When Sol was sneaking through the halls yesterday, he saw the mana signature of a man running his way, and to hide, he used [Burrow] and jumped into the wall. As he watched the person run past the hallway, Sol leaned close to the stone wall, and he noticed he could very faintly see what¡¯s on the other side without using [Mana Perception]. He hadn¡¯t noticed before as he usually entered and exited the ground too fast, but now that he knew he could do that, there were more areas he could explore even when people were inside. The only downside of using [Burrow] to lurk around was the mana cost. It cost 5 mana per second to maintain it, but with [Increased Mana Regeneration], Sol recovered a little over 4 mana per second. It meant he could maintain a burrow for only 8 minutes before he had to resurface and recover his mana. Even with that time limit, Sol believed it was more than enough to explore a room he had been eyeing since day two. Sol used [Burrow] to pass through the wall and proceeded to walk down the hallway without worry as he knew no one was nearby. It was until he got near the dormitories that he used a burrow and traveled underground to a room he always saw someone in. People would enter and leave the room often, but there was a mana signature that always stayed in that room, and the few times they were gone were inopportune moments for him to check it out. Silently traveling beneath the floor, Sol arrived outside the room, and he slowly closed the distance between him and the wall so he could peek at what was inside. Because there was a thinyer of stone between Sol and the room, it looked as if there was a gray filter put over his vision. Luckily the room was well-lit, and Sol was able to see what looked to be a personal study and an older looking man with neck-length hair sitting behind a desk as he wrote something down. Chapter 60: Evidence Sol saw as the mature man focused on whatever he was writing and found this an opportune moment to use the memory crystal given by the Guildmaster. He sifted through the spatial ring and took out a ck box with a crystal embedded on one side. While he had never used a memory crystal before, luckily there were instructions on how to use it included in the ring. Sol moved through the wall near the roof of the study as he saw a shelf that he believed he could hide the recording device on. Silently activating the memory crystal, Sol¡¯s hand slowly appeared from the wall as he gently ced the device on top of the shelf, angled to get a view of the entire room. The man still writing didn¡¯t notice his actions, and Sol was able to retract his hand back into the wall without any problems. Just as Sol finished cing the device, the door to the office swung open. It took Solpletely off guard as he forgot to pay attention to his surroundings while he was nting the memory crystal. "Hiya boss~!" Weaver strutted into the study as he approached the desk of the man. He sat on the desk as he continued talking, not caring if he was busy at the moment. "Soooo~. Just finished today¡¯s training with the sword boy. He is learning much faster than I anticipated. Soon he will have all the basics and be ready just in time for the auction~." The mature man put down his quill as he looked up to Weaver with a strong gaze. "How is his mental state?" "Hmph! Better than it should be. Even with the lengthy training, poor food, and total istion, that kid still seems to be going strong. He might have a skill that improves his mental fortitude." "Do you think he will be able to resist it?" Weaver paused for a moment to think about the question but shook his head, "Doubt it, even if he has skills that improve his mind, it would eventually be worn down by thebined factors." The mature man nodded, "What of the other one?" "Her? Don¡¯t know, that¡¯s Sandy¡¯s problem, not mine." Weaver froze as he felt the sharp gaze of the mature man. "What did I say about calling her that? It¡¯s Red Sands. And I asked you, so find out now or else¡­" Sol saw through the wall as the usually carefree and mischievous Weaver became silent as he trembled hearing the man¡¯s threat. Weaver struggled to talk but was able to eke out a reply. "... Yes sir." "Then go." "Yes sir." Weaver then scurried off to find Red Sands to get an answer regarding the other prisoners¡¯ progress. Sol also took this chance to leave as his mana was slightly over 100 so his [Burrow] time was running short. He decided to head back to his cell as he didn¡¯t want to explore while low on mana. Traveling back through the floor, he quickly arrived in his room and thought back on the conversation he overheard between the older man and Weaver. There were many questions that had arisen from that conversation, but only one stood out to him the most. ¡¯Why do they care about my mental state? It¡¯s not like obedience cors need that¡­¡¯ Obedience cors were themon method to handle prisoners and ves. Although it had obedience in the name, it didn¡¯t actually control the actions of the cored party that well. The cors would be connected to a controller which could send a signal to shock and even incapacitate the wearer, making it near impossible to resist their owners. It was still possible; they could not control the speech of the wearer so it was possible to ask others for help and if they somehow escaped the control of the controller then they were essentially free. Sol had already found it weird he hadn¡¯t been cored already, but based on what the Guildmaster told him, the kidnapped adventurers weren¡¯t found after sifting through all the ves in the city and the surroundings. He tried to think of what other possibilities it could be, but there were simply too many. Talents were as abundant as fish in the sea so maybe they had the help of someone with soul magic to bind them to their owner or maybe a special crafting talent that can make improved versions of the obedience cors. Not able toe up with any answers, Sol decided to contact Trevor and ask for his opinion. "Honestly, I don¡¯t know, man. Talents that have the possibility to control other humans are tightly monitored and as far as the guild knows only three such people are in the city. One is in the craftsman guild while the other two work directly for the kingdom, and they only came to this city two years ago so it couldn¡¯t be them." "Well¡­ what should I do? I¡¯m not sure how they n to enve us, but I don¡¯t really want to find out when they actually do it¡­ Is the memory crystal I nted enough for evidence?" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "Sadly, no. Unless it catches them explicitly naming the noble or the noble themselves appear in that study then we can arrest them. We can¡¯t check the memory crystal until we retrieve it, so it¡¯s a gamble if the raid happens and the crystal doesn¡¯t record any hard evidence." Trevor was also stumped; it was a risk for Sol to stay for too long. Based on what they learned from Weaver, the auction was happening on the weekend. Sol had three days before then. If it was up to Trevor, he would just do the raid tomorrow; he wasn¡¯t happy with risking Sol¡¯s life, especially when this was a problem the guild should have solved years ago. "Wait. What if I get that book the old man was writing in? I couldn¡¯t read it from where I was, but it could be a ledger or some other kind of documentation." "You¡¯re right! But are you sure you want to do this?" Sol nodded even though he knew Trevor couldn¡¯t see him through themunication gem. "Yeah. I want to see this through; I also don¡¯t want them to have any chance to ever recover and rebuild." "Okay¡­ I will let the Guildmaster know." Themunication gem stopped glowing, Sol put it away, and heid on the stone ground with his arms crossed behind his back as he stared at the ceiling. ¡¯When my mana recovers, I will go back to that study and see if I can steal the book. There also might be other incriminating evidence I should keep an eye out for.¡¯ With a n in mind, Sol waited for a minute as his mana quickly recovered, and he used [Burrow], traveling beneath the stone to the study. Knowing exactly where to go, Sol made it there in less than a minute and kept an eye on not only the man in the study but also the mana signatures outside just in case Weaver or anyone else headed to his cell. ¡­ Sol spent over three hours cycling between hiding in the walls, watching the man go about his day, and heading back to his cell to recover his mana. Over this period of time, Sol had found out a bit more about the man. While everyone called him Boss, one over-enthusiastic subordinate called him Boss Cane. Cane didn¡¯t just run the Mystery Box auction but also had his hands in a few underground markets. From what Sol could gather, he was well-connected and could obtain a total of 10 unique items for this auction. Apparently, the auction didn¡¯t only consist of Sol and Reba as the only products, but they were the main draw for these bidders. Unfortunately for Sol, the man never left the study. Whether for work or rest, Cane did it all in the office. At one point, a subordinate came in asking if he wanted to eat, and Cane told them to just bring it to him. After another cycle of going back to his cell and recovering his mana and heading back, his luck finally turned around. Cane was writing in his book as a subordinate came into the study with an urgent message. "Boss! We have a problem! The Street Wyverns broke into one of our safe houses! We are holding them back, but I think they want to steal one of our auction items." "What?!" Cane stood up as he left with his subordinate to teach the Street Wyverns not to mess with his business and territory. Sol, who saw this all happen, silently celebrated as he waited for them to get further away. Once he was sure they wouldn¡¯t suddenly turn back, he entered the room from the back wall and immediately pocketed the book in his spatial ring. Sol gave the hidden memory crystal a peace sign before going back into the wall. ¡­ Back in his cell, Sol cast [Candlelight] as he pulled out the book from the spatial ring. He looked at the book, hoping this would be all he needed to finally put an end to all of this. Sol opened the first page of the book as his expression went from serious to bewildered as he read the first lines. "This¡­ isn¡¯t a ledger, but a diary?" Although it wasn¡¯t what Sol expected, he wasn¡¯t discouraged and instead thought it could be even better than a ledger. If his personal thoughts are written down and they date back to when the kidnapping started, this could be all the evidence the guild needs. Chapter 61: The Diary Sol didn¡¯t really care about Canes¡¯ personal life so he skimmed through the book until he got to what really interested him. The first entry that stood out to him was a little over five years ago. ¡ª 4/16/513: Found a good location. An abandoned ve prison from when it was legal to enve elves. Funny how it will serve its purpose once again. 4/25/513: That noble brat kept requesting for loyal fighters. How the fuck was I supposed to do that? I dealt in illegal ves, but how was I supposed to make them loyal? 4/26/513: Managed to appease the brat by convincing him he could train them to be loyal. Made some bullshit up on disciplining them, and he ate that up. 5/2/513: Ha! One of his ves escaped and informed the authorities. Can¡¯t believe he let them out of his sight. Good thing I had them blindfolded the whole time or this ce would have beenpromised. 5/15/513: One of my subordinates unlocked a second talent, and it¡¯s quite rare too. For some reason, I thought back on that noble brat¡¯s first request. Loyal fighters, huh? Maybe that¡¯s possible now. ¡ª Although it was Cane¡¯s journal, he seemed to be wary of mentioning any names, ces, or information that could bepromising. Sol found it hard to glean any useful information from these passages, but he kept reading nheless. ¡ª 6/3/513: Although his skill level was low, we found it pretty easy to mess with the mind of a random slum dweller. Whether it would work on stronger people still needed to be tested. 6/4/513: A merchant who got banned from the adventurers¡¯ guild came to me for a servant. I gave him the slum dweller and managed to sell it for triple the original price. People were willing to pay good money for a loyal ve, but it could be more. 6/8/513: There is an up anding adventurer who is surprisingly fast and can cast lightning magic. I sent my men to capture him so we can test out how much effort is needed to recondition him. 6/14/513: When we captured the rookie, we immediately tried the skill on him, but it failed. The most we could do was make them temporarily believe something, but it wore off after an hour. It was not until I beat him near death that the skill worked. We made him believe the injuries were from an ident from his lightning magic and we saved him. 6/15/513: After the first conditioning, all mental changes after were much easier. Not only did they stop resisting, but it seemed once the skill¡¯s mana tainted their body it also made other changes much easier. We found a buyer and quickly sold him. ¡ª Reading how this man treated people so easily like products to simply be sold disgusted Sol. Later months described his testing process as Cane learned how best to mentally exhaust his victims then condition them. Sol found it really difficult to read the inner thoughts of this twisted man. As a coping mechanism, Sol stopped seeing him as another human but as an enemy who he would soon stop. ¡ª 11/20/513: A noble decided to invest in our business. They liked our products and decided to give us the Rank Report. Apparently nobles used that list to find promising recruits from the adventurers; now we can do the same. In return, he wanted early ess to the products, and I had no problem with that. 2/4/514: One of the products was returned to me today. I asked them if there was an issue or he broke through the conditioning, but apparently they just found him weird. Apparently, his attitude was too informal for being a personal manservant, and he yed too many pranks on other servants. If that was the only issue then it would have been fine, but he pulled a prank that embarrassed the noble¡¯s daughter. Either way, I was left to dispose of him, but after seeing his skills it would be a damn shame to let it go to waste. I¡¯m thinking it would be better to recondition him to work for me. He was good at controlling threads and as strong as a C-Ranker so he would be useful in capturing other rookies. I might as well also rename him to better fit his new role; I¡¯m thinking Weaver. ¡ª It was so unbelievable that Sol couldn¡¯t help but exim, "What?! Weaver was one of the kidnapped adventurers?" Sol wouldn¡¯t have guessed by how willingly the man kidnapped others as if it was a game to him. It made Sol wonder, does Weaver know what they did to him? ¡ª 2/13/514: Worked so much better than I thought. Instead of sending multiple men who are weaker to secure one person, it¡¯s much easier to just send Weaver who could bind the target and immediately silence them. No more mess and it¡¯s much harder to track since he doesn¡¯t leave any trace. I am considering keeping a few other products for myself as they made my life much easier. ¡ª A whole year passed of Cane repeating the same daily routine. His business slowly grew as he gained more subordinates and "conditioned" products as he liked to call them. He wrote how he gained a reputation in the ck market and was offered to sell products on their behalf with his connections to other influential people and families. Eventually, he stopped doing direct selling and switched to an auction for two reasons. The first was to make the price morepetitive and gain more money and the second was because there was ack of high-quality adventurers to capture and condition. With a lower supply, Cane decided to use an auction to make his buyers fight for it, which gained him much more money. Sol continued to read until he found another entry of note. ¡ª 8/2/515: n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Thetest target was a tough one to grab. She could turn her body to sand, whichpletely nullified Weaver¡¯s strings. Weaver said she almost managed to escape, but her skill¡¯s duration ran out and he knocked her out before it could be used again. She was now in her cell, after a few days of starving and training, her mind should be ready for her conditioning. 8/6/515: Weaver informed me she was ready, so together with my right hand, we went to begin the conditioning. The procedure was perfect, and in the end, I decided to keep her for myself. Her talents fit perfectly for capturing other targets and could be useful where Weaver isn¡¯t. To make sure she didn¡¯t turn out entric like Weaver, I made sure to condition her to believe she was nothing but a tool that obeys me. Simrly to Weaver, I also renamed her, giving her the name Red Sands. ¡ª ¡¯Even her¡­¡¯ The red cloaked assassin who lost to Sol was also just another victim. The damage this man had done to her even surpassed Weaver not only enving her but even taking her free will. ¡¯No wonder she barely talked or even reacted to pain.¡¯ Sol¡¯s fist clenched. To him, this was worse than death, at least then it would be over and have some agency in the way they go out. This took any choice, any agency they had over their lives and shaped it as their own. Even their thoughts were not their own. Something about this truly made Sol furious like never before. Even in his anger, Sol kept reading. The rest was the same for the next few years, with Cane continuing this awful business. It was not until he got to diary entries from a year ago that he finally found something that could connect Cane to nobles involved. ¡ª 2/17/518: Fucking Valentino wanted to stop providing the Rank Reports. I had to threaten that fat lump of meat that if he did I would never sell him anything again, that I¡¯d even cut him off from all other ck market dealers. That put him in his ce for now, but I better start finding other sources of the Rank Report just in case. 4/14/518: Managed to finally close the deal with the Gulmar House; that made it four noble houses that are invested in my business. I¡¯m lucky their daughter got sick and I knew just the right drug in the ck market that could cure her. ¡ª 7/27/518: Thetest targets have arrived. A boy who could wield the sword and water magic and a girl who could enchant objects and people. At first, I thought the girl would go for more, but Weaver spoke highly of the boy based on his initial impressions. He didn¡¯t just have abnormally high stats but had skills that made him really strong against physical attacks. I should consider whether or not to keep him; I already know what I would call him, Tranquil de. ¡ª ¡¯Me too?¡¯ Cane was thinking of also keeping Sol and using him to kidnap even more people. Sol was surprised but it didn¡¯t change his ns as he nned to start the raid before they used whatever skill "conditioned" people on both him and Reba. It was not until Sol read thetest entry that everything changed. The entry wasn¡¯tplete as Cane stopped midway to deal with the Street Wyverns messing around in his territory. ¡ª 7/29/518: I¡¯m starting to think my right hand no longer wants to work under me. Lately, he had been taking the initiative to start his own business and while he said it¡¯s to grow mine I doubt it. Just because he got lucky and gained the [Mind Shaper] talent- ¡ª Sol dropped the book in shock. Chapter 62: The Past? Sol¡¯s hands trembled as the book fell, producing a loud thump. His breathing became rough as memories of the past flooded back to him. Memories that he thought he had alreadye to terms with resurfaced as he was forced to remember and relive the past once more. The [Mind Shaper] talent was considered a unique talent, but even in terms of unique talents, it was almost never seen. They were so rare, in fact, that there were only around 50 [Mind Shaper] talents in the entire world at any given moment. They had the rare ability to directly affect the minds of people unlike any other mind-rted talent. Most mind-rted talents would vary widely from telepathy, telekinesis, mind reading, irvoyance, and so much more. [Mind Shaper] was a branch of telepathic abilities which could permanently change the mind of their targets. Normally this type of talent was ssified as one of the more dangerous ones that the kingdom of Crestelia would keep an eye on as they could enve people to their whims. But based on the diary entries, the subordinate lucked upon the [Mind Shaper] as his second talent. Since it was hard to track all gained talents after the first initial talent, people like him sometimes slipped under the eye of the kingdom. The rarity of the talent meant nothing to Sol, as whenever he thought of someone with that talent he thought of the man who killed his parents. Sol was reminded of the past when he was 10 years old. His house was broken into one night, and his mother and father, who were both blessed withbat talents, fought the invader. What neither expected was the man to be a [Mind Shaper] and he used his abilities on Sol¡¯s dad, tricking him into believing the invader was his mother. As the fighting continued, Sol came out of his room because he heard the loud noises and saw his father kill his mother. Still under the influence of the invader¡¯s control, Sol¡¯s father was about to kill Sol as well, but just as his father¡¯s de shallowly cut into his neck, he managed to break free from the control. Furious at being made to kill his wife, Sol¡¯s father went crazy with the single goal to kill the invader. In the end, he managed to do so but suffered grievous mental damage that he was unable to recover from and passed away shortly after. After that traumatic experience, Sol was taken to an orphanage where he spent the next four years until his leveling ceremony. Once hepleted the leveling ceremony, the orphanage could no longer take care of him, and he had to find a way to live on his own. Normally when people unlocked their talents it wouldn¡¯t be too hard to find a job, but Sol never unlocked his. This was when Sol started doing the basic gathering quests every day to leave the town and level up. He refused to believe he had no talent and worked towards a single goal since that day. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Done reliving the past, Sol only wanted two things: the end of this kidnapping ring and the death of Cane and the man with the [Mind Shaper] talent. He never wished for the death of another person, but in his eyes, these two men who treated others like products and took away all agency in their lives didn¡¯t deserve mercy. Sol had the evidence they needed, the nobleplicit in this business would also face their punishment. With all pieces in ce, he made the call. Themunication gem gently glowed as it connected to its twin. Trevor¡¯s voice soon came from the gem. "Yo Sol, Any news?" Skipping the pleasantries, Sol responded, "I have a diary with all the proof we need, how soon can you start the raid?" "The guildmaster arrived an hour ago so let me check." After a short minute of silence, another voice came from the gem, it was the Guildmaster. "Does the diary have all the names?" "Yes, a total of four noble houses were involved. Two families made the decision together and the other two were actions of just one person from the family." Augh came from the gem, "Hahaha! Finally! I can¡¯t wait to put those bastards in their ce! Good work, speaking of which I finally found a good reward that would fit perfectly for you." Sol tried to steer the conversation back to the topic at hand, "Can you start the raid then?" "Yes, keep the diary in the spatial ring. I have to inform my allies to gather so we can begin." "How long will it take?" "Hmm, they already know the situation so they should be ready to mobilize in a moment¡¯s notice. At most half an hour." "Perfect, thank you." "No, thank you. I¡¯ll see you soon." With that final message, themunication gem stopped vibrating as its light faded. ¡¯Is she personallying as well? Good.¡¯ Sol felt reassured that the Guildmaster is participating in the raid as well. The reason for which was because one cannot be a Guildmaster without being strong. This is not only to handle the rowdy adventurers but also to be thest line of defense of the guild. A guildmaster needed to be at the peak of power which was A-Rank. Though since A-Rankers were very rare not every branch had the luxury to have one. In those cases what is put in ce is a temporary Guildmaster, they have all the administrative power as a real one but can be ordered by any true Guildmaster. The requirements to be a temporary Guildmaster are much easier only having to be B-Rank. With the call done and the raid soon to take ce, Sol managed to calm down a bit. His thoughts were still all over the ce, but he was finally past the initial shock of being so close to another [Mind Shaper]. ¡¯It will soon be over¡­¡¯ ¡­ Cane arrived back in his underground base. The Street Wyverns were easily taught their ce thanks to him and his conditioned subordinates killing half of their gang. Cane could have easilymanded the death of the entire gang, but he used them sometimes to keep an eye on the streets or harass his opponents. It seemed that Cane had let them grow too confident as he hadn¡¯t been keeping a tight leash on them, but that wouldn¡¯t happen again. Arriving back in his study, he wanted to write his thoughts in his diary like usual. He was going to take it out of his spatial ring, but he realized it wasn¡¯t inside it. ¡¯Hmm, must¡¯ve left it in the rush.¡¯ He looked around his desk but couldn¡¯t find the book. He knew for sure that it couldn¡¯t be anywhere else, and none of his subordinates dared to enter his study when he wasn¡¯t inside. Cane quickly realized it was stolen and called for a subordinate. "What¡¯s up boss?" "Gather everyone. Pack everything up, we need to leave as soon as possible." "Huh? S-sure, what about the prisoners?" "Get Weaver, Red Sands to protect Gus while he conditions the products. Make it so they act obedient and follow our everymand, it doesn¡¯t have to be thorough just long enough tost until we get to the safe house." "On it boss!" The subordinate ran off as his yelling could be heard from outside the door. Calling everyone to get off their asses and pack everything up. Chapter 63: [Mind Shaper] To settle the turbulent thoughts in his mind, Sol decided to try using [Meditation]. Sitting cross-legged on the ground, Sol activated the skill and immediately felt his mind sharpen. At first, the increased concentration made it worse as it forced him to only think of his parents¡¯ death, but with some effort, he was able to steer the focus on categorizing his spells. His breathing stabilized as he organized a few more spells in his mind until he heard the sound of the metal door opening. ¡¯That¡¯s odd. I thought we already did today¡¯s training.¡¯ Weaver, the red-cloaked assassin who Sol now knew was Red Sands, and another man whom he had never seen before entered. Wearing a luxurious white silk outfit, this bald man gave an unsettling feeling. Weaver, with an annoyed look on his face, took out a chair from his spatial ring and gestured for Sol to sit. Having read the journal, Sol already knew what they were nning and obviously didn¡¯tply. "C¡¯mon darling, we don¡¯t have a lot of time. Although I would¡¯ve liked to have more fun with you, we gotta cut this short, don¡¯t make us do this the hard way." Sol quickly assessed his options. ¡¯I could leave with [Burrow], but then I wouldn¡¯t be rescued, which would put all I have done to not attract attention to waste. I could resist and be triple-teamed and likely lose. If it was just one, I could manage, but three is too much. Even if I use all my skills and spells at my disposal, I am unsure if I can beat them in a head-on fight. Thest option is to undergo the so-called conditioning and resist it. The way Cane described it in the diary was that it was only truly effective after starving and exhausting the target. I am in my peak condition thanks to my high vitality and also the food supply the Guildmaster provided, so I have a good chance of resisting it.¡¯ There was a standoff between the young man and the trio, but the bald man quickly broke the silence. "Enough of this, tie him down if you have to." Weaver and Red Sands stepped forward ready to restrain Sol, and at that moment, he decided on the best course of action. Sol raised his hands and slowly walked towards the chair. The bald man scoffed, "Good. This will make it easier." Sol chose to endure the process. He knew that escaping would ruin the entire point of staying in this cell, and fighting would likely end up with him still being strapped to the chair. It was better to conserve his energy for the mental battle as he could pretend to be under its effects until the rescue team arrived. The bald man ced his hand on Sol¡¯s head as psychic energy traveled from the palm into Sol¡¯s head. They felt like tiny hands pushing into his brain and while not painful it was very disturbing. The energy poked around as if trying to understand what it was working with before beginning the actual procedure. The moment it tried to tamper with Sol¡¯s mind something unexpected happened. Sol, who was ready to resist the process and recover from its effects as fast as he could, felt nothing as the energy bounced off the moment it tried to do anything. The bald man frowned as he also felt this resistance. "The fuck? Are you sure he has been weakened?" Weaver nodded, "Yeah, I made sure of it." The bald man looked back at Sol¡¯s head as if peering inside but eventually found the answer. "It¡¯s like I am hitting a solid wall. This isn¡¯t normal even if they are in perfect condition. It¡¯s as if¡­ someone shielded him." Sol, hearing the bald man¡¯s words, tilted his head in confusion. ¡¯Shielded? I don¡¯t know anyone who could even do such a thing.¡¯ The bald man continued, "Even so, I should be able to break past it. It will just take more effort." He took out a potion and drank it, boosting his psychic abilities. The bald man then ced his hands on Sol¡¯s head to try a new strategy. The energy once again flowed into his mind, but this time the energy didn¡¯t spread out and instead gathered to one point to break through the barrier. Next thing Sol knew, the energy smashed into the barrier. Even though Sol didn¡¯t take the brunt of it directly, it still felt like he got hit with a hammer. "Argh!" The first attempt at breaking the barrier failed, but the bald man didn¡¯t give up. He repeatedly smashed into the barrier, making Sol¡¯s head feel like it was inside a giant bell. Eventually, a crack appeared. It wasn¡¯t big, but enough for the bald man to do his job. The bald man sighed, "Goddamn. I have never encountered such a strong mental barrier." He began the conditioning process once more, sending the invasive energy through the tiny gap. Since they were in a rush, they only needed temporary obedience, so the bald man focused on shutting down Sol¡¯s conscience. As he did, there was another unexpected event. The barrier in Sol¡¯s mind reacted to the intrusion and went from defensive to offensive. It grabbed hold of the bald man¡¯s energy and followed it back to the mind of the man invading his body. The barrier protecting Sol was not gone as it had left to attack the intruder of the mind it was protecting. The bald man noticed the attack and tried to defend himself, but he stood no chance. He was only able to pierce the barrier after consuming a mental-enhancing potion, and the hole he made was minuscule. With the full force of the barrier attacking, the defense he could muster was pointless. The rampaging psychic energy of the barrier shredded his brain by destroying every single memory he had ever created. The bald man could only watch as memories of his childhood were destroyed, his teenage years erased, and his adult life consumed into nothing as this energy took everything. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om As this happened to the bald man, Sol waspletely stunned. Not because of the bald man¡¯s energy that tried to change his mind, but because when the barrier left, something deep within Sol¡¯s mind was unlocked. Memories, one¡¯s he had no idea were tampered with and sealed away under the barrier¡¯s protection. Chapter 64: The True Past A ten year old boy was outside with his parents on a pic. The mother was tall and fit with long silver hair tied into a ponytail. The father had dark brown hair and looked average in body and height but when next to the woman he could be seen as short. The young boy had been excitedly waiting for this day as both his parents were usually busy working and he rarely got to spend time with both of them at once. The young boy carried arge pic basket, while his dad offered to carry it, the boy wanted to prove how he had been getting strongertely. The father saw him struggle to carry the basket but knew how the boy could be stubborn and nned on praising his strength when they arrived. Arriving at the location, the boy ced the basket under the canopy of arge tree. The boy was a little out of breath, but he tried to hide it. His father, seeing through his clumsy act, simply smiled and praised him. "Wow, Sol! Maybe in a few years, you will be just as strong as your mom!" The mother rolled her eyes at hisment, but Sol¡¯s eyes sparkled. "Really!?" "Of course! Just make sure not to allocate all your points to strength. You don¡¯t want to be a pure brute lik-" Before he could finish his sentence, a fist just out of his field of view came and punched him in the shoulder, "OW! What was that for!" The mother red at the father menacingly, "Do you really wanna know?" "... No, ma¡¯am." The child giggled thinking they were just ying around as they do this often. The family chatted as they set up the pic and sat down to eat the packed lunch. The father yed around by creating illusions of animals out of thin air and teaching Sol all of their characteristics. They looked incredibly realistic even with the way their walking left imprints on the ground; it was a very well developed skill. Eventually, Sol asked a question he had been wondering for a while. "Hey Dad, how did you and Mom meet?" His mother looked at his father with a worried expression. She wasn¡¯t sure if it was the right time to exin their circumstances. "It¡¯s fine, Sylvy. Now is as good a time as ever." "Okay, just make sure to skip the embarrassing stuff." "What?! But that¡¯s the best part!" Giving a look that says "no means no," the father relented. "Fine¡­ I¡¯ll start from the beginning then. Sol, I didn¡¯t used to be a good man, I was, in fact, a very bad one. I would use my talents for my selfish desires. At that time, there wasn¡¯t a limit or line I wouldn¡¯t cross to get what I want. I stole from nobles, merchants, and heck I even stole directly from an Adventurers Guild vault. I would use my illusions and mind skills to easily trick people into giving me what I want." Sol knew of the illusion magic but not of the other one, "Mind skills?" "Yeah. My talents are [Illusion Affinity], [Mind Shaper], and [Dark Affinity]. It was super easy to just make people do whatever I wanted. But even with all the wealth and people under my control, I was never truly happy. I was wanted dead by three kingdoms and even the Sapphire Scales Alliance, the price of the bounty they ced on me was honestly a bit ridiculous. Either way, I wanted out of that life and one day released everyone from my control and left. "It was not until 4 years after my disappearance that I met your mother. The Elite Knight that served directly under the King of Crestelia, Sylvia Minfel. She was given the super important task to hunt down the evil ck Tongue. Or as you better know him, your dad, Roman!" Young Sol was shocked and he turned to his mother, "What?! Mom, you tried to kill dad?!" Seeing her son¡¯s face, she couldn¡¯t help but feel embarrassed at how it turned out, "Haha, yeah..." Very invested in the story, Sol wanted to know more, "What happened?" Sylvia couldn¡¯t bring herself to continue as the next part was extremely embarrassing. Roman, on the other hand, spoke excitedly of their encounter. "So apparently someone recognized me and reported me to the kingdom; she came alone as numbers don¡¯t mean anything to me. The only reason she was sent was because she recently unlocked a unique talent called [Clear Mind]. It greatly increased her resistance to mental maniption and other simr skills. What¡¯s funny is that she came for me right after unlocking that talent! She barely practiced her skills at all and I could easily make her see or believe whatever I wanted. So as a prank, I made her see-" With her facepletely red, Sylvia interrupted, "No! Not that part!" Enjoying his wife¡¯s embarrassment, Romanughed and skipped that moment. He knew it also wasn¡¯t appropriate to exin to a child the naughty things he made his mother see. "After that, I left her be, I stained my hands with blood enough for multiple lifetimes and I had no intention to hurt any more innocent people. I very much enjoyed the quiet life just living my day to day life. Unfortunately, a certain knight did not give up on her mission. Your mom kept trying to end me in the ¡¯name of justice¡¯, so I kept giving her simr pranks. Eventually, after pestering me enough times, I got bored of the same pranks and took her out to dinner. She at first declined as I was her enemy, but I told her I would stop pranking her if she did so she epted. One thing led to another and well¡­ we somehow fell in love. "The day we found out we were blessed with a child on the way, we decided to make it official. The problem is that Sylvie is an elite knight under the crown and I am a wanted criminal. The only way we could live in peace together was for both of us to fake our deaths. It wasn¡¯t hard to do honestly, I just made a really big illusion where me and your mom had an epic fight to the death. After that, we traveled from the far east of the kingdom to the west and settled here in this town." Sylvia patted Sol on the head, "Then you were born, our little sun." The sun was starting to set, and the family packed up their pic and headed back home. Sol would have just been happy with spending time with them, but he also had the unexpected surprise of hearing how his parents met. Overall, the young boy¡¯s mood was through the roof and even after a long day of having fun, he still had energy to spare. At least that¡¯s how he looked because the moment hended on his bed, the boy immediately fell asleep. Later in the night, the boy was woken up by a loud explosion. He raised his head in a panic as he heard the sounds of fightinging from the living room. Sol opened the door out of his room and witnessed his parents fighting against a full squad of ten knights. A high-ranking knight yelled at Roman, "It¡¯s over for you, fiend! You can no longer elude us now that we have a saintess that can divine your location!" Sylvia stood in front of Roman, protecting him with her old knight shield she kept from when she served under the crown. One of the knights, seeing the crested shield, screamed in anger, "You vile monster! Undo your mental maniption and let her go!" Sylvia was the one who responded, "I¡¯m under no one¡¯s control! He couldn¡¯t even control me even if he wanted to." What she said was the truth. Although Roman was able to easily mess with her mind and prank her when she initially hunted him down, ten years have passed since then and she had trained all of the abilities to their peak. She had long since been immune to his mental powers and even if she wasn¡¯t, Roman had not used them since Sol was born. The high-ranking knightmanded, "She is too far gone! End this now!" With permission granted, the knights all took out round ss orbs that had fire swirling inside waiting to be released. They tossed the orbs and shielded themselves as the moment they touched the ground near the couple they exploded with a deafening boom. Sylvie activated the skill of her shield to protect them both, but they didn¡¯t notice Sol who opened the door. Shrapnel from furniture flew all over the ce as a piece of wood stabbed into the young boy¡¯s neck. As Sylvie dropped the barrier, she looked around to assess the damage and saw Sol lying on the ground. "No! Sol!" Roman now noticed his son bleeding on the ground, and a raging fury overtook him. He had sworn to himself to never use his [Mind Shaper] talent ever again, but now Roman wanted to see these men die for hurting their son. With a wave of his hand, his dormant mental ability awoke as it swept through the knights. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om The knights came prepared and were equipped with unique ranked mental resisting items, but only legendary items could even try to block Roman¡¯s powerful maniption. The psychic energy removed all mental limiters of the body including self-preservation and ced one powerfulmand at the forefronts of their minds. ¡¯Kill Yourself.¡¯ The knights all raised their weapons without hesitation as they stabbed themselves in the same ce Sol was injured. Roman believed it to be a fitting punishment for their crimes. While Roman was finishing the knights, Sylvia ran towards Sol who was barely conscious. The young boy looked at his mother as he tried to speak but was unable to do so with blood in his throat. "Shhh, don¡¯t worry Sol." Sylvia then took out the highest quality potion she had and poured half of it on Sol¡¯s neck; the other half she poured into his mouth. The wound rapidly closed, leaving only a scar that ran from his bottom left cheek to the middle of his neck. Seeing his condition stabilize, Sylvia sighed in relief. Roman, who just arrived next to her, asked an important question. "What do we do?" Sylvia felt hopeless, "What can we do? You heard it yourself, they have someone that can track us. They can find us no matter where we go." "If it was just us two, we could easily escape but Sol¡­" "I know¡­ I don¡¯t want him to live on the run forever." They both stood in silence as they both knew what they had to do, but neither wanted to say it. Roman knew this was going nowhere and spoke up. "Sylvy¡­" "No." "But we have to-" "No!" She cried as she hugged Sol tightly. Roman hugged Sylvia from behind, "He will live a normal life. In four years, he will gain a talent and make the best of it." Through her crying, she asked a question, "What if they use him to find us? What if they hurt him and we aren¡¯t there to protect him?" "You already know the answer to that. They are tracking us, not him. I will erase us from the minds of everyone in the town, make it seem like Sol¡¯s parents died in a home invasion. I will not erase Sol¡¯s memories but lock them instead, they will only unlock when he is strong enough." Sylvie weakly nodded as she passed the barely conscious Sol to Roman. "Dad¡­" "I¡¯m sorry, Sol, this is for your own good. Come find us when you unlock your second talent. We love you." cing his hand over Sol¡¯s head, he performed one of the most advanced mental changes he had ever done. Perfectly storing all his memories in a secure ce and recing them with fake ones. Then he ced a mental barrier with his will infused inside of it with only one objective, to protect Sol¡¯s memories by whatever means necessary. Once done, Sol passed out and Sylvie looked at Roman. "What if he never unlocks his second talent?" Roman chuckled as he found that notion preposterous, "He is our son, he fully inherited your stubbornness and my quick wits. Even if he unlocks the world¡¯s worst talent, I know he will find a way to seed." Chapter 65: Knew All Along Hundreds of memories flooded back to Sol; the childhood he knew was an entire fabrication. After oveing the initial overwhelming sensation of the resurfaced memories, Sol only had one thought. ¡¯Mom and Dad are alive?¡¯ While that was the first thought that came to his mind with his memories restored, he couldn¡¯t help but doubt them. There was a small doubt in the back of his mind whispering that it could all be part of the bald man¡¯s n to influence his mind, but he quickly dismissed it. It didn¡¯t make sense to change these memories, and Sol had no thoughts of obedience at all, which was their original goal. Additionally, the unsealed memories didn¡¯t erase the fake ones, as if left untouched to allow Sol to determine which were the real memories. There was onest piece of evidence that made Sol determine that they were real, and it was by what became of the bald man who tried to tamper with his mind. The bald man was now copsed on the floor with his eyes rolled upwards. Sol saw the barrier leave his mind and travel to the bald man, so he knew this was done by it. It seemed his father left him one final means of protection in the very low chance another psychic ability tried to tamper with his mind. As much as Sol wanted to understand what all this meant, his current situation did not permit it. "WHAT. DID. YOU. DO?!" Weaver was furious but held his hand as he had no idea what just urred. The bald man was still technically breathing, but Weaver could already deduce he was gone forever. While the bald man¡¯s body was alive and breathing, the mind itself had been shattered with no chance of recovery. Even for another specialist in memories and matters of the mind, they would be unable to do anything as the memories werepletely erased, there was nothing to save. Red Sands stood behind Weaver, unfazed by his outburst. Her orders were to protect Gus, but she did not see Sol do anything; hence, she didn¡¯t have to take any action. Though seeing the bald man copsed on the ground, the edges of her mouth, hidden under the obfuscation of the magical cloak, curved slightly upward. Sol knew it was caused by the psychic barrier, but he pretended not to know. "I don¡¯t know! He just copsed." "Don¡¯t bullshit me! Fuck! The boss will¡­!" Weaver appeared more scared at whatever Cane would do to him rather than theatose bald man. He realized there was only one way to save him from the boss¡¯ wrath. "Fuck, fuck, fuck! You crossed the line, Sol! Your corpse will hopefully appease him!" rm bells rang in Sol¡¯s mind. Weaver¡¯s fingers moved as strings sprang out to kill him. This would have caught Sol off guard in the past, but thesest few days he had not only been practicing the basics ofbat but was also devising the best way to counter Weaver. With his life in danger, Sol didn¡¯t hold back and cast the best spell to best counter Weaver. "Cover my body in mes, [me Aura]!" A thinyer of fire covered Sol¡¯s body, and the strings that rapidly approached burned at the slightest touch. Weaver retracted his strings in surprise. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om [me Aura] was one of the easiest and fastest spells that Sol knew. Although it¡¯s an easy spell, it is rather inefficient with a high mana consumption to maintain the concentrated fire. Taking into consideration Weaver¡¯s quick and flexible strings that cane from any direction, Sol knew the best way to counter them was to cover himself from all directions. "A dual mage, you¡¯re full of surprises aren¡¯t you. You think I have never fought with a fire mage before? You¡¯ll quickly run out of mana if you spend it that way, so I¡¯ll just wait it out." Sol knew the downsides of the spell, and even with his ridiculous mana regeneration, he could only maintain it for at most ten minutes. While he could fight Weaver, there was a small spark of hope in his heart after what he read in the diary. "We don¡¯t have to fight! You may think you are loyal to Cane, but that¡¯s because you were brainwashed just like every other victim!" "Hahaha!" Weaverughed at his im. Sol believed it was because it sounded too hard to believe. "I know it¡¯s hard to believe, but it¡¯s true. I took his diary and read how he sold you, but after you got returned, they brainwashed you again! They did the same with you, Red Sands, they took everything from both of you!" Red Sands stood as poised as she had been the entire time, while Weaver keptughing. "Hahaha! You don¡¯t think I know that already?! That bastard used me as his personal secretary for an entire year; I already read his damn diary. Those nobles threw me away because they didn¡¯t like how I behaved! The only person who ever epted me was that motherfucker, albeit in a twisted way. As long as I obey him and avoid his¡­ punishments, everything is dandy." Sol couldn¡¯t believe he was fine with this. He was brainwashed and used tomit crimes for someone else¡¯s benefit. "What about who you used to be? What about all the crimes youmitted?!" "Haha, what about it? Those adventurers don¡¯t give a fuck about me; why should I care what bes of them. I also get to enjoy certain privileges by working under one of the biggest crime bosses in the city, who canin. As for my memories, maybe they manipted me to think this, but I honestly don¡¯t care who I used to be. If anything, fuck the past me for being so weak to get captured." ¡¯He¡¯s too far gone¡­¡¯ "By the way, is your mana ever gonna run out soon? We still have to wrap this up." Sol nced at his mana, which just dipped under 300; he still had plenty of time. While Weaver was a lost cause, maybe Red Sands could be persuaded. Sol wanted to believe it was possible to break free from this brainwashing they were put through. Chapter 66: Half Baked Noticing Sol¡¯s gaze at Red Sands, Weaver chuckled, "Don¡¯t bother. They turned her into a mindless tool; that¡¯s all she will ever be. Even I thought Cane went a bit too far with her modifications, but you can¡¯t argue with the results." Sol knew what he meant from the diary, but even so, he believed he could get through to her, as naive as that sounded. "Just because they forced her to believe that, it doesn¡¯t make it true. Red Sands, you can choose to do whatever you want with your life! You aren¡¯t a tool to be used!" Weaver walked over to Red Sands, who was awaiting orders, and knocked on her head. He hit rather hard, not enough to do any real damage but enough to make a low sound. "See? Nobody¡¯s home. I should know I was there when they did it. Ah¡­ You should have seen her face at the time. She was kicking, screaming, crying. So many emotions and less than five minutester they were all gone, now she doesn¡¯t even bat an eye at losing her limbs. I even get to use her as a punching bag sometimes to relieve stress if I perform well enough." "You¡¯re a psycho!" "What if I am? At least I¡¯m having fun with it." Sol¡¯s mana was nearing half. He couldn¡¯t afford to keep talking and wasting his mana, so he backed up to where he had hidden the spatial ring under the floor and swiped it with [Burrow]. This didn¡¯t escape Weaver¡¯s sight, "You had a spatial ring?!" Although Weaver said he could wait out the mana drain of the spell, he had other ways to circumvent fire mages. Multiple daggers appeared from his spatial ring, and his countless strings started grabbing them midair. With a wave of Weaver¡¯s hand, these daggers wereunched towards Sol. Although the amount of daggers flying at Sol felt overwhelming, he didn¡¯t despair. He took out his sword, Blue Ripple, and used [Counter] on those that targeted vitals and ignored the rest. Relying on his extremely high defense against physical attacks, Sol used [Charge] towards Weaver. Weaver took out an iron shield and used his strings to block Sol¡¯s [Charge]; he then turned to yell at Red Sands. "What are you standing around for!? Help me, you idiot!" Red Sands heard his plight but didn¡¯t move. "He killed Gus; your orders were to protect him, right?! Then at least avenge him!" Sol noticed the advantage he had over Weaver, as not only did the fire make him immune to Weaver¡¯s highly mmable strings, but Weaver was also starting to lose hisposure. Red Sands at this moment also unsheathed her hidden daggers. Still holding on to hope, Sol kept trying to convince Red Sands, "You don¡¯t have to listen to him! Is this truly what you want to do?" Red Sands paused, making Sol believe he was getting through to her. Weaver also noticed this and was astounded; he had never seen Red Sands defy an order before. More daggers flew at Sol as Weaver faced Red Sands with a contemptuous re. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "The fuck you gonna do then? Even if you leave here, you have nowhere to go. You don¡¯t even know who you used to be, just follow orders like a good doggy. You also don¡¯t want to be punished by Cane; you know what he will do to you." The stoic Red Sands shivered at the mention of punishment from Cane. Whatever their Boss did to them when they didn¡¯t perform must truly frighten them. Sol didn¡¯t know what kind of punishment it was, as even in the diary, whenever they were punished, Cane didn¡¯t borate further. Even so, there was one point in Weaver¡¯s argument Sol could refute, and although it wasn¡¯t a guarantee, he hoped it was good enough for her. As Sol performed a [Cross sh] on Weaver, he spoke, "It may be possible to regain your memories! I know someone who can do it!" Weaverughed, as he didn¡¯t believe him, "Haha! Sure, man. You know someone with an extremely unique talent that specifically deals with memories. What is he also a [Mind Shaper]?" As he spoke, Weaver subtly used his strings to pick up the daggers that had fallen past Sol andunched them back at him. This didn¡¯t escape Sol¡¯s sight as he used [Harden] to further increase his defense value. The daggers wereunched towards him incredibly fast, but they bounced off his body, leaving only a slight red mark. "Goddamn, what is your body made out of, Adamantium?" Sol ignored Weaver¡¯sment and continued trying to convince Red Sands, "You heard from that bald man how there was a barrier ced on my mind; that should be proof enough! There is a way to help you!" At this point, Weaver stopped arguing with Sol over Red Sands. He was fully convinced that even if she could form independent thoughts, she knew what awaited her if she disobeyed. Instead, he focused on the fight at hand against the kid who had been perfectly countering his attacks so far. "If those puny daggers aren¡¯t enough to beat you, then how about this!" Strings from all directions gathered and formed around his right arm in a beautiful and intricate pattern. From Weaver¡¯s spatial ring, he then took out a verdigris-colored longsword. Gripping the sword with his string-enhanced arm, he mmed down towards Sol. Sol used [Counter] to negate the blow, but he felt the incredible strength that blow contained. He refused to believe that Weaver was innately that strong, and the strings covering his arm enhanced his strength somehow. Even so, Sol didn¡¯t despair and stood his ground; he used what he learned against Weaver, but he quickly realized it was a mistake. "Fucking idiot. Using half baked skills against the one who taught them to you." Although Weaver taunted him, it wasn¡¯t that bad of a choice. While Weaver could easily predict what each type of attack was aiming for and counter them perfectly, it still is better than only using his strong attacks and leaving himself open to attacks. The worst of Sol¡¯s attacks were his feints, as Weaver could easily predict when they wereing and used a few strings or a random weapon held by strings to knock it away. Locked in a stalemate, Weaver was regaining his cockyposure, ¡¯Heh. Keep fighting, your mana will soon run out, and then I can fight for real. I didn¡¯t even need Sandy for this, but I can¡¯t wait to report it to the Boss so she can get punished.¡¯ Another obvious feint from Sol swung targeting his left shoulder, and Weaver controlled one of his daggers to intercept it. Just as the sword was about to make contact with the dagger, it suddenly sped up and gained much more weight to it. Sol used [Heavy Blow] at the veryst second before it made contact. The dagger, not meant to be used like a shield, shattered as the swing continued, barely losing any momentum. It cleaved into Weaver¡¯s shoulder and smashed him into the ground. "GUHACK!" Weaver didn¡¯t have a lot of points put into strength or vitality, at best, hepared to a body-focused C-Ranker. This one blow took more than half of his health. ¡¯He faked a feint?!¡¯ Chapter 67: Not a Tool ¡¯I¡¯m d that worked¡­¡¯ Since Weaver knew all of his patterns, Sol decided to try somethingpletely different. Based on how Weaver treated his feints, he decided to do a feint all the way until thest second where he then switched to [Heavy Blow]. While he could¡¯ve used [Cross sh], a move that dealt more damage, it didn¡¯t carry the same weight he needed from [Heavy Blow] to bypass the weak defense and still hit just as strongly. [Cross sh] distributed its attack into two separate ones; while overall it did more damage, the power of each individual swing was less. Sol held the absolute advantage now, with Weaver on the ground and grievously wounded, the fight was already as good as won. Sol could¡¯ve had mercy with Weaver, found a way to revert the effects of the brainwashing after capturing him, but he had clearly chosen his side. Weaver was brainwashed to obey but not to enjoy the crimes hemitted and even abused Red Sands who was in an arguably worse predicament. Just as Sol was about to bring down his sword for the finishing blow, he noticed in the corner of his eye Red Sands took a step towards them. Unsure if she nned to save Weaver or attack him the moment he struck, Sol held back his final strike as he eyed Red Sands warily. Sol backed up a few feet as Red Sands approached the fallen Weaver and stared at him in silence. She was either very confident that Sol wouldn¡¯t strike her or did not care if he did, as she left her backpletely open to Sol. Weaver coughed a mouthful of blood as he looked at Red Sands andmanded her, "Hurry... give me a potion¡­" She stared back in silence, her expression always unreadable thanks to the magical cloak, but a small mumble could be heard. She spoke so quietly Sol could only pick up thest two words she said. "-hate you." N?v(el)B\\jnn "Wha-" SHLICK The next thing Weaver felt was the cold metallic sensation of a dagger lodged in his heart. He was barely able to process the betrayal before his body stopped functioning and he stopped breathing. ¡¯Didn¡¯t expect her to kill him¡­¡¯ Although Sol could understand why Red Sands would kill Weaver, he wanted an answer from her perspective because he knew her emotions were essentially erased by the brainwashing. "Why did you kill him?" Red Sands removed the dagger from his chest and stowed it within her cloak. She then looked back to Sol and did not answer immediately, as if trying to figure out the answer herself. Eventually, she spoke, "Want to." For most people, that could be justification enough to end someone¡¯s life, but she wasn¡¯t most people. Red Sands, who had lived the past three years only taking action when ordered to, actually decided something for herself. It was a huge step in the right direction of recovery, even if her first desire was to kill someone else. It also gave Sol the confirmation he needed to know that with the brainwashing, there was a mistake Cane didn¡¯t realize in the process. Just because one was made loyal after the brainwashing, it didn¡¯t mean they would stay loyal. They had to either continuously reapply the conditioning every so often to maintain the effects at their peak or actually give them a good reason to stay loyal with rewards or good treatment. Weaver was a case of thetter actually enjoying the benefits of working with them which is why he stuck around for so long. With the way they treated Red Sands, it was usible she would have eventually been able to break free on her own without Sol¡¯s intervention. "I assume you want to recover your memories as well?" She gave a small nod before moving behind Sol and taking position there. Although Sol believed she wouldn¡¯t attack him after killing Weaver, he still kept his guard up. He wasn¡¯t too worried though as he knew Red Sands had few means of actually hurting him. "What are you doing?" "Following." "Umm, I¡¯m not going anywhere yet. I still have to wait for the raid party to rescue me." Red Sands silently stared at Sol as if asking what she was supposed to do with that information but didn¡¯t ask any questions. Feeling the need to borate further, Sol exined the n he came up with with the Guildmaster and how they were about to raid the facility. Once he was done exining it, he realized another problem. "What will you do? I may be able to exin that you were forced to follow them because of the brainwashing, but I don¡¯t know if they will still hold you responsible for the kidnappings youmitted¡­" The assassin offered no input as to what he should do, leaving the decision to Sol. "Quietly escape this ce for now and meet meter at The Rusty Bed inn. There I can exin how we might be able to get your memories back." Maybe it was the way Sol worded it that sounded like an order, Red Sands nodded and left the room to gods know where. Hopefullyter, she will show up again at the inn, and they could talk further, but it will probably be Sol doing most of the talking. With all urgent matters settled, Sol looked back at the two bodies and remembered he still had one more thing to do. Name: Weaver Race: Human Talents: [Threads], [Puppets], [Dagger] Level: 64 Talent Skills: [Predators Web] Lv 7, [Puppet Repair] Lv 4 Passive: [Thread Control] Lv Max, [Mana Efficiency] Lv 6, [Intelligence Up] Lv 4, [Wisdom Up] Lv 5, [Precise Coordination] Lv 7, [Increase Mana Regeneration] Lv 3, [Throwing] Lv 9, [Intermediate Dagger Mastery] Lv 4 Active: [String Enhancement] Lv Max, [Thread Creation] Lv Max, [Thin Slice] Lv 7, [Puppet Enhancement] Lv 6, [Vital Stab] Lv 6, [Backstab] Lv 5 ¡¯I can finally see his true status. Even his name is Weaver, huh.¡¯ The name section of the status page always reflects what they currently believe to be their name. It¡¯s not impossible for someone who had lived under another name for long enough that they treat it as their real name for it to reflect in their status page. In this case being renamed after the brainwashing made the status page change to the new name as such. Sol had tried [Analysis] multiple times during his training sessions with Weaver but was never able to actually glean anything from it. Weaver¡¯s status page was always changing into the names of the different gods and goddesses, usually making fun of them in some way. For example, with Ragnar, the God of War, he gave himself fake skills in running away, surrendering, and other skills along that line. Now that Weaver was dead, the item was no longer in effect, and Sol was left with a tough decision. He needed to pick just two skills from this wide spread of rather powerful abilities, which could be incredibly useful. Chapter 68: Limited Options Sol was facing an internal dilemma. ¡¯If I wasn¡¯t limited to just two, this would be so much easier. The main issue is that Weaver¡¯s strongest ability, [Thread Control], required at least three other skills to be able to use just as well as him. There was also the problem of the skill itself degrading in the siphoning process and bing level 9, which would also weaken them even more¡­¡¯ Although Sol wanted [Thread Control], he also needed [String Enhancement] and [Thread Creation] at the very least for it to be useful. If not, then the strings would be easily broken in any encounter, and he would also need to carry a constant supply of them. In addition to also being able to control them anywhere near as well as Weaver, he would need [Precise Coordination]. That made it a total of four skills to barelypare to Weaver¡¯s actualbat prowess. Even if he chose two of them now, he doubted he would meet anyone with simr skills in the near future, and he wouldn¡¯t hunt them down just toplete it either. With only being able to take two skills, Sol had to think of it from another perspective, to enhance his current abilities and skillsmon enough that he could reliably keep leveling them. The first easy pick was [Mana Efficiency], as he knew it would greatly improve his spellcasting ability. The second, after examining all the other skills, he ended up choosing [Precise Coordination] because Sol believed it was the evolved version of the skill [Coordination]. Attribute-enhancing skills could be gainedter, and Sol felt it would be better to gain them in dungeons like what he did with [Strength Up] and [Vitality Up]. [Intermediate Dagger Mastery] was tempting as well, but he rarely used other weapons at this moment, so it could be held off forter. Both Skills degraded by one level but Sol was still satisfied with the results. [Mana Efficiency] Lv 5: Reduced mana cost of all spells by 25%. [Precise Coordination] Lv 6: Superior bodily coordination allowing for incredibly precise movements or multiple well coordinated actions at once. [Mana Efficiency] was an important skill Solckedpared to most mages. With it, spells that had a constant or high consumption of mana were more usable and he might be able to keep them active permanently. For example, with [Fire Aura], Sol should be able to now maintain it for as long as he wants, granted he casts no other spell simultaneously. The other skill Sol chose, [Precise Coordination], did exactly what Sol hoped it would. It made his body control much better in ways he didn¡¯t think were possible. Now he could switch attacks easily and even doplex maneuvers that required a lot of focus and attention to detail. Overall this skill greatly supplemented hisbat prowess. There was one more body Sol had to deal with, and it was the body of the bald man. When Sol used analysis on him, he realized a problem. Name: Gus Race: Human n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Talents: [Calctions], [Mind Shaper] Level: 29 HP: 250 MP: 400 Str: 15 Vit: 25 Agi: 30 Int: 40 (+10) Wis: 40 Talent Skills: [elerated Thought Process] Lv 4, [Mind Mold] Lv 4 Passive Skills: [Mathematics] Lv 3, [Prediction] Lv 1, [Intelligence Up] Lv 2, [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 5 Active Skills: [Psy st] Lv 3, [Hypnosis] Lv 4, [Telepathy] Lv 3 ¡¯This man¡­¡¯ There were two main issues with Gus; the first one was that all his skills had barely been trained. For five whole years since Gus gained his psychic abilities, his highest skill was in manipting others and even that wasn¡¯t very high. Gus wasn¡¯t able to develop his psychic abilities because of Cane heavily monitoring his actions. Fearful of being overthrown by Gus, Cane only allowed him to use his abilities when under heavy supervision. The other big issue is that Gus was still technically alive, at least his body was. Although Sol¡¯s logic told him he was unable to use [Siphon] as the bald man was still alive, a gut feeling led him to believe he somehow could. Of the limited selection of skills avable, [Basic Psychic Mastery] needed to be taken. It was a core skill that he needed if he wanted to grab any of the active skills. Simr to weapon skills like [Cross sh], it required the appropriate weapon to use. Unlike weapon skills, these didn¡¯t need any physical tool to use, but if Sol selected [Psy st] and [Telepathy], he would still be unable to use them as he didn¡¯t have [Basic Psychic Mastery] to control the skills. For the second skill, Sol was unsure what to pick. He decided to cross off [Psy st] as he already had plenty of offensive means and deliberated over [Hypnosis] and [Telepathy]. [Hypnosis] could be useful in a number of scenarios and even possible to help Red Sands restore her memory, but after remembering that the skills will likely degrade, it might be impossible to repair the amount of damage by himself. In the end, Sol decided [Telepathy] could serve a better purpose for more scenarios. Selecting [Basic Psychic Mastery] and [Telepathy], Sol felt the strands of mana leave his body as theybed through Gus. The body began to convulse on the ground as [Siphon] was extracting the ability. Sol was worried it might have actually failed until he saw the system prompt. Learned [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 2! Learned [Telepathy] Lv 1! [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 2: Increases the effectiveness and power of all psychic abilities by 10%. [Telepathy] Lv 1: Create a one way connection to the mind of one other person within 30 feet. Cost: 1 mana per second. ¡¯It degraded so much¡­¡¯ Sol knew exactly why as he felt it. [Siphon] scans the body and the brain to learn the inner workings of the skill before bestowing it onto Sol. Because Gus¡¯ mind waspletely erased, any knowledge on using the skills was gone, and Sol was left with just the basic muscle memory the man used to have. From what he understood, even if Sol killed Gus and then used [Siphon], the end results would have been the same. Chapter 69: Reunion Done with siphoning the skills, Sol begrudgingly began to search Weaver¡¯s corpse. He hated the idea of looting others, but he direly needed something that Weaver had on him. After searching for a while and removing a few other magical items like his spatial ring, shoes, and belt, he finally found it. Deceiver¡¯s Earring Unique Skills: [Status Deception] Lv 8, [Item Camouge] Lv 7, [Facial Disguise] Lv 4 [Status Deception] Lv 8: Create a fake status page that others will see when using [Analysis] or [Inspect]. Can have three saved presets to swap between or toggle off at any moment. [Item Invisibility] Lv 7: The item blends into obscurity, bing perfectly invisible. [Facial Disguise] Lv 4: Can slightly modify the wearer¡¯s face for a limited duration. Duration: 12 hours. Cooldown: 1 week. Sol almost didn¡¯t find it until his hand identally brushed against his ear, where he felt something metallic. It seemed the item¡¯s invisibility was still in effect even after Weaver¡¯s death, likely because it didn¡¯t require the user¡¯s mana to maintain. The quality of the item honestly surprised Sol, as he didn¡¯t expect it to be a unique item. Sol didn¡¯t truly know how far the connections of Cane went, as he was one of the most influential crime bosses in the city. Not only that, but because Kerman was located on the border of the kingdom, they were right next to not only the Frostaxe n, but Sylmasera and the Holy Kingdom of Delvania, making it extremely easy to ess their markets to gain rare goods. Sol didn¡¯t have any piercings but the item magicallytched onto his right ear. Once in ce it once again became invisible. Since Sol had his Locket of Safekeeping taken from him Sol decided to make a preset just in case anyone felt like peeking into his status. He made the fake status page consistent with his current public abilities, with [Sword] and [Water Affinity] as his two talents. Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Sword], [Water Affinity] Level: 35 Exp: 14,380/165,000 HP: 350 MP: 400 Str: 45 Vit: 30 (+5) Agi: 30 (+5) Int: 30 (+10) Wis: 40 Avable Stats: 0 Talent Skills: [Water Form] Lv 4 Passive Skills: [Intermediate Swordsmanship] Lv 2, [Parry] Lv 7, [Quick Cast] Lv 7, [Agility Up] Lv 1, [Vitality Up] Lv 1, [Intelligence Up] Lv 2 Active Skills: [Cross sh] Lv 1, [Sprint] Lv 6, [Wide Swing] Lv 8, [Basic Water Magic] Lv 6, [Heavy Blow] Lv 8, [Crippling Strike] Lv 5 ¡¯I also rolled a few skills to their pre-evolution just in case. I made up [Water Form] on the off chance they ask how I was able to escape. Hopefully they won¡¯t ask me to show them¡­¡¯ The spatial ring Sol retrieved from Weaver was ratherckluster. It was full of clothes, wooden and cloth puppets, andmon weapons. The only truly valuable item from all of this was the ring itself, which could hold 27 cubic meters of space. It was the same as the one given to him by the guild, but Sol knew he would have to return it when the raid was done, so it was nice to get an upgrade. Sol also found some magic shoes off Weaver¡¯s body, but it was only rare and its effects increased mana regeneration marginally, so it meant nothing to him. Sol stored it in the ring as he could at least sell itter. Once Sol was done looting Weaver¡¯s body, he heard a loud explosion which shook the ground. While explosions underground would scare most people in fear of a copse, Sol wasn¡¯t frightened because he knew those performing it wouldn¡¯t damage the actual structure of the base. ¡¯The raid finally started.¡¯ ¡­ The Guildmaster, donning her full adamantium armor that covered her whole body including her face, led her old party members into an open hole in the ground. "Let¡¯s go." One of the party members, arger tigerkin with metallic ws, looked at the explosion and asked The Guildmaster a question, "Hey Loraline, I know you asked for help with these criminals, but doesn¡¯t this seem overkill? Honestly, you could have done it with just the two of us. Why invite all five of us?" The Guildmaster Loraline opened the visor of her helmet and looked back at her party. A tigerkin warrior, a human berserker, a human witch, a female catkin scout, and a catkin archer. They were her old party from her adventuring days; some joined her in the beginning of her journey, others joined midway, and a few were lost along the way. Out of all the people in this world, these were the few she trusted the most and could trust with her secrets. "The public reason is they ruined my reputation. I need to give a show of force to not be underestimated. The real reason¡­ Well, I miss you guys. You shoulde by more often." The witch found her usually stoic party leader very cute, "Aww! Why didn¡¯t you say anything? You know we would do anything for you." "I have¡­ but you are all busy with your nations or businesses¡­" The witch remembered the letters she had received before to visit, which usually came at a bad time when she was either traveling or working on a big project in the Apothecary Guild. The rest of the party had simr reasons for being unable to go and only came because Loraline made it sound urgent in her message. "My bad¡­" "Yeah, we should have stayed more in touch¡­" "Sorry¡­" Everyone¡¯s sincere apologies made Loraline happy, "It¡¯s okay. Let¡¯s deal with these criminals and celebrate our reunion after!" The tigerkin shed his ws together, "Haha! Sounds good!" The scout giggled, "Alright, but Sato is paying for my share." The archer protested, "What?! But I paid for youst time Mia!" "You¡¯re the older one so of course you gotta pay for your cute sister!" The human barbarian interrupted, "Settle thister. I want to clobber someone already!" With the barbarian putting everyone back on track, the party dove into the hole and began their attack on the base in full force. ¡­ Sol at first was confident in the raid party safely neutralizing the entire base, but what he saw from his [Mana Perception] frightened him. Some moved incredibly fast, instantly taking down their opponents in one interaction. One mana signature cast spells that flooded entire rooms and passages with mana with the aftermath leaving multiple bodies on the ground. The scariest of the two were the two mana signatures that could not be stopped by anything. They even ran directly through walls Sol knew were there, so he could only assume they just destroyed the wall and anything else along the way. He knew there would be A-Rankers in the raid, but it looked like they were all that ridiculously strong. While the level of power was honestly frightening, Sol felt motivated to one day reach that level of power. One of the mana signatures was quickly running down the hall heading towards the cells. This led Sol to believe he was about to be rescued. While he was correct, he was wrong in who was saving him as just before the mana signature reached the door, the wall behind Sol shattered as a human wielding arge axe came through. Two secondster, the metal door opened, revealing the catkin scout. The barbarian immediately bragged, "Haha! Told ya I¡¯d get here first!" She pouted, "That¡¯s not fair! You just bulldozed through the wall." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "No one said I couldn¡¯t!" Mia grumbled but couldn¡¯t deny it, "Hmph, fine! You win." Sol saw the interaction between the two adventurers and couldn¡¯t help but wonder. ¡¯This is the rescue party?¡¯ Chapter 70: Lost Everything in a Day The barbarian wiped some debris off his shoulder before looking at Sol. "So you¡¯re the rookie that escaped but snuck back in. Hahaha! Never heard of such a thing before, but I respect the guts it took to do that." Mia scanned the room and saw the two bodies on the ground. "Woah, what happened here?" Sol wasn¡¯t sure what to say as a lot happened. For now, he just answered vaguely. "They were trying to brainwash me with a [Mind Shaper] and, well, this is the aftermath." Mia then poked the bald man¡¯s body, checking for any reaction. "Is this the [Mind Shaper]? Why didn¡¯t you tell us?" Sol was too ashamed to say he simply forgot in the moment as he had too many thoughts at that moment. "Well¡­ As you can see, he was already taken care of." The barbarian patted him on the back. "Good work! Now where is the girl that got kidnapped as well?" Mia responded, "If you came in the normal way, you would have seen other cells in the hallway." "Oh really? In that case¡­" The barbarian prepared his axe to break through the wall next to him, but Mia stopped him just in time. "Wait! What if she is right behind the wall? You¡¯re gonna crush her!" "Oh shit, you¡¯re right. My bad." ¡¯Wait, so he didn¡¯t know I was far enough from the wall before he burst through?¡¯ The trio left the passageway, and they opened the door to the adjacent cell. Inside, they saw the young woman with brown hair and light orange tips in broken, dirty clothes. She stared back at the group, frightened at who these people were. Mia, being more sensitive than herrge brutish friend, approached slowly and eased her worries. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "Hi there. We are adventurers here to rescue you, you¡¯re safe now." Reba was at first wary of these unknown individuals but after beingforted by Mia and handed some spare clothes she had in her spatial ring, the young woman trusted them. She hugged the catkin, and she let herself cry as she released all the pent-up stress and anxiety she had umted over the past week. Sol and the berserker stood near the entrance, both looking at one of the walls as if it was one of the most interesting things in the world. Once Reba managed to calm down and stand up, the group then moved towards the exit. On the way there, Sol saw the copsed subordinates all over the ce. It seemed none of them managed to get away in time as they were being rounded up by another catkin with a bow and a human witch that levitated the bodies with some weird magic. The barbarian waved at his two party members, "Yo! We found ¡¯em." The witch levitated 3 more people to where they were grouping them all up and gave a small wave. "Nice work, Loraline should be in the study." The barbarian, Reba, and Sol headed to the study as Mia was pulled into helping with moving the people by her brother. Inside Cane¡¯s study, the trio found Loraline sitting behind the desk as if she owned the ce. Cane himself was tied down to a chair with a missing arm. He was given treatment to prevent bleeding and a basic potion to restore his health to safe levels. Although it wasn¡¯t well known, Cane was a strong A-Ranker. Even so, he didn¡¯t hold a candle against Loraline who showed no wounds or even dents in her armor. Just as there is a gap in power between early B-Rankers andte B-Rankers, it is even more noticeable with A-Rankers. So even if they are in the same rank, some A-Rankers could easily defeat multiple other A-Rankers. The main reason is that there was no higher rank, at least no higher rank officially acknowledged by the Adventurers Guild. Sol didn¡¯t know why that was the case, but he once read from guild archives that it had something to do with qualitative change. Loraline weed the group. "Wee, as you can see we are just wrapping up. Could you tell me where you ced the memory crystal?" Cane knew of his diary being stolen but upon hearing of a memory crystal his eyes shot open. At first Sol didn¡¯t react as Loraline didn¡¯t call out his name and he found it weird that she didn¡¯t but assumed she had a reason for it. Sol nodded and pointed above the shelf, "Of course, up there, Guildmaster." Reba, hearing this, was confused as she thought they were both captives held in the cells, but she refrained from asking as she believed it was some n orchestrated by the Guildmaster. Loraline reached over the shelf and grabbed the memory crystal. Cane¡¯s face paled as he didn¡¯t know for how long it¡¯s been up there and with that in addition to the diary he knew he was done for. He could only beg for mercy, "Please, Miss Loraline, let me go. I promise I can be a great asset to you. My connections to not only the underground scene in Kerman but also the three nearby nations must surely be of use to someone of your status." Loraline continued to examine the memory crystal, verifying if it was in working condition, and without looking back spoke. "I have no need for anything material, just the names. But as it happens, I already have that, don¡¯t I?" Picking up on her cue, Sol took out the diary from his spatial ring and handed it over to Loraline. It was now that he understood she was deliberately avoiding saying his name. Sol assumed it was because of the deal he made with her to hide his involvement and he was correct. Showing the book in a subtle but taunting manner infuriated Cane. He had built up his underground empire for years, all for it to be taken down in a single day. With her stoic expression, Loraline added, "Fear not. You won¡¯t rot in prison alone. I¡¯ll make sure all who protected you will join you as well." The Guildmaster then turned her focus to the two rookies, "This isn¡¯t an appropriate ce to talk, let¡¯s head back to the guild." Chapter 71: Blessed Item Loraline left her old party to deal with both the criminals and the city guards. As they hadn¡¯t informed the city¡¯s ruling house of the raid that took ce, a lot of guards had gathered because of the explosion. Their response time was slow because it was in the slums, a ce where the guards turned a blind eye to, but when themotion became big enough they were forced to intervene. Luckily, Loraline could use her position as Guildmaster to guarantee the arrest of all the criminals, and she doubted the nobles would intervene to protect them. At most, they might try to save Cane. Which was why she left her party to keep an eye on everyone, especially Cane, to make sure he didn¡¯t mysteriously disappear. Back in the Guildmaster¡¯s personal office in the Adventurers Guild, an assistant poured Sol and Reba tea before leaving them to their discussion. "First, I would like to apologize to both of you for what had happened. While the guild isn¡¯t responsible for the safety of adventurers, as part of the job requires taking risks. They kidnapped you because of ourck of ability to safeguard your information." Sol already knew this so he simply nodded his head, but Reba was shocked at the information. "So they only went after me because information leaked from the guild?" "Essentially yes. From the diary we recovered, they also decided based on a few other factors like age and word of mouth, but the mainponent was the report on thetest adventurers that ranked up. We were finally able to locate where they held the kidnapped adventurers and obtained evidence that we can submit to the crown so that we can punish the nobles involved. Even so, it was our fault you both were involved so if there is anything the guild can do for you, let me know." Reba sighed and shook her head, "I¡¯m just d it¡¯s over, but if you can get me new leather armor since mine was damaged from their attack, I would appreciate it." "Of course, that¡¯s a simple matter." Loraline called in her secretary. "Yes, Guildmaster?" "Can you please escort Reba to the guild storage and let her pick out a suitable set of leather armor? It can be of rare rarity." Reba¡¯s eyes lit up, "Rare?! Really?!" Her old set of armor wasmon and she honestly just expected to get a simr set, but for it to be rare was a pleasant surprise. A set of armor normally costs more than weapons so a rare one could sell for around 100 gold. Loraline shook her head, "It¡¯s nothing, just make sure to put it to good use." "Thank you, Guildmaster!" After thanking Loraline, Reba stood up and left with the secretary to pick out her new gear. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Now it was just Sol and Guildmaster Loraline alone in the room. Loraline took out a ring from under her desk and handed it over to Sol. "Here. Your ring and everything you told us you had is in there as well." Sol epted the ring and gave it a quick scan to find everything was indeed inside. His Warhawk¡¯s Talon, Pollen Bow, Immunizing Belt among the most important of them. After receiving his ring, Sol also returned the one lent to him by the guild. "Thank you." "No problem, but that was only part of the deal. I mentioned back then I would also reward you with an A-Rank reward. After looking through our storage, I believe I found something appropriate for you." Loraline took out from her spatial ring a pair of leather boots that ran up to his knees. Just before Sol could use [Analysis] on them, Loraline handed Sol a magnifying ss. Sol had used [Analysis] so frequently he forgot most people didn¡¯t actually have [Analysis] so he epted the identification tool and used it on the boots. Blessed Boots of the Sky Unique Defense: 50 Durability: 1500/1500 Skills: [Magic Flight] Lv 8, [Wind Barrier] Lv 8, [Thunder Step] Lv 8 [Magic Flight] Lv 8: Magical winds carry the wearer allowing them to fly. Duration: 15 minutes. Cooldown: 4 hours. [Wind Barrier] Lv 8: Activate to create a temporary barrier of wind that blocks attacks, durability increases with skill level. Cooldown: 1 hour. [Thunder Step] Lv 8: Once activated, the user¡¯s next step will create a thunderous boom, shocking and stunning nearby beings. Cooldown: 5 hours. The boots had great effects. One for offense, defense, and support, overall a fantastic item. But Sol had never seen a blessed item before, "Does blessed mean anything?" Loraline nodded, "It means the item has been personally blessed by a god, which improves the item. The enhancements vary depending on how much effort the god involved puts in so it¡¯s hard to tell how much they actually improve the original item by. What we could tell was that it was blessed by Ca herself." "Didn¡¯t this cause problems with the Church of Ca?" Loraline chuckled, "It sure did. Those fanatics believed we should have handed it over without anypensation. They even tried to pressure us when we denied them, though their influence here is weaker than in the Holy Kingdom, they can still cause some damage to the economy and the guild. To appease them before they did anything drastic we hade to the ord that we will only give the boots to someone both parties agree is worthy." She flicked the boots, "Honestly, I don¡¯t care who gets them I just didn¡¯t want to give it to the church for free. Since they didn¡¯t want to pay for it I would send a request every so often asking if it could be used as a reward. They have always denied me before until today. I don¡¯t know if they got tired of leaving the boots to deteriorate in our storage or they think for some reason you¡¯re worthy but these are now yours." ¡¯Diana definitely had something to do with it. The question is, what does she gain from doing this?¡¯ Sol had a few theories but didn¡¯t voice them aloud. Either way, he had no solid theory and even if they nned something he wouldn¡¯t turn down a great pair of boots. "That should be everything Sol. Thank you for your help in finding those responsible. I made sure to keep your name out of it so it shouldn¡¯t cause any problems for you." "Thank you, but there is one more thing I want to ask. What about those already brainwashed adventurers? Can we find and restore their memories?" To this question, Loraline made a hard face, "Honestly, I don¡¯t know. From the diary you gave me we can identify where some of them were sold to but not everyone. Even if we do find them, our guild branch or any other branch I know of doesn¡¯t have anyone with the capabilities to restore the minds of these people. The most I can do is contact a mind reader but they don¡¯t have the ability to affect memories." "What about the kingdom? Surely they must have someone who can help." She shook her head, "Maybe, but people with mind altering abilities are extremely rare. Most who are able to do so can only alter the mind temporarily. Those who are able to do it more permanently are extremely rare and as far as I know nobody in this kingdom is able to do so. Maybe there is someone that managed to hide it like that grunt for Cane but I wouldn¡¯t know where to begin searching." "I see¡­ Can you at least find them and exin to them what has been done to them?" "Yes, I already nned to do that. We can¡¯t punish every noble who bought them as their collective power is too strong but we can free them from their service. Sadly because of the brainwashing they might choose to stay with them in the end." Sol understood the Guildmaster was unable or maybe even unwilling to expend any more effort on the victims. He decided not to push any further. "I understand, thank you for all your help so far." "I¡¯m just doing my job. Have a good day, Sol." "Thanks, you too." Chapter 72: Amber After exiting the Guildmaster¡¯s office, Sol had a quick chat with Trevor. There really wasn¡¯t much to talk about since they kept in contact daily, but it was nice to see each other in person. Sol headed back to the Rusty Bed Inn to finally get some rest in a nice bed. Sleeping on the cold stone floor really made him appreciate the soft feeling of a good bed. Entering the inn, he saw Miriam, the kinddy who runs the inn alongside her husband, Harvey. She saw Sol and gasped before power walking over to him. It looked like fast movements hurt her, but she didn¡¯t care as she approached with a worried face. "Sol, you¡¯re back! Are you okay? We were worried as we didn¡¯t see you for days." "Yeah, sorry about that, I got caught up in a long quest. By the way, is my room still avable?" Last time Sol stayed in the inn, he reserved his room for three more days, but then he was captured for an entire week. He didn¡¯t leave anything important besides some dirty clothes and his backpack with some outdoor gear, but he still decided to ask. "Oh, don¡¯t you worry about that. Business is slow here so I left your room as is." "Wow, Thanks! Here, I¡¯ll pay for the missing days and for tonight as well." Miriam didn¡¯t want to ept the money, "No, it¡¯s fine, the room would have been empty anyways." Sol shook his head and insisted, "It¡¯s okay, think of it as thanks for being such great hosts." She relented, "Oh, you tterer. Fine, bute downstairster for dinner. I¡¯ll make something special just for you." "Will do, see youter." Heading back to his room, Sol found it exactly how he left it with only one small difference. The goblin idol he left by the desk was gone, but he already knew who took it. What surprised him was the fact everything looked essentially untouched. Sol wouldn¡¯t have even known someone came inside if not for the missing item. Sol went to the bed andid down, feeling the soft mattress on his back. ¡¯Finally, I can get some rest.¡¯ Just as he was about to close his eyes to rest for a few hours, from the corner of his vision, he saw a figure looking at him from the window. Sol felt his heart almost jump out of his chest as adrenaline rushed through his body, ready to fight. It was not until he saw who it was that he calmed down. ¡¯Red Sands¡­¡¯ Sol got up from his bed and opened the window to let her in. "You know you could havee from the front door¡­" She ignored hisment and simply stated, "Memories." Almost as if asking to hand them over, Sol could only awkwardly chuckle. "I know, and I do intend to help you to the best of my ability." Sol narrated his conversation with the Guildmaster regarding what she would do with those other victims and how they didn¡¯t have ess to anyone who could help them. "I wished they would have an easy solution on hand, but I still have an idea of someone who can help you." Sol wasn¡¯t the type to continue talking without input from the other person, but Red Sands didn¡¯t say anything and simply waited for him to continue. "Uhh¡­ My dad was the one who ced the barrier in my mind that protected me. He also has the talent of [Mind Shaper]. The problem is¡­ well¡­ I have no idea where he is. Last time I saw him was when I was 10, but because something happened, he and my mom had to go into hiding. I have no idea where they could be right now. "While it¡¯s true I have no idea where they could be, I know someone who does. The issue is that the person is a bit high profile. Do you know who the Saintess is?" From Sol¡¯s memories, he remembered one of the knights mentioned that his father, Roman, can¡¯t run away as they will find him with the help of the Saintess. Red Sands shook her head. She was never briefed on anything that wasn¡¯t rted to her targets. "8 years ago, a young girl with a legendary talent was discovered. She was amoner who had the legendary talent [Fate] able to see glimpses of the future. The whole kingdom celebrated when it was found out and she was taken to the capital, officially titled as the Saintess. My parents had to go into hiding because of¡­ things my father did in the past, and I¡¯m almost certain the saintess is using her ability to track him down." Sol then pulled out Warhawk¡¯s Talon from his spatial ring. "The n is simple, since we can¡¯t simply approach the Saintess and ask her where my dad is, I am going to be a knight!" Sol then struck a pose simr to those of knights he had seen in the past. He felt awkward doing all the talking and wanted to add some movements to maybe ease the awkwardness. Seeing Red Sands¡¯ck of response, Sol felt like talking to a brick wall. "So, uhh yeah. I¡¯m sorry I can¡¯t help you restore your memories immediately, but if you can wait until I find my dad, I can promise you there is no better person to help you. How does that sound?" After a period of silence, Red Sand shook her head, "No." n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "Huh? Why?" "Follow." While Red Sands kept her sentences to a minimum, much to Sol¡¯s dismay, he understood what she meant to say. "You want toe with me? Are you sure? "Yes." Having anotherpanion to join him on the long trip to the capital isn¡¯t a bad idea, and Sol didn¡¯t really have a reason to deny her. The only issue that he could see arising was his talents and skills being known to Red Sands, but he doubted she would go around spreading that knowledge if that ever came to be. He also realized there might be a positive effect on Red Sands if she traveled and saw more of the world. "Sure, why not. Even if we can¡¯t find my dad anytime soon, maybe the sights of new ces and people can help awaken the memories. It¡¯s a long shot but who knows." Sol then looked at Red Sands and noticed an issue. "If we do travel together, I don¡¯t know if the assassin getup would be a good idea. It will bring a lot of unwanted attention especially if we are going to the capital." Red Sands nodded in understanding and took off her cloak, Sol was finally able to see what she truly looked like underneath. She had short ck hair that didn¡¯t interfere with her sight or clothes. What stood out the most were her light red eyes that with a deadpan expression, pierced directly into one¡¯s soul. Sol originally thought she was called Red Sands because of the cloak and her sand body skill, but it seems the red actually came from her eyes. He had never seen eyes like hers before, so he stared for a bit too long. Luckily, it seemed the assassin didn¡¯t care, and Sol quickly collected himself. With a small cough, Sol asked, "What should I call you? It feels awkward calling you Red Sands." "Don¡¯t know." "They didn¡¯t call you any other name?" She nodded and started listing a few names, "You, idiot, trash, Sandy¡­" "Wait! Those aren¡¯t names, and I¡¯m pretty sure Weaver called you Sandy in a mocking way¡­ I meant names like Samantha, Olivia, Amber¡­" "Amber." It seemed she liked that name. Sol was just naming a few as an example, but she chose one from them. "No, that¡¯s not what I- Ugh this is exhausting. Amber it is¡­" He didn¡¯t want to argue with her and force her toe up with her own name. Sol was fine with the fact that she at least picked it for herself rather than it being given to her. With that out of the way, he decided to finally get some rest. Chapter 73: Soup Sol had his eyes closed as he tried to get a nap, but the presence in the room made it really hard to fall asleep. He opened his eyes and turned towards Red Sands, now going by Amber, who was silently watching him as Sol tried to get some rest. He couldn¡¯t bring himself to chastise her, so he decided to get up and get some food instead. "Do you wanna get some food?" Amber simply nodded and followed Sol downstairs, where they saw Miriam. The kind owner noticed the young woman following Sol and found it odd as she knew for certain she was not a guest staying here, nor did shee in from the entrance. She didn¡¯t pry though, as she had seen stranger things in her life anyway, and this didn¡¯t even make it on the list. "Good evening Sol, do you want dinner now?" "Yeah, and can my friend get a portion as well?" "Of course, let me set the table." Sol and Amber were seated at one of the tables near the theater stage, which also doubled as the dining hall. It did not take long for Miriam to bring out the food, which was a te of grilled chicken with a wide assortment of vegetables. Sol thanked Miriam before diving into the savory food, which he had sorely missed these past few days. Every bite felt like it was healing a tiny bit of his soul that was damaged by every piece of jerky he had to endure. It was after his 5th bite that Sol noticed Amber hadn¡¯t touched her te. "Is everything alright?" "Not soup." "Huh? What do you mean?" Amber managed to muster a few more words than normal, "Can only eat soup." "Do you have a weak stomach or something?" It then dawned on Sol that this might also be another order she was forced to follow. He decided to break that now. "If it¡¯s something Cane ordered you to do, forget about it. Honestly, forget everything he told you, I doubt he ever told you anything with good intentions. Just give the food a try, I promise you won¡¯t regret it." With a small nod, Amber picked up a fork and cut a small piece of the grilled chicken. Her hand was unsteady as she fought her ingrained habits and took a bite of the meat. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "So? Do you like it?" Amber didn¡¯t respond as she took another bite, and another, and another. She quickly started eating the meal as if she was eating food for the first time in her life. Sol smiled as he saw her enjoy the food, ¡¯I¡¯ll take that as a yes.¡¯ It didn¡¯t take long for the pair to eat their meal, as one missed the taste of a good meal and the other was discovering the joys of food beyond in soup. Done with their meals, Miriam went up to retrieve their tes, and Sol found it a good opportunity to ask for another room. "Thanks for the food Miriam, it was amazing. I was wondering if you had another avable room for my friend here." "Why of course. Would you like hers to be next to yours?" "Yes, thank you." Amber had no money, Sol guessed it was because she had all her expenses paid for by Cane. Sol didn¡¯t mind and paid for her room as well as he thought it would be better if they slept in different rooms. While he didn¡¯t mind sharing a room as he did plenty of times when he was in the orphanage, it felt weird with Amber as she had a habit of staring at him. "Okay Amber, tomorrow we will n our journey to the capital and buy the things we will need. We can also check the Adventurers Guild for escort quests that head that way as well." Amber nodded and left for her room. Sol also went to his room and eyed the bed once more. "Finally, the soft mattress, it calls for me." Sol couldn¡¯t wait to sleep in the bed, and the moment his butt touched the mattress, he heard a knocking sound from the door. ¡¯Whyyyyyyyyy!¡¯ Being denied once more the rest he rightfully deserved, Sol opened the door to find Harvey, the other owner of the inn, with a worried expression. "Harvey? What¡¯s the matter?" "It¡¯s that umm¡­ There is someone from the Church of Ca looking for you." ¡¯Ah, I knew epting those boots wille back to bite me.¡¯ "Alright, I¡¯ll head downstairs in a minute." Harvey sighed in relief, "Thank you." While all churches were seen as a force of good in the world, some people find their presence to be a bad omen. Not because they hated the churches or the gods, but whenever pdins or priests appeared on a mission or task, usually trouble followed them. It¡¯s a fair assumption as their job was to unroot evil and spread the name of their god to all corners of the world. Sol took this chance to equip all his items he received from Guildmaster Loraline, especially the Immunizing Belt, although he doubted she would pull the same stunt twice. Fully equipped minus the leather armor, Sol headed downstairs to see what Diana wanted from him now. Heading down the stairs, Sol¡¯s assumption was correct, and Diana was waiting for him. "We meet again Sol." "Hello again Diana, what brings you here at this hour?" Sol asked respectfully. While he could respond rudely with every right as he already made his stance clear with her. She did apologize for her actions and even allowed him to receive the blessed boots. Though the second point isn¡¯t proven, he was sure she had a hand in that. "I came here to warn you." Chapter 74: A Warning In one of the tables of the theater located near the corner of the room, Sol and Diana were seated. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "Warn me? What for?" "Remember the harbinger we were hunting?" "Yeah, What about it?" Sol hoped this wasn¡¯t another attempt to recruit him to join the search for the harbinger. He already made his stance clear, and even if they gave him the Blessed Boots of the Sky, it wouldn¡¯t change his response. Even if he was willing to help he had to travel to the capital to find out his parents location from the saintess. "I didn¡¯t n to involve you after you made your stance clear, but you might be in danger. This harbinger has been extremely elusive, and we have yet to catch him, but based on reports and evidence, we have reason to believe they are after you." "Why me?" "Because you killed their first follower. That shaman was apparently someone the harbinger cared for deeply, and he resents whoever killed him. A few who have survived their encounter with the harbinger all report him asking for the person who killed his shaman." Sol found this hard to believe, "Can a goblin even care for others? Aren¡¯t they monsters?" Diana shook her head disapprovingly, "Goblins are social creatures, just like us. Just because they¡¯re considered monsters doesn¡¯t mean they don¡¯t feel and think just like us. They may have different values or customs, but that doesn¡¯t stop them from being able to form rtionships and bonds. You will do well to keep this in mind when encountering other races and monsters alike." It seemed that Sol hit a nerve, and honestly what she said didn¡¯t sound wrong; he had just never thought of it that way. "I see, I¡¯m sorry if I hit a nerve." "It¡¯s fine. I just have good friends that are goblins. Some are even fellow followers of Ca." Sol had never thought of monsters as more than just stronger beasts, which was why he never had difficulty killing enemies like kobolds and goblins. Knowing that even goblins can be loyal followers of gods was a lot to process. While he wanted to take time to think of his previous actions, he had other matters to focus on for now. "So¡­ the harbinger is looking for me. Does he know it was me?" "As far as we can tell, not yet. Luckily, very few people know of your involvement in this, so its efforts so far have been in vain. I¡¯m still warning you as that can change at any moment, so always have your guard up. Hopefully, we will subjugate the harbinger before it can find you, but as I said, this one is especially elusive. It somehow manages to disappear every time one of our stronger members gets near its location; we believe it is thanks to his bestowed skill that he is able to evade us." Now understanding the reason for the visit, Sol still had one more question. "What about the Blessed boots, I know you had a hand in it." Diana let out a smallugh, "Haha, was it that obvious? Think of it as an apology for what I did before. I can tell by the fact you still have your guard up that you still haven¡¯t truly forgiven me. Though another reason why I permitted Loraline to give the boots to you is because I believe you have the potential to go far. With those blessed boots, I am sure Ca will protect you until you get there." Sol was speechless. While he hadn¡¯t yet forgotten being poisoned, he saw she was trying to put an effort to mend the rtionship. Sol wasn¡¯t sure why she was going to such lengths for a C-ss adventurer, and he didn¡¯t fully believe the reasons she stated. He thought she would ask him to turn in the boots that rightfully belonged to the church or something along those lines. ¡¯Maybe I am overthinking it. There¡¯s a line between being wary and shutting out others.¡¯ Sol could see he was bing a bit paranoid. He didn¡¯t want to live always being wary of the ulterior motives of others. That didn¡¯t mean Sol would blindly trust everyone, but he will at the very least give the benefit of the doubt. "Thank you for the gift. It will be useful when I travel to the capital." "You¡¯re going to the capital?" ¡¯Whoops, should I have let that slip?¡¯ It¡¯s toote to take back what he said, so he simply nodded. "Yeah, in a day or so." Diana had a look of relief, "That¡¯s probably for the best. Not only is the capital a great ce for growth as they have the only A-Rank Dungeon in the kingdom, but it will also be safer for you. The harbinger is mostly active around this city and nearby towns, and the capital is far south, so they won¡¯t be able to find you even if they figure out it was you." "I forgot about the dungeon! I¡¯ll definitely check it out when I get there." "It¡¯s a difficult dungeon. I would rmend entering once you¡¯re B-Rank and find a good party. I know you are a strong magic swordsman, but there is only so much an individual can do." ¡¯It might be impossible if I was just a magic swordsman, but I am confident I can manage.¡¯ Sol¡¯s level may be behind a normal B-Ranker, but because of his attribute skills, he was just as strong as an early B-Ranker. If one added all his other skills, Sol was confident in being able to solo the dungeon if needed. At most, he might have to stick to the early floors until his level catches up. Not voicing his real thoughts, Sol agreed, "Hopefully a strong party will be willing to take me in." "I¡¯m confident you will find a party suitable for you. I have taken more of your time than I intended, I¡¯m sorry. May Ca watch over you from the skies." "Thanks, send word to me once you deal with the harbinger." Diana nodded before leaving the inn. Sol did not wait around and immediately went back to his room. He eyed his bed, and with a determined expression, he jumped towards it. "Sweet dreams take me away!" A loud bang was heard from below Sol. A muffled voice screamed from under his floor, "QUIET!" Sol didn¡¯t know the walls were so thin and quietly apologized, "Sorry¡­" Heid on his bed and closed his eyes as sleep quickly took him to thend of dreams. Chapter 75: Honeymoon Next morning, Sol, with Amber following behind, got breakfast and headed to the Adventurers Guild. The breakfast was a simple meal just to jump start their day, but Amber really enjoyed it. Though it didn¡¯t show on her face, Sol could tell by the way she quickly ate it. She only slowed down when Sol advised her that she could savor the taste longer if she ate slowly. At the guild, Sol was looking at the board for escort quests that led to the capital. While they could travel on their own, it would be much easier if they took a quest. Traveling in a group was much less dangerous as it would make it less likely for them to be attacked, as bandits and monsters were less likely to attackrger groups of people. That was also the reason Sol was attacked when he was traveling to the city. A lone young man would appear to be an easy target for anyone with bad intentions. Sol wasn¡¯t afraid of being attacked on the road, but it would be incredibly inconvenient, especially when sleeping. No one else would be there to take turns keeping night watch. Because Kerman was bordering three other countries, a lot of merchants passed by here on their way to the capital, where they could sell their goods for the highest price. Sol had plenty of options to choose from, ranging from E-Rank all the way to C-Rank. N?v(el)B\\jnn "What do you think, Amber? Should we take this one?" Sol pointed at a C-Rank quest for escorting 5 carriages for arge merchantpany. As usual, Amber offered no input. "Wow, you¡¯re right, Amber. In the description, it says they will take a half-month detour to bring their goods to their branch stores." At this point, Sol felt like he was going insane, but he thought this fake conversation could be good for her. Sol wasn¡¯t a schr who studied people or the mind, but he believed constant practice and experiencing normal life can help Amber build more personality, at least until they found his father. It definitely wasn¡¯t because he was bored and decided to joke around. "Oh, this one is good. A direct escort to the capital; it will take a week at most." Sol grabbed the quest paper off the C-Rank board and took it to Trevor, who had his empty line as usual. Trevor waved as he saw Sol approach. His mood seemed especially good today. "Sol! My man! What can I do for ya?" "Hey, you look extra peppy today. Did you get a raise or something?" "Hah, I wish, no. It¡¯s even better! I¡¯m going on a honeymoon!" "You¡¯re married?!" If it was any other person, he wouldn¡¯t be surprised, but Trevor was almost the same age as him, being only a year older. In the times they had talked about their personal lives, Sol didn¡¯t even get a hint of the fact Trevor was seeing someone, much less married to someone. "Haha, yeah. Her name is Julia." One could see how lovestruck he was, as the mere mention of her name brought a smile to his face. "I have been working overtime this past month so that I can umte enough days to go to the Ausen Vige. They are famous for their hot springs, and we have both wanted to go for the longest time. It¡¯s far so for a round trip I needed three weeks, and I still needed to work for two more weeks to be able to go. But because I helped you with the kidnappings, the Guildmaster gave me the rest of the time off I needed!" "I¡¯m happy for you, Trevor. I guess we will both be leaving Kerman for a while." "You too?" Sol handed over the escort quest paper to Trevor. "Oh, you¡¯re heading to the capital? For how long?" "I don¡¯t know yet, until we find what we need." "We?" Now is when Trevor noticed Amber behind Sol. Trevor thought she was just another adventurer waiting in line. "I see, so you¡¯re both taking the quest?" "Yeah, speaking of which, Amber, do you have an Adventurers Card?" Amber shook her head. She had no need for it, and her old one was thrown away by Cane. "Can she still register for the quest?" Sol asked. They needed to both be registered for the escort quest as he doubted the merchant will just let a random stranger tag along for the ride. "Not unless she registers as an adventurer, but even then, she would have to start from scratch, reveal her status page, or take the rank up exam." Ranking up the normal way would be tedious and take too long. Sol wanted to be on the road as soon as possible to not only help Amber but also find his parents. The option to reveal her status page was not ideal as it would be permanently recorded in the guild, which couldter be used against her. Sol knew the guild wasn¡¯t a perfect organization and saw firsthand the effects of people using leaked guild information. He wouldn¡¯t want that information to fall into the wrong hands. Thest option was to take the rank up test. While it was a requirement for B-Rankers to take a test to rank up to A-Rank, it was possible for lower ranks to take it as well. This option wasn¡¯t ideal as it would take a while to find someone capable of administering the test. Amber was easily a B-Ranker, so they would have to find at the very least a B-Ranker to administer the test. If they¡¯re lucky, it could be done by tomorrow, but if not, then it could take a week. "Is the Guildmaster in today?" Since all the options weren¡¯t ideal, Sol will just have to make a new one. "She is, but are you sure? I know you both talked yesterday, but you can¡¯t just approach her without a good reason." "I¡¯m sure, trust me." Sol was confident the Guildmaster would at the very least hear him out since it had to do with one of the victims of the kidnapping. Chapter 76: [Hidden Blade] Trevor headed to inform the Guildmaster. It didn¡¯t take long for him toe back and escort Sol to her office. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "Wee, Sol. Trevor already informed me of the girl. I hope you don¡¯t expect me to simply give her a C-Rank card for free just because you asked." Sol shook his head, "I don¡¯t, but I hope you will lend a helping hand as it¡¯s something you¡¯re involved in." "What do you mean?" "She is one of the people who were brainwashed by Cane. While I know you can¡¯t help her regain her memories, I am hoping you could at least help me speed up the process of getting her an adventurer¡¯s card. I am going to help her find someone who can restore her memories." Loraline looked at Amber in surprise as she didn¡¯t expect to meet one of the victims so soon. She was more focused on punishing the noble families involved and left the task of finding the victims to her guild staff. "I see¡­ Fine. I¡¯ll help you with this, but don¡¯t expect any other favors. I¡¯m not running a charity here." Guildmaster Loraline took out a paper to write down the specifications for Amber¡¯s card. For the rank, they decided on C-Rank. While Amber was as strong as a B-Ranker, Sol didn¡¯t want to push the Guildmaster generosity too much, and it¡¯s fine with just C-Rank; they could both rank up together if anything. For the talent section of the card, Sol didn¡¯t know what to put; he asked Amber for her first talent as he still couldn¡¯t use [Analysis] on her. She still had the item that deceived his skill, so it was pointless to check. "[Hidden de]." "Alright, [Hidden de] it is. What name do you want for the card? Her current name or her old name?" "Wait, you have her old name? Do you have any other details about her?" Solpletely forgot the guild had records of all the victims, and they could track her past that way. It wouldn¡¯t be the same as restoring her memories, but it was a good solution if they couldn¡¯t find his father. Loraline shook her head, "The guild only keeps track of their status page and quest records. Rarely do we go out of our way to investigate someone¡¯s background. For only her name, it will just take some digging to find it in the records." After one call from her secretary, Loraline produced a thick list of files. She began to quickly skim through them while talking. "These are all the victims we know so far, but if we narrow down the list based on registered talents, there is only one [Hidden de]. Ah, here it is. Leah." Sol looked towards Amber, "Do you want to go by Leah?" After a moment of silence, she shook her head and spoke, "Amber." "Huh? Are you sure?" "Amber." Sol couldn¡¯t read her thoughts, but it appeared to him that she had grown attached to the new name she had chosen for herself. What Sol didn¡¯t know was that one of themands Cane gave to Amber was to forget her old name and never use it. Although the brainwashing had weakened over the years, her subconscious was rejecting the name as it wasmanded. Loraline finished writing thest of the details before delegating the rest of the process to her secretary. "Go downstairs; Trevor will give you the new card. I am sorry to cut this short, but I have to go meet with the Verhearts regarding the corrupt nobles." "Don¡¯t let them off easy. Thanks for the help, Guildmaster." "Trust me, I won¡¯t." Sol and Amber headed back to the main reception of the guild where Trevor promptly arrived with the new card. Name: Amber Race: Human Talent: [Hidden de] Guild Rank: C "Thanks, Trevor, can we both take the quest now?" "Yep, give me one minute." In less than a minute, Trevor was able to process the necessary work and gave Sol two simr quest papers, one for each of them. "You¡¯re all set. I would suggest buying food and supplies before meeting with your employer. They are not required to bring supplies for you, so you are probably going to have to manage on your own." "Will do. Enjoy your honeymoon, man. I¡¯m happy for you. I don¡¯t know when we will see each other again, but let¡¯s swap stories when we do." "Haha! I doubt I¡¯ll have any interesting ones to share, but sure." With one final wave, Sol and Amber left the guild to make preparations for the long trip. The timing of the quest lined up perfectly with them having to meet with the employer in a few hours, which is just enough to buy all the essentials they will need. Sol already had most of the essentials for surviving the outdoors, but with the addition of Amber, he needed to get more for both of them. New sleeping bags, cooking utensils, clothes, and more. Sol also stocked up on spices, which he now considered an essential for the outdoors. Sol didn¡¯t care about spices or even food for that matter. Back when he lived alone in that tiny house, Sol lived day to day with what he hunted outside or cheap food. Even before then in the orphanage, Sol ate whatever they managed to find for the kids, which usually was donated food or very cheap. Ever since he came to Kerman, Sol had been enjoying good food more, and he had developed a more expensive taste. He didn¡¯t mind, though, as he had the money to spend on such luxuries. During their shopping, Sol noticed Amber didn¡¯t have a spatial ring, and although he didn¡¯t have the money to buy another ring, he had two thanks to Weaver and the one he bought from Chloe. Sol kept Weaver¡¯s ring as he already transferred most of his stuff to it and gave Amber the other one. "Here, with this, you don¡¯t have to carry all your personal belongings." She epted the ring and mumbled something, but Sol couldn¡¯t catch it. "Huh? What was that? This time Amber spoke a little louder, "Thanks¡­" Sol didn¡¯t expect her to actually thank him. ¡¯Maybe I was right, and she is improving from hearing and experiencing normal conversations.¡¯ "Of course! If you need anything, let me know. Oh and take this." Sol gave Amber 5 gold and 100 silver. "Here, with this, you can buy some things for yourself; don¡¯t worry about it and spend it as you wish." Amber epted the money and stored it in the ring as the two continued shopping. Two hourster Sol was done with buying the things they would need on their trip. Sadly, the money Sol gave to Amber sat in her spatial ring untouched the entire time. Sol tried to encourage her to spend it, but she wouldn¡¯t budge. With their preparationsplete, Sol and Amber headed towards the meeting ce with their employer who they will be protecting all the way until the capital. Chapter 77: Familiar Face By the southern gate of the city, there was an open areamonly used as a meeting spot for merchants before heading out of the city. Sol and Amber arrived near the entrance, and Sol began to look around. "The quest description said to meet here, but I think we¡¯re early. No one is here." Sol was looking for a good spot to sit down and wait, but then he heard a voice from behind him. "Is that you, Sol?" Sol turned around to see a chubby middle aged man apanied by four guards driving a wagon to the meeting spot. "Hughbert? What are you doing here?" Hughbert was the exotic herbs merchant Sol saved when he was still new to the city. It was all thanks to him that Sol was able to buy his first real weapon, Warhawk¡¯s Talon. "I¡¯m here to meet two adventurers that will apany us to the capital. Don¡¯t tell me that¡¯s you two, what are the odds?!" "That¡¯s us. But I thought you already had personal guards. Why are you hiring adventurers now?" "Ahh, that¡­ After that bandit attack, one of them died and two quit. They quit two days ago when I already had this trip nned so I had no choice but to outsource some muscle from the Adventurers Guild. But boy am I d I did that, I feel reassured knowing you¡¯reing along." Solughed, "I¡¯m just d it¡¯s someone I know. I¡¯ll do my best to protect you." "Likewise. And who is our other beautifulpanion?" "That¡¯s Amber. Amber, say hi." With her expressionless face, Amber nodded. "...She¡¯s not much of a talker, but I can guarantee she is an incredibly skilled fighter." Hughbert smiled in understanding, "A pleasure to meet you, Amber. Let¡¯s get this show on the road then. Are you ready to set off? The sooner we get to the capital, the better." "Ready whenever you are." "Perfect! Let¡¯s go." The group left the southern city gates with Hughbert driving the carriage and everyone else walking besides it. As they were walking, Sol made casual conversation with Hughbert. "Are your kids noting along this time?" Hughbert shook his head, "No¡­ after thest trip, they have be scared of traveling. When I asked if they wanted toe, they said they would stay with their mom and tend to the shop. Honestly, I prefer they stay in the city where it¡¯s safer, but I also don¡¯t want them to be afraid of the world outside." "I don¡¯t have any kids, so take this with a grain of salt, but maybe wait until their leveling ceremony before traveling outside with them again?" "That¡¯s what my wife said, but what if neither gets abat talent like me. I don¡¯t want them to have high expectations in gaining abat ss just to be disappointed. They might be one of those people who never leave the city, and I don¡¯t want that to happen." Sol had no advice for the merchant and was racking his brain to figure out a solution. Hughbert could tell what Sol was thinking andughed. "Ha, I¡¯m not expecting you to have all the answers. There is no perfect solution to parenting. We can only try our best to hope they turn out alright." Time flew as the group traveled to their destination. The route Hughbert nned didn¡¯t stop by any towns or cities to rest as they would continue moving until night came. They encountered no issues on the way aside from the wild monster who was stupid enough to attack them. Needless to say, the monsters didn¡¯t stand a chance, and the group continued on their merry way. As night approached, Hughbert made the decision to find a good spot to rest for the night. A little off the road, they found a nice area and made camp. Sol unpacked his tent before helping Amber, who was struggling with her tent, to build hers. For tonight, they decided to use the food they bought in the city before it went bad. Sol wasn¡¯t an expert in cooking, but he knew how to cook meat and prepare vegetables. Before he began to cook, Hughbert offered to have one of his guards cook for everyone as he had a cooking talent. Sol epted and wasn¡¯t disappointed as the guard took out his personal utensils to prepare a great meal for everyone. During their meal, the group shared stories, and from these interactions, Sol could see how he treated everyone with respect. Even his guards spoke to him semi-casually, and Hughbert didn¡¯t mind, even joking around with them. "Sol, I¡¯ve been meaning to ask, but what do you n to achieve at the capital? Are you nning to train in the A-ss dungeon?" After swallowing a mouthful of food, Sol responded, "Yes, but it¡¯s not the main reason. I n to be a knight." Sol had no intention to keep that fact secret as he needed to not only be a knight but one high ranked enough to be able to approach the saintess. If all went ording to n, he will have to make a name for himself in the capital. "Hoh? Never took you for one loyal to the crown. Why be a knight?" Hughbert was right; Sol wasn¡¯t really loyal to the crown. He lived most of his life in a small town away from politics and influence, so at most he identified as someone of the same kingdom. Sol couldn¡¯t say he was joining just to chase down his parents, so he made up an excuse on the spot. "I heard they provide free training and have ample resources to nurture promising people. I think I qualify for that, so why not make use of it?" "Good luck with that; you¡¯ll need it." "Huh? What do you mean?" n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "The process to be a knight is much harder than that of a regr soldier." Hughbert could tell Sol knew little of the process, and as someone who had been to the capital many times, he decided to share what he knew. "To start, the minimum strength needed to apply is C-Rank. I heard that in other kingdoms they also require you to be a noble, but here strength is most important. While you don¡¯t have to be an adventurer before applying, you need to be about as strong as a C-Ranker. To do this, they go through a few tests like checking your status page and a physical test. Though I don¡¯t know what the physical test is as they change it every year. "You¡¯re lucky you decided to join now as I heard the tests begin in less than a month. That should give you time to research more and prepare." Sol generally knew the same details but didn¡¯t know they checked your status page. His Deceiver¡¯s Earring should be enough to trick whatever item they use to see one¡¯s status. Sol also had plenty of time to train and prepare to figure out how he will stand out in the exams to be given higher priority and jobs. Sol thanked Hughbert for the information, and the group began to pack up to sleep for the night. Having a lot to think about, Sol didn¡¯t want to sleep just yet and offered to take the first night watch. The guards appreciated the gesture, and all tucked into their tents to sleep. "Amber, you should also get some sleep." She shook her head before sitting down next to him. He wasn¡¯t going to force her to sleep, and so they both stayed up as Sol thought of the future. Chapter 78: EX Skill The next few days of traveling went smoothly. Hughbert, at one point, exined that this route was rtively safe as it was amon route used by merchants. Soldiers would periodically sweep the route, making it much safer; the only real danger could be stray monsters new to the area or bandits who stalked the route for easy prey. That¡¯s why Sol and Amber were hired to escort them; with six total fighters escorting one single carriage, most bandits wouldn¡¯t find it worth it to attack. That¡¯s not to say they were never attacked. "Sharp winds dice my foes, [Razor Wind]!" Near-invisible des of windsunched out from behind Sol towards the ten bandits who stood blocking their carriage. The bandits believed it would be an easy score as they almost doubled those defending the carriage. What they least expected was to also be fighting a magic user. One of the bandits at the front of the group put up his shield, "Shit!" Just before the des of wind hit the group, arge transparent orange shield of the same design as the bandit¡¯s shield appeared in front of the group. The wind des mmed against the shield, blocking most of the attack before disappearing. Sol¡¯s eyes perked up upon seeing that shield, ¡¯I hope that wasn¡¯t a talent skill.¡¯ One of the other bandits yelled to hisrades, "Split up!" The bandits quickly made space between each other to prevent being hit by anotherrge spell, but it didn¡¯t matter. Amber instantly appeared behind one of the bandits before silently slicing its neck. Before the body hit the floor, she was already moving to her next target. Sol didn¡¯t stand idly and also went on a rampage using the spell [Tailwind] and the skill [Blurry Steps] to increase his speed even further as his sword cleanly bisected an unlucky bandit. The guards wanted to initially join in and help them fight but quickly realized they weren¡¯t needed. Even if they tried to join, Sol or Amber would kill the bandit they were going for before they could get close. Not even a minuteter, all banditsy dead on the floor. Hughbert¡¯s jaw dropped as he watched how easily the duo dealt with the bandits. "By the gods Sol. You have improved so much since Ist saw you." Sol removed his sword from the shield bandit¡¯s chest and gave a simple nod. "I went to the dungeon and trained a bit there." "A bit? Hahaha! You call this a bit?" Hughbert pointed at the fallen bandits, "Last time my men at least held them back while you finished them off, but now they couldn¡¯t even sh des before it was settled." Not used to receiving praise, Sol tried to shift the conversation to a different subject, "What should we do with the bodies? Split the items?" "Normally it would be split evenly, but honestly you two did all the work. I think my men and I can agree you both deserve all the spoils. Though if you do wish to sell them, I promise I¡¯ll give you a fair price." Sol looked used [Analysis] on all the items he saw and none caught his eye except for the shield. The Protector Rare Defense: 60 Durability: 764/850 Skills: [Wide Cover] Lv 5 [Wide Cover] Lv 5: Summons arger version of the shield that covers a wide area. Defense is five times its base value. Duration: 5 seconds. Cooldown: 1 hour. ¡¯So it wasn¡¯t a skill. Still a good item nheless.¡¯ While Sol didn¡¯t have any skills rted to shields, that was quickly resolved. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Learned [Basic Shield Mastery] Lv 9! Learned [Block] Lv 8! Sol didn¡¯t stop there and used [Siphon] on all the bandits. [Concealment] leveled up! (4 -> 7) [Power Shot] leveled up! (4 -> 8) [Basic Bowmanship] leveled up! (7 -> MAX) [Basic Bowmanship] reached MAX level, evolve skill? Without hesitation, Sol hit yes as he wondered why the system asked if it should evolve the skill. Who would ever say no? [Basic Bowmanship] evolved into [Intermediate Bowmanship]! [Intermediate Bowmanship] Lv 1: Increases Bow damage by 110%. ¡¯I haven¡¯t even used the bow once¡­¡¯ Sol had been wanting to practice with his other weapons but the timing had never been in his favor. Even the day where he bought a fewmon weapons to try them out was the day Weaver and Amber kidnapped him. Since then he couldn¡¯t find the alone time to try them out. ¡¯When I get to the capital I will definitely make some time to practice. The dungeon would be a good ce to do so.¡¯ After siphoning the other skills from the bandits and gaining a few more levels in some skills, Sol was able to evolve another skill. One that had been underutilized since he cleared the goblin camp. [Silent Steps] reached MAX level, evolve skill? [Silent Steps] evolved into [Muffled Movements]! [Muffled Movements] Lv EX: All movements are silenced. Mana can be used to muffle other sounds. Sol didn¡¯t believe the notification at first and opened his status page to make sure. Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner] Level: 35 Exp: 14,380/165,000 HP: 1000 MP: 500 Str: 45 (+60) Vit: 30 (+70) Agi: 30 (+20) Int: 30 (+10) Wis: 40 (+10) Avable Stats: 0 Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 3, [Analysis] Lv 4 Passive Skills: [Intermediate Swordsmanship] Lv 5, [Basic Trapmaking] Lv 9, [Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Counter] Lv 1, [Quick Cast] Lv 7, [Agility Up] Lv 4, [Nature Sense] Lv 1, [Intermediate Throwing] Lv 1, [Intermediate Unarmed Mastery] Lv 1, [Gargantuan Strength] Lv 1, [Intermediate Bowmanship] Lv 1, [Intermediate Axemanship] Lv 2, [Iron Stomach] Lv 5, [Pursuit] Lv 1, [Endless Vitality] Lv 2, [Increased Mana Regeneration] Lv MAX, [Physical Resistance] Lv MAX, [Mana Perception] Lv 6, [Natural Armor] Lv MAX, [Wisdom Up] Lv 2, [Increased Health Regeneration] Lv 3, [Intelligence Up] Lv 2, [Basic Spearmanship] Lv 9, [Mana Efficiency] Lv 5, [Precise Coordination] Lv 6, [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 2, [Basic Shield Mastery] Lv 9 Active Skills: [Cross sh] Lv 3, [Ground Shrink] Lv 1, [Basic Wind Magic] Lv 6, [Intermediate Fire Magic] Lv 4, [Snap Punch] Lv 4, [Blurry Steps] Lv 1, [Harden] Lv 9, [Power Shot] Lv 8, [Concealment] Lv 7, [Wide Swing] Lv 8, [Basic Water Magic] Lv 6, [Intermediate Earth Magic] Lv 1, [Earth Hammer] Lv 5, [Rock Throw] Lv 4, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Heavy Blow] Lv 8, [Crippling Strike] Lv 8, [Charge] Lv 8, [Rage] Lv 8, [Meditation] Lv 2, [Telepathy] Lv 1, [Block] Lv 8 ¡¯My first EX skill¡­¡¯ Technically Sol¡¯s Pollen Bow also had an EX skill, [Grappling Vines], but it couldn¡¯t be considered truly his. There was a clear difference between a MAX level skill and an EX one. MAX levels have reached their peak but there was nowhere else for them to go and couldn¡¯t be stronger. EX skills on the other hand have also reached the point of perfection but can still be stronger or weaker depending on how much mana or power one puts into it. Sol couldn¡¯t increase the physical damage reduction from [Physical Resistance], which was at MAX level, it would always be at 50%. [Muffled Movements] on the other hand could extend beyond just his body and he could use mana to negate the noise of an object or a surrounding area. The mana cost could increase depending on the level of noise and the area it covered but as long as Sol had the mana it was theoretically possible to make an entire city silent. It¡¯s possible it could go even higher and Sol shuddered at the possibility of silencing an entire world. ¡¯It¡¯s possible but the mana cost would be insane. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll ever be able to do that.¡¯ With the help of Hughbert¡¯s guards, the group took all the valuables off the bandits and buried the bodies a few feet away from the road. Neither Amber nor Sol wanted any of the weapons or armor with the exception of the shield so they sold the rest to Hughbert who dly took all of them and paid 15 gold for it. Once Hughbert was done storing all the items in the carriage¡¯s boxes that had a spatial expansion enchantment the group started moving again. Chapter 79: Crestel City A few days after traveling on the road, Sol could see a high stone wall in the far distance. Beyond those walls stood a castle with the g of the Kingdom of Crestelia flying at its highest point. Seeing the castle, Sol knew they had reached their destination. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Hughbert saw Sol¡¯s amazed expression and smiled, "First time at the capital?" Sol nodded, "If it looks big from this distance, how big is it up close?" Hughbert stroked his chin, "Hmm. I don¡¯t know how big exactly, but it¡¯s at least five times bigger than Kerman." "Five times?!" Sol thought Kerman was big as is since it was three times bigger than Initium, but for the capital to be even bigger absolutely baffled him. "This is the beating heart of our kingdom, so of course it has to be the best. Poption, power, economy, you name it, the capital is number one in all aspects." As the group neared the walls, its size seemed to be ever increasing, easily reaching 100 meters and spanning around the entire city. Since Hughbert knew Sol didn¡¯t know much of the capital, he felt like giving a small history lesson on how the wall came to be. "The wall was built 500 years ago, soon after the kingdom was established. They weren¡¯t originally that tall, but giants appeared trying to destroy the kingdom. I believe the warsted for almost an entire century and only ended because the kingdom developed giant yer weapons, which led to the extinction of the giants. Since then, the wall has undergone slow but steady improvement. The biggest of which are those faint blue lines, do you see them?" At first, Sol couldn¡¯t find what Hughbert was talking about, but now that they were closer, he could see faint blue lines that covered the entirety of the wall in a very beautiful pattern. The lines reminded Sol of the big metal doors he saw in the Fort Northwind¡¯s vault. "Don¡¯t tell me that is-" Hughbert smirked, "Runes. Engraved through the entirety of the wall. They enhance the wall¡¯s defense and dampen impacts. The biggest benefit of these runes is that the wall automatically maintains itself off the ambient mana, simr to the dungeon. This, in turn, halts the growth of the A-Rank dungeon from bing S-Rank and also benefits the city. It¡¯s truly one of the kingdom¡¯s greatest marvels." Taking another look at the impressive wall, Sol couldn¡¯t help but agree with that sentiment. The group reached the entrance of the city where two lines awaited them, one was for carriages and the other was for individuals. While the individual line was shorter, Sol and Amber stayed with Hughbert as it would be rude to just ditch them here. By the time they reached the gate, it was already evening. One of the guards approached Hughbert while another entered the carriage to inspect the goods. "Purpose and Identification please." "Trading exotic herbs and some bandit weapons." The guard in the carriage opened each box to make sure they weren¡¯t bringing something illicit into the city. After a minute, the guard hopped off the carriage and gave his coworker a thumbs up. The guard made way for the carriage, "You¡¯re good to go, wee to Crestal." The carriage passed through therge wooden gate and sessfully entered into the city. Once inside, one could see how much better Crestal was to Kerman. Perfectly even brick roads that were wide enough to fit five carriages side by side. Beautiful homes and buildings that had a unique style to them. The most outstanding thing in the city is the regal castle located in the middle of the city, standing tall as a symbol of the kingdom¡¯s prosperity. Hughbert stopped by the side of the road and faced the adventurer duo. "This is it. Thank you for epting my quest, Sol and Amber. I¡¯ll send one of my guards to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild so you can im the reward. But remember if you need anything, feel free to find me. I¡¯ll be in this city for about a week before heading back to Kerman." "No problem, I¡¯ll be sure to look for you if I need anything." Sol didn¡¯t actually intend to find Hughbert if he needed help but said so to be polite. The duo then parted from the merchant and left to learn more about the city they would be living in for the foreseeable future. ¡­ The golden light from the sunset disappeared as the starry night took over the sky. Sol had learned as much as he could from asking random passersby about good inns, important locations, and any information they had about the knight tests, which he learned were actually called knight selection. The knight selection was a yearly event where the kingdom recruited the best and brightest of their generation. To apply was really simple, Sol just had to sign up for the selection in one of the avable locations, one of them being the Adventurers Guild. After that, he just had to show up on the day of the selection, where the candidates would go through three tests. The first was a simple identity check by verifying one¡¯s status page to make sure they aren¡¯t a felon and also have the stats and skills to meet the requirements. Next was a physical test which changes from year to year. The final test was apparently a tournament where those who performed the best in the second test wouldpete for the number one spot. The tournament was considered as a big event and many of the people Sol asked excitedly talked about it. Sol could understand why Hughbert didn¡¯t mention the tournament as by passing the second test he would be a knight. The final test was more of a show for the citizens of the city with the grand prize for the winner being promoted to Knight Captain. Sol didn¡¯t know how strong the other candidates would be but he believed with some training he had a chance of winning. He didn¡¯t want to win the tournament for the sake of winning but instead because it would make it much easier to make contact with the saintess. A higher position could give him the influence he needed to approach the saintess and get the information both he and Amber needed. Winning the tournament had now be Sol¡¯s new goal to find his parents and with that in mind, the duo went to a rmended inn to rest for the night. Chapter 80: Dungeon Guide The next morning, Sol and Amber headed to the Adventurers Guild to receive their quest reward. The guild was located on the main road entering the city, so it wasn¡¯t very hard to find. The building was very different from other guild branches; not only was itrger and built of smooth stone, it didn¡¯t have a door in the entrance. Instead, it had a very open design with pirs that reinforced the roof instead of a wall. It allowed forrge amounts of people to shuffle in and out without congesting the main entrance. As the duo entered the building, they saw no tables or bar that is usuallymon in guilds, and there was no smell of the usual alcohol. To the left of the entrance were therge quest boards. At the back were the guild receptionists lined up and efficiently working through therge quantity of adventurers. On the right, there was another set-out counter, but they were handling the quest rewards and also buying materials the adventurers brought. Overall, it was a very efficient system that had to be implemented or else they wouldn¡¯t be able to deal with the amount of adventurers. Sol decided to first receive the reward for the escort quest before deciding his next move and walked over to one of the counters. The receptionist was a short-haired woman with a green bandana. "Good morning, how can I help you?" "Hi, I just want to receive the reward for a quest and ask you a question if you don¡¯t mind." N?v(el)B\\jnn "Sure, let me first issue the reward." Sol and Amber handed over their guild cards and quest paper which the receptionist received and took out a metal te and started tapping on it. Sol had never seen that before and was curious at what it did. "What¡¯s that?" While still tapping on the te, she responded, "This is a remote archive, it lets us ess all guild records stored in the local archive. So if I put your information in it I can find your quest information faster than having to gob through the records manually." Sol knew the pain of having to sift through guild papers with Annabele, "That¡¯s really convenient. Why isn¡¯t it used in other guild branches?" The receptionist shook her head, "It¡¯s too expensive. I think this is the only branch that uses this in the entire kingdom. It not only requires a lot to create it and people with the right talents but it needs to be maintained by those people monthly. Our branch can do it because of the amount of adventurers generating profit for the guild and the other side businesses we deal in." "Side businesses?" "Yeah, like selling weapons, armor, or buying materials off adventurers and trading them to merchants for a good price. Also, I just confirmed your questpletion, here is your reward." The receptionist handed Sol and Amber 5 gold each. "Thanks, I also wanted to know about the dungeon, where can I get that information?" "We also sell dungeon guides for Necropolis if you would like one." "Sure, how much is it?" "15 gold." Sol did a double take after hearing that amount, "15?!" She nodded, being used to that response, "Yes, but I promise you it¡¯s worth it. It¡¯s an in-depth guide of all explored floors including maps, possible traps, and monsters." "The dungeon isn¡¯t fully explored?" "As far as I know, no. But some specte a few A-Ranker parties of the kingdom have fully explored it already and haven¡¯t released any information. Still, the guide exins until floor 42 which should be more than enough." ¡¯She is really making an effort to convince me to buy it and it¡¯s working. Does she gain a percentage of the profit or something?¡¯ Sol remembered how well the dungeon guide he bought in Kerman served him, so he decided to fork over the money. The receptionist dly epted it, which made Sol believe he was right and she did gain a part of the profit. The receptionist brought out arge book and put it on the table. It was a thick book with the title "Necropolis Guide" written on it. Sol dreaded having to read all of it as he stored it in his spatial ring. "Will that be everything?" The receptionist asked while tilting her head. "Yes¡­ thank you." Sol and Amber left the counter to let the receptionist attend to other adventurers. They moved towards the quest board to see if there were any quests toplete inside the dungeon. Simr to other guilds branches, the boards were divided by rank and Sol scanned the C-Rank board for any dungeon rted quests. He nned toplete quests while in the dungeon to rank up faster, but there was one problem, he couldn¡¯t find any quests for the dungeon. All of the quests required leaving the city to subjugate monsters or help a nearby vige or town. A few were also located in the city but none for the dungeon. It was only until Sol¡¯s gaze identallynded on the B-Rank board that he figured out why. ¡¯It¡¯s an A-Rank dungeon, the minimum rmended rank to enter is B-Rank¡­¡¯ Obviously, the guild won¡¯t post quests for the dungeon at the C-Rank board as no C-Ranker in their right mind would delve into the dungeon. While Sol didn¡¯t care much for his adventurer rank, it was very important to be able to ept these quests. He needed a way to earn money to fund their dungeon diving and living expenses. Luckily, there was still a way to do so. ¡¯We can just sell the materials that are listed in the B-Rank quests and sell them to the guild.¡¯ Sol perused the board and found a few quests that fit his needs. "Gather soul shards, gather dark essence, gather shadow roots¡­" Sol memorized these quests and would keep them in mind when they entered the dungeon. They could then gather them and sell them to the guild. He was sure there would be a loss in profit from selling directly rather than a quest, but he couldn¡¯t be too picky with his methods right now. Chapter 81: Preparations Leaving the Guild, Sol headed to one of the registering locations for the knight selection. He decided it was best to get it out of the way before he spent days at a time inside the dungeon training. Near the Adventurers Guild was a guard station likely ced there to respond quickly to rowdy adventurers. There was a small line leaving from the guardhouse which Sol and Amber joined. The n was for Sol to be a knight, but now in the line, Sol remembered that he didn¡¯t ask Amber if she would also take the test with him. "Hey Amber. Do you want to register for the selection with me?" n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om She immediately shook her head, "No." He didn¡¯t expect such a quick response. "Huh? Why?" Amber didn¡¯t respond as if saying no was enough of a reason. Sol wasn¡¯t going to force her to answer so he just let it be. ¡¯It¡¯s hard to get aplete answer from her, but she probably just doesn¡¯t want to.¡¯ The line moved quickly and it was soon Sol¡¯s turn to register. The two guards managing the registration were kind and exined everything he needed to write down. Sol also had to present his adventurers card if he had one and after filling the paper he was officially registered. Heading out of the guard station, Sol felt relieved. ¡¯They asked for a lot of information but thankfully not my talents or skills.¡¯ While Sol could use the Deceiver¡¯s Earring to create a fake status page, he was currently working with the one he made back in Kerman. He still hadn¡¯t figured out what kind of talent and skills he wanted to present himself with in the knight selection. Sol knew he had to show more of his abilities to impress the people presiding over the selection, but he didn¡¯t want to show all of it. For now, Sol knew he had to include the [Sword] talent as the first one as it was already registered in his adventurers card. For his second talent, he was thinking of using the unique [Magic Attuned] or maybe even the legendary [Sage]. He knew it had to be a talent that allowed him to use magic as it was a big part of his strength. For thest talent that most people unlocked around level 60, Sol believed it had to also represent another aspect of his strength that was hard to hide, which was his unnatural durability. He didn¡¯t know many talents that shared affinity with [Physical Resistance] and [Natural Armor], but it did remind him of Jayce back in Initium. Jayce had the rare talent of [Iron Wall] which Sol could impersonate, but that talent was more focused on defending with a shield rather than fortifying the body. While pondering over the differentbinations, Sol realized his time could be better spent on other matters. ¡¯Forget it, maybe when I gain new skills from the dungeon I¡¯ll be able to form a better status page for the selection.¡¯ Sol turned to Amber, "Let¡¯s go buy supplies. We will need them for the dungeon." Heading from store to store, Sol bought all the supplies they would need, which totaled a hefty amount. Simr to the dungeon guide, it seemed almost everything cost more than double the price back in Kerman. It made Sol have to n his spending more as he only had around 50 gold and until he secured a source of ie he didn¡¯t want to spend it all in one go. After buying food, dungeon tools, and special containers for collecting dark essence, which was one of the items he could hopefully sell from the dungeon, Sol made one final stop at an apothecary. ¡¯While I can heal us using the [Aqua Ring], it¡¯s not ideal to use in the middle ofbat or if something happens and I can¡¯t or don¡¯t have time to cast spells.¡¯ The door chimed as the duo entered the small apothecary. There were all kinds of bottles with different colors andbels pped on them lined up in an orderly fashion. The one tending to the store was a skinny man whose face was covered in soot and was missing hair off the top of his head. He also sported arge mustache, but half of it seemed to have been burnt off. Sol couldn¡¯t help but worry, "Are you ok?" "Why of course, why wouldn¡¯t I be?" "Well, I don¡¯t mean to be rude, but it just looks like you took an explosion to the face." "Ahh, that. Don¡¯t worry about it, I was just experimenting with a new potion." Sol was astounded, "Is potion making dangerous?" The manughed, "Hahaha! Not if you follow the instructions, but where is the fun in that? Either way, it¡¯s nothing a good hair growth potion can¡¯t fix. But forget about me, how can I help you?" Forcing his eyes to look at the man¡¯s eyes and not his burnt hair, Sol spoke, "We just want some health and mana potions." "Sure, sure. What rank?" "They have ranks?" "Not officially, but it makes it easier to know how much they generally restore. For example, D-Rank health potions heal around 200 health, C-Rank heal around 500, and B-Rank heal around 1000. Same for mana potions, but we also have other potions with different effects. Some can increase your attributes and others can cure poison." Although Sol was curious about the other potions, he didn¡¯t have the money to spend on trying them out and focused on the two important ones. "Just health and mana for now. How much for C-Rank mana and B-Rank healing?" "C-Rank mana is 50 silver and B-Rank health is 1 gold per." Sol barely managed to hide his surprise after hearing the price. ¡¯Just two health potions will equal all that I have spent on supplies¡­¡¯ Knowing it was still a necessary purchase, Sol decided to buy them anyway. "Okay¡­ Can I get 10 mana and 10 health potions." Sol ced 15 gold on the table, arge portion of his money. The man nodded and handed over the potions to Sol, which he split with Amber and they stored them in their spatial rings. "Hope they serve you well. Let me know if you need anything else." "Will do, thank you for the potions." With a final wave, the duo left the store. By now, it was already noon but there wasn¡¯t really anything else to do. Sol looked at Amber and asked, "You wanna explore the dungeon?" She looked back with her usual expression and shrugged. "A shrug¡­ I¡¯ll take that as a yes! Let¡¯s go!" Chapter 82: Necropolis Sol looked at the marble mausoleum in front of him. The marble was a dark and dirty color as if tainted by whatevery below. It also emanated a depressing atmosphere of death. Sol turned his gaze away from the mausoleum and saw the bustling people and buildings all around located 10 meters away from this building. The dungeon itself was inside the city, located in the western part but close to the center of the city. Maybe because it was situated in a popted area within the city walls there were guards and even knights stationed at key locations there at all times. Although the area could be considered extremely safe from the numerous guards and knights, the people appeared to be avoiding the area subconsciously. Whenever normal people passed through the area they went around rather than walked through the open za and Sol could understand why. The feeling of death wasn¡¯t just in one¡¯s head, it was very real. The dungeon emanated deathly energies that could cause health issues to those without high enough vitality. "Necropolis¡­" Sol turned to Amber. "Are you ready?" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Amber nodded her head as she was always ready. The two walked to the entrance that was manned by two guards. The one on the right looked at Amber nodding before turning to Sol and nodding as well. "Aight you¡¯re both good to go?" "Huh? Really?" Sol thought they would at least check his guild card and was worried they would deny him because they were C-Rank, he still came because he wanted to give it a try. The guard on the left answered for his friend. "Yeah, he has the [Battle Sense] talent and from it got the talent skill [Battle Assessment]. He can tell how strong you are by a single nce." "Wait so it¡¯s like [Analysis]?" The one on the right shook his head, "No, I don¡¯t actually see your status. It¡¯s more like¡­ a feeling I get on how strong you are. It basically tells me the results of what would happen if we fought. For example with you it currently tells me I can¡¯t win against you even if my friend here joins." Sol was relieved. ¡¯I thought he could see my status for a second there¡­¡¯ "Is that why you don¡¯t check the cards?" "Sorta, we don¡¯t only allow adventurers guild members into the dungeon. We allow the churches, guards, knights, soldiers and other guilds in as well. Since there was a lot of inconsistency in the way we verified whether they were strong enough for the dungeon they decided to send people like me here. Some organizations didn¡¯t make it easy for us to verify their information, specifically the church and knights. So I just check with my skill if I can beat you in a fight and if it says no then you¡¯re good to go." The other guard chimed in with a grin, "Heh, you should have seen his face when an A-Ranker showed up. His legs trembled so much he fell on the ground and couldn¡¯t get up until they left." "Oi, shut it. You would have too if you had the skill." The two guards began to bicker and Sol couldn¡¯t bring himself to intervene. The guards appeared to have forgotten about them, and since they already received permission to enter, Sol and Amber just walked past them into the dungeon. After walking down the stairs leading down the crypt and entering the first floor, the atmosphere reminded Sol of the humid air of the cell he was kept in back in Kerman. It wasn¡¯t humidity though, the death and dark mana filled the air making it much heavier and corruptive. It wasn¡¯t enough to stop or even bother the duo, but it was definitely noticeable. If it was a normal person below level 20 they would have been immediately incapacitated or turned into an undead. Before proceeding any further, Sol took out the dungeon guide he paid good money for and opened the first page. It immediately started with a mapyout of the first floor and the types of enemies one could encounter. "Hmm, this is different from the Osuga dungeon in Kerman. There are multiple types of enemies per floor and they stay the same until the boss floor which is at floor 10. It says here for floors 1-9 there are Awakened diators, Awakened Shieldbearers, Skeleton Hunters and Skeleton Mages. Their numbers and level increase per floor andter floors they roam in groups simrly to adventurers." While it worried Sol they would have to fight multiple enemies at once, the guide says the groups in the first floor had at most 3 enemies, so on the off chance they can¡¯t win, it should be easy to run away. "Let¡¯s look around and see if we can find a straggler." The two navigated the maze like passages which would have confused most people but with the help of the map it wasn¡¯t an issue. To facilitate the search of a lone monster away from other adventurers, Sol used [Mana Perception] to extend their range of search. After avoiding a fewrger groups, they eventually found a lone undead. Name: N/A Race: Awakened diator Talents: [Axe], [Rage], [Resilient] Level: 60 HP: ??? MP: 100 Str: 160 (+20) Vit: ??? (+50) Agi: 55 Int: 1 Wis: 5 Talent Skills: [???] Lv ?, [Grit] Lv 8 Passive Skills: [Living Corpse] Lv MAX, [Intermediate Axemanship] Lv ?, [Strength Up] Lv 4, [Defiance] Lv 6 Active Skills: [Destructive Charge] Lv 3, [???] Lv 3, [???] Lv ?, [Death Cyclone] Lv ?, [Rage] Lv ? ¡¯[Analysis] isn¡¯t high enough to see all the details. Thankfully the guide has the status page of every known enemy. Though the level of skills may differ between them.¡¯ Amber unsheathed her daggers ready to take on therge muscle ridden zombie. The diator was unaware of the duo¡¯s presence and she would make use of that advantage. Just before she could silently run in and hit it with a flurry of blows before it could know what hit it, Sol grabbed her shoulder. "Wait a minute. Let me have a go at it first. You can jump in if it looks like I need help." Sol was eager to know how he fared against the Awakened diator. Chapter 83: Awakened Gladiator Sol used both [Concealment] and [Muffled Movements] to silently approach the Awakened diator. It hadn¡¯t noticed anything and continued to slowly wander down the passage, but before it could take another step, a sword suddenly shed into its neck. The sword managed to prate through the skin and muscle, but the moment it made contact with the spine, it lost its momentum. It was a strike with only his sword passive skill affecting it so Sol wasn¡¯t too surprised. The Awakened diator now understood it was being attacked. Completely unfazed by the sword in its neck, it gripped its battle axe and spun ferociously. The startup of the swing was almost nonexistent, reaching incredible speeds in less than a fraction of a second. Sol¡¯s sword was lodged in the creature¡¯s neck and he knew he couldn¡¯t pull it out in time to counter it and instead retrieved the shield from his spatial ring and used [Block]. A loud bang resounded from the collision and blew Sol back a few feet. Safe from any immediate attacks, Sol checked the Awakened diator¡¯s health. HP: 1132/1500 ¡¯It did much less than I thought it would. It¡¯s probably because undead are generally more resilient than living beings. Even a deep cut to its neck won¡¯t stop it unless it went straight through.¡¯ Sol lost the element of surprise, but he wasn¡¯t worried as he was confident in being able toe out on top regardless. With his sword still lodged in the Awakened diator¡¯s neck, Sol was left without a weapon, but it gave him the perfect excuse to try out something new. Sol brought out the Pollen Bow from his ring and pulled back the string as mana gathered in the middle, creating a light blue arrow. The Awakened diator finished his spinning attack and looked towards Sol with a primal hatred for the living. It charged straight at Sol at frightening speeds. In surprise at how fast it approached, Sol pumped a lot more mana than he originally intended into the bow, making the light blue arrow much more solid and darker. Before the Awakened diator could reach Sol, he let the arrow loose, it left a faint blue trail as it flew to its destination. The arrow flew directly into the head of the Awakened diator and, as if there was no resistance, its entire head was blown away. The arrow kept traveling and hit the wall behind the Awakened diator and continued to travel 10 feet through the stone wall before finally dissipating. You have in a Lv 60 Awakened diator! Gained 240,000 Exp (600%) You have leveled up! +5 Attribute points Sol didn¡¯t expect the arrow to deal so much damage, but it made sense the moment he checked his mana. MP: 247/500 ¡¯I only meant to use around 100, but when it came charging, I spent too much mana on it. Even the intermediate fire spell [Explosion] didn¡¯t cost even a third of this one arrow¡­¡¯ While it worked out and instantly killed the Awakened diator, it was an absolute waste of mana. Sol needed to work on improving his usage andposure as well. In retrospect, before shooting an arrow, he should have used the bow¡¯s other ability [Grappling Vines] to first immobilize it or used [Blurry Steps] to outspeed it and run out of its range before attacking. This was a good learning experience as it was his first time actually using a bow, but he was confident in being able to rapidly improve. He could also take this chance to try out other weapons to gain a better understanding of them. With his thoughts in order, Sol went to use [Siphon] on the body but then noticed a problem. It was already gone, leaving only his sword ttering on the ground. He picked his sword up with an embarrassed grin. ¡¯Whoops, I forgot that dungeons take the body immediately.¡¯ Sol turned to where Amber was hiding, "Thanks for letting me have this one. Let¡¯s find you a lone enemy so you can also give it a go." He began to walk to the next passage in search of another enemy, but Amber suddenly stood in his way. "Something wrong?" She nodded, "How?" Although it was a very vague question, Sol had been bing fluent in Amber and understood what she meant. Since they were going to bepanions in the long run, Sol didn¡¯t want to constantly hide and suppress his abilities around her. He was also getting tired of the constant lying with everyone he met. Keeping track of his lies, who knows what, and what can he show had been slowly eating at his mind. He just wanted someone to know the truth at this point, and while the first person he wanted to tell was Annabel, he didn¡¯t know when he would next see her. "I have a talent that lets me learn the skills of other people, well, dead people. It¡¯s why I have a wide assortment of skills though most aregging behind in skill level." Though Sol said the truth and could have gone more into detail, knowing Amber she only wanted to know the main details, so he kept it brief. Amber asked one more question, "Legendary?" Sol shrugged, "Maybe? It could be considered legendary as it¡¯s the highest tier, but I unlocked it as my first talent at level 25." It appeared she gained all the information she wanted and proceeded to turn around towards the passage in search of enemies. Although Amber didn¡¯t treat it like a big deal it could be attributed to her not knowing much besides fighting in general. Regardless, Sol felt his secret was safe with her and a weight was lifted off his chest. The two wandered the halls until they eventually found another Awakened diator. Amber unsheathed her daggers before approaching her target. Herbat style mostly revolved around striking first and dealing with her target quickly with a flurry of blows. Amber nned to do just that, making no noise as she appeared behind the Awakened diator who waspletely unaware. With both daggers, she didn¡¯t target the head or neck like Sol but instead went for its right arm that wielded the battleaxe. She precisely targeted the cubital fossa, the part of the arm that connected the forearm from the arm, and the shoulder. The Awakened diator responded by raising its axe and using the same spinning move the other one used on Sol. When it tried to do so, the right arm that carried most of the power in the swing snapped with its elbow turning in an unnatural way and its shoulder being ripped out by the strong force. Therge axe flew away and hit the nearby wall. Being disarmed both figuratively and literally, the Awakened diator was unable to respond to the flurry of blows Amber unleashed. While undead couldn¡¯t be affected by pain or damage to vital organs, they still needed their limbs to function. Missing its weapon it was unable to use most of its skills. Sol watched as Amber dismembered the Awakened diator while keeping an eye on its health. ¡¯The moment it dies¡­ again, I¡¯ll siphon its skills.¡¯ It didn¡¯t take long for that to happen as its health dropped rapidly and hit zero. Learned [Defiance] Lv 5! n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om [Rage] leveled up! (8 -> 9) [Defiance] Lv 5: Chance to brush off mental status afflictions. Efficacy increases with skill level. [Rage] Lv 9: Let pure anger take control unlocking ones bestial strength. Increases strength by 90%, but also lowers cognitive functions by 50%. Sol chose [Defiance] as it would be another passive to stack onto his already strong lineup and upgraded [Rage] to hopefully evolve it soon and maybe lose its downsides. Even if it doesn¡¯t lose the negative trait it¡¯s a good trump card when only pure strength is required. Sol considered learning [Living Corpse] but just going by the name he wasn¡¯t sure what could happen. It could be a [w Attack] situation and change into something he could use like [sh] but it could also turn him into an undead. Even if it didn¡¯t it didn¡¯t sound like a positive skill and would likely bring downsides as well. It simply wasn¡¯t a risk Sol was willing to gamble on, he didn¡¯t desire power that badly. The Awakened diator¡¯s body fell and was absorbed into the floor of the dungeon. Even the arm and battleaxe that was cut off disappeared along with it. Sol walked over to Amber. "Nice work! Are you over level 60?" She shook her head, "56." He was impressed by how easily she took the Awakened diator down even though she was slightly behind in level. The biggest contributor to her victory was where she targeted first. Amber knew her strength wasn¡¯t high enough to finish it in one blow and instead opted to disable its biggest strength, its weapon, and then go for the kill. She also used her massive speed advantage tounch tens of stabs and strikes in areas that would do the most damage. While Sol¡¯sbat style wasn¡¯t simr to Amber¡¯s, he could learn a thing or two from her performance. Sol was about to continue finding more enemies but then he remembered something crucial as he wasn¡¯t used to working with a party. "Ahh, I got no experience from that." Sol had never partied with another person before so itpletely escaped his mind when they were preparing for the dungeon. Experience isn¡¯t shared and only the one who dealt the final blow gained all the experience. To remedy this a link ring was required. These rings could attune to each other and those who wore them shared experience as long as they were near one another. Without them it would be difficult for parties and especially healers or supporting roles to level up and be stronger. "Amber I forgot to get link rings. Although we could keep going and take turns getting the final hit it would be tedious and time consuming. Let¡¯s head back for now." Amber nodded, though she didn¡¯t mind continuing without the rings, she knew it would be more efficient to do so. With a unanimous decision, the two made their way back to the surface, treating today as simply testing the waters. Chapter 84: Link Ring Somewhere within the Necropolis dungeon¡¯s first floor, the sound of metal tearing into flesh could be heard. A brown-haired young man shed against an Awakened diator while a ck-haired young woman slid beside him and stabbed a Skeleton Hunter who was about to shoot an arrow at his back. The young man knew the Hunter was aiming for him but trusted hispanion to deal with it as he finished off the opponent in front of him. With his back covered, he went in for the kill as his sword mmed down with extreme force. You have in a Lv 60 Awakened diator! Gained 100,000 Exp (500%) [Defiance] leveled up! (6 -> 7) The young man turned to assist hispanion, but before he could do so, he saw another system message. You have in a Lv 60 Skeleton Hunter! Gained 100,000 Exp (500%) You have leveled up! +5 Attribute points He quickly turned around and used [Siphon] just in time. [Agility Up] leveled up! (5 -> 6) [Intermediate Bowmanship] leveled up! (3 -> 4) "Thanks, Amber." Amber gave Sol a brief nod as she sheathed her daggers. Sol was d the shared experience still gave him the bonus for being underleveled. ¡¯These rings really do make it convenient.¡¯ Link Ring Common Skills: [Experience Link] Lv 2 [Experience Link] Lv 2: Forms a connection between other link rings and shares experience gained between the wearers when in close proximity. With it, there was no worry about who got the final blow, and they could fight without holding back. Sol checked his status page and smiled. ¡¯Leveling here is so much faster.¡¯ Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner] Level: 40 Exp: 140,380/280,000 HP: 1050 MP: 500 Str: 40 (+60) Vit: 40 (+70) Agi: 40 (+30) Int: 40 (+10) Wis: 40 (+10) Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 3, [Analysis] Lv 4 Passive Skills: [Intermediate Swordsmanship] Lv 5, [Basic Trapmaking] Lv 9, [Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Counter] Lv 1, [Quick Cast] Lv 7, [Agility Up] Lv 6, [Nature Sense] Lv 1, [Intermediate Throwing] Lv 1, [Intermediate Unarmed Mastery] Lv 1, [Gargantuan Strength] Lv 1, [Intermediate Bowmanship] Lv 4, [Intermediate Axemanship] Lv 2, [Iron Stomach] Lv 5, [Pursuit] Lv 1, [Endless Vitality] Lv 2, [Increased Mana Regeneration] Lv MAX, [Physical Resistance] Lv MAX, [Mana Perception] Lv 6, [Natural Armor] Lv MAX, [Wisdom Up] Lv 2, [Increased Health Regeneration] Lv 3, [Intelligence Up] Lv 2, [Basic Spearmanship] Lv 9, [Mana Efficiency] Lv 5, [Precise Coordination] Lv 6, [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 2, [Intermediate Shield Mastery] Lv 2, [Defiance] Lv 7 Active Skills: [Cross sh] Lv 3, [Ground Shrink] Lv 1, [Basic Wind Magic] Lv 6, [Intermediate Fire Magic] Lv 4, [Snap Punch] Lv 4, [Blurry Steps] Lv 1, [Harden] Lv 9, [st Arrow] Lv 3, [Concealment] Lv 9, [Death Cyclone] Lv 8, [Basic Water Magic] Lv 6, [Intermediate Earth Magic] Lv 1, [Earth Hammer] Lv 5, [Rock Throw] Lv 4, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Fell Cleave] Lv 5, [Crippling Strike] Lv 8, [Destructive Charge] Lv 4, [Rage] Lv 9, [Meditation] Lv 2, [Telepathy] Lv 1, [Barricade] Lv 3, [Barrage] Lv 2 A few of Sol¡¯s skills had undergone evolution from siphoning the skills one time like [Charge], [Wide Swing], [Heavy Blow], [Block], and [Power Shot]. There were also new skills he gained from the Skeleton Hunters and Awakened Shieldbearers; they had yet to find a Skeleton Mage. He had also gained four whole levels since they began exploring an hour ago. For most people, it would take days to gain one level, but every kill gives Sol a hundred times more experience than fighting an equal level enemy. Although the feeling of leveling up was exhrating, Sol knew it wouldn¡¯tst long. As every level up required even more experience than thest while at the same time reducing the level gap bonus. By the time Sol reached level 55, the progress would slow down significantly, and there he would have to make a choice. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Sol could either keep battling the same enemies and level up slowly or go to deeper floors and fight stronger andrger groups of enemies. The choice was obvious to Sol. He was confident in being able to punch above his weight ss, and there was also the added benefit of stronger enemies having better skills which he would love to take for himself. Sol turned to Amber, "Think we can handle groups of three?" Amber nodded. "Alright, let¡¯s head deeper then." With the help of the guide and [Mana Perception], it wasn¡¯t difficult to find more enemies. With every enemy they encountered, Sol rotated between different fighting styles to be better at using them. Sol would mostly stick to using his reliable sword, other times he would take out the bow and sometimes he would add magic into the mix. Sol wanted to practice with other weapons, but when he did so with his axe and it met the battleaxe of an Awakened diator, his axe ended up broken in two. The weapon was a simplemon one he bought to try out back in Kerman and simply wasn¡¯t durable enough to handle the strong undead with a superior weapon. Sol wasn¡¯t keen on breaking the othermon weapons he bought, so he stuck with just using his sword and bow, but even his sword was starting to show signs of wear. Warhawk¡¯s Talon Rare Attack: 50-60 Durability: 537/750 Skills: [Sharpness] Lv 4, [Pration] Lv 4 It had only been one day, and the durability had sharply decreased, but it was mostly Sol¡¯s fault. The durability was impacted the most whenever Sol met the enemy¡¯s weapon head-on to use [Counter]. Once he noticed, he stopped trying to block their blows as he didn¡¯t want his weapon to suddenly break. Three hours had passed as the two slew the groups of undead they encountered until they finally found thest undead they had yet to encounter. A ck-cloaked skeleton roamed the passage escorted by two Undead Shieldbearers; it looked different from any other undead encountered so Sol used [Analysis] on it. [Analysis] leveled up! (4 -> 5) Sol used it often, so he wasn¡¯t surprised it finally leveled up. ¡¯Nice, but [Siphon] is starting to fall behind, I hope it levels up soon.¡¯ Name: N/A Race: Skeleton Mage Talents: [Fire Affinity], [Chant], [Mana Absorbing] Level: 60 HP: 900 MP: 1200 Str: 15 Vit: 40 (+50) Agi: 45 Int: ??? (+20) Wis: 100 (+20) Talent Skills: [???] Lv 7, [Bane] Lv 5 Passive Skills: [Living Corpse] Lv MAX, [Intelligence Up] Lv 4, [Wisdom Up] Lv 4, [Increase Mana Regeneration] Lv ?, [Quick Cast] Lv 8 Active Skills: [Intermediate Fire Magic] Lv 5 Because Sol had increased his level and skill level, more details were shown. Although the undead mage had fewer skills than other enemies on this floor, Sol didn¡¯t let his guard down as magic could be unpredictable and harder to counter. Sol whispered to Amber, "That¡¯s a Skeleton Mage, take it out while I distract the Awakened Shieldbearers." Without waiting for confirmation, Sol jumped in front of the undead and began casting. "Sharp winds dice my foes, [Razor Wind]!" Chapter 85: Skeleton Mage Wind des appeared and flew towards the two tower shield wielding undead. It was an obvious attack, and the two Awakened Shieldbearers reacted by both using their skill [Barricade]. Sol also had the skill and knew its details well. [Barricade] Lv 3: Take a defensive stance that greatly enhances defense by 300%. Duration: 10 seconds. Cooldown: 10 minutes. Sol had fought these undead before and learned the skill for himself. It was a great skill that allowed one to block powerful attacks, but it had one ring weakness. Once it was activated, they couldn¡¯t move for the duration. "Amber, now!" A blur jumped out from the side and dashed towards the Skeleton Mage. Its skull was chattering as it appeared to be casting a spell, but before it could finish, Amber arrived behind it. Unleashing a flurry of stabs, the cast was interrupted, stopping whatever spell it was about to cast upon Sol. Being caught unprotected, the Skeleton Mage was unable to endure the swift onught, and its health was reduced to zero before the [Barricade] duration wasplete. You have in a Lv 60 Skeleton Mage! Gained 84,000 Exp (420%) [Intermediate Fire Magic] leveled up! (4 -> 5) [Quick Cast] leveled up! (7 -> 8) With the death of the mage, the two shieldbearers were easy pickings for the duo and were quickly dealt with. You have in a Lv 60 Awakened Shieldbearer! Gained 84,000 Exp (420%) You have in a Lv 60 Awakened Shieldbearer! Gained 84,000 Exp (420%) [Barricade] leveled up! (3 -> 4) [Intermediate Shield Master] leveled up! (4 -> 5) [Siphon] leveled up! (3 -> 4) Seeing thest system message, Sol¡¯s eyes widened, and he immediately checked the updated description. [Siphon] Lv 4: Siphon 3 skills from dead beings. Increased efficiency, lowers the longer they are dead. ¡¯3 whole skills¡­ That will make leveling skills much faster.¡¯ Sol was amazed by how long it took to level up the skill. He wasn¡¯t sure if it was normal for skills to take that long, but if hepared it to [Analysis], it did seem to grow slower. He felt like there was somethingcking to make it grow faster, but he didn¡¯t know what could be that missing ingredient. While he wanted to take time to figure it out now, the main goal was to be stronger for the knight selection. Sol turned towards Amber, "Give me a minute to figure out all its spells." Amber gave her usual nod and reclined on a nearby wall. Sol had briefed Amber a bit more on how his [Siphon] skill worked and how it could be used to learn the spells of fallen enemies. The guidecked a proper list of spells the enemy could use, and rather than figuring out the moment they cast it, it was better to learn the spells himself. With additional concentration thanks to [Meditate], Sol analyzed the shortlist of spells the Skeleton Mage knew. Of all the spells it knew, only one could realistically pose danger to them. Sol stood up from his meditative pose and called to Amber. "Most of the spells it knows are projectile based, [Fireball], [Burning Wave], and [Fire st] to name a few. Those don¡¯t worry me because we can dodge them pretty easily. The tricky one is [Incinerate]. If they sessfully cast it, the target is instantly lit on fire; the only way to evade the spell is by losing line of sight before it finishes casting. Do you have a way to do that?" Amber nodded while raising her hand and swiping to the side, releasing a wave of sand that obstructed vision. It lingered for a few seconds before disappearing into the air. "Yep, that should work. I don¡¯t have anything like that, but I have a spell or two that could work instead. Let¡¯s keep going." The two continued to travel deeper into the dungeon while slowly making their way towards the next floor. If Sol were alone, he would have to slow down and level up more before heading to the next floor, but with Amber, who could target the Skeleton Hunters and Skeleton Mages, it made it much easier to take down groups. The more time they spent in the dungeon, Sol was having to rely more and more on his bow and magic rather than his sword. Although he had been avoiding taking hits with his sword, sometimes he had no choice, and the damage was adding up to the point that scratches could be seen throughout the de. The bow was much more preferable for these fights as Sol also found the sweet spot in mana usage for the mana arrows to deal considerable damage without spending too much. Of the four enemies they encountered, the only dangerous one was the Skeleton Mage, which if left unchecked, would rain down destruction upon them. That¡¯s why they would repeat the same tactic of Sol distracting the group as Amber sneaked around and finished off the mage before it could cast any spells. Sol¡¯s skills rose slowly as they finally arrived at the stairs of the next floor. There was no sun in the dungeon, making it hard to tell the time, but with a watch Sol bought when they were making preparations, he knew they had been in the dungeon for 10 hours. Before proceeding to the next floor, Sol decided to do an equipment check to make sure everything was in order. ¡¯Everything is fine except for the durability of my sword¡­¡¯ Warhawk¡¯s Talon Rare Attack: 50-60 Durability: 494/750 Skills: [Sharpness] Lv 4, [Pration] Lv 4 ¡¯It¡¯s still good.¡¯ Sol had been careful with his sword not taking any strong hits with it and only using it to deal damage. He now took the brunt of hits with his sword instead and mixed in even more magic to his fights to not wear down his weapons as much. "Hey Amber, how are your daggers looking?" Wordlessly, she presented her daggers filled with scraps and scratches to Sol. The Lost Twins Rare Attack: 45-55 Durability: 632/800 n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Skills: [Pration] Lv 5, [Severing] Lv 4 "Okay they look fine as well, you down to keep going?" Amber nodded. The two decided to delve to the next floor, wanting to make the most of this trip. Chapter 86: [Shortened Cast] An Awakened Shieldbearer mmed its shield towards Sol, who responded in kind with his own shield. As the two shields locked, Sol¡¯s sword swung on the side and shed the shoulder of the undead. It cleanly cut through the shoulder, and its entire arm fell off, leaving the Awakened Shieldbearer trying to defend with one arm. Unable to put much force behind its shield, Sol was able to kick it to the side, exposing the undead. Sol immediately put away his shield in his storage ring. "[me Grasp]!" Fire coursed through Sol¡¯s left hand as it went and grabbed the undead¡¯s throat. It didn¡¯t feel any pain, but the fire rapidly burned through its neck, and with a hard grip, it snapped. You have in a Lv 61 Awakened Shieldbearer! Gained 72,000 Exp (320%) ¡¯The evolved skill really makes using magic in fights much easier.¡¯ Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner] Level: 50 Exp: 980,450/1,500,000 HP: 1200 MP: 850 Str: 50 (+60) Vit: 50 (+70) Agi: 50 (+40) Int: 50 (+35) Wis: 50 (+35) Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 4, [Analysis] Lv 5 Passive Skills: [Intermediate Swordsmanship] Lv 5, [Basic Trapmaking] Lv 9, [Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Counter] Lv 1, [Shortened Cast] Lv MAX, [Agility Up] Lv 8, [Nature Sense] Lv 1, [Intermediate Throwing] Lv 1, [Intermediate Unarmed Mastery] Lv 1, [Gargantuan Strength] Lv 1, [Intermediate Bowmanship] Lv 6, [Intermediate Axemanship] Lv 7, [Iron Stomach] Lv 5, [Pursuit] Lv 1, [Endless Vitality] Lv 2, [Increased Mana Regeneration] Lv MAX, [Physical Resistance] Lv MAX, [Mana Perception] Lv 6, [Natural Armor] Lv MAX, [Wisdom Up] Lv 7, [Increased Health Regeneration] Lv 3, [Intelligence Up] Lv 7, [Basic Spearmanship] Lv 9, [Mana Efficiency] Lv 5, [Precise Coordination] Lv 6, [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 2, [Intermediate Shield Mastery] Lv 7, [Defiance] Lv MAX Active Skill [Cross sh] Lv 3, [Ground Shrink] Lv 1, [Basic Wind Magic] Lv 6, [Intermediate Fire Magic] Lv 8, [Snap Punch] Lv 4, [Blurry Steps] Lv 1, [Harden] Lv 9, [st Arrow] Lv 7, [Concealment] Lv 9, [Death Cyclone] Lv 8, [Basic Water Magic] Lv 6, [Intermediate Earth Magic] Lv 1, [Earth Hammer] Lv 5, [Rock Throw] Lv 4, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Fell Cleave] Lv 7, [Crippling Strike] Lv 8, [Destructive Charge] Lv 8, [Blinding Fury] Lv 2, [Meditation] Lv 2, [Telepathy] Lv 1, [Barricade] Lv 6, [Barrage] Lv 6 Being able to siphon 3 skills at a time made it much easier to increase all his skills evenly. A few skills had evolved as well with [Rage] bing [Blinding Fury] and [Quick Cast] bing [Shortened Cast]. [Blinding Fury] Lv 2: A blinding rage consumes the user, unlocking monstrous strength. Increases strength by 140%, but also lowers cognitive functions by 70%. [Shortened Cast] Lv MAX: Able to chant the spell mentally before verbally speaking the activation phrase. ¡¯I hope I¡¯ll never have to use [Blinding Fury].¡¯ The skill became much stronger, but so had its downsides. Sol had refrained from testing it out in fear that he would attack Amber. Before it evolved, it was hard enough to control himself that he was unable to cast spells or think of anything besides charging at the enemy. On the bright side, [Shortened Cast] was an overall benefit to Sol. He no longer had to chant verbally, giving opponents a heads up that he was casting a spell, and could instead chant in his mind instead. It made it much easier to also use in the midst of battle as he found it difficult to cast while shing des. Sol turned to Amber, who was not far away finishing off a Skeleton Hunter. It did not take long for Sol to see another message. You have in a Lv 61 Skeleton Hunter! Gained 72,000 Exp (320%) [Intermediate Bowmanship] leveled up! (5->6) Amber walked over and pointed at a nearby wall. Sol¡¯s gaze tracked where she was pointing and saw a ck blob leaking from the walls. "Oh, some dark essence, nice catch." He walked over and took out a specialized container for the dark essence, which magically sucked in the ck goo. Dark essence was a rather dangerous material, unsafe to even touch. The only reason it had high demand was that it was a catalyst in creating highly poisonous or corrupting weapons. Though useless in this dungeon as most enemies are immune to poison and corruption, it is overall extremely powerful against most living beings. After collecting all the dark essence, the two proceeded deeper into the dungeon, aiming to get to the next floor as quickly as possible. With their current supplies, the n was to somehow manage to get to the 5th floor, check if they were able to make it to the 10th floor, beat the boss, and unlock the teleport sigil. If they didn¡¯t think it could be done, they would turn around and head back before they got stuck without food and water. Water wasn¡¯t as big of an issue as Sol knew multiple water spells that create drinkable water. The only problem could be the food which they had enough tost two weeks and while the first floor only took them a day it would only get harder from there. While walking through the passages, Sol pondered to himself. ¡¯Will I ever unlock a second talent?¡¯ Sol had recently arrived at level 50 and was nearing the level range of when most people unlocked their third talent, and yet he hadn¡¯t unlocked his second. ¡¯Maybe this is my only talent? If it is, I can¡¯t reallyin.¡¯ It allowed him to learn any skill he wanted with the only limit being that they don¡¯t grow naturally. Even so, his skill leveled at a much faster rate than most so it wasn¡¯t a problem. Still, the thought of him only having one talent made him demoralized, as it meant this was all there was. Sol clenched his fist. ¡¯No. I refuse to believe that. Just like how I kept training and leveling before I gained [Siphoner], I¡¯ll keep going and eventually unlock another talent.¡¯ Soft groans could be heard down the passage they were heading towards, a clear sign of an impending battle. Amber unsheathed her daggers and turned her gaze to Sol. With the strong determination that there was still more to uncover Sol brandished his sword and shield ready to face the iing undead. The four undead, two Awakened diators, one Skeleton Hunter and Skeleton Mage saw the duo and roared. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Running ahead of Amber Sol raised his sword towards the group as he finished reciting a spell in his mind. "[Explosion]!" Chapter 87: 4th Floor In the entrance of the fourth floor of Necropolis, there were two tents erected. Sol yawned as he walked out and took out cooking utensils to make a simple breakfast. It had been three days since they began their dungeon trip, which meant the more perishable food would soon be bad. Since that was the case, Sol decided to make a hearty breakfast using all the ingredients that would soon decay. Sol spoke to himself as he prepared the food. "Thest of the ham, some eggs, and a sd¡­" Although Solcked any cooking-rted skill, that didn¡¯t mean he couldn¡¯t whip up a delicious meal. Once he set all the ingredients to the side, he began to cast to start a fire. "[Lasting me]." A red me the size of a cabbage appeared in Sol¡¯s hand as he guided it under the pan. Commanding the fire to stay where it was, he proceeded to cook. The sound of the sliced ham sizzled as the smell spread through its vicinity. Not long after, Amber appeared from her tent, staring at him expectantly. "Morning. Take a seat, it¡¯s almost done." Obediently, she sat on nearby stone furniture Sol had erectedst night when they arrived. It was two simple stone chairs and a table courtesy of the [Stone Craft] spell. While a beginner-level spell, it¡¯s a rather unusual one that allows one to mold stone to any desired shape. The only downside was that one must know the specific spell chant and formation to make each variation. Sol only knew the variations of the spell the earth mages from Fort Northwind knew. He didn¡¯t know the fundamentals and spell theory to craft his own creations, but he didn¡¯t mind. Sol ted the food and passed it over to Amber, who responded with a simple nod and began to eat without hesitation. By the time Sol cooked his food and ted his, she was already done and gave Sol a look that said she wanted more. "This is thest of it¡­" Although Amber¡¯s emotions were hidden behind her nk stare, Sol could tell she was disappointed. He didn¡¯t know his cooking was that good to want another serving. Sol had an internal struggle seeing her face and in the end relented. "Here¡­ You can have half of mine." With his fork, Sol passed over half the food on his te to Amber¡¯s te, which she began eating immediately. In fear of having to give away more food if she finished before him, Sol began wolfing down his food as quickly as possible. Once the two were done, they packed up camp and dived back into the dungeon. Sol opened his status page as they walked. Name: Sol Race: Human n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Talents: [Siphoner] Level: 59 Exp: 2,600,190/4,200,000 ¡¯Just a little bit more. Surely this time will be the one.¡¯ Sol had rpsed to his old habit before he gained [Siphoner], believing the next level would be the one where he unlocked his second talent. Having been rewarded for his years of dedication in pursuing a talent had led Sol to believe the same could happen again. The two navigated the passages following the shortest route provided by the guide to the next floor until they encountered another group of enemies. ¡¯Seven of them¡­¡¯ The enemies each floor not only increased in level but also in quantity, with the group¡¯s size and frequency of the encounters going up a notch. The group ahead consisted of three Awakened diators, one Awakened Shieldbearer, and three Skeleton Mages. Normally, Amber would take care of the backline before they could cast a single spell, but it seemed they no longer had that luxury. "Amber, take one of the mages. I¡¯ll cast [Incinerate] on the other. Take care of thest one while I hold off the rest." With a nod, Amber suddenly disappeared, as if blinking out of existence. Sol had never seen her do that and was confused for a moment. "Did your skill evolve?" Amber reappeared, nodded, and without borating any further disappeared again. Although Sol couldn¡¯t see Amber with his eyes, when he activated his [Mana Perception], he was able to catch her small mana signature. The skill appeared to even suppress mana, which made it hard to see here even with the skill but not impossible. Not sure how long Amber could stay invisible, Sol began casting a destructive spell to start the battle. "[Explosion]!" A small spark appeared in the middle of the undead before erupting into a violent explosion. ¡¯I can¡¯t believe this is still one of my strongest spells¡­¡¯ Although he had learned other intermediate spells, currently, no other spell could do as much destruction as [Explosion]. It also helped that undead were inherently weaker to fire, causing more damage as well. The undead lost a chunk of their health but without feeling the pain of the burns on their bodies, they ran towards Sol. The three Awakened diators led the assault as they used [Destructive Charge], wanting to smash Sol with their greataxes. The Awakened Shieldbearer followed behind, though slower than its fellow undead, while the mages stopped at a safe distance and began casting spells. At this moment, Sol took out his bow and used [Grappling Vines] to slow down their pursuit while he mentally chanted his next spell. The root arrow flew towards the group and tangled on the legs of the undead, which made them stop in their tracks. That onlysted for a small moment as the Awakened diators, still under the effect of [Destructive Charge], broke the vines and continued their charge. The vines barely held back the group, but it bought Sol just enough time to finish his spell. "[Incinerate]!" One of the Skeleton Mages who was casting was suddenly lit ame. It still kept trying to cast its spell, but the fire burned too strongly, quickly turning its bones into ash. At the same time as one Skeleton was being lit on fire, another was stabbed in the spine as Amber appeared out of nowhere. She didn¡¯t stop at one attack and repeatedly attacked the Skeleton Mage in a merciless fashion, killing it at the same time as the one on fire. You have in a Lv 64 Skeleton Mage! Gained 110,000 Exp (200%) You have in a Lv 64 Skeleton Mage! Gained 110,000 Exp (200%) [Intermediate Fire Magic] leveled up! (8 -> 9) Thest Skeleton Mage turned away from Sol and directed its hate for the living to Amber, who was much closer. Sol knew she could handle thest one by herself, so he focused his attention on the iing enemies instead. cing his bow away for now, Sol brandished his sword and used [Death Cyclone] on the approaching undead. Sol violently spun as he gained more and more momentum, and the moment his de made contact with the first Awakened diator, it cleanly cut through them. The same happened for the second Awakened diator, being perfectly separated from its lower body. You have in a Lv 64 Awakened diator! Gained 110,000 Exp (200%) You have in a Lv 64 Awakened diator! Gained 110,000 Exp (200%) Only the third Awakened diator survived as the first two slowed the sword¡¯s momentum enough that the de only went halfway through. Unfazed by the pain in its torso, the undead raised its battleaxe and cleaved downwards. Sol let go of his sword and used [Ground Shrink], which instantly moved him 15 feet away. The skill moved him much further away than where he intended, but it was not a problem. Sol took out the Pollen Bow and charged its [Mana Arrow] skill with 50 mana. After some testing against other undead, Sol found 50 mana to be the sweet spot to deal a lot of damage without going overboard. The arrow flew true andnded between the rotten eyes of the Awakened diator, finishing it off. You have in a Lv 64 Awakened diator! Gained 110,000 Exp (200%) Sol slew all three of them in a matter of seconds before the Awakened Shieldbearer could even arrive. Just as Sol was about to face hisst enemy, he saw another message. You have in a Lv 64 Skeleton Mage! Gained 110,000 Exp (200%) The situation for the Awakened Shieldbearer became very grim. If it had any sentience, it would¡¯ve run away, but with only having hatred for the living in its mind, it ran towards Sol without a shred of self-preservation. Needless to say, the two made quick work of thest undead. It was unable to retaliate against attacks from both sides and perished under theirbined might. You have in a Lv 64 Awakened Shieldbearer! Gained 110,000 Exp (200%) The duo sessfully defeated their first group of enemies on the fourth floor without any problems. Sol gave Amber a thumbs up, but it was met with her usual silent stare. "Let¡¯s keep going, I¡¯m close to leveling up." Chapter 88: [Transformer] As the duo reached the end of the fourth floor, Sol hadn¡¯t leveled up just once but twice and still hadn¡¯t unlocked his talent. Even so, he didn¡¯t lose hope and kept fighting with the same vigor as before. Sol shed the legs of a Skeleton Hunter, and as it lost its bnce and fell, Sol brought his sword up and shed down with the full force of [Fell Cleave]. The bones shattered under the powerful attack, instantly ending the undead¡¯s existence. You have in a Lv 64 Skeleton Hunter! Gained 88,000 Exp (160%) You have leveled up! +5 Attribute points Talent Unlocked- [Transformer]! "I DID IT!" Sol couldn¡¯t help but exim out loud from the bottom of his heart. Amber, who was not far away, gave him an odd look before continuing to stab the Skeleton Mage in front of her. Sol wished he could sit down and properly read all the details, but there were still two Skeleton diators who wanted a piece of him, forcing him to deal with them first. ¡­ The two arrived at the entrance of the 5th floor. After unlocking the talent, Sol was eager to take his time to sit down and properly see what he gained. Sol even held himself back from opening his status page until they arrived, as he wanted to dedicate all his attention to it. Amber was unused to seeing Sol impatient butplied with his requests and picked up the pace. When they arrived Amber began to set up the camp while Sol created a stone table and two stone chairs and sat down. Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner], [Transformer] Level: 62 Exp: 44,190/5,400,000 HP: 1250 MP: 1000 Str: 60 (+60) Vit: 60 (+70) Agi: 60 (+40) Int: 65 (+40) Wis: 60 (+40) Avable Stats: 5 Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 4, [Analysis] Lv 5, [Aggregate] Lv EX, [Reinterpret] Lv EX Passive Skills: [Intermediate Swordsmanship] Lv 5, [Basic Trapmaking] Lv 9, [Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Counter] Lv 1, [Shortened Cast] Lv MAX, [Agility Up] Lv 8, [Nature Sense] Lv 1, [Intermediate Throwing] Lv 1, [Intermediate Unarmed Mastery] Lv 1, [Gargantuan Strength] Lv 1, [Intermediate Bowmanship] Lv 7, [Intermediate Axemanship] Lv 7, [Iron Stomach] Lv 5, [Pursuit] Lv 1, [Endless Vitality] Lv 2, [Increased Mana Regeneration] Lv MAX, [Physical Resistance] Lv MAX, [Mana Perception] Lv 6, [Natural Armor] Lv MAX, [Wisdom Up] Lv 8, [Increased Health Regeneration] Lv 3, [Intelligence Up] Lv 8, [Basic Spearmanship] Lv 9, [Mana Efficiency] Lv 5, [Precise Coordination] Lv 6, [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 2, [Intermediate Shield Mastery] Lv 8, [Defiance] Lv MAX Active Skills: [Cross sh] Lv 3, [Ground Shrink] Lv 1, [Basic Wind Magic] Lv 6, [Intermediate Fire Magic] Lv 9, [Snap Punch] Lv 4, [Blurry Steps] Lv 1, [Harden] Lv 9, [st Arrow] Lv 7, [Concealment] Lv 9, [Death Cyclone] Lv 8, [Basic Water Magic] Lv 6, [Intermediate Earth Magic] Lv 1, [Earth Hammer] Lv 5, [Rock Throw] Lv 4, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Fell Cleave] Lv 8, [Crippling Strike] Lv 8, [Destructive Charge] Lv 8, [Blinding Fury] Lv 3, [Meditation] Lv 2, [Telepathy] Lv 1, [Barricade] Lv 7, [Barrage] Lv 7 ¡¯Both skills start at EX?¡¯ Sol didn¡¯t recognize the talent name just like he had never heard of [Siphoner]. It also felt like it took way more levels to unlock this talent but Sol couldn¡¯t be too sure as he did gain his first talent at level 25 which made predicting this much harder. Sol opened the talent skill descriptions to gain more insight to what they could do. [Aggregate] Lv EX: Combine the origins of multiple skills to create or discover a new skill. Warning: The skill may not be better than the original skills. +1 Permission level. [Reinterpret] Lv EX: Analyze the true meaning of a skill and reinterpret its origin. Can greatly elerate the leveling of skills or change them at their origin. +1 Permission level. ¡¯Definitely above legendary like [Siphoner]...¡¯ There was a lot to unpack from the two skill descriptions, Sol didn¡¯t know where to begin. [Aggregate] sounded simple enough with letting Solbine skills into a new skill. He could already think of a few which wouldbine perfectly. The second was less straightforward, allowing Sol to level skills which he hadn¡¯t been able to do before but also change them. ¡¯What did thatst part mean? Permission for what?¡¯ Sol checked his status page, but nothing else changed. Not knowing what it could be for, he decided to put that to the side and try out the new skills. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om ¡¯With [Aggregate], I think I¡¯ll first try creating a skill I know. I think I have enough skills for it to work, but the warning worries me.¡¯ Sol activated the skill, expecting some kind of prompt to appear and let him make a selection. Contrary to his expectations, what he instead saw were many faint colorful strings emanating from his body. At first, he panicked not knowing what wasing out of his body, but when he focused on one of them, he could tell what it was. Touching the light green string, Sol spoke, "This is¡­ [Nature Sense]?" Looking at other strings, he could instinctually tell which skill was which and he could even touch them. When Sol touched them, he could see the memories of those he had siphoned and their usage of the skills. In some of them, he could even see himself using them. After sifting through the memories for a long while, Sol was left wondering how to proceed from there. ¡¯Okay, these are all my skills, now how do Ibine them¡­¡¯ Sol tried to move them with his hands, but they wouldn¡¯t budge. He could feel them and read information in the strings, but the moment he attempted to force them in a direction, his hand would phase through. After some trial and error, Sol figured out he could will the skills to move with his mind. Sol willed all his magic skills into one bundle. When he did, they began to shine brightly as they merged into a much thicker string. The individual strings all pointed in seemingly random directions but when theybined the new string pointed at apletely new direction. All of thebined knowledge from Water, Earth, Wind, and Fire flooded his mind in a way he had never experienced. While stillmanding the strings tobine, Sol understood much more about the four skills and how they were simr yet very different. They each tapped into a different force of nature with drastically different properties but did so in the same way. With chanting as a message and mana as the conduit, they were able to transform their mana and nearby mana to the element of their choosing. They gavemands and with mana carrying them out, spells were created. Although it seemed obvious from how chants worked, the difference was thenguage and wording used for each element. Fire was strong and fierce, water was always changing from gentle to torrential, wind was fast and free, earth was hardy and straight to the point; the chants followed those principles when designing their spells. While spells couldmand the elements to do almost anything, for example, casting a fire spell that heals, it would never be as powerful as an equal level healing water spell. Their natures were too fundamentally different. Reaching an epiphany with elemental magic, Sol finished thebination and saw a new system message. Learned [Intermediate Elemental Magic] Lv 4! [Intermediate Elemental Magic] Lv 4: Can cast intermediate spells of the four primal elements, mana cost varies. Sweat dripped down Sol¡¯s forehead; the process was much more exhausting than he thought it would be, but he was very happy with the results. ¡¯The level seems to be the average of all thebined skills. Although the power of my fire spells has gone down a bit, all my other elements have risen.¡¯ Sol also noticed the skills were gone without any prompt, which he found odd as usually any change in the status had a notification for it. Even though the process was tiring, Sol¡¯s high vitality allowed him to quickly recover, and he was eager tobine more skills. The next hour flew by as Sol carefully curated the best skills tobine. Hebined all his weapon skills to hopefully create an all weapon mastery skill. Sol included [Intermediate Unarmed Master] and [Intermediate Throwing] hoping it wouldn¡¯t ruin the results. Learned [Intermediate Weapon Mastery] Lv 5! [Intermediate Weapon Mastery] Lv 5: A master in all forms ofbat, increases weapon damage by 150%. Although Sol¡¯s current bow damage took a hit from this newbination, he was pleased with the results and was confident he could level it faster than before. Simr to when hebined his spellcasting skills, he gained a simr understanding of the true essence ofbat. All weapons served a fundamental purpose to fight, and weapons were simply a means to an end. It didn¡¯t matter if one used a spear, sword, axe, shield, or one¡¯s bare hands; they could all equally be used to end a life. Like one¡¯s fist, weapons were to be treated as extensions of one¡¯s body, and one must know when and how to use them. After thebining process, Sol felt more in tune with his weapons, but he wouldn¡¯t truly know the change until he tried them inbat. Afterbining his weapon skills, Sol debated which tobine next. Thest two results were skills he predicted he would gain based on skills he had read about before, but from here on out, he was unsure what new skills he would create. The warning in [Aggregate]¡¯s description said the results could be worse than the original skills, and it worried Sol that he could end up ruining some good abilities he currently had. He would have to carefully consider the synergies of the skills and how they would merge before proceeding. Chapter 89: I Can Name It? Pondering for a long time about which skills tobine next, he decided to test it with unimportant skills first. Sol willed [Basic Trapmaking], [Nature Sense], and [Iron Stomach]. He believed they all shared simrities in wilderness survival and could create something rted to self-sustainability. It was not until he beganbining skills that he suddenly felt the need to also include [Pursuit]. Sol wasn¡¯t sure why, but his gut hadn¡¯t led him wrong yet and willed the gray string that represented [Pursuit] to join the other three skills. Something was different with thisbination. When hebined the weapons skills and his magic skills, the strings seemed to lead to a predetermined location. Now, they seemed to be directionless, aimless. They were moving from one side to another as if trying totch onto a new direction that would tie all the skills together. Sol was worried the process would fail if this kept going, but eventually, it seemed to hook onto something and fully tied all the skills together. Learned [Wild Hunt] Lv 1! [Wild Hunt] Lv 1: Those you designate as prey will never be able to escape you. Once a prey has been designated, you will always know their exact location at all times within 100 miles. If further than 100 miles, you can once a monthmunicate with nature to find their location. Sol mumbled to himself, "Could this be considered a sess or a failure?" The addition of [Pursuit] influenced the end result of the skill way more than he thought it would. Although he didn¡¯t care much for the other skills, which is why he used them in this test, most of their effects were erased to make way for this one. ¡¯Was it because I didn¡¯t have any idea what it should be that this happened?¡¯ N?v(el)B\\jnn It was a theory, and there was one way to prove it. Sol chose a new set of skills to test if he could influence the direction theybine into. The strings representing [Blinding Fury], [Blurry Steps], and [Meditation] began to move closer to each other. While at first nce, it seemed like these skills had nothing inmon, Sol believed their effects whenbined could produce aplimentary effect. The strength and power from [Blinding Fury], the speed from [Blurry Steps], and the concentration from [Meditation] to bnce out the negative effects of the rage skill. Keeping an image of what he wanted them to be at the forefront of his mind, Sol willed the strings together. They twisted and tied together, and unlike when he made [Wild Hunt], this one was locked onto one direction. The process went much faster, and soon he was met with the results. Learned [???] Lv 1! New entry detected. Permission level 1 confirmed. Name the new skill. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Sol asked out loud, "I can name it?" [I Can Name It] Confirm name? Sol¡¯s eyes widened as he quickly yelled, "No!" The system erased the previous name and asked once more for a name. Amber, who heard his scream, looked over to him trying to figure out what happened. Sol gave her a helpless smile and shook his head. He would have spoken up to exin, but he didn¡¯t want to identally name the skill something weird. ¡¯That was almost a disaster.¡¯ Sol shuddered at the thought of fighting someone and pulling out his trump card [I Can Name It]. ¡¯What do I name it¡­¡¯ Simr to previousbinations, Sol instinctively knew what this new skill could do. It managed to reach his expectations and even surpass them in some aspects which put a smile on his face. After pondering for a while, he decided on a good name. "Limit Break." Error. That name is already taken. "Rats¡­" Error. That name is already taken. ¡¯Are you kidding me?¡¯ "Last Stand." Error. That name is already taken. "Outburst." Error. That name is already taken. ¡¯...This is gonna take a while.¡¯ ¡­ Seventeen triester, Sol was able toe up with a decent name for the skill. [Overpower] Lv 1: Temporarily increase strength, agility, and intelligence by 120%. Duration: 30 seconds. Cooldown: 4 hours. The downsides of [Blinding Fury] were gone, and not only was strength increased, but agility and intelligence as well. An overall powerful skill he could use to turn a situation around. Even with its short duration of 30 seconds, with the amount it increases his stats by, Sol was confident he could resolve it within that time limit. It did cost Sol¡¯s [Blurry Steps], which drastically increased his speed temporarily, but if he needed speed, he could use [Ground Shrink] or [Destructive Charge]. This new skill directly increased his agility stat, which not only affected his speed but his reaction time and dexterity as well. ¡¯It¡¯s also at level 1, so it has a lot of room to grow. But will I be able to use [Siphon] to increase its level?¡¯ Since this is a new skill, that means no one in the world had it. Sol didn¡¯t know how he was supposed to level it. ¡¯It¡¯s possible that using [Siphon] on the skills that made this new one can increase its level, but if that doesn¡¯t work, [Reinterpret] could help increase its level.¡¯ Sol decided to try [Siphon]ter when exploring the 5th floor and leave [Reinterpret] until he was donebining other skills. There was still one more skill he wanted tobine. The strings for his defensive skills [Natural Armor], [Physical Resistance], [Harden], and [Defiance] all began tobine. Sol was originally not going to include [Defiance], but he wanted this skill to be more than just physical defense; he wanted it to protect him from anything and everything. Sol guided the skillbination with a mental image of him standing still with all sorts of attacks flying at him, weapons, arrows, spells. The moment they made contact with his body, they would simply bounce off with some shattering upon contact. The strings felt his will and pointed into a direction immediately. Now that Sol knew he had to guide thebination, the process was bing even easier each time. Soon he saw a new message. Learned [???] Lv 6! New entry detected. Permission level 1 confirmed. Name the new skill. Sol crossed his fingers as he hoped the name he had in mind wasn¡¯t already taken. "Invincible Body." [Invincible Body] Confirm name? Relieved, Sol eximed, "Yes!" [Invincible Body] Lv 6: Increase Defense by 220. Nullify physical damage by 30%. High chance to ignore mental status effects. After reading its description, Sol shook his head, ¡¯It¡¯s iplete.¡¯ The results could be said to be more than great, but Sol knew there was more that could be done. Although Sol had a strong vision of what it was meant to be, hecked the foundational blocks to build it. This didn¡¯t worry Sol as he knew he couldterbine more skills into this one and perfect his creation. Sol took this moment to check on his new status page. Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner], [Transformer] Level: 62 Exp: 44,190/9,700,000 HP: 1250 MP: 1000 Str: 60 (+60) Vit: 60 (+70) Agi: 60 (+40) Int: 65 (+40) Wis: 60 (+40) Avable Stats: 5 Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 4, [Analysis] Lv 5, [Aggregate] Lv EX, [Reinterpret] Lv EX Passive Skills: [Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Counter] Lv 1, [Shortened Cast] Lv MAX, [Agility Up] Lv 8, [Gargantuan Strength] Lv 1, [Endless Vitality] Lv 2, [Increased Mana Regeneration] Lv MAX, [Mana Perception] Lv 6, [Wisdom Up] Lv 8, [Increased Health Regeneration] Lv 3, [Intelligence Up] Lv 8, [Mana Efficiency] Lv 5, [Precise Coordination] Lv 6, [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 2, [Intermediate Weapon Mastery] Lv 5, [Wild Hunt] Lv 1, [Invincible Body] Lv 6 Active Skills: [Cross sh] Lv 3, [Ground Shrink] Lv 1, [Snap Punch] Lv 4, [st Arrow] Lv 7, [Concealment] Lv 9, [Death Cyclone] Lv 8, [Earth Hammer] Lv 5, [Rock Throw] Lv 4, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Fell Cleave] Lv 8, [Crippling Strike] Lv 8, [Destructive Charge] Lv 8, [Telepathy] Lv 1, [Barricade] Lv 7, [Barrage] Lv 7, [Intermediate Elemental Magic] Lv 4, [Overpower] Lv 1 Sol ced his 5 avable stats into intelligence as he thought to himself, ¡¯I canbine more skills but it would be better to wait a bit more before doing so.¡¯ Sol was specifically thinking about his attribute enhancing skills. Thebination wouldn¡¯t really bring about any fundamental change, and he would rather evolve them all first before doing so, in fear of his strength and vitality bonuses lowering drastically topensate for the other lower leveled skills. The process was much more involved than he initially believed and he still had many questions. He wanted to know where those strings led and why a mental image was so important, but these questions could only be left unresolved for now. All that was left was to test out [Reinterpret], but even with all his excitement to try it out, his body¡¯s exhaustion won in the end, and Sol decided to sleep for the night. Sol didn¡¯t even bother to set up his tent as he took out his sleeping bag and went to sleep. Chapter 90: [Overpower] Sol woke up not knowing how many hours had passed. He took out a watch from his spatial ring and looked at the time. ¡¯I slept for 10 hours?!¡¯ Maybe it wouldn¡¯t have been as surprising if it were a normal person, but Sol is anything but. His high vitality allowed him to function for much longer, and its recovery speed was also much higher. Out of habit, Sol still slept every day, but at most it would be 6 hours. ¡¯That skill took way more energy than I thought¡­¡¯ Sol got up and looked around to see Amber sitting by the stone table eating dried jerky. Sol didn¡¯t know where she got the jerky from as he didn¡¯t recall her ever storing food in her ring. Sol moved over and took a seat as well, and he apologized to Amber, "Sorry, I overslept. I can make lunch right now if you want." Amber nodded with more vigor than usual. Sol felt bad because he was the one who cooked all their meals, but he didn¡¯t know why she didn¡¯t wake him up. Sol began to take out cooking utensils as he continued to speak, "Next time just wake me up. It¡¯s my bad for oversleeping¡­ Huh? I could swear there was more salted fish¡­ Well, there is still more than enough for lunch, but we might have to hurry to the 10th floor, we are going through food faster than I thought." Little did Sol know that Amber took his ring while he was sleeping to attempt cooking for herself. She did her best to replicate how Sol cooked, but shecked the intuition one needed to know how strong the me should be and how long to cook the fish. The results ended up either too raw or fully burnt. It confounded Amber how Sol managed to make it look so easy, especially because she recalled him mentioning that he didn¡¯t have any type of cooking skill. After wasting 4 fish, Amber gave up and cleaned up the mess. Although Amber wasn¡¯t good at cooking, she knew how to hide her tracks; the only thing that couldn¡¯t be reced or cleaned were the missing fish, which were currently stored inside her spatial ring. Amber watched intently as Sol cooked, as if trying to figure out what sort of magic he was using to cook food. Sadly, there was only one spell involved, and that was the one he used to start the fire; everything else was personal experience from his orphanage and living alone. The two ate their meals and packed up the camp. It took no time at all as there was almost nothing to pack. Sol didn¡¯t even take out his tent yesterday as he was too exhausted by that time, so he only had to store his sleeping bag and cooking utensils. Soon the two began heading out of the safe area in the entrance of the floor, with Sol feeling a bit regretful. ¡¯I never got to try out [Reinterpret], if it¡¯s anything like [Aggregate], it will likely take a lot of time and energy to use it. Best wait until we get to the next floor.¡¯ Having to put his other new talent skill on the backburner for now, he shifted his focus onpleting these floors as soon as possible. Sol wanted to try out his new active skill [Overpower] to get a feel of its power before using it in a real life or death situation and losing control. He wasn¡¯t worried about the skill being on cooldown while navigating the 5th floor, as he doubted the rise in difficulty would be enough to make him need it. ¡­ Two Awakened diators stared Sol down with their rotten eyes before raising their axes and charging towards him. Sol and Amber had already defeated the other enemies, so only these two were left. Sol¡¯s muscles tightened as they began to squeeze every ounce of power out of them. His mind felt clearer than ever as he could see and feel every single detail in front of him. These were the signs of [Overpower]. Sol stored his sword and shield in his spatial ring and used [Ground Shrink] to appear next to the undead almost instantaneously. Time felt slower to Sol as he felt he was able to run circles around the undead before they could even react. With his bare fists, Solunched four punches total in less than a second. He didn¡¯t use any skill to enhance his attack, and with his raw stats, obliterated the heads of both undead. You have in a Lv 65 Awakened diator! Gained 96,000 Exp (160%) You have in a Lv 65 Awakened diator! Gained 96,000 Exp (160%) [Overpower] leveled up! (1 -> 2) [Gargantuan Strength] leveled up! (1 -> 2) [Overpower] Lv 2: Temporarily increase strength, agility, and intelligence by 140%. Duration: 40 seconds. Cooldown: 3.5 hours. Sol had used [Siphon] on the Awakened diator¡¯s [Blinding Fury] skill, but he didn¡¯t regain the skill, but the experience went towards thebined skill. Unlike lower floor versions of the enemy, they have higher skill levels, and the [Rage] skill evolved into its superior version. N?v(el)B\\jnn In theory, that meant the skill should level up faster, but this was the 36th Awakened diator he defeated and siphoned the skill from. From this, Sol could gather that allbined skills would level more slowly but could also gain skill experience from multiple skills, which should hopefully even out. Looking at the updated description of the skill, Sol was shocked, ¡¯A 20% increase per level. So at MAX level it will be 300%? Oh my gods¡­¡¯ At 120%, this skill was already incredibly strong, but it could be much stronger. It made Sol wonder if there were other skills as strong as this one. ¡¯Maybe, high level skills are mostly kept a secret except for the famous ones.¡¯ Sol grinned at the thought of siphoning those powerful skills andbining them to reach even greater heights. ¡¯Although we have been fighting B-Rank enemies now. On the 21st floor, pseudo A-Rank enemies will appear, and they have really powerful skills.¡¯ Sol was by no means a battle junky who lived for the thrill of battle, but he enjoyed the feeling of gaining new skills. It could be because he lived most of his life never having any with the exception of two skills he gained after years of effort, and now he was able to obtain any skill he wanted. The idea of gaining these powerful skills motivated Sol to move faster in hopes of getting to the real A-Rank section of the dungeon. The two, in turn, began to clear undead groups faster as they hurried to the 10th floor. Chapter 91: [Perfect Balance] The duo sted through the dungeon and made a lot of progress in just three days. Sol decided to pick up the pace more because of the food that had been disappearing much faster than he thought. This wasn¡¯t because they were eating a lot or they were underprepared, but because a certain assassin kept waking up in the middle of the night to attempt to learn how to cook. Amber wasn¡¯t used to failure, as she alwayspleted whatever tasks she was assigned to do. It wasn¡¯t until she tried cooking that she faced defeat in the appearance of a burnt fish. All her attempts the past three nights had ended with failure, and while most would ask for help to be taught, she decided to learn on her own. They were able to zoom through the 5th and 6th floor in one day and the 7th and 8th floor in a day each. They would have gone faster, but there was a new level of difficulty added in theseter floors. The groups of undead would contain ten enemies, and their skills were much higher than earlier floors. If it was just that, then they could still easily defeat them, but with bigger groups, their fights took longer, and the noises they made attracted other undead groups. This was the true difficulty of the 7th to 9th floor, or at least it should¡¯ve been. Sol¡¯s sword mmed downwards as he used [Fell Cleave] to split a Skeleton Mage in half. The sheer force easily destroyed the entire skeleton with no chance of recovery. The odd part was the sounds of bones being crushed and the sword hitting the floor were gone. This was because Sol used [Muffled Movements] to silence all the noises from the battle. With no noise being made to attract other undead, the two were able to fight without any issues. The only downside was Sol having to refrain from using spells like [Explosion], as the louder the sound, the more mana was required to silence it. You have in a Lv 69 Skeleton Mage! Gained 124,000 Exp (140%) [Intelligence Up] leveled up! (9 -> MAX) [Intelligence Up] reached max level, evolve skill? ¡¯Finally, it took a while.¡¯ Skeleton Mages were the rarest of the four undead one could find in these floors. Even in these deeper floors, the groups would usually only have one or two Skeleton Mages; very rarely would it be three. Of the five attribute-enhancing skills, only [Intelligence Up] hadn¡¯t evolved yet. Without any hesitation, Sol hit yes and awaited the results. [Intelligence Up] evolved into [Augmented Intelligence]! Sol didn¡¯t bother to check its new description, as he could already guess from the other attribute skills that it would have the same effect. ¡¯Now I can finallybine them!¡¯ Sol had held back on using [Aggregate] on the five skills to not drag down [Gargantuan Strength] and [Endless Vitality]. Although they are still one level higher than the rest, the decrease will be less drastic than before. Looking over to Amber, who was not far away, Sol whispered, "We can avoid fights now; let¡¯s head straight to the exit." Amber nodded as they both proceeded quietly through thebyrinth. It was very easy to avoid fights if the two wanted to, since they both had stealth skills, with Amber¡¯s at a higher level than his. Using [Mana Perception], the duo got a heads up before any got too close, and they would either hide to let them pass or circle around. An hourter, they arrived at the stairs that led to the next floor. The two headed down to see the usual safe area at the beginning of floors, but instead of normal passages leading inside, there was a massive marble door. Sol spoke while sizing up the door. "The boss room¡­" Instead of charging headfirst into the boss room, Sol created some simple stone furniture, and the two sat down and rested. They had been blitzing through the dungeon much faster than anticipated, and even though their bodies can keep going, it would be unwise to do so. The two rested, ate food, and Sol even took time to merge his attribute skills. If it was merging one skill, the energy consumption wasn¡¯t actually that bad; it was only exhaustingst time because of his consecutivebinations. Sol had a clear picture of what it should be, and without much hassle, was able to gain the new skill. Learned [Perfect Bnce] Lv 1! [Perfect Bnce] Lv 1: All attributes grow in perfectly bnced harmony. All stats +60. Increases lifespan by 50 years. ¡¯My lifespan increased?¡¯ Sol wasn¡¯t expecting that bonus on top of the original effects. He had also never heard of a skill that directly increases lifespan; the only way people could increase it was by increasing their vitality, but even that had limits. At most, humans could extend their lifespan by 100 years by heavily investing in vitality, but only the desperate would do such a thing, as it usually left them severelycking in the other attributes. It could also causeplications if they grew their stats in such an unbnced manner. If someone was level 20 and they put every single stat they had into vitality, their body would find it extremely difficult to move. Their body density would rise, and their skin would harden to the point their muscles would be unable to move it. Simr problems would arise if one dumped all their stats into strength and nothing into agility or vitality. Their muscles would tear themselves apart from any strong movements, and they would find it very difficult to control themselves without enough points in agility. This was why most people were taught to bnce their stats and make sure no one stat was three timesrger than any other stat. Intelligence and wisdom could be more lenient, but even so, one couldn¡¯t forget to put points in them, or they would suffer from hypersomnia. That was partially the reason for Sol¡¯s bnced stats, but it was also because he wanted to excel in both magic and fighting. He had the chance to do both with the help of [Siphon], and he wasn¡¯t going to waste the opportunity. Still analyzing the implications of a skill that increased lifespan, Sol helplessly shook his head and closed the skill description. ¡¯I never really worried about how long I¡¯ll live for. I just wish to make a meaningful impact before I go.¡¯ Having rested enough, Sol took a nce at his status page one more time. Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner], [Transformer] Level: 67 Exp: 7,378,740/17,100,000 n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om HP: 1300 MP: 1250 Str: 65 (+60) Vit: 70 (+60) Agi: 65 (+60) Int: 70 (+60) Wis: 65 (+60) Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 4, [Analysis] Lv 5, [Aggregate] Lv EX, [Reinterpret] Lv EX Passive Skills: [Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Counter] Lv 1, [Shortened Cast] Lv MAX, [Increased Mana Regeneration] Lv MAX, [Mana Perception] Lv 6, [Increased Health Regeneration] Lv 3, [Mana Efficiency] Lv 5, [Precise Coordination] Lv 6, [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 2, [Intermediate Weapon Mastery] Lv 6, [Wild Hunt] Lv 1, [Invincible Body] Lv 6, [Perfect Bnce] Lv 1 Active Skills: [Cross sh] Lv 3, [Ground Shrink] Lv 1, [Snap Punch] Lv 4, [st Arrow] Lv 9, [Concealment] Lv 9, [Death Cyclone] Lv 9, [Earth Hammer] Lv 5, [Rock Throw] Lv 4, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Fell Cleave] Lv 8, [Crippling Strike] Lv 8, [Destructive Charge] Lv 8, [Telepathy] Lv 1, [Barricade] Lv 8, [Barrage] Lv 9, [Intermediate Elemental Magic] Lv 5, [Overpower] Lv 3 Confident in taking on the boss behind the door, Sol and Amber stood up and made their way to therge door. Chapter 92: Gravedigger The dungeon door opened and it teleported the duo to one of the many boss rooms located on the floor. The two appeared in arge tomb withrge coffins lined up on both sides and two imposing statues that nked the door to the next floor. In between them and the door stood a hulking gray-skinned brute with a metal coffin slung over its shoulder. Name: N/A Race: Gravedigger Talents: [Death Affinity], [Large Weapon], [Death Absorbing] Level: 70 HP: 1500 MP: 300 Str: 150 (+70) Vit: 70 (+80) Agi: 70 Int: 30 Wis: 30 Talent Skills: [Death Throes] Lv 7, [Deadly Aura] Lv 5 Passive Skills: [Living Corpse] Lv MAX, [Gargantuan Strength] Lv 2, [Vitality Up] Lv 6, [Death Absorption] Lv 5, [Defiance] Lv 8, [Increased Health Regeneration] Lv 4 Active Skills: [Last Rites] Lv 9, [Concussive Blow] Lv 9, [Coffin m] Lv 7, [Weapon Enhancement] Lv 8, [Create Undead] Lv 8, [Death Cyclone] Lv 8, [Blinding Fury] Lv 5 ¡¯Just like the guide said.¡¯ Having the guide they bought from the guild, the two already knew what they were getting themselves into. Sol only checked with [Analysis] just to be sure. Amber went invisible while Sol took out his sword and shield and screamed to draw its attention. "Let¡¯s do this!" The Gravedigger stomped the ground as it let out a bestial bellow before charging towards Sol. As it took its first step, Sol had already finished casting a spell. "[Incinerate]!" A raging fire overtook the Gravedigger as it burned away its health. Unfazed by the fire, it continued charging without any hesitation. Once it got within 10 feet, it swung its giant coffin towards Sol. Sol¡¯s speed heavily outssed the Gravedigger, and without the use of any skills, he leaped to the side as the coffin smashed into the ground. Finding this the perfect moment to strike, Amber appeared out of thin air behind the Gravedigger and plunged both her daggers into its back. Sol didn¡¯t know what skill she used, but it dealt massive damage to the Gravedigger. Health: 584/1500 It was already at a third of its health, and it had yet tond a single attack. Furious at the tiny humans, the Gravedigger raised its coffin ominously as ck strands of energy seeped into the coffins on the sides of the room. The Gravedigger¡¯s mana dropped drastically, and the coffins affected by its skill shook as they mmed open, revealing skeletons. Sol used [Analysis] on a random one that held a sword. Name: N/A Race: Skeleton Talents: [Sword], [Speedy], [Savage] Level: 60 HP: 700 MP: 300 Str: 100 Vit: 70 Agi: 90 (+10) Int: 10 Wis: 30 n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Talent Skills: Passive Skills: [Intermediate Swordsmanship] Lv 4, [Agility Up] Lv 2 Active Skills: [sh] Lv 9, [Heavy Blow] Lv 7, [Sprint] Lv 6 Not all skeletons were the same; some had shields, others had axes or spears, but they all had the same level of strength. The minions the Gravedigger created were rather weak. Sol could kill them in one blow if he put some effort into it. The only issue was that there wasn¡¯t just one or two that it created, but over 50 at once. All the skeletons once out of their coffins ran at the two. "Go invisible!" Sol told Amber to go invisible so he could attract the attention of all the skeletons. Amber nodded and disappeared without hesitation, knowing that he could manage on his own. With no one else to target, the skeletons surrounded Sol while the Gravedigger fell back cautiously, knowing there was another enemy still lurking about. Sol noticed that the boss¡¯ health was constantly regenerating, and it was much faster than what [Increased Health Regeneration] could provide. Sol used [Cross sh] on the nearest skeleton as he thought to himself, ¡¯That has to be [Death Absorption].¡¯ Sol correctly deduced that its health was recovering because of [Death Absorption], a skill that instead of resisting death mana absorbs it to recover health. Sol tried to cast another [Incinerate], but his line of sight kept getting blocked by the skeleton group. The encirclement of skeletons reminded Sol of the orcs from when theyunched their surprise attack. At the time, Sol was helpless against the amount of enemies that surrounded him, even though he was stronger than them individually. A small grin appeared on his face. ¡¯I¡¯m much stronger now.¡¯ "[Water de]" Turbulent water formed around Sol¡¯s sword as he gripped it with both hands as he used [Death Cyclone], sweeping through all the skeletons like butter. The already powerful skill was further enhanced by the water enchantment, making it impossible for the skeletons to resist. Sol kept spinning with his de as new skeletons entered his range and were met with the same fate. The skeletons were not smart enough to back away and kept approaching the deadly whirlpool like moths to a me. As the skeletons were dying, Sol tried to use [Siphon], but it ended in failure as his attack was so powerful it shattered the bodies of the skeletons, making it impossible to [Siphon] anything from them. On top of that, no experience was given as they were temporary creations. Soon, all the skeletons perished, and Sol stopped spinning. He turned to see the Gravedigger fighting for its life. It used its rage skill but it simply made the fight much easier for Amber who could better predict its attacks and dodge out of the way. Amber kept the boss busy while Sol fought the minions andunched devastating attacks the moment it showed any openings. Even though it was healing constantly from [Death Absorption], its health was below 300. Sol knew Amber could finish the boss on her own but joined in to help anyways. The two made quick work of the Gravedigger as it could only use brute force now that it was all out of mana. You have in a Lv 70 Gravedigger! Gained 830,000 Exp (160%) Learned [Death Absorption] Lv 4! Learned [Create Undead] Lv 6! Learned [Weapon Enhancement] Lv 7! With a loud thud, therge Gravedigger fell onto the ground and was promptly absorbed by the dungeon. Sol went up to Amber and patted her on the back, "Nice! Let¡¯s get out of here and sleep on a real bed!" His words appeared to have fallen on deaf ears as Amber didn¡¯t respond; she instead started making her way to the exit. Sol helplessly shook his head as he followed behind her to the door. The door wasrge and heavy, but with a strong push, it opened and the two were teleported to the entrance of the 11th floor. In front of them were the passages that led deeper into the dungeon, and behind them was the door that would teleport them directly to the 9th floor exit. Just to the side was a magic circle that the two walked over and touched, imprinting it with their mana pattern. The two teleported to the first floor and walked outside of the dungeon. The sun was at its peak by the time they left, and they were met with the vibrant city of Crestel. Waving at the guards stationed at the dungeon entrance, the two made their way to the Adventurers Guild, wanting to sell all the items they collected in the dungeon. Chapter 93: Slow The two made their way through the busy streets and arrived at the Adventurers Guild. Sol was ready to sell all the items they had collected in the dungeon and make a tidy profit. He mostly just hoped it would be more than enough to cover their expenses as they also needed to get better weapons. Warhawk¡¯s Talon Rare Attack: 50-60 Durability: 72/750 Skills: [Sharpness] Lv 4, [Pration] Lv 4 Sol had done his best to mitigate any damage to the de, but even so, it had piled up and it¡¯s on itsst legs. He needed to repair it or buy a new weapon, and either would require money which he didn¡¯t have a lot of. Sol knew it was better to get new weapons as they were going to fight stronger enemies the deeper they go into the dungeon; their current weapons will eventually not be able to match up. They went to the shortest line they could find and were eventually attended by a rather short receptionist. Sol almost mistook him for a kid if not for the impressivelyrge beard they had. ¡¯Is he a dwarf?¡¯ Sol had never seen a dwarf before, but he had heard about them. The dwarfs were known as a powerful race of craftsmen and warriors, at least they used to be. Sol didn¡¯t know the specifics, but Dwarfs once had a glorious kingdom at one point famous throughout the entire world. But at some point during the dark age, it all disappeared. The dwarfs without a ce to call their home moved to other kingdoms with arge majority taking refuge in the Holy Kingdom of Delvania located northwest of Crestelia. Some fairy tales said that their kingdom once stood in the northern mountains above Crestelia, but no one had been able to find proof. That didn¡¯t stop dwarves from traveling into the Frostaxe n¡¯s territory to reim their lost legacy. Dwarfs were rather rare to see in Crestelia, but in the capital of the kingdom, it was much easier to encounter those of other races. The dwarf behind the counter smiled as he spoke to them, "What can I do for ya?" "Hi, we are looking to sell a few dungeon materials." "Sure, sure. Can I see the quest paper?" Sol was confused, "Do we need one? I thought this branch bought materials from adventurers." Sol recalled the conversation he had with another receptionist who told him that this branch buys materials from adventurers as a side business. The dwarf had a troubled look as he spoke, "We do buy materials. It¡¯s just that we don¡¯t allow adventurers to sell specifically dungeon materials without having the quest for it. It¡¯s to prevent lower-ranked adventurers from sneaking in or bribing the guards to enter the dungeon just for them to die when facing those monsters. If you want, I can register the quests, so you can turn them in, I just need your cards." n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Sol didn¡¯t know there was a protection mechanism in ce for dungeon materials; he assumed they did it this way because they have no control over the guards at the dungeon gate who don¡¯t even verify adventurer cards. "The thing is¡­ We are C-Rank¡­" The dwarf¡¯s expression goes from shock to slight anger mixed with disappointment. "The hell are you going in the dungeon then?! What¡¯s up with young adventurers wanting to die so badly! You don¡¯t need to even take that risk; you could just do quests at your level and livefortably. Do you need quick money that badly?" The dwarf let his anger take over for a moment as he was tired of encountering adventurers who had no self-preservation whatsoever. The moment he finished his short rant he realized what he did and apologized. "I-I¡¯m sorry. That was very unprofessional of me." Although Sol was berated by the dwarf he knew it came from a ce of kindness and worry over his well-being. "It¡¯s fine, I understand. How about this, what if we both take the rank up test? Could wee backter and sell the materials then?" Surprised at the suggestion the dwarf asked, "Sure you can, but why didn¡¯t you do that before diving into the dungeon?" Sol didn¡¯t have a good excuse for that; he simply didn¡¯t think they needed to waste time ranking up. "I¡­ didn¡¯t want to waste time doing quests or schedule a rank-up test that could be a weekter, but if it¡¯s the only way to sell the items I¡¯ll do it." The dwarf shook his head, "You don¡¯t gotta wait a week. We have B-Rankers here on standby all the time. Just request a rank-up test and you can be done in less than 30 minutes." "Ahh¡­" Sol felt like an idiot. It could be said that it¡¯s not his fault for not knowing as he wasn¡¯t from this city; he was used to the practices of the guild branch back in Initium and Kerman. Even so, he should have found it odd that there were repeatable collections quests only in the B-Rank board and not in C-Rank board. The dwarf made no furtherment, not wanting to embarrass Sol any further, and instead offered to submit the application for him. epting the offer Sol and Amber were led by another guild employee to the testing location. They were led down the stairs to arge open area beneath the guild lobby. There was training equipment of all kinds and bleachers where guild employees and associates were watching the tests while on break or eating lunch. The guild employee that brought them here took them to the bleachers and told them to wait until they were called. Having nothing else to do Sol began to watch the rank-up tests that were happening. The current fight was between an archer and a spearman. The spearman sported a very noticeable guild emblem leading Sol to believe that they were one of the examiners. From the side, he could hear the other employees idly chat and bet between each other if they would pass or fail. "Think he¡¯ll pass?" "Nah look at his face, he isn¡¯t confident he can win." "Oh? You wanna bet on it?" "Heh, sure. I won¡¯t say no to free coins. 20 silver." "Aight bet." The archerunched a volley of arrows that the spearman gracefully avoided. The spearman didn¡¯t bother to use their spear to deflect any arrows as with just his reflexes he could move out of the way in time. The archer kept shooting his arrows in a stationary position and used a skill to empower them further, making them shoot much faster. This didn¡¯t stop the spearman as he moved at a rhythmic pace and was fast approaching the archer. By the time the archer noticed the spearman was getting too close it was toote to make space as a spear swung from the side and knocked his bow away. The fight was over in less than a minute. It was so fast that some spectators asked their friends who had more battle knowledge on what went down. Sol on the other hand had a bored expression on his face. ¡¯Slow.¡¯ To Sol, the fight was unbearably slow. His incredibly high agility and intelligence boosted his perception to the point he could see every movement of the two fighters. The fight looked more simr to a choreographed dance rather than an actual battle. Without using [Analysis] Sol was easily able to tell that the archer was around D-Rank and the examiner low C-Rank, which exined theckluster battle. The spectators paid whoever won their small bets and the next adventurer was called to take the test, sometimes by the same examiner or a different examiner depending on the rank they are testing for. Contrary to the first battle Sol watched, most passed their tests as adventurers wouldn¡¯t apply to take this exam without being confident in their skills beforehand. The few who did fail tended to be lower ranked and overestimated their abilities. After a few more fights Sol¡¯s name was called and he walked onto the field. Chapter 94: B-Rank Test The one who stood opposite Sol was a mature ck haired man with a thin sword hanging off his waist. Sol assumed he was an agility based fighter and used [Analysis] to get a better understanding of what he was up against. Name: Axel Race: Human Talents: [Ghost de], [Nimble], [Phantom] Level: 79 HP: 820 MP: 900 Str: 91 Vit: 82 Agi: 110 (+30) Int: 27 Wis: 90 Talent Skills: [Ghost Form] Lv MAX, [Phantom Dance] Lv 6 Passive Skills: [Intermediate Swordsmanship] Lv 7, [Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Counter] Lv 4, [Agility Up] Lv 6, [Tracking] Lv 5, [Basic Trapmaking] Lv 3, [6th Sense] Lv 2 Active Skills: [Blurry Steps] Lv 6, [Puncture] Lv 8, [Backstab] Lv 7, [Phantom Image] Lv 5, [Debilitating Strike] Lv 4, [Quick Draw] Lv 3, [Invisibility] Lv 3 ¡¯A true B-Ranker¡­¡¯ This was going to be Sol¡¯s first fight with a true B-Ranker. While it could be said that both Amber and Weaver were B-Rankers in their own right, they were just barely at that rank. If not for the fact that there was no B-Rank dungeon in Kerman, those two would have been much stronger. Axel¡¯s level was over ten levels higher and specialized in speed that surpassed Sol¡¯s even with the help of [Perfect Bnce]. But that didn¡¯t discourage him. Sol believed he could easily win against the man if he went all out, but there was no point in doing so. From the fights Sol had seen, he didn¡¯t even need to win; he just had to show he had the strength of a B-Ranker. "You ready?" Axel didn¡¯t even bother introducing himself. Sol focused up and responded, "Yes." With both fighters ready, they immediately ran at each other. Axel didn¡¯t use any skills as he first needed to assess if Sol was qualified to withstand them, or he could identally end up killing the test taker. Sol noticed this as well and responded in kind with just his sword and nothing else. The two des shed, and Sol even managed to push Axel back, but before he could capitalize on the advantage, the man slipped to the side and let the force of Sol¡¯s sword m into the ground. Now understanding that Sol had the minimum strength to survive his attacks, Axel disappeared into thin air. ¡¯Just like Amber¡¯s skill. Probably the same one.¡¯ "You have the strength, but are your skills up to par?" Sol turned around to the man holding his thin sword, waiting for Sol¡¯s approach. This confused Sol as he didn¡¯t understand why Axel went invisible just to appear a few feet away. Out of instinct that something was off, Sol activated [Mana Perception]. ¡¯It¡¯s not real!¡¯ The man standing before Sol was a clump of pure mana; it was not a person but a mirage created by [Phantom Image]. The real examiner was off to the right in a perfect position to nk Sol if he approached the fake. Sol knew it was a fake and could run directly at the examiner, but Sol wanted to keep to himself the fact he could see mana. It was incredibly useful for moments like these, and with a stand of spectators, he decided to attack the dummy. "[Scorching Ray]!" A narrow beam of concentrated fire erupted from Sol¡¯s hand and flew towards the fake. The moment the fire made contact with the fake examiner, it phased right through. The image fluctuated from the mana colliding with each other, and Sol put on the best surprised face he could. The examiner didn¡¯t expect Sol to have ranged capabilities and had to move towards Sol before he caught on to the trick. Unfortunately for Axel, Sol had already figured it all out. Waiting for the examiner to get a bit closer, Sol gripped his sword and used [Death Cyclone] to attack in every direction. Sol made it so he perfectly timed his attack to just scrape the examiner, which took him out of his invisibility. One thing he learned from exploring the dungeon with Amber was that her invisibility skill stopped working the moment she took the slightest bit of damage. It almost never happened, but sometimes a Skeleton Mage would cast arge area spell which would just slightly graze her. Being taken out of his invisibility, Axel was taken aback at the incredible timing. He didn¡¯t know if it was luck or instinct, but being perfectly countered really annoyed him. Axel was technically supposed to end the fight now as he could tell Sol was more than qualified to be a B-Ranker, but he wanted to kick him down a peg. Axel used [Blurry Steps] to absolutely trump Sol in speed andunched multiple skills towards Sol. He didn¡¯t aim for any vitals but ces where it would definitely hurt if hit. Even if Axel went too far, he wasn¡¯t worried as they had healers stationed nearby in case of any ident. Being on the receiving end of all these attacks, Sol responded with one of his new skills, [Weapon Enhancement]. [Weapon Enhancement] Lv 7: Enhance two aspects of your weapon: Sharpness, weight, speed, etc. Mana cost varies depending on the strength and type of enhancement. Sol enhanced his sword¡¯s speed so he could keep up with the multitude of attacks and its durability to survive the iing onught. With every attack he countered, another came right after. This went on for 10 full seconds, and while the casual spectators loved the intense fight they were watching, a few were confused as to why the fight hadn¡¯t ended yet. A few more battle-hardened employees knew that this was no longer a normal test and were considering whether to interfere or not. Before they could enact any actions to stop the fight, one of the attacks slipped through Sol¡¯s near perfect defense, and a wide sh hit his waist. The attack produced a pained expression on Sol¡¯s face, and before he could recover, the examiner used [Blurry Steps] increased speed to kick Sol with full force. Sol was sent a few feet back as he fell on his butt. Axel, who finally managed to knock Sol to the ground, sheathed his sword as if it was light work. Little did the spectators know that his hands and feet were slightly trembling from the overexertion of skills within a short period. N?v(el)B\\jnn "You passed. You did well for a rookie." Keeping a neutral face, Sol nodded. "Thank you." Axel walked away as a healer nearby came to check on Sol. Sol declined the healer¡¯s help, "No, it¡¯s okay, it¡¯s just a flesh wound." "Are you sure? I can heal the cut." "It¡¯s fine, thank you." The healer was unsure why Sol was being so stubborn over it but decided to let him be. Sol stood up and walked to the bleacher next to Amber. Uncharacteristically of Amber, she asked a question. "Why lose?" Amber knew Sol was never going to go all out, but even without doing so, he could win against that fight. When Sol was a much lower level, he was able to defeat her with less, and the instructor and her had a lot of simr skills. With a wry smile, he looked at his health. Health: 1299/1300 The next second, Sol¡¯s health maxed out, and the small cut was already gone. Sol purposely allowed the attack to go through and pretended to get knocked down just to end the fight. Sol didn¡¯t know why the examiner was going all out, but if hepared it to others who took the exam, he was already more than qualified. Sol could see that Axel was annoyed during thetter half of the fight, and he guessed it was because of the way he countered his sneak attack. It was better to just let the examiner believe he had won and go about their day rather than make an enemy of a guild employee who could make his life much harder. Sol used [Telepathy] as he didn¡¯t want anyone to hear his reason. -It¡¯s better not to make unnecessary enemies by bruising someone¡¯s ego.- Chapter 95: B-Rank Sol could have left and gotten his new card, but he wanted to see Amber¡¯s fight. There was no doubt in his mind that she would pass, but he still wanted to see how it went. Sol doubted he would get any details if he asked herter. Initially, Sol believed Amber was going to fight the same examiner, but surprisingly, someone else called her name. It was a short woman who had very fierce eyes. She sported the same guild badge Axel had, and a cute toy hammer dangled off her wrist. Sol didn¡¯t see any real weapons and was curious about what she could do, so he used [Analysis]. Name: Terresa Race: Human/Dwarf Talents: [Gigantify], [Titan Hammer], [cksmithing] Level: 81 HP: 1400 MP: 500 Str: 130 (+35) Vit: 120 (+20) Agi: 85 Int: 35 Wis: 50 Talent Skills: [Erge] Lv 9, [Titans Arm] Lv 6, [Analysis] Lv 3 Passive Skills: [Intermediate Hammer Mastery] Lv 8, [Defiance] Lv MAX, [Strength Up] Lv 7, [Vitality Up] Lv 4, [Forging] Lv 2, [Observation] Lv 3 Active Skills: [Extended Hit] Lv 3, [Concussive Blow] Lv 8, [Destructive Charge] Lv 4, [Earth Shatter] Lv 4, [Charged Smash] Lv 5, [Bludgeoning Tempo] Lv 5, [Mend] Lv 1, [Weapon Refinement] Lv 1 [Analysis] leveled up! (5 -> 6) ¡¯Oh? Nice.¡¯ Paying little attention to the level up of his skill, Sol was initially surprised at the fact that the woman was a half-dwarf; if not for the status page, he would have thought she was just shorter than normal. Tossing the random thought to the side, he focused on her third talent. ¡¯Unfortunate. She probably got a job here because of it.¡¯ For a multitude of reasons, adventurers would eventually retire. The mostmon reason for them to quit adventuring was because they got a bad talent for fighting. While it was possible to still fight and be an active adventurer, it would be unfavorable for them further down the line. It¡¯s simr to being a talent behind your opponents; they would have a higher variety of skills they could draw upon which could be the deciding factor between life and death. This was why few adventurers would continue that lifestyle when they got a bad talent. It was already risky being an adventurer and for it to be even riskier was a dealbreaker for most. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Those who retire from adventuring have a lot of options to choose from, but the most popr of them all was to get a job in the guild. The pay was good, and they had first-hand experience adventuring and working with the guild. Sol wondered if he would also be a guild employee when he retired someday. Sol shook his head. ¡¯That day is still far away.¡¯ Focusing back on the fight between the examiner and Amber, Sol heard the examiner speak. "Begin." Amber instantly vanished, Sol followed her movement with [Mana Perception]. She was running to the side, getting ready to nk the examiner. Terresa smirked, understanding that she was dealing with an assassin, and unhooked her toy hammer from the bracelet it dangled from. What happened next bbergasted Sol. Terresa raised the mini hammer all the way up and brought it down to the ground. As it fell, it rapidly grew in size until it reached 10 feet long. It was double the size of the half dwarf, and when it hit the ground it violently shook as a wave of dirt and dust flew everywhere. It was as if someone just dropped an entire house on that spot. Amber not only stumbled a bit from the impact, but the dirt and sand that hit her deactivated her invisibility. Now exposed, Terresa charged towards Amber with a grin. Having lost the element of surprise, Amber had to resort to using her speed advantage to dodge and retaliate. Thankfully for Amber, Terresa was nowhere near as fast as her, and she could dodge with ease. The fight favored Amber, with her narrowly dodging the hammer swings and throwing in a jab or sh in between. It was until one of the swings that Amber was narrowly avoiding suddenly grew even bigger and was impossible to dodge from its current trajectory. Terresa purposefully used the same attacks to lull Amber into a false sense of security before switching gears at thest second. Unable to dodge, Amber quickly reacted and used her skill [Sand Shift]. Her entire body became sand as it was smashed and scattered in different directions. Terresa watched as the sand began to reform 10 feet away as an uninjured Amber appeared. The skill had leveled up a lot during their time in the dungeon, and she was able to do much more with it. The only downside was the much higher cost in mana, which she had never invested much into. Amber was fully reformed and ready to continue, but before she could charge back in, Terresa shrunk her hammer to its original size. "Congrats! You passed. You are more than enough to be a B-Rank. Go speak to that representative over there, and they will take you to get your new card." Amber didn¡¯t respond; instead, she stowed her daggers away and walked back to Sol. The examiner was left a bit confused at theck of any enthusiasm at passing the test. Terresa didn¡¯t care that much and shrugged before walking out of the field so another test could take ce. Sol, who was watching the fight, didn¡¯t know who would have won if they continued. While Terresa surprised Amberst minute with that attack, he doubted it would work twice. ¡¯The ability to change the size of your weapon at will is frightening.¡¯ Being able to change the size of your weapon at any moment could take your opponent by surprise and be the deciding factor. One could extend the length of a spear, greatly increasing their reach, or shrink arge weapon to better suitbat in small areas. If applied correctly, it could be an incredible ability. Once Amber arrived next to Sol, he stood up, and they walked together to the receptionist who was waiting for them by the exit. "Congrattions on passing your exams. Please follow me to receive your new adventurer cards." The two followed the receptionist up the stairs and were led to a small waiting room while they processed the new cards. They didn¡¯t have to wait long, as another guild employee came with the two new cards. They were shiny blue, representing the second highest rank of adventurers. The cards were coated in an extremely thinyer of durium, which was an extraordinary metal known for its high durability and resistance to change. The stronger the impact it received, the more it resisted; the only way one could manipte the metal was by heating it for a long period of time before slowly changing it to their desired form. It was a rigorous process, but at least that much effort should be given for B-Rankers who were considered the elites of the world. Only A-Rankers, who were the peak of strength in the world, stood above them, and they were considered anomalies who surpassedmon sense, some more than others. Sol received the new card, and with them, he was able to sell all the acquired goods from the dungeon. Since they gathered materials from floor 1 to 9, they had gathered a hefty amount. It took over 5 minutes with guild tools to assist the process to calcte the total sum. In total, they had gained 648 gold. Sol tried to split the money with Amber, but she declined to take any of it. She wasn¡¯t used to actually having ie and didn¡¯t really know how to spend it properly. cing half of the gold in his spatial ring, Sol handed over the pouch with the remaining gold and insisted, "Take it. You earned it, and you¡¯ll need it to fix your weapon or buy a new one." She appeared to go through internal turmoil over epting the money, but after another round of persuasion, she finally relented and epted. d he could give Amber her fair share of the earnings, the two left the Adventurer¡¯s Guild to get some well-deserved rest at a nearby inn. Chapter 96: [Reinterpret] In his room, Sol was finally able to get some respite after an exhausting week of dungeon diving. Soly on his bed as he tried to go to sleep but struggled to do so after 15 minutes. ¡¯My stats are too high¡­¡¯ Sol¡¯s internal clock and habits told him he should rest, but because his intelligence and vitality were simply too high, his body had already recovered to its peak. With nothing to do, he decided to keep working on his talent skill [Reinterpret]. [Reinterpret] Lv EX: Analyze the true meaning of a skill and reinterpret its origin. Can greatly elerate the leveling of skills or change them at their origin. +1 Permission level. Activating the skill, Sol was brought to a white room, not physically but in his mind. Here he was able to review in depth any skill he wanted to learn more about how it worked, how he could improve it, and even change it. Sol had already used it a few times whenever they were resting in between the dungeon floors, but he had yet to get any significant value out of it besides a skill level or two increasing. Today he nned to go a bit further and try to change a skill into something new. "How about¡­ we try with [Earth Hammer]?" N?v(el)B\\jnn A skill Sol never used as it required the use of a hammer to create an earth shattering blow. It was a skill he was willing to tamper with and change just to try it out. In the white space, he could do virtually anything to analyze the skills. He could repeatedly use them with no cooldown or cost as it was all in his head. Sol could also create a clone of himself using the move so he could analyze it from different angles. Whether to slow down or pause the movements of the clone, anything was possible. Sol began by creating a clone with a regr hammer andmanded it to use the skill. Mana flowed from fake Sol¡¯s body and into the hammer as it then mmed into the ground creating a ripple effect on the ground that caused waves of earth to spike up and around the center of the impact. Taking note of how the mana moved through the body to create the ripple effect, he began to test out ways to change it. Trying to use the skill with different weapons brought mixed results with sharp weapons doing almost nothing and other blunt weapons having better effects. Having many things he wanted to test, Sol thought to himself, ¡¯This will take a while.¡¯ ¡­ Sol was right, hours passed as he attempted different ways to use the skill and even tried to make it into a spell which had poor results. He simply didn¡¯t have enough knowledge on spell theory and mana maniption to make it work but he managed to turn the skill into a much more flexible ability. With a single stomp, mana flowed from the real Sol¡¯s legs and a wave of earth spikes sprung out from around him. He then stomped again but this time the spikes only extended forward. ¡¯This is much more useful and faster than swinging a big hammer to produce the same effect.¡¯ The real benefit of using the original [Earth Hammer] was the spikes that erupted around the user. Sol managed to remove the weapon from the equation as he found it a useless requirement to activate the skill and could now use it with anything that made contact with the ground. It could be with a single stomp, punch, and even sh with his sword. Once it made contact with the ground, he would send the mana into the ground in a way that created spikes however he wanted. They could spike up in a straight line, a cone, a circle, and much more. The only difference in each attack would be the mana cost varying as the further away it goes from his body the more mana it would cost to create. Satisfied with his results, he decided to exit out of [Reinterpret]. ¡­ Sol opened his eyes and was immediately met with a system notification. [Earth Hammer] transformed into [Terra Spikes]! [Terra Spikes] leveled up! (5 -> 8) [Terra Spikes] Lv 8: Upon impact, create earth spikes thatunch from the ground in whichever way the user desires. Mana cost varies. ¡¯It reached level 8 in one go?¡¯ Sol didn¡¯t believe that to be the case. When he thought back to his time in the white room, he felt moments where the newly transformed skills took a small leap in quality. It had to be then when it leveled up but he didn¡¯t get a notification for it. ¡¯Do I not have system messages in the white room?¡¯ Sol used [Reinterpret] again to go back into his mind and tried to open the status page, but nothing happened. It felt a bit surreal not having ess to the system while he was in there but it made sense in a way. Not only was this in his mind, it also felt like apletely isted space where only he existed. The system was not a part of Sol, so it was excluded from the white room. ¡¯I never noticed till now¡­¡¯ While feeling silly for not noticing until now, Sol looked outside the window and noticed the sun was beginning to rise. ¡¯I spent all night in [Reinterpret].¡¯ Even though Sol didn¡¯t catch a lick of sleep, he felt better than ever. His body and mind were in great condition even though Sol spent the entire night changing and improving his skills. It was an efficient way to train while also resting. Sol decided to do this every night to improve all his skills one at a time. He wanted to be as strong as possible for the knight selection and more importantly the tournament. Sol didn¡¯t know how strong hispetition would be but it was better to be safe than sorry. After all, he only had a little less than two weeks remaining to prepare. Chapter 97: Sending a Message In a noble mansion located in Crestal, a stern but dependable looking man with ck hair looked at a younger, more wild looking man with fiery red hair. The young man spoke in a slightly irritated tone, "Do I really need to go through with this charade, my lord?" The young man emphasized the word "lord" in a slightly exaggerated way, but the lord didn¡¯t pay any mind to the tone of the young man. The lord nodded, "Yes, you do. We need to send a message to the people that the royal family¡¯s power is weakening. When you defeat everyone in the tournament and express disappointment in theck of strength of the new generation of royal knights, the people will begin to feel unsafe under the protection of the crown. We must startying the foundation to win the hearts of the people before starting our n in full. The current state of the kingdom is slowly bing more dire every day, and when the princess takes over-" The red haired man has already heard the spiel before and interrupted him. The young man was not afraid to interrupt the noble because he had the strength to act how he wanted. "I understand that, but I still don¡¯t think this is a good idea. Wouldn¡¯t this cause friction between the kingdom and the nobles? Won¡¯t this lead to civil war?" "There has always been friction between us and the crown. We keep each other in check, and that¡¯s how the bnce is maintained. The problem doesn¡¯t lie with the princess herself but those who move to control her. If she had been properly trained by the king we wouldn¡¯t have this issue in the first ce. Unfortunately, he was too confident in thete prince bing the future ruler and focused all his attention on him but-" The red haired man finished his sentence, "Monster house, I know." The lord¡¯s eyes twitched, ¡¯It¡¯s rude to interrupt, you know?¡¯ The lord didn¡¯t speak his thoughts out loud and continued, "...If we want our nation to survive, we need to take a page from the book of the Sapphire Scales Alliance. We need to remove the centralized source of power and instead create a parliament containing therge noble houses. This way we each have equal say and work together rather than be kept apart by the crown." The man took a sip of tea he had on his desk and continued. "Civil war is inevitable. The most we can do is start it on our terms and gain an advantage. You know as well as I that the current situation isn¡¯t getting any better. Just recently, Fort Northwind was almost lost to the orcs and it would have led to a full-on invasion if it wasn¡¯t stopped by pure luck. We tried to send reinforcements to the fort but were stalled for days because the king was too sick to approve of it at the time." The young man sighed in defeat. "Fine¡­ and I assume I should also announce at the tournament that I will be a knight for your household? Praise your noble house while I¡¯m at it?" The lord shook his head, "No, that would be too obvious and would stir the pot too much. We will announce you joining my house a month after the tournament." "Haaah fine. Can¡¯t believe I got wrapped into this mess. I¡¯m too young to be inciting revolutions." The lord startedughing. N?v(el)B\\jnn "Hahaha! If the younger generation isn¡¯t leading the change, who will? You expect us older people to bring change in the world? We barely have any time left in it so why would we? I¡¯m only doing this for my family and my responsibility to my subjects. Remember, the ones who bring about true change will always be young people like you, Victor." Not fully believing his words, Victor answered dismissively, "If you say so, Sigurd." ¡­ After eating breakfast with Amber, Sol headed out to spend some of the money they had to improve their gear. Store to store, the two searched for weapons trying to find the perfect one for them. They only had one small problem. "They¡¯re all so expensive¡­" Sol sighed for the 15th time today as he saw another price tag that surpassed 500 gold. The two had been trying to find a good unique weapon all day, but the price was simply too high. As Sol walked into the next store he was pondering possible options. ¡¯We can pool our money together and buy a weapon for Amber while I stick to the bow and magic until we can afford another weapon.¡¯ Sol already had a unique rarity weapon, but he liked to use melee weapons when they closed the gap. Sol could also use [Reinterpret] to change some skills to better suit barehandedbat, but that would take a while. ¡¯If we don¡¯t find anything cheap, I¡¯ll consider it.¡¯ Now paying attention to the store they entered, Sol noticed that he may have entered the wrong shop by mistake. The walls were decorated with weird contraptions of gears and springs that somehow moved on their own. Sol originally entered the store because he saw the weapons sign outside, but there appeared to be no weapons as far as he could tell. "Wee to Gearworks! Your one-stop shop for mechanical wonders! I¡¯m Fabio, how may I help you?" The one who spoke was a small man simr to the half dwarf examiner but was much more slim and had a sharp jawline. It made Sol wonder if he was of another race, but refrained from using [Analysis] as he found it hard to gauge how strong he was. Sol didn¡¯t want to repeat what happened with Diana and identally incur the wrath of a powerhouse. "Oh, sorry. We entered here by mistake, we were looking for weapons." Fabio¡¯s ears perked up as a merchant¡¯s smile sported his face, "Well, you¡¯re in luck! I just so happen to have a brand new weapon never before seen!" Chapter 98: Lipon From a table, he brought over a small ornate box and opened it, revealing what appeared to be a weapon handle. It was oddly shaped with a hole where the de or handle would normally be attached. Sol used [Analysis], but nothing appeared; he didn¡¯t know whether this was a prank or real. "This is the weapon?" "Yes! It¡¯s a true marvel,bining the best parts of alchemy and tinkering, creating what I like to call a Lipon." Fabio produced a small metal cylinder with a light blue liquid inside and showed it to Sol before demonstrating how it worked. "First, you insert this cartridge charged with pure elemental essence into the bottom of the handle here. Then, once you hear the click and you know it¡¯s locked in ce, you grip the handle like so and pull back on the trigger here¡­" As he pulled back the trigger from the hole on top of the handle, a burst of ice sted outwards as a curved sword of ice was formed. Using [Analysis] again, something actually appeared. Elemental Ice Sword Unique Attack: 145-175 Durability: 900/900 Skills: [Sharpness] Lv 7, [Frost Touch] Lv 7, [Ice Shatter] Lv 7 "And tada! You now have an ice sword! It doesn¡¯t only just create des but hammers, whips, you name it! All you have to do is have the right pattern slot in ce." Fabio opened a smallpartment on the side of the handle and took out a tiny metal rectangle with a sword engraved on it. After showing it to the two, Fabio inserted the pattern back in its ce and continued with the demonstration. "Once you¡¯re ready to put away your weapon, all you have to do is hit this button here. It will close the valve and stop fueling the weapon." Hitting the button, the ice sword began to evaporate, losing its source of power until all that was left was the simple handle. "Soooo? What do you think?" Fabio was trying to market this weapon extraordinarily hard, and honestly, it was a pretty good weapon all things considered. It was versatile, being able to form a variety of weapons, and it can do different elements depending on the needs of the asion. It would be hard to swap on the fly, but that was a downside that Sol could live with. There was only one worry that could dissuade him from buying it: the price. "How much is it?" "This fine engineering marvel can be yours for 400¡ªno, 350 gold!" ¡¯Still too high, maybe I can bring it down some more so we can also get Amber a unique weapon.¡¯ Making an unwilling expression, Sol spoke, "Hmm, I think that¡¯s too high as there are a few problems with this¡­ Lipon. The elemental weapon looks to be on the weaker side of unique weapons, which could be offset by the different weapons it could form, but who has talents with multiple weapons? You would need to find someone with a [Weapon Master] talent at the very least, and they could probably afford better weapons." Surprised at the criticisms, Fabio nodded, "That¡¯s true, but even with only one weapon pattern, the Lipon can be of any element with the right cartridge!" "That¡¯s the second issue I wanted to talk about: how long does each cartridgest? Wouldn¡¯t want it to run out during battle. Also, how do I go about getting more of these cartridges?" "A full one willst for about 5 hours, but no one fights for that long continuously. You can turn it on and off and conserve it so itsts about 5 hours ofbat. For how to get more¡­ there¡¯s three ways. You could buy it here for 20 gold each, fill it with elemental essence you buy or find, or if you have a mage friend they can fill it up for you. After testing, we found it takes around 800-900 mana to fill one container. We can give you the spell scroll so your mage knows how to fill it with their elemental affinity." Sol found this extremely useful for him as he could fill it with dark essence found in the dungeon or with his own mana and fill it with earth, water, wind, and fire. ¡¯If it was anyone else, this would be a money sink¡­ Ah, wait!" Putting on his most convincing face, Sol negotiated, "That¡¯s even more reason why it shouldn¡¯t be that high. 350 gold for a weapon that needs more money for it to actually work? I would get it if it was 150, 200 would be pushing it, but 350?" Fabio had a difficult expression; he couldn¡¯t deny it was a huge w for long-term use, but he couldn¡¯t lower the price that much either. Sol presented an offer, "How about this: 150 for the Lipon, 20 for the ice cartridge, and thest 30 gold in however many empty cartridges. I¡¯ll see if I am able to fill them with dark essence from the dungeon, but I¡¯ll still need other elements so I¡¯ll have toe back for more. On top of it all, I n to participate in the uing knight selection." Fabio tilted his head not knowing what that had to do with this. "You know the final test for the selection is an optional tournament for all the participants. When I fight in front of the entire city, I¡¯ll do it with this." Sol held up the Lipon. "I¡¯m sure this will garner a lot of attention to you and your shop." The man sighed, ¡¯I have no guarantee he will qualify for the test, but if he does¡­¡¯ The thought of the free marketing he would receive from the event made his mouth slightly water. "You drive a hard bargain, kid! You have a deal! 200 for the Lipon, the ice cartridge, and 30 empty ones. What pattern would you like for the Lipon?" Hiding the excitement at convincing the man, Sol asked, "Can I have all of them?" "Huh? All of them?" Sol quickly realized his mistake and quickly made up an excuse. "Well, how am I supposed to showcase your weapon if I can¡¯t show one of its defining features? I have a few weapon skills that aren¡¯t tied to one specific weapon." "Oh, I see, sure then." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Fabio took the Lipon and ced it back in its ornate box, he left the ice cartridge still inside and also added 30 empty cartridges neatly in the box. Fabio also took another smaller box from a nearby drawer and opened it showing a variety of small metal rectangles. On them were the pictures of weapons engraved onto the metal that made it easier to identify which creates what. "Here, these are all the different patterns I have managed to make so far. Be careful with them as they are delicate. Though don¡¯t worry once inside the Lipon it is well protected." Receiving two boxes, Sol stored them in his spatial ring and handed Fabio the 200 gold. Fabio smiled and thanked Sol, "Pleasure doing business with you. I hope you make it to the finals." Sol smiled back and nodded, "Thanks, I¡¯ll do my best." With a final wave, the two left the shop and headed back to one of the previous weapon shops. Since Sol obtained the Lipon for a cheap price, the two could pool their remaining money and buy Amber a unique weapon as well. Luckily, daggers tended to be cheaper than other weapons as they were smaller and required fewer materials, so they found a decent unique one for 400 gold. Chapter 99: Rest With both of them having powerful new weapons, they spent the remaining money on resupplying their food and other items. Sol especially stocked up on more food in fear of running out. If it simply wasn¡¯t for a certain someone trying to learn how to cook while in a dungeon, it wouldn¡¯t have been a problem in the first ce. While Sol didn¡¯t know exactly how the food was disappearing, it had happened so much that it couldn¡¯t be attributed to him miscounting anymore. Sol knew it was Amber as it couldn¡¯t be anyone else, but since she hadn¡¯t asked and instead sneakily swiped it, he assumed there must be a good reason for it and let it be for now. He also gave her some of the food to store in her spatial ring so she didn¡¯t have to keep stealing from him. This also made it easier to keep track of the remaining supplies. Done with the shopping, Sol didn¡¯t want to dive back into the dungeon so soon. It was a dreary ce and the onlypany they had was each other. There were other parties delving in the dungeon as well, but the two stayed clear of them to prevent conflict. The onlypany he had in the dungeon was Amber, and while he appreciated her presence, she wasn¡¯t that great of a conversation partner. Even if he didn¡¯t want to dive back in, he had no choice as the knight selection takes ce in a little under two weeks. Sol knew he had to prepare as best he could and believed he had just enough time to make it to the 21st floor. While it only took them a week for the first ten floors, the guide showed theter floors were muchrger and even traversing through them while avoiding traps and enemies would take hours. Though they had to jump back into the dungeon soon, it didn¡¯t mean they had to right at this moment. While walking through the bustling city streets, Sol looked at Amber and told her the n, "How about we take the rest of today off and tomorrow we can head back to the dungeon?" Amber nodded and followed behind him like usual. Sol stopped and turned back to her, "We don¡¯t have to be together to rx you know. Is there nothing you want to do or see?" Amber didn¡¯t respond as she gazed back at Sol. The two were locked in a sudden staring contest for a full minute until Sol awkwardly looked away. Sol could tell this was heading nowhere and decided to take a more direct approach. "Okay how about this, let¡¯s split up. You can do whatever you want or nothing at all. We can meet up back at the inn before dusk." n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Amber nodded and disappeared from his view using her invisibility skill. Sol knew she left because he could see her mana signature sift through the busy streets without touching or bumping into anyone on the way. He didn¡¯t know why she went invisible to leave, but he didn¡¯t really care that much; she had done weirder things. Sol also worded what he said like an order so Amber would actually follow it. Sol seldom ordered Amber around as he knew why she obeyed to a fault and felt guilty for doing so but he had to. Not only did Sol need some alone time, but he didn¡¯t want Amber to grow attached to following him around. Sol knew she had next to no independence thanks to the mind alterations, but recently he had seen her express herself from time to time. So Sol felt this was a good chance to give her a small push. Now alone, Sol turned to the bustling streets and wondered. "Hmm¡­ where to then?" Sol didn¡¯t really know what the city had to offer besides adventuring rted matters so he was stumped on what to do. Sol wandered aimlessly through the city and eventually found a nice park to rx in. Sol sat on the grass under a tree as he watched the people go on their walks or chat. He felt it was a nice change of pace from constant fighting. There was only one problem. Sol¡¯s fingers were tapping the grass impatiently as he was bored out of his mind. It had been less than five minutes and he already wished he was doing something else. ¡¯Have I be restless?¡¯ Sol shook his head; he had always been this way. He was never one to sit still and watch others; he always had to be doing something. Even before obtaining [Siphoner], Sol would spend his time helping or studying information in the guild whenever he wasn¡¯t hunting to level up. It made Sol feel uneasy whenever he wasn¡¯t doing anything. ¡¯Might as well improve my skills¡­¡¯ Sol used [Reinterpret] and was taken back into the white room in his mind. He wasn¡¯t worried about what would happen to his real body as he was aware of his surroundings at all times. The only difference was that it felt like it was in the back of his mind. This gave Sol an idea. "What if¡­" With a wave of his hand, the edge of the white room gained color as it formed into the image of the park in his surroundings. People in the distance could be seen walking by as a nearby Sol was sitting under a tree. It was all happening in real time. "Wow, this makes it much more pleasant." Ignoring the fake Sol sitting by the tree, Sol summoned another clone and practiced a variety of skills. Sol wasn¡¯t sure which one he should focus on so for now he will try a few and see if there were any he could change or drastically improve. Chapter 100: Variant Skill Hours passed as Sol practiced with his skills. If there was one thing he learned from changing [Earth Hammer] into [Terra Spikes], it was that it was much better to analyze every aspect of the skill and find direct ways to improve them rather than mindlessly repeating the skills over and over. While repeatedly practicing would eventually level up the skill, it was much slower, and learning how the skill actually worked improved Sol¡¯s ability to better control it. It was like switching from blinking automatically to manually. The movements of the mana, the way his body moved, it was mostly subconsciously ingrained by [Siphon] and the system. It was when he took manual control that he could learn to create the earth spikes without a weapon to act as a medium. Sol also found out that gaining [Terra Spikes] was mostly a fluke. He found some skills much harder to fundamentally change and others much easier. One of the skills he practiced, [Ground Shrink], was one of the harder ones to change. The most he could do was find ways to increase the power of his legs to move faster while also increasing the recovery time to use it again. The only skill he was able to slightly change was [Barricade]. While it drastically increased defense, Sol found it too inconvenient for the skill to also immobilize the user. He found out he could cancel the skill by changing the way he locked his body when using the skill. It would keep its strong pose to handle the brunt of attacks but if needed he could stop at any time. There were also skills Sol couldn¡¯t practice with at all, or at least didn¡¯t know how to. [Wild Hunt] was the prime example. Since the white room was only so big and he knew everything that urred in it, there was no good way to verify how it worked in action. The second effect was also impossible to use, as whenever Sol tried tomunicate with nature, he felt like his mana was trying to contact something but whenever it did, nothing responded. Sol knew this didn¡¯t work because there was no nature in this white room, so he could only practice it in the real world, but he didn¡¯t want to do that as the month-long cooldown was too long to test it out. Sol noticed it was gettingte and decided to end today¡¯s practice. Although he decided to stop now, he knew he would probably keep practicing back in the inn at night. Leaving the white room, Sol saw a few messages pop up. [Ground Shrink] leveled up! (1 -> 2) [Snap Punch] leveled up! (4 -> 6) [Basic Psychic Mastery] leveled up! (2 -> 3) [Concealment] evolved into [Invisibility]! [Barricade] transformed into [Barricade (Variant)]! n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om ¡¯Variant?¡¯ The name reminded him of the variant kobold he fought. Variants were different or mutated versions of monsters, Sol reasoned it was the same with skills. [Barricade (Variant)] Lv 9: Take a defensive stance that greatly enhances defense by 800%. Can be canceled early. Duration: 5 seconds. Cooldown: 2 minutes. Sol wasn¡¯t surprised by the effects as he already knew what the changes were going to be, so after giving it a nce, he closed the skill description and made his way back to the inn. When Sol arrived, he noticed Amber was already there in the dining hall. She was being berated by one of the cooks, and Sol couldn¡¯t really make out what they were talking about. "Why the hell did you think it was a good idea to use sugar-" Sol overheard a little bit of what the chef was saying before the man suddenly stopped. The cook now looked nervous, like he was on thin ice with the woman in front of him. "Hey Amber, is everything alright?" Sol couldn¡¯t see it from the table blocking the view, but Amber silenced the cook with her unique dagger, pointed menacingly at his thigh. Amber herself couldn¡¯t exin it, but she didn¡¯t want Sol to know she was learning to cook, at least not yet. The cook being poked with the dagger understood what she wanted and spoke up, "Nope! Everything. Is. Just. Peachy!" "Uhhh, okay? I¡¯m gonna head up for the night, tomorrow before dawn let¡¯s meet up and head to the dungeon." Amber nodded, she hid the dagger back in her spatial ring, which relieved the cook and also left to go to her room. Sol followed behind as he went to his room leaving a cook who was terrified over what almost happened. "Fuck¡­ Why did I say yes to teaching her just because she was pretty?" The cookmented over his poor decision and hoped she would never approach him ever again. To be honest the cook believed everything was fine during the lessons, the only odd part was how she rarely spoke. It wasn¡¯t until just now that his life was in danger. Luckily for him, Amber would be in the dungeon for the next two weeks assuring his safety for a while. At least until they returned. Sol back in his room didn¡¯t n on sleeping but to instead continue practicing. Sol decided to focus on the ones he wouldn¡¯t be able to level up by using [Siphon] in the near future. Activating [Reinterpret] and appearing in the white room once more Sol summoned his clone and restarted his practice session. ¡­ Just before sunrise, Sol exited the white room. [Snap Punch] leveled up! (6 -> 8) [Counter] leveled up! (1 -> 3) [st Arrow] evolved into [Exploding Arrow]! [Barrage] evolved into [Unending Volley]! [Exploding Arrow] Lv 1: Launch a heavily mana charged arrow that deals massive damage in an area. Mana cost: 100. [Unending Volley] Lv 1: Enter a focused state that allows one to rapidly fire an endless volley of arrows. Fires 5 arrows per second until users concentration breaks or reaches exhaustion. A few skills had leveled up, and two of them had even evolved. Sol knew when the skills evolved in the white room, as he felt a much bigger change with the two skillspared to normal level ups. Feeling refreshed and ready to go, Sol got ready and headed downstairs. Sol ordered breakfast for himself and Amber, and just as the food was being served, she arrived. The two ate their meals and, ready to take the dungeon by storm, headed to Necropolis with the intention of reaching the peak of B-Rank by the time they left. Chapter 101: 11th Floor The teleport sigil on the 10th floor shed as Sol and Amber appeared out of thin air. Sol looked around and noticed they were not alone, with a few parties also getting ready to dive into the dungeon. Sol had seen other parties before while diving into the dungeon, but they avoided making any contact with them. There weren¡¯t any rules that prohibited making contact with other parties, but there was a higher degree of danger doing so in a dungeon. If for some reason conflict arose from stealing someone¡¯s kill or over resources found and it ended with a fight, any who died would be forever lost in the dungeon. There wouldn¡¯t even be a body to recover if that happened. No one wanted to die that way so they usually kept to themselves. At least that was usually the case. "Attention! I better not see any of you on the 13th floor, western side! Our party will be hunting there and will attack any trespassers on sight!" The one speaking was a rather intimidatingly tall sharp jawed man who stood in front of a group of 30 adventurers. ¡¯How do they n to gain any experience with such arge group?¡¯ Sol had a small misconception as to why these people were in the dungeon. This group had no intention to level up, but to instead harvest the valuable resources of the dungeon. All these adventurers couldn¡¯t progress anymore in their careers for a multitude of reasons. Some were dealt poor talents that made it harder for them to fight the stronger enemies on deeper floors, a few of them had debt they had to pay off, and others simply didn¡¯t want to risk their lives and now devoted themselves to making easy money. They imed the west side of the 13th floor because with their quantity, they would be able to strip it clean of resources. The monsters didn¡¯t pose a threat with their numbers making it an easy job. The only downside of this resource gathering was that it stripped the dungeon of everything it had. The materials don¡¯t regrow that fast so they had to rotate between different floors so they could maintain high earnings. This caused a lot of friction with other parties who were smaller and were unable to find anything good after the huge group passed through the day before. Although the other parties had a lot of resentment towards the group, therge group vastly outnumbered the other parties and it would take all of them joining together to pose a threat to them. Some had tried to report their behavior to the Adventurers Guild, but they were told that nothing could be done. They weren¡¯t doing anything technically illegal; it fell in a legally gray area. The group wasn¡¯t iming dungeon territory as their own, they just stated they would be there and warned them to not interfere with their hunting. As far as the rules were concerned, that was normal party behavior. Sol took note of the area so he could avoid itter. Although Sol didn¡¯t like the way they were acting, it was a lot of people and he wouldn¡¯t start a brawl just because he disagreed with their methods. The two walked past the other adventurers and made their way to the dungeon passage but were stopped by one of the members of therge group. "Hey you! Stop! You¡¯re gonna have to wait until we are ready." Sol spoke back now annoyed, "What?" "Ya heard me. You don¡¯t have to wait long, just give us five minutes." The dismissive attitude really peeved Sol but he still didn¡¯t want to get in a tussle with them, so he let it be. Sol turned around and took a seat on the floor nearby with the thought that if they did take too long he and Amber would just use [Invisibility] and sneak past them. Amber followed silently behind Sol and leaned against the wall next to him. A few minutes passed and three people came from the teleport sigil. The trio headed to therge group and the middle-aged man in front was apologizing to the group. "Hey everyone, sorry we¡¯rete." The sharp jawed man was the one who spoke back in a half joking manner. "You had us waiting, almost thought y¡¯all were gonna no show." "Nah, wouldn¡¯t miss this for the world. There was a long line for potions today." The sharp jawed man turned to his other group members, "Everyone ready?" The ones sitting stood up and everyone nodded. The sharp jawed man led the group to the passage as the other parties waited for them to leave. Seeing they were finally on the move, Sol stood up and with Amber made their way to the passage before once again being stopped. This time by an orange haired woman who led a smaller party of 4 other adventurers. "Hey, you should wait a bit longer." Feeling this was getting ridiculous, Sol almost shouted at the woman but managed to hold himself back. Even so, his patience was running thin. "Why? Is there a line for ten entire floors? Isn¡¯t there enough space for everyone?" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om The woman shook her head, "Sorry, I didn¡¯t mean it that way. We are all waiting for that group to get further ahead. If we follow behind them too closely they will think we are trying to either backstab them or take the materials for ourselves. More than a few groups have disappeared that way." Seeing she meant well, Sol felt guilty. "I¡¯m also sorry. I thought you were gonna be like them." Sheughed, "No worries. Water under the bridge. I can tell you¡¯re new here so let me give you a tip. I suggest you take it slow for a day or two and let that group get to their hunting spot. Then you don¡¯t have to risk identally bumping into them." Sol understood her reasoning, but he didn¡¯t have the luxury to spend time on the earlier floors. ¡¯Time is limited, but we should spend some time fighting the enemies on this floor before fighting their stronger versions.¡¯ Sol appreciated the tip. "Thanks, I¡¯ll keep that in mind." "No problem, see ya around." The woman waved her hand and returned to her group to wait. Sol sat down and waited; eventually, ten minutester one of the parties judged it was a good time to head in. Others seeing the party move in also stood up ready to go inside. The duo watched as party after party went into the dungeon until only they were thest ones. "You ready?" With a simple nod from Amber, the two also headed into the 11th floor of the dungeon, ready to tackle these new and stronger enemies. Chapter 102: A Day In The Life In the center of Crestal City stood the royal pce, built by the greatest architects, builders, and mages the kingdom had at its disposal. It was intended to stand tall and strong, symbolizing the eternal prosperity of the kingdom. Not only was the pcerge enough to house an entire army, but it also implemented the best security measures the kingdom could afford. An entire magic array covered the pce, negating almost all stealth skills, including invisibility, and preventing the use of any magic that didn¡¯t take ce in the training grounds. The only way one could cast magic outside of the training grounds was by having an emblem that was only bestowed to trusted individuals by the royal family. These individuals could be grand mages, knight captains, or other important personnel. The emblems were attuned to those they were bestowed upon to prevent thieves from making use of the stolen emblems. In one of the countless rooms of the pce, a 22-year-old youngdy with long golden hair sat behind a desk. She wore an extravagant blue and white dress thatplemented her already charming appearance. The youngdy, none other than Princess Valerie, the future queen of the Kingdom of Crestelia, reviewed document after document, trying to make sense of the madness written on them. She had been reading these documents all night, evident by the bags under her eyes. A knock was heard as a maid entered the room. "Your Highness, it¡¯s time for today¡¯s lesso-" The maid paused when she saw Valerie¡¯s tired face. Although the maid should have been used to seeing this by now, it still saddened her every time she saw how much Valerie silently endured. Putting down the papers in front of her, Valerie nodded. "Thank you. I¡¯ll be ready soon, I just need a moment." The princess opened a nearby drawer and took out a ss bottle with light orange liquid inside. She drank the entire bottle, and immediately herplexion improved. The potion she drank was a rousing potion, but not just any normal potion could have such fast and powerful effects, especially for someone of her level. This one had to be at the very least of unique rarity. The higher someone¡¯s stats are, the less effective weaker potions are. Amon example would be health potions. To someone with 1500 health, a potion that only heals 200 is just a drop in the bucket, and sometimes if the wounds were too drastic, it won¡¯t even manage to heal that much in its attempt to prevent more health loss. Valerie had high enough vitality that she could endure a few sleepless nights, but she hadn¡¯t slept once since the loss of her brother, the crown prince, three weeks ago. Not because she was mourning his loss; she had yet to even be given the chance to do so because all of her brother¡¯s responsibilities now fell onto her, and she had to catch up quickly. Valerie was never expected to take over the kingdom, and she herself never wanted to either. She got along great with her brother, and following her father¡¯s suggestion, she never took any lessons on managing and leading the kingdom. This was to prevent any factions from seeing Valerie as a potential ruler and working towards dividing the kingdom in an attempt to gain more power. Now that came back to bite the royal family, with Valerie¡¯s brother now dead from a dungeon monster house and her father severely ill from unknown causes. She had to learn everything she needed to know regarding ruling, managing others, and diplomacy as quickly as possible before her father passed away. Fully recovered thanks to the potion, Valerie stood up, fixed her dress, and made her way to where the military formation expert was waiting to teach her. ¡­ After another exhausting lesson, Valerie had some free time between now and her next lesson. She didn¡¯t n to rest and was instead making her way back to her study to review other lessons until she was stopped by one of the most important people in the pce. It was another young woman the same age as Valerie with blue hair that cut off at ear length. She wore traditional white robes, which also worked as her formal attire for the role she had in the pce. She was Wendy, the kingdom¡¯s saintess. A verymon name, but how could hermoner parents know she would unlock the extremely elusive talent of [Fate]. While Valerie wanted to head back to continue studying, she knew she had to make time for important people like Wendy. "Good morning, Wendy. Have you been able to see anything yet?" Wendy shook her head. "Barely. I don¡¯t know who tampered with fate this hard, but they made it impossible to really see anything." "Really? But didn¡¯t that happen a week ago?" "Yes, but¡­" Wendy paused to think of a good way to exin it to someone who can¡¯t see the lines of fate like her. "Whenever someone tampers with fate, they usually cause ripples to spread throughout it; usually, it¡¯s like dropping a pebble in ake, small ripples. This, however¡­ it¡¯s like they dropped a massive boulder into theke; everywhere I see, all I can see are the massive waves. Even a weekter, the ripples still make it hard to even tell what they did, but yesterday I was able to see something." "What did you see?" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "They changed the fate of a single individual. I didn¡¯t even think it was possible to do that. What¡¯s even more important is that whoever this person is, he is currently in the capital." Surprised, as this could be a disaster for the kingdom, Valerie asked, "What?! Can you pinpoint their location? Maybe if you see them in person, you can find out more." "It¡¯s not possible. I can only see fate for a limited time, and there are too many people in the capital to sift through all of them. All we can do is wait until the ripples settle and try to figure it out from there." Valerie sighed internally, it was another problem to put on the never ending list. "We can only hope for the best then." "Yes, I just thought you should know." "Although we can¡¯t do anything now, the moment you find out the smallest of details, let me know as soon as possible." "Will do, Princess." Bidding farewell, Valerie headed back to her study, and before reviewing the material, she took out another potion. This one was a mental acuity potion that helped focusing and retaining information. By this point, she was sick of constantly consuming potions, but she had no choice if she was to fill the vacancy left by her brother. Chapter 103: Dead Prowler In a secluded part of the 11th floor, Sol was alone as he crouched, scanning the area for potential traps. The guide didn¡¯t pinpoint the exact location of where they could be, as traps, once activated, disappeared and rearmed in different locations throughout the floor. The guide did exin what kind of traps to look out for, which was why Sol was checking the floors for grooves to avoid identally stepping on anything. Sol had yet to find one, so he was mostly working off what the guide said. It was at that moment when Sol was looking at the ground that a figure appeared behind him and plunged downwards with a dagger. Sol suddenly turned around with his shield appearing from his spatial ring,pletely blocking the blow. Amber appeared behind the enemy, as she had been waiting for it to appear, and stabbed downwards with her new dagger. Sol had already noticed the figure trailing behind them, waiting for them to let their guard down. That was why Sol told Amber to go invisible and wait to attack at the perfect time, and why he purposefully made it seem like he was looking for traps. Out of its stealth, Sol used [Analysis], though he already knew what they were dealing with from the information they had read ahead of time. Name: N/A Race: Dead Prowler Talents: [Stealth], [Dagger], [Instant Killer] Level: 72 HP: 549/1400 MP: 300 Str: 80 Vit: 90 (+50) Agi: 150 (+40) Int: 10 Wis: 30 Talent Skills: [Vanish] Lv 7, [Critical Eye] Lv 5 Passive Skills: [Living Corpse] Lv MAX, [Agility Up] Lv 8, [Intermediate Dagger Mastery] Lv 8, [Invisibility] Lv 4, [Muffled Movements] Lv MAX, [Basic Throwing Mastery] Lv 8 Active Skills: [Ground Shrink] Lv 4, [Crippling Strike] Lv 9, [Blurry Steps] Lv 5, [Backstab] Lv 8, [Disarm] Lv 4 A Dead Prowler. A stealthy assassin with most of its skills and abilities centralized on gaining the first strike that could grievously wound those who were caught unaware. But once it lost the element of stealth, it was light work to deal with them. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om With daggers plunged into the Dead Prowler¡¯s back, Sol withdrew the Lipon and pulled its trigger, sending a deadly ice de outwards. Elemental Ice Sword Unique Attack: 145-175 Durability: 900/900 Skills: [Sharpness] Lv 7, [Frost Touch] Lv 7, [Ice Shatter] Lv 7 ¡¯It¡¯s the same.¡¯ Using the same elemental cartridge that the weapon came with, Sol used [Cross sh], leaving trails of ice on the body of the Dead Prowler. You have in a Lv 72 Dead Prowler! Gained 270,000 Exp (200%) Learned [Disarm] Lv 3! Learned [Backstab] Lv 6! [Invisibility] leveled up! (1 -> 3) [Disarm] Lv 3: Send a perfectly aimed attack at the opponent that forces the target to involuntarily release their weapon. Cooldown: 3 minutes. [Backstab] Lv 6: A powerful attackmitting the user¡¯s entire body. Deals 300% increased damage. Cooldown: 4 minutes. After processing the knowledge of both skills, Sol wasn¡¯t that amazed by either of them. ¡¯Backstab is okay, but it has a lot of requirements to sessfullynd. It really is only viable when using it as a surprise attack. Disarm is a great skill for fighting other people, but here it only works on certain undead.¡¯ In the 11th to 19th floors, only the Dead Prowlers and one other enemy wielded weapons. This made the skill not very useful at this moment, but Sol knew that in the knight selection, it could surprise his opponents if well-timed. ¡¯I should level it up and keep it as a trump card. The other two skills I¡¯ll take will be [Agility Up] and [Blurry Steps] for [Perfect Bnce] and [Overpower].¡¯ With the monster dead, Sol turned to Amber for her opinion. "What do you think about the Dead Prowler?" "Smart." Amber didn¡¯t have to think about a response, as she already knew based on its actions. Sol nodded in agreement. The undead from the 1st to 9th floors barely had any sentience; the Skeleton Mage was the only one who could barely think, and it was just to cast the most appropriate spells; it still attacked blindly. Though they had only fought the Dead Prowler, it showed them that they would have to be on guard at all times. "The guide also said these were the easiest enemies¡­" With a party member who could detect enemies or a magic tool that had a simr function, the Dead Prowlers were rendered useless. The other enemies didn¡¯t have such an easy way to counter and tended to be prolonged fights. The only saving grace was that these enemies tended to be solitary and roamed the floors alone, and if they did group up, it would at most be in groups of three. With the Dead Prowler that was following them now dead, they could continue their search for the other three types of enemies that they will encounter on theseing floors. ¡­ Hours passed as the duo reached the end of the floor. They had fought more Dead Prowlers, Spectres, and Animated Armor but were unable to find thest enemy listed in the guide, which was Shadow Amalgamations. The Spectres provided magic-based skills improving his [Mana Efficiency] and an interesting skill called [Life Drain]. [Life Drain] Lv 6: Absorb the life force of the target. Absorption rate based on intelligence. The other enemy, Animated Armor, helped Sol improve his [Invincible Body] as it had multiple of the skills thatbined into it. It had other good skills, but Sol decided it was best to focus all his effort on improving his defense. Checking his watch, Sol noticed it took them almost 16 hours just to reach the stairs, which amazed him how such arge structure could exist under the capital. ¡¯If for some reason this dungeon copses, wouldn¡¯t a giant sinkhole appear in the city?¡¯ It was a random thought, as Sol had never heard of such a thing happening, but theoretically, it sounded possible. Heading down the long staircase, Sol saw a few of the parties from early today setting up camp. He did notice how therge group from before was not here. Looking around, Sol saw the orange haired woman and decided to find out where they were. "Hey umm, you?" The woman chuckled. "Samantha, but most call me Sammy." "Nice to meet you Sammy. I¡¯m Sol. I was wondering where that big group went." "Oh them? They should be by the 13th floor by now." "What?! How?" Sol and Amber were by no means slow, quickly dealing with the enemies they encountered. What mostly slowed them down was checking for traps to avoid identally triggering corrosive gas or cave-ins. Sammy exined, "They have just about everything in their group. Traps are easily found thanks to their trackers, and enemies don¡¯t stand a chance when they attack as a mob. They can also move really fast thanks to their wind mages who cast spells to increase the group¡¯s speed." Sol felt jealous of how fast they could traverse the dungeon. Even if Sol used agility-enhancing spells like [Tailwind], they could still identally fall for traps as they had no good way to identify them. "I see, thank you." "Yeah, no problem. If you have any other questions, you can alwayse to us." Sammy turned back to rest with her party, and Sol went with Amber to set up their camp. Sol took out his tent, but he couldn¡¯t bring himself to set it up. "Hey Amber. How long do you think you can go without sleeping?" Chapter 104: Tired "Amber, back up!" Amber leaped back as multiple earth spikes rose from the ground and pierced arge suit of armor. Half of the spikes broke against the extremely durable armor, but the rest managed to break through, shredding the metal. Now immobilized by the earth spikes, Sol quickly chanted his new favorite spell. "[Incinerate]!" A violent me erupted, consuming the moving suit of armor. The metal began to melt under the intense heat until the core that was protected beneath the armor couldn¡¯t withstand the damage anymore and broke. You have in a Lv 74 Animated Armor! Gained 270,000 Exp (200%) [Invincible Body] leveled up! (6 -> 7) ¡¯Finally, it leveled up.¡¯ n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om When fighting the Animated Armors, Sol had only been siphoning the skills that werebined into [Invincible Body]. Even after going through an entire floor, it had yet to level up once. Only now was Sol finally able to make some progress. ¡¯Could be for a variety of reasons, but it¡¯s likely because each skill now contributes much less to the overall skill.¡¯ Sol opened his status page to look at his progress. Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner], [Transformer] Level: 69 Exp: 2,630,740/19,600,000 HP: 1400 MP: 1400 Str: 70 (+70) Vit: 70 (+70) Agi: 65 (+70) Int: 70 (+70) Wis: 70 (+70) Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 4, [Analysis] Lv 6, [Aggregate] Lv EX, [Reinterpret] Lv EX Passive Skills: [Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Counter] Lv 3, [Shortened Cast] Lv MAX, [Increased Mana Regeneration] Lv MAX, [Mana Perception] Lv 6, [Increased Health Regeneration] Lv 3, [Mana Efficiency] Lv 7, [Precise Coordination] Lv 6, [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 3, [Intermediate Weapon Mastery] Lv 6, [Wild Hunt] Lv 1, [Invincible Body] Lv 7, [Perfect Bnce] Lv 2, [Death Absorption] Lv 6 Active Skills: [Cross sh] Lv 3, [Ground Shrink] Lv 2, [Snap Punch] Lv 8, [Exploding Arrow] Lv 1, [Invisibility] Lv 5, [Death Cyclone] Lv 9, [Terra Spikes] Lv 5, [Rock Throw] Lv 4, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Fell Cleave] Lv 8, [Crippling Strike] Lv 8, [Destructive Charge] Lv 8, [Telepathy] Lv 1, [Barricade (Variant)] Lv 8, [Unending Volley] Lv 1, [Intermediate Elemental Magic] Lv 5, [Overpower] Lv 3, [Create Undead] Lv 6, [Weapon Enhancement] Lv 7, [Disarm] Lv 7, [Backstab] Lv 6, [Life Drain] Lv 5 Out of all Sol¡¯sbined skills, only [Invincible Body] and [Perfect Bnce] have been able to level up. Sol was a bit worried at his lifespan apparently increasing by another 50 years, but he decided to leave that impending existential crisis for his future self. Turning to Amber, Sol could tell she was tired, and he felt slightly guilty over his actions. Fifteen hours ago, Sol suggested they didn¡¯t rest, but instead kept going until the 13th floor and rest there. Sol logically argued that the further they got, the more they could level up and improve. It was also possible to do because of their increased stats, allowing them to function for longer periods of time. Sol got the idea from hearing of therge group that bulldozed through the dungeon. There was no real reason to stay and rest for so long when they could keep going. Other parties weren¡¯t able to do this, as their party members specialized in different fields and invested in different stats, so some who hadn¡¯t increased their vitality enough wouldn¡¯t be able to keep going without resting. The only problem was Amber didn¡¯t have vitality as high as Sol. While a physical fighter, her stats were more invested in agility and strength, with vitalitygging behind on both. If they weren¡¯t fighting Amber would have been able to go multiple days without sleep or rest butbat consumes a lot of stamina and tires one out quickly. Luckily for Amber, they were reaching the end of the floor and she would be able to get some well-deserved rest soon. ¡­ Upon reaching the entrance of the 13th floor, they noticed how there was a sectioned off area with a ratherrge camp set up. In the entrance of the camp were three adventurers who were guarding the area. Sol easily guessed it was the camp of therge group. Sol went to a nice spot not imed by anyone and set up camp. Sol also built Amber¡¯s tent, as he could tell, even with her attempts to hide it, how tired she was. The moment Sol finished setting her tent, she immediately went to sleep without bothering to eat food. ¡¯I may have gone too far. Let¡¯s take it one floor at a time from now on.¡¯ Although Sol still had energy to spare, he had to take into consideration the wellbeing of hispanion. Sol should have known by now that if he asked Amber if she could do something, she would always agree, even if it would be difficult for her. Sol made himself a quick meal and entered his tent. He didn¡¯t n on sleeping, but instead was going to trybining new skills. Taking his time to review all the skills through the strings [Aggregate] showed, Sol decided to firstbine something easy. The reddish-hue string of [Exploding Arrow] began to wrap around the grayish white [Unending Volley]. The process was very easy, as he only chose tobine two skills, and soon he saw the results. Learned [Bombardment] Lv 1! [Bombardment] Lv 1: Unleash a devastating rain of exploding arrows that destroy everything in its path. Mana cost: 25 per arrow. Fires 5 arrows per second until the user¡¯s concentration breaks, reaches exhaustion, or mana depletion. From the skill description alone, Sol felt like it was a good improvement, but he wasn¡¯t too sure if its strength was greater than the individual skills. Sol wanted to try it out but was unable to do so, as from its description, it would be very loud and he didn¡¯t want to bother Amber who was sleeping. It was at that moment Sol had an idea and used [Reinterpret]. Entering the white room, Sol didn¡¯t summon a clone and instead manifested a copy of the Pollen Bow in his hands and a quiver full of arrows on his back. Sol took a deep breath to calm his aim. Once he was ready, he used [Bombardment] andunched the first arrow. Arrow after arrow was released as his hands blurred from his quiver to his bow. Multiple arrows flew with their tips glowing hot red as they reached the end of the white room. BOOM BOOM BOOM Loud explosions reverberated in the room as the entire area kept constantly exploding from the exploding arrows. Soon the explosions stopped as he looked to see the damage. The entire side of the white room was scorched and blown apart; Sol knew if he had to take that attack it would severely hurt him. Sol noticed how the area it was impacting could be even bigger and with a single thought expanded the walls of the room further. Once expanded, Sol released another barrage and assessed the damage. The skill could easily cover a 30 meter area, but that was if he spread his shots. Sol was also able to focus the destruction onto a single point andpletely obliterate a small 1-meter area. Needless to say, the skill was much stronger than before, leaving Solpletely satisfied. Sol exited the white room and decided to continuebining other skills to see what he could make. Chapter 105: Shadow Root A few hourster, Sol looked at the descriptions of his new and enhanced skills. [Invincible Body] Lv 6: Increase Defense by 220. Nullify physical damage by 30%. High chance to ignore mental status effects. Increased health regeneration by 300%. Able to slowly regrow small body parts. [Weapon Enhancement (Variant)] Lv 7: Enhance two aspects of your weapon: Sharpness, weight, speed, etc. Able to apply life stealing properties in ce of one enhancement. Mana cost varies depending on the strength and type of enhancement. [Storm Blitz] Lv 8: Violently spin your de towards a direction using momentum to further increase its destructive power. Continuous use will increase the distance and power of each subsequent spin. Chance to lose control increases the longer it¡¯s in effect. Cooldown: 3 minutes. Sol added [Increased Health Regeneration] to [Invincible Body] thinking it would be better tobine it with the defensive skill over [Increased Mana Regeneration]. Though the two were named simrly, they fundamentally functioned differently and he doubted it would be a goodbination. The new addition to [Invincible Body] ended up degrading the skill back to level 6, but he believed it to be worth it. It gained the additional effect of slowly regenerating small body parts. While he wasn¡¯t sure exactly how small it could regenerate, he wasn¡¯t very keen on losing a hand just to find out. Sol alsobined [Life Drain] into [Weapon Enhancement], removing the skill¡¯s main weakness. Originally, to use [Life Drain] required physical contact to be used, but Sol mostly used weapons when fighting. Sol would have to let go of his weapon to make use of the skill which made it hard for him to make good use of it. Now Sol could enchant the weapon itself to gain the life stealing properties. This change wasn¡¯t drastic enough to be its own new skill, so it only became a variant version of the original skill. ¡¯So [Reinterpret] isn¡¯t the only way to make variant skills¡­ Would it be possible to make variant skills without [Reinterpret] or [Aggregate]?¡¯ If Sol thought about how [Reinterpret] functions, he would understand that the way the skill changed was based on how he directly changed it after analyzing and improving it. The talent skill made the process much easier by providing an environment where he couldpletely envision and practice with skills endlessly, but it was possible without it. Sol had yet to see variant skills and didn¡¯t know if anyone else had even managed to do such a thing, so he changed his focus to the only other actual new skill he made. Solbined [Destructive Charge] and [Death Cyclone], which became [Storm Blitz]. Without trying it out, Sol felt like it was a decent upgrade but not anything amazing. How it used to be, [Death Cyclone] couldn¡¯t be used while moving. It worked well in the earlier floors, but in this section of the dungeon, enemies wouldn¡¯t blindly charge into a sword if they saw iting. Having a higher sense of awareness made [Death Cyclone] essentially useless. Sol hoped by adding the not often used skill of [Destructive Charge] would give him more agency in moving around while keeping the destructive power of the spin. By the time Sol finished his skill improvements, Amber came out of her tent looking much better than before. With higher vitality, the recovery speed also increases, so what would normally have left someone sleeping for over half a day was only a 6 hour rest for Amber. Sol made a savory meal for both of them using the supplies they bought beforehand. Sol¡¯s cooking was once again rapidly devoured by Amber, and the two headed off into the dungeon. The enemies they encountered were no match for the coordinated efforts of the two, and they had already developed strategies for each enemy type with the exception of one they had yet to encounter. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om When fighting Dead Prowlers, they would have to bait it into attacking first. If the Dead Prowler realized the two knew it was there, it would immediately run away, using all its movement abilities to get as far away as possible. While the two could give chase, it would be unwise to do so, as the guide stated that Dead Prowlers would try to bait chasers into traps or other enemies. Specters mostly relied on their talent skill [Soul Fire] to deal damage. They mostly fought by flying at their enemies and burning their health and mana with multiple debilitating skills. The only way to prevent them from doing so was to never let them touch you. Their only weakness was their rtively slow speeds. Sol and Amber were able to easily maintain their distance, leaving the Specter helpless to their onught of attacks. The most troubling of the enemies were the Animated Armors. The pure chunks of walking metal were so incredibly durable that Amber was not able to deal much damage even with her unique daggers. Their only reliable source of damage was the usage of magic, so their strategy had to change ordingly. Amber yed the role of distracting the Animated Armor as she dodged its attacks while Sol cast spell after spell. The duo continued taking down undead after undead until they saw a pitch ck root that appeared to consume even the light surrounding it. Sol eximed, "Look over there, Amber! We haven¡¯t seen any materials until now." Having to trail behind where therge group had passed through, there were no materials or resources to be found. That group hadpletely stripped the dungeon of everything it had. Now that they were on the 13th floor, they had a real chance of finding materials. The two had found a shadow root, one of the rarer materials one could find in the dungeon. It was a highly concentrated version of dark essence useful for a variety of industries, making it worth a good amount. The guild paid 40 gold per shadow root, and the two were in rather dire need for money after spending most of it on upgrading their weapons. Solmented to Amber as he took out the tools to remove it. "This one looks especially potent, never seen one absorbing light." Carefully removing the shadow root from the wall it sprung out of, Sol was about to put it in his spatial ring until he heard someone shouting from behind him. "Hey you! Put that down!" Chapter 106: Pushover Sol was caught unaware as he forgot to check his surroundings properly because the shadow root took most of his attention. The one who yelled at him was a tall man with long arms that almost reached his knees. His arms weren¡¯t extremely long, but long enough that they were noticeable from a single nce. The man was apanied by 4 other adventurers who had a look of anger mixed with annoyance. "We¡¯re letting you off with a warning. Put that root on the ground and leave." The man made it sound like he was doing the two a favor while still robbing. This especially peeved Sol. "What? No. We found it first. Also, we aren¡¯t even on the western side of the floor." Sol had chosen a route that specifically didn¡¯t enter the west side of the floor, though it did go near the center of the floor. They had to take this path as it was the fastest route and going all the way around the east side would take more than a day. "Like we give a shit. We want that root." Sol wasn¡¯t one to pick fights, but he also knew when to stand his ground. If Sol did as they said, they would see him as a pushover. They will take himpromising as a sign of weakness and take even more from them. If they could take from him once, who¡¯s to say they couldn¡¯t take from him again? The man gripped the handle of his sheathed sword. "Last chance, kid." The adventures behind him began to slowly unsheathe their weapons. They wouldn¡¯t hesitate to attack if Sol didn¡¯t surrender the item. Keeping his eyes fixated on the group, Sol spoke to Amber telepathically. -Stand behind me, but get ready to fight.- Amber couldn¡¯t respond as the skill only allowed for one waymunication, but she didn¡¯t have to, as she silently took position behind Sol. This didn¡¯t escape the eyes of the long armed man as he disdainfully gave the order. N?v(el)B\\jnn "Kill ¡¯em!" Surprisingly, the one who acted first was one of the mages in the back, but he didn¡¯t cast any attack spells. "[Harden Earth]!" The mage¡¯s mana spread through the ground in a way Sol had never seen before. It didn¡¯t seem harmful, so it left him confused. Hoping that it wasn¡¯t some kind of trap forter, Sol ignored it and took out his bow and used [Bombardment]. Multiple arrows with glowing red tips wereunched with the intention to carpet bomb the entire passage. Before the arrows could reach their destination, the other mage cast a spell just in time. "[Wind Wall]!" The trajectories of the arrows were sent in different directions away from the party, with a few flying back towards Sol. Not expecting his own attack to be turned against him, Sol quickly took out his shield and used [Barricade (Variant)], activated its [Wide Cover] and also activated his boots [Wind Barrier] just in case. Sol knew how devastating the arrows could be and didn¡¯t know if his shield would be enough to cover for both of them. As the barrier of wind formed, the first arrow made contact, erupting into a powerful st. The other arrows that were deflected in other directions also began to blow up, and a terrifying chain reaction urred. Arrows caught in the initial st began to blow up, and the entire hallway became scorching hot. When the explosion began to die down, Sol checked the durability of his shield. The Protector Rare Defense: 60 Durability: 156/850 Skills: [Wide Cover] Lv 5 ¡¯It was nearly full just a moment ago¡­¡¯ Sol put away his shield as he looked at the other side of the hallway to see the other party, surprised the duo came out unscathed. One of the adventurers who had a rapier asked her allies, "Is that a unique shield?" The long armed man nodded, "Probably, if so, you¡¯re in luck, Renard." Therge man who wielded a tower shield called Renard agreed, "I have been wanting to get a smaller shield for a while now." "Sure, you can have it. Tristan, block their escape. Renard, lead the front." The earth mage Tristan cast, "[Earth Wall]!" Tristan raised his shield as he began to move forward with his party not far behind. Behind Sol and Amber, a solid wall rose much stronger than Sol¡¯s [Earth Wall] when he used it long ago. The wall didn¡¯t scare Sol as he could break it with some effort, but even if he did and escaped, the group could pursue them easily. Sol turned back to Amber, but before he could even say anything, he realized she was gone. ¡¯She must be looking to take out the mages.¡¯ Sol didn¡¯t have to ask to know her intentions; the two had fought long enough together they could assume what each other was thinking. ¡¯If that¡¯s the case, I¡¯ll get you the opening you need!¡¯ Removing the Lipon from his spatial ring, Sol swapped out the cartridge with another one he had been wanting to try out. Pulling the trigger, a raging fire erupted from the handle as it quickly took form into a fire sword. Elemental Fire Sword Unique Attack: 145-175 Durability: 900/900 Skills: [Sharpness] Lv 7, [Burn] Lv 7, [Heat Wave] Lv 7 It took Sol a bit to understand how to transfer elemental mana into a cartridge, but once he figured it out, he made one of each element he had. Sol found that the attack and durability are the same for all the elements, but the skills changed slightly, but they also stay consistent. The first skill was based on the pattern fitted into the handle, which meant [Sharpness] for swords. The second one was a status affliction skill and the third was a skill that consumed arge portion of the cartridge¡¯s mana to release a special attack. With his zing sword in hand, Sol immediately released [Heat Wave] at the approaching group. As if sentient, the scorching fire sted towards the man in the front. Renardughed as he raised his shield towards the wave of fire. "You think this is hot?! My mom cooks with fires hotter than this!" Just before the fire reached Renard, he used [Barricade] to resist the attack. Seeing the man use that skill, Sol knew it was the perfect opportunity and yelled. "Now!" Chapter 107: Revenge Renard, unable to move while under the effects of [Barricade], saw spikes of rock and marble erupt out of nowhere targeting the woman with a rapier and the long armed man. The two were caught by surprise as the woman had a spike prate her leg while the long armed man managed to get out of the way in time. The two mages were shocked at the earth spikes and began to move to help their friends, but the moment they did spelled their doom. Amber appeared behind Tristan and stabbed directly into his neck. The earth mage was unable to even scream as his lungs filled with blood; his team waspletely unaware of his plight as their attention was focused on the raging fire and earth spikes. Unable to do anything, Amber finished the man off with one more well ced stab in the heart. Leaving before the man¡¯s body hit the ground, Amber repeated the same attack on the wind mage, finishing her off as well without any noise and retreated back to stealth. By the time the fire from [Heat Wave] died down and Renard was freed from his skill, two of his friends were already dead and another injured. No one saw who did it, but they could all guess it was the woman who was nowhere to be seen. They weren¡¯t able to process the death of theirrades as Sol amped up the attack, charging towards Renard with his me sword. The shield and elemental de shed with Renard¡¯s eyes shooting open with surprise at the fact he was losing in a contest of strength. Renard yelled in frustration. "Shit! Help me!" His teammates wanted to help but had to focus on watching their surroundings instead. They knew if they created the smallest of openings, that assassin would do the same she just did to their mages. The injured adventurer was even reluctant to drink a health potion in fear that would be enough to incur an attack. Under such conditions, the two could only watch as their friend was attacked by Sol helplessly. Under Sol¡¯s onught of attacks, eventually, Renard¡¯s shield became nothing more than scrap metal. Sol was about to deal the finishing blow, but he hesitated. ¡¯Do I really need to kill them?¡¯ Though it was but for a single moment, Renard noticed the opportunity and took it. With the remains of his shield, he threw them at Sol, hitting him in the stomach. It didn¡¯t do any significant damage, but it pushed Sol back far enough that it gave Renard some breathing room. Freed from Sol¡¯s attacks, Renard tried to back up to join back up with his allies. As he was moving back, Amber came out of invisibility and stabbed him in the back. Although Renard had full body armor, Amber could attack the gaps in his armor with unparalleled precision. Now that the two adventurers could see Amber, they immediately jumped in to save their friend. Thebined effort of the three made it hard for Amber to dish out any substantial damage. This all happened within a few short seconds, and when Sol recovered from being knocked back, he saw Amber being cornered by the three adventurers. ¡¯Now isn¡¯t the time to hesitate!¡¯ Sol used [Ground Shrink] to near instantly appear next to the adventurers and Amber and used [Cross sh] on Renard and the long armed man, creating arge gash on both of their bodies. "Guhah!" "Grahh!" Both of them stumbled backward, but Sol didn¡¯t let them have any breathing room. Sol released an onught of skills on the two men as Amber targeted the lone woman with the rapier. Sol finished Renard off this time with [Fell Cleave] as Amber killed the woman. The long armed man, being thest of his team alive, screamed in anger. "YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE! YOU WON¡¯T GET OUT OF HERE ALIVE!" "Funny. I was thinking the same thing." Sol raised his sword as he shed downwards at the man, but just before the zing sword could make contact, a bright light shed in all directions, blinding Sol and Amber. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Next thing the two knew, the long armed man was mysteriously gone. Sol was confused. "He didn¡¯t have any skills for escaping¡­ How did he get away?" Unable to find the man with [Mana Perception] and with no tracks to follow with [Wild Hunt], Sol had no idea where the man went. The two stood in the aftermath of the battle, with four bodiesying on the ground, not knowing what to do. This gave Sol even more questions. "Why aren¡¯t the bodies disappearing?" Everyone knew that all who died in the dungeon were consumed by it, but for the first time, Sol was seeing this not be the case. With so many questions, Sol decided to stop trying to make sense of it all and instead think of what to do next. "Amber, let¡¯s loot the bodies." If the bodies weren¡¯t going to disappear, it meant they could obtain all the items that would have normally disappeared without any issue. Sol also took the chance to [Siphon] the skills from the dead adventurers. [Mana Efficiency] leveled up! (7 -> 8) [Counter] leveled up! (3 -> 4) Learned [Piercing Lunge] Lv 5 [Piercing Lunge] Lv 5: Condense mana to the tip of your weapon and lunge forward, prating through most defenses. 150% increased damage. Mana Cost: 30 ¡¯Does less damage than other skills but can easily go through armor. Not bad.¡¯ Not long after they were both done looting the bodies, the ground rumbled, and the dead adventurers were absorbed into the ground. Seeing the bodies disappear, Sol now knew what was the cause of the dungeon¡¯s dyed reaction. ¡¯That earth mage¡¯s spell [Harden Earth] temporarily makes it impossible for the dungeon to take away bodies.¡¯ Sol siphoned the magic skills of both mages to learn new spells and in turn discovered why Tristan began the fight with that spell. It was so when they killed Sol and Amber they could loot their bodies. Thinking of how fast they were to cast the spell and their actions as a whole, Sol clenched his fist. "These people¡­ have done it many times before¡­" Amber turned to him not knowing what he was talking about. She understood it was about killing other adventurers but didn¡¯t understand why it angered Sol this way. Sol didn¡¯t bother to borate his feelings. "Forget it, let¡¯s just go to the next floor." ¡­ Near the entrance of the 13th floor, a blinding light shined, illuminating the dimly lit area. Two adventurers who were guarding the camp of therge group saw this and hurried over. Arriving, the two men see the long armed man heavily wounded. "Holy shit¡­ Is that you, Omar?" Omar spat blood and looked at them. "Of course, it¡¯s me you idiots! Get me a potion!" The two scrounged through their belongings and quickly gave him the best potion they had. Drinking the potion, Omar¡¯s wounds began to rapidly close, and he thought back to what just happened. ¡¯FUCK! Made me use the damn life saving item! I¡¯ll make you two pay!¡¯ Not waiting for his wounds to finish closing, he spoke to the two adventurers. "Give me a damnmunication crystal!" One of the men handed over a crystal they had for emergencies. It began to gently vibrate in Omar¡¯s hands as a voice answered from the crystal. "What happened?" "My team is dead, but you won¡¯t believe what I found." Chapter 108: Void Root Sol and Amber ran through the passage as Sol spun around with his bow and released a barrage of explosive arrows. However, the arrows didn¡¯t manage to reach their destination as a multitude of projectiles of fireballs, arrows, and daggers collided with them midair, causing them to explode prematurely. With his arrows negated, the remaining projectiles continued towards the duo. "[Wind Wall]!" Sol casted like he had never cast before, quickly creating a massive wall of wind that deflected the iing projectiles. With an exasperated face, Sol thought to himself, ¡¯Are they really going to keep us here till we die?!¡¯ ¡­ Four hours ago, on the 13th floor of Necropolis. Sol and Amber made rapid progress through the floor. They knew the group would seek retribution for killing their allies, so they nned to make themselves scarce and head to the next floor as soon as possible. Upon nearing the exit, Sol noticed ten mana signatures standing near the exit. Sol quietly told Amber, "Multiple people are guarding the exit, let¡¯s go invisible and sneak past." Although Sol was able to easily defeat a B-Ranker, that was only the case when they were alone. The power of numbers is very frightening, and together they could cover for each other¡¯s weaknesses. Sol got a taste of that firsthand when he fought the previous group of five, with his own attack being bounced back towards him. The only way Sol saw himself winning against such numbers was with the help of [Overpower], but at its current level, it would onlyst for a minute. Sol wasn¡¯t sure if that was enough to win the fight, and there was no point in risking it. Both of them went invisible, and Sol trailed behind Amber¡¯s mana signature as they approached the exit. As they turned the corner of the hallway, Sol was able to see who exactly was blocking the exit. They were all people Sol recognized from the big group of resource harvesters, with the sharp jawed man who appeared to be the leader in their midst. Sol used [Analysis] on them to get a better understanding of what they can do. Name: Erin Race: Human Talents: [Sword], [Water Affinity], [Foraging] Level: 87 Name: Remona Righart Race: Human Talents: [zing Spear], [Tracking], [Throwing] Level: 88 Name: Cassady Race: Human Talents: [Iron Wall], [Enduring], [Building] Level: 87 Name: Urian Stillmore Race: Human Talents: [Light Affinity], [Multicasting], [Amplifying] Level: 89 n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om There was a lot of variety between the adventurers blocking the exit, but most of them had one thing inmon. Most had one talent that wasn¡¯t rted tobat. One of the few exceptions to this was Urian, the tall sharp jawed man, who held a more authoritative presence in the group. Sol and Amber were nearing the group, and once they were 15 meters away, they heard one of them yell. "Someone¡¯s here!" The one who yelled was one of the swordsmen. Sol had no idea how he knew they were here, as he had no skills that allowed him to detect or see through their invisibility. The one who acted first was Urian, instantly casting a spell. "[Revealing Light]!" An orb of light appeared above him, illuminating the surroundings. Next thing Sol knew, he and Amber¡¯s invisibility was removed. Now exposed, Sol took a stance in front of Amber to protect her as he tried to settle this peacefully. Sol knew it was unlikely to work, but he wanted to give it a shot at least. "Let us through! I promise you¡¯ll never see us again." Urian took a step forward as he looked at the two of them and spoke in a morose manner. "I am not one to resort to conflict, but you did kill 4 of our friends. How do you n to make amends?" Sol¡¯s eyes twitched. ¡¯They attacked us first...¡¯ The man¡¯s shamelessness was too much even for Sol, but he could understand there was something Urian wanted. "What do you want?" "Hand over what they died for, give us the root." "What? Is that all? Just the shadow root?" Sol couldn¡¯t believe it, not only the fact they were willing to let him go but also that they only wanted the shadow root. It just didn¡¯t add up. "...Yes. Just the shadow root." Urian¡¯s reaction elicited even more confusion from Sol. Sol racked his brain to figure out what Urian¡¯s angle was, time passed as the two were in a staring match. "Fine, sure. You can have it." Sol took out the shadow root from his spatial ring. Once it was removed, it was as if light wasn¡¯t allowed to exist near it, being eternally sucked inside. One of the adventurers saw it and mumbled to himself. "It¡¯s real¡­" Though he only said that to himself, his voice reverberated in the quiet hallway, making it so everyone heard him. Sol, puzzled by his reaction, used [Analysis] on the shadow root. At the time they removed it from the wall, Sol didn¡¯t get to check it with [Analysis] like he normally did because he was interrupted by the adventurers. Void Root Legendary Quality: Near-Perfect Sol stuttered as he read the rarity. "L-l-legendary?!" Sol had never encountered legendary items, but he had heard stories of how heaven defying they could be. One of those stories featured the legendary helmet of The Holy Kingdom of Delvania. It gave the wearer the ability to summon enormous spears of light that could destroy entire mountains. Although this was only a material and couldn¡¯t do much as it was, it was still a priceless treasure that was worth a fortune. ¡¯Now I understand why Urian wanted the shadow¡ª no, the void root.¡¯ Urian furiously looked at the adventurer who spoke up on ident before turning to Sol with a demanding tone. "Hand over the void root. Now." Given one final chance, Sol was torn between giving it away or keeping it and facing the consequences. After weighing both options, Sol decided. ¡¯This is a once in a lifetime chance.¡¯ Sol stored the void root in his spatial ring. The moment Urian saw this, he ordered his allies. "Kill them!" Chapter 109: Screw This When Urian gave themand, a wave of attacks wasunched towards Sol and Amber. It would have been a beautiful spectacle if not for the threat it posed to the duo. "[Earth Wall]!" The initial attacks were met with a solid wall of earth, and although it was much stronger than before, when hit with a multitude of attacks, it easily broke apart. It was not an issue as Sol knew it wouldn¡¯tst long; he just wanted to stop the attacks for a moment. The two ran back into the dungeon passages, trying to lose the chasing group, but they managed to follow them wherever they went. They had people who could track and others who could enhance the team¡¯s mobility, making escape impossible. Sol originally thought they would give up, but after four hours, he realized they would stop at nothing to obtain the void root. ¡¯We need to fight back!¡¯ Although Sol wanted to jump headfirst into the group and defeat them, he knew it was not going to be easy. They covered each other¡¯s weaknesses too well, but that didn¡¯t mean there were no options. Sol¡¯s mind raced as he thought of different solutions. ¡¯We can either separate them somehow or I use [Overpower] andunch a huge attack, hopefully killing a few.¡¯ Both options weren¡¯t ideal, but it¡¯s what Sol could think of on such short notice. ¡¯I don¡¯t know how we could separate them, so what can I do with [Overpower]? Fully charged [Mana Arrow]? [Terra Spikes]?" Sol didn¡¯t have many skills that allowed him to use all his mana in one go. Nor did Sol manage to learn any powerful spells that consume a lot of mana. The best spell he had was a new wind spell, but it didn¡¯t have the power to turn this around. Just as he was debating what to do, a golden arrow flew out of a nearby passage and turned midair towards Sol. Instinctually, Sol took out his shield to block it. The arrow was spinning as it collided into the shield and spun with vicious power. Cracks on the shield from previous battles grew until it couldn¡¯t withstand the damage anymore and broke. The arrow continued spinning, and Sol was forced to use [Wind Barrier] to slow it down further as Amber came with her dagger and shed it in half. Only then did the arrow finally cease moving. "Screw this!" Sol threw away the shield as it was broken beyond repair and activated [Overpower]. Time slowed down as Sol¡¯s body unlocked its stored potential. His rough breathing calmed as he looked through the wall with [Mana Perception] and saw the pursuing group. Completely focused on the mana signatures of the iing group, Sol raised both of his hands and mmed down onto the ground. [Overpower] increased his strength, agility, and intelligence. Although it didn¡¯t increase Sol¡¯s overall mana supply, the massive increase in intelligence gave him control over the limited supply he had like never before. He could even control ambient mana to a certain extent to follow his will. All of Sol¡¯s mana gathered in his hands as he sent it all underground towards the mana signature. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om ¡­ The pursuing group at the time numbered 20; more than half of the entire group was dedicated to pursuing them. Their number had been steadily increasing as time went on, as nearby adventurers joined in to help their allies. Only a few stayed in the exit to make sure the two didn¡¯t slip by, including Urian. The scout leading the group suddenly stopped. Omar, who hadpletely recovered and joined up with the group, asked. "What happened? Did you lose them?" The scout shook her head. "No, they suddenly stopped. I think the golden arrow you shot wounded one of them." The archer chuckled pridefully, "It better have. I spent 100 gold on that driller arrow and used [Seeking Shot]. I doubt they could block it." One of the more cautious adventurers warned the group, "We should still be careful. Cornered rats always bite back. Don¡¯t want to lose anyone else." A few nodded grimly. They didn¡¯t expect the situation to change drastically within a day. A few were mad at how unlucky they were; if only their deceased friends found the root first, then this wouldn¡¯t have been an issue. They moved forward with caution, but before even turning the passage, the ground began to rumble ominously. "An earthquake in a dungeon?!" No one had ever heard of such a thing happening in a dungeon before, but this feeling was indistinguishable from a normal earthquake. "No! It¡¯s mana!" One of the mages yelled. Though they were unable to see it, they could feel the mana in their surroundings gathering with another foreign mana. "We need to get out- Gah!" By the time they realized it, it was toote as a spike rose from the ground and stabbed into the one who was talking. It didn¡¯t end there, as more spikes rose from the floors, the walls, even the roof, all targeting the adventurers. Those who were too slow were unable to react as multiple spikes came from different directions, killing them without a chance to fight back. A few of the stronger and faster adventurers managed to dodge or break the initial earth spikes and tried to leave the hallway they were on. As they neared the end of the hallway, spikes rose, blocking their exit; the spikes oveid over one another, creating an incredibly durable wall. An adventurer mmed his huge axe against the spikes, breaking through a few before getting his hand broken by another spike that rose to fill in the gap. "FUCK! My hand!" His hand now stuck in the wall of spikes made him helpless to the other spikes that came from the roof like jaws. His high vitality, for the first time, worked against him as he didn¡¯t immediately die but was unable to free himself from the multiple spikes prating his body. He was forced to endure being stuck there, losing blood while hearing the screams of his allies being killed behind him. ¡¯I can no longer hear them¡­¡¯ The adventurer hoped it was because of his impending death that he lost his sense of hearing, but then he heard the sound of his blood dripping onto the floor. Unable to even see the scene behind him, the light in the adventurer¡¯s eyes faded full of regret. ¡­ "Haa! Haa!" Out of breath, Sol copsed on the ground. Amber could only watch in confusion as she had no idea what he just did. Still thinking there were people chasing after them, Amber tried to lift Sol to carry him to safety. Sol motioned for her to stop. "No¡­ It¡¯s fine. They¡¯re all dead." Sol unsteadily rose to his feet as he looked at the little mana he had left. Mana: 13/1400 Using so much mana in one go was more strenuous than Sol thought it would be. Sol felt as if he lost all the blood in his body, which made him extremely dizzy. Pushing through the pain, Sol walked towards the hallway where the carnage took ce. Turning the corner, the duo saw an incredibly awful scene which Sol had caused single handedly. "I think I¡¯m gonna be sick¡­" Sol immediately threw up. Chapter 110: Dungeon Giveth... The entire hallway was full of spikes from all directions, with the adventurers¡¯ bodies being pierced and left dangling midair. There were a few corpses that were pierced into the ground that the dungeon hadn¡¯t imed, and Sol knew why. ¡¯I hardened the ground and filled it with my mana to create the spikes, kinda simr to the [Harden Earth], but without the final step of making themunch towards people.¡¯ Since the bodies weren¡¯t getting absorbed by the dungeon anytime soon, Sol did his best to [Siphon] the bodies while holding in whatever was left of his lunch. Sol, by now, was used to dead bodies, but this was simply on another level. By focusing on the adventurers¡¯ status tes, it made the process much more ptable as Sol selected the skills and let [Siphon] do its thing. [Disarm] leveled up! (7 -> 8) [Intermediate Weapon Mastery] leveled up! (6 -> 7) Learned [Seeking Shot] Lv 6! [Wild Hunt] leveled up! (1 -> 2) [Overpower] leveled up! (3 -> 4) Learned [Mana sh] Lv 2! Many of Sol¡¯s skills leveled up once or twice, giving him a rather decent overall boost in power. After siphoning thest of the bodies, he opened his status page. Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner], [Transformer] Level: 71 Exp: 9,210,095/27,300,000 HP: 1400 MP: 1400 Str: 75 (+70) Vit: 70 (+70) Agi: 70 (+70) Int: 70 (+70) Wis: 70 (+70) Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 4, [Analysis] Lv 6, [Aggregate] Lv EX, [Reinterpret] Lv EX Passive Skills: [Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Counter] Lv 5, [Shortened Cast] Lv MAX, [Increased Mana Regeneration] Lv MAX, [Mana Perception] Lv 6, [Mana Efficiency] Lv 9, [Precise Coordination] Lv 6, [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 3, [Intermediate Weapon Mastery] Lv 7, [Wild Hunt] Lv 2, [Invincible Body] Lv 8, [Perfect Bnce] Lv 2, [Death Absorption] Lv 6, [Danger Sense] Lv 7 Active Skills: [Cross sh] Lv 3, [Ground Shrink] Lv 2, [Snap Punch] Lv 8, [Invisibility] Lv 5, [Terra Spikes] Lv 5, [Rock Throw] Lv 4, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Fell Cleave] Lv 8, [Crippling Strike] Lv 8, [Telepathy] Lv 1, [Barricade (Variant)] Lv 9, [Intermediate Elemental Magic] Lv 5, [Overpower] Lv 4, [Create Undead] Lv 6, [Weapon Enhancement (Variant)] Lv 7, [Disarm] Lv 8, [Backstab] Lv 6, [Bombardment] Lv 1, [Storm Blitz] Lv 8, [Piercing Lunge] Lv 5, [Seeking Shot] Lv 6, [Mana sh] Lv 2 The only two new skills Sol believed to be worth taking from the group were [Seeking Shot] and [Mana sh]. [Seeking Shot] Lv 6: Fire an arrow that guides itself towards your target with mana. Unable to circumvent walls and other obstacles. Mana Cost: 75. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om [Mana sh] Lv 2: Compress mana on the edge of the de and send it flying towards a direction. Distance: 6 meters. Width: 1 meter. Mana cost: 50. Sol considered entering the hallway and looting the bodies, but from a nce, he could tell most of their equipment had been shredded by his attack, and the only valuable thing they could have were their storage rings. The main issue was Sol no longer had control over the spikes he created, and even if he did, he had no mana to remove them. As it was, the hallway was impossible to traverse with the spikes blocking everything. ¡¯It¡¯s not worth it. At most, they¡¯ll have 1000 gold. It¡¯s a lot of money, but we should make that much by the time we reach the 20th floor.¡¯ Instead of spending time trying to break through the spikes, Sol chose to get some rest and recover. After all, they will have to break through the remaining adventurers that were blocking their exit. Unable to rest in any safe area, the two had to settle with finding a dead end and Sol casting [Earth Wall] to block the entrance. It prevented monsters from wandering into their temporary camp, but it couldn¡¯t be considered safe. At any moment, they could be attacked by monsters or adventurers alike if the remaining ones decided to chase them down. Even though all Sol wanted right then was to get a full night¡¯s sleep, he was unable to do so as he had to maintain [Mana Perception] just to be safe. ¡¯Why are you sleeping so peacefully¡­¡¯ While Sol had to stay awake and keep watch, Amber slept without hesitation, which made him extremely jealous. Even if Sol decided to sleep he wasn¡¯t sure he would be able to fall asleep as quickly as she did because his worries would keep him awake. Four hourster, the two had rested enough and prepared to set out towards the floor¡¯s exit. ¡­ At the exit of the floor, Urian was standing guard along with four other adventurers. The other five were resting, as they eventually realized this was dragging on for too long and implemented watch shifts so they would be in their peak condition. One of the adventurers standing guard whispered to Urian. "Hey, we haven¡¯t heard from them in a while. Could it be¡­ they got the void root and bailed?" Urian didn¡¯t respond. "You know, keep it for themselves. Bigger cut-" "Shut up, will you? I know what you¡¯re insinuating and no, they wouldn¡¯t do that." Urian didn¡¯t trust all the ones who were chasing Sol and Amber, but he didn¡¯t have to trust them all. There were a select few in that group who he could truly trust and knew they wouldn¡¯t betray him like that. If someone in the group tried to convince the others to betray him he would know. "¡­ Then why haven¡¯t they called to say anything?" Urian didn¡¯t respond immediately; he hesitated, letting his allies know what likely happened. "They¡¯re probably dead." "What?! Could those two be A-Rankers?" "Doubt it, they wouldn¡¯t have run in the first ce if they were. It doesn¡¯t matter if we are thest ones alive, do you n to leave? They have a void root; even if we split it between all of us, we would each have enough money to do whatever the hell we wanted for the rest of our lives. Would you really throw away this opportunity?" One of the nearby adventurers chimed in, "Besides, even if they are A-Rankers, I doubt they would bepletely unhurt after fighting 20 B-Rankers. The two we left in the floor entrance also haven¡¯t seen them, so they must be injured or stuck fighting monsters, hopefully both. I just hope they don¡¯t die somewhere, and we lose the root to the dungeon." "The dungeon giveth, the dungeon taketh away¡­" The old saying elicited a few chuckles in the group, raising the mood as they continued to wait for the duo with the priceless material. Chapter 111: Crystal Arrow Sol and Amber carefully approached the exit of the 13th floor, and like before, Sol was able to see the group blocking the exit. "Sneaking by won¡¯t work. They will just see through our invisibility." Uncharacteristically, Amber had a suggestion. "[Terra Spikes]?" Sol shook his head. "I¡¯d rather not. Such an attack drains most of my mana in one go and leaves me extremely exhausted. If we get attacked afterwards, I won¡¯t be of much use. At most, I can use [Overpower], but not with full power [Terra Spikes]." Sol peeked over at the group without getting spotted before continuing. "On the bright side, there¡¯s only 10 of them in total. Should be doable if we get the drop on them. Who should we target first? Urian?" Sol thought it would be ideal to take out the strongest opponent first, which in this case he believed to be Urian. From the skill list alone, Sol didn¡¯t know what spells Urian knew, but he did know how versatile light magic was. It was great at healing, defending, supporting, and attacking. Although itcked in powerpared to fire magic, its versatility easily made up for that weakness. Amber shook her head and pointed at an average-looking adventurer. Sol had seen his status page but didn¡¯t see anything special; their talents were: [Dagger], [Throwing], [Quick]. An average looking adventurer with onlymon talents. Sol had no idea why Amber suggested that man first but didn¡¯t immediately dismiss her suggestion as he knew there must be a reason for it. "Huh? Why him?" "Belt. Spell bombs." Sol leaned over and saw the belt full of small spheres, but he had no idea they were spell bombs until she pointed it out. Since Sol was only able to use [Analysis] on people and not their items, he had been unconsciously ignoring them. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Spell Bombs were extremely expensive consumable items that could store a spell inside them. When thrown, the spell would be instantly unleashed without any casting required. Unlike normal spellcasters who can normally only cast one spell at a time, one could simply throw all the spell bombs they had and unleash a devastating attack. The only downside was that one couldn¡¯t put just any spell inside, as some spells required them to be guided by the caster. That meant most spells stored inside didn¡¯t differentiate friend or foe, attacking whoever was caught inside the radius of the released spell. This was why they weremonly referred to as spell bombs, although the system had a different name for it: spell containers. "Why does he have so many? I heard they were extremely expensive." A spell bomb with an intermediate-level spell would cost at the very least 50 gold, while advanced spells were even higher starting at 400 gold. The worst part was they were unable to tell what kind of spells were stored inside until it was toote. The man they were looking at had 4 strapped on his belt and however many more he had in his spatial ring. ¡¯Keeping them on his belt for quick ess just to avoid the slight dy in using a storage ring. I don¡¯t think he would hesitate to throw them at us the moment we appear.¡¯ Sol took out his bow and looked at Amber. "I¡¯ll try to take him out first. You ready?" Amber nodded and went invisible. Though it would be easily countered by the light spell, it would force Urian to take the time to cast it, effectively making him waste a chance to attack. Sol was also ready and began to funnel mana into his bow as he used its skill [Mana Arrow]. At 20 mana, it was as strong as a normal arrow, but Sol wanted this first attack to seed no matter what and continued pouring more mana. At 50 mana, the light blue arrow became slightly more opaque. It was as strong as an umon arrow. At 100 mana, the arrow turned dark blue and opaque to the point it was hard to see through it. It was strong as a rare arrow. At 200 mana, it was now fully opaque as the deep dark blue radiated terrifying power. It was as strong as a unique arrow. With this much mana condensed into a single arrow, it was as powerful as the golden arrow used against Sol but without the additional skills the arrow was shot with. Sol didn¡¯t stop there. At 300 mana, the arrow became pitch ck and solidified into a form of pure crystallized mana. The bow began to creak and groan as it was never meant to handle this much mana at once. Most archers didn¡¯t tend to invest points into wisdom, so the creator of the bow never made the bow with the intention to handle such a quantity of mana. Instead, the bow was made to be efficient, making the most out of the little mana supply archers normally had. This meant that even with only 300 mana, the arrow rivaled the power of an advanced spell in terms of pure power. Sol stopped inserting mana as he could feel the bow couldn¡¯t handle more. Without turning the corner, Sol used [Seeking Arrow] and locked onto the adventurer¡¯s mana signature. With confidence that this couldn¡¯t be blocked with spells or skills, Sol let the arrow loose. FWOOM! Sol could barely follow the arrow the moment it left his bow as it flew at a speed he didn¡¯t think was possible. A dark line was formed from his bow as it turned left towards the adventurers guarding the exit. The ones standing watch were paying attention to their surroundings, but no matter how prepared they were, they couldn¡¯t be ready for the ck crystal arrow. "Watch-!" "[Wind-!" One of the adventurers tried to warn the others while another tried to block the attack, but neither were able to even finish their sentences as the arrow pierced and flew straight through one of the adventurers, obliterating him. The other adventurers turned to look at what became of their friend with pure shock. What they saw was only the lower half of their friend, as the upper half was gone as ifpletely erased from existence. The mana arrow did not stop after killing the adventurer and continued straight into the dungeon¡¯s wall. It drilled straight through like paper, and it was impossible to tell when or if it would ever stop. You have in a Lv 76 Spectre! Gained 330,000 Exp (220%) An unlucky Sprecte in another passageway confirmed to Sol, the arrow was still moving at that time. Chapter 112: Urian Not wanting to give the group time to assess the situation, Solunched towards them while wielding the Lipon with a fire cartridge and used [Storm Blitz]. With each step Sol took, his spinning sword¡¯s speed increased exponentially. The fire of the sword began to form a vortex of fire, about to collide headfirst into the adventurers. Urian, seeing the approaching mass of fire, yelled at one of the adventurers who were originally resting behind him. "Ray! Stop him!" The short but built adventurer named Ray brandished their thick shield and used [Destructive Charge] to collide headfirst into the fire. ¡¯This shield has a fire resistance skill! I can hold him easily!¡¯ With confidence, Ray mmed right into Sol and was met with a terrible bang. "GAH!" Ray wasunched barreling into the group of adventurers behind him, knocking two down with him who were unluckily in his path. Ray looked at his shield in shock; it waspletely bent and twisted out of shape. This wasn¡¯t because of the sharpness of the fire sword but because of the sheer force of Sol¡¯s [Storm Blitz]. After colliding, Sol didn¡¯t stop spinning and continued into the group, burning all those nearby him. Even though Ray sacrificed his unique shield to stop Sol, it only slowed him down temporarily. "AGH!" "IT BURNS!" Two adventurers who were closest to the zing tornado died without being able to retaliate. While Sol wanted to take their skills, they had to, more importantly, capitalize on the surprise attack before they reorganized. Sol was going to continue spinning, but he could feel himself losing more and more control as each second ticked by. With no other choice, Sol used thest of the moment tounch towards two nearby adventurers, killing one and injuring another before he stopped spinning. Now having a good opportunity, Sol quickly siphoned the dead adventurers¡¯ skills before the dungeon took the body. [Piercing Lunge] leveled up! (5 -> 6) [Ground Shrink] leveled up! (2 -> 3) Sol ignored the injured adventurer as he was already out ofmission and focused on the more important enemies. "[Light Spear]!" Two rods of pure light appeared above Urian, and without waiting a second longer, heunched them towards Sol. He wasn¡¯t the only one to attack, as all the adventurers saw this as the best time to strike. "[Blood Vines]!" "[Torrent]!" n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Aside from mages who had to audibly recite the spell, the remaining archer shot empowered arrows, and the two melee fighters took position in front of the ranged allies to protect them just in case. Sol saw the attacks all heading towards him and didn¡¯t worry as he used [Terra Spikes] to create a protective wall around him. Pumping more mana into the spikes than usual, they were extra durable and could be deployed near instantly without having to recite any spells beforehand. Upon contact with the spikes, explosions urred, creating a thick dust cloud that spread in all directions. As the dust settled, half of the spikes were still standing, and Sol was safely in the middle of it, protected. "[Harden Earth]!" While enduring the attacks, Sol was also casting a spell at the same time. ¡¯I¡¯m not gonna let the dungeon get any more bodies before I use [Siphon] on them.¡¯ Seeing Sol unharmed made a few adventurers begin to regret their decision of fighting Sol. One of them noticed the mood changing and tried to keep them motivated. "That has to be an item; he can¡¯t use it again so soon!" Urian nodded and yelled as well. "He can¡¯t take on all of us; we outnumber him 6 to- huh?!" When Urian turned to rally his allies, he noticed the other two mages lying on the ground dead. The other adventurers also realized now and couldn¡¯t believe they died without making any sounds. Urian¡¯s face paled as he realized he was next. "[Shimmer Shield]!" A barrier of light took form around him, and just in time, as the moment it finished forming, Amber appeared behind him with her dagger, hitting the barrier causing cracks to form. "[Revealing Light]!" The light appeared above him as he red towards Amber furiously. A second sooner and he would have died along with his otherpanions. Now with the magical light shining above him, Amber could no longer go invisible, but that wasn¡¯t a problem anymore. "AHH!" "GUH!" "HELP-!" While Urian was busy with Amber, Sol made quick work of the remaining 3 adventurers and finished off the wounded one from earlier. [Counter] leveled up! (5 -> 6) [Barricade (Variant)] leveled up! (9 -> MAX) [Barricade (Variant)] reached MAX level, evolve skill? Sol put away the system notification for now and turned his gaze towards Urian. His barrier was barely holding on, and with one attack, it would easily shatter. Amber raised her dagger, and with a normal sh, the barrier broke. Sol neared with his zing sword ready to take his life. With Amber on one side and Sol on the other, Urian knew he was screwed if he didn¡¯t think of a way out of this. "Wait! Please! You can gain a lot from not killing me!" Sol paused. "Yeah? How so?" "I can- I can get you a lot of money! I have a stash back in my house!" "Is that all?" While Sol needed money, he didn¡¯t think he needed to keep him alive just to steal his life¡¯s savings. "I¡¯ll do whatever you want! Light mages of my level are rare. I have a lot of good spells you could use, and they are especially effective against the undead of this dungeon." "You¡¯re right; your magic would be useful." Sol chuckled at his morbid joke. Urian saw a glimmer of hope. "Right? I promise I¡¯ll follow you obediently if you give me a chance!" STAB "W-what?" Urian looked down and felt the burning sensation of the elemental sword in his chest. He looked up at Sol, shocked, as he uttered his final words. "Why¡­" Urian¡¯s body slumped as it lost its final signs of life. Learned [Intermediate Light Magic] Lv 7! Learned [Multicast] Lv 6! [Mana Efficiency] leveled up! (9 -> MAX) Sol cut off the mana supply to the Lipon and put it away as he answered Urian¡¯s question. "I killed you because I couldn¡¯t trust you." Chapter 113: [Multicast] With thest of the adventurers dead, Sol and Amber looted the bodies, taking what was useful to them. Sol¡¯s mood wasn¡¯t that great, as he didn¡¯t like the fact that he had killed someone who was begging for his life. ¡¯There was no choice. We were enemies, and he saw too many of my skills.¡¯ While Amber also used to be an enemy, Sol knew she had no choice in the matter, and now they were working together to find his parents. Urian, on the other hand, was begging to be his follower out of fear of dying, and Sol simply couldn¡¯t imagine trusting that man with the way he previously acted. Besides the multiple spatial rings that had plenty of gold and items, the total wealth of all the adventurers¡¯ rings didn¡¯tpare to what was stored in Urian¡¯s. Spatial Ring n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Rare Skills: [Pocket Space] Lv 5 "What an absurd amount of resources¡­" The five meter cube was almostpletely full of materials gathered from the dungeon. It appeared that Urian was holding onto all the materials they found for safekeeping, likely toter divide it equally among the adventurers. "We could both get unique armor and more with this much money." Armor tended to be more expensive than weapons because of its life-saving purpose and the amount of materials required to make it. Amber made a move to begin stripping their armor, but Sol stopped her. "Just take the weapons. None of the armor is unique, and while the dungeon is going to consume them, at least let them go with dignity." Because of the copious amounts of materials they could sell to the guild, the two were no longer in dire need of money. There was no reason to strip them naked just for a couple of hundred gold when they would soon have thousands. Even with just the rings that were eithermon or rare, they would over 1000 gold. Amber didn¡¯t question Sol and handed him the rest of the weapons so they could sell themter. Receiving the weapons, Sol thought to himself, ¡¯I¡¯ll have to sort out which to keep and sellter.¡¯ Just before Sol stored them in his spatial ring, he noticed one of them was a unique dagger. Serpent Fang Unique Skills: [Numbing] Lv 7, [Corrosive Edge] Lv 6, [Crushing Fang] Lv 7 "Here, take it. You normally dual wielded daggers, right?" Before they bought Amber¡¯s new dagger, she wielded two rare ones. While Amber could still use them, they were nowhere near as effective as the unique dagger and didn¡¯tst as long either. Amber could still deal great damage with only one weapon, but Sol knew how strong she was when she had two. Amber nodded and silently took the dagger off Sol and ced it in her spatial ring. "Alright, let¡¯s go then." Done with the bodies, Sol and Amber descended to the 14th floor to get some real rest. ... Six hourster, Sol woke up in his tent feeling reenergized. Sol stretched as he walked out of the tent. ¡¯I didn¡¯t even check the system messages or train with [Reinterpret].¡¯ Not getting any decent rest as he had to keep watch, Sol just missed the feeling of turning his brain off and didn¡¯t bother to do anything else besides sleeping. ¡¯Let¡¯s deal with the system information and the weapons.¡¯ [Barricade (Variant)] reached MAX level, evolve skill? "Obviously." Giving the system the go ahead, he soon saw his new skill. [Barricade (Variant)] evolved into [Unpassable Bulwark (Variant)]! [Unpassable Bulwark (Variant)] Lv 1: Take a stance to block all attacks thate your way. Attacks thate near the user will gravitate towards the shield, unable to attack those behind you. Can be canceled at any time. Enhances defense by 1200%. Duration: 30 seconds. Cooldown: 30 minutes. Sol was very satisfied with the upgraded skill. ¡¯It became much stronger, and luckily it kept the variant benefit.¡¯ Sol also took this chance to see his status page. Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner], [Transformer] Level: 71 Exp: 9,540,095/27,300,000 HP: 1400 MP: 1400 Str: 75 (+70) Vit: 70 (+70) Agi: 70 (+70) Int: 70 (+70) Wis: 70 (+70) Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 4, [Analysis] Lv 6, [Aggregate] Lv EX, [Reinterpret] Lv EX Passive Skills: [Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Counter] Lv 6, [Shortened Cast] Lv MAX, [Increased Mana Regeneration] Lv MAX, [Mana Perception] Lv 6, [Mana Efficiency] Lv MAX, [Precise Coordination] Lv 6, [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 3, [Intermediate Weapon Mastery] Lv 7, [Wild Hunt] Lv 2, [Invincible Body] Lv 8, [Perfect Bnce] Lv 2, [Death Absorption] Lv 6, [Danger Sense] Lv 7, [Multicast] Lv 6 Active Skills: [Cross sh] Lv 3, [Ground Shrink] Lv 3, [Snap Punch] Lv 8, [Invisibility] Lv 5, [Terra Spikes] Lv 5, [Rock Throw] Lv 4, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Fell Cleave] Lv 8, [Crippling Strike] Lv 8, [Telepathy] Lv 1, [Unpassable Bulwark (Variant)] Lv 1, [Intermediate Elemental Magic] Lv 5, [Overpower] Lv 4, [Create Undead] Lv 6, [Weapon Enhancement (Variant)] Lv 7, [Disarm] Lv 8, [Backstab] Lv 6, [Bombardment] Lv 1, [Storm Blitz] Lv 8, [Piercing Lunge] Lv 5, [Seeking Shot] Lv 6, [Mana sh] Lv 2, [Intermediate Light Magic] Lv 7 ¡¯A few skills have leveled up, but there is still a lot to do. I now have ess to light magic, and I need to take some time to process all the spells I learned. I also need to figure out what to do with skills that have a lot of potential but have fallen behind, like [Snap Punch].¡¯ Sol didn¡¯t want to fall into the trap of only using a few skills when he had an opportunity no one else had. There were just two problems that stood in his way. The first was that he was only a single person; although he had a plethora of skills, he could only use so many at once. The second and more important problem was that Sol only had so much time. If Sol wasn¡¯t trying to level up as fast as possible in the dungeon while also on a time limit for the knight selection, he would be able to dedicate time to the more forgotten skills. Sadly, there was not much Sol could do regarding that and could only continue to push on. As Sol was taking out cooking utensils, he mumbled to himself, "I wonder what I should make for breakfast today¡­" While making breakfast, Sol was also reviewing the spells he learned from Urian. Light magic was more versatile than Sol thought. There was a spell for almost any scenario: healing, damage, shielding, even movement. Light magic by itself was a massive gain for Sol, but there were two other benefits as well. [Mana Efficiency] Lv MAX: Reduced mana cost of all spells by 50%. The user has much finer control over mana and can manipte ambient mana better. [Multicast] Lv 6: Able to cast a spell twice at the cost of more mana. The mana cost of the second spell: 130%. ¡¯[Mana Efficiency] finally maxed out, making spells even more cost effective with the added benefit of easier control over ambient mana. I originally thought [Multicast] would let me cast two different spells at a time, but instead, it lets me cast the one spell twice.¡¯ Wanting to try it out, Sol chanted in his mind. "[Wind Cutter]!" Two des of near invisible wind flew out of his hand and shed the nearby wall. ¡¯The cost is higher, but it¡¯s absolutely worth it. Not just with casting [Explosion] twice, though I imagine it would hurt a lot. I can also cast [Tailwind] and other supportive spells on both myself and Amber at the same time. There may be more I can do, but I¡¯ll need to take some time to try it out.¡¯ Yet another thing Sol had to do in his ever increasing list of tasks. Amber appeared,ing out of her tent with her hair slightly messy. "Mornin¡¯, Amber. Give me a minute, the food is almost ready." Sol served Amber and himself a portion as they both sat down to eat a warm meal. The two didn¡¯t really talk, as Sol found it hard to get more than two words out of Amber at a time, but he was fine with that. Soon, the two were done and packed up their camp, ready to dive into the 14th floor. Chapter 114: Glint Glass "[Light Spear]!" Two spears of light soared through the air and pierced the heads of two Spectres. The pure light burned them from the inside out as they burst out of existence. You have in a Lv 78 Spectre! Gained 396,000 Exp (220%) You have in a Lv 78 Spectre! Gained 396,000 Exp (220%) "Woah. Light magic is super effective, only needing one attack." The duo was back to their normal dungeon grind, and Sol had been giving light magic a try along with a few other new skills. Even though [Light Spear] was overall weaker than [Explosion] or [Incinerate], not having the damage radius or continuous damage of either, itpletely destroyed the undead. This was because of the antithetical rtionship between light and dark magic. These undead were able to move and live because of dark magic and its variations like necromancy, but when they were attacked by such a concentrated spear of light, their entire being would begin to unravel. The same could happen with a concentrated attack of dark magic on light based beings. When the opposing force was introduced into their bodies, light constructs would simrly be destroyed by the opposing energy being inserted into their body. With the two no longer being hindered by other adventurers, they were able to ze past the enemies of the 14th floor. "[Wind Stride]!" Sol cast an intermediate wind spell that enhanced the duo¡¯s speed. With the spell, the two were able to move even faster without having to stop to kill an enemy or two on the way. Although Sol was able to do this before, they refrained from going too fast in fear of waltzing directly into traps. Sol put on a monocle as he thought to himself, ¡¯Luckily traps are no longer a problem.¡¯ Glint ss Rare Skills: [Highlight] Lv 5, [Mana Perception] Lv 4 [Highlight] Lv 5: Improves the wearer¡¯s vision and automatically marks abnormalities in their surroundings. Range 25 feet. Ignoring the useless [Mana Perception] as he already had a higher level version of it, [Highlight] made it much easier to notice anything out of ce. This meant that Sol could lead the way and avoid anything that was suspicious while Amber followed closely behind. ¡¯The only downside is how awful it looks.¡¯ Sol knew some people could pull off a monocle, but not him; his face was not mature, nor did he have the appropriate clothes that went well with it. It made Sol wonder who designed it this way when it would be used by adventurers. With the two going much faster, they were able to reach the other side of the floor within six hours. Sol turned to Amber excitedly, "We can do two floors a day at this rate! Oh, that is if you are ready to keep going. Want to rest for an hour or two first?" Having learned from his previous mistake, Sol asked for Amber¡¯s input because if he didn¡¯t, she would keep quiet like usual and overexert herself again. "One." "One hour? Sure, I can make some food as well." The two made their way down the stairs, and Sol used earth magic to create a simple cooking station. After whipping up a light but filling meal, Amber sat and rested while Sol spent the remaining time improving his other skills with [Reinterpret]. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Within the time limit of under an hour, Sol was unable to do much, but he tried to level up [Snap Punch]. It was one of his easier toprehend skills, so Sol believed he could make some good progress. After going over every step in the technique, Sol managed to make it slightly faster, but even before leaving the white room, he knew it wasn¡¯t enough of an improvement to level it up. ¡¯It¡¯s fine. I¡¯ll have time to improve itter when we get to the 16th floor.¡¯ Sol didn¡¯t mind it too much; one hour was not a lot of time to improve even with such a great learning environment. Exiting the white room, Sol noticed Amber was ready to go. Sol put on the tacky monocle as he stood up. "Alright let¡¯s go, but keep an eye out on materials. Even though we have a lot, it never hurts to get more." Amber gave a simple nod. "Let¡¯s go then, [Wind Stride]!" ¡­ While running through the 15th floor of Necropolis, Sol noticed arge mass of mana nearby. ¡¯Could it be?¡¯ Sol stopped running and gestured towards Amber to stop as well. "I think I found the Shadow Amalgamation. Let¡¯s quietly approach¡ªnever mind! It already found us! Get Ready!" Therge mass of mana had begun moving towards their destination at a frightening speed. Amber unsheathed her daggers, and Sol took out his Lipon and pulled the trigger, releasing arge axe made of solid rock. It was a surreal sight of solid rocks growing out of the trigger, forming an axe stronger than steel. The reason Sol had an earth element axe was that he had been giving other weapon patterns and elements a try. Their enemies weren¡¯t much of a challenge, making it a good opportunity to practice, but with the enemy fast approaching, Sol didn¡¯t have the time to swap it back to the sword pattern he was the mostfortable with. ¡¯It¡¯s fine, most of my skills can also be used with the axe.¡¯ Just as the axe finished forming, a loud thumping sound could be heard, followed by the sound of ghastly groans and moans. It was as if a stampede of orcs was heading their way. From around the corner, a hand of a giant figure came barreling down the hallway. It was massive, taking almost the entire hallway, which could easily fit two carriages. It was arge round mass of dead corpses with over fifty limbs iling wildly. The countless heads that popped out in ces that should have a head groaned in pain as if their own existence pained them. Sol¡¯s eyes shot wide open. Though he had read of it beforehand in the dungeon guide, the picture they provided didn¡¯t convey how grotesque and vile this creature truly looked. "A Shadow Amalgamation!" Chapter 115: Shadow Amalgamation Name: N/A Race: Shadow Amalgamation Talents: [Shadow Affinity], [Corpse Eater], [Reaper] Level: 80 HP: 1500 MP: 1300 Str: 90 (+70) Vit: 100 (+50) Agi: 85 (+20) Int: 45 Wis: 80 (+50) Talent Skills: [Consume Corpse] Lv 8, [Shadow Scythe] Lv 5 Passive Skills: [Living Corpse] Lv MAX, [Collective of Souls] Lv 5, [Corpse Sacrifice] Lv 5, [Gargantuan Strength] lv 2, [Agility Up] Lv 4, [Increased Health Regeneration] Lv 5, [Magic Resistance] Lv 5, [Life Perception] Lv 5 Active Skills: [Shadow Hands] Lv 8, [Shadow Tag] Lv 6, [Shadow Form] Lv 6, [Body m] Lv 8, [Soul Screech] Lv 4, [Empowered Strike] Lv 4, [Destructive Charge] Lv 8 ¡¯Isn¡¯t it way too strong? How long has it been eating other undead?¡¯ Sol knew the Shadow Amalgamation was stronger than the average undead found on the floors, but even knowing that, this one seemed extraordinarily strong. ¡¯The dungeon guide did say that their strength varied depending on how many corpses it had consumed but¡­¡¯ Shadow Amalgamations were very different from the other enemies in the dungeon. They had the ability to grow, although with some restrictions. They could grow by consuming the corpses of other undead or adventurers in the dungeon, with each body added to its ever growing size. A few of its skills even grew depending on the number of corpses it had consumed. Adventurers who happened to run into these older Shadow Amalgamations had to be prepared for a long fight as they were muchrger and stronger. There weren¡¯t many details written about Shadow Amalgamations as anyone who tried to study them would be quickly discovered, resulting in a fight, but it was assumed that it roamed the hallways attacking adventurers and undead alike in its pursuit of power. Now facing such arge monster, Sol and Amber had to move quickly and gain the first strike. "[Light Spear]!" Two javelins of light were flung into its massive body, creating two foot wide holes. The Shadow Amalgamation yelled with its countless heads andunched multiple shadow hands towards the duo. Amber jumped away and went invisible to find some kind of weak spot in the giant mountain of flesh. Sol, on the other hand, stayed to maintain the monster¡¯s attention solely on him. Sol took out a shield he looted from the adventurers and used [Unpassable Bulwark], massively increasing his defense. The shadow hands all began gravitating towards his shield. "Hrgh!" The hands mmed onto the shield with incredible force and began to pry the shield away from him. Before it could rip the shield off Sol, he caused the ground tounch a thick earth spike that pierced all the hands in front of him, destroying them all in one attack. "My turn!" Sol canceled [Unpassable Bulwark] and stored his shield back in his ring, then with a strong step,unched himself towards the Shadow Amalgamation with his earth axe in hand. The Shadow Amalgamation screeched and created more shadow hands, which moved to crush Sol. Sol gathered mana into the edge of his axe¡¯s de and swung, releasing a wide sh of mana that cut the approaching hands once more. Finally arriving near the body of the Shadow Amalgamation, Sol took his axe and swung it, releasing multiple skills consecutively. "SHRIIIEE!!!" An ear piercing scream rang out from the heads that felt like a thousand small needles were being inserted into Sol¡¯s head. "Arghh!" Sol felt a lot of pain, but was able to mitigate some of it with the help of [Invincible Body]. Just as he regained his bearings, a shadow hand came out from the side aiming to hit Sol. Just as it was going to m into him, Amber appeared out of her invisibility and cut it with her daggers. ¡¯How is she immune to its effects? Oh, I see!¡¯ Sol channeled his first EX level skill, [Muffled Movements], and silenced the sound in his near vicinity. In an instant, the piercing screams could no longer be heard, and Sol could fight unhindered once more. "[Light Flood]!" Sol used [Multicast] to cast the spell twice as two powerful rays of light emitted from each of his hands and pierced into the Shadow Amalgamation. Mana: 643/1400 ¡¯This is draining my mana like crazy! But if I keep this up, we can kill it!¡¯ The Shadow Amalgamation iled from the two beams piercing its body and began tilting forward to crush the ant causing it pain. Its giant body was about to crush Sol, but just before it could do so, Sol stopped channeling the spell and used [Ground Shrink] to move away from the giant creature. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om ¡¯I almost didn¡¯t notice because I couldn¡¯t hear anything¡­¡¯ [Muffled Movements] did not only block out the painful screams but also inadvertently made it harder to tell what was happening in Sol¡¯s surroundings. Sol made a mental note to be more attentive while checking the Shadow Amalgamation¡¯s health. Health: 523/1500 ¡¯Almost there¡­¡¯ Now further away from the fight, Sol saw Amber appearing and disappearing, cutting off limbs and heads when able to, but he realized something. Health: 523/1500 ¡¯Its health isn¡¯t going down?¡¯ Sol realized a vital detail of the Shadow Amalgamations. Shadow Amalgamations added bodies onto themselves, but it¡¯s not truly part of its body. They are simply extensions that are controlled and enhanced by the main body which meant that attacking these exterior bodies did not actually harm the undead. ¡¯If that¡¯s the case, then where is the main body?¡¯ The mass of flesh was sorge it made it impossible to see what¡¯s underneath. ¡¯If it lost health that means we hit its main body at some point.¡¯ Sol regretted not keeping a closer eye on the health of the enemy and decided to attack ces he hit before. "[Light Spear]!" Sol began casting spears of light and targeted everywhere they had hit before since the start of the fight. Sol also informed Amber of the situation via [Telepathy], and she also tried attacking previously hit locations. While dodging the attacks of the Shadow Amalgamation, the two had yet to lower its health and instead it had been rising. Health: 745/1500 ¡¯It¡¯s recovering¡­¡¯ The only constion that their efforts weren¡¯t going to waste was that the size of the Shadow Amalgamation was steadily shrinking, from body parts being cut off or destroyed by light magic. If the two kept this going, eventually, they would whittle it down and y it, but Sol wasn¡¯t sure if he had the mana to keep going for long. Mana: 403/1400 Sol had to lower his mana consumption, but that meant he was unable to constantly throw spears and other magical attacks. Sol was going over his skill list in hopes of having something to find its main body but didn¡¯t have anything that could do that. Even [Mana Perception] was useless as all he could see was the mana spreading throughout the entire body. The only solution Sol could think of was casting another big spell. ¡¯If I had more mana I could cast [Light Flood] again, but it would take a while to recover that much¡­ Wait, I can¡¯t believe I forgot we bought that!¡¯ Chapter 116: Main Body From Sol¡¯s spatial ring, he retrieved a small bottle with a light blue liquid inside. It was one of the mana potions he bought outside the dungeon. It had been sitting in his spatial ring forgotten the entire time they had been in the dungeon. The only reason Sol remembered the potions was when he was sorting the spatial rings he obtained from the other adventurers. All of them carried their own supply, which suddenly left him with a lot of consumable potions he had never even used before. At least until now. Chugging the entire bottle, Sol felt a refreshing wave of energy coursing through his body. His mana recovered by a third, giving him the energy to truly finish this off. Sol telepathicallymunicated with Amber who couldn¡¯t hear him from using her skill to block off the screeching. -Fall back and cover me. I¡¯m gonna brute force this.- Amber gave a look of acknowledgement and went in for one final attack, sand began to swirl around her daggers as she released it towards the massive monster. Like a tidal wave, it mmed into the monster with the force simultaneously pushing Amber backward towards Sol. ¡¯Since when could she do that? Never mind, I¡¯ll ask herter.¡¯ This was the first time Sol saw Amber using sand in an offensive way. Most of the time, she only turned her body into sand to negate attacks. "[Revealing Light]!" Two bright orbs of light radiated, banishing the darkness, making it harder for the Shadow Amalgamation to conjure its shadows. Sol had wanted to use this before, but it would have also made it impossible for Amber to go invisible as it would negate her invisibility. The Shadow Amalgamation could still create its shadow hands and did so, but they were noticeably weaker and much thinner. With its main form of attack hindered, Sol charged towards the monster while preparing his next spell. The few shadow hands that the Shadow Amalgamation could create were sent out towards Sol, but they were intercepted by Amber. Sol charged through the opening and chanted the final part of the spell. "[Light Flood]!" Double casting the spell, the two wide beams of light prated the giant creature. Sol could see all the heads screaming but was unaffected by their wails thanks to [Muffled Movements]. ¡¯It¡¯s working!¡¯ Health: 530/1500 The main body was somewhere inside, and with [Light Flood], it hit it regardless of where it hid. The only downside was that it left Sol vulnerable to attacks, but he didn¡¯t have to worry about that. The Shadow Amalgamation kept creating shadow hands to stop Sol¡¯s attack, but they were all cut apart by Amber swiftly. When it realized that making the shadow hands was futile, it tried to crush Sol with its massive weight. It swayed to m downwards, but before it could do so, Amber once again intervened. Amber¡¯s entire body transformed into sand and became arge pir wedged between the ground and the Shadow Amalgamation, keeping it in ce. Health: 302/1500 ¡¯Just a little more!¡¯ N?v(el)B\\jnn As ast ditch effort the Shadow Amalgamation created a giant scythe out of shadows and shed downwards towards Sol. The scythe was weakened by the light but it still posed a high threat to Sol. From the giant pir of sand that was Amber a pir of sand shot out to collide against the scythe and hold it back. It weakened the main body of the sand pir as it had to split a good amount of its sand to block the scythe but it worked in holding it back. Sol looked up to see a giant pir of sand which was Amber holding back the Shadow Amalgamation and its shadow scythe. The sand pir was shaking, it didn¡¯t seem like Amber could keep it up for much longer. Seeing that he needed to hurry up, Sol used [Overpower], giving him a massive boost in controlling mana. Sol canceled one of the [Light Flood] beams and focused all his energy on empowering the other one. This rapidly consumed even more mana, which hepensated by drinking another mana potion. The beam of light grew even wider than the total size of the original two beams and with much more power it sted into the Shadow Amalgamation. The Shadow Amalgamation screeched in pain as the light invaded its insides, unable to do anything. It tried to struggle but was held in ce by the sand. Light started leaking out from its insides as its massive body was no longer able to contain the opposing force wrecking its insides. "WREEEE!" With a final screech, the Shadow Amalgamation burst with corpses that were once part of the outer shell being released, exposing its true insides. It was a small undead surrounded by a semi-transparent heart made up of smaller hearts that were stitched onto it. The heart was torn open with the small undead inside missing both arms and a leg. Sol stopped casting [Light Flood] and looked at the small undead. ¡¯So this is the real Shadow Amalgamation.¡¯ It looked no different from normal undead except for its hair. The small undead¡¯s hair wasn¡¯t even hair but shadows flowing out of its head like fire. The undead red back hatefully towards the duo. It had spent weeks collecting all those bodies, growing and bing stronger, just to lose it all in a single fight. It pained it to see the bodies it had painstakingly preserved being absorbed by the dungeon. The facial expressions of the Shadow Amalgamation didn¡¯t escape Sol¡¯s notice. ¡¯This monster¡­ has sentience?¡¯ Sol knew that monsters were capable of intelligence equal to the level of humans and other privileged races, but that was only outside the dungeons. Inside the dungeon, it wasmon knowledge to treat them as less than animals, running on pure instincts to kill any intruders. At least animals knew when to run away when a strong enemy appeared, but dungeon monsters would attack regardless without any care for their lives. ¡¯Is it unique or do monsters gain more sentience at higher levels?¡¯ From what Sol understood, this undead wasn¡¯t that different from others of its kind, the only difference being that it was stronger than average. Sol was more inclined to believe it was because the enemies were getting stronger. ¡¯I guess I¡¯ll find outter when I fight the boss. If it is because they are stronger, fights will get harder from here on out.¡¯ "[Light Spear]." One light spear manifested over Sol as itunched towards the undead, putting it out of its misery. Even if it had sentience, Sol couldn¡¯t just let it go, it would kill him and Amber if it had the chance and anyone else it came across. You have in a Lv 80 Shadow Amalgamation! Gained 702,000 Exp (260%) Learned [Magic Resistance] Lv 4! Learned [Life Perception] Lv 3! Learned [Shadow Hands] Lv 7! Chapter 117: Trust Sol was in a good mood as he and Amber raced through the dungeon. Not only did they finally encounter a Shadow Amalgamation, he finally got a long desired skill. [Magic Resistance] Lv 4: Reduces magical damage by 20%. ¡¯I¡¯m a step closer topleting [Invincible Body]! I also got two other good skills.¡¯ [Life Perception] Lv 3: Able to perceive the energy of life in all living beings within a 15-meter radius. [Shadow Hands] Lv 7: Create and control shadows in the form of hands. They can stretch and attack as an extension of your body. Mana cost varies. ¡¯[Life Perception] is absolutely useless in this dungeon because all the enemiesck life, but it can help with covering the gaps with [Mana Perception]. [Shadow Hands] is more versatile and is a great new way to attack.¡¯ Sol had realized that [Mana Perception] didn¡¯t work all the time. Sometimes the person had too little mana to really see them through the sea of ambient mana, or they were able to disguise it to a certain degree, like Amber when she went invisible. Sol hoped that [Life Perception] couldpensate for that w. You have in a Lv 80 Animated Armor! Gained 702,000 Exp (260%) You have in a Lv 80 Spectre! Gained 702,000 Exp (260%) The normal enemies still posed no trouble for the duo as they sped through the vast floor. In only 8 hours after entering the floor, they had already arrived at the exit and set up camp for the night. While Sol made dinner, he was troubled over his increasing curiosity. ¡¯During the fight, Amberpletely turned into sand and even became a huge pir that could hold off the Shadow Amalgamation. Should I ask about her skills?¡¯ Sol was really curious regarding her talents and the skills that allow her to perform such feats. He also knew if he asked she would even let him use [Analysis] on her, but he felt like he would be taking advantage of her condition if he did. While turning some meats on a grill, he mumbled to himself, "Am I overthinking it?" "Always." "Yeah, you¡¯re prob- WHAT?" Sol spun around to see Amber right behind him, watching him cook the meat. He didn¡¯t notice she was behind him the entire time, silently learning how he cooked meats. "Was¡­ that a joke?" "Yes." It took Sol a moment to process her joke, but he soon began tough. "Hahahaha! You¡¯re probably right." Sol wasn¡¯tughing at the joke because the joke was hrious. The reason he wasughing was that this was the first joke Amber ever made, and it made him extremely happy. ¡¯Every day she breaks a little bit more out of her shell.¡¯ The shell being the powerful mental maniption and brainwashing she was put under. "Hah¡­ I¡¯ll stop overthinking and ask you then. Can I see your status page? I can show you mine as well; I¡¯m just very curious about your recent abilities." Amber didn¡¯t answer but instead reached for her hand and removed a ring before handing it over to Sol. "This is¡­" Obscurer¡¯s Ring Rare Skills: [Status Deception] Lv 7, [Obfuscation] Lv 2 Sol asked once more, "Are you sure?" Sharing one¡¯s status was a big deal. It was akin to sharing one¡¯s deepest secrets, which was why most rarely shared those details unless they had to. Even parties that have worked together for years would never share the exact details of their status page. Amber¡¯s red eyes looked directly at Sol¡¯s eyes, and with confidence, she stated, "I trust you." The two continued to stare at each other for almost a minute until Sol heard the sizzling sound of meat, pulling him back to reality. Quickly flipping the meat, Sol responded back. "The trust you ce in me¡­ I promise I won¡¯t let you down." Name: Amber Race: Human Talents: [Hidden de], [Sand Body], [Sand Queen] Level: 74 HP: 850 MP: 550 Str: 100 Vit: 60 (+25) Agi: 125 (+45) Int: 30 Wis: 40 (+15) Talent Skills: [Distort Weapon] Lv Max, [Sand Incarnate] Lv 1, [Will of the Sand] Lv 3 Passive Skills: [Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Counter] Lv 6, [Intermediate Dagger Mastery] Lv 9, [Intermediate Throwing] Lv 4, [Enhanced Reflexes] Lv 6, [Agility Up] Lv 9, [Vitality Up] Lv 5, [Wisdom Up] Lv 3, [Sand Sense] Lv 5 Active Skills: [Ground Shrink] Lv 5, [Blurring Speed] Lv 8, [Invisibility] Lv 8, [Debilitating Strike] Lv 8, [Cross sh] Lv 7, [Disarm] Lv 9, [Assassinate] Lv 4, [Flurry of Blows] Lv 7, [Sand Geyser] Lv 2, [Sand Maniption] Lv 1 "[Sand Queen]?!" Sol had never heard of that talent before, but that wasn¡¯t what surprised him. There were countless talents in the world, and no one was expected to know even the most obscure talents except for schrs of that field. Even though Sol had never heard of the talent, there were some ways to tell the rarity of a talent based on their names. Rarer talents tended to sound grander or more impressive than lower rarity talents. Amber¡¯s talent had the word queen in its name, simr to other legendary talents. As far as Sol knew, there were no talents below legendary that had words like queen, king, and saint in their name. Amber simply nodded to Sol¡¯s surprise like it was a simple matter. Her own perspective was abnormal towards owning a legendary talent because she didn¡¯t really know how rare and special they were. She was taught that legendary skills were stronger than normal, but that was the extent of her knowledge. Cane at the time didn¡¯t think that information was worth teaching her. She also only recently obtained it when she became level 60 and had yet to develop any of the skills she now had ess to. Because the duo had been racing through the dungeon and focusing on leveling over skills, Amber had mostly been using skills she was used to over the new skills. Sol ted the meats on the side and turned back to Amber and removed his Deceiver¡¯s Earring. "I know you don¡¯t have [Analysis], so you can¡¯t see my status page, but it¡¯s only fair I reciprocate the trust you ced in me. One of the adventurers had this in their spatial ring; use it on me." Sol handed over a small white marble. Status Eye Common n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Skill: [Single Use Analysis] Lv 3 Status Eyes were expensive tools that some adventurers kept with them in case they encountered an enemy they had never seen before. Sol initially nned on selling this as it was useless to them with him having [Analysis], but he felt it would be better used this way. Amber received the Status Eye and looked at Sol, who was smiling patiently as he waited for her to use it. Crack! The marble cracked and shattered into tiny particles. Sol was sure it worked as he could see Amber¡¯s eyes moving as she read his status page. Chapter 118: [Superior Mana Control] Sol and Amber ate their food while discussing each other¡¯s status pages. Although Amber kept her responses short, it was much more frequent than before. Sol also noticed during the conversation that shecked a lot ofmon sense regarding talents and skills and tried to exin as best he could. "When you unlock a talent, you don¡¯t always get general skills right off the bat, you have to discover them yourself. That¡¯s usually not a problem withmon or well-known skills, as those are documented in detail, but I don¡¯t know much about [Sand Queen]. I can tell it¡¯s a legendary talent, but that¡¯s about it. I have no idea what kind of skills you would be able to learn and develop just from the name, but it¡¯s obvious they would all be sand-rted. We can check in the libraryter if there¡¯s any more information about it." "Mhm." Amber gave a small nod as Sol thought to himself how ridiculous her lineup is. ¡¯She has the rare [Hidden de] followed by what I think is the unique [Sand Body] and tops it off with a legendary [Sand Queen]. Getting any of them would normally be more than enough, but she got increasingly better talents. To top it all off, each talent helped her learn different attribute skills, and if she gained [Wisdom Up] when we first entered the dungeon¡­ for it to already be at level 3¡­¡¯ Sol believed Amber was an anomaly for being so talented. Sol knew he was even more so of an anomaly, but his growth was mostly dependent on others, while Amber¡¯s growth was all hers. It didn¡¯t help either that Sol¡¯s growth was not just dependent on others, but they had to die as well for him to gain anything. ¡¯Forget it, I also have [Reinterpret], so I can also slowly develop my skills. It¡¯s not the same, though¡­¡¯ After finishing their meals, Amber and Sol went to their tents to rest for the night. Instead of his usual [Reinterpret] session, Sol wanted tobine a few skills instead. It would leave him tired by the end of it, but he believed it to be worth it. Activating [Aggregate], Sol saw once more the strings that ran in multiple directions in a beautiful assortment of colors. ¡¯I have been wondering, where do these strings lead?¡¯ Sol could only perceive the strings a few feet away from him, after that, they began to blur and disappear. He tried to somehow look further, but didn¡¯t know how, so he just ended up straining his eyes. ¡¯Nevermind, let¡¯s just focus on the skills.¡¯ Eagerly, Sol willed [Magic Resistance] to wrap around [Invincible Body]. The process was smooth as the string easily wrapped around the thicker one, as if it was always meant to be there. When Sol originallybined [Invincible Body], he also desired [Magic Resistance] to be a part of it, and that desire made the created skill more flexible and able to ept the new addition much easier. [Invincible Body] Lv 6: Increase Defense by 220. Nullify all damage by 30%. High chance to ignore mental status effects. Increased health regeneration by 300%. Able to slowly regrow small body parts. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om ¡¯Amazing! It also didn¡¯t decrease the skill level.¡¯ It was an incredibly small and minuscule change to the description, but it was a huge step for Sol. The reason for the skill not degrading was solely because the skill wasbined with [Magic Resistance] in mind; itpletely adapted and became one step closer to being aplete creation. ¡¯Maybe I should add [Increased Mana Regeneration]? No, that may work, but I think it would be best tobine it with the other mana-rted skills. This should be a purely defensive skill.¡¯ Sol was worried it would muddy the waters, figuratively speaking. While he didn¡¯t know for sure, he felt that it would stretch the skill too far in trying to do too many things at once. ¡¯Now what else can I make?¡¯ ¡­ An hourter, Sol only managed tobine two new skills. It¡¯s not that the process itself took a long time, it was solely because he was indecisive over which skills tobine. [True Sight] Lv 6: Open one¡¯s eyes to the truth of the world and see what most cannot. Perceive mana and life within a 30 meter radius. Able to pierce through most illusions. Extremely rare chance of obtaining a premonition. [Superior Mana Control] Lv 1: You have taken arge step in mastering the maniption of mana. Able to bypass the need to chant spells in their totality at 50% decreased efficiency. Increased mana regeneration by 500%, can also manually recover mana faster. All mana costs decrease by 50%. Able to multicast three spells at once at 50% higher cost. [True Sight] came from abination of [Mana Perception], [Life Perception], and [Danger Sense]. Sol made a mistake in adding [Danger Sense] while focusing on creating a perception ability. This in turnbined into a skill that also allowed him to see through illusions but itpletely changed his ability to detect danger and instead now had a small chance to see the future. ¡¯I don¡¯t know if trading [Danger Sense] for a small chance to see the future was worth it, but I can¡¯t take it back now. Hopefully, it doesn¡¯t just tell me what I¡¯ll eat for dinner a week from now¡­¡¯ The second skill Sol created, [Superior Mana Control], came from abination of [Shortened Cast], [Increased Mana Regeneration], [Mana Efficiency], and [Multicast]. Overall it was a positive increase, improving on most of the previous skills. The biggest gain from this newlybined skill was that it kept most of the previous effects while resetting the level back to one, meaning it had evolved in the process as well, allowing it to grow once more. ¡¯If I increase this to level 10, won¡¯t spells cost no mana? How is such a thing possible?¡¯ Sol had no idea how it would be possible for spells to cost nothing and was excited by the possibility of being able to cast spells nonstop. Although Sol could have keptbining skills, he was tired after the creation of [Superior Mana Control], which took the most concentration to sessfully create. He decided to call it a night and get some rest as in a few hours they would have to race through the dungeon once more. A few hourster, Sol woke up and with a refreshed mind and body made some breakfast. Amber joined him not longter as the two ate peacefully in the dark and dreary dungeon. Done with their meals, the two once again ventured into the 16th floor of the dungeon with renewed vigor. Chapter 119: Festive Mood The city of Crestal was more active than usual. Travelers of all kinds made their way to the capital of the kingdom for one thing: the knight selection. Some were adventurers trying to make a name for themselves or obtain a more stable job. Some were merchants who came to capitalize on the influx of people to sell their rare wares at a higher price. Some were just ordinary people who came to watch the selection for their first time or as a family tradition. Regardless of why, the city was reaching peak capacity from the massive influx of travelers. The residents were prepared, as this happened every year. The streets were decorated with flyers and banners featuring the knight¡¯s emblem and portraits of famous and popr knights. In an attempt to be as prepared as they could be, adventurers, mercenaries, and otherbat professionals looked for better gear and hopefully tips on what the second round of the event could be. While they all failed in finding any hints, a lot of money was spent on items, weapons, and armor to give them a leg up in thepetition. While they didn¡¯t know if they would fight together, against, or alone in the second round, it didn¡¯t hurt to be as prepared as they could. On the roof of a building located near the Adventurers Guild sat a man with fiery red hair, looking at all the new people shuttling in and out of the building. "Weak, weak, super weak, wait, does he even qualify as C-Rank?" The one estimating the power of his soon to bepetitors was Victor. He didn¡¯t have to do this, but he was bored spending his time indulging in luxuries or training at the mansion. "I was hoping someone here would at least stand out, could all the strong people be in the dungeon now- Oh! Her!" Victor looked at a tall brown haired young woman with a spear on her back. With no skill that allowed him to view other people¡¯s status page, Victor learned how to judge the strength of others by pure instinct. From the way their body moves and the aura they carried themselves with gave Victor the feeling that she was brimming with power. He could easily tell that the woman was above B-Rank, which meant she could actually pose a problem for him. But when he looked at her, there was something that felt unsettling. ¡¯Why does she give such an odd feeling?¡¯ Victor couldn¡¯t exin it, but there was something different about that woman. He decided to watch over her for a while longer to make sure she didn¡¯t pose a real threat to the city. While he was nning to incite a revolution, that didn¡¯t mean he didn¡¯t care about the residents of the kingdom. He spied on the woman for two hours, following her silently as she went about her day. She booked a room in an inn, browsed a few stores, and eventually registered for the knight selection. Nothing she did was odd and out of ce, yet Victor still had a bad feeling. While watching the woman, Victor saw as she passed by a poor girl and gave her some food she bought nearby. She said something to the girl, but Victor was too far to hear anything. Even so, the act of kindness threw him off further. ¡¯Am I overthinking it? Do I feel this way because I might lose to her?¡¯ The woman began to move once more and made some distance. Victor was going to hop to another roof to continue following her, but just as he was about to do so, he felt somethinging his way fast. Victor quickly reacted and conjured a small barrier of fire in front of him; the next moment, something smashed the shield. It wasn¡¯t strong enough to break through it, but Victor got the message. "I¡¯m not allowed to watch anymore, huh." Having only a weird feeling and nothing concrete, Victor decided to let it go. While he could continue stalking her, it would be a waste of time if she already knew he was following her, and if it devolved into a fight, it would be even worse. He considered informing Sigurd, but it wouldn¡¯t have mattered if he did. If she could detect him, then any B-Ranker, even if they have stealth talents that he didn¡¯t have, would also be easily detected. Victor looked towards the sky with arge grin on his face. ¡¯Guess we¡¯ll just have to settle it in the arena.¡¯ ¡­ Two dayster, Sol and Amber arrived at arge door at the end of the 19th floor. They didn¡¯t encounter any difficulties on the way and were lucky enough to stumble into two more Shadow Amalgamations, though much weaker than the first one they encountered. "Let¡¯s take a 10 minute rest before we go in." "Okay." Sol made some simple furniture with earth magic and sat down while looking at his status page. Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner], [Transformer] Level: 80 Exp: 79,612,100/81,377,000 HP: 1450 MP: 1650 Str: 80 (+70) Vit: 80 (+70) Agi: 80 (+70) n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Int: 80 (+70) Wis: 80 (+90) Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 4, [Analysis] Lv 7, [Aggregate] Lv EX, [Reinterpret] Lv EX Passive Skills: [Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Counter] Lv 6, [Precise Coordination] Lv 6, [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 3, [Intermediate Weapon Mastery] Lv 7, [Wild Hunt] Lv 2, [Invincible Body] Lv 8, [Perfect Bnce] Lv 2, [Death Absorption] Lv 6, [True Sight] Lv 6, [Superior Mana Control] Lv 1, [Fortified Soul] Lv 2 Active Skills: [Cross sh] Lv 3, [Ground Shrink] Lv 3, [Snap Punch] Lv 8, [Invisibility] Lv 7, [Terra Spikes] Lv 5, [Rock Throw] Lv 4, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Fell Cleave] Lv 8, [Debilitating Strike] Lv 1, [Telepathy] Lv 1, [Unpassable Bulwark] Lv 1, [Intermediate Elemental Magic] Lv 5, [Overpower] Lv 4, [Create Undead] Lv 6, [Weapon Enhancement (Variant)] Lv 8, [Disarm] Lv 9, [Backstab] Lv 6, [Bombardment] Lv 1, [Storm Blitz] Lv 8, [Piercing Lunge] Lv 5, [Seeking Shot] Lv 6, [Mana sh] Lv 2, [Intermediate Light Magic] Lv 7, [Shadow Hands] Lv 7, [Shadow Form] Lv 5, [Empowered Strike] Lv 4 ¡¯Not many skills leveled up, and only [Crippling Strike] evolved to [Debilitating Strike] because of [Reinterpret]. Though I did gain a few new ones.¡¯ [Fortified Soul] Lv 2: Your soul has be stronger, increasing slightly in size and capacity. Minor resistance against attacks against your soul. Wisdom +20. [Shadow Form] Lv 5: Turn yourself and others into shadows and travel through them. Mana cost varies. [Empowered Strike] Lv 4: Empower your next attack making it 40% stronger. Cooldown: 15 minutes. ¡¯I¡¯m surprised [Collective of Souls] became [Fortified Soul], but it makes sense as I only have one soul. d it didn¡¯t do something crazy and split my soul in pieces or developed multiple personalities¡­¡¯ Sol took a gamble on siphoning [Collective of Souls] as he had no idea what woulde from it; luckily, it changed to his benefit and even increased his mana capacity. Another benefit not mentioned in the description was that his mind felt clearer, less clouded. Though he wasn¡¯tpletely sure that was from the skill. The other two skills were great additions with [Shadow Form] functioning simrly to [Burrow] or Amber¡¯s [Sand Incarnate]. The only downside was that it didn¡¯t work in the presence of light which was why the Shadow Amalgamation never used it during the fight. Sol continued casting light spells which made the Shadow Amalgamation unable to run or negate attacks by turning parts of its body into shadows. [Empowered Strike] was the simplest to understand of the new skills, but it worked in odd ways. Sol couldn¡¯t understand how it truly worked even though he siphoned the technique from the undead. It appeared even the Shadow Amalgamation didn¡¯t know much of the technique and used it with the limited knowledge it had. It could empower physical and magical attacks without any additional cost to a ratherrge degree. It simply just worked. ¡¯I¡¯ll have to dedicate some timeter with [Reinterpret] on [Empowered Strike]; maybe I¡¯ll find out more in there.¡¯ A few minutester, Sol and Amber were ready and opened the door to the boss floor, transporting the two to the boss most B-Rankers didn¡¯t dare to fight. Chapter 120: Handless Fiend Name: N/A Race: Handless Fiend Talents: [Magic Hands], [Chromatic], [Instant Reflexes] Level: 90 HP: 1000 MP: 1150 Str: 40 Vit: 50 (+50) Agi: 115 (+40) n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Int: 100 (+70) Wis: 115 Talent Skills: [Create Magic Hands] Lv MAX Passive Skills: [Living Corpse] Lv MAX, [Ry Magic] Lv MAX, [Enhanced Reflexes] Lv 8, [Mana Efficiency] Lv MAX, [Increased Mana Regeneration] Lv 8, [Agility Up] Lv 8, [Augmented Intelligence] Lv 2 Active Skills: [Chromatic Red] Lv 9, [Chromatic Orange] Lv 9, [Chromatic Yellow] Lv 9, [Chromatic Green] Lv 9, [Chromatic Blue] Lv 9, [Chromatic Indigo] Lv 9, [Chromatic Purple] Lv 9 The Handless Fiend was a tall, slim creature. Although it had arms, itcked hands at the end of them. The most ominous feature of the fiend was its face. It wore a mask, but through the holes, one could see pulsating flesh rhythmically beating beneath it. ¡¯The guide says this monster is considered the peak of B-Rank¡­¡¯ Even with knowing the information beforehand, Sol knew this wouldn¡¯t be an easy fight. "Humans¡­" An eerie voice full of disdain emanated from the monster. "So, it can talk." Sol knew this would happen eventually after seeing the Shadow Amalgamation, but seeing a dungeon monster talk for the first time was a weird experience, to say the least. "Humans¡­ must¡­" It continued to mumble to itself and didn¡¯t respond to Sol¡¯sment. "Huh. Guess its consciousness isn¡¯t all there yet. Let¡¯s go, Amber." Amber nodded and retrieved her daggers while Sol began to chant a spell. "[Shimmer Barrier]!" A semi transparent shield appeared, enveloping Sol, and another around Amber. ¡¯Just in case.¡¯ The Handless Fiend saw the light magic and became furious. "Humans¡­ must¡­ DIE!" Out of nowhere, a floating hand appeared above the Handless Fiend and shot multiple small yellow orbs in quick session at the duo. Even with the barrier, neither nned to find out how much it could endure so they both used [Ground Shrink] and moved out of the way. The yellow projectilesnded like a rain of arrows, peppering the small area where they used to stand. "[Light Spear]!" A spear of light flew towards the undead. Because it was an undead, Sol nned to mainly use light magic that was much deadlier to it than any other kind of magic. The hand that was above the Handless Fiend moved in front of it as it glowed green and created a barrier. The spear of light smashed into the barrier but did nothing as it was fully blocked by the shield. Amber ran towards the fiend with the intention of closing the distance. When she arrived within 10 feet of the undead, a new hand appeared with a menacingly red glow. A red beam was soon unleashed towards Amber. Toote to dodge, Amber protected herself by turning her body to sand. The beam of intense heat broke through the light barrier and burned the sand, turning it into a dirty yellow ss. Amber didn¡¯t stop as she smashed her now partially ss turned body into the red hand, breaking it. Amber released the now turned ss from her sand body and summoned new sand to take its ce before turning back to normal. While this was happening, Sol didn¡¯t stand idly by, heunched spell after spell and was met with the green barrier blocking his attacks. Tired of his light spells being countered, Sol took out his bow and began to charge up a condensed mana arrow. With his increased control over mana, the process was much quicker than before as he quickly released an arrow charged with 200 mana. The arrow was shot directly at the green hand. The fiend, sensing the power in the arrow, turned its attention away from Amber for a moment to deal with the greater problem. Along with the green hand, two new ones appeared, one glowing indigo and the other blue. The blue handunched crescents of blue mana towards the arrow in an attempt to change its course, while the indigo hand curled into a fist beforeunching itself at the arrow. The arrow received the blue attacks without slowing down, but when the indigo fist arrived, it directly punched the arrow, changing its trajectory slightly. The arrow destroyed the indigo fist in the process and still hit the green barrier, but only on the edge. It pierced a hole clean through the barrier and the hand that created it but flew past the Handless Fiend, leaving itpletely unharmed. Though Sol hoped for more, he could ept the oue. ¡¯At least the shield is broken.¡¯ With no more shield, Sol took out his Lipon and unleashed a sword of light, powered by a cartridge he filled a day ago. Sword in hand, Sol charged in while using [Mana sh] to send a few waves of sharp mana towards the Handless Fiend. Sol thought this time for sure his attack would connect, but once again, a green hand appeared and created another barrier just as strong as the previous one. ¡¯There¡¯s no cooldown on resummoning the hands?¡¯ Along with the green hand, a blue and purple hand appeared. The blue oneunched the crescents towards Amber while the purple one directed itself towards Sol and glowed brightly but nothing came out of it. Sol suddenly became sluggish as he felt like he was carrying arge boulder on his back. It wasn¡¯t enough to stop himpletely, but it slowed him down significantly. Amber, on the other hand, dodged to the side, evading the blue crescents, but Sol remembered what type of attack it was and warned her. "The blue ones chase you!" The warning came just in time as Amber turned around and witnessed the blue crescents curve behind and boomerang back towards her. Amber swung her daggers, sending a few waves of concentrated sand towards the crescents, colliding with them. Two new hands appeared, glowing red and orange. The orange hand was hugepared to the other hands, reaching almost 5 feet tall. The orange hand joined the blue one as it curled into a fist andunched itself towards Amber. The red hand moved towards Sol as it charged up a beam in his direction. The bright redser sted towards Sol, and he took out a shield he previously looted to defend against it. The shield began to melt because it was only rare, and Sol knew it wouldn¡¯tst long. Sol had to quickly figure out how to get out of the beam¡¯s way and the effect of the purple hand. ¡¯The gravity of the purple hand only affects a 5 meter radius, but I can¡¯t move while blocking the beam! [Ground Shrink] is still on cooldown, should I use [Overpower]?¡¯ Sol knew [Overpower] would definitely be enough to break through the purple hand¡¯s gravity field and the red hand¡¯s beam, but it would take a chunk of the duration of the skill. Sol wasn¡¯t sure if the remaining time would be enough to defeat the Handless Fiend, and if he didn¡¯t, it would leave him extremely tired afterwards. ¡¯I just need to focus on getting out of the gravity field. I can¡¯t use [Shadow Form] because of the beam¡¯s light¡­¡¯ Sol ran through the possibility of few other skills, but none really worked in this scenario, but then he had an idea. ¡¯It¡¯s crazy, but it might just work!¡¯ Chapter 121: Many Hands Make Light Work Sol moved mana into the ground like he would normally with [Terra Spikes], but using his experience from when he first changed the skill, he slightly altered the effects. The ground slightly shook as the earth beneath Sol¡¯s feet sted outwards, raising a pir of earth. Instead of its usual jagged and pointed cone shape, it emerged as a pir with a t surface. The strong force sted Sol into the air and out of the zone of the gravity field. [Terra Spikes] leveled up! (5 -> 6) ¡¯Huh?!¡¯ Sol was surprised to see it level up naturally, but while flying midair towards a boss wasn¡¯t the ideal time to question whether it was a fluke or not, so he put it to the back of his mind for now. The red hand changed its trajectory to continue firing at Sol, but it trailed behind too slowly, giving Sol the breathing room he needed to retaliate. While still in the air, Sol swung two [Mana sh] towards the two hands. The hands were easily sliced by the attack, disintegrating by the time Solnded on the ground. He turned to Amber and saw she had already taken care of the giant orange hand and was finishing off the blue one with another sand attack. Sol took this moment to check the Handless Fiend¡¯s mana. Mana: 530/1150 ¡¯It¡¯s still got about half, huh.¡¯ Although the two had yet to damage the undead once, it only has half of its mana left. If they kept fighting as is, it would eventually run out of mana. But there was something that bothered Sol. ¡¯It¡¯s strong, but it hasn¡¯t gone all out yet.¡¯ As if on cue, the Handless Fiend decided it has had enough. It raised its handless arms as the seven hands formed behind it of each color. The red, yellow, blue, and purple hovered above it, while the orange, green, and indigo ones moved in front of it. At that moment, all the projectiles wereunched towards the duo. The gravity was multiplied under Amber as the red beam and indigo fist sted towards her. The blue crescents and yellow projectiles flew towards Sol, with therge orange one moving to crush him. The green hand stayed behind, maintaining its protection. Like aposer, the Handless Fiend moved all the hands in perfect synchronized order. With all the hands working as a team, simrly if not better than an adventurer¡¯s party. Sol and Amber defended against the onught in their own ways. Sol dodged where he could but simply took the brunt of it, trusting in his strong body. Amber, on the other hand,pletely turned to sand, somehow negating the effects of the gravity and allowing her to move and dodge the red beam. The indigo fist was especially useless against Amber, as when it sted a hole through the sand, it would simply reform. "[Razor Wind]!" Needing to act quickly, Sol multicasted his fastest spell. Originally, the spell would create a few tens of wind des, but what appeared was over a hundred. Sol directed them all to the barrage of projectiles heading his way. The yellow projectiles and blue crescents collided with the wind des, creating a st of energy. From the st, Sol emerged running, massively closing the gap to the Handless Fiend. The giant orange hand trailed behind, wanting to crush Sol before he could arrive at the undead. Sol turned to it and gave a mischievous smile. "See ya!" Earth rumbled beneath him as another pir of earth emerged andunched him towards the boss. Flying towards the boss, nothing else stood in his way besides the green hand, which acted as its final defense. Gripping onto the light sword, Sol activated its third ability, which released a powerful ray of light. The Handless Fiend knew the attack would break through its barrier, so it unsummoned the giant hand and resummoned it in front of it. The light broke past the green barrier and destroyed the hand before continuing towards the orange hand, which took the rest of the attack. It then created another green hand behind the orange hand just in time as it was destroyed as well. The second green hand also broke, but it was enough to stop most of the attack. Only a small portion of the light went through and burned the Handless Fiend. "Humans!" The Handless Fiend screeched in anger while creating four new hands. Health: 730/1000 Mana: 123/1150 Sol grinned as he saw the remnants of his attack do so much damage to the Handless Fiend. While a boss it wasn¡¯t very durable and would lose out in that department to the Gravedigger that was 20 levels below it. The reason it was strong was that it could attack with such ferocity that most parties would wipe within the first minute against it, unable to get past the seven hands. ¡¯Time to finish it off!¡¯ "[Explosion]!" Three small flickers appeared surrounding the Handless Fiend. It quickly reacted and shielded itself with the green barrier and the orange hand just as the explosion went off. BOOOOOM! n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om The explosions took out not only the two hands protecting the Handless Fiend but the other five that were resummoned nearby. Before it had time to summon any more, Amber created a st of sand underneath her andunched herself towards the fiend. She copied Sol¡¯s idea with [Terra Spikes] but with her own set of abilities created an extremely simr effect. She flung herself through the aftermath of the explosion and with her two daggers attacked the Handless Fiend. "WRAHH!" Sol could hear its ghoulish screech as Amber mercilessly attacked in rapid session, instantly emptying out its health. You have in a Lv 90 Handless Fiend! Gained 3,025,000 Exp (300%) You have leveled up! +5 Attribute points Learned [Chromatic Red] Lv 7! Learned [Chromatic Green] Lv 7! Learned [Chromatic Purple] Lv 7! [Siphon] leveled up! (4 -> 5) Sol was overwhelmed with a flood of system messages. ¡¯[Siphon] leveled up again!¡¯ Ignoring the rest of the notifications, he opened the description of [Siphon] immediately. [Siphon] Lv 5: Siphon 3 skills from dead beings. Can additionally siphon one talent skill. Increased efficiency, lowers the longer they are dead. ¡¯Talent skill?!¡¯ Chapter 122: Hey Amber... Still in the boss room, Sol¡¯s eyes were fixated on the new description for [Siphon]. [Siphon] Lv 5: Siphon 3 skills from dead beings. Can additionally siphon one talent skill. Increased efficiency, lowers the longer they are dead. ¡¯I can finally get talent skills!¡¯ Talent skills were a mixed bag in terms of quality, some having minor effects like elerating the growth of nts without the use of magic, while others were strong like Amber¡¯s [Sand Incarnate]. Sol was extremely eager to gain a new talent skill, and he already had his sights set on a talent skill he could get right now. [Chromatic Red] Lv 7: Create a powerful red beam from a focus point. Can¡¯t be simultaneously used with other chromatic skills. [Chromatic Green] Lv 7: Create a protective green barrier from a focus point. Can¡¯t be simultaneously used with other chromatic skills. [Chromatic Purple] Lv 7: Create an intense gravity zone from a focus point. Can¡¯t be simultaneously used with other chromatic skills. After learning the chromatic skills, Sol knew that while individually useful, they would note close to the level of power the Handless Fiend showcased. This was because he couldn¡¯t use more than one at a time. The Handless Fiend had a way to circumvent it, which was by using its talent skill. "Hey Amber¡­ Can we fight it again?" She turned to Sol and tilted her head. "Why?" It wasn¡¯t that Amber was opposed to fighting it again, but the initial n was to get to floor 21 and head back. They would then spend the next week in the city practicing their skills. Sol himself also needed to spend timebining and improving skills and needed more than just thete night sessions between floors. "Well, two reasons. My talent skill leveled up and I can siphon talent skills. The second is that the Handless fiend has quite a few good skills." "Sure." "Really!?" Sol knew it was a bit selfish to revisit a fight just for his own growth, so he was extremely d she agreed. "Mhm, food first." "Sure sure, whatever you want." The two left the boss room and appeared at the entrance of the 21st floor. It looked identical to the other floors, but the ambiance waspletely different. It was eerily quiet as there were no adventurers there, unlike the 11th floor. Making their way to the teleport sigil, they activated it before setting up a makeshift camp. Sol prepared the best food he could using whatever food they had left in their spatial ring. They would soon head back to the city so there was no point in conserving it, giving him the freedom to go all out. ¡¯Hmm¡­ While Amber is happy with most foods, I noticed she enjoys savory food more than anything, so let¡¯s go with a meaty dish.¡¯ Sol took out hornbill tenderloins and marinated them before tossing them onto the grill. While the meat cooked, he took out a marimo salmon and removed its scales and skin before cing it on a pan over the fire. Finally, to bnce the meal, Sol took out an assortment of vegetables and diced them into a sd while the meat cooked. To make the sd tastier, he also added salt and lemon juice, which gave it the extra punch it needed. Proud of his work, Sol ted the meal and presented it to Amber, awaiting her judgment. "...Thanks." Though only a small thanks was given, Sol saw Amber immediately digging in with her expression saying everything he needed to hear. Sol smiled as he also began to eat, though he liked savory food, he was one who preferred salty foods more. Regardless, Sol¡¯s eyes widened as he tasted his own creation. ¡¯Woah. I outdid myself this time.¡¯ The two ate in a happy mood that brightened up the gloomy dungeon atmosphere. ¡­ Thirty minutester, the two were standing once more at the 19th floor gate to the 20th floor boss room. When they took the door to head back to the boss room, it instead teleported them to the other entrance on the 19th floor. Now all they had to do was open the doors once more and be teleported to the boss. "You ready?" "Mhm." Amber gave a nod as she unsheathed her daggers. "Let¡¯s go then." Sol pushed the doors open, and the next moment, the two were teleported to one of the countless rooms that house the Handless Fiend boss. "Humans¡­" "Yeah, yeah, we get it. [Explosion]!" Not nning to give the boss any breathing room, Sol immediately opened up with [Explosion]. Three lights flickered around the fiend as explosions erupted out of them. The Handless Fiend had insane reaction times and quickly summoned a green hand to cover itself. Amber created a pir of sand andunched herself towards the boss while Sol kept the pressure on it. "[Explosion]!" "[Explosion]!" This sort of multicasting expended a lot of mana rapidly, with each cast costing a little over 200 mana. Within seconds, Sol had already depleted over a third of his mana. Every wave of explosions, the Handless Fiend was forced to recreate the green hand to shield itself while using the giant orange hand to cover the small gaps in recreating the green hand. It made an attempt to summon other hands to attack, but it wasn¡¯t able to create hands too far from its body, so they were also caught up in the explosions and destroyed before being able to do anything. By the time the third wave of explosions ended, Amber was already within 10 feet of the boss. Sol stopped casting not only to avoid hurting her with the explosions but also because the fight was already over. The biggest weakness of the Handless Fiend was its overall weak body. Once someone got close and past the barrier, it was light work to end its life. With only 10 feet left, Amber used [Ground Shrink] with her daggers ready; she shed at the Handless Fiend as she dashed past it. "WRAHH!" The Handless Fiend wailed in pain and summoned a red, blue, and yellow hand to attack Amber, but before it could attack, three arrows appeared and pierced all three of them. Sol was using his bow to provide support from a distance. Safe from the hands, Amber unleashed a torrent of attacks simr to how she finished off thest boss, ending its life in a single moment. You have in a Lv 90 Handless Fiend! Gained 3,025,000 Exp (300%) Learned [Chromatic Blue] Lv 7! Learned [Chromatic Yellow] Lv 7! Learned [Chromatic Orange] Lv 7! Attempting to siphon [Create Magic Hands]... 0%...2%... ERROR ERROR: Target_Not_Found Canceling attempt¡­ Attempt canceled sessfully. ¡¯What?¡¯ n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om The messages popped up in rapid session; in total, not even 2 seconds had passed. Reading through the messages once more, he quickly understood the problem. Sol turned his gaze to where the boss was previously standing, its body already absorbed by the dungeon. ¡¯Guess it¡¯s not as fastpared to siphoning normal skills.¡¯ With a sheepish expression, Sol turned to Amber. "Hey Amber¡­ Can we fight it again?" "..." If anyone else was put in her shoes, they too would be speechless. Chapter 123: Obtaining a Talent Skill "WRAHH!" The Handless Fiend took a light spear into its chest, finishing it off for good. You have in a Lv 90 Handless Fiend! Gained 3,025,000 Exp (300%) Learned [Chromatic Indigo] Lv 7! Learned [Ry Magic] Lv 8! Attempting to siphon [Create Magic Hands]... 0%...2%...4%... This time the process wasn¡¯t interrupted because Sol cast [Harden Earth] before killing the boss. Sol patiently waited as the percentage increased until another message popped up. 100% Assimting talent skill. (Note: This may hurt) "Hurt? Guh! AHHHH!" Sol fell to the ground with his entire body in pain. It was unlike learning any skill where the knowledge would normally be ingrained into his mind. It was as if his own body was changing in ways he couldn¡¯tprehend to obtain the ess to the ability. Sol felt his hands burning so he looked down to see that they were no longer there. But just as he wasmenting the loss of his hands, two appeared in front of him, floating in the air. They felt like a part of his own body even though they weren¡¯t connected physically. Just like his now gone hands, he could control the floating hands, making them slowly spin around and move their fingers. It wasn¡¯t just two hands, Sol felt like he had countless hands waiting for him to call upon them. Learned [Create Magic Hands] Lv 9! When the painful sensation began to cease, Sol knew the process was over. ¡¯My hands¡­¡¯ Sol raised his arms in a hurry, but to his surprise, his hands were there,pletely unharmed. Sol closed and opened them as he felt the sensation of his hands once more, but he couldn¡¯t help but doubt them after what he saw. ¡¯Are these hands really mine? But what I saw¡­¡¯ Amber walked over to Sol and ced her hand on his shoulder, waking him from his confused state. "You okay?" "Oh uh, yeah. Sorry about that, I got the skill." Amber could see it in his eyes that he was lying, but she didn¡¯t know what to say. The look on his face reminded her of someone who was just healed after being tortured, unable toprehend the pain they went through and left wondering if it ever happened. While healing magic could take away the physical scars, the mental ones would linger for much longer. "Huh? What are you doing?" "Waiting." Sol saw Amber sit down on the ground next to him. Though she couldn¡¯tfort him with words, she would wait until he was able to carry forward. The two sat in silence as Sol kept touching his hands and other things in his near vicinity. There were no words that could describe how he truly felt, his hands werepletely identical to how he remembered them, but something still felt off. ¡¯It was like¡­ I traded my hands for new ones¡­¡¯ Maybe in an attempt to make sense of it all, Sol turned to Amber in hopes she saw something. "Amber, did you happen to see my hands disappear for a moment?" She thought back to when she saw him on the ground a minute ago and shook her head. ¡¯Did I really just imagine it?¡¯ If it was true, and Sol hoped it was, it still didn¡¯t exin why he saw them disappear. ¡¯Was it a pain-induced hallucination or something more? Forget it, thinking about it further isn¡¯t going to help and will just make me more confused. These are my hands regardless if they aren¡¯t the same as before.¡¯ Sol stood up and dusted himself off before offering a hand for Amber to get up as well. She grabbed his hand and got up. "Okay now?" "Yeah, I¡¯ll be fine as long as I get some rest. Let¡¯s go." The two left the boss room and made their way to the teleport sigil and were transported to the first floor of the dungeon. By the time they left, it waste in the morning, and after fighting a boss three times back to back, the two were very tired. Even though neither of them was significantly hurt, and they killed the boss rather quickly, it took a lot of energy and mana to do so. ¡¯Woah, the city is absolutely packed right now.¡¯ Sol noticed during the walk to their inn that there were many more people than normal. It didn¡¯t take a detective to figure out why; decorations were put up everywhere, and even the nearby chatter gave it away. "You¡¯re participating too? Do you want to team up?" "Sorry, I already got a party and historically in past knight selections that had tests that required teamwork, groups of 4 usually performed better." Further off, a merchant was announcing to the passersby. "Fifteen percent off weapon and armor enchantments! Get an edge over thepetition!" Likely because of the 15% discount, a huge line could be seen trailing out of his store; the merchant nned to make a big profit off the ridiculous amounts of adventurers and other professions in the capital. Sol and Amber navigated through the crowd until they arrived at the inn. Even the inn was packed full of people, with one arguing with a young man who was manning the counter. Sol didn¡¯t recognize the youth, but he guessed he was the son of the innkeepers. "How do you not have any rooms either! This is the sixth inn I¡¯ve been to!" "I¡¯m really sorry, but we are full as well¡­ I could show you on a map a few other inns that might have a room¡­" "Where do you think thest five inns sent me?! This is a damn wild goose chase!" The man, frustrated by the unavability of every single inn he had been to, mmed his fist down on the counter. "Please calm down! How about we-" "Fuck off!" The man threw a punch towards the receptionist in anger. All the spectators were shocked, and a few began to move to stop him, but they were too far away to get there in time. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Just as the fist was about to reach the young man¡¯s face, the attacker felt his body be incredibly heavy. His fist¡¯s trajectory curved downwards as he lost his bnce and fell towards the ground. Before the man could process why he felt so heavy, the weight was already gone. "Huh? What was that!" He looked around in a panic, but all he saw were four big men surrounding him. "I think it¡¯s time for you to go." "B-but!" The attacker was more concerned over what caused him to feel so heavy all of a sudden, but no one cared. One of the men grabbed him by the shoulder and dragged him outside. "You¡¯re drunk;e back when you¡¯re sober and learn some manners." "I haven¡¯t even drank today!" "Sure, buddy." With a rough toss, the man was thrown outside the inn. He considered going back, but the look of the four men gave him the feeling he would regret it if he did so. The man quickly got up and ran away, frightened he would anger them further. As this was happening, Sol and Amber stood in the crowd, watching the man run away. Sol¡¯s left hand that was in his pocket glowing a dark purple stopped glowing when he decided the man would no longer be an issue. "Let¡¯s get some rest, Amber." "Okay." Chapter 124: [Polychromatism] Sol awoke to the loud sounds of cheering outside. When he peeked outside the window, he saw two rowdy adventurerspeting to see who was stronger. They were both carrying multiple kegs full of beer. Sol didn¡¯t know how thepetition between the two began, but it drew arge crowd of people cheering with each new keg added onto the stack. It was no longer just a contest of strength but also of bnce in maintaining the tall tower of kegs still and steady. ¡¯Heh, let me cheat a little.¡¯ Sol peeked into their statuses and saw that one was 10 levels higher with all around higher physical stats. Already knowing who would win between the two, Sol sat in his bed and looked at his status page. Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner], [Transformer] Level: 81 Exp: 2,612,100/89,470,000 HP: 1450 MP: 1650 Str: 80 (+70) Vit: 80 (+70) Agi: 80 (+70) Int: 85 (+70) Wis: 80 (+90) Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 5, [Analysis] Lv 7, [Aggregate] Lv EX, [Reinterpret] Lv EX Siphoned Talents: [Create Magic Hands] Lv 9 Passive Skills: [Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Counter] Lv 6, [Precise Coordination] Lv 6, [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 3, [Intermediate Weapon Mastery] Lv 7, [Wild Hunt] Lv 2, [Invincible Body] Lv 8, [Perfect Bnce] Lv 2, [Death Absorption] Lv 6, [True Sight] Lv 6, [Superior Mana Control] Lv 1, [Fortified Soul] Lv 2, [Ry Magic] Lv 8 Active Skills: [Cross sh] Lv 3, [Ground Shrink] Lv 3, [Snap Punch] Lv 8, [Invisibility] Lv 7, [Terra Spikes] Lv 6, [Rock Throw] Lv 4, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Fell Cleave] Lv 8, [Debilitating Strike] Lv 1, [Telepathy] Lv 1, [Unpassable Bulwark] Lv 1, [Intermediate Elemental Magic] Lv 5, [Overpower] Lv 4, [Create Undead] Lv 6, [Weapon Enhancement (Variant)] Lv 8, [Disarm] Lv 9, [Backstab] Lv 6, [Bombardment] Lv 1, [Storm Blitz] Lv 8, [Piercing Lunge] Lv 5, [Seeking Shot] Lv 6, [Mana sh] Lv 2, [Intermediate Light Magic] Lv 7, [Shadow Hands] Lv 7, [Shadow Form] Lv 5, [Empowered Strike] Lv 4, [Chromatic Red] Lv 7, [Chromatic Green] Lv 7, [Chromatic Purple] Lv 7, [Chromatic Blue] Lv 7, [Chromatic Yellow] Lv 7, [Chromatic Orange] Lv 7, [Chromatic Indigo] Lv 7 Sol didn¡¯t have a chance to check out his status page after siphoning the talent skill and was surprised by the new section that appeared. ¡¯A new section? I didn¡¯t even know that was possible.¡¯ It wasn¡¯t that he was specifically told that status pages were static and always the same, but it was consideredmon sense. Even monster status pages were the same, even though they usuallycked names, leaving that section nk. ¡¯Besides the new section, I have a lot of active skills¡­ Since I woke up early, I have time tobine something into a new skill before I meet up with Amber downstairs.¡¯ Strings of all colors sprouted out of him in many directions. He ignored the usual skills for now and focused on the group of newly acquired skills. As if they were meant to be together, all the chromatic skills were heading in the same general direction, and Sol just had to give it a little push for them to merge. The process was extremely easy, almost as easy as when Sol added [Magic Resistance] to [Invincible Body]. [Learned [Polychromatism] Lv 7!] [[Polychromatism] Lv 7: Channel the power of all seven chromas. Release one chroma in a monochrome attack. Able tobine two chromas into a duochrome attack, gaining the properties of both chromas. Can furtherbine the power of all seven chromas into a full spectrum attack, gaining the properties of all chromas. Mana cost varies. Duochrome cooldown: 1 minute. Full spectrum cooldown: 50 minutes.] ¡¯All seven colors into one attack? How would that even look? Though it has a few requirements for me to even use it.¡¯ If one only had [Polychromatism], they wouldn¡¯t be able tobine all seven colors into one attack because it still required different focus points from where the colors originate from. Sol could only emit two colors at most naturally. By using both hands to channel a different color, he would be able to perform the duochrome attack. The full spectrum would require more exit points for the colors, and even if Sol used both his feet and head to somehow channel 3 more colors, he would still end up 2 focus points short. ¡¯Good thing I went out of my way for the talent skill.¡¯ [[Create Magic Hands] Lv 9: Summon hands to aid you in your endeavors. Can summon up to nine hands that have 45% of the user¡¯s physical attributes. Does not retain the user¡¯s intelligence or wisdom attributes.] ¡¯Nine hands? The boss only summoned seven more¡­ Oh, it¡¯s because it could only release one color each. But they also have a portion of my attributes?¡¯ Sol summoned a hand to test something out. ¡¯It¡¯s not working?¡¯ Sol attempted to use [Analysis] on the hand, but nothing appeared. It reminded him of his Lipon, but even that had a status page once he activated the weapon. If he couldn¡¯t see its status directly, there was another way to test its power. The hand floating in the air curled up into a fist andunched towards Sol. Sol replied in kind and punched back. The two fists collided with a boom, but the results were quickly shown. The floating hand wasunched backward into the wall of his room. ¡¯Yeah, it¡¯s about half my strength. I didn¡¯t even hit it at full strength, and it was easilyunched back.¡¯ Continuing with his testing, Sol summoned more hands, and after a bit of trial and error, he figured out how to delegate the colors to each hand. Now, seven hands floated around him, each glowing in its own color. Sol tried to channel the power of the color red into his hand, but nothing happened. ¡¯So I can still only channel one color at a time no matter what. What do I do with these, then?¡¯ As Sol asked himself, two more hands appeared. Reminded of the strength the hands wielded, Sol tossed a rare sword and rare axe he had from his spatial ring towards both of them. They both caught the weapons easily and began to fight each other with them. Sol silently judged the two hands as they sparred. ¡¯It¡¯s not as strong as when I wield it but¡­¡¯ The floating hand wielding a sword charged mana into the sword and performed a [Cross sh]. It destroyed the axe-wielding hand, making it poof out of existence, and the axe it wielded was dropped onto the ground. ¡¯They can cast skills as well.¡¯ The only downside of casting skills through the hands was the mana cost being higher, but a new skill helped in that department as well. [[Ry Magic] Lv 8: Creates a better connection between the user and their constructs, mitigating mana loss and assisting in mana transfers.] This connection didn¡¯t just work one way, where Sol only gave mana to supply the hands with skills. The hands could gather ambient mana and also send it his way, increasing his mana regeneration rate. This would help Sol with his mana management, but now that his magic hands would also be using mana, he would probably be spending it much faster than before. "Ugh, my head is starting to hurt¡­" Sol¡¯s head began to hurt, managing so many hands at once. They all felt like a part of his body, and even the sensation when they touched the weapons was felt by Sol. Although Sol had skills that helped in enduring the pain and controlling the hands like [Invincible Body] and [Precise Coordination], having maintained so many hands active for over half an hour of testing was starting to take a toll on his mind. All the hands disappeared at once, and Sol stood up from his bed. ¡¯It¡¯s time to go meet up with Amber anyway. I¡¯ll have to continue testingter.¡¯ "One more! One more!" The sounds of cheering could still be heard outside. ¡¯They¡¯re still going at it?¡¯ Peeking over once more, the crowd was even bigger, and it wasn¡¯t just two adventurers bncing kegs but 6 of them. The original two adventurers were shaking unsteadily as the 8 kegs of beer began to wobble. Suddenly, one of the adventurers lost their bnce as a strong gust of wind hit their tower. "Noooo!" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om The kegs began to fall, but they were all caught by other nearby adventurers. They would never allow good beer to go to waste. "HAHAHA! Now you have to drink a whole keg!" The one who won between the original two was surprisingly the adventurer who was 10 levels below the other one. "Drink!" "Drink!" "Drink!" The audience began to chant as the loser grabbed one of the kegs and tried to drink it all in one go. Without spilling a single drop, he actually managed to drink the entire keg down and mmed it onto the ground. "WOAAAAH!" The entire crowd went wild. But the adventurer wasn¡¯t done yet. He grabbed another keg and yelled. "This isn¡¯t even my full power! Witness me!" The keg liftingpetition quickly devolved into a keg drinkingpetition. Chapter 125: 2 + 2 = 4 - 1 = 3 Quick Maths After meeting with Amber in the lobby, the two headed out to the city to take care of a few matters. "First, we should stop by the guild and turn in the stuff we collected, then we sell the weapons we don¡¯t need, and finally, stop by Gearworks and see if he can do some maintenance on the Lipon." It was hard to tell at first, but over time, the Lipon was taking damage from the fights and usage over time. Sol simply didn¡¯t notice because the Lipon without any elemental weapon active had no status page. It was only until the maximum durability of the elemental weapons slightly decreased did he notice the problem. The two made their way to the guild, which was packed full of adventurers. All the lines were ridiculously long, and even after the guild set up a few temporary counters, the lines weren¡¯t decreasing anytime soon. "Ahh, guess we¡¯re gonna be here for a while." Based on how packed the capital had been since they got back, Sol knew it didn¡¯t matter if they came at ater time. Choosing one of the lines for quest turn-in, the two queued up and hoped it wouldn¡¯t take long. The line moved at a slow but steady pace. Thirty minutester, it was finally their turn. "W-wee, how may I help you?" A rather young receptionist attended them. From the way she spoke, it was clear she wasn¡¯t used to speaking the rehearsed lines yet. "Hi, we just want to turn in the gathering quests for Necropolis. A couple of times if possible." "Sure! Just take the items out here so I may inspect them." Sol hesitated, "Are you sure? There¡¯s quite a few." "Of course! I can handle it." Sol nodded before proceeding to take out material after material from his spatial ring. What the receptionist thought was originally going to be 10-20 items quickly began to pile up. When she turned to see Sol¡¯s face, she could tell that the adventurer wasn¡¯t going to stop anytime soon. In fact, he was taking out items from the spatial rings faster than before. "Wait! Wait! That¡¯s too many!" The pile of soul shards, dark essence containers, and shadow roots took almost all the counter space and was in danger of spilling over. Even the nearby adventurers and other receptionists stopped their actions to look over at the absurd amount of materials. The young receptionist was, needless to say, overwhelmed by the pile of items and didn¡¯t know where to begin counting and processing them. "I- uhh¡­" "I¡¯ll take it from here, Lily." "Ingrid!" The young receptionist was saved by a mature woman with sharp eyes who came over when she noticed the disturbance. "Good Afternoon, my name is Ingrid, and I will be handling your quests and other matters today. Please follow me." The overly professional attitude threw Sol a bit off. It was normal for receptionists to be professional, but not to this degree; they mostly dealt with rowdy adventurers after all. "Okay, thank you." After stuffing everything back in his spatial ring, Sol and Amber were led to a private meeting room within the guild building. They sat around arge table and were served refreshing drinks by a guild employee Ingrid summoned. "Please take out all the quest materials." Sol nodded as he emptied out six cubic meters worth of materials. The majority of the materials came from looting therge group of adventurers, but almost an entire cubic meter came entirely from the two of them. As they went deeper every floor, they found more and more materials to gather, and there was no reason to not collect them. ¡¯This will take a while¡­¡¯ Sol took a sip of his drink as he let his mind wander until Ingrid was done. "104 soul shards, 68 dark essence containers, and 38 shadow roots. That will allow you two to turn in the three gathering quests a total of 104 times. You¡¯re one short on turning in another soul shards quest, but considering the total amount, I¡¯ll consider that oneplete as well,ing to 105 quests total. The total quest reward is 3920 gold. Would you like them in gold or tinum coins?" Sol almost spat out his drink in surprise for two reasons. The first was the total amount of gold, especially because he didn¡¯t even sell all of it. They decided beforehand to keep 10 dark essence containers for Sol¡¯s Lipon and the void root to hopefullymission something incredible. The second reason Sol was surprised was that it only took her a single moment to calcte everything. "Already?!" "Yes sir, would you like them in gold or tinum coins?" Ingrid didn¡¯t treat it like a big deal and continued with her job. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "Umm, can I have 1020 in gold and the rest in tinum?" "Of course. Do you have an empty ring I could deposit the coins into, or would you rather it be given in a pouch?" Still shaken up by the amount, Sol¡¯s hand unsteadily handed Ingrid one of his empty rings. "S-sure. Here you go." "Thank you sir. I will be back with your reward promptly." Ingrid stood up, gave a polite bow, and left the meeting room. The moment the door closed, Sol let out arge sigh. "Almost 4000 gold¡­" Amber tilted her head, "A lot?" He looked at her with a ridiculous expression, "Amber, we only had 50 gold when we first came to this city. Even after we reached floor 11, we could barely afford better weapons for the both of us. With 4000 gold¡­ I don¡¯t even know how to spend it all¡­" "Oh." ¡¯She really doesn¡¯t have any concept of money¡­¡¯ Sol was about to try exining all the things they could buy with that much money, but the door opened and Ingrid came inside. She walked towards Sol and handed him the ring. "Inside the ring is the total quest reward, 29 tinum coins, and 1020 gold coins." "Thank you." Sol stood up, ready to head out but was called back by Ingrid. "Please wait a moment. There is still one more matter to discuss." "Huh? Something else?" Ingrid nodded, "Yes, would you please recount the events that took ce between your party and the party of Urian Stillmore in the Necropolis dungeon?" Chapter 126: Number Focused "Ahh, was the quantity too much?" "Yes, that much would normally take around two months for a party of your size." Sol wasn¡¯t too surprised at being caught. He should have known the ridiculous amount of materials would raise an eye or two over how they acquired so much. Yet there was something that didn¡¯t add up. "How did you know we had conflict with Urian and his group? Couldn¡¯t it have been with another party?" Ingrid shook her head, "Urian Stillmore and his entire party have been missing for almost an entire week. They tend to return every 5 days. They are currently the onlyrge gathering party, and their absence was noticed by many. Other gathering focused parties are also unable to gather anywhere near the amount you brought in. Now could you please recount the events that took ce?" Though Ingrid was being patient and answered his questions, Sol knew that he would get in big trouble if he didn¡¯t start exining soon. Sol recounted his side of the events and made sure to omit details like the void root. Instead of Urian¡¯s party hunting them for the void root, it was instead them trying to avenge their allies who died in a scuffle with the duo. It wasn¡¯t that he was worried over the guild knowing he had a legendary material; he was more worried about outside parties that may uncover that information. Sol knew the guild would never try to directly take something from him, at most they would offer to buy it. "After we thinned their numbers with sneak attacks, the amount of people guarding the exit was thinned enough that we could take them on. It was a hard fight, but we managed to win in the end." Ingrid didn¡¯t interrupt him at any moment, and once he was done, she only gave an understanding nod. "Thank you for exining the events; that will be everything." "Really? You don¡¯t have any questions?" Sol found it weird that Ingrid had no questions at all; he kept some parts especially vague as he didn¡¯t want to reveal more than necessary. "If you wanted me to know more details, you would have already said it. There is no way for the guild to validate any ims over what urred in the dungeon, and the other party is dead. Taking into consideration the previous actions of Urian Stillmore¡¯s party in other cases, it¡¯s not surprising for them to be the instigators." "I see¡­ we¡¯ll be heading out then." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Ingrid gave a polite bow along with a few other pleasantries as Sol and Amber walked out of the meeting room. ¡­ Once Sol and Amber left the meeting room, Ingrid headed towards the third floor of the adventurers¡¯ guild. That floor is mostly reserved for administrative personnel and offices, including the office of the Guildmaster. Normal receptionists didn¡¯t tend to enter this floor, but Ingrid wasn¡¯t a receptionist. She was the Guildmaster¡¯s personal secretary. "Excuse me, Guildmaster. I havee to report the Urian Stillmore¡¯s gathering party case." As Ingrid entered the office, it appeared as if she had teleported into the middle of a forest. nts grew everywhere, on the floor, walls, and even the ceiling. Natural light flooded the office from the ss ceiling that allowed these nts to thrive in an indoor environment. Sitting behind an elegant desk with a beautiful yet natural design was the Guildmaster of Crestal City, Orion. A young man with vibrant green hair sat behind his desk as he held a y pot in his hands. "One second, Ingrid, I¡¯m almost done." Focused on the task at hand, Orion ced a small seed in the pot and held his hand above it. A powerful energy full of life descended from the young man¡¯s palm into the y pot as it was infused with his incredible energy. Once he was done, the Guildmaster ced the pot on the side of his office and watched as his mana nurtured the little seed. It didn¡¯t take long for the seed to sprout and grow. It didn¡¯t stop growing and eventually broke free from its pot andtched itself onto the floor. Though there was no dirt, the small tree didn¡¯t need any as it already had all the nutrients it would need for the rest of its life. It continued to grow until it nearly reached 8 feet, and its flowers began to bloom. Blue and white flowers covered the top of the tree that shimmered beautifully under the sunlight. "Sir, what did I tell you about growing trees indoors?" Orion chuckled, "You said not to grow any because it would copse the floor, but what if I grew a nt that reinforced it instead?" Just as he said that, the tree¡¯s roots spread and drilled into the floor in a pattern while its main trunk merged into the wall. The main root traveled through the inside of the wall all the way into the first floor where it spread its roots again, attaching itself to the foundation. Though Ingrid couldn¡¯t see what the tree was doing, she could tell by Orion¡¯s expression that he seeded, and what was more worrying was that he looked like he wanted to go even further. "If I allow it to spread through the entire guild, it would reinforce the entire building as well. Not only that, but I can use it to attack from anywhere at any moment¡­ It may cause a few¡ªno, a lot of cracks in the bricks, but it should be fine¡­ "Please don¡¯t go overboard, sir. It would likely break the rune defenses we already have in ce." Ingrid tried to be a voice of reason, but she knew if he truly wanted to do that, there was nobody who could stop him. "My defenses would be stronger than those silly runes, but fine. I don¡¯t want the engraversining I ruined their work. Now tell me about the Urian case." "The adventurer duo admitted to defeating Urian Stillmore¡¯s party over¡­" Ingrid perfectly recounted the entire set of events that Sol said without missing a single point. It was when she was done that Orion asked a question. "So how much of that do you believe?" "65%, sir." "Oh? What stood out to you?" "There were no contradictions or obvious lies in their story, but it simply isn¡¯t realistic for a party of two B-Rankers to defeat 34 B-Rank adventurers, even with surprise attacks. Additionally, it was odd how relentless Urian Stillmore¡¯s party was in chasing the two. Urian Stillmore¡¯s party only kills other parties who don¡¯t back down against them; something else must have happened for them to resort to such extremes that they blocked the exit. The most likely possibility is that the two adventurers obtained something special." "I see, doesn¡¯t matter though. Just close the report and call it a day." Ingrid nodded her head. While she personally would have investigated further, she would follow the orders of the Guildmaster. "Yes, sir. By the way, sir, will we try to encourage arge resource gathering party to form? The loss of Urian Stillmore¡¯s party will impact our total revenue by 0.03%." Orion looked at her with an amazed look. His secretary was sometimes way too numbers oriented. "No, we don¡¯t have to do that. Adventurers will notice the void left by Urian¡¯s party and quickly fill it up. It will resolve itself within a week." "Understood, sir." Ingrid gave the Guildmaster a small bow and left to write up the case report and change the status of Urian¡¯s party from missing to dead. Chapter 127: Lipon 6.0 Leaving the guild, Sol couldn¡¯t help but be in a good mood. Though the fact that the guild knew of his direct involvement with the death of 30 B-Rank adventurers did weigh on his mind, it waspletely overshadowed by the spatial ring he was currently holding. ¡¯4000 gold¡­ Where do I even begin in spending it all?¡¯ "Weapons." Amber spoke up from behind him, reminding him of the n he made for today. "Oh right. But now that I think about it, do we need to sell them? What will we even do with the money¡­" "Food?" "Haha. Amber, we have more than enough food for multiple lifetimes." Chuckling at Amber¡¯s priorities, Sol wondered what to do with the weapons. ¡¯Ah right!¡¯ "Alright, let¡¯s sell some of the worst ones and keep the rest. I actually have a use for them." The duo headed through the busy streets and stopped by a few weapons stores, selling half of their weapons. They sold the worst of the weapons, but even then, they were rare weapons and even a few unique ones. Even if they were unique, Amber only used daggers, and even if Sol kept them, he wouldn¡¯t use them over what he currently had or the other better weapons. Of the weapons Sol kept, there were 3 swords, 2 spears, 2 axes, 1 hammer, 1 whip, 1 pair of spiked gloves, 3 different elemental staffs, and a throwing knife. Most of them were unique, with the exception of the throwing knife and the whip, which Sol just kept to give them a try. After selling the rest of the weapons, they received an additional 2349 gold. Receiving even more gold, Sol gave up trying to process what to do with all of it for now. For someone like him who was used to living on a few copper a day, it was simply too much. ¡¯Maybe when I find my parents, I can retire from adventuring¡­¡¯ It was a small whisper in the back of his mind, but it was quickly denied. ¡¯No, there is still so much I want to do. Maybe in a few years but not anytime soon.¡¯ Done with selling the extra weapons, the duo headed into Gearworks. Unlike other stores that were full of adventurers trying to buy the best items and weapons they can afford, Gearworks waspletely empty. It was a nice change of pace from the packed and loud stores. The short man Fabio was seen cleaning one of therge clocks at the back of the store. When he looked up and saw Sol and Amber, he immediately went to greet them. "My favorite customers! How has the Lipon been working out for ya?" "Great honestly. The only big issue I have with it is the hassle in changing the pattern slot; it simply takes too much time. But besides that, it¡¯s great!" Fabio nodded in agreement, "I hear ya. The design w flew over my head when I was making it because I didn¡¯t expect people to want to change the pattern slot often. But when you mentioned itst time, I began to think of a solution; follow me!" The two were led to the back of the store where there were no longer clocks and other simple gadgets. Many weird and unique tools and creations were here that Sol had never seen before. Sol could generally understand the intended purpose of a few items like a chair with metal spider legs attached to it and arge metal glove that had arge spike attached to it. They arrived at a workbench which had another Lipon like Sol¡¯s. It looked a bit different but overall was essentially the same. "This is the new and improved Lipon 6.0!" "6.0?" "Yes, I made a few versions before yours but there was always one thing or another that could be further improved upon. Extended cartridge, improved mana efficiency, a trigger for those who can¡¯t wield mana¡­ The list goes on. The point is I took your criticism to heart and made it possible to load three different pattern slots at once. Look here." Fabio opened the pattern slotpartment that had been slightly increased to amodate two more patterns. "To switch between them is extremely easy; you just have to turn the top part of the handle one notch and it will instantly change the pattern to its new form." The short man demonstrated it by turning it on and showcasing the water elemental sword swap between an axe and then into a mace. Sol was impressed by the new additions. "Woah¡­ Does that mean this one is ready to go?" "You want it?" Sol nodded, he could already think of a use for it in battle. "I could use a dagger pattern and change it to a long sword mid fight; the extended reach would definitely catch my opponents off guard." "Huh, never thought of it that way. Alternatively, I could also make it so that the weapon produced by the Lipon can change its size onmand. A dial that reduces or increases the mana supply would work¡­" "Oh! I never thought of it that way¡­" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om The conversation quickly sidetracked into how to further improve the Lipon¡¯s capabilities. Though Sol didn¡¯t know much about the technical aspect on how it would be done, he was providing his own opinion on how he would use it which led to a very insightful conversation. During this time, Amber patiently waited nearby as the two men were in their heated discussion. It was not until half an hourter that Sol finally got to the point of why they came today. "I initially wanted to ask if you could repair my Lipon, but I think I should just buy the new one." Fabio handed over thetest Lipon to Sol while shaking his head. "Nonsense you don¡¯t have to buy it. It¡¯s because of you I could improve it in the first ce. Plus we have our deal going on, I want you to use mytest version to shine during the knight selection!" "Please, I insist. I know you worked hard in making this one from scratch and I would feel bad just taking it for free. Name a price." The two were both firm in their stance, neither wanting to budge. Eventually Sol conceded. "Fine, you win. Can I buy some cartridges at least?" "Sure how many?" "300!" "YOU CALL THAT SOME?!" Chapter 128: Crafter鈥檚 Curse Solughed upon seeing the reaction of the short man. He didn¡¯t need that many cartridges, but this way he would at least be paying the man for his work. Fabio sighed, "I don¡¯t even have 300. I have to make those by hand, so I only have a little over 100. Is 100 good enough?" "Yup, I¡¯ll take it." Sol handed 100 gold and received the new Lipon along with 100 empty cartridges. "By the way, why is it that the Lipon doesn¡¯t show up with [Analysis] unless I activate it?" "Ahh, that¡¯s the curse of every good crafter." "Curse?" "Well¡­ not exactly a curse per se, but something that every good craftsman worth their salt will encounter when creating something new. If the weapon or item is too unique or unheard of, there is a good chance the system won¡¯t recognize it or treats it like a normal object." Sol didn¡¯t quite understand how it was a problem. "But how is that a curse? That doesn¡¯t stop it from being usable, right?" "No, no. The real issue arises with trying to sell them. People tend to be suspicious towards items not recognized by the system, for a good reason. It makes it harder to verify its authenticity, which leads to a lot of counterfeits or fakes being sold. That¡¯s why I demonstrated the Liponst time to prove it worked. The same can¡¯t be said for all items, especially if they are consumables. Because of that, most craftsmen tend to not invent new creations and stick with what is already known, in fear of it not being well received. I¡¯ll be honest, I wouldn¡¯t be so invested in the Lipon if not for the fact that the system at least recognizes it when it¡¯s activated." "That¡¯s unfortunate then. Is that why I never saw these types of items before?" "Hmm? You¡¯re an adventurer, no? You should have seen the remote archive the guild uses to store and retrieve information remotely." "Oh! I didn¡¯t know that." "Yup,rger organizations are more likely to have something like that implemented as the remote archives have been around for 200 years or so. It¡¯s actually one of the examples people point out when referring to system unrecognized items." "Well, I hope yours takes off then. From what you say, it won¡¯t be easy." "That¡¯s why I have you! Even if you don¡¯t win, make sure to show off the Lipon as much as possible." "Hah, I¡¯ve been working hard, I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll make it to the finals.." Sol fully intended to keep his word, but now knowing how much it mattered to Fabio to showcase the full power of the weapon, he would do his best in doing so. "Oh, by the way, what if there was a way to unleash the full power of a cartridge in one attack-" "Nope! You already gave me waaaay too much to work with. Save the rest of the ideas for the Lipon 8.0." The twoughed as Fabio showed them outside of his workshop. "Alright, I¡¯ll leave those ideas for after the knight selection, see yater." "Stay safe, kid." Leaving Gearworks, Sol looked at his new Lipon. ¡¯Funny, I went in to fix my old one but now I have an even better one.¡¯ Done with all their tasks for the day, Sol decided it was about time they rxed after working so hard the past week. "Let¡¯s take a break. Do you want to walk around the city or go somewhere?" "Training." "Really? Didn¡¯t we just do a whole lot of that in the dungeon?" Amber shook her head. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "Skills. Not levels." It had slipped Sol¡¯s mind that her growth, although fast, had been hindered because they had been spending a lot of their time fighting undead in the dungeon. While battling does help with battle knowledge and sometimes skills, most people didn¡¯t consider it as a good way to train one¡¯s skills. There were two superior ways of training skills: the first was repeated usage, and the second was studying and manually improving. The first was considered the easiest and sometimes even faster way of training, while the second was considered a gamble. One could drastically improve a skill within a day or spend days meticulously studying a skill just to not find any way to improve it. Sol was lucky he had [Reinterpret], which gave him an extremely unfair advantage in analyzing every single aspect and also gave him unlimited mana and stamina to continue without break. "Oh, my bad. Sure, we can do that. Where do we go to do that?" ¡¯Maybe the guild, the underground training area was prettyrge, but there are many eyes there. We could also go outside the city and find a quiet ce in the nearby forest¡­¡¯ Amber, without hesitation, answered. "Dungeon." "The dungeon? We just returned from there yesterday¡­ and you want to go back in?" She nodded. "21st floor. Empty. Big." "I can¡¯t deny that, but even so¡­" They had not even been back to the surface for over 24 hours, and Amber wanted to head back inside. "I was hoping for¡­ something not a few miles underground." Amber was very practical, which was why she chose the dungeon. Few venture to the 21st floor unless they are A-Rank, and it was a very open area allowing evenrge scale skills to be practiced, which meant it was the perfect secluded space to train. She didn¡¯t understand why Sol was unwilling to head back inside, as they had already spent weeks in the dungeon. A few more days wouldn¡¯t change anything. Seeing Amber¡¯s questioning state, Sol relented, "Fine, but can we at leaste and stay in the inn and not camp out in the dungeon?" "Okay." Amber considered it a loss in time from having to travel between the locations, but it wasn¡¯t egregious enough to impact her training. Sol sighed in relief but then thought to himself. ¡¯Since when did she start bing so vocal about her opinion?¡¯ The time in the dungeon blurred, but he believed it was when they shared each other¡¯s status pages. The thought of that made him smile. ¡¯Maybe we won¡¯t need dad by the time we find him.¡¯ Chapter 129: Full Spectrum In the 21st floor of the Necropolis dungeon, the teleportation sigil activated as two people appeared. "I can¡¯t believe we¡¯re back already¡­" Amber ignored Sol¡¯sment and went to an open area to begin her training. Sol watched for a minute as she showcased a few of her new sand skills. ¡¯Might as well make a resting area.¡¯ Though they were both heading back to sleep at the inn, they would still need a ce to rest throughout the day. "[Create Earth]." Creating the usual furniture consisting of simple chairs and a table, Sol also made a cooking area forter. ¡¯I guess I should start as well.¡¯ Sol went to an area away from Amber and looked at his status page. Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner], [Transformer] Level: 81 Exp: 2,612,100/89,470,000 HP: 1450 MP: 1650 Str: 80 (+70) Vit: 80 (+70) Agi: 80 (+70) Int: 85 (+70) Wis: 80 (+90) Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 5, [Analysis] Lv 7, [Aggregate] Lv EX, [Reinterpret] Lv EX Siphoned Talents: [Create Magic Hands] Lv 9 Passive Skills: [Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Counter] Lv 6, [Precise Coordination] Lv 6, [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 3, [Intermediate Weapon Mastery] Lv 7, [Wild Hunt] Lv 2, [Invincible Body] Lv 8, [Perfect Bnce] Lv 2, [Death Absorption] Lv 6, [True Sight] Lv 6, [Superior Mana Control] Lv 1, [Fortified Soul] Lv 2, [Ry Magic] Lv 8 Active Skills: [Cross sh] Lv 3, [Ground Shrink] Lv 3, [Snap Punch] Lv 8, [Invisibility] Lv 7, [Terra Spikes] Lv 6, [Rock Throw] Lv 4, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Fell Cleave] Lv 8, [Debilitating Strike] Lv 1, [Telepathy] Lv 1, [Unpassable Bulwark] Lv 1, [Intermediate Elemental Magic] Lv 5, [Overpower] Lv 4, [Create Undead] Lv 6, [Weapon Enhancement (Variant)] Lv 8, [Disarm] Lv 9, [Backstab] Lv 6, [Bombardment] Lv 1, [Storm Blitz] Lv 8, [Piercing Lunge] Lv 5, [Seeking Shot] Lv 6, [Mana sh] Lv 2, [Intermediate Light Magic] Lv 7, [Shadow Hands] Lv 7, [Shadow Form] Lv 5, [Empowered Strike] Lv 4, [Polychromatism] Lv 7 ¡¯Hmm. I really want to see what the full spectrum attack looks like.¡¯ Sol summoned seven hands around him. While Sol could have gone to the white room, he wanted to see its full power in the real world. The white room had limited space, and when he previously practiced big attacks like [Bombardment], he was unable to fully exhibit its full power within the restricted area. The seven hands began to glow their respective colors. None of the hands changed significantly, with the exception of the orange hand that began to grow until it reached two meters. Sol didn¡¯t go all out yet and first tested the power of each hand. Red had its powerful beams. Orange wasrge and heavy. Yellow had its numerous projectile orbs. Green had its protective barrier that could even withstand the red beam. Blue had its sharp crescents that would always move towards where Sol targeted. Indigo made its hand faster and stronger. Purple could create 5-meter zones where gravity is amplified or inverted. ¡¯Alright, let¡¯s try duochrome first.¡¯ He randomly chose the red and green, which then moved towards one another. Through [True Sight], he could see the mana of both colors mingle as a red beam was unleashed from where the two energies met. The red energy didn¡¯t st outward but instead moved in a coil until it created a dome of energy. Sol couldn¡¯t understand how the beam moved in such a way, but he immediately understood its effects. ¡¯Let¡¯s try out its defense with a [Terra Spike].¡¯ A spike emerged from the ground towards the red barrier, and upon contact, it was evaporated. Unlike the green barrier that only blocked, the duochromebination of red and green created a barrier that disintegrated whatever made contact with it. ¡¯How much effort would it take to break through it?¡¯ Sol created earth spike after earth spike, each one stronger than thest. It was not until Sol made an extremelypact earth spike with 200 mana that there were some results. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om This shocked Sol. ¡¯This is ludicrous. It only cost 20 mana per second to maintain and ounting for my mana regeneration, it really only cost 15. Is [Polychromatism] that much stronger?¡¯ Sol stopped channeling the duochrome shield and thought to himself. ¡¯I can maintain it for as long as I want, but when I stop, it enters the cooldown¡­¡¯ He also realized that cooldown applied to the full spectrum as well. So now Sol had to wait for a minute before he could try the full attack. After waiting for a minute, Sol gathered all seven hands and channeled the full spectrum. As if knowing what to do, each hand took position around therger orange hand and began to slowly rotate around it. Each hand contributed its color into the orange hand that acted as the main hand in the formation. The hands rotating around began to elerate faster and faster until all one could see was the afterimages. Energy from each hand was woven into the middle of the orange hand in a truly inexplicable way. Feeling the energy reach its peak, Sol felt it was time to release it. ¡¯Now!¡¯ A meter long white beam emanated from therge hand, it grew to two meters beforepacting back down to one meter. It headed in a straight line towards the nearby dungeon wall. BOOM! The white beam continued to drill into the wall continuously until Sol realized he was missing something. ¡¯This has all the properties of the colors, right? What about¡­¡¯ The white meter-long beam split into almost a hundred smaller beams that headed in every direction, but when Sol willed them to go towards the wall, some beams did a 90 degree bend while others curved andnded directly where he wanted. As a finalmand, the white beams moved in different directions, drilling and shing at the walls not unlike whips. He wanted to continue trying out new attacks with all the colors, but he felt his mana draining extremely fast. The hands stopped rotating around therge hand, stopping the release of therge beam. [Mana: 433/1650] ¡¯How long was that? 20 seconds at most, and it took nearly all my mana. Granted I didn¡¯t start when it was full, but still¡­¡¯ Sol didn¡¯t keep an eye on his mana and measured the consumption, but he guesstimated it wouldst him around 40 seconds before he ran out. ¡¯Still, even within 20 seconds, this level of destruction¡­¡¯ Now that the white beams no longer blocked his vision, he could see the scene of destruction before him. The wall was littered with holes and deep cuts throughout, which would normally be very hard to do in a dungeon. There was also arge hole a meter wide that continued deep into the wall, which even Sol couldn¡¯t see the end of. While Sol was looking at the destruction he caused, Amber was not far away, also watching. She stopped training when she heard the loud booms and beamsing from his attack. Though one couldn¡¯t see it from her face, her fist was clenched so tightly that her nails dug into her skin. She turned back to her area and went headfirst into training with much more vigor. Chapter 130: Zaman Secondhand Within the royal pce of the capital, a section was under the fullmand of the Order of Royal Knights,monly referred to as the Royal Knights Headquarters. That was where the knights trained, ate, and slept whenever they were not on any missions or campaigns. While the royal family was officially considered the highestmanding power, for day-to-day matters regarding the Royal Knights¡¯ operations, themander of the knights, Zaman Secondhand, took that role. He was the main decision maker on where funds would go, what missions would be prioritized, and, as of recently, was in charge of this year¡¯s knight selection. Zaman Secondhand walked through the Royal Knights Headquarters with confident strides as he headed towards his destination. Knights who happened to see him made way for his passage. One could see in their eyes how much respect they had for their Commander. If knights were asked how they would describe Zaman Secondhand, there were a few defining characteristics. Some called him a natural leader, others called him the most tactical knight they knew, but there was one defining characteristic that stood above all. "Ah, Commander. You¡¯re right on time as usual." Punctual. Somehow, Zaman was neverte or early. While it wasmon for people to be slightly early orte, that logic didn¡¯t apply to Zaman. Even if unpredictable events happened that would normally dy a person, they wouldn¡¯t affect the Commander, as if some mystical force would never allow it to impede his schedule. No one had ever seen Zaman arrive early orte, not even by a minute. Zaman took a seat at the conference table with other high ranking knights who arrived before him. With a professional smile, he spoke, "Let¡¯s begin today¡¯s meeting." These high ranking knights covered a variety of topics from ongoing missions to updating the lunch menu. Zaman didn¡¯t voice his opinion often and let the group decide what they believed to be best, only inputting his opinion when he deemed it necessary. Eventually, they reached a topic that required his direct input. "Commander Zaman, the window to sign up for the knight selection had ended and we were looking at the number of participants¡­ Frankly, it¡¯s too many. Almost triple ofst year. We only have 200 open spots this year, should we automatically disqualify the lowest leveled applicants?" It was a question that had been weighing on the mind of a big eyed knight who had been in charge of the applications. He believed it would be best to simply raise the base requirements from low C to high C-Rank, which would cut off a big portion of the applicants. In his personal opinion, it would be a waste of time to hire lower leveled recruits and end up spending even more resources leveling them up. Zaman shook his head. "No, all who applied deserve the right to a fair testing process. Not only that, but we would also be missing out on potential talents that would eventually outshine those higher level applicants." "Then what should we do? It¡¯s fine for the first test, we just check the status page, but what of the second test? We don¡¯t have enough avable knights to watch over so many applicants." "Hmm, the second test was a battlefield illusion, correct?" "Yes, Commander, we would split the forces in two and see how they would organize and fight each other." "Scrap the n." "Yes¡ªwait, what?" The big eyed knight¡¯s eyes widened even more. A lot of money was invested in preparing the illusion formation and illusionists to maintain it. To do away with it felt like a waste to the knight. Zaman borated, "We will still use the illusion formation but let¡¯s change the rules. Instead of two battlefields, let¡¯s make it into an elimination event. Each applicant will individually face illusion enemies of the same level as them at increasing difficulty. Those who pass a certain amount of rounds against the illusions pass. This way, we don¡¯t have to watch over everyone; those of poor quality that can¡¯t even beat opponents of the same level will be quickly eliminated." Side chatter erupted from many knights. "It¡¯s possible¡­ We won¡¯t have to watch over them either, as those who lose will be kicked out of the illusion." "Will the illusionists we hired be able to change the formation in time? We only have 3 days." "Hah. They¡¯re illusionists, don¡¯t they often brag about how easy it is to change illusions to their likings?" "Quiet down, everyone." The room fell silent upon Zaman¡¯s words. "Someone call the illusionists and inform them of the changes, also tell them I willter provide the n for the increasing difficulty." A short and round knight stood up and spoke, "Yes, Commander, I¡¯ll handle it!" Zaman was about to end the meeting until the big eyed knight spoke up again. "Commander, in addition to the normal applicants, we also received two odd ones, both are A-Rankers." Confusion arose from the knights. A-Rankers applying to be knights were extremely umon, much less two at once. Most people be knights for stability or in hopes of using the resources to break through to A-Rank. If they were already A-Rank, it would defeat the purpose to apply in the first ce. While the addition of two A-Rankers would definitely bolster the kingdom¡¯s might, all the knights found it suspicious. Zaman gave his verdict, "Do a background check on both of them, see if we can uncover the real reason they are applying. Send two squads to investigate both of them and request assistance from the Royal Shadows." A few knights raised their eyebrows while others sighed at the mention of the Royal Shadows. They were the secret agents that worked directly for the royal family, collecting information or silencing threats. Not even Commander Zaman could order them. Only the king was able to mobilize the Royal Shadows, but with the king¡¯s current state where he was only conscious sporadically through the day, it would be unlikely for them to respond to their request. "Even the princess can¡¯tmand them until she ascends to the throne. I don¡¯t think they will listen to our request." "That doesn¡¯t mean they are idly doing nothing; they are still actively collecting information but simply not acting upon it unless it follows an order previously given by the king. We can only hope that a previous order given by the king aligns with sharing this information with us¡­" N?v(el)B\\jnn The knights believed it to be worth a shot and would send a representative to contact themter. Zaman ended the meeting and left the rest of the knights in the conference room. The meeting ran a bitter than usual, and he had a training lesson with the princess soon on the other side of the castle. Though it normally takes at least 20 minutes to cross that distance, Zaman didn¡¯t worry because he would always arrive on time. Chapter 131: Freedom The evening light enveloped the city as two figures emerged from the Necropolis dungeon. It was Sol and Amber, returning after a long day of training. "Freedom!" The two guards nced at the duo and, upon recognizing them, offered a cordial nod before returning to their duties. For the past three days, every time the two exited the dungeon, the young man among them always uttered something along those lines, and the guards had grown ustomed to it by now. "No, no, no. This time, it¡¯s for real. I¡¯m not going anywhere near this dungeon for at least a month!" "Sure, see ya tomorrow." "No, I mean it!" The guards chuckled. After hearing simr derations for the past three days followed by their return the next morning, they couldn¡¯t interpret it any other way. "I¡¯m participating in the knight selection, so I actually won¡¯t be here." Upon hearing about the knight selection, the guards took him seriously. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "Well, damn, boy. I wish you luck tomorrow. I¡¯ve heard rumors that it would be more difficult than past selections." "Really? How so?" The guard shook his head. "One of my knight buddies said there were too many applicants this year, so they had to raise the bar higher. That¡¯s about all I know, though." Sol nodded but wasn¡¯t too worried. "I should be fine. I didn¡¯t spend almost an entire month down here for nothing." The guardughed. "Well then, guess we¡¯ll be seeing you around more, or maybe even have the pleasure of working under you, Sir Knight." The guard emphasized thest part in a joking manner. "Haha, I¡¯ll be sure to treat you well under mymand. See ya around." Bidding farewell to the guards, Sol and Amber headed back to their inn. Compared to how the city was three days ago, it seemed the festivities had calmed down to some extent. It was as if the poption was taking this moment to rest before the true festivities of tomorrow. Most who came topete also abstained from the celebrations to avoid waking up with a hangover on the day of the test. However, there were still those who decided to party regardless of the possible consequences and even went out of their way to buy expensive detoxification potions. While these potions would help alleviate most symptoms of a hangover, there would still be a slight groggy feeling. Arriving at the inn, Sol bade Amber goodnight before heading to his own room. He sat down on the bed and opened his status page. Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner], [Transformer] Level: 82 Exp: 13,218,000/98,417,000 HP: 1450 MP: 1650 Str: 85 (+70) Vit: 80 (+70) Agi: 80 (+70) Int: 85 (+70) Wis: 80 (+90) Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 5, [Analysis] Lv 7, [Aggregate] Lv EX, [Reinterpret] Lv EX Siphoned Talents: [Create Magic Hands] Lv MAX Passive Skills: [Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Counter] Lv 8, [Precise Coordination] Lv 6, [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 3, [Intermediate Weapon Mastery] Lv 7, [Wild Hunt] Lv 2, [Invincible Body] Lv 8, [Perfect Bnce] Lv 2, [Death Absorption] Lv 6, [True Sight] Lv 6, [Superior Mana Control] Lv 1, [Fortified Soul] Lv 2, [Ry Magic] Lv 8 Active Skills: [Cross sh] Lv 7, [Ground Shrink] Lv 5, [Snap Punch] Lv 8, [Invisibility] Lv 7, [Terra Spikes] Lv 9, [Rock Throw] Lv 4, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Primal Rend] Lv 1, [Debilitating Strike] Lv 1, [Telepathy] Lv 1, [Unpassable Bulwark] Lv 1, [Intermediate Elemental Magic] Lv 5, [Overpower] Lv 4, [Create Undead] Lv 6, [Weapon Enhancement (Variant)] Lv 8, [Disable] Lv 1, [Backstab] Lv 6, [Bombardment] Lv 1, [Storm Blitz] Lv 8, [Piercing Lunge] Lv 8, [Seeking Shot] Lv 6, [Mana sh] Lv 5, [Intermediate Light Magic] Lv 7, [Shadow Hands] Lv 7, [Shadow Form] Lv 5, [Empowered Strike] Lv 4, [Polychromatism] Lv EX ¡¯Sadly, I wasn¡¯t able to max out [Terra Spikes] by the end of it, but I should be fine as is.¡¯ After experimenting with [Polychromatism] and its varied attacks, Sol realized his time would be better spent training the skills he would use in the knight selection. While the magic hands and chromas were ridiculously strong, it wouldn¡¯t take a genius to put two and two together and connect him with the boss of the 20th floor. This didn¡¯t mean Sol missed the opportunity to increase the skill levels. Once he found out how potent the full spectrum was, he would take Amber and quickly fight the boss once every hour, though it couldn¡¯t be considered a fight but a one sided annihtion. With one full spectrum attack, he was able to obliterate the boss¡¯s green hand and destroy it and everything behind the boss. Sol had to hold back so there would be an intact body for him to use [Siphon] on. The skill didn¡¯t evolve but became EX, allowing Sol to channel the power of duochrome without cooldown and with even more power than before. For the other skills Sol actually trained, he focused mostly on his swordsmanship. It had been falling behind in lieu of more magical skills, but he didn¡¯t want it to stay that way. He had the ability to be a master of everything, so why would he limit himself to just magic? [Fell Cleave] evolved into [Primal Rend], though meant for axe weapons, a sword would work just fine in delivering the devastating attack. [Disarm] evolved into [Disable], now not only making the target lose their weapon but also paralyzing the limb. No other skill evolved, but Sol spent time evenly training [Cross sh], [Ground Shrink], [Counter], [Piercing Lunge], and [Mana sh]. These were the skills Sol believed needed the most urgent attention so they would be up to par for whatever test maye. ¡¯I also figured out what final talent I want to bring.¡¯ Sol opened a new status page, but it appeared very different from the original one. It was the status page created by Deceiver¡¯s Earrings. Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Sword], [Water Affinity], [Terraformer] Level: 82 Exp: 13,218,000/98,417,000 HP: 800 MP: 950 Str: 110 (+60) Vit: 80 Agi: 100 (+30) Int: 50 Wis: 70 (+25) Talent Skills: [Water Strike] Lv 7, [Solid Steel] Lv 5 Passive Skills: [Intermediate Swordsmanship] Lv 7, [Counter] Lv 8, [Gargantuan Strength] Lv 1, [Agility Up] Lv 6, [Wisdom Up] Lv 5, [Mana Efficiency] Lv 5, [Shortened Cast] Lv MAX, [Increased Mana Regeneration] Lv 5, [Physical Resistance] Lv 2, [Natural Armor] Lv 1 Active Skills: [Cross sh] Lv 7, [Ground Shrink] Lv 5, [Primal Rend] Lv 1, [Debilitating Strike] Lv 1, [Intermediate Water Magic] Lv 7, [Blurring Speed] Lv 5, [Disable] Lv 1, [Mana sh] Lv 5, [Piercing Lunge] Lv 8, [Terra Spikes] Lv 9, [Burrow] Lv 6 ¡¯Sadly, I wasn¡¯t able to level up [Terra Spikes] one more time. There was some kind of bottleneck, but it should be fine as is.¡¯ The final talent in Sol¡¯s lineup was [Terraformer]. On one of the trips back from the dungeon, Sol took an hour to rummage through the Adventurers Guild library for possible talents that he could impersonate. It was there that he found the unique talent [Terraformer], though he felt the name was familiar he just couldn¡¯t quite remember where he had seen it before. Regardless, he chose that talent because it not only excelled in reinforcing the body but also in the maniption of the earth, allowing Sol to use [Terra Spikes] and [Burrow], which were both incredibly useful skills. He also tweaked a few skill levels, raising those that should be higher, and manipting his attributes to match up with his skills. For talent skills, Sol had to get creative to somehow make believable talent skills. For [Water Strike], Sol wouldbine the spell [Water de] with [Empowered Strike], making it appear much stronger than the normal spell. With [Solid Steel], Sol would just treat it as the reason his body was so strong from [Invincible Body]. With this setup, Sol believed he could perform extremely well in the knight selection, regardless of whatever test they threw his way. Closing both status pages, Sol rolled into bed to get a good night¡¯s sleep. He could practice further with [Reinterpret], but he wanted his mind fully rested for tomorrow. Chapter 132: Crest Square Sol woke up early at the break of dawn. He met Amber downstairs and enjoyed a hearty breakfast. Many other travelers and adventurers were also in the dining area, but most were eating in a hurry. The first status verification test for the knight selection was early in the morning, and no one wanted to bete. "Hey, Amber, what are you gonna do while I am taking the test?" Between bites of her food, she gave her usual one word response. "Train." "You¡¯re going back to the dungeon?!" Sol had noticed since two days ago that Amber was very dedicated to her training. Even he couldn¡¯t focus on training like that for such a long period of time without the help of [Reinterpret]. "What about tomorrow?" "Train." ¡¯Is this how she normally trains?¡¯ He wasn¡¯t too sure, as this was the first real time he saw her training. Everything else before that was simply leveling, which was very different. Still, too much training could be detrimental, so he attempted to subtly suggest her take a break. "Alright¡­ but tomorrow is the tournament part of the knight selection. You should go watch; maybe you¡¯ll be inspired by some of them and learn something." Amber paused eating as she considered his suggestion. "Okay." "Perfect! Cheer me on while you watch!" Sol struck a pose, flexing his surprisingly well-toned biceps. His overall active lifestyle, paired with a healthy diet and with a final push from [Perfect Bnce], helped him start building some muscle. N?v(el)B\\jnn "No." "Arghh! My heart! I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll make it!" Once the two finished their meals, they went their separate ways. Amber headed to the dungeon once more, while Sol moved toward the center of the city. While walking through the city, Sol went through his preparations once more. He prepared and did everything he wanted except for one thing. ¡¯I never got to do anything with the void root¡­¡¯ The void root still sat in his spatial ring unused, but it couldn¡¯t be helped. Sol didn¡¯t know what to do with it, as he had never dealt with such a rare material. At first, he thought it would be fine to just go to any cksmith and ask what they could do with it, but then he realized how dangerous it could be. The cksmith could easily run away with it and sell it, securing enough money to live luxuriously for the rest of his life. Sol needed to find someone trustworthy to handle it, and there were currently two alternatives he could think of. ¡¯I could ask Fabio, but I don¡¯t want to distract him from his work. If everything goes to n, he will also receive a huge influx of customers for the Lipon. The other alternative is only possible when I be a knight. The royal knights surely have some kind of connection to trustworthy crafters who could take mymission.¡¯ If Sol was more well connected, this wouldn¡¯t have been a problem, but he spent almost all his time in the city in the dungeon, so there wasn¡¯t much he could do. Soon, Sol arrived where the knight selection applicants were gathering, Crest Square. An extremelyrge za situated near the heart of the city and directly next to the castle. Most of the time, it was a normal za with residents and travelers moving between it as a shortcut, but its real purpose was to host events and, very rarely, as a speech venue for the royal family. The area was packed full of applicants, most of whom were human, but there were surprisingly a few of other races: Dwarves, halflings, and even one elf from what Sol could see at a nce. As the requirements for bing a royal knight were based only on the abilities of the applicants, race wasn¡¯t considered. This didn¡¯t mean there wasn¡¯t discrimination against those races, but at the very least, the tests were designed in a way that discrimination couldn¡¯t y a part in them. After registering with a knight who had a te simr to the ones used in the Adventurers Guild, he was led to a section of the za for the registered applicants. Nearby was arge tent where they were being shuffled into. "Wee, everyone! Queue up behind any line before you for the status check!" Inside the tent, Sol queued behind a line at random. Because the line was pretty long, he was already starting to doze off until someone called out to him. "Sol? Is that you?" "Huh? Nataly?" The one who called out to him was Nataly, the brte mage from when he participated in the fort defense back in Kerman. She was queued in an adjacent line and happened to see him. Sol was shocked, "What a coincidence! I didn¡¯t think I would see you here." "Same! Hey, mind if I hop over to your line?" Sol nced at the man who was waiting behind him; the man understood without Sol having to ask. "Go ahead, it¡¯s not like it will change how long we all have to wait here." "Thanks!" Nataly moved next to him and gave him a fist bump. Though Sol tried to hide it, he was a bit confused by her appearance here. This didn¡¯t escape her notice. "You¡¯re wondering why I¡¯m applying, right?" Sol didn¡¯t deny it, "Well, yeah. Didn¡¯t you say you specialize in healing? A royal knight needs to have above-average fighting capabilities. Don¡¯t get me wrong, healing is important, but wouldn¡¯t it be easier to apply as a healer in the army?" She chuckled, but Sol could feel it also carried a hint of sadness. "Where do I begin¡­ Remember when I invited you to join my party?" "Yeah?" "When I met up with them, we decided to tackle the C-Rank dungeon in Kerman. We usually stuck to the early floors, but we leveled up recently and we got better at using our second talents, so we thought we were strong enough to tackle theter floors. Overall, it was not bad; the Earth Elementals were a bit hard to kill, but that¡¯s it. It was when we tried to tackle the boss of the dungeon that we messed up. It was a huge spike in difficulty fighting the Earth Serpent, not only was it twice as durable as an Earth Elemental, it was very fast and was able to wield magic. The fight was very one-sided; we could barely hold it back." "How did you manage to defeat the boss? You can¡¯t leave without defeating the boss." She shook her head, "We didn¡¯t. One of my party members, Liam, gained ess to space magic from his second talent. We all covered for him while he created the portal to escape, but we couldn¡¯t hold back the boss for long. Having one less person in the fight made it even harder and¡­ and then they started dying. One after the other. I did everything I could, summoning nts to protect and heal them, but even with intermediate-level spells, the wounds were too severe. By the time Liam opened the portal, it was just us two, we both jumped through as quickly as we could. We appeared at the boss room entrance; when I turned around, I saw Liam with a hole in his stomach from a jagged rock. I think the boss cast a spell that followed us through the portal. I didn¡¯t even have any mana at that point to heal him, but even if I did, it was too severe to even do anything¡­ After he passed away, I was the only survivor on the 9th floor of the dungeon." Chapter 133: Status Check ¡¯Spatial magic¡­ someone with such a rare talent died¡­¡¯ When Nataly mentioned spatial magic, Sol¡¯s first thought immediately went toward the lost potential of the talent. Depending on the rarity of the spatial talent, Liam could have be a huge figure in the future. "Wait. So the portal dropped you off at the 9th floor?" He quickly realized what that meant. She nodded, "I was stuck there. There was only so much food, and I didn¡¯t know when the next party would arrive, so I had to start climbing back down alone. With my life on the line, I became surprisingly good at nature magic. I only really knew healing spells and how to summon nts, but I managed tobine the two into a really unique spell. I don¡¯t know if I am the first to create something like this, but I was able to defeat two monsters at once! I was also lucky I found a party on the 7th floor who were kind enough to help me out." "I¡¯m sorry to hear about the loss of your party, but I still don¡¯t get why you are applying to be a knight." "Shh! Don¡¯t interrupt; I was getting to that!" ¡¯Ipletely forgot how much she liked to talk¡­¡¯ The same thing happened when they were at the fort before the invasion began. Sol remembered when they were exploring the fort and how she would always be talking about magic or some other topic. "So, as I was saying. The party helped me escape, and once I was outside, I realized how much I improved when I was exposed to danger like that. That doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m gonna throw myself in harm¡¯s way on purpose, but I ended up discovering a path in nature magic I want to explore. Iter heard that the knight selection was happening soon and a few of the benefits. Did you know that all royal knights have ess to the first level of the royal library? I¡¯m sure there are some dusty books with all sorts of magic spells and techniques; I¡¯m sure that¡¯s where I can further improve this new style I¡¯m working on. On top of that, as knights, one of the missions we might get assigned can be diplomatic ones to other countries. If I am able to join one that heads into Sylmasera, I¡¯ll hopefully be able to learn from the elves who excel at nature magic." n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Sylmasera was the domain of the elves, a kingdom settled in the heart of the Great Forest, which was located west of Crestelia. While the kingdoms had some trade rtions, Sylmasera didn¡¯t allow strangers to enter their borders without permission. This mostly stemmed from the violent past the two nations used to have. Almost two centuries prior, the humans of Crestelia used to invade their borders to capture and enve elves. It led to many skirmishes between the humans and the elves until the royal family of Crestelia signed a peace treaty with the Matriarch of the elves. The treaty was originally only meant to stop the fighting and the envement of elves, but the king of Crestelia at the time took it a step further and officially abolished very in its totality. Though the humans of Crestelia don¡¯t attack elves and think of them as neighbors, the elves haven¡¯t forgotten. Elves were a naturally long-lived race; though the ones whomitted the acts of enving the elves were long dead, the ones who were victims of these acts were still very much alive. It was hard to forget such a crime when it happened within their lifetimes, which was why they closed their borders and scarcely allowed outsiders inside. Even for trading, merchants are only allowed to travel to a border city, which was where they obtained ess to their elven wares. "Oh hey, it¡¯s your turn." Time flew thanks to Nataly¡¯s story, and they arrived at the front of the line. "Right. Well, I hope you find what you¡¯re looking for; who knows, maybe someone can teach you. Good luck on the tests." "Thanks! You too." Sol approached the stand where a knight sat with an orb and a te on the side. "Name?" "Sol." "Put your hand on the orb, Sol." [Analysis Orb Rare Skills: [Analysis] Lv 7] ¡¯Okay, it should be fine.¡¯ He used [Analysis] to quickly verify the ability of the orb. He knew for a while now that his biggest risk would be during the inspection if the item used could pierce through the Deceiver¡¯s Earring¡¯s level 8 [Status Deception], but luckily his fears were unfounded. Sol ced his hand on the orb as a status page emerged from it, facing towards the knight. From where Sol could see, it appeared his earrings worked their magic and made the fake status page appear. "Hmm, I see. Oh¡­" The knight¡¯s face went from shock to sadness as he gazed upward to Sol with a look of pity. "You must have had it rough, huh." ¡¯What?¡¯ Sol was confused by what the knight meant. Was there something wrong with his status page? Luckily, the knight gave him a clue of what he meant. "While it¡¯s a good skill, be careful in training it. Too much pain can make someone lose their mind." The knight was referring to [Physical Resistance]. A skill that required someone to endure a lot of pain just to increase its level by one, and that was only if you had a talent that helped with its growth. "Oh, umm. Yeah, I don¡¯t n on it, it just sorta happened." The knight nodded. He kept looking at Sol in a way that made him feel like he was a victim. "Your status passes the check, this is your token. Take it and head over to that group to head towards the second test." The knight handed him a small token with a number on it, 241. "Thanks!" Sol walked away, and Nataly waved at him as she went up next. He didn¡¯t wait for her, as he knew they would meet upter, and went to where he was directed. On the way there, he noticed a few outbursts every so often from people who failed the status test. Either from forging their status or simply not meeting the base requirements. A few knights were dispatched to escort those people out. ¡¯I could understand a reason for those who forged their status. I did it too¡­ but why apply when you aren¡¯t strong enough? Just wait for next year.¡¯ Maybe there was a story behind their actions thatpletely justified them, but Sol didn¡¯t know them. With his current circumstances, he had no right to judge them. Chapter 134: Second Test He eventually arrived at the furthest area of therge tent where knights were checking the tokens of the applicants. After showing his token to one of the knights, he waited with the rest of the applicants for further instructions. "This group, follow me! We¡¯re going to the second test!" Sol, along with the mass of applicants, were taken outside the tent and towards the royal pce. "Woah¡­" A few applicants expressed their awe as the huge gates of the royal pce opened. The scene could only be described as beautiful. Everything from the perfectly trimmed and maintained garden to the polished stone floor and even therge gate that was elegantly decorated with decorations and the emblem of the royal family. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Sol could only think of one word, ¡¯Fancy.¡¯ While they were led inside the royal pce, they didn¡¯t actually enter the castle. Instead, the group of applicants were led to arge dirt area almost five times as big as the Crestal za they were at before. ¡¯An army could fit in here¡­¡¯ Sol was correct; that entire area was mainly used for army training. Soldiers would go there and train or work on their skills, but it was also used to practice military formations and strategies. But today the royal knights had booked the entire area to utilize it for this year¡¯s knight selection. There was already arge group of applicants waiting there which Sol¡¯s group was led into joining. Although there were hundreds of people there, because of how big the space was, it didn¡¯t feel cramped. Since they were left waiting, some applicants began to mingle, trying to get to know others and maybe even form alliances. No one knew what kind of test it would be, but it wouldn¡¯t hurt to have some allies. Sol was approached by some who had those kinds of intentions, but he politely declined. He didn¡¯t think he needed others to pass this test, and he also couldn¡¯t easily trust them to help each other in passing the test; who knew if they would end up betraying each other to removepetition. An hourter, all the applicants had arrived, totaling almost two thousand. It was then that the ground suddenly began to shake. Sol turned to see arge cluster of mana from a spell gathered as arge podium was raised. It was high enough so that everyone could see, but those at the far back had trouble clearly seeing the figure without any sight enhancing skills. A man dressed in a gold and white royal knights uniform walked up to the podium. "Wee, applicants. My name is Zaman Secondhand, Commander of the royal knights." Zaman could be heard clearly by all who were there, even though he didn¡¯t appear to have any tool that amplified his voice in any way. "I¡¯m proud to see so many men and women willing to join our order of knights to defend and protect our kingdom, our home. I know many of you have been waiting out here on this sunny day to prove you have what it takes to join us, so I won¡¯t take much of your time. The second test will begin now." At his cue, a wave of energy coursed through the area, hitting all the contestants. ¡¯What is this feeling?¡¯ Sol¡¯s mind became cloudy for a moment, and he instinctively fought back against the feeling, easily breaking free. Two of his skills, [Invincible Body] and [True Sight], worked in conjunction identifying and resisting the invasive magic. "An illusion?" He looked around to see that everyone around him was nowying on the ground asleep. It appeared he wasn¡¯t the only one to resist the spell, as from the two thousand applicants, 50 were left standing, resisting the effects. Zaman nodded approvingly at those still standing before speaking. "Imend you all for staying awake, but I must ask you to allow the spell to take you. The second test will take ce in a world of illusions, and instructions will be given once inside. If you are innately fully immune to illusions,e forward, and we willmence an alternative test. Though I must warn you, it will be much harder than the original test." Sol thought to himself, ¡¯I don¡¯t need to make it harder for myself, I just need to perform well enough to be in the tournament.¡¯ Nobody walked up to the stone podium; Zaman took it as a sign of everyone epting to be pulled into the illusion and gave the signal to one of the illusionists near him. "Take them under." Another wave of energy coursed through the area simr to the previous one. Sol didn¡¯t fight back this time and allowed it to take him away. When Sol blinked, he appeared in apletely new ce. He looked around and was awed by the sight before his eyes. He was standing alone at the top of a tall 30-meter-wide tower. He looked over the edge and could see it was at least 50 stories tall. In addition to that, he noticed his tower wasn¡¯t the only one there; he could see thousands of towers in the distance, each having someone equally confused on top of them. "Wee, everyone, to my wondrous challenge!" A voice boomed from the heavens with a jovial tone. "I spent months painfully and carefully crafting the best trial ever conceived! It would have been one for the ages, something you would tell to your children and pass it through generations! But that is not this test! Because too many of you applied, we had to switch things up a bit!" Though nobody was able to see the speaker, from the tone, everyone could tell he wasn¡¯t happy with this change. "Your test is to get to the bottom of the tower! Now don¡¯t try to be a smartass and jump off the side! That¡¯s instant disqualification! You all must travel down floor by floor until you reach the bottom. At each floor, there will be enemies you must defeat to progress, each floor progressively harder. The difficulty is based on your level, so don¡¯tin if you lose on the 5th floor; it will scale to match your strength!" ¡¯So to pass, we need to get to the bottom most floor?¡¯ Many had this question on their mind, and as if able to hear their thoughts, the voice answered. "You don¡¯t have to get to the first floor! You will pass if you reach the 25th floor. On that floor, there will be the option to leave the illusion or continue. Those who continue will then bepeting for a spot in the final test, the tournament! Oh, and one final rule, the time limit is 5 hours! Good luck!" Chapter 135: Top to Bottom As the voice disappeared, everyone heard the sound of trumpets signaling the start of the test. Sol could see people on other towers running towards the stairs in an attempt to save as much time as possible. ¡¯Five hours for 50 floors means we only have six minutes per floor. No time to waste then.¡¯ With the time limit in mind and knowing it was best to defeat the easier enemies quickly, Sol ran to the stairs and jumped down them. At the bottom of the stairs, he could immediately see his foe. Name: John Doe Race: Human Talents: [shing], [Tree Feller], [Strong] Level: 82 HP: 800 MP: 400 Str: 140 (+20) Vit: 80 Agi: 110 Int: 40 Wis: 40 Talent Skills: [Wood Breaker] Lv 4 Passive Skills: [Intermediate Axemanship] Lv 2, [Strength Up] Lv 4, [Parry] Lv 5 Active Skills: [Fell Cleave] Lv 5, [Cross sh] Lv 3, [Sprint] Lv 3, [Charge] Lv 5, [Leap] Lv 6 Not even a secondter after confirming the strength of the enemy, a fist collided against its face, turning it into dust. "Can barely be considered a B-Ranker." It had the attribute points but none of the actual skills to back it up. With confidence, Sol was able to instantly decimate the fake human with just his fist. Wanting to keep the momentum, Sol flew towards the next set of stairs ahead of him. He didn¡¯t know how hard theter floors would be, so every second counted. ¡­ Outside of the illusion, Zaman and the rest of the knights watched over the unconscious bodies of the applicants. "Yikes, that guy over there is gonna wake up with back problems." One of the knights pointed towards an adventurer who fell unconscious in a bowing dog pose. Zaman, giving onest nce to make sure nobody was still awake, gave the next orders to his knights. "Send the men to straighten those who fell¡­ awkwardly. Then reposition throughout them for when they start waking up. Escort those who fail to the pce gates and those who pass to the royal knights headquarters." It was easy to tell who failed the test by the token they held. It not only functioned as an identifier for the applicant but had two more functions. The first was to pinpoint the targets of the illusion formation. It wouldn¡¯t do to also drag the knights inside the illusion identally. The second function was the floor counter. On the other side of the token, a number would appear once they left the illusion; the number representing how far the applicant made it through the tower. The knights receiving their orders mobilized and spread throughout the mass of applicants. Seeing them leave, Zaman turned to the cloaked individual next to him. He was holding onto a foggy orb as he constantly poured mana into it. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "What¡¯s up, boss?" It was the same voice as the one everyone heard from inside the illusion. "Hand me an orb." "Sure, sure, I got a spare. You know how to use it?" Without answering, Zaman received one of the orbs and inserted mana into it simrly to the cloaked individual next to him. As he did, the fog in the orb cleared, and the image of countless tall towers could be seen. ¡¯Let¡¯s check on those who resisted the illusion.¡¯ ¡­ "[Tsunami]!" Arge wave of water rose behind Sol as it cascaded towards the group of four orcs. Even with theirrge bodies, they were swept away by the violent waters and crashed into the wall. Their bodies turned to smoke, which gave him the signal that they were defeated. ¡¯Sadly, I don¡¯t gain any experience or skills from this as their bodies just poof into smoke.¡¯ Sol ran towards the stairs of the 25th floor. He made incredible progress, easily defeating the enemies he encountered. The enemies he would encounter changed a lot through the floors. It wasn¡¯t only a slight increase in level and skills. Every so often, the number of enemies increased, and there would be times when the enemies weren¡¯t even humanoid, but none of them posed a big enough problem for Sol. "The 25th floor in only 20 minutes. This was way easier than I thought¡­" In Sol¡¯s defense, none of the enemies have yet to even match those found in Necropolis. At least those undead could survive his casual attacks. Arriving at the 25th floor, Sol encountered arge behemoth with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the tail of a scorpion. He immediately recognized the type of monster he was fighting, which was something he had heard about in stories. "A manticore, just like the ones from those stories¡­" They were sometimes the final enemy in fairy tales where the hero rescued a princess. Dragons were alsomonly used in these types of stories, but most considered it to be too unrealistic even for fairy tale standards. After all, everyone knew dragons didn¡¯t exist; dragons were just exaggerated versions of drakes. As to why Sol read fairy tales with plots revolving around a hero saving a princess, he could only me Annabel for that. Name: John Manticore Doe Race: Manticore Talents: [Predator], [Untamed Power], [Venomous] Level: 88 HP: 1500 MP: 550 Str: 160 (+40) Vit: 110 (+40) Agi: 100 Int: 25 Wis: 55 Talent Skills: [On The Hunt] Lv 8, [Mad Dash] Lv 8 Passive Skills: [Increased Health Regeneration] Lv 7, [Strength Up] 8, [Vitality Up] Lv 8, [Poison Resistance] Lv 8, [Hunter Vision] Lv 4, [Tracking] Lv 8, [Intermediate Unarmed Mastery] Lv 8 Active Skills: [Iron ws] Lv 7, [Tail m] Lv 8, [Tail Spike] Lv 8, [Venom Injection] Lv 8, [Crushing Maw] Lv 6, [Ground Shrink] Lv 5, [Rage] Lv 9 ¡¯Oh? It¡¯s stronger than me in one attribute.¡¯ Until now, no enemy could rival Sol in any given attribute, even with the fact that he had his attributes spread out evenly. Though the Manticore surpassed Sol in strength, he didn¡¯t worry. At most, it could rival an Animated Armor from Necropolis. "Let¡¯s see if you can handle more than one attack. [Harpoon]!" Chapter 136: Manticore Ance of water formed andunched toward the Manticore. It saw the iing attack and used [Ground Shrink], dodging out of the way and sending an attack of its own. Its tail flicked as it sent multiple sharp spikes from its tail toward Sol. ¡¯Is it me or is it smarter?¡¯ The illusion enemies were getting stronger each floor, but it wasn¡¯t an issue because they wouldn¡¯t even dodge and attack directly, simr to the undead of the first to tenth floor of Necropolis. Sol didn¡¯t even have to think as heunched any kind of attack that they wouldn¡¯t bother dodging, but it appeared not to be the case anymore. Unbeknownst to Sol, these enemies he treated lightly have eliminated over a thousand applicants, with the floors that spawned multiple enemies being the toughest people faced. Just because they charged recklessly didn¡¯t make it less of a threat to other applicants, and they struggled when faced by multiple assants. With more applicants eliminated, the illusionists maintaining the formation could focus on improving the enemies for the ones that remained, increasing not only their intelligence but also reaction speeds and durability, increasing the threat they posed even further. Though this didn¡¯t matter to Sol. The spikes that flew toward him were reflected by the earth element Lipon as Sol followed up with [Ground Shrink] to immediately appear in front of the Manticore. "ROAR!" Sol shuddered from the roar but not because it frightened him, ¡¯It¡¯s weird to see a human face produce such a sound.¡¯ He jumped upwards and executed his recently evolved skill [Primal Rend]. Spinning like a saw de, Sol mmed into the manticore. The manticore saw the attacking and tried to move out of the way but was still caught inside it, getting its tail and back leg cleanly separated from its body. Missing a leg and its tail, it roared once more in anger as it went into [Rage]. It lost what little intelligence it had and wed toward Sol with its front ws. Sol chuckled, "Thanks, you just made it even easier for me. [Harpoon]." It sacrificed its intelligence for power, making it once more the same as the dumb enemies he had faced before. The waternce formed once more andunched toward the Manticore. In its anger, it didn¡¯t dodge and attacked the waternce with its ws. Thence tore through the w and pierced its entire leg, not stopping even when it reached its main body. The [Harpoon] spell¡¯s biggest strength was its prative power, drilling and tearing into whatever was unfortunate enough to be in its way. The Manticore¡¯s eyes widened in pain as even with [Rage] numbing its senses, the feeling of its body being torn from the inside out was excruciating to say the least. Because of theplex formation and the objective of the test meant to be as real as possible, they simted even the pain of the enemies. Fortunately for the Manticore, its pain didn¡¯tst long as the waternce pierced through its heart and ended its life. In a burst of smoke, the Manticore evaporated. Sol turned off the Lipon and turned his gaze to the stairs of the next floor and noticed a door there as well. ¡¯I see they didn¡¯t make it subtle.¡¯ N?v(el)B\\jnn Just having a door would be enough to let the applicants know that it was the exit, but the creator of this illusion went further than that. Many signs and glowing lights surrounded the door with writing such as: "Exit here!", "Get out while you can!", and "Honey, time to wake up!". A few made him chuckle, ¡¯At least they had fun with it.¡¯ After taking a few moments to appreciate the signs, Sol headed to the stairs. Obviously, he wouldn¡¯t leave the illusion; if he did, then he would definitely not qualify for the tournament, defeating the entire point of bing a knight in the first ce. ¡¯Hopefully, the enemies be more interesting, kinda boring if it¡¯s just this¡­¡¯ ¡­ Outside the illusion, Zaman and the other illusionists positioned around the formation were viewing and managing the illusion. Most of the applicants have woken up by now and were escorted off the premises. A few made a scene and attacked nearby applicants still under the effects of the illusion out of anger from failing but were easily neutralized by the knights on standby. If they weren¡¯t able to defeat the enemies in the illusion, what hope did they have fighting against the knights who were much stronger? As Zaman was watching, a few applicants still inside the illusion, a knight ran up to him. "Commander, two have already passed the test! All the way to the first floor no less!" "17 and 1318?" "How did you know?" "Those two are a special case, don¡¯t worry about it, take them to the headquarters; it will be a while until the other applicants start¡­ oh? Someone just reached the 25th floor." The knight who reported the two that passed was confused. Why did the Commander not care about the two who already made it to the 1st floor, and instead, someone who just beat the 25th floor? The knight understood it was extremely fast as well as it had only been 20 minutes, but it paled inparison to the two that already defeated the entire tower. Zaman knew what the knight was thinking, "We already knew of those two, so that much was expected. I didn¡¯t think someone else would reach the halfway point so fast. Did I make it too easy?" Zaman looked up and saw how the number of applicants in the illusion had decreased by half, immediately shutting down that notion. ¡¯241¡­ He was one of the ones who were also able to resist the illusion.¡¯ Feeling suspicious that another A-Ranker was taking the test, he scanned the area and found Sol¡¯s unconscious body. Though Zaman had no skills to view someone else¡¯s status page, he could sense the general strength from his many years of experience. ¡¯He¡¯s not an A-Ranker¡­ but he is much stronger than most B-Rankers.¡¯ Zaman was ted by the fact that there was someone truly special within this batch of applicants. So far, he had been rather disappointed especially because of the high turnout this year. nning to watch more of Sol¡¯s performanceter, Zaman manipted the orb to show the towers of the two applicants that alreadypleted the tower, at least what was left of them. The tower of applicant 17 was rtively intact, but it had a hole right in the middle of it leading straight through to the center. Applicant 1318¡¯s tower, on the other hand, was on fire, and not just one floor but the entire tower. What was on fire wasn¡¯t even the worst of it, as straight through the middle arge hole of melted stone shot down to the bottom of the tower. Chapter 137: Stalker One hour after the start of the exam, two people were in arge room located within the royal knights headquarters. One was a brown haired young woman who was sitting near a bench, polishing her spear, while the other person was the fiery red haired Victor, who watched her from a distance as she worked. ¡¯I should probably introduce myself.¡¯ Victor was certain the woman recognized him from when he was spying on her a few days ago. It wouldn¡¯t hurt to try to make amends and, if possible, recruit her to his cause. With confidence, Victor walked towards her and spoke, "I¡¯m sorry for following youst time. It¡¯s rare to see new A-Rankers. Nice to meet you, I¡¯m Victor." The woman didn¡¯t pause as she continued maintaining her spear. "It¡¯s odd to see another A-Ranker take this test. What¡¯s your reason for doing so, if you don¡¯t mind me asking?" Victor was being unusually politepared to his usual self for two reasons. First, he didn¡¯t know how strong she actually was; between A-Rankers, the disparity in power can be huge, so it¡¯s best not to risk it. Second, he was also trying to find out why she was trying to be a knight in the first ce. Anything the royal knights could offer, so could noble sworn knights, so he hoped he would be able to convince her to change sides, effectively weakening the strength of the royal forces. Still unresponsive to his presence, Victor grew annoyed. He never had a good temper to begin with. ¡¯Does she really think she can ignore me?¡¯ "I don¡¯t know who you are or where you are from, but that kind of attitude won¡¯t help youst long here. If you aren¡¯t willing to connect with others, why are you even bothering with this? Don¡¯t you care about making a good first impression?" The woman chuckled, "That¡¯s riching from a stalker." "I apologized for that!" "Don¡¯t care. Go away." It had been a while since Victor had been treated with such disrespect. Only an A-Ranker would dare to treat someone like this, but besides watching her for a while, he didn¡¯t cross any lines. Why was she so antagonistic towards him? The temperature in the room suddenly skyrocketed, and a few pieces of wooden furniture caught on fire from the sheer heat he radiated. If it were anyone else in this room, they would have immediately caught on fire. Noticing his unintentional effect on his environment, his eyes widened. ¡¯Shit. Remember what Teach said. Control the fire, don¡¯t let the fire control you.¡¯ Victor took a deep breath, and the room¡¯s temperature began to stabilize. The woman was unfazed by the indirect attack as it wasn¡¯t enough to hurt her; at most, it made her feel hot. "Fine. Be that way. You better not regret it when I wipe the floor with you in the tournament." Victor scoffed as he turned away, nning his next steps. An A-Ranker in the tournament would be unexpected and might ruin their ns, even if he wins. It would not have as big of an impact if he had a very close match against his opponent. ¡¯I gotta let Sigurd know. Fuck, thisplicates things.¡¯ ¡­ Tens of arrows flew at frightening speeds, some headed straight toward their target while others curved in the air and approached from different angles. Their target, Sol, twisted his body in incredible ways thanks to [Precise Coordination], dodging the arrows and deflecting those he couldn¡¯t. The source of the arrows was a squadron of level 95 elves that immediately attacked Sol while still running down the stairs. Needless to say, he was initially surprised as the enemies normally waited until he approached first. Spikes of earth rose from the ground, killing one of the elves, while the rest dodged in perfect synchronicity. As they dodged, more arrows were released toward Sol in an endless barrage. "[Guard Current]!" A big stream of water came from the side and blocked most of the arrows as Sol jumped over it and closed the gap between the elves. Sending a [Mana sh] towards the group further away, he continued the sword¡¯s trajectory and shed into a nearby elf. Now within melee range of all the elves, it was easy to finish them all off one by one, and not long after, he was the sole survivor. ¡¯This is getting a bit hard¡­ I wish I could go all out¡­¡¯ If Sol truly went all out, the fights would be child¡¯s y, defeating these enemies in an instant, but he knew how illusions worked, courtesy of his father. He knew that whoever controlled the illusion was able to watch him and his every movement within the illusion, which meant he had to keep up his own illusion of being a water earth swordsman. In fact, even with his limited skillset, there was a way to abuse the fights and win easily, but Sol opted not to do so. The tower was made entirely of stone, which meant he could use [Burrow] and travel all the way down, evading all the fights. The problem was that if his suspicions were correct and he was being watched, then he doubted he would pass the test if he did so. Another option would be to use [Burrow] and get the jump on every enemy on each floor, but he believed it would also be received poorly. This was why Sol, at most, used that skill to quickly dodge attacks or to approach and attack, but he never stayed underground for more than five seconds at a time. ¡¯Will this self imposed restriction on [Burrow] even matter? I¡¯m losing out on time¡­¡¯ It was approaching close to two hours since the start of the test. Sol had no way to track the progress of other applicants, so he didn¡¯t know if he was doing better or worse than them. He could only hope that he was in the lead of the pack and hopefully the first to finish. Little did he know that two had already finished long before him, but they were anomaliespared to the rest of the applicants. "Arghh! Whatever. I¡¯ll just go even faster!" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om The best solution to his own made up problems was sometimes the simplest. Sol stoppedparing his progress to other applicants he had no way of knowing, deciding to focus on the task at hand and put even more effort into beating his enemies. ¡¯Limited skills? I¡¯ll just have to use them even better than before!¡¯ With the n of "trying harder" in ce, Sol ran down the stairs toward the 9th floor. Chapter 138: Last Floor ¡¯He¡¯s going even faster?¡¯ Zaman, viewing the performance of a few applicants who caught his eye, was amazed when he went back to look at Sol¡¯s progress. ¡¯He was already ahead of the second fastest applicant by 10 floors, and now the gap is widening even further¡­¡¯ Unlike Sol, the other applicants had to tackle each floor slowly and n their actions ordingly. They couldn¡¯t jump headfirst into a group of elite elven archers ande out unscathed; instead, they would try to take them out one at a time or charge up a big attack and deal with the remaining enemies. This left the Commander speechless. If he could already go this fast, why didn¡¯t he do so before? All the other applicants were struggling in every battle, and that could be seen in their expressions, but not Sol¡¯s. The face of the young man had told Zaman he found these fights tedious at best and he just wanted to hurry up. ¡¯It was almost as if¡­ no¡­ could it be?¡¯ Zaman broke into a fit ofughter once he realized the truth. The illusionist next to him gave him a weird look as it came out of nowhere, but he knew better than to question his client, especially when they are the Commander of the royal knights. "He really thinks there are other applicants on his level?" Having a better understanding of this unique applicant, Zaman could tell he recently gained that strength, and while he didn¡¯t have any problems wielding it, heckedmon sense in some areas. There were a few other mistakes he noticed, but nothing that couldn¡¯t be corrected with some light guidance. ¡¯If he became a knight captain, having his own squadron would help in that matter.¡¯ Zaman then sighed. ¡¯Sadly, with two A-Rankers in the running, that won¡¯t be happening. Once he bes a knight, I can try to put him on the fast track to captain, but that will take a while¡­¡¯ The Commander had little hope in Sol winning the tournament and gaining the rank, but with a little bit of help, he could expedite the process. That was if he found Sol could meet his expectations. ¡¯Still, those two¡­¡¯ As if on cue, a knight came running to the Commander. "Commander, I have received word from the Royal Shadows¡­" From the knight¡¯s expression, he already knew the answer. "They declined." "They did, Commander¡­" Another sigh left the man¡¯s lips. "It was worth a shot. If those two truly wish to join our ranks, let them, but keep an eye on them until we uncover their backgrounds." "Yes, Commander!" The knight left to ry his words among the knights. Left back to his own devices, Zaman turned to the sphere once more and at the perfect time as well. ¡­ An earth spikeunched from the ground and flew towards arge elemental ice bird called Frost Tail. Unlike other [Terra Spikes], it didn¡¯t just extend from the ground; it waspletely detached from it, bing an actual projectile. Alongside that earth spike, ten more wereunched, smaller than normal sized spikes but much faster as well. The Frost Tail swerved in the air as it dodged the wave of spikes flying towards it, but it wasn¡¯t able to rest easy as the attack wasn¡¯t over yet. From above, ten more spikes appeared as they dropped down with frightening speed and precision towards the Frost Tail. It didn¡¯t expect an attacking from above it, making it unable to evade it in time. Its body was pierced and sent spiraling towards the ground, but before it could evennd, another earth spear extended from the ground much bigger than the rest as it pierced the Frost Tail. The bird was unable to attack once in the face of such an onught, even though it was a much higher level than its opponent. It red hatefully at Sol in its final moments before disappearing in a poof of smoke. Even though Sol justpleted the 2nd floor fight and it was one of his fastest fights yet, he was left disappointed. ¡¯Why won¡¯t it level up yet?¡¯ N?v(el)B\\jnn Sol was thinking about [Terra Spikes]. Before the start of the knight selection, he had felt he was a single step away from leveling it up, but he was missing something. Even though the skill hadn¡¯t been leveling up, he had been improving the skill in power and efficiency and even invented new ways of attacking, yet it didn¡¯t reflect on his status page. If he had to exin the feeling, it was like being able to smell food nearby but no matter where he looked, he couldn¡¯t find it. It was close, he knew it, but just didn¡¯t know what he had to do to push forward. ¡¯I have to be missing something, but just what is it?¡¯ Sol wondered if this had happened to others before and if so, maybe someone could show him what he was missing. ¡¯Oh, maybe the royal library has a clue.¡¯ He remembered what Nataly said before, that royal knights had ess to the first floor of the royal library. It was a repository of centuries worth of information; if the solution had to be somewhere, it would likely be there. ¡¯I¡¯ll worry about itter. Testes first.¡¯ Sol ran down thest flight of stairs ready to fight whatever enemy it may be andplete the test. Halfway down the stairs, he could already see his opponent, but when he realized who he was fighting, hepletely stopped in his tracks. ¡¯How is this possible?!¡¯ The one who stood before Sol, guarding the first floor of the tower, was a royal knight, wearing their signature white and gold-trimmed armor alongside arge shield and sword, but it wasn¡¯t just any knight. She was a tall woman with shining silver hair tied into a ponytail and someone who Sol never expected to encounter here. ¡¯Mom?¡¯ It was none other than Sol¡¯s mother, Sylvia. Chapter 139: Illusion Sylvia ¡¯Is this part of the test? Is there some special meaning in fighting my mother?¡¯ Sol couldn¡¯t understand why the final enemy was his own mother. It didn¡¯t help that she stood not far away, patiently waiting with a neutral expression for him to initiate the fight. ¡¯Maybe it¡¯s a test in fighting against someone you would never dare to fight?¡¯ He ran through a few possibilities, but each made less sense than thest. Was this drawn from his own memories, or did the royal knights already know his background and put it here to send a message? Nothing made sense, but at the very least, there was one undeniable truth. ¡¯For me to pass, she must die.¡¯ Name: Sylvia Race: Human Talents: [Final Guardian], [Innate Power], [Clear Mind] Level: 102 HP: 2200 MP: 600 Str: 150 (+80) Vit: 150 (+70) Agi: 100 (+30) Int: 50 Wis: 60 Talent Skills: [Protection Domain] Lv MAX, [Limit Break] Lv 8, [Clear Mind] Lv 5 Passive Skills: [Advanced Swordsmanship] Lv 1, [Advanced Shield Mastery] Lv 1, [Perfect Counter] Lv 1, [Gargantuan Strength] Lv 3, [Unending Vitality] Lv 2, [Agility Up] Lv 6, [Precise Coordination] Lv 4, [Physical Resistance] Lv 4, [Magic Resistance] Lv 4, [Defiance] Lv MAX, [Mental Shield] Lv 5 Active Skills: [Grand Cross] Lv 1, [Shatter Step] Lv 1, [Shield Bash] Lv MAX, [Counteract] Lv 1, [Shock Absorption] Lv MAX, [Orbital Shield] Lv 1, [Blurring Speed] Lv 2, [Mana Shield] Lv 9, [Mana sh] Lv 9, [Last Bastion] Lv 2, [Avenge The Fallen] Lv 3, [Decimate] Lv 9, [Hallowed Ground] Lv 7 Sol knew she wasn¡¯t real, but she was definitely going to be the hardest fight yet. Not only was she 20 entire levels above him, she had ess to advanced skills Sol had never seen before. There was an additional level of difficulty added on top of fighting the illusion of his own mother. ¡¯It¡¯s fine. It will be fine. C¡¯mon, Sol, just fight it out. It¡¯s not real.¡¯ Sol activated his Lipon, releasing a sword of solid stone. The illusion understood that as a sign to begin the battle and took a stance with her shield raised. "[Water Cannon]!" A st of concentrated water was released towards Sylvia as she used her shield to receive the brunt of it. Sol expected her to do that and used [Ground Shrink], appearing behind her in an instant. With his rock sword, Sol used [Cross sh], creating a two-pronged attack. Before his sword could reach her, it collided against a solid surface. Sparks flew, and out of nowhere appeared a magical white shield floating between them. ¡¯Not yet!¡¯ Not done with his attack, mana was sent beneath Sylvia, and a sharp earth spike erupted beneath her. No other shield blocked the attack as it collided against her andunched her into the air. Because Sol opted for speed on the earth spike over power, it was unable to even prate her armor as she wasunched upward. While midair, the illusion responded calmly as she pointed her shield towards the roof of the floor and bashed her shield towards it. BOOM! The roof shattered as debris fell down while simultaneouslyunching her back towards Sol at frightening speeds. She repositioned her shield, making it face the direction she was falling directly on him. In the brief moment before impact, Sol knew that he couldn¡¯t afford to get hit by that. Her pure strength trampled over his without any additional skills. Sol sank underground, hoping to avoid the brunt of the attack. Her shield hit the ground, and another loud boom resounded, sending shockwaves into the air and underground. [Health: 1370/1450] Even though he was underground and dodged the biggest impact of the attack, the shockwave itself hurt him. Ignoring the pain, Solunched out of the ground and released a [Mana sh] at her exposed back. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om The magical white shield appeared once more and received the sharp wave of mana. The shield shook from the impact, but besides that, not even a scratch appeared. The shield began to glow as that very sharp wave of mana it received was sent back towards Sol. With his sword, he shed the attack in half as the residual wave cut into the wall behind him. Sol was bbergasted. ¡¯This is absurd. How strong is her defense?! She can even return attacks back towards me?!¡¯ Even knowing all her skills, there were many he didn¡¯t recognize, and he could only go off their names to figure out their effects. Sol opened her status page again, but before he could revise it, Sylvia came charging towards him once more. With her strength much higher than Sol¡¯s, he couldn¡¯t receive any of her attacks directly. On the bright side, their agility was even, which meant he could at least react to her attacks on time and dodge. But he needed to figure out a way to win, or this would never end. Tens of earth spikes fell from the roof towards the knight who raised her shield above her head in response. As if blocking the rain with an umbre, the spikes smashed against it, but they didn¡¯t even make her buckle. Earth spikes then rose from all directions as they tried to mp down on her. The orbiting shield was unable to block all the spikes, and eventually, a few broke through the first line of defense. "Finally! [Tsunami]!" Not wanting to give her any chance to recover, Sol cast one of his biggest water spells to break her bnce. With attacks from all sides, the illusion gave a wicked smile that raised rm bells in Sol¡¯s head. Suddenly, a surge of powerful energy erupted from within her. With her sword in the other hand, she swung it downwards into the ground, releasing a shockwave that violently decimated her surroundings. The earth spikes shattered, the roofpletely copsed, and therge mass of water exploded and sttered in all directions. Upon seeing this scene of destruction, Sol only had one thought. ¡¯WHY IS MY MOM SO STRONG?!?!¡¯ Chapter 140: Unreasonably Strong Zaman watched the fight between Sol and his mother, or as he knew her, Knight Sylvia. The illusionist by his side was also watching the fight through his own orb andmented out loud. "Impressive. To reach the final floor in a little over two hours, but unfortunately he had to fight her. Well, any other knight would have been impossible to beat as well, but she is extra hard." Zaman nodded in agreement. "Of all the knights he could have fought, he got paired with the Walking Fortress. It won¡¯t be easy to get past her defenses." When the Commander gave the order to change the test, he added a surprise twist for the final floor. The opponent of the final floor would be randomly selected from over a thousand knights who had disappeared or fallen in battle. The Commandermented, "It¡¯s unfortunate she ended up getting controlled by the ck Tongue. If that hadn¡¯t happened, we would have been able to see her reach such heights in real life¡­" The illusion of Sylvia didn¡¯t represent her actual prowess but an empowered version of what could have been. All her levels and skills were raised to fit appropriately as the final boss of the test. "Still, something doesn¡¯t add up. I instructed that the final floor pair the applicants with knights that shared simr traits. These two could not be any more different; one¡¯s a physical defender, and the other is a magical attacker. The only simrity is that they both use swords, but that¡¯s not the main focus for either of them." The reason for needing to be simr was to show the new recruits the future they could hopefully reach one day. In addition to that, there was the chance to learn from their predecessors who were no longer with them and have a chance to learn some of their skills. Zaman could have also added knights that were actively serving but he could just assign themter to teach them if needed. The formation was expensive to maintain, so he chose to make the most of it and see if some of their lost techniques could be revived. The illusionist next to him began to sweat. "Well, uhh¡­ yeah. Boss, the thing is¡­" "You don¡¯t know?" The illusionist shook his head and sighed before exining what he knew. "It¡¯s not that I don¡¯t know, but I can¡¯t give you the answer you want. You were the one that gave us the illusion formation. We know how to turn it on and change the settings, but the deeper intricacies of how it works elude us. I believe it has something to do with the artificial intelligence of the formation. It¡¯s what identifies the levels of the applicants and automatically adjusts the strength of the enemies. I can assure you that the formation found some simrities between the two, which is why they were paired; I just can¡¯t tell you what it was exactly." Unbeknownst to the two, with the requirements to match those with simr traits, the illusion formation struggled to find a proper match for Sol. It simply couldn¡¯t find any that matched all of Sol¡¯s skills and talents. His true status page was revealed to the illusion formation, but it didn¡¯t care or have any way to report it if it did. It only followed the settings it had in ce to find something of simrity, which it did. After sequentially cycling through all the knights and their records seven times, it found the familiar traits that the two shared and went along with that as it couldn¡¯t find any other alternative. Zaman waved his hand. "It¡¯s fine. This will still be a great learning experience for the young man." ¡­ BOOM! Explosions and shockwaves hadpletely destroyed the surroundings. If not for the walls of the tower being reinforced, it would have already copsed on top of them. As another shockwave boomed, Sol ran away from it as quickly as he could. ¡¯This is ridiculous! Is her [Limit Break] ever gonna run out?!¡¯ For two entire minutes, Sol had been ying cat and mouse with his fake mom as she destroyed her surroundings with every attack. This wasn¡¯t just blind destruction but carefully executed to make it as hard as possible to run and hide. Even [Burrow] proved useless as shattering the ground hurt and revealed him. ¡¯Gods, I wish I included earth magic in my status¡­¡¯ With earth magic, he would¡¯ve been able to reinforce the ground and at least prevent it from exploding. Sadly, he didn¡¯t add it to his repertoire of skills because [Terraformer] somehow didn¡¯t gain earth magic. ¡¯The books I read about the [Terraformer] talent showed them controlling earth directly without the need to cast spells¡­ It¡¯s simr to [Terra Spikes], which was why I went with it. Wait a minute!¡¯ Sol was suddenly hit with a wave of inspiration, which he hoped was the missing part holding the skill¡¯s evolution back. Another shockwave headed his way, and Sol started implementing his idea immediately. Earth rumbled underneath him as he wasunched into the air by a pir of earth. Midair, Sol attempted to use [Terra Spikes] again. Normally, he wouldn¡¯t be able to do that, but after siphoning [Ry Magic], he had gotten better at transmitting his mana remotely. Like an invisible tendril, Sol¡¯s manamanded the earth tounch a volley of spikes towards the illusion. Tens of spikes wereunched from the walls and parts of the roof still intact, attacking the illusion from all directions. Fake Sylvia saw his attempt to attack her from all sides and had a look of contempt that gave a ¡¯This again?¡¯ feeling. She swung her shield, sending a shockwave from the sheer force and destroying most of the projectiles. The few that survived were soon blocked by her shield and the magical shield that orbited around her. Sol knew that the attack wouldn¡¯t work; he just needed to buy some time. While the projectiles were still in motion, he was frantically trying to change the skill in a way he never could before and this time without the help of [Reinterpret]. Instead, Sol activated [Overpower]. N?v(el)B\\jnn With his massively boosted intelligence, time felt slower as he had much more time and magical capabilities. With [Overpower], Sol could also brute-force the fight, but it would be too obvious if he did that, and he also wanted to see if his idea was correct. Using the earth pir as a reference for changing the effects slightly, blocks of earth began to rise in different shapes. Some were malformed, and others had unique shapes on purpose to better understand how to change them to his desires. Within seconds, Sol had created a museum¡¯s worth of earth figures and shapes. None were bigger than a foot tall to minimize mana consumption. "Now for the real deal!" Chapter 141: [Terra Manipulation] Arge three meter mass of earth rose from the center of the tower just as Sylvia finished blocking the earth spike attack. She turned to therge rock and put up her shield, expecting it to be thrown at her, but it stayed in the air, floating. [[Terra Spikes] leveled up! (9 -> MAX)] [[Terra Spikes] reached MAX level, evolve skill?] Sol ignored the system messages. He was too focused on controlling the mass and couldn¡¯t afford any distractions. He could feel the weight of the massive rock through his magical connection and didn¡¯t have much time left with [Overpower], so he had to make this quick. ¡¯COMPRESS!¡¯ The mass rumbled as it shrunk down half a meter and became significantly harder, but Sol didn¡¯t stop there. ¡¯COMPRESS!¡¯ ¡¯COMPRESS!¡¯ ¡¯COMPRESS!¡¯ [Natural evolution has begun to ur!] Eachpression was more drastic than thest. The originally three meterrge mass shrunk down to half a foot. It was extremely dense and somehow heavier from the mana infused into it. The color changed as it squeezed out all the impurities, making it now pure brown. It also took the shape of something Sol was very much used to making: a spike. For some reason, the illusion did not attack during this time. At first, it could¡¯ve been exined by her initially believing the mass would be thrown at her, but while it waspressing, she had every chance to interrupt it. She instead continued to hold the shield stance but with a different expression on her face. If before it was full of contempt from his flimsy attacks, now it was a mix of approval and even excitement. Sol saw her expression and understood what the illusion wanted. "You want to take it head on? Fine! Have it your way!" He dropped his Lipon, and as if he were throwing the spike with his own hands, he pushed with his entire body, sending most of his remaining mana into the spike. FWSHOOM! A shockwave stronger than the ones created by the illusion sted air, knocking Sol backward. The spike was sent at a frightening speed directly towards fake Sylvia. In response to the iing attack, she ovepped the orbiting shield with her own and another shield condensed of mana on top. In addition to that, she activated another skill that made her entire surroundings glow, making her even stronger. CRACK! In an instant, the spike made contact with the first mana shield, breaking it instantly. CRACK! The orbiting shield fared no better, being punctured directly through the middle. SHREE! The final shield held off better than the previous two, creating a terrible screeching sound as the metallic shield began to crack under the pressure. Sol was worried the spike would stop there, but he still had hope as the mana he propelled it with was still active, continuously trying to push forward. Soon the same sound rang out. CRACK! The spike broke through the final shield and drove straight through the illusion¡¯s torso before continuing past it and into the wall of the tower. [[Terra Spikes] evolved into [Terra Maniption]!] Sol saw the message and, while d it finally evolved, he was more focused on the illusion still alive before him, though not for long. [Health: 82/2200] The most amazing part was that the illusion still lived even though the spike punctured through her torso and destroyed everything in its way, including her heart. Solplimented the illusion of his mother, "I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s because of your incredibly high vitality or because it¡¯s an illusion, but the fact you still live amazes me." He then thought, ¡¯As expected of my own mom.¡¯ She coughed up blood and spoke weakly, but no words came out. Sol couldn¡¯t read her lips so he didn¡¯t know what she was trying to say but she repeatedly kept trying until her health reached zero. Unable to say her final words, she disappeared in a puff of smoke. ¡¯What the¡ª?¡¯ ... "What the fuck did I just watch?!" The illusionist was shocked and awed by the sheer disy of power he had just witnessed. The fight was considered impossible by everyone who knew the rules of the illusion. It was meant to show the applicants what they could hope to achieve and to learn from them. The illusionist couldn¡¯t believe someone actually beat them. Technically, the two A-Rankers also beat the knight on the first floor, but it wasn¡¯t a fair fight to begin with. The illusion formation was unable to simte anything of A-Rank level because it would consume too much energy to maintain. It was theoretically possible if the illusion formation was used to trap just one A-Ranker and create only one A-Rank enemy to match them, but that was highly impractical for the test, not to mention a waste of resources. Zaman was also shocked but managed to better conceal his expression. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "To have an epiphany mid-battle¡­ That attack also almost reached the level of an A-Ranker." He did n for the recruits to learn from fighting the fake knights, but he didn¡¯t expect someone to show results in the midst of battle. The Commander turned to the man next to him. "Did anyone else see that fight?" The illusionist sent mana into his orb and checked on his other illusionists who were maintaining the formation before shaking his head. "No, boss. They were either watching other candidates or eliminating rule breakers." "Good. Speak not of this to anyone." The illusionist felt chills on his back from the Commander¡¯s tone. "Y-yes, boss!" Zaman then looked not at his orb but at the young man in the distance who was waking up from the illusion. He didn¡¯t have to keep what had just urred to himself, but if he didn¡¯t, it would surely attract the attention of a few parties he would rather avoid. The problem wasn¡¯t the power he showcased, it wasn¡¯t impossible to reach that level of strength¡ªit was at most rare, what was truly unique was his ability to learn and adapt at any time. If this wasn¡¯t just a pure stroke of luck and the young man was indeed a genius, then the Commander needed to be careful with this information. He put away the orb and made his way back to the knight headquarters. Nothing he could see from the other applicants would impress him the same way that young man did, so there was no point in staying. On the way back to his office, he pondered strategies and methods to help the young man reach his full potential. Chapter 142: Pugilists Sol was led by a knight to arge waiting room filled with people rxing and chatting. Almost 100 soon to be knights were there, talking and getting to know their futurerades. ¡¯Guess I was nowhere near the first to finish¡­¡¯ While it bothered him a bit, he knew most, if not all, didn¡¯t get to the final floor. Even for him, the final floor was pretty hard, and if not for his mother letting him finish the attack, it would have been much harder. "Yo! You finished pretty fast. Did you try to go for more after 25?" Sol turned to his left and saw he was approached by a friendly-looking adventurer who was dressed rather lightly, wearing loose cloth pants and a sleeveless shirt. It was odd because most adventurers would have some decent armor, even if it was just reinforced leather. It all began to make sense once his gaze moved towards the weapons he saw strapped to his belt. ¡¯ws, huh. So he¡¯s a pugilist?¡¯ Sol had read about these types of fighters before. Pugilists generally referred tobat experts that fought exclusively with their fists using martial arts. The most important thing about pugilists was that there were two kinds: wild pugilists and mystic pugilists. Wild pugilists would focus on their physical stats and would usually wield animalistic weapons; a rare few were even able to transform parts of their bodies into animal parts. Mystic pugilists, on the other hand, bnced their attribute distribution and utilized mana in unique ways. Both types of pugilists had even more subcategories, but they were usually generalized under the two umbre terms. Sol guessed the one before him was likely a wild pugilist, given that his weapons didn¡¯t appear to have mana channeling capabilities. "Yeah, I kept going. Did you?" "Yup! I only managed to get to the 21st floor. The ogres were too big and too many for me to handle, haha! How about you?" Sol wondered whether to keep it a secret what floor he arrived at, but it made no sense to do so. He nned topete in the tournament, which only the best-performing applicants could participate in, which meant he would get exposed anywayter on. "I made it to the first floor." The pugilist immediately startedughing. "Hahaha! That¡¯s a good one!" The man then noticed that Sol wasn¡¯tughing with him. "Wait¡­ you¡¯re serious? You actually made it to the bottom?" Sol nodded in response. "On gods?! Let me see your token!" "Sure." He took out his token and flipped it, showing the side with just the number 1 on it. "You actually reached the end¡­" ¡¯Is he sad I made it further?¡¯ "That¡¯s awesome! Yo guys, check this out!" Sol was about tofort the man, but it seemed he didn¡¯t need to. The pugilist, excited to find someone who actually beat the entire test, called out to a few nearby applicants he had recently met. "Woah, really?" "No way!" "Is he the first toplete it?" Soon, a small group formed around Sol as more people showed up, either impressed or curious about the man who beat the test. The pugilist asked, "What was the final boss? A few of us have been specting on what it could be. I think it was a winged tiger!" Adventurers began to voice their guesses as well. "Nah, they are simr to manticores. Maybe it¡¯s a drake?" A woman nearby shook her head. "They wouldn¡¯t fit. The floors aren¡¯t high enough, and unless it¡¯s an earth drake, most would be weaker thanks to the roof. It¡¯s probably a giant." "A giant would have the same issue!" "A small giant, then! It¡¯s an illusion, is it not? Just make it smaller!" "Why couldn¡¯t it be a drake then with that same logic?" It quickly devolved into an argument, which made Sol sigh. He didn¡¯t know what to answer. ¡¯I don¡¯t even know what to say. Did everyone fight my mom, or was it just me? If not my mom, then what would other people fight? I¡¯ll just keep it vague¡­¡¯ "It was a knight." The adventurers stopped arguing upon hearing the answer. The pugilist spoke, "A knight? Like a royal knight?" "She had the armor of one, so I guess so." A swordswoman sighed. "Aww, I was hoping it would be a vampire. I have always wanted to fight one." "There would be no fight. You would instantly die against a vampire or be turned into their thrall." "Huh?!" Everyone was surprised as a young woman with brown hair and a long spear suddenly appeared and spoke to the swordswoman. Even Sol was unable to notice her approach. For someone to be able to approach a group of skilled adventurers without their knowledge meant they either had a special talent or they were very strong. No one called her out for her sudden appearance and continued the conversation. The pugilist spoke, "Do you really know about vampires? I thought no one had even seen a vampire in decades." The swordswoman agreed, "I found a few books that even spected that the vampires all died out. That¡¯s why I hoped we would see one in the illusion." The spearwoman did not exin any further and walked away, leaving the rest of the group puzzled. ¡¯She had encountered vampires before?¡¯ Sol thought as he looked at her walk away. The pugilist asked, "She was one of the first people here, right?" Arge man nodded. "Yeah, I was one of the first 20 to arrive, and one of the people who arrived before me said she and some other guy were the first to arrive. A few of us tried approaching them but they weren¡¯t very talkative." "For her to be able to sneak up on all of us¡­ Did she not care about the tournament and stopped at the 25th floor?" n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "Only the knights overseeing the test would know." The group continued chatting from topic to topic, with Sol also adding his own input every so often. They were a nice group of people, so he didn¡¯t mind bing friends with them. He just hoped that when he got the information on his parents, his parting from the royal knights wouldn¡¯t turn them into his enemies. Chapter 143: Abstained More people slowly trickled into the waiting area until the five hour mark, officially ending the test. In total, 187 people passed the test, with thest applicants either barely passing the 25th floor or failing on some floor after that. Of the two thousand applicants, less than 10% passed the test. Most were eliminated on floors that pitted them against multiple enemies. "Everyone gather around!" N?v(el)B\\jnn One of the knights called for everyone¡¯s attention. Beside that knight were a few other knights and Commander Zaman, who spoke to the applicants. "Congrattions to you all. You will all soon be knights, thest line of defense of our kingdom. You alle from different walks of life,moner, noble, it matters not. What matters is what you will do now that you are here. We will go into more detail during orientation because there is still one final test, only for those who performed above the rest: the tournament. This tournament isn¡¯t just a whimsical test thrown into the knight selection; it holds a special ce among our traditions that date back to when our organization was founded. People from all overe to watch the tournament, not only for the entertainment but because they get to see the future defenders of the kingdom. To those who will be chosen to participate in the tournament, make sure to keep this in mind when you fight on the stage." ¡¯In other words, no underhanded tricks¡­¡¯ Sol understood what the Commander implied by the end of his speech. The people expect the Royal Knights to be honorable and trustworthy; it wouldn¡¯t do to use underhanded tricks during the fights. This would be severely disadvantageous to certain applicants who specialize in more roundabout ways of fighting, but it couldn¡¯t be helped. The Commander continued his speech for a minute longer before wrapping it up. "Now we will begin to call upon the top 16 applicants toe up and follow us to go further into detail." He gave a nod to the knight beside him, who took a step forward and began to call out the numbers of the applicants going to the tournament, starting fromst ce. The knight also stated which floor the applicants managed to reach. "16th ce, number 753, 11th floor¡­" One by one, people from the crowd emerged as they were called upon. "6th ce, number 1903, 3rd floor." "5th ce, number 712, 2nd floor." "4th ce, number 1112, 2nd floor." "3rd ce, number 241, Full clear." Sol raised an eyebrow and stood up, ¡¯So I got third, huh¡­¡¯ It was disappointing to hear he didn¡¯t get first after all the effort he put into clearing the tower as fast as possible, but he didn¡¯t use all of his abilities, so that served as some constion to him. He walked over and joined the other group of contestants as the knight called the next person up. "2nd ce, number 17, Full clear." "I abstain." "Huh?" The knight and everyone in the room looked towards the brown haired woman who spoke up. The knight asked once more to confirm. "You don¡¯t want topete in the tournament?" "No." Most of the crowd was confused. She was clearly one of the best contenders to win and be immediately promoted to knight captain; it didn¡¯t make sense to turn away the opportunity. Victor, who was also within the crowd, had an incredulous look on his face, which quickly turned to joy. Commander Zaman also had a unique expression as he was trying to figure out the angle of the A-Ranker. There was nothing they could possibly gain from being an ordinary knight; the resources they had for the base rank weren¡¯t worth it for someone like her. The knight looked towards his Commander for insight on what he should do. While it wasn¡¯t the first time someone refused to participate in the tournament, it was usually one of the lower ranked applicants. It was not an issue to simply swap them out for another applicant, but this was different. One of the best fighters, who would surely put on a good show for the audience, didn¡¯t wish to participate. Zaman asked the woman for confirmation, "If she does not wish to participate, then she doesn¡¯t have to. All ranks will be rolled up, and rank 17th will join the tournament." The knight nodded. "Yes, sir. 17th ce, number 312, 11th floor." Arge man carrying a massive ymore jumped out of the crowd and dly joined the tournament contestants¡¯ group. He knew he had no chance of winning but was eager to make his debut and, if he performed well enough, make some connections to elerate his rise to fame. The knight then called the first-ce applicant. "1st ce, number 1318, Full clear." Sol prayed in his thoughts, ¡¯I hope 1st ce also concedes. It would make my life way easier.¡¯ His wish was quickly squashed as Victor walked towards the group without saying a single word, but even without the man saying anything, his emotions could easily be seen. ¡¯Guess he¡¯s also happy she forfeited.¡¯ While Sol was thinking this simply eliminated one hard fight in his path to winning, Victor already believed this tournament was in the bag. ¡¯Hahaha. I was worried for nothing.¡¯ Victor then gazed towards Sol, who was also looking at him. ¡¯Heh. He thinks he stands a chance.¡¯ With all 16 applicants chosen for the tournament, a knight led them to another room. The rest of the applicants who weren¡¯t taking part in the tournament were taken to the residential area of the headquarters. There, they would get their rooms assigned and be oriented on the uing weeks, as they wouldn¡¯t be knights just yet. They needed to be trained on a variety of subjects ranging frombat and tactics to etiquette, as they would also be dealing with nobility and representatives. With the top 16 in a smaller conference room, Zaman personally appeared and shed light on the full rules of the tournament. "I will keep this brief as I have another meeting soon. This tournament will be a seeded bracket where you will face off against opponents in one on one elimination. There are no second chances: you lose, you¡¯re out. The tournament will take ce over the course of three days. The first day will be the round of sixteen, the second day the quarterfinals, and the third day will be the semifinals, followed by the finals on the same day." Sol found this weird. ¡¯Couldn¡¯t this all take ce in one day? Surely we have healers to fully recover between matches.¡¯ The Commander omitted this fact regarding the tournament, but it had the additional function of boosting the economy of the city. With merchants of all kinds traveling to the capital to make a fortune, the tournament needed to be split into multiple days to give the merchants and their artisans enough time to make specialized merchandise of the contestants. Sol didn¡¯t speak up as he didn¡¯t find it too important to rify and listened to the rest of the rules. Most consumables were banned, and they could only bring two unique rank items to the fight. While they wanted it to be a spectacle, they didn¡¯t want the contestants to bulldoze thepetition with better items. All the contestants were at least B-Rank, so it was expected for them to all have at least one unique ranked item by now if they were savvy with their coins. While unique ranked items were powerful, with each contestant having at most two, they believed it would be bnced out so the truly stronger contestant would win. Once done going over a few more specifics, the Commander ended the meeting. "That will be all. Follow Knight Jacob, who will lead you all to your amodations. I won¡¯t see any of you until after the tournament, so I will say this now. Good luck, and may the best fighter win." Chapter 144: Future Bricklayer ¡¯My own room¡­¡¯ Sol was escorted to one of the rooms in the residential area of the royal knights¡¯ headquarters. He didn¡¯t get to pick the room, but he didn¡¯t mind, as he knew they were all identical. It was a 4 by 4 meter room, the same size as his small home back in Initium. The only difference was that it was much nicer. It had a proper bed simr to the ones used in inns and furniture that was of much better quality than the handmade table and chair Sol had built for himself. "So much changed in two months." From his small home in a faraway town, he would soon be a royal knight, one of the most highly regarded positions in the kingdom. Sure, it was only temporary until he obtained the information he needed for himself and Amber, but it was a big achievement nheless. Sol took off his leather armor andy on the bed. "Oh, now that I think of it, I did evolve a skill." [[Terra Maniption] Lv 1: Take control of the earth and bend it to your will. Sand, dirt, stone, and non magical metals fall under your domain. Able to create permanent earth out of mana at a higher cost.] "Interesting¡­" With a small portion of his mana, a perfectly square rock appeared out of thin air. Even after Sol removed his mana and cut his connection from the rock, it didn¡¯t disappear. "It¡¯s much purer than normal stone, and it evensts forever. Normally, earth magic would eithermand already existing dirt and stone to move, or it would create some, but it doesn¡¯tst forever." Themon earth spell [Stone Shot] was an example of thetter type of earth magic. It would create a small rock from the mana and shoot it toward the target. After impact, the rock would dissipate back into ambient mana. While neat, Sol didn¡¯t find it more important than the other effects of the skill. "Well, if I ever want to retire, I could be the best bricyer in the city. The real benefit from the skill is that I now have full control over the element." As long as he had the mana, he could create whatever he wanted. During the fight against his fake mother, Sol was able topressrge amounts of stone into an extremely dense and powerful attack, but there were countless other ways he could use it as well. Reflecting back on what the skill used to be, Sol chuckled. ¡¯To think this used to be a hammer skill.¡¯ N?v(el)B\\jnn He was very happy and proud of the fact he was able to turn a skill into something he could truly call his own. He had developed and grown the skill like other people would instead of leveling it up with [Siphon]. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Closing his status page, Sol wondered what he should do now. ¡¯I could go explore the headquarters or meet with some of the other new recruits¡­¡¯ While thinking of what to do besides lie in bed, his eyes moved to his leather armor. ¡¯It¡¯s about time I get an upgrade.¡¯ It wasmon rarity armor he had been using, which he never bothered to rece. The main reason for not doing so was because of the time it would take to find armor that would fit him. It was very important with armor to not only choose it based on its capabilities but also whether or not it fit the user well. Even if the armor was only slightly ufortable, being tight or loose in some ces could spell victory or defeat. ¡¯I don¡¯t know if I can find a good set of armor today, but I might as well try.¡¯ It was early in the afternoon, so with the rest of the day free, he got up and left his room. "Yoooo~! It¡¯s the future winner of the tournament!" A somewhat familiar voice called out to him. It was the pugilist he met earlier today, alongside a few other recruits. "Oh hey, what are you all up to?" "Nothing much, we were exploring the headquarters. Did you know there is a private open air bath? Sadly, we can¡¯t use it unless we are Captain rank or higher. You just got here after the tournament stuff, right? Wanna join us in checking this ce out?" Sol shook his head. "Maybeter. I¡¯m thinking of getting new armor for the tournament." The pugilist had a pensive look on his face. "New armor at this time? Well, if you need one on such short notice, I might know a guy." Sol felt it was weird for the pugilist, who barely wore armor, to know someone in that field, but it could¡¯ve been some other connection that bonded the two. He was ted at the fact he didn¡¯t need to wander around looking for someone. "Really?! That would save me a lot of time." The man smiled back. "No problem. So first, head to the market district¡­" The pugilist told him the directions, and he did his best tomit them to memory. Once he finished, the man remembered one final detail. "Oh, and when you get there, tell them you want Weaver. The others aren¡¯t as good nor as fast as him." "W-Weaver?" Hearing that name out of nowhere truly surprised Sol. He would have never expected to hear that name once more, especially because it¡¯s not even a name but a nickname. "You know him?" "No, it¡¯s just an odd name. Also, it doesn¡¯t sound like he sells armor, but clothes." "Yep, but that¡¯s the best part! His clothes are as good as armor, trust me. You can keep the flexibility of clothes and the special effects of armor. The only downside is the lower defense ratingpared to other armors of the same rarity, but if you are using thatmon ranked armor I saw before, then it will be a massive improvement." "How did you know it wasmon?" The pugilist looked at him with pity. "Have you looked at it? It looked like you got it for 5 gold." ¡¯I got it for 3¡­¡¯ Sol was embarrassed at how he had been wearing noticeably bad armor and realized it would have been better to wear none at all. His body was naturally stronger than the armor, and it wasn¡¯t like the defense value added to his total defense. Defense values associated with the armor only apply to the armor itself. If an attack passes through the gaps, then the defense values would be useless. The pugilist pped him on the back. "Hey! Don¡¯t worry about it. Just make sure to tell Weaver that you will wear it for the tournament. Give him some extra motivation to make it better than normal!" Sol nodded weakly, still reflecting on his foolish actions. "Thanks¡­ I¡¯ll do that." Chapter 145: Terrence "So this is the ce." Sol had arrived at a rather ordinary store with a tailor needle sign. It wasn¡¯t hard to find, as he had already passed through the area before; he just never thought to go inside. Entering the store, rows upon rows of clothes lined the walls. Most of it was casual everyday wear, but a sizable section was dedicated to fancier outfits that he wouldn¡¯t be surprised to see a noble wear. A woman near the entrance, wearing a professional dress, said, "Wee. What are you looking for? We have outfits for every asion." "Hi, I¡¯m trying to get a custom made outfit by tomorrow. I was told to ask for Weaver." The clerk raised an eyebrow. "Tomorrow? Wait here for a moment while I ask him." Sol watched as she walked through a door at the back of the store and thought about her reaction. ¡¯Is it too short notice?¡¯ It was his fault for not dealing with this sooner, but he had prioritized his training, which even now felt like the right idea. Even with all his efforts, he only got third ce, which luckily became second because one of thepetitors didn¡¯t want topete in the tournament. Sol didn¡¯t have to wait long, as the clerk came back. "Please follow me. He wishes to discuss themission." He nodded and followed her into the back of the store. Beyond the door was arge workshop with many tailors creating all sorts of outfits. The walls were lined withrge rolls of cloth in different colors and textures. A worker walked up to one of the cloth rolls, unrolled arge rectangle, cut it off, and took it back to his station. ¡¯Is this how they make clothes?¡¯ Sol looked at one of the tailors as he made a needle levitate in the air, weaving through a red dress, making an exquisite pattern. Most of the workers had simrly magical means of making clothes. After using [Analysis] on a few of them, he realized that while they all had simr talents like [Tailor], they had drastically different talent skills. The two soon arrived at a workstation where a middle aged man with graying hair waited with an inquisitive gaze. Before any words were spoken, his eyes were judging Sol and, more importantly, his outfit. A light scoff could be heard from the man, and Sol knew it was directed at his clothes based on where he was looking. Because Sol didn¡¯t feel the man was strong, he used [Analysis] without hesitation. Name: Terrence Urasect Race: Human Talents: [Magic Tailor], [Threads] Level: 42 HP: 400 MP: 700 Str: 30 Vit: 40 Agi: 65 Int: 25 (+10) Wis: 50 (+20) Talent Skills: [Enduring Quality] Lv 9, [Enchanted Thread] Lv 7 Passive: [Advanced Tailoring] Lv 2, [Mana Efficiency] Lv 6, [Intelligence Up] Lv 2, [Wisdom Up] Lv 4, [Increase Mana Regeneration] Lv 2, [Nimble Fingers] Lv MAX, [Thread Control] Lv 8, [Muscle Memory] Lv 6, [Trained Eye] Lv 6 Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Active: [Prudent Touch] Lv 8, [Layered Enchantment] Lv 3, [String Enhancement] Lv 6, [Thread Creation] Lv 9, [Magic Weave] Lv 5 ¡¯[Magic Tailor]? Never heard of that one before. Also, d to know his name isn¡¯t actually Weaver.¡¯ While he wasn¡¯t knowledgeable about all talents, he could easily tell it was a better variant of themon [Tailor] talent. By the time the two men were done inspecting each other, the clerk had already sneaked away to resume her duties of tending the front of the store. Sol spoke up first, "Are you Weaver?" Terrence nodded. "The one and only. How did you hear about me? If it¡¯s not for clothes, don¡¯t bother." ¡¯Not for clothes?¡¯ Sol didn¡¯t know what he was referring to, but he exined himself to prevent any misunderstandings. "Aron told me about you. I needbat clothes for the knight selection tournament." Aron was the name of the pugilist. Sol asked for his name before leaving, as it felt awkward not knowing each other¡¯s names after talking for so long. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "The tournament? You¡¯repeting?" The mention of the tournament made Terrence¡¯s ears perk up. He didn¡¯t expect to meet one of the contestants in person. "Yeah, I don¡¯t really need armor that slows me down, and I heard you work fast." The tailor nodded in agreement. "No one here is half as fast as me when I try, but damn, kid, you¡¯re reallying here on short notice. Isn¡¯t the first round of the tournament tomorrow?" "Yeah¡­ I was busy these past few weeks. Is it doable?" Terrence didn¡¯t respond right away as he made a few internal calctions. "Hmm, maybe. But only if it¡¯s at most rare. I can¡¯t make anything unique in just one day." Sol nodded. "That¡¯s fine. I can only bring two unique items to the tournament, so it can only be rare at most." "Then it can be done. Here, take a look at this catalog and let me know what kind of enchantments you want on the outfit." He received a thin book of enchantments that detailed their effects. There were almost 200 enchantments withments on each one. Some wereplementary with others, and some could not be used alongside others as they had contradictory effects or didn¡¯t mix well, resulting in lesser effects. Because it was only a rare item, it could at most hold two enchantments. While Sol was perusing the catalog, a measuring tape floated in the air and approached him. "Stand still while I get your measurements. I don¡¯t have a lot of time to wait for you to decide." As the measuring tape flew and wrapped around his body, he noticed that it was actually connected to a thin string, which was what was being manipted. In a sh, Terrence was done measuring his body. "Have you decided on the enchantments yet?" "Yeah, is [Wind Favored] and [Mending] okay?" He nodded. "Both are popr choices, especially the [Mending] one. Then that¡¯s that. I¡¯ll get to work now. Oh, and I¡¯ll be choosing the style. No offense, but the only fashionable thing you are wearing are those boots." Sol looked down to see the cheap clothes he had on. The only decent thing he was wearing was the unique rarity Blessed Boots of the Sky, which were given to him as a reward. Not having much of a sense for fashion, Sol agreed with the man. "That¡¯s fine. When should I pick it up?" Terrence shook his head. "You¡¯re staying at the royal knights¡¯ headquarters, right? I¡¯ll have it sent over to you. It will be at your door by tomorrow morning." "You can deliver it to the royal pce?" A grin appeared on his face as he proudly exined, "I have made outfits for the entire royal family. The princess¡¯s ceremonial dress was even sewn by me." "Woah, that¡¯s awesome!" "You¡¯re lucky I am free right now to take yourmission. Now about the price, it¡¯s gonna cost 450 gold total. That¡¯s already including all the materials needed to make it." ¡¯Wow. 450 gold for rare clothes.¡¯ If it was a few weeks ago, Sol would never buy such expensive clothes that were within the same price range as a unique weapon. "I¡¯ll pay in full now." Sol handed 4 tinum and 50 gold coins without hesitation. "Great, now get out. I have a lot of work to do." "Will do, thanks!" Sol left the man to his own devices and walked out of the workshop. He didn¡¯t really know what kind of outfit he would end up receiving tomorrow, but with hisck of fashion sense, anything would be better than what he was wearing right now. Chapter 146: Song of the Wind "Today¡¯s the day." Sol was lying on his bed reminiscing about yesterday¡¯s events. After returning to the knight headquarters, he spent some time with Aron and his ever growing group of friends. They spent the evening celebrating in the dining hall, telling stories of their adventures and why they were joining the knights now. While reminiscing aboutst night¡¯s fun, a knock came from the door. ¡¯Are the clothes here?¡¯ It was early in the morning, but in just three hours he was going to have to be in the arena. He hoped Terrence was able to finish in time, but even he knew it was a big ask to make a magically enhanced outfit in less than half a day¡¯s time. N?v(el)B\\jnn Sol got up and opened the door to reveal Aron. He was unable to hide the look of disappointment on his face. With a mischievous grin, the pugilist asked, "Were you expecting someone else?" "Yeah¡­ Went to the ce you suggested, and he said he could do it on time, but I still haven¡¯t gotten the clothes." "Oh? You mean THESE clothes?!" Aron took out a wooden box and handed it to Sol. His eyes widened in surprise as he didn¡¯t expect Aron to have it. "Woah, thanks! But why do you have it?" "Heh. Long story short, I bumped into the delivery man. Made some light conversation and found out he wanted to finish his deliveries early today so he could watch the tournament. So, being the kind and benevolent man I am, I told him I would deliver the packages that were for the royal knights, and here I am!" "So he just gave you all his packages?" "All 21 of them! You¡¯re thest one I had to deliver. I would¡¯ve been here sooner, but I got distracted talking to some nobledy, sorry about that." "No wait, that wasn¡¯t what I meant. He trusted aplete stranger to just deliver them?" Sol couldn¡¯tprehend the delivery man just trusting someone he randomly met to deliver all his packages. He could only assume the delivery man was very eager to watch the fightster today. Aron shook his head, "Nah, I know him." ¡¯Oh, good.¡¯ Aron continued, "Yeah, I met him at a bar once." ¡¯You¡¯re still basically strangers!¡¯ Sol couldn¡¯t understand how Aron could earn the trust of strangers so easily. It was like he had a talent or skill for it. He had noticed this before with how easily Aron quickly became friends with everyone he met. There was just something about him that made others easily trust him. "Well, thanks again. I should change into it and head over to the colosseum." Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Aron nodded, "I¡¯ll get out of your hair then. Good luck!" The pugilist spun in ce before heading off to meet with some other recruits who were going to watch the tournament. Sol took the box and ced it on his desk before opening it. "Oh! This is perfect!" [Song of the Wind Rare Defense: 40 Durability: 750/750 Skills: [Wind Favored] Lv 6, [Mending] Lv 6] The chest piece was a natural dark green shirt that had a refreshing feeling to it. It wasyered and tailored to fit closely to the body, with a wrap-around design and secured with belts and straps. The form fitting pants were brown with an borate pattern around the thighs, giving it a rich texture. After putting it on, Sol cast the water spell [Mirror Water] to see his own reflection. ¡¯I look like some kind of hunter, but I kinda like it.¡¯ Besides the aesthetics of the outfit, the functionality didn¡¯t disappoint him either. [[Wind Favored] Lv 6: The winds actively assist you in every action. Overall speed is increased by 30%.] [[Mending] Lv 6: The clothes slowly repair themselves over time using ambient mana. Can be elerated by inserting the wearer¡¯s mana.] [Wind Favored] functioned simrly to the beginner wind spell [Tailwind], but better. The resistance from the wind was equally negated, but the push the wind provided was much stronger. If with [Tailwind] Sol was able to leap 50 feet without any skill, then with [Wind Favored] he could jump 80 feet instead. The only downside was that the eleration provided by the enchantment was purely physical, unlike the agility attribute that also increases reaction speed. This meant the wearer had to be careful not to lose control of their speed and identallyunch themselves into a wall. Sol gave himself one final look before storing his previously worn clothes in his spatial ring. He also put away his Immunizing Belt, as it was a unique item, and he was only able to use two. He wasn¡¯t worried about not having the belt for the tournament. While it had good skills, they weren¡¯t needed for thepetition. He doubted anyone would use poison after the Commander¡¯s subtle warning, and [Status Cleanse] had been slowly bing more obsolete as Sol leveled up some of his passives. While there were a few status afflictions he had no way to counter, he didn¡¯t think the belt had more potential value than the Blessed Boots of the Sky. Done with his preparations, Sol left his room and made his way out of the royal pce through the service exit. The main gate he first entered the pce through was rarely opened, either forrge events like the knight selection or for the royal family and other important individuals. Sol made his way through the loud and busy streets toward the Lionell Colosseum, named after a hero from the early years of the kingdom. As he neared therge colosseum, the crowd became denser and denser until he found it hard to move closer. Sol tried to skirt around a few people, but it was too clustered to move past them. ¡¯Damn. Am I going to bete?¡¯ A feeling of anxiety rose within him as he realized that it might be a possibility. Before the panic set in, he realized he was overthinking it. ¡¯Wait. I can just use [Burrow].¡¯ Sol immediately sank into the ground and propelled himself toward the side entrance of the colosseum reserved for fighters and employees. While traveling through the dirt and stone, he realized he could use [Terra Maniption] to speed himself even further. With a little bit more mana, Sol traveled even faster, fully negating the movement penalty of [Burrow]. ¡¯Oh, this is pretty useful. Now that I think of it, I can evenunch attacks from underground.¡¯ More ideas of how he could use his newly evolved skill passed through his mind until he reached the side entrance. As Sol emerged from the ground, a shriek was heard. "Ah! Who are you! Don¡¯t make me call the guards!" The one Sol inadvertently scared was the colosseum employee in charge of watching the side entrance. "Sorry about that, miss. I¡¯m actually one of the contestants." Sol quickly showed his token, which served as identification, and calmed the woman down. After apologizing for misunderstanding, the woman directed him toward his waiting room, which also had a window view of the colosseum¡¯s arena. He took a seat on a luxurious couch as he looked toward the spectator area, where people could be seen funneling in and taking their seats. "Might as well rx for a bit. I have thest fight of the day." Chapter 147: First Match "Good morning, everyone! Today is a wonderful day! The sky is clear with no cloud in sight, as if the gods themselves cleared this day for this very moment! Today is the 487th annual knight selection tournament! A glorious day for the new knights to show off their prowess in full disy of the entire kingdom." Cheers erupted from the audience as an announcer appeared in the middle of the arena. The tform beneath him began to glow as it floated off the ground and into the center of the arena. "My name is Oeser Sobren, your announcer for theseing days! It¡¯s my job to keep all of you informed and give the y-by-y for those who can¡¯t keep up with the fighters¡¯ amazing speed!" Oeser¡¯s tform floated as it looped around the edge of the arena. "People from all over the kingdom have gathered to witness these knights! I even know a few of you have traveled from nearby kingdoms as well! Frommon folk to nobles and even Princess Valerie herself, everyone has gathered for this special asion!" Oeser pointed towards the VIP section of the spectators¡¯ area where Princess Valerie sat alongside other prominent figures. She didn¡¯t expect the announcer to specifically point her out, but with grace, she stood up and waved at the citizens. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "WOAAAH!" Everyone cheered at the sight of their beloved princess. "I¡¯m sure everyone wants me to shut up already and start the match, so let¡¯s get on with it! To start the first match, we have the man who achieved first ce in the knight selection, give it up for Victor!" Victor walked onto the arena, smiling and waving at the audience. "And on the other side of the arena, we have Reginald!" Arge man carrying a massive ymore walked onto the arena and brandished his weapon, causing the dust around him to scatter. "While he may have ced 16th among the contenders, don¡¯t mistake it for him being weak! That means he is the 16th best among the nearly two thousand applicants. Everyone who ispeting in this tournament can¡¯t be treated lightly!" Among those in the VIP section sat Commander Zaman, who shook his head at the announcer¡¯s words. ¡¯Maybe some other year, but not this one. I see a few have noticed it already.¡¯ Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Zaman¡¯s gaze moved towards the leaders of non-royal family factions: the young-looking man Orion, who was the guildmaster of the Adventurers Guild, alongside the other guildmasters of the other profession guilds; the three nobles, Sigurd, Vanessa, and Ian, who were the figureheads of their respective noble factions; and the foreign representatives from Sylmasera, Delvania, and the Sapphire Scales Alliance, who hade to spectate as neighbors to Crestelia. Each group had their own ways of assessing the strength of the contestants, and all had already figured out that Victor had A-Rank strength. None said anything or questioned Zaman¡¯s decision to include Victor in thepetition, as it was under his jurisdiction to run it how he wanted, but they all understood the winner was already decided. The announcer continued, "The rules are simple. You will fight until one side is unable to continue or surrenders. No potions or other consumables are allowed, and only two unique items can be used by each fighter. Are both fighters ready?" Reginald yelled, "Yes!" Victor nodded. Oeser took out a wand-like item and pointed it in the air, "Then begin!" The wand hummed as it shot out an array of colorful lights alongside an explosion that could be heard throughout the colosseum. Reginald instantly used [Blinding Fury], massively increasing his strength at the cost of his consciousness, and zed towards Victor. Normally, Reginald wouldn¡¯tmit to such a risky move off the bat, but he had heard rumors of how strong his opponent was. If the rumors were true, he didn¡¯t stand a chance unless he went all out from the start. Oeser narrated as the fight continued, "Reginald is starting off strong with [Blinding Fury]! A risky but powerful move that more than doubled his strength! It seems he wants to end the fight already!" With only the thoughts of winning in his muddled mind, Reginald used abination of movement skills to charge towards Victor. His massive unique sword swung down with all his strength as he used [Fell Cleave]. "[me Burst]." Fire erupted around Victor in all directions with incredible force. The fire not only burned Reginald but also blew him away towards the other side of the arena. CRASH! Reginald¡¯s body mmed into the wall of the colosseum, creating arge crater. Burns covered his entire body, charring a significant portion of it. The crowd waited with bated breath for the man to stand up and fight once more, but as each second passed, the realization dawned upon everyone that he was already knocked out. Oeser stuttered in shock, "W-w-wow! What a fight! With a single cast, Victor was able to stop Reginald¡¯s powerful charge with [me Burst] no less!" Medical personnel ran onto the arena and ced Reginald on a stretcher, taking him away for treatment. "For those who aren¡¯t well-versed in magic, [me Burst] is a beginner-level spell! Almost every new fire mage learns it, as it¡¯s usually taught in magic academies and books as one of the easiest spells! But this wasn¡¯t any normal [me Burst]! Victor¡¯s mastery over magic is so high he is able to increase the grade of the spell from early beginner all the way to early advanced grade!" "VICTOR!" "VICTOR!" "VICTOR!" The audience cheered for the winner of the duel as the man himself gave the crowd another wave and walked out of the arena. Sol, who was spectating silently while sipping a drink, almost spat it out after seeing how quickly the match was decided. ¡¯I didn¡¯t think I had to use [Analysis] against mypetitors, but it seems I underestimated them.¡¯ Chapter 148: Above 100 Before Victorpletely left the arena, Sol tried to use [Analysis], but the results weren¡¯t very informative. Name: Victor Race: ??? Talents: [ze Mage], [?? Master], [Passion ???] Level: 1?? HP: ??? MP: 2??? Str: ?0 Vit: ??? Agi: 1?? Int: ?6? (+??) Wis: ??? (+??) n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Talent Skills: [???] Lv MAX, [??? Theory] Lv ???, [Heart Fire] Lv 8 Passive Skills: [Sagely Wisdom] Lv ?, [???] Lv 4, [???] Lv ???, [???] Lv MAX, [Increased Mana Regeneration] Lv ???, [???] Lv ?, [Mana Perception] Lv 5, [Spell Concentration] Lv ? Active Skills: [Advanced Fire Magic] Lv ?, [???] Lv ?, [???] Lv 5, [???] Lv 4, [Mana Ward] Lv 3, [???: Rage Fire] Lv 1 ¡¯Above level 100¡­¡¯ The only real information Sol was able to obtain from the [Analysis] was that Victor was above level 100 and that his fire magic was at the advanced level. Two things he could already tell from the fight he witnessed. Victor noticed the attempt to peek into his status page and ignored it because Sol wasn¡¯t the only one to do so. Hundreds of spectators who had [Analysis or items with simr effects used them on Victor so many times that he lost count. Most weren¡¯t even able to see what Sol saw, as few had a high enough level of [Analysis] to make up for the level gap. Sol sighed, "He¡¯s almost or even already A-Rank. How am I supposed to even win against that¡­" After Victor left the arena, the announcer introduced the next two fighters. Sol considered using [Reinterpret] to further practice as the matches went on but decided against it. It was best to see what the otherpetitors were capable of even if he doubted they would be anywhere near Victor¡¯s level. The resounding voice of the announcer echoed in the room, "Let the fight begin!" ¡­ "In the end, they were all within expectations." Sol just witnessed the second-tost fight of the day that ended in a victory for the 4th ce fighter. She was against the 13th ce swordsman, and with the skillful use of her spear, she was able to attack out of his range as she riddled him with injuries. ¡¯I guess it¡¯s my turn.¡¯ A knock came from the door. It opened to reveal an arena employee. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. "Sir Sol, you are up next." "I¡¯ll head over now, thank you." Standing up from the couch, he walked to the arena where he would be pitted against the 15th-ranked fighter. As Sol made his way to the arena, Oeser was wrapping up his analysis of the fight. "With Lapis¡¯ agile movements, Ulmar waspletely unable to retaliate! Once she wounded him enough, she finished him off with the skill [Long Sweep] into [Pole m]! I gotta say, folks, I don¡¯t think anyone in this tournament can match her in pure speed! But remember! Speed is not the only deciding factor here!" Oeser moved towards the center of the arena. "We have seen a wonderful disy of abilities and talents today, but we have one more fight for all you fine folk! On one side we have the 15th-ranked contender, Wand!" A mage sauntered into the arena with a rxed smile. "On the other side, we have the 2nd-ranked contender, Sol!" Sol walked in stiffly as if he had a bad leg. ¡¯So many people are watching¡­¡¯ Sol walked awkwardly because he was trying his best to walk normally, which in turn became abnormal. It hadn¡¯t dawned on him until this moment that he would be fighting in front of so many eyes, and the realization unnerved him. ¡¯Just focus on the fight, nothing else.¡¯ He took a deep breath, calmed himself down, and focused solely on Wand, who stood not far away from him. Sol used [Analysis] on the man and discovered it wasn¡¯t going to be a hard fight, which helped him rx. He managed to recover just in time as Oeser took out his wand and pointed it to the sky. "Let the battlemence!" "[Wind Cutter]!" A sharp de of wind was immediately released and flew towards Sol. In response, Sol chose to meet the basic wind spell head on and activated his Lipon, releasing an elemental fire sword. With a wave of the sword, the wind was easily dispersed. Oesermented, "What is that sword?! It appears to be some kind of elemental weapon, but it¡¯s different from others that normally have a metallic de that the element is enchanted upon!" Sol charged forward towards Wand, who had no intention of letting him get close and cast another spell. "[Soaring Winds]!" Wand soared into the air and flew far enough away to not be in danger of Sol¡¯s fire sword. "Masterful y by Wand, this puts him not only safe from Sol¡¯s de but also in the perfect position to rain down spells." "[Gale des]!" Large des of wind descended upon Sol, who made no attempt to move out of the way. The wind desnded upon him, creating arge cloud of dust. Oeser eximed, "Could this be it for our fighter?! No! It¡¯s not!" As the dust settled, arge dome of stone covered the area of impact. Underneath the dome, Sol stood safely, untouched by even a single wind de. The dome parted, and one could hear him chant from within. "[Water Cannon]!" A st of concentrated water ejected out of the opening in the dome and traveled at frightening speeds towards the mage in the sky. The radius of the water was too wide to fly out of as [Soaring Winds] wasn¡¯t the fastest flying spell. Wand hastily cast a spell to get himself out of harm¡¯s way but was unable to finish casting in time. "[Wind Bu-!" The water sted the poor man directly in the face, knocking him out of the sky and sending him plummeting towards the ground. Though Wand was hit, because Sol didn¡¯t attack in full force in fear of identally killing him, he was still conscious and able to fight. "[Glide]!" Gentle winds carried the mage as he glided away from Sol, hoping not to be hit with another [Water Cannon]. "Incredible! What an amazing counterattack from Sol and a good recovery from Wand! The fight ain¡¯t over yet!" Sol smirked at Oeser¡¯smentary, ¡¯It already is.¡¯ Chapter 149: End of the First Day There was a special detail about [Glide]. Once you cast it, the direction you traveled couldn¡¯t be changed. Sol knew this, as he also knew the spell, and prepared a surprise for Wand. Wand nced back at Sol, who didn¡¯t move from his position, and breathed a sigh of relief. ¡¯Thank the gods he didn¡¯t chase. Once Ind I¡¯ll¡ª¡¯ The wind mage was unable to finish his thought as he noticed the ground slightly rumbling. He was only four feet off the ground and could see the slight shake, which rang rm bells in his mind. Suddenly, from four sides, the ground rose and formed another dome not dissimr to the one Sol made before. In response, Wand stopped channeling [Glide] and quickly tried to cast a spell to get him out in time. "[Updraft]!" Wind sted the mage upward, but it was already toote. The earth dome closed above him, causing the mage to collide head first into the dome. Oeser leaned over his tform, ecstaticallymenting, "What an amazing use of the [Earth Dome] skill, not only defensively but also offensively! Sol took advantage of the [Glide] spell¡¯s inherent weakness, which can only head in a predetermined direction, and trapped him where he was going tond! It¡¯s amazing he knew of that, as he doesn¡¯t even wield wind magic! Now how will Wand get out of this one?!" Though Oeser was wrong about the skill Sol used, it wasn¡¯t too far from the truth. Wand, stuck like a bird in a cage, didn¡¯t give up and cast the only spell he knew that could possibly get him out of the earth dome. "[Piercing Winds]" A small tornado of wind emitted from his hand as it began to drill into the dome. "Why won¡¯t it break!" Wand had funneled almost all his remaining mana into the spell, but after so much effort, he was unable to make a small hole for light to enter. What he didn¡¯t know was that Sol was actively sending more mana and reinforcing the dome, making it an endurance fight between the two of them. Wand had no way topete with Sol¡¯srge reservoir of mana and his much more efficient use of it. By the time Wand ran out of mana, Sol had only used less than a fifth of his. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the vition. ¡¯Time to end this.¡¯ Feeling that he had dragged the fight on long enough, Sol manipted the dome to begin shrinking. As it shrunk, he created a small opening and made it so that Wand had to stick his head through it or be crushed. Sol walked and approached Wand, who was now just a head sticking out of a mound of dirt and stone, and asked, "Do you surrender?" The mage nodded in amazement and slight fear, "I surrender!" Wand understood, after wasting all his mana, that he didn¡¯t stand a chance. He was unable to even break through the dome after using his strongest single target spell. Sol nodded and released the earth that bound him. Wand stumbled face first onto the ground as he was released suddenly, causing him to lose his bnce. "Sorry about that. Let me help." The dirt floated off his face and scattered onto the ground, and a hand then reached out to help him get back up. Wand looked up at Sol and grabbed his hand, "Thanks." Oeser silently watched their interaction before announcing the results, "And there you have it, folks! What an intense fight where bothpetitors yed to their strengths! With that, we conclude the first day of the knight selection tournament! Make sure toe back tomorrow as the fights will only get more intense from here on out!" As Sol made his way out of the stadium, he noticed something. ¡¯So this is how they could tell I used [Analysis] on them.¡¯ With a deluge of spectators simultaneously using [Analysis] on him, he actually noticed that there was a very slight, almost unnoticeable trace of energy that tried to poke and prod him. With the hundreds of [Analysis] attempts being made, it became significant enough that he could finally detect them. ¡¯The majority are stopped by Annabel¡¯s Locket of Safekeeping. The few that got past were blocked by the Deceiver¡¯s Earrings. That¡¯s good to know.¡¯ It was a thin dualyer that covered his body and denied the entry of most of the attempts. It wasn¡¯t mana but something not too dissimr, which Sol could only describe as energy. He didn¡¯t know enough about it to understand how it worked, but he was at least assured that nobody managed to pierce through his protections. N?v(el)B\\jnn Sol had no reason to stay in the colosseum, and it was too early to head back to the royal pce, so he decided to head towards Necropolis. While most of the duels between the new knights were within his expectations, the first one with Victor was the only one that rmed him. ¡¯Maybe if I go all out I can win, but I only have [Intermediate Water Magic], [Intermediate Swordsmanship], and [Terra Maniption]. I need to see if I can hold my own against strong enemies with just those three.¡¯ Sol nned to fight the Handless Fiend with his self-imposed limits to see how he fared against it. If all went well, he might even try to enter the 21st floor and try his hand at a few semi-A-Rank enemies. They weren¡¯t as strong as true A-Rankers, but they were definitely above B-Rank. ¡¯It¡¯s toote to level up, and the skills I can gain from those enemies can¡¯t be used in the tournament, but hopefully, I can get some inspiration or something. As I am now, I think I¡¯m gonna lose if I don¡¯t improve quickly¡­¡¯ As Sol arrived at the entrance of Necropolis, a figure appeared behind him. "Oh. Hey Amber. Did you watch the fights?" Amber nodded. "What¡¯s your thoughts on the first fight, the guy named Victor?" "Strong. Stronger than you." Sol grinned, "I thought as much. He did that so effortlessly, and I couldn¡¯t even see much when I used [Analysis] on him." Amber tilted her head, "Train?" He chuckled, "All one can do." Chapter 150: Sparring "Take this!" A giant block of stone came down from above and smashed towards where Amber stood. A cloud of dust exploded from the impact. Within that dust, sand scattered and formed into a humanoid figure. In her sand form, she swung her arms, creating andunching a wave of sand knives towards Sol. A wall of stone rose from the ground and blocked the sand knives. Once the attack was blocked, Solmanded the wall to move forward, and so it did, sliding across the floor towards Amber. A pir of sand sted her into the air as she carried that sand along with her, creating a giant fist that hurtled towards Sol. In response, he created an equallyrge fist out of stone to meet hers. BOOM! Both fists exploded, and the force knocked both of them away from each other. With distance between them, Sol began to create a highly dense stone spear, knowing it would be able to break through her sand attacks. Arge stone spear formed, and just as he began topress it, Amber suddenly appeared ten feet away and flung another wave of sand knives. Sol was forced to abort the earth spear and used the uncondensedrge mass to block the attacks instead. As he did, Amber somehow appeared behind him and held a knife to his back. "Too slow," shemented as she stowed her dagger. "I know. I still can¡¯t condense stone as fast as I want." Sol and Amber were sparring because his original n to fight the 20th floor boss and 21st floor enemies didn¡¯t pan out as he wanted. It wasn¡¯t that he couldn¡¯t win; it was the opposite. His fight against the Handless Fiend did not take more than ten seconds as he crushed it with stone cubes from all angles. The 21st floor enemies were too strong; he was unable to kill them with just the skills in his fake status. After defeating a few enemies on the 21st floor, besides obtaining a few new skills, Sol didn¡¯t see any improvement in the skills he actually used for the tournament. It was then that Amber suggested he spar with her instead. She had been getting ridiculously strong during her training as she was finally able to develop her [Sand Queen] talent. She was at the point of being able to defeat the Handless Fiend equally as fast as Sol. It was at that point the two became sparring partners. Sol limited himself to just the skills used in the tournament, and Amber went all out. This resulted in her winning most of the time, but that didn¡¯t bother him; he just wanted to improve his skills. As they sparred, a surprising benefit urred. Sol¡¯s [Terra Maniption] and Amber¡¯s [Sand Maniption] were very simr, which meant they could be applied in simr ways. The two would inspire or teach each other better ways to use their skills during their fights, helping both of theme up with new attacks and techniques. Even though Sol wasn¡¯t using [Reinterpret], his [Terra Maniption] had leveled up twice in this short amount of time, which he didn¡¯t even know was possible. Once they realized the benefits, they focused on solely using their maniption skills to fight. Sol hoped that by doing so, it would level up more and hopefully be strong enough to contend against Victor. "It¡¯s gettingte, we should head back and continue tomorrow after the fights." Though Sol wanted to continue sparring, their high intensity fights began to take a toll even on him. He assumed Amber didn¡¯t fare much better, but she was very good at hiding that kind of stuff. Amber agreed, and so they used the teleporter sigil to leave the dungeon. He gave her one final wave as he headed towards the royal pce while she headed to the inn. Once Sol arrived back at the royal pce, a few people tried to invite him to celebrate with other new recruits, but he declined them all and returned to his room. N?v(el)B\\jnn Hey on his bed and thought to himself. ¡¯I need to focus on making it faster. As it is, it takes too long to condense the stone. Amber was able to easily take advantage of the time it took to condense it, and I don¡¯t think Victor would sit around and wait like my illusion mom did.¡¯ With a direction to improve upon, Sol used [Reinterpret], sending himself into the white room. With endless energy and mana to try and experiment all he wanted, he was able to continue his training. His main focus was on condensing, which was his strongest attack if he was able toplete it. His hope was that by morning, he could cut the time it took by half. With a goal in mind, he began controlling the stone in the white room. ... A knock was heard from the door. Sol, within the white room, noticed the disturbance, so he left the white room and was immediately met with a system prompt notifying him of his progress. [[Terra Maniption] leveled up! (3 -> 5)] Ignoring the message, as he already knew it had improved around that much, Sol went to answer the door. "Hey Sol! I¡¯ve finally found you!" "Hey Nataly. What¡¯s up?" She was baffled by his nonchnt attitude. "What¡¯s up? Do you even know what time it is?!" Sol shook his head. He hadpletely lost track of time within the white room. "Oh my gods! The fights are about to start! Luckily, you gost, so if we run, we can still make it." "Wait, really?!" "Yes, really! Let¡¯s go!" The two immediately booked it outside of the knight headquarters and out of the side gate of the royal pce. On the way to the colosseum, a huge crowd of people blocked the streets, making it hard to get past. Sol could use the same trick asst time to go underneath them all, but he didn¡¯t want to leave Nataly behind after she went out of her way to remind him. "Nataly, hold on to me." "Huh? What do you meeeean!" The ground shook as a circr tform of stoneunched from the ground and flew into the air. Sol grabbed hold of Nataly so she wouldn¡¯t fall off and controlled the tform to fly towards the colosseum. "I¡¯M GONNA FALL!" Nataly was in full panic mode as they zoomed through the sky. Chapter 151: Second Day "Nice, we made it just in time!" Sol hopped over the couch and took a seat just as Victor and his opponent, Evan, entered the arena. "Hooray¡­" Nataly followed not far behind, flopping onto the couch, frazzled and exhausted. Though Sol controlled the stone tform to move at half the maximum speed, for Nataly, who invested most of her attribute points into intelligence and wisdom, her body was barely able to handle the wind pressure. If not for Sol holding onto her, she would have fallen off immediately. ¡¯Maybe I should have cast [Tailwind] on her¡­ whoops.¡¯ Though not intended for such usage, [Tailwind] does negate wind resistance, which would have made the ride much morefortable for both of them. He would keep that in mind next time he decided to pull another stunt like that. Turning his attention back to the arena, he heard Oeser announcing the start of the battle. A colorful array of lights emanated from his wand as he yelled, "Begin!" Sol¡¯s eyes were wide open as he carefully watched Victor¡¯s every move. He even used [True Sight] to further analyze the movement of his mana. It was then he noticed something peculiar. ¡¯Why is his mana so dense?¡¯ If normal mana usually appeared as a transparent liquid, Victor¡¯s looked like a red orb in the middle of his chest that radiated highly concentrated mana. ¡¯I haven¡¯t heard or seen this mana core before. Is that some kind of talent skill, or is that how I can take my magic to the next level?¡¯ As Sol tried to gain any further insights, the fight began with Victor¡¯s opponentunching a volley of arrows towards him. They all flew true, guided by Evan¡¯s skill, making them extremely urate. Victor didn¡¯t show any reaction as a thinyer of fire appeared around him. The arrows all burned upon contact, leaving only small fumes of smoke. Oesermented for the spectators, "Victor¡¯s fire is too hot for arrows! Will Evan find a way to ovee that barrier?!" Evan frowned, but he already expected this oue from watching yesterday¡¯s match. That was why he went into the city yesterday and bought five heat resistant arrows. They cost him a good amount of coin, but the arrows had a high melting point of 4000 degrees Fahrenheit. It was 50% more heat resistant than iron, which he hoped was enough to get past whatever defenses Victor ced. Nocking one of the heat resistant arrows on his bow, he used [Prating Shot] to further increase its power and released it. Oeser announced, "Are those metallic arrows I see?! Evan came prepared after watching yesterday¡¯s match!" The arrow flew fast and collided with the shield, but what happened next shocked the unaware spectators and even Oeser. "The arrow bounced off?! How is it possible for [me Barrier] to do that?! The mes of the barrier also have physical properties?!" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Even Oeser was unable to understand how that was possible. He couldn¡¯t just attribute it to Victor¡¯s advanced version of the spell, as it didn¡¯t exin how he made the fire tangible and solid enough to bounce the arrow off. Sol, who kept a watchful eye on the mana through [True Sight], knew. ¡¯Just before it collided, Victor fed the barrier arge amount of mana, causing it to burst mes outward. He then controlled the force onto one point and sted the arrow away. It wasn¡¯t the fire but a concentrated burst of hot air that did it.¡¯ The amount of control required to do such a thing was impressive, to say the least. Sol understood that Victor wasn¡¯t just a strong opponent but a smart one too. There was one more detail that rmed Sol. ¡¯He didn¡¯t even use his own mana. All of this just now had been ambient mana he was controlling¡­¡¯ Not a single wisp of mana left Victor¡¯s body during the fight. So far, it was all done from ambient mana, essentially casting with no mana cost. Sol knew if Victor wanted, he couldmand all the nearby mana and create arge spell to crush whoever stood before him, but he hasn¡¯t. Victor had only used beginner level spells that he modified to handle more mana. Back at the fight, the arrow nged on the floor, which Evan looked at with a grimace on his face. He knew it didn¡¯t matter if he used all his heat resistant arrows if they couldn¡¯t get past the barrier. "You done?" Victor yawned as he asked. Evan didn¡¯t respond as they both already knew the answer to that question. "I su-" "[Fire Bolt]." Before Evan was able to finish his sentence, Victor chanted a spell. What would normally be a six-inch ball of fire became a six-foot ming sphere that traversed across the arena, instantly mming into Evan. "GAH!" Evan was sent flying andnded in the exact same spot where Victor sent his previous opponent. The crater that was fixed by colosseum staff the day before was created once more as a half burnt man slumped onto the ground. Oeser announced the results, "We have a winner, folks! Victor once again dominates hispetition!" "VICTOR!" "VICTOR!" The audience chanted his name once again as the winner himself looked at Evan with a disgruntled look on his face. Oeser had an eye for drama and immediately jumped at the opening, "Victor doesn¡¯t look too happy even though he won! Could it be that his opponent left him dissatisfied?! Is there anyone who can match him in this arena?!" As Victor walked out of the arena, heughed in his head, ¡¯Acting is kinda fun.¡¯ "Hmm, doesn¡¯t it seem a bit forced?" Sol asked Nataly, who managed to recover during the fight. She nodded with a serious expression, "He looks constipated to me." "Pffff! Haha, what?! Take this seriously!" "I am! At the very least, it looks very fake." The two of them, who had a closer view of the arena, were able to better see his facial expressions and could see it wasn¡¯t very natural. The rest of the audience, on the other hand, with the exception of a few individuals, believed it and ate it up. Nataly continued, "Still, I hope you win. At least then you be a captain and I can join your squad." "You want to join my squad? Wouldn¡¯t you rather have someone more experienced?" She shook her head, "I¡¯d rather join someone I know and trust. Maybe an experienced knight captain would be better, but I don¡¯t know them. Who knows what kind of person they are? Maybe they will relegate me to only doing menial tasks or maybe the other extreme of being ordered to do constantly risky tasks and missions. Maybe they will directly take advantage of me and do even worse¡ª" He stopped her before she spiraled further. "No one will do that. I¡¯m sure they wouldn¡¯t make someone like that knight captain." Nataly disagreed, "You say that because you wouldn¡¯t do that. That¡¯s why I trust you. You really think they wouldn¡¯t promote a bad person to knight captain? Didn¡¯t you just see that fight? I swear I heard Evan about to surrender, but Victor didn¡¯t even let him and hit him with a fireball instead. If he wins then that type of person will be a captain." Because they were close enough, the two were faintly able to hear Evan try to surrender before being attacked by Victor. The audience, on the other hand, were too far away to hear him properly. "Yeah, I get what you mean." "Good! Then make sure you win against him. Be knight captain and put me in your squad." "Haha! I never intended to lose to begin with, but sure, once I win, I¡¯ll put you in my squad." Chapter 152: Variant Human Sol and Nataly watched the next two fights, which were rather evenly matchedpared to Victor¡¯s fight. All four fighters did their best, not only showcasing their abilities but keeping the audience entertained. Though the audience loved the matches, they all began to realize that the winner of this year¡¯s tournament was already decided. No one had been able to defeat their opponent as easily and one-sidedly as Victor, and they knew it wasn¡¯t just a matter of bad matchups. As the winner of the third fight was decided, Oeser gave his finalmentary about it. "What a phenomenal fight! The way Ka pushed Piren to reveal his trump card of [Multicast], which allows him to double cast [Frost Wheel]! Though it won him this match, now his opponents know and will be ready for it! The real question is, what will they do with this information?!" Sol stood up from the couch and headed towards the door. "Good luck, Sol!" Nataly cheered him on as he left. He appreciated her support and smiled back, "I¡¯ll be back soon." Oeser introduced both fighters onto the arena. Sol¡¯s opponent was Lapis, who ranked 4th among the applicants. Contrary to her name, Lapis¡¯ dark green hair, which cut off at her neck, shimmered under the light of the sun. Of the two thousand applicants, she was one of the five people who actually managed to reach the end. Sadly, she and the 5th ranked applicant weren¡¯t able to defeat the knight at the final floor, which left them both one step away from the finish line. Though she would have liked to defeat the knight she was paired against, she wasn¡¯t displeased with the oue. She was paired up with a knight who attained near perfection with the spear, and in their duel, she was able to learn a lot. Even though it had only been two days since the exam, she had already improved her skills significantly and now believed she had a chance of winning if she ever had the opportunity to rematch against the knight. As both of them walked onto the arena, Sol used [Analysis] like usual. Name: Lapis Race: Variant Human Talents: [Viper Spear], [Serpentine Steps], [Viper Blood] Level: 65 HP: 700 MP: 400 Str: 70 (+20) Vit: 70 Agi: 115 (+70) n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Int: 30 Wis: 40 Talent Skills: [Viper Bite] Lv 7, [Serpentine Steps] Lv 8, [Poisonous Blood] Lv 2 Passive Skills: [Intermediate Spearmanship] Lv 9, [Counter] Lv 6, [Strength Up] Lv 4, [Blurring Agility] Lv 2, [Increased Health Regeneration] Lv 4, [Poison Resistance] Lv 6, [Weakness Exploit] Lv 4, [Enhanced Reflexes] Lv 2 Active Skills: [Piercing Lunge] Lv 9, [Ground Shrink] Lv 7, [Debilitating Strike] Lv 5, [Blurring Speed] Lv 7, [Mana Lunge] Lv 2, [Rising Viper] Lv 3, [Spear Fall] Lv 3, [Pole m] Lv 7, [Triple Stab] Lv 8, [Twisting Serpent] Lv 7 Sol was surprised upon reading her status. ¡¯Variant Human? She doesn¡¯t look any different than other people.¡¯ Just as monsters could mutate and gain abilities normally impossible for their race, the same could happen to humans. Mutations could ur for many reasons, and in the case of Lapis, it was due to her ancestry. Though he found it interesting that she was a variant human, he also felt pity at her current misfortune. ¡¯She specializes in poison and debilitating opponents before finishing them off. Since she can¡¯t use poison, she is essentially handicapped.¡¯ This didn¡¯t mean Sol was underestimating his opponent. He knew very well from yesterday how fast she was, and even without her poison, if he wasn¡¯t on guard, he could lose in an instant. ¡¯This is why I came prepared.¡¯ Sol took out his Lipon and waited for Oeser¡¯s signal. "Are both fighters ready?!" Both of them nodded as they held their respective weapons. "Then without further ado, begin!" Colors emanated from his wand, signaling the start of the duel. Lapis immediatelyunched forward, running towards Sol in a mystifying way. Like her feet slid across the ground without any friction, she held her spear straight and lunged. Being prepared for such an approach, Sol held his unactivated Lipon and shed forward just as he pulled the trigger. A wave of cold wind sted outwards, coalescing into a frozen de. With his ice sword, Sol met her lunge with [Cross sh]. The first strike parried her spear upwards, while the second went towards Lapis. She reacted to the second sh by carrying the momentum of her deflected spear to collide the bottom half of her spear with the second sh, negating its attack. The force of the second sh also pushed Lapis backwards, and she allowed it to in order to gain some distance and regain her posture. Oesermented on the quick exchange, "What a start! Beginning with an incredibly fast attack and responding with an equally strong counterattack, this fight will definitely be a good one! But do my eyes deceive me?! Sol¡¯s weapon can change elements?! From fire to ice, what else can it do?!" Sol smirked at Oeser¡¯smentary, ¡¯Perfect. Just the reaction I wanted.¡¯ He chose to use the ice element for this fight for two reasons. The first was to get that reaction from Oeser. He knew that the drama queen would make a big deal out of anything he could and draw more attention to the weapon, which would fulfill his promise to Fabio. Sol nned to slowly unveil the weapon¡¯s capabilities one at a time to make it more impressive to the spectators. In fact, the Lipon had already drawn the attention of many adventurers and merchants since yesterday, and they had been searching for the maker of the weapon. If it was something that could be reproduced, a lot of people would want this kind of weapon. ¡¯Now for the second reason I chose ice.¡¯ Chapter 153: Fairness With [Ground Shrink], Sol narrowed the distance between himself and Lapis in an instant. He swung his sword, but it was smoothly deflected by her spear. The two exchanged multiple attacks and skills within a few seconds, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats. Sol¡¯s attacks were heavy and strong, while Lapis¡¯s were fast and precise. Everyone believed the match was even until Lapis stabbed forward with her spear. Sol swung to block it, but just as his sword was about to meet the shaft of the spear, it curved in a way that would normally be impossible and stabbed into his side. As Sol was surprised by this maneuver, Lapis was equally surprised. ¡¯How tough is his body?¡¯ Though [Twisting Serpent] allowed her to curve her spear in unnatural ways at the cost of lower damage, she was barely able to stab half an inch into Sol¡¯s side. Before Lapis could retract her spear, Sol took this window of opportunity to strike and finallynded an attack of his own. He only managed to shallowly cut her left forearm before she jumped out of his attack. Though shallow, the single cut more than satisfied him. ¡¯Now let¡¯s see how effective it was.¡¯ Sol didn¡¯t stop there and ran after her, continuing his onught. Lapis tried to defend as she did before but found it much harder to do so. She felt sluggish, and soon two more attacks got past her, cutting her once more. She leapt back and searched through her body, quickly finding the cause. Oeser figured it out as well and informed the spectators. "That sword! The cold energy is making Lapis slower! It must have the [Frost Touch] skill! Does that mean it has a status skill for fire as well?!" The small cuts on Lapis became frosted over as it spread through the rest of her arm and invaded her body. The cold energy slowed her movements and reaction speed. [Elemental Ice Sword Unique Attack: 145-175 Durability: 900/900 Skills: [Sharpness] Lv 7, [Frost Touch] Lv 7, [Ice Shatter] Lv 7] [[Frost Touch] Lv 7: Attacks made with this weapon freeze the target, temporarily lowering their agility by 14%.] As Sol continued his flurry of attacks, he noticed that Lapis was bing slower than he initially expected. As Solnded another cut on her, he asked himself, ¡¯Shouldn¡¯t she still be faster than me?¡¯ Sol¡¯s agility was 150, while Lapis¡¯s was 185. Even with the 14% decrease, her agility should be around 160, which was still faster than him. But the reality was that he was actually faster than her by a small amount. "Lapis is being pushed back! She has lost her only advantage, so what will she do now?!" Oesermented as Sol unleashed attack after attack, weaving skills in between as she struggled to keep up. This made Lapis rather frustrated. She wished she could use her other skills but knew they couldn¡¯t be used in this setting. Zaman drew a line, and she knew the usage of poison crossed it. She also knew better than to get on his bad side. It still didn¡¯t make her feel any better as she received attack after attack, slowly arriving at her inevitable defeat. As Sol unleashed another [Cross sh], the first sh was so strong it knocked away her spear. The second sh came soon after, and in response, she closed her eyes and braced herself for what would surely hurt a lot. Lapis waited, but she felt no pain. She opened her eyes to see the ice sword a few inches away from her. Oesermented in surprise, "Sol stopped his final attack! Is he waiting for her to surrender?!" Sol shook his head and spoke, "This isn¡¯t fair." With the exception of a few astute individuals, the rest of the audience was confused by what he meant. In the VIP area, Zaman and a few knights were curious about what he was up to. One of the knights asked Zaman, "Should we stop him?" The Commander shook his head, "No, I want to hear what he has to say." Sol looked at Lapis and asked, "If not for the fact you were holding back, it wouldn¡¯t have been so one-sided, right?" She widened her eyes in surprise. She didn¡¯t know when he figured it out, but she nodded in response. "I won¡¯t ask you to go all out as you have a good reason for not doing so, but the least I can do is make it even. [Warm Current]. [Life Drop]." Two intermediate water spells were chanted back to back. The first spell caused a warm wave to wash over Lapis, curing the effects of [Frost Touch], and the second spell healed all her wounds. Once she was fully healed, Sol deactivated his Lipon. Oeser was shocked, "Does Sol not n to fight with his weapon?!" "What? No, I¡¯m just changing the element." In one fluid motion, Sol popped out the ice cartridge, inserted another one, and pulled the trigger, releasing a sword made of stone. "It can change to earth as well?! It can actually be any element?!" With the new elemental sword in hand, Sol asked, "How about it? This one also has a status ailment, but it¡¯s for lowering defense." Lapis was still confused by all of this, "Don¡¯t you want to win?" He nodded, "I wan- no. I need to win." "Then why risk it? Why throw away your advantage?" "I just don¡¯t want to win that way. It¡¯s not fair to you, and it wouldn¡¯t be earned for me. So how about it? Ready for round two?" N?v(el)B\\jnn All eyes were on her, waiting for her answer. She took a step back and went for her spear. Oeser loved everything that was happening, and since no one told him to stop them, he prepared his wand once more. Oeser excitedly announced, "We are going into a second round,dies and gentlemen! Let the figh-!" "I surrender." Before he could finish, Lapis interrupted him. She put away her spear in her spatial ring and walked out of the arena. "HUH?!" Oeser wasn¡¯t the only one shocked; everyone, including Sol, was surprised at her response. Sol was about to follow after her to ask why, but was promptly stopped by Oeser, who whispered to him. "I know you¡¯re confused, but stay for a second." He then eximed out loud, "What a surprising twist! Our winner for this round is Sol!" Sol had to force a smile and wave at the audience, who chanted his name, before he could finally chase after her. Chapter 154: The Tea Once Sol was free from the gaze of the public, he looked around the colosseum in search of Lapis. After asking a few employees, he found her just as she was leaving the colosseum. "Wait!" She turned around as she heard him call out to her. He could tell she wasn¡¯t in a great mood, but it didn¡¯t feel like it was directed towards him, more towards herself. "What is it?" "Why did you surrender?" "Because I lost." "I get that, but you had another chance. Didn¡¯t you want to win?" "I did." Sol felt like he was running in circles. "Then why?" Lapis didn¡¯t immediately respond as silence surrounded them for a few seconds. She then gave a deep sigh. "I came prepared for your water magic and, more importantly, your earth skills. If we fought again, there was a chance I could have won, but even if we did, I already lost to you in another way. If I was in your ce, I would have used [Frost Touch] to my advantage, even if it was unfair. I can tell how much you want to win, and yet you chose to risk your guaranteed victory just to give me a fair chance. I may have been able to win physically, but I lost to you mentally. You gave me a lot to think about. See ya, I¡¯ll be rooting for you." Lapis spun around and began walking away once more but paused to say one final thing. "Oh, and you may have won this time, but next time, I¡¯ll wipe the floor with you." Sol chuckled. "Sure, you can even go all out. Just let me know where and when." He was also curious if he could win against her with just his fake status page. Obviously, if he truly went all out, it would result in a simr ending, but what he actually wanted to see was how he fared against her poison without the help of the Immunizing Belt. With Lapis now gone, Sol went back to his waiting room to pick up Nataly. "Wee back! What happened with Lapis? Tell. Me. Everything." The moment Sol returned to his waiting room, he was immediately interrogated by Nataly. She saw what happened in the arena, but she knew that Sol would go after her. "Nothing much. She wants a rematchter." "I don¡¯t buy it! Spill it!" Sol didn¡¯t really want to go into detail about his short discussion with Lapis because it felt a little too personal to share. He still didn¡¯t understand how his actions made her rethink her own actions. ¡¯I only did it because the rules were unfair to her. If it was anyone else or in a real fight, I would have continued all the same. Maybe it has to do with the earned part...¡¯ He could only assume Lapis did or was achieving something, but not in the way she felt was earned properly. Regardless, it wasn¡¯t his matter to pry into, so he didn¡¯t ask her to borate. Nataly was still begging as he was deep in his thoughts. "Pleeeeeease. I gotta know!" N?v(el)B\\jnn "Why do you even want to know? You don¡¯t even know her." She looked at Sol, insulted that he asked such an obvious question. "Why?! Because of the drama! C¡¯mon, spill the tea!" Nataly continued to pester Sol, but he didn¡¯t budge an inch. "Forget it, Nataly. Let¡¯s go back to the headquarters." "Ugh, fine, Captain." "I¡¯m not your captain." "Not yet! Getting used to calling you that before it bes official." "Please don¡¯t." The two left the colosseum and split up to their respective rooms. Once in his room, Sol wondered how he would fare against Victor once more. ¡¯The status page doesn¡¯t give me much to work with, and no one has been able to push him far enough to even use his own mana. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if he was A-Rank with what he has shown, so assuming he is, how am I supposed to even win?¡¯ This question still gued him as, even with his training yesterday, he couldn¡¯t confidently say he could win against an A-Ranker. ¡¯There might be one way... but I¡¯ll only get one shot at it.¡¯ Even with his self imposed limitations, Sol felt he had a real shot at winning if he yed his cards right. Not wanting to waste any time, Sol immediately went into action. He left the royal pce and made his way to Necropolis. On the way there, more than a few people recognized him. "Isn¡¯t that Sol?" "It is!" A small crowd formed around him consisting of the spectators and fans he had garnered from the tournament. Though Sol was unaware of this when he left the arena chasing after Lapis, Oeser fabricated a convincing story of how his chivalrous actions moved her heart so much she could not stand in his way. This moved a lot of people, and he quickly became a fan favorite. Though there were fourpetitors still in the running, the spectators had mostly rallied behind two of them. The first group were those amazed by Victor¡¯s absolute power and how nonchntly he defeated his opponents in one move. The second group were those who rooted for Sol, either because of his sportsmanship or how he was portrayed as a true knight by Oeser. "I¡¯m sorry, everyone. I¡¯m very busy; I need to get ready for tomorrow!" Sol felt overwhelmed, not expecting to be such a popr figure that he would be surrounded by people. Not wanting to forcefully push them all away, he tried to reason with them, and only after a few guards intervened was he able to sneak away with the help of [Burrow]. Arriving at the entrance of Necropolis, Sol waved at the guards as usual and teleported to the 21st floor, which unsurprisingly wasn¡¯t empty. Amber was already there training and utilizing her sand skills in various ways. "Hey, Amber! I have a few ideas I want to try out. Can we spar for a bit?" Chapter 155: Never Too Late "Ladies and gentlemen! Today¡¯s the big day! By the end of today, we will know who among these soon to be knights stands above the rest and earns the title of Knight Captain!" Cheers resounded throughout the colosseum. The audience was split into two main groups: those who supported Victor and those who supported Sol. Though there were a few fans for the other two contestants, most had already concluded that they didn¡¯t stand a chance of winning. Those supporting the fighters were easily identified by the hats, shirts, and other merchandise inspired by the contestants. Talented crafters had created all sorts of items, but one was the most popr. People waved elemental swords of fire, ice, and earth throughout the arena. The elemental swords weren¡¯t real but expertly reproduced by crafters to appear simr to Sol¡¯s Lipon. Made out of cloth like materials and painted into the appropriate element, they had no real capabilities but served perfectly as memorabilia for fans to wave around. "I see many of you have bought shirts and other items to show your support for the fighters, and I love it! Wow! Some are more passionate than others! That woman over there is fully geared in Sol merchandise! What amitted fan!" Oeser pointed at a woman with bright red eyes who was fully geared from head to toe in Sol paraphernalia. The woman was Amber, who, on her way to the colosseum, overheard from a merchant that one should buy those items to show their support for their favorite fighter. She found it logical to support Sol in his endeavors, which were also for her sake, and bought out the merchant¡¯s entire stock. What she couldn¡¯t wear was sitting in her inventory unused. Upon being called out by Oeser, Amber immediately went invisible, disappearing from everyone¡¯s sight. "Aww! She¡¯s a shy one, but passionate nheless! Let¡¯s not waste any more time; I¡¯m sure all of you can¡¯t wait to see some action! Without further ado, let¡¯s start the first match of the day." As Oeser introduced the first fight of the day, which was Victor against the 11th ranked contestant, someone within the VIP section stood up and made his way to Commander Zaman. A young man with vibrant green hair approached the knights, and upon seeing him, one of them who was seated next to Zaman stood up and allowed the young man to take a seat. "Hello, Orion." Orion sat down next to Zaman and slumped in his chair. Without wasting any time, he immediately got to the point. "Why did you let himpete?" Orion pointed with his chin towards Victor, who was walking onto the stage to meet his opponent. "Because he earned his ce by cing first in the test." "Noooo, really? I thought it was a lottery for who gets topete. You know damn well what I mean." Zaman found it odd that Orion was irritated. The Guildmaster was known for being moreid back and went with the flow. "Did you find something?" Now it was Orion¡¯s turn to be confused. "You didn¡¯t?" "Our intelligence gathering¡­ has been rather slowtely." The Royal Knights weren¡¯t specialized in covert intelligence gathering, which was mostly left in the hands of the Royal Shadows. Most outsiders, including Orion, didn¡¯t know that, as the existence of the Royal Shadows was an extremely well kept secret. What the Royal Knights were better at waspleting missions and leading campaigns. They sometimes had missions where they gathered intelligence, but it was usually under the public eye, which was ill suited for this scenario. Orion raised his eyebrow in suspicion. "I see¡­ Well, regardless, it¡¯s toote now to change anything." "It¡¯s never toote. Exin." Zaman hated the concept of something being toote to change. If one had time to talk about howte it was to change something, that time could be better spent actually doing something. The two stared at the arena in silence as Oeser announced the start of the match. The wand shot an array of colors, and Victor¡¯s opponent immediately dashed towards him. Orion sighed. "Sorry for the poor word choice. It¡¯s not that it¡¯s toote, but not wise to take action now. Stopping the tournament now will give them even more leverage, which they will use against you. It¡¯s better to let it y out now and hope for the best. I would tell you more, but I don¡¯t want to be seen taking any sides in this conflict." Zaman didn¡¯t respond as he watched Victor cast a single spell and knock out his opponent instantly. "We have a winner, folks! I believe this also beats the record for the fastest victory ever at 2.34 seconds! The previous time was held by a knight who won and became Knight Captain of his year! Is this a sign?" With the fight already over, Orion stood up and said one final thing before leaving. "While I¡¯m staying neutral, that doesn¡¯t mean the other guilds are. Tell the princess to begin gaining favors and try to win them over. Oh, and I wouldn¡¯t bother with the Alchemist Guild." "I see¡­ Thank you, Orion. I¡¯ll remember this favor." "Don¡¯t mention it." n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om ... "Daaaaamn, that was quick. He even set a new record." Aron leaned forward in amazement at how quickly Victor took care of his opponent. Nataly scoffed, "That¡¯s nothing! I¡¯m sure Sol could also break the record!" Aron wasn¡¯t sure. "Maybe if his opponent surrenders." "He just might. Everyone he has fought has surrendered." "Hey, guys, I¡¯m right here¡­" Sol was sitting not far away, hearing the two of them discuss his own capabilities. The three of them, along with 20 others, were in his waiting room, which waspletely unexpected. At first, it began with Nataly meeting him in the morning to apany him. He didn¡¯t mind and let her tag along. Soon after, they bumped into Aron, who tagged along because he wanted to see the waiting room since he heard it was very nice. It was there that Sol made a mistake. The addition of Aron somehow attracted more of the new knights, whom Aron took the liberty of inviting toe along and join them. At first, Sol didn¡¯t mind the first or second person joining, but it quickly spiraled out of control, and now it became a "Sol watch party" in his waiting room. Although it was unexpected, it made the atmosphere much more lively, and in the end, he was happy with this oue. "Alright, guys, I¡¯m heading out." "Good luck!" "You got this!" Everyone gave their support as Sol headed over to the arena to meet his opponent. The audience cheered upon seeing him enter, with many waving their fake Lipons in the air. "And for our second fighter, give it up for Henral!" A man carrying arge shield lumbered into the arena. There were noticeably fewer people cheering for him, but that couldn¡¯t be his fault. Though he had put on a wonderful disy of his strength in the previous two days, Oeser didn¡¯t paint him like he did with Sol as a chivalrous knight. "Are both of you ready?!" Sol nodded. "Yes." Henral grunted. "Hmm." "Then begin!" Oeser¡¯s wand shot out the colorful array, and the duel officially started. Henral immediately spoke. "I surrender." The colosseum quickly fell silent. From the audience, a loud spectator could be heard wondering, "Doesn¡¯t this break the record for fastest victory?" Chapter 156: The Finals (Part 1) Nobody expected the preliminaries to start and end in seconds, so Oeser had to resort to entertaining the audience to fill the time. He did a rather good job, jumping on what a spectator blurted out and debating whether Sol¡¯s instant victory counted as the new fastest victory. By engaging the audience, he was able to understand the general consensus. After a full ten minutes of debating, it was decided that it didn¡¯t count. Even those who rooted for Sol had to agree that while it was technically the fastest victory, it wasn¡¯t because of his strength but because his opponent surrendered without a fight. Some argued it could be attributed to Sol¡¯s strength, suggesting Henral didn¡¯t believe he could win, which was why he surrendered. However, others argued it would set a bad precedent to count it. It wasn¡¯t until Zaman gave the signal to start the finals that Oeser breathed a sigh of relief. Stalling an entire crowd for an extended period of time without any preparation was an exhausting endeavor, but at least he had a new story to brag about to his friends in the entertainment industry. "Enough stalling! Let¡¯s get on with the match you¡¯ve all been waiting for! On one side, we have Victor!" Victor walked onto the stage, waving at the audience. Unlike other introductions, Oeser went more in-depth this time. "Ranking first among all who took the test, standing above the rest since the very beginning! With his advanced mastery over fire magic, he has defeated all his opponents in a single move! The one who will face off against this seemingly unbeatable foe is Sol!" Sol appeared, waving at the crowd while trying to see if he recognized anyone. ¡¯Commander Zaman¡­ a few other knights¡­ I don¡¯t see Amber. Is she hiding somewhere? Wait, is that Fabio?¡¯ He spotted Fabio within the crowd, waving two fake Lipons in the air with extreme vigor. At first, Fabio didn¡¯t think much of his agreement with Sol. As long as his invention appeared on stage and drew some attention, he would have been happy. Imagine the tinkerer¡¯s surprise when his shop was flooded the first day of the tournament with merchants and adventurers alike who were in search of the creator of the Lipon. The day after that, even more appeared, and he got the opportunity to sign multiple lucrative deals and create connections he could only previously dream of. As Sol watched Fabio wave his fake Lipons in amazement, Oeser continued with his introduction. "Sol ranked second, apparently only losing to Victor in terms of how fast theypleted the test! A skilled swordsman, water mage, and earth maniptor, what can¡¯t he do?! Everyone who has fought him has surrendered, clearly understanding the difference between them and him! I dare say that if anyone could stand a chance against Victor, it¡¯s Sol!" With both men in the arena, Oeser asked for the final confirmation. "Are both of you ready?! Also, don¡¯t say yes if you¡¯re just gonna surrender the moment it starts!" Laughter rang through the colosseum at Oeser¡¯s jab at Henral¡¯s actions. Sol nodded, "Ready." Victor simply nodded while internally wondering to himself, ¡¯Should I convince him to surrender? Would be more impactful that way¡­ Nah, it wouldn¡¯t be any fun if that happened.¡¯ Oeser raised his wand. "Well, without any dy! Let the battle begin!" Sol brandished his Lipon and activated it, unleashing his elemental water sword. "A new element appears! My sources informed me that it¡¯s a new weapon called a Lipon and it was created right here in this city!" N?v(el)B\\jnn Victor didn¡¯t show any reaction to the elemental sword. He had already done his own investigation utilizing Lord Sigurd¡¯s resources and found it was an interesting but useless weapon for him. It functioned poorly as a wand or conduit for casting, and once he heard that, he stopped caring for it altogether. Stifling a yawn, Victor thought to himself, ¡¯Let¡¯s end this quick.¡¯ "[Fire Bolt]." A massive ball of fire barreled towards Sol, stronger than most intermediate-level spells. Prepared for this sort of attack, Sol chanted a spell of his own. "[Water Cannon]!" A st of water collided against the ball of fire, creating a thick cloud of steam covering the entire arena. While Sol¡¯s [Water Cannon] was slightly weaker in terms of pure powerpared to Victor¡¯s [Fire Bolt], the two spells perfectly canceled each other out. There was no trick behind this, water simply triumphed over fire. This elemental advantage was one of the reasons why Sol believed he had hope in this fight. "Wow! The steam created from their spells colliding has covered the entire arena!" "[Hot Air]." A st of hot air pushed all the steam upwards, once again revealing the arena. While Victor didn¡¯t need to rely on sight and could perfectly see Sol within the smoke, he needed the spectators to witness the fight. ¡¯Why is he wasting time clearing the steam instead of attacking?¡¯ Sol thought to himself. He wasn¡¯t surprised at losing the cover the steam provided, as of the few skills he knew Victor had, one of them was [Mana Perception]. He didn¡¯t bother moving from where he was as he channeled mana into his next spell and into the ground as another [Water Cannon] and earth spikes were sent towards Victor. "[me Barrier]." A veil of fire covered Victor, hot enough that the water evaporated and the earth spikes were sted away by the air pressure. With an audible yawn, Victor tauntingly asked, "Is that all?" Sol chuckled, "I¡¯m just getting started. [Downpour]!" From above, a powerful deluge of water shot down like arrows towards Victor, while underneath the ground shook as spikes rose with the intent to impale him. The rain above did nothing but pester Victor, while the spikes that appeared within the [me Barrier] snapped upon making contact with a thinyer of mana that covered his body. "Sol got past Victor¡¯s barrier, but the earth spikes broke against another barrier! Could it be Victor has another defense skill active at all times?!" Oeser needed more information to pinpoint exactly what skill was doing that, but regardless, he had to keep the spectators informed. Thinking this had dragged on for long enough, Victor spoke. "Time to end this. [Fire Bolt]." Arge sphere of me appeared, then another, and another. More continued to appear around Victor until the ambient mana became thinner as a result. Eventually, 25 ming spheres floated in the air, waiting for hismand. "Go," Victormanded. All at once, the 25 ming spheresunched towards Sol, who had to abort his current spell chant and take evasive actions. The 25 spheresnded throughout the arena, resulting in multiple explosions that shook the foundation. The shockwaves of the explosion caused even Oeser on his floating tform to almost fall off. "Woah! Over 20 enhanced [Fire Bolt] spells at once!" Oeser then stealthily whispered into a smallmunication gem with a worried tone, "Wasn¡¯t that a bit overkill? Can we verify Sol is fine?" Oeser yed it off to the audience like it was fine, but he and some spectators began to also worry if Victor¡¯s attack was too much. As the dust from the explosions settled, people searched, but to their surprise, Sol was nowhere to be found. "Where did he go?!" Oeser eximed. Chapter 157: The Finals (Part 2) Victor was also surprised. Not because Sol disappeared, but because he saw that his bombardment waspletely evaded. Even though he had held back to avoid identally killing Sol, it seemed that his attack was actually not powerful enough. Tracking the movements beneath him through [Mana Perception], Victor leaped backward into the air. Soon after, Sol burst out where he once stood and activated the Lipon¡¯s third skill, [Violent Whirlpool]. It cost a third of his water elemental cartridge, but in return, arge st of water ejected from his de at close range. This was powerful enough to extinguish Victor¡¯s [me Barrier] but was unable to hurt him thanks to his second barrier. Though unhurt, the force was enough to st him 15 feet backward as he slid across the floor. "Sol dodged his fireballs by going underneath the arena! Not only did he evade itpletely, he alsounched a surprise attack on Victor, forcing him to move for the first time!" Oeser announced excitedly. The water that wasn¡¯t evaporated by the now quenched [me Barrier] scattered throughout the entire arena. "[Fire Snakes]!" Deciding to step up his game a bit, Victor finally cast his first intermediate spell. Threerge twisting pirs of fire shot outwards and curved towards Sol. "[Tsunami]!" Arge wave of water rose behind Sol as it passed over him and met the three fire snakes. Though this spell definitely cost the most mana for Sol, it did its job perfectly in extinguishing the snakes. Victor continued to cast spell after spell, now using intermediate level spells, but as Sol found ways to either dodge or counter them, Victor grew more and more annoyed. ¡¯I know Lord Sigurd said I should keep it to basic spells to undermine them all, but I¡¯ll never beat him at this rate.¡¯ He swung his arm, sending arge wave of fire, which Sol countered by casting [Ocean¡¯s Protection], creating a dense barrier around him as he broke through a small part of the fire wave. After breaking out, Sol didn¡¯t even attack but instead waited for Victor¡¯s next spell. "Sol broke through therge wall of fire!" Oeser eximed. While the audience was loving the drawn out fight, Victor was already past the point of annoyance, ¡¯This rat keeps avoiding me.¡¯ It hadn¡¯t escaped his notice that after Sol used the Lipon¡¯s active skill and didn¡¯t break through his final barrier, he had stopped attacking altogether. Sol would still cast a spell orunch rocks at Victor, but none of them had any intention of actually doing anything besides bothering him. ¡¯He knows he can¡¯t win with those attacks, so what the hell is he nning?¡¯ A water arrow collided against Victor¡¯s barrier, doing nothing but spraying water in his surroundings. His eyes twitched in fury, ¡¯Fuck it.¡¯ He began to mumble a spell for longer than two seconds. Sol¡¯s eyes widened in rm, ¡¯Definitely not a normal spell to take that long. I don¡¯t know if I have a counter for that¡­ Should I start for real? No, I still need more time!¡¯ With [Terra Maniption], Sol caused the ground beneath Victor to sink in hopes of making him fall in, but to his surprise, the man floated in the air, held up by his own mana. "[Mystic Confluence]!" As ast ditch effort, Sol cast a spell at the cost of arge portion of his mana. Water appeared from both sides of the arena and crashed into each other with Victor stuck between them. Not only was the collision of two bodies of water extremely powerful, but it also had the added effect of flooding the area with the water element, making it harder to cast non-water spells. From within the turbulent waters, Victor was unharmed, his body emanating intense heat that boiled and evaporated any water that got within one foot of him. Two more seconds passed, and he finished casting his spell. "[Infernal Star]." The crashing currents began to boil as Victor levitated out of the water, holding a shining white light. Even from a distance, people could feel the intense heat it radiated, and even Sol, who had an incredibly tough body, began to sweat. ¡¯I don¡¯t think I can survive that if I get hit by it directly. It¡¯s not ready, but it¡¯s all I¡¯ve got.¡¯ As this urred, Sol realized he was no longer able to hear the audience. This wasn¡¯t because they were quiet but because the colosseum workers activated the arena¡¯s barrier. Outside the barrier, Oeser exined to the crowd how it worked to reassure them. "Don¡¯t worry, folks, we have just activated the barrier! This is just a precaution as it appears the fight is now reaching its peak! Unfortunately, the barrier also blocks sound based attacks as a safeguard and can¡¯t be deactivated, but worry not! We do not need to hear their words but see their actions! Let¡¯s see whoes out on top!" Holding the burning star over his head, Victor spoke, "I¡¯m only gonna say this once, surrender. You don¡¯t have to die here." Victor was pissed at the fact he actually had to cast an advanced level spell just to win a fight against someone who wasn¡¯t even A-Rank. Though previously he had been elevating spells to the advanced level through his mastery of magic, it never held the same power as a true advanced level spell. "Can you give me some time to consider it?" "No." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "Pretty please?" Victor had enough of his games. "Enough stalling, good luck surviving th¡ªhuh?!" Victor¡¯s instincts screamed at him, warning him of something deep below. When he looked down, he saw incredibly dense mana enter his range of [Mana Perception],ing from deep underground and heading towards him frighteningly fast. Sol smirked upon seeing Victor¡¯s shock, giving him the confidence that it just might work. "Nah, I don¡¯t think I¡¯m gonna surrender." The ground trembled and cracked, revealing a one foot long spike made of partially crystallized stone. It flew through the air, still heading straight towards Victor. "Shit!" With how dense the spike was, he wasn¡¯t going to risk it with his mana barrier. The star originally intended for Sol was sent downwards to intercept the dense rock. The star exploded upon contact with the spike, resulting in an explosion that expanded throughout the arena. Sol dived underground to take cover from the indirect attack as Victor used it to st himself away from the spike¡¯s trajectory. The fiery st was contained within the arena¡¯s barrier, for if not, the weaker members of the audience would have been severely or fatally burned. Once the explosion subsided, Sol reemerged and saw Victor perfectly unharmed but livid. After emerging, Sol saw his spike was red from the heat it had absorbed but had survived the st, which meant he could still use it. Levitating the red hot spike, Sol pointed it towards Victor and asked, "Do you want to surrender?" Chapter 158: The Finals (Part 3) "Surrender?" Victor asked, as if making sure he heard correctly. "I still have my spike while your star is gone. I won¡¯t give you time to cast another, so surrender." "Hah¡­ Hahaha¡­" Victor chuckled, the sound growing louder until it became hystericalughter. "HAHAHA! YOU THINK I NEED SPELLS TO BEAT YOU?!" Intense heat began to radiate off Victor without any sort of spell. The ground beneath him heated up, melting and sinking. Without hesitation, Solunched his dense spike towards Victor. In response, Victor punched at the iing spike. The punch itself had no finesse or technique behind it, just one single emotion, rage. An intense st of fire shot out of his hand, meeting the spike with such heat that the ground beneath the trail it left also melted. The spike, taking the full brunt of the mes, resisted for only a moment before it began to melt. Sol did his best to push it through the fire while preventing it from fully melting with [Terra Maniption], but the mes were too powerful. N?v(el)B\\jnn Sol¡¯s earth spike, which he had been stealthily condensing throughout the entire fight, was rendered a useless pile of moltenva in seconds. "IT WAS OVER THE MOMENT YOU GOT ME PISSED!" Victor¡¯s rage fed the fires, causing them to growrger and wilder, spreading throughout the arena in all directions. Sol was still able to endure the mes, but only because they weren¡¯t targeting him, instead uncontrobly burning everything in the surroundings. This waspletely out of Sol¡¯s expectations. ¡¯His rage makes the fires stronger?! How is that even possible?!¡¯ Sol backed up to the edge of the arena, watching Victor¡¯s body release mes in all directions, some even hitting the barrier and causing cracks. Seeing the cracks on the barrier, Sol realized this was getting way out of hand. "Okay, I surrender! You can calm down now!" "YOU FUCKING CALM DOWN! FUCKING B-RANK TWAT TELLING ME WHAT TO DO!" Victor always had a bad temper. Once he got mad, it was very hard for him to calm down, and it became even worse when he became A-Rank. Because he was forced to bottle up his anger to prevent his surroundings from catching on fire, it only made those moments when he let his anger loose much worse. "I¡¯M SICK OF YOU AND THIS STUPID TOURNAMENT AND EVERYTHING!" His anger wasn¡¯t solely directed at Sol but everything he had been bottling up inside since hisst outburst. This saved Sol, as it meant the fires weren¡¯t directed at him, and he just had to focus on dodging the stray mes that came near him. "YOU¡¯RE STILL ALIVE?! FUCKING HOW?! THIS IS ALL BECAUSE OF YOU!" ¡¯Oh no.¡¯ Sol¡¯s luck was short-lived as Victor, in his rage, noticed that he was still alive throughout his tantrum. The once directionless fires had a target as they all headed towards him with the intent to reduce him to ashes. With no other option, Sol was prepared to use [Polychromatism]. It was his strongest ability, and utilizing the green¡¯s power, he hoped it would be enough to shield him from the mes. Just as Sol was about to summon the hands, the fires suddenly dispersed. What were unstoppable mes were suddenly extinguished as a figure stood where they once rampaged. "Commander Zaman?" Sol saw the Commander of the Royal Knights standing in the middle of the arena, dispersing the fires that had been released from Victor with his halberd. With a swing, it would easily cut through the mes and cut them off from their source of power, which was Victor. Without any rage or mana feeding the mes, they quickly died out. With an authoritative tone, Zaman spoke, "Stop." "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" mes emerged once more, but this time heading towards Zaman. With his halberd in hand, he walked through the mes, shing with extreme precision and destroying all the raging mes until he reached Victor. BONK! With the butt of the halberd, Zaman hit Victor in the head, sending him headfirst to the ground. Though this made Victor more livid, it also worked as a wake-up call, reminding him that he had lost control of himself. He knew if he didn¡¯tpose himself, it wouldn¡¯t just end with a single bonk on the head. He clearly felt the difference between him and Zaman. While on the ground, he steadied his breathing and did his best to calm his thoughts, eventually lowering the temperature around him back to normal. Once he regained control of his emotions, Victor stood back up and faced the Commander. With the situation now safe, Zaman called for the barrier to be deactivated and announced the end of the tournament. "Victor is disqualified from this tournament and from joining the Royal Knights. Sol wins by default." "What?!" Though he had just managed to calm his temper, it almost identally unleashed itself once more. Knowing he stood no chance against the man in front of him, he once again stifled his rage and asked, "Why? I won!" "When I entered the barrier, I heard Sol clearly surrender, and you continued with your temper tantrum. Not only that, you also lost control of your technique and let it loose upon everything around you. If not for the barrier in ce, you would have killed many in the audience. We have no need for someone as careless as yourself in our organization." Sol raised an eyebrow. ¡¯So he was inside the barrier for a while? Why did he wait until I almost died to intervene?¡¯ The Commander had snuck inside the moment the barrier was erected, but he silently waited for the perfect time to intervene. There were two reasons for doing so. The first was to see how far Sol was able to go against someone of a higher rank who went all out. The second was to let Victor¡¯s rage ruin whatever n he had when he joined the tournament. It was a golden opportunity to not only discredit him but also justify kicking him out of the Royal Knights. Thanks to the warning he received from Orion, he knew it would be best to get rid of Victor on his own terms. Victor was humiliated and shamed in front of the entire colosseum. While he wanted to protest, he knew it was over. It was never his intention to even endanger the people; he was doing this all for them in the first ce. He no longer spoke. Arguing would dig him deeper, and it was clear to him the n had failed. His only option left was to turn around and walk away, trying to maintain whatever was left of his dignity. Once the hot-headed Victor was gone, Zaman went back to his seat, letting Oeser wrap up the tournament himself. Still stunned by the events that had taken ce, Oeser tried his best to continue like normal. "Umm¡­ Well folks! That sure was something! After such an incredible fight, we have our winner! Give it up for Sol! The winner of the 487th annual knight selection tournament!" Chapter 159: Celebration A band yed upbeat music in a tavern as everyone inside celebrated. People from all walks of life drank and enjoyed the joyous atmosphere that had spread throughout the entire city. This tavern, although simr to many others scattered throughout the city, stood out because they were the ones proudly hosting the winner of the tournament, Sol. Sol sat at a round table along with Nataly, Aron, and others he had met during his short stay at the pce. He didn¡¯t intend to go out drinking after winning the tournament, but when he returned to his waiting room, Aron said that they "couldn¡¯t not celebrate." Though it was meant to be a joyous asion, Sol couldn¡¯t help but ruminate as he stared into his drink. Aron leaned over and poked his drink, causing ripples to appear on its surface. "You know you¡¯re supposed to drink it, right?" Sol sighed, "I know. It¡¯s just that I can¡¯t get it out of my head." "What? Getting whooped by Victor just when you thought you won?" Nataly gasped, "Aron!" "It¡¯s true, though," Aron casually said as he took a swig of his beer. Though it was crudely put by Aron, Sol somewhat agreed. "Kinda. It was more the fact that my strongest attack melted in seconds. That spike was condensed from 10 cubic meters of stone, and it was nothing to him. No spell or anythingplicated¡ªjust him being really angry made it melt into a pile of molten stone. How is that even possible?" Sol thought his n was perfect. When he was in his room wondering how he could win, he remembered that from the little information Victor¡¯s status page provided, his [Mana Perception] was only level 5. Knowing that Victor could only see mana within 25 meters and the fact that his strongest attack required time to form, he knew the best way to win was to create it outside of his vision. Thanks to [Ry Magic] and [Supreme Mana Control], Sol was able to extend his reach deep underground and, throughout the fight, he would slowly divert mana towards condensing the spike. In the end, his n did technically work. The spike was strong enough to even withstand an advanced level spell and still be usable afterward. If it wasn¡¯t for the absurdity that urred afterward, he knew he would have won. Aron shrugged, "He¡¯s an A-Ranker. Those guys don¡¯t make sense. I wouldn¡¯t think about it too hard. If anything, you should be proud of forcing him to actually go all out." Sol tilted his head, "You don¡¯t want to at least know how they got that power?" Nataly agreed with him, "I¡¯m also curious, but I doubt an A-Ranker would take the time to teach me." cing his finished drink on the table, Aron shook his head, "It wouldn¡¯t matter if you knew how. A friend I know who knows this guy who worked for a merc¡ª" Nataly threw a light jab at his elbow, which hurt her more than it hurt him. "Ow! Are you made of iron?! Anyways, get to the point!" Trying to hold back hisughter from watching her hurt herself, he continued, "They told me that every A-Ranker achieved that type of power by attaining some sort of enlightenment. It¡¯s not something that can be written in a book, as apparently they touch upon something that defiesmon sense. They did say it was possible to maybe teach it if they shared talents, but I never heard of anyone bing A-Rank after being taught like that." Still hung up over the fight, Sol asked, "So you¡¯re telling me¡­ Victor attained enlightenment on being angry?" Aron smirked, "Why don¡¯t you ask the guy?" "Nope, rather not. Don¡¯t think he will be too happy seeing me. It took Commander Zaman hitting him on the head for him to calm down, and I don¡¯t think I can do that." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "Then stop thinking about it and drink! I heard we have a long day tomorrow." "Alright, fine¡­" Knowing he wouldn¡¯t get any answers at this moment, Sol grabbed his drink and indulged with his friends. Though normal alcohol didn¡¯t do much to people with high vitality like him, fortunately, brewmasters and alchemists had already solved that problem by creating higher potency alcohol. And since people had varying degrees of vitality, they even created a tier system for the drinks. Nataly was drinking a tier 3 brew, while Sol and Aron were drinking a tier 6 brew. The two men¡¯s drink was potent to the point that someone with less than 40 vitality would die within minutes of taking a small sip of it. But even with such a potent drink, it really only gave Sol a light buzz at most. With alcohol, music, and livelypany, the group enjoyed themselves through the night until it was time to return to the Royal Knights Headquarters. Sol returned to his room and flopped onto his bed with a loud, extended groan. ¡¯I should have stopped after 15¡­¡¯ Thinking that the first few drinks weren¡¯t doing much for him, he ordered more and was even challenged by Aron to see who could drink the most. Normally, he wouldn¡¯t drink a lot, but the previous drinks were getting to him, and he epted the challenge. He didn¡¯t even know who won by the end of it, and while still trying to remember who came out on top, he fell asleep. Chapter 160: Hangover Cure The morning after the celebration, all the recruits were summoned to the main hall and told to wait there. As Sol stood in the crowd, two people approached him from behind. "Hey Aron. Hey Nataly. How are you both holding up?" Aron, as energetic as always, gave him a thumbs up. "Doing great! I¡¯m excited to do knight stuff!" Nataly, on the other hand, appeared to struggle to stay standing. "How are you both alright? Didn¡¯t you guys even have a drinking contest?" "Wait, you remember that? Do you know who won?" Sol asked. Even after waking up, he still didn¡¯t know who came out on top. "I remember it happened..." Aron admitted, but he also didn¡¯t know who won. "You both puked! Nobody won. Can you tell me how neither of you are hungover?" Nataly demanded. Aron offered his solution. "Hangover potion. You should always keep one on you." "Do you have any more?" she asked hopefully. "Sorry, I did say keep one on you, not two." Nataly turned to Sol, hoping he could help her. Sol asked, "Don¡¯t you know any spells to cure it?" "I can¡¯t cast any spells. Something is preventing me from doing so," she replied. Aron interjected, "Oh yeah, I heard about that. Magic here is restricted by some kind of array. You need special permission to be able to cast spells in ces outside of the training area." "Here, put this on for a second." Sol handed over his Immunizer Belt, which was his hangover cure. The moment Nataly wrapped it around her waist, a refreshing feeling coursed through her body, expelling all the toxins she drankst night. Feeling alive once more, she energetically spoke, "Wow! That works fast. Thanks!" She handed the belt back to Sol, who quickly put it back on. As he finished adjusting his belt, he realized a tanned man in full knight armor had appeared in front of the crowd of recruits. N?v(el)B\\jnn Behind the man were 20 more knights who formed an orderly line behind him. "My name is Lawrence Redrand, one of the five Grand Knights. I will be overseeing your training and making sure all of you are prepared to be full-fledged knights. Any questions?" Lawrence scanned the group of 186 recruits, which no longer included Victor. One person in the crowd raised their hand. "So we aren¡¯t knights yet?" "Hahaha!" The knights behind Lawrenceughed at the question, not because it was a stupid question but because they remembered when someone asked the same question the year they joined. Lawrence raised his fist, silencing the knights behind him, and answered, "No. Currently, all of you are decentbatants, but there is much more to being a knight than fighting. You must learn to work together as a team, aplishing things you couldn¡¯t aplish alone. You must also learn our traditions and values that you must uphold. And finally, you must learn to behave as a knight, which includes court etiquette, among other topics. So, to reiterate, no, none of you are knights yet, but I know all of you have the potential to be one." He gestured to the knights behind him. "These men and women behind me are all Knight Captains. All of you will be divided into squads to train under them for theing weeks." Sol¡¯s eyes widened. ¡¯WEEKS?! Will I be able to meet the saintess as a recruit?¡¯ He hadn¡¯t realized there was a training process to bing a knight, which, looking back on it now, was aplete oversight on his part. At least he wasn¡¯t the only one surprised by this, as it seemed almost no one knew this was part of the process. The only difference between the other recruits and Sol was that he didn¡¯t n to stay long; he hoped he would be able to leave soon after joining. Lawrence went over a few details before wrapping up his speech. "Besides therge training sessions, which I will be leading, you will follow themands of your Captain. Your squad has already been decided beforehand after taking into consideration your abilities. Knight Captain Lisetta will call upon her squad first." A knight took a step forward, lining up with Lawrence, and began calling out the names of 10 recruits. After she was done, the next Knight Captain called for their group, and the process repeated itself, thinning out the crowd. Aron was eventually called up. "Welp, that¡¯s me. See ya around." Nataly was also called up for a different squad. "I don¡¯t know anyone in my group..." The Knight Captains began to take theirpleted squads away, each heading in different directions depending on where they intended to begin their training. Sol waited for his name to be called, but even as thest Knight Captain called his members, he wasn¡¯t included. Sol and Lawrence were the only two left in the main hall after everyone had left, leaving him very confused. "Umm, Sir Lawrence, am I not part of any squad? Am I training under you?" "Normally, yes, but not this time. You¡¯re learning under someone else. Follow me." The two made their way through therge headquarters, eventually entering the area of high-ranking knights. The four knights that stood guard parted ways. ¡¯I never got to explore this area. It doesn¡¯t look much different from the rest of the headquarters.¡¯ The only noticeable difference was theck of knights, and the few he saw he assumed were at least Knight Captains. Eventually, they reached a door with a metal emblem adorned on it. Lawrence gave it a knock. "It¡¯s Lawrence. I brought Sol." A familiar voice came from the other side. "Good, let him in." Lawrence gestured for Sol to go in. Opening the door, he saw Commander Zaman standing by a window overlooking two squads that were already training outside. "Wee, Sol. Take a seat." Sol sat down on an unbelievablyfortable chair and stayed silent, not knowing what to say. This was the first time they were actually meeting each other, and he didn¡¯t want to leave a bad impression by saying something rude. Zaman chuckled as he took a seat as well. "No need to be so stiff, young man. Hmm, we already know each other¡¯s names, so there¡¯s no point in introducing ourselves¡­ What¡¯s your favorite food?" Not expecting to be asked an icebreaker question, Sol had to ponder over it. He had eaten a lot of food in his short time traveling, but if there was one he wished he could eat again, the answer was obvious. "Porras." Chapter 161: Light Reading "Never heard of them. What are they?" "It¡¯s like a fried dough stick with sweet powder. I only got to try it once in Kerman." "Hmm, that¡¯s where you participated in the defense against the orcs and made meaningful contributions, correct?" "Uh, yeah. Did you investigate me?" Though it was slightly worrying to know someone investigated his background, Sol wasn¡¯t concerned about anything incriminating appearing. He knew he had done a good job of keeping his abilities consistent, and it wasn¡¯t like his past would incriminate him for anything. The only person who knew his true reasons for joining the Royal Knights was Amber, and he knew she wouldn¡¯t spill anything. Zaman rified to ease his worries, "Just the normal check to verify your identity. But imagine my surprise when I sent a letter to the Adventurers Guild of Initium, where you originally registered, and Kerman¡¯s Guild. The guildmasters personally wrote back and they both wrote highly of your character, which wasn¡¯t what I was even asking for, but it reassured me nheless." A slight smile formed on Sol¡¯s face. It wasn¡¯t just that he was in the clear, but that the guildmasters were both willing to vouch for him, which was very touching. "Guildmaster William Deliban also asked me to ry a message to you. He said a certain someone is grumpy you haven¡¯t written once and he begs you to send a letter before he loses his sanity." "Oh no¡­" He instantly knew who Guildmaster William was referring to, and it made him feel guilty. With the exception of when he was kidnapped, he had so many opportunities to write Annabel a letter, but it hadpletely escaped his mind. He knew that Annabel would have sent him a letter if she knew where he was, so it fell on him to send the first message. Zaman ced his hand on Sol¡¯s shoulder and gave him a knowing look, "You have my condolences." "Thank you¡­" Sol nodded back, knowing he would have to soon face an unwinnable battle. Scratching his chin, Zaman spoke, "Maybe I should have left that for the end, but let¡¯s get into the real reason I called you in here." Stifling the dread forter, Sol nodded. "Yes, Commander." "As the winner of the tournament, you are guaranteed the rank of Knight Captain uponpleting your training. This means you also need to be prepared not only for the responsibilities of normal knights but those of a captain as well. Normally, you would mentor under one of the Grand Knights, but four of them are out on missions, and Lawrence is too busy handling the rest of the recruits and filling in for the other Grand Knights while they are away. So that leaves me to fill that role." "You will be teaching me?" Sol asked, not realizing how incredible of an opportunity it was to learn from Zaman Secondhand himself. Every knight would jump at such an opportunity, as every knight who learned from him eventually became an important figure. The five Grand Knights weren¡¯t exceptions; they had each received his guidance at some point in their careers. Even Princess Valerie was currently being taught by him, and if she were asked who among her teachers was the best, she would undoubtedly choose Zaman. "If you are willing. I don¡¯t have a lot of time on my hands either, but I will make it fit into my schedule." "Of course I¡¯m okay with that. When do we start?" "I assume you know how to read, but can you write?" "I can read, but I¡¯m not used to writing, so it looks awkward." Reading was extremelymon throughout the world; after all, they needed to be able to read their system status. What wasn¡¯t asmon was writing. The further one lived fromrger cities, the less likely they were to know how to write. Sol was fortunate enough to have some experience writing from helping around the Adventurers Guild, but that¡¯s the extent of it. "We will work on your writingter, but for now, I can assign you some material to study." Zaman took out four books from his spatial ring and spread them out on the table. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Sol nced at their titles: Crestelia Court Etiquette, Crestelia Common Laws 1, Royal Knights Origins, Basics of Leadership. At first, he thought they would be interesting books like those he had read in the Adventurers Guild before¡ªrted to monsters, talents, or interesting events¡ªbut none of that was found here. ¡¯I can force myself to read them over the course of two weeks¡­¡¯ "I want you to finish these books by the end of the week." Sol¡¯s eyes shot open. ¡¯That¡¯s in five days!¡¯ He couldn¡¯t bring himself to openly defy his orders. "Yes, Commander." "Once you finish those, we can begin our first lesson at 7:45 AM. Be prepared, as while we go over exercises, I will be asking you questions over the material." "Yes, Commander¡­" "Because you still need experience with teamwork, you will also participate in Grand Knight Lawrence¡¯srge training sessions. Do you understand?" "...Yes, Commander¡­" Zaman nodded in approval and crossed his arms. "That will be all for now. It should serve as an adequate start to your training. Next week, we will go into more advanced material." ¡¯Are you trying to kill me?¡¯ Sol gathered the books into his spatial ring and epted the task he was given, trying his best not toin. He bade the Commander goodbye and headed back to his room, knowing that if he didn¡¯t start now, he would have no chance of finishing by the end of the week. Chapter 162: Sonoran Orb Sol was in his room, sitting behind his desk with arge green orb in front of him. From the orb, a familiar voice asked a question. "He said you will be done with all the material in a week¡¯s time?" He nodded. "Yeah, Commander Zaman said I mastered all the material faster than anyone else he has taught, so at this rate, I will be able to finish my Knight Captain training at the same time the other recruits finish their regr knight training. Apparently, it was going to take me two months to finish the training, but I seem to have shrunk it down to one." "Didn¡¯t you also say he was teaching the princess? Wouldn¡¯t that make you even better than her?" the voice said in a joking tone. Sol immediately denied it. "Don¡¯t even joke about that. Remember that the Sonoran Orb can be intercepted by others. Also, I¡¯m sure the Commander was probably exaggerating." He knew the Commander was not exaggerating, as he wasn¡¯t the type of person to do so, but for his safety and hers, it would be best to make it clear in case another party was listening in. "Yeah, you¡¯re probably right. Anyways, I have to go now and take care of some documents. Stay safe, Sol." "Thanks, you too, Anna." He stopped feeding the orb mana, causing it to lose its green color and be light gray. The orb was his solution to the predicament he was in for forgetting to write to her during his travels. It was expensive, costing him 800 gold for the pair of orbs, but it was a price he was easily willing to pay. At the time of buying it, he found it weird it cost so much, but the merchant told him it had to do with the rarity ofrge Sonoran crystals big enough to be carved into long-rangemunication items. The smaller, moremon ones that fit in one¡¯s hand that he had even used before were very cheap, being at most 10 gold, but they had nowhere near the same capabilities. It also took a while for her orb to be delivered, so even though he bought it soon after being reminded by Zaman, they had only been able to talk sincest week. At first, she was furious at hisck ofmunication, but the ability to talk in real time appeased her enough to forgive him. Storing the orb in his spatial ring, he headed out of his room and toward the training grounds for today¡¯srge-scale lesson. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om As he walked through the halls of the Royal Knights Headquarters, he reflected on his overall growth. While the training given by Zaman was grueling, it couldn¡¯t be denied that it was also rewarding. His knowledge had expanded far beyond what he previously knew, learning more about the kingdom, the knights, warfare, and etiquette that he had been sorelycking. This didn¡¯t reflect on his status page, which didn¡¯t change much besides the time he dedicated to training with [Reinterpret]. But it was also thanks to [Reinterpret] that Sol was able to quickly understand and memorize all the material. Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner], [Transformer] Level: 82 Exp: 13,218,000/98,417,000 HP: 1450 MP: 1650 Str: 85 (+70) Vit: 80 (+70) Agi: 80 (+70) Int: 85 (+70) Wis: 80 (+90) Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 5, [Analysis] Lv 7, [Aggregate] Lv EX, [Reinterpret] Lv EX Siphoned Talents: [Create Magic Hands] Lv MAX Passive Skills: [Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Counter] Lv 9, [Precise Coordination] Lv 6, [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 8, [Intermediate Weapon Mastery] Lv 7, [Wild Hunt] Lv 2, [Invincible Body] Lv 8, [Perfect Bnce] Lv 2, [Death Absorption] Lv 6, [True Sight] Lv 6, [Superior Mana Control] Lv 1, [Fortified Soul] Lv 2, [Ry Magic] Lv 8 Active Skills: [Cross sh] Lv 8, [Ground Shrink] Lv 6, [Snap Punch] Lv 8, [Invisibility] Lv 7, [Terra Maniption] Lv 6, [Rock Throw] Lv 4, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Primal Rend] Lv 2, [Debilitating Strike] Lv 2, [Telepathy] Lv 3, [Unpassable Bulwark] Lv 1, [Intermediate Elemental Magic] Lv 5, [Overpower] Lv 4, [Create Undead] Lv 6, [Weapon Enhancement (Variant)] Lv 8, [Disable] Lv 1, [Backstab] Lv 6, [Bombardment] Lv 1, [Storm Blitz] Lv 8, [Piercing Lunge] Lv 8, [Seeking Shot] Lv 6, [Mana sh] Lv 5, [Intermediate Light Magic] Lv 7, [Shadow Hands] Lv 7, [Shadow Form] Lv 5, [Empowered Strike] Lv 4, [Polychromatism] Lv EX ¡¯Two more levels and my psychic mastery evolves.¡¯ His mostmonly used skills had only increased by one or two levels because he needed to show some results to Zaman that he was still improving. He didn¡¯t actually spend much time training those skills thesest three weeks; his biggest focus was actually [Basic Psychic Mastery]. Though one of the more challenging skills to improve within the white room, he chose to work on it because it was his only shot at actually being able to finish all the reading material. After much trial and error, he found a few ways to use his psychic abilities beyond just [Telepathy]. One of the gains from investing in the skill was the ability to increase his mind¡¯s speed, allowing him to read and process information faster. The other benefit was improving his mind¡¯s ability to absorb information and retain it permanently. This meant he was able to memorize the books and recite them from start to finish if he needed to. ¡¯Still, the system didn¡¯t recognize these two abilities. I should just call them pseudo skills for now.¡¯ Not being sure whether the pseudo skills were good enough to be recognized by the system or whether they were considered part of [Basic Psychic Mastery], he just let it be for now. It wasn¡¯t like the answer was going to appear before him anytime soon. As Sol arrived at the training grounds, he saw the usual activities urring. Groups of recruits were practicing various drills, sparring with each other, and discussing various subjects. He looked through the crowd and spotted Nataly and Aron. On his way over to them, Aron noticed him. "Yo, Sol!" Aron called out, waving him over. "You¡¯re finally out of your cave. Grand Knight Lawrence should be here soon." Sol¡¯s face slightly twitched at Aron¡¯s joke. ¡¯You don¡¯t know my pain.¡¯ These past three weeks had been more than arduous for him. If not for the fact that he gained those pseudo skills, there was no way he could have finished all the material in time. Even with the help of his beginner psychic abilities, there was still a lot to read, which kept him stuck in his room for the majority of his training. While everyone else still had free time between their lessons, Sol was afforded none of that. Whenever he finished ahead of time, Commander Zaman would quiz him, and after passing, he would give him the next set of books with an even shorter due date. "What have you guys been doingtely?" Sol asked. Nataly answered, "Our captains made our groups spar against each other in the forest. I had to defend a box while Aron¡¯s squad had to break it." She then added with a smirk, "You wanna guess who won?" Seeing Aron¡¯s disgruntled face, Sol decided to get some payback. "Hoh? You lost, Aron? Didn¡¯t you brag about being stronger than Nataly because you made it further in the tower?" Aron shrugged helplessly. "My team had no way to counter her nt monstrosity. It kept regenerating over and over again. Like, what am I supposed to do at that point? I just punch things hard." "Should¡¯ve yed around it~." Nataly taunted. Sol agreed. "She¡¯s not wrong. Wasn¡¯t your objective to destroy a box? Why not keep her nt monster busy while someone sneaks around and breaks it?" "We did send someone, but they got caught. Can¡¯t do much about it." Sol was about to ask for more information, but amanding voice echoed through the training grounds. "Form ranks!" Chapter 163: Sandman After running drills in the training grounds, Sol left the pce and headed towards the dungeon. Taking the teleport sigil down to the 20th floor, he saw Amber practicing as usual. Sand moved like water, swirling around in a giant whirlpool until she noticed his presence and made the sand scatter. "Hey, Amber," Sol said as he neared. "Any progress with the pce?" In the few times he managed to finish all his training and reading material ahead of schedule, he would visit Amber to spar or talk, though he did most of the talking. Last week, he mentioned if it was possible for her to sneak into the castle and look for records and information regarding his parents¡¯ whereabouts. ¡¯I doubt it would be easy to infiltrate the pce, but it¡¯s worth a shot. If not, then I just have to continue with the knight stuff.¡¯ Amber pulled out a map from her spatial ring. It was iplete, mostly around the center, but a few details gave him an idea of what it was. "Is this a map of the pce? Does that mean you got in?" Amber shook her head. "Outside, view from wall. [Invisibility] doesn¡¯t work." N?v(el)B\\jnn "It gets canceled?" She nodded. "My bad, I should have tried using [Invisibility] myself before asking you to sneak in. It could be the same thing that prevents the usage of spells in the pce or something else. Forget about it then, I¡¯ll just keep working on my own angle. Before I go, do you wanna spa¡ª" "No." Amber cut him off. "Want to help. Not just train." Sol crossed his arms in front of him, not knowing what she could assist him with. Sneaking into the pce was clearly not going to work if she couldn¡¯t maintain her [Invisibility]. "Hmm¡­ Do you think this city has a ck market?" While he knew of the existence of ck markets, it was recently reminded to him by his reading material. One of the books regarded the habits and locations of illegal merchants and their markets. It was one of the more interesting books he read, so it remained at the forefront of his mind. "It does." She confirmed. "How do you know? Have you gone there?" She shook her head. "Cane said it." "Cane, huh¡­" The boss of the gang that kidnapped him and brainwashed Amber, Cane had created many connections throughout the years of managing his illegal business, including the ck market of Crestel City. If there was a ck market in this city, then he knew what she could do. "Can you go there and get information about the pce? I¡¯m sure some guard or maid has been leaking information for some extra gold. Also, see if you can find information on the ck Tongue¡ªthat¡¯s what my father used to go by." "Okay." Sol was about to warn her of the dangers, but remembering who he was talking to, he was confident she could take care of herself. ¡¯If anything, they are the ones in danger.¡¯ After giving a small prayer to whoever would be unfortunate enough to bother her, the two had a short sparring session. It onlysted for half an hour, and he gained no skill levels in the process, but it was a nice way to let off some steam. Sol was either cooped up reading or holding back during training, so at least here he could try out whatever he wanted. The two exchanged blows with their weapons, and eventually, it evolved into an exchange of sand and stone. He didn¡¯t n to only use [Terra Maniption] as he was no longer in a rush to improve it and summoned two hands from the talent skill [Create Magic Hands]. He gave them each a weapon, and they promptly flew towards Amber and executed [Cross sh] and [Debilitating Strike]. The hands¡¯ attacks were slow in her eyes. With her two daggers, she was able to deflect them away without any trouble. ¡¯Let¡¯s increase the difficulty!¡¯ Sol thought to himself as he called upon more hands. Two more hands appeared, and after tossing them more weapons, they joined the fray. Each hand had a different weapon as they executed skills weaved into their normal attacks. Amber dodged and countered the attacks gracefully, unperturbed by the increased enemies. The four hands weren¡¯t fast enough nor strong enough to do much besides keeping her busy. ¡¯Two more then!¡¯ Two more hands appeared, and with six hands attacking from all sides, she was starting to get overwhelmed. She was forced to turn her body into sand, making her mostly immune to the physical attacks, but they still scattered her sand body whenever theynded. In response, she gathered sand and used a newly obtained skill to even the odds. Small mounds of sand were created as they wobbled and rose, looking simr to a humanoid figure. The sand men then formed scimitars out of sand and attacked the hands. There were four sand men total as they shed with the floating hands. Their des were as solid as steel, and the sound produced from their sh rang loud in the dungeon. As the sand men and hands fought, Sol and Amber weren¡¯t idle. They had been continuouslyunching attacks with sand and stone creations. Tens of more exchanges happened over the next few minutes until they decided to stop today¡¯s spar. They both could have taken the fight further, but Sol didn¡¯t have that much time as he had to stop by one more ce before heading back to the pce. "Let¡¯s stop here." Sol¡¯s hands returned to him as Amber¡¯s sand men lined up idly next to her. Taking a look at the sand men next to her, hemented. "Two more thanst time, and they are stronger too. What level is [Sand Soldiers] now?" "Eight." Sol was in awe. "Wasn¡¯t it level twost time? Have you been focusing on it?" Amber nodded. She found it usefulpared to her normal [Sand Maniption] as they had some level of autonomy. Besides the base cost of creating them, they functioned very simrly to Sol¡¯s magic hands, which was the original source of inspiration for her. "That¡¯s amazing! I would like to stay and help you practice with it, but I got one more thing I gotta do today. Take care and let me know if you find anything in the ck market." Chapter 164: Lipon 6.5 Walking through the city streets, Sol kept getting recognized by others constantly. Thankfully, now that a few weeks had passed, they no longer surrounded him. Instead, the ones who recognized him would whisper among themselves. Though they were whispering, Sol was able to hear them clearly, and they all generally said the same things. "Isn¡¯t that Sol?" "Where is he going?" "What¡¯s he doing?" They always asked the same questions wherever he went. It was an odd feeling for him, as even an unremarkable thing like walking through the city became a memorable moment that they would tell others about. ¡¯Should I use the Deceiver¡¯s Earring?¡¯ Sol decided against it. He had no real reason to hide from them, even if it made him slightly ufortable. He reasoned it was best to keep that for when he truly needed it. Soon, he arrived at his destination: Gearworks. Upon entering the store, he found it was extremely lively. Good-looking shopkeepers were tending to the adventurers and merchants until one of them spotted Sol. The shopkeeper passed the client he was tending to another coworker and went to greet Sol. "Good evening, Sir Sol. Are you here to meet Mr. Fabio?" Sol nodded. "Can you check if he is busy?" "You know he will always make time for you." The shopkeeper gave a polite bow before leaving to the back of the store to notify his employer. Not long after, a jovial voice was heard. "If it isn¡¯t Sol! How are you?" Fabio greeted Sol with a giant smile on his face. "Great, and I can see the hired help has relieved your stress." "By the gods, it sure has. Don¡¯t think I could have managed any longer on my own." Before the tournament, Fabio didn¡¯t have any employees, but because of Sol¡¯s performance in the tournament, his shop had quickly be a popr store for special weapons and tools. If the Lipon was the reason many initially came, the other wondrous items he made were the reason they stayed. Fabio gave a look around his store before giving Sol a smirk. "Follow me! I have something to show you." N?v(el)B\\jnn The two headed to the back and entered what looked like a small storage room. It had shelves of items that couldn¡¯t fit in the store without causing clutter. Another door was at the back of the storage room, and heading past that, they entered Fabio¡¯s workshop. Originally, there was no storage room, but with more customers, he quickly kept running out of his more popr products, so he sectioned off a small area of his workshop to store inventory. The walls were not necessary, but Fabio still wanted to maintain his workshop¡¯s privacy, even from his employees. Fabio led Sol to a table that had one Lipon on it. Sol grabbed it and looked it over. "Is this¡ª?" "Yup, the Lipon 6.5!" "6.5?" "Well, the improvements in this version were mostly quality improvements. New mana lens that slightly increases the power amplification and a scroll wheel that can control flow to amplify or reduce the size of the weapon. It¡¯s not big enough of a change to call it 7.0." "That¡¯s still great! It feels better to hold as well." Fabio nodded. "I got some input from other adventurers as well. There are other improvements I want to add, but each subsequent addition bes more difficult than thest." "How so?" "Well, I have to be extremely careful with each addition to not interfere with the other mechanisms. With every new addition, that means another thing I need to ount for. But on the bright side, I made a more streamlined version for regr customers." Lifting the Lipon in his hand, Sol asked, "Is it any different from this one?" "It¡¯s a more simplified version without all the bells and whistles. It doesn¡¯t have functions like the increased pattern slots, as I heard most adventurers would only stick to one anyway. I¡¯m not gonnain though; it¡¯s easier to make and requires less materials." Sol was about to ce the Lipon back on the table to shift the conversation to something else, but Fabio stopped him. "Take it. It¡¯s yours." "Are you sure? How much is it?" "Nothing. You saw how packed it was in there. That¡¯s all because of you." Sol had indirectly brought the short man more profit than he could dream of. Fabio¡¯s pride would not allow him to ask for more money from the young man who had already made him rich. Sol wanted to still pay for the man¡¯s work but didn¡¯t insist as much this time around. After all, he still hadn¡¯t even filled the 100 cartridges he boughtst time. "Thanks. I actually came here today for a different reason. Do you think you can make something with this?" From his spatial ring, Sol retrieved a ck root. Its mere presence made the surrounding area darker as light was sucked into it. Fabio¡¯s jaw dropped upon seeing it. It took him a few seconds to regain hisposure. "Is this what I think it is?" In awe, Fabio reached his hand outward. "Can I see it for a moment?" Sol nodded and handed the void root over. With the root in his hand, Fabio took it to a nearby workstation with a lot of tools. He pulled a multi-lens apparatus over the void root and inspected it. Like a child who had obtained the toy they always wanted, Fabio inspected every angle of the root, from the top that condensed a high amount of energy to the tips at the bottom that sucked in the light. Lifting his head from the inspecting equipment, hemented, "Not only is this a legendary grade void root, it¡¯s even in perfect condition. How did you get your hands on this? Did a high-ranked knight give it to you as a reward?" Sol shook his head. "No, I¡¯ve had it for a while now. I think it was a week before the tournament." "AND YOU KEPT IT FROM ME THIS ENTIRE TIME?!" Chapter 165: Stupidly Lucky Being on the receiving end of Fabio¡¯s intense stare, Sol could only embarrassedly scratch his head. "I wanted to give it to you sooner, but I was busy at the time. After the tournament, you were busy. I just didn¡¯t want to distract you from your business." Before the tournament, Sol was more focused on getting stronger to be prepared for whatever mighte his way. After he won the tournament, it was Fabio who became busy, dealing with merchants and clients every day while also having to make items and equipment daily to keep up with their demands. Feeling Sol¡¯s sincerity, Fabio calmed down. "Hah¡­ Sorry about that. I overreacted a tad bit. Still, you are stupidly lucky to stumble into this." Sol nodded in agreement. "If I was a minuteter, another group of adventurers would have gotten it." "What? No, that¡¯s not what I mean. If it was a literal minuteter, it would have disappeared by then." "Huh? How?" When Sol found the void root, it was stuck to a random wall on the 13th floor of the dungeon. Noticing he wasn¡¯t very knowledgeable about the material, Fabio asked, "How much do you know about the void root?" "Only what the [Analysis] results show, which isn¡¯t much. I checked the dungeon guide, but it didn¡¯t have anything on it either." "I¡¯ll start from the beginning then. Take a seat." Two chairs walked towards them and stopped in front of the workstation with the void root on it. Sol wasn¡¯t weirded out by the chairs, as it wasn¡¯t the first time he dropped by and was used to the random inventions. The two sat down, and Fabio began to exin more about the material. "It makes sense for it not to be included in the guide. After all, void roots don¡¯t appear often, only once every 100 to 150 years. There is no real point in including it in a guide when adventurers don¡¯t have a chance to even find one in their lifetime." After giving some context, Fabio continued to his main point. "Now for why you were lucky to find it when you did. Well, that¡¯s because the void root would be nurtured by the dungeon itself. It would be moved from floor to floor wherever there is dense energy to feed it." Sol had some doubts. "Does that mean the dungeon is sentient? Why would it nurture the void root anyway?" "Only A-Rank dungeons show signs of sentience, but that¡¯s not the point." "I feel like you¡¯re glossing over something important¡­" Ignoring hisment, Fabio continued, "You¡¯re lucky because the void root would be moved frequently. Reports of thest time it appeared mentioned adventurers who found one, celebrated, and during their celebration, it got absorbed back into the wall. This happened more than a few times, and it was generally estimated that it would only stay in one ce for around five minutes at most." "I see, but what can you make with it?" While understanding how rare it was, Sol was more interested in what he could do with it. Fabio ced his hand on his chin. "It can be made into a lot of things¡­ really depends on your needs. Overall, it¡¯s a highly potent energy source. It gains its void energy from absorbing all types of energy." "All types of energy?" Curious, Sol activated [True Sight] and saw even mana was being sucked into the root. Fabio nodded. "Yup, you only see light because it¡¯s the most noticeable, but it¡¯s also absorbing mana right now. I have only read about it, but it also absorbs heat, gravitational, electrical, and sound energy. There could be more, but I¡¯d have to test it myself." "Can it be used to absorb attacks?" "Definitely, but you are focusing on just one part of the void root. All the energy it absorbs turns into void energy, which means you have a near-infinite supply of one of the most dangerous forms of energy." "I¡¯ve never seen void energy. How strong is it?" Fabio stood up and grabbed the void root. "Good question. I¡¯ve been wanting to know that myself. Follow me." Sol was led to the edge of the workshop where a one-foot cube metal box with a rod on top sat on a table. "I prepared this to run a few tests if I ever got my hands on one. I¡¯m d I can finally make use of it." For a while, Sol had been noticing how knowledgeable Fabio was regarding the void root, so he decided to ask about it while Fabio ced the void root in the box. "Why do you know so much about the void root?" Closing the metal box, Fabio said, "It¡¯s the only reason I came to this city in the first ce. Legendary materials are incredibly rare to find, appearing randomly throughout the world with very few locations where they could consistently appear, like the void root. I found out that another would appear soon and moved here two years ago. At first, I tried to explore the dungeon myself, but with its random migrations, it didn¡¯t matter if I was on the 1st floor or the 40th. I couldn¡¯t search the entire dungeon myself, which is why I thought about hiring help or buying it if it was found. That¡¯s why I created Gearworks in the first ce." Sol had always felt since he first met Fabio that he was stronger than he appeared, but to casually say he was on the 40th floor surprised him. "Do you need the void root for something then?" It worried him that there would be a conflict of interest, and while he liked Fabio, he wasn¡¯t willing to just give away a legendary material. Luckily, Fabio¡¯s next words eased his fears. "Nothing particr, I just wanted to take a good look at it and figure out how it generates void energy. Whether I can replicate it would be up to my own abilities. Now let¡¯s see what it can do." He activated the box, which began to hum gently as it stimted the void root inside. The rod on top of the box began to glow dark purple as both men watched. "Energy extraction is sessful. Now, let me release some of it¡­ Oh shi-!" The rod glowed ominously brighter as it released all the energy at once, sending a thick ray of void energy into the sky. It pierced through the roof of the workshop, creating a foot-wide hole as the ray of void energy obliterated everything in its path. Through the newly created hole in the roof, the two could see clouds in the distance being pierced by the ray as well. They continued to watch in silence until it disappeared in the far-away sky. Once the void ray was gone, Fabio opened the box to check on the condition of the void root. "There goes a quarter of its energy¡­" N?v(el)B\\jnn Now it was Sol¡¯s turn to be mad. "A QUARTER?!" Chapter 166: First Mission Fabio scratched his head sheepishly. "Yeah, my bad. The moment I opened the release mechanism, all the energy burst out at once. But don¡¯t worry! Like I said before, the root converts all types of energy into void energy, so it will recover in due time." Sol sighed in relief, remembering that the root could generate more energy over time. "How long would it take to charge back up?" "Hmm, hard to say. Letting it recharge naturally heavily depends on the ambient energy, but it¡¯s also possible to feed it your own mana or create a gathering array to collect energy faster. Here, let¡¯s try with 800 mana." Fabio released mana from his body, which was instantly absorbed by the tips of the root. He then cut off the supply and checked again. "... Well, the conversion ratio isn¡¯t ideal. Even though it absorbed it all without an issue, the amount of void energy it generated was less than a tenth of what was wasted. It would take around 10,000 mana to recover what was lost and 40,000 to charge it from empty." Sol ran a few calctions in his head. ¡¯I would need around a week of depleting and recovering my mana to fully charge it. It would take longer considering I need mana for training and my eventual job as a knight captain¡­ I also can¡¯t just empty out my mana in case of an emergency. Mana potions are an option, but they would eventually be a money sink, which isn¡¯t worth it. Considering everything, it would realistically take around a month, less depending on ambient energies.¡¯ Sol nced at the hole in the roof and the clouds above, punctured by the void energy ray. Even though it would take a long time to fully charge it back up, he couldn¡¯t deny the results. "So, are you able to make something out of this?" Fabio confidently nodded. "Of course! I¡¯ll just need some time to test it properly, but I already have a few ideas. Maybe two gloves, one that absorbs energy and one that emits void energy. We can also go down the Lipon route and make a self-sustained void energy de. Maybe even a cannon that releases it all in one go¡­" Sol interjected because he knew Fabio would continue listing ideas endlessly, "Just make whatever you think would make the best use of it." "I can promise you that much! Just you wait for my next masterpiece!" Seeing Fabio so excited to work with the void root, Sol felt d he had given it to him. "Can¡¯t wait. Good luck, and let me know if you need any help." Fabio gave him a thumbs up as he put on a thick pair of goggles. "Will do. If you happen to find any other legendary materials, remember to bring them to me." "Haha, I doubt I¡¯ll stumble into another one so soon." ... "We have received word of a legendary material being discovered in the Orna Mountains. You will set out in a week¡¯s time." "Huh?!" Upon returning to the pce, Sol was summoned to Commander Zaman¡¯s office, where he was given important news. "Aren¡¯t I still in training? And isn¡¯t that Frostaxe n territory?" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Though he had many questions regarding this mission, those two were at the forefront of his mind. "With your fast progress, you were going to finish your training in a week¡¯s time, which lines up perfectly for this mission. And while the legendary material is indeed in their territory, it¡¯s close to the border, so we don¡¯t have to travel too deep into their mountains. The best part is that the Frostaxe n is unaware it¡¯s even there." "How do we know it¡¯s there?" "Because it was discovered by the Saintess herself." Upon hearing of the Saintess, Sol¡¯s eyes perked up. "She divined it?" "Indeed she did." Knowing the Saintess was the source of the information, Sol thought this could be the chance he was waiting for. ¡¯If I¡¯m the one to recover the material, I can maybe use it to meet with her.¡¯ "What are the details, Commander?" Sol eagerly asked. Zaman chuckled. "Someone¡¯s excited for their first mission. You will lead one of the three squads of the mission. The problem being, you still don¡¯t have a squad of your own. We can¡¯t dy the expedition date as the Saintess said if we leave anyter, the Orcs will catch on. What we can do is bend the rules a little and let you pick the members of your squad before your training isplete. That¡¯s why I called you here today." From Zaman¡¯s spatial ring, two stacks of papers appeared and dropped onto the table. "A knight squad normally has five to ten members, but as a rookie captain, you can only have five at most. This stack contains the newly enlisted knights, while the other stack contains veteran knights that are avable to be moved into a new squad. I suggest you pick three knights from the newly enlisted and two more experienced knights from other squads." Seeing that the two stacks of papersbined were thicker than most books, Sol nervously asked, "How long do I have to decide?" "You have until tomorrow morning." Sol looked past the Commander towards the window behind him. The sun had already set before he even arrived at the pce. ¡¯Another sleepless night it is¡­¡¯ Zaman added more to his pile of work. "Once you select your members, I will then give you a budget for supplies. I¡¯ll arrange the transportation, but you will be in charge of submitting the requests for food, tools, and other essentials for the mission. You have until the day before the expedition to arrange everything." Sol despaired as he had even more work to juggle while stillpleting his final week of training, but for a chance to meet with the Saintess, he had to take it. He took the stack of papers and put them in his spatial ring while asking, "Will that be all, Commander?" Zaman nodded. "Remember, you can alwayse to me if you need advice." "Thank you, Commander." Sol left Zaman¡¯s office and headed straight to his room. Once there, he took out the two stacks of documents and immediately began going over them. Sol moved the stack of rookie knights¡¯ documents to the side and focused on the veteran stack. ¡¯I already know which three I want to add, which saves me a lot of time. Now I can focus on finding veterans thatplement the team I have in mind.¡¯ Chapter 167: Meet the Team A week had passed, and the newly enlisted knights had allpleted their required training. A small ceremony was held, but it consisted of a simple speech given by Commander Zaman before they were once again reorganized into new squads based on the judgment of the captains that trained them. At least that was the case for most of them. In a small meeting room within the Royal Knights Headquarters, Nataly, Aron, and Lapis sat, all wearing brand new knight uniforms. These uniforms had little function for battle but were suitable for formal asions like the graduation ceremony they had just attended. In addition to the formal uniform, they also received two sets each of rare knight armor, tailored to their preferences and battle styles. They all sat in silence until Nataly couldn¡¯t handle it anymore and asked the other two, "Do any of you know why we are here? My captain didn¡¯t say anything when I asked." Aron tilted his seat back as he pondered, "We might be getting recruited to some top secret squad where we uproot the corruption that has infected the pce." "I highly doubt that," she immediately dismissed his idea. "Well, that¡¯s how Gary was pulled into his secret squad." "Who¡¯s Gary?" Nataly could already feel where this was going but asked anyway. "A knight who joined seven years ago. On the day he graduated training, he was immediately put into a secret squad that focuses on internal corruption. Though they only added him because one of their members died and they needed a recement." "... So Gary just told you about his secret squad?" "Yeah, pretty much. Should he have not told me?" "You said the word ¡¯secret¡¯ like three times!" As if realizing it now, Aron made a surprised expression, "Oh, yeah. That makes sense. Don¡¯t tell anyone I mentioned that then." Nataly slumped back in her chair from Aron¡¯s antics. She couldn¡¯t wrap her head around how Aron became so well connected, but in a way, she could understand, as she was also one of the people in his giant web of connections. "So you don¡¯t know anything then. What about you? Lapis, right? Do you know anything?" Lapis, who had been keeping to herself so far, just shook her head, not knowing the reason either. The door opened as Sol entered, followed by two other knights. One appeared slightly older than them with a lean body, while the other was a much older middle-aged man with a short beard. The two knights took a seat as Sol spoke. "Sorry for making you all wait so long. I went to personally inform these two they would be joining us as well." Nataly stood up with an ted look on her face, "Does that mean?!" Sol nodded, "Yep, wee to my squad." N?v(el)B\\jnn Aron hit his fist together, "Haha! I¡¯m d I was wrong about the corruption squad!" "Did I miss something?" Sol tilted his head. Nataly shook her head, "Ignore him. You know how he can be." "Right. Well, anyways, I selected the five of you to join my squad. And while I already know all of you, none of you know each other, so I believe introductions are in order. Who wants to go first?" Nataly¡¯s hand shot up, "Oh, me!" Sol gave her a nod, so she continued, "I¡¯m Nataly. I specialize in nature magic for summoning and healing. I actually met Sol way befo¡ª" "Sorry, Nataly, but let¡¯s keep it short. We have to leave soon. Who¡¯s next?" Sol was worried it would be another one of her long winded stories, and it was true they didn¡¯t have a lot of time, so it wasn¡¯t like he was lying. "I¡¯ll go then. Name¡¯s Aron. I punch really hard, and on asion, I kick as well. I¡¯m more specifically a wild pugilist that focuses on strength as my main attribute, so expect me to hit really hard but not as fast as other pugilists." The slightly older man spoke next, "I¡¯m Rexford, but most people call me Rex. I¡¯m extremely perceptive, with skills that heighten my vision and hearing. I filled the role of scout in my team, but I also know my way around a sword." With Rex¡¯s introduction done, Sol turned to thest two that had yet to speak, the aloof Lapis and the grumpy looking middle-aged man. Neither seemed to want to speak up first, so he made the choice for them. "Duncan, you¡¯re next." "I¡¯m Duncan, served in the Royal Knights for 20 years. I am a heavy shieldbearer, and I can use mana to create barriers too." Though he didn¡¯t appear too happy to be here, he still introduced himself properly. Sol nodded and turned to thest person who had yet to introduce themselves. "Lapis. I wield a spear and poison." Though she kept her introduction incredibly short, her mind was racing at incredible speeds. ¡¯Why did he pick me?! Last time we spoke, I vented about my feelings and right after, I challenged him for a rematch! I¡¯m an idiot!¡¯ Her mind was in panic mode, but it was hidden under her aloof demeanor. She had hoped she would see Sol again on her own terms once she was ready, but now she was in his squad. There was no way to avoid him anymore. Hearing her short introduction, Sol didn¡¯t push her to say more. "I¡¯m sure you all saw her performance in the tournament, so you all know what she is capable of. Before I get into the next topic, does anyone have any questions?" Some of them shook their heads, while others kept quiet, meaning he could continue. "Alright then, we already have our first mission. We are setting off to the Orna Mountains with two other squads in one hour." Nataly jumped from her seat. "One hour?!" "Isn¡¯t that a bitst minute?" Rex asked. "Do we even have the supplies needed for such a long trip?" Duncan was less affected by thest minute nature of the mission but more concerned with the logistical aspect. Sol felt their rising worries and quickly spoke to reassure them. "Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s a bitst minute, but I have already gone and prepared everything. All you guys need to do is pack your personal belongings and meet me at the stables." "May I see the requisition list, Captain?" Duncan knew that the captain was in charge of preparing supplies, and with his new captain being a recent recruit, he was worried about setting out without critical supplies. Sol nodded, "I knew you would ask that, Duncan, so I brought it with me. If you think I missed anything, let me know and I¡¯ll fix it." Reading over the list, Duncan¡¯s eyes widened in surprise. "Nothing¡¯s missing. Food, toiletries, tools, tents, even medical supplies. Can I ask why you included health potions when we already have a healer?" Duncan knew the answer himself; he just wanted to ask Sol to make sure it wasn¡¯t a fluke. "Though Nataly and I can both heal, it would be foolish to rely on us for all injuries. If we run out of mana or are separated for some reason, the rest of you still need a way to recover in case of emergencies." He handed the list back to Sol and then said, "I¡¯ll get ready to set off then. Is this meeting over?" "Yes, you¡¯re all dismissed." Everyone stood up from their seats and left for their rooms to take whatever they would need. They wouldn¡¯t be back for a while, so they would need clothes and other personal items tost the entire trip. Sol waited until his newly formed squad was far away enough to let out a loud and long sigh. "Thank gods it went well. That was incredibly stressful." Chapter 168: It鈥檚 a Race It was Sol¡¯s first time truly being in a position of leadership, and though Commander Zaman had prepared him for this moment, it was nheless very stressful. The transition from practice to the real deal was jarring, to say the least, but he felt like he did a good job. Sadly, he wouldn¡¯t know for sure, as he couldn¡¯t ask his own subordinates if he did well¡ªit would ruin the image he had just built up. ¡¯At least I know I did the supply requisition correctly thanks to Duncan. Though it felt like he was testing me with thatst question, from his reaction it looks like he agreed with my answer.¡¯ Reflecting back on the meeting, he felt like he did a great job picking the members as well. Following Commander Zaman¡¯s advice, he strived for a diverse set of skills which would cover each other¡¯s weaknesses. Sol also took into consideration that he wasn¡¯t nning on staying and created a team that would still be able to function without him. They didck a bit in magic diversity with only one true mage in the squad, but as Sol¡¯s squad obtained merits, they would be allocated more knights. For now, Sol and Nataly would have to do as the magic users. ¡¯Mages can be addedter, but the more pressing matter is whether we can actuallyplete the mission. Nataly and Aron are still C-Rank, so we arecking a bit in terms of power, but as long as the orcs don¡¯t catch us sneaking into the mountains, it should be fine.¡¯ If Sol had more time to prepare, he would have brought the whole squad to the dungeon and brought them all up to at least level 80. Sadly, time was not on their side because each day that passed increased the chance of the orcs discovering the material. If they did find it, then the difficulty of the mission would go from hard to impossible. ¡¯I don¡¯t regret including them in the squad. Even if theyck levels, Nataly has summons which are useful on many asions, while Aron is very strong. He is also crazy good atworking and information without even trying.¡¯ Happy with his team, Sol left the meeting room and headed straight to the stables. He already had his things packed and ready to go, though it was more apt to say he never unpacked in the first ce. He had two spatial rings he never sold, and that was where all his personal belongings were stored. The amount of space the two rings had was much more than his old home back in Initium and was much safer than just leaving it in his room. Arriving at the stables, he saw three carriages with two hornsteads pulling each carriage. Unlike horses, hornsteads were C-Rank six-legged monsters with incredible endurance, able to run for three days straight without rest. They did this by cycling the legs used to run every hour. Hornsteads were even able to sleep while running, and the driver of the carriage could gently steer them without much issue. These monsters were incredibly useful, if not for their huge appetites and their slow reproductive cycle. That was why the Royal Pce only had 50 of these monsters in their stable and only used them for missions where speed was vital. Sol noticed he wasn¡¯t the first to arrive, as the two other squads assigned to this mission were already there and ready to depart. "If it isn¡¯t the rookie captain! Come over here!" N?v(el)B\\jnn A man and a woman who were discussing near the carriage called Sol over. ¡¯Judging by the emblem on their uniform, they¡¯re both captains.¡¯ Sol approached and introduced himself, "Knight captain Sol, are you two leading the other squads in this mission?" The man nodded, "No need to be so formal, we are the same rank after all. I¡¯m Yolter and she is Pinema." "Say, would you mind telling us what route you were given?" Pinema asked with a kind smile. Sol¡¯s immediate thought was: ¡¯Is this some kind of test?¡¯ "We aren¡¯t supposed to divulge that information to each other." Pinema waved her hand, "It¡¯s fine, it¡¯s a simple mission so there is no danger in saying it." Sol stood firm, "No, I don¡¯t believe a mission to retrieve a legendary item would be as simple as you say. Even the mission details were clear that we would not tell anyone our route." "... Right, I almost forgot," the woman said while internally cursing him. ¡¯Dammit, why is this newbie such a stickler for the rules? It¡¯s not like he is capable of getting there before us.¡¯ Because of the sensitive nature of this mission, the squads would travel different routes with different public objectives. They didn¡¯t wish to alert orc spies or human traitors to their groups traveling north to orcish territories. As a precaution, they weren¡¯t supposed to divulge their routes to the other squads either, in case one got caught by the orcs and had that information extracted. While they weren¡¯t supposed to ask each other, Pinema did so with the goal of finding out who would arrive at the location first. The objective of the three squads was to obtain and bring back a legendary material, but thereiny the problem. Only one squad could bring it back, which meant only one squad would get therge amount of merit and reputation while the other two would only receive a small amount of meritparatively. It¡¯s not often that a legendary material is found, and usually, it would be a huge matter involving many organizations and parties fighting for it. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity to obtain a legendary material where all the credit would fall onto one squad. If they wanted to climb higher beyond just knight captain, and they did, they needed to be the ones to obtain it. Though Sol was unaware that the amount of merit ofpleting this mission was huge, as he neverpleted any other mission before, his desire to obtain it first was strong. This wasn¡¯t a normal mission; this was a race. Chapter 169: Setting Off The atmosphere between the three knight captains turned sour as Sol remained firm on his stance. Yolter and Pinema didn¡¯t divulge their routes either, so nobody knew where the others were heading. Yolter thought to himself, ¡¯Even if I knew their routes, I can¡¯t do anything with that information. I¡¯ll just have to go as fast as I can and hope for the best.¡¯ He believed it would serve no use to him to know their routes, especially if one of theirs was faster than his. He also knew it was possible for one of their routes to be quicker, as his path didn¡¯t go directly north but instead went northeast and corrected straight to the objective around the halfway point. Even if he rushed the hornsteads, it would take a little under two weeks to arrive at the Orna Mountains. The three captains shared empty pleasantries until Sol¡¯s squad finally arrived. "It was nice to meet you both. Good luck on your journey." Sol excused himself from the awkward atmosphere and headed to his team gathered around the carriage. Everyone had changed from their formal uniforms to armor. Aron, Lapis, and Rex all wore the same light armor as Sol, the only difference being that Aron¡¯s armor was even lighter without shoulder guards and other parts he deemed unnecessary. Duncan was the only one wearing the heavy variant of the knight armor, with a tower shield strapped onto his back which he carried effortlessly. Nataly, being the only true mage in the group, was easily identified as such by her drastically different armor, which was essentially just robes designed in the style of the Royal Knights. They all looked ready to go, but Sol couldn¡¯t help but notice something wasn¡¯t right. "Rex, why are you carrying threerge bags? Don¡¯t you have a spatial ring?" Rex had a sheepish smile as he answered, "Well¡­ I used to share a ring with someone, but we are no longer in the same squad. Will this be a problem?" Sol was about toment on how stupid that was, but besides the fact that it would be inappropriate for a captain to say that, he remembered what he read in Rex¡¯s profile and could somewhat understand why. "It¡¯s fine. For now, let me hold onto it in my spatial ring to not weigh the carriage down. We need to get to our destination as fast as possible." Rex nodded and handed over his bags. As Sol stored them in his ring, he asked the rest of the squad, "Is everyone ready to set off?" "Yes, Captain," Duncan affirmed while the rest nodded. "Alright, let¡¯s go then." Soon, they were off to the north. Aron, being given the driver responsibility today, drove the hornsteads out of the pce and the city, catching the eyes of many as the monsters weren¡¯tmonly used. The other two squads headed out in different directions, one leaving west, another east, while Sol¡¯s squad headed straight north. Once they were far away from the city, Sol used [Muffle Movements], creating a thin barrier surrounding the carriage to cover their noises. Rex raised his head in confusion as he felt the skill activate around them. "I know I didn¡¯t exin much besides the fact that we are heading to the Orna Mountains, so let me exin now. Our main objective is to retrieve a legendary material that we believe is near the border. We don¡¯t know what it is exactly, but we do have a general description: it¡¯s a bluish-white fruit that is growing off a tree made of ice. Once we get there, we don¡¯t have to wait for the other squads unless we determine we can¡¯t get it alone." Aron yelled in shock, "Our first mission is to get a legendary fruit?! And here I thought we would be doing big league stuff a year from now." Internally thankful he used [Muffle Movements] in case of eavesdroppers, Sol nodded. "But remember, until we obtain the fruit, no one can know where we are going. We are crossing into orc territory. If they catch word of us heading there, we will face fierce resistance. If anyone asks, say we are going to Chilton to clear out a bandit encampment." Chilton was a town that was right on the border between the two nations. While it was usually the job of the army and local forces like the Adventurers Guild to deal with such matters, it wasn¡¯t umon for knights to be sent to take care of it sometimes. This was especially understandable once they knew that this was a newly established squad, so it could be seen as a practice exercise for them. The knights all nodded, understanding the seriousness of this mission, except for Duncan, who leaned back with a frown and let his thoughts drift. ... Grand Knight Lawrence was in Commander Zaman¡¯s office discussing the three squads that had just set off. "Zaman, did you really give him such tant favoritism? On such an important mission too?" Lawrence wasn¡¯t too happy with Zaman that he even dropped the formalities. "What do you mean, Lawrence?" "You were supposed to assign the north route to the most capable squad. I know he is your student, but he has no actual experience besides adventuring. They will now arrive three days before the other two squads. If they get caught by the orcs patrolling the border, they will raise their guard making it much harder for the other two squads so we can kiss that fruit goodbye." "I don¡¯t see the problem, Lawrence. I did assign the most capable squad the north route." Zaman pulled six papers from his ring. They each had the name of one of the members of Sol¡¯s squad. "Take a look at the people on this squad. They have three peak B-Rankers, Sol, Lapis, and Duncan, so they don¡¯tck in terms of firepowerpared to the other squads. Next, we have Rex, who is a mid B-Ranker, but he is one of the most perceptive men we have. He will easily spot the orcs patrolling the border, so it¡¯s just a simple matter of walking around them. Lastly, we have Aron and Nataly, both are C-Rankers, but they have unique skill sets. Though I¡¯ll admit Aron¡¯s is less useful in this mission, Nataly¡¯s magic is extremely versatile. Remember, the objective is a fruit. Her nature magic might be vital in recovering it." Reading over the documents, Lawrence¡¯s eyes widened in surprise. Even in situations outside of this mission, this team appeared well equipped for whatever maye their way. "Commander¡­ Did you select the members of this squad?" Zaman shook his head, "Not one bit. It was all him." He tapped on Sol¡¯s paper. "The only input I had was when he asked about the other A-Ranker from the test, Itaya. I cautioned him against it only because we still don¡¯t know why she decided to join us. Speaking of which, how is she fitting in with her team?" "All is normal. She is obediently following her captain for now. I¡¯ll let you know as soon as I find something." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "Please do. I¡¯ll contact Guildmaster Orion and see if he knows about her as well." Chapter 170: The Veteran "[Restricting Vines]!" The ground cracked as green vines shot out and wrapped themselves around arge raptor-like creature. Its abnormallyrge ws tried to cut the vines, but the vines restrained its movements, not allowing it to retaliate. "Scree!" With the raptor-like creature fully immobilized, Aron swooped in for the killing blow. "Hah!" Using his skill [Bear Punch], his fist carried a frightening amount of strength as it collided with the poor raptor-like creature. Arge hole was created as its insides sted out through the other side of its body, killing it instantly. Its body dropped to the ground where 13 other monster corpsesy dead not long ago. Finished with thest enemy, Aron turned around and gave his team, waiting in the caravan, a thumbs up with his hand drenched in the monster¡¯s blood. No one was perturbed by his hand as they knew it wasn¡¯t his blood, and after traveling for a few days, they came to realize his way of fighting was rather messy. It was undeniably powerful, but the end result usually left him covered in blood and dirt. Rex, who sat on top of the carriage, gave a thumbs up back and some encouraging words. "Nice job! You¡¯re both getting faster each time." This wasn¡¯t the first time their group was attacked. Wild monsters would asionally travel close to the road and attack them, not knowing who they were messing with. Whenever it was C-Rank and below, they would let Nataly and Aron take them on as practice and only intervene if the enemies¡¯ numbers were too high. They would only really take action when a B-Rank pack of monsters appeared, which had only happened once in their journey so far. Sol hopped off the carriage and looked at the scene of the massacre. After quietly siphoning the monster¡¯s skills, he raised his hand and said, "I¡¯ll take care of the corpses." Holes appeared underneath the raptors as they fell six feet under. The pits then closed up, leaving no trace of the monsters. It was an instantaneous cleanup. "Let¡¯s keep going then. We are four days away from Chilton. Duncan, would you take the reins?" "Fine." Duncan gave his dispirited reply, which had urred often throughout their journey. ¡¯He always does what I ask, but he¡¯s always grumpy. I thought he would get more friendly as we traveled, but if anything, it¡¯s getting worse. I should talk to him.¡¯ The group boarded their carriage again and set off. Once they were in motion, Sol moved to the front of the carriage and, through the opening in the front, asked Duncan. "Duncan, can we talk?" With his hands on the reins, Duncan nodded. "Sure, Captain." Sol passed through the opening and took a seat next to the middle-aged man. There was more than enough space on the coachman¡¯s seat for the both of them, so it wasn¡¯t a problem. Taking a moment to feel the nice breeze of wind blowing on his face, Sol used [Muffle Movements] to silence the area around the two. "I¡¯m using a magic item so no one can hear us. I¡¯ve noticed you haven¡¯t been in a good mood since we left. Is everything okay?" "Why wouldn¡¯t it be?" "Well, today I woke up and found three trees with a fist-shaped indent on them. I¡¯m pretty certain that was you." "Couldn¡¯t it have been Aron?" Solughed. "Haha, it couldn¡¯t have been him. We both know if he punched those trees, he would have let us know. In fact, he would do it in front of us to show how strong he is. Also, if it was him, those trees wouldn¡¯t be left standing. He doesn¡¯t know the meaning of restraint." Aron had, in fact, already done that before when he challenged Rex to a contest of strength. He confidently stated that even though he was C-Rank, he was still stronger than Rex. They got into a heated argument over who was stronger until they decided to put it to the test. The challenge was simple: they would both attack the same object and whoever did the most damage would win. But because nothing in their vicinity was strong enough to withstand their attacks, they asked Sol if he could make boulders for them. Unfortunately for them, Sol denied their request because they were on a mission. Unable to rebuke his sound argument, Duncan admitted it. "Fine. It was me. Couldn¡¯t sleepst night." "But why?" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Duncan considered for a moment making a random excuse but ended up deciding against it and being truthful. "Because you put me in this squad. I was about to get promoted to captain, but you ruined that chance and put me here." This was news to Sol. "You were going to get promoted? I didn¡¯t know." Duncan huffed. "Well, I was. My previous captain, Easel, informed my squad he was retiring. That meant someone in my squad would be promoted to take his ce. I¡¯ve been waiting 20 years for this chance and just when it was within my grasp, you came and told me I was transferred. How could I not be mad?" "I see, but did he tell you that you were going to be promoted?" Duncan shook his head. "No, but I know I deserve it. Regardless of the time I served, I also have the highest merit and one of the highest sess rates on missions throughout my entire career." Hearing Duncan¡¯s side of the story, Sol quickly connected the dots. "I get why you¡¯re mad at me, but do you know why I chose you for my squad?" This question was a no-brainer to Duncan. "I have 20 years of experience. Unlike Rex, who was only here for four years, I can help you look out and prevent mistakes rookies normally make." Sol nodded. "Yeah, that was my initial reason, but then I read more into your file. Among all the knights I could choose from, you are the only one with more than 15 years of experience. Why is that? Anyone who has stayed longer than that would have either already retired or been promoted. I¡¯m sure you know why." He nodded. "My third talent¡­" Chapter 171: A Real Chance "[Splendorous Cooking]. A nonbat talent. When you joined, you were still C-Rank and hadn¡¯t unlocked it yet. But when you did unlock it, I noticed you were transferred to different squads frequently for over a year." Duncan sighed. "I remember. Nobody wanted me at the time. I kept getting transferred so much I thought about quitting then and there." "Why didn¡¯t you?" "Because being a knight has been my dream since I was a young boy. When I enlisted, I was just happy doing my job and keeping my country safe, but I still wanted the opportunity to rise higher and do more than what I was currently doing. Even after gaining my third talent, I didn¡¯t give up and trained hard. With fewer skills than other knights, I focused on making the few I had much stronger, beating quantity with quality. Eventually, I became strong enough to stand beside them despite my third talent. Everything finally lined up for my promotion and then¡­" "About that¡­" This next part was a little hard for Sol to say. He didn¡¯t want to be the one to break the news to Duncan, but if he didn¡¯t, no one else would have. He would have continued believing he had an opportunity to move up in the ranks and continued fighting for what was a lie. "The list of avable knights for transfer I got¡­ it only includes knights that their captains don¡¯t consider essential. You were the only member of your team on that list. In other words¡­" Duncan¡¯s body tensed up as he clenched hard onto the reins, identally giving the hornsteads themand to go faster. All the people on board the carriage felt the strong jostle from the hornsteads elerating, but their high stats rendered them unaffected by it. "I wasn¡¯t even considered for the promotion¡­" "No, you weren¡¯t." The two sat in silence as the hornsteads pulled their carriage on the bumpy road. This revtion felt like a punch in the gut to Duncan as he realized that once again he would be stuck as a regr knight for his entire career. "I never got to the true reason why I chose you. Initially, like I said, it was because you had the experience to help me where I¡¯mcking. But after delving into your history, I wanted to give you a chance. A real one." "A real chance?" Duncan turned his head in confusion. "I honestly find it ludicrous that you have not been promoted yet. Your record is wless and you have more experience than most. It simply doesn¡¯t make sense to leave you at the lowest rank." "Are you sure? Maybe I¡¯m not worthy to be captain." While Duncan himself knew that he was worthy to be captain, his confidence took a hit when he found out he wasn¡¯t even considered for the promotion. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "You should know from experience that while power is the main deciding factor, it¡¯s not always the smartest. Just because they are stronger doesn¡¯t mean they would make better decisions than a seasoned veteran. I can understand giving opportunities to young people like me, but topletely disregard your ability because of one talent is crazy. I¡¯m sure if Commander Zaman knew of your case, he would have already intervened." Commander Zaman only managed the promotion to Grand Knight, which was a step below him. He could also directly intervene with lower knight ranks, but he refrained from doing so unless it was absolutely necessary. There were over four thousand knights; if he had to manage them on a case-by-case basis, he would never get any work done. In other words, he waspletely unaware of Duncan¡¯s plight. When Sol requested Duncan¡¯s addition to the squad, Zaman approved it because of his good record and years of experience. He had no idea Sol was already considering his recement. Duncan usually kept his emotions in check, but these past few moments had been a rollercoaster. From anger to despair to immense gratitude, tears began to flow down his face as he spoke with a huge smile. "Thank you. For giving me a chance." Sol patted the much older man on the back. "I should be the one thanking you. You¡¯ve helped me more than once already." Throughout the journey, Duncan intervened multiple times to prevent Sol from making a bad call or to suggest better alternatives. Even though he was angry at Sol at the time, he still put it aside to make sure the mission wouldn¡¯t end in failure or stumble into unnecessary difficulties. Before they even set off, Duncan made sure to verify the supplies to ensure they were all there and of good quality. ording to Duncan, at times, workers would sometimes misjudge the life expectancy of some perishables or not properly check the condition of the tools. As the moment passed, Duncan wiped his tears and suddenly had a question about something Sol mentioned. "You said the knights you could choose were only those that their captains don¡¯t consider essential. Why was Rex not essential? I know for a fact he is one of our best scouts." "Oh, Rex?" Sol chuckled. "He broke up with his girlfriend. Apparently, it was a pretty ugly breakup, and they were both in the same squad." "Sheesh. That¡¯s why you should never date another member of your squad." "I¡¯m sure he learned that lesson the hard way." "Hahaha!" The two men enjoyed some small talk as they continued traveling north until Nataly reminded Sol that he still had the noise barrier active. He deactivated it and joined the rest in the back, sharing stories of their adventures. Chapter 172: Chilton The two hornsteads pulled the carriage with their four front legs, letting the back two rest. Nataly was in the driver¡¯s seat, making the monsters run at a moderate pace. The air had be colder, with a thin sheet of snow covering the road ahead, and she was worried the hornsteads would slip and fall if they went at their maximum speed. Rex felt the cold air and peeked his head outside. Far in the distance, he could see a tall and expansive mountain range that, at their highest points, pierced the clouds. "I can already see the Orna Mountains!" "Really? Let me see!" Aron poked his head out and saw the beautiful mountains thatpletely covered the northern horizon. "Wow, that¡¯s unreal¡­" Everyone gazed at the mountain range in awe until Duncan snapped them out of it. "We should arrive at Chilton soon. We should get ready." Sol agreed. "Once we take care of the bandit encampment, we will sneak up the mountain." Aron, who was still sightseeing, asked, "Wait, we are actually taking down a bandit encampment?" He thought it was just a cover story for their real objective. "It¡¯s on the way, and they have been causing a lot of trouble to the nearby towns. It¡¯s also good for if we get caught by the orcs in the mountains. We can just say we were chasing bandits up north and went too far." Sol knew it wasn¡¯t the best excuse, but it was amon one used between nations to prevent the issue from escting further. Though with how hostile the orcs have been these past few years, it¡¯s likely they will go with a "kill now, ask questionster" methodology. Not long after, they arrived at the snowy town of Chilton. Though called a town, it was just arge vige thatcked a lot of facilities a normal town would have. As they got closer, they began to notice that something was wrong. The fence that surrounded the town was broken in many sections, and the majority of the houses were either destroyed or broken into. The hornsteads came to a halt, and everyone got off the carriage to survey the situation. It was eerily quiet with nobody in sight. Sol checked his immediate surroundings with [True Sight], but being restricted to just 30 meters, he was unable to find any other signs of life. "Rex, can you scout the area? See if you can find anyone." "On it, Captain." Rex jumped onto the roof of a building before promptly hopping to another one. He continued doing so as he carefully checked his surroundings while looking for any signs of life. Sol watched Rex hop between buildings as he thought to himself what to do next. "We were only informed that the bandits attacked travelers, but it appears that information is a bit outdated." "They were clearly attacked, but besides some blood, I don¡¯t see any bodies. They may yet live," Duncan pointed out. Lapis circled from the other side of the carriage, holding her spear tightly, ready for battle. Though there was nobody around, she wasn¡¯t going to let her guard down. "But why would they capture them?" "Maybe to sell them as ves? Doesn¡¯t the ck market deal in ves?" Aron said. Duncan disagreed, "No, there¡¯s no ck market near here. Unless a new one was recently established near here, I don¡¯t think they could transport an entire town¡¯s worth of people to the one located near Kerman." Nataly gave Duncan a weird look. "There¡¯s one in Kerman? I lived there for two years and I never heard of it." "It¡¯s one of the biggest ones in the kingdom. We have tried to shut it down multiple times, but as long as the four A-Rankers that control it live, we won¡¯t be able to do much about it." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om While they were discussing Kerman¡¯s ck market, Rex came walking with five people trailing behind him. They all appeared to be fighters based on the armor and weapons they each possessed. "Found these five searching for others as well. They went out hunting this morning, but when they came back, it was already like this." One of the hunters, with puffy red eyes, got on his knees in front of Duncan. "Please save our families, Sir Knight! Those bandits attacked while we were away! But we¡¯re sure they¡¯re still alive! We scoured the entire town and found no bodies! We think they captured them all!" Duncan gave a side nce to Sol, wondering if he should be the one to respond, given that he wasn¡¯t the captain. Sol thought about it and gave him the signal to take the lead. Not only was Duncan more experienced with handling people, but he was also older, having a reassuring aura. "Rest assured, we will help you save your loved ones. I know you¡¯re in a rush to save them, but before we can go, I need you to answer a few questions..." While he questioned the hunters, Sol and the squad made preparations. They found stables to keep the hornsteads and parked the carriage in a safe ce. Duncan asked them various questions regarding the town¡¯s overall strength and the recent bandit activity. Though the hunters answered all his questions, it was obvious from their expressions that they wanted them to hurry up. Duncan understood they were worried for their loved ones and reassured them that they needed all the information they could get to know what they were dealing with. After a few minutes of questioning, Duncan gave Sol a report on his findings. "Apparently, the bandit encampment we were tasked to take down no longer exists. They and a lot of smaller bandit groups in the area joined up under someone¡¯s leadership, and they now operate out of an old fort. Based on the town¡¯s destruction, the fact that they only had C-Rankers, and theck of dead bodies, leads me to believe they have B-Rankers and not a small amount. On the bright side, there is no evidence of any A-Ranker. How should we proceed?" Sol leaned back against a wall of a destroyed house as he pondered what to do. "I¡¯m not that worried about fighting the bandits. Based on your information, I think we can take them on pretty easily. My only worry is the townspeople. If we attack head-on, they will likely use them as hostages." Duncan nodded in agreement. He estimated there were at least ten B-Rankers based on what they previously knew of the old bandit groups. During the fight, they could intentionally attack the captured townspeople to force them into a bad situation or threaten them with killing them all. It also wasn¡¯t an option to disregard the townspeople¡¯s safety and let them die at the bandits¡¯ hands if they could prevent it. "We need to check the situation out first. Call Rex over. He and I are going on a quick scouting mission." Chapter 173: Zayn The old fort in the Orna Mountains used to serve as an important choke point in stopping the Frostaxe n from invading the kingdom. Over the years, though, thendscape changed, and the route that the fort originally defended became too hard for the orc army to traverse. Avnches became moremon in the area, forcing the orcs to find alternative routes, which eventually led them west towards Kerman. The fires andnterns within the fort had been lit once more after so many years. "Life is good." Arge man leaned back in his throne-like chair. A woman bound in chains next to him trembled as she fed him from a tray of exotic meats. The man was Zayn, the current leader of the bandits in the northern region. The woman tried to keep her arm as steady as possible as she fed him but couldn¡¯t help but tremble a little. Still, she managed to feed him without dropping the meat or making any other mistakes. "See? Was that so hard?" Zayn spoke not to the woman bound in chains but to a man whoy on the ground missing his right arm. He had made the unfortunate mistake of identally dropping a slice of meat on Zayn¡¯sp, which resulted in him swiftly losing his arm. His right shoulder had already been healed, leaving a short stump. They didn¡¯t want him to die, after all. As the woman continued to feed him, a bandit entered the room. "Boss, we¡ª" "Boss?" Zayn asked with a menacing tone. The bandit shivered in fear. It had only been two days since his old bandit group was absorbed into this one, and he hadn¡¯tpletely adjusted. "L-lord Zayn, we have the total numbers. We captured 2,432 people from Chilton, and they are all currently locked downstairs, with the exception of those two." "Good." A smile grew on Zayn¡¯s face as he thought to himself, ¡¯That¡¯s half of this month¡¯s quota. Another raid like that and we¡¯re golden.¡¯ "Tomorrow we are raiding Sipenan." "So soon? But¡ª" "Did I fucking stutter?" Zayn interjected, instilling more fear into the bandit. He hadn¡¯t been here for long, but he knew what happened to those who went against him. "Do as I say. After this raid, we will live like kings for the next month." Though scared, the bandit was also excited at the prospect. "Yes, my Lord!" The bandit bowed before heading off to tell the others. Watching the bandit scurry off, Zayn chuckled to himself. ¡¯Fear keeps them in line, but to truly make them work, they need rewards.¡¯ Left alone, Zayn went back to enjoying the handfed delicious meat. That was until a woman entered with a much more authoritative presence. "Tomorrow? Really?" "Why not? We would then get the rest of the month to have fun and rx." Zayn didn¡¯t treat her like the bandit that was previously here. She was one of the few B-Rankers in their group and deserved some level of respect, even if she was weaker than him. She facepalmed. "Don¡¯t you think making two entire towns disappear will attract some attention?" "Oh, so one town¡¯s worth of people disappearing doesn¡¯t?" She made an ugly face as she couldn¡¯t deny it. "Still, isn¡¯t this too fast?" Zayn reassured her. "Once we are done with the next town, we go silent for a month. The pressure should die down after that long." "Fine, I hope you¡¯re right." Neither of them actually knew if it would y out how they wanted, as it was their first time raiding entire towns, they were ying it by ear. "By the way, when are theying to pick them up? We aren¡¯t going to feed them, so it¡¯s on them if they die." Even if they wanted to feed the captured townsfolk, they had nowhere near enough food and water to sustain them for more than a meal. "I already contacted them when we got back. They should be here around tomorrow morning." The woman nodded and began to leave. "You have fun then. I¡¯m gonna get hammered." ¡¯Tomorrow?¡¯ Unbeknownst to the two of them, someone had been listening in the entire time underground. Sol didn¡¯t see anyone else approaching with [True Sight], so he assumed there wasn¡¯t anything else he could learn from them and used [Burrow] to scout the fort further. He had already found where the townsfolk were captured, in a stone building near the center of the fort that used to be a prison. It wasn¡¯t made to amodate so many people at once, so instead of using the cells to keep them locked up, they were simply shoved into the building and locked inside. While the situation for the townsfolk was tragic, it was even worse for the few who could fight. Those who could fight had been locked up elsewhere, specifically in the main building of the fort, which also housed a smaller prison. The people locked up there were much more dangerous, so to prevent any idents, the bandits had cut off their arms, making it so if they did escape, they couldn¡¯t do much. Sol was furious when he found them in that condition, but he refrained from doing anything rash. He had seen everything he needed to see and traveled underground to the outside of the fort, where he emerged a mile away. ¡¯Rex isn¡¯t back yet. Guess I have to wait.¡¯ N?v(el)B\\jnn While he explored the fort and its buildings, Rex was tasked with getting an overhead view of the fort and assessing the bandit forces. It was hard for Sol to do that as he couldn¡¯t see or hear that well while underground. After 30 minutes of waiting, Rex returned. "Yo, Captain. Want me to tell you what I found?" "You can tell me once we regroup with the others. We are low on time." Chapter 174: Corpsebloom "We only have tonight to save them then," Duncan said after being briefed on what Sol and Rex saw in the fort. The entire squad was discussing the bandit problem in one of the still intact buildings of Chilton. Sol nodded. "Our priority is saving the captured people first and foremost, so we can¡¯t just charge right in. Here¡¯s what I have in mind¡­" ¡­ When the moon was at its peak, the bandits at the abandoned fort went to sleep, with the exception of those who were forced to keep watch. Though the majority wanted to drink and party all night after a sessful raid, they were told they had to raid another town tomorrow. No one wanted to get hit by a random arrow because they were too tired to react in time. One bandit who was posted on the wall of the fort let out a loud yawn. Another bandit close by gave him a soft jab on the waist. "Hey man, don¡¯t fall asleep. You know what happened to thest guy who did that." How could he forget? He had watched as the poor bastard was publicly executed after getting brutally mutted. "I swear, he makes us work harder than the damn army. I thought we became bandits to get away from all that. No responsibility, do whatever you want¡­" "Not to mention his weird nobility kink. Why is he forcing us to treat him like some kind of lord? Does he get off from it?" "Hah! Maybe." The two went back to watching in silence. The bandit who almost fell asleep looked towards the starry night sky, a faint smile appearing on his face. "I never really took the time to look at the stars. They¡¯re rather pretty, aren¡¯t they?" "Oh yeah, you¡¯re right." "You know, maybe the night shift isn¡¯t so bad. It¡¯s the only time this ce is actually quiet, and it feels like I¡¯m away from it all." The bandits were always rowdy, with constant drinking, yelling, and brawling. Now that they were asleep, it made the sleepy bandit realize how nice the quiet could be every once in a while. "Plus, we don¡¯t have to go in tomorrow¡¯s raid. We can sleep in while they do all the hard work." "Heh, true that." The two bandits returned to their silence as they watched their surroundings once more. The sleepy bandit rubbed his left eye as he spoke again, "Hey Omar, what if we do this every nigh¡ªOMAR?!" The other bandit, Omar, was now lying dead on the ground as a woman with short dark green hair removed her spear from his chest. In the short moment the sleepy bandit was rubbing his eye, she leaped up the 20-foot wall and killed Omar in a single strike. "Atta¡ª!" The sleepy bandit called for help, but before he could finish yelling, Lapis swung her spear and decapitated him immediately. He was but a weak C-Rank and didn¡¯t have any way to respond to her incredible speed. Alongside the wall, the other bandits posted had also been killed in a simr manner. Rex was able to silently leap up the wall and take down his two targets. Nataly and Aron had to work together as she summoned vines to choke one of them while Aron took down the other. Duncan stood next to Nataly not only because his heavy armor didn¡¯t let him jump up the wall but also to protect Nataly as she cast her spell from a safe distance. Once Duncan and Nataly received the all clear from the ones on the wall, she chanted a spell to bring them up as well. "[Rising Beanstalk]." The ground slightly trembled as a thick stem of a nt rose from beneath the two of them, carrying them up alongside the wall. Once they reached the top, the two hopped onto the wall and saw the six bandit bodies lined up. "This should be enough, right?" Rex asked. Nataly nodded. "Yeah¡­ Gods, I really hate this spell." Though she protested, she chanted the spell regardless. She put her hands together as she reached the end of the chant. "[Corpsebloom Seeds]." She opened her hand to reveal six murky green seeds. She handed them to Aron as she didn¡¯t want to do the honors herself. "Put them on their chests." Aron did so withoutint, as he wasn¡¯t one to be so easily grossed out. After cing a seed on each of their chests, the seeds cracked open as roots grew and dug into their flesh. "Quickly throw them away!" Nataly urged them. Once the process started, it was irreversible. Rex grabbed two and chucked them far to a building near the wall. "Toss them over there, that¡¯s where most are sleeping." Lapis and Aron nodded, throwing the rest of the bodies in that direction. "Huh?!" A bandit who was still awake and going on a walk saw the bodiesnd near him and yelled in surprise. Others who were also awake came over to check it out. "What the¡ª?! Are we under attack?!" "Wake the others!" As the bandits scattered to wake the others and prepare to fight back, the seeds kept silently growing inside the corpses. Soon the bandits were awake, and they all rushed outside with their weapons in hand. One bandit with a vision rted talent pointed at the wall and yelled. "Over there!" "What is that?!" Another voice yelled,ing from one of the bandits who was checking the bodies. A small blood red flower bud had grown out of the body¡¯s chest and was about to bloom. As the petals opened up, the bodies expanded like balloons, and before anyone could even understand what was happening¡ª BOOM! All six bodies exploded with violent force, sting anyone unfortunate enough to be near them. Almost fifty bandits were caught in its radius, with the closest ones immediately killed and those further away critically injured. Back on the wall, Duncan watched the scene unfold with cold eyes. He didn¡¯t care for the death of the bandits but noted that it was the perfect time to strike. "Time to go loud. Let¡¯s go!"n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Chapter 175: Going Loud The five knights leaped down the wall. While Duncan couldn¡¯t jump up the wall, it wasn¡¯t an issue for him to hop down, even while carrying Nataly in his arms. After cing her on the ground, he took out his shield and got ready for battle. Though the explosion took out a decent number of bandits, it didn¡¯t even total a third of their overall forces. The bandits came running towards their group with weapons drawn, exuding confidence. One of the bandits rallied those who were still hesitating. "It¡¯s just five of them while we are in the hundreds!" Lapis, Rex, and Aron charged headfirst into the fray, while Duncan stayed back to protect Nataly as she chanted. Lapis dived into the middle of a group of bandits, who without hesitation attacked her with various weapons and skills. "What?!" "How is that possible?!" The bandits gaped in awe as she dodged every single one of their strikes. She bent her body in unnatural ways, making all their swings and stabs just miss her by an inch. As she dodged, her spear moved as well, striking out at the most opportune times, killing the unlucky bandits in one motion. As the numbers surrounding her grew, she crouched down and held her spear up. Her hands rolled to the bottom of her spear as she gripped it and used her talent skill [Viper Bite]. The spear came to life as it bent and rapidly stabbed all those near her. The bandits that were stabbed yelled in pain but quickly realized they weren¡¯t badly injured. "Keep going!" a bandit urged. They continued to attack Lapis, but she either perfectly moved her body out of their trajectory or her spear bent itself in the way to block the attack. As the onught continued, something went awry for the bandits. Out of nowhere, they began copsing on the ground with their eyes rolled upward. Upon closer inspection, they were the bandits she stabbed with her talent skill [Viper Bite], and the area they were stabbed moments ago turned ck as the poison did its job. Not far away from her battle, Rex and Aron were working together to clear out their own group. Rex used his short sword to cut down the bandits as they came, none able to withstand his strikes. He was strong and precise, each cut aiming between the gaps of armor, requiring little effort to cut through. Aron stood behind him, covering a smaller area. Though he was only C-Rank, he was also much stronger than the average C-Ranker. He wouldn¡¯t have been able to be a knight if he wasn¡¯t. The bandits discovered he was the weakest of the three and chose to target him, but that turned out to be a mistake. Just because he was a wild pugilist didn¡¯t mean he had no way of attacking groups of enemies at the same time. Aron let out a roar and mmed both his hands together, releasing a booming shockwave that stunned those in front of him. He then punched forward with his skill [Howling Fist], which sent a strong st of force to the stunned bandits. Any bandit within a straight 15 foot line from that strike was violently smashed backward into more bandits, resulting in nearly 30 dead or critically injured. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "Woah," Rexmented as he shed two bandits with one swing. "Can you do that like ten more times?" Aron shook his head. "I can do it again in like five minutes." "Ah, we¡¯ll probably be done by then. Look over there." Rex pointed with his chin towards Nataly and Duncan. The two were surrounded by nearly a hundred bandits but were unable to get within five feet of them thanks to the glowing silver dome around them. Duncan had used his talent skill [Shimmer Dome], whichpletely protected them. Even the bandit mages were unable to do anything, as their strongest attacks could only make the barrier shake slightly. Within the safety of the barrier, Nataly had been chanting non-stop. "[Tree Sentinel]!" From the ground, a massive tree sprouted. Its trunk at the bottom split in four as it stood up and began attacking the bandits. Bandits did their best to deal with the monstrosity, but it was five times their size, and a normal swing would send them flying. A tank specialized bandit stood in its way and did his best to hold it back. While doing so, he yelled for the help of the mages. "We need fire spells!" "¡­emerge and burn all in my way, [me Pir]!" One was already chanting it the moment he saw the tree sentinel appear. A pir of fire erupted from the mage¡¯s staff as it burned the giant tree. The tree easily caught on fire, but immune to the pain, it continued swinging, though it wouldn¡¯tst long. Luckily, Nataly was almost done chanting her next spell. "[Wild Growth]!" The tree, though still on fire, began to regrow its burnt parts rapidly. Eventually, the mes died out, and a tree twice as big as before emerged. It mmed downwards, sending the poor bandit that had been holding it back two feet into the ground before turning its attention to the bandit mages. The bandits did their best to stop the tree, but it regrew from everything they threw at it, and it ended up making the tree bigger and stronger. Normally, they would focus on taking down the mage that created it, but they were unable to get past the silver barrier, forcing them to take on the tree monster instead. As this happened, Nataly was chugging a mana potion. The cost of maintaining the tree monster and the regeneration spell was rapidly consuming her mana. Fortunately, they had more than enough potions for her to keep this spellbination active for over a full hour. A few bandits had noticed that the battle was not going in their favor against any of the five enemies and tried to silently disappear from the battle. This didn¡¯t escape the notice of Rex, but he didn¡¯t do anything to stop them. ¡¯I¡¯ll just find them when we¡¯re cleaning upter. Wonder how the Captain is doing though.¡¯ ¡­ A few moments prior to the brawl. BOOM! Within the main building of the fort, there were private rooms that used to be used by high ranking army personnel when the fort was still in use. Now those rooms were inhabited by Zayn and 12 B-Rankers who were rushing out of their rooms with their weapons drawn. "Does anyone know who is attacking us?" one of them asked. Another shook their head. "No, but could it be the orcs?" The woman who met with Zayn earlier that day spoke, "I could see them from the window. It¡¯s five knights; they are likely here for the captured townsfolk." Zayn quickly formted a n. "They either don¡¯t know how many B-Rankers we are or they know and think they can win regardless. Let¡¯s not take any chances. Larry and Nedvar, take thismunication gem and head to the prison downstairs. If I give the signal, kill them. That should make them hesitate." Larry took the gem from Zayn and ran downstairs with Nedvar. "The rest of you, with me. Let¡¯s show our strength in numbers." The bandits nodded and followed behind him, but before they could go, a wall of stone blocked their exit. A taunting voice came from behind them. "Hoh? Show me the strength in your numbers then." Chapter 176: No Excuse Zayn took a step backward in surprise. ¡¯How long has he been there?!¡¯ Sol had arrived not long after the initial explosion. The bandits discussed their ns,pletely unaware of him. He was not even in the walls with [Burrow] but standing quietly in a corner with [Invisibility] and [Muffled Movements] active. He had already checked their status pages and knew none of them had any way to detect him, so he simply waited to make his entrance. The group of bandits were on edge with their hands on their weapons, ready to fight, but Zayn didn¡¯t give themand to do so. "Well? I¡¯m waiting. It¡¯s eleven against one. Are you all that afraid?" Zayn knew better than to charge in after such an obvious taunt. It was clear to him this stranger was confident in taking them all on without an issue. ¡¯I didn¡¯t want to y the hostage card so soon, but¡­¡¯ Just as he was deliberating to threaten Sol with the hostages, one of his allies, still befuddled from drinking the past few hours, lost his sense of fear and attacked. "Die!" The bandit swung his metal quarterstaff, which grew three times its size as it closed the distance in a blink of an eye. Sol stood still, making no move to dodge or block the quarterstaff. The drunk bandit had a smug grin on his face, believing his attack came too fast for Sol to react in time. Ding! When the quarterstaff hit his body, a metallic ringing sound came out as it bounced away. Sol turned his head slowly to where he was hit and said, "You know, I usually dodge attacks, but your attack was even weaker than an Awakened Shieldbearer. Are you sure you¡¯re B-Rank?" Awakened Shieldbearers were one of the weakest enemies in the Necropolis dungeon. Their stats mostly leaned towards vitality, but their strength was nothing to scoff at either. If Sol didn¡¯t actively defend against the undead¡¯s attacks, it would still hurt a little bit, but this bandit couldn¡¯t even do that much. The bandit was undoubtedly B-Rank, the problem was that he was the bottom of the barrel of B-Rankers, they all were. He barely reached this rank after much effort with hismon talents, and yet it was nothing to the man that stood before him. "Screw you!" The drunk bandit was furious at being talked down to in such a way. He retracted his quarterstaff back to its normal length and charged forward. He believed his original attack didn¡¯t do anything because of the skill¡¯s effect of increasing his weapon¡¯s length at the cost of power. Sol felt this was getting tiresome and raised his hand. "Yeah no. I¡¯m done with you." From his hand emerged a red beam that shot forward with frightening power. The drunk bandit was only able to widen his eyes in surprise before the beam sted into his face and exited from the other side. The rest of the bandits who watched this paled in fear. They knew they stood no chance. Sol took out his Lipon in front of the fear-stricken bandits and activated it, releasing a zing sword. "Stop! We can¡¯t beat you, but you can¡¯t kill us!" Zayn yelled. "Oh yeah? Why not?" "The townspeople! If you kill us, my men will kill them all! I doubt you can finish us all off and save them in time!" "Do it then." "We¡¯ll let them live if you let us¡ª! ¡­ Wait. What did you say?" Zayn thought Sol would at least listen to his demands, but his responsepletely threw him for a loop. "I said do it. Give the go-ahead to your friends that went downstairs. I won¡¯t stop you." Sol deactivated his Lipon as a show of good faith. The bandits looked at Zayn nervously; no one knew what Sol was nning. Zayn¡¯s hand trembled as he took out hismunication gem. "Larry, kill half of them." Seconds passed with no response from the gem. It made Zayn and the other bandits think the worst had happened. ¡¯Are they dead?! Did he kill them the moment they left?!¡¯ "Zayn, bad news!" The bandits collectively sighed in relief, thankful they were still alive, but the next words that came from the gem made that relief short-lived. "All the prisoners! They¡¯re gone!" Zayn panicked. "What?! Are you sure?!" "Yes! We looked everywhere and they¡¯re go¡ª!" Mid-sentence, the other side wentpletely silent. "Larry? Are you there?" Sol spoke in a neutral tone, "Don¡¯t bother, they¡¯re already dead." "How?!" Soon after Zayn asked that, four floating hands rose through the floor and positioned themselves behind Sol. Because the hands were like an extension of his body, they were naturally able to use skills like [Burrow]. Zayn was at his wits¡¯ end. They knew he could kill them easily, yet he was giving them false hope before promptly crushing it. "Stop ying with us! If you¡¯re gonna kill us, just do it already!" None of the bandits wanted to die, but as things continued to develop, what little hope they had was long gone. "Oh, you finally noticed I was ying with you. Took you a while, wasn¡¯t making it very subtle. You wanna know why though?" "Does it matter?" Zayn knew he had no choice. He never did the moment Sol appeared. "It¡¯s because the sight of you all makes me livid. You all reached B-Rank, albeit barely, but you still did. You could easily be wealthy off farming B-Rank dungeons and missions. Even C-Rank dungeons would be incredibly profitable and would require little effort. You all could have lived a good life with the power you had." N?v(el)B\\jnn As Sol continued to speak, the angrier he became. His emotions were so strong they began to affect the mana around him, making the bandits feel very real pressure. "So why the fuck are you all here? Attacking, plundering, and hurting innocents." A woman spoke, trying to appeal to his kindness, "Some of us had no choi¡ª." Before she could finish, a stone spike erupted from the ground and stabbed straight through her chest. "You all damn well had a choice! None of you are level 15 bandits that can easily be killed if they encounter the wrong person! Need to eat? Go hunting. Need money? Dungeons and monster parts exist. Wanted by the kingdom? With your power, you can easily cross the border and start anew in another country. There is no excuse to behave the way you all have." One of the bandits got on his knees and begged for his life. "Please let me go! I promise I¡¯ll do as you say! I¡¯ll leave the kingdom, I¡¯ll start over and be a good person." Sol activated his Lipon and swung his de, sending a highly concentrated [Mana sh] towards the man, bisecting him in two. Whether the bandit truly meant what he said and would have changed his life for the better would never be known. "No. I made that mistake once already. I won¡¯t do it again." From his spatial ring, he retrieved four weapons and tossed them to his hands, which dexterously grabbed them. "I don¡¯t usually get to be alone for long, and I have been thinking of a few skillbinations, so please cooperate while I try them out." Chapter 177: Worse than a Monster As the fighting outside was nearing its end, Sol stood at the back exit of the main building, away from all the chaos, looking at a small mound. "At least now they will give back to the world in the form of nutrients." "M-m-monster¡­" A bruise-covered Zayn shuddered as he dangled in the air, wrapped around by metal chains. The chains weren¡¯t attached to anything but floated in the air. Sol had taken them from the prison downstairs a while back and was curious to see how well [Terra Maniption] handled metal. Needless to say, it worked just as well but with a few downsides. Metal wasn¡¯t as plentiful around him as stone and earth, making it hard to use inrge quantities. It also felt different to controlpared to normal earth, which had a more y-like feeling. Metal felt like dry y, and while it was still possible to move and even bend it however he wanted, if he wasn¡¯t careful it would snap, though that could be useful in its own way. "At least monsters won¡¯t mutte hundreds of people; they will give them a swift death. Doesn¡¯t that make you worse than monsters?" Sol had long stopped seeing these bandits as human; he didn¡¯t even consider them animals. What they did was beyond redemption in his eyes, and it was his job to enact justice on behalf of those hurt by them. Beyond their actions, Sol¡¯s mood was also awful because, even though he saved the townsfolk, thosebatants who had their arms amputated would not be able to get them back. Magic that regenerates limbs was rare because of how difficult it was to perform. Only advanced magic users were able to cast such spells, and the other alternative, potions, were also extremely expensive. As things stood, there was no way for Sol to help them regain their limbs, and the thought of that gued his mind. What would they do when they returned to Chilton? Nothing. All they could do when they returned was live out the rest of their lives handicapped. They would need constant assistance from their loved ones, and if they had no one to lean on, they would have to pray themunity helps them. "Please just kill me already¡­" Zayn¡¯s pleas snapped him back to the present, and Sol turned around to finish thest loose end. "Sure, just answer one question. Who told you to capture them? If you answer honestly, I¡¯ll make your death as painless as possible." N?v(el)B\\jnn Zayn froze as he heard the offer. Not because it resulted in his death regardless, but because it would finally be over. In the past five minutes, he had seen all his allies die in various ways, some swift but others excruciatingly painful. The worst of which was when Sol tried to use [Basic Psychic Mastery] to dig through one of the bandits¡¯ minds to gain a better understanding of the skill. [Reinterpret] couldn¡¯t simte the minds of others, making practicing the skill a very slow process. For his first attempt at infiltrating the mind of another person, it went about as well as one would expect. What Sol originally wanted was to simplyb through the bandit¡¯s memories, but his technique was so poor it was akin to using a rusty spoon to perform surgery. The bandit wailed and screamed throughout the slow process until his mind waspletely shredded to pieces. Sol was only able to see some glimpses of the bandit¡¯s memories by the end of it, but it was nothing useful. He hoped to find the information he was currently asking for with this method, but it appeared he needed more practice before he could do that. Luckily, he left Zayn alive as a backup, who eagerly epted his offer. "It was the orcs! A small group of them crossed the border and gave us an offer! If we give them 5000 humans every month, they will give us supplies, weapons, and even a safe haven if we get caught and have to retreat!" Sol raised an eyebrow in intrigue. "How will they take them back with them? Is the old path essible again?" "Please, I answered your question! Kill me!" The chains wrapped around Zayn tightened as they dug into his skin. "You¡¯re in no ce to negotiate. Answer the question." Zayn let out a small gasp as he felt the air being squeezed out of his lungs from the pressure. It wasn¡¯t tight enough to choke him but tight enough that he would feel a perpetual lightheadedness. Not soon after, he yielded. "Okay! Okay!" Sol controlled the chains to loosen and allow Zayn to take a deep breath. "The old path is still too treacherous. No one below B-Rank can make that journey. The orcs discovered argebyrinth of tunnels recently that they believe epass the entire Orna Mountain range. They only recently charted a path that led to an exit nearby here." "Where is the entrance?" "I don¡¯t know! I swear! I told you everything I know!" "I see. Is there anything else you haven¡¯t told me?" "No!" He shook his head vigorously. Sol tapped his chin pensively. "So you just happened to forget to mention that they areing to take the townsfolk tomorrow morning? I¡¯m sure it didn¡¯t slip your mind because you wanted me to stay looking for the tunnel entrance and stumble into the orc army, right?" Zayn¡¯s face paled. ¡¯How does he know?!¡¯ He left that small detail out in hopes that after his death, Sol would stay near the area and stumble into the orc army. Their forces would surely be stronger than the bandits¡¯, and he hoped it would be enough to kill the monster before him. It was his final act of revenge, but even that was thwarted. Being caught in his final lie, Zayn trembled, thinking he would not get the easy death he craved. Sol activated his Lipon and a fire de formed. He thought for a moment before saying, "You thought you could pull a fast one on me. I should make your final moments pure agony, but you should consider yourself lucky." He swung his ming sword without the use of any skill. It cut cleanly through Zayn¡¯s neck, finishing him in a single moment. ¡¯You¡¯re lucky the main fight is almost over and you have an interesting talent skill.¡¯ Sol needed time to siphon talent skills, and while he had already taken the regr skills of the other bandits he killed, he didn¡¯t have the time to take all their talent skills. Sol braced himself for the eventual pain as he began the process. ¡¯No pain, no gain.¡¯ [Attempting to siphon [Impact Bubble]...] [0%...40%...80%...100%] ¡¯So fast?¡¯ Completely outside of Sol¡¯s expectations, the skill reached 100% in four seconds. [Assimting talent skill. (Note: This may hurt)] Chapter 178: [Impact Bubble] ¡¯It tingles.¡¯ As the ability was assimted into his body, Sol felt his muscles tingle and be stronger. It didn¡¯t take long for the process to be over, and he saw the system notification: [Learned [Impact Bubble] Lv 2!] [[Impact Bubble] Lv 2: Able to create a small area that stops anything that enters it. Size and strength of the bubble increase with level. Mana cost: 50.] Once the talent skill waspletely assimted into his body and he understood how it worked in depth, he felt it was a decent skill. He decided to try it out and used the skill. In front of him, a small half-foot-wide transparent white bubble appeared. It floatedpletely still in the air before him. ¡¯It¡¯s not invisible, so people can react to it, but it appears instantly and anywhere within five feet. I can just time its usage well.¡¯ To probe its capabilities, Sol reached out with his hand and touched it. Like touching a wall, his hand didn¡¯t even enter the bubble. It was only until he applied more force that his hand began to slip inside. The deeper he went to the center of the bubble, the stronger the stopping force was. Sol shivered, ¡¯Yuck. Feels like I¡¯m touching a slime.¡¯ After removing his hand, Sol wanted to give it one final test. With a normal sword he picked up from one of the bandits he killed, he shed at the bubble with all his might. Crack. Like ss, the bubble shattered, unable to handle the power of his swing. ¡¯So after a certain point, it will break. I was hoping it would at least slightly slow it down.¡¯ The shattered remains of the bubble dissipated as he put away the sword. Solmented, ¡¯I wish I could test it further, but the fighting just ended.¡¯ He no longer heard the sounds of battle, so he assumed it had ended. It wouldn¡¯t take long for Rex to find him, and he would rather not get caught using a skill that wouldn¡¯t make sense for him to have. Sol quickly buried Zayn along with the rest of the bandits. Not long after sealing the earth over him, a voice was heard behind him. "Hey Captain! Need any help?" Rex said as he came around the corner. "I¡¯m just about done here. How was it over there?" "Pretty easy. Honestly, Nataly did most of the work." "She did?" It wasn¡¯t that he didn¡¯t have a lot of faith in Nataly, but she was only C-Rank. There were three B-Rankers in the fight, and Rex believed that she still did better than them. Rex nodded. "I think she got around half of them on her own. Every time her massive summon swung its arms, it took down like five people. The rest of usck abilities that can take downrge groups like that." Sol understood what he meant. Rex himself specialized in scouting and tracking, so while he could fight, he didn¡¯t really know any shy or big moves. Duncan was focused on defense and had little ways to fight besides using his raw attributes and a few offensive shield skills. Lapis, as the second strongest after Sol, had a few ways to deal with groups, but once again specialized in fighting smaller groups of enemies. Aron was simr to Lapis except that he only had one ability to deal with multiple enemies. N?v(el)B\\jnn "I¡¯ll try to find someone to help fill in that gap when we finish this mission." Normally, when a squad was newly formed, they would start at five members and grow as they gained merit. Sol knew once theypleted this mission, the merits they would obtain would be more than enough to add a new member, maybe even two. "Yeah, that would be ideal, Captain. Welp, I gotta go. See ya in a bit." "Where are you heading off to?" "Some bandits thought they could slip away and hide during the battle. Just gonna clean it up while you tend to the townsfolk." Rex then dashed away towards the area he saw a few run towards. After clearing the areas he knew they were hiding in, he would do another sweep throughout the fort just to be sure. Sol went around the main building and saw the rest of his squad picking up bodies and cing them in a pile. Nataly was the only one not carrying bodies and instead letting small walking shrub summons take care of her workload. She was the first to notice Sol and waved him over. "Hey! How was your end?" Sol shrugged, "Ratherckluster, but I got some important information from them. Did you all encounter any issues?" Duncan tossed a body onto the pile and answered for her, "There were no issues during the fight, Captain. Though there is the matter of Nataly drinking a third of our mana potion supply." "A third?!" He expected a few potions to be used throughout the fight, but a third was way beyond what was eptable. She didn¡¯t deny it. "Yeah¡­ but I got the most bandits, so it evens out, right?" Sol turned to Duncan, "Did you tell her why that¡¯s bad?" He shook his head. "No, I thought it would be best if you exined it to her." "I don¡¯t understand what the issue is. We still have enough for the rest of the trip." "That¡¯s not the issue, Nataly. First of all, did you need to use that many potions? Would someone have gotten hurt if you didn¡¯t?" "Well, no, but it ended the fight faster." "There are two reasons why you shouldn¡¯t have used so many. First of all, you never know what will happen in a mission. Maybe we will encounter another problem out of our expectation like these bandits. You should already know from being an adventurer not to waste your consumables like that." "But what¡¯s the harm? We can always request more when we get back." She still didn¡¯t see the problem with it as she wasn¡¯t an adventurer anymore. "Do you think the supplies are free?" Nataly nodded. Duncan felt the need to rify for both of them. "They didn¡¯t go over those things during training. It was mostly teamwork, situational drills, and rules. Usually, the captain would exin it to their new members." Sol looked at him with eyes that asked, ¡¯Why didn¡¯t you tell me sooner?¡¯ Duncan didn¡¯t im responsibility, "Don¡¯t look at me. I had a lot on my mind when I was pulled into this squad." Sol sighed, knowing it wasn¡¯t right to me him, and returned to the main subject. "Nataly, none of the things we got were free. The second reason we shouldn¡¯t be wasteful is because they all cost merit. Besides our weekly gold sry, missions earn us merit. As a newly formed squad, we were given an amount to start with to gear us up. Because our first mission required us to travel so far, I had to forgo getting us new weapons and better armor and spent all our merits on our supplies for the trip. When we get back, we can either keep the supplies or return them and get a refund as long as they are in good condition." Nataly¡¯s eyes widened in surprise but quickly switched to sadness. "So we still have to worry about money¡­ I thought knights didn¡¯t have those issues¡­" Sol chuckled. "Haha, I wish." Chapter 179: People of Chilton Nataly looked pitiful. She thought she was free of having to manage her spending but only now found out it was the same as before. Sol patted her on the shoulder, "It¡¯s not all bad. With the merit system, we have ess to special and unique goods that can¡¯t be found on the normal market. When we finish this mission, we will get a lot of merit to spend and get everyone better gear." Besides Rex and Duncan, who had been knights for a while and had obtained better gear than the standard armor, the rest of them had only received the standard rare rarity armor since joining. A huge reason people try to join the Royal Knights was for ess to new spells and gear unobtainable by normal means. The only catch was that it required merit to buy, not gold. This was done to prevent wealthy merchants and nobles from bribing knights to buy those items with gold and then take them for themselves. Nataly felt a bit better after hearing that and nodded. "I¡¯ll try to be less wasteful." He smiled, "Thank you. But remember, don¡¯t hesitate to use them if you think you must. I don¡¯t want you to hold back when you truly need to use a potion or some other consumable." "Mhm!" She nodded with a big smile. "Yo Cap! We¡¯re done piling the bodies!" Next to the pile of bodies, Aron called out to him. When there was arge number of dead bodies, the way to deal with them to prevent them from bing undead or attracting other monsters was simply to burn them, but with Sol around there was an even easier option. But before doing so he had to do his due diligence. They were all gathered in one spot making it much easier to do in one go. [Learned [Cooking] Lv 2] [Learned [Basic Ice Magic] Lv 6] [[Snap Punch] leveled up! (8 -> 9)] [Learned [Low Kick] Lv 5] [Learned¡­] After tens of messages of new skills or level ups, he took a step back and with a light stomp, the ground beneath the bodies caved in 50 feet deep. The bodies fell, causing a loud thump when they reached the bottom. The ground then filled itself back up, leaving no trace of the bodies. "Alright, now that we cleared the open area, let¡¯s bring out the townsfolk." The five of them moved towards therge prison first and opened the doors, revealing an almost empty prison except for Rex, who was already inside finishing off five bandits. As he cut down the remaining bandit, he waved at his allies, "Hey, just finishing up thest of the bandits." Aron asked, "Were they hiding here?" N?v(el)B\\jnn Rex nodded, "At first they came to get a hostage, but when they couldn¡¯t find any, they chose to hide here instead. Speaking of which, are you here to bring them out?" Sol nodded as he made his way to the rightmost wall. When he did, he manipted the ground in front of him to slide open, revealing a stone staircase. The squad walked down the 40 steps until they reached arge room underground. As they reached the bottom, over a thousand eyes turned to look at them. These were the townsfolk that were captured by the bandits. Before the raid even took ce, Sol went ahead and hollowed out arge area beneath this prison and the smaller one in the main building, convincing the people to hide underneath while they fought the bandits. While some were apprehensive, the sight of his knight uniform reassured the majority. An old man emerged from the crowd; he was Famner, the mayor of Chilton. He looked at the six of them and asked, "Are the bandits finally gone?" Sol nodded and gave his best confident smile, "The bandits have been dealt with. You can all go home now." From within therge crowd, chatter could be heard. "The bandits are really dead? We¡¯re safe?" a haggard woman asked. "We are!" a man cheered with as much energy as his tired body could muster before stumbling over. While the thousands of people were celebrating, Sol looked at Duncan and silently asked for his help getting everyone out of there. Duncan understood what was asked of him and stepped forward. "Let¡¯s get you all out of here! Please walk in an orderly fashion up the stairs!" ¡­ An hourter, when the moon was long past its peak, the six of them managed to get everyone outside without any mishaps. This included those trapped under the smaller prison in the main building. They required the help of some of the healthier townsfolk to help carry those severely wounded upstairs and outside, where Nataly and Sol gave them medical attention. There was nothing they could do regarding the lost limbs, but they could at least ease their pain. While they tended to the wounded, Rex, Lapis, and Aron hunted in the nearby area so they could cook up a meal for everyone. It took them a few trips with their spatial rings full of wild animals, but eventually they had enough to feed them all. Duncan didn¡¯t help with hunting as he worked alongside the leaders of Chilton to make some preparations and arrangements, including recruiting over a hundred chefs to cook all the meat they brought. It was only when the sun could be seen on the horizon that everything that had to be done was done, but there were still other matters they had to discuss. For that reason, the squad regrouped, with the exception of Rex who was given another task, in the main building alongside some of the leadership of the town. "So with our town in ruins, we should use this fort until we rebuild the homes," the old mayor Famner said. Duncan agreed but had some reservations. "It would be a good n if not for the fact that arge group of orcs will soone with the intention of capturing all of you. We know not their strength or numbers, so it¡¯s a risk to stay and fight." An armless man with a fierce gaze nodded. "Besides you knights, the only fighting force we have are the few hunters and adventurers that weren¡¯t here when the bandits attacked." An elderly woman looked at the armless man worriedly, "Are you sure you don¡¯t need to rest, Grahan?" The armless man, Grahan, scoffed. "Bah! I¡¯ll be fine. I may not have any arms, but I¡¯m still the temporary guildmaster of Chilton¡¯s Adventurers Guild. More importantly, do we know where the orcs areing from?" While he lost his arms, his spirit still raged strong. He was the only B-Ranker in the entire town and was actually stronger than Zayn. The only reason he ended up this way was because he was ganged up on by the B-Rank bandits. Sol shook his head. "Sadly no, all they knew was that the orcs were using tunnels they found in the mountain. I sent Rex to search through the perimeter of the mountain to see if we can find it so we can copse it, but so far he hasn¡¯t found it." Chapter 180: Good News Grahan sighed, "Damn shame. We can¡¯t head back to Chilton either; it¡¯s too cold for some of us to survive the trip, and even if they do, there are few buildings left that can be used. We need at least two days before we can actually move back." "What about reinforcements? Have we received word from Shritonon yet?" Famner asked. Shritonon was the name of another town nearby. It was situated a bit further awaypared to Chilton, but they were the closest help they could feasibly get. An armless robed mage nodded. He was Palter, the leader of the town guards. "They are sending help, but it won¡¯t be tillter in the day that they arrive. Even with their reinforcements, I don¡¯t think we will stand much of a chance." Sol sighed, "Then we can only hope Rex finds the entrance. If he doesn¡¯t, then we will have to move everyone back underground again and hope the orcs don¡¯t linger around for long. If their forces aren¡¯t too strong, we can try fighting them." Famner shuddered at the thought of going back underground. "Let¡¯s hope it doesn¡¯te to that. By no means am I unthankful for you hiding us down there, but it was stressful wondering if you would evere back. If by some misfortune you and your knights perish, we will all starve down there." The knights understood his reasonable fears. If the underground space Sol made wasn¡¯t so deep in the ground, then the townsfolk would at least be able to dig themselves out. But if he did make it closer to the surface, there was a good chance they would be detected by the orcs. Sol assured him to ease his worries. "It¡¯s only ast resort, and if they are too strong for us to handle, we won¡¯t fight but instead work on making a tunnel that leads away from the fort." The tunnel was the initial n when the squad was discussing how to save the people without risking their lives. It was feasible, but they chose not to do so because he would have to create the tunnel slowly to prevent tremors on the surface and possibly alert the bandits. At the time, they had a time limit and couldn¡¯t take their time to silently make a tunnel, but now it could be put into action if needed. "That¡¯s good to know, thank you." Famner smiled, but in his eyes, one could still see he was slightly worried. Who could me him? None of this was ideal. The squad and Chilton¡¯s leaders discussed a few more matters before adjourning the meeting. As everyone left, Sol stood up to leave, but someone walked towards him, causing him to pause his actions. "Lapis?" Lapis waited until thest person left the room to speak. "What will we do about our real mission? Won¡¯t the other two squads beat us to it if we take too long?" Sol shrugged helplessly, "Our mission was to also eliminate the bandits, but the situation just developed in ways none of us could have expected. We can¡¯t leave until we deal with the orcs." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om She didn¡¯t argue back, but Sol could see she was hesitant about something given the slight signs of anxiety on her face. "Alright, what¡¯s the real issue? Knowing you, I doubt you really care about recovering the material, so just tell me. Maybe I can help." Lapis showed signs of hesitation as she couldn¡¯t decide whether or not to speak of her problems. As she was deliberating, Sol felt a slight vibration from his pocket. Reaching in, he pulled out amunication gem, one that was linked to Rex. Sol nced at Lapis, who waited for him to answer. Seeing that she wouldn¡¯t speak about it for now, he inserted a small amount of mana into the gem, activating it. "Rex, please tell me you have good news. I really don¡¯t want to bury over two thousand people underground." From the gem, Rex¡¯s excited voice came out. "I found it! I¡¯m on my way back now!" Sol felt a wave of relief wash over him. "Thank the gods. I¡¯ll meet you outside." He stopped inserting mana into themunication gem and put it away for now. He then turned to Lapis. "Looks like this will all be over soon." Sol paused for a moment as he remembered Lapis¡¯ issues. "Lapis, you don¡¯t have to tell me if you don¡¯t want to, but if you do, I promise I¡¯ll do my best to help you. It¡¯s nothing to be ashamed of to ask for help." After traveling with Lapis for a while, he had gained a good understanding of her personality. She was surprisingly simr to Amber in how they both usually kept to themselves and didn¡¯t rely on others for help. But unlike Amber, where it stemmed from how she was manipted and taught, Lapis¡¯ felt like it originated from pride. As if her being unable to do it alone was something to be ashamed of. Lapis didn¡¯t respond as she stood there contemting his words. Only after a brief moment of silence did she turn around and walk out of the room. Sol could only shake his head helplessly. ¡¯If she won¡¯t tell me, there¡¯s nothing I can do about it. I¡¯ll worry about itter, I need to go meet up with Rex.¡¯ Soon after arriving outside, Rex returned and led him and Duncan to the location of the tunnel while the rest of the squad stayed behind in case of an emergency. After running through the snowy forest, they arrived at the foot of the mountain. It looked no different from any other mountain that was littered throughout the mountain range. "We¡¯re here!" Rex said. Both Duncan and Sol knew that he wouldn¡¯t lead them here if there wasn¡¯t something here, so they began to scan the area. It was not until Sol used [True Sight] that he noticed the abnormality. "This is¡­ an illusion?" Sol asked as he saw the two carriage-wide tunnel entrance that was three feet in front of him. He had no idea it was so close in front of him until he used the skill. Sol took a few steps forward, and once he did, he disappeared from Duncan¡¯s sight. Duncan felt a strong headache as he asked Rex. "Where did the Captain go?" Even though he saw Sol walk forward and disappear, he was unable to recall where he was. Rex grabbed Duncan¡¯s hand and led him three feet forward, taking him into the tunnel. Once he was inside, Duncan¡¯s headache went away and he could see the tunnel properly. Rex exined what he knew. "I think it¡¯s an illusion, but also some kind of array or spell that makes one forget or subconsciously avoid it. I ran past this area three times before I noticed I kept running around this spot because of my footprints. But when you enter the tunnel once, you are immune to its effects." Duncan looked around the tunnel andmented, "I see no runes or enchantments. I don¡¯t think the orcs were behind whatever magic did that." Sol hummed out loud, "Weird, but it doesn¡¯t matter. Let¡¯s copse this tunnel and get out of here." Chapter 181: The Tunnel Sol emitted mana into the walls and roof andmanded them to copse. But nothing happened. In his confusion, Sol tried using even more mana to make the stone above fall down, but nothing was happening. "...Captain, did you start already?" Duncan asked, not seeing any change. "I¡­ I can¡¯t control it," Sol stated. He withdrew his mana, realizing it wasn¡¯t effective, and inspected the tunnel in hopes of finding the reason why. He neared one of the walls and ran his hand across it, feeling the smooth and cold surface. Seeing it up close, he began to find out why [Terra Maniption] wasn¡¯t working. Sol eximed, "This isn¡¯t stone! It¡¯s some kind of magical alloy!" His [Terra Maniption] was only able to control non-magical metals and even though he felt he could make a connection to the alloy he was unable to bend or move it to his will. Duncan was shocked, "All of it?!" Sol nodded, "Apparently so." All three were shocked at the revtion. At first nce, it looked like smooth stone, but it was actually an unknown magical alloy. What was even more shocking was that it covered every surface of the tunnel. Rex moved to one of the walls and drew his sword. He shed at it with all his might, but when he checked to see the damage, there was not even a scratch. Rex nervously spoke, "Uhh, Captain. Didn¡¯t the bandit leader say that the tunnels expand the entire mountain range?" Sol nodded with a grave expression. If this magical alloy was used to build every single passage in the entirework of tunnels, it brought about many questions. How long had this been here? Who built it? Why? And the most important question of all: Are the makers still alive? "We need to report this as soon as possible," Duncan was in awe, but he immediately thought of what their next action should be. Sol agreed, "We will, but first we need to block this exit." Rex, who was touching the wall out of curiosity, asked, "How will you do that if you can¡¯t control the alloy walls?" "Let¡¯s go outside, I¡¯ll show you." Leading the two outside, Sol turned away from the tunnel and sent mana into the area in front of him. A massive chunk of earth rose from the ground and slowly moved towards the tunnel entrance. With a rumbling sound, therge mass of dirt and stone was squeezed into the tunnel, blocking the passage. Duncan inspected it but had his worries. "This blocks it, but it¡¯s not hard enough to stop them from digging through." Sol knew that as well, which was why he didn¡¯t release his control of the dirt and began topress it. He continued topress it until it became a solid four meter block. After cing it in the tunnel, he turned to Rex and asked, "How long do we have till dawn?" Rex jumped up a nearby tree, looked towards the slight lighting from the horizon, and then at the moon. He hopped back down and answered, "Judging by the moon¡¯s position, I¡¯d say less than an hour." Sol felt relieved, "I should be able to finish on time. Hopefully these orcs aren¡¯t the type to arrive early." In the next half hour, Sol repeated the process of lifting arge mass of dirt,pressing it to four meters, and cing it like bricks in the tunnel. When he ced one brick next to the other, he would also merge them with [Terra Maniption], making it one continuous piece of seamless wall. He continued the process until he finished not only the first wall but two additionalyers to ensure that even if the orcs tried to dig through, it would easily take them a few days to break through. Even with [Superior Mana Control], Sol had to drink three mana potions to keep up with his mana usage, but because of them, he was able to finish ahead of time. As Sol ced the final block and merged it into the wall, he immediately sat down on the ground in exhaustion. He waspletely exhausted from the constant usage of [Terra Maniption]bined with the constant depletion and refilling of his mana. Duncan walked over, sat next to him, and slightly chided him, "You should have stopped at the secondyer. It would have been more than enough." In between Sol¡¯sbored breaths, he spoke back, "Maybe¡­ but you never know¡­ if they have some digging talent¡­ or something like that. Needed to make it¡­ so it would take them at least¡­ five days¡­ to break through¡­" Duncan didn¡¯t say anything but instead smiled back, "This kid really overthinks things sometimes. But it never hurts to be too cautious." "So¡­ what will we do with that?" Rex, who was standing nearby, pointed towards a massive crater not too far away from them. To not make multiplerge holes on the ground, Sol instead made a massive one so random people or animals wouldn¡¯t identally fall inside. With a single big crater, the odds of creatures not seeing it and falling in are much lower. Duncan shrugged, "Don¡¯t worry about it. It shouldn¡¯t hurt anyone, and we are pretty far from any towns or viges to be a problem for them. Let¡¯s wait until the captain recovers, and then we head back. What do you say, Captain?" Sol was too tired to respond and instead gave a thumbs up whileying on the snow. ... In the tunnels, a group of orcs traveled in eerie silence. Orcs were normally more rambunctious, but these were no ordinary orcs. They were disciplined and served as part of the main force in the Frostaxe n¡¯s army. Behind them was a long line of carriages withrge metal cagesmonly used for transporting prisoners. What pulled them wererge goat creatures called bully goats, which served a simr role to horses for the Frostaxe n. The mountains were too perilous for normal horses but not for bully goats, who were resistant to the cold and could even climb up extremely steep surfaces. The only downside to the goatspared to horses was their slower speed, but they made it up with their incredible endurance. The goats, who had been pulling the heavy prison carriages all day and night, stopped as the group in front of them stopped as well. In the front of the group of orc soldiers, an orc that was two feet taller than the others looked at the wall in front of them. It looked identical to the walls around them with its smooth surface and grayish color. The towering orc yelled out with his deep voice, "Tolrag!" From within the group of soldiers, one ran out with a panicked expression. He was Tolrag and was one of the explorers sent to chart out the tunnels when they were discovered. He was recently added to this group to act as a guide for the orc army. "I¡¯m here! Great Warrior Gildash!" For the orcs, the title of Warrior referred to those that were B-Rank, as only they could be considered real warriors. Great Warrior stood slightly above that, reaching the peak of B-Rank and having a leading role in the orc army. Gildash looked down at the orc and asked with angerced behind his every word, "Did you lead us astray?" Tolrag shook his head fervently. "No! I would never!" "Then how do you exin this?!" Gildash swung his massive sword against the wall in front of him, causing a loud thud before bouncing back. There was not even a scratch on the wall in front of him. There would have been a mark on the wall if the orc swung with his full strength, but because he firmly believed it was like the other unbreakable walls he didn¡¯tmit his full power to the swing. Tolrag immediately got on his knees and begged for mercy. "I¡¯m sorry! I must have taken a wrong turn! Let me right my wrongs!" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Gildash would have cut down the poor orc where he knelt, but he was the only one who could possibly guide them back outside, that was if he didn¡¯t get lost again. Tolrag guided the army as they went back the way they came, while desperately hoping he would not make another mistake. Little did he and the rest of the orcs know that he already had taken them to their destination. Chapter 182: To The Orna Mountains A full day had passed since Sol blocked the tunnel entrance. During that time, they hid everyone underground once more and vigntly watched their surroundings on the off chance that there was another tunnel where the orcs could emerge from. Only when the reinforcements from Shritonon arrived six hourster did they judge the situation to be truly safe. The townsfolk celebrated outside, feasting on a wide array of wild animal meats and produce brought from Shritonon. While they celebrated, the squad had another meeting with the leaders of the town. Sol spoke inly. "Kerman city sent word that they will help with the rebuilding efforts. They should arrive in two days¡¯ time. We would stay and help out as well, but we must get going." Famner nodded in understanding. "You needn¡¯t worry about us. You have done more than enough for us already." The mayor believed their squad had already gone above and beyond for their town. Even though their entire town was piged and they were all captured, not a single life was lost. He couldn¡¯t have asked for a better oue. The armless Grahan agreed. "All that¡¯s left is to rebuild our home, and we don¡¯t need you for that. I¡¯m sure there are more important things your team should be doing." Though the temporary guildmaster worded it bluntly, the rest of the town leaders agreed. They no longer required their strength. The bandits had been taken care of, and the orcs weren¡¯ting anytime soon. Though there was still the issue of the majority of the town¡¯s fighters being crippled for life, that was the town¡¯s problem to solve. None of them expected Sol and his squad to cure them as very few people were able to do such a thing. Sol nodded. He personally wanted to stay longer and make sure no other threats appeared, but there was another important mission waiting for them. He couldn¡¯t dy it any further. "I hope the recovery efforts go well. We will head out the moment Rex returns with the carriage." They all bid each other farewell, and the squad went outside the fort to wait for Rex, as it wouldn¡¯t take long to bring the carriage from Chilton. Twenty minutester, Rex arrived, and they all set off towards the Orna Mountains toplete their original objective. While in the carriage, Sol asked Duncan if they had received word from the Royal Knights yet regarding the tunnels. Duncan shook his head. "No. Grand Knight Lawrence and Commander Zaman are currently busy putting out some fires, and it¡¯s too big of a decision to decide what to do without them." Aron, curious as ever, asked, "Fires? What¡¯s happening in the capital?" "Not sure. They only told me that the two of them are meeting with a group of nobles to address some issues." "We¡¯ll have to leave the tunnels for another time then," Sol stated. "If what you told me was true, then we should be sent to explore itter, right?" Nataly asked. She didn¡¯t get to see the tunnel, but how they described it sounded really mysterious and interesting to her. Duncan nodded. "Maybe. It could also be assigned to the Royal Army or be given to a nearby lord to explore. If we were the only ones that knew of it, then we would be able to go in with the Commander¡¯s or a Grand Knight¡¯s go-ahead. But since Chilton knows about it, word has likely already spread to nearby areas. I don¡¯t know who will get the rights now; there¡¯s even a chance it bes a free-for-all." N?v(el)B\\jnn While the tunnels were in orc territory, that wouldn¡¯t stop the Kingdom of Crestelia from trying to explore it. After all, the two sides were technically at war, even though it was mostly the Frostaxe n invading the human kingdom. The tunnels were aplete mystery, but the fact they ran throughout the entire mountain range would lead many to believe it could hold great treasures and secrets. Many would jump at the opportunity to be the first to explore it, and even though Sol blocked the exit, it wouldn¡¯t stop people froming to find it or other entrances for that matter. As their carriage made its way to the foot of the mountain, the hornsteads stopped under the shade of a tall tree, and the six of them got off the carriage. Duncan advised them to stop here. If they went any further on the carriage, the orcs hiding throughout the mountains acting as border patrol would easily spot them. Sol took out a map from his spatial ring and presented it to his squad. On it was drawn the entire Orna Mountains with a red circle near the southern area. "This is the general area where they believe the material is at. Area-wise, it¡¯s 50 acres. It¡¯s a lot to cover, but we should be able tob through it within a day. Rex, how far was your perception range again?" "230 meters. I should be able to detect them way before they notice us. But if they are using something like [Invisibility], then it drops to 60 meters." This range wasn¡¯t Rex¡¯s maximum vision range, as that was until the horizon, but his limit of awareness. Even if someone was hiding behind rocks or trees he could sense their presence from a ways away. "Perfect, then let¡¯s put on the coats and make our way up." Everyone retrieved snowy white coats from their spatial rings. They were rare cloaks with only two skills: [Presence Reduction] and [Camouge]. With the amount of merits their squad had, Sol wasn¡¯t able to afford these cloaks at all, but luckily he didn¡¯t need to. In mission details, they were allowed to use these cloaks for free. Normally, equipment wouldn¡¯t be provided like this, but the importance of not getting caught was too high to risk sending the squads without some way to hide themselves. The squad ced the hornsteads and carriage inside a cave Sol quickly made and began to make their way up the mountain in search of a legendary fruit. Chapter 183: Harsh Blizzard "Two hiding behind those trees. We can circle around this way." Rex whispered to his allies behind him. Rex led their squad deep into the Orna Mountains and navigated them through the orc sentries that were scattered throughout the area without any issues. There weren¡¯t too many orcs, so for the most part, the squad was able to travel in a straight line to their objective. The steep mountains and freezing weather would normally be impossible for most people to travel through, but for this group, it couldn¡¯t even slow them down. Even Nataly had invested a decent amount into strength and vitality, allowing her to pull her own weight. The squad evaded two more orc patrols and soon reached the location marked on the map. Aron pulled back the hood of his cloak and felt the cold air around him. "Is it just me, or is it getting much colder?" Nataly instantly agreed, "I¡¯ve noticed the winds became harsher as well." Rex stroked his chin as he spoke, "We are higher up in the mountain." Duncan shook his head. "This change in temperature is too drastic. Could it being from the legendary item?" Sol agreed with Duncan¡¯s theory. "It may be the case. We were told it was growing from a tree made of ice. Maybe it also made its surroundings colder as a side effect. Let¡¯s head wherever it feels the coldest and see if it leads us straight to it." Everyone agreed it was worth trying and ventured further into the area. After walking around, they quickly determined which direction had the sharpest decrease in temperature and headed that way. As the temperature continued dropping, it had long passed what would have been eptable for the normal human body to withstand. The winds also became harsher as a dense blizzard consumed their party. It not only became harder to walk but also to see, as even Rex¡¯s vision became heavily limited to only 30 meters, while the rest could only see 10 feet away. Traveling 200 meters towards the source of the blizzard, the cold was no longer something even C-Rankers could easily withstand. Aron was the least affected because of his attributes and skills focused on his physical body, but Nataly fared much worse. She trailed behind the group, shivering and sneezing loudly. "C-c-c-can we take a break? S-s-start a fire or something?" Even Sol was starting to be affected by the hard winds, so he could only imagine how the others, who weren¡¯t as durable as he and Duncan, were feeling. He turned back to see how Nataly was holding up, but there was someone else who was faring way worse than her. "Lapis?! Are you okay?!" Sol asked in shock. Unlike Nataly, whose face looked dry and reddish, Lapis¡¯s skin was unnaturally blue, and she was shivering underneath her coat. Lapis yed it off as best she could. "I-i-i¡¯m f-f-f-ine. K-k-keep g-g-going¡­" She tried to continue walking but stumbled over. Sol caught her just before she hit the snow. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "You¡¯re clearly not fine! Let¡¯s take a moment to rest. Rex, do you see a steep mountainside anywhere?" Rex nodded. "We just passed by one. I¡¯ll take us there." The group turned back and walked slightly away from their initial path, where they arrived at a mountain wall. Sol used [Terra Maniption] to hollow a small cave, and the group went inside. Shielded from the harsh cold winds, they started a fire to warm up. The moment Lapis felt the warmth of the fire, she immediately passed out. "She¡¯ll be fine. It¡¯s from exhaustion," Nataly stated after checking her. They took out a sleeping bag andid Lapis on it so she could get some rest. Since it appeared none of them were going anywhere until she recovered, they made themselves at home. Sol made some simple furniture with [Terra Maniption] while Duncan took out cooking tools to prepare a meal for everyone. When Duncan was done, he gave everyone a portion. [Warming Ioculen Soup Rare Effects: +20 vitality and [Cold Resistance] Lv 2 for 6 hours] Sol couldn¡¯t hide his surprise when he inspected the soup¡¯s effects. "Twenty vitality and cold resistance for six hours?!" Duncan nodded with clear disappointment on his face. "If I had more ingredients to work with, I could have doubled its effects and duration." ¡¯This was with what he had lying around?¡¯ Sol couldn¡¯t believe it. This was the first time Duncan actually cooked for the group and made a system-recognized meal out of it. When Sol previously asked why he didn¡¯t use his [Splendorous Cooking] talent, Duncan told him it was because they didn¡¯t need it. It cost mana and good ingredients to make meals with decent effects, so he would only do so if he had a surplus of ingredients or a good reason. His skills also weren¡¯t at the level that makes even his most simple meals empowering yet. Aron tasted the soup and felt its effects. "Wow! This is way better than potions!" "I don¡¯t know about that," Duncan said. "Potions and cooking have their own strong points. If wepare an equally skilled alchemist and chef, the alchemist¡¯s potions will have stronger effects, while cooking tends to have a much longer duration." Rex agreed but added his own opinion. "In this case, cooking is better as we don¡¯t know how long we have to endure this cold." "Let¡¯s hope this will help Lapis endure the cold better¡­" Nataly said while looking back at the sleeping Lapis. Her skin color was back to normal, making the rest of the squad feel relieved. Aron looked at Lapis with curiosity. "Why do you all think the cold affected her like that? She definitely has more vitality than most of us except for Duncan and Cap." "Never have I seen nor heard of such a thing. Could be unique to her talent." Duncan¡¯s wealth of experience couldn¡¯t add much in this case. The rest of the squad discussed possible reasons for what may have caused it while Sol silently ate his soup. He believed he already knew the reason for her weakness to the cold since they fought in the tournament. His ice element Lipon affected her way more than he predicted, and it happening again here further cemented his theory. ¡¯Her variant blood gives her a severe weakness to the cold¡­¡¯ Chapter 184: Crafter鈥檚 Battleground (Part 1) While their squad was camping in the cave awaiting Lapis¡¯ recovery, back in Crestal City, a certain tinkerer was trying to get rid of a pair of city guards from his doorstep. Fabio raised his voice, "I¡¯m telling you, I have nothing like that! Even if I did, I have a license to handle ss L goods." ss L goods referred to items of legendary rarity or other goods that could rival them in power. If someone unskilled handled such goods, many things could go wrong. For example, with the void root Fabio was hiding from the guards. If an ipetent craftsman tried to handle such an item, the likely result would be an explosion of void energy that erases everything within a two mile area. The guard was still unconvinced. He pointed at the tied man on the ground. "Then why is this the eighth time that someone tried breaking into your shop?" Fabio spread his arms in an exaggerated manner. "I don¡¯t know! Ask him, not me!" The guard didn¡¯t respond. They had already questioned this thief and the others that were turned in the past week. None spoke of their purpose, and the ones that did only said they wanted a Lipon for themselves. The guard could believe their objective was Lipons if they were normal thieves, but they weren¡¯t. All the thieves Fabio had turned in were peak B-Rankers with ties to the ck market. If they wanted a Lipon, they had the money to buy as many as they wanted. His gut told him there was more to it, but they couldn¡¯t just barge inside and search the ce. While the guard was staring daggers at the short man, the other defused the situation. "The city guards thank you for capturing these thieves. We will send more guards to patrol this street. If you want, we can also post guards in your shop to dissuade other thieves." "No thanks," Fabio said inly. He knew the guard¡¯s true intention in offering that. If he epted, the guards posted in his shop would spy around to find out what he was working on. While Fabio knew that even if they discovered the void root, they wouldn¡¯t forcibly take it from him; it would be very annoying. They would pester him constantly to either buy it off him or send their schrs to research it. The second guard casuallyughed at Fabio¡¯s response. "That¡¯s fine. If anyone else tries to break in, you know where to find us." The second guard began to walk away while dragging the thief, but upon noticing his friend was still staring daggers at Fabio, he grabbed his arm and dragged him away as well. Fabio watched as they left. Once they were gone, he let out a sigh. "I need those goons to stoping¡­" Fabio¡¯s original n for today was to build the energy regtor and figure out a solution for the base frame, as everything he had was unable to endure the root¡¯s power. But if more thieves kepting, it would slow his progress down. It was time he did something about it. ¡¯If she is still there, she could also solve my frame issue¡­¡¯ It was someone Fabio would rather not see after a certain incident, but if there was anyone who could forge a frame that could endure the powerful void energy, it would be her. It would be killing two birds with one stone. Logically, it was the best course of action, but Fabio couldn¡¯t help but let out a groan. "Ugh, let¡¯s get it over with then." Fabio returned to his workshop and made preparations. He walked over to a wall and pulled a lever, causing shutters to drop down on all sides of the workshop. They were outfitted with runes that warded against all kinds of break-in attempts. Invisibility, intangibility, even spatial magic were nullified within the workshop. He then sent mana to a few of his creations, which hummed to life. Arge metal golem with two duranium pirs for arms took position near the door. Two four-legged metal spiders climbed the walls to the roof, where they waited in silence. As a final measure, he opened a panel on the floor revealing over 50 metal humanoids. They weren¡¯t as strong as the golem or the spiders, which could rival a peak B-Ranker, but they could easily overwhelm them. Satisfied with the measures in ce, Fabio grabbed a spatial ring that had his personal equipment. Where he was going, he needed ways to defend himself if needed. He also stored the void root in his ring. Even with all the defenses in ce, there was no ce safer than on his person. ¡¯Luckily the void root isn¡¯t vtile and can be stored in a spatial ring.¡¯ n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om The reason he activated his defenses was not to protect the void root but because no good craftsman leaves his workshop unprotected. He had other important projects he didn¡¯t want others to steal. Leaving his workshop, Fabio headed towards the slums. When he reached the entrance of the slums, he turned and entered a random alley. After making sure nobody was watching, he took out a funny looking hat from his ring. The rim of the hat was normal, but it expanded outwards, not unlike a bloated umbre. ¡¯Don¡¯t want others to know I have connections to the ck market.¡¯ When he put on the hat, it whirred to life. The top half spun clockwise as it emitted clear waves of mana that surrounded Fabio. Once it reached its full activation, Fabio disappeared, concealing not only his appearance but also his odor and mana. Making his way out of the alley, he went into the slums proper. Though called the slums, as the capital of the kingdom, it was still well maintained to a certain degree. The reason it was called the slums was not for what was visible to the public, but for what was hidden underneath. Fabio weaved his way through the streets, avoiding bumping into any unknowing passerby, and eventually arrived at a food stand that was ced in front of an alleyway. A big, muscled man tended to the stand while every so often yelling his prices. Without removing the concealing hat, Fabio whispered so only the man working the food stand could hear, "Lucky Cross." Chapter 185: Crafter鈥檚 Battleground (Part 2) The man wasn¡¯t spooked by the sudden voice speaking to him, as it was not the first time it had happened nor would it be thest. He gave a subtle nod and reached for a small metal box attached to the underside of the food stand, sending a small amount of mana into it. Seeing the man¡¯s actions, Fabio continued past him, where a stairway appeared. The stairs led him to aplicated maze of tunnels meant to confuse those who identally stumbled into them. But for Fabio, he simply followed the hidden signs that soon led him to arge open area underground. Buildings of different sizes lined the street withmp posts illuminating the underground area. The buildings served all sorts of purposes, from shops and warehouses to homes, gang hideouts, and certain entertainment businesses. This was the ck market of Crestal City. Located in the capital of the kingdom, the royal family and their forces were well aware of its existence but allowed it to operate with a few regtions. For one, it was the only ck market that didn¡¯t deal in ves and had the least civilian-rted deaths. Fabio ignored everything around him and continued to his destination. On the way there, he recognized someone passing by him. ¡¯Isn¡¯t that the girl that follows Sol? Amber, was it?¡¯ Though she was wearing a cloak to prevent others from identifying her, Fabio could easily see past it. Amber walked past him, unable to see through his hat¡¯s effect. Though Fabio was curious as to why she was here, he wasn¡¯t going to spy on his friend¡¯spanions. Soon he reached his destination, a stone brick building that emitted heat just by being near it. He walked inside past the guards and saw a forge with over ten cksmiths hitting their metals with hammers or in another part of the forging process. Fabio removed his hat, revealing himself to the smiths, and asked, "Where¡¯s Taliya?" The cksmiths all paused in fright as a man suddenly appeared in their workshop. In the ck market, anything could happen, and most of them were worried Fabio came with violent intentions. Seeing that Fabio was waiting for their response, one of the more experienced smiths was the first to recover and asked back, "Master Taliya is currently working on amission and doesn¡¯t like to be disturbed. We can inform herter if that¡¯s alright with you." "Tell her now, just say Fabio¡¯s here." He knew how she could be when working on a project, but if she was truly remorseful over her actions in the past, she would stop working ande to see him. The experienced smith hesitated, not wanting to be the one to interrupt her. He turned to look at the other smiths and saw none of them move to inform their master. A few shook their heads, and others made a small praying gesture, wishing him the best. The experienced smith had no intention of going against the stranger who was much stronger than him, from how he magically appeared and how he casually invoked his master¡¯s name. With resignation, the smith spoke, "I¡¯ll go inform her now¡­" When the smith left, Fabio thought to himself a bit further about how he wanted to go about this. He wasn¡¯t able to think beyond a few preliminary thoughts before a woman came running out from the back. She was a tall, muscr woman wearing a tank top and worker cks. Though her face was a little on the rougher side, no one could deny that she was a beauty nheless. "Fabio!" she yelled in tion but also some surprise. She opened her arms to hug him but froze when she saw his conflicted expression. She quickly realized that he did note to visit her because he forgave her. The two stood in silence, not knowing what to say. Taliya remorsefully waited for him to speak first, as it all depended on him whether their rtionship would ever go back to what it was. After what felt like an eternity of silence and after seeing her expression, he felt that maybe it was time to forgive, or at least try. With a slight smile, he said, "It¡¯s been a while, Little Miss Forge." Hearing a nickname she hadn¡¯t heard in years, a smile grew on her face as she nodded, "It has, hasn¡¯t it?" The smiths who were overhearing their small exchange exchanged confused looks, as they had never seen this man before nor heard anyone call their master by such a silly nickname. One of the smiths found the name really funny and couldn¡¯t help but chuckle. "Heh. Little Miss Forge¡­" FWOOM! BOOM! Out of nowhere, a blue hammer and a fire st flew past the head of the smith and created two dents in the wall behind him. He was barely able to process what just happened when two voices yelled out at him. N?v(el)B\\jnn "Only I/he can call her/me that!" they both said simultaneously while menacingly ring at the poor smith. Taliya had her open hand outstretched while Fabio had a hollow rod-like object attached to his forearm with a fire elemental cartridge inserted. The smith¡¯s legs became weak, causing him to fall on his rear. He was about to beg for forgiveness but realized the two had already turned their attention away from him. "Should we continue this in my forge?" Taliya suggested. Fabio nodded, "That would be preferable." The two left to the back, leaving many confused smiths wondering who that man was, but they knew they would likely never find out. The one who was almost killed breathed a sigh of relief, thinking how lucky he was that the two he offended didn¡¯t kill lightly. Those types of people were rare in this area. It wasn¡¯t umon to die in the ck market after identally offending a powerful person, so for them to only threaten his life, he would take that as a win. Chapter 186: Crafter鈥檚 Battleground (Part 3) Entering Taliya¡¯s private forge, Fabio looked around in curiosity but realized that it looked oddly familiar. From where the massive furnace was ced to the anvil¡¯s location, and even small details like the order of the tools in how they were hung on a wall. "Your forge is set up exactly like his¡­" She nodded. "When I first came here and built my forge, it looked drastically different. But when I began to work in it, I had this constant feeling of difort, and whatever I worked on never felt quite right. It was only when I rebuilt it to resemble his that the feeling went away." "Hmm, I know what you mean," Fabio said as he thought of his own workshop, which was also modeled simrly. Before he went into the main reason foring to her, Fabio asked, "By the way, who is she?" Fabio pointed with his chin at a young woman with short brown hair that shimmered under the light of the forge. She looked rather young, not even past her twenties, and waspletely focused on hammering what appeared to be a chestte. She was so focused she didn¡¯t even notice Taliya leaving anding back with Fabio. "Her? Let me introduce you. Lisa! Get over here!" Taliya yelled but failed to catch the attention of the girl who was reaching the most crucial part of her creation. She was hammering in an opelian metal wire through the grooves she had previously carved out in the chestte. If done sessfully the armor would gain magic dispersing properties mitigating a lot of potential damage, if done wrong it might focus the magical attack onto one focus point resulting in the death of the wearer. Taliya noticed she was at a delicate part of the process and hesitated to call her again as she didn¡¯t want her to fail. At the same time, she didn¡¯t want to keep Fabio waiting. Fabio could tell she was conflicted as she had the same mannerisms and expressions as before. He tapped her arm to stop her from calling out further. "Don¡¯t worry about it, you can introduce meter." Taliya felt a slight sense of relief and nodded. "Okay, let¡¯s talk over there then." The two moved away to avoid disturbing the young woman and sat down on metal chairs. Though the chairs were hot, it was better than using wood as it would catch on fire in such an environment. "So¡­ what brings you here?" Taliya nervously asked. Fabio went straight to the point. "I need your help. ck market thieves keep trying to break into my store, and it¡¯s causing the guards to be curious about what I¡¯m working on." "At Gearworks?" Taliya asked in surprise, quickly changing to anger. "They dared after I marked your shop as protected?" Taliya had long known of his shop since it first opened. Although she couldn¡¯t bring herself to visit, she used some of her leverage in the ck market to protect the store from thieves and gangs. This was the main reason none had tried to rob him when he first settled into the city, even shortly after the knight selection tournament where all his products were bing hotmodities. Fabio¡¯s eyes widened as he didn¡¯t know she did that. He hid his surprise before she could notice and asked, "Do you not want to know why?" N?v(el)B\\jnn She shook her head. It didn¡¯t matter the reason; if he didn¡¯t want to tell her what he was working on, she wasn¡¯t going to pry any further. She instead focused on narrowing down the possible culprits. "To send so many peak B-Rankers, it has to be one of the Big Three." The Big Three referred to the three strongest forces in the ck market, all led by an A-Rank powerhouse: the Fire Whisperers led by Ryogan, the Rat Pack led by the Rat King, and the Charm Sisters led by Witch Madelyn. "I think it is likely being done by the Fire Whisperers as it doesn¡¯t sound like something the other two would do. But just to be sure, I¡¯ll send them all a warning. If they don¡¯t knock it off, I won¡¯t make or repair another piece of equipment for them," Taliya resolutely stated. While it may appear as barely a threat, all three forces would take her threat very seriously. They would immediately stop if they were the ones doing so, and if they weren¡¯t behind it, they would search for who was. Her services were vital to all three forces as she was the only A-Rank smith in the entire ck market. If she halted the repairing and creation of peak unique rank weapons, it would cripple their fighting power. If she stopped her services for too long, the A-Rank leaders¡¯ weapons would deteriorate, and no one could fully repair and improve them like her. If the kingdom then caught wind of their damaged weapons and armor, they would likely use it to their advantage to further impose more restrictions or even take the opportunity to cleanse the ck market. Fabio was also surprised by how adamantly she stated that as he knew her dealings with the Big Three also greatly benefited her. He blushed and scratched his head awkwardly, "I didn¡¯t think you would go that far for me. I was even nning on offering something in exchange for your help." While jeopardizing her rtionship with the Big Three was a substantial risk for her, she still stood by it. "Nonsense, I clearly told them not to mess with you. When I find out who is sending them, I will make them bleed. You don¡¯t need to offer anything for me to intervene." The edges of Fabio¡¯s lips raised when he heard her words. He then put on an exaggerated dismayed expression and woefully spoke, "Oh really? Guess I¡¯ll have to find someone else to help me with the void root." Taliya sprang out of her seat and eximed, "Did you say void root?!" Chapter 187: Crafter鈥檚 Battleground (Part 4) Any decent craftsman worth their salt in the city knew of the void root. It was one of the few legendary materials that had a consistent appearance recorded over the years. Many of those craftsmen calcted that around this time it would once again appear and were making preparations to hire adventurers or delve themselves in search of the elusive treasure. Taliya herself was no exception and had already sent her own parties in search of it. Fabio nodded with a grave expression. "I¡¯m afraid so. Every test frame I used to contain the root wouldn¡¯tst more than three uses before breaking. If only someone could make something strong enough to contain it." "I can! I can! Please let me help!" She couldn¡¯t conceal her enthusiasm as she basically begged him to participate. If anyone who knew her saw her now, their image of a strong willed, no-nonsense woman would shatter. "Hmm, I don¡¯t know¡­" Fabio said as if it were an extremely hard choice. "Pleaaaase! I haven¡¯t even seen a legendary material since bing an A-Ranker! I¡¯ll follow your lead!" She had no shame as she continued to beg, all that was left was for her to get on her knees to beg. "I suppose you can help¡­" He spoke as if he were unwilling to ept her help but it was honestly a no brainer. He just couldn¡¯t help but tease her. Taliya pumped her fist in the air. "Yes! I have a few rare metals I collected in preparation if I ever found it. We can try them out and find out which has the best synergy with the void energy." She went on to list every material she had collected and possible creations they could make but realized all her ns only took into ount her abilities. "With my [Hammer of Creation] and your [Energy Gearworks] we might even be able to make a real legendary product!" Fabio was inclined to believe her. At first, he thought it would be at most pseudo-legendary, as one legendary material would likely be insufficient to make a true legendary item, but adding her skills and precious materials it might be possible to make something more. Her excitement was beginning to infect him as well, causing him to feel eager to get back to work. "What are we waiting for then? Let¡¯s get to it!" "Master, who is he?" Unbeknownst to the two, the young woman had finished the chestte and noticed her master speaking with a stranger. She found it especially odd as her master never allowed anyone, even the leaders of the Big Three, into her private forge. Taliyapletely forgot her apprentice was in the room and hoped she didn¡¯t witness her earlier disy. She straightened her back and let out a dry cough. "Ahem, I should probably introduce you two. Fabio, this is Elizabeth, Lisa for short. She is my one and only apprentice. Lisa, this is Fabio¡­ my senior." Fabio looked at Elizabeth curiously. "So you took an apprentice¡­" Though he had many questions, he refrained from asking them at this moment in front of her apprentice. Elizabeth presented her hand outward in a professional manner. "Nice to meet you, would you rather Master¡¯s Senior or Fabio?" Her attitude was out of his expectations. Taliya patted her apprentice¡¯s head and reassured Fabio. "She¡¯s a tad serious, but pay it no mind. You get used to it rather fast." Fabio nodded and shook Elizabeth¡¯s hand. "Just call me Fabio." n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "Understood, Fabio," she responded inly. Taliya then pped her hands. "Alright! Now that that¡¯s out of the way, let¡¯s get to work! Lisa, I¡¯ll need your help as well." "Yes, Master." Taliya dashed from one side of the forge to the other, grabbing tools and materials while Elizabeth heated the furnace once more to prepare the melting and shaping of metals. Fabio watched as this happened while thinking to himself, ¡¯Don¡¯t you want to see the void root first before anything else?¡¯ He could only sigh as he realized that in some ways she hadn¡¯t changed one bit. He mentally braced himself for what would most certainly be an exhausting week. ¡­ Later that day, inside the hideout of the Fire Whisperers, a furious voice roared through its halls. "Worthless pieces of shit!" Crack! A ss table cracked from the force of the fist that mmed down on it. The fist belonged to Ryogan, a rather handsome man with flowing ck hair. Even while furious, he didn¡¯t look unsightly, but the one who stood in front of him couldn¡¯t help but look away in fear. "Eight! Eight of you idiots can¡¯t steal from a damn tinkerer!" As Taliya correctly guessed, he and his group were indeed the ones behind the thievery attempts. When his informants told him of void energy sting out of the roof of Gearworks, he immediately coveted whatever caused it. "I would go myself, but that bitch protected his shop! I have too many eyes on me to make a move myself. Dammit!" Ryogan mmed the ss table once more, this time with more force,pletely shattering it. The one who stood on the other side of the now broken ss table suggested nervously, "M-maybe we should stop. We don¡¯t want to antagonize the Hammer of Destruction." They both clearly knew Fabio¡¯s store was under Taliya¡¯s protection, but the allure of whatever created that void energy beam was too great for him. It was exactly what he needed, not to be used as a weapon, but to learn and take his magic to the next level. "Fuck it, I¡¯ll go myself. [Rift Walk]." Ryogan took one step and vanished in a sh of purple light. The next moment, outside the back of Gearworks, a purple light flickered as Ryogan appeared. He looked around in confusion. "I swear I meant to teleport inside¡­ Did they set up a barrier?" While he was teleporting, he felt like he hit a wall, causing him to be expelled outside just short of his real destination. He wasn¡¯t sure what it was exactly, but it was definitely some kind of spatial magic defense. If he couldn¡¯t teleport inside, that was no matter to him. After all, he wasn¡¯t most known for his spatial magic. He reached his hand outward and was prepared to burn a hole in the wall until he felt someone approaching him extremely fast. ¡¯They found me already?¡¯ He lowered his hands as he knew he wouldn¡¯t be able to continue. Not a momentter, a voice asked from behind. "What are you doing here, Ryogan? You know you aren¡¯t allowed aboveground in the city." He turned around to face the person that interrupted him with an innocent smile. "C¡¯mon, Grand Knight Lawrence. Can¡¯t a man go on a walk every once in a while?" The Grand Knight obviously didn¡¯t buy it. "I doubt you did much walking, given there is still residual spatial magic in the area." Ryogan scoffed. "What do you know, [Rift Walk] has ¡¯walk¡¯ in the name, so I¡¯m clearly walking. How did you find me so fast? Normally it would take you around five minutes." Lawrence didn¡¯t answer as he stared the man down. "I¡¯ll give you a chance to teleport back now. If you don¡¯t, well, I don¡¯t mind taking down one of the leaders of the Big Three." "... [Rift Walk]." He didn¡¯t dare stay any longer, and in a sh of purple light, he vanished once more. He reappeared back in his hideout where hisckey that was about to leave jumped in surprise. "You¡¯re back already! Did you get it?" theckey asked out of curiosity. Ryogan didn¡¯t respond but stared daggers at the poor fool. "Get out." "Y-yes!" Theckey scurried off without hesitation. Though he was furious and he wanted to vent his anger, he wouldn¡¯t randomly kill his own men. He wasn¡¯t like the Rat King who killed his closest allies for even the slightest reason. Ryogan took a seat behind the shattered ss desk and leaned his head back as he stared at the ceiling contemtively. ¡¯If only Lawrence wasn¡¯t in the capital, I could easily break in and take the void energy item before anyone else arrives. He¡¯s simply too fast, and now that they can detect me faster than before, I have an even shorter window of time to operate in the city. I can¡¯t keep sending my best men there either just to get captured by the guards¡­¡¯ Though it seemed that his chances of obtaining the void energy were bleak, he didn¡¯t n to give up. He took out amunication gem and sent mana into it. ¡¯Time to call in a few favors.¡¯ Chapter 188: Surprisingly Rich While Fabio and Taliya began working together on what would surely be their greatest creation, Sol¡¯s squad had been resting in a small cave, safe from the harsh blizzard. They talked about a variety of subjects eventually pivoting to their goals. Most of them lined up with what Sol knew of them, like Nataly¡¯s desire to improve her nature magic and Aron wanting to push the limits of his body to the extreme. But Rex¡¯s goals surprised him. He wanted neither knowledge nor power but money. Not for the sake of having a lot of money, but to buy one of thetest boats made by the Sapphire Scales Alliance. ording to Rex, these boats could weather any storm and fight off massive sea monsters. He said he would need such a vessel if he wanted to venture beyond the knownnds and explore into the unknown, which had been his biggest wish since he was a child. "How much would one of those boats cost?" Sol asked. Surely something capable of what Rex described wouldn¡¯te cheap. "Last I asked one of the alliance merchants, it was 42,000 gold." Aron¡¯s mouth went agape. "42,000?! Rex, are you even close to that number?" Rex closed his eyes as he ran the numbers mentally. "Hmm, gold wise I have a little over 2,000, but I also have a lot of saved up merit, which if I converted it all to gold, would be over 10,000." Duncan was surprised when he heard the amount. The merit to gold conversion was 1:10, meaning Rex had umted at least 1,000 merit. Merit from a normal mission usually earns a squad 30 to 100 merit, but that is split between the squad members. Even Sol couldn¡¯t help but harbor some jealousy as he was reminded of the sleepless nights before their journey where he had to carefully n on what to spend the 50 merits he was given as starting funds. Many times he wished he had just 10 more merits so as not to be forced to choose some supplies over others. Duncan had to ask, "Have you spent any merit at all since joining the knights?" Rex nodded. "Of course! I spent 50 merits on this sword and 80 for my armor." n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "That¡¯s it? No [Nurturer] blessings, skill books, lessons, or even items?" These and other benefits, like ess to the Royal Library, were the reason the knights became one of the strongest forces in the kingdom. The [Nurturer] talents the kingdom had employed were not the same as those in Kerman, as they had trained and evolved their [Nurture] skill to [Enlighten], massively increasing the growth of skills and the duration. Skill books were also another hard to acquire item, as they could only be made by people with [Writer] or [Legacy] talents who pass down a user¡¯s knowledge to written form, allowing others to read and gain the skill themselves. While this method of learning skills wasn¡¯t perfect, it was undoubtedly better than attempting to learn by oneself. Rex shook his head innocently. "No, I didn¡¯t feel like I needed to, honestly." Duncan simply couldn¡¯t believe Rex made no use of these opportunities and others while still being one of the stronger knights in the order. He himself thoroughly used the resources avable to push him to be one of the strongest knights in the order despite hisst talent. If Rex spent his vast wealth to improve himself instead of saving for a boat, he had no doubt he would be just as strong as him, if not stronger. He slumped forward in defeat. "Gods, and for you to reach mid B-Rank without any of those resources¡­ I would call you a monster if not for the fact we have two bigger monsters in our squad¡­" Duncan mumbled thest sentence, but Rex and Sol easily picked up on what he said and neither knew how to respond because what he said wasn¡¯t wrong. Sol and Lapis were honestly bigger monsters in that regard, as they both were not only younger than Rex but had already reached the peak of B-Rank without any help or additional resources that the Royal Knights provided. In retrospect, it made the old man wonder why either of them joined in the first ce, as the Royal Knights didn¡¯t have much to offer for either of them. It wasn¡¯t like they had a sure way to help them break through to A-Rank. As Sol was about to ask more regarding the surprising amount of Rex¡¯s wealth, suddenly the resting Lapis jumped to her feet, catching everyone by surprise. She reached for her spear but realized it wasn¡¯t near her, butying by the campfire with the rest of the squad. She didn¡¯t remember much of what happened; thest thing she could recall was when they were still outside traversing through the blizzard. It was when she saw the rest of her squad sitting around a campfire, awkwardly staring at her, that she remembered what happened andposed herself. Sol was the first to break the silence. "How are you feeling, Lapis?" "Good, we can keep going," she stated once she got her bearings. Her abruptness took them all by surprise, and Aron blurted out, "Already? You just woke up." She nodded and urged them. "Yes, let¡¯s go." The knights weren¡¯t sure what to do and looked to Sol for his decision. Sol shook his head. "We aren¡¯t going anywhere yet. At the very least, we aren¡¯t leaving until you eat this soup." "I¡¯m not hungry." Lapis wasn¡¯t lying when she said this; she truly wasn¡¯t hungry. Her body was strong enough to go without eating for a week if she didn¡¯t want to. Even if she fought or did rigorous exercise, she couldst more than three days without eating. This was the case for all high ranked people, for their high vitality or mana as they both nourished the body in their own way, making them need less food. This didn¡¯t mean they should forgo eating as they would weaken over time, but it was possible nheless. Still, Sol wasn¡¯t asking her to eat in case she was hungry; he exined, "The soup will give you [Cold Resistance], courtesy of Duncan. With it, you will be able to better endure the cold." Hearing the benefits, she was no longer as apprehensive to eat. She took a bowl from Duncan, who served it for her, and ate it without hesitation. But what urred next shocked the squad. "... Is she for real?" Nataly asked, dumbfounded. "I have noment," Rex said as he looked away. They all watched as Lapis tilted the bowl and poured the soup¡¯s contents directly into her mouth. She didn¡¯t bother to use utensils or anything, opting instead to consume the meal as quickly as possible. In less than ten seconds, she was already done. She handed the now empty bowl back to a bewildered Duncan. "Done. Let¡¯s go," Lapis said as she grabbed her spear and signaled with her eyes for the rest of them to stand up. Chapter 189: Ice Tree Sol felt helpless watching Lapis devour her meal in seconds as he hoped she would take at least five minutes eating it. It would give her enough time to adjust after waking up, but it appeared she didn¡¯t want to afford that time for herself and would rather get moving. He stood up and packed his things. "Alright, if that¡¯s what you want, let¡¯s head out." Sol wasn¡¯t going to force her to rest. He tried the nice way and failed, but at least now she wouldn¡¯t freeze to death from the blizzard. Though he would like to know the reason for her urgency, it was unlikely she would confide in him yet. The rest of the squad stood and got ready to leave. They stored away their items back into their spatial rings and put out the fire. When done, they all headed out of the cave once more to face the frigid cold, this time more prepared. Sol didn¡¯t notice much of a difference besides it feeling less cold than before, but for the others like Nataly and Lapis, the difference was much more drastic. Nataly was shocked at how drastic it waspared to before. "Wow! It¡¯s much more bearable!" Sol nodded. "Then let¡¯s keep going. Rex, lead the way." "On it." Rex moved ahead of the group and led them back on track to find the source of the magical blizzard. With limited vision, Rex was still able to see 30 meters ahead, allowing the group to avoid perilous terrain such as deadly chasms and perpetual avnches. Every mile they traversed, the blizzard increased in potency until eventually it was no longer just snow buffeting the squad. "Iceing our way!" Rex warned the squad. After hearing his warning, Duncan immediately pulled out his shield and used his talent skill [Shimmer Dome] to envelop the group in a silver light barrier. Not a momentter, a crackling sound was heard as the barrier was pelted by sharp pellets of frozen rain and hail. Unlike normal hail that was round and would at most bruise if one were hit by it, these ice shards would easily pierce straight through thick metal sheets. Luckily, the cracking sound was from the ice shattering upon smashing onto the barrier, as it held up well against the onught. "Can we walk with the barrier?" Sol asked, as he didn¡¯t see the hail ending anytime soon. Duncan nodded. "It can, but I¡¯ll need a lot of mana to maintain it." Sol handed him his share of the mana potions without hesitation. "Use as many as you need." If the potions ran out, Sol didn¡¯t n on taking the ones he had distributed to the rest but instead used the ones he still had from before the knight selection. From the adventurers he killed in the dungeon and the ones he bought, he had a decent supply of inferior quality potionspared to the ones given by the Royal Knights, but he hoped it would be enough to get to their destination. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Duncan received the potions and, without hesitation, marched forward against the hailstorm. Rex continued to lead the way until they walked for another mile. During that mile, Duncan went through his supply of mana potions and half of the ones given by Sol until Rex saw the end in sight. "I see it! A blue ice tree!" Everyone¡¯s eyes lit up as they pressed forward more energetically than before, knowing that the end was in sight. As they approached, the tree was finally within everyone¡¯s sight, and they could see it for its grandness. It was huge, with its trunk 5 meters wide and towering beyond their vision. Through the hail, they could see a faint dark blue light. Rex squinted as, even with his enhanced vision, he couldn¡¯t see it too clearly. "I can¡¯t see it well, but that should be the fruit." Aron agreed, but he noticed there was now another problem. "How do we get it then?" "I could fly up and grab it," Sol said. He had the Blessed Boots of the Sky, which had the skill [Magical Flight]. It would be faster and less painful than climbing the ice tree. Duncan was hesitant about the suggestion. "Are you sure? Even if you can endure the hailstorm, the fierce winds may make it impossible to fly." The rain of ice shards had only be stronger as they neared the center, and if not for the silver barrier protecting them, the squad wouldn¡¯t have been able to make it this far. While Sol believed he could endure the ice, he wasn¡¯t sure if the boots could endure the winds. If he was on his own, he could trybining it with an intermediate-level flight spell to increase its potency, but it would raise a lot of questions from his squad if he did. Sol and the rest of the squad went silent as they thought about how they could reach the fruit unharmed. It was then that Nataly had an idea. "Maybe we don¡¯t need to go up." "What do you mean?" Aron asked. "While this tree ispletely made of ice, it still adheres to the rules of nature and life. That¡¯s why it bore a fruit, right? In that case, if I cast nature magic on it to make it drop the fruit, it should work." Seeing as no one else offered any other suggestions, Sol gave her the thumbs up. "Worth a shot, give it a go." "Alright! [Ripen]!" Nataly instantly chanted the spell [Ripen], which wasmonly referred to as a nature mage¡¯s first spell. Its effects were simple: it would elerate the growth of a fruit, but that wasn¡¯t the reason she cast this spell in particr. When a fruit was already ripe, the spell would then sever the stem from the tree. A small amount of mana entered the ice tree, causing it to gently glow. Because this tree was made of ice, one was able to see a greenish light travel through it and head upwards beyond the hailstorm. The tree rumbled mysteriously as the hailing around them began to lessen and reverted to the previous blizzard. While none of them could see if the spell worked, something clearly happened. Chapter 190: The Fruit Rex fixated his gaze upward and noticed the dark blue light above grow in size as it approached them. "It¡¯sing down!" he excitedly announced. The blizzard began to clear, allowing them all to see the falling object: a glowing dark blue cone shaped fruit with scale like ice leaves epassing the top half. Seeing it in free fall, Sol leaped into the air and used his boots¡¯ [Magical Flight] to catch it before it hit the ground. The moment his hands held it, he felt a burning pain in his palms. ¡¯It¡¯s freezing!¡¯ Even with his durable body, he feared he would lose his hands if he held it for too long, so he immediately stored it in his spatial ring. Once safely stored, Sol gently flew back down towards his squad where Duncan had already deactivated his barrier. Lapis was the first to ask, "Did you get it?" Sol nodded and pointed to the spatial ring on his right hand, but he noticed something was off. The normally bronze colored ring had be slightly pinkish. He didn¡¯t know what it meant, and before he could ask, Duncan approached and worriedly looked at the ring. "This isn¡¯t good¡­ the spatial ring can¡¯t contain the fruit for long." Sol looked at the ring, slightly worried, and asked, "How long do you reckon it will take?" "That depends. Did it hurt when you held it?" He nodded. "It felt like my hands were on fire. I can maybe hold it for a couple of seconds before my hands freeze off." "That¡¯s not good, but it should be safe for a few hours, a day if we¡¯re lucky. We need to keep an eye on the ring. There is no durability on its system description, so we can only go off how it looks. It will get redder the closer it is to breaking. When it reaches a deep shade of red, we¡¯ll have to transfer it to another ring before it breaks, or we will lose the fruit." When the ring breaks, the contents wouldn¡¯t simply spill onto the ground but instead be lost forever. Spatial rings were connected to an unupied piece of space located somewhere unknown, and if it breaks, it would be dropped there. While theoretically it was possible to find the items once more, it would be incredibly unlikely as they wouldn¡¯t stay in one ce but drift in the endless cosmos. While worried about his ring suddenly bursting, knowing he had some time before that urred eased concerns. After all, it would be a short trip back, and they could stop by a town or city on the way and buy something better to contain the fruit. For now, he transferred all his items from one ring to the other as a precaution so only the fruit was inside it. When he was transferring them, he noticed how some of his tools and items werepletely frozen but should still be functional after letting them defrost for a while. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "I¡¯ll keep an eye on it, but let¡¯s head back fast. I don¡¯t want to break too many spatial rings before finding something else to contain it," Sol dered. They all agreed, but there was still one more matter of concern. Rex pointed at the ice tree and asked, "So what should we do with this?" He was thinking it could be another valuable material. Though the tree towered tens of meters above them and was definitely too big to take away, they could still harvest some of its "bark." Nataly, being the biggest expert on trees, approached the tree and touched it to gain a better understanding. After touching it for a bit, to the point her hand felt a bit numb, she retracted it and shook her head. "I feel it¡¯s no longer alive. I think all the energy it was using as nutrients to sustain itself all went towards the fruit, so now it¡¯s about as strong as regr ice. It¡¯s just an borate ice sculpture now." Though disappointed, none were too hung up about it. After all, they got their main objective without a hitch. All that was left was to return. With no more deadly hail or fierce blizzards to slow them down, they all assumed it would be an easy trip back. ... On a nearby mountain peak, four orcs were keeping watch over what they called the unceasing blizzard. While the area was prone to natural disasters such as blizzards and avnches, they found that this blizzard never ended. The orcs did try to venture inside, but when they reached the deadly hailstorm, they stopped their advances. The region didn¡¯t have many B-Rank orcs, and the few that tried to venture inside couldn¡¯tst long under the barrage of icicles. Instead of assembling a better group to venture into the blizzard, they decided to call upon a Champion, an A-Rank orc, to investigate instead. Unfortunately, Champions were very busy, and since the blizzard didn¡¯t seem like an urgent matter, it was not until recently one was sent to investigate. While three orcs were ying a card game to pass the time, the orc who was on watch noticed an abnormality. Therge blizzard he had been watching for days suddenly stopped. With the snowstorm no longer obstructing their view, he could see therge tree made of pure ice and six miniscule figures next to it. "Oi! Tur, get over here!" Tur groaned in annoyance as he had a winning hand. He ced his cards face down and eyed them both to not peek before walking over. "Why¡¯d ya call me?" "The blizzard is gone! Use those eyes of yours to tell me who those people are down there." Tur¡¯s eyes widened in surprise as he looked and saw the blizzard was indeed gone. He then used his skill [Focused Sight], which amplified his vision greatly, allowing him a much better view of the situation. "Those are¡­ humans!" "Humans?!" Even the two ying cards yelled in surprise. They stood up and ran over to see the situation. "We need to inform the Champion!" "On it!" One of the orcs took out amunication gem and activated it. Soon a bored voice was heard from the gem. "What is it? I told you I would get there tomorrow." "Champion Kirgar, the blizzard is gone, and a group of humans are there!" "What?!" Even Kirgar couldn¡¯t hide his surprise, but a momentter he gave them his orders. "Inform all the orcs in the area! Do not let them leave these mountains! I will be there soon!" With that, themunication gem¡¯s light dimmed, indicating the other side of the gem was no longer active. The orcs knew the Champion was now rushing his way over and didn¡¯t call back but instead pulled out othermunication gems to inform the other orcs patrolling the mountain. Chapter 191: Book It A short minute after the group began to make their way down, Rex felt multiple gazes on him. He covered his mouth with his cloak and softly spoke. "Captain, I have bad news. We got spotted." Everyone¡¯s body tensed, but no one made anyrge movements. They knew if he was informing them quietly, it was because they were only watching and not attacking, yet. "Where?" Sol asked. "All around us, at least 30. More keep entering my range of perception as we speak. They are all staying 200 meters away for now." ¡¯For them to not attack immediately means they¡¯re waiting for something, likely reinforcements. In that case¡­¡¯ Not nning to stick around for more orcs to surround them, Sol quietly whispered the n. "On my mark we run. I¡¯ll carry Nataly so we can go faster; Duncan is the next slowest, so the rest of us will match his pace." While he was confident they could win against these orcs, they had the ticking time bomb of his spatial ring breaking. He had to keep a constant eye on it for any changes, and the transfer process wasn¡¯t instant either. Nataly¡¯s cheeks reddened at the thought of being carried but held back on making anyments given the situation they were in. The rest of the squad gave light nods in response. They continued with their normal pace as Sol didn¡¯t immediately give the signal. It was not until their group was halfway up a tall mountain when he suddenly stomped with his foot, causing the earth to rumble and reveal a tunnel he quickly made with [Terra Maniption]. "Now!" he signaled. "Eep!" Nataly yelped as she was lifted and princess-carried by Sol. Though she was warned ahead of time, she couldn¡¯t help but be a little surprised at how suddenly it urred. He ran into the tunnel with the rest of the squad following right behind him. Once they were all inside, he copsed the entrance while expanding the tunnel until it reached the other side of the mountain. The orcs who were watching from a distance realized they had been spotted and took action. "Charge! We can¡¯t let them get away!" The orcs split into two groups. The first went to where Sol copsed the tunnel and began to open it with the help of their mages, while the rest circled the mountain. While the orcs were removing the blockade, Sol and the squad had already emerged through the other side of the mountain. He chose a thin area in the mountain to minimize his mana consumption and so they could get back to running on open terrain. If he had the mana to spare, he would rather just make a tunnel that led directly outside the mountain range, but even if he did, the orcs would simply follow the tunnel behind him and eventually catch up. When their entire squad left the tunnel, he copsed the exit once more and turned to Rex. "Rex, lead the way!" "On it, Captain!" Rex ran ahead as he kept track of all the orcs who were not only chasing after them but were alsoing from all directions, including the ones they avoided getting here in the first ce. From his other spatial ring, Sol retrieved twomunication gems and passed them to Nataly, who he was carrying. "Try contacting the other two squads to see if they¡¯re in range!" Nataly nodded and inserted mana into both gems, but after doing so for a few seconds, neither of them showed any reaction. Neither responded to their call as they were outside the gem¡¯s 100 mile range. Because their squad was given the direct route, that meant they arrived much sooner than either of them, but that also meant they wouldn¡¯t get any support anytime soon. Sol saw this and mumbled, "We¡¯re on our own then. Keep going! We should cross the border in an hour!" The squad continued to run, making much faster progress leaving than when they originally sneaked in. Because they were going as fast as possible, many orcs on patrol and on the lookout easily spotted them and tried to hinder their escape. "Halt, humans!" yelled an orc that was followed by seven other orcs with weapons drawn. They stood in the way, ready to attack. No one in the squad responded to theirmands and instead continued charging straight towards them with their own weapons drawn. Lapis stabbed forward towards two orcs. The spear stabbed straight through the first, and as it exited them, it turned and stabbed the other in one motion. Rex swung his sword lightly, cutting the necks of two without any resistance. Aron wasn¡¯t far behind as he followed up with a flying spinning kick, hitting two orcs squarely in the head. It wasn¡¯t enough to kill the two, but it knocked them out. Duncan used his massive shield to m thest orc, and even though the orc was a full head taller and twice the muscle mass, the shield m crushed the poor orc. Nataly and Sol were the only ones who didn¡¯t attack and weren¡¯t attacking unless forced to. Nataly needed time to cast spells, and on top of that, nature magic wasn¡¯t known for its speed. In the time she cast a spell, the fight would normally be over. For Sol, he had his hands full with Nataly, and he was trying to conserve his mana for if he needed to do any big ys with [Terra Maniption]. Even without their participation, the small orc groups they encountered didn¡¯t stand a chance. Most were usually C-Rank, and the few B-Rank orcs they encountered were immediately taken down by Lapis. The most the orcs managed to do was slightly slow them down, but even the blizzard did a better job at that. Sol found their relentlessness odd. ¡¯They are throwing their lives away to slow us down by a few seconds. To what end?¡¯ As the squad continued to run, they climbed and arrived at one of the higher teaus in the mountain range. From there, they had a view of the Orna mountain range, and a few more mountains south, they could even see the northern forest of Crestelia. While a beautiful sight, there was only one problem with it: numerous orcs could be seen rushing towards them from multiple directions as they relentlessly pursued them. Aron eagerly spoke, "A few more mountains and we¡¯re home free. Hopefully the orcs don¡¯t follow us into the kingdom." "They shouldn¡¯t. The army would quickly mobilize to intercept them. The Kerman reinforcements to Chillton would also hold them off," Duncan assured him. "Wait, why are the orcs no longer approaching?" Rex asked after noticing they had all suddenly begun to either retreat or spectate from a distance. He scanned the surroundings once more and found one orc two mountains away that was not retreating. rm bells rang in his head when he saw the faraway orc, and even without skills like [Analysis] to confirm his suspicions, he immediately called out. "They sent an A-Ranker after us!" Just as he yelled that, a massive swirl of mana began to gather on the faraway mountain. Snow and ice swirled like a tornado, growing and growing. When the tornado dispersed, a massive hundred foot tall snow giant stood where the orc once was and roared, causing avnches throughout the mountain range. The squad felt a rising sense of dread. Knowing the might of A-Rankers firsthand, Sol immediately yelled, "Run!"n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Chapter 192: Snow Giant Without hesitation, the squad ran in the opposite direction of the giant snow abomination. None of them dared to even think of actually fighting the A-Ranker. Unfortunately, the direction they were forced to run towards did not lead out of the mountain range but deeper into it. Nothing could be done about it, as the orc Champion appeared between them and the exit of the mountains, clearly on purpose. The only silver lining of this situation was that the A-Ranker didn¡¯t appear to specialize in speed, given the fact they were still alive. The squad slid down from the teau onto the mountain slope, using whatever method they had to move faster. When going down a mountain, Duncan would use his silver barrier to form a makeshift sled as they bulldozed downwards. When going upwards, Sol would use [Terra Maniption] to create footholds to run upwards and tunnels in thin parts of the mountain to cut directly through it. Sol considered making a tunnel that went deep underground and sealing it off but decided against it because he didn¡¯t know if the orc had special means to follow them underground. When he used [Analysis] on the snow giant, the status page was filled with question marks. At least with Victor, he saw little bits of information, but there was truly nothing he could decipher from this foe. The orcs who littered the mountain range spectated the squad with glee, and none stood in their way. Some orcs even moved out of the way when they ran towards their direction. Two orcs that were watching from a distance saw the snow giant with a reverent gaze. "Champion Kirgar is as domineering as ever. The moment those humans saw him, they immediately ran away." The other orc nodded. "It¡¯s very like humans to run in the face of adversity. They killed many of our brethren, but I am happy their sacrifice was not in vain, and they will get to go to Ragnar¡¯s heavenly battlefield." Ragnar was the God of War, whom the orcs fervently devoted themselves to. It was ingrained into orc culture that those who died a meaningful death on the battlefield would be able to join Ragnar¡¯s army and fight to their heart¡¯s content. The orcs that died today may not have impeded the squad by a lot, but their collective sacrifice bought their Champion enough time to arrive, which meant that their deaths did have meaning. As the squad climbed yet another mountain, they could see the snow giant once more, and it was steadily closing the distance. While its massive body appeared to lumber slowly towards them, every step it took covered a massive amount of distance. At first, there were two mountains¡¯ worth of distance between them, but now it was just one. Seeing this, Sol urged, "We need to go even faster!" The rest nodded seriously while Lapis rolled her eyes at him stating the obvious. They jumped down the mountain and slid down once more while looking for means to move faster. When the snow giant reached the peak of his mountain, it paused for a moment as it saw them slide down and raised its right arm towards them. The snow rapidly condensed until its hand became arge spear of ice the size of its 40 foot long arm. Without needing to make any throwing motion, the spearunched forward and flew in a straight line towards the mountain the squad was on. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om When the squad was sliding down the slope, none of them saw itunch the attack, but they didn¡¯t need to. The mountain rumbled as a spear sted out through the mountainside not far above them and continued flying in a straight line until it hit the next mountain ahead, causing arge crater on the mountainside. ¡¯He has the power to destroy mountains¡­¡¯ Sol thought to himself in shock. They were lucky the snowman missed, at least they all thought so until they heard a loud sound. Wumpf! They looked to the source of the noise and noticed the spear caused the mountain to shake enough that arge upper snowpack copsed, and it was quickly developing into an avnche. "If we get caught in that, we might as well be dead!" Rex yelled with a pale face. The avnche was nowhere near enough to kill them, but if they ended up buried under the snow, it would severely slow them down, and they would be easily caught by the snow giant. Sol quickly formted a n and yelled, "Duncan! Reinforce the barrier in all directions!" "On it!" Duncan didn¡¯t know what he was nning, but he would follow his orders regardless. The barrier that was being used as a giant sled expanded until it covered them from all directions. The avnche was picking up momentum and would soon catch up to them. Having to act fast, Sol passed Nataly to Lapis while he focused on sending mana into his surroundings. A secondter, a pir of stone rose from the snow and smashed into the barrier from the back, sting them downwards even faster. He repeated this two more times until he could no longer raise a stone pir fast enough to boost them further. Now sting down the mountain at an unprecedented speed, they were no longer in danger of the avnche catching up, but an even more terrifying problem was presented before them. "Aren¡¯t we going too fast? We¡¯re gonna crash into the ground!" Aron panicked as his eyes could barely keep up with how fast they were going. "I don¡¯t think my barrier can withstand the impact¡­" "It¡¯s going to be fine!" Sol assured them but kept his real thoughts to himself. ¡¯But only if I angle this right¡­¡¯ Sol sent mana once more to the ground ahead of him, reinforcing the earth and causing it to rise at a curved slope. Seeing they were heading right towards this curved stone, they began to realize his n and the absurdity of it. Nataly also began to panic. "You made a ramp?! What if weunch ourselves straight into the mountain?!" Sol nodded and responded while focusing most of his attention on making the ramp angle perfect, "At this speed and angle, we should be able to fly over the mountain¡­" "Should?!" Nataly felt like she was going to faint. He nodded again but noticed their speed was slowing down from the friction of sliding down the mountain and smashed the barrier again with a stone pir to boost them back to maximum speed. Nataly couldn¡¯t bear to watch anymore. She hugged Lapis and buried her head in her chest while screaming. "We¡¯re all gonna die!" Chapter 193: Visions The orcs were having a great time watching the humans run from their impending doom. "Bahaha! They¡¯re gonna die trying to escape!" "They are only B-Rankers. There is no way they will survive such a collision with the ground." One of the orcs then noticed a stone ramp rise further down the mountain. "Is that a ramp? Wait, don¡¯t tell me¡­" "Won¡¯t they justunch themselves into another mountain?" The entire region was full of mountains. There were countless high and low points, andunching themselves in such a way would likely result in them just crashing into another mountain. The orcs watched as the ramp bent and curved until it reached a 75-degree angle. The squad in the barrier then elerated once more with another stone pir boost. N?v(el)B\\jnn One of the orcs watching couldn¡¯t help but wonder. "Even if they dounch over the mountains, won¡¯t they die from the fall?" Another orc nodded. "This will probably be one of the most ridiculous deaths I have ever witnessed. Even Lomreg¡¯s death wasn¡¯t as crazy as this." "Wasn¡¯t he the one that died from his beard catching on fire?" The orc nodded. It was an especially unfortunate death because it wasn¡¯t meaningful, which meant the unlucky orc couldn¡¯t go to the heavenly battlefield. ... The squad had very mixed emotions as they barreled towards the ramp. Nataly wouldn¡¯t let go of Lapis while screaming. Lapis ignored her and braced herself. Aron appeared to have his life shing before his eyes. Rex bent his knees in anticipation of the pressure from the momentum. Duncan, as the creator of the barrier, reinforced it as much as he possibly could with a dire expression. Sol was still activelypacting the ramp as much as he could to endure their extreme velocity and couldn¡¯t afford any distractions, so he ignored the rest of his squad¡¯s reactions. At their speed, they reached the ramp in mere seconds, and though Sol did his best to make it as durable as possible, cracks appeared on the ramp. It still endured, and the next moment the barrier slid across its surface andunched upwards at a frightening velocity. "Gah!" "Ack!" Everyone groaned in pain as they copsed onto the floor of the barrier. The sheer pressure from drastically changing directions would have crushed any normal person. Even during the intense gravitational pressure, Duncan managed to maintain the barrier, though it now had many cracks throughout its surface. The squad soared into the sky and headed forward towards one of the mountain peaks. Rex, who stood up after adjusting to the pressure,mented, "Looks like we don¡¯t have to worry about crashing¡­" They kept rising and rising and far surpassed the mountain peak. Soon they were almost a hundred meters above the mountain until their upward momentum began to slow down. Thousands of meters in the air, the view was incredibly breathtaking. They were so high up that they could even see a few cities, though they were only small dots in the distance. High up in the skies, Sol paused as he saw the sight, but suddenly he felt a stinging sensation in his eyes. Without warning, [True Sight] activated on its own as his vision became cloudy, and he saw many undecipherable or twisted images bending and contorting. Sol quickly realized what was urring. ¡¯Is this a premonition?¡¯ He thought back to the skill¡¯s description. [[True Sight] Lv 6: Open one¡¯s eyes to the truth of the world and see what most cannot. Perceive mana and life within a 30-meter radius. Able to pierce through most illusions. Extremely rare chance of obtaining a premonition.] Understanding what was happening, he didn¡¯t try to resist the skill. The vision blurred into view as he saw a simr view as the one he was just seeing from the sky, but it was focused on one mountain in particr. It was much taller than the rest, being almost double the size. ¡¯Isn¡¯t that Orna¡¯s Reach? The tallest mountain in the world?¡¯ He hadn¡¯t seen it before but had read of it as research for this uing mission. He tried to look around for more information but realized he couldn¡¯t move his gaze at all. It appeared that he had little agency in what he was being shown. Before he could ponder what it meant, the vision began to change. The clear blue skies disappeared, and now he was in a dark cave. He was facing the entrance where an orc stood blocking the exit. ¡¯He looks like the A-Ranker before he became the snow giant. Does he corner us there?¡¯ The orc was speaking, but he couldn¡¯t hear what he said. ¡¯I can only see¡­ I can¡¯t hear what he is saying, and now that I think about it, I can¡¯t feel anything either. But from the looks of it, he looks distressed?¡¯ Sol wasn¡¯t sure, but from the orc¡¯s facial expressions, he appeared to be pleading towards him, but he couldn¡¯t understand why. The vision changed once more, but nothing appeared different. He was still in the cave, and the orc was still standing in the entrance. ¡¯Wait, why is he not moving?¡¯ The orc stood eerily still with his hands outward as if trying to defend against something. The next moment, cracks appeared across the orc¡¯s body. The cracks spread through its entire body until it shattered into countless ice shards. ¡¯He died?! How?!¡¯ The orc appearedpletely helpless to whatever fate befell him. Once the orc was reduced to pieces, his gaze moved away from the orc and down to his hands in the vision. They were covered in fresh blood. ¡¯I killed him?¡¯ Sol didn¡¯t understand how that was possible. Even if he went all out, he had no ability to destroy the orc like he just saw. He waited as the vision faded, hoping the next one would enlighten him, but no new vision appeared. He felt like he was being pushed out, and that was all he was going to get. He then heard a faint voice call out to him. "Captain!" It grew louder. "Captain!" And louder. "Cap- Sol!" Suddenly Sol was back to the present, still far above in the sky. He was a bit out of it from the visions and looked to the voice that had been calling to him. "Huh, what happened?" Rex, who had been calling out to him, pointed behind them. Tworge ice spears were flying towards them with deadly precision. "We need to dodge that somehow!" Chapter 194: Orna鈥檚 Reach The two massive ice spears flew toward them, and following their trajectory, they weren¡¯t going to miss likest time. The sight of that instantly roused Sol awake. While he wasn¡¯t sure what to make of the visions, he had to survive this attack first. ¡¯I need to change our trajectory and fast!¡¯ Sol thought of all his skills and spells, but none had the ability to change their trajectory fast enough. That was until he remembered a new skill he had obtained. Feeling it was worth a shot, Sol spent 50 mana and used [Impact Bubble]. He ced it at the front left side of the barrier. Crack! The next moment everyone felt a jostle and stumbled towards the left as they were pushed rightward. "What was that?!" Aron asked as he reoriented himself. The next moment, two ice spears flew right by them, missing by just an inch. "It missed?" Nataly didn¡¯t understand how that was possible. She was sure it was aiming right for them. Rex shook his head. "No, look at where we are heading to now. We¡¯re going around 10 degrees to the right now. We hit something, and it changed our trajectory." Rex was correct, but he wasn¡¯t sure what they could have hit. This was because the [Impact Bubble] was created and broke the instant the barrier hit it. Though the skill was meant to stop anything that entered its sphere of influence, their velocity was still too great. Though it was destroyed immediately, it still slightly changed their direction, which was more than enough to evade the massive spears the snow giant threw at them. Sol wanted to rify what he did to his team, but he then noticed something in the distance. It was the very same mountain he saw in his vision. It wasn¡¯t very far, and if he used [Impact Bubble] three more times, they shouldnd near it. He wanted to exin his n to the others, but Rex warned him once more. "More attacks iing!" The snow giant continued to form ice spears andunched them in quick session. Having to take evasive maneuvers, Sol repeatedly used [Impact Bubble] to its fullest to veer out of the way of the attacks. By now, gravity was beginning to take hold of them once more, and they were heading downwards fast. A total of six ice spears flew toward them, but with careful cements of [Impact Bubble], they all slightly missed. Some more than others, with the closest call being mere inches from the barrier. Even from such a massive distance, the snow giant¡¯s aim was impable, and if not for them dodging, all of them would have directly hit. Rex had finally caught on to what was happening. He managed to catch two times where a transparent bubble appeared and immediately broke upon hitting the barrier. "Captain, did you make those spheres?" Sol nodded while looking ahead. They had fallen down enough that they had fallen in between the mountains once more. That meant the snow giant no longer had a direct line of sight to continue his attacks, but now they had to deal with gravity. "Yes! Now brace yourselves, I¡¯m gonna slow our fall!" Everyone did as he said and braced themselves. Once they were 100 meters from colliding against the mountainside, Sol spammed [Impact Bubble]. Though he was only able to create and maintain one at a time, they instantly broke upon hitting the barrier, so he quickly made another one. Each one slightly decreased their velocity, and the lower their velocity was, the more each bubblested before breaking. When they were only 10 meters off the ground, they had slowed to the point that the bubble was finally able to bear their weight and speed to actually hold them in ce. Duncan, exhausted from maintaining his barrier for so long, released it, causing them all to drop to the ground. They all dropped onto the snow and stood up with shaky knees. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "I feel like I ran through twenty walls¡­" Aron said while doing his best to keep his lunch in his stomach. Even Sol was slightly shaking from the ludicrous escape they pulled off. From the intense pressure when they took off to the bumping around from the [Impact Bubble], no one would feel good after that. Everyone wanted toy down and rest, but Sol knew they had to keep going only a little further, so he did his best to motivate them. "We are almost there. Once we get to Orna¡¯s Reach, we¡¯ll be safe." "Huh? How so?" Duncan was puzzled as Sol had never mentioned the ce before. Sol froze as he didn¡¯t know how to exin his visions. "It¡¯s the, umm¡­ the Saintess! She told me we should head to Orna¡¯s Reach." "What? Then why didn¡¯t we head here in the first ce?" Nataly asked. "I was told not to divulge it unless we were in trouble. Something about knowing your fate will change it too much." Sol felt he would get caught in his lie if he kept answering their questions, so he pushed all the me to the Saintess he had never even met. Aron tilted his head as something still didn¡¯t add up. "But what¡ª" Sol interrupted him before he was asked something he couldn¡¯t exin. "I¡¯ll exinter! For now, we run! Lapis, carry Nataly, I¡¯ll need my hands free to better manipte the earth." Lapis nodded and swung Nataly over her shoulder like a sack. "H-hey! Wait!" Lapis ignored her pleas, and together they ran towards Orna¡¯s Reach, which was only a mountain away from them. As they climbed the peak of the mountain, they saw the snow giant quickly closing the distance. It appeared to be trying much harder to reach them, but it was still a ways away. Sol took the little time they had on the mountain peak to take a good look at Orna¡¯s Reach. ¡¯Is there a natural cave entrance, or did I make it with my skill?¡¯ He was looking to see if he could find the cave from the vision. He hoped he didn¡¯t have to make the cave himself as he had no idea where he had to make it. Luckily for him, he saw a trail on the mountain marked with unlit torches, which he followed until a small cave. "Everyone follow me!" ... As the snow giant ran after the humans, Kirgar, who was inside of it, was beginning to panic. ¡¯Why are the humans heading there?! Do they know what lies inside?!¡¯ It made even more effort to run after them, but he knew he wouldn¡¯t catch up to them in time. He could only curse himself for not being fast enough. While running after them, the orc suddenly had a thought. ¡¯What if I tell it they are sacrifices?¡¯ Kirgar¡¯s eyes widened. ¡¯Yes! That may work! It will always uphold its deal!¡¯ Chapter 195: Ice Arrow Rain Though Kirgar formted a n in case the humans headed to that cave, he didn¡¯t stop attacking. After all, he would much prefer not to interact with what was inside, so he would rather kill the humans before they got there. As he controlled the snow giant to climb the mountain the squadnded on, he saw them halfway up Orna¡¯s Reach. Soon they would arrive at the cave, and if that was indeed their destination, he had to act fast. The snow giant perched itself on the mountain and began to morph. It shrank andpacted, taking on a new form. It became a ballista with three channels that could hold massive bolts. Just as he was about to begin making the massive bolts, he stopped himself and frowned. ¡¯I can¡¯t use my main attack. It will destroy the mountain.¡¯ Fearing whatever was inside, the ballista morphed once more into a square shape. The square had hundreds of bores spread across its front. It was a hwacha. With hismand, the ice arrows filled the bores, and heunched them without any dy. Hundreds of ice arrows streaked through the air, aiming straight for the humans. Though confident they wouldn¡¯t survive if they were hit by these arrows, after seeing how relentless they were in escaping, he refilled the hwacha and shot another volley. ... Sol and his squad continued to climb the mountain. They were going as fast as they could, using any means. Theypletely ignored the well-maintained path of the mountain and climbed directly up the vertical walls with stone steps created with [Terra Maniption]. They also used all the movement skills they could, but no matter how fast Sol, Lapis, Rex, and Aron could go, they had to match Duncan¡¯s pace. Other people would have considered dropping the weakest link, but no one in this squad even entertained the thought. Not even Lapis, who was more of a lone wolf, considered it. Rex, who had kept an ever-vignt eye on his surroundings, was the first to point out what the Champion orc was doing. "He made a ballista out of snow! Wait, now it¡¯s some weird box!" Duncan looked back and immediately knew what it was. "It¡¯s a hwacha! It can shoot hundreds of arrows instantly!" Just as he informed them, they saw hundreds of ice blue arrowsunch from the snow hwacha, covering what felt like the entire sky. It also didn¡¯t stop with just one volley. Volley after volley was continuouslyunched. "Watch out!" Everyone used their movement skills to dodge the arrows. Everywhere theynded, they created small craters from their sheer power. ¡¯There has to be a way we survive this! I saw us reach that cave in the vision! It has to happen!¡¯ Sol wracked his brain hard on how they could survive dodging them, but no matter what, he realized it wasn¡¯t feasible. Soon their movement skills would run out, and they would find it much harder to continuously dodge. ¡¯Wait. What if we don¡¯t have to dodge?¡¯ Sol nced at the craters left by the arrows. While frightening in power, it wasn¡¯t like the previous massive ice spears that destroyed mountains. As he realized this discovery, he saw Duncan slow down, his skill [Full Metal Stride] ended, and there was an arrow heading right towards him. Sol brandished his Lipon and released the fire elemental sword. He used [Ground Shrink] towards Duncan and followed up with [Counter]. The ming sword collided with the arrow, creating a sizzling sound before the arrow was knocked away. Though the arrow was still powerful, it was possible for him to block it if he put his all into it. He judged each arrow had the power of a full strike from a peak B-Ranker, which was insane given the countless arrows raining down upon them. Luckily, they didn¡¯t need to block all the arrows. "The arrows are only as strong as a full strike from a peak B-Ranker!" Sol yelled and didn¡¯t borate further because he didn¡¯t need to; they understood what he meant and acted ordingly. Rex continued dodging, but when there was no way to do so, he would use his sword to parry them. Though the arrow was strong enough to push him back, he would sometimes use the knockback to his advantage to move to a more ideal location. Lapis, who was still carrying Nataly, didn¡¯t change much from her previous actions. She was able to perfectly evade all the arrows thanks to her high agility, [Enhanced Reflexes], and her talent skill [Serpentine Steps]. Even with Nataly weighing her down, she was able to slither past all the attacks without much issue. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Duncan was the least fearful of the arrows now that he knew their limits. He held his shield above his head as he endured the rain of arrows directly. He found this much easier than trying to dodge, as it was not his specialty. Aron¡­ hid under Duncan¡¯s massive shield and shamelessly took cover. His few movement skills were on cooldown, and his only way to parry the ice arrows was with his fist, which he didn¡¯t believe woulde out unscathed after one attack. The squad continued climbing but at a much slower pace. Having to dodge and block the ice arrows hampered their progress, but on the bright side, Kirgar hadn¡¯t moved from where he wasunching the attack. ... Kirgar mumbled to himself as he watched the squad continue to climb, "So these humans aren¡¯t only good at running." Initially, he believed the human invaders had unusual skills for infiltrating and escaping, but it appeared they were also strong enough to withstand his diluted attacks. Even though the ice arrows weren¡¯t as strong as his main attacks, it was still simr to releasing hundreds of peak B-Rank attacks. "This will be myst volley. I¡¯ll continue chasing if this one doesn¡¯t kill them." Ice arrows were formed inside the hwacha once more, but he didn¡¯t release them yet. An evil grin rose on his face as he thought of a devious n. He turned his attention to one of the arrows loaded onto the hwacha and concentrated much more energy onto it, packing it full of deadly freezing energy. "Let¡¯s see how they block this one." Thest volley wasunched at the squad. Kirgar didn¡¯t wait to see the results and began to chase after them. Chapter 196: Slow Him Down "We¡¯re almost there!" Sol yelled to motivate his squad. It wasn¡¯t a lie either, the cave was within sight. A few more meters of climbing and a final sprint were all that stood in their way of reaching their goal. "That orc is running after us again!" Rex pointed out as he saw Kirgarunch one final volley before leaving the snow hwacha behind. Aron chuckled. "Heh, he finally realized he couldn¡¯t hurt us with his weak arrows." Duncan rolled his eyes as he held his massive shield above his head. "Says the one hiding under my shield." "I¡¯m not hiding! I¡¯m, uhh¡­ conserving my energy!" "Sure¡­" Duncan said sarcastically as he blocked tens of ice arrows. Aron¡¯s antics lightened the mood as they prepared to dodge the final volley of ice arrows. Thinking it was the same as the previous volleys, they used the same methods as before. It worked for the most part until one inconspicuous arrow headed toward Nataly and Lapis. Like usual, she would use her overwhelming agility to perfectly dodge the arrows and treated the next one the same. She sidestepped around it, anticipating its trajectory as it neared. The ice arrownded next to her, but unlike the other arrows that soon disappeared after collision, this one remained. It glowed ominously as it began to emanate a freezing energy. The snow under it quickly began turning into ice and expanded outward. Everyone felt its energy; even Duncan and Aron, who were the furthest away, could feel it emitting freezing energy. "That¡¯s not a normal arrow! Get away from it!" Immediately after Sol¡¯s warning, the ice arrow cracked and burst into countless deadly shards of ice packed full of power in all directions. Duncan used his shield along with multiple defense skills to cover for himself and Aron, while Sol used [Overpower] and [Ground Shrink] to grab Rex, who was the closest to him, and got away as far as possible. Lapis and Nataly were not as lucky, being the two closest to the special ice arrow and the ones with the least time to react. Lapis used all her movement skills simultaneously but quickly realized no matter how fast she went, they wouldn¡¯t be able to avoid the ice shrapnel. But she also realized that it didn¡¯t mean they both had to get hit by it. Without hesitation, she tossed Nataly away toward the cave, brandished her spear, and swung at her using [Pole m]. The shaft of the spear smashed into Nataly and knocked her as far away from the ice arrow¡¯s shrapnel. "Gah!" Nataly yelled in pain as she was flung andnded near the entrance of the cave. Though Lapis did her best to hold back to not kill Nataly with her strike, it still left her critically wounded when shended near the cave. The next moment, Lapis¡¯ back was riddled with ice shards, each containing incredibly deadly ice energy. Her armor was torn open as blood scattered everywhere. "Lapis!" Sol yelled as he ran to her. The entire area was littered with ice shards, and their crushing sounds could be heard as he sprinted to her while still under the effects of [Overpower]. He looked at her wounds and couldn¡¯t help but grimace at how bad they were. Her entire back was shredded open, and ice shards dug into her back, causing her body to turn blue from the cold energy. Rex quickly appeared by his side and had a simrly ugly expression from seeing her injuries. Though it was bad, he had to warn him of the iing threat. "We have to move! That orc ising here fast!" Sol nced and saw Kirgar in the distance, riding on a wave of snow, heading toward them frighteningly quick. He would arrive in under a minute if nothing was done about it. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "Grab Lapis and Nataly, take them to the cave! Give them as many healing potions as you need to and get Nataly to check on Lapis when she recovers!" Rex nodded and lifted Lapis while Duncan and Aron moved to grab Nataly. "What about you?" Rex asked before he left. Sol watched Kirgar get closer with each passing second and spoke with a heavy tone. "I¡¯ll¡­ try to slow him down." Sol knew he had to buy some time for them so they could treat Lapis and Nataly. The others wanted to stay and help but knew there was little they could do here. They grabbed the injured women and took them inside the cave. Once they were gone, seven hands, each glowing in a different color, appeared around him and began to rotate around the orange hand. As the surrounding hands wove their energy into the orange hand, Sol calcted his chances. ¡¯I have never used [Overpower] alongside [Polychromatism]. With level four [Overpower], my intelligence nearly triples, so it should be much stronger thanst time I tested full spectrum. Even though I used it before to save Rex, I still have a little under a minute left. Hope it¡¯s enough to push him back.¡¯ Just as he finished his thought, the hands blurred, which was a visual indicator that the full spectrum attack was ready. Without hesitation, he gave themand and arge beam of pure white sted out toward the orc. As Kirgar was riding the wave of snow, he saw the iing beam and immediately felt a sense of danger. Instinctively, he controlled the snow to swerve to the side and dodged the beam that sted straight into the mountain. ¡¯This! Was one of them secretly an A-Ranker?! No, that¡¯s impossible.¡¯ He didn¡¯t see the reason in holding back till now, so he realized it was more likely that one of them was using their trump cards. For a moment, he thought the attack was over until he heard rumblings from inside the mountain. His instincts screamed for him to move again. When he did, a beam sted out of the mountain before splitting into countless smaller beams and curving back toward him. Seeing the countless beams targeting him from multiple angles, a huge battle loving smile rose on his face. Adrenaline coursed through his body as he roared. "I love it when they fight back!" Chapter 197: Promise Kirgar maniacallyughed as he dodged the countless beams. From where he stood, all he could see were the white beams that moved in unpredictable ways: some circled around to attack his back, others zigzagged toward him, a few burrowed through the ground and emerged beneath him, but most simply went for him directly. He rode the snow and navigated it through the web of beams looking to burn a hole through his chest. Even when Sol made it so the beams would attack in a way that was impossible to dodge, the orc would create walls of ice to block a side and create an opening. ¡¯He¡¯s toying with me¡­¡¯ Sol could tell the orc wasn¡¯t truly going all out against him and was just having a st evading the attacks. He hadn¡¯t even transformed into his snow giant or conjured other snow creations to protect him. Sol remembered from the visions that the orc appeared in the cave unharmed. Which meant all of this wouldn¡¯t stop him, and he could see why. The orc was agile enough to dodge the beams, and when there was no choice, his ice was strong enough to block them. Maybe only the main beam would be able to hurt him, but it was too slow at turning unlike the smaller beams. Sol took out a mana potion and chugged it down, replenishing his quickly depleting mana supply. ¡¯I¡¯ll leave him here then. Hopefully he doesn¡¯t get bored and charge through it all.¡¯ Knowing there was nothing he could do here, he continued to feed the full spectrum his mana but left for the cave to check on Nataly and Lapis. Fortunately, the full spectrum didn¡¯t require his full attention as it could automatically target anyone he designated thanks to the power of chromatic blue. There was a downside of it bing more predictable, but he knew it wouldn¡¯t hit the orc either way. Entering the cave, Sol looked for his squad and spotted them huddled together at the end of the cave, which had an oddly dark blue wall. He approached and saw Nataly coughing blood while desperately chanting her most potent healing spell. "[Life Dew]! [Life Dew]!" Drops of light green sap fell on Lapis, revitalizing her with the energy of life. Though it was Nataly¡¯s strongest healing spell, the wounds slowly mended while freezing blue lines continued to spread outward from her back and had reached her waist and neck. "Out of the way! [Life Drop]!" Rex stood up and allowed Sol to take his spot as he also joined in healing Lapis¡¯ wounds. While her back was closing faster than before, the veins of ice continued to expand outward, only slower than before. ¡¯It¡¯s not enough!¡¯ Sol chugged another potion before he ran out of mana from full spectrum and ced his hands on her bloody back. He began to chant every useful spell he knew to help her recover. He didn¡¯t hold back. "[me Boon]! [Light Cleanse]!" The fire spell bestowed cold resistance and vigor to fight off the encroaching frost, but the spell was quickly canceled as it was overwhelmed by its pr element. [Light Cleanse] fared slightly better, but it only served to slow the spread as it continued to spread until it reached either her head or her heart. Everyone was surprised by him using spells of different elements, but they knew it wasn¡¯t the time to ask. What was more shocking was that even with spells from four different elements, it wasn¡¯t enough to stop the ice infection. The ice arrow was specially created by Kirgar, and it contained energy that almost rivaled one of his true attacks like the massive ice spears. But Sol didn¡¯t give up and continued to spam his three spells in rotation. Nataly helped as well by continuously chanting her healing spell while Aron fed her another potion. But no matter how much they tried, the ice continued expanding. "Dammit! [Light Cleanse]!" Sol chanted another spell, but he suddenly felt a hand grab his. It was Lapis, who was barely conscious and felt numb from the ice energy ravaging her body. After a lot of struggle, she managed to eke out a few words. "Royal Library¡­ third floor¡­ Ophis¡­" n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "Ophis? What does that have to do with anything?" As much as Sol wanted to understand what she meant, she ignored his question and handed him her spatial ring. "Take it¡­ and promise¡­" [Health: 12/700] Sol had kept an eye on her health the entire time, and no matter how many spells he cast, even when he multicast them, the number didn¡¯t go up. It only dyed the inevitable, and he could no longer deny it. "Okay¡­ I promise." Sol spoke with a heavy heart. All he could do now wasfort her in her final moments, though he desperately wished there was something else he could do. Hearing his words, Lapis formed a faint smile. She stopped resisting, allowing the ice to finish her off. It rapidly spread to her heart and froze it instantly before spreading to other parts of her body. She began to crystallize until her entire body froze over and became an ice sculpture. The squad watched her final moments with different expressions ranging from sorrow to rage. Sol clenched his bloody fist in anger. But he wasn¡¯t allowed to dwell in his own thoughts for long as a deep booming voice resounded in the cave. "I thought I told you orcs to bring them alive. They serve little purpose to me dead." Everyone stood up and looked around in tense confusion. "I don¡¯t see anyone¡­ Could it be an A-Ranker that specializes in stealth?" Rex wasn¡¯t able to detect anything. Sol gave his squad a signal to group up as they moved towards the end of the cave. They put their backs against the backmost wall, and Sol called out to the mysterious voice. "Who¡¯s there?!" There was a pause of silence as the voice realized that the visitors weren¡¯t the usual ones he had. The whole cave began to rumble as the wall they were pressing their backs against began to move. The squad leaped back to face the wall, but it was then that they realized it was no wall. A massive eye was revealed, taking up the entire back wall of the cave. What they thought was a wall was only its eyelid. The deep voice spoke in a puzzled tone. "Humans? And you¡¯re not offerings?" "What? No, of course not!" Sol instantly rebuked as he feared that this massive being would suddenly kill them thinking they were offerings. Though he wasn¡¯t in a good mood after witnessing Lapis¡¯ death, he had to move forward because if he didn¡¯t they might all soon join her. "Ah, then you havee to trade?" The deep voice spoke with somewhat eagerness. "I feel a great source of energy nearby." ¡¯From offerings to trade? He switched tones fast¡­¡¯ Sol was unsure how to proceed with this being, but he tried to take it from the top. Sol spoke in a respectful manner. "I¡¯m sorry, but we don¡¯t know who you are. We came here seeking shelter and were unaware you lived here." "Seeking shelter? Interesting. First, let me introduce myself. My name is ???????? ?? ??? ??????? ¨“?????¡æ. But you may call me Orna." Chapter 198: Orna "Orna Mountains¡­" It was clear to the squad that this being was the reason the mountain range got its name. The creature hummed in agreement. "Iid im to thisnd many centuries ago as my domain while I recovered from my wounds. I then went through many long cycles of hibernation until one day I discovered a tribe of orcs hadid im tond around me as theirs." Sol nodded as he followed along. "The Frostaxe n came and you demanded tribute?" "No. The n I speak of is the Mystic Blood n." ¡¯Mystic Blood n?¡¯ Having never heard of such an orc n, he turned to Duncan, the most knowledgeable, but even he shook his head in confusion. Duncan couldn¡¯t even begin to guess how long ago it could have been. Orna continued. "At first, I didn¡¯t mind their presence and focused on recuperating until I realized my recovery had begun to slow down. This n made use of the elemental energies in the region for their own purposes, which in turn left me with less to absorb. At the time, I was furious and rained down blizzards and frigid winds in the entire region to force them out of my domain. But no matter what I threw at them, they endured. Their n not only remained but thrived under such conditions, and eventually, they discovered my presence. I was impressed by their resilience to endure my wrath even in my weakened state, so I offered them a deal. If they wished to continue living in mynd and taking my resources, they must pay its equivalent back in life essence. I even added the additional benefit of protecting them from external threats." As he narrated his story, Sol felt a brief but sharp stinging pain. It was from his hands, the ones he left outside fighting the orc. He felt they were all simultaneously destroyed. He knew the orc was done ying around and was on his way. Not long after the destruction of his hands, Orna paused his story and his massive eye nced at the cave entrance. "Hoh? Another guest? What an eventful day." The orc Champion Kirgar had appeared at the entrance. Sol saw him and moved in front of his squad, prepared to fight if he had to. Kirgar ignored his actions and instead focused his sight on the massive eye. ¡¯Damn! It¡¯s awake! I can¡¯t believe I let myself get distracted!¡¯ He could only me his battle junky nature. When he faced the beams, he found momentary joy andpletely lost sight of the big picture. It was only when he felt the rumbling of the ground from the being¡¯s awakening that he realized his mistake. Now he could only hope it was not toote. "Oh Great Orna! I offer these humans as payment! I hope you ept!" The faces of the squad members paled. "What?! He¡¯s lying!" Aron yelled in shock at how shameless the orc was. Kirgar red at Aron, sending shivers down his spine. He would kill them all where they stood if not for the being watching them. "Great Orna, the decision is up to you if you wish to take their life essence! Though they are few, I¡¯m sure they have enough life essence worth over a hundred men!" What Kirgar said wasn¡¯t false, and Orna could tell as well how they had more essencepared to the normal sacrifices. Aron opened his mouth to rebuke further, but Rex covered his mouth and shook his head. None of them knew Orna¡¯s temperament. If they spoke poorly or angered the massive being, they were sure they wouldn¡¯t leave this cave alive. The cave was deadly silent as they awaited his judgment. As they waited for what felt like an eternity, Orna spoke. "No, I don¡¯t ept these humans as sacrifices." "What? Why?!" Kirgar couldn¡¯t help but ask. "They weren¡¯t brought to me by you; they came here of their own volition, so they are guests. Though they would be worth almost a tenth of this month¡¯s payment, their lives are not yours to spend." Kirgar gritted his teeth, hoping it would turn out differently, but he didn¡¯t dare to speak against Orna. He already considered himself lucky that it didn¡¯t be mad from him questioning its judgment. The massive eye turned back to the squad. "Now then, dear guests. Should I continue with my tale?" They all nodded. They were not only curious about what happened after but also didn¡¯t dare say no. Orna hummed in a pleased tone. It seemed the old being longed for some friendlypany, and the orcs recently hadn¡¯t made him happy. "Where was I? Oh yes, the Mystic Blood n. They epted my offer as they had nowhere else to go. They were able to meet my quota by performing a ritual that siphons a small amount of life essence from everyone who participates. It condensed all that essence into a crystallized form they called a life cluster. Though I was told they felt slightly weaker for a day or so, they would recover their spent life essence in due time. I was especially satisfied with this arrangement as it expedited my recovery by a millennium." n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Ignoring the being¡¯s ridiculous sense of time, Duncan ced his hand on his chin and couldn¡¯t help but ask, "Then why doesn¡¯t the Frostaxe n do the same? Why sacrifice their own people and people of other nations?" The massive eye turned to Kirgar, and though one couldn¡¯t see its facial expressions, the way its eye narrowed slightly showed disappointment. "Ask him yourself. I would rather receive life clusters instead of sacrifices. I even passed the knowledge of the ritual decades ago." Kirgar felt the many eyes on him, including one massive eye. He knew what they wanted to hear, even without them having to say it. "We tried! But the ritual doesn¡¯t make any sense! It has runes, enchantments, alchemy, and more all jumbled together, and it says we also need a Soul Shaman to perform it, but nobody has even heard of that talent!" The brightest orcs had racked their brains trying to figure out how they could perform the ritual, but after decades of failure, they had reached the conclusion that it was impossible. This was why they changed their focus towards invading othernds to not only obtain sacrifices but also for the long-term goal of iming a piece ofnd outside of the mountain range. Chapter 199: An Offer Orna spoke with a tone filled with disappointment. "I gave you all the knowledge regarding the ritual and even told you about the dwarven city so you could find answers there, yet all I hear of is your n¡¯s ipetence. Oh, how I miss the days of the Mystic Blood n." Kirgar clenched his fist. His people had done their best, but this creature never considered it good enough. It alwayspared them to the previous orc n and spoke highly of them at every opportunity. "Wait, dwarves? They also lived here?" Sol had heard that there used to be a dwarven kingdom in the Orna Mountains, but no one had been able to find any trace of it. "Yes. Not long after the Mystic Blood n and I formed a beneficial rtionship, dwarves requested an audience with me. They asked if they could also live here under my protection. The orcs at the time weren¡¯t in favor of it until the dwarves reassured them they had no intention of living on thend. They wanted to live under it." Rex was the first to piece it together. "Under it? So those tunnels¡­" "The dwarves constructed tunnels throughout the region with their city hidden somewhere inside. I informed the Frostaxe n about them in hopes they would learn how the dwarves held their ritual, which I was told was different from the Mystic Blood n. But they have yet to find their city." Orna did not know or really care at the time where in the tunnels the city was located. Because of that, it was only able to provide the location of the few entrances it could recall from memory. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "So what happened? Where did the orcs and dwarves go?" Sol doubted the dwarves still lived there because if they did, the world would likely know about it. Something must have happened to both races that they were no longer here. "I am unsure. I was asleep at the time." "What? But didn¡¯t your deal include protecting them?" Aron blurted out his thoughts as he understood something bad likely happened to them. The squad members all red at him to keep his mouth shut. None wanted to irritate this being, and it wasn¡¯t the time to question its story. Orna let out a remorseful groan in response. "I know and I can only me myself. I failed to uphold my end of the deal, which caused severe bacsh. It set my recovery back a millennium." ¡¯It injured him?¡¯ This question appeared in the squad¡¯s minds. Sol could only think of one way that could be possible. "Was this deal witnessed by the Goddess Naria?" Naria was known to most as the goddess of the sea, but she was also worshiped as the goddess of trade. It was said parties who made an agreement with her as witness must fulfill their end of the bargain or suffer divine retribution. "Naria?" Orna scoffed. "She doesn¡¯t even understand the true purpose of trade. No, it was my own power that caused it. My very ownw of trade punished me for not upholding my end of the deal. Speaking of which, I haven¡¯t beenpletely honest with my guests." Everyone¡¯s bodies became tense as they worried he did, in fact, want to kill them and take their life essence. It didn¡¯t help that it spoke of a goddess like someone they knew from across the street. "Since I awoke, my intuition has been telling me there is a very profitable deal we can make. You mentioned you desired safe shelter. I assume from this orc, correct?" Sol breathed a sigh of relief as for a moment he thought this was heading in a different direction and nodded. "If you can offer something of sufficient value to me, then it can be arranged and more. I can even harvest this orc¡¯s life essence if you desire." "W-What?!" Kirgar shouted. He was shocked at the fact that his life was being used as a bargaining chip. The eye gazed at him and the voice resounded through the cavern. "Your n iste onst month¡¯s payment. You still owe me 2,000 mortals¡¯ worth of life essence. Collecting your essence will at least cover a fourth of that." "T-that¡­" The Champion¡¯s first thought was to run away, as far away as possible, but he didn¡¯t. The first reason was because if he escaped, his n would likely be punished for it. The second reason was because he knew he couldn¡¯t escape even if he wanted to. He didn¡¯t believe he could take more than three steps before this being ended his life. The eye turned back towards the squad, but its gaze was clearly more focused on Sol. "So how about it? I can sense you have something of value to me." Sol was stunned as he didn¡¯t understand how it could perceive that, but he just surmised it was through methods beyond his understanding. Regarding things of value, Sol had many things that could fall under that category: gold, unique weapons, even the charged elemental canisters could be sold for arge sum of gold, but he felt that none of that would interest the being. ¡¯There¡¯s only one thing that could interest him¡­ but if I give it to him, we fail the mission.¡¯ He could easily conclude that the only valuable item Orna would be interested in was the fruit they recently obtained, but he was very conflicted about handing it over. He felt that if he did, it would make Lapis¡¯ death all for nothing. He then wondered if she would still be alive if they had simply surrendered to the orcs and gave them the fruit. Sol mentally sighed, ¡¯No point in dwelling on what I could have done better. I need to focus on how the rest of us can survive now.¡¯ From his light red spatial ring, he retrieved the legendary fruit. The moment it appeared, the surrounding temperature dropped significantly. ¡¯I never actually got to see its description.¡¯ Sol used [Analysis] on it as he didn¡¯t get to do itst time. [Winter¡¯s Kiss Legendary Quality: Perfect Effect: Consumption would increase all attributes by 50. Vitality and Wisdom increase by another 50. Greatly increases ice affinity. Caution: Extremely high chance to kill the consumer. High chance to transform the consumer into an ice elemental. Medium chance to transform the consumer into an elder ice elemental. Low chance to not transform the consumer. High vitality and ice affinity would provide better odds.] ¡¯This is¡­ insane¡­¡¯ If Sol ate it, all his attributes would increase by over 30%, while Vitality and Wisdom would increase by over 60% of their current value. It was the same as gaining 70 levels worth of attributes, and there was also the added benefit to one¡¯s ice affinity. The only problem was that he wasn¡¯t very confident in being able to eat the fruit without either dying or bing an ice elemental. He felt like he would have to wait a long time to be able to actually consume it. The squad appeared conflicted when he pulled the fruit out for the same reasons Sol was hesitant, but none spoke their thoughts. Kirgar¡¯s jaw dropped when he felt the energy radiating from the fruit, as he couldn¡¯t believe they were carrying such a treasure. ¡¯Was that the cause of the blizzard?¡¯ Kirgar could instinctively tell that the fruit would be extremely beneficial to him. If he ate it, his strength would soar by arge amount, and his ability to manipte ice and snow would greatly increase as well. He regretted not arriving sooner to im the fruit for himself, but as he did, he realized that too many times today he regretted not getting sooner. This could no longer be attributed to bad luck but his own ipetence, and he understood that well. Orna¡¯s giant eye widened as Sol presented the fruit to it. Sol¡¯s hands felt like they were on fire as he held it, but he endured the pain and waited for its response. "I cannot ept this trade." "What?" Everyone was initially shocked that even this wasn¡¯t enough to satisfy Orna. Fortunately, they all misunderstood. The Winter¡¯s Kiss floated off Sol¡¯s hands as it levitated in front of the giant eye. It inspected it as it gave its judgment. "This is worth much more than just protection. I need to offer more to make this a fair deal. Do you perhaps wish to own half the mountain range? You can even choose which part of the region, whether the current orcs¡¯ territory or the abandoned dwarven territory." Chapter 200: Dragon Scales Surprisingly, Kirgar was the first to speak. "Please, human. Don¡¯t take ournd. We have nowhere to go; our n would perish if you forced us out." Sol turned to face the begging A-Rank orc but couldn¡¯t help but feel resentment. "You killed Lapis and you expect me to listen to your pleas?" Each of his words was heavy andced with suppressed rage. Kirgar could tell Sol was furious about the death of hisrade and knew he wouldn¡¯t be forgiven. But that didn¡¯t mean his n had to suffer for his actions. "Direct your anger at me, not my n. I was the one who killed her. If you take ournd, tens of thousands of orcs will perish to Orna¡¯s wrath or die trying to invade other nations." No nation would ept such arge number of orcs, as it would destabilize their country, which was why the only option left to them would be an all-out war in hopes they could carve out a territoryrge enough for their n. Sol knew such a war wouldpletely dwarf the one he saw at the fort two months ago. Their n¡¯s existence would be on the line, and they would be forced to mobilize every man, woman, and child they could in hopes they could im new territory. The deaths in such a war wouldn¡¯t just be from the orcs but from whichever nation they decided to invade, which would either be the Holy Kingdom of Delvania or his Kingdom of Crestelia. Regardless of which nation they invaded, he didn¡¯t want to be the cause of so many deaths from both sides. Sol reassured him, "I won¡¯t force the orcs out of their homes. But you will pay for her death." "Thank you¡­" Even though Kirgar¡¯s fate was sealed, he was d he prevented the death of his n. Sol then turned back to Orna, who had been waiting patiently for his decision. "Great Orna-" "Just Orna is fine. You are a guest, and we are conducting a trade after all." "You really like trading, huh." Sol identally spoke his thoughts out loud and immediately apologized. "I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t mean it that way!" Orna let out a boomingugh that shook the entire cave. "Haha! Do not worry, human, it¡¯s true after all. I simply love the act of making a deal, from finding out what both parties desire to finding a solution that benefits all involved. Sadly, it¡¯s something Naria still doesn¡¯t understand. She sees trading as an absolute contract, and it doesn¡¯t matter if one or even both partiese out unsatisfied. Ah, but don¡¯t tell her that; she needs to learn it on her own." ¡¯I don¡¯t think I¡¯m going to talk to a literal goddess anytime soon¡­¡¯ The more he conversed with Orna, the less terrifying he found it. Sure, it was a being that could nap through entire centuries and easily cause extreme natural disasters even in its self proimed wounded state, but it was starting to give the feeling of a wise old man who sits out on the front of his house and talks to anyone who passes by. "Then about what I was saying. Orna, I don¡¯t want to own half of the region. But I have a suggestion. Can you no longer demand tribute from the orcs?" Sol didn¡¯t really have any desire to own such arge piece ofnd. What would he even do with it? He would rather the orcs no longer require tribute so they no longer had a reason to invade their kingdom. The squad was surprised at what he was asking, but no one was as surprised as Kirgar. He didn¡¯t understand why a human was going so far to solve their problems, but he felt touched nheless. Sadly, Orna didn¡¯t find it eptable. "While it¡¯s honorable for you to help their n, even when you are clearly enemies, the fruit is only worth at most five centuries of tribute. After that, I would have to collect once more. But even so, it wouldn¡¯t be in my favor as the fruit would then not expedite my recovery by much. Only bybining the fruits with tribute can I hope to recover within the next millennium." Kirgar¡¯s face darkened as he realized their n would have to pay tribute for centuries. He doubted their n could survive in thesends for so many years before they all became sacrifices for it. Sol also understood this wouldn¡¯t solve their problem, even if Orna epted that condition, so he tried to find another angle. "What if¡­ we perform the ritual for life clusters?" "Uhh¡­ Sol, how do you suppose we do that?" Rex asked. As far as he knew, nobody in their squad was an expert in rituals. "I don¡¯t mean right now, but we can go to our kingdom and share what we know. If we work alongside the knowledge Orna has and what the orcs have discovered in their attempts to perform the ritual, we might be able to solve it." Aron was speechless. "You want our kingdom that has been constantly invaded by orcs for the past 40 or so years to work alongside the orcs?" Even Kirgar didn¡¯t see how that could happen. Orcs weren¡¯t the most receptive to help from outsiders. He wasn¡¯t even sure if they would ept it. While everyone doubted his n, two saw the potential. Duncan ced his hand under his chin and spoke his thoughts out loud. "It might be possible¡­ Not only would it solve the orcs¡¯ tribute problem so they no longer have a reason to attack us, it would likely open the door for many advancements in magic. I don¡¯t think the kingdom would be against such an arrangement." n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Orna agreed. "If the orcs could produce life clusters once more, my recovery would also be much faster." Sol further added, "We could also tackle it from the dwarven side and search the tunnels for their kingdom. If we find it, we can find out how they made the life clusters. We would just need some time to do it." He then turned to therge eye. "So what do you say, Orna? Do we have a deal?" Orna was silent, but one could see how its eye wrinkled, not unlike how it would when smiling. Sol believed deep underground, this massive being was grinning. The ground shook as heughed once more. "Hahaha! This is why I love a good trade! Everyone wins! You have yourself a deal! But there is one more thing I wish to add." "Huh, what is it?" "If this n of yours works, I gain a steady supply of life clusters once more, the orcs would no longer need sacrifices, and your kingdom would no longer be invaded. But you and your allies do not gain anything. I will amend that!" The ground began to shake again, but this time the ground in front of Sol began to crack. The ground split open as threerge reptilian scales rose from the ground in front of him. Orna spoke with a slightly less energetic tone; it clearly took a lot of effort from him to present those three scales. "Human. In my long life, few mortals have interested me as much as you have. If not for the fact yourws don¡¯t align with mine, I would have selected you as my chosen. Instead, I present these scales, each imbued with one of myws: the Law of Frigid Winds, the Law of Trade, and the Law of Dragons." "You¡¯re a dragon?!" Sol shouted in surprise. He was also confused at the mention ofws as he had also heard the Commander mention it before during his training. At the time he thought it was referring to the rules in how some techniques worked but it seemed there was more to it. He made a mental note he would ask the Commander when he returned. "You didn¡¯t know?" Orna thought it was obvious. He wasn¡¯t hiding it and even said his draconic name. Sol and the rest of the squad shook their heads. How were they supposed to know they were bartering with a dragon? Kirgar exined to Orna, "Oh Great Orna. Dragons are considered a myth to most. Besides you, nobody has seen another dragon." Orna let out a hum in acknowledgment. "I see. I can understand why. After all, there is only one other dragon in this world." ¡¯There¡¯s another?!¡¯ The squad¡¯s understanding of the world was flipped upside down. Chapter 201: Cycle of Violence Orna directed the conversation back to the main point. "Then let us review the deal once more. In return for this energy rich fruit, you will receive my protection in this region where none are allowed to harm you and your allies, three of my scales, and a decade to learn and perform the life cluster ritual. I will also inform the orcs to cooperate with your kingdom in the research of the Mystic Blood n¡¯s ritual and the exploration of the dwarven tunnels. If they don¡¯t cooperate, I will forcefully evict them from my domain. Oh, and also the life of this orc." Orna treated Kirgar¡¯s life as an afterthought at most, but Kirgar didn¡¯t forget. He was ready to embrace his death and knew he couldn¡¯t avoid it. Sol nced at the orc and realized it was all happening ording to the visions. He remembered his previous pleas and how they matched the second tost vision; the final vision ended with him being reduced to small shards. He nced downwards and saw his hands stained with Lapis¡¯ blood. He just had to say the word, and the premonition would beplete. He nced at Lapis¡¯ body that hadpletely turned to ice and felt a rising sense of rage. He never wanted to say yes so badly in his entire life. He wanted this orc to die for what he had done. But a voice whispered at the back of his mind, asking an important question. ¡¯If I see another vision like this, do I follow it like before? Can I even change what I see in the visions?¡¯ It was because he followed the visions that Lapis died. He should have known the blood was either his or from one of his squad members; there was no other alternative looking back on it now. But this was the future, maybe even fate itself. He didn¡¯t know if he could actually go against it, even if he knew what urred. If he did know and tried to prevent Lapis¡¯ death, could he? And if he let the orc go, what if Orna killed him anyway for personal reasons to pay back the debt? What if he died soon after as fate caught up to him? Sol wanted to say yes and let the orc pay for what he had done, but he also wanted to let him live to see if the future was set in stone. As he was deep in thought, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Duncan looking at him solemnly. "I know you¡¯re conflicted between avenging Lapis and letting him live to facilitate cooperation with the orcs. The decision is solely yours as Captain, but let me share something I¡¯ve learned over the years. Violence always begets more violence. An A-Ranker like him is very important to their n, and his death would create resentment not unlike the one you hold for him now." Though Duncan was wrong about the reason Sol was conflicted, he raised a good point which Sol had never thought about. Sol hadpletely forgotten about how important the orc¡¯s life was to the Frostaxe n. A-Rankers were few, and even the loss of just one would be very painful. If Kirgar did die, the orcs would easily connect his death to them and, in turn, to their kingdom, leading to repercussions further down the line. Sol turned to see his allies, and though none of them spoke their thoughts, he could clearly see their own opinions on the matter based on their facial expressions. Aron appeared to be more in favor of sparing him. Rex was indecisive on the matter. Nataly, on the other hand, carried a look of deep resentment to the orc, clearly wanting his death. After all, Lapis sacrificed herself to save her. Seeing his own squad split on the matter, he couldn¡¯t go with the majority decision; it was up to him. Orna stayed silent as well, not wishing to influence the human¡¯s decision. Even Kirgar remained silent; he knew he had no choice in the matter and believed he was already dead. His onlyfort was knowing that his killer would save his n even after what he had done. Eventually, he came to a decision. One that he hoped Lapis, wherever she was, would understand. "No, he can live." Everyone showed different reactions: surprise, understanding, and even disagreement. Kirgar was extremely grateful for being granted such mercy. "Really?! Thank you, savior!" n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Kirgar already considered Sol the savior of his n. He cared greatly for his people, and seeing Sol go through such effort to save their future impacted him greatly. Sol red at him. "That doesn¡¯t mean I forgive you. I will never forgive you." Though the threat came from someone much weaker than him, Kirgar still felt chills. He felt that Sol was the kind of person to remember a grudge ande backter to dish it back tenfold. Orna then spoke. "Might I offer a suggestion, human? If you don¡¯t wish for his death yet seek retribution, there are other ways he could pay for his actions against you and your deceasedpanion. He could serve as the ritual¡¯s focus for the duration of his life." "The ritual¡¯s focus?" Sol still didn¡¯t know much about the life cluster ritual. Kirgar, on the other hand, did and took a step back in shock. "F-for my entire life?" Orna confirmed and exined. "When the ritual is performed, all participants offer a sliver of their life essence, but tobine it all into a life cluster, a medium is required¡ªthe focus. They would receive all the life essence, temporarily overloading their body before ejecting it into what bes the life cluster. It is by no means a painless process, and those who serve as the ritual¡¯s focus lose a greater share of their life essence by the end of it, leaving them drastically weakened for an entire month. Normally, it would be a role they take turns performing, but it¡¯s possible for just one to carry the burden." "So, if he does it every month, he would be in a perpetual state of weakness for the rest of his life." "That is correct." Sol turned to Kirgar. "Though your opinion doesn¡¯t matter, how does that sound to you?" Kirgar lowered his head in resignation. "My life is yours to decide, savior." In a way, he could consider himself fortunate he would still have a life to live. While orcs all desire a meaningful death, that didn¡¯t mean they would actively seek death. Sol faced Orna¡¯s eye and nodded. "Then let it be so! I dere this deal now in effect!" Once the dragon stated that, everyone suddenly felt some kind of intangible connection being formed between each other. It didn¡¯t linger long before disappearing, but if they thought about it, they could feel it was still there. Orna exined. "Now that it¡¯s been dered, any party that fails to uphold their side of the agreement will face thew of trade¡¯s punishment. Though in the case of you humans, there is no punishment if you fail to make the ritual work; I would simply be allowed to once more ept sacrifices as payment. The orc, on the other hand, if he doesn¡¯t serve as the focus for even one ritual, will face a punishment on the same level that I experienced centuries ago. And unlike me, I doubt you could endure even a second." The dragon made it very clear to Kirgar that he shouldn¡¯t take the deal lightly. The orc shuddered before shaking his head up and down extremely fast. "I understand, Great Orna!" Seeing all was done, Sol walked over to Lapis¡¯ body and kneeled beside it. He gently lifted her body, careful not to cause it to crack, and ced it in his spatial ring. When he arrived back at the kingdom, he would give her a proper burial. He stood back up and gave Orna a light bow. "It¡¯s been a pleasure to meet you, Orna. We will head back and report to our kingdom so we can decide our next course of action." "Likewise, human Sol. But before you leave, remember to take this. Give it to your schrs to help them get started on their research." A thick book popped into the space in front of them. When Sol held it and read its title, he realized he didn¡¯t recognize any of the words. Clearly, it was written in a differentnguage, and he didn¡¯t know any othernguage than themon tongue. He stored it in his spatial ring and decided to leave it to the schrs to figure out. Chapter 202: A New Future In the royal pce, Wendy, the Saintess, was in her private chambers. She had just returned from a meeting where she shared her recent foresights. She didn¡¯t have much control over her fate readings, so they were usually random. Most were mundane visions like weather patterns, crop harvests, and other events that were useful to know ahead of time. asionally, she would foresee important events such as natural disasters, dangerous monster attacks, or, recently, the appearance of a legendary fruit in the Orna Mountains. She removed her white hood, revealing her short blue hair, and flopped onto the bed exhausted after a long day. Wanting to rest, she soon got up, intending to attempt once again to see who had altered the fate of the city and the individuals involved. "Even though the ripples are gone, I still can¡¯t find any trace of what they did... Still, I must try." She sat down in front of a table with a unique pattern, etched with many sigils. It had been crafted by the kingdom¡¯s finest runesmiths to help her channel her powers better. Before she could activate the table to enhance her abilities, her skill suddenly activated on its own. Her eyes turned into a starry blue night sky as she peered into the vast web of fate. A few secondster, she blinked, and her eyes returned to normal. Though it had only been a short moment, time seemed to stretch when viewing the web of fate, feeling like minutes had passed to her. "Someone changed the future?" Events she had previously foreseen had now shifted. Instead of battles against orcs that she had predicted for theing months, she now saw humans and orcs working together to explore abyrinth of tunnels. The idea of humans and orcs cooperating felt preposterous, and she wouldn¡¯t have believed it if she hadn¡¯t seen it with her own eyes. She stood up from her scrying table, no longer intending to peer into the future. Once she had seen the future, whether actively or passively, it would enter a long cooldown, forcing her to wait until she could try again. She pulled the hood of her robe back up and left to report the changes she had foreseen as soon as possible. ... A weekter, the squad arrived at the city gates of the capital without incident. Kirgar ordered the orcs to let them through, and aside from the asional monster attack, they faced no obstacles on their journey back. Despite their sessful mission, the squad returned with a somber mood. Some might have considered their mission a great sess despite itsplications, but the squad themselves did not share that sentiment. It had been their first mission together, and one of their members had died, among other problems. Duncan and Rex, who had experienced simr events in the past, tried to maintain morale, but their efforts had only a partial effect on Aron. Nataly was furious that Sol had spared Kirgar¡¯s life, despite the benefits. From her perspective, if she had been the one to die, she would have wanted herrades to seek revenge, no matter what. Sol spent almost the entire journey in silence. He only moved or spoke when directly addressed or when making camp for the night but would then return to his silence. The squad wasn¡¯t sure if his silence stemmed from regret over sparing Kirgar or from grieving the loss of theirpanion. At one point, Duncan attempted to lift his spirits with a pep talk, but received only a lukewarm response. "Captain, we¡¯re here." Unknown to the group, Sol wasn¡¯t silently dwelling on the past with regret. While he mourned Lapis¡¯ death, he was focusing on the future, determined never to repeat the same mistake again. [[Snap Punch] evolved into [sh Fist]!] [[Intermediate Weapon Mastery] leveled up! (8 -> 9)] [[Backstab] transformed into [Vorpal de]!] [[Vorpal de] leveled up! (6 -> 7)] Sol opened his eyes after another sessful training session but to him it wasn¡¯t enough. He channeled all his anger and frustration into self-improvement. He despised feeling helpless when faced with a true A-Ranker and was determined never to experience it again. Previously, bing an A-Ranker had been a distant goal, something he would achieve slowly over time. But how many more of hisrades would die before he reached that level? He no longer simply wanted to be an A-Ranker; he needed to be one. He opened his status page to review his progress. Name: Sol Race: Human n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Talents: [Siphoner], [Transformer] Level: 82 Exp: 13,732,000/98,417,000 HP: 1450 MP: 1650 Str: 85 (+70) Vit: 80 (+70) Agi: 80 (+70) Int: 85 (+70) Wis: 80 (+90) Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 5, [Analysis] Lv 7, [Aggregate] Lv EX, [Reinterpret] Lv EX Siphoned Talents: [Create Magic Hands] Lv MAX, [Impact Bubble] Lv 2 Passive Skills: [Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Reflect] Lv 1, [Precise Coordination] Lv 6, [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 8, [Intermediate Weapon Mastery] Lv 9, [Wild Hunt] Lv 2, [Invincible Body] Lv 8, [Perfect Bnce] Lv 2, [Death Absorption] Lv 6, [True Sight] Lv 6, [Superior Mana Control] Lv 2, [Fortified Soul] Lv 2, [Ry Magic] Lv 8, [Cooking] Lv 7, [Omniway Footwork] Lv 6, [Basic Smithing] Lv 6, [Enhanced Sight] Lv 4, [Basic Alchemy] Lv 4, [Basic Carpentry] Lv 5, [Poise Stance] Lv 4 Active Skills: [Cross sh] Lv 9, [Ground Shrink] Lv 8, [sh Fist] Lv 1, [Invisibility] Lv 7, [Terra Maniption] Lv 8, [Rock Throw] Lv 4, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Primal Rend] Lv 4, [Debilitating Strike] Lv 2, [Telepathy] Lv 3, [Unpassable Bulwark] Lv 1, [Intermediate Elemental Magic] Lv 5, [Overpower] Lv 4, [Create Undead] Lv 6, [Weapon Enhancement (Variant)] Lv 8, [Disable] Lv 1, [Vorpal de] Lv 7, [Bombardment] Lv 2, [Storm Blitz] Lv 8, [Piercing Lunge] Lv 8, [Seeking Shot] Lv 7, [Mana sh] Lv 6, [Intermediate Light Magic] Lv 7, [Shadow Hands] Lv 7, [Shadow Form] Lv 5, [Empowered Strike] Lv 4, [Polychromatism] Lv EX, [Low Sweep] Lv 8, [Basic Ice Magic] Lv 8, [Mana Burst] Lv 4, [Repair] Lv 5, [Rising sh] Lv 4 After briefly acknowledging the changes, Sol stood up and gazed out of the carriage window. He saw the towering wall surrounding Crestal and the people waiting in line to enter the city. As Royal Knights, they were able to bypass such lines and proceed directly to the gate, where regr soldiers weed them. "Wee back, sir knights." Upon confirming their knight emblems, a soldier approached with hesitation. "Um, sir knights, we need to inspect your carriage. Please step outside for a moment." Sol, Aron, and Nataly stood up, prepared toply, but Duncan and Rex were surprised. They knew something was amiss. Duncan fixed his gaze on the soldier and asked, "What¡¯s the meaning of this?" Clearly nervous, the soldier stuttered slightly before responding. "W-we¡¯ve received orders to inspect every Royal Knight carriage. One knight squad was caught smuggling illegal goods, so now we have to check all knight squads. Please cooperate¡­" Duncan frowned upon hearing this. The Royal Knights were generally considered cleanpared to other organizations. While there had been some corruption among the lower ranks in the past, Commander Zaman had purged those elements long ago. Since then, promotions to higher ranks verify their character and moral integrity, including Sol, who had been unknowingly subjected to moral tests during his training. For a Royal Knight squad to be involved in illicit actions was serious. It suggested that their captain likely knew about it, which could tarnish the reputation of the entire organization if word got out and judging from how this matter didn¡¯t get secretly buried it likely already did. Chapter 203: Reporting In Sol could see from Duncan¡¯s reaction that this wasn¡¯t normal. It was his first time entering the city as a knight, so he thought it was standard procedure for their carriage to be inspected, but now he understood it wasn¡¯t the case. "Let them inspect the carriage. We have nothing to hide." For now, Sol chose toply, nning to get to the bottom of itter. Duncan nodded and got off. He wasn¡¯t against the inspection; he was just worried about what it meant. The soldiers quickly inspected the carriage, not wanting to waste any more time than needed, and promptly let them into the city. When they arrived at the castle, they returned the unused supplies and the hornsteads to the stables. Sol received the refunded merits and looked at his squad. "All that¡¯s left is to report to Grand Knight Lawrence or Commander Zaman what happened, but only I need to do that. The rest of you can get some well deserved rest. Later we need to meet up and discuss what we will do with her¡­" "She didn¡¯t leave behind a will?" Rex asked. Sol shook his head, "No, we also don¡¯t know if she had any family, so there is no one we can contact." Because their squad was immediately thrust into their first mission, there were a lot of things they skipped. They hadn¡¯t even seen their new sleeping quarters, which were solely for their squad. Another was leaving behind a will, which was usually the captain¡¯s duty to collect from his squad. The only ones who already had a will were Duncan and Rex, but the rest didn¡¯t, not even Sol. The squad agreed they would meet upter to decide on her funeral and they all left to go to their quarters together. Sol was the only one who went the opposite direction as he went straight to Zaman¡¯s office. As he walked through the halls, he nced at his right hand where Lapis¡¯ spatial ring now resided. Sol peeked into Lapis¡¯ spatial ring, curious as to why she was so adamant for him to take it. He didn¡¯t find anything special inside; there were a few spears, armors, and some useful tools and items. What he did find interesting was the number of dresses stored inside¡ªhe didn¡¯t take her for the type of person to enjoy such cute designs. When he was looking through her potions, he stumbled upon something odd: two red vials he initially thought were potions, but no system message appeared when he used [Analysis]. Upon further inspection, he realized the dark red color was actually blood. He didn¡¯t know why she carried two vials of blood, but thought it might have been rted to her third talent of [Viper Blood]. While looking at her ring, he remembered her final wish. ¡¯Ophis huh¡­ I¡¯ll check it out as soon as I can.¡¯ Soon Sol arrived at the door to Commander Zaman¡¯s office. He was about to knock but he faintly heard two familiar voices on the other side of the door. "...bastards¡­ clearly nted¡­" "I know¡­ wait¡­ right time¡­" ¡¯Maybe I shoulde byter.¡¯ As soon as Sol finished his thought, he noticed they stopped talking. The door opened, revealing Grand Knight Lawrence. "You¡¯re back already?" Lawrence thought the mission would have taken a bit longer. Zaman, on the other hand, who sat behind his desk, wasn¡¯t surprised as he had already heard of their return ahead of time. "Yes, Grand Knight. I have some important news to report, but should Ie backter?" Lawrence nced back to Zaman, who gave a single nod. "It¡¯s fine, we just finished. Zaman, I¡¯ll see what I can do regarding the incident." "Thank you. I¡¯ll dy signing the papers as long as I can." Lawrence then left, and Sol entered the office, closing the door behind him. With a friendly tone, the Commander spoke, "Wee back, Sol. How was your first mission?" Sol showed aplicated expression as he wasn¡¯t sure how to sinctly answer that. "There were many, umm,plications¡­" He told Zaman what happened in the mission. From the bandits and the impromptu rescue operation of the townsfolk to them obtaining the fruit but then losing it in a trade with a creature previously thought to be only from fairy tales. He didn¡¯t omit anything from his retelling with the exception of him briefly seeing the future, dying Kirgar back with [Polychromatism], and the multiple magics he used in the attempt to heal Lapis. Needless to say, the Commander went through a wide range of reactions from amazement to shock and finally sadness over hearing of the loss of such a promising knight. "My condolences. Lapis¡¯ death¡­ was unforeseen." Sol shook his head, "No one could have predicted it would turn out like that. Although it was my first mission, I know there is always a risk and the unexpected can happen. I can only improve and never let it happen again." Zaman gave a sincere smile but shook his head. "I¡¯m d to know that you will strive to do better. It¡¯s all we can do to honor those who have fallen, but that¡¯s not what I meant. I gave you that mission because I was assured by the Saintess that there would be no casualties. I wouldn¡¯t have assigned you such a mission otherwise, no matter how good it would be for your reputation and future." Sol widened his eyes in surprise. He had already guessed the Commander assigned him such a mission for such a reason but it wasn¡¯t confirmed until now. "So nobody was meant to die¡­" Zaman nodded and shared his theory of what could have happened. "I¡¯m not sure what could have happened, but I have a hunch it had to do with the dragon. A week ago, she said the future changed and we would soon be in a cooperative rtionship with orcs. What you just told me confirmed it. I believe that dragon changed the future into something that suited him better. After all, if we seed, he gets the life clusters you mentioned." "Oh¡­ yeah it could be that." He obviously knew it was him who changed the future. It seemed his choice to spare the orc had a much bigger impact than he thought. ¡¯It¡¯s good to know I can change the future if I have another vision.¡¯ N?v(el)B\\jnn The Commander noticed he had a ratherckluster response and found it odd. He considered asking for his opinion on the matter, but decided against it and instead changed the subject. "So when you gave the dragon the fruit, he offered three of his scales in return? May I see them?" Sol nodded and retrieved them from his inventory. Each scale was huge, being a meter tall. When the scales were revealed, the Commander frowned. ¡¯Such powerful auras¡­ especially that one.¡¯ The one that stood out the most was the scale bathed in the Law of Dragons. Compared to the other two, it had a much more dominating presence. Sol was confused by Zaman¡¯s reaction as he sensed nothing of the such, but it wasn¡¯t because he was too weak. It was because the scales were bestowed to him and his squad¡ªthey would not release their aura onto them as their owners. Sol pushed the three scales to him and said, "While we failed to retrieve the fruit, I believe these scales are more valuable." He didn¡¯t have any intention to hide or keep the three scales to himself. Although he didn¡¯t know what they could do as [Analysis] didn¡¯t work on them, the findings of the mission belonged to the Royal Knights. Zaman agreed, "It likely is. Originally, the mission reward was 500 merits, but with the bandits and these scales, I would say it¡¯s more around 1000. We need to appraise them and find out what they can do before I can say for certain." Zaman then reached out to take the three scales, but something unexpected happened. Chapter 204: Trade Scale The Law of Frigid Winds scale easily entered the Commander¡¯s spatial ring, but the other two scales resisted fiercely and expressed their disagreement. They flooded the room with their auras that contained their intent, and though no thoughts were transmitted, the two understood what each scale expressed. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "So it¡¯s like that¡­" Zaman mumbled in awe. Sol was also shocked. "Orna didn¡¯t say this would happen." The two scales t out refused to be given away and had different conditions for such a thing to ur. The Law of Dragons scale said it would only obey those who were recognized by a dragon. Obviously, such a condition couldn¡¯t easily be met, so Zaman briefly considered if he could take it by force, but his instincts told him his odds of winning against this inanimate scale were not in his favor. The Law of Trades scale, on the other hand, refused simply because it didn¡¯t want to be given away for free. For it to change hands, the scale needed to be traded for something else of value. As for why the Law of Frigid Winds scale obediently entered the Commander¡¯s spatial ring, it just didn¡¯t care who its owner was. The Commander didn¡¯t me Sol and found this situation more interesting than the fruit he originally wanted. "It¡¯s fine. Nothing can be done about one with the Law of Dragons, but we can at least negotiate for the Law of Trades scale." Sol nodded; he wouldn¡¯t say no to more merits. "Hmm¡­ How about 500 merits for the scale?" The moment Zaman made his initial offer, the Law of Trades scale began to levitate and hovered over the two. Sol was stunned. "Is it¡­ overseeing the deal?" "It seems we know what this one does. It probably has a simr effect to what that dragon did to your squad and the orc when you made the deal." The scale then vibrated as if in agreement but released its intent once more to express it was still dissatisfied. Zaman frowned. "I need to offer more? For an inanimate object, you sure have a lot of guts." The scale expressed it was worth much more than simple mary value and that other benefits should be added. As Sol understood its intent, he made a weird face. ¡¯Wasn¡¯t I the one that had to negotiate? Why is it negotiating on my behalf?¡¯ Feeling left out, Sol had a suggestion. "How about on top of the merits, I also receive ess to the third floor of the Royal Library?" "The third floor?" The Commander made a serious expression. "The third floor contains kingdom-level secrets and information. What sort of information are you searching for there?" "I heard there was information on something called Ophis there." Sol didn¡¯t mention it was Lapis¡¯ final wish as he was unsure how the Commander would react. After considering it for a moment, Zaman nodded, "I will allow it, but you can only choose one book and you can¡¯t remove it from the library either." "Then we have a deal, right?" Sol asked. The scale emanated its intent, still unsatisfied. Zaman almost fell out of his seat in shock. "You want more?!" Sol looked at the scale and thought, ¡¯This might take a while.¡¯ ¡­ Half an hourter. "1000 merits, one Royal Library third-floor book, free andplete ess to the second floor for your entire squad, 10%- no, 20% discount in the merit shop, the right to choose and ept any mission, and finally three weeks of paid leave. Is that finally enough?!" The Law of Trades scale expressed a somewhat reluctant eptance. It conveyed that his offer barely reached its minimum value, and it would ept it if Sol agreed to as well. Zaman let out a sigh of relief as he felt his entire body ache. As to why he was in such pain, it was because the scale got tired of Zaman slowly increasing what he offered and unleashed a powerful electric shock that hurt not only his body but his soul as well. Before, the Commander thought the Law of Dragons scale was the strongest of the three, but that was only because it didn¡¯t conceal its power. Once the Law of Trades scale began punishing him, he realized it was just as strong and that he was helpless under its attacks. With every punishment increasing in power, Zaman carefully considered what he was able to offer in exchange for the scale. At no point did he consider giving up, especially when he was shocked mercilessly. In fact, it made him more determined to obtain it. It not only had some level of sentience but also was much stronger than him, who could be considered among the stronger A-Rankers. Relieved the scale was willing to allow the exchange, Zaman turned to Sol with pleading eyes. Sol nodded. He would have epted long ago if he could. He felt pity but was also impressed his Commander was able to endure such punishments repeatedly. With both of their confirmations, the scale glowed brightly, and the two felt an invisible connection form between them. They subconsciously both knew that failure to uphold either side would result in a deadly version of the previous punishments. The Commander then attempted to ce the scale in his spatial ring once more, and this time it obeyed, entering without resistance. Having that as confirmation, he was finally able to rx. "Hah¡­ that wasn¡¯t easy, but its power is indisputable." Sol agreed. "It would be especially useful for merchants and nobles to guarantee whoever they make deals with upholds their side." After witnessing the power of the Law of Trades scale, he felt it was useful but knew he would never be able to get the most use out of it. Only someone who frequently made deals with other parties could truly benefit. A smile grew on Zaman¡¯s face. "You¡¯re absolutely right. Don¡¯t tell anyone, but I n to give this to the princess. Right now, more than ever, she needs allies she can trust." "Should you be telling me this?" He let out a shortugh. "Haha! No, I suppose not. Regardless, this took longer than expected. I will make sure to arrange everything for you by tomorrow. I have other matters to tend to, so for now, you¡¯re dismissed." "Yes, Commander." Sol stood up from his seat and gave a salute before heading out of the office. Chapter 205: Royal Library Two days had passed. It had been a hectic two days as the squad had a lot of paperwork to do, which they had skipped over because of the mission. Once it was all sorted out, they also held a funeral for Lapis, finally allowing her to rest. As they didn¡¯t know much about her background, they decided to give her a standard knight funeral. After it was all over, the squad felt slightly better, especially Nataly. She was the one who took Lapis¡¯s passing the hardest because she couldn¡¯t help but wonder if Lapis hadn¡¯t been carrying her, maybe she could have escaped and survived. Still, seeing her burial allowed her toe to terms with it all. Her anger towards Sol eased up as well, but she still disagreed with his decision. Now the squad was each doing their own thing. Rex was resting while Duncan and Aron were training. Nataly was making use of their free pass to the second floor of the library to learn new intermediate nature spells while also trying to invent her own. Sol spent most of his time training as well, either improving orbining skills. After taking care of a few matters at noon, Sol also headed to the Royal Library to finally cash in on the book he was owed. When he arrived at the library, he was at first confused, as from the outside, it looked like a one-story building, but upon entering, he was amazed by what he saw. Books lined the long room with a main central bridge that branched off towards the walls. Stairs led downwards at the four corners of the library, leading to four more floors beneath the room. From where he stood, he was able to see all of it in all its glory. "Hello, sir knight. Are you new here? I can show you around if you want." A quiet voice called from behind Sol. He turned to it and saw Phineas, a young man wearing a dark green robe, who upon seeing Sol¡¯s face, jumped back in surprise. "Oh my gods! You¡¯re Sol!" Sol nodded but didn¡¯t recognize Phineas and asked, "Do I know you from somewhere?" He shook his head, "I saw you fight in the knight selection! The way you held your own against Victor even though he was an A-Ranker was amazing! After that day, I went to check the record of previous tournaments, and ever since the founding of our kingdom, nobody has ever done that! You¡¯re a total badass!" ¡¯Ah¡­ it¡¯s a fan.¡¯ Sol was somewhat used to such interactions, but that was usually outside of the pce. Normally, he would politely turn them away, but this time he could use the man¡¯s help. "I¡¯m d my performance left a mark on you, but I still have a ways to go." Phineas agreed. "Once you be an A-Ranker, you will wipe the floor with him!" Sol nodded, "You said you could show me around, right? Can you take me to the third floor?" "Third floor?" He looked surprised. "Almost no one can go down there. Did you get permission?" Sol took out a small metal te with the number three on it. "Yeah, this works, right?" "Yes, absolutely! Um, just follow me." The two made their way to one of the staircases and walked all the way down to the bottom of the fourth floor. On the way down, Sol couldn¡¯t help but ask, "Didn¡¯t we pass the third floor?" Phineasughed and shook his head. "Haha, no, this entire open area is the first floor. Heh, if you think about it, it¡¯s really just one very tall room that requires stairs to reach the top. At the bottom, there is a central staircase that leads to the second floor, which is two stories tall, and finally the third floor, which is only one story tall." "That¡¯s¡­ a lot of books." He wondered how many books there were in this massive library. At the stairway leading to the second floor, two guards were posted guarding a solid metal door that blocked ess deeper into the Royal Library, but this didn¡¯t pose an issue for the two of them. Phineas worked there, and Sol showed his knight emblem, which worked as his pass to most ces. The two were allowed into the second floor without issue. As they continued to walk down the stairs, Sol spotted Nataly in one of the seating areas, deeply engrossed in a book. He decided not to bother her and continued further down until they arrived at the stairs to the third floor. It was much more heavily guarded with an entire knight squadron keeping watch. "ess te?" one of the knights asked. Sol nodded and presented the metal te. Seeing it was real, one of the knights took out a metal box. "First, you need to ce all your spatial rings here. They will be safe inside, and you will hold onto the key. This is just to prevent people from stealing books. Though there are other measures against theft, it¡¯s better to be safe than sorry." Once Sol ced his three spatial rings in the metal box, it was locked, and he was handed the key. The knight then took the metal te and inserted it into a small opening in the door, which caused it to slightly shake before unlocking. "You may enter now. The librarian inside should have already been notified of your arrival." "Understood, thanks." Sol waved and began to walk down until he realized Phineas wasn¡¯ting along. The young man saw his gaze and shook his head sadly. "Unfortunately, I¡¯m only a senior librarian. I can¡¯t head to the third floor. It¡¯s okay, go on without me. I¡¯ll see you when you head back out." n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Sol smiled and waved him goodbye. "Alright, I¡¯ll see you soon then. Thanks for apanying me." Phineas smiled back and waved as Sol walked down the stairs once more. He walked down a much longer flight of stairs until he finally arrived at a rather small room. There were around twenty bookshelves worth of books, which was nothingpared to the previous two floors. Besides the books, there was a counter where an old woman was sleeping behind. Her mouth was wide open as she loudly snored, being the only source of noise in the entire room. ¡¯She looks pretty old; I don¡¯t want to wake her¡­ I¡¯ll just look for the book on my own.¡¯ Sol used [Muffled Movements] to silently walk past her and approached the first bookshelf, but just as he reached for a book, he felt something small hit him on his back. He turned around to see a ruler ttering on the ground with the olderdy now awake and yelling. "Oi! Don¡¯t touch anything!" Chapter 206: Ophis, God of Poison "Oh, I¡¯m sorry. I didn¡¯t want to disturb you." n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Sol didn¡¯t really mind the old woman throwing a ruler at him, and he knew these books were all restricted. The olddy scoffed, "Well, I¡¯m awake now. You must be Sol." He nodded. "And you are?" "Mirei, but that doesn¡¯t matter. I heard you want to know about Ophis." "That¡¯s right. Is there anything about that here?" Mirei nodded and took out three books she had already separated ahead of time. "Honestly, it¡¯s a subject not worth researching, but that¡¯s not my problem. Come take your pick." Sol approached and read the three titles: Remembrance of the Old Gods, From Poison to Life, and Ophis: A Legacy Untold. "I can only choose one, right?" "Yes, but I have read all three. I can help you narrow your choice if you want." Sol was surprised at how willing she was to help after yelling at him not long ago. ¡¯Well, it is her job to help me with what I need. Though I¡¯m not really sure what I¡¯m looking for.¡¯ After thinking about it for a while, he decided to ask her opinion. "I don¡¯t really know exactly. It¡¯s not really for me but for a friend who passed away. She just said toe here and look for Ophis." The librarian pondered for a moment before asking, "Was your friend perhaps a variant human?" Sol¡¯s eyes widened, and he didn¡¯t deny it. "Yeah, she was." Mirei slid one of the books forward without hesitation. It was Ophis: A Legacy Untold. "This one should have what you need. Don¡¯t ask me what; read it yourself. Also remember, these are one-of-a-kind books. There are no other copies, so handle it with care. This means no bending corners, writing notes, or anything else that could damage the book. You can sit over there." She gestured to a long table by the opposite wall withfortable looking chairs lined across it. "Thank you." Sol took the book and headed to where he was told. The chairs were asfortable as they looked, and he quickly got settled in. The book was rather thick, and even with his pseudo psychic skill to memorize all he read, it would still take a while. He skimmed the introduction, which was mostly the author¡¯s personal information and how hard they worked in gathering and confirming all the sources. ¡ª Ophis, the great serpent. People say it was not born a god but earned its divinity through countless years of effort. It was originally known as the god of poison and feared by its enemies and worshipers alike. Few were able to withstand its toxic blessings to truly obtain the benefits they held. Those that could, however, survive its blessings became unparalleled. They were called Serpent Devout and their average strength rivaled those of Chosen. Mind you, there was only one Chosen per god, so even with its small following, this elite group of Serpent Devout was a powerful force and none dared to challenge them. This was during a time when the gods were much more active and took a more proactive approach to spreading their faith. Borders were usually defined by the influence of their gods, and nations only existed with a god as their main pir of support. As such, there came a point when Ophis believed he had created enough Serpent Devout to expand his small borders and gain prominence amongst the other gods. So Ophis sent his followers towards the north and east, fighting a war on two fronts¡­ ¡ª Sol continued reading about the divine war, which the author wrote as if it were amon urrence until, a few pagester, a conclusion was reached. ¡ª Though Ophis was winning the battle against Ragnar, who received help from Proteus and Minerva, they were all forced to cease their conflict. This was because of the invasion of the Outer Gods, which urred in the year 2817 of the Kioran calendar. It came suddenly and unexpectedly, with many gods falling and rising during this time. ¡ª There was a footnote in this section that referred to two books titled Remembrance of the Old Gods and The War for the World. Sol remembered the first title from when the librarian showed it, but the second one he guessed was somewhere in here or gone from the passage of time. Regardless, he continued reading. ¡ª Focusing on the events that Ophis was involved in, he joined forces and defended the eastern continent alongside the gods he once fought against. The four gods previously mentioned all worked together. Ragnar used his War Domain to enhance his allies while also summoning the spirits of dead warriors to join the battle. Proteus created dungeons, a never ending source of monsters, to also push the overwhelming number of enemies back. Minerva blessed all the fighters, further increasing their strength and also created the strategies for attack. While all three gods were powerful in their own right, it was Ophis and his elite group of Serpent Devouts who led the battlefield and took down most of the stronger enemies and multiple gods. Even so, the Outer Gods still outnumbered our gods, and they were slowly being pushed back. If nothing changed, our world would have been lost to these foreign enemies. This was why Ophis, along with other powerful gods, convened to discuss how they could turn the war around. None of them could have expected that there was a traitor in their midst. The God of Mist secretly joined the Outer Gods for unknown reasons and snuck arge number of Outer Gods to the meeting, whichunched a surprise attack. Many gods died that day, including Ophis. ¡ª ¡¯Huh? He died?¡¯ Sol was confused as he was only halfway through the book. For the main subject of the book to be dead halfway through didn¡¯t make sense. It was simr to writing a cliffhanger when the protagonist was in the middle of an important event. Sol didn¡¯t know where this led and continued reading once more. ¡ª After the massacre, the Outer Gods left to chase after the fleeing gods while the corpses of many godsy in the area. It was within the many corpses that the dead body of Ophis began to change. Chapter 207: Ophis, God of Rebirth Not much was known as no one was close enough to witness it, but testimonies stated that a few minutes after the deaths of many gods, a pir of golden light emanated from where the dead godsy. The golden light was brimming with a type of energy never before seen, and after a few seconds, it disappeared. In its ce, Ophis appeared. The god no longer looked as it did before; its massive serpent body had green scales that shimmered with a golden hue, and its previously foul and toxic presence had changed to one many considered holy. This was the moment when Ophis, the God of Poison, became the God of Rebirth. Its revival was unprecedented. While it was possible to revive mortals with thews of some gods or with certain rituals, for a deceased god to rise once more was considered impossible. ¡ª ¡¯So it¡¯s possible to revive people?¡¯ Sol¡¯s eyes perked up upon reading that. From what he knew, that wasn¡¯t the case. Even A-Rank healers, who could bring someone back from the brink of death, couldn¡¯t heal them once they drew theirst breath. If it was possible to do so, he didn¡¯t understand why Crestelia or any other nation, for that matter, weren¡¯t reviving important people left and right at every opportunity. ¡¯It has to be either too expensive or have specific requirements.¡¯ Those were the only two reasons he could think of, and thinking back to how Mirei reacted when he confirmed Lapis was a variant human, he began to have some hope. Sol didn¡¯t miss the context clues, and it led him to continue reading to confirm his suspicions. ¡ª Many theorized what sort of revtion or enlightenment Ophis went through that changed his nature in such a fundamental way. Some say he was already practicing the Law of Rebirth, and it was only when he perished that he was able to finallyprehend it. Others believed it was due to a change in the way he understood poison as not only something that kills but also heals. Few even imed it had to do with him being a serpent and treating his previous life like an oldyer of skin, simply shedding it. Though countless theories were tossed around, no one truly knew what caused the change. We only knew what happened after his revival. The Outer Gods who were pursuing the fleeing gods felt a disturbance from Ophis¡¯ revival and sent many of their forces to investigate. When they found him floating above the corpses, they attacked without hesitation. Ophis fought back much stronger than before, taking down five enemy gods before dying once more. But he didn¡¯t remain dead. Ophis rapidly reformed his body and fought once more, this time taking down ten Outer Gods before perishing again. But just like the previous death, he arose once more. This cycle of death and rebirth continued until over 40 Outer Gods perished at his might, and the rest escaped, not having any method to counter his seemingly endless rebirths. With the surprise attack over and many gods from both sides dead, the gods of this world reconvened and formted a new strategy to defend the world. After a long discussion, it was decided that Ca, Goddess of the Sky, Neitarel, God of Supremacy, and Ophis (now officially recognized as the God of Rebirth), would lead an attack straight into the floating metal fortress of the invading gods. They knew it served as the central base of operations for the Outer Gods, and with its destruction, their forces would be disorganized, leaving them vulnerable. No other god would join them in that attack, as they were needed to defend and draw the attention of the Outer Gods. It wouldn¡¯t matter if they did join, though, as these three gods stood in a realm of their own, much stronger than any of theirpanions. Though Ophis only recently reached that level of might, he had every right to stand beside them as theyunched the attack and caused one of the most important moments in history: the activation of the system. ¡ª "The system didn¡¯t always exist?!" Sol¡¯s jaw dropped in shock. "Quiet over there!" Mirei yelled at him, and he could only give a weird look back. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om ¡¯We¡¯re the only two here, and you also yelled louder than me¡­¡¯ Regardless, he was curious about how that came to be, but what he read next left him wanting more. ¡ª Once the three godsunched their attack, they broke into the flying metal fortress easily, as the Outer Gods defending it were few thanks to the efforts of our gods. Unfortunately, there were no witnesses that could state what urred inside the fortress. Not long after the god trio breached the fortress, many explosions were heard, and the fortress began to fall into thend below. Before the city-sized fortress hit the ground, Ca and Ophis were seen escaping and gaining a lot of distance as a ck mass expanded from within the fortress, consuming everything in its path. The ck sphere continued to expand, with strong winds harshly pulling anyone nearby until it grew twice asrge as the fortress. Many at the time believed it was the end, but the ck sphere appeared to have reached a critical point and suddenly shrunk much faster than its initial expansion, disappearing in a few breaths. Arge crater was left in its ce, with everything that was pulled inside gone. Neitarel, who went inside with the other two gods originally, didn¡¯t escape and was dered dead by Ca herself. A few seconds after the disappearance of the flying metal fortress, everyone across the world, no matter their race, origin, or even if they were underlings of the Outer Gods, saw the same message appear in front of them. It read the following: [Activating System V0.7.12]. ¡ª ¡¯V0.7.12¡­ So it was iplete?¡¯ Though information was severelycking, he could at least gather that the system was not in aplete state when itunched. It was technical lingo he picked up from Fabio, and it began to make sense when he thought about it. Sometimes the system simply didn¡¯t work as intended, with items not recognized by the system and its overall inflexible nature. There may be other issues he didn¡¯t know about, but it appeared it wasn¡¯t meant to be this way. The next few pages went into great detail about all of Ophis¡¯ actions during the war and how they used the destruction of the flying fortress to their advantage. Many Outer Gods perished, and after a few more years of war, the remaining invaders dered defeat and left the world. This didn¡¯t mean all enemy gods and forces left; a good amount surrendered, and after a long period of resistance, they became residents of the world. Sol then arrived at the conclusion of the legend of Ophis, and even though he was at the end, there were still a good amount of pages left. ¡ª After the world was finally dered in a state of peace, many gods began to disappear for various reasons. Some went into cultivation to further advance their understanding of theirws, while others left the world in pursuit of answers to the many questions in their mind. The ones that stayed somewhat active split into different factions, but their influence on the world was practically nonexistentpared to before, when they waged wars for dominance. Ophis was famous throughout the world as one of the three great gods that turned the tide of the war. Instead of utilizing his fame to further his influence, Ophis summoned all his Serpent Devout for an important announcement. ording to the descendants of the Serpent Devouts, Ophis said the following: "The world is finally safe. The invaders have been defeated, and safeguards have been put in ce so this never happens again. It¡¯s finally time for me to depart. I have been holding off from doing so to ensure that you, my faithful, had a safe ce to call home. Now that you do, I have no more reason to remain, for I must enter the cycle of reincarnation. May we meet again in another life." Ophis didn¡¯t give his followers the reason he must enter the cycle of reincarnation, but many schrs have theorized it was to further advance his understanding of the Law of Rebirth. Though a small but vocal group believed it was because his constant rebirths didn¡¯te for free, and he would have to pay them back by living countless lives. Regardless of the reason, this was thest known sighting of Ophis, and it¡¯s presumed he had entered the cycle of reincarnation. Everyone believed this was the end of Ophis¡¯ legacy, but many decades after Ophis¡¯ parting to his next life, a huge discovery was made. A descendant of one of the Serpent Devouts discovered their blood not only contained poisonous blood from Ophis¡¯ blessing but also trace amounts of another unknown power. After many years of research and trial and error, the descendant learned it was actually a residual trace of Ophis¡¯ Law of Rebirth within their blood, and they also figured out a way to activate it. ¡ª As Sol continued to read, his eyes widened with each sentence, and he yelled in excitement. "This! This is it!" "WHAT DID I SAY?!" Chapter 208: A High Chance Tuk. Another ruler hit Sol on the back of his head. He turned to see Mirei ring at him. "Last chance! You yell again, and I¡¯m kicking you out! I don¡¯t care if you¡¯re not done reading!" ¡¯But you¡¯re louder than me¡­ You were even snoring a while ago.¡¯ He gave a nod in response and returned to his book. He wasn¡¯t about to pick a fight with an olddy. He secretly checked her level, and it was only 26. Even so, he wasn¡¯t going to use the difference in power to bully her for technically doing her job. Though she was rude about it, it was his fault for sneaking past her to look through the restricted books himself. He was sure she was still mad about that. Thest forty pages of the book went into fine detail about the research and how one would go about activating thetent power of rebirth. There was a long list of materials, many of which he had never heard of, ranging from potent poisons to the blood of powerful beasts. All of it would then be mixed into a massive pool of blood-like liquid where the blood of the dead descendant of the Serpent Devout would be finally added. The researcher who invented the method realized the easiest way to activate the blood was by simting the conditions in which Ophis first revived. That was why there was one very important material that Sol wasn¡¯t sure how to go about acquiring. ¡¯The blood of a god or the blood of 500 priests. The blood of a god is out of the question, but maybe we can pay priests to donate blood?¡¯ If he managed to gather everything, then there was a high chance it would work. As for why it was a high chance and still not guaranteed, even the author couldn¡¯t give a true reason. After a lot of tests with different descendants, they realized it had a higher chance of failure the longer they had been dead. They attempted to find the cause, but by all means, it should work regardless of how long they had been dead as the blood was shown to activate. The author believed it could be because the deceased had already moved on to their next life, and as long as they hadn¡¯t done that yet, they could be brought back. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Sol wouldn¡¯t miss this chance he was given to fix his past mistake. He used the pseudo-psychic skill to memorize all the ingredients and instructions. Once he was done, he closed the book and returned it to the librarian. "Huh? Already?" Mirei was surprised he was already done; it had only been a little over two hours, after all. Sol nodded and gently ced the book on her counter. "Yes. I found exactly what I needed, thank you for your rmendation." The old librarian considered rmending he stay a while longer, as she severely doubted he memorized all of that in such a short time, but seeing his absolutely sure expression, she refrained from doing so. She instead checked the book to see if there were any damages and, realizing it was the same as before, handed back a small metal te. "I hope it works out for you then. You can use this to get out." Sol took the key and said goodbye. Sol left the third floor and continued to head up the stairs all the way until he finally reached the entrance once more. On the way back up, he didn¡¯t see Phineas, who had returned to his duties. The first thing Sol did was head to the requisition center to determine if they had the materials for the activation of Lapis¡¯ blood. Luckily, she left him with two vials of her blood, so he didn¡¯t have to go dig up her grave. After checking what they had avable, he found most of the materials were already there, especially the poisons. This saved him a lot of time having to find these materials himself, but there was a small downside. ¡¯The total is over 600 merits¡­¡¯ That wasn¡¯t even all the material, and the rest he could only find himself or request them to obtain. Requesting them to source the rest of the materials would cost more than double its normal price, meaning in all it would be over 1000 merits even with the 20% discount he had from his deal with the Commander. ¡¯I don¡¯t have enough merits¡­ for now I¡¯ll buy all the ones that are already in stock.¡¯ Sol purchased over 50 poisons, herbs, crystals, and other rare materials and crossed those off his list. He had 428 merits left after exchanging for them and left the requisition center. Later in the day, he called for a meeting with his squad who met in their private meeting room. "Umm¡­ What is this?" Nataly asked when Sol presented a short stack of papers of alchemical forms and a long list of materials. Sol took some time to put the instructions on paper so he could show them to his squad. "It¡¯s a resurrection recipe." "Huh?!" Aron, who was leaning back on his chair, almost fell over in surprise. The rest were shocked, they couldn¡¯t believe it. Duncan looked at the forms, and though he had no knowledge of alchemy, he could still see it was highly advanced. "How did you find this?!" "Remember Lapis¡¯ request? I followed up on it and¡­" Sol recounted the short version of the book. He went over who Ophis was, his connection to Lapis, and thetent power of rebirth hidden in her blood. Nataly was the first to celebrate. "We can bring her back!" Rex mumbled in disbelief, "This¡­ sounds absurd. I don¡¯t mean to sound negative, but are we sure this can work? If not, then we would be wasting a lot of time, money, and only be left with disappointment." "It was on the third floor of the Royal Library. It wouldn¡¯t be kept there if its contents didn¡¯t contain incredible secrets and knowledge," Duncan said. While he hadn¡¯t been there himself, he knew that was where the kingdom¡¯s most important knowledge was kept; there was no chance of a book with false information being kept in there as well. His logic convinced Rex, which brought him on board as well. "Then all we need is to get the remaining materials and a good alchemist. Does anyone know one?" Chapter 209: Do What You do Best "I know two, but I think one of them is currently out of the city," Aron said casually. Sol thought to himself, ¡¯Why am I not surprised? I bet he could be close friends with the princess if he had a chance to meet her. Too bad she lives on the other side of the pce and rarelyes over here.¡¯ Duncan suggested a different idea. "We could also request the help of the alchemists that work here in the pce." Sol nodded. "Let¡¯s go with the pce alchemists. Duncan, send word to them and find out how much they want to synthesize all this." He then turned to Aron, who appeared a bit disappointed that Sol didn¡¯t go with his rmendation. "I have another job for you. The bigger issue is gathering the missing materials." "The blood of 500 priests¡­ that¡¯s not all their blood, right? I know we want to bring Lapis back, but I don¡¯t think killing 500 people is something we can do." Rex wasn¡¯t sure if he could go along with it if that was the case. Luckily, it wasn¡¯t. Sol shook his head. "No, we only need a pint from each. Though I¡¯m still not sure how to go about doing that¡­" He considered asking Zaman¡¯s help in doing so but didn¡¯t want to rely on him. It was better to visit the church in the capital personally and see if he could buy it ore to some other agreement. "By the way, what church is in the capital?" "I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯s the Church of Ca," Nataly said uncertainly. Duncan and Rex nodded to confirm she was correct. ¡¯It¡¯s always them, huh¡­ Well, they do have the most influence in our kingdom, so it makes sense they¡¯re in the capital.¡¯ Sol wondered how they would react if he asked for their blood. He didn¡¯t think it would result in them bing hostile; at worst, they might tell him to screw off. "I¡¯ll see what I can do on that front, but we are still missing a few other items on the list." Sol then pointed at the list of ingredients. "These are the ones that weren¡¯t avable in the requisition center. Aron, do you think you can find them?" Aron was surprised, "Me? Are you sure you don¡¯t want to ask Duncan or Rex?" The two experienced knights had lived much longer in the city than him, and they likely knew where to go about obtaining such items. Sol shook his head, "I¡¯m certain you can do it. Just do what you do best." "Punching stuff?" "... The other thing you do best." "Other thi-? OH! I getcha!" Aron quickly realized what he meant. He wasn¡¯t oblivious to his own abilities after all; he knew he was good at making connections everywhere he went. It wouldn¡¯t take him long to get in touch with the right people who had what they needed through his incredibly goodworking skills. "What about us two?" Nataly asked and pointed at Rex. It didn¡¯t sit right with her doing nothing in the efforts to revive Lapis while Aron and Duncan had their own tasks. "Once Duncan is done speaking with the alchemist, the four of us will go do a few missions while Aron gets the ingredients we need. When we¡¯re not on a mission, just keep doing what you were doing: hitting the books, learning, getting stronger." Nataly nodded. More than anyone, she didn¡¯t want to be a burden likest time. Sol continued, "By the way, Rex¡­" "Yeah?" "I noticed you have been rather idletely. Have you considered joining Aron and Duncan in their training?" Though it had only been a few days since they returned, everyone had been training to further improve themselves except Rex. He mostly lounged around in the squad¡¯s quarters, and while Sol could understand resting after a mission, Rex didn¡¯t appear to have any ns to do anything else soon. Being suddenly put on the spot, Rex couldn¡¯t look Sol in the eyes and turned his gaze away, embarrassed. Sol sighed. "Look. I¡¯m not trying to put you on the spot like that, but all of us need to be stronger. None of us want a repeat of what happened." Rex slowly nodded. He knew Sol was right. After all, he knew the attack that killed Lapis would have killed him as well if Sol hadn¡¯t grabbed him in time. That knowledge had been silently gnawing at him from the back of his mind for a while. On top of the fact he had a recent breakup he still wasn¡¯t over, he simply couldn¡¯t bring himself to do anything besides eat and sleep. The worst part of it all was that he was doing it as a coping mechanism, and he didn¡¯t realize it until Sol pointed it out. "I¡¯ll try," he said somewhat hesitantly. Duncan ced his hand on his shoulder and reassured him, "Don¡¯t worry, training your body will clear your mind. I¡¯ll make sure to give you a good workout. You¡¯ll feel much better after a few days." Duncan¡¯s words didn¡¯t reassure Rex as they made him dread what sort of exercises he had in mind, but he knew it was toote to back out now. He could only ept his fate. With a n of action in ce, the meeting was adjourned. Aron left the pce to see if some merchants and acquaintances he knew could connect him with someone who had the missing materials. Duncan went to the alchemist¡¯s workshop that was in the pce with the blood revival instructions to find someone who was able to help them. Nataly returned to the library, while Rex went for a walk as he wasn¡¯t mentally ready to begin training just yet. Sol went to his room and sat on his ratherrge bed. He then opened his status page. Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner], [Transformer] Level: 82 Exp: 13,732,000/98,417,000 HP: 1450 MP: 1650 Str: 85 (+70) Vit: 80 (+70) Agi: 80 (+70) Int: 85 (+70) Wis: 80 (+90) Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 5, [Analysis] Lv 7, [Aggregate] Lv EX, [Reinterpret] Lv EX Siphoned Talents: [Create Magic Hands] Lv MAX, [Impact Bubble] Lv 2 Passive Skills: [Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Reflect] Lv 1, [Precise Coordination] Lv 6, [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 8, [Intermediate Weapon Mastery] Lv 8, [Wild Hunt] Lv 2, [Invincible Body] Lv 8, [Perfect Bnce] Lv 2, [Death Absorption] Lv 6, [True Sight (Variant)] Lv 6, [Superior Mana Control] Lv 3, [Fortified Soul] Lv 2, [Omniway Footwork] Lv 6, [Poise Stance] Lv 4, [Novice Craftsman] Lv 6 Active Skills: n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om [Cross sh] Lv 9, [Ground Shrink] Lv 8, [Invisibility] Lv 7, [Terra Maniption] Lv 8, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Primal Rend] Lv 4, [Debilitating Strike] Lv 2, [Telepathy] Lv 3, [Unpassable Bulwark] Lv 1, [Intermediate Elemental Magic (Variant)] Lv 5, [Overpower] Lv 4, [Create Undead] Lv 6, [Weapon Enhancement (Variant)] Lv 8, [Disable] Lv 1, [Vorpal de] Lv 7, [Bombardment] Lv 2, [Storm Blitz] Lv 8, [Piercing Lunge] Lv 8, [Seeking Shot] Lv 7, [Mana sh] Lv 6, [Empowered Strike] Lv 4, [Polychromatism] Lv EX, [Mana Burst] Lv 4, [Repair] Lv 5, [Rising sh] Lv 4, [Shadow Body] Lv 6, [Close Combat] Lv 1 ¡¯I still have a few skills tobine, but once I¡¯m done with those, I¡¯ll work on leveling them up further.¡¯ Of the many skills he used [Aggregate] on tobine, the most notable ones were [Novice Craftsman], [Intermediate Elemental Magic (Variant)], [Close Combat], and [Shadow Body]. [[Novice Craftsman] Lv 6: A beginner that has dabbled in many different trades. Could barely be considered a jack of all trades, but the potential is there. The experience in multiple fields gives the user a crafter¡¯s intuition.] The first skill was simply a collection of crafting techniques and practices he hadbined from other crafting-type skills. His ability to craft didn¡¯t improve by much whenbined, but he gained something called a crafter¡¯s intuition. It was a sixth sense with anything crafting-rted, like being able to tell when to remove metal from a forge or the ability to sense whether an alchemical ingredient had gone slightly bad. [[Intermediate Elemental Magic (Variant)] Lv 5: Adept in multiple elements, mana cost varies.] It didn¡¯t say which elements he could cast, but Sol didn¡¯t need the system to tell him which. Nothing really changed when he added [Intermediate Light Magic] and [Basic Ice Magic], but that¡¯s to be expected. It was simr to his [Intermediate Weapon Mastery] that only contained knowledge of the weapon skills he had siphoned. [[Close Combat] Lv 1: Unleash a series of punches and kicks that don¡¯t leave a gap between each strike. Each consecutive attack is 10% stronger than thest. Cooldown: 5 minutes.] It was a much more powerful skillpared to its original two skills [sh Fist] and [Low Sweep]. Thebination of the two resulted in a powerful skill that could serve to break a stalemate. Not only was he able tounch an unending attack of powerful punches and kicks, each one would be stronger than thest one. Theoretically, if he continued such an attack for long enough, it should reach the level of an A-Ranker, but only if his body could handle the burden of using the skill for so long. [[Shadow Body] Lv 5: Turn one¡¯s whole body to shadow, bing immune to physical attacks. Physical attacks change to the shadow element, gaining corrosive properties. Can expand and shrink at the cost of mana. Mana cost: 25 per second.] Though [Shadow Form] and [Shadow Hand] were greatly underused skills, Sol didn¡¯t abandon them. Theirbination turned into a much moreplete skillpared to the previous skills, making it now one of his stronger skills. He refrained from using this skill because he was afraid of drawing the attention of those much stronger than him, but he knew this wouldn¡¯tst forever. He was aware he had made small mistakes, like when he saved the party Radiant Historia in a dungeon by using earth magic. While he never regretted saving them, if they spread word of his actions, people might investigate, especially now that he was a rather well-known figure. One day his lies would catch up to him, and he knew he had to be ready. Chapter 210: Law Technique Two weeks had passed since they set their n in motion. So far, Aron had found and purchased almost 40% of the missing materials, and for the rest, he had his connections already retrieving them from ces outside the kingdom. Because of the distance, it would take at least three more weeks for thest of the materials to arrive, but he could proudly state he did his part. The rest of the squad had been cycling between missions and training, only epting missions that didn¡¯t require them to leave the city so they could focus on training. Normally, a regr squad was unable to choose their own missions; they were supposed to be assigned by the Major Knight in charge of their division, one of the five Grand Knights, or Commander Zaman himself. But because of his deal with the Commander, Sol had many benefits equal to a Major Knight, including the right to choose any mission he wanted. During this time, Solbined even more skills and leveled them up, reaching a new level of power. On asion, he would also meet up with Amber to train and level up in Necropolis. After practicing with his newly improved skills, he felt confident defeating the pseudo A-Rank monsters that were on floor 21 and above of the dungeon, even while limiting himself to only his publicly shown skills, but he still fell short whenpared to a true A-Ranker. Besides training, he also got up to date on thetest with Amber and Fabio, who were each busy in their own way. Amber continued training, creating a few new skills, which were mostly sand-based. She also told him what she learned regarding his father, Roman, but none of it was very useful. As far as the underworld was concerned, Roman was dead, done in by knights who sacrificed themselves to take him down. The rest of the information was rted to his crimes: extortion, theft, maniption¡ªthe list went on. Hearing some of his father¡¯s crimes made him doubt they were even the same person. From what Sol¡¯s unsealed memories revealed, his father was a smart but overall unserious prankster who went with the flow. The worst thing he did was cast an illusion that swapped the rooms in the house, greatly confusing the young Sol and his mother. But ording to some testimonies and kingdom records, he was linked to the death of hundreds of people. Sol didn¡¯t really know what to think upon hearing this information. For the meantime, he chose to ignore the issue, knowing he would eventually have to confront his father about it when they met. He went to visit Fabio, or at least tried to. When he stopped by his shop, the employees there informed him that Fabio had been absent the past week. He only left a note saying he was working on an important project and to run the store while he was gone. Leaving the store, Sol thought to himself, ¡¯I guess it will take a bit longer for him to finish. I was really hoping for a decent new weapon right about now.¡¯ At this moment, his strongest weapons were unique rank, and he felt he needed some kind of trump card in case of an emergency. ¡¯Now that I think about it, I still have the scale.¡¯ The scale imbued with the Law of Dragons had been silently sitting in his spatial ring these past two weeks. It was not because he forgot but because it didn¡¯t react to anything he did. Every day, he would take it out and try to figure out its use, but nothing worked. ¡¯I¡¯ll try again when I return to my room.¡¯ Later, when Sol returned to his room, he took out the scale once more. It thumped onto the ground motionlessly. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Sol picked it up and poked it around like usual, but no matter what he did, it remainedpletely unresponsive. After failing to get a response from it for days, he was finally losing his patience. "C¡¯mon! I know you can understand me. You didn¡¯t want me to give you to the Commander, but you also don¡¯t want to show me what you can do? Aren¡¯t you useless then? Is this what the Law of Dragons is about?" The scale began to rumble from his mocking, and in anger, it released a wave of its intent. Sol couldn¡¯t avoid it as it sted him with incredible might. Boom! He was sent crashing through two walls and managed to reinforce the third wall with [Terra Maniption] just before he broke through that wall as well. Covered in dust and debris, he removed himself from the wall he got stuck on,pletely unharmed. Though the st was strong, it didn¡¯t actually hurt him, but Sol knew if the scale wanted to kill him, it could. The scale floated through the hole in the wall and stopped a few feet away from him. It didn¡¯t attack again but instead expressed its intent. It was short and to the point. Sol was shocked at what it told him. "I¡¯m too weak to withstand your power? How strong do I need to be?" The scale didn¡¯t immediately respond as it considered how to answer in a way that the mortal could understand. "I need aw technique? What is that?" Sol had heard ofws before but notw techniques. The scale vibrated as if grumbling and expressed to ask the one who had the scale of trade and frigid winds. ¡¯The Commander would know? Why would he¡ªit¡¯s the requirement to be an A-Ranker!¡¯ Sol didn¡¯t need to ask Zaman to connect the dots himself. It¡¯s clearly a simpler version of the Laws he had read the gods wield. But he still needed to ask him how to go about obtaining one. "Alright, I¡¯ll ask him then." Pleased the mortal would no longer disturb it, it stored itself in Sol¡¯s spatial ring without him using it. Sol began to leave the squad quarters to ask Zaman right away until he heard someonee in. It was Duncan and Rex who got back from training. They looked at the debris and broken walls in shock. "What happened here?!" Chapter 211: Classmates Sol left the squad quarters after repairing the walls and cleaning up the mess he had unintentionally made. He made his way to the Commander¡¯s office just as Zaman was leaving. "Sol? Haven¡¯t seen you in a while. How is the progress with Lapis¡¯ revival?" "Making steady progress. We have almost everything but the blood of priests. Still need to talk to the church about that." While Sol didn¡¯t ask for the Commander¡¯s help, Zaman was still aware of their efforts. After all, he knew what book Sol had read in the Royal Library and could easily get a list of all the materials he bought with merit. It wasn¡¯t hard to put two and two together. Zaman pondered for a moment and asked, "Do you need my assistance talking to them? I¡¯m not sure how they would react to such a proposition, but it shouldn¡¯t be too extreme if ites as an official request." Sol shook his head. "No thanks, Commander. I¡¯m worried if they react negatively, it will make the recent situation worse." He was referring to the recent drama and problems cropping up everywheretely. Royal Knights had been failing missions or getting caught doing some sort of crime. Many nobles and merchants loyal to the crown had also been caught up in different controversies. The situation around the capital had be rather tense as a consequence. Sol knew something was afoot, and when his squad was chatting about it, Duncan assumed it was some noble faction rebelling. But since they weren¡¯t mobilized to do anything about it, Sol focused on Lapis¡¯ revival and his own improvement instead. Zaman appreciated his considerations. Though he was willing to lend a hand, he was also worried about the possible repercussions. "There is something I wanted to ask. Can you tell me how I can get aw technique?" Zaman raised a brow upon hearing him mention aw technique. "Who told you about it?" Sol inly spoke the truth. "The scale told me about it and said I should ask you." "It did now¡­" The Commander put his hand under his chin and, after a moment of consideration, nodded. "Sure, I can teach you aboutw techniques. Funnily enough, you asked at the perfect time. Follow me." Zaman began walking down the hall, leaving Sol confused. Sol followed after him and asked, "Are we not going to talk in your office?" He shook his head. "No, we are heading to meet with the princess. I have a lesson scheduled with her soon." "The princess?! Right now?!" Sol almost stumbled in shock. He didn¡¯t understand how asking aboutw techniques immediately led to meeting the princess. Zaman reassured him, "It will be fine. You said you wanted to learn aboutw techniques, and it just so happens that today¡¯s final lesson will cover that." Sol still wasn¡¯t sure about this. "I don¡¯t know¡­ Would she be alright with me joining at thest minute?" The Commander chuckled. "Don¡¯t overthink it. She isn¡¯t that sort of person. Plus, taking you with me will save me from having to exin it twice." With his Commander insisting, Sol decided to stop worrying about it. ¡¯I¡¯ll just speak as little as possible. I don¡¯t want to identally say the wrong thing and make an enemy out of her¡­¡¯ Sol was still overthinking it. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om The two made their way through the winding halls as Sol continued to wonder how to leave the best impression, clearly not heeding Zaman¡¯s advice. Eventually, they arrived at one of the many doors in the pce, which Zaman gave a light knock and opened. They entered and saw Princess Valerie, who was storing some books she had recently finished into her storage ring before she noticed the new presences in the room. "Zaman, you¡¯re just in time. I just finished reviewing the material from thest lesson." Zaman chuckled, "Haha, when am I not? We will briefly go over what you studied to make sure you retained the information before going into the final lesson. Ah, before doing anything, let me introduce you to Sol. He will be joining us today." Sol gave a standard knight salute and spoke, "It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you, Your Royal Highness." She gave a polite bow back. "The pleasure is all mine. I still remember your valiant performance at the knight tournament. Holding your own against an A-Ranker for so long left a deep impression on me." She then turned to Zaman and asked, "Is Sol here to also learn aboutw techniques?" Zaman nodded with a serious expression. "Yes, though I would have liked both of you to work on developing your battle sense andbat techniques a bit more, it would be best if both of you began working on breaking into A-Rank as soon as possible." Sol at first assumed Zaman was referring to the situation in the capital and the current public sentiment towards the crown. He knew public opinion was lower than usual, but he didn¡¯t think it was bad to the point of riots and openints. He guessed something else was the true reason. ¡¯Seems something is going down soon, or at least the Commander is preparing us for what could happen.¡¯ Given another reason to train harder, Zaman began the lesson. The first half of the lesson consisted of a lot of reading and information Sol had already gone through when Zaman was training him. He mostly stayed silent, letting Valerie answer for herself, which she did wlessly. But what was most impressive wasn¡¯t her ability to retain and memorize the information she read but her ability to expand upon it, adding a new perspective on a few subjects that Sol had never thought about before. Twenty minutester, Zaman judged it was time to head into the final lesson and the main reason Sol had joined today¡¯s session. "Congrattions to both of you on finishing your studies. I have little left to teach you, and from here, only you can teach yourself. Still, I can provide some guidance to help both of you get started. As you may know,w techniques are the only way one can be an A-Ranker. How one goes about learning or acquiring one¡ªwell, there are three main methods. From the mostmon to the rarest, there are: Talent Ascension, Skill Ascension, and Enlightenment Ascension." Chapter 212: Ascension ¡¯So there¡¯s more than one way,¡¯ Sol thought to himself. Zaman continued with the lesson. "In general terms, the three methods are rather simr to each other and are referred to as Ascension because of the changes your body undergoes when youprehend aw technique. It doesn¡¯t end with just obtaining a new power; your whole body bes much stronger in all aspects. How much exactly depends on thew technique, with some providing more than others. Also, the enhancement isn¡¯t always bnced. Sure, some equally increase all aspects, but most usually increase one or more attributes or aspects greatly while the rest have smaller increments. It all depends on the type ofw technique youprehend." Valerie leaned slightly forward in her chair and asked, "Whatw technique do you rmend we try toprehend?" The princess had once read apendium of known talent skills, but it only contained their general characteristics. Though it didn¡¯t detail the method to obtain thew technique, she believed it was possible to work towards it, only that it would be a bit harder without any guidance. Zaman shook his head. "There really is no betterw technique over another. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. For example, my ownw technique [Evesting Present]. My overall attribute increase doesn¡¯tpare to Grand Knight Lawrence¡¯s agility and wisdom focused increase with hisw technique [Light Drive]. Without any external factors, he is nearly three times faster than me, yet I can still win against him. Do you know why?" Both Sol and Valerie took a moment to think about the answer. ¡¯It can¡¯t be a level or skill level difference; he wouldn¡¯t be mentioning it if it was¡­¡¯ Sol knew that it had to do with Zaman¡¯s talent specifically, but not really knowing what it did made it hard to guess the reason why Zaman would win against someone faster than him. Sol guessed, "Does speed not matter with yourw technique?" Zaman made a so so gesture with his hand and said, "Close but not quite. Speed does matter, but myw technique is faintly rted to time. Though it¡¯s more urate to say that with my technique, I am able to squeeze the most out of a moment. To find the perfect opportunity through the chaos to aplish my objective. Even with how fast Lawrence goes, which nearly rivals the speed of light in short bursts, I can still find the infinitesimally small moment to strike where it matters most. This doesn¡¯t mean myw technique is better than his, mind you, just that in a one on one fight, mine beats his." "To attack at the perfect time¡ªis that really aw technique?" Sol didn¡¯t quite understand how; it felt like it was something achievable with really good battle sense. Zaman smiled at his question but didn¡¯t answer, instead moving on with the lesson. "Like I said before, there are three methods of Ascension. In order from easiest to hardest, they are: Talent Ascension, Skill Ascension, and Enlightenment Ascension. The first method is to push your talent skill to the very limit, and once you reach it, break through those limits." Sol and Valerie waited for a deeper exnation, but the Commander stayed silent with a smile on his face. Valerie couldn¡¯t believe it. "That¡¯s it?" He nodded. "Yes. I can¡¯t really provide much more advice beyond that, as it all depends on what talent skill you are working with, and even then, those with the same talent skill couldprehend differentw techniques. For Skill Ascension, the rules are the same, but pushing a regr skill to its limit requires a lot more time and effortpared to a talent skill. The reason for this is because talent skills inherently start at a higher baselinepared to normal skills, being much closer to their associatedws. Oh, I should also mention there are a few exceptions to this rule." "What kind of exceptions?" Sol asked. "Talent skills like [Analysis], [Status Deception], and generally any simr talent skill cannot be the foundation for aw technique. Any guesses as to why?" Valerie thought for a moment before reaching a logical answer. "Is it because those skills directly interact with the system?" "But why are skills that interact with the system an exception?" It was a good answer, but Zaman wanted a little more than that. N?v(el)B\\jnn Thinking it over a bit more, Sol¡¯s eyes shot open in realization. It finally clicked. "They aren¡¯t real skills to begin with; they were added for people to have a better understanding of the system when it was first implemented." Zaman nodded. "At least it¡¯s the leading theory. After all, no one can really prove the reasoning behind the system." ¡¯I could see it not being a real skill. Using [Analysis] sends a small wisp of mana that shouldn¡¯t do anything by all means, but when paired with the skill, it provides the information of whatever I targeted. As it leveled up, it didn¡¯t improve or change in any tangible way besides allowing me to see the status of higher level beings, which could honestly just be an arbitrary limiter put in ce.¡¯ "What about thest method, Enlightenment Ascension?" Valerie asked. While the first two methods were rather vague, she reasoned that thest one would be different. The Commander knew what she was thinking and chuckled. "If you ever figure it out, let me know. It¡¯s known as the hardest method of Ascension because no one really knows how it happens; it just does. You could be a farmer with [Farming] as your only skill, but one day you suddenlyprehend aw technique that lets you create and destroy entire mountains for some inexplicable reason." "It kinda sounds like Ophis," Sol said, but in this case, it was already a god with its ownw, and itprehended a second one. Zaman agreed. "Most believe Ophis went through such an experience, but don¡¯t wait around thinking it will happen to you; such a thing almost never happens. The best I can suggest for both of your Ascensions is to focus on improving your talent skills and try to achieve A-Rank through them." The Commander was about to finish the lesson before remembering one final detail. "Also, keep in mind that you can theoreticallyprehend infinitew techniques, but only the first three provide increases in all aspects, and each one provides smaller increases than thest. With that, you both know as much as I know regardingw techniques. Good luck, and I hope youprehend one soon." Chapter 213: Well Rounded With the lesson over, Zaman excused himself from the room as he had other matters to attend to, leaving Sol and the Princess alone together. Normally, such a thing was never done, but the Commander had a good read of Sol¡¯s personality and was sure nothing bad woulde of this. He was even secretly hoping they would get along and Sol would be another valuable ally for the Princess. Sol, unaware of Zaman¡¯s machinations, leaned back in his chair in deep thought. ¡¯I hoped for a bit more than that, but now I at least know that I¡¯ve been going about it wrong. I thought I just needed tobine and max out my skills as much as possible, but what I need to focus on are those already at max level or EX. [Siphon] is still a ways away from maxing out, but I have [Aggregate] and [Reinterpret], which started at EX. I also have the other two talent skills I siphoned to work with¡­¡¯ While Sol considered his options, he realized something crucial. ¡¯Wait. Can¡¯t I improve [Siphon] with [Reinterpret]? Why didn¡¯t I think of that before?!¡¯ Feeling extremely foolish for not trying it sooner, Sol promised himself he would attempt it as soon as possible. Valerie, who was also wondering how she would approach her Ascension, noticed that Sol hade to some sort of realization. "Was Zaman¡¯s lesson helpful? It seems like you realized something," she asked, not only out of curiosity but also on the off chance it could also be beneficial for her. Sol nodded. "Though vague, the Commander did point me in the right direction. I was focusing on improving my general skills and hadn¡¯t thought about my talent skills. I already have two talent skills I can tryprehending aw skill from." She was surprised. "You maxed two talent skills already?! I only recently maxed out my first talent skill¡­ You look younger than me, yet you¡¯re ahead of me." Valerie was 22 years old, while Sol was almost 19. Though the time it took to max out a talent skill varied greatly depending on aptitude and effort, it would on average take over 15 years for someone to max out their first skill. Even Valerie, who was very talented and had ess to countless resources, had only recently maxed out her first skill after 8 years. Sol shook his head. "That¡¯s not a fairparison. I had much more time on my hands to train. I¡¯m sure you could have maxed out all your talent skills if not for your other responsibilities." Though the real reason it wasn¡¯t a fairparison was that the two talent skills he learned started at the EX level, saving him a lot of time. Regardless, he remained tactful about it, and it was true that the Princess had many other responsibilities and even more with her recent preparations to assume the throne. Though the King had yet to step down, many knew it was only a matter of time, which was why many forces were taking action. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om She let out a smallugh at his reassurance. "It¡¯s fine; you don¡¯t need tofort me with pleasantries. I¡¯m honestly d we have someone as talented as you here." Sol made an awkward smile, having his intentions read so easily, and tried to change the subject. "By the way¡­ Why is it that the Commander is only teaching you aboutw techniques now? Wouldn¡¯t you have been an A-Ranker by now if you knew where to focus your efforts ahead of time?" "Maybe, but I was told I wasn¡¯t ready to learn about Ascensions by fath¡ª the King. He wished for me and my brother to train all our skills to a proficient degree before trying toprehendw techniques. The reason for this is to be more well rounded." "More well rounded?" Valerie nodded. "Yes. It¡¯s well documented that those who rush to A-Rank by focusing on one skill end upcking in too many areaspared to those who slowly progress, learning every step of the way. Battle sense, adaptability, and more are habits that need to be built from the foundation; it¡¯s not something one can easily start doing after focusing on one specific skill for years. For that reason, we even went¡ª Never mind, but you understand what I mean." She was about to talk about entering Necropolis as a way to further hone their skills. She and her brother did so on asion until the monster house incident that took his life. Since then, she hadn¡¯t stepped foot in the dungeon. If asked why, she would say she was too busy preparing to rule, but that was a lie, and she knew it. Still, she stifled those feelings of fear to reassure those around her. Sol didn¡¯t know how to respond as he could see she was somewhat conflicted about something. Their silence soon became awkward as neither knew what to say. In order to end the awkwardness and the anticipation of attempting to break through to A-Rank, he stood up and gave a cordial bow to the Princess. "I must get going. Thank you for allowing me to join today¡¯s lesson." Before Valerie could respond, Sol quickly left the room, leaving her speechless. ¡¯Normally I have to excuse knights before they can leave. I think he forgot¡­ I don¡¯t really mind, but I wanted to talk with him more. I keep freezing up whenever I think about Nelson¡­¡¯ The Princess could only regret ruining the mood and hope to talk with the young Knight Captain another time. In the meantime, she had to focus on her max level talent skill and try to break through as soon as possible. ... Back in his room, Sol sat upright on his bed and got into afortable position. It was only when he sat down that he realized his mistake. ¡¯Ah! She didn¡¯t excuse me¡­ Why are there so many rules to follow¡­ I can only hope she¡¯s not petty over something like that. At least she didn¡¯t give off that sort of vibe.¡¯ After wishing nothing bad came out of that, Sol entered his mental white room. He looked around and, wanting to spruce up the environment, changed the walls to simte a grassy in. He then created the body of a trihorn deer he recently killed during a mission. ¡¯It¡¯s easier to create creatures when they¡¯re fresh in my mind. For practice, I should ingrain a few different creatures into my memory with my pseudo psychic skill. But that¡¯s an issue for another time; for now, let¡¯s try it.¡¯ Sol raised his hand and used [Siphon], the first of many toe. Chapter 214: Fundamentals When Sol next opened his eyes, he took out a pocket watch and checked the time. ¡¯It¡¯s already morning¡­¡¯ When he returned from Zaman¡¯s lesson, it waste in the afternoon, and he immediately began practicing [Siphon]. He hadn¡¯t nned how long he would practice, and he ended up training for over 12 hours. Sol checked for any system messages, but none appeared, which didn¡¯t surprise him. ¡¯I need to relearn [Siphon] from the ground up.¡¯ Previously, he had used [Siphon] exactly as the system instructed, and it improved with use over time, but he never really understood how it worked. He realized that while he could continue to brute force it and spam the skill, it was better to take a more thoughtful approach, simr to what he did with [Terra Maniption]. He needed to truly learn how it worked, understand its mechanics, and from there, test ways to improve it. This meant he had to start from the beginning. Using the fake corpses he recalled in the white room, Sol slowly went step-by-step through the process. It took him a while to understand the fundamentals, but he narrowed the entire process down to four key steps. ¡¯First, I scan the target¡¯s body and mind. This involves sensing the memories I want and finding every piece of knowledge and muscle memory rted to them. The next step is extracting as much information as possible. Then, there¡¯s the reformatting; I need to change the information to conform to the way my mind and body process information, which is unique for each person. If I don¡¯t do this step, there would be a lot of dissonance, which could lead to breaking my mind or body. Thest step is the actual implementation of the information, which allows me to experience the skill as if I lived through it myself.¡¯ While Sol understood how it fundamentally worked, there were still questions he couldn¡¯t answer. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om ¡¯I still don¡¯t know why I can¡¯t [Siphon] bodies that have been dead for long. Theoretically, it should work a month after death, but at level 6, it only works if it¡¯s been less than a week, and barely at that. For maximum efficiency, it needs to be under five hours.¡¯ He couldn¡¯tprehend what factor he was missing; it was something he had to test in the real world to truly find out for sure. After all, the white room only simtes from his memories; if he didn¡¯t know about an unknownponent, it wouldn¡¯t be created in the fake corpse. There were other theories he needed to test, like the skills he could extract if he only had certain body parts, the siphoning of living individuals like the mind shaper back in Kerman, and the source of the ability. ¡¯Somehow, it costs no mana to use [Siphon] and it doesn¡¯t feel like magic; it honestly feels more like a psychic ability.¡¯ Sol knew he needed a lot more time to truly understand what [Siphon] was, and for every question he answered, he got a new question in return. He considered how long it would take to fully understand the skill so he could then break through to A-Rank and found it unfeasible. ¡¯I would need at least two weeks just to work my way back up to level 5 in terms of proficiency, then maybe a month or two to push it to max, and who knows how long it would take toprehend aw technique from that¡­ That¡¯s too long, I can¡¯t spend all my time on this.¡¯ Knowing it would take over two months to even begin the first attempts to break through, he had to consider his original options. ¡¯[Reinterpret] and [Aggregate] are already EX. I¡¯ll rank up one of those first and work on improving [Siphon].¡¯ He believed it didn¡¯t matter in what order he did it, and at least this way, he could be A-Rank sooner. Of the two talent skills to tackle first, Sol leaned more toward [Aggregate]. Overall, it was a much more mysterious skill than [Reinterpret], and now that he had somewhat of an idea where these colorful strings led, he hoped he could make a lot more progress than before. With a solid n in mind, Sol stood up from his bed and made his way to the squad¡¯smunal area to get breakfast. ... Meanwhile, in the humble town of Jubalin, a modest house was being used as a secret meeting spot for a certain faction of nobles. A long curved table stretched from one side of the room to the other as over 40 nobles, the heads of their respective families, sat with mostly B-Rank guards and a few A-Rankers standing behind them for their protection. Within the crowd of nobles, Lord Sigurd turned to Victor, who had been silently frowning behind him the entire time. "Did you remember to bring it?" Sigurd whispered. Victor nodded and slightly opened his doublet to show a small metallic pin that looked like an owl¡¯s head on his shirt cor. It looked like any other decoration, but he wasn¡¯t the only one wearing it. Sigurd also had an owl pin ced on his sleeve. In fact, most of the people, noble and guards alike, had one as well. At this moment, the Duchess of the South, dys, entered the room. The presence of the middle aged noblewoman caused everyone to subconsciously turn their heads to her as she sat at the dead center of the table. dys gave only a nce at the nobles seated and spoke. "It appears everyone is here. Before we begin, does anyone wish to say anything?" The atmosphere became tense with her question. They had gone to great effort to gather secretly with the help of space magic, but the reason for doing so left many hesitant. Seeing that nobody was willing to ask the obvious, Sigurd stood from his chair and asked, "Do you really intend to make a deal with those monsters? There is only one thing they want, and that¡¯s our blood." Chapter 215: Carmilla is a Vampire "Monsters?" dys shook her head. "They may not be human anymore, but I wouldn¡¯t call them monsters. We can still talk and reason with them, after all. In addition, this isn¡¯t a deal; we are using them. We¡¯ll give them what they want for now, but once we gain control of the kingdom, they¡¯re being sent back underground." "I still don¡¯t think this is a good idea. Maybe we should reconsider," Sigurd suggested. "Maybe we should¡­" "Will their help even be useful?" "We need to step it up to truly weaken the royal forces." "If this works, it¡¯s all but guaranteed we be the new rulers." A few nobles nodded in agreement with Sigurd¡¯s sentiment, but most were either still on the fence or believed it was the best option. Other nobles began to voice additional doubts and arguments, leading the room to be noisy and somewhat chaotic. "Silence!" dys shouted, bringing order to the meeting. She turned to Sigurd and answered his original question. "So far, all we have done is imprison knights and other forces loyal to the crown while cementing distrust. Now that the people no longer have such strong trust in the royal family, we need something much bigger. We need a disaster. Sure, some will die, but we can use the momentum it creates to overthrow them without much hassle. This was inevitable." Her logic was sound; such a disaster would create the instability they needed to implement the changes they wanted. It served as the final push for some of the indecisive nobles and even switched those who were originally against the n. Seeing the majority of them were in agreement, Sigurd could only frown and sit back down. Even if dys was right and it was needed as the final push for their cause, he fundamentally disagreed with the methods employed. Victor, who stood behind him, also disagreed, as such a disaster would bring untold amounts of death. He couldn¡¯t believe they were seriously considering it. ¡¯Are people¡¯s lives just a number for them?¡¯ Victor thought to himself. With Sigurd back in his seat, dys looked at the robed mage who stood by the door and beckoned him over. "Then let¡¯s begin. Teleport them here." The mage nodded and began chanting the intermediate level space spell, [Spatial Tunnel]. It was a spell specialized for long range teleportation but could only be done after preparing a focus point at both ends of the spatial tunnel. Without having a focus point, the mana cost would be astronomically higher. A purplish blue portal formed, and soon a beautiful woman with long ck hair stepped out. She looked like any other human except for one feature: her extremely pale skin. Under the gaze of the nobles and the many guards ready to attack at a moment¡¯s notice, she stepped forward without any fear. "Wow, so many people were waiting for little ol¡¯ me. You¡¯re gonna make me blush." dys didn¡¯t entertain her antics. "Carmi. You already know the terms; why did your mistress demand we meet you in person?" Carmi¡¯s eyes glowed slightly red in response. Out of nowhere, all the nobles and guards felt their minds be slightly cloudy. Feelings of adoration and devotion that they had never had before for the woman began to wriggle into their minds and hearts. Before such feelings could take root, the owl shaped pin glowed, and suddenly their minds became clear. dys, waking from her short stupor, shouted, "What is the meaning of this?!" Sigurd, within the crowd, sighed in relief. ¡¯I¡¯m d the defenses prepared against the ck Tongue work against vampire maniptions as well.¡¯ The owl pins were originally meant to be a precaution for Sol¡¯s father, Roman, who was also known as the ck Tongue. These owl pins were made through much trial and error. They were strong enough topletely resist most mental maniptions and had some resistance tow type mental skills. The guards unsheathed their weapons, ready to attack immediately but waited for orders from their nobles. Carmi shrugged and stayed still, not giving them any more reason to pull the trigger. "The Mistress wanted me to give you all a quick test. We usually deal with idiots who underestimate us because we live in hiding. Good to see you¡¯re not like them, well, most of you at least." She then turned her eyes to a B-Rank guard who stood behind a noble. His face flushed red, and the moment her eyes fell upon him, he was unable to resist. He jumped over the table and got on his knees. "I love you! Please marry¡ªno, let me serve you forever! Please ept me as your faithful thrall! I will do anything for you, my love!" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om The poor B-Ranker didn¡¯t wear the protective owl pin, confidently thinking he could resist the effects he was warned about as he had two high level skills that helped resist simr mental effects. Though he was indeed able to resist for a moment, his resistance shattered when her enchanting red eyes concentrated on him. "What do you think you¡¯re doing! Get back here!" The guard¡¯s noble was shocked at his sudden actions. Carmi smiled, revealing two sharp fangs, and beckoned him toe over. The guard was ecstatic, but just as he was about to take the first step toward his new owner, a hot red me with a golden sheen came suddenly from the side. The fire came so quickly that the charmed guard was unable to react in time. The guard was enveloped by the powerful mes, which burned him alive in a fraction of a second. The nobles and guards turned to the source of the mes and saw Victor lowering his outstretched hand. "Goddamn vampires." The nobles and fellow guards gave Victor an appreciative look. He had done them all a favor by ending the guard¡¯s life. Everyone knew nothing else could be done as it was impossible to save someone once they had been turned into a vampire¡¯s thrall. Victor ignored their looks and continued to re at the vampire. The nobles knew of Victor¡¯s personality and assumed he was about to retaliate against Carmi¡¯s actions in anger. The nobles and guards prepared to act if he did, but were surprised when they saw him quietly take a step back. The nobles hadn¡¯t assumed incorrectly. Victor wanted to do more than just save the enthralled guard, but after the debacle at the knight tournament, he had realized he needed to work on himself to prevent such a thing from happening again. He knew anger and rage were powerful tools but not something to be consumed by. That was why he had spent thest two months practicing and tempering himself until heprehended a neww technique that channels his intense emotions in a more positive direction. With Victor stepping back, the tense nobles and guards rxed a bit, while the target of their animosity, Carmi, held the same wry grin. While they were willing to fight it out with this A-Rank vampire, itsw technique was hard to counter even with the owl pins. They had no doubt they would win, but she would definitely take many down with her. dys regained herposure and asked, "Can I assume she epts?" Carmi nodded, "The mistress epts, but we want a different city. We want Kerman." dys raised an eyebrow at the mention of that city. It was situated near the border of three other nations and was one of the most popr routes for merchants to enter and exit the kingdom. Needless to say, it was a very lucrative city, but as far as she knew, vampires didn¡¯t care much for wealth, so she didn¡¯t know why they wanted that one in particr. ¡¯We still have other border cities, so losing Kerman isn¡¯t that important. They can also defend the border against the orcs, saving us a lot of soldiers and resources dedicated to that front¡­ We might not even need to banish them once we¡¯re done.¡¯ The rebellious noble faction had yet to hear of the deal Sol made with Orna, so she waspletely unaware that there weren¡¯t any more orc invasions happening for at least ten years. Missing this critical information, she believed Kerman¡¯s value as a city was going to drop as more orc attacks urred and decided it was more than eptable. dys agreed to the change. "Sure, you can have Kerman." "What?!" A chubby man sprang up in surprise. He was Haslen, the lord of Kerman. He was shocked that dys handed his city to vampires so easily. dys reassured him. "Calm down, Haslen. You can have Rend and Urtecstal in return. Once they take over Kerman, those two cities will be the new trade route into our kingdom." Hearing the names of the two cities that were his current economic rivals, he quickly went from anger to excitement. "If that¡¯s the case, then by all means, you can have Kerman." Carmi looked at the greedy noble who easily gave away his home for profit and spoke, "Then we have an agreement. I¡¯ll let the mistress know." The vampire turned around and let out a small chuckle as she walked into the portal, which closed behind her. Chapter 216: Forgetting a Skill A weekter, Sol sat on the couch in themunal area of his squad quarters and reviewed his progress on his status page. Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner], [Transformer] Level: 83 Exp: 43,232,500/108,258,700 HP: 1600 MP: 1800 Str: 85 (+80) Vit: 80 (+80) Agi: 85 (+80) Int: 85 (+80) Wis: 80 (+100) Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 6, [Analysis] Lv 7, [Aggregate] Lv EX, [Reinterpret] Lv EX Siphoned Talents: [Create Magic Hands] Lv MAX, [Impact Bubble] Lv 4 Passive Skills: [Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Reflect] Lv 3, [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 8, [Intermediate Weapon Mastery] Lv 8, [Wild Hunt] Lv 2, [Invincible Body] Lv 8, [Perfect Bnce] Lv 3, [Death Absorption] Lv 6, [True Sight (Variant)] Lv 6, [Superior Mana Control] Lv 3, [Fortified Soul] Lv 2, [Novice Craftsman] Lv 6, [Battle Dance] Lv 8 Active Skills: [Ground Shrink] Lv 9, [Invisibility] Lv 9, [Terra Maniption] Lv 8, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Telepathy] Lv 3, [Unpassable Bulwark] Lv 3, [Intermediate Elemental Magic (Variant)] Lv 5, [Overpower] Lv 4, [Weapon Empowerment (Variant)] Lv EX, [Piercing Lunge] Lv 8, [Mana sh] Lv 6, [Empowered Strike] Lv 4, [Polychromatism] Lv EX, [Mana Burst] Lv 4, [Repair] Lv 5, [Shadow Body] Lv 6, [Close Combat] Lv 1, [Vorpal de Rush] 2, [Guided Bombardment] Lv 3, [Phoenix Dive] Lv 4, [Unarming Blow] Lv 2 In the end, he decided to choose [Aggregate] as the talent skill to attempt to break through. It was more mysterious than [Reinterpret], and he believed it was easier to decipher more from it. Since then, he hadbined a few more skills as practice, taking much longer than usual to fully understand how it functioned. Sol blinked once and instantly saw the colored lines expanding out from him, reaching much further and eventually passing through the walls and the ceiling. ¡¯I can immediately see the lines now; before, it would take a few seconds. I also found out something rather disturbing.¡¯ He discovered he could pull and twist the lines instead of joining them to create a new skill, causing some severe side effects. For example, when he twisted the cyan colored string representing [Mana sh], he temporarily forgot how to use the skill. No matter how hard he tried to recall, it felt fuzzy in his mind. Then he tried something much riskier. He controlled the ck and purple string of [Create Undead] to twist, pull, contort, and when he forgot how to use the skill, he didn¡¯t stop. He continued until, with one of the pulls, it finally snapped, and with it, everything that had to do with the skill. He still remembered owning it, but how it worked and how to use it werepletely gone. ¡¯I¡¯m d I chose to try it on [Create Undead], as it was a skill I could never find a good use for anyway. If, for some reason, I ever need it back, I can go to Necropolis and fight the Grave Digger again.¡¯ Though Sol couldn¡¯t remember, the skill was too weak for him to use in most cases, and it had many restrictions. He needed corpses to create the undead and even when he did, there was a limit on the undead he could have at one time, and it constantly consumed mana. There was also the fact that it required desecrating the dead, something Sol was never a fan of. Even with [Siphon], he did his best not to be consumed by the allure of murdering those with unique talents and skills to take them for himself. When he wasn¡¯t working onprehending aw technique from it, he spent his time improving his other skills orpleting missions with his squad. ¡¯I managed to level up [Siphon] to level six, but there were no big changes; the range and limit for how long they could be dead increased. Now I can siphon them with maximum efficiency if it¡¯s been three days and up to a month with minimal returns.¡¯ Sol was never able to figure out why it was so limited by the time of death, especially when it was used on higher level beings. If they were higher level, their high vitality remained even in death, so in some cases, their bodies were still in pristine condition years after their passing. ¡¯Well, even if it didn¡¯t have a limit on the time of death, I wouldn¡¯t go around digging up cemeteries, so it¡¯s fine. It¡¯s mostly out of curiosity that I want to know.¡¯ For now, he could be satisfied and answered a few questions he had regarding his talent skills. Done reviewing his progress, Sol nned to head to Fabio¡¯s store to check up on him, but Duncan entered the room with a message for him. "Captain, Commander Zaman is calling for you." Sol didn¡¯t respond; his eyes were wide with surprise. "Captain? Are you feeling unwell?" "Stay still for a second." Sol stood up and circled Duncan, scanning him from every angle. Duncan was extremely perplexed at why he was doing so but didn¡¯t say anything and waited for him to finish. Duncan followed where Sol¡¯s eyes were looking, but they didn¡¯t appear to be looking directly at him but around him. "Hey Duncan, can you tell me how [Full Metal Stride] works?" Duncan raised an eyebrow as he didn¡¯t understand why Sol was suddenly asking that now but nodded. "Sure, I use the¡­ I use the umm¡­ What!? Why can¡¯t I remember!?" His face scrunched up as he tried to recall how the skill worked, but all he could see were fuzzy memories, and even when he tried to go off the muscle memory ingrained from using it for so many years, his own body betrayed him and wouldn¡¯t budge. "It¡¯s going to be okay, Duncan. I caused it. It shoulde back in a few minutes. I¡¯m really sorry; I should have warned you ahead of time." Sol felt bad for suddenly making him forget his skill without asking beforehand, but he was too caught up in the discovery. It was hard to control someone else¡¯s lines, but he managed to give it a small twist, effectively blocking the skill¡¯s usage for a short period. Duncan calmed down and let out a sigh. "Give a man a warning next time, alright? I thought I was cursed or something. What was that anyway? Some new skill?" At this point, he didn¡¯t know how many skills his captain even had. Ever since he witnessed Sol cast multiple different magics, he wasn¡¯t sure what else he was hiding. Sol shook his head. "No, it¡¯s a rather old skill. I¡¯ve just been learning new ways to use it so I can break into A-Rank." "Break into A-Rank?" Duncan was immediately intrigued. "So that has to do with ranking up... Most A-Rankers don¡¯t disclose the process of bing one. I¡¯ve always wondered why." "I¡¯m not sure, but I¡¯ll tell you what little I knowter. I think we¡¯re soon going to need as many A-Rankers as possible. I honestly don¡¯t know why we aren¡¯t sharing this information more." It wasn¡¯t veryplicated to be an A-Ranker; one just needed to continue developing their skill past its limit. Though simple, it wasn¡¯t something most people would even think of doing. To them, the system was absolute. If it said their skill was max or ex, it meant it had reached its full potential, and they wouldn¡¯t continue improving it and would move on to other skills. This didn¡¯t mean it never happened. There were many cases of those who continued to work on their main skill past its limit andprehended aw technique identally. That¡¯s how half of the A-Rank adventurers came to be, while the other half learned of the information through connections or through their travels. Duncan was a little surprised at Sol¡¯s offer and dly epted. "Thank you, Captain. You should get going, though. I don¡¯t think you should keep the Commander waiting." "Oh, right! We¡¯ll talkter." Sol bade goodbye to Duncan and power walked towards Zaman¡¯s office, hoping he hadn¡¯t kept him waiting long.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Chapter 217: MAD Sol entered the Commander¡¯s office, where Zaman was sitting behind his desk as usual. "Ah, Sol,e take a seat. I have some good news." "Good news? Does this have to do with the orcs?" There were very few reasons for Zaman to personally summon him. It could be about the progress of Lapis¡¯ revival, his progress inprehending aw technique, or the situation with the orcs. Sol guessed it was likely about the ceasefire with the orcs, as there should have been some discussions between the two sides by now. Zaman nodded. "Yes. While the dragon gave us a grace period of ten years to find the dwarven city and recreate the life cluster ritual, there is a lot of nning and logistics that need to be considered beforehand. But I can finally say we have reached the end of those talks. However, they added a condition to this cooperation." "Does it somehow involve me? Is that why you called me?" He nodded again. "They want you to join the search. Their reasoning is that their savior, whom an orc named Kirgar referred to as ¡¯you,¡¯ caught on like wildfire. They only really trust you because you made the deal with Orna." Sol made a difficult expression. "Do I really have to go? I am making progress on myw technique, and it would take longer if I had to join the search. I also don¡¯t think my inclusion would make the search go any faster." He felt that the only possibly useful thing he could do in the search was use [True Sight] in case there were more illusions like the one that blocked the perception of the tunnel entrances. But he wasn¡¯t the only one with such abilities, and many others could take his ce. The Commander agreed with his sentiment. "I know. That¡¯s why I told them you were busy with personal matters. They were understanding, but to prevent any mishap, the explorations will be carried out in mixed groups of humans and orcs. But when we do find the dwarven city, neither side can enter until you show up." "But won¡¯t it take half a month from getting the news and me traveling to the Orna Mountains? Will it be fine to wait that long?" Zaman waved his hand. "You don¡¯t have to worry about that. We are going to use the abandoned fort near Chilton as an exploration outpost and set up a long rangemunications crystal. When we receive word that they found the city, a space mage can teleport you and your squad over once they set up a spatial focus point." Sol¡¯s worries were unfounded, and he felt a bit relieved that he could teleport over, saving himself a lot of time. "How long do you think it will take to find the city then?" "Hard to say, but based on the exploration maps the orcs have shared, it should be under a month. There are a lot of passages that lead to dead ends or mines, but it shouldn¡¯t take too long to map out the entirety of the undergroundbyrinth. By the way, how is your progress? Do you think you canprehend aw technique in a month?" Zaman asked because the time it took toprehend aw technique varied widely between individuals, depending on thew technique and their personal understanding. It could take one day or it could take years. Sol wasn¡¯t too sure himself, but based on the discovery he made with Duncan, he felt it shouldn¡¯t be too long. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "I think I¡¯ll have aw technique by the end of the month." The Commander smiled. "That¡¯s reassuring to hear. The Princess gave me a simr answer as well." "I¡¯ve been meaning to ask something, Commander. I can tell you want more A-Rankers recently, but you only shared how to be one with me and the Princess. Why don¡¯t we tell all the knights how to be one?" Zaman sighed with a tinge of helplessness. "There are quite a few reasons for that, actually. Do you remember what you told me about the orc that chased you through the mountains?" Sol nodded. "He could create anything out of snow and ice. He formed a snow giant andunched ice arrows and ice spears that could easily destroy mountains." "The biggest reason is that the power of A-Rankers is too great. When strong A-Rankers fight, they leave a trail of pure destruction. In some cases, the ce they fought in bes a wastnd. If there were more of us, the battlefields you see today would pale inparison, and wars would spiral out of control. Back then, this wouldn¡¯t be such a big issue as the gods would intervene and repair most of the damage, but nowadays, the only way to recover thend would be with the assistance of a life or nature rted A-Ranker." Sol could see how that would be a problem. He remembered that the book on the third floor of the Royal Library also mentioned the gods became less active after the war, but it never borated why. "But what about other nations or evil organizations like the ck market? Won¡¯t there be a huge imbnce of power if someone spreads the information and creates arge army of A-Rankers?" Zaman confidently shook his head. "That won¡¯t happen. Currently, all the nations agree not to have over 50 A-Rankers at any given time. If they are caught trying to do so¡ªand trust me, there are ways to know¡ªnations will mobilize to cull their numbers, restrict the information, and punish them for doing so. For criminal organizations, it¡¯s a bit messier and varies from case to case. Sometimes they regte themselves, and other times we make a deal where they don¡¯t spread the information for certain privileges, which they usually ept. In cases where they do so anyway, we bring many of our A-Rankers to suppress them and call upon help from other nations if needed. Depending on the means avable, there are many methods to restrict the uncontrolled growth of A-Rankers, which depend on the situation." Sol was a bit shocked that the world¡¯s leaders had such contingencies in ce, but it made sense. Even as some nations waged war on each other, they refrained from increasing their A-Ranker count as the oue would only lead to mutually assured destruction. In the cases where they did so anyway, the other nations would intervene for their own self preservation. Knowing this now, Sol realized he made a small mistake a while ago. "Ah¡­ I told Duncan I was going to tell him aboutw techniquester." "You were?" Zaman said, surprised but not angry. "Hmm, now that I think of it, Duncan has a barrier talent skill, correct?" Sol nodded. The Commander pondered it further and came to a decision. "Including you and the Princess, we still have two more A-Ranker slots. You can tell him. But only him, and warn him not to spread that information. We could use someone with a barrierw technique." Chapter 218: Funky Hat Leaving Zaman¡¯s office, Sol headed outside the pce, intending to check on Fabio¡¯s store and see if he was there. When he arrived, the store was bustling with adventurers and other clients browsing the products. One of the shopkeepers saw him through the crowd and briskly walked over. "Sir Sol! I have good news; Mr. Fabio is finally back. Let me tell him you¡¯re here." Sol smiled and shook his head. "It¡¯s fine, I¡¯ll go. I¡¯ll save you the trip." The shopkeeper nodded and let him through to the back. Given the rtionship between the two, there was no issue letting Sol go alone to the storage room that led to Fabio¡¯s private workshop. "Huh, guess he restocked everything." The storage room was filled to the brim with specialized gadgets, tools, and weapons. Last time Sol was here, he listened to the employees¡¯ worries that the store¡¯s inventory was running low, so he was relieved to see that Fabio hadn¡¯t forgotten to resupply them while he was working on his project. Sol then knocked on the door to the workshop, and after a short wait, the door opened. "Sol! What a surprise! I was about to send you a message. Come on in." n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Fabio opened the door wider to let him in. When Sol entered the workshop, he saw a few metal puppets sweeping the floor and wiping dusty tables. But he didn¡¯t find their presence out of the ordinary; what truly stood out was the short brown haired woman setting up a forging area. It was especially odd because the forge area fit perfectly in the workshop as if it was always meant to have one. "Feels like I missed something big..." Fabio followed his gaze and understood his confusion. "Lisa, leave the anvil there for a moment ande over here. There¡¯s someone I want you to meet." She nodded and gently ced the anvil she was carrying, which still resulted in a deep thud, and made her way over. Fabio ced his hand on Sol¡¯s shoulder and spoke, "Sol, meet Elizabeth, or Lisa for short. She¡¯s my new apprentice. Lisa, this is Sol, the knight I talked about before." Elizabeth gave a short bow and said, "A pleasure to meet you, and thank you for providing me and my masters with the void root." Sol nodded but realized something odd. "Wait, masters?" He nced at Fabio questioningly. The tinkerer shrugged. "It just kinda happened. Who knew my friend¡¯s apprentice had the unique talent [Crafting Prodigy]? She can basically learn any craft skill and even obtained [Intermediate Craftsman] at her young age. I couldn¡¯t just let her learn only smithing, so I took her under my wing." Sol was a bit surprised to hear that, as he also had the skill, although it was still in the novice stage. While the skill spoke of a general mastery of all types of crafting, he really only had knowledge of the skills he siphoned like [Cooking], [Basic Smithing], and [Basic Alchemy]. The same must apply to her. There were still benefits in having it over multiple seperate crafting skills, as it meant there were essentially no limits to learning other trades, and it actually made it easier to trante the skills of one profession to another. "That¡¯s incredible. You also found yourself a good master. If you ever want to learn another crafting profession, let me know, and I¡¯ll see if I can find you a good teacher." Fabio made a light jab at Sol¡¯s waist. "Oi, I just got her, and you already n to find her another teacher?!" Solughed and looked away from Fabio¡¯s re. "Haha, I¡¯m just joking." Elizabeth shook her head and declined his semi-joke offer. "No, thanks. For now, I n to learn under Second Master¡¯s guidance." Fabio patted Sol¡¯s back and, with a wide grin, said, "Forget about all that; there¡¯s something I want to show you. Lisa, I left it in Taliya¡¯s workshop; wannae?" She declined the offer. "I¡¯ll finish setting up my area." "Alright, suit yourself," Fabio shrugged. "Here, put this on; you don¡¯t want to get spotted where we¡¯re going." He produced a weird hat that looked like a fat umbre. "You¡¯re joking, right?" Sol wasn¡¯t sure if Fabio was getting back at him for his previous joke. Fabio grinned and pushed the hat toward him. "I¡¯m very serious, but I won¡¯t lie. I will really enjoy seeing you wear it." Sol let out a long sigh. "Fine..." ... Half an hourter, Sol and Fabio removed their hats and appeared inside Taliya¡¯s workshop in the ck market. "Gods, the trouble I will be in if I¡¯m seen here..." While navigating the streets, Sol had fun using the hats¡¯ incredible stealth magic, which surpassed even his [Invisibility], as it hid more than just making him invisible. As he followed Fabio, he eventually found out they weren¡¯t heading to the slums but instead the ck market. This put him on edge, as he knew it would cause a huge debacle for a knight to be caughting here. Fabio reassured him. "Don¡¯t worry; no one dares toe here without permission. Those that do end up like him." He pointed at a man tied up in mana suppressing metal chains. The man was bruised and bloodied everywhere to the point that his face was unrecognizable. Despite his injuries, Sol felt that man was still a powerful force to be reckoned with and used [Analysis] out of curiosity. Ryogan Race: Human Talents: [??? me], [Space Affinity], [???] Level: 1?? "He¡¯s an A-Ranker?!" He couldn¡¯t believe there was just an A-Ranker tied up and beaten to a pulp in this workshop. It made him wonder and fear who did this. "Dumbass thought he coulde here and do whatever he wanted. Just because we are crafters doesn¡¯t mean we¡¯re weak. By the way, Fabio... Who¡¯s he?" The one who answered wasn¡¯t Fabio but the tall and muscr Taliya, who appeared from behind Sol. He was surprised by how she suddenly snuck up on him, but she didn¡¯t do it on purpose; he was simply too focused on the half dead A-Ranker. Fabio answered. "He¡¯s the one who gave me the void root. Let¡¯s show him what we did with it." Taliya made a huge smile and lifted Sol by his shoulders. "Oh! So you¡¯re Sol! Nice to meet ya!" "N-nice to meet you too..." Sol didn¡¯t know why she was so happy to see him but didn¡¯t resist as she shook his body in the air. Taliya had long heard of Sol from Fabio but also from her own information sources. She knew he was the reason Fabio¡¯s store became popr and it was also because of him that they could reunite once more. Needless to say, she had a great opinion of him even before they officially met. Fabio and Taliya led Sol to arge rectangr crate and opened it. Fabio excitedly announced, "Behold! The Tynamo Cannon!" Chapter 219: Tynamo Cannon Sol looked at the smooth ck cylindrical tube with an intrigued expression. He tried to use [Analysis], but nothing appeared. As expected of Fabio¡¯s products, it was something never before seen. "Tynamo Cannon?" Fabio nodded. "At first, I wanted to make somethingpact like a void saber or something more defensive like a shield that absorbs energy, but I quickly realized it was too impractical. Void energy innately hates staying still, so when I try to make it take a specific form simr to the Lipon, it fights back hard, causing it to break in a few seconds. So, I had to go with the projectile route for this one." He then lifted the Tynamo Cannon, which was almost as tall as he was. "This bad boy may be called a cannon, but it only shares its appearance; it¡¯s honestly more simr to a bow if looked at from a functional angle." He ced the Tynamo Cannon on his shoulder and showed Sol how to use it. "It¡¯s not hard to use; it only has three mechanisms to control it. The first is a slider, which changes the potency of the void beam by manipting the oscition of the..." Fabio nced at Sol and saw he was losing him in the exnation. Even Taliya, who was from apletely different area of expertise, didn¡¯t understand much of what he was saying. Fabio sighed, wishing the old man who taught him all of this was still alive; at least then someone could understand his genius. "I¡¯ll skip all the boring stuff. Moving the slider down means weaker, thinner beams and up means stronger, thicker beams of void energy. The minimum still uses 3.43% of the void root¡¯s reserve; any lower and it would be too weak to form a concentrated beam. The highest uses up 48%; any higher and the interior parts of the cannon would begin to break." Sol nodded, feeling a bit bad for not understanding and appreciating all the work that went into it. ¡¯Maybe I should hit the books at the Royal Library sometime; there should be something on the subject.¡¯ Fabio continued with his presentation. He showed the trigger located on the bottom, which released the beam, but didn¡¯t actually pull it. Instead, he handed it to Sol and said, "Give it a try! I set it to 10%." "Huh? Here? Now? Where do I even aim?" Sol didn¡¯t want to identally destroy Taliya¡¯s workshop, especially when he had just met her for the first time. Taliya pointed and said, "Aim there." "At your forge?" She pointed directly at the opening of the forge, which was currently unlit. Sol knew forges were meant to be durable to contain extreme temperatures, and this was an A-Ranker¡¯s forge, but this wasn¡¯t even fire; it was void energy. Fabio reassured him. "Trust me, it¡¯s made for this. Plus, I¡¯ll get to exin how we got the other void material in the cannon." "The other void material? Alright, fine. Here goes nothing." Sol aimed the Tynamo Cannon and pulled the trigger, releasing a short three inch beam of pitch ck energy toward the forge. It felt good to use, with only minimal recoil that hepletely negated, and because it was specially designed for him to wield, it fitfortably over his shoulder. The beam traveled instantly, rivaling the speed of light magic, and entered the forge, causing it to light up. The forge shook as unknown runes lit up on all its surfaces. The runes clearly did something as the void energy didn¡¯t disappear when it entered the forge but instead circled around inside, condensing and morphing into a ck me. ¡¯What the-?¡¯ Sol used [Analysis], and surprisingly, the forge worked, but the results were even more shocking. [Blessed Heart of Creation Legendary Durability: 9999/9999 Skills: [Unbreakable Core] Lv MAX, [Spirit of the Elder Fire Elemental] Lv MAX, [Purifying mes] Lv MAX, [Mystic me Conversion] Lv MAX] Taliya approached the forge and proceeded to take out a few seemingly random ores. "This forge used to belong to our master. We¡¯re not sure how he obtained this or if he made it himself, but what we do know is that it was blessed by Proteus, the God of Transformation. He blessed it so any type of energy, as long as it¡¯s potent enough, transforms into a me that retains its unique effects. In this case, void fire." n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om As she ced the ores into the fire, Fabio continued with the exnation. "The fire by itself isn¡¯t very useful; we can¡¯t remove it from the forge, or it will be extinguished. But we can transfer some of its properties onto metals, that¡¯s if they can handle the void mes. But Little Miss Forge over there can create unique alloys that... well, you can see for yourself." Fabio stopped exining as actions spoke louder than words, and the two took a seat to watch as Taliya carefullybined the many precious metals in precise quantities over the ominous ck me. The two continued to watch as half an hour quickly flew by. Sol¡¯s eyes were glued to the process as he realized how little he truly knew about forgingpared to the beginner level skill he siphoned. [[Novice Craftsman] leveled up! (6 -> 9)] ¡¯Three whole levels just from watching...¡¯ The craziest part of it all was that he only really learned a few tricks; the rest was either tooplicated or straight up impossible for him to emte. Taliya polished the finished product and handed it to Fabio, who took it from there. He held the sleek ck metal ingot up and said, "We call it void metal. Not very original, I know, but what else could you call it? Anyways, doesn¡¯t it look familiar?" Sol looked at the Tynamo Cannon and saw it was the same color as the entire cannon. "It¡¯s all made from void metal?! But I saw durium and other rare metals being used! Isn¡¯t that unbelievably expensive?" Taliya shrugged as if it wasn¡¯t a big deal. "All the money in the world can¡¯t even buy legendary materials. Only an idiot would sell such a thing, and it would be stolen by other idiots like that guy." She pointed back with her thumb toward the bloodied crime boss, who was still unconscious. Fabio agreed. "It¡¯s not really about the money for us. We finally got the opportunity to create something legendary. With the addition of void metal that was incredibly resistant to void energy, allowing it to release half of its energy in one go without any issue, there was another benefit in amplifying the Tynamo Cannon¡¯sst function." Sol remembered he was only shown what two of the three functions do¡ªchanging the potency and releasing the energy. He looked at the final button on the side curiously. "What does it do?" Fabio grinned mischievously and pointed at an empty wall. "Go stand over by that wall and hit the button when I tell you." Sol knew he was up to something, but he trusted Fabio enough to let the man have his fun. He went to the wall and waited for further instructions. THUD. From Fabio¡¯s spatial ring, arge object appeared. It was arge, semi transparent blue cannon with a massive elemental fire cartridge attached at the back. "H-hey Fabio, please tell me that¡¯s not what I think it is..." "Hehe... This is my favorite toy, a reconfigured elemental cannon, Big Bertha! And for the final touch! [Overclock]!" Big Bertha trembled as it changed from blue to red. The massive fire cartridge waspletely drained in an instant as an incredibly concentrated st of fireunched out of the cannon. "Hit the button!" Taliya yelled, seeing that Fabio was too caught up in his antics to give a heads up. Sol paled as he faced an attack that surpassed Kirgar¡¯s massive ice spears, which could destroy entire mountains, and immediately hit the button. A small click could be audibly heard as Sol felt something spin inside the Tynamo Cannon. He held it forward toward the iing fire and hoped for the best. VRRRRR! When the fire st was only a few feet away, the Tynamo Cannon hummed as it began sucking in concentrated fire st. It shrank rapidly as the ming ball appeared to unravel into small strands that were absorbed into the barrel of the weapon. In almost an instant the terrifying me was reduced to nothing, gone moments after it appeared. Chapter 220: Types of Energy Sol lowered the Tynamo Cannon and yelled at Fabio, "That could¡¯ve killed me!" Fabio put his own cannon away and chuckled, "Heh. Nah, I doubt that. But as you can see, we managed to amplify the void root¡¯s ability to absorb energy and recharge itself with the help of the void metal. Now it canpletely absorb energy based attacks even at the A-Rank level." "Do you mean it works even onw techniques?" "Where¡¯d you hear about that?" Taliya and Fabio were a little surprised to hear him mentionw techniques. For him to mention it without being an A-Ranker himself meant someone else must have told him, and depending on who it was, it could lead to trouble. This didn¡¯t mean they would push him away or report him, but they were nheless worried. Sol could tell by looking at their faces that they were concerned. "It¡¯s okay, Commander Zaman told me." Fabio didn¡¯t expect that the Commander of the Royal Knights had personally shared that information with him and was impressed. "Hoh? Haven¡¯t you only been with them for almost two months and they¡¯re already trusting you to this extent? Color me impressed. But to answer your original question, yeah, it can easily absorb energy basedw techniques like mine. You know, mana, fire, electricity, psychic, and the rest. There are some types of energy it can¡¯t absorb like natural gravitational or electromaic energy, but it¡¯s immune to their effects¡­" He was about to go into further detail but realized he was losing Sol and Taliya again. Even in Sol¡¯s confusion, there was something he found odd. "Psychic energy? But doesn¡¯t that also use magic? Why is it a separate category?" He was sure it used mana, as even the minor psychic abilities he had used a decent chunk of mana for the simplest tasks. Fabio shook his head. "Psychic energy is independent of mana. It doesn¡¯t appear in the status page, but everyone has it, and it rises with the increase of intelligence and vitality. While it¡¯s possible to use mana and convert it to psychic energy, it¡¯s extremely inefficient and only beginners do that until they learn to sense the other energy within them." ¡¯Only beginners, huh. I guess I did siphon it off someone who barely practiced it. Maybe that¡¯s what I was missing.¡¯ n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Sol finally knew why he found it so hard to raise his psychic skill. If he could tap into the dormant psychic energy inside him, he was certain his skill would improve by leaps and bounds. It also made himment further, as it sounded like such a simple solution, but it was one he wouldn¡¯t realize without a lot of trial and error until he stumbled into it by ident. While Sol was thinking about dedicating some timeter today for the skill, Fabio called out to him with a warning. "Oi, I just want to be clear: the Tynamo Cannon will only absorb energy, NOTHING else. Don¡¯t try to absorb a sword or anything like that, and be careful of semi-energy projectiles. What I mean by that is stuff like your earth maniption. It costs mana to move andpress it, but that rock and stone aren¡¯t magical by any means. The most it will do is absorb the energy causing it to move." Sol nodded seriously. He had to be careful and couldn¡¯t use thest function on everything that moved. "Another thing you should keep in mind: please don¡¯t ever shoot straight down for any reason." "Huh? Why?" It was an odd request, which didn¡¯t make a lot of sense. Taliya was the one who answered. "We¡­ don¡¯t actually know how long the void beam travels. The only way we can stop its beam is if we shoot it into the forge or one of us blocks it with ourw techniques. If you shoot downwards, there is a chance it¡­ tunnels all the way through to the¡¯s core." Fabio continued, "Honestly, we don¡¯t know if it will go that far, and we have even less of an idea of what would happen if it hit the core. It could be nothing, or it could cause an unexpected chain reaction. Worst case scenario¡­ bye-bye world." "What?! Isn¡¯t that too absurd?!" Sol was shocked to know he had been carrying a potentially world destroying weapon, and they were only telling him this now, after he had already shot it. Taliyaughed at his reaction. "Hey, don¡¯t worry about it. That¡¯s the worst case scenario, and even if you for some reason do that, many powerful forces won¡¯t sit by and let it happen. Gods will definitely intervene as well. We¡¯re just warning you because of what will happen to you afterward." It only took a moment to realize what she meant. "I¡¯m guessing the gods won¡¯t be very happy with whoever caused it¡­" Fabio nodded. "Yup, but remember, we aren¡¯t even sure if it¡¯s capable of making it all the way to the core. There is a lot in the way from here to all the way down there¡ªstone, minerals, magicinfused ores¡ªthere might even be a barrier put around the core to prevent such things. Who really knows? Plus, you¡¯re not the only one with world breaking capabilities, so you¡¯re not alone in that department. I¡¯m not even talking about the gods; a few A-Rankers with crazyw techniques could do something simr." "I see¡­ I don¡¯t even know if I should feel better or worse at the fact that our entire world is one depressed A-Ranker away from destruction¡­" Taliyaughed again but with a lower tone. "Haha... It¡¯ll be fine. All those powerful A-Rankers are depressed already, and we¡¯re all still alive and kicking." "Huh? What do you mean?" Fabio shook his head and ced his hand on Sol¡¯s shoulder. "It¡¯s a bad joke, don¡¯t worry about it. Ah, would you look at the time! I have to head back and help Lisa settle in." Fabio then handed one of the weird hats to Sol. "Here, you can borrow it for now, but give it back to meter." "Oh, thanks." Sol nodded and took the weird hat, but he didn¡¯t believe Fabio when he said it was a joke. From the way Taliya said it, it didn¡¯t sound like a joke, and something about the way her eyes changed for a brief moment made him feel like there was more to it. He wasn¡¯t going to press them for an answer, but something was definitely up. As Fabio began to make his way to the exit, Sol remembered something he wanted to try out the moment he arrived here. "Hey before you go. Can you two let me borrow that guy over there to test a few things?" Chapter 221: Some Payback Two hourster, Sol left Taliya¡¯s workshop more enlightened than before. The two had let him test whatever he wanted as long as he didn¡¯t kill the A-Ranker, which he never intended to do. As for why they didn¡¯t want to kill him, Fabio and Taliya didn¡¯t find him threatening enough to warrant it, and after today, he would likely never mess with them again. As long as he lived, his gang, the Fire Whispers, would continue to exist, and Taliya wanted to maintain this profitable rtionship if possible. Wearing the weird hat, Sol was able to navigate through the ck market streetspletely undetected. While walking, he thought to himself, ¡¯Sadly, I couldn¡¯t learn any skills, but there was a reaction when I used [Siphon] on him.¡¯ Sol recalled how the unconscious man had begun to convulse, not too dissimr to the brain dead psychic from Kerman. The problem was that, unlikest time, this time it roused the A-Ranker awake, which immediately canceled the process. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om ¡¯I need to either be gentler to avoid causing such a reaction or make it impossible for them to wake up or resist. What if they willingly let me?¡¯ This required him to gain a better grasp of the siphoning process, which he had little control over. With practice, it was doable, but not at this moment. He also doubted he could find someone who would willingly let him use [Siphon] on them and take one of their skills. Even if someone was willing, the process didn¡¯t appear painless, and they would still subconsciously resist, canceling it instantly. ¡¯Though [Siphon] didn¡¯t work as I wanted, I made some progress with [Aggregate].¡¯ Sol¡¯s eyes flickered, and he could once more see the colorful strings of himself and everyone around him. They were much clearer than before, and in his testing, he realized something. ¡¯I can see what skills they have by peering into the line¡¯s memories and experiences. It¡¯s like a more in-depth [Analysis]. I can also see the lines forw techniques; they are simr to the other skills but much more solid and stronger.¡¯ He wasn¡¯t even able to make the twow technique lines of Ryogan budge because they were simply too solid. If the normal skills were thin like strings with the strength of rope, thew techniques were thick like ropes with the strength of solid steel. Still, he was able to practice toying with the A-Ranker¡¯s skills, greatly improving his ability to see and manipte other people¡¯s skills. ¡¯I¡¯m lucky I had the opportunity to practice with a real A-Ranker.¡¯ Sol felt no remorse in using Ryogan in such a way. If it had been someone innocent, the thought would never have crossed his mind, but the man had tried to attack not only Taliya and Fabio but also steal his void root. He believed he was entitled to some payback. ... A few hourster, Ryogan woke up and could barely remember what had happened a few hours ago. After being captured by the two crafters, who had caught him off guard, he was knocked out and tied up by them. Later, he was shocked awake by a soul piercing pain everywhere. His mind, body, and even his very soul screamed in pain as he felt something intangible invade his body. Luckily for him, the moment he woke up, it disappeared, but it left him aching afterward. He didn¡¯t stay awake for long as Taliya knocked him out once more with her hammer so that Sol could finish his experiments. By the time he next woke up, the only one in the room was Taliya. "Please¡­ forgive me. I won¡¯t bother you ever again." His voice was weak as his body still ached from the previous one sided fight and whatever the unknown young man had done to him. Taliya didn¡¯t respond to his plea but began to walk over and reached out towards him. Ryogan braced himself for what he thought would likely be the end. Cachunk. The chains that bound him and suppressed his mana fell to the ground. Freed from his binding, he looked up at Taliya, confused. "What are you staring at me for? Get out of here." He quickly realized he had been given a second chance. He struggled to stand up, and when he did, his legs wobbled unsteadily. He wanted nothing more than to leave as quickly as possible. He didn¡¯t even bother to ask for his spatial ring back and began to cast [Rift Walk]. "..." Or at least he tried. He didn¡¯t understand why he was unable to cast spatial magic. There was no more magic suppression from the chains, and the spatial stabilizer Fabio used against him was gone. ¡¯Why can¡¯t I remember how to cast space magic?!¡¯ He searched through his mind desperately, but every space spell and even previous instances of using it were gone as if they had never existed. "Are you gonna leave or what?" Taliya was getting tired of watching him do nothing. Ryogan ignored her as his magic mattered more than even his life. After failing to find anything in his memories, he went to open something he hadn¡¯t seen in a long while¡ªhis status page. His eyes widened as the results shocked him to his very core. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!" He took a step towards Taliya and was about to release hisw technique, but before he could do so, he was smashed on the side of his face with a hammer, sending him flying towards the wall. Taliya twirled her hammer around and turned to him with a perplexed look. "The hell? What¡¯s your problem?" She wasn¡¯t worried about facing him alone. Even without Fabio¡¯s assistance, she was confident in holding her own, and even more so when her opponent was severely wounded. She was more puzzled by why he reacted in such a way. ¡¯What did Sol do to him? He only stared at his unconscious body.¡¯ Taliya couldn¡¯t sense what Sol was doing to Ryogan, but now she was sure something had been done. She wondered for a brief moment what caused such a reaction but decided not to pry into her senior¡¯s friend¡¯s business. "50%." Ryogan, who was recovering from the attack, didn¡¯t understand what she meant. "50%?" "50% markup on all future sales and repairs. Now get out before it goes higher." His face went pale, but it wasn¡¯t noticeable under the bruises and blood. "What!? That¡¯s insane!" The cost for her to repair peak unique ranked weapons was already reaching four digits, but with that markup, it would easily surpass that. It also wasn¡¯t an option to find someone else of simr caliber; there was only one other A-Rank smith in the kingdom, and they worked directly for the royal family. There was no chance they would ept a ck market crime boss¡¯smission. "75%." "N-no, wait, 50% is good." Ryogan immediately folded. "100%." "Okay! Fine! 100%! No more, please! I¡¯ll leave!" Spatial magic? Who cared? If he didn¡¯t leave right then, soon he wouldn¡¯t be able to afford even a weapon. He could figure out what happened to his spatial magicter. As he unsteadily but briskly made his way to the exit, he thought to himself, ¡¯I don¡¯t know what happened to my spatial magic, but hopefully it¡¯s just temporary¡­¡¯ Little did he know that his spatial magic string had been torn apart after Sol twisted and pulled it for half an hour straight. As to whether he would be able to wield his spatial magic once more, he would have to start from scratch. Chapter 221.5: Next Time Use the Door (Side Story) A day before Sol arrived to receive his new weapon, Fabio and Taliya were hard at workpleting their masterpiece. Fabio was carefully cing a ss like te into position. If it was off by even the smallest amount, the void beam¡¯s trajectory from the Tynamo Cannon would always be slightly off center. If the target was within 10 meters, it wouldn¡¯t matter much, but when targeting someone thousands of miles away, even a milligram of difference would send the beam miles off course. Bang! ¡¯Almost there¡­¡¯ Fabio encouraged himself. Bang! His hand shook slightly, and his eyebrows furrowed in concentration. Bang! Bang! The ss lens trembled and slipped out of ce, falling into the mechanism and getting stuck among other delicateponents. Extracting it without causing damage would be time consuming. Fabio¡¯s patience finally ran out, and he turned back to the source of the noise, yelling, "Could you keep it quiet over there for one second?!" Taliya, who had been hammering a piece of void metal into shape, lifted her welding goggles and yelled back, "You want it done or not?! I¡¯m almost done, so give me a moment! Lisa, can you hand me that file?" Lisa, who was on standby, nodded and passed over the titanbronze file. Fabio rolled his eyes. ¡¯Almost done, my ass. You said that four hours ago.¡¯ It was clear to him that the noise wasn¡¯t going to stop anytime soon. At that moment, he had an idea and reached into his spatial ring to pull out a pair of earmuffs. ¡¯I almost forgot I had these.¡¯ The earmuffs had been sitting in his spatial ring unused for years; the only time he ever used them was when Taliya was too loud and didn¡¯t let him focus on his work. He looked at the earmuffs, which were noticeably worn with small scratches and frizzled fur, with a sentimental gaze and let out a small chuckle. ¡¯But I could never forget my first creation.¡¯ The earmuffs were his first sessful creation, technically. He bought them at a market and inserted his real creation inside one of the muffs: a small cube that, when infused with mana, created a localized noise suppression zone around the wearer¡¯s head. At the time, he made it because it was impossible to study or work in peace with Taliya always hammering away for hours on end. Putting them on, Fabio sent a sliver of mana into the item, which immediately showed its effects. Tunk. Tunk. Fabio smiled. ¡¯I can still hear it, but it¡¯s much more bearable now.¡¯ As expected from something created by a half-baked tinkerer and worn down by time, it didn¡¯t perform optimally. If Fabio really wanted to, it would only take him a few minutes to make something better, but he didn¡¯t need or want to do that. This worked more than fine and held a special ce in his heart. With peace of mind, he began trying to extract the ss lens that had fallen inside the mechanism with precision. But the peace wouldn¡¯tst for long. ¡­ Ryogan frowned as he gazed upon Taliya¡¯s forge. It had taken him a while to track down the source of the void energy because the forge had a barrier to prevent such energies from leaking out. But luckily for him, one of Taliya¡¯s cksmiths had drunkenly mentioned at a bar that Fabio, the tinkerer famed for creating the Lipon used by Knight Captain Sol in the knight selection, was visiting the forge and staying there for an extended period. Only Taliya herself and her apprentice were ever allowed inside her personal forge, which is why it caused quite a few rumors about their rtionship. Were they friends? Business partners? Lovers? Nobody knew. But Ryogan knew better. He knew no craftsman worth their salt would leave such a valuable item in their workshop. They likely took it with them to continue working undisturbed by the grunts he had been sending. This gave him a golden opportunity to go in himself, with no chance of any Royal Knights stopping him this time. But he still hesitated. After all, the ce he was considering stealing from belonged to the only A-Rank smith in the entire ck market, Taliya. Pissing her off was not a good idea by any means, as it would anger the many forces she supplied, especially the other two of the Big Three. But the temptation was extremely powerful. ¡¯If I can get ahold of the source of the void energy, I can get the final push I need toprehend a spacew technique. If I¡¯m lucky, maybe a voidw technique. Fuck it, let¡¯s do this.¡¯ He decided thatprehending aw technique¡ªone of the more elusivews¡ªwas too good of a chance to pass up, even if itpletely torched his business rtionship with Taliya. From Ryogan¡¯s spatial ring, he retrieved his magic staff, which greatly enhanced his fire magic, and prepared to enter. "[Rift Walk]." He appeared next to the wall of the forge, unable to go any further just like with Fabio¡¯s workshop, but he wasn¡¯t surprised this time. He knew Taliya had such defenses. He raised his staff and gently tapped the wall with it. The wall immediately melted like ice, creating arge opening through which he stepped, unaffected by the molten wall he was walking on. Taliya, who was hammering away at the void metal, was the first to notice his entrance and was surprised by his sudden appearance. "Ryogan? What¡¯s the meaning of this?" "Hand over the source of the void energy," Ryogan said bluntly. "Huh? You think I¡¯m just gonna hand it over?!" Taliya never expected the boss of the Fire Whisperers toe to her forge and start making demands out of nowhere, but she wasn¡¯t one to submissively obey, especially to force. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "If you know what¡¯s good for you. Don¡¯t make me ask again." He would rather not kill Taliya, as it would lead to antagonizing the other two criminal groups, Rat Pack and Charm Sisters, but he would if he had to. ¡¯Did she actually finish?¡¯ Fabio, who hadn¡¯t heard the hammering sounds anymore, took off the earmuffs and turned around to see the melted wall and the new person in the forge. "What¡¯s going on?" Taliya was baffled at his dyed reaction. "Now you notice?!" "Well, it¡¯s not my fault someone was making too much noise." "How are you turning this back on me?! Didn¡¯t you feel the heat from him melting the wall?!" "Where do you think we are?! It¡¯s a forge! When is it not hot in here?!" Fabio wasn¡¯t like her; he couldn¡¯t detect the smallest change in temperature. Neither wanting to concede, the two quickly devolved into bickering like an old married couple, leaving Ryogan standing there awkwardly. ¡¯These bastards¡­¡¯ His eyes twitched in anger. He had broken into the forge with the ability to easily kill them both if he wanted to, but was being treated like air. "Fine! I¡¯ll take it off your corpse! [me Python]!" A snake formed from highly intense mes flew out of his staff and went straight for Taliya and Lisa, who stood behind her. Seeing the iing attack, Taliya and Fabio became serious. The hammer in her hand sparked with power as she threw it with all her might. The fire snake stood no chance as the hammer went through its body like lightning and continued toward Ryogan. "[Blink]." Ryogan teleported a foot to the left as the hammer passed by where he had previously stood. He found her attack so simple that he couldn¡¯t help but chuckle. "Hahaha! You¡¯re just a crafter, do you really think¡ª[ze Veil]!" Before he could taunt Taliya, a st of lightning struck from the side and collided with his barrier. The mes dispersed the lightning, creating static in the air. Fabio, who had a cylindrical tube attached to his forearm, spoke. "I have no clue who you are, but I¡¯m giving you one chance to get out of my sight. I¡¯m not gonna kill you, but I¡¯ll make you regret ever being born." Protected by the barrier of me, Ryogan couldn¡¯t help but find the situation preposterous. Leave? Now? He had already made an enemy out of Taliya, so he wasn¡¯t going to stop now. Besides, there was something he found hrious about the situation. "Pfft! You really think you stand a chance? You¡¯re just a tinkerer and a cksmith. All you¡¯re good for is making us real fighters useful tools. But if you can¡¯t even give me what I want, what good are you two? I¡¯ve changed my mind. I¡¯ll find some way to appease them for your deaths." The other two forces of the Big Three would surely be mad at him for Taliya¡¯s death, but he realized it would be easier than letting her live. With this in mind, he went all out. "[Frenzied Whisper]!" He cast his signature spell, releasing countless yellow mes from his staff that spread chaotically in all directions. Taliya yelled while lifting a nearby anvil and preparing to use it as a makeshift shield. "You¡¯re casting aw technique in here?! You¡¯re mad!" Ryoganughed maniacally as the mes spread throughout the forge. The highly heat resistant walls and floors began to melt as the mes approached the trio. Fabio didn¡¯t have time to pull anything out of his spatial ring to defend against such mes, as he never expected the situation to escte so quickly. Thinking fast, he reached for the unfinished mechanism he was working on. He hadn¡¯t finished adjusting the ss lens, but he didn¡¯t need it for what he had in mind. He moved in front of the others and manually twisted the inside, flipping the void root inside. ¡¯Please work!¡¯ he desperately prayed. The void root inside the mechanism hummed as the wild yellow mes began changing course and were drawn into the half-built creation. VRRRR! The mes were sucked inside, but the proximity of the heat began to affect theponents. They heated up to the point that the metal and other parts caught fire or began to bend in unusual ways. ¡¯Just¡­ a bit¡­ more!¡¯ Fabio¡¯s hands were burning from the sheer heat, but he held on until all the mes were absorbed by the void root inside the mechanism. Ryogan was stunned. "How did you¡ªIs that what I think it is?!" His eyes widened as he saw the very object he had coveted was within reach. Fabio, on the other hand, celebrated. "Haha! It worked! How¡¯s that for a test run?!" He had previously calcted there was a 70% chance of his design working, but he wouldn¡¯t know for sure until he tested it. He couldn¡¯t be more d; it worked exactly as he wanted, even if it resulted in half of it being melted. Ryogan was amazed that the item hadpletely absorbed his full power attack, but he didn¡¯t panic. "I¡¯d like to see you do that again. [Frenzi¡ª[Blink]!" "Oh no you don¡¯t!" Before he could cast the spell again, Taliya interfered by tossing the anvil she was holding, which flew frighteningly fast for itsrge size. It forced Ryogan to cancel his spell and quickly teleport out of the way. "You bitch!" They were like two flies constantly bothering him. He was about to cast the spell again but was shocked by what he saw. An odd looking machine and tworge cannons stood behind Fabio, while Taliya was wearing full body blue armor and wielding tworge hammers. In the short time he teleported, the two had retrieved all their weapons from their spatial rings and were fully equipped to deal with whatever mighte their way. Seeing this caused Ryogan to falter and take a step back in surprise. His instincts told him it was time to retreat. "[Rift Walk]!" He cast his spell but didn¡¯t move a single inch. The odd machine was a spatial stabilizer that prevented the maniption of space in the surrounding area. With nowhere to escape, Ryogan could either run or fight them head-on, and he doubted he could outrun them as a mage. He regretted not bringing his own men not wanting them caught in the crossfire, but now he wished he had them to serve as a meat shield for his escape. Fabio could tell Ryogan was already regretting messing with them and taunted him. "You know, there¡¯s a saying about crafters: ¡¯If you can¡¯t cause destruction¡­¡¯" Taliya knew where he was going and finished his sentence as she charged forward with her fire resistant armor and anti-magic hammers. "¡¯Create it!¡¯" Fabio grinned as he used [Overclock] on both cannons and sent two powerful sts of water and lightning. "[Sea of mes]!" Ryogan responded in kind, sending a massive wave of fire at them. As the three fought, Lisa stood at the back wide eyed, witnessing a true battle between A-Rankers. A normal person would have died standing this close to such an intense fight, but Fabio had gone out of his way to shield her from harm with various gadgets while Taliya fought Ryogan head-on. The fight seemed even at first, with Ryogan using his fire magic to its full potential to create distance while unleashing his own attacks at the two of them. But without his space magic, Taliya eventually closed the distance and smacked him with one of her hammers, breaking his me barrier and sending him flying. Before he could evennd, a lightning st hit him mid air, shocking him and knocking him back toward Taliya, who followed up with another hammer swing. Helpless against the two¡¯s unceasing onught, it didn¡¯t take long for him to beg for mercy. Ryogan, barely conscious from the vicious beating, was chained with magic sealing chains, with Taliya and Fabio looking down on him. Taliya took off her helmet and said, "Next time, use the door." Chapter 222: Sky Touched The next day, Sol received good news while eating breakfast with his squad. Aron took a bite out of arge sausage and, while chewing, gave an update on the job he was assigned. "So¡­ I just got confirmation that the Rathian blood will arrive in two days." Nataly almost jumped out of her seat. "Really?!" "Mhm." Rathian blood was the final ingredient on the list of materials Sol had tasked Aron to acquire. With its arrival, they would have just about everything needed. "Thank you, Aron. You went above and beyond for this," Sol said. Everyone nodded in agreement. Not only had Aron managed to source all the missing materials in a matter of days, but he also did it faster than expected by almost an entire week. Duncan turned to Sol. "There¡¯s still one thing missing." Sol sighed. "Yeah, the blood of priests." It was something he had been procrastinating on since he didn¡¯t really know how the church would react to such a proposition. He had enough gold and had been given implicit permission by Zaman to trade merit shop items if needed. Still, he hesitated, not wanting to risk angering the church of the most powerful god in the world¡ªat least from what he knew. ording to the book about Ophis and his legacy, he and Neitarel, the God of Supremacy, both perished, leaving Ca as the most powerful god. It was no wonder their church was one of the most influential in their kingdom and many others. ¡¯Can¡¯t dy it any more. Guess I have to go today.¡¯ With the self imposed deadline approaching, he didn¡¯t want to dy Lapis¡¯ revival. ¡­ An hourter, Sol stood outside the Church of Ca. ¡¯It looks simr to the one in Kerman, but twice the size.¡¯ The structure was nearly identical, with an open air design that looked like a giant staircase to the heavens. Each step was one story tall, and inside the steps were the non prayer rted facilities. Most visitors didn¡¯t truly enter the building but used the human sized stairs to climb the steps and pray closer to the skies, which was Ca¡¯s domain. Entering the church, he found the nearest unupied priest and approached him. The male priest smiled and weed him. "Wee to the Church of Ca. Are you here to remove your scar?" ¡¯Why do they always assume it¡¯s for my scar¡­¡¯ Sol shook his head. "No, I came with a request. Is there a Sky Chaser avable to speak with?" A Sky Chaser was two ranks higher than a normal Sky Watcher priest and usually had the responsibility of managing their church branch. Only someone of that rank could help Sol in obtaining the vast quantity of blood. The priest hesitated, finding it odd to directly request an audience with one of the highest ranked priests in their church. "I¡¯m not sure if I can do that¡­ wait here for a moment." When in doubt, it¡¯s best to ask someone who knew, which is exactly what the priest went to do. He looked for his superior, a Sky Speaker priestess, and brought her over after informing her of the situation. "I¡¯m sorry, but Sky Chaser Dani¡ªwait, aren¡¯t you Knight Captain Sol?" Sol froze for a moment, surprised at being recognized, especially since he was in his normal clothes. After all, he didn¡¯t want his request to be connected to the Royal Knights and cause trouble for them if it turned out poorly. He considered denying it for a moment but realized it would be even worse to get caught in a lie, so he nodded. "Yes, that¡¯s me." The Sky Speaker priestess was surprised, as she had only seen him once during the tournament. "Well¡­ even if it¡¯s you, I¡¯m sorry to say that Sky Chaser Daniel isn¡¯t here. He¡¯s currently at the central church. But there is someone you could talk to who might be willing to lend an ear." "Sure, that¡¯s fine," Sol replied. He didn¡¯t really care who he talked to, only whether they were able to fulfill his request. "Then please follow me." Sol was led inside the giant staircase-like building and through the winding halls until they reached an ornate door. The priestess went inside first to notify them of his arrival before exiting and gesturing for him to enter. Upon entering, Sol froze at the sight of the room and who was in it. A soft wind blew on his face, and he smelled the fresh air. It felt and looked like he had stepped outside onto a grassy in, with a clear open sky above him. This was clearly some kind of magic that simted this environment, so he was only somewhat intrigued. What truly shocked him was the woman sitting cross legged on the grass, drinking a cup of tea. "Diana?" Diana turned to him with a gentle smile and said, "Sol, what a surprise. I was going to send someone to inform you that I wanted to talk to you, but here you are." She then patted the ground. "Come, take a seat." Sol sat on the grass next to her and asked with a bit of trepidation, "You wanted to talk to me? Don¡¯t tell me¡­" She nodded, knowing what he was going to ask. "The harbinger is still on the loose. And he knows where you are." "What?! How?" Sol didn¡¯t understand how that was possible. Not only had Diana and her pdins been unable to catch one goblin, but it also knew where he was and was still actively after him. "We¡­ aren¡¯t sure. A little over two months ago, it was still searching the area and interrogating people, but one day, it began to travel southeast. Initially, we thought it was expanding its search radius, but it headed in a straight line towards the capital. We did our best to intercept it, but its ability is too well suited for hiding and running away. The best we could do was dy it and force it to take detours." ¡¯A little over two months¡­ Isn¡¯t that around the time I entered the city? How did it know I was here? I spent most of my time in the dungeon?¡¯ Sol didn¡¯t understand how that was possible, but he thought out loud about what he could do. "If it can somehow track me, there¡¯s no point in running¡­ my best chance is to stay and fight here. At least here, I have Commander Zaman and Grand Knight Lawrence for support." Though Sol didn¡¯t say it, he also felt confident in his chances against the harbinger with the help of the Tynamo Cannon. At least with it, he had a method to retaliate. Diana interjected. "Don¡¯t forget me as well." "You too?" She nodded. "Of course. It¡¯s my duty to deal with harbingers, and though I have failed miserably in that department, they would be unable to harm you while I¡¯m here. Also, to better prepare you against the harbinger, I will teach you what we know about them and how to reach A-Rank." "Ah. About that¡­ I already know aboutw techniques." "Well, that¡¯s even better. How¡¯s your progress?" "Making good progress. Should be soon." Though he couldn¡¯t put an exact date on it, his testing with the A-Ranker had greatly elerated his progress. He felt he only needed more practice and to take the final step. "Excellent." Diana was d, as it meant there was a good chance he could ascend to A-Rank before the harbinger appeared. "I will give you the details of the harbingerter. There¡¯s still time before they arrive. You came here for something else, right?" Sol nodded. "It¡¯s a long story¡­"n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Chapter 223: Light Sparring Sol gave an abbreviated version of the story, skipping most of the important details like Orna. He focused primarily on what had happened to Lapis and his discovery of her blood¡¯stent power. "We¡¯ve already gathered most of the materials and found a skilled alchemist to synthesize it. Thest thing we need... is the blood of priests." Sol paused, waiting for her response. Diana didn¡¯t say anything at first. She calmly finished her tea, cing the empty cup on the grass. "Asking for our blood... If I didn¡¯t know you, I would have assumed it was for a dark ritual. Do you need all their blood?" Sol shook his head. "No, a pint from each, at most." Even if he did take all their blood, effectively reducing the number of priests required to fifty, it wouldn¡¯t work. To activate thetent power of rebirth in her blood, they needed not only quantity but also diversity, simr to the death of multiple gods. While the blood wasing only from Ca¡¯s priests, it didn¡¯t mean their talents were solely rted to herws¡ªanyone could follow her doctrine and believe in her. N?v(el)B\\jnn "In all my years serving Ca, this has never been done before. Even with my position, I¡¯d face resistance if I don¡¯t present a good reason. And if I do this, it can¡¯t be for free," Diana stated directly. Even with a clear purpose for the blood, many would still suspect it of being used for some nefarious purpose or dark ritual. A tangible gain might help in getting eptance. "Would gold suffice? If not, we can trade items from the Royal Knights¡¯ merit store." She thought for a moment. She wasn¡¯t particrly interested in gold, but the Royal Knights had many valuable items that even she desired. "Perhaps, but we¡¯d have to make it an official exchange between our church and the Royal Knights." Though possible, Sol was reluctant to pursue that option. It would raise too many questions, especially about why the Royal Knights and by extension, the Royal Family, were acquiring blood. The rebellious nobles mighttch onto it andplicate matters further. He considered other possible offers but realized he didn¡¯t have much else. His first thought was the dragon scale, but it only responded to him. The rest of his items were unique, but not irreceable. As he grew increasingly downcast, he found the answer. "What if I sell you back the boots?" Diana¡¯s eyes lit up, surprised by his offer of the Blessed Boots of the Sky, something she had originally given him. "That... would definitely work. But are you sure?" Sol nodded, ncing at the boots somewhat regretfully. ¡¯Though I didn¡¯t use them often, they saved my life on a few asions with [Wind Barrier]. But now I can replicate most of their effects through other means. [Polychromatism] can create a much stronger barrier, and with [Terra Maniption], I can fly, technically.¡¯ While the boots were a great item, they were no longer as important to him. But to the Church of Ca, it was an entirely different matter. They didn¡¯t care what the boots did; if they were blessed by Ca herself, the church wanted them. Before Sol obtained the boots, there was an ownership dispute between the church and the Adventurers Guild. But now that Sol was the true owner, he could give them directly to the church if he wished. With his confirmation, Diana didn¡¯t hesitate. "With those boots as motivation, the priests and priestesses will jump at the opportunity to donate their blood. You should expect it within two days." It would take some time to inform the priests and prepare the tools needed to drain and store the blood. Normally, such an operation would take five days to aplish, but Diana knew they would mobilize as soon as possible to obtain the boots. "Thank you. Do you want the boots now?" Sol asked. She shook her head. "No, you can hand them to the representative we send when we collect the blood. If I take them now, a few bastards might try to avoid fulfilling our end of the deal." Diana knew well how some higher ranked priests were more shameless than thieves. If they saw an opportunity to gain something for free, they¡¯d take it without remorse. She despised those types, but there was little she could do besides act in a way that prevented them from taking advantage. Diana stood up and brushed off the back of her dress. "I¡¯ll get to work then. I¡¯ll also get you a copy of the harbinger¡¯s details. Try to break through as soon as possible; I¡¯m unsure how long the pdins can dy it." Sol nodded seriously. "I will." --- After leaving the Church of Ca, Sol met up with Amber, whom he had promised to spar with. They met on the 20th floor of Necropolis as usual and fought to their hearts¡¯ content. Sand scattered everywhere, covering the entire resting area of the dungeon. From the sand, soldiers began to rise endlessly, filling the entire area. Their individual strength wasn¡¯t particrly high, only around peak C-Rank, but their numbers were frightening. Sol stood alone as a sea of sand soldiers wielding scimitars began charging at him. He brandished his Lipon and activated it, releasing a water element axe. Sol then turned the dial, increasing the amount of energy consumed, which nearly doubled the size of the axe before rushing into the fray. He used [Vorpal de Rush], swinging the axe rapidly in all directions. Even though he was being attacked from all sides, his axe destroyed anything that approached within ten feet, scattering sand everywhere. Each swing was not only fast but carried incredible might, and it only increased the longer he attacked. As he continued taking down sand soldiers, a huge sand hand rose from the ground. It curled into a fist and moved to smash down on him. The sand soldiers between Sol and the fist were destroyed in the process, but instead of slowing down the fist, it only grew in size and power as it assimted them. Sol saw it increasing in power and decided to take it head on. He cranked the dial as far as it could go, tripling the size of the water axe, and used [Phoenix Dive]. He swung upwards, slicing the fist in half as he flew into the sky before turning the axe around and mming it downwards with all his might. The axe fell directly on the split sand fist, sending a st of pure force in all directions, destroying it entirely. The attack was so powerful that the shockwave destroyed many of the sand soldiers in that direction. His axe was also destroyed, but only because the cartridge ran out of energy from him maxing out the dial. At that moment, with Sol¡¯s weapon depleted, one of the nearby sand soldiers suddenly leaped forward and morphed into Amber, who brandished her daggers. Sol turned to face her and used [Mana Burst], sending a st of pure mana in all directions to force her back. Amber continued forward, unperturbed, swinging her daggers upwards to create two sand sts that met the mana head on. The two forces created a small explosion, causing the entire area to be clouded with sand. Within the sand cloud, Sol covered his fist inpressed stone and swung forward. A ng echoed as his stone fist was blocked by Amber¡¯s dagger. The two then exchanged countless attacks within the sand cloud, both unbothered. Both had ways to see through the sand, be it Sol¡¯s [True Sight] or Amber¡¯s [Sand Sense]. The two exchanged nearly a hundred attacks until Sol used [Unarming Blow] at the perfect opportunity tounch one of her daggers into the air. Before she could react, he punched her in the stomach, sting arge hole in her chest. Amber took a few steps back, looking down at the gaping hole with a nk expression. A nearby sand soldier deformed, and the sandposing it flew toward Amber, filling the gap in her stomach before turning back into flesh. "You win." Though she spoke with a straight face, Sol could tell she was dissatisfied with her loss. "Maybe, but you¡¯re improving insanely fast. Two weeks ago, you could only create thirty sand soldiers, and they moved somewhat awkwardly. Now you can easily make countless soldiers, and their movements are like those of veteran soldiers. I also didn¡¯t even know you were hiding as one until the veryst moment." She nodded, saying nothing in response to his praise. "By the way, how¡¯s your progress with yourw technique?" Chapter 224: Unique Tastes The two sat near the dungeon wall. The damp, cold surface didn¡¯t bother them as they surveyed the destruction left behind by their short spar. The floor was riddled with holes and cracks, which would have been evenrger had their fight urred outside the dungeon. Despite the dungeon¡¯s reinforced walls and floors, arge rectangr pit had formed from Sol¡¯s [Phoenix Dive]. They weren¡¯t worried about the damage; the dungeon would repair itself over time. Even now, they could see the smaller cuts and holes slowly disappearing. "So. Any new changes?" Sol asked. He had long since taught Amber how to break through to A-Rank and aboutw techniques. Since then, she had been working hard to ascend, just like him. Amber nodded and took out one of her daggers. She swung it lightly, and a small cut appeared on the opposite wall 50 feet away. It happened instantly, without warning; even Sol could only helplessly be hit by it if he didn¡¯t anticipate it ahead of time. "[Distort Weapon] has changed a lot since you started improving it," Sol remarked. "Originally, it could only distort the appearance of the weapon, making it seem like it was somewhere else. But somehow, you¡¯ve managed to distort the distance and turn it into a ranged attack. I¡¯ll be honest, I can¡¯t even begin to understand how you did that. Is it some kind of spatial maniption?" It was simr to [Mana sh] and other variants, but there was a key difference. Skills like [Mana sh] sent out a projectile that traveled toward its target, while Amber¡¯s skillnded instantly where she aimed, as if there were no distance at all. Amber shrugged. "Maybe. Working on power and different directions." As she demonstrated, the attack directly struck her target but was rather shallowpared to her regr shes. She still had to improve its strength to make it truly life threatening and figure out how to make her shes appear from any angle she desired. Sol made a puzzled face. ¡¯Maybe? How do you not know?¡¯ It seemed ridiculous to be trying to master a new technique without fully understanding its basis. But in a way, he wasn¡¯t much better. He still wasn¡¯t sure why skills andw techniques manifested the way they did, where they originated, or more importantly, what the guiding principle was behind seeing and manipting them. He could attribute it to his own understanding influencing his perception, but he felt there was more to it. However, he doubted he¡¯d uncover the truth anytime soon, even after creating aw technique. Thinking of his ownw technique in progress, he decided to peek at Amber¡¯s skill lines out of curiosity. To his surprise, he noticed something different. ¡¯What is this? Is that line unraveling?¡¯ Sol scooted closer to Amber, making her tilt her head in confusion as he inspected the string further. On closer look, he saw it represented the talent skill for [Distort Weapon], and it was splitting into many tinier strings. Most continued in the same direction, but a few were veering off toward a different path, a path whose end he could see¡ªunlike the other skills. Wherever it was heading, it hadn¡¯t arrived yet. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om ¡¯It¡¯s not breaking¡­ Is it forming into aw technique?¡¯ In that moment of realization, Sol felt a change within himself as well. He looked at the lines leaving his chest, and the one representing [Aggregate] began to split off a small section. The new strand headed in an almost parallel direction to [Aggregate], but separate enough to not be considered the same. He looked up into Amber¡¯s red eyes and smiled. "Thank you, Amber." "?" She, still confused as to why he¡¯d scooted closer, was now even more puzzled by his sudden gratitude. Sol chuckled at her nk expression, which clearly showed traces of confusion, and exined, "I¡¯m closer toprehending myw technique, thanks to you." He might not have noticed this process if he hadn¡¯t witnessed it happening in real time. And because he could see hers, it triggered the formation of his ownw technique. He wasn¡¯t sure if it was necessary to see another¡¯sw technique forming or if it was something else, but he was thankful nheless. Amber didn¡¯t respond and instead looked away, staring off at the cut she had made on the wall. Sol smirked at her reaction. ¡¯I guess she can still get embarrassed.¡¯ He considered teasing her but knew it would likely end with a dagger in his side. Instead, he joined her in staring at the cut in the wall in silence. They sat together, watching as the damaged floors and walls slowly repaired themselves. ¡­ The next day, Sol woke up to surprising news. A priest from the Church of Ca had arrived with a ring containing exactly 500 liters of blood. Even Diana had underestimated the fervor of her fellow followers, as they had moved incredibly quickly at the prospect of obtaining another blessed item from their goddess. When the priest received the Blessed Boots of the Sky, Sol swore the man nearly fainted from just touching them. It felt especially odd since Sol had worn them for quite a long time. The priest brought the boots closer to his face and took a long, deep whiff. "Hmm! Blessed by Ca herself!" The priest shuddered with excitement. Sol took a step back in horror as he realized what type of person the priest was. Even though he had made sure to clean the boots thoroughly before handing them over, it still felt extremely wrong. After recovering from his post whiff ecstasy, the priest turned to Sol with frenzied eyes. "Did they smell like this when you received them? Was it stronger?" ¡¯Is this why they wanted the boots so badly?¡¯ Luckily for Sol and the rest of the world, the answer was no. Few in the church shared the priest¡¯s... unique tastes. The only reason he had the honor of receiving the boots was because he had traded an astronomical amount of favors for the opportunity. Even though he would only get to hold them for less than an hour while delivering them back to the church, the priest was more than satisfied with that. "Thank you for the blood, have a good day." Sol immediately distanced himself from the man and hoped they would never meet again. Chapter 225: Lapis Even though the blood arrived earlier than expected, the squad had to wait another day for the Rathian blood to arrive. But when it finally did, they immediately got to work. In the basement of the Royal Knights Headquarters, a room was cleared out, and arge pit was carved into the stone floor. Duncan, Rex, Aron, and Nataly stood on one side with serious faces, waiting for their Captain to begin. Sol let out a deep sigh of relief, they could finally revive Lapis after over a month of preparation. But he didn¡¯t rx just yet. He was confident it would work. After all, why would the book be kept locked within the third floor of the Royal Library if it contained misinformation? What concerned him more was the chance of failure, which was spected to be rted to how long the deceased had been dead. ¡¯No point worrying about it now. We can only hope it works.¡¯ From the spatial ring he had received the day before, Sol retrieved multiple sealed containers filled with blood. Without needing to be told, the others began opening them and pouring the blood into the pit. Halfway through the process, a distinct metallic smell began to permeate the area, but they ignored it and continued pouring. Aron dumped the contents of thest container and looked at the pool of blood with an awkward expression. "If I didn¡¯t know any better, I¡¯d think we were doing something bad." Rex shrugged. "Well, to some, it still is. We are reviving someone¡ªsome would say we¡¯re going against the natural order. It¡¯s a matter of opinion." Some people or cultures would find their actions heinous for various reasons. They would im that they were viting thews of nature by bringing someone back, or that they were disturbing the natural bnce. Sol shared his perspective as he stared into the pool of blood. "If it doesn¡¯t harm or negatively impact others, who cares? If we can bring someone back from the dead, why shouldn¡¯t we? It¡¯s not like we had to sacrifice others to do it. The only deaths involved were those of beasts and monsters, and we had no part in those deaths. Those creatures would¡¯ve died anyway, and someone else would have bought the materials produced from their corpses instead." The squad agreed with his sentiment and prepared for the next part of the ritual. Duncan stepped close to the edge of the blood pool and took out arge ss-like bottle, called an alchemist sk, containing a murky green liquid. Duncan presented the bottle to the squad. "Condensed poison essence, Ophis¡¯ Tears. The Royal Alchemist warned me that we shouldn¡¯t drink, touch, or even breathe it. If we do, there¡¯s no cure for the countless poisons and venoms that will assault our bodies." This poison was so powerful that not even assassins dared use it. Not only was it overkill for any purpose, but it was also too dangerous to handle. It couldn¡¯t be applied to a de, as the smell alone would kill the user, and even if that weren¡¯t an issue, a single dropnding on them would have the same result. That¡¯s why, after the recovery of the book containing this form, it had only been synthesized once before¡ªto verify the poison¡¯s potency, which killed the user within seconds of exposure. "How do we pour it in without, umm, killing all of us?" Nataly asked, somewhat worried. Sol thought of a few ideas. ¡¯I could use one of my magic hands to pour it in while we¡¯re all outside. Or, to avoid revealing another skill, I could do the same with [Terra Maniption]. I could also use wind magic to protect us from breathing it in. Or maybe¡­¡¯ n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om While he was considering the safest course of action, Duncan took out a funnel with a tube attached from his spatial ring. "That¡¯s why he gave me this. We can pour it in without exposing its contents to the air." "..." Sometimes the safest and most practical solution was the simplest. Duncan kneeled at the edge of the blood pool and turned the bottle downward into the funnel as he had been shown by the alchemist beforehand. The poison in the bottle began to swirl downward, entering the funnel and mixing directly with the blood. The murky green substance spread outwards, causing the red blood to darken into a deep yellow. The pool of dark yellow blood softly glowed as the poison fully mixed, creating a new substance that was dark yellow with a slight luminescent glow. Sol watched the change, feeling it was simr to something he had read before. ¡¯Didn¡¯t the book mention that Ophis¡¯ scales took on a golden glow after its rebirth? Is it simr to this?¡¯ He couldn¡¯t say with absolute certainty, but it felt like more than a coincidence. Duncan stood back up and looked at Sol for the final step. Sol nodded and approached the pool of yellowish blood. He took out two vials of blood, popped their caps, and poured them into the pool. The blood dropped into the glowing yellow pool and disappeared. "So¡­ how long do you think it will take?" Aron asked. No one responded as nobody knew the answer. They could only wait until something happened. Aron, who always had trouble staying still for long periods, began, "Well, if we don¡¯t know, I¡¯m going to head¡ª" before he could finish his sentence, the pool of blood shed brightly, blinding everyone. It was brighter than even advanced level light magic, which could illuminate an entire city. "My eeeeeyes!" Aron yelled, staggering backward. He wasn¡¯t the only one, Nataly fell on her butt in surprise, and Rex jumped away from the pool out of instinct. Only Duncan and Sol, who usually tackled things head-on, braced themselves and shielded their eyes with their arms in a defensive posture. The light continued to shine for a full minute before it finally stopped. The pool that had originally consisted of blood had turned into a pure golden color. "[Life Dew]. Is it done?" Nataly asked as she cast a healing spell on her eyes to help recover her vision. "[Life Drop]. Not sure." Sol said, casting a healing spell as well; not for himself, but for Aron, who was struggling to get up without his vision. Sol, Duncan, and Rex, who still had their sight, looked expectantly at the golden pool. They didn¡¯t believe such a light show would result in nothing, and they were right. The golden liquid bubbled as a figure began to rise from within¡ªa naked woman with long, dark green hair emerged from the pool, a dazed look on her face. Sol immediately recognized her and called out, "Lapis!" "Lapis!" Nataly echoed as her vision recovered. "It actually worked!" Rex, who had still harbored some lingering skepticism, was surprised. Sol quickly took out a cloak from his spatial ring to give her something to cover herself with. As he approached, before he could offer the cloak, her hand swung out at him. SLAP! "Pervert! Who are you?!" Chapter 226: Lazuli Sol touched his cheek where he had been pped, looking bewildered. Sure, she was naked, but this wasn¡¯t the first time. When they traveled together, Lapis hadn¡¯t been shy about changing clothes in front of them, she previously said it was faster than finding a secluded spot like Nataly did. The woman quickly grabbed the cloak from his hands and rushed to put it on. "Did she lose her memories?" Sol asked out loud to his squad behind him. Duncan, who also found her reaction odd, spected, "Could it be that she only remembers up to the moment she put her blood in those vials?" The rest of the squad found logic in his theory. Sol turned back to the woman, who had just noticed the small group of spectators, and asked, "Lapis, can you tell us thest thing you remember?" "Lapis? Oh! No, I¡¯m not¡ª" Before she could finish, another group of bubbles rose from the pool, and another woman emerged from the liquid. She looked identical to the first woman. Unlike the first, the second woman made her way to the edge of the pool and got out. She turned to Sol and, without any trace of embarrassment, said, "Thanks. Got any clothes?" "Lapis?" he asked, just to make sure, though he already knew the answer. Compared to the other woman, this one felt much more like the Lapis they knew. Lapis nodded. "Yeah. So, any spare clothes?" "Lapis! I thought I was a goner!" The unknown woman jumped and hugged Lapis. The naked Lapis didn¡¯t resist; she just stood in ce, letting the cloaked woman hug her tightly. While the one sided hug continued, Sol checked all his spatial rings for another cloak but couldn¡¯t find any more. Instead, he took out one of the dresses from the ring Lapis had given him before she died. Lapis lightly pushed the identical looking woman away and shook her head. "I¡¯m not wearing that. Give me your spare clothes." "Mine? Sure." Sol took out a set of his everyday clothes, not worrying about the size as he was slightly bigger than her, and the clothes were loose fitting. "Why are both of you acting so nonchnt about this?!" Nataly yelled, confused by how quickly they had changed tempo. "Well¡­ I think I already have a good grasp of what happened. But let¡¯s get her clothed before anything else," Sol said with a helpless shrug. Like Nataly, he had plenty of questions, but knowing Lapis, it was best to get her clothed before asking anything. ¡­ A few minutester, the squad and the two identical women were in their squad¡¯s rest area. Lapis was now wearing Sol¡¯s clothes, while the other woman had taken the dress and changed into it. "So, before you begin exining, do you have any questions for us?" Sol asked. While he was interested in hearing the two¡¯s story, he knew they also had their own questions. Lapis, wearing a slightly oversized shirt and baggy pants, nodded. "How long have I been dead, and how did everyone escape?" "Around a month and a half. As for how we escaped from the A-Ranker¡­ we didn¡¯t." Sol recapped the events that had urred after her death, not skipping any details this time, unlike when he had told Commander Zaman and Diana. After all, Lapis had been there for most of the parts he would normally skip over, and there was no reason to lie. He then spoke of the book he had found on the third floor of the Royal Library detailing Ophis¡¯ life and legacy, which described the method to activate thetent power of rebirth in her¡ªwell, their blood. "Wait, if you were dead for over a month, how long have I been dead?!" the other woman panicked. Lapis nced at her, then looked away, somewhat ashamed. "Eleven months." "Eleven?!" The woman made an exaggerated fainting motion and fell toward Lapis, who was seated next to her. "So, can we start with who she is?" Rex asked from the side, seated on a chair they had dragged in from another room after running out of seats. Lapis was about to introduce her, but the other woman stood up and spoke first. "I¡¯m Lazuli! Lapis¡¯ twin sister! I died heroically saving my dear younger sister from a very dangerous monster." ¡¯Lapis¡­ Lazuli? Their parents had a really weird naming sense; their hair isn¡¯t even blue,¡¯ Sol inwardlymented. "The only truthful thing you said was your name. You died to your own poison magic because it was blown back at you, and I¡¯m the older one," Lapis said, immediately calling her out on her lies. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Lazuli was shocked by the instant betrayal. "Okay, sure, but I did it to protect you! And I am the older one¡ªI was born first!" Lapis shook her head. "Not anymore. I¡¯m nine months older than you now." "What?! That¡¯s not fair! Wait! We were both revived at the same time, and I left the pool first, so I¡¯m still older!" The two began bickering over who was older, each using different reasoning, and neither backed down. The rest could only watch theedic disy between the two identical women. Sol couldn¡¯t find an opening to interject and change the subject until it suddenly turned to him. "I¡¯m the one who traveled and worked for almost an entire year just to revive you. Just be thankful and admit I¡¯m now the older sister," Lapis began resorting to guilt tripping her sister into conceding. "But you died too! It was this pervert that revived us!" "Can we drop it with the pervert¡­ My name is Sol." He regretted not letting Nataly approach Lazuli instead, but how was he supposed to know she wasn¡¯t Lapis? He continued speaking with a more authoritative tone before they could continue arguing for who knows how long. "Settle who is olderter. Lapis, exin." Lapis nodded, switching gears instantly. "Our family has a long history, and we believe it¡¯s connected to Ophis, the God of Rebirth. We don¡¯t know all the details, as much of it was passed on orally, but every few generations, someone like us is born. They call us ¡¯Scale Born,¡¯ like my sister and me." Chapter 227: Scale Born ¡¯Scale Born¡­ Sounds like a butchered version of Serpent Devout. It was probably misinterpreted somewhere along the line,¡¯ Sol thought to himself. It wasn¡¯t umon for such things to happen when history was passed down orally. Even in writing, readers could sometimes misinterpret the author¡¯s words. Lapis continued, "They didn¡¯t realize it at first. It was only when we were five years old, and our hair began to change from blue to green, that they noticed the signs of a Scale Born." Sol asked, "But doesn¡¯t it say ¡¯variant human¡¯ on your status page? Couldn¡¯t they have known that way?" Lazuli shook her head. "Everyone in our family is a variant human. Its just that the differences between them and normal humans are almost nonexistent." "The only ways to identify the traits of a Scale Born are through physical changes or if we, for some reason, level up before our leveling ceremony, where we usually unlock a poison or serpent rted talent," Lapis borated. "Since they knew we had the traits, we grew up hearing a lot of stories and myths about those like us. Later, when Lazuli died to a Gust Talon that blew her own attack back at her, I recalled one of the myths that said it was possible to revive a dead Scale Born. I didn¡¯t know all the details, but I knew our blood was the key, so I stored some of hers before burying her body." "Wait, where did you bury me?" Lapis didn¡¯t answer her sister¡¯s question. Lazuli stood up and positioned herself between Lapis and Sol, demanding an answer. "Where. Was. I. Buried?" The usually prideful Lapis found it difficult to meet her twin sister¡¯s intense gaze. She looked away, focusing on the wall as she answered, "At the nearby vige¡¯smunal grave¡­ It saved me the time of digging a hole." "YOU BURIED ME WITH A BUNCH OF STRANGERS?!" Lazuli raised her hands, ready to strangle her sister in blind rage but managed to restrain herself back just in time. She didn¡¯t want to kill her sister just after she was brought back from the dead after all. "I didn¡¯t think much of it at the time¡­ I was going to revive you, so it didn¡¯t matter where you were buried as long as it didn¡¯t turn you into an undead. It¡¯s fine, right?" "IT¡¯S NOT!" Lazuli screamed. Lapis¡¯ squad members shook their heads, disagreeing with her logic. Sure, it was practical, but it couldn¡¯t have taken that much effort to dig a small grave somewhere nicer. Even they had given Lapis a proper burial, and though they hadn¡¯t known at the time that they could revive her, they still would have done so. After hearing Lazuli rant for a while, Sol felt bad for Lapis, even though she was in the wrong, and tried to help her out by changing the subject. "I get why you had your sister¡¯s blood, but when did you store a vial of your own? Did you do it soon after?" N?v(el)B\\jnn Lapis took the opportunity to evade Lazuli¡¯s wrath and replied, "No, after all, who would revive me if I died? The first three months, I spent searching for information. Besides a few rumors and folklore I had already known, I got a lead from a ck market contact that pointed me to the Royal Library. Since there was no easy way to get inside without being part of the royal family, my only option was to join as a knight. Until the selection, I spent the rest of my time training. After that, you all know the rest. I was nning to save my merits and climb up the ranks to get the resurrection method, but before I could even finish my first mission, I died¡­" Lazuli, who was still itching to admonish her sister further, sat back down, mellowed by hearing her story. Her exnation gave Lazuli more insight into how hard her sister had worked to revive her and how she had died in the process. Lazuli decided to leave the matter of her horrible grave for another time. "So, when did you store a vial of your blood?" Duncan asked. "After we freed the people in the fort from the bandits," Lapis answered, turning to Sol. "When you offered to help. I was going to tell you then, but I hesitated. By the time I found the resolve to tell you, we were in a blizzard, and after that, we had an A-Ranker after us." When Lapis said it was because of him that she had prepared a second vial just in case, Sol couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit embarrassed, but he was d nheless. At the time, he had just been trying to hear her out, but it had indirectly led to Lapis having a chance at being revived. After hearing her story, Sol asked, "Now that we know how we got here, what do you n to do now?" It was a question on everyone¡¯s mind. After all, now that Lapis had achieved her goal of bringing her sister back to life, what reason did she have to stay? Sure, there was a minimum time one had to serve as a knight before retiring, but it wasn¡¯t out of the question to simply run away. The issue was that those who did were almost always caught and prosecuted. Luckily, Lapis had no such thoughts. "For now, I n to stay. The merits I earn can be used to improve myself rather than wasting them on reviving my sister." "It¡¯s a waste to revive me¡­" Though the two had been together since the day they were born, Lapis¡¯ blunt words never failed to shock Lazuli. Sol turned to the bummed out Lazuli and asked, "What about you? Any ns now that you¡¯re back among the living?" Asked such an important question, Lazuli straightened her back and seriously contemted it. After a moment of silence, she said, "I¡¯d rather stay with Lapis than go back home¡­ Can I join the Royal Knights?" Chapter 228: Sol鈥檚 Test When Lazuli asked if she could join the Royal Knights, no one was against it if that¡¯s what she truly wanted. The issue was that she would have to wait until next year to participate in the knight selection. That was until Duncan remembered that Major Knights and higher ranked knights could ept new applicants year round. Since Lazuli was adamant about joining, Sol decided to ask the man at the very top of the Royal Knights¡¯ hierarchy, Commander Zaman. He also brought Lapis and Lazuli along to show the results of the revival, which, although it didn¡¯t end as expected, was considered a great sess. "Hmm, so that¡¯s why you joined us in the first ce," Zamanmented as he listened to their story. He turned to Lazuli, who could only be differentiated from Lapis by the fact that she was wearing a dress instead of a knight¡¯s uniform. "Normally, I would suggest you wait for the selection, but that¡¯s almost a year away, and these are rather special circumstances. It can be done, but you must pass a test before I can approve your application." Lazuli nodded confidently. "Sure! I¡¯ll ace whatever test you have in mind!" Though she had been dead for an entire year, her revival restored her body back to her prime, which was in low B-Rank. On top of that, she gained two new skills: [Samsara Awakening] and [Fortified Soul], both of which significantly increased her attributes. Zaman nodded and turned to Sol. "Alright then, Sol, I¡¯ll leave it to you." "Are you sure I should be the one to do it?" Sol was concerned it would be seen as favoritism if he conducted the test. After all, he was her sister¡¯s captain and also the one who revived them. "Yes, I trust your judgment," the Commander said with certainty. Not only did it save him the time of conducting the test himself, which could be better spent on more important matters, but it also served as a way to test Sol¡¯s character further. He wanted to see if Sol could make unbiased decisions, and in the event Lazuli failed her test, whether he would tamper with the results. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Being entrusted with the task, Sol nodded seriously. "I won¡¯t let you down." "I know you won¡¯t," Zaman said encouragingly with a smile. ¡­ Back in his room, Sol considered what sort of test would be appropriate. ¡¯Direct sparring with other knights? No, both parties will hold back too much to prevent serious injuries. Going off her status page won¡¯t work either, as people can have a high level and strong skills but bepletely ipetent with them¡­¡¯ Sol tapped on the paper that had her status page printed on it after being recorded by one of the Royal Knights¡¯ archivists, with her consent. Sure, he could have used [Analysis] on her, but like with his allies, he didn¡¯t want to breach their privacy without permission. ¡¯Her skills are all based around poison magic. I could cater the test to make the most of her abilities.¡¯ After thinking about it, he shook his head. ¡¯If anything, it should be the opposite. Simr to the illusion tower we had as our test, it was meant to push us to our limits and see how far we could go. But I can¡¯t create something like that¡­ maybe I don¡¯t have to!¡¯ There was already a structure in the city that inherently served a simr function. With a n in mind, Sol called everyone to their squad¡¯s rest area to announce the rules of the test. Aron was thest to arrive, and once he took a seat, Duncan asked, "We¡¯re all here. Is there a reason you called for all of us?" Duncan found it odd that they were all gathered when the test was only for Lazuli. Sol could have told her and Lapis separately and informed the rest of themter, but since he chose to wait until they were all together, it was clear it involved them as well. Sol nodded as Duncan¡¯s assumption was correct. "Yes. After some consideration, I think I¡¯ve found the perfect test for you, Lazuli. Your test is to kill the Gravedigger." "Sure, no problem!" Lazuli confidently stated, puffing her chest out. Unfortunately for her, she wasn¡¯t blessed in that region, so it was barely noticeable. On the other hand, Lapis frowned. "Do you want her to fail?" If Lapis didn¡¯t know Sol better, she would truly believe that was his intention. The rest of the squad wasn¡¯t sure why the objective was an issue. While it might be tough for a weak B-Ranker, a decent one should be able toe out on top. Sol smiled and shook his head. "No, of course not. I hope she seeds, and I think it¡¯s important she ovees this challenge." Lapis¡¯ next words made the rest of the squad, and the test taker herself, realize why such a test was impossible. "You want a poison mage to fight undead?" Lazuli almost fell out of her seat. "Undead?!" The mere thought of them frightened her. "How do you expect me to fight them?! My magic doesn¡¯t even work against them!" Undead were a poison mage¡¯s natural¡ªor, in this case, unnatural¡ªenemy. Poison magic had next to no effect on undead, as it normally harmed or interfered with a target¡¯s organs. But the undead didn¡¯t have any working organs to begin with, they were able to move thanks to the magic that saturated their bodies. "Maybe I should draw a vial of my blood, just in case¡­" At first, she had been confident in her ability to tackle anything, but knowing what her opponents were, she had already given up. Sol maintained his smile and soothed her worries. "Don¡¯t worry, you won¡¯t be going alone. Aron and Nataly will join you and form a party." "Us too?" Nataly asked, surprised to be suddenly dragged into this. Nataly and Aron were still C-Rank, but only because their levels held them back. Aron spent most of his time practicing his skills and socializing but rarely entered dungeons. Nataly, on the other hand, had only reached C-Rank just before the knight selection, and when not on missions, she spent most of her time on the second floor of the Royal Library, catching up on her studies. She hadn¡¯t had time to gain more levels. Though the enemies in the dungeon were a higher level than them, they shouldn¡¯t pose too much of a challenge and it was a good opportunity for them to level up. "Yes, all three of you will tackle the dungeon as a party. Duncan, Rex and Lapis will also go, but only as a precaution. I don¡¯t want you two to help¡ªjust intervene if their lives are in danger." Lapis and Duncan nodded, taking the task of watching over them seriously. The only issue was Lazuli, who had no confidence in being of any use against the undead. "But I¡¯d just be dead weight¡­" shemented. The test was for her, yet she couldn¡¯t kill a single enemy. Was the real test to be carried by her allies? Sol sighed at her defeated expression and took a more direct approach. "So you¡¯re going to give up? If there¡¯s an undead outbreak, what are you going to do? Stay at the back and cheer us on? What if there¡¯s another situation where you can¡¯t use poison magic? Are you just going to ept death?" "No! I¡¯ll try to help¡­" "Then stop limiting yourself. Poison magic may be your only method of fighting, but if there¡¯s one thing I¡¯ve learned, it¡¯s that you can always push forward with determination and find a new way." He knew this better than anyone. When he was level 5 and still hadn¡¯t gained a talent, he didn¡¯t give up. He kept working at it, pacing himself, and researching ways to tackle monsters stronger than him because of their skills and talents. For years, he didn¡¯t give up, spending what little money he earned on keeping his worn down sword sharp. Sol didn¡¯t choose this test just to make it as hard as possible. He wanted to see if Lazuli had the ability to adapt and push through adversity. Everyone in their squad was capable in multiple ways, with a variety of talents toplement their versatility. Lazuli would be the first one trick pony in the squad, with poison magic as her only means ofbat. Some would see that as a disadvantage, but Sol believed that with some guidance, it could be her greatest strength. His words seemed to strike a chord within her. With a fierce gaze, she stood up from her seat and pointed at him. "Fine! You want me to y a Gravedigger? I¡¯ll kill twenty of them!" He didn¡¯t mention that Lazuli didn¡¯t actually need to y the Gravedigger. As long as she showed resolve or at least covered her weaknesses, Sol would consider it a pass. He took that idea from the way the knight selection test was held, where applicants didn¡¯t need to beat the tower¡ªjust get as far as possible. He would privately pass the real requirement for sess to Duncanter, as he didn¡¯t want Lazuli to call it a day after discovering a way to kill the undead. ¡¯I doubt you can kill one, much less twenty¡­¡¯ Chapter 229: Send Off Commander Zaman was alone in his office, reviewing the contents of the test Sol had prepared. After reading it, he couldn¡¯t help but burst intoughter. "Haha! And people say my tests are hard!" Known for his strictness and high standards, Zaman¡¯s tests were always considered difficult. Even in the previous knight selection, the tower challenge, which only fewer than 200 of the 3,000 applicants passed, was his idea. After a goodugh, he looked at the report again andmented more seriously. "Though his idea is rather unoriginal, given Lazuli¡¯s abilities are naturally ipatible with undead, it should serve as a fitting challenge." ¡­ Two dayster, the squad and Lazuli stood at the entrance of Necropolis. They all wore theirbat uniforms, except Lazuli, who was dressed in in mage robes that enhanced her mana regeneration and spellcasting. Though she would have preferred something nicer, she was short on time tomission a special robe from a tailor. "You have one week to kill the Gravedigger. Are you prepared?" Sol asked. For a normal party,pleting all ten floors in a week wouldn¡¯t be a big hurdle, but this wasn¡¯t a normal party. It was somewhat unbnced, with one fighter and two mages, but they were stronger than the average adventurers. Lazuli nodded. "Thank you for giving me the time and the books on undead. I think I have a good n now to defeat them." The books Sol lent her were from the first floor of the Royal Library, with the Commander¡¯s approval. He didn¡¯t offer any spellbooks, as they could have held the answer for free, but he didn¡¯t mind giving her books on undead to help her prepare countermeasures with what she currently had. "Then good luck to the three of you. I¡¯ll see you when you get back." Nataly tilted her head. "You¡¯re noting?" Everyone had assumed Sol would being along to supervise the test. He was even wearing his knight armor, which left them confused. "Sorry, but I have something to take care of. While I¡¯m gone, Duncan is in charge if anything happens." Sol had been wanting to give Duncan more opportunities to lead whenever possible, as he knew his time with the Royal Knights was limited. Unlike Lapis, Sol didn¡¯t intend to stay until he served his minimum time. He nned to leave within a few months if possible, and when he did, he hoped Duncan¡¯s track record as the secondary leader would earn him the captain¡¯s promotion. This would also free Sol up to focus on other activities. Duncan gave a knight¡¯s salute and spoke with resolve. "I¡¯ll make sure everyone gets out unharmed." The rest bade their goodbyes and began making their way into the dungeon. Rex stayed behind and waited until they were all out of sight before speaking. "I think someone¡¯s watching us." "You think?" They were standing in the middle of an open za surrounding the dungeon entrance near the heart of the city. Though people avoided entering the za because of the deathly mana it emanated, many passersby still nced their way. Rex nodded. "They¡¯re in the za somewhere, but I only sensed them for a second. I didn¡¯t say anything before because their gaze wasn¡¯t hostile, but I thought you should know." "I see. Thanks for letting me know. By the way, have you maxed out all your detection skills?" "They¡¯re a few levels off from max. Why?" "Well, while you¡¯re going into the dungeon to watch over the three of them, you should take this chance to improve those skills. Lately, your only improvements have been with the sword, and that¡¯s only because Duncan dragged you to practice." "Mhm, alright." Rex understood that although his sight was his strongest asset, he had been neglecting ittely. Now that he was somewhat over his breakup, as it had been a few months, he was feeling the stagnation of his core skills and was eager to start improving them once more. Rex then left to join the group before they got too far ahead. But even if they did, it wouldn¡¯t be too hard for him to track them down. Sol was the only one left in the za, aside from the guards stationed at the entrance. After waiting a few minutes, he walked into the dungeon and took the sigil to teleport to the 21st floor. Once he arrived, he spoke to the air beside him. "He almost caught you. Why did you get so close to us?" Suddenly, Amber appeared next to him and responded. "Testing a new skill." Sol raised an eyebrow as he didn¡¯t know she obtained a new skill, especially rted to stealth. He thought she was mostly focusing on herw technique and sand skills. "Oh? How close did you get before he noticed?" "Thirteen feet." "Thirteen?!" While it may not sound like much, at their level of strength, that was frighteningly close. Amber could have closed that gap in an instant and struck before anyone could react. But for Rex to not detect her at that distance was less of an insult to his capabilities and more of a testament to how strong Amber¡¯s newly evolved stealth skill was. Even when Rex noticed her, it was only for a brief moment, and he wasn¡¯t entirely sure someone had been watching them. N?v(el)B\\jnn Amber nodded inly before asking, "Ready?" "Yeah. We finally have an entire week to ourselves. Let¡¯s go." With that, they began making their way out of the safe room and into the dungeon proper. While his squad was progressing through the 1st to 10th floors of the dungeon, Sol and Amber would be delving through the 21st to 30th floors. They had decided that they had practiced enough in developing theirw techniques, and all that remained was to use them in real battles to push their skills topletion. With the pseudo-A-Rank enemies on the uing floors, it was the perfect area to do so. But with only a week, they had to be quick. They both sprinted through the dungeon¡¯s passages, carefully avoiding traps. It didn¡¯t even take one minute before they encountered their first foe. "It¡¯s you again. Nether Wraith." Chapter 230: Nether Wraith The translucent specter shrieked upon seeing the two. They remained unperturbed by the chill inducing screech and prepared to fight. The wraith¡¯s spectral ws expanded until they were a meter long as it rushed toward them. Name: N/A Race: Nether Wraith Talents: [Nether Touched], [Phantasmal Ripper], [Death¡¯s Embrace] Level: 94 HP: 1200 MP: 1850 Str: 80 (+30) Vit: 70 (+50) Agi: 115 (+70) Int: 60 Wis: 115 (+70) Talent Skills: [Nether Bond] Lv MAX, [Spectral w] Lv MAX, [Grim End] Lv 6 Passive Skills: [Living Corpse] Lv MAX, [Death Absorption] Lv 8, [Nether Body] Lv 8, [Enhanced Reflexes] Lv MAX, [Advanced Unarmed Mastery] Lv 1, [Increased Mana Regeneration] Lv MAX, [Blurring Agility] Lv 2, [Sagely Wisdom] Lv 2, [Strength Up] Lv 6 Active Skills: [Death Grip] Lv MAX, [Soul Screech] Lv 8, [Ghostly Swipes] Lv 7, [Whispers of the Nether] Lv 6, [Life Drain] Lv 9, [Rip and Tear] Lv 5, [Soul Burst] Lv 4, [Deadly Incision] Lv 6, [Death Sentence] Lv 2 This wasn¡¯t the first time Sol and Amber had encountered this creature. They had previously ventured to this area to assess the strength of the monsters. During that time, they encountered a Nether Wraith, which proved to be a tough challenge, requiring Sol to go all out. The wraith¡¯s ability to send out endless waves of ranged w attacks was far too powerful to be considered a normal skill. Initially, they thought its talent skill was simply abnormally strong, but now they realized it was an ipletew technique. After confirming the creature¡¯s skills again, Sol positioned himself between the Nether Wraith and Amber, activating his Lipon and releasing a sword of light. The purifying light agitated the wraith further as its ws took on a dark red glow and it lunged at him. Sol responded with a sh of his own. The collision between the wraith¡¯s ws and his light sword resulted in an explosion due to the elemental nature of the two attacks. The wraith was blown back a few feet by the light energy, but Sol remained where he stood, basking in the death mana and feeling rejuvenated. His [Death Absorption] skill allowed him to convert most of the death energy into vitality, and the rest, which he couldn¡¯t absorb, had little effect on him. Though unfazed by the sh, Sol felt something was off. ¡¯Did it not use its ipletew technique? Its ws felt so much weakerpared to thest time, and it didn¡¯t even try to attack from a distance before approaching.¡¯ From the start, the fight was different than thest one, which was strange, as dungeon monsters usually fought the same way. There was no variance between one Awakened diator and another¡ªthey would both charge forward and attack with all their might. Sol wanted to warn Amber that this wraith was different, but before he could, the Nether Wraith charged again. Amber summoned a sand fist and mmed it into the wraith, while Sol released a [Mana sh] toward it. The wraith didn¡¯t dodge the sand fist or the [Mana sh], and the two attacks collided, sending sand flying everywhere. Temporarily holding the creature at bay, Sol found the opportunity to warn her. "This one¡¯s different from thest one we fought. Keep your guard up!" n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Amber nodded, having noticed the difference as well. They waited, not wanting to make any rash moves until they could identify what was different about this wraith. When the sand finally settled, the Nether Wraith was nowhere to be found. Sol looked around with [True Sight (Variant)], but he couldn¡¯t locate it. ¡¯Did it run away? No, that doesn¡¯t make sense. Dungeon monsters never run away.¡¯ He doubted the wraith had fled. It had to be lurking somewhere, undetectable by his recentlybined [True Sight (Variant)], which incorporated [Enhanced Sight] doubling the range he could perceive mana and life energy from 30 meters to 60 meters. Amber was equally cautious, knowing the creature wouldn¡¯t escape. Without needing tomunicate, they instinctively put their backs together in vignce. However, it was the wrong move, as the Nether Wraith suddenly appeared beside them, unleashing a barrage of attacks with [Rip and Tear]. With little time to react, Sol used [Overpower], causing time¡ªor at least his perception of it¡ªto slow down. He summoned two hands,bining the green and indigo chromas to create a bluish green barrier. The wraith¡¯s rapid ws battered the barrier, causing it to tremble violently. The barrier wouldn¡¯t hold for long under the pressure, but fortunately, it didn¡¯t need to. It gave the duo enough time to back away from the wraith. Just as they did, the barrier shattered, and the two hands were sent flying backward, but they remained unharmed. "Amber, can you buy me some time to figure out its ability? My two hands will support you." She nodded and began creating and sending sand soldiers to keep the wraith busy, while the two hands flew around it, firing either red beams or yellow projectiles. The Nether Wraith let out another shriek, attacking the sand soldiers and hands wildly. Every so often, when it couldn¡¯t dodge, it would disappear and reappear a few secondster. A bit farther away, Sol¡¯s eyes flickered as he observed the colorful strings emanating from himself, Amber, and the Nether Wraith. He strained his eyes to keep up with the wraith¡¯s rapid movements, trying to discern what was different about it. Eventually, he discovered the truth. ¡¯Its ipletew techniquees from [Nether Bond], not [Spectral w]. So they can have different abilities...¡¯ He identified one strand forming a new connection, simr to the developingw techniques of Sol and Amber. It was linked to [Nether Bond]. Now knowing the source of the wraith¡¯s different behavior, Sol exerted his will over the talent skill and began twisting it as hard as he could. While Sol focused on negating the ipletew technique, most of Amber¡¯s sand soldiers perished, and one of his hands was destroyed when the wraith teleported behind it. He wanted to send more hands to support her, but doing so would break his concentration. He had to trust that Amber could hold out for a few more seconds. Amber¡¯s rate of summoning sand soldiers couldn¡¯t keep up with the speed at which the Nether Wraith cut them down. Within seconds, nearly all the sand soldiers were gone, and the wraith turned its hateful gaze toward her. But before it was able to chase after her, the floor¡ªcovered in sand from the fallen soldiers¡ªrumbled as a giant jaw made of stone rose up and mped down on the wraith. Unable to dodge in time, the wraith confidently used its connection to theher to warp between realms and escape. But to its surprise, it realized it hadn¡¯t moved an inch. Sol chuckled at the wraith¡¯s surprised expression. "Gotcha." If there had been even the slightest chance of flying out of the stone jaws before attempting to warp, it was now far toote. The wraith could only helplessly be crushed. Chapter 231: Next Time With its talent skill and by extension its ipletew technique disabled, the Nether Wraith was unable to retaliate against the duo. Its reliance on warping out of harm¡¯s way came back to bite it when its ability was sealed. It wed its way out of the stone jaws, but before it couldpletely free itself, sand spears rained down upon it. The wraith wailed in pain as the spears punctured its spectral body. Wounded and with few options, it was forced to use its berserk skill, [Soul Burst]. The wraith burned its own soul, causing irreversible damage to itself, but in return, its spectral form rapidly reformed and doubled in size. Its ws grew muchrger than before, allowing it to easily destroy the iing sand spears. Before the wraith could rampage further, Sol used [Ground Shrink] to appear behind it, following up with [Phoenix Dive]. He shed upward, and although it wasn¡¯t strong enough to cut the wraith in half, it sent the creature soaring into the air. Sol¡¯s upward swing carried him up as well, and he flipped his sword, mming it downwards with all his might toplete the skill¡¯s movement. Caught in the downward sh, the wraith was unable to retaliate as they both mmed into the closed stone jaws, sending jagged rocks flying in all directions. Amber stood still as the rocks passed harmlessly through her body because she had turned herself into sand. She quietly put her daggers away as she saw the system notification announcing the results of the fight. [You have in a Lv 94 Nether Wraith! Gained 4,517,300 Exp (300%)] Sol climbed out of the rubble with a sheepish grin. "I couldn¡¯t use [Siphon] in time¡­" Because he had mmed the wraith directly into the ground, the dungeon¡¯s automatic absorption of corpses took it away immediately. Normally, he would have cast [Harden Earth] to prevent that, but the unexpected variance in the undead had caused him to forget. Amber leaped up onto the rubble and made her way to him. When she reached him, she tapped the top of his head with her palm, somewhat stiffly. "Next time." In the face of her awkward attempt tofort him, Sol did his best not tough or tease her, no matter how cringe-inducing it was. It was progress, and thest thing he wanted was for her to close herself off from everyone. Instead, he smiled and patted her head back. "Thanks." After their brief moment, Sol exined what he had learned from this encounter and shared his theories. "I might be wrong, but I think every monster from here on out will have some kind of ipletew technique¡ªand they won¡¯t be the same ones either." Amber nodded, already assuming that was the case. "What bothers me is why it¡¯s not mentioned in the dungeon guide. The status page of the Nether Wraith we fought was the same as the one recorded, but there¡¯s no warning about these potential abilities. I¡¯m sure it was done intentionally." The only difference the dungeon guide noted was that the monsters¡¯ levels increased by four per floor instead of two, which most considered an insignificant change. After all, one, two, or even in extreme cases, ten levels of difference didn¡¯t matter much at theseter stages. Skills and abilities were far more important, and the attribute difference could be covered with attribute enhancing skills. The dungeon guide didn¡¯t mention these crucial details because they were rted to the secret of bing an A-Ranker. It was the same for floors past 30, where true A-Rank monsters resided. The guide detailed the status page but omitted information aboutw techniques and other vital details. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Thisck of information had indirectly led to the deaths of countless B-Rankers and even some A-Rankers. But it served as a way to cull the numbers of rogue and criminal A-Rankers who unknowingly entered an A-Rank dungeon to gain levels, only to encounter incredibly strong monsters. A-Rankers with ties to organizations or nations like the Adventurers Guild or the Crestelia Kingdom didn¡¯t have to worry, as they would be informed of this ahead of time¡ªor at least, they should be. Because Sol was supposed to be overseeing the test, Zaman didn¡¯t think it was relevant to the matter at hand. If he had known, he would have given him the Royal Knight¡¯s dungeon guide, which contained all those details, including a list of all known ipletew techniques and thew techniques certain monsters might possess. It was vital for those diving into these deeper floors to study the guide ahead of time to be prepared for all sorts of unique abilities the monsters might wield. But fortunately for them, there was a way around that. "Regardless of the reason for the omission of information, we can keep going. I¡¯ll disable their ipletew techniques as fast as possible, and then we can take care of them easily." Using thest fight as a benchmark, it took Sol about 7 seconds to disable the Nether Wraith¡¯s ipletew technique, but only after identifying which skill he had to target. Overall, the process took 15 seconds, which might not sound like much, but Sol and Amber could attack a hundred times in that span. It also required a lot of concentration, so until he improved, Amber would need to keep the monster¡¯s attention while he focused on manipting the enemy¡¯s string. "Okay." She epted the dangerous role without hesitation, confident in her abilities. Though she wasn¡¯t durable in terms of defense or vitality, she could negate most damage by turning herself into sand and reforming. Even then, she was too fast to be hit normally and could create arge number of sand soldiers to keep the monsters busy. With a n in mind, the two began running once more through the dungeon, a ce most would approach with caution and navigate slowly with care. The duo only had a week to get through ten entire floors, they didn¡¯t have time to take it slow, nor did they need to. Chapter 232: Nisha While a certain duo was zing through the dungeon, on the far southeastern side of the Crestelia Kingdom, there was a hidden underground passage. It led miles beneath the surface, with many branching paths that either led to dead ends or traps¡ªexcept for one. Following that single path led to a massive underground expanse where arge castle stood. A swarm of bats flew through the castle¡¯s interior, weaving through the maze like hallways until they arrived at a throne room. The bats merged and transformed into Carmi, who kneeled as soon as she was in her humanoid form. "Mistress, I have returned!" She knelt before the throne, where a charming young woman sat, her appearance suggesting she was in herte teens. Her long, pitch ck twintails flowed over the throne¡¯s armrest as she sat with her legs crossed. This was Nisha, Mistress of the Night and the current ruler of the vampires. Nisha smiled at Carmi and asked, "How did the nobles respond to our new terms?" "They epted, but I still don¡¯t understand why we asked for Kerman instead. You didn¡¯t care about the city to begin with." Carmi had done as she was told but couldn¡¯t help having some lingering doubts as to why they risked the negotiations falling apart for something that didn¡¯t seem to impact their n. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Nisha twirled one of her twintails as she pondered how to respond. "Do you trust those nobles?" "No, Mistress. I doubt they even trust each other." She recalled how, during their negotiation, dys was clearly the leader, but a few nobles were in clear disagreement. She could easily tell from their minute facial expressions, which they tried to conceal but ultimately failed. "If they don¡¯t trust us and we don¡¯t trust them, we need to mislead them away from our main goal. Now they¡¯re convinced we want Kerman, which will make them lower their guard¡ªthey won¡¯t expect us to betray them before we receive ownership of the city." Carmi¡¯s eyes widened as she understood her mistress¡¯s reasoning. Though it seemed pointless to them, it would definitely throw the rebellious nobles off guard. Carmi was about to praise her, but suddenly the curtains behind the throne began to shake. Nisha noticed as well and hurriedly spoke, "Leave and continue the preparations!" Carmi hesitated. "Are you sure? Maybe it¡¯s time to let the Primogen know¡­" Even if Nisha was the active ruler of the vampires, he was the true ruler. She shook her head. "You know he isn¡¯t in the mood to do anything. Don¡¯t needlessly worry him." "...As you wish." Carmi transformed into a swarm of bats once more and flew out of the throne room. Temporarily alone in the throne room, Nisha stood up and walked to the shaking curtains. She pulled them open, revealing arge upright coffin that was softly rumbling. Seeing it was still closed, she mentally prepared herself, lightly pping her face and making the biggest, warmest smile she could. The coffin stopped shaking, and the lid opened, revealing a sickly thin man with dull red hair. He stumbled out and almost copsed, but just before he did, she caught him. Though it pained her to see him in this condition, she maintained her smile and said, "Morning, Dad!" Nisha¡¯s "dad" coughed roughly before speaking. "Nisha¡­ Have you been well?" "Mhm!" she said happily. "Nothing much has happenedtely¡­ Oh! Actually, one of our thralls became an A-Ranker! She¡¯s the first thrall to do so as far as I¡¯m aware. Oh, and also¡­" As she continued to recap the most recent events, the sickly man tapped a ck bracelet, which opened a small hole in the air. He reached inside and pulled out a bottle of dark red blood. Opening the cap of the bottle, the room was suddenly flooded with an intense aura of life. Feeling the powerful aura, Nisha muttered in awe, "The blood of an outer god¡­" No matter how many times she saw it, she was always amazed by it. Even the scent it emitted was incredibly enticing, but she held herself back, doubting her ability to ingest even a drop without being overwhelmed and exploding. The man took a small sip from the bottle, only ingesting three drops of blood. In the next moment, the man¡¯s aura skyrocketed, and his body quickly recovered to its peak condition. His face became fuller, and though still pale, it was the healthy kind for a vampire. His hair also became lush and vibrant, changing from its previous dull red, and his skinny body swelled into an incredibly fit and toned shape. His appearance now resembled the one once said to be a vampire who came before all others vampires, Absalom, God of Vampires. He wasn¡¯t that very same Absalom, as that god was long dead. Instead, he was the direct descendant of that god, carrying his name and the title of Primogen of Vampires. He let out a refreshing exhale as he felt himself return to his peak. "Ahh¡­ That¡¯s better. How long have I been asleep this time?" Nisha made a pensive look but answered right away, as she already knew the answer. "Eighty seven years. Do you want to walk around and see the other vampires?" Absalom shook his head and patted her head affectionately. "No, I will be returning to my slumber. But you can always wake me if you ever need me. Don¡¯t do anything I wouldn¡¯t do." "Oh¡­ Okay¡­" she said, doing her best to hide the sadness in her eyes. She knew being sad wouldn¡¯t change his decision, so the best she could do was put on a smile for him. She hoped he would spend time with her and the rest of the vampires, who were, in one way or another, his blood descendants. It had been a long time since anyone had seen him, and many of the vampires would celebrate if he made his return. She would do anything to see that happen, even if it was just for a day. Absalom entered his coffin once more and assumed a sleeping position as the coffin lid slowly closed by itself. Nisha watched him go back to sleep and slowly waved her hand. "Goodnight, Dad¡­" The lid closed and sealed itself, protecting Absalom from any harm that mighte his way. Not even an A-Ranker could break through the coffin without rousing him from his sleep first. Nisha clenched her fist in anger. "This is all because of humans¡­" Though she didn¡¯t know for sure that humans were to me, as every time she asked him, he wouldn¡¯t give her a straight answer, she believed it to be the case after her own investigations. Why did they live in hiding? Even the oldest vampires who lived here couldn¡¯t answer that question, but they did mention something odd. Around 500 years ago, when the first vampires were brought here by Absalom, they saw that there were traces of blood and battle. That was around the same time as the founding of Crestelia Kingdom, so it was clear to her what had happened. The humans had imed thend above them and led a crusade against their kind. Everyone must have perished while Absalom was in his slumber. When he woke up, it was already over, and to keep the vampire race alive, he created more. Nisha sat on the throne and sped her hands tightly while looking ahead to her vision of the future. "We¡¯ll have our revenge." Chapter 233: [Vitriolic Orb] "What¡¯s up with Sol¡¯s magic? Before I died, I saw him casting multiple elements at the intermediate level. Does he have some kind of legendary talent?" Lapis asked as she walked alongside Duncan and Rex, who were trailing far behind Lazuli, Aron, and Nataly in the dungeon. The two groups didn¡¯t have a direct line of sight, but if anything happened, they were nearby and could hear it whenever the others entered battle. Rex, who was currently blindfolded for the purpose of training his detection skill, shrugged. "Who knows." "And none of you were curious enough to ask him?" She would have asked herself if not for the whole dying thing she had going on at the time. Duncan nodded. "Of course we are. He¡¯s an expert swordsman who can manipte the earth easily, and on top of that, he can cast water, fire, and light magic. There¡¯s also the fact that when he stayed behind to hold off that orc, he was only gone for a few seconds, yet the orc took much longer to arrive afterward. I doubt simple magic held that orc back for so long." They weren¡¯t idiots; it was clear to them that their Captain was hiding more than met the eye. Rex agreed and added his own perspective, "Back at the fort when we took down the bandits, I was searching in the main building for those still hiding and stumbled onto the basement, where there were two bandits that died in odd ways. One had a hole burnt through its chest, while the other was punctured all over the ce. Neither matches up with his normal style ofbat, fire magic could maybe exin the first one but the second one doesn¡¯t make sense. Maybe it was wind magic." The two bandits Rex mentioned were the B-Rankers who had separated from the group to threaten them with the lives of the captured. But Sol, who had been secretly watching them, knew of their ploy and sent two magic hands after them, easily dealing with them. One was dealt with the red chroma while the other the yellow chroma. "The reason none of us have asked is because it¡¯s up to the Captain whether he wants to tell us or not. If he hasn¡¯t told us yet, it¡¯s because he doesn¡¯t want to," Duncan said. There was no point in bringing it up and causing tension between them. But unlike them, who wanted to remain tactful, Lapis couldn¡¯t care less. "You think he¡¯ll get angry at you for asking?" "No, it¡¯s just that¡­ he¡¯s our superior. It¡¯s not our business to know." "But he can know all our details without any question? Fine. I¡¯ll ask him myself when my sister¡¯s test is done." Lapis found the notion hypocritical and used it to justify knowing Sol¡¯s secret. She wanted to know exactly how much he was hiding from them to understand the real difference in power between them. After all, she had proudly dered during the knight tournament that she would win next time they fought, but if he was still holding back during their rematch, her victory would be hollow. If she was to fight him again, she didn¡¯t want him to hold back. "It¡¯s because he¡¯s our Captain. I¡¯d advise against it," Duncan, who respected the chain ofmand, didn¡¯t think it was a good idea. Rex, still blindfolded, paused. "Oh, they¡¯re fighting a group of four monsters. Let¡¯s wait while they finish." The other two stopped as well, hearing the visceral roars of the undead and the sound of battle ahead. ¡­ "Taste my fist!" An Awakened diator was mid swing when it was punched by Aron, sending the undead flying backward into two Skeleton Hunters. The two skeletons were about to release their arrows, but were both knocked down by therge undead¡¯s body mming into them. The Awakened Shieldbearer next to Aron roared, unable to protect its fellow undead, and went to m him with its shield. Before it could do so, roots rose from the ground and tangled the undead, not allowing it to move. "Lazuli, now!" Nataly yelled. Lazuli nodded as she held her rod firmly and finished casting her spell. "[Vitriolic Orb]!" A green orb formed at the end of her rod. It wobbled as she tried to maintain its form without losing control. Before it imploded on itself, sheunched it at the shield wielding undead. Unable to move because of the vines, it could only helplessly be hit by the spell and waspletely drenched in the green liquid. At first, the undead didn¡¯t react to being drenched and continued trying to break free from the vines but realized it was bing harder and harder to do so. A sizzling sound was heard as the acidic liquid began to burn through its skin beneath the armor, but because it had no sense of pain, it didn¡¯t notice until in one of its attempts to yank itself free, one of its arms flew off. Aron, who was next to the undead, recovered and sent a full [Mach Punch] at the Awakened Shieldbearer. With its flesh partially dissolved, its defense was much weaker, and Aron¡¯s punch sted the undead¡¯s head off its shoulders. [You have in a Lv 62 Awakened Shieldbearer! Gained 96,000 Exp (360%)] Seeing the notification, Aron left the still falling corpse of the undead and used [Eagle Slide] to rapidly approach the other three undead that were recovering from the previous collision. With the undead¡¯s numbers equal to theirs, it was not very hard to defeat the remaining enemies. Aron continued to fight at the forefront with the two girls supporting him from the back. [You have in a Lv 62 Awakened diator! Gained 96,000 Exp (360%)] [You have in a Lv 62 Skeleton Hunter! Gained 96,000 Exp (360%)] [You have in a Lv 62 Skeleton Hunter! Gained 96,000 Exp (360%)] Once all the enemies were dead, Aron wiped the sweat off his brow. "What a workout! Plus, I¡¯m not far from leveling up. I wonder what myst talent skill will be." Nataly chuckled. "Knowing you, probably something rted to punching. By the way, are you sure you don¡¯t want me to conjure a Tree Sentinel to help?" n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Aron shook his head with a grin. "Nah, it would be too easy if you did, and that wouldn¡¯t be fun, now would it?" "We¡¯re in a dungeon¡­ it¡¯s not meant to be fun¡­" Nataly sighed and turned to Lazuli. "How about you? Getting the hang of the new spell?" Lazuli nodded. "It wasn¡¯t easy changing [Noxious Orb] into something acidic, but it works for now. I just wish I had more time to prepare; it¡¯s not fast enough in dissolving them." With only two days toe up with a n, creating a new spell from scratch was out of the question. Instead, she opted for modifying a spell she was already familiar with. [Noxious Orb] was already slightly acidic so the poison could prate the skin and disorient the target. She changed it greatly bypletely removing the previous disorienting aspect and empowered the acidicponent to the maximum. It seeded, but like any other half-baked spell, it had drawbacks. In this case, its mana cost doubled, and the acid took a few seconds to have noticeable effects. "What about the other spell you¡¯re working on? I know we use different elements, but I might be able to help with that one," Nataly offered. She considered for a moment if it was cheating to help her, but they were currently party members, so she believed it would be fine. Lazuli smiled. "I would really appreciate it¡­ I don¡¯t want to identally kill Aron when I cast it." "Aron would also like to not be identally killed," he said in the third person. "But that spell sounds interesting, so I¡¯m willing to give it a go. ONCE you¡¯ve worked out all the kinks." While the acid spell worked for now and even technically passed the requirements for the test, Lazuli had a stroke of inspiration for a new spell. But it wasn¡¯t something she could cast just because she thought of it. She had to spend time practicing and finding the right spell words and movement of mana to create the reaction she wanted. She hoped to make progress in between dungeon floors and toplete it before their fight against the Gravedigger. Chapter 234: Expert Cook At the resting area of the 22nd floor, Sol sat inside a self made stone hut, talking to amunication orb. Annabel¡¯s voice rang out from the orb. "You just left them to go through the dungeon alone? Aren¡¯t you worried something might happen?" Sol shook his head, even though she couldn¡¯t see him, and said, "Nah, you¡¯re underestimating them just because they¡¯re C-Rankers fighting B-Rank enemies. Sure, they¡¯re a few levels behind, but Aron and Nataly can easily defeat the average B-Ranker. And while I don¡¯t know Lazuli as well, her status page shows she isn¡¯t a pushover either. Plus, the rest of my squad is with them in case anything happens." He was confident they would be fine, even if they stumbled into a monster house. He wouldn¡¯t have let them go if he wasn¡¯t sure. Though the chance of stumbling into one was extremely rare, it was something he deeply considered before deciding. Sol pivoted to a new topic, "By the way, aren¡¯t you level 17? Won¡¯t you get your second talent soon?" "Mhm! I¡¯ve been using most of my time off to level up. Hearing all your stories has made me want to unlock my second talent even more than before!" From his time as an adventurer to his missions as a knight, Sol was living the life she always wanted. Hearing his stories only made her yearn for it more, and it didn¡¯t help that he only recounted the good parts. Sol chuckled at her eagerness to explore, travel, and be an expert with the bow. "You know, if you take two weeks off work ande by the capital, I can take you through the dungeon and help you unlock your second talent, maybe even the third if you want." He already knew her answer. "No thanks! I don¡¯t take handouts. It¡¯s already too much with my dad watching over me when I go leveling," she immediately said with a matter of fact tone. Sol could easily imagine the kind of face she was making when she said that. "Welp, I tried. Why don¡¯t you put up a quest and have some adventurer level you up instead? Then it wouldn¡¯t be a handout since you paid them." It was extremelymon for people with nonbat talents to hire others to level them up. After all, how would someone with a [Wood Carver] talent kill level 20 enemies to get their second talent? The other mostmon reason people paid others to level them was to increase their vitality, which slightly increased their life expectancy. This wasn¡¯t cheap, however. The cost of using this method was expensive and increased drastically depending on the client¡¯s target level. If one couldn¡¯t afford it, they could either give up or take the risk, like Sol did, and fight enemies that were stronger than them, thanks to their skills. But most chose to simply stay at their level, either epting their fate or slowly saving money to eventually hire others to carry them. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "If you could reach level 20 with what little you had, I can do the same. I even have rare equipment." Annabel was adamant in her decision. It seemed his stubbornness had rubbed off on her, or maybe it was because they were both stubborn that they got along in the first ce. "Hmm, alright. Be careful and review the local ecology reports from Ivern; sometimes new monsters enter the woods, and he¡¯s usually the first to know about it." He knew there was little he could do to convince her otherwise, so he could only ask her to be careful. The two talked for a while longer about drama back home and other mundane topics until Amber walked in to inform him she was done. "Food¡¯s ready." "Oh really? That was fast." Amber simply nodded and was about to leave until Annabel¡¯s voice rang out from the orb. "Is that Amber? Her voice sounds so soft and gentle!" Though Sol had long told the girls about each other, it was the first time they met each other¡ªor at least heard each other. "Nice to meet you!" "Hello," Amber said to the orb. Solughed and tranted her words. "That¡¯s Amber for: ¡¯Nice to meet you too! Can¡¯t wait to see you in person!¡¯" It elicited a chuckle from Annabel. While the twoughed, from the corner of his eye, Sol saw Amber silently retrieving her dagger from her spatial ring. Her intent was clear. "Wow! I¡¯m starving. I¡¯ll talk to youter, Anna. Bye!" "Huh? Okay, bye¡ª" Sol cut the connection just in time as he leaped backward to dodge the invisible sh that destroyed the wall of the stone hut. He used the opening to escape the hut and raised his hands in the air. "H-Hey, we can talk about this." He knew not to tease her, but he simply couldn¡¯t hold back this time. Now he had to pay for his actions. "No." She said it with a nk expression before summoning an army of sand soldiers thatpletely filled the stone room and rushed out to attack him. ... A few minutes after their impromptu sparring session, the two were sitting peacefully, eating the meal Amber had prepared. Sol was fortunate their sh didn¡¯t take too long or destroy the food, as they both were cautious to avoid it. Sol took a bite of the crescent shaped dumplings that melted in his mouth. The savory meat and vegetables hidden beneath the dough exploded in abination of amazing vors. "Whoa. You made this? It¡¯s amazing." He found it unbelievable; as far as he knew, she didn¡¯t even know how to cook. This dish was objectively better than anything he could ever make. This was also considering that he had [Novice Craftsman], which included cooking. But it was important to distinguish that cooking didn¡¯t have much to do with the vor of the dish, but simply the ability to imbue dishes with mana and bring out the potential of the ingredients to empower the consumer. In the vor department, he waspletely defeated. She nodded at his praise and passed him a small dish of ck liquid. "Better with sauce." Sol did as she suggested and was hit by apletely different vor that enhanced the already existing one. "This is delicious, but when did you learn all of this?" Sol thought Amber spent most of her time either training her skills or investigating in the ck market; he simply couldn¡¯tprehend when she found the time to learn cooking from scratch. "Practice." He was slightly bbergasted by her vague response. ¡¯That doesn¡¯t really exin much, does it?¡¯ But Sol didn¡¯t continue asking, as he knew that was all he was going to get out of her, at least for now. It was unlikely he would ever find out how many hours she spent learning from multiple chefs throughout the city while he was off on his missions. After the two finished their meal, Sol went through his status page and looked over his new skills. [[Spectral w] Lv 9: Create a pair of ws formed from the user¡¯s soul. ws deal 280% damage against spirit bodies and souls. Consumes soul energy over time. Extended usage is ill advised for those with corporeal bodies.] It was a talent skill that could deal critical damage against ghost and spectral enemies. And with them being in Necropolis, a dungeon with plenty of spectral type enemies, it was especially useful. He would be a fool not to grab it. [[Phantasmal Rip and Tear] Lv 4: Use one¡¯s ws to viciously tear apart everything before you. Unleash 16 consecutive attacks, each dealing 160% damage. Cooldown: 3 minutes.] The next skill was abination of [Rip and Tear] and [Ghostly Swipes], allowing him to unleash an extremely fast flurry of attacks in an instant with his newly obtained ws. [[Nether Body] Lv 6: The body has been attuned to the forces of theher, allowing one to sense the essence of death. Death magic and other rted death abilities are 30% more effective.] [Nether Body] directly increased his affinity with death skills, and while he didn¡¯t have many of those yet, that would change, as most of the undead on these uing floors have at least one death type skill. It alsoplemented hisst new skill. [[Death Sentence] Lv 1: Sever the target¡¯s life force and send their soul directly to the underworld to face judgment. Higher chance of failure the further the target is from death. Mana cost: 500. Cooldown: 7 days.] Thest skill he obtained was undoubtedly the strongest but also the least likely to work. After siphoning the skill, Sol knew he realistically only had a 10% chance even when the target was inches away from death, at which point he could finish them off himself. But something about sending them straight to the underworld to face judgment intrigued him, though the knowledge he absorbed from the Nether Wraiths didn¡¯t exin much about the process afterward. After rereading the description, Sol thought, ¡¯It seems to not really be meant forbat, but something to do once the fight is over. Also, while the new skills are good, we were really unlucky today.¡¯ As they ran through the 21st floor, they only encountered Nether Wraiths. While they were the mostmon of the undead on these floors, it was incredible that they did not find any of the other three undead types. They could have stayed on the floor to find them, but with the time limit to get through ten floors in under a week, they had to book it straight to the stairs. ¡¯Hopefully we get to see the other ones on the next floor.¡¯ Chapter 235: Sandstone BOOM! "I want to go back to fighting Nether Wraiths!" Sol yelled as he and Amber ran away from the source of the explosions. Seven magic hands rotated above him, sending a full spectrum beam toward where they hade from. The white beam sted back, causing light to flood the entire passage. The duo left the magic hands behind to hold back their pursuers while they gained more ground. Sadly, the hands didn¡¯t hold them back for long. Within mere seconds, hundreds of ck me orbs flew from the direction of the beam¡¯s attack, targeting the magic hands. Sol was forced to redirect the beam to split into a spiral pattern, forming a shield at thest second. He did so just in time, as the ck mes collided with the barrier, resulting in multiple explosions. Even though the full spectrum beam was doing its job in defending against the ck mes, the duo took it a step further. A wall of stone and sand rose as theybined their [Sand Maniption] and [Terra Maniption] into one extraordinarily durable barrier. If it had only been the ck mes, the two wouldn¡¯t have taken such measures, but the loud thuds that caused the ground beneath them to quake told them that their pursuers were close. Looking at the wall they created, Sol grimaced as he warned Amber. "My hands were destroyed! Get ready!" n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Amber nodded, summoning a massive sand soldier along with over a hundred normal ones to use as meat shields. In the little time they had, Sol also made his own preparations by retrieving a weapon from his spatial ring. As he did so, the wall burst open like fragile ss, and a hulking monstrosity appeared, with a floating skullughing maniacally behind it. Name: N/A Race: Laughing Skull Talents: [Death Affinity], [Endless Chant], [Death¡¯s Joke] Level: 98 Name: N/A Race: Tomb Hulk Talents: [Monstrosity], [Unstoppable], [Rampager] Level: 98 If it had been just one enemy, it wouldn¡¯t have been such a big deal, but the two undead paired up to create a powerfulbination. Sol wasn¡¯t even able to disable their talent skills as they were forced to run soon after their first encounter. When Amber first tried to dy the Tomb Hulk, which took up the entire hallway, to buy time for Sol to disable their skills, it simply ran over her and all her sand soldiers in one go. Meanwhile, the Laughing Skull relentlessly unleashed the same ck fire spell at Sol, preventing him from concentrating on disabling their skills. Amber reformed herself while the two undead thought she was dead. When she did, the duo made a break for it to gain distance, while Sol continued trying to disable their ipletew techniques. But in the end, he was unable to do so, forcing him to use his trump card much earlier than expected. The hulking giant let out a deafening roar before charging toward the two small humans. In response, Sol took out the Tynamo Cannon and aimed it straight at the charging monstrosity. Without hesitation, he set the cannon¡¯s power to maximum and pulled the trigger, releasing a powerful ray of void energy. The hulk charged forward with its hands raised in front of its head in an X shape, unafraid of the void beam, confident in its ability to trample over anything in its way. Unfortunately for the hulk, the beam easily pierced through both of its arms and straight through its head, creating a massive hole in the middle of its face. The Tomb Hulk never expected the tiny attack, rtive to its massive body, would be able to pierce through so easily. It died, unable to retaliate. Its giant body shrank in size as it fell forward by momentum and mmed into the ground, causing one final tremor. No longer massive from its skill, it reverted back to its true size of 5 meters tall¡ªstill big, but not as exaggerated as before. [You have in a Lv 98 Tomb Hulk! Gained 6,324,219 Exp (300%)] [You have leveled up! +5 Attribute points] The skull, which had been floating andughing, stopped upon seeing the truly dead corpse of its ally, which wasn¡¯t being absorbed by the dungeon because Sol remembered to cast [Harden Earth] this time. No longerughing like before, the skull began its endless chant to get revenge for the loss of its ally. "[Grim mes]! [Grim mes]! [Grim mes]! [Grim mes]! [Grim mes]!" As if stuck on a loop, the Laughing Skull repeatedly cast the same spell without rest at a speed normally impossible for mages. Its ability allowed it to use the chant and movement of mana from the first spell to rapidly cast the same spell without any dy. In less than a second, hundreds of ck mes shot out toward the duo. In the face of so many ck mes, Sol moved ahead of Amber and pressed the button on the side of the Tynamo Cannon. The mechanical movement inside the cannon could be audibly heard as it activated its other function. VRRRR! The mes began getting sucked into the cannon, simr to water falling down a drain. Even if the ck mes were heading in a different direction, as long as they got within 10 meters of the cannon, they would be forcefully pulled into its barrel. The skull, upon seeing this, didn¡¯t stop casting. Instead, it sent more ck mes than before in an effort to overwhelm the weapon. Sadly for the skull, it was severely underestimating the cannon¡¯s ability to absorb and convert energy into void energy. A minuteter, the skull finally stopped chanting and fell toward the ground, unable to maintain itself afloat with its almost depleted mana. Sol saw it fall to the ground helplessly and turned his eyes to the cannon¡¯s energy total. ¡¯70%. It was a little over half when I shot it, so the skull was only able to fill it by 20%.¡¯ He let the skull cast as long as it could and didn¡¯t attempt to interrupt it as it was doing him a favor by refilling the previously spent void energy. With the Laughing Skullpletely out of mana, it was easy for Amber to sh it from afar, cutting it in two. [You have in a Lv 98 Laughing Skull! Gained 5,902,604 Exp (280%)] Having defeated the undead, Sol sighed in relief. He looked back at the weapon and felt d yet sad at the same time. ¡¯I¡¯m d it works, but to already have to use it on the 22nd floor¡­¡¯ It made him wonder if he was still not strong enough to tackle these uing floors, but after some thought, he shook his head. ¡¯It was two enemies at the same time, and they didn¡¯t give me a chance to use my own ability. I can only tackle one skill at a time, so even if I disable one, the other still has theirs. I need to either be much faster at disabling them or disable both at the same time.¡¯ So far, he had been able to shave a full second off the process, but it was clearly not enough. He needed to try even harder and push it to its very limit. After some thought, he concluded that tackling two skills at once wouldn¡¯t make the process faster but slower than disabling one at a time. For now, he had to focus on improving his maniption of the strings before trying new things. "Ready to go, Amber? Ah, before I forget. [Siphon]." He wasn¡¯t just about to leave without obtaining some new skills. Chapter 236: Emotional Damage "[Grim mes]! [Grim mes]! [Grim mes]! [Grim mes]!" A Laughing Skull spewed spell after spell without rest, inundating the hallway with its ck mes. Sol stood at the end of the passage, being the target of the countless ck mes, and chanted his own spells in return. "[Light Spear]! [Light Spear]! [Light Spear]! [Light Spear]!" Unlike the skull, which only summoned one ck me per cast, each of Sol¡¯s casts created three spears of light, quickly surpassing the number of ck mes. The light spears and ck mes collided, creating explosions that shook the entire passage. Though Sol¡¯s spears overwhelmed the ck mes, the confrontation between the two was even so far. [Light Spear] was an intermediate light spell, while [Grim mes] was an advanced dark spell. The ck mes were on the weaker sidepared to other advanced spells, but they were nheless stronger than the light spears, requiring two to three light spears to neutralize one ck me. As the two opposing elements shed in a stalemate, someone stealthily moved in the shadows to settle the fight. Amber suddenly appeared 30 meters behind the Laughing Skull and sent a sh that distorted the distance, cutting cleanly through the skull. The fragile skull, not even aware there was another enemy lurking in the shadows, died instantly, unable to create a shield in time. [You have in a Lv 102 Laughing Skull! Gained 9,444,166 Exp (320%)] Receiving the notification, Sol stopped chanting and gave her a thumbs up. "Nice work!" Amber, on the other hand, disagreed and called him out. "Didn¡¯t disable skill. Also a waste of mana." Sol didn¡¯t deny it. "Yeah, but we¡¯re near the stairs, and I wanted to try out the new skill I got. It really was a ludicrous waste of mana, but I can see it being useful in specific scenarios." The new skill Sol was talking about was [Loop Casting], a passive skill obtained from the Laughing Skull. It allowed him to maintain the pathway of mana used to cast a spell, enabling him to repeatedly cast it by only chanting the final part of the spell¡¯s incantation and sending more mana through the already established path. He found it useful but ultimately limited, as currently the only advanced level magic he had was the one he recently siphoned from the skull, which only knew three advanced spells. But when he read through the description, he immediatelybined it with [Superior Mana Control], which turned it into a variant skill. With the split skull on the ground, Sol turned to it and used [Siphon] as usual. [[Superior Mana Control (Variant)] leveled up! (2 -> 3)] ¡¯Oh? Already?¡¯ He was pleasantly surprised and opened the updated description. [Superior Mana Control (Variant)] Lv 3: You have taken arge step in mastering the maniption of mana. Able to bypass the need to chant spells in their totality at 40% decreased efficiency. Increased mana regeneration by 600%, can also manually recover mana faster. All mana costs decrease by 60%. Able to multicast three spells at once at 40% higher cost. Can utilize the pathway created to cast a spell to recast the same spell with no dy at 75% of the original cost. Sol didn¡¯t expect it to level up so quickly, especially since it had only reached level two half a day ago. However, he found it reasonable as the only skills he siphoned from the skulls were the ones used tobine into this skill, namely [Loop Casting], [Mana Efficiency], and [Increased Mana Regeneration]. ¡¯I might actually be able to use skills at no mana cost by the time we leave the dungeon, though only if I¡¯m in an environment with plenty of mana to control.¡¯ He knew the ability to use skills and spells without his own mana relied upon manipting the mana around him instead. If he was somewhere with little mana density or if the environmental mana thinned from his constant usage, he would have to go back to using his internal mana. "I¡¯m done," Sol told Amber. "Let¡¯s keep going." ¡­ Half an hourter, they arrived at the rest area of the 24th floor. Sol began taking out his cooking equipment as he felt bad for making her cook the past two times but was stopped by her. N?v(el)B\\jnn "I¡¯ll cook," she said and took out her own cooking tools. He shook his head. "It¡¯s okay, you cooked thest two times. It¡¯s only fair if I cook something." Amber continued to retrieve her tools and, without a shred of hesitation, said, "No, mine tastes better." "Huh? Is my cooking that bad?" Sol was stunned by her straightforwardness. She shook her head. "Not bad, okay. Sometimes too heavy with spices. Never enough oil when frying. Meat is always well done¡­" Amber continued on for a full minute, listing every problem with his cooking, and each one was a critical blow. By the end of her speech, he was left kneeling on the floor,pletely defeated. This was the longest she had ever spoken, exceeding her usual five word limit, and it was only to roast his cooking abilities. ¡¯She¡¯s worse than Zaman¡­¡¯ Zaman constantly pointed out his ws and mistakes during their lessons, but at least he knew how to deliver the message withoutpletely destroying his feelings. The worst part was that she urately pointed out objective mistakes that he couldn¡¯t deny. Sol was so ashamed he wanted to dig a hole to hide in and nevere back out. From Amber¡¯s perspective, she wasn¡¯t saying this to demoralize him but to point out ws simrly to how she would when they finished sparring. After all, how could one improve if they didn¡¯t know what they were doing wrong? Seeing Sol devastated after herplete dissection of his cooking ability, she tried to cheer him up. "You can improve. I¡¯ll help." "N-no, it¡¯s okay." Sol immediately declined. If this was a taste of what¡¯s toe if he learns true cooking from her, he would rather fight A-Rankers. Sol unsteadily walked away and left her to prepare whatever meal she had in mind. He made a stone hut and shut himself inside. With his back to the stone door, he slumped down onto the floor and looked at the roof with a distant gaze. ¡¯What¡­ just happened?¡¯ It took Sol a few minutes to recover from such a brutal surprise attack. In an attempt to distract himself from what urred, he opened the Necropolis dungeon guide and flipped to the pages rted to the floors he was on. ¡¯We have fought Nether Wraiths, Laughing Skulls, and Tomb Hulks. Thest enemy we haven¡¯t encountered yet is a Zomest.¡¯ Sol reread the undead¡¯s details again, as he had done multiple times, and, like before, did not find anything new. ¡¯If it¡¯s like the Shadow Amalgamation, I can only hope to encounter it once or twice.¡¯ There was really nothing he could do as he didn¡¯t have the time to search until it appeared, so he could only keep traveling and hope. Closing the book, Sol turned his attention to the strings that flowed out of his body. He noticed that the newly forming skill branching from [Aggregate] had grown in length and size, already being double the thickness of his normal skills. ¡¯It¡¯s getting there; every second I cut down makes it slightly longer.¡¯ Focusing on this direction had positive effects on the formation of thew technique, and until he hit a wall, he intended to keep shaving time off until he could instantly disable his opponents¡¯ skills. Leaving the matter of his developingw technique, Sol turned to a line that was the real reason he was looking at the colored skill lines. It was a new talent skill he obtained, [Gigantify]. It allowed him to grow in size simrly to the Tomb Hulk, just not asrge as it was an ipletew technique that let it grow to that degree. With the skill, he could be five timesrger, reaching nearly ten meters tall while also greatly increasing his strength and vitality at the cost of his speed. ¡¯When I was siphoning it, I felt bloated all of a sudden. It went away when the assimtion was done, but it might be some kind of warning.¡¯ Because of that feeling, Sol didn¡¯t dare to siphon any other talent skills until he figured out the cause. It could have been just a one off feeling from the nature of the talent skill, which involved growing in mass, but his instincts told him otherwise. To investigate further, he decided to see if the cause could be identified through the skill lines. After many minutes of inspecting and analyzing every aspect of the string and his other siphoned talent strings, he could not find anything out of the ordinary. Just as he was about to go for another round of inspection, a knock was heard from the stone door. Amber opened the door and said, "Food¡¯s ready." "Thanks, let¡¯s go eat," Sol smiled as he got up from the ground. He had already forgotten the massive blow he was dealt recently and went to eat whatever delicious meal she had cooked up. Chapter 237: Once is an Accident One dayter, on the 26th floor, a cloaked creature with a hunched back, a clearly malformed figure beneath, and a glowing purple skull mask wandered the passage, unaware of the two humans stalking it nearby. "So that¡¯s a Zomest," Sol quietly said to Amber, who was next to him. They were both using [Invisibility] to avoid detection as they made their way through the dungeon when they finally encountered a Zomest on the 26th floor. Race: Zomest Talent Skills: [Zombeast Maker], [Commander], [Ring Master] Level: 114 Skimming through its abilities, Sol didn¡¯t find anything out of the ordinary, but he didn¡¯t rely on [Analysis] to show him what he truly needed. With a flicker in his eyes, colorful but mostly brown and ck lines sprung from the Zomest as he quickly identified its ipletew technique within two seconds. "[Combine Zombeast] is its ipletew technique. Should I go ahead and disable it, or do we try taking it head on?" Amber shook her head. "No, good practice." Sol asked for Amber¡¯s opinion because facing it at full power was riskier, given that they had never fought it before. Even though they knew all its skills and which one was an ipletew technique, they couldn¡¯t predict what it actually did until they fought it. Most adventurers and dungeon explorers would immediately say yes to disabling it. After all, why take such a risk just challenge oneself? But they had something most adventurers could only dream of: a legendary weapon. They weren¡¯t afraid. If the battle ever went south and Sol was unable to disable the skill afterward, he could take out his Tynamo Cannon and st away. So far he was only forced to use it three times, once with the Laughing Skull and Tomb Hulk duo, another where they stumbled into five Nether Wraiths at once and most recently when they encountered another group of six consisting of all three undeads. "Alright." Seeing they were both in agreement, they prepared to quietly approach the Zomest andunch their first attack. But before they could do so, something truly odd happened. The Zomest¡¯s eyes widened in some sort of revtion, and it nodded. The next moment, its body sank into the ground andpletely disappeared. Sol reacted quickly and tried to harden the ground with [Terra Maniption], but nothing happened. The one meter ground around the Zomest waspletely immune to his influence. The two could only watch helplessly as it disappeared into the ground. By the time they reached the spot where the Zomest had stood, Sol was unable to see its mana signature anymore with [True Sight]. "Where did it go?" Sol asked as he tapped the ground where the Zomest had previously stood with his foot, thinking it could be some kind of trap. But all that resulted was the sound of his foot tapping the hard floor. "Skill?" Amber questioned, offering a possible exnation, but Sol shook his head. He knew it wasn¡¯t possible. The Zomest didn¡¯t have any skills capable of such a feat, and based on the type of skill that was the origin of its ipletew technique, it didn¡¯t appear rted. Sol was able to track its mana signature going downward until it passed 60 meters, where it left his range¡ªit waspletely gone. It was the first time he had seen such a thing happen, and the dungeon guide made no mention of such a phenomenon. After a moment of waiting vigntly for anything to change, he could only sigh at their misfortune. "When we finally see one, it gets magically whisked away¡­ What crappy luck." There was little they could do but continue onward and hope to encounter another Zomest. ¡­ It wasn¡¯t until the 27th floor that they luckily stumbled upon another Zomest. Only this time, it wasn¡¯t alone; it was apanied by two Tomb Hulks that followed it around like servants. "Ipletew technique with [Symbiotic Command]," Sol sinctly said. He didn¡¯t even ask whether to disable it or not; he knew the answer would be the same as before. He would disable the ipletew techniques of the two hulks, which would be much less impactful once they couldn¡¯t ess their strongest skills. In ten seconds, Sol disabled the two skills of the hulks, with them unaware it even urred. With the preparationsplete, the two rushed out tounch a surprise attack. The two hulks, which had been obediently following the Zomest, roared, alerting their leader to the iing enemies, and rushed to meet them. Sol charged forward as well, wielding his light element Lipon, which was the bane of undead, while Amber stayed back and createdrge sand des that flew towards the giant hulks. As the four were fighting, the Zomest stayed behind and watched for a moment before extending tendrils out of its body andtching them onto the two hulks. Greenish energy flowed through the tendrils into the hulks, causing their muscles to suddenly double in size as they were filled with incredible and seemingly endless power. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om The hulks¡¯ sudden rise in power was so significant that a single swing from one of its fists sent Sol flying backward. While soaring midair, he extended his hand and instantly chanted three light spears that flew toward the tendrils empowering the hulks. The Zomest saw these light spearsing from far away and reacted by twisting its tendrils to dodge the iing attack. Two of the light spears missed, while one cut straight through, severing the connection to one of the hulks. The hulk¡¯s muscles shrank back down to their original size, but they didn¡¯t stay that way for long as another tendril extended from the Zomest and empowered it once more. Seeing its strengthy in its tendrils, Sol only had to give one look at Amber for her to understand what to do. The sand des she was creating began targeting only the tendrils, cutting them down every time they connected to the hulks, while Sol kept the two hulks at bay. As she cut down the tendrils, multiple new ones appeared and took their ce, quickly turning the fight into a contest of whether she could cut them down faster than they appeared. The hulks rapidly fluctuated between empowered and normal states as they fought Sol with his light sword and the four hands he had summoned for support. Two handsbined the red and orange chromas to create duochrome red and orangerge beams, while the other two formed [Spectral ws] and unleashed [Phantasmal Rip and Tear] on one of the hulks while they were in a non-empowered state. The fight began to tilt in their favor as Amber started using her developingw technique to cut down the tendrils the instant they appeared, giving Sol an opening to take down the first hulk. [You have in a Lv 118 Tomb Hulk! Gained 40,037,361 Exp (380%)] As the first in hulk copsed onto the cold ground, the Zomest behind it paused and seemingly looked into the far distance as if seeing something beyond the dungeon¡¯s walls. After a brief moment, it nodded its head and retracted its tendrils. Sol was surprised by its actions, and because he was still entangled with the remaining hulk, he was unable to stop it from escaping. However, Amber, who was free from her tendril cutting duties,unched multiple distorted shes and sand des at it. Having faced her attacks before, the Zomest released a bundle of tendrils that braided into one massive tendril that blocked all her frontal attacks. Even the distorted shes were blocked as it continued to sink into the ground. Amber was, unfortunately, still unable to make the distorted shes attack from different directions, which made them easy to block if the enemy knew they wereing. She still didn¡¯t relent and continued to unleash attack after attack in hopes of breaking through the tendrils, but it wasn¡¯t enough as the Zomest fully submerged into the ground and escaped. [You have in a Lv 118 Tomb Hulk! Gained 40,037,361 Exp (380%)] By the time Sol defeated the final hulk, he saw that the Zomest hadpletely disappeared like thest one. Seeing this once more, Sol remembered an old saying. "Once is an ident, twice is a coincidence, three times it¡¯s a pattern. But I don¡¯t need a third urrence to know something is up." Chapter 238: Butt of the Joke After reaching the 28th floor resting zone, Sol sat down on a stone chair he had made and pondered the strange urrences happening. Most of Sol¡¯s knowledge regarding dungeons didn¡¯te from personal experience but from the books he had read on the subject back in Initium, before he even obtained his first talent. It was stated that dungeons tended to have their own quirks and tendencies, but that mostly had to do with the types of monsters encountered,youts, and overall themes. The Osuga dungeon in Kerman, for example, consisted of earth element enemies, while Necropolis featured undead and dark magic. But it didn¡¯t even have to be rted to a specific element. Some dungeons had only certain types of animals, like avians or mammals, and could even go more specific, to something like deer monsters only. It didn¡¯t even have to be monsters. A very small number of dungeons don¡¯t even create monsters but instead only make traps. However, those tend to be ignored by adventurers, as going through countless traps for a few resources the dungeon produced was simply not worth it. It wasn¡¯t like there were unique weapons locked away in chests or gold, but usually ores, certain nts, or elemental essences. They didn¡¯t even level up in the process, so only those without any other option would go to those dungeons. Sol leaned back on his chair pensively. ¡¯But this doesn¡¯t seem part of the dungeon¡¯s theme¡­ I¡¯ve never heard of a dungeon where monsters would retreat, and much less in such a manner.¡¯ The first disappearance could be chalked up to maybe an extremely rare urrence that they witnessed because the monster was unaware of their presence, but the second time, they couldn¡¯t ignore it. ¡¯Dungeon monsters don¡¯t run away.¡¯ It was an absolute rule of dungeons; even if they had absolutely no chance of winning, a slime would charge headfirst into a group of a hundred adventurers without any fear or hesitation. Even in theseter floors where the monsters had much more awareness and could react to their attacks and create countermeasures, they never ran away, even when Sol disabled their strongest ability and took out a legendary weapon. Sol sighed as he realized maybe the rule wasn¡¯t as absolute as he thought. ¡¯It wouldn¡¯t be the first time the dungeon guide contained misinformation. Maybe I should¡¯ve run this through with the Commander beforehand.¡¯ The reason he didn¡¯t do so was to keep his rtionship with Amber a secret. There were many reasons to do so, but the main one was simply to keep her away from any mess he could potentially create. If he screwed up a mission and made a powerful enemy, whether in the pce or some noble family, it was entirely possible they would target those around him. Luckily, he wasn¡¯t ipetent and didn¡¯t go around antagonizing others, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Thinking it might just be another case of hidden information, Sol continued on with his evening. He ate food with Amber, had a quick chat with Annabel, and then rested for the night. ¡­ The next day, they went out to conquer the 28th floor. Three Laughing Skullsughed maniacally as two chanted endless [Grim mes] while the other one protected its allies with its own body, literally. Every attack they sent out that would surelynd on one of the two chanting skulls would cause a ripple right before impact, transferring the damage to the protecting skull. "Ack! Oh! Ouch!" the skullically yelped every time it received an attack for its allies. Originally, when the duo saw this ur, they didn¡¯t mind it as it just meant that one would perish first. But they were incredibly wrong. The skull lived even after a hundred various attacks, ranging from magic, chromas, sand, distorted shes, and much more. The only difference was the different ways it yelled in pain. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om When Sol checked its health, his jaw dropped in shock. [Health: 1543/1750] ¡¯It¡¯s basically in peak condition!¡¯ At the start of the battle, Sol targeted the other two skulls that had ipletew techniques branching off their talent skills. Thinking those were more dangerous, he disabled them first. Little did he know that the skull with an ipletew technique in the passive skill [Comedic Agony] would be the one to give him the biggest headache. He considered disabling it and ending the fight then and there, but he was curious about what could possibly be its weakness. However, before he could do that, he needed to finish off the other two Laughing Skulls first. Without hesitation, Sol took out the Tynamo Cannon and pointed it at the chanting skull on the left. He smirked as he said under his breath, "I¡¯d like to see you take this." He pulled the trigger and shot a beam of void energy that used 20% of the total reserve. It was significantly weaker than the one used on the humongous Tomb Hulk, but for the small flying skulls, what mattered most was uracy. The beam pierced through multiple ck mes that stood between him and the skull, and before it could react, it was shot straight through the middle of its forehead. [You have in a Lv 122 Laughing Skull! Gained 87,618,603 Exp (420%)] Unlike all previous attacks, the void beam wasn¡¯t even transferred to the other skull, and the poor Laughing Skull, thinking it would be safe from all harm, was killed in one shot. The remaining skull froze upon seeing the protection fail, and for the first time since the battle started, it began to move as Sol pointed the cannon towards it next. Previously, it stayed in one spot spamming spells, but it couldn¡¯t afford to do so when such a weapon was about to be pointed at it. The other skull that had been taking the hits the whole time also joined it in moving around and began casting [Grim mes]. They both flew rapidly, trying to make it as hard as possible for Sol tond a good shot. Sol kept trying to line up the shot, but the skulls¡¯ nonstop [Grim mes] forced him to dodge out of the way or keep repositioning. During this exchange, while Sol was trying to line up a shot, a distorted sh cut the back of the second skull¡¯s head. [You have in a Lv 122 Laughing Skull! Gained 87,618,603 Exp (420%)] Surprisingly, this attack by Amber didn¡¯t get transferred, leading to the direct death of the skull, which was unable to react to the instant attack. ¡¯Why didn¡¯t that one get transferred?¡¯ Sol thought to himself. He nced at the remaining skull flying around, making sure he didn¡¯t identally mix the two up. But seeing it was the one with the ipletew technique, he could only think of one reason. ¡¯Was it because it can¡¯t maintain the technique while casting spells, or does it simply not work while they are in motion? Is that why they didn¡¯t bother moving before?¡¯ If that¡¯s the case, he could understand why they began to move now. After all, the void beam broke through the technique, so there was no point in staying in one spot like sitting ducks. "Don¡¯t kill it, Amber. I want to see something." Amber nodded, lowering her daggers and focusing only on dodging the ck mes that kept spewing out of the Laughing Skull¡¯s mouth. To find out the truth, Sol summoned all ten hands to chase down the flying skull. Though the skull was faster than the hands, it could not dodge them forever. Eventually, it was cornered as four hands brought it down to the ground while two held its mouth shut. The remaining hands hovered nearby, ready to move if needed. Sol disabled its [Advanced Dark Magic] to prevent any idents and approached to inspect its [Comedic Agony] skill. He didn¡¯t use [Analysis] as that only showed the skull¡¯s status page. What he used was the vision provided by [Aggregate]. Closer to the lines flowing out of the skull, he could view the skill in detail without acquiring it himself. As for why he didn¡¯t siphon it to begin with, it¡¯s because he had already done so, and when he found out what it did, he immediately deleted it from within himself. [[Comedic Agony] Lv MAX: Curse of the Laughing Skulls. You are death¡¯s greatest joke. When not casting spells, one is subjected to constantughter. Proficiency in dark magic increased by 200%.] This was truly a skill only Laughing Skulls could use. When he siphoned it, he had to, while constantlyughing to the point it hurt, will the skill¡¯s string to break. He only had it for a few minutes, but that was more than enough for him to feel pity for all the Laughing Skulls in the world. Inspecting the skull¡¯s ipletew skill, he soon understood what it did and felt even more pity for this specific skull. ¡¯If I had to name this ability, it would be [Butt of the Joke],¡¯ Sol thought to himself. The ipletew technique was rather straightforward; it could designate allies to join the "joke." Once it did, all damage the allies received would be redirected to the skull, which wouldedically react after every attack. The only downside was that it couldn¡¯t move nor retaliate. The allies were less restricted, being able to attack but not move from their spot. While the skull receiving the damage would take next to no damage, the pain would be multiplied tenfold. Even as an undead who were supposed to be immune to pain, it would still feel half of the multiplied pain. Knowing what it could do, it was easy to identify many ways to counter it, such as running away. The undead skulls would have to give chase and, in doing so, would cancel the skill. Having satisfied his curiosity, Sol disabled the skull¡¯s ipletew technique and chanted, "[Light Spear]." His magic hands made way for the three spears that rained down on the skull. [You have in a Lv 122 Laughing Skull! Gained 87,618,603 Exp (420%)] Done with his little investigation, the duo continued on their way. They didn¡¯t encounter any more Zomest, but on the bright side, Sol managed to max out a few of his newer skills. After maxing out those skills, he changed his focus to upgrading his aggregated ones, especially [Perfect Bnce], [Superior Mana Control], and [Invincible Body]. These skills were formed from at least five other skills each, causing their growth to be extremely slowpared to other skills, but nheless were a great investment to level. Chapter 239: Tethers Within the rest area of the 29th floor, Sol was checking the progress of his skills, not through his status page, but through the strings and lines that emanated from himself. He thought to himself, ¡¯[Perfect Bnce], [Superior Mana Control] should both be level 5, while [Invincible Body] is at 9.¡¯ To confirm, he checked his status page and smiled at his incredible uracy. Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner], [Transformer] Level: 106 Exp: 421,186,330/2,217,580,947 HP: 2150 MP: 2250 Str: 105 (+110) Vit: 105 (+110) Agi: 110 (+110) Int: 105 (+110) Wis: 105 (+120) Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 6, [Analysis] Lv 8, [Aggregate] Lv EX, [Reinterpret] Lv EX Siphoned Talents: [Create Magic Hands] Lv MAX, [Impact Bubble] Lv 4, [Spectral w] Lv MAX, [Gigantify] Lv MAX Passive Skills: [Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Reflect] Lv 4, [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 8, [Advanced Weapon Mastery] Lv 1, [Wild Hunt] Lv 2, [Invincible Body] Lv 9, [Perfect Bnce] Lv 5, [Death Absorption] Lv MAX, [True Sight (Variant)] Lv 6, [Superior Mana Control] Lv 5, [Fortified Soul] Lv 2, [Novice Craftsman] Lv 6, [Battle Dance] Lv 8, [Nether Body] Lv MAX Active Skills: [Ground Shrink] Lv 9, [Invisibility] Lv 9, [Terra Maniption] Lv 8, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Telepathy] Lv 3, [Unpassable Bulwark] Lv 8, [Advanced Elemental Magic (Variant)] Lv 1, [Overpower] Lv 6, [Weapon Empowerment (Variant)] Lv EX, [Piercing Lunge] Lv 8, [Mana sh] Lv 6, [Polychromatism] Lv EX, [Mana Burst] Lv EX, [Repair] Lv 5, [Shadow Body] Lv 6, [Close Combat] Lv 1, [Vorpal de Rush] Lv 2, [Guided Bombardment] Lv 3, [Phoenix Dive] Lv 4, [Unarming Blow] Lv 2, [Phantasmal Rip and Tear] Lv MAX, [Death Sentence] Lv 5 [Perfect Bnce] Lv 5: All attributes grow in perfectly bnced harmony. All stats +110. Increases lifespan by 250 years. [Superior Mana Control] Lv 5: You have taken arge step in mastering the maniption of mana. Able to bypass the need to chant spells in their totality at 25% decreased efficiency. Increased mana regeneration by 750%, can also manually recover mana faster. All mana costs decrease by 75%. Able to multicast three spells at once at 25% higher cost. Complete mitigation of mana loss when transmitting spells farther away. Can utilize the remnant mana pathway formed when casting a spell to cast the same spell once more without dy. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om [[Invincible Body] Lv 9: Increase defense by 280. Nullify all damage by 45%. High chance to ignore mental status effects. Increased health regeneration by 600%. Able to slowly regrow medium sized body parts.] As to how Sol was able to judge exactly where his skills stood, it was because he had improved not only his control over the skill strings but also his ability to perceive even the smallest details. From one level to another, there was an infinitesimally small difference in size, but nheless, it was there. He also noticed that skills that evolved showed a slightlyrger jump in size, though to the normal person, it would be imperceptible. Sol¡¯s ability to perceive these lines better allowed him to understand those of others, enabling him to quickly identify an opponent¡¯s strongest skills with a single nce. ¡¯On the 21st floor, it took me a full 8 seconds to identify their ipletew technique and 7 more seconds to disable it. Now I need less than a second to identify it and only 3 seconds to disable it.¡¯ His progress made him extremely satisfied. This didn¡¯t mean it took him only three seconds to disable any skill. Some were harder than others. The stronger and more developed a skill was, the more effort it took. But he could confidently say that as long as he wasn¡¯t up against aw technique, he could disable a skill in under 5 seconds¡ªless if it wasn¡¯t a MAX or EX skill. This didn¡¯t includew techniques, which he still struggled with, especially after hisst failed attempt with Ryogan. As forpletely erasing skills, it still took considerable effort. It was simr to twisting someone¡¯s arm: a twist might cause a bruise, but it took significantly more effort to tear it off. Hisst attempt on a poor Nether Wraith took him a full minute to erase its max-level talent skill, even with his improved control. Sol looked at the strings pensively and thought to himself, ¡¯I haven¡¯t really named this skill or these strings that embody skills and techniques¡­ How about tethers?¡¯ "Tethers" felt like the most appropriate name, as these strings were the connections formed between the user and some far-off thing or being. When the tether was cut off, they lostplete ess to whatever the tether embodied. With a new name in mind, Sol nced at the tether of his formingw technique and noticed it was almostpletely detached from [Aggregate]. He knew he was close. Closing his sight from the tethers, he thought to himself, ¡¯I wonder how others measure theirw technique progress. I can visibly see it, and I should tell Amber hers is nearingpletion as well.¡¯ As if his thoughts summoned her, Amber appeared and asked, "Ready?" Sol nodded, packed his things, and prepared to delve into the final floor before the boss. ¡­ Running through thest floor, Solmented not being able to find any more Zomest, and the two they encountered had slipped away in a never-before-seen manner. As they reached the halfway point, luck seemed to shine upon them once more. Another Zomest was wandering the hall, this time alone. "Let¡¯s take care of it immediately before it also disappears," Sol whispered to Amber. Sol checked its tethers and identified the ipletew technique. ¡¯[Combine Zombeast]? What are the odds of two out of three having the same ipletew technique?¡¯ It was important to note that monsters could have ipletew techniques tied to any of their MAX or EX skills, not just talents. So the odds of encountering another Zomest with the same ipletew technique were about 10%. Not believing lightning could strike twice, he used [Analysis] to find out more. Race: Zomest Talent Skills: [Zombeast Maker], [Commander], [Ring Master] Level: 114 ¡¯Level 114, not 126? This one¡¯s from the 26th floor!¡¯ A monster from one floor appearing on another was unheard of, as far as Sol knew. He instantly deduced that it had something to do with whatever absorbed it into the ground previously, likely transporting it to this floor for a specific reason. Sol immediately told Amber what he had discovered and used [Terra Maniption] to harden the ground as much as he could. "This time, it won¡¯t escape," he said, and Amber nodded. It didn¡¯t sit right with her either, allowing a target to escape. Sol disabled its ipletew technique¡ªthey didn¡¯t want to risk prolonging the fight¡ªand charged forward. Both were invisible to approach undetected, but when they got within 100 meters, the Zomest had already sensed their presence. Sol managed to disable its skill just in time as it attempted to use its ipletew technique but froze in confusion. "Wry?" The Zomest shrieked under its skull mask but quickly recovered and threw vials of a ck substance at them. Sol calmly sent a few [Mana shes] at the vials, cutting them in half and spraying the contents around. A sizzling sound filled the air as the ck liquid quickly corroded the ground. Amber used [Phase Step], an evolution of [Ground Shrink], causing the space around her to bend as she instantly appeared next to the Zomest. She spun her right dagger and stabbed it square in the back. "WRYY!" The Zomest shrieked again, louder this time, as multiple arms broke out of its robe, reaching for Amber. Not expecting the abnormal number of arms, Amber relied on her reflexes, turning herself to sand and phasing through the grasping limbs. Meanwhile, Sol wasn¡¯t idle. He finished chanting a spell. "[Light Spear]! [Light Spear]! [Light Spear]!" Tens of spears made of light appeared and rained down on the Zomest, forcing it to stop attacking Amber and focus on dodging and blocking the spears. The fight had only been going on for a few seconds, and multiple attacks had been exchanged between the three of them. During the battle, Sol felt his control over certain parts of the hallway lessen as something else began causing them to move. He paused, as this time it didn¡¯t happen beneath the Zomest. "It¡¯sing from the roof?" Switching on [True Sight], he inspected what was going on and, in doing so, was shocked by what he discovered. Immediately, he turned to Amber and warned her, "We gotta run away! Now!" She didn¡¯t question or hesitate, as she could see the urgency behind his eyes. She backed off the Zomest and began running down the passage. Sol used [Ground Shrink] to join her, and just as he did, multiple undead dropped from the roof surrounding where they previously stood. Five Nether Wraiths, seven Laughing Skulls, three Tomb Hulks, and three more Zomests appeared¡ªa total of 19 pseudo A-Rank enemies. "It¡¯s an ambush!" Chapter 240: Ambush With a head start, the two made a break for the stairs. At no point did they even entertain the idea of fighting 19 pseudo A-Rank enemies. Even if Sol could disable all their skills, it was still a small army chasing them¡ªwho in their right mind would take them on in a direct confrontation? While running, Sol used both [Analysis] and his ability to view the tethers to identify which enemies posed the biggest threat and which skills to disable first. He was still in the middle of analyzing when one of the Nether Wraiths body warped out of sight. The next thing he knew, it appeared in front of him, swinging its [Spectral ws]. Caught off guard by how quickly the enemy closed the distance, Sol barely managed to turn his body into shadows just in time, merging into the ground before the ws could strike. While [Shadow Body] didn¡¯t make him immune to the ws, it was much faster than trying to dodge manually. Within the shadows, Sol used [Close Combat],unching his shadowy fists that rose from the ground and pummeled the Nether Wraith. At first, the wraith fought back with its ws, but it quickly realized it was being overpowered. Each shadow punch carried more destructive might than thest, forcing the wraith to warp away before it lost the exchange. With the wraith off his back, Sol emerged from the ground and continued running after Amber, who had gained a small lead. She paced herself, allowing Sol to catch up while she sent distorted shes back at the pursuing undead. The Tomb Hulks charged ahead of the group, taking the brunt of those shes as the Laughing Skulls hid behind them, endlessly chanting [Grim mes] at the duo. Sol called upon all his magic hands¡ªseven simultaneously released their respective chromas, while the final three used [Spectral ws], positioning themselves around the others to fight. Sol grunted as he felt the strain on his soul, splitting it in multiple directions while actively fleeing. He could only endure the pain and keep running, knowing the hands wouldn¡¯tst long but would buy them some time. Amber helped by spreading sand everywhere, summoning sand soldiers to rise from the ground, ready to defend their escape with their artificial lives. Despite his concentration being split, Sol continued disabling the ipletew techniques of the undead. He managed to disable the warping Nether Wraith¡¯s and a Tomb Hulk¡¯s [Bulldoze], preventing them from easily trampling their defenses. That very same Tomb Hulk was the first to charge ahead, wanting to break through the opposition and create an opening for its allies. When it tried to activate its ipletew technique, it fumbled, causing it to trip and fall with a loud thud. Sol¡¯s hands immediately seized the opportunity, raining a colorful array of attacks upon the hulk, while Amber targeted the Laughing Skulls with distorted shes. [You have in a Lv 126 Laughing Skull! Gained 134,348,526 Exp (460%)] n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om [You have in a Lv 126 Tomb Hulk! Gained 134,348,526 Exp (460%)] The duo capitalized on the small opening, destroying two of the undead. Unfortunately, when they looked to target the remaining Laughing Skulls, those had already moved behind the other Tomb Hulks. While the magic hands and sand soldiers did their job defending the line, Sol and Amber continued running toward the stairs. Not long after, Sol felt his hands being destroyed, and Amber lost her connection to the sand soldiers. "We¡¯re at least half an hour away from the stairs," Sol informed her while running, "but I think there might be other undead waiting there to block our exit." Amber nodded in agreement. Initially, they believed they were stuck in the middle of a monster house, but given that the undead Zomest came from different floors and the way they appeared surrounding them, they knew it was intentional. Something wanted them dead, and if they were in its shoes, they would also block the stairs to prevent their escape. ¡¯If they¡¯re considering blocking the escape route, I need to save the Tynamo Cannon to st through them.¡¯ It was possible to use it now to thin their numbers, as the undead nearly filled the entire passage. Taking down a few without aiming would be easy, but it would consume a lot of energy, and he didn¡¯t know how many more would be waiting at the exit. ncing back, Sol sighed in relief. "At least we¡¯re outpacing the Tomb Hulks. The others will either have to slow down to keep using them as shields or abandon them, leaving themselves vulnerable to our attacks." Thoughrge and towering, the brutes were slow, and over time, they were getting further behind. But as if to mock his naivety, one of the Zomest leaped onto a Tomb Hulk¡¯s back and spread tendrils into it and another hulk. Their muscles swelled with power, and each stepunched them forward with incredible momentum. ¡¯I just had to say it!¡¯ Sol shifted his focus from disabling another Tomb Hulk¡¯s skill to the Zomest. The distance between the two groups shortened dramatically in the brief moment it took Sol to disable the Zomest¡¯s ipletew technique. By the time its tendrils lost their buffing ability and iled around uncontrobly, the gap had closed enough for the Laughing Skulls to bombard them with spells again. "[Grim mes]!" "[Grim mes]!" "[Grim mes]!" "[Light Spear]! [Light Spear]! [Light Spear]!" Sol chanted nonstop to counteract the countless ck mes hurtling toward them, but there were simply too many. Amber had to help,unching her own sand attacks to counter the remaining mes. These exchanges continued as they gained and lost distance in a constant ebb and flow. Sometimes an undead that Sol had already disabled would regain its ability, surprising them. During the chaos, the duo didn¡¯t notice¡ªor rather, couldn¡¯t afford to notice¡ªthat two Zomest had quietly slipped away during the chase. ¡­ Near the exit stairs, the two Zomest rose from the ground. They looked at each other and nodded, having received the samemand. The two took positions opposite each other and began using the ipletew technique they both shared, [Combine Zombeast]. Two intricate magic circles with seven different rings appeared, each ring containing glyphs of different animals. The rings began to rotate as the Zomest carefully chose their creation. As the circles moved closer to one another, they began to ovep, amplifying the effect. The circles mimicked each other as the seven rings lined up to form one final creation that they were sure would fulfill its purpose. "Kekeke..." One of the Zomest cackled as itpleted the circle and activated it, causing it to sh a powerful red light. The magic circle hovering in the air solidified, bing dark red and opaque. The light and space around it began to bend as two massive ws appeared from the other side. Those ws gripped the edge of the magic circle and began wing their way out. "Kekeke!" The Zomest cackled maliciously as the head of their creation emerged, knowing they would be the ones to fulfill their creator¡¯s will. Chapter 241: Zombeast Explosions echoed through the passage as Sol and Amber raced around the corner. Sol had switched from holding his Lipon to his bow, which suited the situation better, and used [Guided Bombardment] again,unching hundreds of arrows that curved around the passage, causing even more explosions. From the dust clouds created by the exploding arrows, six Tomb Hulks burst forth, followed by over 20 Laughing Skulls and Nether Wraiths. The other two Zomest that hadn¡¯t slipped away had already been killed by Sol and Amber, along with 15 other undead, using a variety of methods at their disposal. Although no new Zomest appeared, more undead joined or ambushed them, adding to the slowly growing group of pursuers. If not for the fact that they had culled a decent chunk of the forces and targeted those with agility or enhancing type ipletew techniques first, they would likely have been caught by now. The [Guided Bombardment] did little in the way of ying or even significantly slowing down the pursuing undead, but it did injure a few. The injuries weren¡¯t obvious, but some of the undead were defeated due to the continuous attacks wearing them down. "[Tailwind]!" After reapplying the wind magic that made them just slightly faster, Sol consulted the map of the floor he had ingrained in his mind and turned to Amber. "We¡¯re almost there! Be ready for anything!" She nodded, sending sand spears and distorted shes behind her, forcing one of the Hulks to erge and brace itself to block for those behind it. Sand spears pierced its body, and multiple cuts appeared on its skin, but no blood was drawn¡ªit had none to begin with. The Hulk continued charging forward, being used as a meat shield as Laughing Skulls rained spells down on the duo from behind its cover. The ck mes collided with the sand spears and a few distorted shes, as the distortions were only effective if there wasn¡¯t anything between her and her target. The remaining mes headed toward the duo, but Sol called upon two magic hands tobine the green and indigo chroma, forming a reinforced barrier that briefly endured the attacks before breaking. By the time the barrier broke and the rest of the ck mesnded where they had been, the two were already gone, having turned to the next passage. Sol chugged another potion as his mana dipped to just below half. He knew there would definitely be some sort of opposition at the stairs after being consecutively ambushed around corners. They were only six passages away from reaching the stairs, which they could cover in no time at all, and once they went down the stairs, they were basically home free. As for the possibility of being chased down the stairs? He had considered it and knew it wouldn¡¯t be a problem. ¡¯Though it¡¯s known that monsters never touch the stairs, with how many "nevers" have been happening, I wouldn¡¯t put it past them to follow us down. But in case they do, we can just take the door to fight the boss immediately, use the Tynamo Cannon, kill it instantly, and take the teleport sigil to leave,¡¯ Sol thought to himself as he created stone spikes to rise from the ground and fall from the ceiling, crushing the undead pursuing them. A Laughing Skull and a Nether Wraith were unable to dodge the sudden attack. Already wounded, the spikes pierced through them, ending their existences. [You have in a Lv 126 Laughing Skull! Gained 134,348,526 Exp (460%)] [You have in a Lv 126 Nether Wraith! Gained 134,348,526 Exp (460%)] Sol was pleasantly surprised. ¡¯Two at once? Nice!¡¯ In that brief moment of celebration, he failed to notice the bluring from ahead, zing straight toward them. Massive bronze ws shed as they swiped forward, aiming for Sol¡¯s head. Before the ws couldnd, Sol was suddenly shoved to the side. "Woah!" Sol yelled in surprise as he was pushed with enough force that it sent him flying toward the wall. He looked at Amber, who now stood where he had been, the ws shing through her, spraying sand everywhere. When Solnded against the wall, he used [Terra Maniption] to keep himselftched onto it. He saw what had attacked them this time. It was something he could only describe as a true monster¡ªa scale-covered panther with two different heads, the main one resembling a drake while the one sprouting from its back appeared like turtle¡¯s. Aside from that it also had massive bat like wings folded on its sides and long bronze ws on each of its legs. It was an amalgamation of different creatures, some of which he could recognize, and others he had never seen before. Name: N/A Race: Variant Zombeast Talents: [True Zombeast], [Apex Predator], [Death Stalker] Level: 130 Sol immediately identified what it was. ¡¯A Zombeast like the ones Zomest can summon! But I thought they could only create a creature bybining two animals¡ªthis is clearly much more!¡¯ As he came to the conclusion that it was the result of an ipletew technique, the Zombeast crouched and, with its long, spring like legs,unched itself toward Sol with frightening speed. Itpletely ignored the reforming Amber and went directly for Sol. This time, he saw iting and preemptively merged into the wall with [Shadow Body]. SHLING! A clean cutting sound was heard as the wall Sol hid in copsed like paper, revealing another passage behind it. The wall, which became stronger the further down one went into the dungeon and which even the regr monsters of the floor couldn¡¯t easily break, was easily decimated by the creature. Sol appeared next to Amber, rising from her shadow just as she fully reformed. Needing to act quickly before the rest of the undead army caught up, Sol pulled out the Tynamo Cannon and shot it at full power at the Zombeast. As if anticipating his attack, the Zombeast blurred as it leaped upward,pletely evading the beam that traveled back toward the iing group of undead, piercing straight through the leading Hulk and those behind it. [You have in a Lv 126 Tomb Hulk! Gained 134,348,526 Exp (460%)] [You have in a Lv 126 Nether Wraith! Gained 134,348,526 Exp (460%)] [You have in a Lv 126 Laughing Skull! Gained 134,348,526 Exp (460%)] n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om [You have in a Lv 126 Nether Wraith! Gained 134,348,526 Exp (460%)] Despite the numerous kills, Sol wasn¡¯t relieved. He watched as the Zombeast clung to the ceiling, staring down at them mockingly. The creature¡¯s turtle head opened its mouth, and instead of some roar, spell or breath attack, it actually spoke. "Is that all you got, thieves?" Chapter 242: Thief Sol and Amber were about to continue running, expecting the undead that had been chasing them to arrive soon, but when they nced over, they realized that the undead weren¡¯t moving. Instead, they stood at the end of the passage, as if waiting for further orders. ¡¯This Zombeast is only a creation of the Zomest, so they¡¯re not behind this. It¡¯s likely whoever ismanding all the undead ordered them to stay,¡¯ Sol reasoned, noticing the turtle-faced Zombeast awaiting their response. After checking the Zombeast¡¯s tethers, he noticed that, unlike the other undead, it actually had a fully formedw technique. Sol couldn¡¯t disable it even if he wanted to. Not only was Sol¡¯s ability useless against it, but the Zombeast had an agility-typew technique, making it much faster than them, so running was pointless. In this situation, even if the other undead stayed back, the duo wouldn¡¯tst long against such an enemy. Sol only had one full-power shot left in the Tynamo Cannon, and with the Zombeast¡¯s instant bursts of speed, it wasn¡¯t likely to get hit by it. His mind worked quickly to figure out a solution. He recalled everything he knew about the Zomest, the Zombeast by extension, and what it had just referred to them as. ¡¯A thief, hmm¡­¡¯ It was clear to him what it meant, and if he was right, then there was a way out. Hemunicated his idea with [Telepathy] to Amber, who nodded lightly. Amber leaped forward, swinging three distorted shes at the Zombeast. The creature didn¡¯t move out of the way, and the shes only created metallic sparks against its scales. Unharmed, the Zombeast pounced down, mming into Amber, sttering her and sending sand everywhere. Sol did nothing as he and the Zombeast watched her quietly reform once more next to him. The turtle head scoffed. "Give up, you cannot defeat us." "What do you want?" Sol asked. "What WE want is for you to return what you stole." The Zombeast emphasized that it was something the undead collectively desired. "What we stole¡­" Sol scratched his head in an exaggerated manner, as if trying his hardest to remember what it was talking about. "I don¡¯t recall taking anything from all of you. Are you perhaps referring to these?" From his spatial ring, a small pile of soul shards, dark essence, and shadow roots appeared on the ground. These were the spoils they had collected on the past floors. While money wasn¡¯t really an issue for them, they wouldn¡¯t say no to free money. The drake head opened wide and spewed a breath of corrosive green mes. Sol grabbed Amber as he leaped back, avoiding the mes thatnded on the pile of items, melting them into nothing. The turtle head frowned. "Don¡¯t y dumb, human. It¡¯s in your hands!" Sol nced down and saw the Tynamo Cannon in his hands. With a shocked expression, he asked, "What? You mean this?" "Yes! Hand it over!" "I would like to give it back, but it¡¯s already been turned into this. I don¡¯t think you want it anymore." The turtle head shook disapprovingly. "Stupid human, you can¡¯t fool us. We know the void root is still intact inside." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om The Zombeast was correct. The Tynamo Cannon contained the fully intact void root inside. When Fabio made it, he didn¡¯t tamper with or change the void root in any way but only built the cannon around it to amplify its abilities. While it was also possible topletely process the void root into a new form, it would lose much of what made it special, primarily its ability to absorb and transform energy. Sol knew this as well but was only ying dumb, hoping they would take it at face value. He didn¡¯t have high hopes that it would work, but it was worth a shot. "What do you even need it for? And why not just kill me and take it?" The drake head growled at the mention of killing, clearly preferring that option over talking. But the turtle head exined. "We can, but Mother is still loyal to her creator, and she¡¯s bent a lot of his rules today. You can return it peacefully and go back to exploring like the rest of the humans. If you refuse, we can at least say we tried. Mother¡¯s creator shouldn¡¯t get mad at her for such a thing. And as for why we need the void root, that¡¯s not for you to know." ¡¯Creator? Mother?¡¯ Sol thought to himself before asking, "Do you mean the dungeon and Proteus?" Both of the Zombeast¡¯s heads nodded. Proteus was the God of Transformation and the creator of dungeons. Though he hadn¡¯t made any new dungeons in a long time, those he made centuries ago were still utilized today as optimal training grounds. Sol had long known of Proteus as he was a rather famous god, and there was even a brief mention of him in the book about Ophis. What surprised him was the way they referred to the dungeon as their mother, but it made sense. After all, it was what created all of them. From this, Sol understood many things simultaneously regarding dungeons, giving him more confidence in what he was about to do. Sol and the Zombeast stared at each other as Amber and the rest of the undead watched, ready to charge forward. The Zombeast waited for his final decision, somewhat displeased as this had dragged on for way too long. But knowing it would get the void root no matter what he chose gave it somefort. Sol could tell exactly what was going through the Zombeast¡¯s mind based on the expressions it failed to hide. After half a minute, the Zombeast gave him the final ultimatum. "Choose. Now." "I choose¡­ neither!" Sol confidently said as he pointed the Tynamo Cannon at the Zombeast. "THEN DIE!" The Zombeast blurred as it dodged to the side, leaving only an afterimage where it once stood, anticipating the iing void beam. But to its confusion, the weapon didn¡¯t fire. It knew then that it had been tricked. Sol aimed again, but the Zombeast jumped to the wall, using its ws totch onto it. Afternding, it jumped once more, continuously doing so and creating multiple afterimages. The Zombeast knew that if it stayed in one ce or charged directly at Sol, he would shoot it. So, while staying in constant motion, it ensured he couldn¡¯t attack. As the Zombeast bounced around the passage, looking for an angle to strike, it suddenly crashed into a wall, recoiling in pain. "Argh!" The Zombeast stumbled backward in agony as the drake head now hung motionlessly, showing no signs of life. [You have in a Lv 126 Zomest! Gained 134,348,526 Exp (460%)] The remaining turtle head turned to the air next to him, as if something was there, and yelled, "How did you get here?!" Sol smirked and said, "The cannon should be the least of your worries. Did you think I wouldn¡¯t know how Zombeasts worked and that you were a Zomest talking through it the entire time? I was just buying her time." As if on cue, Amber next to him wobbled as she copsed into a pile of sand that slowly evaporated back into mana. Chapter 243: Subterfuge One minute ago. ¡¯A thief, hmm¡­¡¯ It was clear to Sol what the Zombeast meant, and if he was right, then there was a way out. The solution was to target the summoners of the Zombeast, the Zomests. Via [Telepathy], Sol spoke directly into Amber¡¯s mind, -Make a clone of yourself and leave it here while I buy you time. Search the area and find the Zomest that summoned it. With the Zomests dead the Zombeast should die as well.- Based on the information given in the dungeon guide, Zombeasts were a creation of the Zomest, and their life was maintained by them. If the Zomest died, the Zombeast would die as well. What Sol found strange was how the Zombeast spoke¡ªit was something recently created, so how could it speak in such a way andbel them as thieves? That must mean it wasn¡¯t the Zombeast talking, but someone else. The question was, who? Amber gave a light nod before leaping forward, swinging three distorted shes at the Zombeast. The creature didn¡¯t move out of the way as the three shes only created sparks against its scales. Unharmed, the Zombeast pounced down, mming into Amber, sttering her and sending sand everywhere. While Amber reformed next to Sol, a small chunk of the sand that had scattered everywhere rolled inconspicuously to the very end of the passage, away from everything. Once out of sight, the clump of sand grew and grew until it resembled a humanoid shape, eventually morphing into Amber. The Amber that was standing next to Sol was actually a sand soldier she had disguised as herself, using an advanced application of her talent skill [Sand Incarnation]. Normally, the skill allowed her topletely turn into sand, enabling her to regrow and reform endlessly. However, she used the part of the skill that turned her back to normal and applied it to a sand soldier to mimic her appearance. The sand soldier that wore her face only stared absently ahead with a poker face, as Amber couldn¡¯t quite make it show any real facial expressions¡ªbut that wasn¡¯t necessary, as she rarely showed any expressions herself to begin with. Amber then became invisible as she carefully navigated the halls, searching for the Zomest. She had long since memorized theyout and first checked the most likely spot they could be. It didn¡¯t take long until she arrived and saw the stairs and an opaque dark red portal, with two Zomests standing next to it. "Shriiiii! Keku ki Shriiik!" ("Yes! Hand it over!") n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om The Zomest on the left stood still but made noises every so often that sounded like shrieks, while the one on the right was on all fours, making odd movements¡ªpouncing and jumping. She assessed the situation and surveyed the area once more, ensuring there weren¡¯t any other undead hiding nearby. Seeing none, she approached, utilizing her stealth skills to their full potential. Unlikest time, the Zomests were too focused on controlling the Zombeast to notice her approach. Their ipletew techniques allowed them to create a much stronger creation, but it came with the downside of the Zombeast beingpletely mindless, running solely on instincts. Such a creature couldn¡¯t bemanded¡ªany orders would fall on deaf ears, and it might even end with them being attacked by their own summon. If they had a truew technique, the creature could have been smarter, but they didn¡¯t. With their current abilities, they could only solve this issue by manually controlling their creation, suppressing its basic instincts, with each Zomest controlling one of the heads. Once she was within 15 feet, she judged she was close enough. Sheunched forward and used [Phase Step], appearing in front of the Zomest on the right, who was mid jump, and unleashed a chain of skills at once. [Assassinate], [Dagger Rain], [Quintuple sh], and more¡ªcountless deep stabs and shes appeared on the Zomest, reducing it to pieces before it even saw hering. [You have in a Lv 126 Zomest! Gained 134,348,526 Exp (460%)] The other Zomest copsed in pain as the entire burden of controlling and suppressing the Zombeast¡¯s instincts fell onto it. It raised its head and saw Amber turning from the remains of the other Zomest to face it. It shrieked in surprise. "Kriki Shrie Shik?!" (How did you get here?!) Amber couldn¡¯t understand what it said, as the Zomest didn¡¯t have vocal cords capable of emting human speech, but even if it did, she wouldn¡¯t answer. With [Phase Step] on cooldown, she used [Blurring Speed] and rushed the Zomest, nning to finish it off as quickly as thest one. "KRI KIRI KE KREAK KA!" ¡­ "I WON¡¯T GO DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT!" the Zombeast roared as it wildly iled at its surroundings. The rest of the undead, seeing things weren¡¯t going ording to the dungeon¡¯s n, moved to kill the human, but the rampaging Zombeast was causing too much destruction. A few that got too close, trying to squeeze by, were identally cut into pieces by its razor sharp bronze ws. Sol had run away long before its rampage began, knowing he had to rush to the exit before the other undead realized what was going on. A few turns through the passagester, he arrived to see Amber finishing off thest Zomest, who was covered in cuts. Since she had lost the element of surprise, she faced some resistance, but given that the Zomest¡¯s ipletew technique was useless here and it was still suppressing the Zombeast¡¯s instincts, it was helpless before her. [You have in a Lv 114 Zomest! Gained 22,789,953 Exp (220%)] The final Zomest of the four that hade to kill them finally died. They were the only Zomests in these ten floors. They had all been brought together for one purpose but ended up failing their "Mother" in the end. Could Sol have given them the void root and resolved things peacefully? Yes. But should he have? They didn¡¯t approach peacefully in the first ce. Initially, they tried to kill him with an ambush. It wasn¡¯t until they almost escaped that they took drastic measures and called upon a creature much stronger than the floors to force him to hand it over. Even then, he might have considered it if he didn¡¯t need it. But now, with a harbinger after him and tensions in the capital, he needed a way to fight those A-Rankers who would pose a threat to him and those around him. "Thanks for the save, Amber! Let¡¯s go!" She nodded, and they both ran down the stairs towards the boss floor. Chapter 244: A Loyal Core Deep within thest floor of the Necropolis Dungeon, arge 10 meter orb hovered silently. Stone and earth surrounded it, being very slowly dug downward. It was an extremely slow and time consuming process, as the stone was reformed and reced with a much more durable version imbued with the orb¡¯s mana. In doing so, the stone gained new properties, such as self regeneration and extreme hardening. With each new floor, the orb¡¯s technique improved ever so slightly, making every new floor better than thest. This orb was the dungeon¡¯s core. She was the mother of all the monsters that roamed the dungeon, managing multiple operations simultaneously to ensure the dungeon ran at peak performance. As for why a genderless being like a dungeon core was referred to with feminine pronouns and as "mother" by all her undead, it was simply because she preferred to be addressed that way by her monsters. But the orb¡¯s main attention wasn¡¯t on the maze forming beneath her; she could manage that in her sleep, if she could even sleep in the first ce. What the orb was actually focused on was the situation urring many floors above her. One of the effects of the transformed stone was that she could spread her senses through them and observe what was happening as if she were right there. It was maddening for the dungeon core that the two humans who had stolen the void root months ago were using the 21st floor as their personal training ground. That void root was the fifth one she had tried cultivating as a means to elerate her growth by absorbing its energy. Though inefficient to cultivate a nt using her energy only to absorb itter, it was the only option avable to her since the mana she usually absorbed from the environment was being siphoned off to maintain the walls of the city surrounding her. But every time she grew a new one, someone swooped in and stole it. At first, she considered herself unlucky because the void root¡¯s growth required it to be near the surface to absorb various other energies she couldn¡¯t provide. However, as it happened century after century, her tolerance began to wear out. She wasn¡¯t able to pay attention to it around the clock, as she had to manage an entire dungeon, and it only took a brief moment for some adventure to appear and take it before she could move it. Many times, she considered copsing the entire room on the twotest thieves for revenge but held back because of the rules her creator, Proteus, had put in ce. There were many rules, but three were the most important and took priority above all others. The first was to let the races of the world use their dungeons as ces to train and improve. The second was to create a safe area at the start of every floor to give people a ce to rest and recover. Proteus didn¡¯t want the dungeons to be so brutal that few could survive; they should be challenging but not excessively so. The final rule was to keep their monsters from leaving the dungeon and entering the outside world without his permission. Monsters were also forbidden from crossing the stairs between floors to prevent imbnces within the dungeons. These rules were established after the war against the Outer Gods when dungeons lost their purpose as a near infinite supply of troops for the front lines. Instead of serving as barracks for endless troops, they were transformed into the dungeons seen today, designed to train the new generation to be prepared against future threats. Just as dungeon monsters obeyed the will of the dungeon, the dungeons obeyed the will of Proteus. They did exactly as hemanded and adapted to better suit their new purpose. The transition to their new role as the world¡¯s training centers wasn¡¯t difficult. As creations of Proteus, the God of Transformation, dungeons were able to easily change themselves to better suit their new purpose. It was even better for them, as they could focus on developing and improving thew techniques they used to manage their dungeons. But what bothered the dungeon core was that, despite all the options avable to her, she couldn¡¯t use any of them without risking going against her creator¡¯s will. Copsing the entire floor or sending all the monsters from the floor after the two would have easily ended their lives. Within the rules, there were ways to kill those she wanted to, but against that duo, it was useless. She created multiple monster houses throughout the floors, hoping they would run into at least one of them, but not only did both have stealth skills, one could see the undead from far away and took detours around them. When that hateful duo encountered a Zomest, the dungeon core knew there was no way this rare creation of hers would defeat them, but just as the duo was getting ready to kill it, she had a bright idea. If one Zomest couldn¡¯t defeat them, what about all of them? In that moment, she used her authority over the dungeon to bring the Zomests onto the floor, transporting them through the floor itself. Though the rules stated that monsters couldn¡¯t use the stairs, they said nothing about moving through the floor. She knew it was pushing the limits of the rules established by her creator, and though she was unwilling topletely defy his decree, she figured it was fine to bend the rules somewhat, right? Yet, even after she dropped all four Zomests along with a group of other undead, the two hateful humans managed to evade them and ran away like cowards. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om The dungeon core then bent the rules once more, moving the two Zomests that were useless in the chase to the exit so they could make use of their ability. The creature they created together exceeded her expectations; it could perhaps even rival the undead found on thetest floors. Though the Zombeast had some clear downsides, she knew it could easily overpower the two humans, and so she was giddy at the thought of finally killing them and retrieving her void root. But then she realized something. This creature was a clear A-Rank and directly vited the third rule. The reason creatures couldn¡¯t pass to different floors from where they were born was to prevent an A-Rank monster from appearing on the first floor. Though it was brought from another floor, it was too strong for that section of the dungeon and was a clear vition of the rules. After some consideration, she concluded that it was too much and decided she would rather lose the void root than risk having Proteus hate or punish her. She ryed her will to the Zomest, but instead of the usual obedience, it actually gave her a suggestion. To simply ask for it back. If she gave them a chance to return it, all would be well, and the humans could continue exploring normally. If they declined, would Proteus really judge her for bending the rules a little? She chose to proceed and gave the Zomests permission to ask. Her full attention was on the interaction between the Zomest speaking through the Zombeast and the human. She couldn¡¯t understand why the human was being so obtuse and dense about the situation, asking questions and presenting worthless junk her dungeon naturally produced without any effort. It was only when the human declined her offer that she allowed the Zomest tomand the Zombeast to kill them¡ªbut something unexpected urred. The female human standing next to the male turned into a pile of sand as the real female appeared next to the Zomests by the exit and killed them both. The dungeon core visibly shook in surprise at how the woman had escaped her vision. She had been so focused on the talking human that she failed to notice the other one moving behind her back. Now, she could only watch helplessly as the two humans took the stairs and headed to the boss floor. The Zombeast was the most she could do without actively breaking the rules, so she knew it was over. As for the boss being able to kill them¡ªif being chased by over 20 undead for half an hour wasn¡¯t enough to harm them, what could a single boss do? She had bent the rules far more than she should have and wasn¡¯t going to make them face ten bosses simultaneously. If the dungeon core could sigh, she would. She was about to give up and begin the century long process of creating a new void root when she had another idea, inspired by the now dead Zomests. The stone around her, already under her control, began to gather in one spot as she attempted something for the first time. She had no idea if this would work, but if it did, not only would she have another chance to regain her void root within this century, but many more possibilities would be open to her. Excited by the prospect, she left the two humans to their own devices and started her new project. Chapter 245: Annoying the Boss In the rest area before the boss door, Sol copsed onto the ground and breathed a sigh of relief. "Ahh, I was worried there for a second. I was running out of material to stall them with. It¡¯s hard making stuff up like that on the fly¡­" Not being naturally gifted at speaking, Sol had struggled to maintain the pretense that he was seriously considering their offer. He masked his awkwardness by also asking questions he was genuinely curious about. "Luckily, the Zomest controlling the Zombeast didn¡¯t catch on. It didn¡¯t seem like it was used to conversing with others, so it answered most of my questions without even thinking about it." Though annoying, the Zomests controlling the Zombeast had only been tasked with retrieving the void root. But being creatures born forbat, negotiation wasn¡¯t their strong suit. They likely would have even answered why their mother needed the void root if they had known themselves. However, the dungeon core had kept that to herself¡ªher reasons weren¡¯t for her minions to understand. As long as she asked, the dungeon monsters would move to fulfill her wishes without question. As Soly on the ground resting, Amber wasn¡¯t as rxed. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "What if theye here?" She knew there wasn¡¯t much to stop the undead from chasing them down to this floor. If not through the stairs, then perhaps through the ceiling, like when they had been initially attacked. Sol, using one hand as a cushion against the hard ground, shook his head. "I doubt it. You weren¡¯t there, but the Zomest said something that stuck with me: ¡¯Mother is still loyal to her creator, and she¡¯s bent a lot of his rules today.¡¯ Their ¡¯mother¡¯ is the dungeon itself, and the ¡¯creator¡¯ is the god Proteus. It¡¯s clear that dungeons operate by some sort of ruleset, and the dungeon didn¡¯t want to break them. With the undead dropping from the ceiling and everything else, she was already pushing the limits of those rules. That¡¯s probably why all dungeons have somewhat simr setups with only minor variances. One constant is the safe areas¡ªno monster has ever been seen inside one. They could probably enter safe areas if they wanted to, but they don¡¯t. Otherwise, why didn¡¯t they just drop a bunch of monsters here while we were resting, or block the stairs with hordes of undead? I think we¡¯re safe, at least for now." He adjusted himself, feeling ufortable with his hand as a pillow. Sol pulled out a sleeping bag from his spatial ring andy down on it before continuing. "The boss room should be normal, too. But just in case, we should still keep an eye on our surroundings." Amber considered his perspective and found logic in his reasoning. She sat down next to him, and though her nk expression hid it well, her body was exhausted. They had been running and fighting for thest half hour without rest. If it weren¡¯t for their potions to recover mana and Sol¡¯s healing spells, they wouldn¡¯t havested through such an intense chase. If the undead dide down for them, they¡¯d have no choice but to take on the boss whilepletely drained. A few minutester, Sol¡¯s stomach rumbled. He flipped onto his side and asked, "Do you n on making something to eat?" Amber shook her head. "Preserved food." "Fair enough, jerky it is." Sol sighed but didn¡¯t argue. They were both too tired to bother cooking. Over the past few days, he had grown quite fond of Amber¡¯s excellent cooking, to the point that he was already dreading the end of their dungeon trip¡ªhe wouldn¡¯t be able to enjoy her meals for a while. He pulled some dried jerky from his spatial ring and chewed it as quickly as he could. He was too hungry to even taste the overly salted meat, swallowing it practically whole. Lying back down, Sol couldn¡¯t help but feel a little regretful. ¡¯Sadly, I couldn¡¯t use [Siphon] on the Zomests, but the boss should make up for it.¡¯ ... An hourter, Sol was doing a few stretches, looking much more energized. *Gods, my body¡¯s still a bit sore, but it¡¯s nothing that¡¯ll affect my fighting.* He turned to Amber, who was nearby cleaning her daggers. She finished and holstered both des in the sheaths at her hips. He didn¡¯t need to ask if she was ready. Instead, he simply said, "Let¡¯s get out of here. The boss shouldn¡¯t be too much trouble." Amber gave a curt nod and followed him through the massive door. Stepping through, the two were transported to one of the many boss rooms on the 30th floor. They found themselves in what looked like the ruins of an ancient city, with stone structures scattered around the massive room. It was hard to see clearly¡ªonly a faint light glowed above a temple-like structure at the center of the room. The two scanned their surroundings, but no matter where they looked, there was no sign of any enemy. Already knowing what kind of opponent they were about to face, Sol calmly chanted a spell in his mind. "[Revealing Light]." A bright orb of light appeared above him, illuminating the area. Strangely, though the light was intense, it only covered a 10 foot radius around him. After a brief moment, the light was snuffed out, and the room returned to its previous dim state. Sol didn¡¯t panic and immediately recast the spell, looping it. "[Revealing Light]. [Revealing Light]. [Revealing Light]. [Revealing Light]." Light orbs appeared one after another, only to be extinguished just as quickly. This back and forth continued until Sol began multicasting, summoning three orbs at a time. Soon, the room was filled with countless bright lights, pushing the surrounding darkness back until only an oddly shaped blob of shadow remained, surrounded by seven different light orbs. Sharp shadow tendrilsshed out, piercing or strangling the lights, but each one destroyed was reced by three more. Despite the intense magical illumination, the shadow blob persisted, refusing to shrink any further. Having identified his target, Sol changed spells and prepared to attack. "[Light Spe¡ª]" "ENOUGH!" A st of shadows erupted from the blob, extinguishing all the nearby lights. As the shadows retracted, a figure rose from the blob. It was tall and thin, humanoid, with ck skin, pointed ears, and a tail tipped with an arrowhead swaying behind it. From its expression, it was clear the creature was already furious. "You¡¯re just like those damn skulls! Constantly spewing out spells! We both know I can¡¯t win against you two, so do you have to be so annoying about it?!" Chapter 246: A Bet Name: N/A Race: Shadow Crawler Talents: [Shadow Affinity], [Shadow Bringer], [Living Shadows] Level: 130 Sol gave a quick nce at its status page to make sure it was the boss and not some other entity. Seeing that it was the normal boss, he said, "You can speak as well? Can only you speak, or can every other Shadow Crawler talk? Do the normal enemies past your floor also speak?" He found it more intriguing that the Shadow Crawler spoke directly to him, unlike the Zomest, which had spoken through the turtle head of the Zombeast. Not only that, but unlike the Handless Fiend, this one wasn¡¯t restricted to a single sentence. The Shadow Crawler rolled its glowing purple eyes. "Of course we can. The buffoons from thest floor can also understand you, but for different reasons, they can¡¯t talk." Sol thought back to the skill he briefly obtained from the Laughing Skull and shuddered. In exchange for empowering its dark magic, it could onlyugh endlessly when not casting spells. And though Sol didn¡¯t know it, the Zomest were unable to speak due to a simple biological difference in theirrynx, which prevented them from speaking like humans. Though both could understand themonnguage, neither could vocalize it, and the other two undead also couldn¡¯t speak for their own reasons. "So why are you talking with us if you know how this will end?" He would have been somewhat disappointed if the boss had simply given up and let them pass. Not only would he miss out on the Zomest¡¯s skills, but the boss¡¯s as well. ¡¯Maybe I should have disabled its ipletew technique from the start and killed it quickly¡­¡¯ Initially, they had been cautious, suspecting there could be multiple bosses. But once Sol illuminated the entire room, it became clear that there was only one. He knew it would be simple to disable its skill and y it. He refrained, though, wanting to experience itsw technique to broaden their horizons and improve. If they steamrolled through everything without resistance, when they eventually faced a real challenge¡ªlike the recent horde of undead¡ªthey¡¯d struggle to fight back. The Shadow Crawler awkwardly ced its hands behind its back and tapped its foot. "Is there any chance I can convince you to return the void root?" "No," Sol replied with a deadpan expression. Even if they had asked nicely, setting aside the fact that their first attempt to take it had involved trying to kill him, he needed it. "C¡¯mon, please? I¡¯ll even let you in on a huge secret if you do." "A secret?" Sol was intrigued but, after thinking about it for a moment, shook his head. "Nah, it¡¯s fine. No secret is worth an A-rank weapon." The Shadow Crawler persisted. "On the contrary! I¡¯m sure the humans and other races would love to know the full list of rules that dungeons abide by! You could sell that information for whatever you desire!" "All... the rules? And no one else knows them?" As far as Sol knew, nobody had aprehensive understanding of the guidelines dungeons followed. Dungeon guides had beenpiled through the efforts of countless adventurers who risked or even sacrificed their lives to learn more about them. But nations might already know more than what was publicly avable. The Shadow Crawler shook its head confidently. "It¡¯s impossible, at least for this kingdom. If they knew our rules, they would have formed a pact with Mother centuries ago." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om ¡¯It¡¯s possible to cooperate with dungeons?¡¯ While Sol didn¡¯t know what kind of cooperation was possible, he understood the potential value of this information. If he reported it to Commander Zaman, he¡¯d surely be rewarded with a ludicrous amount of merit and benefits. Even so, he could only shake his head. "Sorry, but I still can¡¯t trade the void root. It¡¯s too important right now." If he gave it away and the harbinger came, he¡¯d be helpless. Knowing the dungeon¡¯s rules would be worthless if he was dead. Diana had said she¡¯d protect him, but there was little she could do if the attack came by surprise. Besides, she couldn¡¯t stay near him 24/7. When he reached A-rank, he might consider returning it, but for now, that wasn¡¯t an option. "Fight now?" Amber asked, noting Sol¡¯s refusal. The Shadow Crawler despaired¡ªnot because it would die to them, but because it couldn¡¯t retrieve the void root for its mother. Though it hadn¡¯t been explicitly tasked with obtaining it like the Zomest had, it still acted in its mother¡¯s best interest. Seeing Amber unsheathe her daggers, it prepared to fight, until a final idea came to mind. "Wait! How about we make a bet? If I win, you hand over the void root. If you win, I¡¯ll tell you all the rules." Sol gently ced a hand on Amber¡¯s shoulder, signaling her to lower her weapons. "What¡¯s the bet?" There was a chance to walk away with both the void root and the dungeon¡¯s rules. He¡¯d be a fool not to at least hear the boss out. "We fight one on one, but with some additional rules. We can only use three skills. No pseudow techniques, no using that void root weapon, and no disabling skills or whatever it is you guys do to prevent us from using ours. Also, no passive skills unless they¡¯re attributes that can¡¯t be turned off. How about it?" The Shadow Crawler had been briefed on some of Sol¡¯s more annoying abilities, which is why it added thest stiption. If one or more of its chosen skills were disabled, it wouldn¡¯t stand a chance. ¡¯Only three skills... I have a few goodbinations, but considering its abilities, light magic is a must...¡¯ It didn¡¯t take long for Sol toe up with a few advantageousbinations. The risk of epting the bet seemed low, so he nodded. "Sure. Should I state what skills I¡¯ll be using?" The Shadow Crawler shook its head. "You misunderstand, human. By ¡¯we,¡¯ I don¡¯t mean you and me... I mean her!" It said, pointing its tail directly at Amber. Chapter 247: Dungeon Duel "You want to fight Amber?" Sol raised an eyebrow, not understanding why the Shadow Crawler specifically wanted to fight her. "If that¡¯s her name, sure!" the Shadow Crawler said with an impish smile. Switching to a more serious tone, it exined, "Look, from what I¡¯ve seen and heard, you have too many skills, including some kind of shadow transformation and light magic, even though those two are conflicting elements. With those two skills alone, if we fought, it¡¯s a no brainer who would win. But against her, I at least stand a chance." Sol considered it and realized it made sense. When they first entered, he had been able topletely suppress the Shadow Crawler¡¯s abilities by spamming light magic. The only reason it had resisted at all was thanks to its ipletew technique. If it couldn¡¯t even use that against him, the oue was clear. While Amber was strong in her own right, she didn¡¯t have that elemental advantage over the Shadow Crawler. It believed it had a decent chance against her. "So? Is the bet still on?" the Shadow Crawler asked, waiting expectantly. Sol hesitated, seriously considering it. ¡¯If it were me, I could confidently ept the risk. But in a one on one fight, I can¡¯t help her if things get dicey...¡¯ He was reluctant to put her in danger for what he considered an unnecessary bet. Just as he was about to decline, he noticed Amber staring right at him with her bright red eyes. She asked, "Do you trust me?" "Of course I do, but¡ª" Before he could finish, Amber stepped forward and brandished her daggers. "I¡¯ll win." "But... never mind. Show him what you¡¯re made of." He was about to tell her that it would be disadvantageous for her, as she specialized in unleashing abo of skills in a quick burst, to be limited to only three. But seeing the determination in her eyes, he could only put his faith in her and cheer her on. "Alright, she¡¯ll fight you. What three skills are you using?" Sol asked the Shadow Crawler. "[Shadow Maniption], [Shadow Elementalization], and [Shadow Caller]," it replied, obviously choosing its best skills that worked well together. Amber stated her chosen skills as well. "[Sand Maniption], [Sand Incarnate], and [Sand Army]." Sol wasn¡¯t surprised by their choices, though he found it interesting nheless. ¡¯Their skills are very simr, the only real difference being the element. I¡¯m also not surprised she picked only her sand skills. If his [Shadow Elementalization] is anything like my [Shadow Body], then he¡¯d be immune to physical damage.¡¯ "Before you two fight, give me a minute," Sol said before they could begin. They both nodded and waited patiently, though the boss was curious about what he was doing. In under a minute, Sol was finished and smiled, pleased with how fast he had be. "Okay, I¡¯ve disabled all your skills except for your passives and the three you picked." Sol still didn¡¯t fully trust the Shadow Crawler, so through its tethers, he disabled one skill after another until only the passives and the three chosen skills remained. "That quickly?!" The boss was shocked at how fast its other abilities had been sealed. It tried to use a few but found that it couldn¡¯t remember or get its body to move when it attempted to. It chuckled. "Haha¡­ This is ludicrous¡­ Never have I met someone like you. Still, it¡¯s no matter. I never intended to use them anyway. But if it gives you peace of mind, then by all means. Can we start now?" Sol nodded and manipted the stone beneath him, creating a small tform that lifted him off the ground. With the skills the two had chosen, the fight would require a lot of room, and he didn¡¯t want to get in the way. Feeling a sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu, he took out his Lipon and waved it around like a wand, but he didn¡¯t activate it. Putting on an exaggerated face, he shouted, "In one corner, we have the Shadow Crawler, the feared master of shadows! He can manipte and control them however he pleases, making him a fearsome foe!" The Shadow Crawler looked confused and turned to Amber. "What¡¯s he doing?" She shrugged, not bothering to exin that he was mimicking Oeser, the announcer from the knight selection tournament. The two let him continue. "Opposing him is Amber, the queen of sand! With full dominion over sand, there is nothing she can¡¯t do with it! Who wille out on top? Are both fighters ready?" "We¡¯ve been ready for a while¡­" the Shadow Crawler muttered, while Amber simply nodded, allowing Sol to enjoy himself. "Then, without further ado, fight!" Sol multicast three [Fire Bolt] from his Lipon, signaling the start of the duel. Amber immediately unleashed multiple sts of sand towards the Shadow Crawler, not giving it a chance to react. As the sand rushed at it, the boss dove into the ground, merging with the shadows. The sand hit where it had once stood, scattering everywhere and leaving a crater, but the Shadow Crawler reemerged a short distance away, unharmed. "Let¡¯s see how you handle the same attack!" Shadows around the boss solidified into massive pirs, thick as tree trunks, thatunched toward Amber. Shadows, being a faster element, gave her little time to react. She barely managed to slide to the side, narrowly avoiding the attack¡ªat least, that¡¯s what she thought. Just before the attacknded, the shadows suddenly turned trajectory and chased after her. With no time to spare, she exploded in a burst of sand, scattering herself everywhere. From the dispersed sand, soldiers began to rise, though Amber herself was nowhere to be seen. The sand soldiers, armed with scimitars, charged at the boss. Seeing that Amber intended to fight with numbers, the Shadow Crawler responded in kind. "Two can y at this game!" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om The shadow beneath the boss expanded, covering arge area as shadowy figures of all shapes and sizes rose from the ground. There were humanoids, beasts, and monsters. Some carried weapons, while others relied on their bodies. Unlike Amber¡¯s uniform sand soldiers, which all wielded scimitars, there was no rhyme or reason to the shadow army. The boss hopped onto a hulking shadow creature, reminiscent of a Tomb Hulk, and yelled, "CHAAAAARGE!" Chapter 248: Sand and Shadow The forces of sand and shadow shed, flooding the boss room with their respective elements. Sol couldn¡¯t see what was happening beneath him as the room was nearly pitch ck, and a sandstorm obscured what little visibility remained. If not for using [True Sight] to track their mana signatures, he would¡¯ve had a tough time following the action. Amber and the Shadow Crawler, however, had no such trouble. Amber used [Sand Sense], while the boss relied on its passive [One with Shadows]. The Shadow Crawler felt its surroundings through its shadow army, but even with that, it couldn¡¯t find its opponent¡ªonly its shadow creatures shing with the sand soldiers. The then detected toon of sand soldiers was tearing through its army like paper, and the boss quickly deduced that Amber must be hiding among them. Chains of shadow rose up, twisting around the soldiers and crushing them into nothing¡ªbut nothing else happened. ¡¯Was I mistaken?¡¯ It thought, expecting Amber to rise from the pile of sand on the ground. And indeed, it wasn¡¯t wrong. The sand began gathering together into a massive humanoid figure, standing 15 meters tall. Sol, who was floating above, had to move his stone tform back as it loomed over the battlefield. The sand giant mmed its fists down, sending a tsunami of sand in all directions. The sand soldiers were unaffected, but the shadow creatures were crushed beneath the weight. The boss rolled its eyes at the sight of the giant and scoffed. "So uninspired¡ªfirst humans, and now a big human. What¡¯s next, a really big human?" Thinking that her usage of sand was very basic, the boss fully transformed into shadows using [Shadow Elementalization]. This time, instead of a humanoid form, it morphed into somethingpletely different¡ªa massive, four legged reptile with enormous wings. It was a shadow dragon, rivaling the size of the sand giant. The dragon opened its maw, unleashing a torrent of shadow fire that sted the sand giant, knocking it onto its back. The giant tried to block with its hands, but the shadow mes burned through them. From the side of the sand giant, two new arms formed, grabbing the head of the shadow dragon and pushing it upward, sending the shadow mes skyward, scorching the walls and ceiling behind them. Seizing the opportunity, the sand giant stood and tackled the shadow dragon, transforming into a massive sand nket in an attempt to smother the boss. Not wanting to be crushed, the Shadow Crawler rapidly shrank its form into a spear andunched itself through the sand nket, piercing straight through. On the other side, it reverted to its normal form, clinging to the roof with its tail as it watched Amber reform from the sea of sand below. The two locked eyes, reading each other¡¯s condition. ¡¯She¡¯s used up a lot of mana, but so have I¡­¡¯ the boss thought. ¡¯It¡¯s hard for either of us to lose since we can¡¯t truly harm each other in our elemental forms. This wille down to who runs out of mana first, or if one of us can catch the other by surprise. But from her expression, I can¡¯t even tell if she¡¯s tired. She looks exactly the same as before the fight started.¡¯ There was one more aspect it had been ignoring as it knew thinking about it would worsen its mood even more. She had ess to something it didn¡¯t, potions. Unless for some reason she ran out which the boss highly doubted, it was unsure if it could win in a battle of endurance, the boss opted for a surprise attack. It summoned its shadow creatures once again. Despite the room being filled with sand, it could still summon them as long as there was darkness. The shadow army charged at Amber, who raised her sand soldiers to meet them. As the two forces shed once more, the boss was nowhere to be seen. Amber continued fighting the shadow army, staying alert for an attack, but none came. She cut down arge shadow beast with a few sand shes, only for the creature to explode in a burst of darkness, sending her flying backward. Before she could evennd, another shadow creature lunged at her and exploded. More shadow creatures detonated around her,ing from all directions. There was nowhere to escape. Surrounded by explosions, Amber was at the mercy of the boss that appeared from above and hurled two ck orbs at her. "Say goodbye!" The orbs were packed with explosive shadow energy, capable of destroying the sand and leaving her unable to recover. The explosions covered the entire area in thick shadows, obliterating what little sand remained. Even if Amber wanted to, she couldn¡¯t create more sand in this environment, flooded in another¡¯s energy. The Shadow Crawler observed the room, now devoid of anything but shadows, and turned proudly toward Sol, who stood on his floating stone tform. "Haha! I win! Now fulfill your end of the deal." ¡¯That took a lot of mana, but I won in the end.¡¯ The boss was eager to report to its mother that it had seeded in fulfilling her wishes and obtaining the void root. But Sol didn¡¯t respond, he just shook his head silently. "What? Are you going back on our bet? Is this the deceitful nature of humans I¡¯ve heard so much about? I won fair and square. It¡¯s not my fault her control over the sand was too easy to read and counter. Don¡¯t be a sore loser, or I¡¯ll tell my mother. She¡¯ll intervene since you made a deal with me." The Shadow Crawler¡¯s mother had every right to enforce the bet, meaning she could trap Sol here and even summon A-rank monsters from deeper floors to take the void root from his corpse if she so chose. Sol shook his head again. "Trust me, if you were really about to win, I would¡¯ve stopped the fight before she got hurt. It¡¯s not over yet." N?v(el)B\\jnn "Wha¡ª" Before it could ask what he meant, the boss felt a surge of danger from behind. It instinctively merged with the shadows, narrowly dodging a st of sand that struck where it had been standing. As it rose from the shadows, it saw Amberpletely unharmed, standing atop a sand dragon. "How?! I obliterated all the sand around you!" Amber remained silent as always so Sol exined in her stead. "You did, except that wasn¡¯t her. She made a sand soldier look like her. You had been fighting her fake since the beginning." "She can do that?!" Even with centuries of experience in the dungeon, the boss had never been able to make its shadows take on a physical appearance, much less resemble itself. Amber silently raised her hand, and the sand dragon beneath her, which looked identical to the shadow dragon from earlier, opened its maw and unleashed a breath of sand toward the Shadow Crawler. "Fine, so be it! I¡¯ll still prevail!" The boss shifted into its shadow dragon form and fired back with its own shadow breath. The two elemental attacks collided, creating a storm of shadow and sand that clouded the entire room once again. Still, the two dragons maintained their attacks, both rapidly draining their remaining mana. The shadow dragon grimaced as the boss thought, ¡¯This is exactly what I didn¡¯t want¡­ Now it¡¯s just a matter of who has the most mana, and I¡¯ve already wasted so much!¡¯ It held out hope, continuing its attack, but things took a turn for the worse when two additional breaths of sand struck the shadow dragon from seemingly nowhere. ¡¯Are there three sand dragons?! I can barely make one!¡¯ the boss thought in shock. Overwhelmed by the triple sand breath, it was unable to maintain the shadow dragon any longer and was destroyed by the deluge of sand. Sensing no further resistance, Amber ceased her attack, clearing the area to reveal a haggard Shadow Crawler lying on the ground and a towering, three headed sand dragon standing victorious. "We have a winner!" Sol announced, ying the part of both announcer and audience, pping alongside the multiple magic hands he summoned. Chapter 249: Da Rules The duo approached the Shadow Crawler that was on the verge of death as Sol pondered out loud, "Should I heal it?" How was the boss going to honor its side of the deal if it died? Amber shrugged as she didn¡¯t care. What mattered to her was that she won the battle, leaving it a problem for Sol to figure out. "Hmm¡­ [Life Drop]." A drop of water prated the creature¡¯s body, renewing it with life as its wounds began to close at a moderate speed. Even though he had used the magic on others before and seen faster results, the boss¡¯s much higher vitality made the healing magic less effective. Seeing this, Sol could only think to himself, ¡¯I really need to get my hands on advanced magic.¡¯ His magic had been falling behind even though it had reached the advanced stage. Unlike martial arts, which were ingrained in his body, magic required learning the spells on top of mastering mana control. Everyone he had siphoned magic skills from knew at most intermediate level spells. The only advanced magic he knew were the three dark spells he had obtained from the Laughing Skulls. It took a while, but soon the boss woke up from itsa, shooting upright. "Oh shit! Oh¡­ I¡¯m still alive?" At first, the Shadow Crawler felt a rush of adrenaline from the residual energy of the water spell, but after realizing it was alive, its reaction was rather lukewarm. Sol rolled his eyes. "Of course you¡¯re still alive. How else would you fulfill your side of the bet?" "Hmm? That¡¯s not an issue. Oh, I see." Its eyes slightly curved as it caught onto their perspective and added, "I thought you already knew this, but killing me won¡¯t actually end my life. This isn¡¯t my real body, after all." "Not your real body? Then where is it?" The boss scoffed, finding the question hrious. "Hah! As if I would tell you. Regardless, my memories and abilities are split throughout all my clones into what you see before you. Killing me only sends my memories back to my main body, which is then shared with all the other clones." "So if we kill you, all the other clones will know what happened to you and our bet?" "Yup," the Shadow Crawler said nonchntly as it stretched its still sore arms. ¡¯This doesn¡¯t just extend to the bet,¡¯ Sol thought to himself. ¡¯It could be very dangerous if someone fights a boss like him without knowing this.¡¯ Unlike typical bosses that operated purely on instincts or with very low level sentience, a boss like the Shadow Crawler could lose to a party, and that fight would be shared with all its other clones in boss rooms. If the party chose to fight again, which most likely they would to level up before diving into the next set of floors, the boss could turn the knowledge it gained from its clone against them. It could bait the party into repeating the same attack, only toy a trap. If done well, it could lead to their demise. "Why are you telling us this?" Sol asked. He felt that this information alone was valuable. The boss shrugged in response. "She won the bet, and the way bosses are set up is part of the rules, so you would¡¯ve known in time. Speaking of which, are you ready to hear them all?" He tilted his head. "Hear them? Don¡¯t you have a scroll or a book with them already written down?" It shook its head. "Nope, it¡¯s ingrained in our minds. Even so, it took me a few years toprehend them all. I¡¯ll just say them, so you better take out a pen and paper. We¡¯ve got 143 rules to go through. Also, I¡¯m not pausing to exin; just wait till the end if you have any questions." "Fine, let me at least make itfortable¡­" Sol made three chairs out of stone, which he and Amber sat on, while the boss didn¡¯t sit on its chair but instead used its tail to coil into a seat, supporting its entire weight. The Shadow Crawler didn¡¯t see either of the duo taking out anything to write with, nor making the motion to do so, and shrugged, not caring if they forgot all the rules by the end. "Let¡¯s start with the first rule, which is to let the races of the world use dungeons as ces to train and improve¡­" ... "Rule 143, Monster amendment. Monsters are also allowed to enter dungeons to train with the same privileges as the races of the world. The only beings exempt from this rule are harbingers. So, did you get all that?" Sol nodded as he heard the final rule. After taking a moment to properly memorize it with his pseudo psychic skill, he said, "I can see why you were so confident that the kingdom was unaware of these rules. There¡¯s a lot they haven¡¯t been taking advantage of. But why is rule 36 a thing? Wouldn¡¯t rules 25, 26, 54, and many others be more beneficial for the dungeon if that one rule wasn¡¯t in ce?" Rule 36 was one that stood out to Sol as it prevented dungeons from actively seeking out andmunicating with other beings. With it in ce, only people could request to speak with the dungeon, and even then there were specific requirements for the dungeon to be able to ept. The boss raised an eyebrow. ¡¯He remembered the exact rule numbers just from hearing them once?¡¯ Impressed by Sol¡¯s astounding memory, it nodded in agreement. "You¡¯re not wrong. As for why, I don¡¯t really know. I¡¯m not the one who wrote them. I assume it¡¯s because too many would bother the dungeons all over the world with requests or find loopholes that would end up ruining the purpose of dungeons." Sol nodded and added, "Simr to how the dungeon used the loophole of moving undead through the floor to attack us, people would try to find loopholes as well." The Shadow Crawler chuckled at theparison. "Haha, right¡­ By the way, I know I lost, but is there truly no way to convince you to return the void root? Mother needs it." He sighed at the question and shook his head. "No, at least not for the near future. Currently, I have someone after my life, and I need this as a precaution. Maybe when I be a true A-Ranker, but the way myw technique is developing, it¡¯s not an offensive type, so I might still need it then. I¡¯m sorry, but maybe one day." He felt bad for the pitiful boss that did its best to convince him and even suggested a bet it knew well beforehand it didn¡¯t have that good of a shot at winning. Hearing his answer, the boss could only ept it. "Then I hope that dayes soon. You¡¯re more than wee toe y me again if you need any experience." Sol chuckled at the oddly grim sentence that only a dungeon boss could say. "Sure, I¡¯ll see you soon." The boss didn¡¯t resist or move away as Amber wielded her dagger and swung once, separating its head from its body. [You have in a Lv 130 Shadow Crawler! Gained 261,979,625 Exp (460%)] With the boss in, the door to the next floor unlocked, allowing the two to leave. But before leaving, Sol silently siphoned the skills off its corpse. ¡¯Don¡¯t mind if I do.¡¯ [Learned [Shadow Maniption] Lv 7!] [Learned [Shadow Elementalization] Lv 6!] [Learned [Shadow Caller] Lv 4!]n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Chapter 250: With a Bang In one of the many rooms located within the massive boss floor on the 30th floor, two figures appeared. The boss prepared tounch the first attack until it realized who they were. "Huh? You¡¯re back already?" The shadows that darkened the entire room retreated as a confused Shadow Crawler rose from the shadow on the ground. "Did you forget to say something?" it asked. Sol shook his head as Amber stood behind him silently. He put his hands together apologetically and said, "Yeah, sorry about this, but I have to kill you a few more times. Would that be alright?" "Pff hahaha!" The boss found his actions hrious and dived back into its shadow as it said, "Sure, of course! It¡¯s my job, after all! But I won¡¯t be going down without a fight!" Shadows spread like wildfire, overtaking the entire room once more. From them, hundreds of shadow beings rose, and countless shadow weapons of all shapes and sizes appeared in the air, pointed at the duo. Upon seeing this, Sol smiled and said, "I wouldn¡¯t have it any other way. [Revealing Light]!" ¡­ The fighting continued through different boss rooms, with the boss dying in various ways, but even after losing to the duo countless times, it never stopped fighting. When Sol and Amber once again appeared in the boss room after ying it for the nth time, it still fought them with the same vigor as the first time. The Shadow Crawler hurled shadowy orbs at the duo as Sol used seven magic hands to fight alongside him while Amber created and threw sand orbs that were very simr to the boss¡¯s. Both orbs collided, exploding with violent elemental energy and sending shockwaves throughout the area. The hands protected Sol while he tried to disable the boss¡¯s skills. But as soon as the Shadow Crawler threw those shadow orbs, it disappeared instantly, forcing Sol to cancel his attempt to disable its skill. The boss¡¯s voice reverberated through the area, "Haha! Better luck next time!" As it was mid gloat, Amber shed next to an inconspicuous shadow and swung her arms like whips. They turned to sand andshed at the shadow. "Yeowch!" yelped the Shadow Crawler as a shadow dome appeared between the ground and her whips, blocking the attacks. Using the dome as cover, the shadow slipped away as the boss inside thought to himself, ¡¯She is getting too good at detecting me¡­ but leaving the shadows makes me vulnerable to my skills getting disabled.¡¯ Just as Sol and Amber improved their skills and experience after each kill, the boss was also learning from its fallen clones. It eventually learned that Sol could only disable its skills if it could see him, while Amber could only use her sand skills against it, as her daggers and developingw technique were useless against it. As the shadow slipped away, a foot stepped on it, immobilizing the boss. From within the shadow, the boss looked up to see Sol staring down at it. "Found ya." ¡¯Shit.¡¯ BOOM! ¡­ After the fight, Sol didn¡¯t finish off the Shadow Crawler like the other dozens of times. "[Life Drop]." Letting the healing magic do its thing, the boss soon recovered. "Hah¡­ Oh, we¡¯re done fighting?" Sol nodded. "Yeah, we got a few levels and also learned a lot, so I just wanted to say thank you." The boss nodded. "No worries, just doing my job. Still, to think you have the same ability as the Handless Fiend and you took it to the next level. I¡¯m gonna tell its main body so it can learn that as well, the big white beam." "Full spectrum. Also, tell it that the orange chroma needs to be at the center. It will amplify the power of the other chromas through it," Sol corrected and gave a helpful tip. He didn¡¯t mind the Shadow Crawler telling the Handless Fiend about his ability. After all, he had originally siphoned it from the fiend, so this was his way of giving back. "Full spectrum, huh. Last I spoke to it, it was taking the approach of creating aw technique from one chroma and ignoring the rest, so seeing that showed me it was taking the wrong path. If it goes down thebining path, it may be able to create aw technique soon." The Shadow Crawler turned to Amber and gave her its opinion. "Your control of sand is superb, it¡¯s honestly better than my control over shadows. But youck the creativity to make anything you desire with your incredible control. Don¡¯t just copy my moves. You need to let loose and let your creativity run wild. Sticking to rigidness when sand can be as fluid as you want it to be will only hold you back." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om The boss spoke from experience, as after dying to her so many times, it knew exactly where she wascking. He found it baffling that whenever he made something from shadows that she found useful, she would quickly be able to replicate it, sometimes improving it in the process. Unfortunately for Amber, creativity and desire were something she still struggled with to this day. She had greatly improved since when she was still under Cane¡¯s control, but she was still unable to fully express herself, subconsciously holding herself back. To the boss¡¯s advice, she only gave a nod in response, seeing that it was logical but unsure how one would be creative. Already used to her personality, the boss sighed, knowing it was a shame someone as talented as her was limiting herself, though it was unaware this was out of her control. "That¡¯s about it. Guess we won¡¯t see each other again for a while. It¡¯s been fun." Sol nodded and extended his right hand. "Likewise, and I promise I¡¯ll return the void root when I¡¯m in a position to do so." The Shadow Crawler gave a friendly smile, but with the way its lips curved, it couldn¡¯t help but look slightly devious as it shook Sol¡¯s hand. Once their hands parted, the boss spread its arms wide open and said, "Alright, hit me with your strongest attack! I wanna go out with a bang." Sol chuckled at its antics but obliged. Six magic hands rapidly rotated around therge orange magic hand as it sent out a pure white beam that split into countless smaller ones, forming a beautiful spiral pattern before merging once more and falling down onto the boss. The Shadow Crawler only gave a thumbs up in approval as its entire body was enveloped and obliterated by the scorching chromatic light. [You have in a Lv 130 Shadow Crawler! Gained 170,856,277 Exp (300%)] [You have leveled up! +5 Attribute points] Chapter 251: [Umbral Domain] After bidding farewell to the boss in spectacr fashion, the two returned to the rest area on the 31st floor. In it, there were two stone huts, a campfire area, and a few other random items they had left out, knowing they¡¯d be back soon. There was little point in packing and unpacking every time they challenged the Shadow Crawler, so they left things as they were, unconcerned that anyone might stumble upon them. After all, what A-Ranker had enough free time toe to the dungeon just to level up a few times? Such an event required meticulous nning, including finding other A-Rankers willing to team up, all for a few levels that held little significance to them. The small amount of attributes weren¡¯t worth it to them as they could better spend that time improving theirw technique orprehending a new one. Amber went off to start packing her belongings, as their dungeon trip was over. While she busied herself, Sol entered his stone hut, sitting cross legged on his sleeping bag. ¡¯It took quite a few rounds, but I finally got all of them maxed out,¡¯ he thought as he opened his status page. Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner], [Transformer] Level: 120 Exp: 42,754,870/12,134,602,940 HP: 2400 MP: 2600 Str: 120 (+120) Vit: 120 (+120) Agi: 120 (+120) Int: 120 (+120) Wis: 120 (+140) Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 6, [Analysis] Lv 9, [Aggregate] Lv EX, [Reinterpret] Lv EX Siphoned Talents: [Create Magic Hands] Lv MAX, [Impact Bubble] Lv 4, [Spectral w] Lv MAX, [Gigantify] Lv MAX Passive Skills: [Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Reflect] Lv 6, [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 8, [Advanced Weapon Mastery] Lv 3, [Wild Hunt] Lv 2, [Invincible Body] Lv 9, [Perfect Bnce] Lv 7, [Death Absorption] Lv MAX, [True Sight (Variant)] Lv 6, [Superior Mana Control] Lv 7, [Fortified Soul] Lv 2, [Novice Craftsman] Lv 6, [Battle Dance] Lv 8, [Nether Body] Lv MAX, [Shadow Sense] Lv MAX, [Night Vision] Lv MAX, etc. Active Skills: [Phase Step] Lv 1, [Invisibility] Lv 9, [Terra Maniption] Lv 9, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Telepathy] Lv 3, [Unpassable Bulwark] Lv 8, [Advanced Elemental Magic (Variant)] Lv 3, [Overpower] Lv 7, [Weapon Empowerment (Variant)] Lv EX, [Piercing Lunge] Lv 8, [Mana sh] Lv 6, [Polychromatism] Lv EX, [Mana Burst] Lv EX, [Repair] Lv 5, [Shadow Body] Lv 6, [Close Combat] Lv 5, [Vorpal de Rush] Lv 6, [Guided Bombardment] Lv 5, [Phoenix Dive] Lv 6, [Unarming Blow] Lv 5, [Phantasmal Rip and Tear] Lv MAX, [Death Sentence] Lv EX, [Shadow Maniption] Lv EX, [Shadow Elementalization] Lv MAX, [Shadow Caller] Lv MAX, [Shadow Formation] Lv MAX, [Shadow Pinning] Lv MAX, etc. From the Shadow Crawler, Sol had acquired a wide array of shadow skills, collecting and maxing out a total of four passives and ten actives, not including his previously obtained [Shadow Body], for a total of fifteen skills. The reason he hadn¡¯t siphoned any of its talent skills was simple: when he tried, he experienced excruciating pain, much more thanst time, as if he was about to explode. It was clear he couldn¡¯t handle any more and instantly aborted the process. Fortunately, he¡¯d been learning to manually control the [Siphon], so he managed to stop it before it was toote. He was a little disappointed he couldn¡¯t acquire the talent skill [Shadow Fall], but he could live with it. ¡¯If I really wanted to, I could¡¯ve erased another talent skill to make space, but it¡¯s not worth it.¡¯ When he considered the shadow skills he¡¯d obtained, he felt confident he could replicate [Shadow Fall]¡¯s effects he saw when the Shadow Crawler used it with not much hassle. Plus, he didn¡¯t want to lose any of his other talent skills, each one proving useful. [Create Magic Hands] was objectively essential, while [Spectral w] and [Gigantify] were irreceable as they filled special needs his normal skills couldn¡¯t. The only one he could even consider forgetting was [Impact Bubble], as it was lower level, but its unique effects really intrigued him. With more time to refine it, he knew it could be a powerful skill. He had been waiting tobine the shadow skills until they were all maxed, with the exception of [Shadow Body], but with no easy way to find Shadow Amalgamations, he couldn¡¯t progress with that. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om ¡¯With these skills, I should be able to make something that rivals [Polychromatism].¡¯ His focus shifted as he opened his sight to the tethers before him. The shadow rted skills intertwined effortlessly as he made [Shadow Maniption] the core of the new skill. There was no resistance, and Sol¡¯s control over his own tethers had improved dramatically. What usually took half an hour now only took a minute as the new tether formed. [Learned [???] Lv EX] ¡¯A new skill¡­ does that mean...?¡¯ [New entry detected.] [Permission level 1 confirmed.] [Name the new skill.] Sol paused, considering names that would fit it appropriately. After some internal debate, he settled on one. "Umbral Domain." [[Umbral Domain] Confirm name?] "Yes." [[Umbral Domain] Lv EX: The true ruler of shadows. Can create and manipte the shadows of any being within your vicinity. When in shadows or darkness, the user is empowered, increasing all attributes by 50%. Shadow beings and weapons created can be bestowed brief sentience and are empowered when in shadows and darkness by 100%. Once per full moon cycle, the power of the moon can be borrowed to bring about the Symphony of the Night.] Even without reading the skill description, Sol knew exactly what he could do with it, but reading the status description made it feel more real. Needless to say, this new skill far surpassed the individual shadow skills used to make it. ¡¯Symphony of the Night¡­ with this, I could destroy armies. As long as there¡¯s no A-Ranker among them, at least. Maybe it could even work against a weaker A-Ranker, but is there really such a thing?¡¯ The weakest A-Ranker Sol could think of was Victor from the knight selection tournament, but that was only because Victor had poor control over hisw technique. If Victor had better control, Sol wouldn¡¯t be so confident, especially given the fire based nature of Victor¡¯sw technique was advantageous against shadows. Sol shook his head, thinking it could at least serve as a distraction or to keep an A-Ranker upied. Combining it with Full Spectrum might make it a real threat, but wasn¡¯t too certain about that. It would depend on what kind of opponent he was against. As he stood to go pack, Sol remembered another skill he obtained from the Shadow Crawler that he didn¡¯tbine with the rest. ¡¯Oh, right, there¡¯s that one, too.¡¯ [True Sight (Variant)] transformed into [True Sight (Variant)!] If he¡¯d been drinking something, he would have spat it out upon seeing the ridiculous system message. He onlybined [Night Vision] with [True Sight (Variant)], and the result was aically redundant system notification. ¡¯At least it didn¡¯t be [True Sight (Variant) (Variant)].¡¯ Satisfied with his new skill and improved [True Sight (Variant], Sol packed up his sleeping bag and other scattered belongings into his spatial ring. After dismantling his stone hut, he saw Amber had already finished packing her things. He helped pick up a few items, and within minutes, they stood at the teleport sigil. "Well¡­ back to being a knight..." It wasn¡¯t that Sol disliked being a knight. He actually found it fulfilling, but he was disappointed that he wouldn¡¯t have as much time to spend with Amber, and the prospect of missing out on her cooking didn¡¯t help. Amber simply said, "Soon." He knew what she meant. "Yeah, with this information, I think I can request a private audience with the Saintess. But before we leave, I need to go to the hidden dwarven city. If I don¡¯t help them obtain the method for creating life clusters, it couldpletely ruin the fragile rtionship we have with the orcs. I don¡¯t want to start a war. And we should deal with the harbinger before leaving the city." The orcs had made it a condition that Sol be present to explore the dwarven city. If he suddenly vanished, it would be disastrous. Even if he warned Zaman before leaving, the orcs might not trust them and could assume the humans had done something to prevent him from attending. The fragile peace that was forming could break, leading back to the constant invasions¡ªor worse, all out war. There was also the matter of the harbinger, which had continued to pursue Sol despite pdins and even Diana¡¯s involvement. From what Diana had told him, the harbinger¡¯sw technique seemed rted to movement or stealth, as it could temporarily evade detection and reappear miles away. Diana¡¯s team had never even caught a glimpse of it, and based on autopsies, it killed its targets in a single strike. The only reason he was fine with leaving for the lost dwarven city was because he would be teleporting and the harbinger that was chasing him wouldn¡¯t be able to reach him before he returned. "Okay," Amber replied, not minding the dy. She never had a strict deadline for finding Sol¡¯s father, even if it took years. She would only be concerned if Sol postponed things without a good reason. Sol stepped onto the teleport sigil first to avoid being seen together and turned to wave at her as the light began to envelop him. "Stay safe." Chapter 252: Unstoppable Within the rest area of the 10th floor of Necropolis, a small party of three was making their final preparations. "Are you ready?" Lazuli asked her two party members, Nataly and Aron. Nataly nodded. "Mhm!" Aron flexed his biceps as he just added attribute points to strength and grinned. "Oh yeah." "Are you sure, Aron? Last time I cast it¡­" Lazuli asked again, remembering how he had convulsed on the floor in pain. "I¡¯ll be fine! Now that I know how it feels, it¡¯ll be different this time!" She still wasn¡¯t too sure but nodded, seeing him exude such confidence. She would have preferred spending a day or two more practicing, but with only a day left before the test, she didn¡¯t have that luxury¡ªand her teammates knew that as well. They got along well and didn¡¯t want her to fail, so they tried their best to push through the dungeon. "Okay, let¡¯s go then!" Lazuli said, raising her magic rod upward. The others nodded, and Nataly signaled their protectors, who had been watching from a distance, that they were ready. Lapis, Duncan, and Rex approached, following them through the boss door in case of an emergency, though they doubted they would need to intervene unless something went severely wrong. They soon appeared in arge room lined with coffins along the adjacent walls. Between them and the exit stood a hulking, gray-skinned brute. The Gravedigger carried arge metal coffin on its back and roared at the intruders. "Good luck. You three got this," Duncan said, offering a few words of encouragement before falling back with Lapis and Rex. While it was unlikely for the boss to target them, if it did, they could easily p it away. Duncan was ready to form a barrier around the boss and the trio to ensure it would focus solely on them. The three nodded seriously as Aron took position in front, while the two mages stood behind, side by side, to cover each other¡¯s backs. Nataly acted first, tossing a few seeds around her and casting a spell. "[Shrub Knights]!" The seeds sprouted, forming short bushes with arms and legs. In their branch like hands, they carried sharp wooden pikes. The shrubs charged toward the Gravedigger with their spears poised, but before they could strike, the boss swung its massive coffin in a wide arc. The snapping sound of the shrubs being destroyed echoed through the room as they helplessly fell to its single attack. Aron cracked his knuckles at the sight. "This will be fun." He leaped forward and ran toward the boss. The Gravedigger prepared its coffin again and swung downwards with [Coffin m], intending to crush the tiny human. In response, Aron¡¯s fist began to glow as he countered with [Bestial Uppercut]. The resulting sh created a loud boom as Aron was sent flying backward. Before crashing into the ground, he managed to regain his bearings andnded on his feet, sliding across the floor. He nced at his bloodied fist andughed. "He sure packs a punch." Nataly rolled her eyes as she cast healing magic on him. "No duh! Don¡¯t run in on your own. Remember, we¡¯re here to support Lazuli." Aron rubbed his sore shoulder and nodded. "Yeah, yeah. I just wanted to see how I matched up against it. Y¡¯know, a before and after? Lazuli, how¡¯s the spelling along?" Lazuli didn¡¯t respond, still mentally chanting the spell. She had already screwed up four times, forcing her to start over. This wasn¡¯t like her previous acid spell, which was a modification of an already existing spell. This spell waspletely new, rough, and sloppy. Her inexperience was causing the spell to either fizzle out or veer in the wrong direction. During this time, the Gravedigger didn¡¯t chase after Aron. Instead, ominous ck strands exuded from its body, spreading into the coffins along the walls. From them, skeletons wielding various weapons burst out, aiming their attacks at the trio. "[Shrub Knights]!" Nataly summoned more pike wielding shrubs to fight the skeletons, hoping to hold them back. While she had a stronger summoning spell that created a massive tree sentinel, Duncan had advised her not to use it, as this was meant to be a test for Lazuli. So, this was her next best option. The shrubs shed with the skeletons, trying to keep them at bay, but the skeletons were decisively stronger and more numerous. Her shrubs wouldn¡¯t be able to hold them for long. With the shrubs upied, Aron danced around the boss, dodging its coffin strikes, which sent him flying whenever they hit. Luckily, Nataly was there to heal him back to full health so he could keep fighting. It was only on the 13th try that Lazuli finallypleted the spell. "Now, Aron! [Berserk Tonic]!" A small amount of red liquid condensed on the tip of her magic rod and flew toward Aron, sshing on the back of his neck. The liquid entered through his pores and quickly spread through his body. Aron froze as he felt changes happening within him. The Gravedigger saw this as an opportunity and activated [Death Cyclone] to finish him off. As the boss spun its coffin toward Aron¡¯s head, it suddenly found itself unable to move the weapon. To its confusion, Aron was holding out his hand, gripping the coffin tightly. His hand clenched, causing the metallic surface to creak and bend. Aron smirked as he ripped the coffin from the boss¡¯s grasp, hurling it toward a group of skeletons and shattering them on impact. "Holy¡­" Aron mumbled before yelling, "I FEEL UNSTOPPABLE!" Heunched himself forward with a powerful punch. Despite the Gravedigger crossing its arms to block, one of its arms was torn off, and the rest of its body was sent flying. The Gravediggernded on its back, and before it could recover, Aron leaped toward it, preparing for a dive kick. The boss, knowing it would perish if struck, rolled to the side as Aron¡¯s foot crashed into the ground, leaving arge crater. "GODS, I¡¯M IN SO MUCH PAIN!" Despite his pain filled shout, Aron sent another fist barreling toward the Gravedigger. It tried to dodge, but being prone made it difficult. After a few failed attempts, the next punch connected directly with its face, ending the battle. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om [You have in a Lv 70 Gravedigger! Gained 691,600 Exp (200%)] With its death all its summons died as well, losing the source of what gave them life. Seeing the notification, Aron chuckled and said, "Heh, nice," before immediately passing out. Fortunately for him, the effects of the spell wore off soon after, and Nataly was already casting healing magic on him, bringing him back from the brink. Chapter 253: Welcome The six royal knights exited the dungeon in a celebratory mood after Lazuli passed her test. "I say we should celebrate! Drinks are on me!" Aron eximed, turning around somewhat unsteadily to face his squad mates. Nataly sighed. "Now? You haven¡¯t even fully recovered, you need to rest." "What? Nonsense! I¡¯m fit as a fiddl¡ªOW!" Aron yelped as Rex lightly tapped him on the shoulder. "Why¡¯d ya do that?!" Even the lightest touch felt excruciating to Aron. His nerves, though not damaged, were hypersensitive, sending intense signals to his brain. The clothes he wore made him feel itchy and ufortable. He had been doing his best to hide it, but it was clear to Rex and the rest of the squad that something was wrong. "Yeah, sure, fit as a fiddle¡­" Rex chuckled. The squadughed, even the usually stoic Lapis smirked at Aron¡¯s antics. "It¡¯s okay, Aron. We can celebrate tomorrow. Just rest for today," Lazuli said, concerned about the side effects of her spell. Even after Nataly healed him, his body remained exhausted and worn down. It wasn¡¯t something a healing spell could fix, only time could. Lazuli¡¯s concerned expression finally convinced Aron, who begrudgingly agreed. He wanted to ride the wave of happiness as long as possible, but his condition would only cause his teammates to worry, and he didn¡¯t want to distress them. The squad left the dungeon¡¯s za and made their way to the pce, which towered in the distance. When they arrived at the squad quarters, someone was already waiting for them, Sol. He smiled as they entered and extended his hand to Lazuli. "Congrattions, Lazuli. Wee to the team." She smiled back and shook his hand. "Thank you, Sol, or should I now say Captain? But how did you already know I passed?" "Either is fine, but stick to ¡¯Captain¡¯ in official settings. As for knowing, Duncan had already sent word of your achievements before you even challenged the boss. I knew you were going to pass." Duncan nodded, confirming Sol¡¯s words. With amunication crystal, Duncan had sent short reports to Sol, detailing their progress. He praised Lazuli for first modifying a spell to fight the undead, and then going a step further by creating apletely new spell, in under a week. Lazuli smiled at the praise but shook her head. "I honestly couldn¡¯t have done it alone. It was only because Nataly and Aron were here that I seeded." If she had been alone, she doubted she could have defeated more than one or two undead at a time. Not to mention, the [Berserker Tonic] was something she couldn¡¯t use on herself. Her body wouldn¡¯t survive it like Aron¡¯s did, it would result in a quick but painful death. Sol nodded and turned to the rest of the squad. "She¡¯s right. Good job, everyone¡ªnot just Nataly and Aron, but you three as well, for watching over them." Though Lapis, Duncan, and Rex didn¡¯t do much, their role was still important. No one could predict what might happen in a dungeon. Even though Sol knew the dungeon¡¯s rules and hazards, he would have sent the three of them to protect the group regardless. "By the way, did all three of you unlock your third talents?" Sol asked. Now that they had gained a few levels, it was possible some of them had unlocked their third talents, which typically emerged between levels 50 and 60. "We did!" Nataly said excitedly. "Mine is a rare talent that enhances my summons, Lazuli¡¯s is also a rare one that helps her control mana better, and Aron¡¯s is unique! It drastically enhances his body!" "A unique talent? What is it?" Sol hadn¡¯t expected Aron to be so lucky. Gaining a unique talent was a one in ten thousand chance, and even though all the knights recruited were experts with good talents, less than fifty of them had unique talents with none having a legendary one. Aron grinned at the mention of his talent and eagerly exined. "It¡¯s called [True Monk Physique]. It didn¡¯t give me a talent skill, but I got something even better! I got [All Up]! It increases all my stats evenly, and it took my current two attribute skills into it immediately, leveling up to level 5!" ¡¯[All Up]? That sounds like the predecessor of [Perfect Bnce]¡­¡¯ Sol thought. It seemed too simr to be a coincidence, likely its pre-evolution form. "That¡¯s great to hear! Congrats!" Sol said, moving his hand to pat Aron¡¯s shoulder. "Wai¡ªArgh!" Aron tried to warn him, but it was toote by then. The light contact from the pat sent him to his knees in pain. "Hey! Are you okay?!" Sol panicked, thinking Aron was seriously injured. He reached out to help him up but stopped, remembering it was his touch that had caused the pain. Lazuli apologized and exined, "Sorry, that¡¯s because of me. He¡¯s feeling the side effects of the spell I used on him. I still need to figure out how to mitigate the aftereffects..." "I see¡­ Sorry about that. Get some rest. That goes for all of you, we¡¯re setting out tomorrow, so make sure to get proper rest." He paused and added, "Except for you, Lazuli. I want to have a quick chat with you." Lazuli nodded as the rest of the group said their farewells for the night. They each went to their rooms, or outside to either train or check the merit shop for any good items in stock. Lazuli and Sol moved to the lounge, as Sol didn¡¯t have a private office, he took care of most of the paperwork at the desk in his room, which didn¡¯t seem like the appropriate ce for their discussion. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om He sat on the couch and motioned for Lazuli to take a seat. Once she did, he said, "I¡¯ve heard the gist from Duncan, but I¡¯d like to hear it from you. Can you exin your reasoning behind how you went aboutpleting the test?" Chapter 254: Tonic Magic Lazuli took a moment to consider how to answer and said, "When I realized I had to go up against undead, I didn¡¯t know where to start. But in one of the books I found in the library, I read that an undead¡¯s bones and skinck certain elements, making them weaker to acids. It¡¯s not a huge weakness, normal acids only work about 20% faster, but with magic acids, the effect was at least twice as strong! Knowing this, I remembered one of my spells had slightly acidic properties, so I modified it to greatly enhance its acidity. With that, I quickly made a way to fight the undead." Sol nodded; this was in line with what he expected. "If you already had a way to fight them, why did you create apletely new spell? Wasn¡¯t that risky?" He wanted to understand the reasoning behind her taking such a risk to develop a new spell in just a week. It was undeniably impressive, but it was also incredibly dangerous. If she¡¯d gotten the spell wrong or messed up during the chant, it could have killed Aron outright. Even though it seeded, the spell had left his body in a wrecked state. For a berserk spell, the downsides were too extreme, even for the power it provided. It only worked during the test because she had Nataly to heal Aron and three B-Rankers who could step in at a moment¡¯s notice. The spell needed a lot of fine tuning before it could be realistically used in battle. Lazuli didn¡¯t disagree and exined, "At first, I was going to focus on making the modified spell better, lowering the mana cost and increasing its effects, but then I realized something. Right now, we¡¯re fighting undead, but what if we encounter something resistant to both poisons and acids? What do I do then?" "You mean like golems?" Lazuli nodded. "Golems, gargoyles, elementals, there are many enemies where my magic would be useless. I knew this even when I was a regr adventurer with Lapis, you know... before I died. The reason I died in the first ce was because I didn¡¯t have a better spell for the situation." Sol kept a serious expression as she recounted her death. She had died when her own poison was blown back at her by a wind st from arge avian beast. Most of her poison spells were projectile based, giving her little variety, and she often found herself in situations where her magic was either ineffective or poorly suited for the enemy. "So, I wanted something more. After reflecting on everything I¡¯ve learned, I found it." "The buff magic you cast on Aron?" Sol asked. "Yes. It¡¯s something I read about when I was young. It¡¯s said that Ophis could inflict all kinds of poisons, including one that made his enemies go berserk and fight each other. I thought if I could replicate that berserk effect, I could use it on my allies to give them beneficial effects when fighting enemies immune to poison. I seeded, but because it¡¯s still a poison, it left Aron injured afterward." Lazuli then dove into a more in depth exnation of how the spell worked, from mana pathways to the specificponents of the chants she used, including a lot of theoretical jargon that flew over Sol¡¯s head. Sol only knew basic spell theory, and all his spells were ones he had siphoned from others. If he had to create a new spell from scratch, he knew he would fail. Still, he didn¡¯t ask her to rify where he got lost, not wanting to appear like a novice in magic when he was known as a water mage. His captain rank helped a lot here. He maintained an aloof expression, nodding as if he already understood her discoveries like some wise sage and approved of her progress. "...So when I inverted the mana formation, it didn¡¯t reverse the spell but created an entirely new effect. But of course, you already knew that¡­" Lazuli¡¯s words trailed off as his silence made her feel like she should have known these things already. Sol internally panicked as it seemed his acting was too effective and quickly shook his head. "Your mistaken, I didn¡¯t know those intricacies of poison magic. But we share themonalities of controlling mana, so I understand some of it. You¡¯re expanding your capabilities and learning a lot now that you¡¯ve found a path to follow. In time, you¡¯ll perfect that spell and create many more, so what happened before will never happen again." His response filled with a lot of generic rhetoric seemed to work, as Lazuli smiled and nodded. "Yeah! I promise I¡¯ll at least be as useful as my sister!" Sol mentally celebrated and decided to end the conversation on a positive note before he made another mistake. "Well, once again, congrattions on passing. Wee to the squad. Normally, you¡¯d go through a training period, but we have a mission tomorrow. Would you like toe along and get some on the job training?" "Of course!" Lazuli agreed eagerly. She didn¡¯t want to be left behind while her sister and new friends embarked on a new mission. Sol smiled warmly. "Great. Get some rest, we leave early. There are five rooms avable, so just pick whichever one you prefer." Their squad quarters had eleven private rooms, including the captain¡¯s quarters, and the other five knights had already chosen theirs. Each of the rooms reflected the personalities of their upants. Duncan¡¯s room was filled with mementos from his life, like his very first shield and pictures of his old squads. Rex¡¯s room was full of trinkets from his travels, making it a fusion of cultures from across the kingdom and neighboring nations. Nataly¡¯s room was filled with books and nts she was cultivating, breeding them into stronger variants. Aron¡¯s room, on the other hand, was a mess, with nothing in its proper ce. Lapis¡¯ room was the only one that looked untouched, as she spent most of her time outside of it, using it only for sleeping. N?v(el)B\\jnn Unsurprisingly, Lazuli chose the room next to Lapis¡¯. After cing a few of her belongings and getting a feel for her new space, she left to visit Lapis¡¯ room, eager to catch up on everything she had missed over the past year. Chapter 255: New Mission The next day, the squad gathered in the meeting room to discuss their uing mission. Sol stood at the head of the table, while the six knights sat on either side. Sol began the meeting with a more formal tone than usual. "A little over a week ago, the Crestelia Kingdom and the Frostaxe n entered into a cooperative agreement to work together to find the ancient city of the dwarves, hidden somewhere in the Orna Mountains. While there are surely many treasures to be found in their ancient capital, the main objective is to uncover the process by which they created life clusters. Two days ago, with the help of the two nations¡¯ best explorers and scouts, and guidance from the Saintess, we found it. However, due to certain... trust issues, no one has yet entered the city proper." The orcs had little trust in humans in general since long before their first attack, finding them to be a deceitful race that would even turn on their own kind. "The Frostaxes don¡¯t want the kingdom to explore on its own, fearing we might hide the method of life cluster production. Meanwhile, Crestelia doesn¡¯t want them exploring the city alone, as there are many treasures that would benefit them as well. Both sides have agreed to let us lead a joint expedition team." "Huh? Why us? Aren¡¯t we just a newly formed squad?" Lazuli, still not fully caught up, didn¡¯t understand how they became mediators between two nations. She had heard about what happened in the Orna Mountains, but she thought their involvement had ended. Duncan exined, "The one who made this cooperation possible was the Captain. He negotiated with the dragon to give the orcs the time they needed to find the city, and he got the kingdom to help. They probably believe the Captain won¡¯t do anything to jeopardize their chance of salvation after negotiating with and being recognized by the dragon." Sol nodded. "That¡¯s the reasoning, at least. We¡¯ll be leading the initial exploration team. Our job isn¡¯tplicated: we¡¯ll protect and guide the schrs, explorers, and other personnel into the city, set up a base of operations, and focus on finding the method to create life clusters, which is our main priority. Once we find it, we¡¯ll head back, and what they decide to do with the city afterward is up to both nations." Aron chuckled. "Who knows? They might even decide to move into it if it¡¯s in good enough condition." Nataly rolled her eyes and asked, "When do we leave?" "In an hour. Also, this expedition isn¡¯t expected tost long, a week at most. Any other questions?" No one spoke up, either because they had no questions or because they didn¡¯t think their concerns were important enough to bring up. Seeing this, Sol dismissed them to prepare. On the way out, Lazuli saw Lapis waiting by the door of the meeting room and casually said, "Hopefully neither of us dies. I don¡¯t know which would be more unlucky: me dying on my first mission, like you, or you dying again on your second mission." Lapis ignored thement and handed Lazuli her spatial ring, as Lazuli still didn¡¯t have one. "Pack your things. I¡¯ll meet youter." Thinking she might have hit a nerve, Lazuli replied as she took the ring, "Okay, and don¡¯t worry about what I said, nothing bad will happen." Her sister only nodded in response. Lazuli walked away, not knowing that Lapis hadn¡¯t even registered what she said. Her mind was preupied with what she considered more important. Once her twin was gone, Lapis returned to the room, where Sol was about to leave as well. "Lapis? Did you forget something?" Sol asked as he put the chairs back in ce. She shook her head and simply asked, "How?" "How... what?" "How do you have all those abilities? The various magics, your clearly superior attributes, and all those skills you¡¯ve been hiding? I¡¯ve never seen or heard of anything like it." Sol was silent, unsure how to respond. He knew it was something on the minds of everyone in his squad, but he had been ignoring it, hoping the topic would nevere up. Fortunately for him, the others had refrained from asking, sensing their captain didn¡¯t want to discuss it. Unfortunately, the one they¡¯d brought back to life wasn¡¯t as tactful. It seemed he could no longer avoid this conversation. "It¡¯s not something I can exin," Sol finally said. "But as you¡¯ve noticed, I have more skills than most. For now, I¡¯d prefer not to say more. I hope you understand." He knew he was essentially telling Lapis that he didn¡¯t trust her enough to reveal his secret, but what else could he say? This wasn¡¯t like Amber, someone he could wholeheartedly trust, knowing she would never betray his confidence. He trusted them, not only as friends but as fellow knights of his team, but some things had to remain unsaid. For their safety as well as his own. He didn¡¯t want them to be targets if anyone powerful got suspicious. Eventually, his secret woulde out, it wasn¡¯t something he could hide forever, but for now, he would keep it to himself and as few others for as long as possible. Lapis stared at him for a moment, her thoughts racing. Just as Sol began to wonder if she was angry about hisck of trust, she asked, "Did you do everything you could? Before I died?" She was referring to the moments before her death, when the icew technique had invaded her body, crystallizing her from the inside out. Sol nodded resolutely. "Yes. And I wouldn¡¯t hesitate to do it again." What was the point of having all these skills and abilities if he didn¡¯t use them when they mattered most? That was Sol¡¯s guiding principle. Even if the whole world learned his secret afterward, he would act without hesitation if it meant saving those close to him. "Then it¡¯s fine." Lapis said, seeing the strong resolve behind his eyes. She could ept not knowing as long as she knew he wasn¡¯t going to let her and the others die just to maintain his secret when there was something he could have done to prevent it. She believed Sol wasn¡¯t that sort of person, but if he was, she would have taken her sister and left the Royal Knights, at the risk of bing wanted criminals, without hesitation. To her, those types of people were the worst, most untrustworthy kind that wouldn¡¯t be there for you when all hell breaks loose. She was about to leave it at that, but then said, "Do you remember what I said after losing to you in the tournament?" It had been a few months, but he clearly remembered her words, which had made himugh at the time. "You said you would wipe the floor with me next time, right?" She nodded. "While I don¡¯t see that happening anytime soon, I still want a rematch, one where neither of us holds back." "Are you sure? I¡¯ve improved a lot since then." N?v(el)B\\jnn Without hesitation, she nodded again. "I¡¯ll happily get my ass handed to me if it means I get to see your real strength." He chuckled. Even in admitting defeat, she did so proudly. "Alright, let¡¯s do it when we get back from this mission." Chapter 256: Fort Chill Haven An hourter, the entire squad regrouped and headed to a special room within the Royal Knights Headquarters. It was guarded around the clock by two knight squads who, upon recognizing Sol and his team, opened therge doors and let them in. The room was empty, save for a raised five meter wide tform in the middle. It was carved with runes in a circr pattern, with eight dark blue lines extending off the tform and into the ground. Using his [True Sight (Variant)], Sol could see an incredible amount of mana coursing through these lines, feeding the central rune formation. There were two people also present in the room: Commander Zaman and a royal mage, identifiable by his formal attire. "Just on time. Come over," Zaman said in a friendly tone, gesturing for them to approach. "Commander," Sol said respectfully, saluting. The squad behind him mimicked the gesture, except for Lazuli, who hadn¡¯t noticed the salute in time. When she finally did notice, she tried to copy their actions, but it was obvious. The Commander knew of her situation and wasn¡¯t going to reprimand her over something so minor. "At ease," Zaman said before pointing at the tform next to him. "This is a focus point. It serves as an anchor for space mages to teleportrge groups over vast distances. With it, we¡¯ll travel to the Orna Mountains." Unlike normal focus points, which tended to be much smaller, this one could connect to the other side of the continent. All a space mage needed were the correct coordinates and the right sequence to ess it. Even with the security measures in ce to prevent unauthorized connections, knights were stationed around the clock to guard against the possibility of an enemy army portaling into the headquarters. The squad had various reactions, most lukewarm or slightly interested, except for the two mages, who were intensely focused on the formation, trying to understand how it worked. Nataly mumbled to herself without realizing it, "It has an advanced mana condensing array and its own mana storage, just in case the primary supply is cut off. I wonder how long it can maintain a portal using only its mana storage¡­" N?v(el)B\\jnn The royal mage, overhearing her, eagerly responded, "Well, depending on the size of the portal and whether it¡¯s one way or two way, it varies. But with a medium one way portal, it can maintain the space tunnel for just over sixteen hours!" "Sixteen?!" Lazuli eximed, shocked. A medium sized portal could allow 20 people to cross at a time, and over 16 hours, a small army could easily pass through. The mana storage must contain an astronomical amount of mana to sustain the portal for so long. "You can discuss thister; we need to meet with the orc forces, or we¡¯ll bete," Zaman said, causing the two mages to feel slightly ashamed for forgetting where they were. Sol nodded. "We¡¯re ready to go whenever." "Then let¡¯s begin. Open the portal." The royal mage nodded and began the chant for [Spatial Tunnel]. When the incantation wasplete, a purplish blue portal formed. Those standing near the entrance could feel the air being slightly pulled inside by the one way tunnel. The Commander was the first to step through, with the squad following closely behind. As Sol passed through, his vision was engulfed in purplish blue light, and he felt a strong force pulling him along. The next moment, he touched the ground and looked around, taking in the familiar sight. "We¡¯re already here..." Aron said in awe as he gazed at the fort surrounding them. The trip through the tunnel had only taken a few seconds, but they had traveled a distance that had previously taken them a week. "Things sure have changed since then," Duncanmented as he observed the fort, now bustling with soldiers and personnel attending to daily tasks and preparing the exploration team. The broken walls and overgrown foliage they had seen before were gone. If not for having been here themselves, they might not have believed this ce had been abandoned for years. As they took in the drastic renovations, a high ranking soldier approached them and saluted. "Wee to Fort Chill Haven. I¡¯ve been assigned to show you to the team you¡¯ll be leading to the ancient dwarven city." "Fort Chill Haven?" Sol asked. He had always heard it referred to as the abandoned fort and hadn¡¯t known it had a proper name. The soldier nodded and exined, "It¡¯s a name the townsfolk of Chilton began using after they took refuge here while rebuilding their town. It was originally called Fort Blendal¡¯s Path, but the new name caught on so quickly that it became the official name." The squad smiled, d to hear the people of Chilton were doing well. Sol thought about asking after those who had been crippled during the conflict but held back, knowing the answer wouldn¡¯t be pleasant. ¡¯Best not to ask and ruin the mood. But I wish I could help them...¡¯ he thought to himself as they followed the soldier to the fort¡¯s main building. Inside, they were guided to arge room where many people of various origins were eagerly discussing the uing expedition. "Aren¡¯t you excited? We¡¯re finally going to explore inside the city!" an explorer excitedly told the schr next to him. "How could I not be? The tunnels alone were incredible with their cognition obfuscation enchantments and whatever alloy was used to make them, an alloy that only an A-Ranker could break. Imagine the city itself!" The men and women were all excited at the prospect of being among the first to explore the ancient city, but none were more excited than one man who was on the verge of tears. "Finally... after so many years of studying various ancient and deadnguages, I finally have the chance to trante something new!" Those around him gave a sympathetic smile upon hearing his words. Linguists were pitied in this day and age as the most unfortunate schrs. With everyone speaking and writing in the System¡¯smonnguage, their skills had be almost useless, as everyone already spoke the same tongue. Their only remaining value was in tranting ancientnguages that had long since died out, but the problem was that most ancient texts had already been tranted, and there were next to none undiscovered ruins left. This left linguists with little to do but retrante ancient books and verify that previous trantions contained no errors or misinterpretations. Chapter 257: The Cost of War Zaman, who stood next to Sol as they watched the schrs talk among themselves, gave him a slight nudge. "Go on, then. Introduce yourself." "Me? I thought you were going to talk to them." The Commander shook his head. "No, I¡¯m just here for when you meet the orcs¡¯ exploration team. The rest is all on you." Zaman was only apanying them until they met the orc forces that would be entering the ancient city alongside them. This was not only a safety precaution but also an opportunity to meet the leader of the orc army, Great Champion Nomrak. After that, Zaman would return to the capital, as he couldn¡¯t stay away for too long. His presence here was already a risk, but it had been deemed necessary. He would only stay for an hour or two at most. Understanding that he had to take the lead, Sol took a deep breath and stepped forward. "If I could have everyone¡¯s attention." His voice carried through the room, causing the attentive people to look over while the rest gradually quieted down. Even as silence fell, a few whispers persisted in the crowd. "Who¡¯s he?" "Are you not from the capital? That¡¯s Royal Knight Captain Sol." "Really? I heard he survived against an A-Ranker during the tournament. Is he really that strong?" "It was him and his squad that took down this fort, which had hundreds of bandits, and saved all of Chilton that was held captive." N?v(el)B\\jnn "Just seven people?!" Sol¡¯s eye twitched as he heard their hushed conversations. With his heightened senses and attributes, he could easily hear everything they were saying and had to resist the urge to correct them that there were only six of them at the time. Instead, he focused on the matter at hand. "A pleasure to meet all of you. As some of you may know, I¡¯m Royal Knight Captain Sol. Together, we will soon depart to explore the ruins of the ancient dwarven city¡­" After exining the details of their mission, Sol concluded with a few key points. "Remember, we will be working alongside the orcs¡¯ exploration team. Under no circumstances should you antagonize them, even if they initiate it. If they act improperly, report to me or any of my royal knights before doing anything rash. If all goes well, we could finally end the hostilities between us and the orcs." From the crowd, a schr scoffed. Sol raised an eyebrow and asked, "Is something wrong?" "You¡¯re asking me? We should let those orcs die and be done with it!" His sentiment seemed to resonate with a few other schrs who harbored clear resentment toward the orcs. Sol was momentarily stumped, unsure of how to convince them otherwise. He himself still carried anger over the orcs¡¯ actions, not only for Lapis¡¯ death, but for the many soldiers who had fallen as he fought to defend Kerman from thetest invasion. He had been suppressing these feelings, thinking of the greater good for both nations. But he couldn¡¯t simply tell them to forgive all the wrongs the orcs had done. As he wrestled with how to calm the situation, he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Zaman. The Commander stepped forward and looked at the schr who had spoken out. "Even if they attack us?" Zaman asked. "We¡¯ll win, just like we always do!" the schr replied. Many of the schrs nodded in agreement, confident that their kingdom would triumph in a direct confrontation. This was not based on their blind faith for their kingdom but their perfect track record that they had always sessfully defended against the orcs. However, those who had written in-depth analysis of such an all out war remained silent, their expressions grim. Zaman continued, "If theye at us with everything they have, it won¡¯t end with a simple border skirmish. Countless lives will be lost, and we¡¯ll need every able hand to win. Can I count on you to take up arms when that timees?" The schr was taken aback. "Wha¡ª? I¡¯m just a schr, I don¡¯t have any talents for fighting." "That¡¯s no issue. We can quickly level you up in a dungeon, and with enough raw attributes, you could probably take down a couple of orc warriors. Just hope no one strongeres along and targets you first." "B-but I¡¯ll die¡­" "That¡¯s what will happen if a full scale war breaks out. Both we and the orcs will lose many soldiers, and eventually, we¡¯ll have to rece them with normal people by leveling them quickly in dungeons. So, for your sake and mine, let¡¯s hope this war never happens." "I¡­ I understand," the schr said, his tone subdued. The reality of the situation had sunk in, and the schrs who shared his thoughts also seemed to grasp the gravity of the consequences. Zaman turned to Sol and spoke in a low voice. "It will take a long time for both sides to forgive and forget, and by then, we¡¯ll both be long dead. All we can do is take the necessary steps to prevent people like them from dragging us back to a time of war." Sol nodded in understanding. He knew it wouldn¡¯t be easy topletely forgive the orcs for their actions, but allowing anger to cloud judgment was a quick way to make things worse. While Zaman¡¯s words hadn¡¯t fully convinced the schrs to make peace with the orcs, they would at least think twice about the consequences of their actions. Looking at the 30 or so members of the exploration team, Sol said, "If everyone understands what¡¯s at stake, then let¡¯s move out." This time, no one objected as they all headed to the stables, where five carriages, each pulled by two horses, awaited them. Alongside them stood a toon of 50 C-Rank soldiers, who would provide additional muscle. Unlike the schrs, these soldiers were hand-picked for their disciplined nature, so there was no concern about them causing any trouble. Commander Zaman, Sol, and the rest of the squad climbed into the first carriage, and without any further ceremony, they set off for the ancient dwarven city. Chapter 258: Midamol Key While the knights and schrs were able to ride in the carriages, the soldiers jogged alongside them on both sides in formation. Even with the soldiers on foot, their travel speed was surprisingly fast. Everything was going smoothly until Lazuli looked ahead and her eyes widened in rm. "Uhh¡­ Are we heading straight toward that wall?" The rest of the group peeked over and saw that they were indeed heading straight toward a dead end. Sol turned to Rex and asked, "Is this another fake wall?" To his question, Rex shook his head. "No, I¡¯m 100% sure it¡¯s real." Unlike the previous time, he didn¡¯t get any strange feeling that made him ignore the wall. With his improved perception skills, he was confident it was real. "Huh?!" Nataly yelled in surprise. "Then why aren¡¯t we slowing down?!" Aron looked at Sol and asked, "Should we jump off?" Sol nced at Zaman, who was doing his best to hold backughter as they rapidly approached the wall. Before Sol could respond, the driver holding the horse¡¯s reins pulled out an odd looking cube and raised it. The cube glowed, and the wall ahead glowed in a simr fashion as runes appeared on it. The wall then shook and slid downward, revealing a passage ahead. The carriages continued through the passage unimpeded. Before the squad could ask about it, Zaman exined, "What the driver is holding is a Midamol Key. It¡¯s something we found with the assistance of the Saintess in one of the abandoned mineshafts. Though it looks rather in, it serves as the key to essing the real passages in the dwarven tunnels." "The real ones? So are the other passages just distractions?" Sol asked. Zaman nodded. "For the most part, yes. Some connect to abandoned mines or other unimportant structures, but the only way to reach the dwarven city is with a Midamol Key. The key opens the real path, and the rest of the way is a straight line." The tunnels were set up so that anyone unaware of the true passage would spend their entire lives searching in vain. For the dwarves who once lived there, it was a convenient system, as they didn¡¯t have to navigate the maze. As long as one had the key, the route was a straight shot to their city. As they continued, the tunnel they were traveling through slowly expanded, merging with other tunnels as they traveled along. Almost 50 tunnels converged into the now massive passage they were in. It didn¡¯t take more than 15 minutes for them to arrive at a set of massive metal gates, where arge group of humans and orcs stood guard. Though both groups were stationed to guard the gate, they weren¡¯t protecting it from possible intruders, they were guarding against each other. The groups stood 10 feet apart, wary of a surprise attack. Their carriages parked on the human side, and they all hopped off. They didn¡¯t have to wait long before the cking sound of bully goats pulling five carriages approached and stopped on the orc side. The first to disembark was an orc in full body armor, covered in countless battle scars. This was the Great Champion Nomrak, second to the Frostaxe Chieftain. He was followed by an orc familiar to the squad, Kirgar. The two stopped a few feet away as Nomrak looked down at Zaman. "Royal Knight Commander Zaman¡­ How¡¯s Vivian doing?" The Commander, unfazed by the imposing height difference, corrected him. "It¡¯s Grand Knight Vivian, and she¡¯s fully recovered from the wound you gave her. She¡¯s back at her post, ready for another round if youe to our border again." The two stared at each other in silence, as if trying to read each other¡¯s thoughts. Sol and his squad, along with everyone else, silently hoped this didn¡¯t turn into a brawl. A fight between these two could destroy everything around them, including them. Luckily, a deep, loudugh erupted from the Great Champion instead. "Bahahaha! Good! As expected of her, she¡¯s not easy to kill. Let¡¯s hope next time we fight, it¡¯s for sport." N?v(el)B\\jnn Zaman nodded. "Agreed." Nomrak then turned his gaze to the royal knights behind Zaman. After searching for a moment and not finding what he was looking for, he asked Kirgar, "Which one of them is he?" Kirgar pointed at Sol and said respectfully, "He¡¯s the Savior, Great Champion." The Great Champion looked directly at Sol, sizing him up. Under his gaze, Sol instinctively knew that if this orc wanted him dead, he wouldn¡¯t be able to resist. "So, you¡¯re the one who gave us this chance," Nomrak said. "Regardless of your reason, the entire Frostaxe n is in your debt." Sol, surprised by the sudden shift in focus, shook his head. "I did it for both our nations. There¡¯s no need to thank me." "No, we must. The Frostaxe n is not ungrateful," Nomrak insisted. He reached into his spatial ring and retrieved something. "That¡¯s why our Chieftain has dered that you and yourpatriots are now friends of our n. These tokens will serve as proof." He held out five nes, each with a beautiful orange opal encased in silver blue metal. The opal was engraved with the image of an axe, the Frostaxe n¡¯s symbol. Nomrak continued, "With these, you can freely traverse ournds and enter our cities. No Frostaxe will dare bother you as long as you wear them. They are also enhanced by out best enchanters to shield you from the cold." Hearing this, Sol took a quick nce at the items description with [Analysis]. [Warming Jade Unique Skills: [Ice Resistance] Lv 8, [Temperature Regtion] Lv 8] The Great Champion then paused, ncing at the knights standing with Sol, he now realized there were seven of them. Confused, he asked Kirgar, "... I thought you said there were only five of them?" Kirgar was equally puzzled, noticing two new girls who looked nearly identical to the one he had killed. "There were¡­ I¡¯m sorry, but are you two the sisters of the one I¡­?" He trailed off, unable to finish the sentence. Lapis shook her head. "No, I¡¯m the one you killed." "Huh?!" ... After a brief exnation, the two orcs were caught up. There was no reason to hide the fact that Lapis had been revived, as the method could only work for descendants of Serpent Devouts. "I see¡­ I truly apologize for killing you," Kirgar said, apologizing once more. "It¡¯s fine. We were enemies at the time," Lapis said, not seeming to mind that he had killed her. She understood that, as enemies, it was natural for him to try to kill her, just as she would have ended his life if she could. Now that they were no longer enemies, she had no intention of seeking revenge, as it would be a waste of time. "You are truly apassionate human. I thank you for your kindness." "..." Lapis made no attempt to correct his misunderstanding. While Zaman, Nomrak, and others were moved by her apparent forgiveness, the rest of the squad, especially Lazuli, who knew her best, struggled to contain theirughter. Understanding the situation, Nomrak said, "I will send word to make two more tokens for the twins. By the time you return, they will be ready." Lapis nodded, while Lazuli, surprised, said, "Me too? Thanks!" She hadn¡¯t expected to receive a token as well for something she wasn¡¯t involved in, but she wasn¡¯t about to turn down a free gift. Zaman, who had been silent thus far, knew he needed to return to the capital soon and moved to the main subject. "Are your men ready to go in?" Nomrak nodded and turned to Sol. "They¡¯re our finest shamans and sages, alongside 50 orc fighters for protection. They¡¯re ready to go whenever you are." "We can go now," Sol said. With his confirmation, the two groups reboarded their carriages and used the Midamol Key to activate therge gates. The gates slid open, dust falling from years of inactivity and creating a cloud of smoke as they fully opened. The ten carriages, apanied by 100 soldiers from both nations, entered through the massive doors, ready to face whatever awaited them inside. Chapter 259: Ancient Dwarven City Upon passing through the doors, the group was met with an incredible sight. Wondrous buildings stretched as far as the eye could see, towering in the distance. These structures ranged from normal one or two story houses to massive towers that reached all the way to the ceiling, hundreds of meters high. Along the walls on the edges, more structures were built, connected by bridges at different heights and levels in a mesmerizing, truly awe inspiring manner. The entire scene was illuminated not only by warm, yellowmp posts that lined the streets but also by a massive orange crystal embedded in the ceiling, shining brightly and providing warmth reminiscent of real sunlight. This was the ancient city of the dwarfs. Unlike the tunnels the city itself wasn¡¯t built using that special alloy. Most buildings were built like normal houses but there were a few that werepletely made of that alloy. Their carriages slowed down as they carefully traversed the city¡¯s streets. Rex, on the lookout for any dangers, stood on the roof of one of the carriages, surveying the area. "Huh¡­ that¡¯s odd." Rexmented. "Did you see anything?" Sol asked. Rex shook his head. "No, nothing yet. It¡¯s just strange, everything looks so clean. There¡¯s not a speck of dust anywhere." "Could there still be people maintaining this ce?" Duncan wondered aloud, though he found it unlikely given theck of any living presence. Nataly had another theory. "Could be some kind of cleaning spell that keeps everything perfect." "It would require an astronomical amount of mana if that were the case," Lazuli agreed. "But given that their tunnel system is still working after so long, I can see it being possible." "We can think about thister," Sol interjected, keeping his focus on their objective. "For now, let¡¯s find a ce to set up our base of operations. Rex, let us know if you find a safe area." Rex nodded and expanded his range of perception further. Not long after, they found a suitable location a decent distance into the city, a public park. It was simr to those in Crestal City, with lush green grass and various types of trees scattered throughout which flourished even though they were deep underground. "Why choose a park and not one of the nearby buildings?" Aron asked, watching the soldiers set up tents. "It would save us the trouble of setting up camp." Sol, having just finished discussing facility cements with a soldier, replied, "Because we don¡¯t know if the buildings are safe. They could have security measures against intruders, and until we investigate them, we won¡¯t know. A public park is the least likely ce to have such traps, as it¡¯s where people would go with children and pets. It was either this or setting up in the middle of the street." "The park is definitely nicer," Lazuli added. "It¡¯s more open, so we can keep a better watch on our surroundings." The squad agreed this was a good ce to base their operations. The only potentially better location would have been a city square, but they hadn¡¯te across one yet. As they were discussing other matters, two orc soldiers approached and gave a traditional Frostaxe n salute, holding their weapons close to their chests with their off hand behind their back. "Savior, we have finished setting up camp and can begin sending teams to explore the city," one of them said. Though Sol still found it strange to be called "Savior" by every orc, he did his best to ignore that and nodded. "Good work. Once our soldiers are done, we¡¯ll send out teams to gather a better understanding of the city." It only took ten more minutes for the kingdom¡¯s soldiers to finish their preparations, allowing them to start exploring. Sol had to carefully divide their forces, keeping in mind both safety and the tension between the orcs and humans. ¡¯It would be easy to keep them separate, but I don¡¯t want them thinking one side is hiding something from the other¡­¡¯ After some consideration, he split the squad and their forces into three main groups, each with different objectives. The first was the home team: 20 soldiers from both sides were tasked with defending the base and watching over the human schrs and orc sages, who wouldn¡¯t leave the base for their own safety. Duncan and Lazuli would stay behind to ensure there were no problems between the orcs and humans. The second group was the perimeter team. Fifteen soldiers from each side, along with half of the exploration rted talents, would search the buildings around the park to make sure there were no hidden threats. They would gradually expand their search outward, led by Rex and Aron. The third group, the away team, consisted of the remaining 15 soldiers from each side and the other half of the exploration talents. Their objective was to reach the heart of the city, where massive buildings rose to the ceiling, including arge structure that resembled a castle. If the method to create life clusters was anywhere, it would likely be there. Sol led this team, with Nataly and Lapis alongside him. Though he would have liked Rex to be on the away team because of his exceptional search skills, leadership wise, Rex was the most capable after Duncan, and Sol trusted him to make the best decisions for the perimeter team. While it was possible tomunicate using gems, it was possible there could be objects or magic in ce that disrupts them, so each team needed a capable leader with them. "Stay safe, everyone." Sol said after assigning the squad their responsibilities. They all nodded, understanding their roles, and led their respective groups out of the base. Duncan and a somewhat disgruntled Lazuli were the only ones that stayed behind. Lazuli kicked a pebble off to the side, grumbling, "Being left behind sucks¡­" Duncanughed and patted her shoulder. "Come on, it¡¯s not so bad. Think of the bright side, you¡¯ve got plenty of time to work on that new spell of yours. Didn¡¯t you borrow a spell book from the Royal Library as well?" "Yeah, I guess¡­ I was just hoping for some more action, you know?" She sighed, feeling that her first mission was a bit underwhelming if all she was going to do was stay at exploration base and study, something she could have done back at the Royal Knights Headquarters. "Doesn¡¯t it bother you, being left behind?" N?v(el)B\\jnn "Not at all." Duncan said, shaking his head. "We¡¯ve been given the important job of protecting the schrs and sages. Without them, we¡¯d be lost if we encounter something unfamiliar. Plus, with my improved barrier skill, I¡¯m the best one to defend them if ites to that." Lazuli tilted her head. "Improved? Didn¡¯t you say you already maxed out that skill?" "Oh, um, yeah. I just got a new skill that enhances it." Duncan almost let slip that he was working on hisw technique but remembered Sol¡¯s warning about the limit on the number of A-Rankers a nation could have, and that spreading such knowledge could cause trouble. Lazuli found his response a bit odd but decided not to pry. "Ah, I see. Well, you¡¯re right. I¡¯ll use this time to fix [Berserk Tonic]¡¯s side effects." "Mhm, good luck." Chapter 260: Azrem Puppet Sol and his away team proceeded down the main street leading straight into the heart of the city. Along the way, they saw numerous shops and homes lining the road. ¡¯I don¡¯t know what those signs say, but I can more or less guess what type of store it was,¡¯ Sol thought as he looked at a sign written in an unknownnguage hanging above a clothing store, indicated by the short humanoid wooden models in the window, oddly enough, all without clothes. It was unclear how many years, decades, centuries, or even millennia had passed since these stores werest open for business. Yet, like everywhere else in the city, the ce was immacte. There was minimal dust, no trash, and no broken objects in sight. This eerie cleanliness made everyone wonder what could have happened here. It was as though the entire poption had just up and left one day, abandoning the city. "Hm? What¡¯s that?" Nataly asked, pointing at a storefront window with several small bronze humanoids hanging from a rack. "Let¡¯s check it out," Sol said, pausing the group¡¯s march. Approaching the store¡¯s window, they got a better look at the small metal puppets, each only about a foot tall. Behind them,rge, bold words in the same unknownnguage were disyed. He twisted the handle of the unlocked door, and it opened with a soft creak. Sol entered, followed by Nataly, Lapis, and two soldiers from each nation, while the rest of the team stayed outside. As advertised, the shelves inside were lined with metal puppets simr to those disyed outside. There were also many other trinkets and tools, some of which Sol couldn¡¯t even guess the purpose of. ¡¯Wait, what about [Analysis]?¡¯ Using [Analysis] on the first puppet within his line of sight, he was slightly surprised to get a result. [Azrem Puppet Servant Rare Skills: [Rune Algorithm] Lv 5] "Bob?" Sol muttered instinctively, causing those around him to look at him strangely. "Sorry, forget I said that. I think these are autonomous golems that can followmands." "Golems? Should we try turning one on?" one of the human soldiers asked. Sol weighed the risks and nodded, thinking it would be safe, as the only skill the puppet had was for processingmands. Seeing his approval, Nataly picked one up from the shelf, searching for a way to activate it, though she didn¡¯t see any obvious buttons or triggers. She then tried infusing it with mana, hoping a simple injection would do the trick. The metal puppet shuddered, its limp head snapping upright as its blue crystal eyes flickered to life, scanning its surroundings. "Azrem Grika ne trwastern ni etu almernos!" It said in an unfamiliarnguage, leaving everyone stumped. "Do you understand us?" Nataly asked, but the puppet didn¡¯t respond. "Hmm... How about... Jump!" "Clean!" "Dance?" Nataly tried giving it a few moremands, even using gestures, but the puppet stood still, watching in silence. "... We¡¯re going to need some help with this. Can you turn it off?" Sol realized they weren¡¯t going to figure this out anytime soon and thought it best to leave the puppet to the schrs at the base. Nataly nodded. "I¡¯ve been feeding it my mana the whole time. Cutting it off should work." She stopped the mana flow, and the puppet copsed, lifeless once more. "Let¡¯s grab a few of these and send a small team to take them back while we continue. Oh, and let¡¯s write down those words from the entrance too. Maybe they¡¯ll help." The soldiers nodded and followed Sol¡¯s orders. A team of four agile soldiers gathered the puppets along with written papers that copied what was on the signs in the store and headed back to the base. ¡­ Meanwhile, back at the base, a human and two orcs were sitting together, discussing something important. The human spoke with fierce determination. "We¡¯ve endured many hardships because of our profession. But now, it¡¯s all finally paying off, right here, right now! We have to make the most of it!" The two orcs nodded seriously with a simr fierce expression. "We will no longer be a joke, leeching off the n!" The trio shared something inmon that transcended race and nationality. The hatred their people harbored for each other didn¡¯t matter. Only they could understand the pain and humiliation they¡¯d suffered over the years. They were the only three linguists in the entire expedition, finally able to make use of their skills. Just then, a human schr approached the group. "You three are linguists, right? We¡¯ve just received some metal puppets from the away team, and they¡¯re speaking ancient dwarvish. Can you help us?" "Leave it to us!" they replied, standing up proudly and walking toward the tent where the puppets were being inspected by a group of schrs and sages. ¡­ Near the base, Rex and Aron led their perimeter team through a sweep of the surrounding buildings. So far, nothing unusual had urred. The area was mostly filled with homes and a few businesses, all devoid of life. Growing bored of the repetitive task, Aron yawned and asked, "Aren¡¯t there any more interesting ces nearby? It¡¯s boring if all we do is walk into empty houses." Rex, having just exited another house he¡¯d finished checking, nodded. "Yeah, there is." Aron¡¯s eyes lit up. "Really? Why don¡¯t we go there, then?" Rex rolled his eyes. "You know why. Once we¡¯re sure there are no problems near the base, we can go there next." N?v(el)B\\jnn Aron understood, but that didn¡¯t stop him from feeling bored. He secretly wished he were on the away team or even the home team, at least then he could ask someone to spar with him. "Alright, after we¡¯re done here. By the way, what kind of ce is it?" "It¡¯s a museum!" Rex said with clear joy. "A¡­ museum?" Only then did Aron realize that he and Rex had very different definitions of interesting. Chapter 261: Breaking In "So you¡¯re heading to the museum next?" Sol asked Rex through the glowingmunication gem. "Yeah, Aron wanted to see something more interesting than empty houses, and it¡¯s within the expanded search perimeter." Faintly from the gem, Aron¡¯s grumbling could be heard. "Since when were museums interesting¡­" Sol chuckled not knowing why he was so displeased and gave the go ahead. "Sure, it¡¯s your call. Maybe bring a few schrs to check it out once you deem it safe." "Will do, Captain. How¡¯s it going on your end?" Sol looked ahead at the massive castle like structure, surrounded by an empty moat. "We¡¯re about to head into the heart of the city." "Alright, good luck." The gem stopped glowing as they cut off the mana sustaining the connection. Sol pocketed it and turned his attention to the massive doors ahead of them. "Let¡¯s hope this works." Sol muttered, taking out the Midamol Key at the gate. After a moment of waiting, nothing happened. He looked at the cube in disappointment. "Guess it¡¯s only good for getting into the city." It could have other uses, but they had no way of knowing where, so they could only blindly use it wherever it seemed applicable. With the key proving useless here, they had to find another way into the metal structure. ¡¯No windows¡­ and it¡¯s fully made out of that strong alloy. Should we just try to break it?¡¯ As he considered their options, Lapis spoke up. "Down there." she said, pointing toward the bottom of the empty moat. Arge pipe wide enough for them to walk in was visible. ¡¯It does lead into the castle, but it probably goes into the water supply... though it could also be something worse, like the sewers¡­¡¯ n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Hoping for the former, Sol thanked Lapis and hopped down to the bottom of the moat with her and Nataly, ordering the rest of the team to stay back while they found a way inside. A group their size wouldn¡¯t work well in the pipe, especially for therger orcs who would have to crawl to fit. If anything went wrong, retreating would be extremely difficult with so many people crammed together. There were grates blocking the entrance to the pipe, and although they were made of the incredibly durable alloy, a well ced shot from Sol¡¯s Tynamo Cannon broke the lock, allowing them to enter without hassle. They followed the pipe, searching for any kind of hatch or opening they could use, until they eventually came across one. Adder led upward, and judging by how far they had walked, they were still within the castle. "Is this some kind of storage room?" Sol asked as the three of them climbed up, finding themselves in a small room filled with misceneous tools and supplies. There were bags withbels, but without understanding thenguage, they could only assume they were maintenance rted. "Looks like it. Oh! This leads to a small passage." Nataly said, peeking her head out of the room¡¯s only door. They stepped out of the supply room into a narrow passage that stretched in both directions, only five feet wide. "Let¡¯s go the direction we came from." Sol suggested. The passage lined up with the pipe underground, so they followed it back, hoping it would lead them near the entrance. Eventually, they found a door that connected to the main hallways. The hall was massivepared to where they had just been, with ornate pirs lining the walls and elegant decorations. Looking back at the passage they hade from, Sol noted the stark difference and thought to himself, ¡¯So that was the servants¡¯ passage?¡¯ He had heard of such passages before but had never seen one himself. While there weren¡¯t any in the Royal Knights¡¯ Headquarters, he knew they were used in the Royal Pce for servants to move undetected and as a possible escape route for the royal family. The three continued down the grand hallway and reached the gate from the other side. After some searching, they found a lever that caused an audible nking, unlocking the door and swinging it open. The soldiers waiting outside readied their weapons, but upon seeing it was Sol and the others, they lowered their guard and regrouped. "You know, this is kind of easy." Natalymented as the soldiers joined them. "Besides the unsettling atmosphere of an empty city, there¡¯s really nothing stopping us from exploring." Sol nodded. "Well, it is abandoned. This mission is more about searching than fighting." WREEEEE! As if to contradict him, a loud whirring sound echoed through the hallway. Sol activated [True Sight (Variant)] to check their surroundings, he saw the multiple odd shaped mana signatures heading their way and what was even weirder was that he couldn¡¯t detect any life signs from them. What he did see was that the area was saturated with mana, though that didn¡¯t help. He could hear footsteps and the sound of wheels approaching fast. Soon, the source of the noise came into view. A variety ofrge mechanical creations flooded the grand hallway, they came from the main hallway but a good portion also poured out of the servants¡¯ passage and aiming their various weapons at the team. "Prepare to fight!" Solmanded, drawing his Lipon and activating it, unleashing a ming sword. "INTERAMEN! SUPREN O DAI!" the mechanical creations shouted in unison as they advanced. ¡­ Meanwhile, the perimeter team had justpleted a basic sweep of the museum. The museum appeared to be themed around magical technology rather than dwarven history, so most of the disys featured magical gadgets and inventions that had advanced their civilization. Rex, who had been hoping for more historical content, was a bit disappointed but still intrigued. The only issue was his inability to understand thenguage on the exhibitbels, leaving him only able to guess their purpose. After regrouping with his team, Rex said, "Now that this ce is safe, we can bring some schrs and sages to explore and figure out what these items do. If we¡¯re lucky, one of them might lead us to making life clusters." He pointed to two humans and three orcs standing nearby. "You five will stay here and watch over the museum. Call us if anything happens." "Yes, sir!" "By yourmand!" The five soldiers epted their assignment and stayed behind while Rex, Aron, and the remaining soldiers returned to the base to escort a few lucky schrs and sages to the museum. When they arrived at the base, Aron secretly approached Lazuli while Rex was busy discussing who to send with Duncan. Lazuli was sitting peacefully under a tree, reading a book on intermediate poison spells. "Hey, Lazuli, how are things here?" Aron asked. She closed her book and smiled. "Hi. It¡¯s alright. Nothing¡¯s happened except for the asional cheers and arguments between the schrs." "Cool, cool, cool. So¡­ you finding it boring?" She shrugged. "A little, I guess. Why?" Though she had her book to practice magic with, it wasn¡¯t exactly rted to her task here. Seeing that she was also a bit bored, Aron decided to get to the point. "Well¡­ what if we swapped teams?" "Huh? Why?" "I just thought you might want to get out and explore, you know, since it¡¯s your first mission¡­" Aron, of course, didn¡¯t tell her his real reason: he wanted to stay back and rx with the human and orc soldiers and maybe spar with them. "I don¡¯t know¡­ Captain Sol assigned us to our teams. I don¡¯t think we should be swapping around on a whim. Besides, I¡¯m fine here. I can practice my magic." She didn¡¯t mind staying or going, but didn¡¯t want to go against orders on her first mission. Aron sighed, realizing she wasn¡¯t interested. He didn¡¯t push it further. "Okay¡­ Guess I¡¯ll go help Rex escort the schrs to the magic museum." Before he could leave, he felt her grab his arm. "Did you say magic museum?" Lazuli had a strange look in her eyes, one Aron had never seen before. It actually scared him a little. "Y-yeah?" Without letting go, Lazuli began dragging him. "Where are we going?" Aron asked, bewildered. "To Duncan. I want to swap teams with you." ¡¯The hell? Does everyone here love museums?¡¯ In the end, Aron got what he wanted, just not in the way he expected. Chapter 262: Combat Puppet "HAH!" Sol shed horizontally, sending a wave of mana that split multiple mechanical creations in half. [Azrem Combat Puppet Model Knight Unique Skills: [Rune Algorithm] Lv 8, [Osciting Sword] Lv 6] [Azrem Combat Puppet Model Vanguard Unique Skills: [Rune Algorithm] Lv 8, [Force Dampener] Lv 6] [Azrem Combat Puppet Model Seeker Unique Skills: [Rune Algorithm] Lv 8, [Precision Firing] Lv 6] The enemies came in different shapes and sizes, each with different means of attack, but regardless, they all fell before him. Due to the mechanical nature of these creations, Sol didn¡¯t gain any experience or skills from them. Simrly to how [Siphon] didn¡¯t work on items, he couldn¡¯t use it on these lifeless constructs. Beside him, Lapis stabbed forward with her spear, which stretched and bent in ways that allowed her to prate multiple puppets with a single strike. Behind them, the soldiers used their own methods to take down the puppets that slipped past Sol and Lapis, while Nataly, even further behind, healed and controlled a tree sentinel she had summoned to crush the puppets. These puppets weren¡¯t too difficult to defeat, even for the C-Rank soldiers. Though they were C-Rank, they were the best among their rank, with level being the only real difference between them and a B-Ranker. It also helped that the metal the puppets were made of wasn¡¯t the same as the nearly indestructible alloy found in the tunnels and other parts of the ancient city. Instead, it was a special alloy that was more mana conductive and flexible, which made the puppets less rigid but easier to destroy. This was true in one on one situations. However, the enemies outnumbered them ten to one, and soon, too many were slipping past Sol and Lapis, who were holding back the majority of their forces. "There¡¯s too many of them!" a human soldier shouted as he was surrounded by six puppets. Though he felt overwhelmed, he stood his ground regardless, gripping his shield tightly and rapidly blocking attacks from multiple directions. He held out for a few more seconds until four des smashed into his shield simultaneously, knocking him off bnce. The puppets detected the opening created and mercilessly swung their weapons at him. All the soldier could do was brace himself for the end. CRASH! Just before the des struck, a boulder flew through the puppets, crushing them and giving the soldier a chance to retreat toward the others, who were also struggling. He nced at where the boulder hade from and saw Sol creating more boulders out of thin air andunching them at other enemies. Though the entire building was made of the special alloy that he couldn¡¯t manipte, Sol could still create and use earth. While it consumed more mana, it was within a tolerable range. Sol, having trouble keeping track of all the enemies, turned to Lapis, who was shing between the puppets, taking down tens per second. "We need to block the servant passage!" At this rate more would slip by them and eventually overwhelm their forces. Even if they could hold on, eventually Sol and Lapis would get exhausted from the constant fighting. They needed to stop it at the source. She agreed. "Go, I¡¯ll hold them back." He didn¡¯t know how she nned to do that but trusted her regardless. He rushed through the horde of enemies, wielding his zing sword. Cranking the dial to the maximum, the de ballooned in size and he unleashed [Vorpal de Rush]. Each sh cut through over 50 enemies as he rushed forward, creating a massive opening in the horde of puppets. As he neared the servant passage, he finished the skills execution with a final spin sh that destroyed all the mechanical creations around him, revealing the entrance to the passage. Not wanting to waste any time, Sol used his recentlybined skill [Umbral Domain], sending multiple streaks of shadows into the passage, making sure no one noticed in doing so. Once inside the passage, the shadows rose from the ground, forming shadowy figures wielding various weapons. They began attacking the puppets in the narrow passage. They were able to hold off the enemies without any issue, as only so many could attack at once in the confined hallway without the puppets risking damaging each other. With the shadows buying him time, Sol created arge, thick b ofpressed stone and lodged it into the entrance,pletely blocking it off. ¡¯The shadows should be able to hold them off for now.¡¯ Believing his job was done, Sol turned to return to the rest of the team. But he noticed that more mechanical beings were still pouring in as quickly as before. Looking further down the hall, he saw yet another side passage from which more puppets were emerging, and another even farther away. ¡¯This might take a while...¡¯ While Sol was busy sealing the servant passage entrances, Lapis was destroying as many of the puppets as she could. But without Sol¡¯s help, more and more of them kept slipping past, overwhelming those at the back. Nataly was also doing her best with her tree sentinel, but with countless enemies ganging up on it, there was only so much it could do. N?v(el)B\\jnn To keep them at bay, Lapis used multiple skills to temporarily boost her power and restore the precarious bnce. Her body blurred as her agility, her highest attribute, soared to nearly 700 points. She moved so quickly that she left afterimages, blurring back and forth across the hallway, shredding any mechanical creation that dared approach her spear. Even with Sol using [Overpower], he wouldn¡¯t have been able to match her raw speed. The enemies, much weaker than him, couldn¡¯t process her attacks before they were destroyed. With no more enemies slipping through, the soldiers were able to quickly dispatch the remaining puppets. They watched in awe as the green blur of Lapis became an unstoppable force, sending metallic scraps flying everywhere. "What a powerful woman. How have we not heard of her before?" an orc said in amazement. The human archer next to him shook her head. "We haven¡¯t heard of her either, but she¡¯s definitely stronger than any of my superiors in the army. Besides the A-Rankers, of course." A more analytical soldier pointed out, "She¡¯s probably using burst skills to pull this off. She won¡¯tst much longer." Nataly, who had just finished healing her tree sentinel, chugged a mana potion and said, "Then let¡¯s take this chance to reduce their numbers before her burst skills wears off." The others agreed, and they began using their ranged skills and weapons to support Lapis. Chapter 263: Azrem Fortress Unit ¡¯This isn¡¯t going to end anytime soon. They¡¯re going to keeping until they run out of puppets, but who knows how long that will take.¡¯ Sol thought to himself. As he continued to close the entrances, leaving shadow men to fight in the narrow servant passages, he eventually concluded that this would never end. Every time he closed one entrance, they poured out of the next. So far, he had managed to seal 15 entrances, yet it felt like he had barely impacted their numbers, only dying how long it took them to arrive. He swung his fire sword, Lipon, at maximum power, using thest of its energy to wipe out the Azrem Combat Puppets surrounding him. As he finished, the Lipon ran out of energy, but that wasn¡¯t an issue. Calmly, he popped the elemental canister out of the Lipon and inserted another one in a fluid motion. He activated the Lipon again, this time unleashing an earth element sword. Sol had slightly over a hundred of these canisters, which he had been filling with various elemental energy during his spare time. Even at maximum power, it wouldst him a full day before he ran out. Sol shed with the earth sword, cutting down more puppets, and thought to himself, ¡¯I¡¯ve gone pretty far, they can¡¯t see me anymore...¡¯ He had already left the main grand hallway and entered an evenrger open area where multiple halls connected. If no one could see him, there was no reason to hold back. Ten floating hands appeared around him, and sevenunched the full spectrum beam, which split into hundreds of smaller beams that targeted all the puppets around him. The other three hands yed a different role. Two used [Spectral ws] to finish off those that survived the brilliant white beam, while the final hand conjured earth projectiles and walls to block off the nearby servant passages. It was extremely effective, every puppet was decimated in the blink of an eye. Sol considered summoning shadow figures to aid him as well but decided against it. ¡¯My mana can barely keep up with this and the shadow men I¡¯ve already made. I¡¯m draining over 150 per second even though I¡¯m mostly using the mana around me. Without potions, I won¡¯tst more than half a minute.¡¯ Fortunately, he had plenty of potions. Without hesitation, he took out a mana potion and drank it, refilling his mana. He not only had his personal supply but also potions provided for free from the mission. He estimated that he couldst over an hour if he truly pushed himself to the limit, constantly draining and refilling his mana. Obviously, he wasn¡¯t going to take it that far, but he wanted to see if the puppets were truly endless. ¡¯I¡¯ll keep this up for 15 minutes. If they still keeping, we¡¯ll retreat and find another way.¡¯ ¡­ To his pleasant surprise, he didn¡¯t even have to wait five minutes to get his answer. The next wave of puppets was significantly less dense than before. Just by eyeballing it, he could count a little over 200. It was still a lot, but far fewer than before. He cleared them easily using only the full spectrum beam and saw that no more enemies wereing. ¡¯Did they run out of puppets already?¡¯ Still maintaining the full spectrum beam, he targeted the remaining puppets, easily destroying them. Seeing no more enemies, Sol stopped maintaining the beam and drank another mana potion to recover his energy. He felt a little nauseous from draining and refilling his mana over ten times, but it was still manageable. He also took this moment to check on his shadows, which could convey basic thoughts to him through their limited sentience. ¡¯No more puppets in the walls either. I should regroup with the team.¡¯ He dismissed all the shadows, which dispersed into a thin mist, and began running back to where he hadst left the team. But before he could make any progress, he heard the loud sound of heavy wheels approaching. He turned to the source of the noise and saw a massive contraption resembling a fortress on wheels, with multiple cannons attached on all sides, leaving no gaps. [Azrem Fortress Unit Model Chosen yer Legendary Skills: [Rune Algorithm] Lv MAX, [Elemental Cannons] Lv MAX, [Adaptive Neutralizer] Lv EX, [???] Lv ?] "What the¡ª?" BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Before Sol could even understand what he was looking at, all the cannons aimed at him and fired an array of elemental projectiles without dy. Colorful explosions filled the entire area, shaking the structure with the sheer power it unleashed. The bombardment continued even as smoke filled the air, making it impossible to see what was happening. Meanwhile, the away team had finished clearing the remaining puppets and were steadying themselves from the castle¡¯s rumbling as explosions boomed in the distance. They turned toward the noise down the grand hallway and trembled in fear. "What in the gods is causing that?!" one of the soldiers asked, shocked from the rumbling. "No idea, but I don¡¯t dare investigate. It would be a meaningless death." an orcmented from the side. They could still feel and hear the explosions in the distance, meaning the assault hadn¡¯t ended. Whatever it was, it could maintain such devastating attacks for an extended period of time. Lapis, who was drinking a stamina recovery potion, gazed in the direction of the explosions. She knew Sol had to be there, fighting. She considered running to help, but after hearing the soldiers¡¯ concerns, she knew she had to be practical. "Fall back. Let¡¯s wait outside." Though not officially the secondary leader of the team, the soldiers¡¯ fear of what was causing the explosions, along with Lapis¡¯ recent performance, convinced them to obey her. They hastily retreated back the way they came. On the way out, Nataly approached Lapis and asked, "What about Sol? Shouldn¡¯t we help?" Lapis agreed but knew they couldn¡¯t. "The soldiers would only get in the way, and I can¡¯t leave in case more enemies appear." Nataly understood, but hearing the constant explosions made her worry. She frowned, and after a few seconds of silence, she came to a decision. "Go help him. I¡¯ll watch over them." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Lapis didn¡¯t stop moving and shook her head. "No." "What? But he could need your help!" Nataly didn¡¯t understand why Lapis would refuse. She was confident she could lead the away team back to safety, so there was no reason for Lapis to stay. But the issue wasn¡¯t with Nataly¡¯s abilities or Lapis¡¯ trust in them. "Most of my powerful skills are on long cooldowns. I need at least 10 minutes to be of any use in a fight like that. If I go now, I¡¯d just be dead weight, and by the time my skills are ready again, it would already be over." Thest thing Lapis wanted was to be a liability. Holding back the massive horde of puppets had drained her energy and her most powerful skills. She still had a few tricks up her sleeve, but given the inorganic nature of the puppets, those skills would only add ir to her attacks without making much of a difference. Chapter 264: Chosen Slayer The bombardment continued for a full minute before finally winding down. The smoke created was quickly filtered out by the castle¡¯s venttion system, clearing the area. Once visibility was restored, the impact of the attack¡ªor in this case, theck thereof¡ªbecame clear. The walls and floor remained the same as beforepletely unharmed, the only difference being that the decorations adorning the halls had been obliterated by the explosions. And Sol was nowhere to be seen. An eerie silence enveloped the room, with therge fortress on wheelspletely still, showing no signs of activity. In this silence, a small shadow inconspicuously slid out from the shadow cast by the Chosen yer. It was Sol, moving slowly within the shadows to avoid attracting the attention of the massive machine. The moment the bombardment began, he had immediately dived into the shadows, taking cover beneath the massive contraption. While slipping away, he thought to himself, ¡¯If I can emerge and use the Tynamo Cannon, I should be able to destroy it. The only problem is if it spots¡ª¡¯ "UMBRA DEPRENDE! ADAPTIVUM NEUTNI: UMBRA!" His worst fear came true as the Chosen yer detected the small shadow moving across the floor. With its robotic announcement and a loud rm, the sides of the Chosen yer opened, and four pylons emerged, emitting rays of light that illuminated the entire vicinity. These weren¡¯t ordinary lights, they flooded the area with light magic, making it impossible for shadows, magical or otherwise, to exist within their glow. Sol grunted as he was forced to jump out of the shadows before his body was burned by the powerful light energy. Now exposed, the cannons aimed at him once more and began firing. This time, he had no way of easily escaping, as the light made it impossible to use [Umbral Domain], and [Burrow] was equally useless since the special alloy that the building was made of prevented him from diving into the ground. Two magic hands immediately appeared before him, the green and indigo chromabining to form a dark green barrier, much stronger than the normal green barrier. It was the strongest shield he could muster, as the full spectrum was still on its hour long cooldown. Even with the strong barrier, it could only endure two elemental explosions before cracking, and the third shattered itpletely. But by the time the shield was broken, Sol was already charging forward, multicasting one of his strongest spells. "[Mystic Confluence]!" Massive bodies of water formed from six different directions, crashing down on the Chosen yer with incredible force. "AQUA MAGI DEPRENDE! ADAPTIVUM NEUTNI: AQUA!" Just as before, the Chosen yer rapidly adapted. The light emitting pylons were retracted, and eight pirs extended from the bottom of the machine, anchoring it to the ground. By the time the water collided with the Chosen yer, it had already bunkered down, bracing for the impact. It weathered the violent waves like a ship enduring the wrath of the sea, with only the upper half of the Chosen yer staying above water. When the water from the spell finally receded, the machine was revealed to be perfectly unharmed. ¡¯This thing has countermeasures for everything!¡¯ Sol was shocked by how quickly it adapted to protect itself. ¡¯I can still try using the Tynamo Cannon, but what if it gets countered¡­¡¯ Undeterred, Sol pressed on. With light magic no longer suppressing darkness, he quickly and repeatedly chanted one of the three advanced spells he knew. "[Grim mes]! [Grim mes]! [Grim mes]! [Grim mes]!" In moments, over a hundred ck mes appeared andunched themselves at the Chosen yer. "TENEB MAGI DEPRENDE! ADAPTIVUM NEUTNI: TENEB!" As before, the four pylons reappeared, flooding the area with light magic that destroyed most of the ck mes and weakened the rest. N?v(el)B\\jnn The remaining weakened ck mesnded on its metal body leaving nearly imperceptible burn marks. The cannons then aimed at Sol, firing a colorful array of elemental projectiles. Sol continued dodging the brunt of the attacks, using abination of the green chroma and [Terra Maniption] to block those he couldn¡¯t avoid. Using one of the explosions as cover, he vanished, employing [Invisibility] together with [Phase Step] to appear on the opposite side of the Chosen yer. The moment he arrived at his destination, the cannons immediately swiveled, tracking him despite his invisibility. Though surprised to be instantly detected, Sol took advantage of the brief gap as the cannons turned. He wielded the Tynamo Cannon and aimed it at the center of the Chosen yer. At 25% potency, he fired, shooting a ck beam straight into its core. "NILUS DEPRENDE! ADAPTIVUM¡ª" As always, the Chosen yer tried to adapt, and a translucent barrier began forming around it. But it was too slow, before the shield could solidify, the beam had already pierced through, creating a 5 inch hole in the center of its massive body. The barrier then fully solidified, which Sol guessed would counter further void element attacks based on the machine¡¯s pattern. He could fire again to find out but he wasn¡¯t about to waste more of its limited energy. There was also the option to use the Tynamo Cannons other function to absorb the elemental projectiles from the cannons, but he was worried the Chosen yer woulde up with another counter on the spot so it was best to save it when he truly needed it. ¡¯I aimed for itsrge mana core at the center, but it¡¯s still functioning¡­¡¯ Sol had targeted thergest concentration of mana he could see with [True Sight (Variant)], located at the heart of the Chosen yer, hoping to disable it in one shot. He knew the beam wasn¡¯trge enough to do significant damage unless it hit a vital part. Unfortunately, he was either wrong in his assessment or something inside therge machine blocked it. Seeing that the Tynamo Cannon would have little effect even if he used half its energy at once, Sol decided to try a different approach. The Chosen yer was heavily armored, but there had to be a weak point somewhere. He began circling the machine, dodging or blocking the constant bombardment from its elemental cannons as he searched for a vulnerability. It wasn¡¯t until he hadpleted a full circuit around the Chosen yer that he realized his mistake. ¡¯Of course!¡¯ For his n to work, he first needed the barrier down. Given that the machine adapted to everything he threw at it, he realized there were two methods in defeating it. The first relied on creating an attack that it simply couldn¡¯t adapt to in time, either too fast like the void beam he shot or too strong that its adaptive defense couldn¡¯t defend against it. This option was realistically impossible for Sol, his strongest attack Full Spectrum was on cooldown and his other new powerful ability, Symphony of the Night, from [Umbral Domain] unfortunately only worked when above ground. The second method was much more realistic for him and it was what he would be going for. Ten magic hands appeared around him, surrounding the Chosen yer. Each hand wielded a different power: seven contained a different chroma, one grew a sharp ghostly w, one wrapped itself in rocks and conjured earth spears, and the final one was d in shadows. Sol himself pulled the Pollen Bow from his spatial ring and prepared for a full assault. Chapter 265: Adaptivum Defical Beams, projectiles, and other attacks flew across the room as Sol and the ten magic hands circled the Chosen yer, unleashing their respective attacks while dodging the cannon sts. "ASDIGANOS DEPRENDE! ADAPTIVUM NEUTNI: ASDIGANOS!" "IGNAS MAGI DEPRENDE! ADAPTIVUM NEUTNI: IGNAS!" "UMBRA DEPRENDE! ADAPTIVUM NEUTNI: UMBRA!" The Chosen yer rapidly adapted, creating countermeasures and prioritizing threats by the level of danger they were to it. Pylons emitted light to banish darkness and small barrels emerged from various points, firing smaller metallic projectiles at the hands to keep up with the many attackers targeting it. As the battle continued, Sol couldn¡¯t avoid every explosion, despite most of the Chosen yer¡¯s cannons being aimed at the magic hands. His body bore burn marks and cuts, but his wounds were healing at a visible rate. Thanks to [Invincible Body], most explosions only lightly wounded him unless he took a direct hit, and he would recover in time. However, his royal knight armor wasn¡¯t as durable as he was; it had been broken in so many ces that it barely functioned as clothing, much less armor. The Chosen yer hadn¡¯te out unscathed either. Dents and small holes had appeared across its metallic surface, mostly due to the smaller attacks the Chosen yer deemed insignificantpared torger threats. Over time, those small attacks had umted, though they hadn¡¯t yet impacted itsbat capabilities. At that moment, the light emitting pylons were shining brightly on all sides. Tired of the constant suppression of his [Umbral Domain] and dark magic, Sol drew back the string of his Pollen Bow. Using [Guided Bombardment], he fired a barrage of arrows in a crescent formation. Mid flight, they curved and aimed directly for the pylons. "ARC DEPRENDE! ADAPTIVUM NEUTNI: ARC!" Upon detecting the threat, the Chosen yer rumbled as it emitted out a shockwave, causing the arrows to explode or go off course even with his guidance before they could reach their destination. Sol clicked his tongue. Even with a way to repel the arrows, he continued firing to keep the pressure on, alongside the magic hands. The fight with the massive machine dragged on, feeling like an hour butsting only a few minutes. During that time, countless attacks were exchanged, leaving even more damage on both the Chosen yer and Sol. But unlike the machine, Sol could heal himself, not only through regeneration but also with health potions he had begun drinking. Outwardly, Sol seemed fine, but the fight was taking its toll on him mentally and physically. He was juggling control over ten magic hands, magic, shadow and earth maniption, and his own movements. He knew that any mistake would allow the Chosen yer to take advantage. In one exchange, a magic hand wielding the blue chroma sent five blue des between the shockwaves that repelled the arrows, striking two of the pylons. With a loud crack, one of the pylons shattered into pieces, while the other was barely grazed before the Chosen yer retracted it just in time. With one pylon destroyed and another retracted, the light magic in the room was significantly weakened. Sol seized the opportunity to go on the offensive. The shadow manipting magic hand moved to the dimmest area andunched multiple shadow spheres at the cannons, destroying two of them in a violent explosion. The Chosen yer deployed its third pylon to weaken the shadows, but as it emerged, the red chroma magic hand, positioned on the opposite side, fired a powerful red beam, destroying the pylon in a single blow. "Finally!" Sol eximed, invigorated by finallynding a major blow. Fueled by this sess, he maintained his [Guided Bombardment] while chanting dark magic. "[Grim mes]! [Grim mes]! [Grim mes]! [Grim mes]!" Even with the remaining two pylons weakening his dark magic, the ck mes flew through the air alongside the arrows, heading toward the Chosen yer. "UMBRA DEPRENDE! ADAPTIVUM NEUTNI¡­ ERRATUM! ADAPTIVUM DEFICAL!" For the first time, the Chosen yer spoke something different from its usual pattern, but Sol didn¡¯t understand and ignored it, continuing his assault. The Chosen yer sent out another shockwave that destroyed the arrows, but the dark mes were only slightly disturbed and continued on their path. They pelted the machine¡¯s exterior to little effect, but the real damage came from the mes that hit the cannons and other openings. Half of the cannons were destroyed in one go, along with thest two pylons and other extensions from its adaptive mechanisms. Without pausing, the earth magic hand created dense stones thattched onto the Chosen yer¡¯s wheels, restricting its movement. Meanwhile, an army of shadow creatures began rising to attack the mechanism. The magic hands wielding the red and orange chromabined as duochrome came off cooldown, sending a massive red beam that began slowly burning through its thick armor. Sol stopped running and tossed the bow aside. He retrieved the Tynamo Cannon once again and set it to maximum power. Just as he was about to fire, the four remaining cannons locked onto him, detecting him standing still for a brief moment. The Chosen yer, unable to adapt any further, focused on eliminating the threat. The green chroma hand moved to shield him, blocking two explosions before being destroyed. The indigo chroma hand, with its incredible speed, intercepted another, sacrificing itself in the process. No other magic hand could reach the fourth projectile in time, but just before it got within 20 feet of Sol, a transparent white bubble appeared out of thin air. The projectile exploded upon contact, with the ensuing electric st shocking the surroundings and the edge of the explosion still reaching Sol. Despite the powerful electrical shock, Sol maintained his aim and pulled the trigger, sending a beam of void energy at maximum power, three timesrger than before. It sted toward the Chosen yer, which attempted to reposition itself to avoid the fatal hit. However, with its wheels locked by the earth magic hand, it couldn¡¯t move. The beam effortlessly pierced through the Chosen yer¡¯s metallic body, exiting on the other side. Sol smirked, knowing the beam had struck the core at the center, finally destroying it. The Chosen yer¡¯s resistance ceased as its energy source, which had fueled it for countless years, was destroyed. In its final moments, with thest of its remaining energy maintaining internal functions, it detected something far away. Normally, it would take certain actions when detecting this phenomenon, but with its energy depleted, it could only announce it to someone who couldn¡¯t understand. In a low mechanical voice, it said, "Lexis... deprede... delerium... impetu..."N?v(el)B\\jnn Chapter 266: Cursing Sol鈥檚 Entire Lineage Sol wiped the fresh blood dripping down from his face. He took a deep breath and looked at the remains of the Chosen yer before him. ¡¯Finally got it. Maybe it would have been easier if I used [Overpower], but it was better this way.¡¯ He reflected that using it earlier might have left him less injured and could have ended the battle sooner, but he had hesitated. It was his final trump card, and it left him exhausted afterward. With Full Spectrum from [Polychromatism] still on cooldown, he¡¯d be helpless if he encountered something strongerter on. Besides, [Overpower] wouldn¡¯t have increased the Tynamo Cannon¡¯s power, only expedited the destruction of the cannons and other defenses. Looking once more at the Chosen yer¡¯s remains, he wondered, ¡¯I don¡¯t think I got to see that unknown skill. Maybe it was its power source? And its name¡­ Why would anyone create something specifically to kill Chosen?¡¯ Chosen were those blessed by the gods, bing much stronger than others. Sol hadn¡¯t met any Chosen himself, but they were generally considered representatives of the gods. Creating something to kill Chosen would be seen as sphemy. ¡¯Unless¡­ it¡¯s meant to kill Harbingers?¡¯ N?v(el)B\\jnn From what Diana had told him, Harbingers were exactly like Chosen, except they were selected by Outer Gods. If the Chosen yer was designed to kill Harbingers, that would exin its purpose. Sol wanted to rest, but he knew this ce wasn¡¯t safe. With the Chosen yer defeated, he feared the waves of puppets might resume, or something equally strong might arrive to finish him off. He took out another health potion, drank it, and as the cool liquid revitalized his body and elerated his regeneration, he began making his way back to the entrance to regroup with the away team. Or at least, he tried to. He had only taken a few steps when he heard heavy footsteps echoing through the area. He turned toward the sound and saw a puppet twice the size of those he had encountered before. Unlike the others, this one looked significantly worn down. It had clearly reced parts, those appeared newer, but its torso and head seemed untouched since the day they were made. Sol watched cautiously, ready to run if necessary, but soon realized the puppet wasn¡¯t even looking at him. It ran toward the remains of the Chosen yer in a panic, inspecting the wreckage in a strangely human like manner. As it examined the debris, it muttered to itself, "No no no¡­ Merdi! Suus confrig fractul!" It then turned toward Sol and stomped over, yelling, "Qui est tum problic?! Parqu tum destuc et?!" The puppet continued with a long rant, leaving Sol tilting his head in confusion, unable to understand a word. But even withoutprehending the exact phrases, the puppet¡¯s gestures and tone made it clear: it was furious. ¡¯Clearly not like the other puppets, and it¡¯s not hostile, yet. Maybe I can reason with it?¡¯ Meeting the first possibly sentient being in the ancient dwarven city, Sol decided to let the puppet get everything off its chest. When it finally stopped, it tapped its metal foot, as if waiting for an exnation. Scratching his head awkwardly, Sol said, "Yeah. I have no idea what you¡¯re saying." Upon hearing his response, the puppet trembled in ce, trying to hold back its anger. But ultimately, it failed. "FUCK! And you wait till now to say that?! Why didn¡¯t you say anything ten minutes ago?!" Itunched into another rant, this time in anguage Sol understood. He had been right about the profanities. Now, he could fully grasp how much the puppet cursed him, his ancestors, and even his future descendants. Not a single member of Sol¡¯s past or future family tree was spared from the puppet¡¯s wrath. "And screw your great great great granddaughter too! I hope she suffers eternally with the feeling of wanting to sneeze but never being able to!" At first, the puppet¡¯s curses involved unimaginable pain or tragedy, but after a while, it began running out of ideas and started cursing random inconveniences. After a full ten minutes, it finally calmed down. "You good?" Sol asked, unable to read its emotions from its metallic face. The puppet stood silent for a moment, then nodded with a long sigh, despite not being able to breathe. "Yeah. It¡¯s just¡­ fuck, why did youpletely destroy it?" "Well¡­ it tried to kill me." "That¡¯s because YOU broke in here! It¡¯s an automated defense system, for gods¡¯ sake!" "In our defense, we thought this ce was abandoned. We¡ª" Sol began exining, but the puppet interrupted him, finding his words ridiculous. "Abandoned?! HAH! Your gods may think they killed all the Azrem Dwarves, but I still live! And as long as I live, the Azrem Dwarves will never die!" "Our gods? What are you talking about?" "The God of Thunder, the God of Bliss, the Goddess of Lust, and so on. The Outer Gods. Don¡¯t try to deny it, you¡¯re even speaking in theirnguage. So I guess they sent you here to finish the job¡­ took you long enough." Sol¡¯s eyes widened in surprise. Many pieces of the puzzle started falling into ce, but for now, he had to clear up the misunderstanding. "I think I need to catch you up on a few things¡­" Though Sol didn¡¯t know everything, he had been slowly piecing together the past and the war against the Outer Gods. To someone who had been stuck in that time for countless years, there was a lot to exin. "So, everyone eventually learned the universalmonnguage so they could understand the system¡­ You know, thatnguage used to be reserved for the upper echelons of society. Now, to hear that it¡¯s spoken even in the most remote viges¡­ Time really does change things." The puppet sounded both amazed and a little mncholic, realizing that the world it once knew no longer existed. While relieved that the war had eventually been won, it seemed uncertain whether it still had a ce in this new world. "What year is it again?" the puppet asked. "518. Two months away from 519." "Even the calendar was reset¡­" Chapter 267: Deteriorated Life Cluster The puppet wanted to learn more about what had changed during its long istion from the world, but before it could ask, Sol had his own questions about the past. "Look, I can spend however long you want talking about the current world, but before that, can you tell me who or what you are and what happened here? We also came here looking for something, the method to create life clusters." Therge puppet nodded at the first part but was visibly surprised upon hearing their purpose. "Life clusters? Can¡¯t you get them from the Mystic Blood n? We learned how to make them from them in the first ce." "About that... they disappeared around the same time you did. At least during the time Orna was sleeping." "He was asleep the whole time?!" The puppet¡¯s voice rang with clear anger. "We all thought he was dead! Fuck!" The puppet began cursing again, clearly having a short temper after years of istion, or maybe it had always had a bad temper. Either way, Sol had to wait for it to calm down once more. After a minute, it let out a long sigh and returned to the matter at hand. "Fine, I should exin my people¡¯s story first. Come, follow me, we can speak in my workshop. Ah, but before we go, give me a moment." Sol nodded as he watched therge puppet approach the remains of the Chosen yer. Through one of the many openings in its outer armor, it reached inside, rummaging around for something. While the puppet searched, Sol reached for hismunication gem and tried to contact Lapis. When he didn¡¯t get a response, he called Nataly, who responded instantly. "Captain! You¡¯re alive!" "You thought I died? Haha, no, I¡¯m fine." Sol chuckled, reassuring her. But if she could see his current bloody, wounded appearance, she would certainly believe he was on the verge of death, and if it were anyone else, she¡¯d probably be right. Sol¡¯s high vitality and recovery allowed him to continue as normal, though he did feel a constant sting from his rapidly closing wounds. He continued, "I tried to call Lapis, but she didn¡¯t respond. Is she alright?" Nataly hummed in confirmation. "Yeah, let me ask her. Lapis! Sol called you." Sol soon heard Lapis¡¯ voice from the gem. "What¡¯s up?" "What¡¯s up? Where¡¯s yourmunication gem? I tried to reach you." It might not seem like a big issue, but if Sol had been in danger or needed to reach her in an emergency, theck of response could have been a serious problem. "Oh, it¡¯s in my spatial ring. I put it there so it wouldn¡¯t weigh me down." "Huh? It barely weighs anything..." He didn¡¯t even know how to respond to such a statement. Sure, it could be tedious to carry around but it barely weighed anything. The only issue that could arise from having it in ones pocket instead of their spatial ring was the risk of it breaking during battle, but when she was clearly not fighting it had no reason to be in her ring. He was about to exin the issues to Lapis but paused and shook his head. "You know what, never mind, we¡¯ll talk about thister. Where are you and the away team?" As he spoke, Sol noticed the puppet struggling to pull somethingrge from the Chosen yer. He sent two magic hands to help out while continuing his conversation. Lapis replied, "We retreated to the base camp. Should wee back?" Sol thought about it for a moment, then decided against it. "No, stay there for now. I found someone I can talk to, and hopefully, I¡¯ll get some answers. Check with Rex and Duncan to see if either of them need help." "Okay." Sol bade farewell and turned off themunication gem before pocketing it. By then, the puppet was walking back toward him, with his magic hands carrying what appeared to be arge blue metal block. The puppet nodded appreciatively. "Thanks, my limbs have deteriorated a bit. I need to change them out for new ones. Come, follow me." Sol followed the puppet through the massive corridors of the castle. After passing through over a hundred doorways, they arrived at its workshop. The workshop was unlike anything Sol had ever seen, filled with tools from all crafting professions and more. Metalworking dominated the space, but there were also tools for artificers, weaving, alchemy, and rune smithing. Among the various objects were consoles with levers and buttons, w-like metal limbs hanging from the ceiling, and a capsule filled with dark blue liquid. "Insert that in the core receptor station over there." The puppet said, heading to one of the consoles. "Umm... where?" Sol looked around, unsure of what it was referring to. "... Put it in the cube shaped hole in the wall." With simpler directions, Sol found the hole in the wall and ced the metal block inside. It began to glow as the puppet worked at the console, pressing a button. "Alright. Now we just have to wait for the results. While it¡¯s working, how about I tell you what happened to my people?" Sol nodded and sat on one of the empty tables, as there were no chairs in the room. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om The puppet remained standing, as it had no need for rest, and began its story. "My people, the Azrem Dwarves, have a long history, long before we made the Orna Mountains our home. We used to live on the surface, but there were constant wars, waged by both gods and mortals, all in a bid for power. Our king at the time, Greyber Durenmade, grew tired of the endless fighting and the pressure to create weapons for powerful forces. He sought a solution. I¡¯m not sure how he did it, as this was before I was born, but it ended with him making a deal with the God of Dragons, Orna, who offered us his protection in exchange for life clusters." The puppet reached into a drawer and pulled out a dull pink crystal, showing it to Sol. "It¡¯s deteriorated, but this is what you¡¯re after, right?" [Life Cluster Unique Quality: Bad Effect: Upon consumption, it reinvigorates the consumer with dense life essence. Permanently increases vitality by 2, with diminishing effects if continually consumed. Temporarily greatly boosts health, spiritual, and mental recovery.] Even though the life cluster was of poor quality, reading its description made it clear to Sol why Orna would want it. Chapter 268: Torben "Yes, that¡¯s it." Sol nodded. "But what we really need is a way for the Frostaxe n to continue paying the rent without sacrificing people." "Sure, I can show youter, but I suggest they leave before Orna sleeps through another crisis." The puppet said with clear snide in its tone. It was still furious about the dragon sleeping through his people¡¯s greatest disaster. It nced at the console, which disyed glowing characters and runes on a crystal disy. Seeing that it was still processing, the puppet continued its story. "When my ancestors moved into the mountain, we essentially gave up all of our previousnd, the kingdom of Azrem. But King Greyber at the time told my people that Azrem wasn¡¯t a ce, but rather the dwarves who built it. So together, they created what you see today, or at least its remains. A few centuriester, I was born. My name¡­" The puppet paused, struggling to remember the name it hadn¡¯t used in a long time. "My name is Torben Badgerun, son of Rainer Badgerun." "Torben, how did you be¡­ this?" Sol had already guessed the puppet was one of the Azrem Dwarves, but how Torben had ended up as a puppet was still a mystery to him. Torben raised his arms and looked at them in deep reflection. "I have a special constitution, or should I say, ability? I can see souls and manipte them to a certain degree. I only found outter that it wasn¡¯t normal to be able to do that since my parents tried to keep it hidden. They feared I¡¯d be taken advantage of if others found out, but eventually, the secret slipped, and nothing of the sort happened. Instead, I was given the best resources and training to learn and master the way of the soul smith." "Is that how those puppets and the Chosen yer were made?" "Pfft! Haha! Gods, no!" The puppet shook withughter. "Those could be made by any rune smith worth their salt. Soul smithing is the art of imbuing one¡¯s creations with souls, be it artificial, a fragment, or even a full soul. Lets use the puppets you¡¯ve seen as an example. If a rune smith makes puppets, they are created to follow preset instructions andmands. When dealing with unknown variables or situations, they¡¯d likely fail. The closest you can get to sentience with rune smithing is artificial intelligence, like the one the Chosen yer has. It works by processing vast amounts of data to figure out how to act in most situations, but its not perfect. Puppets made through soul smithing, on the other hand, can truly think and even feel. Given a means to do so like a voice emitter or disy, they can share their opinions and strategize. In addition, things with souls are stronger than those without them. All the puppets, even the Chosen yer, were made by skilled rune smiths to defend our people from outsiders. As for what happened to me¡­" The puppet nced at arge capsule filled with transparent but viscous blue liquid. "I fucked up. That¡¯s the short of it. I had already be a professional soul smith, and as the only one among my people, I had everything I could want, money, women, fame, power, you name it. But I also had the responsibility to push our technology forward and innovate." He made his way to arge storage container and opened it, revealing a giant vase with tubes connecting it on multiple sides. Time had worn it down, rusting it throughout, and it bore clear signs of damage as if attacked in a fit of rage. Sol tried to use [Analysis] on it, but nothing appeared. "That¡¯s why I made this. It¡¯s a soul extractor. It uses the same principles as the life essence collector, which is how we make life clusters, but instead, it extracts souls. Its purpose was to automate the process of extracting and inserting souls into objects so others could learn to be soul smiths without needing my special ability to see and manipte souls. The problem was¡­ it was too strong. The artificial soul I prepared was instantly extracted, but it didn¡¯t stop there, it began extracting the souls of everyone nearby, including myself. Even with my control over souls, I couldn¡¯t resist its pull, and my own soul was taken out of my body. Mypanions who were viewing the testing at the time weren¡¯t safe either, as we were all pulled inside. Once our souls were inside the extractor, it began processing them to be imbued into items. This process erased the memories of the souls and made thempliant to themands of their soon to be owners. With the machine running at maximum power... needless to say, it wasn¡¯t painless. All the other souls were destroyed, leaving nothing behind. Only I barely survived, until my soul was inserted where the artificial one was supposed to go." Torben reached for his chest and opened a panel, revealing a swirling spectral blue orb contained inside a crystal container. N?v(el)B\\jnn "In here." "I¡¯m... sorry that happened to you." Sol had experienced pain before and wasn¡¯t afraid of it, but he couldn¡¯t imagine the amount of pain Torben had endured, so powerful that it destroyed multiple other souls in the process. Torben shook his head as he closed the panel. "It¡¯s fine. It happened a long time ago. And honestly, I should consider myself fortunate, as I survived what happened afterward." "To what happened to the other Azrem Dwarves?" Torben nodded. "My people thought we were safe from war, but how could we stay uninvolved when the war involved the fate of the world? As the home of the best craftsmen in the world, we helped the other countries by supplying them with weapons and tools for war. We gave them the means to fight back against their enemies¡¯ superior weaponry and even the odds." Sol could see where this was going. "So the outer gods targeted you?" "Yes, but at the time, we believed we were untouchable. Let me ask you, do you think all gods are equal?" Sol thought for a moment, then answered, "They¡¯re not, right?" "No. And even though Orna was wounded, no other god dared to antagonize him. Any god who entered his domain without permission was killed on the spot. I can remember at least twenty gods, both outer and our own, who died that way. So it wasn¡¯t hard to believe that as long as Orna was here to protect us, we could act boldly." "And then Orna went to sleep¡­" Torben nodded. "At the time, we found it odd that he wasn¡¯t epting life clusters like usual. We tried to wake him, but nothing we did worked. We thought he had entered some kind of hibernation period and left it at that. But when the Outer Gods sent... that thing here, everything went to shit." "What thing? And who sent it? Was it the God of Thunder you mentioned?" Torben¡¯s mechanical hand clenched, slowly creaking and bending in clear anger. "No, much worse. It was the God of Bliss." Chapter 269: Royally Screwed "I¡¯m sorry. Did you say bliss?" Sol didn¡¯t understand how such a god could cause such a reaction. He would understand if it were something more destructive, but the God of Bliss didn¡¯t sound too different from the Goddess of Love, who was publicly understood to be a pacifist. "You heard me! Goddamn bastard left one of its offspring down here with us!" Seeing Torben getting agitated again, Sol said, "Whoa, calm down. I believe you. Tell me what happened." Torben took another moment to collect himself before continuing his story. "I was lucky. Since my soul was trapped in this metal body, I was mostly immune to its effects. Even so, it took me a few days to notice. Everyone was inexplicably happy, too happy. We would have festivals every day and ate like kings. I happily went along with the festivities until the fourth day, when our king made a sudden announcement. He dered that we would no longer make weapons and would shut ourselves off from the world." "What? Why would he do that?" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "That¡¯s what I thought as well. It made no sense, especially when Orna was presumed either hibernating or dead, and the war could reach our doorstep any day. But everyone, and I mean everyone, agreed without hesitation. They happily stopped all production and partied instead. As you might know, to enter our city, one needs a Midamol Key. Those were all collected and destroyed so nobody coulde in or out and disturb our so called peace. Honestly, I¡¯m surprised you found one to get in here." Sol thought back to Commander Zaman¡¯s exnation on how where they obtained it and agreed that finding the key would have been impossible if not for the Saintess¡¯s help. Without her, they could have spent years aimlessly wandering through the tunnels. "With all the keys destroyed, we were trapped¡ªor, as our delusional king said, ¡¯safe from the outside world.¡¯ They continued to party day and night, and the dwarves didn¡¯t just stop the production of arms, they stopped doing anything that didn¡¯t bring them joy. Nobody worked the fields or fed the animals, so food quickly ran out. Things began falling into disrepair, but no one cared. It was as if they didn¡¯t even notice the problem. Only I could see the reality of our crumbling city as they all lived in blissful ignorance. I tried to warn them, but no one listened. They just told me to stop overthinking it and join in the fun. I tried everything I could think of to make them realize they were heading toward death. Once I even started a fire to get their attention, but they danced around it like a damn bonfire. I was helpless as I watched everyone I knew and loved be skinny and malnourished, until they eventually died of exhaustion or starvation." "..." Sol didn¡¯t know what to say. What could anyone say after hearing such a story? He wasn¡¯t even sure what was worse, the fact that all the Azrem Dwarves had perished while stuck in a hallucination, or that Torben had been forced to watch it all happen, powerless to help them. "It didn¡¯t end there." Torben added. "As I walked through the remains of the city, I saw that only pseudow technique users andw technique users were still alive. Even so, they were still partying,pletely unaware of the countless bodies around them. But that day, I saw it, the cause of it all. "I saw the monster approach the remaining oblivious people and begin tearing into them. Even as their bodies were ripped open, they wore the same damn smiles on their faces. It took their hearts and ate them before tossing their mangled corpses to the side. The entire city was nothing but a feeding ground for it. I can¡¯t even describe its appearance, but I took a picture of it so I could find a way to kill it." Torben took out a t ck crystal that glowed as an image appeared on it. But when Sol looked at the image, all he saw was an open field of flowers. There wasn¡¯t any creature in the image. "Is this meant to be a joke?" "What? No, don¡¯t you see how terrifying it is?!" Sol found Torben¡¯s reaction odd, so he used [True Sight (Variant)], thinking it might be an illusion, but it still showed the same field of flowers. "I mean, if you¡¯re afraid of flowers, I guess I can see it. Did you show the wrong image by ident?" "Flowers? No, that¡¯s impossible¡­" Torben turned the crystal disy back toward himself. Seeing the image, he took a few steps back in dreadful realization. To confirm his suspicions, he asked in a tone full of anxiety and desperation, "Do you see that capsule over there? What¡¯s in it?!" "A dark blue liquid. Kinda like a slime." "No, it¡¯s¨C!" At that moment, the console beeped. Torben stumbled over to it and quickly checked the results. Seeing the final message logs from the Chosen yer, he couldn¡¯t help but mumble them in shock. "Law detected: Delirious Bliss¡­ SHIT! It¡¯s still alive, and you¡¯re already under its effects!" Sol¡¯s eyes widened in shock. "What? Are you sure? I don¡¯t feel any different." "That¡¯s because it hasn¡¯t fed in centuries! Once all the other dwarves died, it ran out of a food source. And because of the Azrem Alloy that surrounded our capital, it couldn¡¯t leave after its job was done. It¡¯s been stuck here, slowly starving and weakening over time. Thest time I saw it was 200 years ago, and even then, it was able to fight the Chosen yer to a standstill." "Wait, if that¡¯s the case, then don¡¯t I have a chance against it?" If he had been able to defeat the Chosen yer, surely he stood some chance against this creature. Torben, however,pletely disagreed. "No, you fool! It¡¯s strongest against the living. Its main ability causes hallucinations! Even the Chosen yer wasn¡¯t fully immune to its effects, but at least it could see it! All you see is a damn flower field!" Sol was silent, unable to refute the reasoning, but then another problem urred to him. "What happens if it feeds?" Neither of them had to answer that question, they both knew in their hearts what would happen. "Who else came with you?" "Almost 100 men and women. I won¡¯t bother saying how strong they are, it doesn¡¯t matter." If Torben was telling the truth, and he was inclined to believe him, then they were both royally screwed. Chapter 270: Blissfully Unaware In the museum, Rex and Lazuli were discussing the potential use of a magical machine that could irrigaterge amounts ofnd. Rex examined it and said, "It doesn¡¯t make sense for it to just water thends normally. Remember, there¡¯s no sky here, not only do they not get rain, but also no sunlight. They must be irrigating with something other than water to elerate nt growth." Lazuli partially disagreed. "Have you seen that artificial sun? It clearly simtes day and night cycles and likely gives nts what they need to grow. But it¡¯s possible they added something to the water to help crops grow faster." "We should get one of the trantors here soon." As they were talking, a female human soldier approached them with something to report. "Sir Rex, I can¡¯t find Hn. I don¡¯t know where he went." "What do you mean? Weren¡¯t both of you posted at the entrance? Did you leave your post?" She shook her head instantly. "No sir! We were both there, but suddenly he disappeared. It¡¯s like he just vanished." Rex found this extremely suspicious. He had been constantly using his detection skills, which covered the entire building, and only now did he realize someone had disappeared. "Go back to your post for now. I¡¯ll investigate." The soldier nodded and returned to her post. When she arrived at the museum entrance, she took her position at the center, keeping a vignt watch over her surroundings. She suddenly felt something wet on her head. She ran her fingers through her hair and looked at the red liquid on the tip of her finger. ¡¯Blood? No, it smells sweet.¡¯ Initially thinking it was blood, she was taken aback by its incredibly sweet aroma, making it impossible for it to be blood. She wondered what it would taste like but knew better than to put unknown substances in her mouth. Yet, as the smell continued to tempt her senses, she finally gave in and tasted it. "Mhm! Cherries!" She didn¡¯t know where the cherry tasting liquid came from but hoped more would fall on her head. ¡¯I wonder where Hn went though¡­¡¯ The soldier remained blissfully unaware that Hn had never left. He was currently being suspended above her as arge monstrous creature¡¯s unsteady ws slowly ripped him open, carefully removing his heart as if it were the most precious thing in the world, before tossing the rest of his body down the entrance stairs of the museum. The female soldier remainedpletely oblivious as the body rolled down the stairs right in front of her. ¡­ "Goddammit! Just when it was about to die, you came here and delivered it a full course meal!" Torben mmed the table, sending tools flying in a fit of rage. But who could me him? The creature that had killed all his people, and was on the verge of death itself, had been given a new lease on life thanks to random strangers looting his people¡¯s city. Sol knew now wasn¡¯t the time for a me game. "Focus, Torben. We¡¯re both screwed if we don¡¯t do something now. It¡¯s weakened, right? How long do you think it will take to recover?" Torben paused, considering the question. "It should¡¯ve feasted by now. Have you noticed anything different? Felt inexplicably happier?" "No. If anything, I feel worse knowing what¡¯s actually happening." "Then we should still have time. It¡¯s beenpletely starved to the point where it¡¯s down to the level of aw technique user." "A-Ranker." Sol corrected, using the current, more popr term. Torben would¡¯ve rolled his eyes if he had any. Semantics were the least of his worries. "A-Ranker, whatever. My point is, even if it¡¯s eaten, it won¡¯t recover its strength quickly. If we¡¯re lucky, it might have learned fromst time and will ration out its food instead of killing everyone at once. That could slow its recovery, giving us a chance, but we need to act fast." Therge puppet reached for a spatial bag and pulled out an assortment of tools. "When I realized what was happening, I tried many things with varying degrees of sess, but nothing I made could withstand the might of a god¡¯s creation. With it weakened, these tools should be more effective. First, put this on." He handed Sol an earring that fit snugly behind his ear. Once it was on, Sol heard a voice through the earpiece. Sol nodded. Torben turned off the one he was holding and handed him a few more. "These are personal audio linkers, or PALs for short. They can connect with multiple other PALs to create a PAL Network, and their range can reach the edges of the Orna Mountains. We¡¯ll use them to stay in touch. They¡¯re easy to use." Sol took them, amazed by the device. Communication gems could only cover the distance of a city and connect to one other gem cut from the same sonorous crystal. Therger version,munication crystals, had a wider range but could still only connect to one other crystal. Once again, he was shown the brilliance of Azrem Dwarf technology. "Truly amazing. What¡¯s this?" Sol asked, pointing to a metallic headband and face mask. Using [Analysis] showed no results. "Those were the most effective in resisting its hallucinogenic effects. The headband clears your mind, sight, and hearing, while the mask protects you from smell, touch, and taste." "Taste? Is that really necessary?" "Yes. None of your senses are safe when dealing with this monster." Torben replied seriously. He then produced 100 more of each item and passed them to Sol, who stored them in his spatial ring. "Back then, these somewhat worked when the monster was on the other side of the city. Now that it¡¯s weaker, I hope you can resist its effects when ites for you." When Sol put on the metal headband, the blue lines running through it began to softly glow, and he felt a cool sensation around his head. His surroundings became noticeably darker, and the workshop around him lost its color and vibrancy. Then he turned to the capsule containing the blue liquid and was shocked to find a body floating inside, a naked dwarf with dark red hair and a long beard, floating inanimately. Seeing his reaction, Torben knew it had worked andmented, "That¡¯s my body, or at least a clone body regrown from my original cells. I grew it to one day regain a body." "How did it survive all these years?" "Oh, it didn¡¯t. The bodies would age and die, so I kept test cells frozen and regrow them. I think it¡¯s been recycled around 250 times. But without the hope of one day being able to breathe, eat, or even shit, I might¡¯ve gone insane." "Souls, smithing, runes, alchemy¡­ whatever this is, you¡¯re truly incredible. I can¡¯t help but wonder what talents you have." Sol deeply respected this dwarf, thest of his kind, who had remained mostly sane after so much istion and despair. But Torben¡¯s next words surprised him. "Talents? What talents? It¡¯s all hard work." "No, not that kind of talent. I mean, you know, the ones in your status page." Silence overtook the room as they stared at each other, sensing something was clearly off. After a brief pause, Sol asked, "Have you¡­ not seen your own status page?" "No?" Since they were short on time, Sol quickly exined how to ess the status page while putting on the mask. But after trying, Torben got no results. "Nope, nothing." "Still nothing? Let me try with [Analysis]." N?v(el)B\\jnn Using the skill, Sol got results, but they didn¡¯t make any sense. [Name: Torben Race: ??? Unique Durability: 1643/3000 Str: 95 Vit: ERROR_UNDEFINED Agi: 50 Int: 150 Wis: 200 Skills: [Soul Container] Lv 9, [Compartmentalized Tool Mechanism] Lv 4, [Ethereal Rune Smithing] Lv 7, [Advanced Alchemy] Lv 4, [Metal Shaping] Lv 9, [Living Factory] Lv 4, [Quick Repair] Lv 8, etc.] [Error detected. Would you like to submit a ticket?] "What?" Chapter 271: Field of Flowers For now, Sol closed the system prompt. They didn¡¯t have time to waste figuring out what happened to Torben¡¯s status page. "Forget it, we can figure that outter. I¡¯ll head back to warn the others and give them the tools you gave me. I might have to fight the monster if we encounter it. What are you going to do?" Torben thought for a moment. "I still think it¡¯s suicide to try and take it head on, but we can¡¯t let it eat all those people you brought. Do your best to avoid it if possible. Even though it¡¯s weakened, itsw is advantageous against the living. Bring them to the castle. We can use the main hall as a choke point if it tries toe in with the puppet army. While you do that, I¡¯ll go and try to get that damn dragon¡¯s attention." "Orna? Yes! That¡¯s right!" He nodded. "It would only take a second for him to kill the monster, but from down here, there¡¯s only one way to get his attention. It¡¯ll take some time to prepare, so you¡¯d best hurry and keep it from killing your people." Sol nodded and ran out of the workshop at full speed. While running, he also cast wind spells to enhance his speed even further. He left the castle in a blur, leaving turbulent air in his wake. As he sprinted through the castle halls, Sol realized something: he¡¯d forgotten to look at the picture of the creature because he got distracted by Torben¡¯s weird status page. He considered going back but shook his head. ¡¯Forget it. Based on his reaction, I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯ll know it when I see it.¡¯ Upon leaving the castle, Sol immediately noticed that everything in the city wasn¡¯t as it previously seemed. The buildings not made of metal were all in shambles and ruin, with only those made of the Azrem alloy Torben mentioned still standing. The streets were cracked, and skeletons littered the ground. Where trees and bushes once stood, there was only dried, hard dirt. The illuminatingmpposts had mostly fallen over, with only a few still working, thanks to Torben¡¯s efforts. The biggest change was the massive orange crystal embedded in the roof of the underground city. It was cracked through the middle, barely able to illuminate the city, and appeared to be on itsst legs. Seeing the city¡¯s true state, Sol frowned and pushed himself to run even faster toward the park where they had set up their base. He soon arrived, finding the park was really just arge area of hardened dirt with no grass in sight. But seeing the soldiers and schrs still doing their jobs brought him relief. He stopped suddenly, causing the air he was dragging to st forward, knocking a nearby soldier to the ground. The soldier, startled by the indirect attack, readied his spear. Upon recognizing Sol, he was shocked by how fast he must have been running to create such wind pressure. "Sorry about that. Where¡¯s Duncan?" Sol quickly apologized and got straight to the point, scanning his surroundings for any sign of the creature. "Over there." The soldier, sensing the urgency, immediately pointed toward arge tent. Sol nodded and used [Phase Step] to appear at the tent entrance, then stepped inside. There, he found Duncan, Lapis, Nataly, and a few schrs and soldiers discussing logistical matters. Duncan looked up at Sol. "Captain, you¡¯re back? What are you covered in? Is that some kind of jam?" Nataly sniffed the air. "Mmm, smells like it. But why are you covered in it?" "Jam?" Sol looked down at the dried blood on his body. Clearly, they were under the influence of an illusion. "Forget it. Put these on, quickly. We need to move fast." Sol took out the headbands and masks, enough for them and the rest of the camp. He also handed out three PALs. He didn¡¯t have enough for everyone, but there were enough for him and his squad, which was all he really needed. When no one reached out to take the items, Lapis gave him a perplexed look. "Are you serious? I¡¯m not wearing that." The group¡¯s reactions varied. Lapis frowned slightly, Nataly blushed profusely, and Duncan was simply speechless, his jaw hanging open. The soldiers and schrs looked equally confused and shocked. One of the soldiers muttered, "Aren¡¯t we on a mission? Isn¡¯t this inappropriate?" A schr seemed torn. "Maybe it¡¯s to immerse ourselves in their culture?" After regaining hisposure, Duncan asked with uncertainty, "Captain, is this a prank? There aren¡¯t any for men." "So you¡¯d wear it if it were for men?!" Nataly shouted, her face turning an even deeper shade of red. Those around her feared she might explode if she got any redder. Sol felt awkward under their mixed gazes but quickly realized they were clearly not seeing headbands and masks. N?v(el)B\\jnn ¡¯Could it be that the creature already knows what they do and is trying to stop them from wearing them?¡¯ If Sol was right, it meant the creature was already aware, or at least somewhat aware, of their n and would soon intervene. But it could also just be aplete fluke, either way he needed to keep his guard up. "I¡¯mpletely serious. I¡¯m not sure what you¡¯re seeing, but if you trust me, put them on. Start with the headband." Sol suggested they start with the headband, as it would clear up any visual illusions and show them he wasn¡¯t crazy. But his words only made them more apprehensive. The hallucinations were now affecting their hearing as well. Duncan mumbled, "Start with the bra, he says¡­" ¡¯Bra? Oh my gods¡­¡¯ Sol was beginning to understand what they were seeing and hearing. He then noticed Lapis starting to undress in front of everyone. She didn¡¯t want to wear the items, but Sol¡¯s serious and sincere expression,bined with his plea for trust, convinced her to at least try them on. She knew he wouldn¡¯t ask without a good reason, no matter how absurd it seemed. "Wait! Don¡¯t take off your clothes!" Sol yelled in panic. Lapis paused, confused. "How else am I supposed to put on a bikini? You want it over my clothes?" At that moment, Sol knew exactly how Torben had felt when he presented him with a picture of the creature, only to see a field of flowers instead. Chapter 272: Rock Candy With Lapis more willing to trust him than the others, she allowed Sol to help her put on the headband. Every time he exined, they seemed to hear something else, making it extremely difficult to get them to cooperate. But once he put the "bra" around her head, she was able to see the truth as well. "It¡¯s not a bikini?" "Of course not! Now help me convince the others to put them on." With her help, they managed to get everyone in the room to wear the protective gear, and they soon understood the situation. "It wasn¡¯t a bikini¡­" Nataly, who had fiercely resisted until the end out of sheer embarrassment, was now even more mortified for not trusting him sooner. Duncan, still in shock, was more concerned with the fact that they had all been under a massive illusion the entire time. "So, the reason everything looked so well kept was because of the hallucinations... Luckily, there were no idents while we were exploring the ruins. A building could have copsed on someone without them even knowing, or worse." One of the soldiers mentioned something they¡¯d noticed. "Actually... I remember a few instances where people were suddenly wounded or had bruises, and we just thought they didn¡¯t notice a sharp corner or bumped into something." A schr was taken aback by thement. "How did you even think it was an ident? No one here is weak enough to get hurt like that. Even I have enough points in vitality that I¡¯d need to m my body into a wall on purpose to get a bruise." The schr had a point. It was extremely odd that anyone would chalk it up as an ident. "Then there must have always been a light distortion of cognition. Not enough to cause drastic influence, but just enough to make us oblivious and not investigate further." Sol theorized. "Regardless, now that you all know what we¡¯ve been seeing is a lie, we need to act fast before anyone else dies." "In idents?" Lapis asked. "No, from the being that¡¯s causing the hallucinations." Sol gave a quick rundown of what he¡¯d learned and exined the n to take everyone to the castle and hold off while Torben contacted Orna for help. Duncan nodded, agreeing with most of the n. "We need to first get everyone equipped with the headbands and masks. It might be hard to simply convince them, but we can simply put it on them before they realize what we¡¯re doing. Those with speed and stealth talents would also be useful for this so we should get them geared and briefed first so they could equip the others quickly." Sol agreed. From first hand experience, convincing people to willingly wear the gear was difficult. Only reason it went somewhat well was because he was their leader and they trusted him. But if they could wrap the headbands around their heads before they noticed, it would save a lot of trouble. Duncan continued, "But there may be a way to contact Orna faster." "How?" He pulled out amunication gem and said, "We can contact the outside and ask the orcs to send someone to talk to him." Sol considered it. He didn¡¯t know if that method would be faster than whatever Torben was nning. He did know that, unless the orcs sent an A-Ranker specializing in speed or space magic, it would take at least 30 minutes for them to arrive, given the vastness of the Orna Mountains. But regardless of whether Torben¡¯s n took five minutes or an hour, it was safer not to put all their eggs in one basket, so he gave the go ahead. "Do it. In the meantime, the rest of you get everyone here to wear the gear and prepare to evacuate to the castle. Also, you three, take one of these." Sol handed each of them a PAL. He gave a quick exnation on how to use the devices and said, "While you do that, I¡¯ll head over to Rex and Aron. Are they still at the museum?" Duncan nodded. "Yes, I checked in with them about five minutes ago. But Aron and Lazuli swapped teams, so she went with them instead." Sol was curious why they¡¯d changed teams but had more pressing matters. "Alright, that¡¯s fine. I¡¯ll go ahead and get them to wear the protective gear." Without further dy, Sol left the tent and swiftly made his way out of the base camp. On the way, he saw Aron sitting on the cold, hard ground eating something. Deciding he might as well give him the headband, mask, and PAL, Sol approached him to quickly ce the headband on his head. He originally nned to be swift, but when he got close and saw what Aron was doing, he paused in shock. Aron noticed him. "You¡¯re back, Cap! Someone¡¯s been passing around these candies they found. They¡¯re really good! They just melt in your mouth! I can¡¯t stop eating them!" Sol, now able to see what Aron was actually eating, was stunned. They weren¡¯t candies but a bunch of rocks. Despite the awful crunching sounds, Aron continued eating them with a blissfully happy expression. It was needless to say very unnerving to watch. ¡¯The hallucinations are getting stronger¡­¡¯ Clearly, the creature behind the hallucinations was slowly recovering, increasing its potency. If they didn¡¯t hurry, the equipment might soon be unable to block its effects. "What¡¯s that?" Sol said, pointing into the distance. "What¡¯s what?" The moment Aron turned to look at the ruined building in the distance, Sol quickly wrapped the headband around his head. Before Aron could register what had happened, the headband activated, freeing him from the hallucinations. "Huh? The building just changed¡­ Wait, why am I holding rocks? Where¡¯s the candy?" "I know you¡¯re confused, but put these on as well and go to Duncan. He¡¯ll fill you in." Sol handed him a mask and PAL. "Okay... At least there¡¯s still some candy in my mouth I can chew on." Aron seemed a bit disappointed the candy had run out. Since the headband only protected sight, hearing, and mind, his sense of taste was still under the creature¡¯s influence. Aron was about to put on the mask, but Sol stopped him. "I¡­ suggest you spit that out before you put on the mask. Also, hurry. We need to move soon." Without waiting for Aron¡¯s reply, Sol sped off toward the museum, hoping none of them were in danger. Arriving at the museum, he saw a pink yellow mist in the area. It harmlessly past by him but felt his vision be slightly fuzzy. His surroundings grew a tone brighter, but nothing else seemed different. Using [True Sight (Variant)], his vision returned to normal. Together with the headband, it helped him better resist the effects. Even though his sight was back to normal, he was anything but relieved. ¡¯It¡¯s starting to affect me through the headband. Torben was wrong. It¡¯s recovering way too fast.¡¯ n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om At this rate, Sol estimated they had only 15 minutes before they would fall back into the hallucinations again. As he reached the museum¡¯s entrance, his frown deepened. At the bottom of the stairsy the dead body of a soldier, while a female soldier, oblivious, stood watch nearby, oddly licking her fingers with a gleeful look on her face. But his surprise turned to shock when he looked toward the roof of the museum and finally saw it. A massive insect with six scythe like legs, a spider¡¯s head covered in hundreds of human eyes, and arge, bulbous sac on its rear, riddled with holes like a beehive. It was slowly consuming a heart, savoring every bite. Seeing its true form, there was only one way to describe it: a horrifying monster. Chapter 273: Delectable Bliss Sol was about to use [Analysis] but fortunately held himself back. He knew that the ability could be detected, and seeing the creature silently eating its meal, Sol realized it was best not to alert it. ¡¯If we fight, everyone in the museum will likely die.¡¯ The others wouldn¡¯t even notice him fighting the monster, and they wouldn¡¯t attempt to escape to safety. Even without [Analysis], Sol had another way to gauge its strength. He opened his eyes to see the tethers around him and was shocked. Alongside many normal sized tethers, the creature had the biggest tether he¡¯d ever seen. It was over two feet thick,pletely dwarfing the next biggest tether he¡¯d seen, which was aw technique and only two inches. The only saving grace was that all of its tethers, including the giant one, were extremely dim, as if they were drained of energy. ¡¯The tethers give skills power. If they¡¯re this dim, it must be because it¡¯s still weakened from centuries of starvation.¡¯ Sol knew that if the creature were at its peak, he wouldn¡¯t stand a chance against it, but in its current state, there was hope. As it ate, the creature¡¯s many eyeszily scanned the surroundings, savoring the heart in its grasp. Sol made no sudden movements, calming his heartbeat as he felt the creature¡¯s gaze brieflynd on him before drifting away toward the city. ¡¯I need to get everyone out of here... For now I¡¯ll pretend to be under its influence so I don¡¯t raise suspicion.¡¯ N?v(el)B\\jnn With a forced smile, Sol walked past the corpse at the bottom of the stairs and approached the museum. The guard at the entrance noticed him. "Sir?" She looked confused, surprised to see the expedition leader here instead of with the away team. Still, she knew better than to question him. "I need to talk to Rex. Can you take me to him?" "Yes, Sir. But I¡¯m still waiting for¡­ umm, what was I waiting for again? Never mind, I¡¯ll take you to Sir Rex." For a moment, she thought she was standing watch with someone else, but she quickly dismissed the idea. Surely, she had been guarding the entrance alone. Inside the museum, Sol was surprised to see everything in a rtively good state. While some objects were clearly damaged and worn from age, most of the disys and exhibitions looked almost new. He assumed there was some kind of preservation magic in ce, which made sense, given the location. The guard led him to Rex and Lazuli, who were examining a dwarven contraption, discussing its function. Rex was the first to notice him. "Captain? What are you doing here?" "Can you both close your eyes for a moment?" Sol didn¡¯t want to exin and risk wasting time, not after what had happened at the base camp. Lazuli tilted her head. "Huh? Why?" "Just trust me." "Okay¡­" They closed their eyes, and Sol quickly wrapped the headbands around their heads. When the headbands activated, they felt their minds clear up instantly. "What did you¡­ wait! I forgot to check where Hn went!" Suddenly remembering that he was going to check the situation regarding the missing guard, Rex used his detection skills to scan the area and quickly found the soldier, or at least, his remains. "What?! He¡¯s dea¡ª" "Shh! I know." Sol said as he held his mouth shut. "Calm down and help me gather everyone quietly. We need to leave now." Lazuli, though confused, sensed the urgency in his tone. With their help, they gathered the rest of the group. By having them close their eyes, the hallucinations didn¡¯t interfere, allowing them to put on the protective equipment without issue. Soon, everyone was wearing the headbands and masks, and Sol gave a quick rundown of the situation. Rex, who had waited until the end of the exnation, asked, "So, it¡¯s on the roof of the museum right now? I tried scanning the area, but whenever I checked up there, I didn¡¯t sense anything." Sol thought for a moment. "It could have left, but if it¡¯s still there, I think its hallucinations get stronger the closer we are to it." It was a reasonable guess, and Rex agreed. "So, we head back to camp and make for the castle before this thing decides to eat again. Easy enough." Sol nodded. "Now that you¡¯re somewhat shielded from its ability, we can leave. But don¡¯t draw its attention. If it realizes we¡¯re free from its hallucination, it might attack. If that happens, you lead them back while I hold it off." "Alone?" Rex didn¡¯t like the idea of Sol fighting the creature, but he understood they might not have a choice. "Okay. I¡¯ll get everyone back safely." The team left the museum in an orderly but speedy fashion. Upon exiting, they saw Hn¡¯s body, but no one showed any reaction. Briefed on the situation beforehand, they knew they couldn¡¯t afford to make any suspicious moves and draw its attention. Still, seeing theirrade¡¯s corpse stirred anger within their hearts. As for the creature on the roof, Sol and Rex quickly nced at it. All its eyes were closed, and it appeared to be digesting or resting. They weren¡¯t sure which, but it was a golden opportunity to leave, and they weren¡¯t going to waste it. Sol signaled for the group to pick up the pace as they made their way back to the base camp. ... After its first meal in centuries, the creature, known as a Bliss Spider, was digesting its meal. Maintaining its delirious bliss, even in at its weakest, had been exhausting. But as it digested the heart full of bliss, it became more tolerable. When the Bliss Spider first encountered the expedition group, it ignored them, heading straight for the exit, hoping to escape the city that had been its prison for countless years. Though starving, the spider prioritized its freedom, nning to feed once it was free instead of the few people here. The world outside would then serve as its new hunting ground and while it knew its creator had died if it had enough time it could be the new God of Bliss. Unfortunately, by the time it arrived, the door was already shut. In anger, it wed at the Azrem Alloy doors, but its ws couldn¡¯t even scratch the surface. Not even at its peak had it been able to do significant damage to the alloy and the little damage done would be repaired near instantly. With escape impossible, the spider turned its focus back to the humans and orcs inside. There were around 100 of them, not nearly enough to satisfy its hunger, especially since their hearts weren¡¯t yet filled with bliss. It decided to hold off on feasting, learning from its past mistakes. This time, it would leave some of them alive for two purposes. The first was to space out the meals, allowing it tost longer. It would influence them to reproduce, effectively farming them like cattle. The second option was to follow them, hoping they would eventually open the gates, allowing it to escape. For now, it waited, hoping for an opportunity. But even so, it couldn¡¯t resist snacking on a few of them. As it finished digesting its first meal, the spider contemted how many it should eat next. Deciding that keeping half alive would be sufficient for its ns, it opened its eyes to look down at the museum to pick its next meal. But they were all gone. It didn¡¯t find this odd, assuming the food had simply moved elsewhere. It was about to follow them when it sensed something, something it despised. Fear, anger, and despair were radiating from the humans and orcs reuniting with the others. It couldn¡¯t eat hearts filled with negative emotions. They were repulsive to it, even in its starving state. These emotions went against the very core of its being. Rising to its feet, the Bliss Spider began moving toward the source of the negative emotions. Whatever was causing them, it would stop it, and return its prey to their previous blissful state. Chapter 274: Minor Symptoms They soon arrived at the base camp and saw that everyone was now wearing the mask and headband. They rushed to pack whatever they could before moving out. Duncan approached and said, "We are almost done packing up. It should take us at most five minutes." Sol shook his head. "Leave it behind. The creature doesn¡¯t care about our stuff. Once we deal with it, we cane backter." Duncan nodded and gathered everyone by the carriages. He boarded the slower ones, mostly consisting of the schrs and a few low agility soldiers, onto the carriages. The horses galloped as fast as they could while the soldiers ran alongside, the castle visible in the distance. On thest carriage, Sol sat on the roof, keeping an eye on their surroundings, focusing mainly on the museum in the distance where the Bliss Spider was no longer visible. At some point, it had disappeared, making him uneasy. Sol turned on the PAL and said, "Anything on your end?" Rex, who was on the roof of the carriage at the front of the pack, responded. "Could be it has stealth skills as well, toplement its ability. Just keep your guard up." Before turning off the PAL, Sol connected to Torben¡¯s PAL and asked, "One of us has already been killed by that thing. But we are already on our way to the castle. How are things on your end?" After a brief moment of silence, Torben responded, "The Heat Inverter? You mean the crystal on the roof of the city?" His voice trailed off, and Sol could hear metal nging from his side. Since Torben was focused on whatever he was doing, Sol decided not to mention that they had also informed the orcs of the situation and that they had sent the nearest A-Ranker to inform Orna. He hung up and continued keeping an eye on the surroundings. It didn¡¯t take long to spot it. The Bliss Spider had climbed onto a faraway building and was looking at their caravan with its hundreds of humanoid eyes. Its bulbous rear shook as it emitted a pinkish yellow gas that spread in all directions. The heavy gas rolled down the side of the building and quickly filled the area with its mist. Seeing the iing gas, Sol silently chanted [Gale Wall], sending arge st of wind at the gas in an attempt to blow it back. The wind did blow the gas back, but as if the gas had a mind of its own, it gathered and focused its push in their direction, easily breaking through the wind. Sol continued to loop cast the spell, calling more wind walls to push the gas back, but it broke through each wall with little resistance. The gas quickly reached their caravan. Some relied on the mask to protect them, while others closed their eyes or blocked their ears, thinking it could enter through any orifice. In a way, they were correct, but the gas seeped directly through their skin and began affecting them all in various ways. The vision of some became distorted, and they found themselves once more in the pristine city, while others began to hear upbeat songs of celebration. A few began smelling delicious and exotic fragrances, while others could taste and touch them. Fortunately, none were affected mentally, as the headband¡¯s primary function was to protect the mind, which Torben found to be the most important. Still, no one was free from experiencing one or more senses falling into the hallucinations. "Come! Let¡¯s dance!" a soldier shouted from the side. Sol wasn¡¯t immune to it either, having his hearing influenced by the gas. His mind was clear, though, and he knew it wasn¡¯t real. Through his PAL, he said, "My hearing has been affected. Go on ahead, help those struggling with the hallucinations. I¡¯ll try to hold it back." He could tell that was Duncan¡¯s voice, but it was obviously influenced by the gas. He could only assume at least one of them understood what he said. He hopped off the carriage and ran straight toward the Bliss Spider. The creature screeched, but those whose hearing was affected only heard an enchanting song. ¡¯I¡¯m d only my hearing was affected; at least I don¡¯t need to hear whatever that sounds like.¡¯ He knew that whatever came out of its mouth was likely very unpleasant, given how some of the soldiers reacted by blocking their ears. N?v(el)B\\jnn With [Terra Maniption],rge amounts of ground and rubble from buildings rose andunched toward the creature. The Bliss Spider didn¡¯t show much reaction, only swiping its front legs and breaking any rocks and rubble that got near it. It was less concerned with the attacks and more so with the fact they were resisting its gas. Even in a weakened state, it could easily affect anyone below A-Ranker at this range, and yet the weakest people were only affected in three of their senses. Sol wasn¡¯t surprised and continuedunching rocks at it to keep it distracted while the caravan reorganized and continued on their way. From a quick nce, he saw they were having a problem with the horses pulling the carriages. The horses were affected by the hallucination as well and without the protective equipment, they were now trotting in ce as if grazing a field or rolling on the ground, and nothing the soldiers did could get their attention. With the horses out ofmission, they had to leave the carriages behind and continue on foot, which was a nightmare to coordinate with a decent portion of the group unable to see or hear properly. While stones were beingunched at the creature, Sol also cast [Water Cannon], multicasting and loop casting it to create tens of torrents of water sting forward. With a leap, the creature flew upwards, reaching all the way to the ceiling of the underground in a mere moment. It pushed itself against the roof andunched down onto Sol, nning to crush the human standing in its way. With [Phase Step], Sol disappeared and reappeared 30 feet away as the Bliss Spider mmed the ground, creating a massive crater. Seeing that the human had dodged, it chose to expend more energy and shook its rear again, creating more of the gas. This time, the gas didn¡¯t expand outward but instead gathered into concentrated gas orbs that orbited the spider. If Sol focused on them, he could see each orb carried a different image inside. Some were of beautiful ces, others of exquisite foods and drinks, and others were showing concerts ying music. Each gas orb carried experiences of bliss, and once they were formed, itunched them at Sol, one after the other. Chapter 275: Tricky Meal While Sol was able to resist most of the gas¡¯s effects thanks to the headband and mask, he instinctively knew that being hit by those concentrated orbs would send him spiraling into whatever blissful scenario each contained. He used [Burrow] and dived underground, avoiding the first volley of gas orbs. When theynded where he once stood, they burst open, sending the gas in all directions. Sol was about to move further away to reemerge but saw through [True Sight (Variant)] that the Bliss Spider was already above him. He dove deeper underground, seeing its ws dig into the ground, cutting through it like butter. He wanted to descend further to escape the creature, but immediately ran into a solid wall underground. It was the Azrem Alloy, covering the entire floor beneath the normal stone and dirt of the underground city. This alloy had prevented the Bliss Spider from digging its way out but was now the reason Sol couldn¡¯t escape any further. A w shed through the ground, reaching for him. With little time to dodge, he pressed himself against the alloy floor as the sharp leg passed inches from his neck. Even though it missed him, the ground split, creating a massive opening and leaving him exposed. Sol immediately jumped out of the opening, creating a pir of stone to propel himself away from the Bliss Spider. However, he only managed to travel a few feet before the creature¡¯s other w swung from the side, mming him back into the alloy floor. Unable to escape above, he tried to burrow back into the ground, but before he could, another w came down at incredible speed. "Argh!" he grunted as the w pierced his left shoulder, pinning him in ce. With his left shoulder pierced, he turned to the Bliss Spider in shock, not just from its speed but from the fact that it didn¡¯t kill him immediately. Instead, the creature observed him in silence, its many eyes scanning over his entire body. ¡¯Is it looking for something?¡¯ As the thought crossed his mind, he saw another gas orb forming behind the creature, showing visions of a beach and calm ocean waves. rm bells rang in his head, and he immediately transformed into shadows, losing his physical form and slipping free from the w. He quickly slithered away, putting distance between himself and the creature, which curiously examined the w that had pinned him. ... The Bliss Spider was moderately surprised that the human could transform into shadows after showing control over earth and other elemental magic. It had expected him to be stone or steel, in which case it could have kept him pinned, but definitely not shadows. It watched as the human slipped away, but it didn¡¯t care much because now it understood why its blissful gas influence wasn¡¯t as strong as it should have been. It was the objects he wore on his head. It thought back to the humans and orcs it had seen earlier, noting that they all wore simr objects now. Though it had difficulty distinguishing between humans and orcs based on their outer appearances, it was sure they weren¡¯t wearing those items before. Clearly, they had acquired something here that resisted its ability. Yet, it knew that a concentrated dose of its gas would overwhelm them, even with those protections. It wondered how they had obtained these items but decided it didn¡¯t matter. It would simply remove them from their heads or give them a heavy dose of bliss. Before that, though, it chose to deal with the human who had the audacity to stand in its way without even possessing aw technique. It had never encountered such a fool in its long life and found the situationical, to say the least. Still, the human needed to be punished for daring to resist, and he would also serve as a good warmup after its long hibernation. It turned towards the fleeing caravan, then back to the human who had reappeared on the roof of a nearby building. It prepared to use a technique to close the distance, but upon taking the first step, it froze, unable to remember how to proceed. It looked back at the human, wondering if he was causing this phenomenon, and saw ten floating hands hovering around him, each glowing a different color. This human had more tricks up his sleeve than it initially thought. ... Back with the exploration team, they made progress after oveing the initial confusion caused by the gas that had influenced their senses. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Those affected by smell and taste were the least impacted and helped get everyone reorganized. Those who couldn¡¯t see were led by the hand like children, tripping over rubble they couldn¡¯t see. Meanwhile, those hearing loud music and festivities could only follow silently, interpreting the group¡¯s intentions through bodynguage. While it might seem that these were the most severe symptoms, that wasn¡¯t the case. The worst were those affected by touch. Some suddenly felt extremely sleepy, craving a long nap, while others were overwhelmed by pleasurable sensations. In both cases, they had to be carried, as they struggled to walk on their own. Despite the challenges, the group continued to put distance between themselves and the monster, drawing closer to the castle. Rex, rubbing his eyes as he fought off drowsiness, turned to look at the battle behind them. His eyes widened when he saw his captain casting ck mes alongside ten floating hands that sent out a barrage of colorful attacks. Shadows rose from the ground, charging at the creature. He rubbed his eyes again, thinking he might be imagining things, and was about to look again when he was suddenly lifted over someone¡¯s shoulder. It was Lapis, who had Lazuli on her other shoulder, struggling to perceive her surroundings. "Come on, we have to go." Lapis urged as she carried him away. "But¡­ do you see that? Am I imagining that?" As he spoke, the ground shook as a massive boulder summoned by Sol crashed down on the Bliss Spider, which shattered it with its rear, sending rubble everywhere, somending close to them. "Yes, I see it. Now let¡¯s go before we get caught up in it." Lapis could see what was happening, and she knew that if they stayed any longer, they would be caught in the battle. Confident in her ability to survive and possibly help, she focused instead on getting those struggling to move to safety at the castle before thinking of aiding Sol. With the two on her shoulders, Lapis ran quickly, overtaking the rest of the exploration team, and headed for the castle so she could return to help those falling behind. Chapter 276: Flower Burst The moment Sol escaped from the w pinning him down, he used everything at his disposal. He summoned his magical hands, retrieved his Lipon, and most importantly, smashed the tethers of the Bliss Spider with all his sheer will. He didn¡¯t target the creature¡¯s strongest tether, nor the ones he knew werew techniques, as he couldn¡¯t afford to waste energy on a fruitless endeavor. Instead, he targeted all the normal tethers, which he could easily disable en masse by brute forcing his will against them. The effects were immediate: the Bliss Spider nearly stumbled, unable to remember the movement ability it intended to use to close the distance to him. This was precisely what Sol had been counting on to even the odds. The remains of nearby buildings rose and gathered into a sharp, dense stone spear thatunched toward the creature. However, unlike before when it would easily sh the attack to pieces, the Bliss Spider hopped to the side and dodged. It then ran towards Sol at an extremely fast speed whileunching multiple gas orbs at him. ¡¯It¡¯s fast, but not as fast as before. I can still follow it.¡¯ Sol thought as he dived underground with [Burrow], avoiding the gas orbs. While the Bliss Spider still had threew techniques and the giant tether, itsck of ess to many of its normal skills that enhanced its already overwhelming speed and power allowed Sol to track its movements for the first time. He emerged 30 feet away, and once above ground, he summoned a hundred shadow beings that charged at the Bliss Spider. Against the shadows, the Bliss Spider gathered two gas orbs around its front ws, imbuing them with the power of bliss. It then shed twice, sending out a yellow pink crescent of bliss. The shadows couldn¡¯t get within ten meters of the Bliss Spider before the wave passed through them, filling them with the pinkish yellow gas and causing them to burst into flower petals. "Yay!" "Hooray!" Sol heard the normally voiceless shadows exim in joy alongside trumpet sounds as they burst into petals. He ignored the illusory noises and repeatedly chanted his strongest spell. "[Grim mes]! [Grim mes]! [Grim mes]!" The area quickly filled with ck mes thatunched toward the creature. From its rear, it emitted more gas, which moved and consolidated into a thick wall that blocked the mes. Each time a me was extinguished by the gas, Sol could hear the sound of chimes. With the quantity of mes he wasunching, the chimes were so loud that they drowned out everything else. While the Bliss Spider was busy blocking the ck mes, Sol hurled a massive boulder he had created from arge chunk of stone and rubble at the creature. It broke through the gas barrier, crashing down onto the Bliss Spider. The creature swung its rear around, smashing the boulder and shattering it, sending debris flying everywhere. The collision between the two caused the ground to rumble from the sheer force. Through the dust, the Bliss Spider charged directly at Sol. Earth spikes rose from the ground around the spider, but it ran through them, seemingly unaffected. The spikes only managed to slow it down slightly. Not wanting to face the creature head-on, Sol controlled the ground beneath him to float and, using it as a tform, flew away while maintaining his offensive. The magic hands unleashed their respective attacks, with the blue and yellow chromasbining to send out a barrage of small crescents that tracked the spider¡¯s movements. This made it difficult for the creature to dodge them alongside the other attacks. At first, it dodged the projectiles, but they turned midair and hit it anyway. Sol heard the sound of wind chimes as the crescents struck the spider¡¯s body, but they didn¡¯t even leave a scratch. The attacks only served to inconvenience it. As Sol ascended, the spider sent two more bliss shes his way. His tform was too slow to evade them, so he jumped off and created another out of thin air just as the yellow pink sh cut through the previous tform. The rock, cut by the bliss, suddenly flourished with bright yellow flowers that quickly covered its entire surface. Eventually, the flowers consumed the rock entirely, bursting into a flowery explosion. The flower petals from the explosion reached Sol,nding harmlessly on his shoulder. Not sensing any danger, he grabbed one of the petals and examined it. ¡¯It feels real... Did it actually manifest the hallucinations into reality, or is it tricking my senses into thinking it¡¯s real?¡¯ If it was thetter, then it wasn¡¯t a significant issue, but if it could actually create physical manifestations, the Bliss Spider could produce much more dangerous things than flowers. He needed to remain cautious. Fortunately, he wasn¡¯t fighting to win, only to dy the creature and buy time for Torben or the orcs to contact Orna. Suddenly, from the dispersing bliss gas in the area from multiple failed attacks, it gathered into an orb a few feet away from Sol and shot directly at him. Not expecting a gas orb to appear so close, he reacted quickly and kicked his tform into the orb¡¯s path. It exploded on contact with the stone, but the gas expanded like a cloud, enveloping the area, including Sol. His senses became overwhelmed as he experienced the joys of wanderlust, seeing countless different locations throughout the world all at once. Before he could process what was happening, he snapped back to reality and realized he was falling straight towards the Bliss Spider. ¡¯I¡¯m back?¡¯ He hadn¡¯t expected to recover so quickly. It turned out that losing his floating tform had caused him to fall out of the gas¡¯s range before the gas could takeplete hold of him. Yet, even outside the dense gas, he could still smell the ocean¡¯s salty air and the aroma of various delicious spices, making it impossible to smell anything else, another sense waspromised. Before he fell directly into the creature¡¯s waiting ws, he created a new tform beneath his feet and flew away. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Seeing him escape once more, the creature screeched, sending shivers through anyone within range. Even Sol, who only heard a beautiful high pitched note, found it unsettling to know where the sound came from. Once he regained his bnce, Sol summoned more shadows and summoned back the magical hands that had been destroyed throughout the fight. He was ready to re-engage when he heard a distressed voice in the distance. "Cap, help me!" Chapter 277: The Pit He recognized the voice. ¡¯Is that Rex!? What is he still doing here?¡¯ He turned to the source of the voice and searched for him but was unable to find him. As he was searching, the Bliss Spider appeared behind him while he was distracted and mmed him into the ground with its rear. BOOM! A crater formed where he crashed, and though injured, he forced himself to get back up and jumped out before the spider could attack again. Rex¡¯s voice lingered in his ears again, but this time it was slightly more distorted and carried a mocking tone. "Help me¡­ n the party!" It was then that he realized he had been tricked. Keeping an eye on the creature, he thought to himself, ¡¯It¡¯s cunning. It could control what I heard the whole time and only waited until now to trick me.¡¯ He was foolish to think it wouldn¡¯t strategize against him and had been too focused on stalling. ¡¯But still, it appeared too quickly behind me¡­ how?¡¯ Sol checked its tethers again and realized that a few had already recovered much faster than he expected. In addition to that, they were slightly more colorful, which he guessed was due to their recovery. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om ¡¯Its recovery sped up the time it took to regain its disabled skills. But when it noticed it had ess to them again, it waited and didn¡¯t reveal it until now¡­¡¯ He should have paid more attention to the tethers or disabled them more frequently to ensure they stayed unavable. It would have been even more ideal if he had maintained his will suppressing the skills, but it was impossible to split his concentration on that while casting magic, summoning shadows, manipting earth, and guiding the magic hands. He also had to keep most of his focus on the spider or he would be unable to react to its attacks in time. It was simply too much, and his mind wasn¡¯t able to keep up with everything. He even used his psychic powers to help him focus better, but with it still being stuck at the beginner level, its effects were limited. This was why he had to cut back on constantly manipting the Bliss Spider¡¯s tethers and chose to disable them for short bursts. But the Bliss Spider was truly too cunning and used that to its advantage, even when it was already superior in almost all ways to him. He quickly disabled its normal skills again just in time as the spidernded back on the ground. The Bliss Spider also noticed it had lost ess to its normal abilities once more and went back tounching gas orbs and bliss shes at him. While it admitted the human was slippery, it was only a matter of time before he would slip up or be exhausted. He would then be enveloped in bliss and be its next meal. The fight continued, and the Bliss Spider¡¯s judgment proved to be correct. As Sol continued attacking and running away from the spider, more and more bliss gas filled the area. It made it harder to predict and dodge random moments when the gas would suddenly gather andunch a concentrated attack. He used wind magic to disperse the gas, but it would return in due time. It didn¡¯t help either that most of his powerful skills were on cooldown, like full spectrum, and he was unable to use [Overpower] as he knew it wasn¡¯t enough to win in the short period of activation. In a battle of endurance, the exhaustion caused after using [Overpower] would seal his fate. His Tynamo Cannon was also something he couldn¡¯t take out easily, as it was his strongest means of attack, and if he timed it wrong, he doubted he would be able to get another chance to use it with how intelligent the enemy was. There was also the worst-case scenario in using the cannon in which it simply wasn¡¯t strong enough to hurt it, as nothing he hit it with so far was able to injure it. Eventually, he fell for another attack, and while he escaped, he also lost his sense of taste. He was then forced to taste many delicious foods, and while that normally wouldn¡¯t be something toin about, it also included spicy, sweet, salty, and many more vors that together would make anyone nauseous. Feeling the increasing pressure, Sol used the PAL to contact Torben. "Torben! I don¡¯t know how long I can hold it back! Hurry up!" The voice sounded like Torben¡¯s, but he knew exactly who was actually talking to him. He frowned as he looked at the Bliss Spider, which had a smug look from the way its eyes curved. Another voice came from the PAL, but it wasn¡¯t from Torben or any of his squad members. It was an androgynous voice that carried no distinct ent or tone. "Sorry to disappoint, but I don¡¯t n on dying¡ªand especially not while hallucinating. Torben is sending the Chosen yer here right now. The one who¡¯s in trouble is you, not me." A loudugh came from the PAL. "Oh yeah? Then why am I still alive? I don¡¯t think it¡¯s as easy as you say it is." While the Bliss Spider and Sol conversed, they never stopped fighting. Gas orbs and bliss shes were sent his way as he dodged them either by diving underground or turning into shadows. Sol sent his own attacks, and the moment skills went off their cooldown, he immediately used them. Once duochrome went off cooldown, hebined the purple and orange hands to create an amplified gravity zone around the spider, slightly slowing its movements further. The effects on the spider were minimal, but with so many other attacks raining down on it, it was like trying to swim upstream. Sadly, in this case, fighting against the current wasn¡¯t a very difficult task for the Bliss Spider. Sol dodged another bliss sh that turned the house behind him into arge cake, but when hended on the ground nearby, he went right through it as if he were using [Burrow]. But there was one big problem, he hadn¡¯t used [Burrow]. ¡¯The floor was fake!¡¯ Unknowingly, hended straight into a pit full of the bliss gas. The pit was one of the countless ones created from the aftermath of their battle and was inconspicuously disguised by the spider when Sol wasn¡¯t paying attention. It was actually during their conversation that the Bliss Spider secretly moved the gas to conceal a few pits in the area. Unlike before, where he was able to fall out of the gas thanks to gravity, he only sank deeper with no way out. Thest thing Sol could hear as he sank into the pit of gas was the tauntingughtering from the PAL. Chapter 278: A Dream Sol¡¯s eyes shot wide open as he woke up in arge bed. His heart beat wildly as he sprang upward and reached out for his Lipon, but all he grabbed was empty air. Thinking it might be stored in his spatial ring, he checked his hands, but he didn¡¯t have any spatial rings. ¡¯Huh? Where did it¡ª?¡¯ "Sol? Is something wrong?" "I can¡¯t find my spatial ring¡­ Wait, Anna?" It was only now that he noticed he wasn¡¯t alone in bed, Annabel was with him, wrapped under the same nket. "Why are you in my bed? No, wait, this is your bed¡­ How did I get here?" Annabel was confused by what he meant. "Because we¡¯re dating? Are you okay? Did you have another nightmare?" Something about what she said felt incorrect to him, but he couldn¡¯t quite put his finger on it. After a moment of confusion, he assumed he must have been mistaken and hesitantly nodded in response. "I think I was a Royal Knight, and on a mission, I was fighting some kind of massive spider. But I screwed up and fell into a pit trap." "Oh¡­ it was a knight dream this time." It wasn¡¯t the first time he¡¯d had such dreams, and given his circumstances, she could understand why. Regardless, she still tried to cheer him up. "But think of the bright side¡ªyou¡¯re not a knight, so that could never happen!" ¡¯I¡¯m not?¡¯ It wasn¡¯t that he didn¡¯t believe her, but a gut instinct told him otherwise. He opened his status page, wanting to confirm it for himself. Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: Level: 5 Exp: 12/150 HP: 70 MP: 40 Str: 6 Vit: 7 Agi: 5 Int: 3 Wis: 4 Talent Skills: Passive Skills: [Speed Reading] Lv 1, [Encyclopedia] Lv 2 Active Skills: [Swordsmanship] Lv 1 ¡¯Oh¡­ I¡¯m not.¡¯ He wasn¡¯t sure what he had expected to see. After all, he was never able to obtain a talent since he had failed the leveling ceremony. Annabel could tell exactly what he was thinking and sighed. She inched over to him and hugged him from behind. "Not having a talent is a blessing in disguise. No expectations, no randomly predetermined job people expect you to be. You can be whatever you want to be. Isn¡¯t that true freedom?" "Whatever I want to be¡­ yeah, you¡¯re right." Herforting words brightened his sour mood. "And don¡¯t you forget it!" She puffed out her chest, which he only now noticed wasn¡¯t covered at all, making him shyly look away. But then he remembered they had done much more than simply see each other¡¯s bodies, and that sense of shame quickly faded. She then lightly pped his back. "Plus, you¡¯re plenty capable without one. Maybe it¡¯s for the best you don¡¯t have one. You somehow got [Encyclopedia] without any talent through sheer effort and determination. If you actually had a talent¡­ I fear the world wouldn¡¯t be able to handle it." Sol rolled his eyes at her joke and chuckled. "Yeah, right. C¡¯mon, let¡¯s get to work." She nodded and reached to her nightstand to check the time, but upon seeing it, her face paled. "Oh no! We¡¯re going to bete!" The two scrambled out of bed and got dressed as quickly as they humanly could. They skipped breakfast and ran out of Annabel¡¯s house toward the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. They were lucky to live nearby, but even so, they arrived 20 minuteste. When they arrived, they were immediately called into the Guildmaster¡¯s office. The Guildmaster of the Adventurers Guild, and Annabel¡¯s father, William Deliban, spoke with a slight frown. "You¡¯rete. Again." N?v(el)B\\jnn "Sorry, it was my fault. I should have paid more attention to the time." Sol took the me for the two of them, not wanting Annabel to get in trouble with her father. "It was my fault as well, Guildmaster. It won¡¯t happen again." Not one to let others take the fall for her, she also spoke up. William sat in silence, staring the two down. "Make sure it doesn¡¯t happen again, then. Annabel, you may go, but Sol, stay for a moment. I want a quick word with you." The two nodded, and on the way out, Sol whispered to Annabel, "Prepare my coffin." She giggled, and William cleared his throat, as he could easily hear what Sol said with his high attributes. "You worry too much. Nothing will happen. Now go." "Yes, Guildmaster." With the two men alone in the room, Guildmaster William spoke honestly. "Initially, I was hesitant to bring you into not only our guild branch but also into my family. It wouldn¡¯t be the first time someone tried to woo my daughter to get into my good graces. But I never had to interfere, as she could always tell when those scum didn¡¯t have genuine feelings for her. The fact she chose you was enough for me to trust you, and seeing her smile every day shows me it was the right decision. Job wise, you also quickly adapted to the environment and became one of the adventurers¡¯ favorite receptionists, saving a good number of lives with your advice." Sol nodded along, unsure why he was receiving thesepliments and praise now. "What I¡¯m trying to say is that you¡¯re doing great, keep at it. But as much as I want grandchildren, try not to go overboard and allow it to interfere with your daily lives and responsibilities." ¡¯That¡¯s what he was trying to get at?!¡¯ Sol almost fell out of his seat at the sudden pivot in the conversation. ¡¯We haven¡¯t been doing it that much¡­ have we?¡¯ He couldn¡¯t exactly remember how many times they actually went at it, which led him to believe it must have been too many to count. "I¡¯ll¡­ keep that in mind, Guildmaster." "When it¡¯s just us two, you can call me William." Sol smiled and nodded. "Thank you, William." "Now get out, you have work to do." "Yes!" Sol made his way back to the main entrance of the guild and quickly went through his daily tasks, from reviewing the quests avable, counting inventory, and speaking with clients to register their quests. An hourter, when he was done, he moved on to his other responsibility, tending the receptionist desk. While tending the counter, Annabel passed by. "Oh, Sol, I forgot to ask you, but what time are your parentsing over?" "My parents?" Something about her question felt off, but he couldn¡¯t put his finger on what exactly. Seeing him silent, Annabel began to panic. "Don¡¯t tell me you forgot! You¡¯re supposed to introduce me to them! Please, I want to make a good first impression!" She began to shake him by the shoulders pleadingly, which shook him out of his stupor. "Oh, now I remember! They said they would arrive around 7." "Oh, thank the gods. I¡¯ll have time to prepare something good to eat when we get home." She gave him a peck on the cheek and went back to doing her job. Sol smiled as he watched her walk away and returned to his own duties. The receptionist part of the job was honestly his favorite, as he could directly speak with the adventurers. Sure, some were rowdy or disrespectful, but those were a minority, and after working for some time, he actually gained a reputation for being the one to ask about anything. An adventurer walked up to his counter. "Morning, Sol. My party and I want to take this escort quest to Kerman. Never left town before, so I¡¯m kinda curious what a city looks like." "It¡¯s much bigger, and there is a lot more one can do there. Even at night, the city is very active. While it¡¯s a lot at first, I think you¡¯ll enjoy it once you get used to it." "Oh, you¡¯ve been there?" "I¡­ no, it¡¯s just what I¡¯ve heard from others." Even though he said that, he didn¡¯t know if he believed it himself. ¡¯If I heard of it from someone¡­ why is it so vivid?¡¯ He found it odd but eventually concluded that it was probably a dream he had. He continued on with his shift, taking care of other adventurers and trading a few jokes and flirtatiousments with Annabel whenever she passed by. Later in the day, an adventurer in full metal armor, alongside his party, came into the guild. The man in full armor removed his helmet to reveal a grinning Jayce. He sauntered to the nearest table, stood on it, and announced, "We have in the Thunder Wolf King!" Chapter 279: A Nightmare From his spatial ring, he retrieved a giant silver wolf head, causing everyone in the guild to gape in awe. Soon, cheers rang throughout the guild as the party basked in the glory. "How did you do it?!" "Amazing!" "Hahaha! Congrats,d! This calls for a drink!" Jayce chuckled at thestment and agreed, "Of course! In fact, it¡¯s on me! Everyone, drink to your heart¡¯s content!" Even though it was still early in the day, it was too good of a reason to drink, and the adventurers dly joined in. It didn¡¯t take long for all of them to have a drink in their hands as they went into full celebration for the party¡¯s sess in defeating the powerful beast. The guild employees weren¡¯t able to partake in the drinking, but they still enjoyed the happy atmosphere nheless, at least, everyone except one person. ¡¯They killed the Thunder Wolf King? But didn¡¯t it almost kill me?¡¯ His mind struggled to understand, as he could remember the way the silver wolf stared him down, even while his sword was lodged in its jaw. He thought his life was over at that moment, but on the contrary, it was the day everything began. He held onto his head as these conflicting thoughts caused a massive headache. Jayce then came over and ced the decapitated wolf head on the counter. "What do ya think, Sol? It was thanks to you that we could kill it!" He was still on the job, so he tried to ignore the pounding headache and asked, "I helped?" "Of course! Remember how you told us how to track direwolves? We followed them for a few days and eventually found their den! After that, we justy in wait and attacked them while they were resting. And thank goodness we did, because even with a surprise attack, it almost managed to overpower us. You honestly saved our lives this time." Jayce patted his back with a big smile, but Sol found all of this impossible to believe. He looked at Jayce¡¯s party members. The two swordsmen were drinking alongside other adventurers, while the huntress was doing a few party tricks, and the wizard watched silently, enjoying the atmosphere. ¡¯Save? No, they died, all of them¡­ except Jayce¡­ and I only noticed he was alive because I was going to¡­ take his skills. Take them? How would I¡­?¡¯ He didn¡¯t know where he got the idea of taking others¡¯ skills, as the notion seemed absurd. But when he was about to face Jayce, his eyes met the dead eyes of the Thunder Wolf King. Even as just a head, its eyes looked fierce, as if it were still alive. It stared him down in such a way that it made him feel that if he took even one step, he would perish. Faint cracking could be heard. ¡¯This happened¡­ They did die¡­ I killed it¡­ I got a talent¡­¡¯ More cracking sounds emerged as his mind pushed away the lies and finally arrived at the truth. "I got [Siphon]." His memories surged like a tidal wave, recovering all at once, and even though it was painful, he endured them. He clutched onto the counter, which creaked under the pressure of his grip. "Sol?" Jayce was worried and leaned closer to check his condition. Sol pushed him back and raised his head. His previous kind eyes had beenpletely reced with a deadly re that looked straight at Jayce. Jayce took a step back and ced his hand on his shield instinctively. He had felt this kind of re before, it was eerily simr to the hateful stare of the Thunder Wolf King when they invaded its den. "Are¡­ you okay?" "No, I¡¯m not. I¡¯m about to be eaten while I¡¯m stuck in this damn hallucination." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om With his rity restored, he was absolutely livid, not only because he had fallen into such a simple trap but also because he knew he could be eaten at any moment. Sol walked away from the counter, leaving a very confused Jayce behind. He made his way out of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild and looked at the sky. It was clear as far as the eye could see. Moving his gaze down, he saw the town¡¯s streets, with people walking by or chatting happily. After the initial shock of realizing what happened, he calmed down a bit and began to think practically. ¡¯I¡¯m still hallucinating even though I know it¡¯s fake. Am I in some kind of slumber, or am I walking aimlessly in the pit?¡¯ Thinking back to how he started his day in Annabel¡¯s house and ran to the Guild, it was clear that escaping wasn¡¯t as simple as walking in one direction until he left the pit. He opened his status page and saw the same stats from the morning. Seeing it was of no use, he began trying to use his abilities from memory. "[Revealing Light]!" "[Grim mes]!" "[Tail Wind]!" Casting magic had no effect, besides making the people nearby give him weird looks. Though he knew none of them were real, the gazes made him feel awkward, so he walked back into the guild and went into one of the empty rooms where he knew no one would disturb him. From there, he continued trying everything: [Create Magic Hands], [Phase Step], [Terra Maniption], [Basic Psychic Mastery], [True Sight (Variant)], [Polychromatism], [Umbral Domain], [Close Combat]. But nothing worked. It wasn¡¯t that easy breaking through such a powerful ability. After constant trial and error, he was getting desperate as he didn¡¯t know how much time he really had. From when he woke up in Annabel¡¯s bed until now, it had been more than four hours. He doubted the spider was marinating his body for such a long time; it was more likely that his sense of time had been distorted. Not knowing when his end woulde, he was getting desperate. This was definitely not how he wanted to die, especially because his death would be followed by the deaths of everyone else who came with him to the ancient city. ¡¯I hope everyone is okay¡­¡¯ Sol tried even more skills, even those that wouldn¡¯t be useful in this scenario, in hopes that something, anything, would work. It was then that he saw it. ¡¯Tethers? Here?¡¯ Chapter 280: Ascending The colorful tethers extending from his body were still visible to him. While he was relieved that he could use at least one skill, it was also dispiriting that it was the one skill he couldn¡¯t use here. ¡¯How am I able to even use this¡­¡¯ Out of all the skills he had, only [Aggregate], or more urately, the pseudow technique he was creating from it, was the only thing that appeared to work. ¡¯But I can¡¯t see the spider¡¯s tethers from here, and even if Ibine my skills, if I can¡¯t use them, then what¡¯s the point¡­¡¯ With no way to use it against the spider and with nothing else avable, he could only turn to this ability in the hope that it could be his way out. Time passed as hebed through every tether meticulously, but nothing led him any closer to a solution. His gaze moved to the still iplete tether branching off from [Aggregate], which caused him to frown. ¡¯For it to still be iplete¡­ I¡¯ve felt for a while that I just needed a little more, and it would beplete, but progress has been so slow. Why?¡¯ He knew obtaining aw technique wasn¡¯t easy, but being stuck at the finish line was extremely frustrating. ¡¯It was simr to when I struggled to progress with [Terra Spikes]. I was missing something then, so I could be missing something now.¡¯ He thought long and hard about what that could possibly be but could not arrive at any conclusion. With tethers, he couldbine skills, disable skills, and permanently remove them. What else could there be? Did he simply have to refine the technique more? As time continued to tick by, he grew more and more irritated at his inability to figure it out. He continued looking at the iplete tether, which swayed left and right as if taunting him for not knowing. Sol¡¯s eye twitched as he finally lost his patience. ¡¯Fine, you don¡¯t want toplete yourself on your own? I¡¯ll do it for you!¡¯ With his will, he grabbed hold of the iplete tether and began pulling it in the direction it was heading. It wasn¡¯t able to go very far before the tether became taut, but he continued pulling it. "Connect to whatever is out there or break in the process!" Sol yelled as he pulled even harder. If the tether broke, he would surely lose all his acquired knowledge regarding manipting tethers, but with the bigger problem of his impending death, about which he had no idea when it woulde, he had no time to consider the consequences. The tether stretched and extended a few more inches, but it was still not enough. He continued to pull, causing the tether to stretch inch by inch. It was a slow and mentally draining process. He began to sweat as each inch he pulled the tether along became harder than thest. But even so, he did not stop. It felt like the tether would snap at any moment now, but since he had felt that 20 inches ago, he began to doubt if it would actually snap. It seemed like it would continue to stretch endlessly as long as he continued to pull. As he stretched the tether for what felt like the hundredth time, he finally saw something, a small glowing dot a foot away from the tether. Seeing the end in sight, he pulled with renewed vigor, but the difficulty of progressing took a toll on him. He waspletely drenched in sweat, struggling to pull it even one inch further. Sol was only a mere five inches away, but he also felt like he was on the verge of passing out. He pped himself awake and yelled, "I¡¯m not giving up here! Not when I¡¯m so close to the end!" With all his remaining willpower, he grabbed hold of the tether and pulled it with everything he had, stretching it a full five inches and reaching the end in one final effort. The moment it touched the white dot, the entire tether lit up with a blinding light. Pure power coursed through the tether, but it was too much for the thin tether to handle, so it began expanding as power flowed downward back into Sol, renewing him with what felt like unlimited energy. His mental state and exhausted body recovered instantly, and when he looked back at the tether, he saw it had widened to a full inch, multiple times bigger than any other tether he had. Alongside the power and energy from the tether, he also received knowledge, causing him to fall to the floor as he tried toprehend everything it was imbuing into him. Though it was a painful and excruciatingly slow process for Sol, in reality, it only took a few seconds for everything to ur. Once it was finally over, he slowly rose from the ground, feeling reborn. "So this is myw technique¡­ finally. Now I understand what I was missing." Most of the information bestowed him with exactly what he hadcked toplete thew technique. In addition to disabling and destroying tethers, which had also been greatly enhanced, there was another aspect he had never considered before. With it, he regained hope that there was still a way out of the hallucination. With his renewed energy, he focused all his willpower on a transparent blue tether, the one for [True Sight (Variant)]. With delicate precision, he began charging it with power while simultaneously pulling the tether to widen it. The tether began showing signs of cracking, but he repaired the damage as soon as it appeared. The process repeated as the tether slowly expanded. With each centimeter, more and more power coursed from the other end of the tether back to him. It continued to widen until it reached half an inch, at which point he was forced to stop as the tether was reaching its limit. He ceased expanding it but continued controlling the tether so it didn¡¯t shrink back to its original size. With the tether now much wider, the power that flowed through it drastically increased and began causing changes within his body, especially in his eyes. [True Sight (Variant)] had risen beyond its limitations and transformed into aw technique. ¡¯With this, I can not only see past the hallucinations but break them.¡¯ His eyes began to glow softly with a blue hue, and through them, the world around him began to distort and crack. Furniture was the first to disappear, and the walls followed soon after. After that, it was the people; they all vanished in clouds of pink yellow smoke as if they had never existed. Jayce, the adventurers, his coworkers, Guildmaster William, even Annabel, all vanished without a trace. Bit by bit, the world around him began to disappear until only a pinkish yellow void remained. But even that began to crack until it shattered before his eyes. The next moment, Sol found himself standing at the bottom of a pit, surrounded by pink yellow gas. ¡¯I¡¯m back.¡¯ he thought as he sat up, examining his surroundings. The gas tried to pull him back into the hallucination, but its effects were too weak against his glowing eyes. He didn¡¯t immediately leave the pit, knowing that the spider was likely waiting outside. Instead, he prepared to go into battle, summoning all his magic hands and readying his magic and skills. Once he was ready to fight the Bliss Spider with all he had, he leaped up and burst out of the pit. He aimed all his attacks at therge spider, but just before he unleashed them, he noticed that things had changed. N?v(el)B\\jnn The entire area was littered with debris covered in blue mes, and on top of that, the Bliss Spider was a few feet away from him,pletely frozen solid. Sol did a double take to make sure it wasn¡¯t some other hallucination or trick, but with his enhanced [True Sight (Variant)], he knew it was very much real. "It¡¯s already dead?" Chapter 281: Wake Up Call A few minutes before Sol escaped the hallucination, Torben was on the top floor of the castle, working on arge machine. It was a simple yet practical design with a cylindrical body, 10 meters long, and a set ofrge wheels wrapped in rubber belts capable of supporting its massive weight. At first nce, its purpose might be unclear to the average person, until they saw the giant spiral drill attached to the front. It was an industrial tunnel borer, once used to dig the tunnels surrounding the ancient dwarven city. Torben was making extensive modifications to this ancient contraption, with the most notable being the two elemental cannons he had salvaged from the Chosen yer. Of course, he didn¡¯t carry those cannons himself; the puppets brought them to him while he made other adjustments to the tunnel borer. As he wrapped up the modifications, he heard Sol¡¯s voiceing through the PAL. "I¡¯m working on it! Give me 5 minutes!" Torben replied, puncturing a hole in the tunnel borer to pass a mana cable through it, powering the cannons. His metallic joints nked as he tried to hurry despite his body¡¯s current state. As he finished the connection, Sol¡¯s voice came through the PAL again. "What are you talking about?" Torben was initially confused, especially since the Chosen yer had already been destroyed. He quickly realized that Sol was likely either hallucinating or speaking directly to the creature. "He¡¯s bluffing¡­ shit, I gotta hurry." For someone to resort to bluffs, it likely meant they were in a dire situation. Torben felt even more pressure to finish, pushing himself toplete the adjustments sooner than expected. "Alright! I¡¯m done, I just need tounch it." Torben informed Sol through the PAL, but he remembered that Sol probably couldn¡¯t hear him. Instead, he overheard Sol¡¯s response, seemingly directed at the Bliss Spider. Torben ignored thement directed at the spider and gave the modified tunnel borer a hesitant look. ¡¯No time to test it, just gotta hope it works. If only the Heat Inverter could be lowered normally¡­¡¯ Hemented that the easy solution wasn¡¯t possible, forcing him to go through the trouble of modifying the tunnel borer. Hemanded one of the puppets to get inside the machine and turn it on, causing it to roar to life as he pulled a lever, parting one of the walls open. The wall split, revealing a view of the entire city, where Torben could still see the battle between Sol and the Bliss Spider unfolding below. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Seeing Sol still fighting relieved Torben. ¡¯Good, he¡¯s still ali¨C¡¯ He couldn¡¯t finish his thought as he saw Solnd in a pit of the creature¡¯s gas. Urgently, he asked through the PAL, "Hey?! Are you okay?!" Torben asked a few more times but got no response. It became clear to him that Sol was now out ofmission, either trapped in a hallucination or possibly even dead. He could see that the spider was watching over the pit, as if waiting for its prey to be fully enveloped in its gas. Torben knew that the others would be next soon, so hemanded the puppet to start the tunnel borer. The belt wheels began to roll forward with surprising momentum for their size. The machine quickly gathered speed as it rolled out of the opening in the wall, sending itself into freefall. It wobbled as it fell, but the cannons on the back sparked and unleashed a powerful st of fire, propelling it upwards with incredible speed toward therge crystal at the roof of the underground city. The Bliss Spider, which had been watching its prey sumb to the gas, turned upon hearing the sound of the cannons propelling the tunnel borer upward. It tilted its head, confused as to whether this was an attack that had simply missed. It briefly considered intercepting the machine but, seeing it head directly upward, saw no reason to intervene. After all, it wasn¡¯t like it would cause the entire underground to copse on it. It knew that the roof above was covered in the near indestructible alloy. So it watched as the tunnel borer shot toward the roof, and the moment the spinning drill collided with the Heat Inverter, it began boring into it. The machine drilled deeper and deeper into the massive crystal until it could no longer be seen. ¡¯And now, the wake up call.¡¯ Torben sent one finalmand to the puppet inside the machine. The puppet turned to the back of the tunnel borer, where it was packed with containers of dark crystalline dust. With no time to set up a proper trigger mechanism, the puppet silently took out a match and tossed it into the open containers. BOOOOOOOM! The moment the me touched the blue dust, it triggered a violent explosion that obliterated the tunnel borer and continued to expand outward. The crystal was engulfed in a massive blue explosion, shattering it from the inside out. Chunks of crystal covered in blue mes rained down upon the city, destroying many of the few remaining buildings. Even afternding, the blue mes did not subside. They burned even stronger, consuming everything around them and slowly expanding outward. The dark crystalline dust that caused this was known to the dwarves as the Blue Death, a powerful alchemicalpound that was not only highly explosive but consumed something other than air and fuel to maintain its mes: mana. By consuming mana, its mes became much stronger and expand endlessly. The only feasible way to quench the blue fire was to remove all the mana in its vicinity or bombard the area with an opposing element like water or ice. Releasing such a fire in the city would, in most cases, be considered an extremely reckless act. But Torben had already nned how to deal with it. The only issue was that it relied on a certain someone¡¯s intervention. ¡¯Hopefully, this catches his attention¡­¡¯ Not a single piece of the Heat Inverter on the roof of the underground city was spared, revealing what it had covered. The dome of Azrem Alloy that encased the city was now exposed, and at its center, where the crystal used to be,y a massive, shiny blue root. Blue mes surrounded the root, trying to burn it alongside everything nearby. Chapter 282: Who Dares Inside the tallest mountain in the Orna Mountains, an orc knelt before a massive eye. Champion Lopner, who was sent because of his [Sun Trail]w technique, spoke humbly, "We beseech you, Great Orna, to help the expedition team. They need your assistance to defeat a creature created by another god." The cave shook as Orna let out a hum, "Like I said before, there is little I can do if I don¡¯t know their exact location. The mountain range consists of a quarter of the entire continent, and myws aren¡¯t rted to searching. In my current state, I can only cover a little over 500 meters at a time." Lopner frowned, wondering what else could be done when Orna brought up another question. "There might still be a way. Is the orc Kirgar or the human Sol there?" "Yes, Great Orna. The human should be inside the city, while Champion Kirgar is stationed outside to protect the entrance." "Then I should be able to track them by following the contra¨C" As he was finishing his sentence, he paused, and soon the cave began to shake in anger. "WHO DARES ATTACK ME?!" ¡­ Back in the underground city, the cave root glowed as the fires suddenly froze solid, causing them to drop to the ground and shatter. "WHO DARES ATTACK ME?!" The voice thundered through the underground city as everyone felt a cold, oppressive gazend on them. No one was spared from its gaze as Torben, the expedition team, and even the Bliss Spider were all forced onto the ground from the sheer mental pressure Orna¡¯s gaze indirectly caused. Torben felt a mix of emotions upon hearing the voice but knew that if no one responded, they might all die in its fit of anger. He pushed through the pressure and yelled, "It was me! Torben Badgerun! Thest of the Azrem Dwarves!" As he finished speaking, everyone felt the pressure decrease by a noticeable degree, making them all sigh collectively in relief. Hearing Torben¡¯s deration, Orna was honestly surprised. "To think your people built your city underneath my tail¡­ is this what they call hiding under one¡¯s nose?" Orna would have never imagined that the dwarves chose to build the city right beneath him, but at the time it was being built, it made perfect sense to the dwarves. Not only would they be within arm¡¯s reach of an unstoppable dragon, but there were many other benefits. One of them was the Heat Inverter, built around the tail to siphon the excess cold energy Orna emitted and turn it into heat that functioned like the sun. It was a free source of warmth and power. "Thest Azrem Dwarf¡­ at least in spirit. I owe you and your people an apology for not protecting you in your time of need." Torben wasn¡¯t sure what to say to the apology or what not to say. He was conflicted between anger at Orna for not saving his people when they needed him, relief that he was finally here to help, and simply being d that someone he knew was still alive in this world. It was messy and confusing, but now was certainly not the time to dissect it all. "For now¡­ can you please avenge my people by killing that thing down there?" Torben pleaded, pointing his mechanical arm at the spider that was visibly shaking, knowing that Orna was here. Even its creator feared the dragon¡ªwhat hope did it have? Suddenly, the oppressive gaze on the spider intensified greatly, forcing it back onto the ground. "This¡­ was created by the God of Bliss? That double crosser¡­ I finally understand what urred on that day," Orna mumbled in shock. Torben didn¡¯t understand what he meant. "Double crosser? Wasn¡¯t the God of Bliss one of the Outer Gods? How could they switch sides?" Orna didn¡¯t respond for a moment, unsure whether it was appropriate to divulge this information to mortals. But knowing Torben was thest survivor of the people he was contracted to protect swayed him. "You deserve to know the truth, and you will in time. But let me first deal with the bastard¡¯s spawn." The Bliss Spider, overhearing Orna¡¯s thundering voice, wanted to run away immediately, but where could it go? It had been trapped in this underground city for centuries, and it wasn¡¯t going to suddenly find a way out now. In an instant, the temperature around the spider dropped, and before it could react, it was already frozen into pure ice. The creature that had easily in all the Azrem Dwarves and threatened the lives of those present was now frozenpletely solid in an instant. Seeing how easily it was resolved, Torben could only let out a hollow chuckle. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om He was about to ask what Orna meant by the Outer God that betrayed him, but then remembered that someone was still in a predicament. Torben pointed at the pit and said, "Sol fell into the creature¡¯s trap and hasn¡¯te out yet. Can you please save him?" Orna hummed in response and turned his perception back to the frozen spider and the pit next to it. He was about to intervene but, when he saw what was urring inside, he refrained from doing so. "My intervention is not required; he is in the midst ofprehending aw technique. He will likely be able to escape with it." "A lw technique?!" Torben stuttered in shock. "Now? In there?" "Yes, it would have been dangerous if the spawn of the God of Bliss was still alive. There should be no danger now, and my intervention may instead cause bacsh if I interrupt him." Torben nodded in agreement. Comprehending aw technique tended to be unpredictable, and nobody knew what could ur as eachw technique varied greatly. Sometimes it would be an easy and seamless process, but other times it could be a long and excruciating trial. There were even cases where the area around the person would be affected by their technique, transforming during their ascension¡ªlike causing a forest to suddenly sprout or creating a ck mist of death that lingers for years, making the area a forbidden zone. Unless one had acquired knowledge of that specificw and it included the ascension process, it was prudent to stay far away from anyone ascending or kill them before they finished. Luckily, the only nearby being, the Bliss Spider, was killed, or it would have ended Sol¡¯s life before he could finishprehending thew technique. Now the only worry was whether or not he could seed and, if not, hopefully face no bacsh. "Understood. Thank you." Torben thanked Orna but consciously held himself back from stating the dragon¡¯s name or the reverential title the dwarves referred to him by. He still found it hard to hold his emotions at bay after finding out the dragon meant to protect them was still alive and well, but did so as he wasn¡¯t foolish enough to antagonize him. Orna didn¡¯t even notice Torben¡¯s internal struggle, thanks mostly to hisck of flesh and inability to make facial expressions. "Then I will leave for now. It¡¯s tiresome to maintain my perception here. Once you hand over the method of creating life clusters, you cane to me, and I¡¯ll exin what happened to you and your people." Torben was about to answer, but before he could, he felt the gaze leave, meaning Orna was no longer listening. He clenched his hands and thought to himself, ¡¯I need to know. Why did this happen to us?¡¯ It was then that, from the corner of his vision, he saw Sol jumping out of the pit of gas that still lingered after the death of the spider. Sol appeared ready for battle, with multiple magic hands glowing around him and other skills primed for use, but he paused upon seeing the already dead enemy. Torben chuckled at the sight and contacted him through the PAL. "It¡¯s already over. Come to the castle so we can talk in person. Also, congrats on ascending." Chapter 283: [Lesser Channel Control] ¡¯He already knows I¡¯m A-Rank? I feel like I missed out on a lot¡­¡¯ Sol was still confused, thinking he would have to fight with his life on the line mere moments ago, but it was already over before it began. On top of that, Torben somehow knew he had ranked up, and he had no idea how that was possible. ¡¯Well, since there¡¯s no danger, I guess there¡¯s no need to maintain this.¡¯ With the threat of the Bliss Spider dealt with, he released his control over the [True Sight (Variant)] thread, which quickly shrank back down to its original size. [Law technique [Visionary] has degraded to [True Sight (Variant)] Lv 5] ¡¯So it¡¯s called [Visionary]... It could do much more than just break the hallucination, but it¡¯s not able to reach its full power because I forced it to temporarily evolve into aw technique. On top of that, it lost a level when it returned to normal. I¡¯m sure if I had maintained it longer, I would have lost more levels in the process too.¡¯ It was a rather heavy cost, but one he found worth it. Looking at it from a transactional perspective, he paid one level to temporarily gain aw technique, which was a fair price. ¡¯Still, I should see if I can somehow mitigate the damage to the skill¡¯s tether so maybe I don¡¯t lose any levels in the process.¡¯ Continuously aiming for improvement, he already set a new goal to add to the pile of many other objectives he had. ¡¯Oh wait, I can see the system messages again!¡¯ With ess to the real system and not the fake hallucination one, he immediately opened the system message logs to check what he missed while he was trapped. [Warning! Forceful evolution will lead to bacsh!] [Warning! Forceful evolution will lead to bacsh!] [Warning! Forceful evolution will lead to bacsh!] [Warning¡­] The warning messages continued for a while until he saw a familiar prompt. [Natural evolution detected!] ¡¯So, was I or was I not supposed to do it this way?¡¯ The system messages were conflicting. At first, it rmended that he stop, but then it suddenly decided it would work after he went ahead with it. From the experience and knowledge he acquired when he formed the connection, he realized that it was necessary to do this toprehend thew technique. Luckily for him, he wasn¡¯t able to see these messages as they would have dissuaded him from continuing. ¡¯Maybe it would be bad if I did it for any other skill except this one?¡¯ n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om He could see how that could be the case, given the nature of thew technique, and if possible, he didn¡¯t want to go through that again. Scrolling past thest message, he saw what he was looking for. [Comprehendedw technique [Lesser Channel Control] Lv 1!] [[Lesser Channel Control] Lv 1: Law technique. Can see and control the channels ofws to a small extent to enhance, disable and erase channels. Strength, vitality, and agility increase by 160, and Intelligence and Wisdom by 260.] Sol¡¯s eye twitched when he read the name. ¡¯Lesser, huh¡­ well, on the bright side, at least it means there¡¯s still a lot of room for growth. But for aw technique to be called lesser¡­¡¯ He also noticed that it called what he normally referred to as tethers "channels" and considered adopting the official name but decided against it. He preferred the sound of "tethers" more. Besides the name that slightly peeved him, thest part of thew technique¡¯s description left him ck-jawed. ¡¯160 for strength, vitality, and agility and 260 for intelligence and wisdom¡­ a total of 1000 attribute points¡­¡¯ Immediately, he opened the status page to see for himself how it changed. Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner], [Transformer] Level: 120 Exp: 42,754,870/12,134,602,940 HP: 3634/4000 MP: 5200 Str: 120 (+280) Vit: 120 (+280) Agi: 120 (+280) Int: 120 (+380) Wis: 120 (+400) Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 6, [Analysis] Lv 9, [Aggregate] Lv EX, [Reinterpret] Lv EX Siphoned Talents: [Create Magic Hands] Lv MAX, [Impact Bubble] Lv 4, [Spectral w] Lv MAX, [Gigantify] Lv MAX Passive Skills: [Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Reflect] Lv 6, [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 8, [Advanced Weapon Mastery] Lv 3, [Wild Hunt] Lv 2, [Invincible Body] Lv 9, [Perfect Bnce] Lv 7, [Death Absorption] Lv MAX, [True Sight (Variant)] Lv 5, [Superior Mana Control] Lv 7, [Fortified Soul] Lv 2, [Novice Craftsman] Lv 6, [Battle Dance] Lv 8, [Nether Body] Lv MAX Active Skills: [Lesser Channel Control] Lv 1, [Phase Step] Lv 1, [Invisibility] Lv 9, [Terra Maniption] Lv 9, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Telepathy] Lv 3, [Unpassable Bulwark] Lv 8, [Advanced Elemental Magic (Variant)] Lv 1, [Overpower] Lv 7, [Weapon Empowerment (Variant)] Lv EX, [Piercing Lunge] Lv 8, [Mana sh] Lv 6, [Polychromatism] Lv EX, [Mana Burst] Lv EX, [Repair] Lv 5, [Close Combat] Lv 5, [Vorpal de Rush] Lv 6, [Guided Bombardment] Lv 5, [Phoenix Dive] Lv 6, [Unarming Blow] Lv 5, [Phantasmal Rip and Tear] Lv MAX, [Death Sentence] Lv EX, [Umbral Domain] Lv EX "It really is 1000 attribute points¡­ just forprehending aw technique¡­" It was equivalent to 200 levels. [Perfect Bnce] didn¡¯t even provide that many. It was no wonder A-Rankers were so powerful. While he couldn¡¯t say for certain if they all received 1000 total, just being around that number in raw attributes was enough to turn anyone into a powerhouse. Sol took a deep breath and calmed himself. Even though he was excited to finally be an A-Ranker, there were still more benefits to gain. He knew Torben was waiting for him alongside everyone from the exploration team, but this was something he wouldn¡¯t forgive himself if he missed. He closed his status page and moved his gaze to the Bliss Spider,pletely frozen in ice. ¡¯Now don¡¯t mind if I do¡­¡¯ Chapter 284: Unbreakable Ice He used [Analysis] on the spider to see what its skills were, but nothing appeared. While odd, he more or less knew what skills it had from inspecting its tethers when they fought, so there was no issue and he used [Siphon] on itsw techniques. But then he encountered another problem. ¡¯I can¡¯t scan through the ice?¡¯ Sol wasn¡¯t able to even begin the first part of [Siphon], which was to scan the target¡¯s body and mind, as he couldn¡¯t get past the ice that encased it. ¡¯I¡¯ll just have to break through it.¡¯ He conjured a stone spike andunched it at the spider. He wasn¡¯t worried about damaging the body, as when it was alive, such attacks did little besides push it back. The stone spear collided with the ice encasing the spider and bounced off harmlessly. Thinking that his attack might have been too weak, he made another denser spike with his much higher control over mana, thanks to his increased attributes. But as it collided against the ice, it bounced off with a light ng, harmlessly. "What is this damn ice made of?! I refuse to believe I can¡¯t break through it!" If anyone else had been on the receiving end of that stone spike, it would have pierced a hole straight through them. He doubted even a te of solid durium could withstand the attack. Deciding to stop holding back, he put all of his power into condensing the ground around him into a singr, meter long spike. To increase its prative power, he shaped it into a drill and ced it against the ice before spinning it rapidly. Sparks flew everywhere, not from the ice but from the stone drill itself. The dense stone drill was breaking against the thinyer of ice. ¡¯There¡¯s no way I¡¯m giving up on these skills,e on!¡¯ The Bliss Spider¡¯sw techniques could not only make others fall into powerful hallucinations, but its bliss shes could even transform things hit by them into blissful variants that were tangible. Even if he couldn¡¯t obtain thew techniques, he would be fine with the normal skills, which were also very powerful. Since there was no more danger, Sol went even further and used [Overpower], skyrocketing his already high attributes even higher. With the skill at level 7, his strength, agility, and intelligence went up by 240%, and all three broke past 1000, with intelligence even surpassing 1500. Able tomand and control massive amounts of earth like never before, he fortified the drill further andpressed it to a level he hadn¡¯t thought possible. The stone began to change visibly, gaining a red luster that shimmered from the sparks it produced as it drilled even harder into the ice. [[Terra Maniption] leveled up! (9 -> EX)] His extreme usage of the skill gave it the final push it needed to reach its final level and be EX, allowing for even finer control over the earth. Though pleased with the nice bonus, he focused on maintaining the earth drill while continuously adding more stone into it until he could no longer do so. By this point, the drill was shining red hot as it heated up. As he pushed the stone drill further, he took out his Lipon, changed the pattern slotted inside, and activated it to create arger hammer of fire. Gripping it tightly, he mmed it into the back of the drill like hitting a nail. Crack. The fire hammer broke upon impact, thanks to his extreme strength, but hearing a crack, he thought he was getting through. So, he reactivated the Lipon and swung again. Crack! "Just a little more!" The elemental weapon broke again in a fiery burst, so he reactivated it and cranked the dial to the maximum, using all its remaining energy in one go. With a final swing using [Weapon Empowerment (Variant)] to increase the hammer¡¯s power and durability to the limit, he mmed it into the back of the drill. CRACK! BOOM! An explosion of dust and sharp fragments of stone enveloped him, sting him away from the frozen spider. Though it sent him flying, it was ultimately harmless, aside from a few sharp rocks that lightly cut him. He brushed himself off and looked expectantly at where the frozen spider was as the dust settled. "Oh,e on!" As the dust cleared, the ice encasing the spider was revealed to be perfectly unharmed. Even the small area he had been drilling looked the exact same as it had before. The cracks he heard weren¡¯t from the ice but from his own stone drill, which had been unable to handle the ice it was drilling into. Unable to prate the ice, the force had to go somewhere, and it went back into the drill, causing it to break. Sol sat back in shock, watching in awe at the unbreakable ice. "It¡¯s not even an inch thick. How is it so strong¡­?" He considered other attacks, but nothing could have matched what he had just done. Maybe [Polychromatism] with all the chromasbined could reach such a level of concentrated power. But there was also the possibility that he simply wasn¡¯t using his newfound strength to its full potential. As he was reflecting on his defeat, he got a call on his PAL from Duncan. ¡¯Ah, I forgot they¡¯re waiting for me.¡¯ He had spent more time than intended trying to break through the ice. Needless to say, he was sad he couldn¡¯t obtain the Bliss Spider¡¯s skills, but there was little he could do. He responded back to Duncan through the PAL. "I¡¯ll be there soon." Sol then ran to the castle, arriving in a few seconds. Upon arriving, he saw the puppet standing idly by the entrance and followed it as it led him through the grand halls until they arrived at one of its many elegantly decorated doors. The puppet gave a simple bow and slid into one of the servant passages scattered throughout the castle to await its next order. With the puppet gone, Sol opened the door and saw arge round table with Torben and his knight squad sitting around it. Upon seeing him, they weed him in. N?v(el)B\\jnn "It¡¯s good to see you safe, Cap!" Aron was the first to speak as Sol moved to take a seat. "Agreed. We were all worried for your safety." Duncan said. Lazuli smiled and added, "Thank you for holding it back. I¡¯m d you came out unhurt." Sol nodded. "I did what I had to. But I won¡¯t lie, I thought I was done for when I fell into its trap." "Yeah, I watched it happen." Torben added. "You¡¯re lucky I managed to get Orna¡¯s attention in time, or that thing would have interfered with your ascension." "Orna was the one who killed it?" "In an instant. After all, it was only a creation of the God of Bliss. While it was stronger than the averagew technique user, it could never contest against an actual god who could wield the full power of theirw." ¡¯So that¡¯s why I couldn¡¯t break the ice¡­¡¯ Sol easily believed them, as when he thought about it, only someone at Orna¡¯s level could encase the Bliss Spider in an indestructibleyer of ice. Now he felt extremely foolish for attempting to break through it. ¡¯Well, at least it served to humble me¡­ Wouldn¡¯t want to think I¡¯m invincible now. Though I don¡¯t intend to pick a fight with any gods, I now know how powerful they can be. And even without considering the gods, other A-Rankers could still pose a threat.¡¯ Thinking back on his conversation with Orna, he recalled how the dragon referred to the Goddess of Trade, Naira. From his mention of her, it was clear that not all gods were the same, and Orna was likely higher on the totem pole, even though he was self proimed as heavily wounded. Chapter 285: Azrem Curse "Gods,ws... what have we gotten ourselves into?" Rex mumbled. He thought this was going to be a simple exploration mission: go in, get what they need, and head out. But it had been anything but that. "What even arews?" Nataly asked. Of the squad, only Sol and Duncan were in the loop aboutw techniques, the rest were in the dark. Torben tilted its metallic head in confusion. "Has this been lost to time too? The path to godhood? Comprehend aw technique,plete it, turn it into a fullw, and be the embodiment of thatw. Never heard of it? Hell, he justprehended aw technique." The squad followed Torben¡¯s mechanical arm, which pointed at Sol, raising even more questions. "You¡¯re an A-Ranker now?" Duncan asked, knowing what it meant to have aw technique. Though Sol hadn¡¯t intended to hide it, it was awkward that he wasn¡¯t the one to reveal it to his squad. Since the cat was already out of the bag, he didn¡¯t deny it. "Yeah, it happened during the fight against that spider monster." Torben scoffed. "And you were extremely foolish for doing so. If not for Orna¡¯s intervention, it would have killed you before you could finish. It¡¯s insane to try such a thing right in front of your enemy." "At the time, I didn¡¯t even consider what it would do if it noticed me doing that. But if I had known, I probably would¡¯ve done it regardless. It was the only way I had to escape. It was eitherprehend aw technique or stay stuck in the hallucination it put me in." He hadn¡¯t known that others could detect the process, as it felt like a mostly internal experience. And though it was, there were many ways of noticing he was going through his ascension. In the Bliss Spider¡¯s case, it would have realized simply by sensing the rising power and threating from him. "So, wait, you¡¯re actually A-Rank?!" Aron struggled to keep up with the conversation, but understood at least that much. "How?" Lapis asked directly, her meaning clear. The other squad members echoed the same question, all eager to know, with the exception of Rex, who seemed only somewhat interested. Sol looked to Duncan for help as the only one who also knew of the situation, but Duncan gave him a helpless smile in return. Sighing, Sol exined how he had been expressly warned by Zaman not to share the method of bing A-Rank and how there would be serious repercussions for both him and the kingdom if he did. Lapis still didn¡¯t understand. "So each nation and independent organization can have up to fifty A-Rankers at any given time. What¡¯s to stop them from sharing the method anyway?" "I¡¯m not sure... He just said there are ways." "Maybe he¡¯s lying! To stop you from sharing it around! How could they possibly know if you told us and none of us spoke a word of this?" Lapis wondered aloud. N?v(el)B\\jnn "There are actually a lot of ways to enforce this." Torben stated. "Back in my time, amon method would be to use a curse." "A curse?" Nataly frowned. Curses were not to be taken lightly, as they were one of the more insidious ways to harm others. Torben nodded, unconcerned about the negative connotations. In his time, it was never a moral dilemma to use one. "It¡¯s a sure way to make sure information doesn¡¯t fall into the wrong hands. For example, the recipe for Azrem Alloy was a closely guarded secret of the royal family. First, you begin with pure iron, cleanse it of impurities by bathing it in baby slime mucus..." As Torben listed the steps for creating Azrem Alloy, his left mechanical hand began to glow, and a ck sigil of a hammer covered in mes appeared. "And voil¨¤. Now I¡¯m marked for divulging the secret to its creation. It can also be tracked, so it¡¯s very hard to hide from the royal family once marked by this." Worried, Nataly moved closer to inspect his hand. "Are you okay? Can the curse be removed?" "Of course I¡¯m fine. I wouldn¡¯t have shown you this otherwise. I nned on recing this arm soon anyway. Normally, even if someone chops off their arm, the mark would reappear on another part of their body. But it¡¯s a little different for me. In my case, the curse stays on where it appeared even if I swap to a new arm. It¡¯s because the curse is unable to identify that it¡¯s no longer connected to my body." He removed his arm and tossed it onto the middle of the table. Lazuli looked at the mark and asked, "How is it possible for the curse to still be in effect after so long? Is it some kind of ritual formation that¡¯s still working somehow?" Torbenughed, full of pride for his people¡¯s ability to make such a thing still work centuries after their demise. "If done properly, like my people did, they canst a long time. There¡¯s no formation or physical object maintaining the curse¡ªit¡¯s been permeated into the very essence of our kingdom. The range of this curse is also very wide because the effects aren¡¯t too strong. If someone wanted to share the method of making the alloy without the royal family¡¯s permission, they¡¯d have to travel to another continent or be marked by the curse. If the caster is strong enough and has sufficient support, it¡¯s even possible to cast a curse wide enough to cover an entire world. It¡¯s been done before." "So we could be marked by a curse if we share how to be A-Rank¡­" Duncan said. Though he hid it behind a serious expression, there was a slight fear of who or what woulde for them if they were marked. Torben shook his metallic head. "Not saying it IS a curse. It COULD be a curse. I was only giving an example. There¡¯s more than one way to skin a cat. It could be a divination spell or a divine object like the Vow of Silence, for all I know." Sol held back the urge to facepalm and said, "...Regardless of whether it¡¯s a bluff or some scary curse, I don¡¯t think we should go around spreading this information." The rest of the squad nodded, some more reluctantly than others, but they understood the risk. "Well, let¡¯s push that aside. If you hadn¡¯t known about it, I would¡¯ve told you. But knowing there may some force suppressing this information, I¡¯m not gonna go antagonize them now." Torben wasn¡¯t stupid enough to spread knowledge that was being purposefully hidden. Though he had lived a long life, most of it was spent imprisoned in the ancient city alongside the creature that had killed everyone he knew and loved. Now that the way out was finally avable, there were many things he wanted to do before passing on to his next life and having to deal with pursuers for spreading information was too much of a hassle. "What I called you all here for is to give you what you came for." Chapter 286: Life Condenser When he said this, four puppets entered the war room carrying arge, hollow hexagon along with multiple boxes full of red cables. "Is this¡­?" Sol could guess its purpose based on the context, but he had no idea what to call the odd looking object. He had never seen anything like it, though that could be said for most of the objects he had encountered here. Torben approached it and patted it with his remaining right arm, causing a metallic nging sound to reverberate through the room. "It¡¯s the Life Condenser. While our people didn¡¯t have any Soul Shamans like the Mystic Blood n, we had the most brilliant, ingenious minds this world had ever seen. We immediately got to work, and after consulting the orcs and going through a lot of trial and error, this is the culmination of our efforts. Wepensated for the aspects wecked with more sophisticated and efficient runes, alongside conduit cables to channel life essence into a singr point to create life clusters." He exined some technical details, including how to use it, which was surprisingly simple. Compared to the original ritual, which had many requirements, this only needed two things to function: at least ten thousand people offering a sliver of their life essence, and someone to act as the focus, through whom all the life essence would temporarily course to condense the life cluster. When speaking of the focus, he added, "We tried to bypass the need for a focus, thinking it unnecessary, but it turned out to be the most important part of the process. Without someone as the focus, the life essence would go rampant and refuse to coalesce into a life cluster. It¡¯s rather strenuous and leaves the person weakened afterward. I hope that¡¯s not an issue." "It¡¯s not an issue. We already have someone for that role." Sol said with a neutral expression. Although he didn¡¯t hate Kirgar as much as he used to, especially after seeing how Lapis acted so nonchntly when encountering him again, he still hadn¡¯t forgiven him. However, having Kirgar serve that role for the rest of his life began to feel rather extreme, so Sol considered talking to Ornater about possibly reducing his sentence. Torben found it odd that they already had someone, but didn¡¯t care enough to ask. "Then with this, you have everything you need." He also pulled out a few books and slid them over. "Instruction and maintenance manuals. They¡¯re in ournguage, so here¡¯s an Azremian to Universalnguage trantion book. With this, you should be all set." Sol took the Life Condenser and the books, storing them in a spare ring Duncan had. His own rings were too full of random objects, tools, and potions to fit anything else. Once everything was safely stored away, Sol asked, "Thank you. With this, our mission is done. But I have to ask, what will you do now?" Torben ced his mechanical hand under his chin, thinking for a moment. "Hmm¡­ for now, I need to meet with Orna. I¡¯ll decide what to do based on what I hear." Although he knew how all his people died, he never knew why, and it had been gnawing at him for ages. Now, he had the opportunity to find out. "And what about the city?" "What about it?" "Can the Frostaxe n and our kingdom continue exploring the city? I know it¡¯s your home, but¡­ to be frank, they¡¯re going to want to continue discovering and learning everything they can." Though the decision to explore the city¡¯s ancient technology was out of Sol¡¯s control, he was worried that Torben might oppose it, potentially pitting himself against both nations. Sol knew Torben couldmand a vast army of puppets, but without the Chosen yer, hecked the means tobat any A-Rankers they might send if he denied ess. Torben scoffed. "Bah, you worry too much. My people are dead. At least this way, their legacy¡ªour legacy¡ªwill live on. I doubt any of them would have wanted to see their inventions and designs gathering dust here until the end of time. So, besides my own stuff, which is being packed as we speak, I¡¯ll leave the rest here so their creations can live on." ¡¯I¡¯m sure the kingdom would be very interested in your "stuff"¡­¡¯ Sol remarked to himself. He had already seen a few of Torben¡¯s creations, which gave a glimpse of his capabilities. But with an entire city¡¯s worth of discoveries, Sol decided it would be best not to mention this to anyone. It was the least he could do after Torben had helped them so much against the Bliss Spider. Torben added, "But don¡¯t expect me to stick around and answer all their questions. I¡¯m sure with the talents you¡¯ve spoken of, they¡¯ll figure it out eventually." "Oh, speaking of talents, there¡¯s something I wanted to ask." Sol used [Analysis] on Torben again and received the same prompt asst time. [Error detected. Would you like to submit a ticket?] "So, about you being unable to see your own status, when I checked it with [Analysis], it asked if I wanted to submit a ticket. If you want, I can do that, and maybe it¡¯ll fix the issue." "You have [Analysis]?" Rex mumbled under his breath, loud enough for everyone to hear. After witnessing part of Sol¡¯s battle with the Bliss Spider, he couldn¡¯t help but wonder what Sol *couldn¡¯t* do. This sentiment was shared by most of the squad, except Duncan and Lapis, whose sight had been affected, so they hadn¡¯t actually witnessed the battle. "Hmm." Torben thought for a moment. "Is there any point in doing so? I¡¯ve been just fine without it." "Honestly, I¡¯m not sure." Sol shrugged. "I did notice you don¡¯t have any talents or talent skills, so maybe you¡¯ll get them, but I can¡¯t say for sure. It¡¯s the first time I¡¯ve seen something like this. If you do get talents, your skills will rise much faster than before." Torben nodded, recalling Sol¡¯s earlier exnation of the system, but he still found the notion of the system odd. He had a few questions about it, but knew none of them could answer, so he didn¡¯t bother asking and instead gave his response. "Nah, it¡¯s fine. I¡¯ve been just fine without it, so I don¡¯t need it now." Sol nodded, respecting his decision, and declined the system¡¯s prompt. "That should be everything. Thanks again for the Life Condenser and for helping us defeat that spider monster." "And thank you for breaking into my home and destroying my greatest weapon." Torben said jokingly before turning serious. "But truly, thank you for helping me avenge my people." After that, the squad and Torben parted ways. Sol and the group gathered the exploration team, who had been staying in one of therge rooms in the castle, and made their way out of the ancient city with their prize in hand.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Chapter 287: Admirer Leaving the ancient city, the exploration team split back into their respective forces. The handoff of the Life Condenser happened without issue, and the orcs mobilized to immediately transport it back to their n, nning to use it as soon as possible. Sol and the squad, along with the humans of the exploration team, made their way back to Fort Chill Haven, where they gave their final goodbyes. Some would stay behind to continue exploring the city or await reassignment. When they teleported back to Crestal City, Sol looked at the squad and said, "Good work, everyone. Go and get some rest. I still have to report to Commander Zaman, so go on ahead without me." "Aight, Cap! When you get back, we should go out for some drinks!" Aron said, ready to celebrate another sessful mission. "I just want to go and sleep¡­" Rex said, still feeling some aftereffects of the Bliss Spider¡¯s hallucinogen, causing severe drowsiness. "C¡¯mon, it¡¯ll be fun. Who¡¯s with me? Anyone?" Surprisingly, the first to agree was Duncan. "I could use a drink." It had been a long day, and while he didn¡¯t fight, it was stressful nheless, and a drink was very appealing. "I¡¯m down. What about you, sis?" Lazuli said while nudging her sister. "Sure." "I¡¯lle along, but I don¡¯t n on drinking." Nataly said, not wanting to miss out. "See? Everyone¡¯s down to go. C¡¯mon, Rex!" "Fine¡­ just don¡¯t leave me at the tavern if I pass out." While he wanted to sleep, Aron¡¯s efforts eventually swayed him. "No worries! I¡¯ll carry you back if I have to! What about you, Cap?" Aron asked Sol. "Sure, but go on ahead. I¡¯ll meet you all there. Not sure how long this will take." Sol parted ways with them and made his way to Commander Zaman¡¯s office. "Wee back, Sol. You came back sooner than expected. Am I correct to assume it went well?" "Well¡­ for the most part¡­" Zaman hadn¡¯t heard of what urred in the ancient city. Even though a lot happened, it had only been half a day since theyst saw each other, and only under two hours since they first encountered the Bliss Spider. Word was still getting around, and it was only a matter of time before it reached him, but with Sol here, he could get the news straight from the source. "Orna intervened and killed it then¡­ To think he was unaware an entire city was built under its tail. How big is it for him to not notice such a thing¡­" Zaman found it difficult toprehend how this could be possible. Though he had yet to have an audience with the dragon, he knew its sheer size must be bigger than the very mountains he rested beneath. He sighed. This was beyond theprehension of man and not something mortals like him should dwell on, but given that it was his job to worry about potential threats, he had to. He could only hope Orna never directed his wrath at their kingdom. "I¡¯m d you came back unharmed. It¡¯s a shame to hear what happened to one of our own, but given the circumstances, we can only be thankful that only one died at its hands." Sol agreed. If the Bliss Spider had gone on a rampage instead of stalking them silently, it could have been much worse. "And with this, hopefully the Frostaxe n can pay the debt they owe and not have to invade us anymore." Sol added. After all, this was the whole purpose of the mission in the first ce. "If that machine works, then we won¡¯t have to worry in the near future. But that doesn¡¯t mean another reason for war won¡¯t appear. We have to continue working to make sure it doesn¡¯t lead to that. Ah, but speaking of the future, there¡¯s someone who wants to talk to you." "Huh? Who?" "The Saintess." n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Upon hearing it was the Saintess, Sol almost jumped from his seat. The opportunity he had been waiting for had finally arrived. If this went well, he could finally get a lead on where his parents were. He calmed his rapidly beating heart to avoid appearing suspicious and asked, "W-why does she want to speak to me?" ¡¯Is he an admirer of hers?¡¯ Zaman noticed Sol¡¯s reaction was a little odd. He hadn¡¯t taken him as the type, but given how praised she was in the kingdom, it wasn¡¯t hard to believe. He fought the urge to tease him about it, as it was rather inappropriate, and instead answered his question. "She didn¡¯t say why specifically, just that she needs to meet with you. I know it¡¯s vague, but once you deal with her long enough, you get used to it. Something about the less one knows, the easier it is to predict fate." ¡¯Could it be she knows why I¡¯m here?¡¯ A fear that had been lingering at the back of his mind for a while was that she may have already foreseen his future and knew what he wanted. She could use that information to set a trap, which wouldn¡¯t be hard to do if she just informed Zaman and the Grand Knights to capture him. Though he was now an A-Ranker and was confident he could defeat any other A-Ranker, he wasn¡¯t sure he could hold his own against multiple, more experienced A-Rankers at once. But after thinking about it more, he realized this likely wasn¡¯t the case. ¡¯If she knew and wanted to stand against me, she wouldn¡¯t need to ask to meet with me. So either she knows and wants to help, or she doesn¡¯t know and is calling me for a different reason.¡¯ He hoped it was the former, as it would be easy to get what he wanted, but he shoulde up with a story in case it was thetter, to convince her to find his parents. ¡¯But won¡¯t she find out about my rtionship with them? If I get caught in a lie when she checks fate¡­ Gods, this isn¡¯t going to be easy to pull off.¡¯ He knew he would have to think of a few ns depending on how the initial interaction went. He also had to make ns for leaving the Royal Knights and tie up loose ends. To do all this, he needed some time. "Does she want to meet now?" Sol asked. Zaman shook his head. "No, I don¡¯t think she knew you would return so soon, as she is rather busy these next few days. She asked to see you in a weeks¡¯ time." "Okay, that¡¯s fine. I won¡¯t take any missions that require me to leave the city, then." Internally, Sol sighed in relief that he had some time before their meeting. Chapter 288: Spending Time After his meeting with Zaman, Sol left the pce and met up with the squad at a tavern. He spent the rest of the evening enjoying the drinks and the joyous atmosphere. Though he maintained a smile andughed along with their jokes, every so often, when no one was looking, his smile would fade, and he would stare off into the distance. No one really noticed this except Duncan, who, taking the opportunity of Aron challenging a self proimed professional drinker to a drinking contest, subtly slid over and asked, "Hey, is everything alright? Did something happen when you met with the Commander?" Sol lightly shook his head. He silently activated [Muffled Movements] to block their conversation from eavesdroppers, then asked, "Do you remember what I told you on our first mission, when you asked me why I picked you for this team?" Duncan noticed the noise of the tavern had disappeared and understood that what they were going to discuss was serious. He nodded. Though it had been some time ago, he could recall that conversation as clear as day. "Yeah, you wanted to give me a real chance of promotion. Why are you bringing it up now? Are you being promoted already?" Duncan found it odd for Sol to mention this again so soon, as he expected it would be at least two years before Sol either got promoted or retired. Sol shook his head again. "No, I¡¯m going to be leaving soon. And I¡¯ll be honest, it may not be on the best of terms with the Royal Knights." Duncan frowned, worried by what he meant. "What? Is someone targeting you? Is it someone in power, or does it have to do with the recent crimes being framed on other knights?" It had been a known issuetely, where royal knights were getting dragged into controversies or caughtmitting crimes. If it was just one or two cases, Duncan might have believed it, but after over 20 squads had been involved in such drama, it was clear to him and many others that there was outside intervention. "No, not me as far as I know. It¡¯s... umm, hard to fully exin, but just know in a week I¡¯ll likely be gone, and it may be without a word. I¡¯ve already talked to Zaman about you on a few asions, and with you working on yourw technique, it¡¯s guaranteed you¡¯ll be the next captain of the squad. Please don¡¯t tell the others." "I¡­ don¡¯t know what to say. Do you really need to go? You know that leaving like this will make you a wanted man. The Royal Knights detest deserters." Duncan was torn. The time he had been waiting for years had finally arrived, but at the same time, he was reluctant to part ways with his current Captain. They had been through a lot in a short period of time, and he didn¡¯t want it to end so soon. Reminding Sol of the risks was, in a way, his attempt at persuading him to stay. Sol felt simrly. Though he hade with the intent to leave as soon as he got what he needed, he hadn¡¯t considered the new friends and allies he would be leaving behind. But he had already made his choice and didn¡¯t n to turn back. "I have to. Regardless of the consequences," Sol said with determination. While he wanted to exin more, he didn¡¯t want Duncan to be an aplice or get involved. Seeing the look in Sol¡¯s eyes, Duncan knew there was no persuading him otherwise. He nced at the squad, who were enjoying themselves in the distance, and finally agreed. "Okay, I understand. And I promise I¡¯ll take care of them. But I gotta say, you¡¯re leaving me some rather big shoes to fill. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be able to be like you." Sol chuckled. "You don¡¯t have to. Just be yourself." N?v(el)B\\jnn The two finished their drinks and went to join the others, not wanting to spend the rest of the evening worrying about the future. They simply enjoyed themselves. The next three days went by in a sh. Sol first met with Amber, and after telling her about his uing meeting with the Saintess, they made ns for leaving the city. Amber had surprisingly already done most of the legwork and had multiple escape routes lined up, utilizing various means, including merchants, old tunnels, and even ck market connections. However, the routes only took them a short distance outside of the city, as where they would head next depended on what they learned from the Saintess. Aside from nning with Amber, Sol also spent time with each of his squad members, knowing that even if it wasn¡¯t thest time he would see them, it might be a long time before he did. He first hung out with Nataly, helping her test a few new nature spells she found in the Royal Library. Even he was surprised at the variety of spells she had learned, from creating a storm of sharp, de like leaves to a spell that allowed her to travel between trees. Her goal wasn¡¯t to learn every nature spell but to use them to further enhance her summons and healing capabilities, nning to focus entirely in that direction. Sol, knowing the importance of specialization for learningw techniques, supported her choice. Next, he walked around the city with Aron and saw firsthand how fast he couldwork withplete strangers. Though Aron seemed dim at times, it wasn¡¯t because he was stupid; he just preferred to go with the flow rather than overthink things like Sol did. It made it easier for others to get along with him, and his honest approach only helped. Though there were cases where it didn¡¯t pan out, showing Sol that Aron couldn¡¯t get along with everyone, it wasn¡¯t due to some supernatural power but rather his natural affability. With Rex, Sol didn¡¯t do much, but when he casually asked where Rex nned to go if he ever got his dream boat, it sparked a long conversation. It turned into a three hour lesson on uncharted areas, legends of the sea, and seafaring knowledge. It was definitely not what Sol expected, but it was surprisingly interesting, given Rex¡¯s passion for the subject. When the lesson was over, Sol remembered he still had a lot of merits he didn¡¯t n to use and gave Rex half to help him reach his goal. He gave the other half to Duncan for the squad¡¯s funds, knowing they could always use more. Finally, he spent an entire morning with the twins, Lapis and Lazuli, mostly being dragged around by Lazuli to shop for clothes. Neither Sol nor Lapis enjoyed such activities, but with Lazuli begging, they both went along. Though neither intended to buy anything, Sol somehow ended up with eight sets of clothes for various asions. He found them surprisinglyfortable and fashionable. Lapis, however, refused to buy anything at first, finding them impracticalpared to her simple, enchanted clothes, but she eventually gave in and bought two outfits at her sister¡¯s insistence, though it was unlikely she would ever wear them. On the fourth day, Sol met with Commander Zaman once more and submitted all the information he had obtained regarding dungeons and their rules. He transcribed the rules into a physical book and marked those he believed would be most useful to them. "Where did you obtain this? Can you verify its authenticity?" Needless to say, he was shocked to receive the information. He had never thought there were actual rules that dungeons abided by. Like most people, he believed it was simply their nature to operate as they did. Just giving a quick nce through the rules, he realized that dungeons had the potential to do much more than just provide free materials and help adventurers level up. Sol responded, "I obtained it from the Necropolis¡¯ dungeon boss, the Shadow Crawler." "That boss? It rarely talked when I fought it... How did you get this from it?" "I can¡¯t really go into details, but I made a bet with it, and won." "A bet... You sure are full of surprises. Well, thank you for the dungeon rules. I¡¯ll make sure you receive its worth in merit. But now that you¡¯re here... why didn¡¯t you tell me you¡¯dprehended aw technique?" By now, Zaman had already received aprehensive report from all the human soldiers and schrs regarding the events that took ce. Many of them overheard Orna speaking with Torben and mentioning that Sol wasprehending aw technique. Though the soldiers and schrs didn¡¯t fully understand what that meant, they believed it was important enough to include in their reports. "About that¡­" Sol sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "It kind of slipped my mind, given all the other things that happened¡­" He wasn¡¯t lying; it had truly slipped his mind. A lot had happened in the ancient city, with Torben, the Bliss Spider and even Orna¡¯s help, it was a lot to recount. He would have mentioned it eventually if the conversation hadn¡¯t steered toward the subject of the Saintess, but that was out of his control. Zaman wasn¡¯t done yet. "There were also reports of the battle between you and the enemy. Those unaffected by sight witnessed you wield fire, water, earth, light, darkness, and even shadow elements. On top of that, you had these¡­ ¡¯hands¡¯ that emitted colorful attacks resembling those of the Handless Fiend. Care to exin?" ¡¯Shit.¡¯ Sol had forgotten about the witnesses who saw his fight. He knew this woulde out one day, but it hade rather suddenly, catching him off guard. Still, now that he was A-Rank, he felt somewhat safer revealing some of his real capabilities, as he could now stand on more equal footing with those who might target him. "Your face says it all." Zaman called him out. "I¡¯m assuming you¡¯ve been hiding this for a while, since even before the Knight Selection." Sol nodded. There was no point in lying and digging himself into a deeper hole. It would just make the Commander think worse of him. And after all the Commander had done for him, it didn¡¯t feel right to deny the truth. "What¡¯s going to happen now?" Sol asked. What he had done went against numerous rules andws. As an official royal knight working under the crown, he had indirectly tampered with the testing tools during the Knight Selection and knowingly hid his capabilities, both significant offenses. If they scrutinized all the rules he had broken, it would be enough to easily imprison a lesser noble. The two stared at each other in silence as Sol awaited an answer. "Before I answer, I need to know what we are dealing with. Is it an object, or is it due to your talent or talent skill?" "We?" Sol asked, surprised. "Yes. You don¡¯t have to tell me everything, just what you¡¯re willing to share." Zaman knew Sol well enough to understand he hadn¡¯t hidden his abilities out of ill intent. After all, he had not only personally taught him but had also seen the choices he made and actions he took, ones Zaman greatly approved of. It was most likely for his own safety, and Zaman could understand why. ording to the reports, Sol wielded the power of nearly ten different talents, not including passive enhancing ones. If word got out, he would quickly be the center of attention, attracting rulers seeking a powerful fighter and necromancers wanting to study his body to uncover his secrets. There were only a few rare scenarios where such a thing could be possible, and Zaman needed more information to decide the best course of action. To prevent eavesdroppers, Sol used [Muffled Movements], creating a bubble around them, which caused Zaman to raise his eyebrows. ¡¯[Muffled Movements]¡­ That¡¯s a skill that belongs to another talent group.¡¯ Zaman thought. It wasmon to see this skill in talents rted to stealth, assassination, and scouting, but it didn¡¯t align with any of the abilities reported so far. "Well¡­ I don¡¯t want to go into exact details, as the fewer people who know, the better. But when I was young, I never unlocked my first talent, even after reaching level five." "So you were Talentless¡­" Sol nodded. "I hated thatbel. I wanted to be like everyone else and have a talent of my own, so I kept leveling. A few years of effortter, it eventually happened, I got a talent." Sol stopped there, feeling that was enough information, and he wasn¡¯tfortable sharing more. Zaman understood that as well. It was a very reductive version of the story, but it was sufficient for him. "This maye as a surprise to you, but I¡¯ve heard of this before." Zaman said. "You have?" Zaman nodded. "It¡¯s from one of the books kept on the third floor of the Royal Library. It contains the most extensive record of all known talents in the world, listing the skills that could be acquired and the random talent skills they could give. But in such a book, there¡¯s a portion dedicated to a level above legendary talents, mythic talents." Chapter 289: Mythic Talents "Mythic talents?" Sol had never heard of such a thing and was surprised, as he thought himself to be the only one to have obtained their first talent beyond level five. ¡¯I shouldn¡¯t have assumed I was a unique case¡­¡¯ Zaman nodded. "That¡¯s where I first heard of it, at least. When I was promoted to Grand Knight, I was given permission to select a few books from the third floor of the Royal Library to expand my knowledge of the world. It was only when I became the Commander of the Royal Knights that the King informed me of the truth¡ªthey are, in fact, real. Those talents are as rare as they are powerful, either granting the user immense power right from the start or the potential to gain even more." "Then why¡­?" "Why don¡¯t we search and recruit the so-called talentless?" Zaman knew exactly what Sol was about to ask. "I asked the same thing to the king once I learned of it. It¡¯s simr to the reasoning for why we limit the number of A-Rankers, because of the destruction they can cause if left unchecked. Not only are they guaranteed to be A-Rankers if nothing unfortunate happens to them before then, but they also grow much faster than those with legendary talents. At their peak, it takes the efforts of multiple A-Rankers just to defeat one. They have historically been bringers of change, whether good or bad. After many years of mythic talents causing instability in the world, it was decided they would be given simr treatment to A-Rankers. This is why we suppress the truth regarding those with mythic talents." "But wouldn¡¯t it make more sense to keep an eye on the talentless in that case? Won¡¯t cases like mine show up where we level up anyway?" Sol thought it was even more dangerous to leave potential talentless individuals unchecked if this was the case. Zaman shrugged. "Wasn¡¯t my call to make. This was decided long before I was born, and it¡¯s something that some gods actively led. Personally, I¡¯m in favor of keeping track of all the talentless, but we can¡¯t do that without more people knowing the truth. Even if we hide the truth and send people to collect information on the talentless, it would only raise questions as to why we¡¯re doing so, which would cause people to specte and lead to more talentless individuals leveling up and unlocking their first talent. The current system isn¡¯t perfect, but I can¡¯t say it¡¯s ineffective. In all my time serving as Commander, I¡¯ve only encountered or heard of four individuals with mythic talents, at least as far as I¡¯m aware. Now five, counting you." "So there are four others like me¡­ Who are they?" "You want to meet them?" Sol nodded. "Kinda. Not enough to go out of my way, but if there¡¯s a chance, I¡¯d like to." He wanted to know more about them, not only because he was in the same boat but because there was also the chance one of them also had the [Siphoner] talent. If so, he could hopefully meet them and learn a lot from them. "Well, two of them are dead. One angered a god somehow, and the other was killed by another mythic talent holder. That one was killed by Lanslet, the Holy Defender of the Holy Kingdom of Delvania, for crimes hemitted there. As for thest one¡­ you¡¯ll meet her soon enough." With Zaman¡¯s tone at the end, Sol instantly understood what he meant and was shocked. "You mean¡­ the Saintess?" Zaman nodded. "Though we say she has a legendary talent, in reality, she obtained it at level eight. Somehow, even before she gained her talent, she saw a glimpse of the future and figured out the truth herself, which pushed her to level up and unlock her talent." ¡¯Level eight? Isn¡¯t that a little low?¡¯ Sol had thought mythic talents would be gained at a much higher level, at least around 15. He himself had to work all the way to level 25 to gain his. "Is level eight the highest someone has had to reach to gain their talent?" Zaman shook his head. "Is yours higher? The highest recorded is level ten." ¡¯Just ten?!¡¯ Though stunned, Sol nodded and said, "Yeah, mine was at level ten." He felt bad lying so openly, but the fact that his talent unlocked 15 levels higher than the known highest was too world shattering. He was once again afraid of not only Zaman¡¯s reaction but also what would happen if others found out. But at least now, he could pretend it was just a normal mythic talent. They were rare enough that he doubted all of them had been discovered, so he could pretend his was simply a new one. "That¡¯s good. At least now you know the truth of the situation. Now we need to decide on your cover story." "My cover story?" "Though word hasn¡¯t spread yet about what you¡¯ve done, it will in time. If it were just our forces, we could suppress it, but the orcs were there too, so there¡¯s little point. We can say that the elemental magics you used came from life saving items like spell bombs and the like, but the shadows and floating hands can¡¯t be exined the same way." Zaman stroked his chin, thinking about how to cover for the unique abilities Sol had shown. They were too distinct and could be directly tied to dungeon bosses. After some consideration, he said, "We¡¯ll say it¡¯s from special weapons we¡¯ve been working on, based on research from the Handless Fiend and Shadow Crawler¡¯s abilities." Sol nodded. It wasn¡¯t the best cover, but it should be good enough. It would still cause some trouble for the Royal Knights, as others would want to investigate what sort of weapon could create endless shadow creatures and magical hands, but at least it would keep them from discovering the truth. "Thank you, Commander, for helping me. When you first questioned me, I thought I was in deep trouble." He was touched that Zaman was going so far to help, even after he had lied and hidden his abilities from him. "Oh, don¡¯t misunderstand. You still are." Zaman corrected. "You lied during the knight selection and purposefully hid your status among other infractions. Just because I¡¯m the only one who knows doesn¡¯t mean you get off scot free. As punishment, your next mission will be guarding the Royal Knights Headquarters until the end of the month." "What?! Guard duty?!" Guard duty was something only weak squads or knights looking for quick merits would do. It involved standing at attention in one location for hours, and if they were lucky, they could stretch their legs and patrol the area. In terms of punishment, it was a p on the wrist, but for Sol, it wasn¡¯t ideal. With the tall pile of tasks he had and theck of time to do them, thest thing he needed was a time consuming mission like guard duty. N?v(el)B\\jnn But then he remembered that he didn¡¯t n to stay long anyway, once he got what he needed from the Saintess. "Okay, I¡¯ll ept it." It was rather devious of him to do so, but it wasn¡¯t like he was about to negotiate for a punishment that could bepleted before meeting the Saintess. Chapter 290: Weapon Limits After his meeting with the Commanderter that same day, Sol left the pce to buy supplies, including food and other consumables that he and Amber would need. During this shopping trip, he stopped by Gearworks to visit Fabio and check in on him. When he arrived, he found Fabio in the middle of teaching his new student, Elizabeth. They were both standing before a table that held one of Fabio¡¯s mechanical puppets, its chest open, revealing a mass of mechanical parts and gears that connected to all its limbs. Fabio nced briefly at the puppet and then turned to Elizabeth. "Alright, Lisa, tell me what¡¯s wrong with it." Elizabeth carefully examined the entire machine, from the mana box that powered it to the sensors it used to detect its surroundings. She mumbled as she tested a few parts to check if they were functioning properly. "Nothing is broken or missing. Could it be this?" She moved her hand toward a tiny cog nestled between tworger ones, which didn¡¯t seem to stand out among the other more prominent parts. As soon as she touched it, the gears began to spin, and the mechanical creation came to life. Fabio nodded approvingly. "Unlike smithing, where perfection is only required at the level of someone like Taliya, in mechanical tinkering, everything must be perfect. Even a single small error can make the whole thing useless. In this case, that tiny cog was caught between two others rotating in opposite directions, causing the whole mechanism to lock up." Sol, who had been watching from the start,mented, "Sounds annoying. I can only imagine spending days searching for what¡¯s wrong, only to find out it¡¯s something minor like that." Fabio tsked and shook his head. "Ah, you don¡¯t get it. That¡¯s the beauty of it. Eventually, you reach a point where you truly understand how the world works and how everything interacts in perfect harmony. Just one small part, like that cog, being out of ce could send the entire world into disarray." "That¡¯s... surprisingly deep. Didn¡¯t know you had that in you." Sol replied, half jokingly. While he could see some truth in Fabio¡¯s words, he wasn¡¯t about to concede without at least one final jab. Fabio rolled his eyes and turned to Elizabeth. "Take a break, Lisa. I have to deal with an annoying customer." She nodded and left to work on her personal projects at her workstation. Once it was just the two of them, Fabio leaned back against the table and asked, "Alright, what do you need?" Sol smiled wryly, looking away. "Need? Do I need a reason to visit? Haven¡¯t I dropped by just to chat before?" "You have, but you ain¡¯t fooling me. I can see it in your eyes. What¡¯s up? New ideas for the Lipon? Does the Tynamo Cannon need repairs?" Sol raised his hands in defeat. "You got me. I came because I wanted to ask if you could fix this." From his spatial ring, he pulled out the Lipon, its grip visibly dented. Upon seeing it, Fabio¡¯s jaw dropped. "What the¡ª? This was from grip strength alone? Did you be an A-Ranker?" Sol nodded. During his attempt to break through Orna¡¯s ice, he had used all his strength to m the stone drill with his Lipon, severely damaging it. Although the exterior only looked bent, the interior was devastated. It was a miracle it still worked. Fabio sighed. He knew Sol was working onprehending hisw technique, but the speed at which he advanced was surprising. It had taken Fabio two years to reach A-Rank, and he considered himself quite talented. "I can fix it, but now that you¡¯re an A-Ranker, you¡¯ll need to be more careful with your weapons. If you wield it with the same strength that caused this, it won¡¯tst long in a fight." Sol could easily imagine the Lipon snapping in two duringbat with another A-Ranker if he applied too much force. "Is there a way you can make it more durable?" Fabio shook his head. "I¡¯m a crafter, not a miracle worker. This was made with a durium exterior, and you crumpled it like paper. I can try to get Taliya to make a stronger alloy, but unless we can get our hands on another legendary material, it¡¯ll onlyst a bit longer." Sol doubted he could obtain something like that anytime soon. He then asked, "What do other A-Rankers do? How do they manage?" N?v(el)B\\jnn Fabio chuckled. "Theye to us for repairs. A lot. Even mages break their staffs often, unable to handle the amount of power channeled for big spells. It¡¯s not umon for A-Rankers to stop using weapons unless they¡¯re lucky enough to stumble upon a legendary weapon or material." Sol became pensive, wondering if there was anything else he could do. Without a weapon capable of handling his full strength, most of his melee skills would be unusable. After a minute of thinking, he arrived at the same conclusion as many other A-Rankers: either constantly repair weapons or abandon them until finding a legendary one. He sighed. "Can you fix it for now? I can¡¯t go all out with it, but it¡¯s better than fighting barehanded. Still, I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll find someone like you to repair it when I leave." Without a weapon, he couldn¡¯t use most of hisbat skills, which was far from ideal. Fabio nodded. "Of course, I can fix it in a jiffy. But what do you mean? Are you going on another mission?" "I can¡¯t really say yet, but I probably won¡¯t be back for a long time." "I see..." Fabio assumed it was a secret mission and didn¡¯t press further. "Well, stick around. This won¡¯t take long." Sol took a seat and watched as Fabio expertly repaired the Lipon, starting with the outer frame and then recing the damaged internalponents. Ten minutester, it was done. Along with the repaired Lipon, Fabio presented Sol with four identical spares. "What¡¯s this?" Sol asked, confused. "Well, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll break it again in time. Since you won¡¯t have good ol¡¯ me to fix it up, you might as well take some spares." "Thank you, but I can¡¯t take them. I can¡¯t afford it." Sol truly couldn¡¯t afford it. The average price of a Lipon was at least 700 gold each, and the total cost for all four would be around 2,800. He only had 1,500 gold left and had given all his merits to Rex and Duncan. "Take them. It¡¯s on the house. Consider it a congrattory gift for reaching A-Rank." "I..." Sol hesitated. "Just take them! If you don¡¯t, I¡¯ll turn them to scrap!" "Okay, okay! Thank you, Fabio." Under both Fabio¡¯s insistence and his own logic that he¡¯d need the spare Lipons, Sol relented and epted them. After settling their business, Sol spent some more time chatting with Fabio before heading back to the Royal Pce, where he intended to fulfill a promise he had made to someone. Chapter 291: Promised Rematch At night in the training grounds of the Royal Knights, Lapis could be seen swinging her spear at a straw training dummy. The dummy was quickly shredded, reduced to nothing but ashes. She raised her spear to the sky and stared pensively at the spot where the dummy once stood. As she considered dragging another dummy for practice, she heard a voice behind her. "Why don¡¯t you use one of the metal dummies? They¡¯dst longer." Lapis shook her head and turned to see Sol, who had approached within fifteen feet without her noticing. "They break just as fast. Might as well use the cheaper one." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om The training dummies weren¡¯t free, costing merits, 20 per straw dummy, while metal ones were significantly more expensive depending on the type of metal. Though there was the option not to use any dummy, practicing on a physical target gave Lapis better feedback, helping her feel her strikes and refine her technique. "Fair enough. How about something tougher, then?" The two stared at each other silently. She knew exactly what he meant, it was finally time. "You kept me waiting long enough." Lapis said. Sol chuckled. "Haha, sorry. We should¡¯ve done this sooner. Before I became an A-Ranker." Lapis shook her head. She knew her chances of victory were impossible, but the opportunity to fight an A-Ranker and find out where she stands against Sol was more than enough for her. "Where?" she asked. "Here?" Sol shook his head. Though the training grounds were empty, he preferred somewhere more private. "Let¡¯s go somewhere quieter." She nodded and followed him out of the pce. Once outside, Sol created a stone tform beneath them and flew them out of the city. As they headed towards the woods a good distance from the city, Lapis found it a bit odd. "Why not the dungeon?" she asked. "Well... it¡¯splicated." It was a rather long story about the dungeon trying to kill him which would take a while to exin. Even though the dungeon rest area was supposed to be safe, he knew the dungeon might try again if given the chance. He preferred not to take that risk. Lapis didn¡¯t press for more details. She was focused on preparing for the rematch. When they arrived, she leaped off the tform and walked a fair distance away. She brandished her spear and asked, "Ready?" Sol drew his Lipon and unleashed a nearly invisible de of wind, radiating a sharp aura. "Ready." The moment he spoke, Lapis vanished in a sh, appearing instantly next to Sol and thrusting her spear forward. TING! Her spear collided with a green barrier that blocked her surprise attack. Upon withdrawing the spear, only a small crack appeared on the barrier, while Sol¡¯s hand glowed green. ¡¯[Phase Step] from the start, huh?¡¯ "You didn¡¯t think it would be that easy, right? You¡¯re gonna have to try harder than that." Sol taunted. Lapis didn¡¯t waste words during a fight. She disappeared in a blur, circling Sol and unleashing a flurry of attacks, aiming to break the barrier protecting him. Sol didn¡¯t resist, letting her continue her assault, thinking to himself, ¡¯Even with my much higher attributes, I can¡¯t make the barrier any stronger. I must have hit the limit of [Polychromatism]. The only way to strengthen it would be to turn it into aw technique.¡¯ It didn¡¯t take long for the green chroma barrier to shatter, but as soon as it broke, Sol sent a forceful wave of mana with [Mana Burst], sting Lapis away. While flying backward, she recovered midair and slid across the ground, creating a cloud of dust. From that smokescreen, a volley of magical green spearheads shot toward Sol. Sol pped the spearheads aside with his empty hand, relying on his natural defense and vitality. He then sent multiple [Mana sh] attacks back at her. He didn¡¯t swing too fast, careful not to break the Lipon, as he was still testing its upper limits. Even without going all out, each [Mana sh] was terrifyingly strong. Few B-Rankers would escape unscathed after using all their defensive skills. The attack came fast, forcing Lapis to use her attribute and movement enhancing skills, something she hadn¡¯t wanted to do so soon, but she had no choice. She became a green streak, dodging as the shes demolished the ground, leaving deep craters. Sol¡¯s eyes widened in amazement; her speed surpassed his own, though only with attribute enhancing skills. Still, he could track her movements, which was enough for him. He summoned three magic hands: one red, one yellow, and one blue, andunched their respective chromatic attacks. Lapis easily outran the red beam and the numerous yellow projectiles. The hands couldn¡¯t track her movements, and predicting her next step was even harder. However, the blue crescents fared better, turning midair to chase her after every dodge. She finally lost them by weaving through the trees, where the crescents collided and dissipated. As the hands continued their barrage, Sol cast [Light Spear], adding earth and shadow spears to the mix. Soon, hundreds of spears hovered around him, waiting for hismand. "Just running won¡¯t get you anywhere. It only gives me more time to prepare." he said. Lapis didn¡¯t respond with words. Instead, she turned and charged straight at him. At the same moment, Sol sent all the spears flying toward her. The light, shadow, and earth spears rained down, destroying everything in their path. Lapis weaved through the onught, but it was impossible to avoid all of them. Several spears grazed her, leaving cuts across her body, as she took the most optimal path through the relentless attack. Sol was surprised she chose to charge through the spear volley. He had expected her to avoid it entirely but could understand her decision. Seeing her close in, he readied his Lipon and met her attack head on. His wind sword shed with her spear, and they exchanged rapid blows in the blink of an eye. Even when Lapis used skills that made her spear bend and attack unpredictably, such as [Twisting Serpent] and her newly acquired skill, [Coil Thrust], Sol blocked every strike, asionally using [Counter]. ¡¯Time to kick it up a notch.¡¯ Sol activated [Vorpal de Rush], unleashing a devastatingbination of attacks. Lapis tried to dodge and counter, but the strikes were too many and too fast. Several shes broke through her defense, but just before they hit, Sol pulled them back. "Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead again. Dead." Sol called out with each fatal strike, continuing for a few more exchanges until he decided enough was enough. With a swift [Unarming Blow], he sent her spear flying. Without her weapon, Lapis stopped fighting. Just as she was about to speak, Solunched a kick at her. She barely avoided it by jumping back. Confused, she asked, "Why continue? It¡¯s already over." Sol shook his head. "No, it¡¯s not. You can¡¯t fool me, you¡¯re still holding back." Chapter 292: Ethereal Woman (Fixed) The two stared at each other in silence again. "You looked at my status?" Lapis asked, not in an angry, usatory tone, but with curiosity, assuming that was how he knew. Surprisingly, Sol shook his head. "No, I noticed another way." He had seen her tethers and noticed there was a light golden one that stood out from the rest. Before, he could only guess what a tether did by inspecting it, but with his recently obtainedw technique, [Lesser Channel Control], he gained deeper insights. He could tell it was rted to reincarnation, and if she used it, it could grant her massive amounts of power. ¡¯I know it¡¯s not enough to win here, but I just don¡¯t get why she doesn¡¯t want to use it.¡¯ He knew she could be stubborn, but he didn¡¯t understand the reason. "I don¡¯t need her help." Lapis stated, ready to dodge any other surprise attacks. ¡¯Her?¡¯ This wasn¡¯t something he could see from the tether. He initially guessed it was because there was some cost associated with it, but hearing it was for such a simple reason left him baffled. "I thought we were here to fight with all our strength. If you don¡¯t n to take this seriously, I¡¯ll head back." Lapis frowned slightly. "I am serious. If I win, it has to be because of me and my own ability. There¡¯s no point in winning with someone else¡¯s help." She still wanted to continue, but it had to be with her own abilities, not with external aid. "Your own power?" Sol found her obstinance ridiculous. "C¡¯mon, I know you can be stubborn at times, but calling for help isn¡¯t a bad thing. This is like a summoner spell or skill. If we stop using whatever we don¡¯t consider our own power, then what¡ªshould we stop using weapons as well?" If Sol followed her standards, wouldn¡¯t he be unable to use most of his skills? He hadn¡¯t learned them himself; he siphoned them from others. It was, in a way, stolen power. "That¡¯s not the same. I wield the spear." she countered, finding his analogy incorrect. She was strong because of her spearmanship. Without it, she couldn¡¯t truly fight. "Yeah, but you didn¡¯t make it, did you? It was forged by someone else. And what about allies? Are they not allowed to help you in fights?" "If it¡¯s a real battle, then maybe." ¡¯This is going nowhere¡­¡¯ Lapis¡¯s stubbornness was too much, and for her own sake, he had to take a more direct approach. "Then treat this as a real battle!" Sol swung his Lipon, sending another [Mana sh] her way. Lapis leaped to the side toward her spear, retrieving it in one fluid motion. As she readied herself, she felt the ground tremble slightly beneath her. Her instincts screamed danger, and she jumped away just as a ring of stone spikes erupted from the ground where she had stood. She was surprised, knowing that if she hadn¡¯t moved in time, it could have killed her. Sol kept up his assault, sending much stronger attacks her way. Lapis dodged, increasing the distance between them. Her attribute enhancing skills were about to run out, and staying too close would leave her vulnerable. "You¡¯re not getting away that easily!" Before she could retreat further, a dome of shadows enveloped the two, spanning a hundred foot radius. She fired multiple magic spearheads at it, but the dome repaired itself instantly. Trapped inside the barrier, Sol gave a final ultimatum. "You can either call for her help or surrender. But know this: if you surrender, I¡¯ll assign you to guard duty for three months. And on top of that, I will never, and I truly mean never, battle you again." If pushing her through battle wouldn¡¯t work, he would target where it really mattered, her pride. If this didn¡¯t work, he would have to give up, as he didn¡¯t actually want to injure her too badly. Lapis clenched her spear tightly, frowning deeply. Like Sol, she abhorred guard duty, seeing it as aplete waste of time that took away from mastering her skills. But the worst punishment was thetter. If she could never fight Sol again, she¡¯d never have the chance to im victory. Momentary defeat was one thing, but to never have the opportunity to win was uneptable. Sol understood this well, which is why he added that condition. Though still unwilling, she finally muttered begrudgingly, "Fine... you can help me." Only Sol and Lapis were inside the dome, yet another voice echoed through the space. It was a feminine voice that sounded far away, but at the same time, right next to them. "I¡¯ll help you this time, but your attitude needs some work." Suddenly, Lapis was enveloped in a golden light as a humanoid figure floated out from within her. It was a beautiful ethereal woman with long golden hair, glowing brightly. Her most striking feature, however, was the two extra sets of arms she had. "To think you can¡¯t escape such a simple barrier. I¡¯m truly disappointed in this incarnation of me." She waved her arm, sending a golden pulse that rang like chimes. The pulse reached the shadow dome, instantly shattering it. With the night sky now visible, the ethereal woman turned to Sol, who had been silently watching. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "I think you¡¯ve made her run around long enough. Now, it¡¯s your turn." The ethereal woman said as she looked down at Sol like he was an ant she could easily crush. Chakrams appeared in all six of her hands, her intent to attack clear. Sol could feel the very real threat she presented, but he didn¡¯t run away. Before she struck, he pointed below her and said, "Stop. Look at what you¡¯re doing to Lapis." The ethereal woman looked down at Lapis, who was kneeling on the ground, panting and on the verge of copse. "She¡¯s still too weak to sustain me." the woman said with visible dissatisfaction. "We¡¯ll have to settle this another time. Take care of her." As abruptly as she had appeared, the ethereal woman vanished back into Lapis. The golden glow faded, and the pain she was enduring went away, but she was still haggard from the experience. Sol walked over and handed her some potions to recover her energy and heal her wounds. It took a while, but soon, the effects of the potions set in, and she was back on her feet. "Thanks." Lapis said, trying to hide her exhaustion, though her body betrayed her. Sol nodded and looked at where the ethereal woman had been moments ago. "So, she¡¯s you from a past life¡­ I can see the simrities." With the knowledge that the tether was rted to reincarnation, and from what the woman had said about her disappointment in this incarnation, it was an easy conclusion to reach. Lapis red at him and said, "She¡¯s not me. I may have been her in a past life, but we are nothing alike." Sol stayed silent as he felt her cold gaze, almost identical to the one the ethereal woman had given him. Even their tones and manner of speaking were simr. How could he not see the resemnce? But he had pushed her enough today. He wasn¡¯t going to make it worse by pointing that out, so instead, he said, "I wonder who she was when she was alive. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve heard of anyone like her." It was obvious to him that the woman had been a powerful figure when she was alive, but he hadn¡¯t heard or read of anyone like her and he was pretty sure a six armed woman would have stood out. He also wasn¡¯t entirely sure if she was human. Lapis shrugged. "No idea." "How do you not know? Can¡¯t you ask her?" He wasn¡¯t sure how long Lapis had been connected to her past self, but he assumed it started when she was revived. If so, it had been a while since then, and he found it odd that she didn¡¯t even know her name. Lapis shook her head. "When I was brought back to life, she was just suddenly there. She doesn¡¯t talk much, but when she does, it¡¯s usually to criticize what I¡¯m doing. It was distracting, so I tried shutting her out, and it worked. I¡¯ve mostly been ignoring her since then." ¡¯You shut her out because she was annoying you?¡¯ He couldn¡¯t understand why she would do such a thing instead of trying to get to know her past self. If she had, maybe he wouldn¡¯t have had such a hard time fighting the Bliss Spider. He thought about it further and realized it would be best for her to get along with her past self. Ignoring her could lead to bigger problems down the line. "Have you considered working together? You saw how powerful she was. If you were stronger, she could¡¯ve fully manifested." Sol suggested. Lapis was still reluctant. "I want my strength toe from me, not her." "Then what about making use of what she knows? Someone that powerful must know a lot, including certain things about A-Rankers that I¡¯m not allowed to disclose." Her eyes widened slightly at his not so subtle hint, and she nodded. While she didn¡¯t want to use the woman¡¯s power, she wasn¡¯t against using her knowledge to improve herself. "I¡¯ll ask her." Sol sighed in relief, d to finally make some progress with her. ¡¯I hope they get along.¡¯ There was a slight worry that they could end up at odds, but as far as he understood, they were stuck with each other now, for better or for worse. Lapis looked at her spear and said, "And once I reach A-Rank, we¡¯ll have another rematch." "Haha, fine by me." Solughed. Somehow, this seemed more important to her than getting to know her past life, but he weed the challenge nheless. Chapter 293: Psychic Energy Later that same night, while the rest of the squad was asleep, Sol was in his room in a meditative posture. While his body rested, his mind was in the white room created through [Reinterpret]. Ever since they had returned from the ancient dwarven city, he had been doing this every night, working towards one goal, and it was finally bearing fruit. In the white room, which was designed to resemble a small clearing in a grove, Sol was facing an assortment of rocks of different sizes. He focused on sending wisps of an energy different from the mana he normally wielded toward one of the smaller rocks, causing it to gently roll on the ground. His face strained as he tried to eke out more of that energy to go a step further and lift the rock into the air, but something blocked him from doing so. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om ¡¯Today I¡¯ll break through this barrier.¡¯ he thought as he strained his mind further, trying to squeeze out more of that energy. More energy than before left his body and headed toward the small rock, causing it to actually levitate off the ground. Though it could be considered a victory to make the rock float, Sol felt he had much more of this energy trapped inside him and didn¡¯t stop pushing until he felt the wall preventing it from leaving his body begin to crack. ¡¯Come on¡­ just a little more¡­¡¯ Bit by bit, the wall broke, allowing even more energy to escape, until it finally crumbled under the pressure, and a deluge of energy broke free from within him all at once, mming straight into the rock. The rock wasn¡¯tunched away as he had originally intended; instead, it shattered under the force, turning to dust in an instant. After destroying the helpless rock, Sol suddenly felt dizzy and weak. Even though the white room could replenish his energy infinitely, this wasn¡¯t caused by spending all that energy, but by the act of breaking the wall. It took him a short moment to recover, but once he did and checked his state, he smiled. He turned his gaze to the other rocks, and with a single thought, they all began to levitate simultaneously. Satisfied, he said, "It took me the whole week, but I broke through the mental barrier, and I can finally use my real psychic energy." When Fabio told him that psychic energy wasn¡¯t the same as mana, Sol had wanted to find out how to gain ess to this dormant form of energy. Before, his psychic skills were performed using mana, which was extremely inefficient since he was converting mana into psychic energy. Sadly, he hadn¡¯t known this until Fabio pointed it out. When he siphoned the skill, the previous user had also been a beginner and had passed on misguided knowledge. It took a while to break the bad habits he had inherited before searching within himself for the real psychic energy. But that wasn¡¯t even the real hurdle, it only took him one night to find it. The real challenge came afterward. "I can¡¯t believe Dad¡¯s mental barrier, which was meant to protect me, was also inadvertently suppressing my psychic energy. If not for that, I would¡¯ve found it sooner." The mental barrier his father had ced on him was, in a way, too good at blocking psychic interference, it also blocked his own psychic energy from leaving. Even though that barrier had long since dissipated, remnants of Roman¡¯s energy remained and continued to block his psychic energy. It took almost a full week to break through the remnants of the mental barrier, but now that he had, he had full ess to all his psychic energy. It flowed from within him seamlessly and was incredibly easy to control. What he had found difficult with [Basic Psychic Mastery] before was now child¡¯s y. He tested his psychic energy with various exercises, from moving boulders to searching through his memories and vividly recalling books he had read years ago. He then spent the rest of the night¡¯s [Reinterpret] session exploring everything he could do with his psychic energy. When the sun began to rise, Sol left the white room and was greeted by a flood of system messages. [[Basic Psychic Mastery] leveled up! (8 -> 10)] [[Basic Psychic Mastery] evolved into [Intermediate Psychic Mastery]!] [[Intermediate Psychic Mastery] leveled up! (1 -> 6)] [Learned [Telekinesis] Lv 7!] [Learned [Memory Engraving] Lv 5!] [Learned [Mental eleration] Lv 6!] [Learned [Mental Scrying] Lv 4!] [[Telepathy] leveled up! (3 -> 4)] [Learned [Psy st] Lv 4!] As he read through the messages, he thought in amazement, ¡¯Wow. I think that¡¯s my best white room session yet. That¡¯s gonna be hard to top.¡¯ He had gained many new skills, but [Memory Engraving] and [Mental eleration] stood out, as he had technically used them before, but the system hadn¡¯t recognized them as skills. This was because he had been using them incorrectly. While the end result had been simr, since he wasn¡¯t using real psychic energy and his control was sloppy, they never made the cut until now. And although he had gained many new skills, he hadn¡¯t even tried everything he had in mind. There were a few ideas that required another person, like [Telepathy]. He tried it nheless, but the results wereckluster. When he created other beings in the white room, he controlled all their actions and couldn¡¯t fully simte their minds, so using psychic energy on them had little effect. Not wanting to waste time on a skill he couldn¡¯t properly practice, he stopped and worked on a new attack, which was how he learned [Psy st]. It was a straightforward attack, sending a wave of psychic energy simr to how he had destroyed the small rock earlier, but this time on purpose. He was very satisfied with his progress. After checking his status page, he realized something. ¡¯I didn¡¯t think of it before, but it¡¯s too easy to use psychic energy and skills. Is it because my attributes are so high? No, that can¡¯t be it¡­¡¯ It was only now that he noticed something odd. He thought it might be because he was in the white room of [Reinterpret], but he shook his head at the theory. [Terra Maniption] was also given simr treatment, and it wasn¡¯t nearly as easy to level up. Plus, he had encountered multiple bottlenecks with it. Then he remembered something from over a month ago when he had been debating which talent skill to pursue for his firstw technique. His eyes widened in realization. ¡¯[Siphon] felt like a psychic skill because it is one! Which means that [Siphoner] is actually a psychic talent!¡¯ Chapter 294: Sewer Problems Many things began to click into ce as Sol realized it wasn¡¯t that he was unable to learn psychic skills himself¡ªhe would have been able to if not for his father¡¯s mental barrier. Without the barrier, he could have learned psychic skills straight from the start. ¡¯Maybe I could have learned them even before getting my talent, like how the Saintess was able to see through fate before receiving hers.¡¯ While it was shocking that the barrier had inadvertently suppressed his psychic abilities, Sol didn¡¯t me his father for it. After all, it had been done to protect him and had even saved him before, like in Kerman with the [Mind Shaper]. ¡¯Sure, things could have yed out differently if I had my psychic skills, but there¡¯s no point dwelling on the past. I can only move forward.¡¯ Turning his attention back to the skills, he consideredbining them but chose not to in the end. Whilebining them would likely result in a more powerful skill, his best results, like [Polychromatism] and [Umbral Domain], came from merging maxed out, powerful skills within the same group with a clear purpose. He could treat it like [Invincible Body] and [Superior Mana Control], gradually adding skills that fit together, but that approach would progress incredibly slowly. There was also the risk of muddying thebined skill, resulting in a weaker oue. ¡¯I¡¯ll work on maxing out the individual skills first beforebining them in the best way possible.¡¯ Though he wanted to stay in and practice more psychic energy techniques, he still had a job to do. Closing the system prompts, Sol left his room and joined the rest of the squad as they gathered for breakfast. During the meal, Aron asked, "Hey Cap, do you know when our next mission is?" Sol paused mid-bite, unsure how to answer. He had been so focused on other matters that he hadn¡¯t even nced at thetest missions that were avable. Just as he was about to admit this, he turned to Duncan instead. "Duncan, can you get the next mission? I haven¡¯t had a chance to look yet. You know how to, right?" Duncan nodded. "I¡¯ll find a good one." It didn¡¯t surprise him that Sol had passed the responsibility to him. Although Duncan had never selected a mission before, he knew how after being a knight for so many years. "Oh! Can it be one we can do today?" Aron requested eagerly. Aron felt they¡¯d rested enough. Thest mission, though dangerous, had been over in a day, and he hadn¡¯t been able to do much besides overseeing the soldiers and schrs. He was itching for some real action. "Sure, there¡¯s always something to do, so that shouldn¡¯t be too hard." Duncan replied. Half an hour after breakfast, Duncan had gone through the motions of epting a new mission, and they gathered in the meeting room for a briefing. Sol attended as well but stayed quiet while Duncan presented the mission he¡¯d picked. "Since Aron wanted something we can do today, I found a mission in the city. Apparently, over the past few days, citizens have reported dead animals flowing out of the sewers. At first, it was categorized as a C-Rank quest and left to adventurers, but no one who went returned. The guild elevated it to a B-Rank, and the Royal Knights decided it was worth investigating, so now it¡¯s our job." "Can we¡­ take a different mission? I don¡¯t want to go into the sewers¡­" Nataly groaned, dreading the thought of entering the dirty, smelly underground sewer. Lazuli raised her hand in agreement. "I second that!" Duncan shook his head with a helpless smile. "I¡¯ve already epted the mission. We can¡¯t back out now¡­" Rex chimed in to reassure them. "The sewers aren¡¯t as dirty as you think. They get deep cleaned every month by a team of mages. If they¡¯ve cleaned recently, it shouldn¡¯t be an issue." "Well¡­ if it¡¯s clean¡­" Though still reluctant, Nataly felt less resistant knowing the sewers were regrly cleaned. But she knew they would have to go regardless, as it was their duty. ¡­ "How is this clean?! This ce is disgusting!" Nataly was in dismay upon entering the sewers, finding them exactly as she¡¯d feared. Dark murky water ran through them, with waste clumped up in various ces, emitting a foul odor. Corpses of rodents littered the walkways and flowed through the water, further polluting the area. Sol, finding the conditions strange, asked, "Do we know when this wasst cleaned?" Duncan nodded and had a simr sentiment. "It should¡¯ve been two weeks ago. I¡¯m not sure how dirty the sewers can get, but it shouldn¡¯t be this bad this fast." Rex pointed at the clumps of waste. "It¡¯s the dead animals and rodents. The waste got caught on the corpses and eventually built up into thoserge piles." The sewers were designed to handle regr waste, but the addition of so many corpses had elerated the rate of pollution. If the current situation didn¡¯t change the filth would begin to affect the lives of the citizens and many would get sick. "No point in dwelling on it now. Let¡¯s deal with the cause, and the sanitary team can clean upter. Duncan, lead the way." Sol said, bringing everyone¡¯s attention back to the mission at hand. The others agreed and ventured deeper, with Duncan at the front, ready to protect them from any attacks. They followed the sewers, searching for the source of the pollution. An hour passed with no results. Even though Rex could sense all the nearby passages, they hadn¡¯t found anything important. Growing frustrated with theck of progress, Sol got an idea. ¡¯What if I used psychic energy to search?¡¯ He spread his psychic energy in all directions, even through walls, extending his perception. It was his first time doing this, but it didn¡¯t take long for him to start seeing other passages around him. [Learned [Remote Viewing] Lv 1!] [[Remote Viewing] Lv 1: Extends one¡¯s senses using psychic energy. Distance and scope of the area are determined by the amount of psychic energy used.] Smirking at how easily he gained a new skill, Sol continued experimenting. He yed around with different techniques, expanding his range in a wide area or focusing it in one direction. [[Remote Viewing] leveled up! (1->2)] [[Remote Viewing] leveled up! (2->3)] [[Remote Viewing] leveled up! (3->4)] [[Remote Viewing] leveled up! (4->5)] n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om At first, the skill leveled up every minute, but it slowed over time. Still, it progressed rapidly, allowing Sol to extend his senses further. While it was a somewhat headache inducing to process so much information at once, using [Mental eleration] helped him manage it. ¡¯Ah, there.¡¯ Only fifteen minutes after starting, Sol found what he was looking for. "Everyone, follow me. I know where to go." Chapter 295: Gathering Blood With a destination in mind, it didn¡¯t take long for the squad to arrive at the location Sol had found as the cause of the disturbance. Peering into the passage ahead, Rex quietly asked, so as not to alert anyone, "Are those adventurers? What are they doing here?" There was a small group of three individuals aimlessly wandering the passage. Their steps were unsteady, and their eyes unfocused. As they walked, a rat crossed their path, and the group instantly pounced on the lone creature, grabbing it before it could escape. The one who caught it made a jubnt expression, then ced an open jar on the ground and held the rat above it. He snapped the rat in two, allowing the blood to pour into the jar. The rat wasn¡¯t very big, and once all the blood was collected, the man tossed the corpse away as if it were no longer important. The body fell straight into the sewer and flowed down the waterway. Duncan, watching the rat¡¯s corpse flow past them, wondered aloud, "They¡¯re collecting blood, but for what purpose?" "It could be for a blood ritual." Lapis suggested. It wasn¡¯t umon for ritualist to use blood as a keyponent. "Maybe. What should we do, Cap? Can I beat them up?" Aron asked, eager to spring into action at Sol¡¯s cue. Sol didn¡¯t answer immediately. Instead, he turned to Duncan. "What do you suggest? We¡¯ll follow your lead." Sol didn¡¯t want to takemand of the mission like usual. He knew his time with the Royal Knights was nearing its end, and it was better for Duncan to take point on the mission so the squad could get used to following his orders. None of the other squad members found this odd as it wasn¡¯t the first time Sol had asked for Duncan¡¯s advice as the most experience of them all. Understanding Sol¡¯s intention, Duncan gave an appreciative nod before turning to Aron and answering his question. "No, not yet. Something¡¯s off about them. They may just be following orders. If we follow them, we might be led straight to the true culprit." Based on their movements, it was clear something was wrong with them, and Duncan suspected they were being manipted. If that was the case, it was unlikely the adventurers would give them any useful information. Eventually, though, they would have to deliver the blood, so it made sense to wait and see. Aron let out a soft, dissatisfied grumble. "Aww. When will I get to do something?" Some of the squad members chuckled, and they continued silently following the trio of adventurers. As they followed, Sol, with nothing to do, continued experimenting with psychic energy. The more he used it, the better his control became, and he found himself amazed by the possibilities. ¡¯The potential of psychic energy is as limitless as mana. As long as I wield it properly, anything is possible.¡¯ [[Intermediate Psychic Mastery] leveled up! (6 -> 7)] While Sol toyed with various applications of psychic energy, Rex issued a warning. "I¡¯ve been sensing something around us for a while. I can¡¯t tell what, but we might have been spotted." This put the squad on alert. Sol used [Remote Viewing] to scan their surroundings but could only detect the three adventurers walking ahead of them. "There it was again!" Rex whispered. Sol didn¡¯t understand what Rex was referring to at first, until it dawned on him. ¡¯Wait¡­ is he talking about me?¡¯ To confirm his suspicion, Sol sent a small amount of psychic energy past Rex. Sure enough, Rex reflexively turned his head toward where the energy passed. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om ¡¯He was¡­ my bad¡­¡¯ Sheepishly, Sol retracted his psychic energy. While Rex couldn¡¯t directly detect it, he could sense the disturbances it caused. Sol had unintentionally raised the squad¡¯s guard by ying around with psychic energy, which wasn¡¯t his intention. Not wanting to interfere with the mission any further, Sol restrained himself. Meanwhile, the three adventurers finished filling up three jugs of blood and suddenly started walking at a brisk pace, as if they now had a specific destination in mind, unlike their previous aimless wandering. "Looks like they¡¯ve met their quota and are heading back. Be on guard." Duncan advised as they continued to follow. As they trailed the adventurers, Rex detected more people approaching from other passages. "There are peopleing from all directions. If we keep following these three, we¡¯ll eventually be spotted." Duncan considered a few options. The easiest solution would have been to use Sol¡¯s [Terra Maniption] to hide in the sewer walls, but he decided against it. He knew he needed to find other ways to solve such situations without relying on Sol, who would soon be leaving. "Lazuli, do you know any incapacitating poisons?" She nodded. "I know three, one of which is colorless and odorless." "Perfect. Cast it behind us as we keep moving." Lazuli nodded and wielded her staff toward the sewers behind them. "[Slumber Spores]." she whispered. A wave of white mist emitted from her staff, spreading throughout the passage behind them. The mist thinned until it was no longer visible. To the average person, it would seem like nothing, but anyone who ventured into the passage would soon be afflicted with severe drowsiness. With their rear covered, the group continued after the adventurers. Rex confirmed that those behind them were no longer close. Eventually, the squad arrived at an interconnected part of the sewer where multiple passages fed sewage outside the city. There, they saw many other adventurers, citizens, and assorted individuals, all bringing jugs of blood and cing them in an orderly fashion. ¡¯So much blood¡­ What kind of ritual requires that much?¡¯ Sol wondered as he saw the ludicrous number of jugs. Nobody in the squad spoke to avoid alerting the people, but they all had the same question on their minds. As they scanned the area for the mastermind, eight figures suddenly dropped from above, surrounding the squad. "So, they finally sent the Royal Knights to investigate." Chapter 296: Vampires The ones that surrounded them were humans, albeit somewhat pale looking. If not for the fact that they appeared out of nowhere and encircled the group, they might have been mistaken for regr civilians. Duncan frowned, ready to use [Shimmer Dome] to protect the squad, and asked, "Who are you, and why are you collecting so much blood?" One of the eight pale humansughed mockingly. "Heh, and why would we tell you¡ª" Sol¡¯s voice cut him off. "They¡¯re vampires. All B-Rankers." Name: Brekster Race: Vampire/Human Talents: [Vampiric], [Blood Whip] Level: 91 Name: Ilmar Race: Vampire/Human Talents: [Vampiric], [Bat Swarm] Level: 84 Name: Condea Race: Vampire/Human Talents: [Vampiric], [Charmer] Level: 86 The moment they appeared, Sol used [Analysis] on them and instantly identified who they were. "Vampires? I thought they all died out or something." Lazulimented. She recalled reading about them out of curiosity once, but there hadn¡¯t been any vampire activity for many years. Brekster, the vampire who had been speaking, was caught off guard. "How did you¡ª? Ah! You have [Analysis]! But it doesn¡¯t matter. Soon, you¡¯ll be working for us as well. Get them!" The vampires jumped at hismand, revealing their weapons. But before they could approach, a silver barrier appeared between them and expanded outward, pushing the vampires away. It was Duncan, who had been refining his [Shimmer Dome] into aw technique, that acted first, giving the squad some breathing room and breaking the encirclement. Sol stepped forward and drew his Lipon to take down the closest vampire, but Duncan called out to him before he could act. While maintaining the barrier, Duncan said, "Captain, wait! Let us handle them." Sol paused and looked back at him. "Are you sure? We¡¯re outnumbered here. I can at least even the odds." It would be child¡¯s y for Sol to take care of them without even using hisw technique. Duncan nodded resolutely. "Let us show you we can take care of ourselves." "We can handle it." Not surprisingly, Lapis was the first to support Duncan¡¯s request. "I¡¯d rather he joined in and made it easier for us¡­" Rex muttered, thinking they could wrap things up faster with Sol¡¯s help. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "Nah, we got this. I¡¯ve been itching for a good fight all week!" Aron said, cracking his knuckles. "Drop the barrier, Duncan. Let me at ¡¯em." While Nataly and Lazuli didn¡¯t speak, the way they held their staffs made it clear they were on board as well. Seeing how eager they were to fight without him, Sol smiled and said, "Alright, I know you all can handle them just fine. Just be careful of the one on our right, he has charm skills." On the other side of the barrier, Brekster frowned. Judging by how the Royal Knights were acting, he could tell their captain wasn¡¯t someone to be taken lightly. But since Sol had chosen to stay back, there was still a decent chance for them to win. Brekster quickly analysed the situation and thought to himself, ¡¯He called out our only charmer, but it doesn¡¯t matter. If we can charm one of the other knights, we can take them hostage. With the way he appears to care for them we can easily force him to obey.¡¯ Charmers were vampires with talents rted to charming and beguiling targets, converting them into thralls. While all vampires could enthrall, they were limited to weaker targets and they would lose most if not all signs of intelligence, simrly to the adventurers and civilians that had beenmanded to collect blood. Against stronger opponents, only charmers could be of any use to turn them into thralls. If they enthralled one of the knights, they could force their captain toply in exchange for restoring their ally. Even though Sol had [Analysis] and knew about their skills, Brekster was confident from the way Lazuli spoke that they hadn¡¯t interacted with vampires before and if so they wouldn¡¯t know that once someone was enthralled, it couldn¡¯t be undone. One nce at his allies was enough for them to understand the n. As Duncan lowered the barrier, the vampires leapt forward to attack again. Aron, Rex, and Lapis charged out in different directions while Duncan stayed behind, protecting the two mages of the team as they began casting their spells. Aron rushed toward two vampires. One extended long ws while the other formed blood des and sent them flying toward him. Before the des could reach Aron, Duncan manifested a silver barrier midair, blocking the attack. Aron¡¯s fist collided with the other vampire¡¯s ws. Though the ws were sharp enough to easily cut through flesh, Aron¡¯s fists were covered in a bronze glow. With his skill [Bronze Fists], his punches had the properties of metal, making them even deadlier. "Hahaha! Is that all you got?!" Aron taunted the vampire. The vampire didn¡¯t respond but used [Ace sh] with [Bone Sever], enhancing his ws to cut through Aron¡¯s fists. But before he could sh at him, Aron¡¯s foot swept in from the side, knocking the vampire off his feet. Before the vampire hit the ground, Aron delivered an [Echo Strike], creating three mirages of fists that mmed into the vampire simultaneously, sending him crashing into his ally. Though the other vampire caught hisrade safely, Aron immediately followed up with [Howling Fist], unleashing a powerful force st that sent both vampires flying into the sewer walls. Grinning, Aron prepared to finish them off, but before he could move, a green orb flew over his head and exploded into a noxious cloud over the vampires. As the smoke cleared, the two vampiresy dead. Aron¡¯s grin disappeared, and he turned to Lazuli, annoyed. "Hey! I had them!" Lazuli made an apologetic gesture. "Sorry! You weregging behind, so I thought I¡¯d help." "Lagging behind?" Curious, Aron turned to Rex, who had already taken down one vampire and was now fighting the second alongside vines Nataly had summoned. Lapis had finished off three vampires and was now fighting Brekster. In the brief time Aron had been fighting, most of the vampires had already been defeated, with only two remaining. Amazed, Aron asked, "Are they weak, or are we just that strong?" Chapter 297: Nat 1 "Who¡¯s ¡¯we¡¯?! It was this woman who took on half of us alone, and that shield guy who blocked all our attacks!" Brekster, who was in the midst of fighting Lapis¡ªor more appropriately, surviving Lapis¡¯ assault¡ªrebuked in frustration. Initially, he thought their captain was the biggest threat, but then Lapis charged in, killed their charmer and two others before they could even react, and ruined their n before it could begin. On top of that, every time they tried to mount an attack, Duncan would create small silver barriers which blocked any meaningful strike, assisting everyone in their fights. Brekster had only survived till now because,pared to the other vampires, he was a peak B-Ranker, but even so, he was constantly on the backfoot against Lapis. As he fumed over the absurdity of the situation, hisst ally died under Rex¡¯s de while being held down by thick vines. ¡¯Shit, I need to at least get the blood out of here.¡¯ Brekster never could¡¯ve expected they would send such a strong team so soon but he knew the fight was lost. There was little he could do to change the situation but the blood they had been collecting for weeks could still be saved. With that in mind hemanded the enthralled victims. "Thralls! Kill them!" The adventurers and civilians who had been stacking jars of blood stopped what they were doing and charged at the squad. Some wielded weapons, while others, like the average citizens, were ready to fight with their fists if necessary. The strongest of the thralls were C-Rank adventurers, and while the civilians barely ranked as E-Rank, Brekster knew they wouldn¡¯t pose much threat to the squad. Still, they could serve as effective meat shields. The first group of thralls attacked Lapis, swinging their weapons at her. Although none of the attacks seemed threatening, Lapis would still be wounded if their attacksnded and was forced to turn her spear to block their strikes, giving Brekster the opportunity to retreat into the crowd of thralls. Not wanting him to escape, Lapis was about to thrust her spear straight through the thralls, but a silver barrier appeared, blocking her attack. Duncan, who had stopped her, reminded her, "Lapis, don¡¯t kill them. They¡¯re innocent, just under his control. Incapacitate them so we can cure them." Lapis nodded and though she didn¡¯t thank him, she knew they couldn¡¯t just kill the thralls just because they were under the vampires control. Once Duncan removed the barrier, her spear blurred as she used [Viper Bite], her high agility allowing her to lightly stab all the thralls around her. Though it seemed harmless at first, the thralls suddenly froze in ce mid attack and copsed. Through her skill, Lapis had injected a paralyzing venom potent enough to incapacitaterge beasts, ensuring the thralls wouldn¡¯t be moving anytime soon. Lapis stepped over them, continuing her pursuit of Brekster, but more thralls stood in her way. "[Entangling Growths]!" "[Stun Spores]!" Nataly and Lazuli cast spells to support her. Roots sprouted from the ground, tying up the thralls, while a wave of yellow dust fell over them, paralyzing those who inhaled it. The unaffected thralls on the edge of the spells¡¯ effect were tackled by Rex and Aron, who knocked each one out with a single strike. N?v(el)B\\jnn Rex mmed a thrall with the t side of his sword and shouted to Lapis, "We¡¯ve got this under control. Stop him!" Lapis nodded and ran through the lingering cloud of spores from Lazuli¡¯s spell, relying on her [Poison Resistance] to ignore the paralyzing toxins. She leaped through the other side, just in time to see Brekster storing the jars of blood in his spatial ring. "Already?!" Brekster was startled as Lapis rapidly closed the distance. He moved as fast as he could but he had only managed to store a third of the blood jars, nowhere near enough for what they needed. ¡¯The blood tide n won¡¯t work with this amount, but luckily Mistress Nisha, in her boundless wisdom, has backup ns. I just need to escape...¡¯ Brekster pulled out a discement charm from his spatial ring. It was a small charm capable of teleporting the holder to a random location within a ten mile radius. These charms were incredibly useful for getting out of sticky situations, though the downside was that the destination was random. Lapis, seeing him pull out the charm, didn¡¯t know what it was for but instinctivelyunched magical spearheads at him to stop whatever he was nning. The spearheads went straight for his head, but the nearby jars of blood burst open, forming multiple blood tentacles that blocked her attacks. If he couldn¡¯t escape with all the blood, he had no qualms about using it to cover his retreat. ¡¯I just hope I don¡¯t end up above ground...¡¯ he thought. Being teleported into direct sunlight would be catastrophic, but it was a risk worth taking. The charm in Brekster¡¯s hand shattered, and spatial fluctuations enveloped him, preparing to warp him away. Just as he was vanishing, Lapis threw her spear with [Sky Toss], breaking through the blood tentacles and piercing straight through his stomach. "Gah!" Brekster spat blood, but despite the spear lodged in his chest, he grinned mockingly. "Ha! You¡¯re too slow!" As he finished his sentence the charm teleported him away to safety. When Lapisnded where Brekster had stood moments ago, she frowned, watching him vanish along with her spear. By now, the rest of the thralls had been subdued, and the squad gathered around her. "Did he teleport away?" Aron asked Lapis. She didn¡¯t answer, but it was clear from her expression that she was unhappy. She knew if she had been just a bit faster, she could have stopped him in time. Duncan tried to reassure her. "Don¡¯t worry. We¡¯ll find him. It¡¯s impressive enough that you wounded him in the short time it took for the charm to activate." "Yeah, you did your best, sis!" Lazuli added, giving her sister a thumbs up. Sol, who had been quiet throughout the fight, suddenly spoke up. "Umm, guys, he¡¯s right over there." They all turned to see Brekster lying on the ground near one of the sewer passages, the spear still embedded in his chest. The discement charm had, very unfortunately for him, teleported him only a few feet away. Brekster, just now realizing where he had been sent, looked at the Royal Knight squad who were silently preparing their weapons and cursed his bad luck. "Goddammit." Chapter 298: Thralls The injured Brekster was easily subdued and tied up. They also took away his spatial ring and gear to prevent him from escaping again. As for the hole in his chest created after Lapis retrieved her spear, half of a health potion was poured over it so it wouldn¡¯t be a lethal injury but still grave enough to cripple his fighting strength. The rest of the thralls were also tied up and were under the supervision of Aron, Nataly, Lapis, and Lazuli so that when they recovered from their paralysis, they wouldn¡¯t be a problem. Thinking back on the situation, Sol thought to himself, ¡¯Luckily, he wasn¡¯t able to get away. The teleportation was too fast for even me to react in time from where I was standing. It was a miracle Lapis was able to wound him before he disappeared. Maybe I should have helped from the start and not given him the chance to use it, but it was a good example of how they would work without me. While they could have done a few things better, I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll learn from this.¡¯ Sol had also wanted to interrogate the vampire himself, as he had hoped to try reading his mind with psychic energy. However, he wanted to staymitted to his hands off approach and let them handle it while he reaped the rewards of their battle. N?v(el)B\\jnn [Learned [Intermediate Blood Magic] Lv 5!] [Learned [Blood Pact] Lv 3!] Upon siphoning the skills from the first vampire, Sol immediately noticed a difference. ¡¯It really is meant to be used with psychic energy. It feels incredibly easy to use now. With all I already know, it should be much easier to level the skill.¡¯ Before, he had already done an in-depth analysis of the talent skill¡¯s inner workings and learned a lot. However, because he had been using it based on the ingrained instinct from when the skill was bestowed upon him, he had to relearn it from the foundation. He estimated it would have taken him weeks to relearn the skill, but now he didn¡¯t think it would even take half a week. [[Intermediate Blood Magic] leveled up! (5 -> 6)] [Learned [Shapeshift - Bat] Lv 8!] [[Blood Pact] leveled up! (3 -> 4)] [[Advanced Weapon Mastery] leveled up! (3 -> 4)] [Learned [Blood Recovery] Lv 5!] [[True Sight (Variant)] leveled up! (5 -> 6)] [[Overpower] leveled up! (7 -> 8)] ¡¯[Overpower] went up a level, and [True Sight (Variant)] went back to before I used [Lesser Channel Control] on it? Nice.¡¯ With each use of [Siphon], his proficiency was noticeably rising. Not incredibly so like his other psychic skills, but at a rate where he could feel the progress, unlike before, when he had to go through hundreds of corpses between each level. When he moved to thest vampire, which he had previously identified as the charmer among them, he chose the skill he was most wary of in hopes of learning more about it. While the others also had the skill, this vampire had a much higher level, and he judged siphoning the others would be pointless, better spent on gaining and leveling other skills. [Learned [Enthrallment] Lv 7!] [Learned [Beguiling Gaze] Lv 7!] Upon receiving the information on how to use the skill and its effects, Sol immediately frowned. ¡¯It¡¯s permanent?¡¯ From what he learned of the skill, [Enthrallment] essentially branded the target¡¯s soul with a mark, forcing eternal servitude. This process wasn¡¯t simple, and the target could resist if they wanted to, but if they weren¡¯t strong enough and lost, they would lose their minds in the process and be mindless servants. However, if paired with [Beguiling Gaze], which charmed the target, the charmed individual wouldn¡¯t resist and would be branded with little hassle. Doing this also has the side effect of making the enthralled permanently charmed, but they would still keep their mind. Knowing this, he made his way to the enthralled individuals and kneeled beside one of the unconscious civilians. He used psychic energy to scan their body, simrly to how he would when using [Siphon], already applying what he had just practiced on the vampire corpses. He didn¡¯t try taking any skills, as that wasn¡¯t his objective this time, he did this to verify their condition. After finding nothing wrong with their physical body, he moved the psychic energy into their heads. His frown deepened. ¡¯Their minds arepletely broken, almost nothing is left. Even if the brand is removed from their souls, there is nothing left to save. But maybe those that were charmed can still be saved.¡¯ He walked around to see if anyone had been charmed, but after scanning all their minds, he couldn¡¯t find a single one. ¡¯Did they not charm anyone? That doesn¡¯t make sense. It¡¯d be easier if they did¡­ Could they be somewhere else? It would make sense if they left the grunt work to the mindless ones if there were other tasks for them to do¡­¡¯ If the charmed thralls were roaming in the city, there was little he could do. It was unrealistic to check every single individual for a branded soul. Even removing the brand itself stumped him somewhat, as the skill only showed how to brand them, and once someone was branded, it couldn¡¯t be removed without destroying the soul in the process. ¡¯Maybe someone skilled with souls could remove the brand unharmed... wait, what about him!¡¯ Remembering someone who might be able to help, he activated his PAL and called the one who had given it to him in the first ce. Torben¡¯s voice came from the device. "So, we¡¯ve encountered some vampires¡­" After a quick rundown of the situation, Torben gave his advice. "Like you?" This was why Sol had called Torben, as there was nobody else he knew who could manipte souls. "Oh, I see¡­" Sol was a little disappointed, but he knew it wasn¡¯t Torben¡¯s fault. "Well, so far, we¡¯ve only found the mindless type of thralls, so we have none to cure, so to speak." Hearing this, Torben sighed and said, "...I understand. Thank you for your help." He knew it was all they could do for the victims of these vampires, but it still left a sour taste in his mouth. "Huh? Where are you going?" Sol recalled that the PALs had a ridiculous range that could epass the entire Orna Mountains. That mountain range was around a quarter of the continent, so Torben must have been nning to travel a sizable distance. He could understand why Torben wouldn¡¯t want to go back to the underground city where he had been trapped for centuries, but he found it a bit odd that his first destination was across the ocean. Regardless of how it appeared, Sol wished him the best. "Stay safe, and I hope you find what you¡¯re looking for." Chapter 299: Start of Torben鈥檚 Journey (Side Story) In the snowy Orna Mountains, a lone metallic humanoid trudged up the tallest peak. The path he followed was well maintained by the Frostaxe n orcs who inhabited the region, as it led to a being of great power and reverence. At the end of the path, the metal puppet entered the opening of an ordinary looking cave that was anything but. As he stepped inside, he looked ahead to the end of the tunnel, where a massive eye had been patiently awaiting his arrival. A deep voice rumbled through the cave upon seeing the puppet. "Ah. Thest Azrem Dwarf. Wee, it¡¯s been too long since Ist spoke with your kind." Torben, thest Azrem Dwarf, at least in spirit, approached and said, "Hello, Orna. You already know why I¡¯m here." He skipped the pleasantries and went straight to the point; there was no reason to beat around the bush. "Indeed, and I will stay true to my word and tell you what happened, at least from my understanding of it. Before I begin, how much do you know and recall of the war?" "Hmm... hard to say." He responded uncertainly. "It¡¯s been too many years, so my memory might be hazy on some details, but I remember most of the big events. Thest major one I can recall was the rebirth of Ophis and his new title as the God of Rebirth." "That is fine. What I¡¯m about to tell you happened a few months after that event." Orna replied, understanding that mortalscked the perfect memory he possessed. He began, "With Ophis, Ca, and Neitarel leading the counterattack, many enemy gods perished. Throughout the battles, some of the enemy gods surrendered. Neitarel wanted to y them all, but Ca and Ophis disagreed. Since they were in the majority, the enemy gods were allowed to live under the condition that they provide us with information." "The captured gods agreed, and to uphold the deal, they came to me to oversee it. That was when I first met the God of Bliss. He also signed the deal, promising information in exchange for his safety. But afterward, he came to see me." "He visited you? Why? Did he offer you some kind of deal?" "Unfortunately, no. If he had, I would have had an easier time identifying the trap heid." Orna¡¯s confidence in making deals was well known; his ability to identify risks and rewards was second to none. "He came simply to converse with me. His excuse was that, due to the deal he had signed, he could not participate in the war, so he chose to spend his time with me, away from the conflict. I was foolish to believe that was his true intention." "What did he do?" Orna paused before responding, "Do you know of the sins of dragons?" Torben shook his head. Despite his extensive knowledge, he knew little about dragons beyond their immense power, especially since the only two dragons the world had ever seen were both gods. "When dragons are born, we inherently begin at a much higher level than mortals. Even as hatchlings, the average dragon can easily defeat what the world now considers a C-Ranker. But that poweres at a cost, what we call ¡¯sins.¡¯" Torben was somewhat familiar with the rank system Sol had briefly exined to him, but the idea that a dragon hatchling could be so strong from birth made him wonder just how quickly they could ascend to godhood. "Sins are something we dragons are born with, and the more potential a dragon has, the more sins they carry. Pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth, these are the burdens we must bear for our power. These aren¡¯t simply traits we can ignore. Our entire being is driven tomit those sins at every opportunity, and they always lead to our downfall. The average dragon has only one sin, but, as I said, the more sins one is born with, the greater their potential. I was born with four." "Four?! But I¡¯ve never heard of you acting in a way that reflects those sins." Torben was shocked. With Orna burdened by so many sins, he couldn¡¯t recall a single instance of the dragon behaving in a sinful manner. Some might argue that Orna¡¯s long slumber was a sign of sloth or that his passion for trade indicated greed, but the former could be attributed to his need to recover from his injuries, and thetter was even less likely as nobody made deals fairer than him. Orna hummed in confirmation. "Yes. I carry pride, greed, wrath, and sloth." "But how can that be? I know for certain that can¡¯t be true for greed. No one is fairer than you." Orna was always the first to point out greedy behavior even if it benefited himself, and it was because of his trading practices that the Azrem Kingdom once boasted one of the best and fairest economies in the world during its heyday. "That is because of thews I practice and embody. You maye to understand this yourself one day, but when you consolidate yourw, you don¡¯t just wield it, you be the embodiment of it. When you embody aw, your personality and nature are changed by it. This is why I practiced the Laws of Trade and Frigid Winds, the first to neutralize my greed, and the second to quench my thirst for blood. As for pride and sloth, with only one morew I could practice, I chose the Law of Dragons, which lessened the effects of all sins slightly, enough to avoid being consumed by them." "Sows change one¡¯s nature? Aren¡¯t you afraid that you aren¡¯t yourself anymore, but something else?" Torben couldn¡¯t see why anyone would be a god if it meant bing apletely different person. He would hate to have his morals suddenly change andter do things he would have never approved of before. Orna understood his concerns and addressed them. "Personally, I believe I am better for it. I allowed it to change my nature for the better, but for those who don¡¯t wish to be changed, they can resist it during their ascension to godhood. You will still change somewhat, but nothing as substantial as my transformation. But to return to my tale: while pride and sloth had been weakened, they are still very much present, just not to the same degree as before. Every time the God of Bliss visited, he would talk for days on end. I never found it odd, as I enjoyed thepany. Few gods visited me, and those that did usually wanted something, so it was a pleasant change of pace. But as weeks passed, I felt myself yearning more and more for sleep. At the time, I believed it was my sin of sloth urging me to enter hibernation, and I ignored it as I had before. But as the days went by, my desire for slumber grew, and before I knew it, I entered hibernation." "And while you were asleep¡­" Torben could easily guess what happened next. "As you suspect, I waster awakened when I was suddenly inflicted with punishment by my own Law of Trades. I did what I could to mitigate the punishment, but even I was injured to the point where I was forced back into hibernation again." It wasedic in a way. First, he was lured into sleep, only to be woken up again and sent back to sleep right after. But no one wasughing, as during this time, two nations had fallen. "The next time I awakened, the war was already over, with both your people and the Mystic Blood n nowhere to be found. I didn¡¯t need to search for the reason why, the fact that I was punished by my ownw meant I had failed to uphold my deal to protect you, and by then, it was already toote. It was only recently, when I saw the spawn of the God of Bliss, that I realized it wasn¡¯t my sin that caused it, but his influence that exploited it. How he knew of my sin, I am not sure, there are various means to learn of such information." Though Torben finally knew what had happened to his people all those years ago, he still didn¡¯t feel any better. He would never say it out loud, but he still med Orna for what had happened. If Orna had realized what the God of Bliss was doing before it was toote, all of it could have been prevented. Still, Torben had one more question. "What became of the God of Bliss?" "Him? He broke the deal with his actions, and unlike me, he didn¡¯t survive the punishment for breaching it. He wasn¡¯t the only one, seven captured gods perished from breaking my contract. I assume they were all connected to some n, though I can¡¯t confirm whether or not that¡¯s true. I only know that they broke the deal." "I see¡­ I have one more question, but it¡¯s about something else." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Orna didn¡¯t mind. "Ask away. I¡¯ll answer to the best of my ability. It¡¯s the least I can do." Orna still felt indebted to the Azrem Kingdom for his failure to protect them. Even though he had paid the price for breaking his deal and technically owed nothing, he knew that his punishment didn¡¯tpensate for or bring back those who had perished. Torben nodded and brought up a question that had been lingering in his mind for countless years, since it first arose. This curiosity had only grown stronger when he met Sol and heard his exnation of it. "What is the system?" The answer he received from Orna only brought more questions, ones that made him even more curious. To find the answers, he would need to travel to the site of the final battle. This was the start of Torben¡¯s journey. Chapter 300: Staying In After his chat with Torben, Sol waited patiently for the results. After a few more minutes, Duncan and Rex approached him, having left Lapis to watch over the detained vampire. Duncan sighed. "His name is Brekster. He¡¯s loyal, but not loyal enough to take his own life. He¡¯s refusing to say much, but we did manage to learn that his so-called Mistress has great ns for our city." Rex added, "Yeah, but he said it in a way that made me think he wasn¡¯t too sure what the end goal is. I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯m misreading him or if he¡¯s ying dumb, but we can¡¯t just kill him and be done with it." Sol nodded and asked, "Okay, then what¡¯s the n?" Basically, they were saying they hadn¡¯t gotten much information, which wasn¡¯t surprising since it was an interrogation. They couldn¡¯t go too far because Brekster was already too injured, and healing him here, where there was even a slight chance of escape, wasn¡¯t ideal. "We bring him in. We have people who specialize in getting guys like him to talk, so we¡¯ll leave it to them. As for the victims, as long as we keep them away from Brekster and muffle him so he can¡¯t givemands, they¡¯re harmless. I¡¯ve already called for backup to help move them to a safe ce where we can try to cure them." Sol was about to say that nothing could be done for the victims but held himself back. He wasn¡¯t 100% sure. Torben had said the victims were already mentally dead, and unbranding their souls wouldn¡¯t repair their shattered minds. But what if Torben was wrong? It had been countless years since he had interacted with the world, and who knew if someone had figured out a way to save them? ¡¯Though I have no idea how someone could cure this, as what I saw looked unfixable, I wouldn¡¯t be able to forgive myself if I didn¡¯t give them the opportunity to be saved.¡¯ "Alright, sounds like a n. Let¡¯s wait for the backup to arrive, but don¡¯t let your guard down. We don¡¯t know if any other vampires might show up." He considered scanning the vampire¡¯s mind, but there was a risk it could go wrong, like when he did it on the bandits in the fort. He got very little information, and it killed the unlucky bandit. While he felt it would go better this time, with the situation being more serious, it was best to be prudent and let the professionals handle it. Duncan nodded, already considering that, and went to inform the others. They didn¡¯t have to wait long. No other vampires appeared, and eventually, five squads of ten knights arrived to transport the enthralled adventurers and civilians out of the sewers. As for the vampire, the squad escorted him back themselves to prevent any idents. It was a slight hassle to cover the vampire from sunlight, as mere contact caused his skin to burn, but a decently thick cloak solved the problem. ... n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Back at the Royal Knights Headquarters, the atmosphere was tense. Word had already spread about the vampire encounter, and missions were being handed out to squads to scour the city for suspicious activity. When Sol and the squad arrived, they turned Brekster over and were immediately called into Commander Zaman¡¯s office. "So this Mistress is behind their actions, and they have ns to do more..." Zaman contemted after being briefed on the situation. Sol nodded. "Yes, though he wasn¡¯t clear on the specifics. He seemed loyal but unsure of the endgame. Still, he¡¯s dangerous enough to keep alive for now. We need to find out if he knows more." Zaman folded his arms, his brows furrowed. "Agreed. Our interrogators should get results soon. For now, we don¡¯t have much information on her, but if she¡¯s leading more vampires, we need to bolster defenses around key areas of the city, especially at night. If she¡¯s targeting civilians or key infrastructure, we need to be prepared." Sol nodded. "Understood, Commander. We¡¯ll also take a mission to patrol at night." Even though there was no clear understanding of the enemy¡¯s ns, Sol knew that for vampires¡ªan ancient race not seen for ages¡ªto suddenly appear, it meant something big wasing. Though he had his meeting with the Saintess tomorrow, he could at least search around the city using his abilities to see if he could find anything. "No, on the contrary, you should stay in the pce for now." "Huh? Why?" Sol didn¡¯t understand why he should stay inside when he could be out there doing something. Zaman¡¯s face was serious. "You¡¯re an A-Ranker now. You¡¯re most useful staying here, ready to defend the pce if they target it. If anything happens outside, it won¡¯t take long for you to get there from here, as we¡¯re located in the center of the city. If you¡¯re elsewhere and we can¡¯t reach you, it will be difficult for you to help in a crisis." This was why he and the other Grand Knights were almost always in the pce. If they left and someone took advantage of their absence, it would be difficult for them to return in time to help. The royal pce was the most important ce to protect, so it made sense for them to stay as near as possible, which was why the Royal Knights Headquarters was built inside the pce. Sol saw the logic in that and agreed. "Okay, I¡¯ll stay then." As the meeting wrapped up, Sol left with the squad to get some rest. For them, tomorrow would be an ordinary day, but for him, it was the day he had been waiting for months. He tried to sleep but found his heart beating fast in anticipation, to calm himself he used [Reinterpret] to enter the white room and used this time to practice his skills instead. His heartbeat steadied as he practiced new ways to apply psychic energy and before he knew it the night passed by in no time. Chapter 301: Reading the Future The next day, Sol met with Commander Zaman, who escorted him to Saintess Wendy¡¯s chambers. On the way, Sol asked, "Is there anything I should know before meeting her? I¡¯m worried I might screw this up." Zaman chuckled at the question. "You said something simr when you met the princess for the first time. Like I told you before, don¡¯t overthink it. Just be yourself. You did fine then, and you¡¯ll be fine now." Sol smiled sheepishly, knowing Zaman was right. "Ah, you¡¯re right. I just can¡¯t help overthinking things sometimes." He was nervous not only about meeting her but also about convincing her to help him track his parents. Since he didn¡¯t know how much the Saintess knew or how the meeting would truly go, he had already prepared for the worst. He was ready to fight his way out of the pce if he had to, meet up with Amber, and use one of the escape routes she¡¯d prepared to flee the city. But despite all these ns, Sol knew things could still go very wrong. ¡¯If she foresaw everything, she might¡¯ve already put countermeasures in ce... I just have to hope it all works out.¡¯ While Sol worried silently, Zaman, misunderstanding his anxiety, tried to change the subject. "You know, the princess often asks about you." "She does?" N?v(el)B\\jnn Zaman nodded. "Every time we meet, she manages to subtly ask what you¡¯re up to. I suggest you visit her sometime. She certainly wouldn¡¯t mind." Although Zaman¡¯s statement was true, there was a deeper reason he wanted Sol to spend time with the princess. Recently, he¡¯d noticed signs of exhaustion in her, both mentally and physically. Princess Valerie had finished her studies, and though this should have reduced her workload, it only increased her responsibilities. She was now tasked with receiving representatives and diplomats, overseeing the council, and dealing with the massive amounts of paperwork originally handled by her father, the king, whose mysterious illness showed no signs of improvement. Although she hadn¡¯t officially been dered queen, Valerie had already begun to fill that role. At night, she continued to push the limits of her talent skill, trying to turn it into aw technique. Needless to say, her workload had only increased. She still drank potions to stave off exhaustion, but her body had begun to develop a tolerance to them. With the potions not being as effective as before, she continued to work but hid her fatigue. Most didn¡¯t notice this change but Zaman saw through her facade. He had urged her to slow down and rest, but she ignored his warnings as her job was important and there was a lot to catch up on. Zaman hoped Sol might be able to talk some sense into her. Unaware of these issues, Sol slowly nodded. "Sure, I¡¯ll visit her when I can." ¡¯That is, if I don¡¯t end up being chased out of the city.¡¯ ... When they arrived at the Saintess¡¯ chambers, Zaman bid Sol farewell. Sol took a deep breath, preparing for whatever might happen, and knocked on the door. A voice from inside called out, "It¡¯s open,e in." Sol entered therge, well decorated room. Aside from the typical furniture, a peculiar table with runes etched into it caught his eye. Looking around, he saw Saintess Wendy for the first time. She wore a white cloak that covered most of her body, revealing only her face and short blue hair. Sol gave a short bow. "It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you, Saintess." She stood up from the couch and nodded. "It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you as well, Sol. I¡¯ve heard a lot about you. Do you know why I called you here?" Sol shook his head. He¡¯d been wondering about that himself. "That¡¯s fine. Before I exin, can you tell me what you know about fate?" Sol found the question a bit strange but answered anyway. "Not much, really. You can see events in the future, and with that knowledge, we can n and prepare to prevent or avert disasters. But I imagine it¡¯s not something easy to do." He spoke from experience. With [True Sight (Variant)], he had glimpsed the future before. However, despite knowing what would happen, he had failed to respond in time to save Lapis. Had he recognized the blood on his hands wasn¡¯t his own or the orc Kirgar¡¯s, he might¡¯ve deduced that someone else would be gravely injured. Wendy smiled approvingly. "It definitely isn¡¯t easy. You¡¯d be surprised how many people assume I know everything before it happens. In reality, I only catch brief glimpses of the future. But even those glimpses can provide a lot of information. The reason I called you here is because you¡¯re like me, aren¡¯t you?" "Like you?" Sol didn¡¯t understand. "It took me a while to figure it out, but you can see the future too, can¡¯t you? That¡¯s the only way you could¡¯ve changed the future between our kingdom and the Frostaxe n." ¡¯So this is why she called me?¡¯ Relief washed over Sol as he realized this wasn¡¯t a worst case scenario. He was so relieved that denying her im never even crossed his mind, and he nodded. "Yeah, one of my skills has a very low chance of showing me a premonition, and it¡¯s only happened once so far. It was during our chase with the A-rank orc in the Orna Mountains, and it led us to where the dragon Orna lived. But I don¡¯t understand how you knew it was me who saw the future." "Ah, that part was easy." she said with a touch of enthusiasm. "To change the future, someone has to know about it first. The future is mostly unchangeable because how can it change if no one knows what¡¯s going to happen? For example, when I first foresaw the legendary fruit in the Orna Mountains, I saw it falling into the hands of orcs. But after I informed others of its location, my next vision showed your squad acquiring the fruit and returning unharmed. So when I suddenly saw another one of my previous visions change, and I hadn¡¯t acted yet, I realized someone else must have seen the future and changed it. After piecing together the events, I figured it had to be you. You led your team into the mountain cave, you negotiated with Orna, and you prevented an all out war from breaking out, paving the way for peace." Sol nodded along, her logic making sense, but there was one thing she¡¯d misunderstood. "You¡¯re mostly right." Sol said. "But you¡¯re wrong about the reason why peace happened between us and the orcs." Chapter 302: Peering into Fate The Saintess Wendy tilted her head in confusion. "What do you mean?" Sol exined, "While Orna did facilitate a deal between all of us so we could all benefit, I believe the real reason no war broke out was because I spared the orc that killed my teammate, Lapis. When I saw the future, it was sudden and came in short bursts, which I didn¡¯t fully understand until most of the events yed out exactly like I saw. The only difference in those visions was at the very end, where instead of asking Orna for the orc¡¯s life to avenge Lapis, I chose to let him live." He could still vividly recall the internal dilemma he faced when he was given the option to kill Kirgar. Initially, he was heavily inclined to ept the offer and let the orc perish. If not for his concerns that the future might be unchangeable,bined with Duncan¡¯s wise words, he likely would have gone through with it. If the vision he received was of something bound to happen, then somehow they would have managed to stumble into Orna¡¯s cave and create a deal¡ªbut Kirgar would have died, leading to war between the two nations. Thinking back on it now, that small moment of mercy had a much greater impact than he could have ever imagined. Wendy nodded along, now understanding the whole story. "For your first time seeing the future, it¡¯s amazing you were able to achieve such a result. When I had my first glimpse into fate, I didn¡¯t even know what to make of it. I thought I was hallucinating, or it was some extreme case of d¨¦j¨¤ vu. It wasn¡¯t until what I foresaw actually happened that I realized I had seen the future. But, unlike you, by then it was toote to change anything. After that vision, I experienced more until I eventually saw myself viewing my status page, where I saw I had gained a talent. That vision motivated me to level up and acquire it myself. If not for that, I might have stayed within the safe walls of my hometown." Sol listened intently to Wendy¡¯s exnation, finding it fascinating how different her experience with foresight had beenpared to his. "You¡¯ve definitely had more practice than me." Sol said with a small chuckle. "It still feels strange to think about it, knowing that even the smallest choice can lead to such big changes." Wendy smiled softly. "That¡¯s the burden and beauty of seeing the future. It¡¯s surprisingly easy to change things once you know. The hard part is learning to navigate through it and understand what actions to take. But it¡¯s even harder when others also tamper with the timeline." N?v(el)B\\jnn Sol¡¯s eyes widened. "Others? Who are they?" "I don¡¯t know." Wendy replied with a shrug. "But whenever someone changes what is supposed to happen, they cause ripples throughout fate. The size of the ripples increases depending on the impact of their actions. Like when you spared the orc, which caused waves that reached me here, as it affected the future of both our nations. But unlike you, those who have tampered with fate have hidden their traces, so I don¡¯t even know what they changed." Sol let her words sink in before asking, "So, why did you really call me here? Was it just to talk about fate and the future?" While the conversation was insightful, he sensed there was more to her wanting to meet with him. His assumption wasn¡¯t wrong. Wendy shook her head. "While that¡¯s part of it, the real reason is that I need your help." "Mine? How?" She nodded and inched a bit closer as she spoke. "You¡¯re the only other person I¡¯ve met who can look into the future like I can. Together, I hope we canbine our powers to solve a mystery that involves the fate of this city. Someone, somewhere changed fate and the waves it created enveloped the entire city. I have been trying constantly to find out what¡¯s been changed or what will happen because of it but they covered their tracks well. All I know is that the impact from their intervention will affect us all eventually." Wendy was referring to the massive waves she felt a few months ago shortly before the knight selection. She had dedicated a lot of time to uncovering what these waves meant for the city, whether good or bad. Alone she had been unable to obtain any results, but with Sol¡¯s help they may be able to seed. "I don¡¯t think I can be of much help. Like I said before, I can¡¯t control it." Sol couldn¡¯t understand how his [True Sight (Variant)] could be useful. He couldn¡¯t control when it happened or what he saw, and he couldn¡¯t just sit around waiting for it to happen again. Wendy reassured him. "That¡¯s okay. I can teach you to gain better control of it, but since that will take too long, and we don¡¯t know when the events they changed will ur, I have another way. There¡¯s a ritual I can perform that links our abilities temporarily. With it, I might be able tobine your foresight with mine and focus it in the direction we need. It¡¯s a bit risky, though." Sol raised an eyebrow, wary. "Risky how?" Wendy sighed. "It¡¯s not without its dangers. Linking our abilities meansbining our energies for a short time, and it may create a fewplications, leaving us vulnerable while we peer into fate." Sol was silent for a moment, weighing his options. His instincts told him to be cautious, but this could also be the perfect opportunity to find out more about his parents. He would also ease one of his biggest worries he had about Wendy finding where his parents were through fate. With both of them being wanted criminals, if Wendy recognized them, there was little he could do if she refused to tell him where they were. While there were ways Sol could force her to divulge their location like with the use of psychic energy to read her mind, he wasn¡¯t willing to go that far. Sol drew the line on using such methods on someone who was innocent. At least this way he would be able to see where they are himself. "Alright." he said, taking a deep breath. "I¡¯ll do it." Wendy¡¯s face brightened with relief. "Good. Let¡¯s begin immediately." She gestured for him to sit at the table, which was inscribed with runes. The two sat facing each other as Wendy locked hands with him. "I¡¯m going to start the ritual now." she said, closing her eyes. "Just rx and focus your mind on how you felt when you had your visions. I¡¯ll guide you from there." Sol nodded and closed his eyes, thinking back to the moment of the chase, when they hadunched themselves high into the sky like a cannonball. He recalled the view, where everything beneath them appeared as tiny dots, and the adrenaline pumping through his veins as they fled from Kirgar. As he concentrated on that moment, his eyes began to sting, just as they had before, as [True Sight (Variant)] activated once more. Wendy noticed the change and began chanting softly under her breath. A strange warmth spread from the table beneath his hands, creeping up his arms and into his chest. It wasn¡¯t painful, but it was disorienting, as he felt their energies mix together and be one. With the spellplete, Wendy¡¯s eyes shifted to resemble a starry blue night sky as she activated her ability. With the ritualplete, the two peered together directly into fate. Chapter 303: In Time Sol¡¯s vision blurred, overwhelmed by endless lights and colors. Random images flickered past him, unable to process them before distorting and vanishing. He felt himself moving in a random direction until he felt someone grab hold of him. While he wasn¡¯t certain who it was, he assumed it was Wendy. He didn¡¯t resist as she led him into a ck void, but when he tried to look around, he was unable to move his body. "I can¡¯t move my body! Wait, I can¡¯t feel it either!" he panicked, feeling himself drift away until a force tugged at him, stabilizing him. Wendy¡¯s voice reassured him from beside him. "In here, we don¡¯t have physical bodies. We are projecting our consciousness outside the constraints of time. Try using your mind to move." He did as she suggested, and after some initial struggle, he managed to turn himself around. Finally, he saw his surroundings. Below him stretched an amorphous mass, constantly shifting, at times a river, a straight line, an endlessly branching road, boundless oceans, twisting loops, and other iprehensible forms. The sight was overwhelming, and he felt his sanity slipping away the longer he watched. "Sol, look at me!" Wendy called out. Her words snapped him back to his senses, and he turned to what appeared to be a small blue cloud. "Is that you, Saintess?" he asked uncertainly. The cloud bobbed up and down as if nodding. "Don¡¯t look directly at all of time. The human mind can¡¯tprehend it all at once. We can only process small pieces. I brought us out here so we wouldn¡¯t be dragged into a random moment within it and waste our energy." Wendy, herself, wasn¡¯t confident in looking directly at time for long. When she first encountered it from this perspective, she had nearly lost her mind if not for running out of energy and being expelled back to her body. Sensing his curious gaze, Wendy said, "It¡¯s not just me who looks like this. Take a look at yourself." Sol looked down and saw his own cloud like body, but unlike Wendy¡¯s blue, his form was a light yellow with traces of orange. He spread his awareness around himself. "It feels weird, like I¡¯m here but also not at the same time." "You¡¯ll get used to it in time." "Haha, ¡¯in time,¡¯ I get it." Sol chuckled at the unintentional wordy. Wendy¡¯s cloud puffed with a sigh. "It wasn¡¯t on purpose... Come on. While we have more time here due to our shared energy, we still don¡¯t have that much to work with. Let¡¯s head to Crestel." "To Crestel? How¡ªWOAH!" Before Sol could finish his question, they dived straight into the ever changing embodiment of time, which now resembled a spiraling hourss. Sol saw images of people and ces sh by rapidly, too fast to process, and then suddenly, they appeared above the city of Crestel. Below he could see people moving about in their everyday life with carriages entering and exiting the city like a colony of ants. Sol recognized the city and asked, "Where¡ªI mean, when are we? And what do we do now?" Wendy looked around. "We¡¯re a few months in the past. Normally, I experience random visions at certain moments in time, but with your help, we should be able to move through the city¡¯s fate." As they shared energy, Wendy discovered just how much Sol had within him. With both of their fate powersbined, she was able to exert more control over time. Alone, she could only slightly guide her visions in the right direction, but together, she felt confident they could navigate time with much greater uracy. "Are you ready?" Wendy asked. Sol nodded. "Okay, follow my lead." Suddenly, the sun dropped below the horizon, the moon reced it, and then quickly set as the sun rose again. The city below blurred as its people turned into streaks of light, going about their day while time sped by. Sol and Wendy, however, remained still, they were moving as well only, not in any normal direction, but through time itself. The cycle of day and night repeated rapidly, and as they moved forward, Sol asked, "Why are we going forward in time? Weren¡¯t the waves you detected in the past?" Wendy continued. "They covered their tracks well. Even with your help, I doubt we¡¯ll find traces in the past. What I do know is that their tampering has impacted this city¡¯s fate. So instead of focusing on what they changed, let¡¯s look at the future and see the consequences." Sol understood the logic. It didn¡¯t matter what had been altered, it was the resulting consequences that mattered. Since Wendy mentionedrge waves of change, the impact on the city should be visible. As they moved further through time, Wendy suddenly sensed something. "I feel it. Something big is ahead of us." Sol, still trying to keep up, didn¡¯t fully understand, but followed along anyways. He didn¡¯t have the luxury to ask how she could know that as the process of traveling through time like this was draining, and he felt his energy quickly depleting. ¡¯How are you not even tired?¡¯ He thought to himself as he looked at her in amazement. Unlike Sol who was new to interacting with time and fate, Wendy had long grown ustomed to this. This wasn¡¯t to say she wasn¡¯t draining energy rapidly as well, their energy was shared after all. She was simply more used to working with less and now that she had arge supply of energy to work with it felt much easier byparison. Just as they neared their destination, the two clouds were abruptly knocked back, and the city around them froze in ce. They lost control and fell into the main street below. Fortunately, their incorporeal forms weren¡¯t harmed, nor did they affect the frozen city. "What happened?!" Sol asked, shaken. "I don¡¯t know!" Wendy replied, equally confused. It was the first time she had encountered such a phenomenon. N?v(el)B\\jnn As they tried to make sense of it, footsteps echoed behind them. In the frozen city, someone else was present. "It¡¯s rare to see two newbies exploring time together." a voice said. "You should count yourselves lucky I stopped you in time." Chapter 304: Deus Sol and Wendy, in their cloud forms, turned around to see a humanoid figure that was anything but human. It had four silver limbs simr to those of a human, but all of them were detached from the torso, hovering an inch off where they should have been connected. Its head, however, wasn¡¯t remotely human, just two rings rotating around a white ball of energy. Sol leaned closer to Wendy and said, "I thought you said we can¡¯t have physical forms here." She shook and replied in a hushed voice, "I don¡¯t know! I didn¡¯t even think it was possible." The rings around the white ball of energy vibrated softly as the figure chuckled. "You¡¯re right, it¡¯s not possible. This is only my projection, but unlike your unrefined technique, I can form a nearly identical copy of my main body that is equally powerful." Wendy was shocked. She had thought her technique was impressive, but she couldn¡¯t deny howcking it seemedpared to the stranger they encountered. "I see... But may I ask who¡ªor what¡ªyou are? Why did you stop us from going any further?" Wendy asked after oveing her initial surprise at meeting another like them. The odd humanoid¡¯s rings spun as it replied, "Organic beings can¡¯t pronounce my real name, but you can call me Deus. I¡¯m what most people call a Novakin, beings made of pure energy. As for why I stopped you, it¡¯s because I noticed you two waltzing straight into a imed moment in time. You wouldn¡¯t have survived if the one who imed it had found you." Sol¡¯s cloud body tilted slightly as he asked, "A imed moment? What does that mean?" Deus exined casually, "imed moment, fixed point, canon event, it goes by a few different names. Essentially, it means someone like us, who can see and influence time, has taken hold of the time in this area. Entering it would alert them, and unless you be a god, I highly suggest you don¡¯t do that. Otherwise, they might obliterate your consciousness or erase your existence. Even a wild Null Beast would be a threat to you, so don¡¯t pick a fight with a god who¡¯s expending a lot of energy to make things unfold the way they want." ¡¯I feel like I understand more but less at the same time. What even is a Null Beast?¡¯ Sol thought to himself. "Umm¡­ Sir Deus¡ª" Wendy began. "Deus is fine." Deus interrupted, raising its hand. "I¡¯m not one for honorifics." Wendy¡¯s cloud body bobbed up and down. "Okay, Deus. Thank you for saving us, but this city is our home. If something bad is going to happen, we need to know what it is. I don¡¯t think someone would im this moment in time with good intentions." "You live here?" Deus nced around the city briefly, then focused on the pce in the distance. "Oh, there you are." In an instant, the three of them disappeared from the streets and reappeared in the Saintess¡¯ chambers. There, they saw the real bodies of Wendy and Sol, holding hands over the rune etched table. "So we¡¯re currently in the present? Then doesn¡¯t that mean..." Sol mumbled gravely. "Whatever is going to happen will happen soon..." Wendy finished his sentence in a simrly grave tone. "So this is your present then?" Deus pondered for a moment, its disembodied foot tapping the floor. It sighed. "Argh, fine, I¡¯ll help you this time. It¡¯d be a waste for two new explorers of time to die before they could grow. Wait here for a moment." In an instant, Deus disappeared again, leaving the two behind. Sol turned to Wendy. "How long do you thi¡ª" Before he could finish, Deus reappeared,ughing. "Hahaha! I can¡¯t believe this is happening! Fate really works in mysterious ways." Wendy floated closer. "What¡¯s happening? Is it bad?" Deusughed for a bit longer before calming down. "Hah... Well, it¡¯sedic in the grand scheme of things, but for you right now, it¡¯s not very good. I was going to inform you what will happen, but after seeing it all y out, it¡¯s best not to say anything. Sorry." Deus put its hands together in an apologetic gesture. "I do feel a bit bad about not saying anything, so I¡¯ll do you another favor instead." Deus said, turning to Sol. "Let me save you some time and help you find what you came for." "What he came for?" Wendy asked, unaware of the situation. Sol, on the other hand, knew exactly what Deus meant. "Really?" "Yep, let¡¯s go." Deus said as it grabbed the two of them and moved through time once more. Unlike before, this took a bit longer. As they arrived, Deus said, "I¡¯ll drop you two here and head out. I have other matters to tend to, but I have one piece of advice for you, Sol. When blood rains, don¡¯t look up, look behind." n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "Wait, blood rain? What does that mean? Also, how did you know my name?" Sol turned around to ask, but Deus was already gone. ¡¯I guess it heard my name in the future it went to see. But what did it mean by blood rain? Is it a literal rain of blood or some kind of blood attack like I saw with the vampires?¡¯ With Deus gone, Sol could only wonder about its cryptic words. Wendy looked around and realized they were at the docks of arge city. Blue banners emzoned with an emblem of five diamond shaped scales, arranged in a crescent shape, hung from walls, posts, and ships. Wendy recognized the symbol. "It looks like we ended up in the port city of Lominsa, one of the major cities of the Sapphire Scales Alliance... But, Sol, what did Deus mean by ¡¯what you came for¡¯? Is there something you¡¯re not telling me?" she asked with suspicion. Not expecting Deus to reveal his intentions, Sol struggled to find the words to exin himself. "Well¡­ I do want to help you, but I also want to find some people..." "Who are you looking for? Wait! Is that who I think it is?" Wendy was about to offer to help Sol in his search until she spotted a man and a woman disembarking from one of the boats. The woman was tall and fit, with long silver hair tied into a ponytail, while the man, somewhat shorter inparison, had dark brown hair and an average face. Sol¡¯s eyes widened, he recognized both of them instantly. Though they looked slightly older than he remembered, there was no doubt they were his parents, Roman and Sylvia. Wendy focused on the two figures and eximed, "It is them! The ck Tongue and Sylvia!" They watched as Roman and Sylvia walked past, and Sol was about to follow to see where they were going. But before he could, he felt a sharp pain throughout his cloud body. Theirbined energy had just run out, and they could no longer maintain their projections. Regardless of the pain, Sol tried to force himself to follow after them, but with no more energy, his and Wendy¡¯s cloud bodies disappeared in a puff of smoke. Chapter 305: Just Go The two opened their eyes and found themselves back in Wendy¡¯s chambers, both still shaken by what they had seen. Wendy reacted first, attempting to stand, but she staggered backward and copsed into her seat. She was utterly drained, suffering from mana overdraft. Sol was in a simr state and instinctively checked his mana reserves. [Mana: 24/5200] Holding his aching head, he thought to himself, ¡¯We were only there for a few minutes, yet all my mana, and even my psychic energy, waspletely drained. I don¡¯t think I regenerated anything; it all happened in a brief moment.¡¯ Though they had spent what felt like several minutes traveling through time and fate, in reality, they had been gone for only a few seconds. Even if he could regenerate mana since it all urred in an instant his physical body wasn¡¯t able to regenerate more than 50 mana which ultimately added nothing to their duration. If Wendy had been more proficient, she might have extended their stay, but even then, such a feat required an absurd amount of energy that they didn¡¯t have. Only gods had the luxury of exploring fate and time as leisurely as Deus did, but even they would run out of energy eventually. To speed up her recovery, Wendy took out a mana potion and drank it. Wiping a few drops that had spilled onto her lips, she said, "I need to inform the Princess and Commander Zaman about the impending danger, and the ck Tongue¡¯s location." "Wait, you can¡¯t!" Sol eximed, hastily grabbing his own potion from his spatial ring and downing it in one gulp. She stood up, steadying herself. "Don¡¯t worry, I understand why you¡¯d want to find him." "You¡­ do?" Sol asked, bewildered. He couldn¡¯t fathom how she might have figured out they were his parents. Wendy nodded, her mind already forming a n. "Of course. We can assemble a strong team to take him down. With you, two of the Grand Knights, and maybe an A-rank adventurer or two, we can catch him by surprise. We¡¯ll need to run this operation by the Sapphire Scale Alliance first, since it¡¯s in their territory, but I doubt they¡¯d refuse our help. You¡¯ll have your revenge." She began walking toward the door, but Sol sprang up and blocked her path. "Wait! Please, I don¡¯t want anyone sent after them!" He couldn¡¯t bear the thought of causing a subjugation team to be sent after his parents. He didn¡¯t want anyone to fight, be hurt, or die because of his personal quest. "You¡¯re not making any sense." Wendy said, unable to move past him. "Then why are you looking for a wanted criminal? Don¡¯t tell me you n to face him alone? You¡¯ve only just reached A-rank! The ck Tongue has far more experience and abilities, not to mention Sylvia, another A-rank fighter under his control. You cannot defeat them on your own." Wendy tried again to move around him, but Sol remained firm. His mind raced for a solution, any excuse to stop her, but his pounding headache made thinking difficult. ¡¯What if¡­ I silence her? No, I can¡¯t!¡¯ Sol shook the dark thought away, knowing that was a line he should never cross. N?v(el)B\\jnn Wendy, still determined, pressed on. "Sol, we can discuss thister. Something big ising, and if we don¡¯t act now, it might be toote!" Sol understood the urgency, but if he let her leave, she would likely reveal his parents¡¯ location. Out of options, he resorted to the only option avable to him, the truth. "They¡¯re my parents." "Th-they¡¯re your what?" Wendy froze, stunned. She couldn¡¯t believe what she was hearing. Sol repeated, his voice more resolute this time. "My parents. Roman is my father, and Sylvia is my mother." He quickly exined how they had be separated and how his memories had only recently been unsealed. However, he omitted mentioning Amber and her reasons for wanting to find his father, it wasn¡¯t his story to tell. He only spoke of his own motivations. Wendy remained silent, too shocked to respond, as Sol poured out his heart. When he finished, she still didn¡¯t speak. Desperate, Sol pleaded, "Please, don¡¯t tell anyone where they are. My dad isn¡¯t the same person he used to be." Wendy could see how earnest being and knew that at the very least Sol believed what he was saying. She took a deep breath, her expression serious. "Are you sure? Do you realize how many assumptions you¡¯re making? What if you¡¯re wrong, and the ck Tongue is stillmitting crimes? What if your memories were tampered with to make you believe he¡¯s your father? And even if you¡¯re right, what about the crimes he¡¯s alreadymitted? Shouldn¡¯t he be held ountable? Should he just walk free because he ims to have changed?" Sol flinched under the barrage of questions, unable to respond. Taking a moment to steady himself, he finally said, "You¡¯re right. I could be wrong, and I don¡¯t have answers to all your questions. I didn¡¯t even know where to start looking, which is why I came here in the first ce. But I have to see them for myself. Once I do, I¡¯ll know what to do." It was true his ims were difficult to prove, but Sol had already verified the authenticity of his memories using his psychic energy. Meanwhile, the memories of the family he thought had been killed by a [Mind Shaper] were poorly constructed. He believed his father had created them in a rush while simultaneously building the mental barrier and altering the memories of the townsfolk. Wendy studied him intently, as if trying to discern whether he was even sure of what he was saying. After a long silence, she said, "Move." Sol hesitated for a moment, but stepped aside. He had made his case, and saying more would only make it worse. He only hoped he managed to get through to her. At the door, Wendy paused, still not looking at him. "I won¡¯t tell anyone¡ªor turn you in, for that matter. Just go." Before Sol could respond or thank her, the door mmed shut, leaving him alone in the room. Chapter 306: The Parts We Play Sol left his room after waiting a few minutes, hoping to avoid crossing paths with her on the way out. As he walked down the pce hallway, her words echoed in his mind. ¡¯Just go, huh? She clearly disagrees with my actions, but I¡¯m thankful she¡¯s letting me leave and not telling anyone about mom and dad. But what about the imed moment in time? Isn¡¯t that supposed to happen soon? Why would she tell me to go?¡¯ It didn¡¯t make sense. Even if she opposed his n to search for his parents, the looming threat of the imed moment in time, which Deus had been vague about, remained. He thought she would, at the very least, urge him to stay and deal with the impending danger. ¡¯If she doesn¡¯t want me to stay, then I¡¯ll leave.¡¯ Though he had been willing to assist, he worried she might change her mind if he stayed any longer. Leaving promptly felt like the best course of action. Through his PAL, he contacted Amber. "No trouble on my end. I¡¯m walking out of the pce now. I know where we need to go." Amber¡¯s voice came through the device. "Meet where?" Sol considered their options. "The slums, it¡¯s the safest route." Of the many escape ns they had prepared, the slums were ideal. They offered multiple exit tunnels hidden beneath the city walls, thanks to the ck market. On top of that, few people ventured into the area, and with their stealth skills, leaving undetected would be simple. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "Okay." Amber confirmed before ending the call. Still on edge despite his caution, Sol made his way to the slums. Though he doubted anyone knew he was leaving for good, he couldn¡¯t shake his nervousness as he exited the pce. ... Elsewhere in the pce, Saintess Wendy hurried through the corridors toward Princess Valerie¡¯s chambers. Urgency coursed through her as she sought the one person who could mobilize everyone quickly. Finding the Princess¡¯s room empty, she changed direction toward the next best option, Commander Zaman. She reached his office, relieved to find him inside. "Saintess? Are you already done speaking with Sol?" Zaman asked, surprised. He had left Sol at her chambers only ten minutes earlier. Wendy nodded but waved off the question. "Yes, but that¡¯s not important now. Something major is about to happen, and we must be ready to respond immediately." Zaman¡¯s rxed demeanor shifted. "Did you have a vision?" "Yes." Wendy confirmed. "Though the details remain unclear." She didn¡¯t have time to exin the strange experience she and Sol had endured, but she knew action was necessary. Despite theck of specifics, Zaman didn¡¯t hesitate. "Understood. I¡¯ll prepare the knights and alert the army. Should I notify the Adventurer¡¯s Guild as well?" "Call anyone who can help." Wendy affirmed. "By the way, where is the Princess? She wasn¡¯t in her room or anywhere nearby." "You won¡¯t find her in the pce." Zaman replied, picking up a book titled Dungeon Rules. "She left for the dungeon." Rather than exining, he opened the book to a bookmarked page and pointed to a specific line. Wendy¡¯s eyes widened as she read it. "Is this true?" "We¡¯re about to find out. If so, the dungeon may be a valuable ally." ... Meanwhile, a lone, unremarkable woman with long ck hair approached the za where the entrance to Necropolis resided. Gazing at the dungeon from a distance, her emotions were conflicted. She hesitated, considering whether to returnter or just not at all, but quickly shook off the thought. Though this was thest ce she ever wanted to be, it was important for her to go inside. The two guards stationed at the entrance noticed her approach. Since they didn¡¯t recognize her, one of them used his skill, [Battle Assessment], to see if she wasn¡¯t strong enough to enter the dungeon. Immediately recognized her overwhelming strength as there was no scenario he could win against her. He exchanged a nce with his partner, and both stepped aside to grant her passage. The woman entered silently, descending the stairs to the rest area. Relieved to find the area empty, she approached the teleport sigil and removed a bracelet from her wrist. Her appearance transformed. ck hair turned golden, her unassuming face shifting to reveal the regal features of Princess Valerie. Instead of activating the teleport sigil, she announced loudly, "I, Princess Valerie of the Kingdom of Crestelia, formally request an audience with the dungeon¡¯s core!" The room remained silent, the sigil unresponsive. As seconds passed by, doubt began to creep in. ¡¯Could the dungeon rules be fake? Zaman assured me they were real¡­¡¯ Her worry dissipated when the sigil glowed beneath her, whisking her away. Valerie reappeared in a ce unlike the usual rest area. Iplete dungeon walls surrounded her, with the floorrgely made of earth and stone, as if it were still being excavated. She might have mistaken it for underground ruins if not for the massive 10 meter orb hovering silently ahead. Her breath caught. "The dungeon core." she murmured in awe. Though she had read about dungeon cores, the descriptions of smaller, meter wide cores in low rank dungeons hadn¡¯t prepared her for this. Few had seen the core of an A-Rank dungeon due to the extreme danger of delving so deeply. The core remained silent, but a dark shadow emerged from within. It rose, taking the form of a Shadow Crawler. Valerie instinctively tensed. This creature was unlike the others she had encountered in its boss room. It didn¡¯t hide its strength as it emanated a powerful shadow aura that revealed to her it was a true A-Ranker. The Shadow Crawler flicked its tail and addressed her. "I will speak on Mother¡¯s behalf, human. The rules state that only the ruler of a nation can request an audience. Where is the king or queen?" The dungeon¡¯s rules were clear, only a ruler could make this request. Valerie may be the princess but she was most certainly not the ruler. She had expected such a question after initially reading the rules. She steadied herself and replied, "The King is unable to fulfill his duties at this moment, so I am acting as Crestelia¡¯s ruler for the foreseeable future." Though technically true, Valerie had not yet ascended the throne. Her authority stemmed from the King¡¯s illness, which left her as the kingdom¡¯s most influential figure. But she didn¡¯t have full authority yet, for that to happen she would have to fully ascend to the throne which could only happen when the King is conscious enough to pass it to her or he dies. The Shadow Crawler nced at the core, seeming to await its judgment. After a moment, it nodded. "Very well. What do you wish to discuss?" From her spatial ring, Valerie retrieved a dragon scale imbued with the Law of Trades and said, "I wish to propose a mutually beneficial agreement." Chapter 307: No Regrets Sol arrived at the slums, and with the help of [Invisibility] and [Muffled Movements], he easily passed through without any encounters. After walking a fair distance, he leaped onto the roof of a nearby building and slid across it,nding in an alleyway. Though it was an alley, there was no entrance at street level; the passage had beenpletely sectioned off by two homes built at either end. This wasn¡¯t intentional. Slum residents, constrained by the small plots ofnd allocated to them, had made the most of the space they had, unintentionally blocking the alleyway. Being part of the slums, city nners and officials were either unaware of this or didn¡¯t care enough to address it. Little did the residents or officials know that this isted alleyway wouldter be discovered by the ck Market and repurposed as the perfect location for a tunnel leading out of the city. While not particrly useful for smuggling goods in, the tunnel served well for discreet escapes. Uponnding in the secluded alley, Sol deactivated [Invisibility] and waited. He didn¡¯t have to wait long, Amber appeared beside him almost instantly, having already been there in stealth, waiting for him. Acknowledging her presence with a nod, Sol moved to the center of the alleyway. Using [Terra Maniption], he brushed away a thinyer of loose dirt, revealing a wooden hatch. Lifting it, he exposed a set of stairs leading into a long underground passage. Even with the tunnel open, Sol hesitated at the entrance, a conflicted expression on his face. "Want to stay?" Amber asked sinctly, noticing his reluctance. He shook his head. "A little, but that¡¯s not the main reason. I¡¯m more worried about what will happen to the city. It doesn¡¯t feel right to leave now." Amber tilted her head, confused. Sol realized he hadn¡¯t exined and quickly caught her up on his brief encounter with the Saintess. "I know we got what we came for, but leaving now, with whatever¡¯s about to happen, leaves a sour taste in my mouth. What should we do?" This wasn¡¯t solely his decision. Amber had an equal stake in their ns. While Sol¡¯s primary goal was to reunite with his parents, Amber¡¯s goal was to find his father and free herself from the mental conditioning she was under. There was a possibility that Sol could attempt to cure her himself, having unlocked his psychic potential. But he had intentionally avoided trying. It wasn¡¯t because he wanted Amber to remain as she was, but because he feared making a mistake with such a delicate procedure. Unlike the vampire they had captured in the sewers, where breaking its mind to extract information would have been eptable, he didn¡¯t dare risk Amber¡¯s well being. After consulting her, they agreed it was safer to let his father handle the procedure or to wait until Sol had gained more experience in psychic maniption. When Sol asked for Amber¡¯s input, she silently weighed the pros and cons. Logically, the safest choice was to leave and avoid the risk of whatever might befall the city. There was also the additional risk of them wasting too much time and by the time they arrived at Lominsa his parents could already be gone. Yet, taking everything into ount, her answer was clear. "Stay." Sol was surprised by her decision. "Are you sure? This could get very dangerous. We don¡¯t even know what¡¯sing." Amber nodded. "Will regret if people got hurt." ¡¯She¡¯s saying I¡¯ll regret it if people get hurt because I could have stayed to help. She¡¯s not wrong¡­¡¯ Amber knew Sol well enough to predict his actions. He would always try to help others, even at great risk to himself. If he left now andter heard of a tragedy befalling the city, he wouldn¡¯t forgive himself. Though Amber didn¡¯t care much for others, she didn¡¯t want to see Sol burdened by regret. It was, after all, his selflessness that had saved her when they were enemies. "You¡¯re right. Thank you." Sol said with a big smile. "I¡¯ll head back and see what I can do to help. Given everything that¡¯s happened, it¡¯ll likely involve the vampires, so if anything happens, it¡¯ll be at night. That gives us time to prepare." He was certain Commander Zaman had already begun mobilizing every avable soldier to defend the city, but another A-Ranker like himself would be a valuable asset. If nothing happened before sunset, Sol could use hisw technique, [Lesser Channel Control], to elevate [True Sight (Variant)] into aw technique and survey the entire city. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om ¡¯It would cost me a level, maybe two, but it would be worth it.¡¯ he thought. As he prepared to head back to the pce, Amber caught his hand, stopping him. "I¡¯ll follow you. Fight together." Amber wasn¡¯t about to sit idly by while Sol risked his life for the people of this city. Without knowing what they were up against, it was safer for them to stick together. Sol hesitated, worried about bringing her to the pce, but separating didn¡¯t feel like a good idea either. He nodded. "Okay, let¡¯s go." The two leapt onto a rooftop and began traversing the city, running and jumping from one roof to another to save time. But as they moved, the daylight around them began to dim. At first, Sol thought it was a thick cloud blocking the sun, but as the darkness deepened and a tinge of red painted his vicinity, he nced upward out of curiosity. "What the¡ª?" His eyes widened in shock. Looming above them wasn¡¯t a cloud but a blood red moon that entirely obscured the sun. It bathed the city in an ominous red that caused many to look up at it in both curiosity and fear. While most were unaware of what it meant, Sol instantly understood its purpose. "The vampires are attacking!" Chapter 308: Blood Moon Throughout the city, vampires suddenly appeared and began attacking people. Though their appearance was unexpected, able fighters quickly took up arms tobat them. Among these fighters, adventurers were the most eager to join the fray, knowing the guild would handsomely reward those who helped during the emergency. They also realized they outnumbered the vampires and believed the battle would be an easy victory, but they soon discovered how wrong they were. "These monsters are strong!" "Watch out! They can control blood!" "They¡¯re vampires! Use fire and light magic if you can!" Most had forgotten about vampires, thinking they were extinct, but the few who recognized them informed the others, helping to clear some of the confusion. Those who could adapt to the situation did their best to put the knowledge to use. "Fly forward with brilliant mes and burn my foes to ash, [Fire Arrow]!" A fire mage cast a ming arrow that soared through the air, targeting a vampire locked inbat with two adventurers. The vampire grinned at the iing attack, grabbed one of the adventurers, and tossed him into the arrow¡¯s path. "AHHH!" The unfortunate adventurer was engulfed by his ally¡¯s mes. Fortunately, a healer was nearby. "Condense the sap containing the essence of life to heal and revitalize, [Life Dew]!" The healer saved the adventurer before he sumbed, but the burns were too severe for immediate recovery. The adventurer wouldn¡¯t be able to fight again until the healer could cast another [Life Dew] or two. While the healer tended to the burnt adventurer, the other engaged in the fight desperately parried the vampire¡¯s strikes. Even his casual swings left his arms aching. "This thing is too strong!" he yelled in frustration. The vampireughed mockingly at their struggling. "You can¡¯t beat us! We are under a blood moon! You don¡¯t stand a chance!" The blood moon not only shielded the vampires from the sun but also greatly empowered them, doubling their attributes and enhancing all blood rted abilities. This advantage elevated every vampire in the city by a rank, except for peak B-Rank vampires, as the barrier to A-Rank was not so easily surpassed. With the adventurers not understanding the difference between them, the vampire became bored and decided to end it. He swung his hand and pped the adventurer away, sending him crashing into a nearby building and ending his life in a single blow. It then swung its arm,unching blood needles at the fire mage, the healer, and the wounded adventurer. The attack aimed to finish them all at once, but just before the needles struck, a stone wall erupted from the ground, blocking the assault. The vampire frowned and scanned the area. "Who¡¯s there? It doesn¡¯t matter how many of youe, the result will be the same." No one responded, but suddenly, the vampire felt wetness at his neck. He touched the area and stared at the red liquid on his fingers. "What the¡ª?" Before he could process what happened, his head fell clean off its body. The stone wall protecting the adventurers receded as well, revealing the in vampire to the group. The healer stared in disbelief. "It¡¯s dead? In an instant?" The others were equally shocked but assumed a powerful adventurer had saved them. "Thank you!" Though they didn¡¯t know their savior¡¯s identity, they were grateful nheless. [[Intermediate Blood Magic] leveled up! (6 -> 7)] [[Blood Recovery] leveled up! (5 -> 6)] A fair distance away, Sol and Amber were already towards the next battle. Sol paid little attention to the skills he gained, siphoning what he recognized before moving on. With battles erupting across the city, every second counted, and wasting time in perusing the possible skills could have been spent saving others. Though they had in many vampires and saved many lives, it still felt as if they¡¯d made no impact on the overall chaos. "We need to find the A-Rankers. That¡¯s the only way to end this." Sol said, scanning the surroundings. He suspected the A-Rank vampires were already fighting the city¡¯s A-Rankers. If he could locate and assist them, they could tilt the battle in their favor while simultaneously freeing up more A-Rankers to snowball the advantage. However, the city was too vast to search quickly. He decided to contact his squad via PAL. "Where are you guys? Is everyone okay?" Duncan responded immediately. "The slums? Why are you there?" Most avoided the slums unless they had specific business there. Duncan hesitated before Aron interjected. Nataly added, "You guys¡­" Sol blushed, embarrassed by his oversight but touched by their gesture. Despite wanting to assist them, Sol trusted his squad¡¯s capabilities. "Have you seen any A-Rank vampires? We need to prioritize them." Rex replied, Sol agreed. "Alright. Stay there and ensure the slums are safe." He worried the slums would be overlooked by other defenders. With his squad there, he knew they could rally local adventurers and make a difference. Duncan assured him. Sol deactivated his PAL and nced between the pce and the guild. ¡¯The pce or the guild, where to go?¡¯ BOOM! An explosion shattered the air, drawing his attention to the pce. A massive hole gaped in the wall as vampires surged inside, met by knights and soldiers scrambling to hold them back. Initially, Sol wasn¡¯t concerned, knowing the pce¡¯s defensives were formidable. But then he noticed something troubling: the vampires could use their abilities freely inside the pce. ¡¯How did they bypass the nullification array?!¡¯ There was no mistaking it as he could seerge blood spells being cast by the vampires inside the walls of the pce which was normally impossible thanks to the nullification array. The array suppressed magic within the pce unless the caster had an emblem that registered their mana signature. Sol¡¯s Royal Knight Captain badge served that purpose allowing him to freely cast magic, but seeing the vampires unaffected was rming. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om With the defensive measurespromised, the pce was in greater danger than anticipated. Determined, Sol and Amber made a beeline for the pce. Chapter 309: Atop the Palace Wall At the opening in the pce wall, the royal knights and soldiers took up arms to defend against the vampires¡¯ assault. Magic, arrows, and des shed between the two forces, their might shing in a fierce struggle. Yet, for all their efforts, the true battle wasn¡¯t unfolding there but atop the pce wall, where Commander Zaman stood against two vampires. One was Carmi, wielding a dark red whip, and the other was Nisha, the Mistress of the vampires, holding no weapon, but instead a peculiar crystal orb with a single drop of blood suspended within. Though outnumbered, Zaman stood resolutely, halberd in hand. "What is your purpose in attacking us? As far as I know, we¡¯ve done nothing to provoke you." Carmi threw her head back inughter. "Foolish human. Perhaps not in your lifetime, but you will pay for what your kingdom has done to us in the past. The Primo¡ª" "Don¡¯t monologue, Carmi. He doesn¡¯t need to know why." Nisha interrupted sharply. Internally, she sighed. While Carmi was undeniably capable, she had a penchant for talking too much when the odds were in her favor. This was precisely why Nisha hadn¡¯t left her to attack the pce alone. She had apanied her while the other A-rank vampires targeted key locations across the city. ¡¯Because of the blood moon, she¡¯s even chattier today.¡¯ Nisha¡¯s gaze fell on the crystal orb in her hand, its single drop of blood glowing faintly. This was the Blood Reign, a legendary artifact that enhanced blood magic and created the blood moon, a phenomenon that shielded vampires from the sun and greatly amplified their power. The orb drew its strength from a drop of blood belonging to an outer god, a treasure Nisha had "borrowed" from the Primogen. She shivered at the thought of what would happen if he discovered her actions. But as always, she reasoned, it was better to ask for forgiveness than permission. Although Nisha had never intended to use the Blood Reign, the incident in the sewers had forced her hand. The original n was no longer viable, and swift action was now their best strategy. If they dyed, heightened patrols or the captured Brekster would soon expose the vampires¡¯ hideouts scattered across the city. Even though victory was not yet secured, the attack could already be deemed a sess. Battles raged everywhere, and while their forces were outnumbered, their superior strength guaranteed eventual triumph. Still, Nisha remained vignt. ¡¯We can¡¯t afford to let our guard down. We must stick to the n to ensure victory.¡¯ "[Bloody Cleaver]." A massive de of blood materialized above Zaman and plummeted toward him. Zaman frowned as the crimson strike descended. "So, no peaceful resolution then." With a powerful swing, he shed upward with his halberd, splitting the blood cleaver in two. As his weapon arced upward, Carmi¡¯s whip snaked around it, locking it in ce. Zaman tugged, attempting to free his halberd, but Carmi held fast with supernatural strength. The weapon refused to budge. "Oh~? Is the big, strongmander weaker than little ol¡¯ me?" Carmi teased, her mocking grin wide. The blood moon had granted her incredible strength, even though herw technique didn¡¯t focus on enhancing physical power. Despite Zaman¡¯s resistance, he couldn¡¯t match her raw force. Without a word, he released the halberd, allowing it to fly into Carmi¡¯s grasp. "Hehe, now that you¡¯re unarmed, you¡ª" "Carmi, stop ying around." Nisha interjected, her tone sharper now. "Yes, Mistress." Carmi replied, begrudgingly. Though she relished toying with an A-ranker while empowered, she knew Nisha¡¯s patience had limits. Carmi¡¯s eyes glowed red as she activated herw technique, [Heart Turner]. Her smirk widened as Zaman¡¯s expression softened, his eyes zing over with a glossy red sheen. "Poor Commander~" she crooned mockingly. "Even the mighty Royal Knight Commander isn¡¯t immune to my charms." She sauntered closer, twirling her whipzily, savoring her supposed triumph. "Why don¡¯t you kneel, darling? I promise to show you mercy." Zaman dropped to one knee, his gaze fixed on her. His eyes betrayed no emotion, only the haze of her control. "The silent type, hmm? Don¡¯t worry, I don¡¯t mind~." Behind him, Nisha frowned but refrained from interrupting. This performance was part of Carmi¡¯s technique, meant to deepen her victim¡¯s infatuation for her. Despite her confidence in Carmi¡¯s powers, Nisha couldn¡¯t shake a lingering unease. ¡¯Even under the blood moon, we shouldn¡¯t underestimate him.¡¯ Carmi leaned forward, holding Zaman¡¯s halberd. "Now, beg for forgiveness, Commander. Perhaps I¡¯ll let you live... as my pet." Zaman¡¯s lips moved, a faint whisper escaping. "Forgive me..." Carmi¡¯s grin widened. "Good. Now, I think I¡¯ll¡ª" The whisper grew sharper. "...for whates next." Before Carmi could react, Zaman¡¯s hand moved in a blur. A second halberd materialized in his grasp, and he shed in a zing arc of steel. Carmi¡¯s eyes widened in shock. She jerked back instinctively but wasn¡¯t fast enough. The de cut through her abdomen, spraying blood. "[Transfusion]!" Being on guard, Nisha reacted instantly, casting a healing spell. The spilled blood surged back into Carmi¡¯s body, sealing the wound before it could be fatal. Carmi, still reeling from the attack, yelled, "How are you able to resist my charm?!" Under normal circumstances, she might have epted Zaman¡¯s resistance, but in her current empowered state, such defiance should have been impossible. Zaman chuckled. "Sorry, I just don¡¯t lean that way." "What?! How does that even make sense?!" Carmi shouted, incredulous. She didn¡¯t care about his sexual orientation, her charm worked regardless of such things. She had made both men and women fall before her countless times before. Herw technique transcended such limitations. In her brief moment of confusion, Zaman seized the opportunity to strike again. He swung his halberd, aiming to pierce through her head. "[Blood Wave]!" Nisha intervened swiftly. A cascading wall of blood surged between Carmi and Zaman, forcing him to retreat. The wave pursued him relentlessly, but he doubled back and leaped over it, his movements fluid and precise. Multiple halberds materialized around him, and with incredible power, he hurled them at the two vampires. Nisha cursed under her breath as the projectiles sliced through the air with deadly precision. "[Scarlet Barrier]!" she shouted, raising her hand. The blood around her solidified into shields, deflecting the iing halberds. Carmi, though still recovering, snapped her whip, destroying a few more before they could reach her. "You¡¯re more troublesome than I thought." Nisha muttered, her calm demeanor tinged with frustration. She nced at the Blood Reign orb in her hand, weighing whether to channel more of its power. Though the blood moon had already granted her overwhelming strength, Zaman¡¯s resilience and resourcefulness were proving a greater challenge than anticipated. N?v(el)B\\jnn Unbeknownst to most observers, Zaman was constantly leveraging hisw technique, [Evesting Present]. Though a passivew technique, it allowed him to analyze his surroundings with unparalleled rity and devise perfect counters to any situation. This ability let him face opponents far stronger than himself. Zamannded deftly on his feet, his gaze sharp and unyielding. He gave the vampires no chance to regroup. With amanding yell, he hurled another halberd at Carmi, forcing her to sidestep, then closed the distance with lightning speed. "You¡¯re outmatched." Zaman said coldly, his voice cutting through the air. "It doesn¡¯t matter how much stronger you are than me." Carmi sneered, even with the de at her neck. "Maybe, but I¡¯m not alone." Before Zaman could react, Nisha¡¯s voice sliced through the tension. "Enough." The air thickened with oppressive energy as the drop of blood within the Blood Reign orb began to glow ominously. Crimson light flooded the surroundings, casting eerie shadows across the battlefield. Zaman instinctively leaped back, distancing himself as Nisha¡¯s power surged. "This kingdom¡¯s time hase." Nisha dered, her voice resonating with a power far beyond mortalprehension. "You fought well, Commander, but you stand against the inevitable." She raised the Blood Reign high, and the blood moon¡¯s light pulsed violently. A wave of energy erupted, washing over the battlefield. The vampires below roared in unison, their strength surging even further. Their attacks grew more ferocious, overwhelming the knights, soldiers, and adventurers defending the city. Zaman gritted his teeth as the oppressive aura pressed down on him. Despite his formidable strength, he couldn¡¯t ignore the overwhelming advantage the vampires now held. He steadied himself, gripping his halberd tightly. "I¡¯ve seen the inevitable before." he said, his voice steady. "Trust me, you¡¯re not it." With that, he charged forward once more, reigniting the sh with even greater intensity. Nisha and Carmi moved in tandem, their attacks synchronized with deadly precision. Yet Zaman¡¯s strikes remained calcted, his defense imprable, and his unyielding will matched their overwhelming might. Though he held his ground valiantly, the tide of battle began to turn against him. As powerful as hisw technique was, it had its limits. Identifying openings was one thing, but if hecked the speed or strength to exploit them, he was left vulnerable. Bit by bit, he was forced onto the defensive. During one exchange, Carmi¡¯s whipshed around his leg, binding him in ce. Zaman anticipated the attack but couldn¡¯t move his body in time. "It seems you were wrong, Commander." Carmi said with a vicious grin. "We are inevitable." "[Sanguine Lances]." Nisha intoned. Dozens of crimsonnces materialized around Zaman in an inescapable formation. They hovered menacingly, poised to strike. But just as they were about to be unleashed, a beam of pure void energy streaked through the air, targeting Nisha. Chapter 310: Betrayal "Mistress, look out!" Carmi moved swiftly, using her enhanced speed to shove Nisha out of harm¡¯s way. The beam sliced through the air where Nisha had been standing, missing her but catching Carmi instead. The st struck her right shoulder, obliterating it entirely and severing her right arm from her body. Though startled by the attack, Nisha quickly confirmed that Carmi was still alive. Without hesitation, she refocused on her spell, sending her bloodnces hurtling toward Commander Zaman. But in the brief moment she¡¯d taken to ensure Carmi¡¯s safety, Zaman had freed himself from Carmi¡¯s whip and evaded the spell¡¯s impact. Nisha clicked her tongue in irritation and cast another healing spell. "[Transfusion]." As Carmi¡¯s severed arm reattached seamlessly, Nisha shifted her attention to the origin of the attack. A young man came sprinting up from the street below and leapt onto the pce wall, a massive Tynamo Cannon in his hands. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Commander Zaman didn¡¯t take his eyes off the vampires but addressed the neer in a stern tone. "You¡¯rete. This is why I told you to stay inside the pce." "Sorry about that, but I¡¯m here now." Sol replied, shing an apologetic smile. He could tell Zaman was annoyed, after all, he¡¯d explicitly been ordered not to leave the pce, but he had disregarded those instructions following his meeting with the Saintess. Meanwhile, Amber, who had apanied Sol, remained below. She moved silently through the shadows, taking down vampires one by one with her pseudow technique. Their enhanced senses and abilities meant nothing if they couldn¡¯t see her attacksing. Carmi eyed Sol warily. "We ounted for all the A-Rankers in the city, including the five in the Royal Shadows. Did you ascend recently?" Sol didn¡¯t answer. Instead, he aimed the Tynamo Cannon at her and fired again. The void beam streaked toward her, but Carmi blurred as she sidestepped with ease. rm flickered across Sol¡¯s face; her speed was incredible, almost beyond his ability to track. "The blood moon is enhancing all their attributes." Zaman warned. "Brute force alone won¡¯t work here." Sol tilted his head up, studying the crimson moon. "So that¡¯s why they¡¯re this strong?" Until now, he¡¯d assumed the blood moon merely shielded the vampires from the sun. Its amplifying effects hadn¡¯t been apparent to him because most vampires he encountered were far too weak for him to notice the difference. ¡¯If the moon is the problem, then maybe¡­¡¯ An idea sparked in Sol¡¯s mind. He raised his hand, and shadows surged upwards, swirling into a storm as he activated the special ability of [Umbral Domain]: Symphony of the Night. Carmi narrowed her eyes at the shift in the atmosphere. "What¡¯s he doing?" Nisha¡¯s attention snapped to the growing phenomenon above them. The Blood Reign pulsed ominously in her hand, reacting to the interference. "He¡¯s trying to tamper with the blood moon!" Above, a second moon began to form, this one entirelyposed of shadows. The battlefield darkened further as the eerie glow of the blood moon was consumed by this new presence. The vampires felt the shift immediately; their enhanced strength and speed began to wane. "Oh no, you don¡¯t!" Nisha shouted, channeling more power into the Blood Reign. The artifact glowed fiercely as a red beam shot forth, colliding with the shadow moon and dispersing it. Sol frowned. His attempt had been countered. ¡¯I need something stronger than [Umbral Domain]. I didn¡¯t want to burn skill levels, but if that¡¯s the only way to even the ying field¡­¡¯ "Commander, can you hold them off? I need more time to try again." "Easier said than done, but I¡¯ll do what I can." Zaman replied, stepping in front of Sol. He knew the risk; one mistake could cost him his life. But if Sol could neutralize the blood moon, their chances of victory would soar. "You think we¡¯ll let you?" Carmi sneered,shing her whip toward Sol. Before the whip could strike, a figure leapt onto the wall, a woman with sharp brown hair tied in a ponytail, her royal knight armor gleaming under the distorted moonlight. She wielded a spear with an air of mastery that rivaled even Zaman¡¯s halberd. "Itaya." Zaman said, surprise coloring his voice. "You¡¯re here." Itaya, who had ced second in the Knight Selection and was also an A-Ranker,nded gracefully beside them. She assessed the situation with calm precision. "I¡¯ve finished on my end. I¡¯m here to help." "Good." Zaman replied curtly. "Stay sharp. These two aren¡¯t ordinary vampires." Carmi grinned wickedly. "Good! This will be fun to watch!" As Zaman and Itaya charged the vampires, Sol expanded [Umbral Domain], pushing the limits of [Lesser Channel Control]. The technique burned through his skill levels, but he managed to perform it faster than before. The battlefield erupted in chaos as the four shed. Zaman intercepted countless attacks aimed at Sol, skillfully protecting him. Itaya, meanwhile, went on the offensive, targeting Nisha to disrupt her spellcasting. Though Nisha managed to cast some spells, Itaya prevented at least half from beingpleted. "Don¡¯t let him stop me!" Nisha growled, her anger clearly showing. She raised the Blood Reign, readying another counter to the shadow moon¡¯s resurgence. But just as Zaman and Itaya pressed their attack, a shocking twist unfolded. Itaya¡¯s spear, mid thrust, suddenly turned, not toward Nisha, but toward Zaman. Caught off guard, Zaman couldn¡¯t react in time. The spear pierced through his stomach, the force driving blood from his mouth. He staggered back, looking at her in stunned disbelief. "Itaya¡­ why?" he choked out. Retrieving her spear, Itaya let him copse to the ground. Her gaze was cold, unfeeling. "I obey my Mistress¡¯s will." Zaman¡¯s eyes widened as he pieced everything together. Not only had she been a thrall the entire time, but she had also been secretly sabotaging them from the very beginning. From leaking information to nting fake evidence and even destroying the nullification array that allowed magic to be cast within the pce walls, it was her all along. He had tried to investigate her before, but with the Royal Shadows refusing to cooperate, his inquiries had led nowhere. Now, he was paying the ultimate price for failing to keep a closer eye on her. Carmiughed as sheshed her whip toward Sol, who was still focused on ascending the skill. Nisha followed up as well with her own blood magic, creating a blood skewer andunching it his way. ¡¯No! I¡¯m so close!¡¯ Sol¡¯s face paled as he spotted the iing whip. He realized that evading it would mean losing all his progress in expanding the tether. But just as he prepared to dodge, Zaman hurled his halberd with thest of his strength. The weapon collided with Carmi¡¯s whip mid air, entangling it and causing its trajectory to change, colliding straight into the blood skewer. Even in his heavily wounded state, he managed to perfectly throw his halberd in a way that it blocked both their attacks. Itaya frowned at Zaman¡¯s interference and lunged at him with her spear to finish him off. However, the resourceful Commander caught the spear with his bare hand, forcing it slightly off its trajectory. The action utterly destroyed his right hand, but it bought him a few more precious moments of life. "[Blood Skewer]!" Nisha incanted,unching a deadly spell toward Sol. But it was already toote. [Comprehendedw technique [World of Shadows] Lv 1!] Chapter 311: [World of Shadows] [[World of Shadows] Lv 1: Can create, shape, and animate shadows across vast distances. Attributes increase by 75% in shadows or darkness. If surrounded by absolute darkness, attributes instead increase by 100%. Shadow beings and weapons created by the user gain full sentience and act independently. Shadow beings within shadows or darkness are empowered by 200%. Connection to the moon intensifies. Once per week, the user can invoke the Shadow Eclipse.] Shadows spread beneath him like a tidal wave, consuming the iing blood skewer and everything else in their path. Itaya lunged forward with her spear, herw technique, [Sky Piercing Spear], enveloping the weapon in a sharp energy that tore through the shadows. She aimed for where Sol had stood moments before, intending to take him down directly. But as her spear pierced through the darkness, it revealed nothing, Sol had vanished. The hole left by her attack was quickly filled by the ever expanding shadows, which surged toward her and the vampires. Caution overtook them as they retreated, wary of what might happen if they were caught within the shadows. Commander Zaman, however, was left behind, enveloped as the shadows consumed him. The darkness continued to grow until it stretched over 100 feet, swallowing a significant portion of the pce wall and thebatants below. Inside the shadows, defenders and vampires alike were disoriented. Their senses dulled, and their vision was reduced to nothing. Panic set in as they stumbled over one another, desperate to escape the oppressive void. Commander Zaman couldn¡¯t see beyond a few feet in the inky ckness, but to his surprise, the shadows passed harmlessly around him. Suddenly, a pair of hands lifted him from the ground, and the darkness surrounding him dissipated just enough for him to recognize his savior, Sol. "I¡¯ve got you, Commander. [Life Drop]." Sol quickly cast a healing spell, forming three drops of water brimming with rejuvenating energy. The drops absorbed into Zaman¡¯s body, but the effects were disappointingly minimal. Frowning, Sol retrieved his strongest healing potion and poured it over the gaping wound in Zaman¡¯s stomach. The potion worked better but still fell short of fully healing him. Zaman coughed, spitting blood. "Itaya infected me with her mana when she struck. The wound won¡¯t heal until I purge her energy. Don¡¯t waste your time. Deal with them first." Sol hesitated, his instincts screaming to keep healing, but through his connection to the shadows, he sensed another attacking. He barely dodged as Itaya¡¯s spear pierced through the darkness, followed by another strike and a wave of blood. The shadows devoured the blood wave but couldn¡¯t stop the spear¡¯s prating strikes. ¡¯Itaya¡¯sw technique excels at pure pration.¡¯ Sol realized. ¡¯I can¡¯t block those no matter what. But blood magic... that¡¯s another story.¡¯ Even so, staying within the shadows wasn¡¯t a long term solution. Sol could feel his [World of Shadows] tether fraying under the strain. Prolonging the expansion risked not just his energy but the skill itself. "Amber, I need your help. Come into the shadows." Through his PAL, Sol called for Amber. Without hesitation, she leapt into the ominous ck sphere. The shadows parted to guide her to Sol and Zaman. "I need you to get him somewhere safe." Sol said without preamble. Amber nodded, lifting the massive Commander with ease despite her smaller frame. Zaman, though unfamiliar with her, trusted Sol¡¯s judgment and didn¡¯t protest. Amber activated [Vanish], the evolved form of [Invisibility], and disappeared along with Zaman. Sol parted the shadows for their exit, then refocused on the relentless assaults from Itaya and Nisha. Through the shadows, Sol observed Carmi wreaking havoc on the soldiers outside. Unable to affect the shadows directly, she focused on ughtering the knights and adventurers still in the open. ¡¯The longer I take, the more die.¡¯ Sol thought grimly. ¡¯Let¡¯s deal with the blood moon first.¡¯ The shadows surged upward, defying gravity as they reached for the sky. They spiraled higher, coalescing into a vortex of darkness that consumed the blood moon. Its eerie red glow flickered and dimmed before vanishing entirely. In its ce, a ck moon with a faint silvery halo emerged, casting a cold, ethereal light over the battlefield. The effects were immediate. Nisha, Carmi, and every vampire across the city felt their strength drain away as the blood moon¡¯s empowering energy vanished. Their bodies returned to their natural states, devoid of its amplification. "What is this?!" Nisha screamed, clutching the Blood Reign orb tightly. She tried to reestablish her connection to the blood moon, but the orb trembled in her hands, refusing to respond. "This isn¡¯t possible! The Blood Reign contains the blood of a god!" While it was true that the blood drop held divine power, the legendary artifact couldn¡¯t channel its full might. The orb only tapped into a fraction of its potential; attempting more would overwhelm and destroy it. But the vampires¡¯ troubles didn¡¯t end there. Across the city, shadows began to shift and stir. From the darkness, humanoid figures emerged, armed with an array of spectral weapons. These silent, menacing beings moved with deadly purpose. "W-what are those?!" a soldier cried out in terror. Exhausted and overwhelmed by the vampires, the defenders despaired at the sight of this new force. "Is this city doomed to fall?" "The gods have forsaken us!" The vampires were equally shaken, believing another faction had joined the fray. Yet, observing the soldiers¡¯ panic, they wondered if an alliance might be possible. After all, their goal was not to take the city. The shadow beings made their purpose clear. As a soldier shed at one of the figures, the being sidestepped without retaliation, continuing its silent march toward a nearby vampire. The vampire, realizing it was the true target, tried to flee. But with the blood moon¡¯s power gone, he was easily caught and torn apart. "Look! They¡¯re helping us!" an adventurer shouted in relief. "Hahaha! We¡¯re saved!" The tide turned rapidly. Across the city, shadow beings overwhelmed the vampire forces, cutting them down with ruthless efficiency. Realizing the shadows were allies, the defenders rallied and joined the battle with renewed vigor, taking revenge on their weakened foes. Back on the bridge, Carmi, Nisha, and Itaya stood united, their res fixed on the one responsible for the chaos. Sol, no longer cloaked in shadows after using them to create the shadow moon, exuded an air of confidence despite facing three A-rankers. ¡¯Not only have they lost the boon from the blood moon, but my attributes have nearly doubled.¡¯ Sol thought to himself as he analyzed the situation. Though he wasn¡¯t fully enveloped in absolute darkness to gain the full 100% boost, the 75% increase he did achieve was more than sufficient. He also tried to use [Analysis] to gain a better idea of his opponents strength, but all of his attempts were blocked by a thinyer of mana that protected them. Nisha shot a quick nce at herpanions, her tone sharp. "We need to work together. Don¡¯t let him control the flow of the fight." Itaya nodded, gripping her spear tightly. "Understood." Sol didn¡¯t wait for them to strategize further. With a wave of his hand, shadows surged from beneath him, splitting into a web of tendrils thatshed out like living whips. Each tendril aimed directly at their vitals, forcing the trio to react immediately. Itaya¡¯s spear glowed brilliantly with the power of herw technique, cleaving through the oing shadows as she pushed forward toward Sol. Sol sidestepped her radiant attack, only to catch sight of Carmi¡¯s whip streaking toward him from the side. Reacting quickly, he dissolved into shadows, phasing through the whip. "Tch." Carmi grumbled in frustration as her attack passed harmlessly through him. Reforming nearby, Sol summoned shadowy figures around them, each one lunging in for a surprise attack. "[Blood Ring]!" Nisha swiftly countered, creating a circr de of blood that cut through the advancing shadows, dispersing them instantly. With the area momentarily clear, Carmi took the chance to activate herw technique. Her crimson eyes gleamed as she cast him a seductive wink. "C¡¯mon~ You wouldn¡¯t attack me, right?" Sol paused as an inexplicable flutter stirred in his chest. But he quickly recognized the danger. ¡¯This is just like [Beguiling Gaze], only much stronger.¡¯ Realizing it was likely aw technique based on simr principles, he steadied his mind with psychic energy before enveloping his head in a helmet of shadows. The protective shroud blocked her gaze, even covering his eyes, while still allowing him to perceive his surroundings by sensing nearby shadows. While there was the option of also directly disabling herw technique he was already directing a lot of his attention to maintaining his tether from reverting back to normal. It was possible for him to still disable one or even twow techniques, but he wouldn¡¯t be able to concentrate on the fight simultaneously. With her charm neutralized, Sol summoned more shadow beings to keep the pressure on, fashioning a de of shadows for himself. The weapon radiated sharp, corrosive energy, its potency even surpassing the Lipon. With his shadow sword in hand, he charged alongside his summoned beings toward the trio. "Hold him back!" Nishamanded, her voice resolute as she began chanting a powerful spell. Itaya darted forward to intercept him, her spear zing with radiant energy. But instead of engaging her, Sol maneuvered past, directing his focus toward Carmi while the shadow beasts went after Itaya and Nisha. "Hey! Why are you targeting me?!" Carmi yelled angrily as she deflected his strikes with her whip. "Yeah, I¡¯m not fighting someone with a weapon typew technique head-on. You¡¯re just the easier target." Sol said bluntly,bining [Weapon Empowerment (Variant)] with [Vorpal de Rush] to unleash a relentless assault. Carmi gritted her teeth, doing her best to hold her ground, but the odds were stacked against her. Herw technique was ineffective, and her whip, a weapon best suited for mid rangebat, left her at a severe disadvantage in close quarters. Sol¡¯s enhanced strength and speed made every second of their engagement a struggle for survival. Meanwhile, Itaya was faring better but was still being overwhelmed. She was forced to move back to protect Nisha from the hordes of shadow beings. Her spear pierced through the shadow beings effortlessly, each strike destroying one. Yet for every shadow she vanquished, two more emerged in its ce. Herw technique excelled at single target damage, but against such a swarm, she was forced to rely on her standard abilities, which couldn¡¯t always finish them off in one blow. Amid the chaos, Itaya noticed Carmi¡¯s peril and used herw technique to assist. Brilliant streaks of spear light pierced through the swarm of shadow beings, targeting Sol directly. Sol was on the verge of reaching peak power from his continuous use of [Vorpal de Rush], but the radiant strikes forced him to disengage. He leaped back, narrowly avoiding Itaya¡¯s attack, giving Carmi the chance to retreat. Annoyed, Sol summoned even more shadow beings, flooding the battlefield to keep Itaya upied. Then, he turned his attention back to Carmi, only to pause as a sudden shift in the air caught his attention. The ambient mana surged wildly, crackling with power. Nisha, who had been chanting uninterrupted thanks to Itaya¡¯s protection, finallypleted her spell. Her eyes burned with determination as she raised her hand and unleashed it. "[Crimson Cataclysm]!"N?v(el)B\\jnn Chapter 312: Enemy of my Enemy Above the pce, blood swirled in intricate patterns, forming an ominous vortex under Nisha¡¯s control. Her expression was calm yet focused as she manipted the swirling mass. This was herw technique, [Ancient Blood Arcana], a power that transcended advanced magic. The vortex grew denser, pulsating with raw power, before it unleashed a crimson deluge aimed directly at Sol. Sol stood his ground, unflinching as the bloodstorm descended. His hand tightened around the Tynamo Cannon. With a swift motion, he pressed a button on the cannon¡¯s side, activating its secondary function. As the blood rained upon him, the cannon hummed loudly, drawing the crimson torrent into its barrel. The deadly rain unraveled as it entered, transforming into concentrated energy that replenished the weapon¡¯s depleted reserves. For a moment, Sol smirked, confident in his strategy. "Thanks for the charge." he muttered, his toneced with mockery. He knew Nisha was channeling arge spell. Beyond sending a few shadow beings to stall her, he had done little to intervene, trusting the Tynamo Cannon to handle it. He calcted that the massive spell would not only drain her mana but also fully recharge his weapon, granting him at least one more devastating shot. The cannon had endured Torben¡¯sw technique before; this should have been no different. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om But as the blood rain was siphoned into the cannon, a memory surfaced. It was Deus¡¯s voice, a grave warning echoing in his mind: ¡¯When blood rains, don¡¯t look up. Look behind.¡¯ The words struck him like a thunderp. Instincts ring, Sol released the Tynamo Cannon mid recharge and dove to the side. SHINK! A de whizzed past, grazing his side. The attack was so precise it would have cleaved him in two had he stayed a moment longer. Sol rolled to his feet, clutching his side. The wound wasn¡¯t deep, but the cold burn of the de¡¯s touch sent a chill through him. Worse, the injury wasn¡¯t regenerating. Even with [Invincible Body], which elerated his healing fivefold, the wound remained stagnant. Sol quickly identified the issue: foreign mana from the de lingered in his body, countered only by his regeneration barely keeping it at bay. His eyes narrowed as he turned toward the attacker who now stood between him and the trio of enemies. The figure paused, tilting its head as if intrigued. It hadn¡¯t expected Sol to evade. "Who¡ª?" Sol began, but the figure snarled, pulling back its hood. It was a goblin. Unlike the wild goblins Sol had encountered before, this one was refined. Its green skin bore ritualistic tattoos that glowed faintly under the shadow moon¡¯s light. Yellow eyes gleamed with cunning intelligence, and a fanged grin stretched wide with malice and confidence. "You dodged." the goblin rasped, its voice deep and gravelly. "I¡¯m impressed. Did you know I was there, waiting for that fake opening? Or did you just react fast enough?" Ignoring the question, Sol countered with one of his own. "I heard you¡¯ve been pursuing me for months. How did you know I was here?" The goblin offered no answer, nor did Sol expect one. Instead, the goblin turned toward Nisha and her allies, Carmi and Itaya. "Let¡¯s work together." the goblin offered. "I¡¯ll help you kill this bastard." Nisha hesitated. Though they were at a disadvantage, epting help from a stranger was risky. "What do you want in return?" "Nothing." the goblin replied, shaking its head. "I just want him dead. Once that¡¯s done, I¡¯ll be out of your way." Before Nisha could respond, shadowy chains erupted from the ground, reaching for the goblin. Sol wasn¡¯t about to stand idly by while his enemies conspired to team up against him. But the goblin moved too quickly, leaping clear of the attack, as he expected such an attack. The sudden assault helped Nishae to a swift decision. She raised the Blood Reign and began chanting letting her actions speak for her. "[Blood Skewer]!" A crimson spear shot toward Sol, but he countered with a shadow sword, cleaving the spell in two. The attack didn¡¯t end there. Sol sidestepped just in time to evade the goblin¡¯s swift strike. The creature¡¯s movements were impossibly fast, its small frame darting unpredictably like a predator unleashed. The goblin¡¯sw technique, [Swift End], caused its movements to be erratic, leaving afterimages in its wake. Sol gritted his teeth, struggling to keep up. The goblin¡¯s technique specialized in misdirection and surprise attacks. Every time Sol adjusted his defense, the goblin appeared in an unexpected position,unching another strike. Most of these he parried, but severalnded, leaving shallow cuts across his body. Meanwhile, Nisha, Carmi, and Itaya pressed their assault. Carmi¡¯s whipshed out from unpredictable angles. Itaya struck with her spear, forcing Sol to avoid every hit with precision, while Nisha¡¯s spells added unrelenting pressure and healed the damage he managed to inflict on his opponents. Sol spun his shadow sword, using [Reflect] to deflect two blood spears and parry Carmi¡¯s whip in one fluid motion. But in doing so, he left an opening for the goblin, which seized the chance tond another shallow cut along his arm. "Four against one." Sol muttered under his breath, frustration mounting. "I feel like I¡¯m a dungeon boss being ganged up on. This isn¡¯t fair." Despite his irritation, he fought on, each movement calcted and deliberate. Every swing of his shadow sword carried immense power, but even that wasn¡¯t enough. The pce walls crumbled under the intensity of their battle, forcing them to continue on the ground. The soldiers and vampires had long fled, unwilling to be caught in the chaos of an A-rank sh. At first, Sol had managed to control the fight¡¯s momentum, but the goblin¡¯s addition tipped the scales. Even with his considerable skill and strength, thebined assault of four A-rankers began to overwhelm him. He dodged another blood skewer but instead of replying with an attack of his own, he was forced to retreat as Carmi¡¯s whip slithered toward him, attempting to ensnare him. The goblin darted forward, its de slicing a thin line across Sol¡¯s cheek. "You¡¯re slipping." the goblin taunted, grinning wickedly. "Overwhelmed, are we? This is justice for killing my brother." Sol said nothing, his breathing heavy. His mind raced as he calcted his next move. ¡¯Should I ascend another skill? No, I can barely handle one as it is. Disable their abilities? Too risky, that¡¯s harder than ascending a second skill. And the tether¡­ If it breaks, the shadow moon will vanish, and she¡¯ll recreate the blood moon.¡¯ If the blood moon returned, Crestel City would be doomed, with no way to stop the empowered vampires. Before Sol could act, a blinding sh of golden fire erupted from the side, forcing the goblin to retreat. The intense wave of heat shimmered in the air, momentarily halting the fight. "What¡ª?" Nisha eximed, raising an arm to shield herself. A new figure entered the fray, cloaked in golden mes. He descended from above, sending a torrent of fire toward the four attackers. Sol¡¯s eyes widened as he recognized who came to help him. "Victor?" he asked, surprise evident in his voice. Carmi¡¯s shock mirrored his. "The hell do you think you¡¯re doing?!" she demanded. Victor looked at her with a hardened gaze. "Doing what I should¡¯ve done long before this turned into aplete shitshow." Chapter 313: Changing Sides Carmi couldn¡¯t ept such an answer and was furious at Victor¡¯s actions. "I thought we made a deal with your people! Though the Mistress expected such a betrayal, you will pay for this treachery!" Sheshed her whip at him, the air splitting with a sharp crack. Victor didn¡¯t move aside. Instead, he covered his arm in golden mes and caught the whip mid strike, holding it in ce. "I don¡¯t give a rat¡¯s ass what you think. I never supported this to begin with." With astonishing strength, especially for a mage, Victor yanked the whip, pulling Carmi toward him. Forced to release her weapon, she was unable to halt her momentum in time. "[Blood Wall]!" Nisha chanted a spell, conjuring a barrier of blood between them. Carmi used it to break her momentum and leapt back to rejoin her allies. Meanwhile, the goblin assassin darted past Victor, ignoring him entirely, and lunged toward Sol. Without support from the three women, however, Sol was able to fend off its strikes with rtive ease. Itaya charged forward with her spear, channeling herw technique to strike with tremendous force. This time, Victor didn¡¯t dare block it with his mes. pping his hands together, he summoned a towering pir of golden fire in her direction. The spear shed with the mes, splitting the inferno into twin cones that incinerated everything in their path. As the two locked in this fiery standoff, Nisha unleashed another spell, conjuring a barrage of blood spears that rained down upon Victor. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Victor ceased channeling the pir and swung his arms, sending a protective arc of golden fire that evaporated the iing spears. But as he defended, Carmi, who had retrieved another whip from her spatial ring, struck from the side. The whip coiled around his legs, binding him. Victor didn¡¯t even nce at it. His mes red brighter, incinerating the whip in an instant. From this brief exchange, Victor realized that while the three women couldn¡¯t defeat him outright, their coordinated efforts prevented him from overwhelming them as well. Turning to Sol, who was still dueling the goblin assassin, Victor shouted, "Hey! Are you nning to help me or what?" Sol deflected another swift strike from the goblin, his expression wary. "Is it true what she said? You made a deal with the vampires and brought them here? Were you so petty after being disqualified from the tournament that you¡¯d endanger the whole city?" While Sol thought that Victor had poor control of his emotions, which led to the whole fiasco during the tournament, he didn¡¯t believe that it would lead to such a disaster for the whole city. Victor¡¯s eyes twitched, his golden mes flickering into a dark red, the same shade Sol remembered from the tournament. For a moment, Sol braced for another outburst, but the mes returned to their golden hue as Victorunched another fiery st at Itaya, forcing her to retreat. "You think that¡¯s why this is happening? No, dumbass! The nobles who want to take over the kingdom are behind this! We only joined them because they promised stability, but all they¡¯ve done is cause chaos. They don¡¯t give a damn about the people who die because of their actions!" Victor and his close ally, Lord Sigurd, had shared the same disillusionment. The rebellious noble faction, led by Duchess dys, had strayed too far from their ideals. Frustrated, they and a few like minded nobles broke away from the faction, working in secret to stop both dys and the vampires. There was only one problem, dys had learned of their betrayal. One of the nobles Sigurd had approached to switch sides had informed her, and she acted swiftly to contain the threat. She sabotaged their methods of long distancemunication and with none of the nobles¡¯ territory near the capital, only a few like Victor could arrive to help with the use of an expensive spatial item. Even after hearing Victor¡¯s exnation, Sol¡¯s opinion of him didn¡¯t improve much. Victor had conspired against the kingdom, and his actions had fueled the unrest in the capital over the past few months. If he and the other dissenting nobles had changed sides sooner, much of this could have been avoided. As Sol considered what to do, Victor continued battling the three women. Their coordination grew tighter as they devised countermeasures to his attacks, while relentlessly probing for gaps in his defenses. In one exchange, Victor punched forward, unleashing a st of golden mes at Carmi. Itaya stepped in, blocking the attack with her spear. Carmi used the opportunity to leap over Itaya, her eyes glowing red as she gave Victor a seductive wink. For a moment, Victor¡¯s mind went nk, consumed by sudden adoration for the vampire. The intrusive thoughts were quickly burned away by his golden mes, but as he regained control, he saw a storm of blood spears heading his way. It was toote to deflect them with his golden mes and braced himself for the worst. It was then that shadows surged up from the ground, swallowing the blood spears before they could reach him. Surprised, Victor turned to see Sol, one hand stretched out toward him while the other wielded a shadowy sword against the goblin. shing at the goblin, Sol nced coldly at Victor. "Just know, after all this, you¡¯ll pay for the deaths you¡¯ve caused." Victor let out a brief, bitterugh and nodded. "Trust me, I intend to." Kicking the goblin away, Sol used [Phase Step] to teleport beside Victor. Together, they stood shoulder to shoulder, ready to confront the four A-rank threats. Before their counterattack could begin, a thunderous roar erupted, shaking the buildings around them. Thebatants froze, turning toward the sound. In the distance, a colossal dragon of shadows rose, its maw opening to unleash a torrent of darkness that flooded the city streets below. Victor stared in awe at its sheer size. "Is that your doing?" Sol shook his head slowly. "No." Chapter 314: Vengeful Winds In the city streets below, everyone fighting for their lives paused, gazing in terror at the massive creature formed from shadows. Although shadow beings had been assisting them in the battle against the vampires, the appearance of such a colossal entity filled even their allies with dread. The shadow dragon let out a deafening roar, unleashing its shadow breath upon the city below. Vampires and citizens alike screamed in horror as the streets were drowned in a sea of shadows. "What are you doing?! I said to only attack the vampires!" Princess Valerie¡¯s voice rang out, filled with fury. She stood on the back of the shadow dragon, her golden hair catching the dim light of the shadow moon. From the dragon¡¯s massive back, a smaller figure rose from the shadows, the Shadow Crawler, the boss of the 30th floor. It chuckled at her reaction, its voice smooth and amused. "Yeah, yeah~ I know the deal, Princess. Take another look for yourself." The Shadow Crawler¡¯s tail pointed toward the city streets below, offering no further exnation. Still fuming, Valerie leaned cautiously over the side, scanning the chaos below. Her anger faltered as the shadows began to dissipate, revealing the untouched citizens beneath. Only the vampires who hade into contact with the shadowy breath were affected, their bodies dissolved into nothing, leaving only bones in their wake. Seeing the evidence before her, the Shadow Crawler added, "Only those I consider my enemies are harmed by my shadows. So rx, Princess, and let me do my thing." Valerie¡¯s expression softened, her anger reced with sincere regret. "I truly apologize for misunderstanding your actions and overreacting. Please, continue to help us." Though she had made a deal with the dungeon to secure its aid, the agreement hadn¡¯t yete into effect. When she returned to the city and saw the chaos wrought by the vampires and the ominous blood moon hanging in the sky, she had no choice but to plead with the dungeon core for immediate assistance. The core, though not obligated to help yet, had shown goodwill by allowing the Shadow Crawler to leave the dungeon temporarily. After all, a deal was meaningless if the kingdom fell before it could be upheld. "No worries." the Shadow Crawler replied with a slightly mischievous grin. It had intended the shadow breath as a small prank to see Valerie¡¯s reaction but now felt slightly guilty in the face of her sincerity. Seeking to change the subject, the Shadow Crawler nced at the shadow moon above. "You know, I expected this battle to be tough, but with this gift you¡¯ve prepared for me, dealing with these vampires will be child¡¯s y. Didn¡¯t know you had a legendary item that could do this." Valerie shook her head firmly. "We don¡¯t. I¡¯m as surprised as you are. Like I said before, it was a blood red moon when I arrived." The Shadow Crawler shrugged. "Well, doesn¡¯t matter how this happened. I¡¯ll make the most of it!" It merged back into the shadow dragon, which let out another earth shaking roar, releasing another wave of shadow breath. Vampires caught within it melted away, leaving the city¡¯s citizens untouched, oblivious to the death spreading through the enemy ranks. ... "We need to stop that thing before it kills everyone!" Victor¡¯s voice was tight with urgency, his expression dark. Even the three vampires nearby seemed to share his concern, though the goblin in their group was indifferent to the chaos, focused solely on Sol. "Victor! It¡¯s on our side, focus on the fight!" Sol called, using [Reflect] to counter another of the goblin¡¯s sneak attacks. N?v(el)B\\jnn "Are you crazy?!" Nisha snapped. "It doesn¡¯t matter who wins if we¡¯re the only ones left!" Sol ignored her, his eyes locking with Victor¡¯s. "Trust me. The only ones dying from that thing are the vampires." Using hisw technique, [World of Shadows], in conjunction with [True Sight (Variant)], Sol could see through the shadows engulfing the city. While the dragon¡¯s shadows weren¡¯t under his control, they were shadows nheless, and he quickly discerned the truth. The dungeon¡¯s Shadow Crawler and the Princess were causing it, leaving citizens unharmed. It appeared the information of the dungeon rules he passed onto Commander Zaman had paid off. Victor hesitated but saw the conviction in Sol¡¯s expression. Trusting him, he refocused on the battle. Surrounded by golden mes, Victor lunged at the goblin, his fist zing. The goblin blurred to the side, dodging with supernatural speed, but Sol followed up with a precise strike from his shadow sword. The pair worked in tandem, overwhelming the goblin with their relentless assault. Finally, Sol managed tond a decisive blow, his shadow sword cutting into the goblin¡¯s arm. The goblin retreated, snarling in frustration, and turned to the three vampires who stood nearby, seemingly idle. "What are you waiting for?! Help me!" The three women, Nisha, Carmi, and Itaya, didn¡¯t respond, their focus seemed to be on defending. "They¡¯re up to something." Sol muttered as he parried another strike from the goblin. Victor, mes still flickering around him, nced toward the trio. "We can¡¯t let them finish whatever it is!" "No kidding." Sol shot back, summoning shadow beings to distract the goblin. With the pressure eased momentarily, he extended his hand, forming a spear of darkness and hurling it at the vampires. Itaya deflected the spear midair with her own weapon. Carmi wagged her finger with a smirk. "Sorry, boys, but this is where we part ways." Nisha, holding the Blood Reign aloft, finished her incantation. "[Blood Recall]!" Her voice reverberated with magical power as a crimson wave surged outward, enveloping the city. Each remaining vampire began to glow faintly, their forms flickering as if preparing to vanish. Before the spell couldplete, a gust of wind sted the Blood Reign out of Nisha¡¯s hands. The interruption caused the spell to destabilize, its magic going haywire. Nisha had been channeling the spell through the legendary item so with it no longer in her hand it was simr to a tailor losing their sewing needle as they worked on a fabric. She had to take emergency measures to cancel the spell before it went fully out of control and transported them somewhere like the middle of the ocean or a volcano. "Leaving so soon? But I just got here." Diana descended from the sky, her figure wreathed in fierce winds. The older woman¡¯s serene smile couldn¡¯t conceal the fury simmering beneath her calm demeanor. "To ally yourselves with a Harbinger¡­ The only oue is death." Sharp winds howled, tearing into the goblin and the three vampires. Dark clouds gathered above, lightning crackling ominously before striking down at them. Carmi, cutting through the winds with her whip, tried to negotiate. "Wait! We didn¡¯t know he was a Harbinger! We wouldn¡¯t ally with such people!" She was actually speaking the truth. If they had known the goblin was a harbinger, they would have immediately declined allying with it as nothing good everes from working with one. Diana¡¯s gaze remained cold. "Ignorance doesn¡¯t absolve you. And attacking the Church of Ca is an even worse transgression against the goddess." Her fury stemmed not just from them allying with the Harbinger, but mainly because of the two A-Rank vampires that were sent to attack the church. The winds intensified as lightning rained down on the trio. As the deadly winds suppressed the three of them Victor joined in to add even more pressure. Sol was going to join as well until Diana reminded him. "Sol, don¡¯t let the Harbinger escape." Unbeknownst to him, the goblin had already vanished amidst the chaos. ¡¯It ran away?!¡¯ He only turned his attention to the women for a second but the goblin used that brief gap to quickly escape. Thinking on his feet, he used [Wild Hunt], causing his eyes to glow green as he traced the goblin¡¯s faint blood trail, instinctively knowing it belonged to his target. A glowing green line appeared in his vision, leading away from the pce. "You¡¯re not getting away that easily!" Chapter 315: Harbinger鈥檚 Blessing Throughout the city, on almost every street, the vampires were being massacred. Shadow beings roamed the streets, hunting them relentlessly. A shadow dragon spewed a breath that targeted only them. Even the city¡¯s regr adventurers and soldiers, with their numerical advantage, overwhelmed the vampires once they lost the blood moon. Victory was no longer a possibility for these vampires, they could only hope to survive. Amid the chaos, a cloaked figure dashed through the streets, ignoring everyone and everything around him. Moving like a phantom, he was undetectable to those he passed. It was the goblin, fleeing from the battle he knew was already lost. The goblin snarled beneath his cloak. ¡¯You won this time, you bastard, but I¡¯ll be back. I¡¯ll find a better opportunity to kill you and avenge my brother.¡¯ Even in defeat, his thirst for revenge burned brighter. ¡¯I failed the moment I didn¡¯t kill him in the initial attack. I¡¯ve assassinated A-rankers before, but those were always quick, clean strikes. This fight exposed my ws. But I have all the time in the world to improve and try again.¡¯ His mind was already analyzing areas for improvement: stealth, assassination techniques, and most importantly,bat skills to take on A-rankers in direct confrontations. ¡¯And I don¡¯t have to worry if he tries to run or hide.¡¯ With a grin, he reached beneath his cloak, retrieving a rustedpass. It looked like any ordinarypass one could buy in a shop, unremarkable in every way except for the direction it pointed. It wasn¡¯t aligned with north; instead, it pointed directly behind the goblin, toward the pce. ¡¯With this gift, you can never escape me.¡¯ Suddenly, thepass¡¯s needle shifted slightly, pointing toward his side. The goblin¡¯s instincts red. Rolling to the side just in time, he narrowly avoided shadow spikes erupting from the ground where he had just stood. He whirled around in shock, his eyes narrowing as he spotted Sol standing on the roof of a nearby building. Sol red down at him, his expression cold. "Did you really think you coulde and go as you pleased? I¡¯ve heard how far you came just to kill me. This only ends with one of us dead." Sol knew peace wasn¡¯t an option. The goblin¡¯s thirst for revenge made that clear. He also refused to live his life looking over his shoulder, waiting for another assassination attempt. Better to settle this here and now. The goblin scowled, realizing Sol must have a way to track him as well. Running wasn¡¯t viable, it would only leave him vulnerable to further attacks. "Fine, then, you prick." the goblin growled. "Just you and me." With that, he dashed toward Sol, dodging shadow spikes that erupted from the ground as he zigzagged through them. Shadowy figures rose to block his path, but he sliced through them with fluid precision. Sol readied himself as the goblin leaped upward, his de aimed at Sol¡¯s throat. Sidestepping the attack, Sol¡¯s form blurred slightly, shadows wrapping around his body. The goblin¡¯s de whistled past his neck, cutting nothing but air. In the same motion, Sol retaliated, summoning a tendril of shadow thatshed out like a whip. The goblin twisted midair, his small, agile frame contorting unnaturally to avoid the strike. Hended lightly on the rooftop and immediately closed the distance between them. Despite his speed, Sol¡¯s calm demeanor didn¡¯t waver. As the goblin lunged again, Sol raised his hand forming jagged shadow spikes that exploded outward in a deadly radius. He was clearly applying his experience with [Terra Maniption] into these shadows to create these deadly attacks. The goblin¡¯s eyes widened, but his reflexes saved him. Flipping backward, he evaded the worst of the st. Even so, several spikes grazed him, shredding his cloak and leaving shallow cuts on his arms and legs. Blood dripped onto the rooftop tiles, but the goblin didn¡¯t falter. Instead, he smirked. "You¡¯re good, I¡¯ll give you that." he said, wiping blood from his arm. "But I¡¯ve killed A-rankers before. You¡¯re not special. You¡¯re not chosen by them." He shifted his stance, his expression sharpening with focus. Raising a hand to the sky, a ck light began to emanate from his body. "God of Premeditated Murder! Hear my plea and bless your champion!" The ck light grew more intense, the air around him thickening ominously. The ground beneath the goblin cracked as a dark crimson aura enveloped him. His wounds began to close, and his small frame grewrger, his muscles bulging unnaturally. Sol¡¯s eyes widened at the transformation. But what caught his attention most wasn¡¯t the goblin¡¯s physical changes, it was something only he could perceive. ¡¯His tether... it¡¯s expanding?¡¯ The goblin¡¯srgest tether surged with power and began to expand greatly, hisw technique and physical attributes both amplified exponentially. "Hah... I should¡¯ve done this from the start. Screw the cost." the goblin growled, his voice deeper, distorted by divine power flowing through him. With blinding speed, the goblin charged forward, his de aimed directly at Sol¡¯s heart. Sol raised a shadow barrier, but the goblin¡¯s empowered strike shattered it effortlessly, forcing him to dodge. The rooftop groaned under the force of the goblin¡¯s relentless attacks. Each strike carried more power than thest, pushing Sol back. His usual agility and control were barely enough to keep up with the goblin¡¯s newfound strength. ¡¯I can¡¯t match him blow for blow in this state.¡¯ Sol thought to himself as he focused on evading his strikes. Sol feinted to the side, creating a brief opening, and retaliated with hisw technique. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Dark tendrils erupted from the rooftop, coiling tightly around the goblin¡¯s legs and pulling him down with immense force. "Do you really think that¡¯ll hold me?" the goblin snarled, flexing his enhanced muscles. With a roar, he tore through the tendrils, the divine energy coursing through him amplifying every move. Sol watched carefully, his mind racing. ¡¯This is too much! He¡¯s ridiculously strong now, and I¡¯m running out of time.¡¯ He nced at his own tether which had been forcibly expanded and could see it unraveling at an rming rate. ¡¯I can let go and expand another tether but I¡¯m not sure if the fight against the vampires is over¡­ I can¡¯t give them a chance to resummon the blood moon.¡¯ When he left Diana and Victor they had the clear advantage, but if the blood moon reappeared, he knew it could spell disaster for them. He racked his mind on what he could do while doing his best to survive the goblin¡¯s onught of attacks. His thoughts were interrupted by the deafening roar of the shadow dragon rampaging in the distance. ¡¯Of course!¡¯ Chapter 316: Cut Off Sol easily pinpointed the location of Shadow Crawler within the massive shadow dragon. Concentrating, he sent psychic energy toward them. Shadow Crawler cackled to itself like a third rate viin, its voice echoing through the chaos as it controlled the shadow dragon to unleash streams of shadowy breath. The attack melted vampires unfortunate enough to be caught in its path, reducing them to nothing more than darkened stains on the battlefield. "C¡¯mon! Is no one here strong enough to give me a real challenge?!" it taunted, its tailzily swinging, obliterating the remnants of a nearby building. Despite its cocky remarks, Shadow Crawler knew why no one dared approach. The remaining A-rankers were either locked in battles elsewhere or had already fallen due to the loss of the blood moon¡¯s empowering light. It had spotted a few of the kingdom¡¯s elite A-rankers still engaged with vampires in distant skirmishes but saw no reason to intervene, its focus was better spent crushing the weaker vampires scattered across the city. Amid the carnage, a voice suddenly echoed in its mind. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om -Shadow Crawler? Can you hear me?- The voice was unexpected and disembodied, but its tone carried familiarity. Shadow Crawler¡¯s expression shifted from glee to confusion as it recognized the source. Though unsure how to respond, it hesitated only briefly before Sol¡¯s voice returned. -Just think about what you want to say.- Shadow Crawler nodded slowly, its thoughts tentatively reaching out. -Like this?- -Yes.- Sol confirmed. -I need you to do me a favor. Can you take over the shadow moon for me?- Shadow Crawler froze when he heard his request which also caused the enormous shadow dragon it controlled to temporarily halt its massacre. -You made it?- Shadow Crawler¡¯s surprise was understandable. It recalled its past battle with Sol in the boss room, where he recalled him also utilizing skills simr to his fellow boss monster, the Handless Fiend. After a moment, a revtion struck, and its thoughts turned curious. -Can you... learn our skills?- Sol didn¡¯t immediately respond, not because the question caught him off guard, but because he was still locked in a fierce struggle against the enhanced goblin Harbinger. -Can we discuss thister? Yes or no, can you do it?- The urgency in Sol¡¯s tone snapped Shadow Crawler from its musings. -I can¡¯t make what you did, at least not without some trial and error.- it admitted, frustrated by its own limitations. While it excelled at crafting shadow constructs, it had never developed its shadoww techniques for such purposes. -You don¡¯t need to recreate it.- Sol reassured him. -Just maintain the current shadow moon using your own shadows.- Shadow Crawler¡¯s eyes widened as realization dawned. It could work, but doing so would require sacrificing control of a significant portion of its shadows. Without hesitation, a shadow tendril reached for Princess Valerie, plucking her from her perch atop the shadow dragon and gently cing her on the ground below. Confused, Valerie turned to Shadow Crawler, who had also emerged from the dragon. "What¡¯s wrong?" she asked, scanning the battlefield. Nothing seemed amiss beyond the melted remains of vampires scattered around. "Nothing. Just taking over for someone." "Taking over wha¡ª" Valerie began, but her words trailed off as the shadow dragon pped its enormous wings and ascended into the sky. It soared toward the shadow moon, merging with it upon contact. The fusion was seamless, but outwardly, nothing seemed to change. Onlookers, including the goblin harbinger, stared upward with caution. The goblin paused his assault on Sol, warily inspecting the shadow moon for any visible changes. When none appeared, he narrowed his eyes. "What did you do?" he demanded. Sol remained silent, using the moment to create some distance between them. The goblin sneered, its confidence unwavering. "It doesn¡¯t matter what tricks you try. I have the power of a god on my side!" With a guttural roar, the goblin charged forward, its de glowing ominously as it channeled itsw technique to its peak. Sol, meanwhile, with the shadow moon under Shadow Crawlers control, released his control over his forcefully expanded tether. What remained of the strained tether rapidly shrunk down in size and a notification flickered before him: [Law Technique [World of Shadows] has degraded to [Umbral Domain] Lv. 1] ncing briefly at the message, Sol dismissed it, focusing on the goblin¡¯s approach. His arm moved back, fingers curling into a tight fist. The goblin¡¯sughter echoed. "You think a simple punch can stop me?!" With a vicious grin, it unleashed the full force of its technique, the de radiating an ominous aura as he struck. Yet as the goblin¡¯s weapon neared Sol¡¯s neck, the overwhelming power he had channeled suddenly flickered and vanished, as if snuffed out by an unseen force. "What?!" The goblin gasped, his momentum faltering. Taking advantage of his confusion, Sol¡¯s fist surged forward. His fist connected with a resounding crack, the sheer force of the blow sending the goblin hurtling through the air. He crashed into a nearby building, the structure copsing around it in a cloud of dust and debris. Sol exhaled heavily, straightening as he recovered his stance. "Guess the power of a god isn¡¯t as reliable as you thought." "What have you done to me! I can¡¯t even feel the connection to my god anymore!" The goblin was shocked and even afraid of whatever Sol did to him. He stumbled backwards in fear, losing all theposure and confidence he previously had. Sol didn¡¯t take advantage of this window as he was busy struggling to keep his hold over the goblin¡¯s tether. ¡¯If I let go for even a moment he will instantly recover his power¡­¡¯ Through Sol¡¯s eyes he could see the goblin¡¯s tether being pinched like a hose preventing the power froming through. Even so, some power still seeped through, but it was minimalpared to what it was previously. It might as well be considered at the level of a regr skill. Eying the goblin he also thought to himself. ¡¯Even though he lost ess to hisw technique, his body is still enhanced. I need to be careful.¡¯ Sol split his focus in maintaining the goblin¡¯sw technique suppressed and unsheathed his Lipon. He activated it which made it release a sword made of light. "Come. Now techniques. Just you and me." With neither of them able to usew techniques, this had be a battle between two extremely powerful B-Rankers. Chapter 317: Failed Vengeance Sol used [Phase Step] to appear next to the goblin and swung his light sword. Though still shocked from hisw technique being disconnected from him, his fear of death allowed him to recover in time to parry Sol¡¯s sh. The goblin was only able to mitigate a portion of the blow as the force was still enough to send him crashing into another building. Sol winced as he saw another building copse. He felt guilty identally destroying other¡¯s homes, but he knew that if he held back any of his attacks it would only make the fight take longer and lead to more destruction. ¡¯I hope the disaster relief funds cover this¡­¡¯ If the kingdom didn¡¯t provide assistance for some reason he would do something about itter, but for now he had to focus on the fight at hand. He chased after the goblin that was lifting himself from the rubble and used [Phoenix Dive] to crash down upon him. His Lipon began to creak in protest from how powerful the swing was, but Sol still managed to control his grip to be within eptable levels. The goblin¡¯s eyes shot open as he recovered from the previous attack and sidestepped the skill with [Killer Steps]. He was silent but fast as he moved to the side just as Sol¡¯s de crashed into the remains of the building. Though the goblin dodge the direct attack he braced himself for the shockwave that followed from the impact. Debris flew at the goblin which he endured and the moment the effect let up he dashed at Sol with his de in hand. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Sol barely had time to react as the goblin closed the distance, his movements swift and vicious, fueled by a desperation to live. Sol was still recovering from the residual force of his attack, but he instinctively raised his sword to defend. The goblin¡¯s de met his with a sharp ng, the force of the strike causing both their weapons to crack. The goblin didn¡¯t mind his weapons state and grinned, the blood running down his face as he realized that still held the advantage. "You may have taken away myw technique, but I¡¯m still stronger than you!" Sol¡¯s eyes narrowed. He couldn¡¯t deny the goblin¡¯s words. But while the goblin had him beat in terms of raw attributes, he had a trick up his sleeve to even the odds. With a sharp exhale, Sol activated [Overpower] causing his strength, agility and intelligence attributes to soar past 1000 each. In an instant he disappeared and reappeared behind the goblin before the creature could react. Without missing a beat, Sol aimed a swift horizontal sh at the goblin¡¯s back. The goblin spun just in time, narrowly avoiding the full brunt of the blow, but the edge of Sol¡¯s de still grazed across his arm, drawing more blood. The goblin¡¯s eyes shed with fury. "Dammit!" He snarled, his voice low and strained. "How are you even stronger than before?!" This tale has been uwfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Sol smirked, but didn¡¯t say anything which left the goblin frustrated. Sol followed up with [Vorpal de Rush]. Each strike from his sword of light was more powerful than thest. The goblin struggled to defend himself properly against such an onught causing more and more wounds to umte on his rune etched body. It reached the point that it even made Sol wonder if the goblin had more blood outside his body than inside with the amount he was bleeding, but he didn¡¯t drop his guard for even a moment as he could still see the fierceness in his eyes. As the skill reached its peak in power the two des shed again but this time neither weapon was able to endure any longer and shattered simultaneously, leaving both of them weaponless. "What kind of monster are you?" the goblin growled, dropping the remains of its shatter de on the ground. There was a tremor of fear in his voice now. "How is it... possible for someone to have so many powerful skills?" ¡¯A goblin calling me a monster¡­ and why does he say it like I¡¯m the bad guy? He attacked me first¡­¡¯ Sol found thement slightly humorous, and he chuckled softly. "Is that really your question? Maybe if you didn¡¯t spend the past few months chasing me down and training instead you wouldn¡¯t have lost to me." The goblin growled, baring his teeth, his pride ring at the insult. "Who said I lost?! You haven¡¯t defeated me yet!" Despite his defiance, the goblin was visibly weaker now, his stance wavering. He was covered in cuts and bruises, and each breath seemed morebored. Sol, on the other hand, despite taking his own share of damage, was standing strong. Taking a calcted step back, Sol activated [Terra Maniption]. The earth beneath the goblin¡¯s feet began to rumble and shift, and before the goblin could react, stone shot up from the ground, encasing his lower body. The goblin roared in anger, trying to break free, but the stone hardened andpressed quickly thanks to his extremely fine mana control, restricting his movements. "You¡¯re so exhausted that you can¡¯t even react to such an obvious attack like before." Sol said analytically, a dangerous glint in his eyes as he knew it was time to end this and used [Gigantify]. In an instant, Sol grew to a towering height of ten meters, his muscles swelling as his strength multiplied. The goblin¡¯s eyes widened in shock, and for a moment, fear reced his arrogance. Sol¡¯s massive form cast a long shadow over him. Sol cracked his knuckles, his voice booming as he looked down at the goblin. "You¡¯re done." With a roar, Sol charged, his colossal form closing the gap in an instant. The goblin struggled to break free again from his stone prison, but it was no use. He was too exhausted from the fight and had little to no strength left. Sol¡¯s fist, covered in hardened stone and shadows from [Umbral Domain], mmed down like a meteor. The ground buckled beneath the force of the impact, and the goblin¡¯s body crumpled under the blow, the stone around his legs shattered to pieces. The goblin gasped for breath, his body crushed, but his eyes were not filled with fear anymore. Instead, they held a resigned sadness. "I¡¯m sorry, brother," he whispered, his voice barely audible. "I couldn¡¯t... avenge you." Sol hesitated for a moment, the weight of the goblin¡¯s words lingering, but he steeled his resolve. Then, with a final, crushing blow, he unleashed the full force of his strength. His fistnded with a sickening crack, the goblin¡¯s body giving way under the sheer power. The battle was over. The familiar notification window appeared in his vision, signaling the end of the fight. [You have in a Lv 143 Goblin! Gained 1,181,642,011 Exp (560%)] Chapter 318: Tug of War Sol shrank back to his normal size and stood over the goblin¡¯s remains, breathing heavily, his heart pounding in his chest. He deactivated [Overpower] early, sparing himself the worst of the exhaustion he would have faced if he had held it for the full duration. Staring at the broken body of his enemy, guilt tugged at the edges of his thoughts. ¡¯He only came after me because I killed his brother... Am I the one in the wrong?¡¯ The question gnawed at him as he recalled the quest to exterminate the goblin encampment. With his perfect memory, he reyed the quest¡¯s description in his mind, analyzing every word. After a few moments, he shook his head, dispelling the doubts. ¡¯No, the goblins had been killing travelers and just about anyone who identally stumbled into their territory. Even if I hadn¡¯t killed them, someone else would have. Should I consider it fortunate that I took the quest and bore the brunt of his vengeance, sparing others?¡¯ The moral ambiguity lingered, but Sol knew he couldn¡¯t afford to regret his actions. They were enemies and nothing could have changed that. It was best not to dwell on what ifs, when he should instead focus on the present. Name: Gerbil Race: Goblin Talents: [yer], [Silent Stalker], [Hitman] N?v(el)B\\jnn Level: 143 Talent Skills: [Swift End] Lv 3, [Presence Shroud] Lv MAX, [Weakness Exploit] Lv MAX Passive Skills: [Reflect] Lv 6, [Advanced Sword Mastery] Lv 6, [Muffled Movements (Variant)] Lv 8, [Enhanced Reflexes] Lv MAX, [Keen Vision] Lv 8, [Blurring Agility] Lv 6, [Endless Vitality] Lv 3, [Strength Up] Lv 8, [Silent Killer¡¯s Poise] Lv 6, [Battle Intuition] Lv 7, [Evasion Mastery] Lv 9, [Critical Precision] Lv 8 Active Skills: [Grid sh] Lv 5, [Blurring Speeds] Lv 9, [Vanish] Lv 7, [Predator Dive] Lv 6, [Piercing Thrust] Lv 8, [Phase Step] Lv 7, [Precision Rend] Lv 5, [Hemorrhage Strike] Lv 6, [Prey Mark] Lv 4, [Silent Execution (Variant)] Lv 6, [Dark Laceration] Lv 5, [Assassin¡¯s Gambit] Lv 5 ¡¯Only in death do I learn your name¡­¡¯ Sol¡¯s gaze lingered on the top part status page for a brief moment before moving down to the other details. ¡¯And you had quite a collection of good skills.¡¯ With [Siphon] at level 6, Sol could select four skills and one talent skill. He wasn¡¯t sure which of the extensive options to prioritize, but the choice of talent skill was clear. As for his limit on obtaining talent skills, ever since bing an A-Ranker, he had felt that the ceiling had increased, though the exact extent remained unknown. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. He decided to leave the best forst and quickly chose the regr skills after some consideration. [Learned [Battle Intuition] Lv 6] [Learned [Critical Precision] Lv 7] [[Phase Step] leveled up! (1 -> 6)] [Learned [Silent Execution (Variant)] Lv 5] He could have spent more time deliberating a better selection, but the capital was currently still under attack and he didn¡¯t want to take too long. After learning all four skills, he moved on to the big prize. [Attempting to siphon [Swift End]...] [0%... 2%... 6%... ERROR] [ERROR: Target_Not_Found] "Again?!" Sol eximed, his frustration spilling over. It was the second time he had been denied from obtainingw technique. The first had been with the Bliss Spider, where the body had beenpletely encased in unbreakable ice into the dungeon before he could finish siphoning. This time, though, the body was still intact and nothing appeared visually wrong, deepening the mystery. He used [Analysis] on the goblin¡¯s remains once more, only to be met with an unsettling revtion. Talent Skills: [Presence Shroud] Lv MAX, [Weakness Exploit] Lv MAX ¡¯Thew technique is gone?¡¯ Sol¡¯s eyes widened as he scanned for any trace of the missing skill. Even though the system¡¯s result was clear, his attention shifted to the lingering tethers visible after the goblin¡¯s death. Among them, a dark violet tether stood out, disconnected from the goblin¡¯s body and slowly fading into the distance. "What?! Get back here!" Sol yelled not epting anotherw technique to slip by him. Acting quickly, Sol used [Lesser Channel Control] to grab hold of the fleeting tether before it disappeared. Once he managed to grab it he began to pull it towards him. It moved toward him with little resistance initially, but suddenly a force from the other end yanked it back with startling power. "No! Not this time! I¡¯m not getting robbed of aw technique again!" Sol¡¯s voice rang with determination. He focused all his will on the tether, pulling with every ounce of strength he could muster. The invisible force from the other side of the tether opposing him intensified, and a sharp pain rang in his head as he refused to release his hold over the tether. "Come on! Just! Let! Go!" he growled, punctuating each word with a powerful tug. For a full minute, the ethereal tug of war continued. Every bit of progress Sol made was met with an equal, if not stronger, pull from the other side. Finally, the tether gave way under the strain, splitting in two. One half remained in Sol¡¯s grasp, floating lifelessly, its dark violet hue fading to a dull grey. The other half vanished into the distance, beyond his perception. ¡¯It broke...¡¯ Sol sighed, his shoulders slumping. The disconnected piece drifted in front of him, devoid of energy. ¡¯Is this even useful?¡¯ he wondered, holding back the bitter disappointment. As he examined the thread, his curiosity piqued; the broken tether still contained an impressive amount of information. ¡¯It¡¯s simr to myw technique in terms of information stored within, even in this state. Can I... learn it like other skills?¡¯ Testing his theory, Sol attempted to connect the tether to himself, but it simply phased through him. He experimented further, stretching the tether, spinning it into an orb of dense information,bining it to another skill with [Aggregate]. When he began to run out of ideas he even tried to eat it, but none of his efforts yielded results. Then, inspiration struck. ¡¯Wait, I¡¯m trying to learn the skill... Why don¡¯t I try using [Siphon]?¡¯ Chapter 319: [Swift End] Combining [Siphon] with [Lesser Channel Control], the tether finally began to react. It pulsed faintly, then glowed as one endtched onto Sol, while the other end remained connected through the goblin¡¯s body and stretched endlessly, reaching into the distant unknown like the other tethers. [Attempting to siphon [Swift End]...] Sol¡¯s eyes narrowed, his gaze fixed on the process. Despite the system message floating in his periphery, his attention was focused on the glowing tether. He analysed the process, wanting to learn what was actually happening and why the goblins body was necessary. As he began to understand the mechanics behind this process, he thought to himself. ¡¯It¡¯s using the goblin¡¯s body as a medium. Just like when I adapt a skill to suit my own body, I need to bridge thew technique through the goblin to stabilize. If I¡¯d tried connecting it directly... it probably would have ripped me apart.¡¯ The thought sent a shiver down his spine. Sol¡¯s brow furrowed in contemtion. He still wasn¡¯t sure why he wasn¡¯t able to connect it directly even though it would result in dissonance between thew technique and himself. ¡¯Self preservation? A safeguard? Whatever the reason, I¡¯m d it¡¯s there and stopped me from doing something stupid.¡¯ [5%... 13%... 39%...] The numbers ticked upward steadily. By the time it reached 90%, the tether shimmered with its former dark purple vibrance. The connection between the goblin¡¯s body and Sol now hummed with power, while the far end extended beyond sight, joining Sol to whatever distant force governed thew technique. When the siphoningpleted, the familiar warning message appeared: [Assimting talent skill. (Note: This may hurt)] Sol dismissed the message with a sharp exhale. "It shouldn¡¯t hurt too much. This process was rtively fa¡ª" The words turned to a strangled cry as his body seized with a sudden, fiery agony. He doubled over, clutching his sides as if it would somehow contain the pain. His face twisted in pain with sweat dripping from his forehead. Every fiber of his being seemed to revolt against the transformation, leaving him gasping. The torment passed as quickly as it came, leaving him panting heavily, his knees buckling as he leaned against the crumbled wall of a nearby building. His chest heaved, and his hands trembled. For a moment, he simply closed his eyes and let the aftershocks subside. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om [Comprehendedw technique [Swift End] Lv 2!] Despite the system¡¯s affirmation, Sol managed only a raspy mutter between breaths. "Why... can¡¯t... it... ever... be... easy?" He wiped the sweat from his brow, his expression a mixture of exasperation and faint triumph. The pain lingered in his memory,parable only to when he first obtained [Create Magic Hands]. He flexed his fingers experimentally, his movements still a little shaky. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Before he could fully recover, his ears picked up the faint scrape of boots on stone. His head tilted slightly, and his eyes darted toward the approaching sound. Two vampires emerged from an alley, their pale faces showing clear desperation. Shallow cuts and bruises throughout their bodies. "Are they still chasing us?" one vampire asked nervously, ncing over his shoulder. The other, a woman, tilted her head, her sharp ears twitching as she used her skill [Wind Whisper]. After a brief pause, she shook her head. "I don¡¯t hear them anymore. I think we lost them." The man exhaled deeply, relief softening his tense shoulders, but his face quickly darkened with anger. He stomped a boot against the stone, cracks spidering outward. "Dammit! How could we lose the blood moon?! Without it, we¡¯re barely stronger than them. And with their numbers, we¡¯re as good as dead!" The woman nodded in grim agreement but suddenly stiffened, her head snapping in Sol¡¯s direction. "Wait... there¡¯s someone here." The man turned, following her gaze. When he spotted Sol, slumped and breathing heavily, a malicious grin curled his lips. "Look at him. He¡¯s exhausted. Perfect. Let¡¯s see if he¡¯s got any potions on him." Their weapons gleam from the lighting from a nearby house on fire as they stalked toward him like predators closing in on wounded prey. Sol, still leaning against the wall, slowly turned his head toward them, his expression showing clear irritation. Before they could react, he vanished. "Where did he¡ª?" the man started, but his words choked off as he turned to find hispanion, Vanessa, lying lifeless on the ground. A small puncture wound in her chest seeped blood that pooled beneath her. His breath hitched, and his body froze in sheer terror. "Vanessa?!" Before he could understand what he was witnessing, the world tilted, and darkness engulfed him. His body crumpled lifelessly to the ground, his eyes wide and unseeing. Sol reappeared a few feet away, standing calmly over their corpses. His expression was unreadable as he inspected the makeshift stone dagger in his hand he made with [Terra Maniption]. A dark purple aura coiled around the de, radiating an ominous energy. He tilted his head. ¡¯Huh. Thisw technique is... interesting.¡¯ Though he already knew its effects, he couldn¡¯t help but check what the system had to say about it. [[Swift End] Lv 2: Law Technique. All life eventuallyes to an end, you merely hasten it. Imbue your weapon with yer Aura, enhancing its properties and granting it death attributes capable of killing anything it touches. Intensify yer Aura into Death Aura for one attack every 20 hours. Strength and agility increase by 200. Vitality, intelligence, and wisdom increase by 100.] Sol¡¯s brow furrowed as he processed the information. ¡¯I don¡¯t recall the goblin using Death Aura. Unless... he used it in his first strike. It barely grazed me, but if it weren¡¯t for my regeneration, it would¡¯ve be much worse.¡¯ He flexed his fingers around the dagger¡¯s hilt, noting how the aura felt like an extension of his will. ¡¯While it says yer Aura kills anything it touches, that¡¯s not really the case. C-Rank and below die instantly from a light touch, sure, but if I lightly poke a B-Rankers, they may only get badly wounded or sick, not enough to kill them instantly. A-Rankers, though... it might just stop their wounds from healing unless I struck somewhere vital. Death Aura, on the other hand... that¡¯s something even A-Rankers should fear.¡¯ Satisfied, he dismissed the system window and turned his attention to the bodies. Without really paying much attention, he looted whatever he could take and put it all in a spatial ring that he also took from the goblin. He was curious to what items an A-Ranker would have, but it wasn¡¯t the time to sift through it all as there were still other vampires in the city and the three A-Rank women that Diana and Victor were holding off. With a final nce at the goblin¡¯s remains, Sol¡¯s eyes narrowed briefly before he turned and disappeared from where he stood, heading back toward the pce. Chapter 320: God of Premeditated Murder Deep within the void of spacey a rocky desert. It appeared barren, lifeless¡ªa deste wastnd. Though it had the basic necessities for life, such as oxygen, vegetation, and water, these were present in such meager quantities that supporting any significant poption was impossible. The endured extreme temperatures and grueling 22-hour-long days, a consequence of its orbit between two relentless suns. Yet, despite its inhospitable nature, a race had managed to thrive here: the Drevods. The Drevods were a hardy, ant-like humanoid race. Small in stature butrge in resilience, they lived deep beneath the¡¯s surface. Their survival hinged on a sprawlingwork of tunnels that stretched hundreds of miles, connecting all members of their society into a unified nest. Underground, they created a fragile but reliable ecosystem, securing food, water, and other essentials. While their resources were far from abundantpared to the flourishing worlds of higher-tiereds, the Drevods considered themselves fortunate. After all, of the countless races scattered across the universe, fewer than 1% could im an entire as their own. Even their seemingly insignificant world was coveted by lesser races and organizations, leading to numerous invasions. However, the Drevods defended their home time and again. The reason for which was because they had an advantage their enemiescked, a god. Piloc, the God of ss. Once a Drevod like them, Piloc ascended to godhood, bing their eternal protector. He shielded the Drevods from the perils of the universe. To honor their god, the Drevods carved a colossal chamber within their tunnels and built a magnificent pce. Despite their limited resources, they spared no expense, importing rare, costly materials to make the pce a symbol of reverence and awe. At the heart of their tunnelwork stood this crystalline pce. Its deep blue walls, reminiscent of the ocean, embodied the Drevods¡¯ vision of regality. Within the pce¡¯s depths was the grand throne room, a chamber befitting a god, where Piloc spent his days pursuing enlightenment and mastering his divinew. But today, enlightenment had eluded him. Piloc sat lifeless on his throne, his ssy bug eyes staring nkly ahead. A stab wound marred his chest, ck veins radiating outward like a sinister web, a stark contrast to his once majestic form that the Drevods revered. At the foot of the throne sat his murderer. A goblin adorned with a red cape trimmed in ck and a crown perched atop his head lounged casually on the steps. His appearance mirrored that of a certain idol, but his expression was one of irritation. This was Ikonel, the God of Premeditated Murder. Ikonel cast a disdainful nce back at Piloc¡¯s lifeless form, his lips curling into a sneer. "Traveled all this way hoping for something worthwhile, and this grotesque insect doesn¡¯t even have a single divine artifact. Not even a pseudo divine one. What a waste of time." Stolen story; please report. He stood with a huff, his annoyance palpable. The journey to this had been long, spurred by rumors of its lone deity which he believed would be a promising, easy target. And while he was correct that it was easy, all his effort had yielded nothing of value. Before departing, Ikonel paused. A prayer reached him, a faint call for aid. Ordinarily, such pleas fell on deaf ears. His followers, predominantly goblins, offered decent faith but were too short lived for him to invest in. After all, goblins were a scattered, weak race, prone to perishing in droves against even minor adversity. Though some goblins were able to organize themselves and had even created empires they already had gods they worshiped so he was only stuck with the scattered tribes and loners. Ikonel was about to ignore the request like others before, but he realized this prayer was different from the rest. It came not from a random follower but from his Chosen, Gerbil. Selected after much effort finding candidates, Gerbil was the mortal Ikonel had deemed most attuned to hisw. Through their connection, Ikonel observed the situation and understood he truly was in dire straits. "Hm..." Ikonel muttered, his tone contemtive. "First time he¡¯s asking for help. Would be a shame to let him die now¡­ He¡¯s been doing well gathering faith." Gerbil had been spreading Ikonel¡¯s name across goblin tribes in his and even minor races like kobolds and lizardmen. That faith, however meager, bolstered Ikonel¡¯s power. With a flick of his wrist, Ikonel bestowed a boon which consisted of less than 1% of hisw¡¯s essence. "That should be enough to handle it." Ikonel mused. Confident in his Chosen¡¯s survival, he didn¡¯t stay to wait for the results. Ikonel turned and began his departure, nning to explore the a bit to make sure he didn¡¯t identally miss anything good. Yet, as he neared the pce¡¯s exit, a shocking realization stopped him cold. "He¡¯s¡­ dead?" Ikonel wouldn¡¯t have believed it if not for the connection between himself and Gerbil had been severed. The god blinked in mild disbelief. Even with the boon he granted, his Chosen had perished. He frowned, though not from grief. "Unfortunate." he muttered, his voice devoid of emotion. "Guess I should¡¯ve chosen better." Gerbil¡¯s death was a setback, but Ikonel had already begun to move on. "The second best candidate will have to do. She should do well and the area she is at has few followers." he decided, recalling the previous candidates he found scattered throughout the universe. Before proceeding, however, he sought to reim the fragment of hisw he had bestowed. Through his will, he began drawing the power back. But as it nearedpletion, something resisted, a force pulling against his im. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Ikonel¡¯s expression darkened. "Who dares?" He had never encountered a situation like this before where someone was attempting to steal his blessing. He obviously wouldn¡¯t have any of that and enacted his will even harder, pulling the essence of thew closer to himself. But the force attempting to take it didn¡¯t relent either. A fierce struggle ensued as neither side wanted to relent. Eventually the remaining fraction split in two. Though he seeded in retrieving most of his essence, a sliver, consisting of only 0.1%, broke away. He felt it slip from his grasp entirely, unable to even sense where it went. Rage boiled within him. With a feral roar, Ikonel drove his fist into a nearby wall, shattering the entire left side of the pce in an explosive disy of power. His voice dropped to a menacing growl as he red at the destruction. "A god thinks they can steal from me? If I ever find out who you are¡­" A deadly ck aura surrounded the god causing even the ground beneath him to decay rapidly. The death of his Chosen was eptable, a small loss at best. But to steal a part of hisw, no matter how miniscule it was, crossed the line. Chapter 321: Since When On Sol¡¯s way back to the pce, he practiced his neww technique, [Swift End], by ying any vampires he encountered. By imbuing the yer Aura onto a stone sword created with [Terra Maniption], he could take down B-Rank vampires with a single semi decent strike. If the initial attack didn¡¯t kill them outright, the deadly yer Aura finished the job. Though he used these encounters for practice, he noticed there were few vampires left in the city. Most had either perished or fled by this point, and the few he encountered were unable to escape the battles they were caught in. Despite these skirmishes, Sol maintained his pace and soon arrived at the pce. He was breathing heavily, exhaustion evident in his every step, but he refused to let it slow him down. ¡¯Once we deal with those three, this will all be over.¡¯ He thought, pushing himself onward. But when he reached the pce, he realized it wasn¡¯t necessary. The two vampires, Nisha and Carmi, and their thrall, Itaya, were kneeling on the ground, bound by dark blue chains. Though their mouths were unsealed, they remained silent, their eyes zing with fury over their defeat. Sol immediately recognized the bindings that restrained them, Suppressor Chains. They were used to seal magic and restrain powerful individuals. The Royal Knights and other organizations used them frequently, so he was well acquainted with their capabilities. He even carried a few in his spatial ring for arrests. However, to restrain A-Rankers these chains were far beyond the ordinary. [Suppressor Chains Legendary Durability: 7764/7800 Skills: [Law Seal] Lv 2, [Energy Seal] Lv MAX, [Physical Seal] Lv MAX, [Restain] Lv MAX] "L-legendary chains?" Sol muttered, astonished. He initially thought the trio might have surrendered willingly and that the chains were mostly for show, but now he doubted even he could escape if bound by such restraints. Victor approached, noticing Sol¡¯s reaction, and nodded with traces of amazement as he eyed the chains. "Yeah, they are. I was surprised, too, when Diana pulled them out after we incapacitated them." "They¡¯re Diana¡¯s?" Sol asked, struggling to understand how she could possess such high-tier equipment. Then it dawned on him, Diana held a significant position in the church. Unlike him, who stumbled upon powerful items like the Void Root by sheer luck, she likely had ess to legendary items by virtue of her status. While Sol considered how nice it would be to own multiple legendary items, Diana descended gracefully on magical winds,nding nearby. She wasted no time. "Did you get the Harbinger?" she asked. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Sol shook his head. "No. He¡¯s dead." N?v(el)B\\jnn "Good." Diana replied with a relieved smile. "The threat of the Harbinger is finally over." Sol returned her smile, sharing the sentiment. While Diana was likely relieved toplete her months long mission, Sol was simply d no one was actively hunting him anymore. Turning his gaze to the three bound women, Sol asked, "Why did you capture them?" While he could understand imprisoning them for questioning about the attack on the capital, it seemed unnecessary since Victor and the nobles were already cooperating. "We can¡¯t kill them." Diana exined, her expression serious as she pointed to Nisha. "If that girl dies, the kingdom won¡¯t survive what happens next. The vampire Primogen wille for revenge. And while he isn¡¯t a god, he¡¯s the closest thing to one." ¡¯Primogen? Almost a god?¡¯ Sol¡¯s mind raced. He hadn¡¯t known the vampires had a more powerful being backing them. If the Primogen was as strong as Diana suggested, the onlyparable being Sol could think of was the Bliss Spider at its peak, a creature that single handedly destroyed the Azrem Dwarves¡¯ entire civilization. Worried, Sol asked, "What¡¯s stopping him froming here to save her?" Diana shrugged. "I don¡¯t know. Ca didn¡¯t borate, but I trust her eternal wisdom." Sol froze. "Wait¡­ Ca? The Ca?" "Yes. I¡¯m her Chosen." Diana said matter of factly. ¡¯Since when?!¡¯ Sol¡¯s expression betrayed his shock. He had no idea she was such an important figure. Victor noticed his reaction and raised an eyebrow. "You didn¡¯t know?" Victor had learned of her status while working with the rebel nobles. When they nned their attack on the capital, they ounted for every major yer, including Diana. That¡¯s why the vampires had sent two A-Rankers after her. They knew they couldn¡¯t defeat her alone but hoped the Blood Moon¡¯s enhancement would give them an edge. Even without that knowledge, Diana was a well known figure in the Church of Ca, and most high-ranking individuals in the kingdom were aware of her. "No! Of course I didn¡¯t!" Sol eximed. As a rtive neer to the capital, he¡¯d only met a few important figures like Princess Valerie and Saintess Wendy by chance. He was too busy with his duties to attendrge events orwork with prominent individuals. Diana chuckled softly at his flustered state. "I apologize. I should have been clearer when we first met. Let me reintroduce myself, I¡¯m Sky Touched Diana, Ca¡¯s Chosen." ¡¯Sky Touched¡­ I didn¡¯t know what it meant then, but now it makes sense.¡¯ He recalled his earlier visits to the Church of Ca, where he felt that the priests and priestesses¡¯ reactions to her name had been a bit exaggerated. Now he understood why. ¡¯I knew she held a high position but not THAT high.¡¯ Ashamed for not realizing sooner, Sol turned back to the three women, looking to change the subject. "What should we do with them?" Diana shrugged. "Ca didn¡¯t offer insight. I assume it doesn¡¯t matter as long as Nisha doesn¡¯t die. As for the other two I don¡¯t think it would matter but I captured them as well to be safe. I¡¯ll leave it to the royal family to decide." While the Church of Ca held significant sway, the decision ultimately rested with the royal family as rulers of the kingdom. Sol nodded. "Then we¡¯ll do that. I¡¯ll see if Commander Zaman has recovered enough to takemand. Diana, can you keep an eye on them, and Victor, too? He¡¯s part of the reason this happened." "He is?" Diana looked surprised, unaware of Victor¡¯s role in the events. Victor, however, twitched visibly, his hands briefly leaking yellow wisps of fire before he extinguished them. "I told you already. I intend to make this right. I¡¯m not some coward who runs from my mistakes!" "I know." Sol replied, "but just in case." He acknowledged Victor¡¯s sincerity but preferred to err on the side of caution. After all, if Victor truly wanted to slip away he would have done so when Sol wasn¡¯t here and three women were already taken care of. With one final nce at Diana and Victor, Sol walked away, activating his PAL to contact Amber and locate where she went with the Commander of the Royal Knights. Chapter 322: Aftermath The next day, Sol was clearing rubble from a copsed building using [Telekinesis]. While [Terra Maniption] could have done the job faster, he saw this as an opportunity to refine his use of psychic energy. As the rubble lifted into the air, it revealed a mother with her two young boys, neither older than ten. They were huddled together beneath a sturdy table that had managed to endure the copse but left them trapped. The mother¡¯s eyes widened in fear, and she instinctively hugged her children tighter. Sol¡¯s calm voice, however, eased her anxiety. "It¡¯s okay, you¡¯re safe now. I¡¯m here to help. Stay calm, and I¡¯ll get you out of here." He gently levitated the trio out onto the clear street. "Thank you, sir!" the mother said gratefully. She then nudged her boys to follow her example. "Thank you, mister!" "Thanks!" Sol gave the boys a kind smile and ruffled their hair, but his expression faltered when he noticed one of them had a deep cut on his leg. The wound had been hastily bandaged with part of the mother¡¯s sleeve, preventing further blood loss. "Here, let me help with that. [Life Drop]." A single, shimmering drop of water appeared in the air andnded on the boy¡¯s leg, instantly absorbing into his skin. The wound closed rapidly, leaving only a faint scar. "Wow! Was that water magic?" the boy asked in awe, inspecting his leg. His brother poked the healed spot and eximed, "Whoa, it¡¯s like new! I hope I get [Water Affinity] during my leveling ceremony." "So you can heal others?" Sol asked with a raised brow. N?v(el)B\\jnn The boy nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! I¡¯ll make lots of money healing people!" Sol froze, caught off guard by the unexpected answer. He chuckled softly, amused but aware that the boy¡¯s dream was very hard to aplish. Making money as a healer was notoriously difficult, given the kingdom¡¯s generous policies. Churches provided healing at minimal cost thanks to the royal families incentives, leaving little room for independent clinics to profit unless they learned advanced healing magic, catered to elite clients or specialized in rare ailments. The best way to profit off healing magic would be to work as a mercenary and heal wounded soldiers on the battlefield, but doing so carried a certain amount of risk as they would always be targeted by the opposing side, it was only slightly better than being a normal fighter. Not wanting to dim the boy¡¯s enthusiasm, Sol changed the subject. "Head to Crest Square. You can get a warm meal and rest there." The mother nodded gratefully. "Thank you for healing my son. May I know your name?" This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Sol maintained his warm smile. "It¡¯s Sol. Now hurry along, the line for food was pretty longst I checked." The trio departed toward Crest Square, and as soon as they were out of sight, Sol¡¯s smile vanished, reced by a grim expression. He lifted the rest of the rubble, revealing five lifeless bodies beneath. Quietly, he used [Siphon] to absorb the lingering energy from their corpses. Then, with a flick of his hand, the bodies floated onto a nearby cart where soldiers were loading the dead. "That¡¯s all of them in this area." he said to the soldiers. "Take them to the others." The soldiers saluted and moved to deliver the bodies to the growing collection site. Left alone, Sol let out a weary sigh. ¡¯This whole situation feels awful.¡¯ The battle had ended with Crestelia¡¯s victory, but it didn¡¯t feel like one. Over 20,000 lives had been lost, and much of the cityy in ruins. Adding to theplexity, not all the vampires had been killed. With the defeat of the A-Rankers, many of the remaining vampires surrendered in a bid for survival. However, not everyone was willing to show mercy. While some fighters took captives, others executed their prisoners on the spot, fueled by grief or anger. Of the 6,000 vampires who attacked, fewer than 400 remained, including their Mistress, Nisha. Those who survived were imprisoned in a special facility beneath the pce, guarded by A-Rankers who couldn¡¯t contribute to the recovery efforts but wanted to help in some capacity. Sol tried to keep up a cheerful demeanor for the survivors, but the strain showed. Each body he unearthed weighed heavily on him. Even the gains from [Siphon], which granted him new skills and levels, felt hollow. Most of those who died were children or low-level individuals, their untimely deaths a stark reminder of the tragedy. As he contemted his next move, his PAL activated. Duncan¡¯s deep voice came through. "The Commander? Is he back to full health already?" Sol asked, surprised. Just hours ago, Zaman had been gravely injured, and potions could only speed recovery so much. "I see... I¡¯ll be there soon." Sol wasn¡¯t eager to face Zaman, not after disobeying orders to stay in the pce. Additionally, there was the looming possibility that Wendy had informed the Commander of Sol¡¯s intention to leave. The ideal time to slip away had been right after the fighting ended, but Sol had chosen to stay and help with the recovery efforts. He could only hope their meeting wouldn¡¯t escte into conflict. On his way to the pce, Sol noticed a tall, pale man with long, vibrant red hair standing near the massive gap in the pce wall. The man¡¯s presence radiated an overwhelming aura of danger, setting off Sol¡¯s recently acquired [Battle Intuition]. But as quickly as the warning red, it vanished, leaving Sol unsettled. Against his better judgment, he approached the man. "What are you doing here?" The man turned, surprised. "You can see me?" Sol blinked in confusion. "...Yes?" The man nced around. No one else reacted to his presence. "Huh. Interesting." He was using a multiyered illusion that was impossible for A-Rankers to detect unless they had aw technique specialized in detection. Sol didn¡¯t even notice he was even using such a technique to hide himself thanks to [True Sight (Variant)] and abination of other skills made him immune to the illusion that he at most felt that his presence was somewhat faint. Though the man hadn¡¯t nned to exin himself, he decided there was no harm in doing so and on a whim said, "I¡¯m here to pick up my daughter. Now, if you¡¯ll excuse me." "Your dau¡ª?" Sol began, but the man vanished before he could finish. ¡¯Could he be...?!¡¯ Realizing something, Sol sprinted toward the pce. Ignoring the startled guards, he made his way to the underground prison as quickly as he could. When he arrived, his fears were confirmed. "They¡¯re gone..." he murmured, staring at the empty cells. The A-Rankers assigned to guard the prisonersy unconscious on the ground, and every vampire, including Nisha, had vanished. Chapter 323: Better Late Than Never Sol and Commander Zaman sat in silence in the Commander¡¯s office. Zaman pressed his palms together, took a deep breath, and spoke. "So, let me get this straight. You saw a strange man outside who told you he was there to pick up his daughter. He then disappeared without a trace. Based on that, you concluded he might be the Primogen Diana warned us about. Following your instincts, you ran to the prison, where you found the A-Rankers unconscious and all the cells empty." Sol nodded slowly. There wasn¡¯t much else to add. Everything had happened so quickly. "This is ridiculous¡­" "I¡¯m telling you the truth. Please believe me." Zaman rubbed his temples, his expression grim. "That¡¯s not the issue. I do believe you. It¡¯s just¡­ I could never have predicted this. In the span of a single minute, he incapacitated all the A-Rankers and escaped with the vampires,pletely unnoticed. If you hadn¡¯t spotted him before he made his move, we wouldn¡¯t even know what happened." Sol agreed. "I just happened to notice him on my way here. What do we do now?" Zaman leaned back, his brows furrowed in thought. "I know you¡¯ve been through a lot these past two days, but forget about the escape, there is nothing we could have done. We¡¯ll handle the aftermath. You, however, have an urgent mission." "A mission?" Sol¡¯s confusion was evident. With the city still recovering, it seemed an odd time to assign him a new mission at this time. "Yes." Zaman¡¯s tone grew serious. "I don¡¯t know the specific details, but the Saintess insists you must travel to the Sapphire Scale Alliance immediately. She said if you don¡¯t, it will lead to a disaster that affects the entire region, including our kingdom." "The Saintess said that?" Sol was visibly startled. "Did she mention anything else?" Zaman shook his head. "No. Sometimes, she withholds specifics to avoid unintended consequences. However, she did say you must go alone and without any of our resources. I assume you might have an idea why. If not, you can ask her yourself." ¡¯So¡­ she chose to help me after all?¡¯ Sol thought, still processing. Theirst conversation hadn¡¯t gone well, and he wasn¡¯t sure what had changed. But if she was giving him an opportunity, he wasn¡¯t going to hesitate. He stood from his seat and saluted. "Understood, Commander. Should I leave today?" "If you¡¯re ready, then yes." "I¡¯ll inform my squad and say my goodbyes. I don¡¯t know when I¡¯ll return." In his mind, he added, ¡¯Or if I will.¡¯ Sol left the Commander¡¯s office, his departure marked by the sound of his boots echoing down the hall. Zaman waited until the sound fadedpletely before pulling out a bottle of the city¡¯s finest whisky from his drawer. It wasn¡¯t ordinary whisky, this was a tier 9 brew, so potent that its aroma alone could incapacitate someone with less than 100 vitality. To Zaman, the smell only made his nose tingle. He poured two sses and spoke into the room. "Care to join me? Or will you keep eavesdropping?" The office door opened, and a man in a ck cloak stepped inside. He pulled back his hood, revealing an old man with gray hair. Silently, he sat in the chair Sol had vacated and gave a simple nod. Zaman poured the man a drink and pushed it across the desk. "You haven¡¯t visited since the king fell ill. I had to reach out just to speak to you every time. What¡¯s changed?" The man took a sip of the whisky, then ced the ss down. "The king is dead." Zaman froze mid sip. He lowered his ss and reached for the bottle instead, downing its contents in one go before exhaling deeply. "How?" The man¡¯s voice was calm as he exined. "His illness worsened during the vampire attack. The turbulent mana in the area destabilized his already fragile condition." Very few people knew that the king suffered from an incredibly rare condition called Manaspill. This illness caused a person¡¯s mana to leak continuously from their body without end. While a certain amount of mana leakage was normal, the issue with Manaspilly in the excessive quantity of mana expelled. Those afflicted would lose mana faster than they could replenish it, eventually leading to a state of Mana Overdraft. The condition could manifest at any point in a person¡¯s life and always struck without warning. The king first noticed symptoms in his mid twenties when he observed a steady decline in his mana levels on his status page. At the time, he managed the issue by consuming mana recovery potions, which temporarily boosted his regeneration rate. However, this solution was short lived. As the years passed, the rate of leakage increased, forcing him to consume potions more frequently to offset the loss. By his fifties, the condition had progressed to the point where he required a constant infusion of mana potions directly into his body just to stay alive. This year, even that was no longer sufficient. His body entered a perpetual state of Mana Overdraft, with the king frequently passing in and out of consciousness. Though the continuous injections of mana potions kept him alive for a time, it was clear that his condition was terminal. The king, fully aware of his impending death, had nned for this eventuality. He fathered two children, with his firstborn son intended to inherit the throne. Tragically, the prince died in an unfortunate monster house incident during a dungeon expedition, leaving his younger daughter, Valerie, as the sole heir. However, Valerie was inexperienced and unprepared for such a monumental responsibility. The king recognized that passing the throne to her too soon would leave her vulnerable to maniption and exploitation. Yet in his weakened state, he could no longer fulfill his duties as ruler either. Caught between these two unfavorable options, the king fell into a deepa before he could decide, this one far longer than his previous episodes,sting several months. The kingdom was left in a precarious position, without a king or any authority figure sufficient enough to lead. The cloaked man continued. "But just before he passed away, he woke up for thest time. He knew the next time he closed his eyes it would never open again so he gave us his finalmand." "What were his final orders?" Zaman asked, though he already had an idea. "To obey Princess Valerie, help her ascend the throne, and support her in any way necessary." Zaman nodded as it fell within his expectations and followed up with another question. "Then why are you here and not with her?" "She is currently resting, so we will begin by fulfilling thest part of hismand." The man extended a hand, and from his spatial ring, two towering stacks of documents appeared on the desk. "These are reports originally meant for thete king. Use them as you see fit. I trust you¡¯ll act in Her Highness¡¯s best interests." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Zaman nced at the papers, skimming the topmost report. It listed the names of nobles conspiring against the royal family. His fist clenched, shattering the empty whisky ss in his hand. Anger, partially fueled by the powerful drink he had, came to surface. "This would¡¯ve been useful months ago! Where were you and the Royal Shadows when we were struggling with the nobles?!" Zaman¡¯s voice boomed, his frustration palpable. "The hell is wrong with you, Kreese?!" Kreese, unperturbed, replied evenly. "We are only following orders. Even if Her Highnessmands us to destroy the kingdom or end our lives, we willply without question. That is our purpose. Now that we received this new order we will act upon it." Zaman took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. Dwelling on the past wouldn¡¯t help now. He nodded. "Fine. Let¡¯s work together to fix damage and make the kingdom thrive again." Kreese¡¯s expression didn¡¯t change and inly said, "If that is Her Highness¡¯s will." Chapter 324: Farewells After saying his farewells to the Commander, Sol left the office and headed toward the squad¡¯s quarters. On the way, he sent a message through his PAL, asking everyone to gather for a quick meeting. As he walked down the hallway, he noticed someone waiting for him. "Saintess?" Saintess Wendy stood calmly, her expression purposeful. She waited for him to approach before speaking. "Did you meet with Commander Zaman?" Sol nodded. "I did. Before you say anything, let me thank you for helping me out. But I need to ask, why?" "Don¡¯t misunderstand." Wendy replied, her tone firm. "I still think your n to meet him is reckless. Trying to find your parents, especially your father, is dangerous and unwise. Originally, I nned to stay out of it and let you deal with the consequences. But after yesterday... you were about to leave the city, yet you came back to help, didn¡¯t you?" Sol didn¡¯t deny it. "Yeah, I was. Who told you?" "No one. I made an educated guess since you weren¡¯t in the pce when the attack began." Wendy crossed her arms. "By the way, I also heard you were the one who discovered and shared the dungeon rules. That helped us gain the dungeon as an ally." "Speaking of which." Sol said, curiosity evident. "What kind of deal did we make with the dungeon? I was surprised to see the Shadow Crawler join the fight, but they were a huge help." The Shadow Crawler had been instrumental in the battle. It had taken control of the shadow moon Sol created, allowing him to maintain his [Umbral Domain]. Without it, the blood moon created by Nisha could have regained dominance, potentially leading to catastrophe for the kingdom. "It was Princess Valerie who made the deal." Wendy exined. "I only found out today. The agreement has many parts, but the main terms are that, in exchange for the dungeon providing monsters and ceasing to cause monster houses, the kingdom will reduce the amount of ambient mana we siphon to repair the city walls by half. The other half will be redirected into the dungeon to allow it to grow. Additionally, we must regrly supply the dungeon with certain resources. In return, we gain a powerful army of monsters. However, we must pay the dungeon sufficient mana and resources in advance for it to lend us its forces. Yesterday¡¯s help with the Shadow Crawler was an exception." While Sol could see the benefits of the arrangement, one major concern nagged at him. "But wasn¡¯t siphoning the ambient mana meant to prevent the dungeon from growing stronger? Aren¡¯t you worried about it reaching S-Rank? Right now, only the za around the dungeon is harmful to ordinary people if they linger too long. But if it ranks up, won¡¯t the entire city be uninhabitable?" If that happened, only B-Rankers or stronger individuals could survive in the city, and even they would suffer over time. Wendy shook her head. "That¡¯s addressed in the deal too. Dungeons can control whether they leak energy and transform their surroundings. The dungeon has agreed to contain its energy as long as we fulfill our end of the bargain." Sol rxed at her exnation. If that were true, the agreement was a massive boon for the kingdom. Beyond the immediate benefits, if the dungeon ranked up without causing issues, wouldn¡¯t they be the first city in the world with an S-Rank dungeon? The advantages from that alone would be monumental. "I¡¯m d it worked out." He said. "By the way, Zaman mentioned I couldn¡¯t use any Royal Knight resources. Why is that?" Wendy scoffed at his audacity. "Did you really think I¡¯d let you use our resources for something I still think you shouldn¡¯t do? No. If you¡¯re determined to pursue this, you¡¯re on your own. I¡¯ve already done more than enough for you." "No, you¡¯re right." Sol admitted, scratching the back of his head with a sheepish grin. "I didn¡¯t n to use them anyway, but I wanted to hear it from you." I just didn¡¯t expect you to be so brutally direct about it... Still slightly annoyed, Wendy stepped aside with a huff. "Alright, get out of here before I change my mind." As Sol walked past her, Wendy made one final request. "Sol, before you meet your father, prepare some measures against psychic energy. Even if you don¡¯t think he¡¯ll harm you, it¡¯s better to be safe than sorry." Sol paused and turned back to her. "I will. I¡¯m working on a way to protect myself, just in case." In addition to his skills like [True Sight (Variant)], which shielded him against illusions, and [Invincible Body], which helped resist mental effects, he was refining his own psychic abilities. If he developed one of his psychic skills into aw technique, he believed he could resist, or at least detect, any mental maniption attempts from his father. Though he doubted such a scenario would happen, he wouldn¡¯t go unprepared. Wendy caught his confident expression and smiled faintly. "Good. Stay safe." She waved him off as he continued toward the squad¡¯s quarters. In the meeting room, Duncan, Nataly, Rex, Aron, Lapis, and Lazuli were already seated around the table. When Sol entered, his eyes briefly scanned the room, pausing on each face. Duncan was the first to speak, already intuiting the reason for the sudden meeting. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "So, you¡¯re leaving now, huh?" Sol nodded. "Yeah. Now that the worst is over, I have to go." "Won¡¯t you be in trouble if you just disappear? Are you really going to leave unannounced?" Rex asked, concern evident. Sol could be a wanted man if he left the Royal Knights without proper notice. Sol shook his head, a mischievous grin spreading across his face. "Nope. Don¡¯t ask me how, but the Commander believes I¡¯m going on a solo mission. If he asks, please keep yesterday¡¯s events to yourself." Nataly looked disheartened. "Do you really have to go?" The squad could function without Sol, but she knew it wouldn¡¯t be the same. Sol sighed, meeting each of their gazes. With the exception of Lapis, who remained stoic, the others clearly shared Nataly¡¯s sentiment. He was sad to leave, but he couldn¡¯t waver now. Both he and Amber needed answers, and finding his father was the key. "I have to go." he said firmly. "But I won¡¯t be gone forever. I don¡¯t know how long this will take, but I promise I¡¯lle back." While the squad remained solemn, Lapis suddenly stood up and dered, "Next time we meet, I¡¯ll be an A-Ranker, and we¡¯ll have our rematch." Sol¡¯s eyes widened at her im, but the next moment, he burst outughing. Even now, herpetitive spirit burned brightly. "Sure, sure!" Sol said with a big smile. "I hope next time you actually make me work up a sweat." "I¡¯d pay good money to see that fight." Aron chimed in, already imagining the epic battle. "Sis would win! Just give her time, she¡¯ll catch up!" Lazuli interjected, her clear bias to her sister shining through. The previously somber mood quickly shifted into a lively debate as the squad began picking sides. Noticing the uplifted atmosphere, Sol nced at Lapis and gave her an appreciative nod. He could tell she had made her deration intentionally to lighten the mood, and it had worked. For the next half hour, the squad debated, joked, andughed together until it was time for Sol to leave. Chapter 325: Returning What Was Stolen After bidding farewell to the squad, Sol left the pce. Gone was the Royal Knight Captain uniform; in its ce, he wore the Song of the Wind leather armor set he hadmissioned from Terrence back when he was preparing for the Knight Selection. Sure, he could have acquired something of higher quality like unique, but most armor was pointless for the current him. His [Invincible Body]bined with his absurdly high vitality already made him more durable than most. He had worn Song of the Wind for itsfort, mobility, but mainly because it had the [Mending] enchantment, which allowed it to self repair over time. If needed, he could even speed up the process by injecting his own mana. Most armor wouldn¡¯t survive anyways against A-Rankers fighting with all their might, but at least this way, he wouldn¡¯t have to worry about ending up naked mid-fight. Outside the pce, his first destination was a secluded meeting spot where Amber waited. Though she had assisted in moving Commander Zaman to safety during the vampire attack, Sol never exined her identity to anyone. Even when Zaman asked him he just said she was an adventurer friend. He couldn¡¯t really tell the truth as Amber was still technically a criminal. Though a victim of the Kirman kidnappings, she hadmitted crimes when she went by the name Red Sands under Cane¡¯s behest. These included kidnapping other adventurers and assassinating Cane¡¯s rivals¡ªserious, though not unforgivable offenses. Sol had debated using his connections to pardon her, but it felt excessive bringing Commander Zaman into this and they had bigger concerns, like prosecuting rebellious nobles. Besides, Amber¡¯s real appearance wasrgely unknown thanks to the red cloak she wore at all times back then. As long as no one investigated her too closely, she could stay under the radar. Walking through the city, the two passed areas where the destruction varied greatly. Most buildings had clear signs of damage but were still standing, but ces where powerful B-Rankers or A-Rankers fought were basically reduced to rubble. Despite the chaos, the destruction was rtively contained. Their destination was one of the few ces left virtually untouched in the entire city: Necropolis, the dungeon za. The outer edge of the za bore only faint signs of battle¡ªscorch marks and shallow craters¡ªbut near the dungeon entrance, everything was pristine. The guards who usually patrolled the area were absent, likely reassigned to aid in recovery efforts. Only two remained at the dungeon¡¯s entrance. Approaching them, Sol noticed their tense expressions. "Wait, don¡¯t enter the dungeon," one of the guards said, raising a hand. "Why not?" Sol asked, confused. No one had mentioned the dungeon being off limits. ¡¯Could this be because of the Princess¡¯s deal with the dungeon?¡¯ The second guard, looking uneasy, exined, "You can go in, but¡­ yesterday, an A-Rank monster left the dungeon. It went back insideter, but we¡¯re worried it might be an early sign of a dungeon outbreak." ¡¯Ah, they don¡¯t know yet.¡¯ Sol realized the guards hadn¡¯t been informed of the recent deal with the dungeon. Reaching into his spatial ring, he pulled out his Royal Knight badge and held it up. "A Knight Captain!" "Apologies, sir! We didn¡¯t recognize you!" The guards saluted, their earlier wariness reced with deference. Sol waved off their concerns. "It¡¯s fine. I¡¯m not here on official business. But you can rx, this isn¡¯t a dungeon outbreak. Let people enter unless you receive orders from above that say otherwise." He kept the exnation vague, unsure how much the Princess wanted disclosed of the deal between her and the dungeon. Reassured by his rank and confidence, the guards visibly rxed. They were extremely worried as the city really didn¡¯t need another disaster when they had yet to clean up the mess from thest one. "Yes, sir! Please proceed!" The duo descended the dungeon stairs. On the first floor, instead of heading to the teleporter, Sol walked to the room¡¯s center. From his spatial ring, he retrieved the Tynamo Cannon and ced it on the ground. Unsure where he should face, he spoke the the empty space in front of him and said, "Hey¡­ Necropolis? Dungeon? I¡¯m not sure what to call you, but I¡¯m here to return the void root." The purpose of them returning to the dungeon was to give back what they had stolen, the void root. While he won the bet against Shadow Crawler at the time and wasn¡¯t obligated to return the legendary item, Sol gave his word that when he reached A-Rank and dealt with the harbinger pursuing him that he would return it and he came to do just that. Parting with such a powerful weapon hurt, but he now had other means of fighting A-Rank enemies, like his [Lesser Channel Control] and his neww technique, [Swift End]. After a few seconds of silence, Sol nced at Amber. "Do you think it heard me? I thought the cannon would, I don¡¯t know, sink into the ground or something. Should we go to Shadow Crawler¡¯s boss room?" Amber shrugged, keeping quiet like usual, but before either could decide on their next step, the teleport sigil near the wall began to glow. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om With a sh, Shadow Crawler appeared, its tone casual as it said, "Hey~! You kept your word! And a lot sooner than I expected." The 30th floor boss was honestly surprised that Sol reached A-Rank already. It made its way over to Sol and as it approached Sol realized that this was the main body of the Shadow Crawler, but there was something that truly shocked him. Looking at the boss¡¯s tethers, Sol could see that it didn¡¯t have one or twow techniques, but eight in total! Sol hid his shock and gave the boss a simple smile. "Hey, you came to pick it up?" "Of course!" Shadow Crawler eagerly said while picking up the Tynamo Cannon. His eyes gleamed with joy as he held the weapon. "Though Mother doesn¡¯t need the void root as much anymore thanks to the deal we made with the kingdom, it¡¯s still a sizable boost of energy that can push her growth." Sol felt it was a waste for a legendary item such as that one that could create void energy to serve as a battery for the dungeon, but he didn¡¯t speak his thoughts out loud. Passing the Tynamo Cannon to its tail to hold, Shadow Crawler turned to face Sol again and said, "So about yesterday. You can take our skills, right?" Chapter 326: Somewhat Similar Sol nodded, confirming its suspicions. "Yeah, under certain circumstances, I can learn the skills of others." He didn¡¯t want to go into specific details, as he didn¡¯t want too many people knowing how his ability worked, but Shadow Crawler didn¡¯t seem to mind his vagueness. Instead, it contemted out loud. "Circumstances, huh? Well, that exins how you have both my skills and the skills of the Handless Fiend. That¡¯s why you wanted to fight me so many times. I just thought you were looking for the experience to level up." "Are you not surprised?" Sol found the boss¡¯ckluster response rather odd. He felt anyone would be shocked to hear he could learn virtually any skill he wanted. Shadow Crawler crossed its arms and shook its head. "Nah. It¡¯s probably one of the rarest types of abilities, second maybe to fate or time-rted abilities, but I¡¯ve heard of people like you before." "Really?!" Sol was surprised and pressed for more. "Can you tell me about them?" Sol had believed himself to be a unique case. At first, it felt amazing, but as he gained more knowledge and experience, it also began to feel isting. Even when he learned of mythic talents, the highest of them only reached level 10, while his was unlocked at Level 25. To learn there were others like him before came as a shock. Eager for answers, he leaned in, awaiting Shadow Crawler¡¯s response. Shadow Crawler wasn¡¯t supposed to speak about such things without Mother¡¯s permission, but since Sol had returned the void root, it decided she wouldn¡¯t mind. The boss thought back to memories from long ago. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "Hmm, it¡¯s been a long time. I can only remember two off the top of my head. If I¡¯m recalling it right, the first was someone with the talent [Soul Harvester]. Basically, it let him steal the souls of others and house them inside his body. Through them, he could use their skills. The second was before the system existed, so talents weren¡¯t a thing yet, but that crazy woman was known as the Butcher. She gained the abilities of those she ate. I know there¡¯s one more, but I can¡¯t quite remember him. It was during the war against the Outer Gods, and too much happened back then..." ¡¯Huh... I think they¡¯re simr, but neither is exactly like me.¡¯ Sol thought to himself, a little disappointed. "I¡¯m guessing from your expression that they aren¡¯t like you, huh?" Shadow Crawler said with a sly grin. "Don¡¯t worry too much about that. It¡¯s like that human saying: there¡¯s more than one way to skin a fish." "It¡¯s supposed to be a Cat." Sol corrected. "Pshh, same thing. Could be a sand drake, and it¡¯d still be the same." The boss shrugged, then continued. "What I¡¯m trying to say is that your ability falls under the ¡¯skill stealing¡¯ branch. Just like there are various ways to wield a sword, there are different ways to do what you can do. But if you¡¯re looking for guidance, I really don¡¯t rmend learning from those two." "Eh, why not?" Shadow Crawler grinned, sharp teeth glinting. "Well, there¡¯s a reason theye to mind easily, they both died spectacrly. The one with the [Soul Harvester] talent bit off more than he could chew and absorbed way too many souls. He lost control. The amalgamation of souls caused his body to swell up like a balloon, and he popped in a massive explosion, taking out half a city, if I recall correctly. The Butcher, on the other hand, had no regard for anyone and ate whoever she met that had an ability she wanted. She became frighteningly strong, fast. But before she could ascend to godhood, the gods¡ªfearing they would be her next targets¡ªput aside their differences and killed her. That story became a popr bedtime tale for a couple of centuries, which is how I learned about it." ¡¯They¡¯re not exactly like me, but I should still keep their fates in mind.¡¯ Neither case perfectly mirrored his situation, but they served as stark reminders to be careful. With [Siphon], Sol had once experienced something simr to what happened to the [Soul Harvester]. After siphoning too many talents at once, he¡¯d felt bloated, dangerously overstuffed. Though his limit had risen afterprehending hisw technique, he was sure that forcing one more skill at that time would¡¯ve ended poorly. As long as he stayed within his limits, he¡¯d be fine. Besides, Sol preferred to focus on improving his best and most powerful skills personally with his own ability like he did with [Earth Hammer] that eventually became [Terra Maniption]. That wouldn¡¯t have happened if he had simply siphoned [Earth Hammer] continuously until it evolved into its next evolution. He had plenty of skills right now that could use simr attention like [Impact Bubble], which he believed could have a lot of potential as the ultimate defensive skill. The Butcher¡¯s fate was even less of a concern. Sol had done his best to avoid openly disying his abilities. Though it was restricting at times, he understood how easy it would be for a god to pass by and end a puny mortal like himself. He had even seen the might of a god firsthand when Orna instantly dealt with the Bliss Spider leaving it encased in an imprable ice. And while the temptation to steal powerful skills of people he came across had crossed his mind before, his strong sense of morality had always won out. Contemting Shadow Crawler¡¯s words, Sol nodded and thanked the boss monster. "You¡¯re right. I¡¯m not like them, but I can still learn from their mistakes." "That¡¯s a good way of looking at it." Shadow Crawler said, ncing at the Tynamo Cannon its tail held. "I need to take this back to Mother, so I¡¯ll see you both around." Before Shadow Crawler could leave, Sol stopped him with onest question. "Actually, mind if we challenge your boss room a couple of times?" Because of the battle the day before, Sol had pushed his skill [Umbral Domain] to its very limit when he expanded its tether to the point of snapping. When it was all over the skill survived, but barely and it was now at level 1 much weaker than before. He hoped to regain what the levels had lost before setting off. The boss smiled and gave a thumbs-up. "Of course! You can challenge my boss room however many times you like. It¡¯s not like taking skills from the clones affects me anyway." Shadow Crawler then turned to Amber, grinning. "We can also see if you got any better sincest time. How about it?" Amber, who had remained silent throughout the conversation, gave only a light nod in response before making her way to the teleport sigil. Though her face showed little emotion, she was eager to rematch the Shadow Crawler. Chapter 327: Grounded While a certain duo was repeatedly challenging the boss floor, far to the southeast of the Crestelia Kingdom, deep underground where an imposing castle stood, someone was waking from their rest. Nisha''s eyes shot open, and she immediately sat upright, scanning her surroundings. Her long ck hair, usually tied in twin-tails, was loose and flung over her head, identally covering her face. Through the gaps in her hair, she could see enough to notice she wasn''t in the prison anymore but back in her room in the castle. ''How did I get here?'' Thest thing she remembered was being bound by legendary shackles that suppressed her magic and strength, along with all the remaining vampires. As she pulled her hair back to clear her view, she realized she wasn''t alone. "Dad?! You''re awake?!" she eximed, pleasantly surprised to see Absalom, the Primogen of vampires, awake once more. She thought he wouldn''t awaken from his slumber for at least another 80 years. She was about to ask why he was awake but began piecing together what had happened. Her joy quickly turned to shame, and she averted her father''s gaze. "I¡ªI can exin! See, I was trying to get revenge for you! It was them who¡ª" She floundered, trying to exin yesterday''s events and her actions, but Absalom stopped her. "No need. I know enough." "You¡­ do?" "I don''t care why youunched an attack on the human capital. What I care about is that you failed. If you''re going to pull a stunt like that, you should be absolutely certain you''ll seed. I can''t be there to protect you every time." Though his tone was stern, Nisha knew it came from a ce of love. She was used to him showing his care in this way and didn''t mind, though she pouted as she thought back to all the effort she had put into nning for victory. "But I really did everything I could! I made sure to take into ount all their forces and nned ideal matchups. I even sto¡ªI mean, borrowed a drop of god blood to fuel the Blood Reign." "Wait, you stole a drop of god blood? When?" Absalom eyed his daughter, who averted his inquisitive gaze again. He was both amazed and confused at how she had managed such a feat without his knowledge. After all, he kept the only bottle of god blood securely within his spatial bracelet, which he never removed. He made a mental note to be more cautious, as even a single drop was immensely powerful and could make Nisha a target if anyone learned she could acquire it. Nisha''s eyes widened as she remembered the Blood Reign and checked her spatial ring, only to realize it wasn''t on her. "Oh no! They took the Blood Reign!" When she was captured, all her belongings had been confiscated, meaning Crestelia now had both the Blood Reign and the drop of god blood inside it. She turned to Absalom and pleaded, "Please, Dad! Can you get it back?" Absalom, trying to remain firm in reprimanding his daughter, nearly faltered at her pleading eyes. However, he steeled himself and said, "No. This is your mistake. If you want it back, you''ll have to get it yourself." "That''s impossible!" she cried. She was confident she could win if the blood moon enhanced her abilities, but without it, she knew there was no chance she could even breach the pce walls. Not only were there barely any vampires left to mount another attack, but their insider, Itaya, had been caught, leaving them with no visibility inside the pce. "Nothing is impossible." Absalom said firmly. "If you can''t seed now, then train to get stronger. What level is yourw technique at?" Nisha hesitated but eventually admitted, "Level four¡­"n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "Four?!" His voice boomed, shaking the castle walls. "You''re telling me that in the 87 years I''ve been asleep, you haven''t improved yourw technique at all?! Not even by one level?!" "Y-yes¡­" Nisha admitted, her shame deep. She had cked in training and practicing herw technique, relying instead on the Blood Reign to solve her problems. As one of the few A-rankers with a legendary weapon, she could easily defeat most opponents. Even without god blood powering the weapon, it massively enhanced her blood magic, making hercent. Absalom rubbed his forehead, struggling to put his frustration into words. He asked himself where did she go wrong and be sozy and after a brief silence he came to a realization. It wasn''t her fault, it was his. Realizing the part he yed for being in hibernation for so long he said with a stern tone. "You''re grounded." "Grounded?!" Nisha eximed, wide eyed. Not once in her long life had she been grounded. Absalom continued, "You''re not taking a single step out of the castle until you either raise yourw technique by two levels orprehend a new one. And to make sure you don''t ck off or leave, I will personally watch you until you do." At first, Nisha was dismayed to hear she was grounded. But upon hearing the terms, she paused and asked, "So¡­ you won''t go back to sleep?" He nodded. "I''m not letting you out of my sight until I see real progress. Is there a problem with that?" Nisha shook her head vigorously. "N-no, not at all!" What she initially thought was a punishment turned out to be exactly what she had always dreamed of. She thought back to when she was first turned into a vampire by Absalom, how he had spent her early years teaching, guiding, and supporting her when she was at her weakest. Those times had been cut short when she rather quickly became an A-ranker. He deemed her strong enough to survive on her own so he went into his cycle of almost centuries long slumbers. She didn''t care about being confined to the castle as long as he was there with her. Absalom, unaware of her thoughts, patted her head. "Good. We''ll begin tomorrow. Train hard, and you could aplish your goal in 50 years." "I want to do it in five." Nisha stated with sudden resolve. "So soon? Why?" Absalom asked, puzzled. Vampires were immortal, there was no urgency. Though Nisha wanted to savor her time with her father, an equally strong desire burned in her chest. "Because I don''t just want Blood Reign back, I want revenge! I don''t want to wait for them to die of old age. If they''re going to die, it''s going to be by my hands." Her conviction surprised Absalom, but seeing it motivated her to improve, he approved. "Then we''ll do it in five. But I won''t go easy on you. Can you handle it?" With a determined nod, she said, "Yes!" Seeing her resolve, Absalom decided to alter the n slightly. "Since you''re so full of energy, let''s start today instead of tomorrow. Come." Nisha jumped out of bed and followed Absalom into the hallway as they made their way to the courtyard. On the way, Absalom asked, "By the way, who do you want revenge on? I recall seeing Ca''s Chosen in the capital. Is it her?" "No." Nisha shook her head. "It''s one of the Royal Knights. His name is Sol. He''s the reason we couldn''t win. Not only did he save the Commander of the Royal Knights, but he also blocked the blood moon from Blood Reign with his own shadow moon. He''s why so many of us died." She wanted revenge not just for herself but for the vampires who had followed her and perished. Absalom raised an eyebrow. ''Someone countered the blood moon? That shouldn''t have been possible, especially with god blood maintaining it. He wondered if it had been aw technique like celestial, light, or dark that perfectly countered it. Interesting.'' Thinking about how it was interesting his daughter met such an unfortunate matchup, he recalled there was someone else who caught his attention recently. "Nisha, do you remember asking if you''d ever have a brother or sister?" Her eyes sparkled as she stopped in her tracks. "Are you thinking of adopting someone?!" For vampires, converting someone into a vampire was the same as adoption. The one who was turned into a vampire would be their child and be treated just like how one would treat a child they had since birth. Because of this, vampires were extremely selective about turning others into vampires which was why their numbers didn''t expand rapidly. He nodded. "I encountered someone interesting when I went to pick you up. I think he might be a good fit for our family." "Please adopt him! I don''t want to be an only child." He had already been considering it, but given her enthusiasm, he decided to use it as a driving force for her to push herself even further. "If you raise yourw technique by two levels orprehend a new one within five years, I''ll adopt him." "Really? No take-backs!" she eximed, excited. "I''ll do it in one year, just watch!" Absalom chuckled softly at her promation, five years was a tough, but feasible goal given her aptitude and talents but even he would be shocked if she managed to aplish it within one year. With proper motivation, the two continued to the courtyard, where Absalom began teaching her the true way to wield blood magic. Chapter 328: This Time for Sure On the 30th floor of the Necropolis dungeon, two figures darted around in fiercebat: Amber and Shadow Crawler. Amber wielded two unique daggers with precision, while Shadow Crawler handled a twin scythe made of shadows, moving it with surprising agility. Neitherbatant used elemental skills, relying solely on their weapons. This meant no elementalization skills to nullify damage, leaving both participants with numerous cuts as the battle raged on. Above them, Sol sat on a floating stone tform, his legs dangling over the edge as he observed the fight. When the duo had first re-entered the boss room, Sol had quickly and effortlessly defeated Shadow Crawler. With ess to twow techniques, the oue was inevitable; Shadow Crawler''s clone could only use pseudow techniques at best. The initial purpose was for Sol to raise his skill, [Umbral Domain], back to its maximum level. But when it reached Level 9, Amber asked to face the boss herself. Sol had agreed, and Shadow Crawler, ever the opportunist for a fairer challenge, did too. Initially, Amber and the boss fought using all their abilities. However, since Shadow Crawler''s elemental skills rendered Amber''s pseudow technique, [Distort Weapon], ineffective, they reached apromise to limit their abilities. While it was generally against dungeon rules for bosses to hold back, Shadow Crawler circumvented this using the same loophole it had employed to bet for the void root, mutual agreements were fair game. As Sol watched, he called down to them. "This should be thest time for sure! I just need one more to max out the skill!" Shadow Crawler scoffed, blocking Amber''s strike before leaping back to create space. "You said that thest four times!" "Yeah, but I mean it this time!" "You said thatst time, too!" Shadow Crawler retorted. Amber didn''t let their exchange distract her. She swung her daggers again, closing the distance instantly. There was significant distance between the two, but the boss had already learned the hard way five battles ago that distance wasn''t a problem for her. He followed the path of her swing and raised his scythe in front of him. A sharp ng echoed as the scythe held firm. ''If I hadn''t blocked that, my head would be rolling.'' Shadow Crawler thought to himself, not wanting to die so easily. Amber swung again. This time, something changed. Shadow Crawler''s instincts screamed in rm. Rather than block, he dove to the side, hoping to evade the attack entirely. But to his shock, pain seared through his left arm. "Gah! My arm!" Shadow Crawler howled, clutching the deep gash. ''It came from the side?'' Sol''s eyes widened. He recalled Amber''s training the past few weeks. She had been working to not only increase the power of her distorted strikes but also manipte the angles, making them unpredictable. Until now, she had been unsessful. Amber attacked again, and another angled strike shed across the boss''s body, leaving him helpless. "Oi, wait!" Shadow Crawler pleaded, scrambling to dodge the invisible blows. But without a way to predict their trajectory, his instincts weren''t enough. Two more cuts appeared on his legs, forcing him to copse to the ground, immobilized. Amber stood over the incapacitated boss, breathing heavily. Her arms trembled from exertion, the toll of manipting her strikes evident. Despite her exhaustion, she raised her daggers to deliver the finishing blow. "Wait a second, Amber," Sol called out. She paused, lowering her daggers and stepping back. Sol descended on his floating tform,nding beside them. Looking at the defeated Shadow Crawler, Sol said, "I wasn''t kidding, this really is thest time. Thanks for helping me max out the skill and helping Amber with her training." Shadow Crawler, despite his wounds, gave a thumbs-up with his good arm. "No problem. It''s my job, after all. By the way, why not try the next set of floors? I promise Mother doesn''t harbor ill will toward you anymore. The monsters won''t go easy on you though." Sol shook his head. "Thanks but I can''t. I wouldn''t want to tackle them until Amberprehends herw technique and while she is close we can''t afford to wait until she does." His urgency stemmed from the vision he''d witnessed with Saintess Wendy. Though Solcked deep understanding of fate and time, he knew the moment they''d glimpsed his parents in the Sapphire Scale Alliance was in the present. The longer they dyed, the higher the risk of missing them. The reason Sol didn''t mind challenging the boss to level [Umbral Domain] because it wouldn''t take long to do and only took an hour to repeatedly kill it. But to delve into the next floors would not only be extremely dangerous as all monsters would wieldw techniques, it was even more so because he would have to fight them by himself. Amber was strong, he didn''t deny that, but the gap between a B-Ranker and an A-Ranker was simply toorge. He didn''t know how long it would take her toprehend herw technique and the trip to the Sapphire Scales Alliance wasn''t short by any means. Shadow Crawler sighed. "Fair enough. Still,e back someday and tackle the rest. You''d be the first to reach the end." "I''ll drop by some time, See youter." Sol said with a small smile. He nced at Amber, who had recovered enough that her breathing stabilized. She understood his intent and with a swift motion, she shed her daggers, cleanly decapitating the boss. [You have in a Lv 130 Shadow Crawler! Gained 170,856,277 Exp (300%)] [You have leveled up! +5 Attribute points] [[Umbral Domain] leveled up! (9 -> EX)] [[Siphon] level up! (6 -> 7)] "Oh, hey! I leveled up, and [Siphon] finally leveled up, too!" Sol said, pleased. He allocated all his attribute points into Wisdom and turned to Amber. "We''re done here. Let''s set off." Amber nodded, storing her daggers in her spatial ring and walking alongside him to leave the dungeon. Their next destination: the Sapphire Scale Alliance. ... Meanwhile, in another boss room on the 30th floor, Shadow Crawler sat waiting. Ten minutes passed. "It can''t be¡­ he''s actually done?" The boss had doubted Sol''s words about the final attempt and only now realized they must have been true. With them not returning, it flopped to the ground, relieved. Though it had faithfully fulfilled its role, the repeated defeats had taken a toll mentally. The clones didn''t only share memories with the real body, but the pain as well. While it never showed the pain during battle, it felt every death and repeatedly which left him tired. Allowing its mind to wander, Shadow Crawler reflected on its earlier conversation with Sol. It muttered, "There was the [Soul Harvester] and the Butcher¡­ but who was the third? I pretty sure they were active during the war, but I can''t remember. Maybe Mother knows?" The boss passed the question along to the dungeon core wondering if she had the answer and rather surprisingly, she did. "Neitarel?" Shadow Crawler closed his eyes as he tried to recall more. "Still doesn''t ring a bell. Must not have been that important." Shrugging, the boss dismissed the thought.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Chapter 329 Blessed Compass A carriage pulled by two horses made its way down a paved road. In the distance, a towering stone wall loomed, gradually shrinking from view as the carriage moved away. Sitting atop the carriage was Amber, her hair flowing in the gentle breeze. She wasn''t alone; a bearded man withrge hands held the reins, and four C-Rank adventurers jogged alongside, keeping pace with the carriage. One of the adventurers, Daren, a young man armed with a sword and shield, nced at Amber, who asionally swung her dagger in seemingly random directions. "Hey, Alder, what do you think she''s doing?" "I don''t know." Alder replied, shrugging. "Maybe some kind of special training? She and the guy she''s with are B-Rankers, so who knows? Don''t get distracted by what she''s doing and keep your eyes on the surroundings. Bandits probably know what happened in the city by now. The bold ones will definitely try to take advantage of the surge of people leaving, or those will soon arrive."n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "Yeah, yeah, I know." Daren waved dismissively, though he still sounded unconcerned. "But we''re still close to the city walls. They wouldn''t dare attack here, would they?" He then changed the subject. "Still, I don''t get it. Why is everyone rushing to the capital? It''s basically in shambles, why would anyone want to go there now?" From the other side of the carriage, Pollock, another C-Rank adventurer, poked his head around with a sly grin. "Why does anyone do anything? For money and opportunity!" Daren frowned, still puzzled. "How does that work? Are they nning to scavenge through the ruins?" The bearded driver, Gilbert, the employer for this escort quest, shook his head and chimed in. "Not exactly. Sure, some might have that in mind, but most are going for different reasons. It''s be hard to to make a name for yourself with so many pre established forces and people in the capital, but now that some of them are gone or lost everything, it''s a perfect opportunity for new yers to enter the scene. Merchants, builders, adventurers and even some nobles are jumping at this opportunity to climb the socialdder or make a lot of money. Some pre-established powers were wiped out or weakened, and now there''s room for new yers to rise. Me? I already bought thend where two buildings used to stand along the main road. Once I get materials and a contractor, I''ll build a store and expand my business." Gilbert nced back at the group. "The capital''s low on materials, given that a lot of it is already being used for reconstruction, which is why we''re heading to Redwood to buy some before the price spikes. Opportunities like this don''te often." Though yesterday''s events had been catastrophic, they had opened doors for the ambitious. Opportunists were already jumping in to capitalize on low prices and high demand. Of course, there was also the risk that the tragedy could mark the kingdom''s fall, but those willing to gamble knew that to get ahead they had to take some risk. As their conversation continued, Alder raised a fist, signaling everyone to halt. "Be on guard." He warned. "I heard movement over there." The group''s attention shifted toward a cluster of trees and bushes. Gilbert pulled on the reins, stopping the horses, while Alder and Daren approached the area cautiously. The remaining adventurers stayed close to the carriage, protecting it. Sword and shield at the ready, Daren circled thergest tree. His eyes widened when he spotted a body hidden in the bushes. "What the hell¡­" he muttered, using his sword to push aside some foliage. To his shock, seven more corpsesy beneath the brush. Alder stepped closer, his expression grim. "Bandits, right? But who killed them? It looks recent." The blood pooling beneath the bodies was fresh, staining the ground and seeping into the earth. Judging by their rugged appearance and hidden location, they were almost certainly bandits. "What do we do?" Pollock asked, his voice tinged with worry. "Whoever did this might still be nearby... and we could be next." Alder scanned the area, his instincts on high alert. After a moment, he said, "We should leave. Whoever killed them is still close since they died recently, and we don''t want to provoke them. Let''s not touch their kills." Though looting another''s kills wasn''t strictly against any rules, Alder didn''t want to risk angering the individual or group capable of dispatching eight bandits so cleanly and without a mess. Gilbert nodded in agreement. "Let''s pick up the pace." With a flick of the reins, the horses broke into a faster gallop, putting distance between them and the grisly scene. ... Inside the carriage, Sol sat on a crate, feeling the jostling as the carriage elerated. Once they were far enough from the bodies, Sol extended his will, manipting the earth around the bandits'' corpses to bury them. As he finished, he sighed and shook his head. ''Damn. I forgot to bury that group.'' Sol and Amber had taken this escort quest not out of necessity but convenience. After yesterday''s events, most carriages had been destroyed or quickly imed, leaving them with two choices: walk on foot or take an escort quest from the guild. Naturally, they chose thetter, which also gave Sol time to sort through his recent gains. Since leaving the city, Amber had handled three separate groups of bandits. Sol had tasked her with dealing with any attackers so he could focus on inspecting the items and skills he''d acquired. He hadn''t done so earlier, feeling guilty about spending time on personal gains while the city was still recovering. Now, with nothing else to do during the journey, he finally had time. The reason the adventurers had discovered thest group of bandits was simple, Sol had forgotten to bury the bodies after Amber finished them off. His distraction stemmed from a particrly strange object he''d found among the Harbinger''s possessions: [Blessed Story Compass Common Durability: 10/10 Skills: [???] Lv MAX] [[???] Lv MAX: Detects and points in the direction of the narrative focus.] [New entry detected.] [Permission level 1 confirmed.] [Name the new skill.] Chapter 330 Items, Spells and Skills There were many odd things about this object, starting with the fact that it was a blessed item, meaning a god was involved. But what truly confused him was that its only skill wasn''t just unidentified; its description didn''t clearly exin its purpose either. ''What does it mean by narrative focus?'' He nced at where thepass was pointing, somewhere behind him, but as the carriage took a turn, he noticed the arrow still aimed directly at him. ''Could it be?'' He moved thepass left, then right. No matter where he shifted it, the arrow always turned to point in his direction. Sol even activated [Muffled Movements] and [Invisibility] to reduce his presence, but thepass still locked onto him. ''It''s pointing at me¡­ but how?'' He found the situation both absurd and iprehensible. Apass that could track him so precisely seemed impossible. ''I guess now I know how the Harbinger found me. But why would a god create this and give it to them? When did I offend a god?'' The only god he had ever interacted with was Orna, and he was confident their rtionship was on good terms. Hebed through his memories, but nothing stood out to suggest a reason for a god to target him, and certainly not in such an indirect way. If a god wanted him dead, they wouldn''t need to rely on such methods; they could kill him effortlessly. ''Maybe it was the Harbinger''s god who gave it to him?'' Sol spected, then shook his head. ''That doesn''t make sense. This item''s effects arepletely different from the Harbinger''s abilities.'' It was well known that someone could only be a god''s Chosen if their talents and affinities aligned with that god''s domain. The same rule applied to Harbingers. Sol knew the Harbinger specialized in assassination, yetcked even a single tracking skill. That didn''t match thepass''s function either. He considered other possibilities, but none seemed usible. Frustrated, he decided to shelve the mystery for now and put thepass away. He also dismissed the system prompt asking him to name the unidentified skill. ''I don''t even know how it works. What am I supposed to call it? Sol Tracker?'' The thought made him chuckle, though he knew such a name wouldn''t be appropriate. Setting aside the blessed item for now, he examined the other belongings of the Harbinger. Most were unremarkable. A few unique weapons and armor pieces caught his eye, but none were particrly useful to him in his current state. He nned to sell most of them, keeping only two unique daggers and a set of leather armor with useful skills for Amber. Just as he was starting to think he''d gained nothing of real value from the Harbinger aside from thepass, he came across something exceptional. [Tome of the Fell me Unique Durability: 230/350 Skills: [Fire Amplification] Lv 7, [Zone of mes] Lv 7, [Page Immtion] Lv 7] [[Fire Amplification] Lv 7]: Increases the power of fire spells and abilities by 140%.] [[Zone of mes] Lv 7]: Drastically raises the temperature of the surrounding area, enhancing fire element prevalence. Fire magic bes 35% stronger and requires 20% less mana, while water/ice magic bes 35% weaker and requires 40% more mana. Duration: 20 minutes. Cooldown: 10 hours.] [[Page Immtion] Lv 7]: Burns a spell recorded in the tome to cast it instantly at a designated target. Costs no mana and requires only basic mana control to utilize.] ''This is perfect!'' A broad smile spread across Sol''s face as he examined the tome. The results from [Analysis] didn''t interest him much; it was the tome itself that excited him. ''With this, I can finally learn advanced fire magic!'' Opening the tome to a random page, he found a spell called [Cinder Chains], which conjured four fiery chains to burn and restrain targets. Even without casting it, Sol could tell it was far stronger than any fire spell he currently knew. ''Till now, I''ve only had three advanced level dark spells, but this tome could let me learn an entirely new set of spells.'' One of Sol''s biggest limitations in magic had always been hisck of advanced spells. While he possessed [Advanced Elemental Magic (Variant)], all of his spells were siphoned from others, meaning they were either basic or intermediate. He had managed topensate by spamming spells with loop and multi casting, or by relying on his advanced dark spells from the Laughing Skulls, but it was still limiting. This tome, however, was a game changer. ''Even though some pages are burned from the previous owner using [Page Immtion], there are still over 40 intermediate spells and 5 advanced ones that arepletely intact.'' He carefully stored the tome, along with thepass and the items he''d set aside for Amber, in his own spatial ring. Everything else went back into the Harbinger''s spatial ring which would be sold whenever he had the chance. Once he finished sorting through the items, Sol opened his status page. Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner], [Transformer] Level: 121N?v(el)B\\jnn Exp: 43,536,641/13,348,063,234 HP: 5000 MP: 6250 Str: 120 (+480) Vit: 120 (+380) Agi: 120 (+480) Int: 120 (+480) Wis: 125 (+500) Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 7, [Analysis] Lv 9, [Aggregate] Lv EX, [Reinterpret] Lv EX Siphoned Talents: [Swift End] Lv 2, [Create Magic Hands] Lv MAX, [Impact Bubble] Lv 4, [Spectral w] Lv MAX, [Gigantify] Lv MAX Passive Skills: [Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Reflect] Lv 9, [Intermediate Psychic Mastery] Lv 8, [Advanced Weapon Mastery] Lv 5, [Wild Hunt] Lv 5, [Invincible Body] Lv 9, [Perfect Bnce] Lv 7, [Death Absorption] Lv MAX, [True Sight (Variant)] Lv 8, [Superior Mana Control] Lv 7, [Fortified Soul] Lv 2, [Intermediate Craftsman] Lv 2, [Battle Dance] Lv 9, [Nether Body] Lv MAX, [Battle Intuition] Lv 7, [Critical Precision] Lv 7, [Speed Reading] Lv 5, [Bartering], 8, [Animal Handling] Lv 7, [Cartography] Lv 5, [Swimming] Lv 2, [Beekeeping] Lv 5, etc. Active Skills: [Lesser Channel Control] Lv 1, [Phase Step] Lv 6, [Invisibility] Lv 9, [Terra Maniption] Lv EX, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Telepathy] Lv 4, [Unpassable Bulwark] Lv 9, [Advanced Elemental Magic (Variant)] Lv 3, [Overpower] Lv 8, [Weapon Empowerment (Variant)] Lv EX, [Piercing Lunge] Lv 9, [Mana sh] Lv 7, [Polychromatism] Lv EX, [Mana Burst] Lv EX, [Repair] Lv 5, [Close Combat] Lv 6, [Vorpal de Rush] Lv 7, [Guided Bombardment] Lv 6, [Phoenix Dive] Lv 7, [Unarming Blow] Lv 7, [Phantasmal Rip and Tear] Lv MAX, [Death Sentence] Lv EX, [Umbral Domain] Lv EX, [Telekinesis] Lv 7, [Memory Engraving] Lv 5, [Mental eleration] Lv 6, [Mental Scrying] Lv 4, [Psy st] Lv 4, [Remote Viewing] Lv 5, [Intermediate Blood Magic] Lv 9, [Blood Pact] Lv 7, [Shapeshift - Bat] Lv MAX, [Blood Recovery] Lv MAX, [Enthrallment] Lv 8, [Beguiling Gaze] Lv 8, [Silent Execution (Variant)] Lv 5, [Double Step] Lv 3, [Lock Crack] Lv 4, [Persuade] Lv 4, [Map Creation] Lv 6, [Quick Salve] Lv 4, [Dowsing] Lv 6, [Fast Bake] Lv 3, etc. Sol first turned his attention to his most important skill, [Siphon], which had finally leveled up after such a long time. [[Siphon] Lv 7: Siphon 4 skills from dead beings, includingw techniques. Can additionally siphon one talent skill. Near perfect efficiency and retention of knowledge, but dependent on whether the target''s channels have faded away.] He had to relearn the skill from the ground up after discovering it was, in reality, a psychic skill, and that tethers were intrinsically tied to how efficiently he could extract abilities. Tethers naturally faded after death, but how long it took varied. Some lingered far longer than others and he had yet to find the reason why. As he reread the description, Sol focused on the first sentence and thought to himself, ''So I couldn''t [Siphon]w techniques before? But I managed it anyway when it was still level six.'' He wasn''t sure if this was the natural progression of the skill or if his actions had somehow influenced it to evolve. Either way, he was d he could now obtainw techniques without issue. ''Maybe that''s why it was so hard obtaining [Swift End].'' Sol thought to himself as he recalled the struggle he faced just preventing the tether from escaping his grasp. Closing the description for [Siphon], his gaze shifted to the massive list of skills on his status page. Over 200 entries stared back at him, and his expression darkened. Normally, he would be thrilled by the sheer variety, eager tobine and refine them into something even greater. But not this time. ''All these skills came from people who shouldn''t have died.'' While he had gainedbat skill levels through battle, the vast majority of these abilities had been siphoned from the helpless victims of the vampire attack¡ªmen, women, and even children. Sitting in the stillness of the carriage, the only sound was the rhythmic tter of wheels against the uneven road. His fist clenched tightly. ''I can only be stronger. Strong enough to stop something like this from ever happening again.'' Sol knew he couldn''t afford to dwell on the past. Regret would achieve nothing. The only path forward was to ensure he was better prepared for the challenges ahead. Determination red in his eyes as over a hundred colorful tethers materialized before him, each representing a skill he had siphoned. With a resolute expression, he beganbining. Chapter 331 Demand and Supply Underneath the shade of a simple wooden shed with no walls, Sol was impatiently tapping his finger against the wooden support beam. He looked at the man chewing on a long piece of straw and pointed at the horses behind him.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "So none of these are for sale?" "Afraid so." the man replied with a helpless smile. "Like I said, some rich looking fe came by and bought them all. The only ones left are breeding mares and foals, and I can''t sell either of them." Sol sighed, shaking his head. After parting with Gilbert andpleting his escort quest, he and Amber were facing the first hurdle any traveler must ovee when covering long distances: transportation. He expected something like this, but not to this degree. Not a single horse was avable. Though it had only been two days since the vampire attack, many had acted quickly, preparing for their own ns. This caused the supply and demand of many goods and services to spiral out of bnce. Horses were quickly bought up, the demand for skilled workers rose and even the price of basic materials like wood that were usually plentiful spiked. This wasn''t the first horse breeder Sol and Amber had visited since arriving at Redwood. It was the third, and also thest. The others had no horses for sale either, all telling a simr story. Sol nced at the horses once more, sad that he couldn''t purchase any of them, and thought to himself, ''We can''t take it slow and walk the entire way to the Sapphire Scale Alliance. The longer we take, the harder it will be to find them¡­'' Robbing a horse was out of the question, so he began brainstorming other solutions. Without horses, their only option was to travel on foot. While they were both strong and capable of running long distances at impressive speeds, it wasn''t ideal. Tiring themselves out by running through the wilderness would make them vulnerable to attacks from monsters or hostile people. To stay in peak condition, they needed a better method of travel. The safest and most efficient option was still a horse drawn carriage. After all, these weren''t ordinary level 1 horses. These horses were specially raised, trained, and leveled to at least 25, with plenty of skills in running and endurance. Though they didn''t quite match the other transportation animals like the C-Rank hornsteeds, they could run for nearly two days without stopping while consuming far less food. Despite being less expensive than hornsteeds, they were still costly¡ªthough that hadn''t stopped certain wealthy individuals from buying them all up. Seeing Sol''s plight, the man scratched his chin, seemingly trying to help. "You and thess are adventurers, right? Have you checked the guild? Maybe there''s an escort quest heading where you need to go." Sol shook his head. "There isn''t any. Already checked. The only escort quests are heading toward the capital." "Then I''m afraid you''re simply outta luck. You''re gonna have to wait until things settle down." Waiting wasn''t an option. Sol began calcting the distance to the next town or vige. The closest one was three days away. He could only hope they''d have better luck there. As he was about to leave, he noticed a small, roofless carriage near the breeding mares and got an idea. "Say¡­ how much for that carriage?" ... Ten minutester, Sol and Amber were on the outskirts of town with the old carriage they''d bought for 30 silver. Inspecting the carriage, Solmented aloud, "The front wheel is cracked, but that''s nothing that can''t be fixed. I''ll repair it and make it stronger than before." With a wave of his hand, clumps of stone rose from the ground and transformed into various tools. They fell gently into his hands, and he got to work. Amber watched as Sol''s hands blurred with speed, repairing the carriage with remarkable precision. Each motion was fluid, deliberate, and backed by the skills he''dbined and refined. The tools in his hands glimmered faintly as he used one of his newlybined skills [Precise Touch], greatly enhancing his precision and efficiency. First, Sol addressed the cracked front wheel. Using [Rapid Mend], he removed the wheel from the carriage and applied a special glue he''d purchased in town, seamlessly filling the small cracks and reinforcing the structure. Though the process didn''t involve any magic, his speed and technique could easily be mistaken for it. "Not bad." Sol muttered as he finished repairing the wheel and ced it back. His focus then shifted to the bent axles. Amber crouched near the carriage, silently observing as Sol worked. "This is surprisingly a lot of fun." hemented, his tone lighter. "I can see why Fabio always got excited working on projects. It feels good to make something with your own hands." "Like cooking?" Amber asked, rting it to her own personal experience cooking. "Yeah, exactly like that," Sol replied, nodding. Next, Sol examined the carriage frame. Some joints were loose, and the wood had warped slightly over time. Using [Precise Touch] and the experience he siphoned from others to level [Intermediate Craftsman], he carefully removed the nails, reshaped the wood with a stone hammer and knife, and secured everything back in ce. Each strike of the hammer drove nails with pinpoint uracy. Moving to the underside of the carriage, he found cracks simr to those on the wheel, likely from transporting heavy loads. He sealed them with glue, as before. Then, an idea struck him. Muttering his thoughts aloud, he said, "There''s a lot of empty space here¡­ maybe I could fit one or two... Don''t know if it can handle it, though." Setting the hammer down, he took the stone knife and began carving runes into the freshly repaired underside of the carriage. Amber tilted her head, confused as to why he was undoing his own work, but she remained quiet. As Sol continued carving, what initially seemed like random scribbles transformed into a cohesive pattern of runes. It didn''t take long for him to finish. Once done, he flipped the carriage upright and proudly activated [Analysis] to view the results. [Enhanced Carriage Rare Durability: 280/280 Skills: [Smooth Ride] Lv 4, [Durable] Lv 3] "I really outdid myself this time." Sol said, grinning. "Can''t believe it became a rare item." The carriage was now a masterpiece of durability and practicality. Such a transformation was normally impossible for a simple wooden structure, but his repairs and rune enhancements had elevated it beyond its limits. While there was space to add another rune he ultimately decided against it, knowing that overloading ordinary materials with runes would cause them to fail. The oue of such an event was unpredictable with the carriage crumbling to dust at best or at worst causing a violent explosion with the runes goingpletely haywire. Amber, however, pointed out the real issue. "What will pull it?" "d you asked. Hop on." Sol gestured for her to climb into the carriage. She nodded andplied as Sol followed behind her. "Since we don''t have a horse, let''s make our own!" he dered. Channeling mana in front of the carriage, shadows rose from the ground, forming the shape of a horse. The shadowy steed came with a harness of darkness that attached itself to the carriage. Once fully formed, it let out a deep, resounding neigh and stomped its front hoof. Sol hummed in satisfaction and exined, "It costs a bit of mana to maintain, but at its size and strength, it''s manageable. Plus, we don''t need to feed it." The shadow horse wasn''t just a convenient recement like he exined, it was also a terrifying creature. Though it had no status page, it could bepared to a level 60 creature, something that could easily overpower most C-Rank opponents and even give B-Rankers a run for their money. Grabbing the shadowy reins that materialized out of thin air, Sol grinned. "Now then, to Brestfol!" Chapter 332 A Simple Job Atop a cliff overlooking a dusty road, five men and women dressed in mismatched leather armor sat around an extinguished campfire. The midday sun zed overhead, making sweat drip down their foreheads. Buck leaned back, shielding his eyes from the sun with one hand, and grumbled, "Man¡­ This spot is good, but the sun kills me this time of year. I know we can''t build a shelter that''d give us away, but can''t we nt a tree or two?" Rafelia, fanning herself with a scrap of paper, shook her head. "When you find a tree that can grow on this rocky ground, go ahead, no one''s gonna stop you." The rocky terrain beneath them was barren and unforgiving. Growing anything here would take either a miracle or skills they simply didn''t have. Not far from the group, their scout Kilen crouched behind arge rock, keeping a watchful eye on the road. His sharp gaze caught movement, a trio of travelers walking down the path. They were each carrying arge backpack which appeared full to the brim. They appeared to be small time merchants or making some kind of delivery. "Guys, we''ve gotpany!" he called out. Miden, the scrawniest of the group, stood and grabbed his oversized staff. Despite his thin frame, he radiated authority. "Look alive, everyone. Let''s make this quick." The others nodded, unsheathing their weapons and preparing to do what they did best: rob unsuspecting travelers. Just as they were about to move, Kilen perked up again, his eyes narrowing. "Wait! Someone else ising!" The news didn''t faze the group. Rafelia grinned as she hefted her broadsword. "A two for one? Lucky us!" "Rider or carriage?" Miden asked calmly. Kilen turned his head toward the sound of hoofbeats and activated his skill, [Long Sight]. "A carriage¡ªbut¡­ what the hell? They''re moving way too fast." The scene before Kilen''s enhanced vision was bizarre. The carriage was being pulled by a shadowy ck horse that moved at a ludicrous speed. It defied logic that the carriage hadn''t fallen apart from the incredible speed on the bumpy road. He turned back to Miden, his face grave. "It''s not normal," Kilen reported. "Some kind of shadow horse¡­ and it''s fast. Real fast." The group waited for Miden''s call. He didn''t take long to decide. "Forget it. It''s not worth the risk," Miden said firmly, sitting back down by the campfire. From Kilen''s description, whoever was riding in that carriage was at least B-Rank. With only Miden himself at that level, they''d be doomed if there was more than one capable fighter. Any seasoned bandit knew when to pick their battles, and a shadowy horse speeding down the road screamed trouble. It only took one bad encounter to end up dead. "Let''s wait it out," Buck agreed, settling back onto the hard ground. "Someone else wille alongter." The rest nodded in agreement, though before they could fully rx, Kilen''s tense voice cut through the air. "Wait¡ªthey''re stopping!" "What? Do they know we''re here?" Rafelia asked, her grip tightening on her broadsword. "Could it really be a B-Ranker?" Buck muttered anxiously, clutching his weapon. The group''s earlier bravado vanished, reced by a nervous energy. They were tense, dreading the possibility that they''d been discovered. "Quiet down," Miden ordered, raising a hand. "Let me check." Cautiously leaning over the cliff''s edge, he peered down at the road. The carriage hade to a halt near the three travelers. The travelers had drawn their weapons at first, but a young man stepped out of the carriage and greeted them warmly, easing their concerns. After watching the young man pull out a map and show it to the travelers, Miden let out a sigh of relief. "False rm. He''s just asking for directions." The group exhaled collectively, their tension easing as theyid low to avoid drawing attention. Miden returned to his seat but kept Kilen on lookout just in case. A few minutes passed before Kilen reported again. "He''s waving at them now. Looks like he''s getting back on the carriage. I think we''re in the clear." Buck let out a loud sigh and flopped onto the rocky ground. "Goddamn, finally. I know it wasn''t that long, but that was stressful." Rafelia nodded in agreement. "I''ve heard way too many stories about people like us getting wiped out because they picked a fight with the wrong person. I don''t wanna end up like that." Though they''d done nothing but hide and wait, the group felt a wave of relief, d to have avoided what could''ve been a deadly encounter. Miden pped his hands to get their attention. "Alright, we''re safe, but let''s not go back empty handed. Let''s see who elsees by today." "Who elsees by for what?" The unfamiliar voice froze them in their tracks. Slowly, they turned their heads to see the young man from before now standing just a few feet away, a smile stered on his face. None of them had noticed his approach, it was as though he''d materialized out of thin air. In that moment, they realized they were utterly screwed. Miden, as caught off guard as the rest, forced a nervousugh. "Did I say that? Hahaha¡­ You must have misheard." The young man''s smile remained, unnervingly calm. "Oh, really? What did you say, then? Because it sounded an awful lot like you were a group of bandits waiting for easy targets. Wouldn''t want to mistake you for bandits, now, would we?" "Us? Bandits?" Miden said, his voice cracking slightly. "No, no, of course not. We''re¡­ adventurers. Tasked with¡­ keeping watch over this road. Lots of bandits aroundtely, so we''re waiting for them to show up. Right, everyone?" The rest of the group nodded furiously, their heads bobbing up and down like puppets. "Wow." the young man said, feigning awe. "I didn''t know bandits came here. Good thing there are fine adventurers like you keeping the road safe. If that''s the case, I''ve got a job for you. Want to hear it?" "A job?" Miden asked cautiously. He wasn''t fooling anyone, least of all the young man, but since they weren''t dead yet, he figured there was a reason. "What kind of job?"n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om ''Whatever it is, we''ll have to do it¡­'' Resigned to the young man''s whims, Miden braced himself and waited for his answer. "What I want you to do is simple¡­" The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone! Chapter 333 [Soul Contract] A whileter, Sol was back on the carriage, holding the reins of the shadow horse as they sped towards the next town. While looking at the open road ahead of him, he thought back to his encounter with those "adventurers." "What do you think, Amber? Should I have simply killed them?" Amber, who was practicing her pseudow technique by precisely cutting an onionyer byyer, perfectly controlling the strength and range of her distorted cuts, paused and said, "More useful alive." Sol nodded, agreeing with her. "I could have killed them, but another bandit group would eventually take that perch and do the same thing again. Might as well turn them into vigntes instead. But it wouldn''t be possible without that new skill Ibined." [[Soul Contract] Lv 6: Create a soul-binding deal between two or more parties. Failure toply would result in one of the three punishments chosen for the contract: soul mark, soul weakening, or soul purge. Requires all parties'' consent for the usage of the skill. Mana cost: 500] [Soul Contract] was a skill he made bybining the vampires'' [Blood Pact] and [Enthrallment] with trading skills like [Bartering] and [Persuade] to create a skill that could enforce any verbal contract. Needless to say, this skill was heavily inspired by Orna''s ability to create deals. Sol felt it would be incredibly useful to have such an ability, so he tried to guide the tethers with [Aggregate] in that direction, and it worked spectacrly. What Sol did with the skill was make the bandits do exactly what they said. Now, under the risk of their souls being burned away from the harshest punishment he could choose, soul purge, they must watch over that road and protect the people from bandits, animals, or monsters that maye to harm them. Though they were bandits, Sol wasn''tpletely unfair to them either and allowed them to leave the area two days a week to rest and recover before resuming their work again. He didn''t want them to be stuck on that cliff for the rest of their lives watching over the road. If that happened, they were most likely to starve, and at that point, it would be better to simply kill them. He also added to the contract that if they broke anyws or attacked people unjustly, that would also count as breaking the deal, so he didn''t worry about them using the two rest days as some sort of loophole. While [Soul Contract] worked fantastically, it was only an imitation of Orna''s Law of Trade and paled inparison to the real thing. He discovered there were three huge limitations to the skill. The first being theck of variety of punishments. There were only three: soul mark, which would tell him if someone broke a deal and their location; soul weakening, which permanently damaged their soul; and soul purge, which wouldpletely burn the soul until there was nothing left. They were good options for most scenarios, but they all dealt their punishment on the soul, and someone who could tamper with souls like Torben could remove it with some effort. The second limiting factor was detecting when someone broke a contract. [Soul Contract] could only identify if someone broke a contract if the party themselves believed they broke it. This was because the contract reads into their soul to monitor their actions. On the bright side, one couldn''t simply tell themselves they weren''t breaking the contract and be safe, as it was almost impossible to lie through one''s soul. Certain individuals with warped perspectives or those trained in interacting with their souls could bypass this. Thest and most restricting limitation was that it simply wasn''t very effective on strong individuals. A strong B-Ranker could survive a soul purge, albeit near death. A-Rankers could also be affected by the skill but could either endure it ore out with their soul slightly injured and recover in time. This was because the skill was not aw technique; it wasn''t even at max level. Closing the skill''s description, Sol nced back at Amber and changed the subject. "Those people we passed by said that Brestfol was a few hours away. Once we get there, let''s stay for the night. I don''t want to pass up a good bed another night. I can also finish messing with my skills." While it would have been faster to simply keep going and rest somewhere in the wilderness, Amber nodded with his request, not minding the small dy. Though the travelers said it would take a few hours from where they were, they weren''t taking into ount the speed of the shadow horse. From encountering the group and the bandits, it only took the duo a little under an hour to arrive at the town of Brestfol. It was a lovely town surrounded by grassy ins and rich farnd. The scenery was beautiful, but neither of them paid much attention to it for different reasons. Amber simply didn''t care for such things, while Sol had something else at the forefront of his mind. Because of this, the two went straight to the nearest inn and booked two rooms. After bidding Amber goodnight, Sol went into his room and sat cross-legged on the bed to finishbining his skills. ¡­ "Life trades." [Error. That name is already taken.] "General techniques." [Error. That name is already taken.] "Handyman." [Error. That name is already taken.] "...Tools of the trade." [[Tools of the Trade] Confirm name?] "That one wasn''t taken!? Yes!" Sol eximed, both shocked and relieved. He finally got to name the skill after the 23rd try. After the 15th, he had already given up and was trying anything hoping it would stick, but the one he was sure would have been taken was surprisingly avable. [[Tools of the Trade] Lv 6: The user has extensive knowledge in most trades and professions. Whether it be rearing animals or fixing items, the user''s expertise allows for efficient and precise work, with an increased chance of sess on all tasks.] Seeing the short description for the skill, Sol let out a long sigh and fell back onto the bed. A smile grew on his face as he thought to himself. ''Finally, I''m donebining.'' With a single thought, he brought up his status page to see the results. Name: Sol Race: Human Talents: [Siphoner], [Transformer] Level: 121 Exp: 43,543,380/13,348,063,234 HP: 5000 MP: 6250 Str: 120 (+480) Vit: 120 (+380) Agi: 120 (+480) Int: 120 (+480) Wis: 125 (+500) Talent Skills: [Siphon] Lv 6, [Analysis] Lv 9, [Aggregate] Lv EX, [Reinterpret] Lv EX Siphoned Talents: [Swift End] Lv 2, [Create Magic Hands] Lv MAX, [Impact Bubble] Lv 4, [Spectral w] Lv MAX, [Gigantify] Lv MAX Passive Skills: [Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Reflect] Lv 9, [Advanced Weapon Mastery] Lv 5, [Intermediate Psychic Mastery] Lv 8, [Perfect Bnce] Lv 7, [True Sight (Variant)] Lv 8, [Superior Mana Control] Lv 7, [Fortified Soul] Lv 2, [Intermediate Craftsman] Lv 4, [Invincible Physique] Lv 9, [Death''s Dance] Lv 8, [Seeker''s Map] Lv 5, [Tools of the Trade] Lv 6 Active Skills: [Lesser Channel Control] Lv 1, [Invisibility] Lv 9, [Terra Maniption] Lv EX, [Telepathy] Lv 6, [Unpassable Bulwark] Lv 9, [Overpower] Lv 8, [Weapon Empowerment (Variant)] Lv EX, [Piercing Lunge] Lv 9, [Mana sh] Lv 7, [Polychromatism] Lv EX, [Mana Burst] Lv EX, [Vorpal de Rush] Lv 7, [Guided Bombardment] Lv 6, [Phoenix Dive] Lv 7, [Unarming Blow] Lv 7, [Death Sentence] Lv EX, [Umbral Domain] Lv EX, [Telekinesis] Lv 8, [Memory Engraving] Lv 6, [Mental eleration] Lv 7, [Mental Scrying] Lv 5, [Psy st] Lv 7, [Shapeshift - Bat] Lv MAX, [Beguiling Gaze] Lv 8, [Silent Execution (Variant)] Lv 5, [Ethereal Traversal] Lv 7, [Omni-Elemental Magic] Lv 3, [Precise Touch] Lv 6, [Rapid Mend] Lv 5, [Soul Contract] Lv 6, [Dread ws] Lv 8 He knew that he wasn''t truly done as he would eventually obtain new skills or finish maxing out his psychic skills, but he was simply d to be done for now, as it was a very draining process. The act itself ofbining skills wasn''t draining. In fact, it was the easiest part given his experience with [Aggregate] and hisw technique [Lesser Channel Control], allowing him to easily manipte his tethers. What was actually time-consuming and the reason it took him so long tobine the over 200 skills was the careful decision and nning he had to do for each one. He simply couldn''t p skills together and hope they turn out well; he needed to meticulously n and consider the potentialbinations, then guide the tethers tobine in the ideal direction. When he was donebining the skill, he still wasn''t finished, as then he would have to tussle with the system. Almost all the skills hebined this time around were unregistered, and he had toe up with a name for them. Sure, he could have left them unnamed or given them random names, but that didn''t sit right with him, as it was something he would have to live with for a long time. But even though he decided against giving them random names, he couldn''t deny being tempted to name a powerful skill like [Dread ws] something like [Ticklish Terror]. As much as it tempted him to pull that prank, it required someone to see his real status page, which wasn''t ideal, so he decided against it. Stay updated via empire Forgetting about [Ticklish Terror] for now, he turned his attention towards his psychic skills and thought to himself, ''They''re developing nicely. When they max out, I willbine them.'' Whenever he wasn''t pondering skillbinations, he was working on leveling his psychic skills, as he wanted tobine them only when they reached max level so he could create something truly powerful like [Umbral Domain] or [Polychromatism]. ''I can''t wait to see what kind of skill woulde from thatbination. Hopefully, I gain another secondary ability like Symphony of the Night and Full Spectrum. I guess I''ll see when I get there, but since I finished faster than expected, it''s time to take care of another matter.'' Closing the status page, Sol reached into his spatial ring and took out arge dark and lustrous scale. It was the scale given to him by Orna that represents the Law of Dragons. Sol looked at the inanimate object and spoke as if he were talking with another person. "So¡­ am I still too weak to use you?"@@novelbin@@ Chapter 334 [Draconification] The dragon scale began to lightly shake as if it was waking from its slumber. It floated off the ground as it turned towards Sol. Find your next adventure on empire It was then that Sol felt something pass through him as if analysing every single cell in his body. He didn''t have any intention to block it as he knew it was the scale''s doing but he had an inkling that even if he tried to block it it would be useless. Once it was done the scale expressed its intent. Though it could not use verbalnguage Sol understood what it was conveying.@@novelbin@@ Sol let out a chuckle at its response. "Hah! Barely huh? But that means I can handle it right?" Last time he attempted to use the scale, he was violently rejected and told he wouldn''t be able to withstand its power. But he wasn''t the same as he was then. He had gained not one, but twow techniques and had grown greatly in many aspects. He was sure he could endure whatever the scale imbued with the Law of Dragons had for him. The dragon scale hummed faintly in confirmation as it began to glow. Sol reached out to touch it, but before his fingers could make contact, the scale began to shrink rapidly. "What¡ª?" Sol muttered, pulling his hand back as he watched the phenomenon unfold. The scale, once a meter tall, diminished at an unbelievably fast rate. Its glow flickered, and the energy he could sense from it weakened, its presence retreating like a wave pulling back into the ocean. ''Is it sealing itself to not overwhelm me?'' Sol concluded after watching it shrink until it was half a foot long. He wasn''t shocked that the scale was lowering its power for him but what shocked him was the degree it was decreasing by. The scale continued to shrink until it was the size of a grape. Sol could feel its powerpressing, folding in on itself as though sealing away its true strength. "For it to seal itself this much¡­" Sol muttered under his breath with a slight bitterness in his voice. Even reaching A-Rank, an achievement most could only dream of, was something insignificant to this object. The now tiny scale hovered unsteadily in the air, before it floated toward him. Itnded gently in his palm and expressed a singlemand to Sol''s mind, easily trantable to one word. Eat. Sol stared at the scale, his brows furrowing. "Eat it?" he asked aloud, his voice tinged with disbelief and slight worry. This wasn''t what he expected. He thought he could use it like a weapon like he did with the void root but to directly consume was an entirely different matter. There was no way to know what would happen and what would be of him doing so. At the very least he would gain attributes and maybe a new skill but at worst it could be many things and dying was likely not the worst of them. After a moment of hesitation, Sol let out a long breath. "Fine. Let''s see what happens." He reached out, grabbed the small scale, and without overthinking it, ced it in his mouth. The scale was smooth and cool against his tongue, and easily swallowed it in one go. Sol waited, but for a few seconds, nothing happened. Just when he was about to wonder what it was supposed to do, a sudden, searing pain erupted in his stomach, forcing him to his knees. "Argh!" Sol groaned, clutching his abdomen as a torrent of energy surged through him, wild and uncontroble. His mana and psychic energy also spiraled out of control,shing out in waves that cracked the walls and splintered the furniture around him. He did his best to keep his energies in check, but like a raging wind it continued to leak out against his will. It didn''t take long for the door to his room to burst open with Amber standing in the doorway, her weapon drawn and her eyes sharp, ready to fight. She believed the reason for the ruckus was from someone attacking him but as her eyes darted around she was unable to find anyone. Sol, struggling to even lift his head, managed to gasp out, "Amber! Help me contain it!" If he didn''t get a hold of the rampant energies soon not only would the inn copse but all the people inside as well. Understanding the urgency, Amber responded with her actions. With a wave of her hand, the air around Sol filled with swirling grains of sand that coalesced into a dense, protective dome. The room quaked as Sol''s rampant energy continued to surge, but Amber''s sand absorbed and neutralized the worst of it. Inside the dome, Sol''s transformation began in earnest. His body burned as dark orange scales erupted across his skin, their texture rough and gleaming. His muscles swelled, his frame growingrger and denser. Two thick, spiraling horns jutted out from his skull, their sharp edges glowing faintly in the dim light. Sol''s screams of pain reverberated within the dome, muffled by the sand and energies swirling around. Sweat poured down his face, and his breathing was ragged, but he could feel something changing deep within him. The energy of the dragon scale wasn''t just empowering him¡ªit was remaking him, reshaping his very being. Amber stood outside the dome, her focus unyielding as she reinforced her sand barrier against the asional cracks of energy that managed to escape. Her expression was unreadable, but a flicker of concern passed through her eyes as she watched the struggle unfold. Inside, Sol''s transformation reached its peak. The searing pain began to subside, reced by a new sensation¡ªa raw, primal power coursing through his veins. His body felt foreign yet familiar, as though it had always been this way his entire life. The energy calmed, the storm subsided, and the sand dome crumbled away. Sol knelt in the center of the room, his breathing heavy but steady. His new form was imposing, with the dark orange scales covering his body and his horns casting long shadows in the dim light. Amber stepped closer, her eyes scanning him. "What happened?" she asked, her voice tinged with unusual confusion as she saw his new appearance. Sol slowly stood, hisrger frame towering over her. He flexed his hands, feeling the strength in them, and looked at her with glowing eyes that now carried a faint orange hue. Before he could exin himself, a system message shed before his eyes: [Race has changed: Human -> Variant Human] [Comprehendedw technique [Draconification] Lv 1!] Chapter 336 Sin of Pride Along with thew technique [Draconification], Sol also gained knowledge about dragons and their bloodlines, including an understanding of what sins truly were. The truth became instantly clear to him. ''My sin must be pride. It could be wrath, but it wasn''t blind anger. It was her tone¡ªthat condescending way she spoke, as if she were better than me that angered me. Now that I''m aware of it, I should be able to keep myself in check¡­'' He knew that the sin didn''t stem from thew technique alone. The scale, imbued with the Law of Dragons, had given him more than the technique, it had also bestowed upon him the bloodline of dragons. Thew technique was simply the means to unlock and wield it. Sol wanted to analyze his changes further to ensure he hadn''t missed anything, but first, he needed to defuse the situation in front of him. He took a slow breath, and began recalling his mana. But before he could fully finish retracting his mana back, Tinerma, who had been on edge from his earlier behavior, acted. Not willing to underestimate Sol or give him the upper hand, she strummed her harp. The air shimmered as waves of sonic energy, created with herw technique [Rampant Melody], surged toward Sol and Amber. "Wait¡ªTinerma, stop!" Nemer shouted, rmed, but it was toote. The attack raced forward, its destructive force palpable. Sol reacted immediately. mming his palm into the ground, he activated [Terra Maniption], pulling a jagged stone dagger from the earth in one swift motion. He infused the weapon with the yer Aura of [Swift End], transforming it into a tool capable of slicing through nearly anything. In one smooth movement, Sol shed at the iing sonic waves. The enhanced de dispersed the attacks into harmless vibrations before they could reach him or Amber. "Stop!" Solmanded, his voice sharp but no longer hostile. "I don''t want to fight you!"@@novelbin@@ Tinerma frowned, her fingers poised over the harp strings. "And I''m supposed to believe that? You were moments away from attacking us!" "Tinerma, wait!" Nemer interjected, stepping forward cautiously. "Something about this feels¡­ off. Let''s not escte without understanding the situation." But Tinerma wasn''t convinced. Her instincts, honed through years ofbat, told her Sol was a threat. Ignoring Nemer''s warning, she strummed the harp again, unleashing another volley of powerful sonic energy. Sol''s patience frayed as he shed through her attacks once more. A dangerous thought flickered through his mind. ''She doesn''t know her ce. I should teach her a lesson.'' He froze and shook his head. ''No. That''s not me.'' He realized the thought wasn''t his own but the sin of pride, trying to push him into asserting dominance above others. Clenching his teeth, Sol forced the intrusive feeling away. He wouldn''t let the dragon bloodline control him. "Tinerma, stop! We can talk this out." Nemer called out to her. He had faith that Tinerma could win but for a confrontation between A-Rankers to happen in the middle of town would only end badly. But Tinerma didn''t listen. She had encountered A-Rankers before¡ªsome who had lost their minds, others consumed by the intoxicating allure of newfound power. She knew the risks of fighting in town but she wasn''t about to let an dangerous powerhouse roam free in her town. With each pull of her harp strings, the sonic waves grew stronger, the beats forming a deadly melody. Sol countered them with his dagger, but the weapon began to crack under the relentless assault. While he tried to reinforce it with the yer Aura, the technique wasn''t designed for defense, and it offered little in terms of durability. As the melody reached its crescendo, Sol realized her attacks weren''t random. She was ying a deliberate, rhythmic song which was both beautiful and lethal in equal measure. He couldn''t keep defending. The attacks were bing harder to block and he was unsure if his makeshift stone dagger could withstand much longer. He had to stop her before she unleashed the full force of her technique. "You leave me no choice." Sol muttered, his voice low but steady. His eyes glimmered as he shifted to anotherw technique, [Lesser Channel Control]. Opening his sight to the tethers of energy around him, he located thergest tether emanating from Tinerma and willed it shut. The effects were immediate. Tinerma''s fingers faltered on the harp strings, and a look of confusion crossed her face. She strummed again, but the sound, though melodious,cked the destructive power it once held. "What¡­?" Tinerma murmured, staring at her hands as if they were betraying her. The knowledge of how to wield [Rampant Melody] seemed to have vanished from her mind. "It''s over." Sol said, lowering his cracked dagger and releasing the yer Aura. "I don''t want to hurt you, but if you keep attacking, I will defend myself." Nemer quickly stepped between them, cing a hand on Tinerma''s shoulder. "Enough, Tinerma. He''s right." Reluctantly, Tinerma nodded and took a step back. Though she still didn''t trust Sol, she knew she couldn''t continue without herw technique. But that didn''t mean she was out of options. She was prepared to use her emergency escape items if necessary. Sol, relieved the fight was over, spoke again. "We didn''te here to cause trouble. I''ll pay the innkeeper for the damages, and we''ll leave as soon as possible. That way, we won''t inconvenience you or the town any further." It wasn''t quite an apology, but the sin of pride made it hard for him to fully admit fault. He hoped it wouldn''t always be this way and if so he would have to find ways to mitigate it. Nemer agreed and somewhat surprised he was willing topensate for the damages. "Alright. We''ll let it slide this time, stick around until we verify the damages with the innkeeper." "Agreed." Sol replied, avoiding eye contact with Tinerma, who watched him warily. Though her caution was justified, Sol felt confident that as long as he kept his sin of pride in check, no further conflict would arise. Chapter 339 Rebuild and Reassure "Oi! Move that to the side! We need to make space for the stone that''s about to arrive!" Mannis, a well built, dark toned man, barked at one of his workers, who single handedly ced arge stack of ceramic tiles in an open area. "Yes, boss!" Without dy, the worker lifted the stack and moved it to a better location. He nced back at Mannis, only to see that his boss had already turned his attention elsewhere, yelling at another worker for a mistake. Mannis wasn''t your average builder. He was an architect renowned throughout the kingdom for his immacte work and exceptional service. He had designed and constructed numerous buildings and even had the opportunity to coborate with multiple guilds. Rumor had it that anything he built could withstand the might of A-Rankers. Though greatly exaggerated¡ªhe didn''t even possess aw technique of his own¡ªit spoke volumes about the respect his workmanded. With the destruction in the capital, Mannis was among the first called upon to help rebuild. Many sent letters and even personal representatives to hire his constructionpany. Most were turned away because someone even more important than wealthy merchants or nobles had requested his service. While Mannis managed his workers, a figure approached him. "Mannis, I presume?" Without turning to face the speaker, Mannis replied dismissively, "No, I''m not taking any jobs right now. Yes, I''ll be avable once this one is done, but with the number of requests I have, I suggest you hire someone else. Larry! What did I say about using the rune lift as your personal chair?!" The figure behind him let out a low chuckle. "I''m not here to hire you for another job. At least, not yet." Something in the man''s tone gave Mannis pause. He turned, ready to scold whoever was bothering him, but the words caught in his throat. Standing before him was none other than Zaman Secondhand, the esteemed Commander of the Royal Knights. Mannis stiffened. Though they hadn''t officially met, he knew exactly who Zaman was. "C-Commander Zaman¡­" Mannis straightened his posture and wiped the sweat from his brow. "Forgive my rudeness, sir. I didn''t expect¡­ Well, what brings you here?" Zaman gave a slight nod. "I happened to be in the area and wanted to check on the status of the wall reconstruction. Rather than reading it in a report, I prefer to hear it directly from you. No need for formality, just speak inly." Mannis hesitated for a moment before nodding respectfully. "Of course. Well, the wall''s situation is¡­plex. The destruction wasn''t just surface level. The battle between the A-Rankers destabilized the foundation beneath. We had to bring in a few earth mages to reshape andpact the ground before we could even begin proper reconstruction." Zaman''s gaze shifted to the crumbled pce walls. Workers scurried like ants, clearing rubble, while two earth mages moved about, casting spells topress and tten the ground. "And how long will this take?" he asked.@@novelbin@@ "Under a week." Mannis replied without hesitation. Zaman''s eyes narrowed slightly, there was a hint of doubt in his voice. "Only a week?" "Yes, sir." Zaman crossed his arms. "Interesting. Before you were brought on, other builders estimated this would take at least three weeks. Yet here you are, iming one." "They weren''t wrong. For most builders, it would take that long. But I''ve nned this down to the smallest detail. My crew knows how to work fast without sacrificing quality. I promise, the wall will be stronger than before." Despite addressing someone as powerful as Zaman¡ªwho could have him removed from the city on a whim or worse¡ªMannis stood firm. If there was one thing he was confident in, it was his work. He always delivered what he promised. A flicker of intrigue crossed Zaman''s face. Most would leave themselves some room for failure, but Mannis doubled down. Not only was a week''s timeline already unfeasible for most, but he also vowed to make the wall stronger than before. "If you truly deliver on that promise." Zaman said, "I will personally put in a good word for you. The kingdom has many projects that could benefit from your expertise. You may even earn the position of Royal Architect." Mannis''s eyes lit up at the mention of Royal Architect, it was the dream for most architects to gain the prestigious position. He believed himself to already be qualified for such a position but it wasn''t something one could obtain through skill alone, one needed luck and connections which was why he took this job to begin with. Though ted, he kept his tone professional. Continue your journey on empire "I appreciate that, Commander. I''ll do everything I can to finish within the week and surpass your expectations." Zaman gave a small nod of approval. "Good. I''ll be watching." With that, he turned and walked toward the pce. Mannis slowly exhaled, only now realizing how tense he had been. Workers nearby stole curious nces his way, aware of Zaman''s status but too wary to approach. Mannis pped his hands. "Alright! Enough standing around! Let''s get this wall back up before anyone else thinks we can''t handle it!" The workers shouted in acknowledgment, returning to their tasks with renewed energy. ... Zaman''s boots echoed through the pce corridors. Guards and Royal Knights offered slight bows as he passed. Eventually, he reached a guarded chamber. The knights nking the door stepped aside and opened it for him. Inside, Princess Valerie awaited. The chamber was spacious yet modestly adorned. Sunlight streamed through high windows, illuminating the room. Valerie sat by arge table, papers and scrolls neatly arranged before her. She looked up as Zaman entered. "Wee back, Commander." She greeted with a polite smile. Zaman offered a respectful bow. "Your Highness. I happened to see that the wall reconstruction had begun. The architect, Mannis, ims it will be finished within a week." Valerie''s eyes widened slightly. "A week? That''s¡­ ambitious." "So I thought." Zaman smirked faintly. "But he seems capable. If he seeds, I can think of many projects that could use his skills." Valerie leaned back thoughtfully. "Good. We need to show a fast recovery. The people are still on edge after the attack. The sooner the capital is restored, the sooner they''ll feel safe." She tapped her chin. "And what about the other matter?" Zaman nodded. "It agreed to meet with you and will be here soon." Valerie''s eyes brightened. "It didn''te with you?" "About that¡­" Zaman hesitated. "On the way here, it decided to explore the city. Said it didn''t get much time to do thatst time. I tried to dissuade it, but it was rather adamant about having some fun." Valerie sighed. Given who they were dealing with, she didn''t want to push it. "Alright. I''m calling them for a personal matter. As long as they don''t cause trouble, it''s fine. Thank you for arranging this, even though it''s not your responsibility." Zaman smiled. "Nonsense, Your Highness. I''m at your service. By the way, most of the arrangements are done. Have you prepared your speech?" He referred to her inauguration speech for her coronation as queen. With the king''s death and the recent vampire attack, the people desperately needed a beacon of hope. Her crowning would take ce as soon as the pce reconstruction wasplete. Valerie nodded. "Yes, though I haven''t had the chance to practice it yet. I''ll make time soon." "Good to hear, Your Highness." Zaman bowed. "If you need anything else, don''t hesitate to call on me." "Thank you, Commander." Zaman gave a cordial bow and left, returning to his duties. Alone, Valerie leaned back in her chair and sighed. Feeling the exhaustion of recent days, she retrieved an energizing potion from her spatial ring and drank it. Once finished, she muttered, "Hopefully ites soon. I just want closure." "Closure? How do you expect me to help with that?" Startled by the sudden voice, Valerie sprang to her feet, scanning the room. She couldn''t see the source, but she knew exactly who it was. "Shadow Crawler?!" Chapter 341 Long Lost Twin A few dayster, Sol and Amber rode in a carriage pulled by the shadow horse, nearing their destination. In the distance, a town surrounded by wooden walls came into view. As they approached, a sign became visible. It read: Initium. Sol nced back at Amber and offered a gentle smile. "Thanks again for letting us make a short stop here. I know it''s a bit out of the way, but I don''t want to miss the chance to see Annabel and Guildmaster William before we leave the kingdom." Amber gave a simple nod, not minding the small inconvenience. She was curious to meet Annabel herself. Given how often Sol contacted her through themunication crystal, Amber wanted to meet her in person. Before they got too close to the town, Solmanded the shadow horse to halt. "Let''s walk the rest of the way. I don''t want to scare them with the shadow horse." Normally, he wouldn''t mind having the shadow horse pull the carriage into town, he could easily exin it away by shing his adventurer''s card. But Initium was different, it was his home and he didn''t wish to cause big waves. After unsummoning the shadow horse, they disassembled the carriage''s roof and stored the pieces in two spatial rings, eliminating the need to leave it behind. From there, they began walking. It didn''t take long to reach the gate, guarded by two women. Sol recognized them. ''Mirian and Patine¡­'' Sol silently prayed, ''Hopefully, they don''t recognize me.'' It wouldn''t be a major problem if they did, but he preferred to avoid reconnecting with past acquaintances. Truthfully, besides Annabel and her father, there was no one he fully trusted. Some treated him kindly out of pity, while others spoke to him with indifference, but in the end it wasn''t genuine. Fortunately, his appearance had changed significantly since leaving Initium. He was confident that unless they looked closely, they wouldn''t notice. ''I could also use the Deceiver''s Earring.'' He considered. ''But they onlyst twelve hours. Better to save them for when I really need them.'' It would be more useful for escaping or briefly disguising himself. Besides, he didn''t want to meet Annabel and William with a fake face. As they neared the gates, Mirian stepped forward with a weing smile. "Wee to Initium. Do you have identification?" Relieved they didn''t recognize him, Sol nodded and presented their guild cards. The sleek, shiny blue metal gleamed, causing both guards'' jaws to drop. "B-Rankers?!" Patine blurted out in awe. They both understood the meaning behind the blue color. It was rare for B-Rankers to visit a small town like Initium. In Initium, B-Rankers were a rarity. The town''s highest-ranking adventurer was Guildmaster William, an A-Ranker, and there were only three other B-Rankers in the entire area. Even then, it was unusual for someone of such rank to live here; most powerful adventurers moved to busier cities like Kirman, which had a dungeon. Passing B-Rankers rarely stopped here as well as they usually continued straight to Kirman. ''I wonder how they''d react if they knew I was an A-Ranker.'' Sol mused as he watched their stunned reactions. Mirian quicklyposed herself and respectfully epted their cards. Without even reading their details, she asked, "Are you here for the urgent quest? I thought that was a C-Rank quest."@@novelbin@@ ''Urgent quest?'' Sol shook his head, unsure what she was referring to. "No, we''re just passing through. But we''ll take a look at the urgent quest and see if we can help." Since they were already here, he didn''t mind lending a hand if they needed it. He was sure Amber wouldn''t either. Hearing this, both guards visibly rxed. With two B-Rankers offering help, there was little chance the quest would fail. Mirian nced at their cards onest time before handing them back. "Thank you in advance, Miss Amber and¡­ Sol?" Both women exchanged odd looks at the mention of his name. "Is something wrong?" Sol asked, though he already knew why they reacted that way. Still, he feigned ignorance, hoping they wouldn''t connect the dots. Mirian hesitated, choosing her words carefully. "No, nothing''s wrong¡­ It''s just that your name is a bit special around here." Stay connected via empire While Mirian kept it vague, Patine eagerly leaned in. "What she''s trying to say is that someone here shares your name. But unlike you, he''spletely talentless. After his reaching level five in his leveling ceremony, he never got his talent. Still, on his own, he kept leaving town to hunt wild animals and level up. Been at it for years. Now that I think about it, I haven''t seen himtely. Maybe he finally died somewhe¡ª" "Patine!" Mirian snapped, cutting her off. She turned back to Sol with an apologetic smile. "Sorry about her. While it''s true we haven''t seen himtely, he''s probably just using another gate or maybe gave up. If something had happened to him, we would''ve heard." "Unless a dire wolf ate his body," Patine couldn''t help but mutter another dark possibility. "Patine!" Mirian red, her eyes warning her to stay quiet. She sighed and turned back to Sol. "If you happen to see him, please don''t bully him. He already has it rough being talentless." ''How could I bully myself¡­'' Sol struggled to keep a straight face but managed to nod sincerely. "Of course. One shouldn''t punch down on those less fortunate." "Thank you." Mirian smiled warmly and pulled Patine aside to let them through. As Sol and Amber entered the town, Patine, assuming it was safe to speak again, mused, "You know, besides sharing a name, don''t you think they look a bit simr? Could they be long lost twins?" Mirian rolled her eyes. "How would that make sense? Then why would they have the same name?" With Sol and Amber out of earshot, the two guards began gossiping,ing up with increasingly oundish theories. With Sol and Amber no longer there, Miriam didn''t mind. It was harmless fun, so long as these theories weren''t being spread around to others. Chapter 344 A Reward Fit for an A-Ranker Guildmaster William stared at Sol for a moment longer, his shock slowly fading into a determined grin. "An A-Ranker, huh?" William chuckled, folding his arms across his chest. "Guess I shouldn''t be surprised. If people with legendary talents reach A-Rank faster than those with less rare talents, it makes sense you''d do it in a fraction of the time. With your strength, we can finally make a move without leaving the town vulnerable." His tone shifted, bing more serious. "Sol, your help would be greatly appreciated. And don''t worry¡ªyou''ll receive a reward worthy of an A-Rank adventurer." Sol shook his head. "That''s not necessary. I''m helping because I want to. I''m not looking to gain anything here. Plus, I know the guild doesn''t have the funds to afford an A-Ranker." He had helped Annabel and the guild with numerous tasks in the guild before and was well aware of their finances. Since the branch was located in a small town near the kingdom''s border, not much money flowed through it. While they earned a decent amount, considering operational costs, their profits barely exceeded 2,000 gold annually. With part of those funds being used to hire C-Rank adventurers to protect the town and that the average price for an A-Ranker was 1,000 gold, hiring him would ce a substantial strain on the guild''s finances.@@novelbin@@ William raised an eyebrow but smirked. "Generous, but you shouldn''t underestimate the value of your work or my branch. Adventurers deserve properpensation for their risks. While we may not have the gold for it, I have another way topensate you and your friend." From his spatial ring, Guildmaster William retrieved an oddly shaped dark blue bracelet with a purple gem floating in a gap within the loop. [Singrity Band Unique Durability: 790/800 Skills: [Spatial Lock] Lv 6, [Short Warp] Lv 6, [Space Crack] Lv 6] [[Spatial Lock] Lv 6 Stabilizes the surrounding space, preventing the use of space magic and other spatial maniptions. Radius: 30 meters. Duration: 5 minutes. Cooldown: 2 hours.] [[Short Warp] Lv 6: Teleports the user anywhere within 60 meters and within sight. Cooldown: 2 minutes] [[Space Crack] Lv 6: Destabilizes a designated space, causing spatial fissures to appear. Cannot be used while [Spatial Lock] is active. Cooldown: 30 minutes] Sol''s eyes widened as he read the item''s description and skills. He shook his head vehemently. "I can''t ept this. It''s far too valuable." While it was a unique item¡ªtypically worth 500 to 800 gold¡ªthis was a spatial item, making it significantly more valuable. If the Singrity Band were put up for auction, Sol wouldn''t be surprised if it sold for over 1,500 gold. Even single use items like teleportation gems sold for around 500 gold, assuming they were even avable, as few people could craft such items. William didn''t hesitate as he pushed the bracelet into Sol''s hands. "Just take it. I''m not as active as I used to be anyway, so it''s been collecting dust in my ring for years. I''m sure it''ll be more useful to you than to me." Experience tales at empire Annabel quickly chimed in, cing her hands on her hips. "He''s right! And an adventurer should always be entitled to a reward for their work. So don''t worry about it and shamelessly ept Dad''s reward!" Sol hesitated, but faced with both of their insistence, he finally agreed. "Alright. I''ll do my best then." William gave a satisfied nod. "I''m sure you will. Now, let''s get down to business." William led them out of the storage room and up to his office. The walls were lined with shelves stacked with books and weapons from his personal collection. Arge wooden desk sat near the center of the room, and a detailed map of the surrounding regions was spread across it, weighed down by steel markers and pins. Red tokens marked various scattered points in the surrounding regions, with only a few ovepping or positioned close to one another. William gestured to the map. "Before you arrived, I was reviewing the reports from those willing to scout the forest. These are the confirmed locations of the Thunder Wolf Kings. Each one leads a pack of at least forty Dire Wolves. But there are likely more we haven''t spotted yet." Though almost no one dared to venture outside due to the dangers, a few brave individuals had risked their lives to gather intelligence on their soon-to-be enemies. Sol leaned over the map, his sharp eyes scanning the cements. The circles weren''t random. "They''re forming a pattern." Sol muttered, pointing at several tokens clustered near each other. "If these groups split up and keep moving to these spots, they''llpletely surround the town." William nodded grimly. "Exactly. It''s too coordinated for beasts acting on instinct. And while I could handle them, I can''t leave the town unprotected." He tapped a finger on one of the marked areas. "That''s why I need you to take care of them. Starting here." Sol nodded, but something nagged at him. "I''ll handle it. But why are they even trying to encircle the town? Sure, it stops you from leaving and wiping them out, but the Thunder Wolf Kings can''t approach the town either while you''re here. If whoever''s behind this is smart enough to n this, they must know this stalemate isn''t in their favor and won''tst long." William''s eyebrows rose as he caught Sol''s meaning. "You''re right. Even if you hadn''t shown up, I already sent word to Kerman. It''s only a matter of time before they send B-Rank adventurers, soldiers, or maybe even another A-Ranker to help. It''ll only take a day or two at most." "Then they must be nning to strike soon. And to do that¡­" Sol frowned. "They must have an A-Ranker too, maybe more. But if they haven''t attacked yet, it means they''re either on their way or not ready." Amber, who had been quietly listening, stepped forward. "Move quickly. Fewer enemies." William nodded in agreement. "Exactly. I''ll hold the defenses here. You and¡­ Amber, right?" He recalled her name from when he was eavesdropping earlier. "You two will hunt down the Thunder Wolf Kings and find whoever''s responsible. But be on guard, whoever''s behind this is likely expecting retaliation." Annabel gave Sol a supportive smile. "Good luck. Try not to get yourself killed, alright?" Sol smirked. "Don''t worry about me. Worry about the ones who dared cause trouble." Chapter 346 Proactive Approach Amber nced at him, her expression nk as she silently sheathed her dagger. Sol''s eyes remained fixed on the ongoing battle between the Thunder Wolf King and the cksteel Bear. The tworge beasts shed with raw power, but it was clear that the wolf had the upper hand. "Since no one''s tried to stop us so far, it''s time we took a more proactive approach to find whoever is behind this." Sol''s voice was calm but firm. He wasn''t going to simply y all the Thunder Wolf Kings and call it a day¡ªif he didn''t stop their source, it would only be a matter of time before more appeared. Two floating hands materialized in the air beside him with his talent skill [Create Magic Hands]. The hands glowed faintly as he activated [Polychromatism], channeling the green and purple chromas simultaneously. A vibrant aura of emerald and violet energy swirled around the floating hands. As the two chromas intertwined, the air around them grew heavy, thick with an unseen force. "This should be enough to neutralize them." With a flick of his wrist, the floating hands pressed downward. A powerful gravity barrier, created by thebined chromas, enveloped the battling beasts. The hazy green and purple barrier forced both creatures to instantly copse onto the ground. The Thunder Wolf King let out a strained snarl, its silver fur bristling with static as it struggled to resist. The cksteel Bear, on the other hand, roared in defiance, trying to use its immense strength to break through the gravity. Despite their fierce struggles, they could only move a few centimeters, their limbs trembling under the crushing weight. Sol and Amber approached the trapped beasts, watching their futile attempts to break free. Sol nced at the bear, considering it for a moment before adjusting the barrier''s radius with a casual gesture. The gravity field shrank, leaving only the Thunder Wolf King ensnared. Freed, the cksteel Bear wasted no time. It scrambled to its feet and bolted into the depths of the forest, disappearing into the shadows. Even a wild beast knew when it had no hope of winning and recognized that it was being spared. With its entire family already deceased, it didn''t hesitate to abandon its territory, forced to start anew elsewhere. Sol chuckled as he watched it flee. He hadn''t even needed to say or do anything for the bear to understand. He briefly considered killing it for its skills, but none were particrly useful or unique. The bear''s abilities weren''t anything special, and he could easily [Siphon] them from other cksteel Bears in the area. Turning his attention back to the Thunder Wolf King, Sol stepped closer to the edge of the barrier, locking eyes with the beast. Its body twitched under the strain, muscles visibly straining to keep moving¡ªbut it was hopeless. "The best way to find out who''s behind all this..." Sol muttered, his fingers flexing as psychic energy slowly flowed from him. "...is to ask them." Closing his eyes, Sol intended to use [Mental Scrying] to probe the Thunder Wolf King''s memories. However, there was one problem¡ª[Mental Scrying] was designed only to ess his own memories. To circumvent this limitation, he connected their minds using [Telepathy].@@novelbin@@ This wasn''t his first time searching another''s mind. When he had helped clear Chill Haven of bandits, he had used psychic energy to probe a bandit''s thoughts, but that attempt ended with the bandit''s mind shattering and yielding no information. Back then, he had given up, finding psychic energy too difficult to control, and had opted for direct interrogation instead. However, that approach wouldn''t work with these beasts. Now, though, he had shattered the remnants of the barrier that once limited his psychic abilities and gained multiple psychic skills, making sess much more feasible. Psychic energy prated the Thunder Wolf King''s mind as a connection between them formed. The beast sensed the intrusion instantly. Despite being suppressed by the intense gravity, it resisted fiercely. The Thunder Wolf King let out a guttural snarl, lightning began to shoot out in random directions as its will shing against the invading force, attempting to repel it. Sol frowned and after creating a stone wall to shield them from the stray lightning he applied even more psychic pressure, breaking through its mental defenses with sheer force. The beast''s growls turned to pained whimpers, and soon after, its mind crumbled under the overwhelming psychic assault. Its body wentpletely still, eyes zing over as it slipped into a catatonic state. Readtest chapters at empire Sol sighed, releasing his hold and rubbing his temple. "Damn. I was hoping to avoid that." Canceling the duochrome gravity barrier, he watched as Amber approached and poked the beast with her dagger. It was still breathing but showed no response to her actions. Amber tilted her head. "Dead?" Sol sighed again. "No. I pushed too hard. Its mind shattered under the pressure." He frowned slightly, nudging the now unresponsive Thunder Wolf King with his foot. "I tried to be careful, but messing with a resisting mind is tough. Can''t brute force it." Amber observed the lifeless beast. "Can you fix it?" Sol scanned the Thunder Wolf King''s mind once more with psychic energy and shook his head. "Toote. It''s already gone." His tone, however,cked any real disappointment. "There are still a few more left, so it''s not a big deal if I messed up here." Amber nodded, seemingly unbothered. Sol looked ahead into the dense forest. "Yeah. We still have work to do." With that, he dismissed the gravity barrier, allowing the lifeless body of the Thunder Wolf King to copse onto the forest floor. Without wasting another moment, the two vanished once more into the darkness, hunting their next target. One after another, the remaining Thunder Wolf Kings fell, unable to prevent Sol from breaching their minds. After six more attempts, he finally seeded. A massive Thunder Wolf King, bruised and bloodied,y trapped underyers of stone covering most of its body, preventing any movement. Sol stood before it, his eyes glowing faintly as he searched its mind with psychic energy. The beast, barely conscious, couldn''t offer any resistance as his power invaded its thoughts. Psychic energybed carefully through the creature''s memories, and atst, Sol found what he was looking for. Retracting his psychic energy, Sol turned his head west, a triumphant smirk ying on his lips. "So that''s where you''re hiding." Chapter 349 Last Resort Before either of them could process what had happened, Sol''s figure became hazy with ethereal mist. In an instant, he reappeared beside the Raijin using [Ethereal Traversal], his yer Aura infused stone sword already shing through the air. The Raijin barely reacted in time, its instincts kicking in to leap away, but the de still grazed its side, leaving a faint yet deep cut across its nk. The beast let out a pained growl, its golden eyes wide in disbelief at its own helplessness. Sol pressed the attack without mercy, closing the distance once more. The Raijin scrambled to evade, but with itsw technique sealed, it could no longer match Sol''s speed and precision. The best it could do was survive. Each sh of the stone sword forced it back, leaving it with less and less space to maneuver. Varek''s eyes darted between Sol and his beast. "What the hell did you do?!" he shouted. He wasn''t sure exactly what had happened, but he knew Sol was behind it. Sol merely chuckled, not bothering to deny the usation. "Why would I exin it to you?" His tone was cold as he continued his relentless assault. There was no need for Sol to exin that it was hisw technique, [Lesser Channel Control], that had temporarily sealed the Raijin''sw technique, [Lightning Incarnate]. While the Raijin had grown much stronger thanks to Varek''s abilities, Sol never had to fight it at full power¡ªhe simply needed to disable itsw technique, reducing it to nothing more than a wolf with high attributes. He could have sealed [Beast Ascension] instead, but he wasn''t certain whether it was aw technique that required constant activation or if it applied a permanent buff. If it was thetter, sealing it would only prevent future activations, leaving the current enhancement intact. Varek clenched his fists, his mind racing for a solution. The Raijin had already been enhanced with hisw technique and every other skill at his disposal, yet it was still helpless under Sol''s assault. If things continued this way, the ancient beast would be in¡ªand he would be next. "Dammit... dammit!" Varek cursed under his breath, beads of sweat trickling down his forehead. He nced toward the exit but knew that escape wasn''t an option. Sol wouldn''t let him leave so easily. The Raijin suddenly let out a fierce roar, lunging forward in ast-ditch effort to overpower Sol with sheer physical strength. Sol sidestepped effortlessly, delivering a swift counterstrike across its hind leg. The deadly yer Aura seeped into the wound, causing intense pain and slowing its regeneration. The beast stumbled, its movements growing sluggish. Varek gritted his teeth. "I didn''te this far just to be stopped by some random nobody!" His hand twitched, preparing to activate hisst resort. "Come!" The Raijin obeyed, making a beeline for him. But before it could reach Varek, the space next to him warped and contorted as Sol appeared with his sword in hand. "You think I''ll let you do whatever you want? It''s over!" Sol''s stone sword, imbued with yer Aura, sliced through the air with lethal precision, aimed directly at Varek. The mad beast tamer''s eyes widened in panic. At this range, dodging was impossible, but he tried anyway. He twisted his body with everything he had, barely avoiding a fatal blow. However, his right arm wasn''t as fortunate. Schlick! Varek let out a bloodcurdling scream as his severed arm fell to the ground with a sickening thud. Blood gushed from the wound, but his horror only deepened when he realized the bleeding wouldn''t stop. The wound refused to heal, the yer Aura preventing any natural or skill based regeneration. "Y-you bastard!" Varek staggered back, clutching the stump where his arm had been. His face contorted in pain and rage, but Sol was already closing in to finish him off. With cold determination, Sol raised his sword for the killing blow. Shadows swirled around him, his figure blending into the dim surroundings like death itself. But just as the de was about to fall¡ª BOOM! A sudden blur of white and gold mmed into Varek, and Sol''s attack struck empty air. The Raijin had arrived, throwing itself into its master''s embrace. The chamber was instantly filled with a blinding light. Sol instinctively leaped back, shielding his eyes from the phenomenon unfolding before him. Varek, trembling and desperate, was using hisst resort, something he hadn''t dared to try on himself before, but now had no choice. I need to stop him! Sol thought urgently. He didn''t know what Varek was doing, but he knew it wasn''t good. He lunged forward to interrupt the process, but before he could reach them, a violent surge of electricity erupted from the blinding mass of light. Sol braced himself, covering his body withyers of stone, shadows, and a green chroma barrier. To top it all off, he activated [Unpassable Bulwark] to keep himself from being blown away. Chunks of stone and debris flew in all directions as the ruins crumbled further under the pressure. Sol deftly maneuvered through the destruction, using his barriers and skills to block the rubble, erratic bursts of lightning, and wild mana. ''What the hell is happening?'' His sharp eyes honed in on the tethers connected to Varek and the Raijin. What he saw shocked him.@@novelbin@@ A new tether had appeared, surging from within the mass of light at an rming rate, thickening to a full inch in width within moments. Power flowed through it like a raging river, channeling directly into the epicenter of the radiance where Varek and the Raijin once stood. Sol''s mind raced as he quickly understood what was happening. ''No... enlightenment?!'' Enlightenment, the third type of ascension, and the rarest of them all. Commander Zaman had told him it happened spontaneously and seemingly without reason. While it was considered a miracle, the fact that it was happening now, in the middle of battle, was nothing short of disastrous. Read exclusive chapters at empire "Dammit!" Sol cursed under his breath, immediately activating [Lesser Channel Control] in a desperate attempt to sever or at least suppress the growing tether. He poured his focus into it, trying to stall the process before it fully solidified. But it was toote. Another devastating st of energy erupted outward, far stronger than before. Sol had no choice but to retreat,yers of barriers forming around him in rapid session. Shadows thickened, green chroma swirled defensively, and stone walls erupted from the ground. [Unpassable Bulwark] red to life, shielding him from the onught. The sheer force obliterated what remained of the ruins, reducing the jagged peak they had fought on to a ttened tform. Dust and debris filled the air, creating a thick cloud that obscured Sol''s vision. When the dust finally settled, Sol''s gaze snapped to where Varek and the Raijin had stood. What he saw made his expression darken. Varek was gone. The Raijin was gone. In their ce stood a towering humanoid figure covered in sleek white fur with ck stripes streaking across its body like lightning. Its frame was lean yet powerful, exuding an overwhelming aura of both beast and man. The head bore a striking resemnce to Varek''s, but it had taken on a far more wolf-like appearance. The most disturbing change, however, was the right arm. Where Varek''s severed arm had been, the Raijin''s head had taken its ce. Its glowing golden eyes remained alive, staring with eerie intelligence, its maw slightly open as arcs of lightning crackled within. Varek looked at his new body in awe. "To think I almost got it perfect on the first try! This is true strength, not having to rely on beasts to protect us tamers, but making them a part of us!" The Raijin whimpered in protest, clearly not enjoying being fused with Varek. Whatever control it had over its body was gone, but like before, it was powerless to resist its master. Ignoring the beast''sints, Varek turned his gaze to Sol with a malicious grin. "Merging with the Raijin... I''ve finally surpassed my limits! You''re nothingpared to me now!" Chapter 350 Taming Himself Not waiting for Sol''s reply, the beastman Varek bent his legs slightly beforeunching forward at incredible speed. ''He''s fast!'' Varek had fully inherited the Raijin''s lightning fast agility, but unlike the beast, he moved with calcted precision. There were no wasted motions, no openings for Sol to exploit. Sol didn''t dare meet the charge head on. Instead, he activated the Singrity Band''s second skill, [Space Crack], directly in front of him. The bracelet''s power distorted the air, causing it to twist and ripple violently. Within moments, the space ahead of him copsed under the strain with an ear piercing crack. A jagged rift tore through reality, stretching outward in a chaotic, unstable fracture spanning nearly four meters wide. It pulsed ominously, emitting an eerie shriek as it consumed the surrounding air with terrifying force.@@novelbin@@ Though it wasn''t aw technique, Sol knew anything caught within that rift would be shredded to pieces. Varek, clearly aware of the danger, wasn''t about to test whether his new form could endure such devastation. With a grunt, he shifted his momentum upward,unching himself over the space crack in a graceful arc. As he soared through the air, lightning gathered rapidly in the Raijin''s head, crackling with ominous power. The beast''s maw opened wide, releasing a deafening roar that echoed through the battlefield. "Let''s see you survive this!" Varek bellowed, unleashing a massive sphere of electricity aimed directly at Sol. Sol''s eyes widened in rm. ''Damn it... I released the Raijin''sw technique, [Lightning Incarnate], when I tried to suppress their fusionw technique.'' Suppressing that [Lightning Incarnate] needed to be his priority, but first, he had to avoid being obliterated by the iing attack. The lightning sphere mmed into the ground with a deafening roar, sending shockwaves across the battlefield. A massive surge of electricity erupted outward, scorching everything in its path. Dust and debris swirled violently, obscuring the entire area in a thick cloud. When the dust settled, all that remained was a deep, smoking crater. Varek, still hovering above, threw his head back in a triumphantugh. "Hahaha! Not even bones left behind!" He reveled in his newfound strength, basking in the destruction. "Did you really think you could stop me?!" But before he could gloat any further, a shadow suddenly loomed behind him. Sol emerged from the ground, his stone de glinting ominously. Using [Ethereal Traversal], he had phased into mist moments before the lightning struck, escaping into the ground and reemerging for a counterattack. Varek''s instincts red, and he barely managed to raise his left arm to block. The stone sword, now coated in pitch ck Deathly Aura, plunged forward with lethal precision. The de pierced through flesh and bone, driving deep into his forearm. Varek howled in pain but reacted instantly, twisting with monstrous strength and shattering the stone de into pieces. Shards of rock scattered in all directions as bothbatants leapt away, each measuring the other. Sol didn''t miss a beat. He extended his hand, and with a loud snap, the shattered fragments reformed into a brand-new stone sword, seamlessly returning to his grasp. His sharp gaze noted the damage done, Varek''s arm was already sumbing to the Deathly Aura. The beastman grimaced, his expression darkening as the infection spread rapidly. ck veins crawled up his arm, the deadly energy ravaging his flesh. His muscles twitched, and a trace of panic crossed his face before he snarled in defiance. Explore new worlds at empire "Tch... You think this will stop me?" Without hesitation, Varek brought his Raijin headed arm towards his left arm. With a sickening crunch, the Raijin''s powerful jaws mped down, severing the corrupted arm in one brutal bite. The severed limb hit the ground with a wet thud, shriveling as the Deathly Aura consumed it entirely. Varek rolled his remaining shoulder, blood dripping from the fresh wound. Though his expression remained defiant, a hint of strain was evident. "Cute trick... but if that''s all you''ve got, it''s useless." Sol leveled his sword at him, eyes cold and calcting. "You''re an arm down. Don''t think you are a position to say that." Varek let out a bark ofughter. "You think losing an arm matters to me?" He sneered, shouting, "[Beast Recovery]!" The stump where his arm once was began to pulsate grotesquely. Muscle and sinew writhed unnaturally before a brand-new arm emerged, identical to the one he had lost. Varek flexed his fingers experimentally, grinning wickedly. "You see? I don''t just have the Raijin''s abilities... I can even use my tamer skills on myself!" His glee turned to malice. "And with [Beast Ascension], I''ll crush you for good!" He mmed his fist against his chest and roared, "[Beast Ascension]!" Nothing happened. A flicker of confusion crossed Varek''s face. His brow furrowed as he tried again. "[Beast Ascension]!" But once more, nothing. He tried once more, but the skill eluded him. He couldn''t recall how to use hisw technique anymore. His gaze snapped toward Sol, realization dawning. "You... You sealed it... Just like the Raijin!" Sol''s smirk deepened. "Maybe I did while you were too busy boasting." Sol was honestly thankful that Varek went out of his way to point it out to him. He used the short moment to seal thatw technique instead of his original n of sealing [Lightning Incarnate]. Varek''s face twisted in rage. "You bastard!" He lunged forward, lightning arcing wildly around him, the Raijin-headed arm crackling as another lightning sphere began to gather. Sol braced himself, his mind racing. ''Even without [Beast Ascension], he''s still dangerous... and I can''t disable bothw techniques at once. Suppressing one is already taking a lot of focus.'' He clenched his jaw and quickly calcted. ''Deathly Aura and Full Spectrum are still on cooldown... Advanced magic needs a lot of concentration which I can''t spare and I can''t ascend another skill while also suppressing one of his.'' With all the means avable to him he concluded there was only one option left, [Overpower]. It was a gamble. If he activated it, he could turn the tide in his favor, pushing his raw attributes over 1000. But if he failed to kill Varek in its duration he would be exhausted and at his mercy. ''No other choice. If even that fails, I might have to use [Draconification].'' Sol exhaled sharply, his grip tightening around his sword and used the skill. Chapter 353 Social Animal Sol was slightly surprised after reading the description and feeling thew technique for himself. ''This is an amazingw technique. Not fully sure what it means by harmony and alignment, but if two people with equal attributes fused with perfect harmony, wouldn''t they be three times stronger? And that''s only considering base attributes, not skills and other enhancing abilities¡­'' He could only imagine what would happen if he fused with someone andbined it with skills like [Overpower]. Depending on who he fused with, it might even be possible to surpass 3,000 in every attribute. ''Also¡­ if this is the case, I don''t think he made full use of thew technique.'' He thought back to Varek''s fused form. While it had been much more powerful than before, Sol doubted they had reached 150% harmony¡ªand he was correct. In reality, Varek''s and the Raijin''s fusion had only achieved 85% of their original values. While still undeniably strong, it would have been a much harder fight if they had reached thew technique''s full potential. Read new chapters at My Virtual Library Empire More than satisfied with his neww technique, Sol turned his attention back to the Raijin, which had been waiting expectantly for him to help it. "Give it a second. You should go back to normal soon." "Awroo?! Awoo?! (Should?! Are you not even sure if it will work?!)" the beastined, only now realizing that Sol didn''t actually have a guaranteed method to help it. ''Well, at least I know [Commune with Beasts] works¡­'' Sol chuckled, avoiding the Raijin''s gaze. Fortunately, the change didn''t take long. Varek''s beast body began to glow dimly as the power of thew technique faded, no longer sustaining the fused state. In a sh, Varek''s body reappeared¡ªnow missing the same arm as before¡ªand the Raijin was once again in its own body. The beast turned its neck, staring at itself in disbelief. But the moment it saw and felt its own legs again, it jumped around excitedly, its tail wagging high in the air. ''Cute¡­'' Sol found its actions rather adorable, but the feeling quickly faded as he noticed the ground cracking beneath each of the Raijin''s energetic hops. It was a stark reminder that, despite its behavior, the Raijin was still a dangerous beast capable of immense destruction. Just to be on the safe side, he reached out and poked the Raijin''s forehead to get its attention. "Make sure you remember the deal, or you may end up like him." The Raijin stopped jumping, nced at Varek''s decapitated body, and shivered in fear. It didn''t doubt for a second that it would be next if it disobeyed. "Hyuu¡­ (I will¡­)" Seeing the Raijin''s obedient confirmation, Sol took a step back and smiled. "Good. As long as you keep that in mind, nothing bad will happen. Well, you should go home then. See ya." He gave the beast a friendly wave before turning around and walking away. ''Alright, now that that''s taken care of, I should meet up with Amber and head back to town. Anna will probably not be happy that I went alone to fight the culprit, but it should be fine. If she does get mad, Guildmaster William will help me out, right? Pfft, yeah right.''@@novelbin@@ Sol was well aware that William wouldn''t dare go against Annabel. In fact, he''d probably join in on reprimanding him. But as he considered how to appease them both, he sensed light footsteps trailing behind him. He paused and turned around. "Why are you following me?" The Raijin, not far behind him, whined. "Hyunn¡­ (I don''t have a home¡­)" "What? Then just go and make one. If you don''t know where, I think Crystal Meadows would be a good ce for you to settle down. No one will bother you there." The Crystal Meadows was a rtively peaceful area a bit out in the wilderness. Sol figured it would be a good ce for the Raijin to establish its territory without disturbing¡ªor being disturbed by¡ªothers. The Raijin hesitated, shifting its paws nervously before responding. "Hyuu¡­ (But¡­ I don''t want to be alone¡­)" ''It probably shares the same social traits as wolves¡­'' Sol sighed. "You''ll be fine. You have your instincts, and you''ve gained some knowledge from Varek''sw technique. Wherever you go, you can find other wolves and create your own pack if you want. You can take care of yourself just fine." "Awuu? (Can I go with you instead?)" Sol frowned. "That''s not a good idea." He knew the road ahead wouldn''t be easy. They had a long journey to reach the Sapphire Scale Alliance, and he had no idea what dangersy ahead. Sure, the Raijin was strong, but it was still a newborn in terms of experience. Taking care of it would be an unnecessary burden. He shook his head firmly. "No. You''re staying." The Raijin''s ears drooped immediately, its expectant expression dimming. Its tail lowered, hanging limply behind it. It stared at the ground, pawing at the dirt. Sol forced himself to turn around, ignoring its reaction. It was the right decision. He had already done more than enough by freeing it from Varek''s fusion. It wasn''t his responsibility to take care of the beast. Still, after taking a few steps forward, something made him nce back. The Raijin hadn''t moved. It still stood in the same spot, ears drooped, staring at the ground. Its posture radiated sadness, its entire body sagging as if the weight of rejection was pressing down on it. Sol exhaled slowly, rubbing his forehead. "I hope I don''t regret this¡­" He turned around fully and waved a hand toward the Raijin. "Come on, then." For a second, there was silence. The Raijin blinked at him, as if unsure it had heard correctly. Then, realization hit, and its entire body seemed to explode with excitement as it shot up and howled loudly. "AWOOO! (YAAAAY!)" The beast leaped into the air, kicking up dust as it bounded toward Sol, its tail wagging furiously. It skidded to a stop just short of crashing into him, looking up with gleaming eyes filled with unrestrained joy. Sol sighed again but couldn''t help the small smile tugging at his lips. "Alright, alright. Calm down. Just remember¡ªno unnecessary fights and no causing trouble." "Awoo! (Yes!)" the Raijin barked in agreement, its tail still wagging like a hurricane. "Great¡­" Sol muttered to himself. "This will definitely bite meter¡­" Chapter 356 Thorwyn High above Initium, soaring through the skies, Sol turned to Guildmaster William and asked, "What do you want to talk about? And why don''t you want Anna to hear this?" William thought for a moment before replying, "You saw how quickly she took a liking to that young wolf you brought in. And you know as well as I do how she can be with those she grows attached to, going so far as to falsify guild records for some." "Haha¡­ yeah¡­" Sol let out an awkwardugh, avoiding the Guildmaster''s narrow gaze. William sighed and continued, "So you can imagine how she would react if she knew that wolf was in grave danger." "In danger?" Sol''s head snapped toward him, his expression instantly serious. "How?" Seeing that Sol hadn''t already considered the possibility, William stroked his thick red beard and asked, "Tell me, in all your travels, have you ever seen or heard of an A-Rank beast? Not in a dungeon or some controlled environment, but in the wild?" Sol frowned, thinking back. ''If I really think about it, the only non-dungeon creature I encountered was the Bliss Spider¡­ but that feels like an exception.'' Shaking his head, he answered, "No, I haven''t." "I''d be surprised if you had." William nodded. "As you should know, legendary materials are rare. Whenever they appear, nearby forces scramble to obtain them." Sol''s eyes widened slightly as the pieces started falling into ce. "Are you saying¡­ they''ll hunt the wolf for his body?" William nodded. "Just as adventurers hunt monsters and animals for valuable parts, there are those who track and kill A-Rank beasts to harvest their bodies for legendary materials, whether for weapons, armor, or artifacts." Sol''s jaw tightened. "So you''re saying¡­ people wille for him?" "Not necessarily. Right now, no one knows he exists. But if you travel with him, that won''tst. The moment word spreads that he''s an A-Rank beast, powerful factions will take an interest. And they won''t be asking for permission." "Then what should I do? Hide him? Leave him?" Sol''s frustration grew as William pointed out the problem without offering a solution. "That''s up to you,d," William said firmly. "I''m just telling you how it is. If you take him with you, trouble will follow. The choice is yours." Sol fell silent, staring into the sea of clouds below. He had expected some difficulties traveling with the Raijin, maybe due to its inexperience in the world, but he hadn''t anticipated that the world itself would hunt him down just for existing. The most logical choice would be to leave the Raijin behind. Even if it was unwilling, forcing it into a quiet life in a secluded region might be the safest option. Somewhere no one could find it. However¡ª "If he wants toe with me, then I will do my absolute best to protect him," Sol finally said, his voice unwavering. "Even if we left him behind, if these A-Rank beast hunters caught wind of him, he''d have no way to survive. At least with us, he''d stand a better chance." William studied him for a moment before a grin broke across his face. He pped Sol on the back, hard enough to make him stumble. "Hahaha! Good! It may not be the easiest road, but you should always walk the one that leaves the least regrets. I didn''t mention this before because I didn''t want to sway your decision, but if you had chosen to leave him behind¡­ his fate would''ve been sealed." Sol''s brow furrowed. "Huh? What do you mean?" "There are A-Rank hunting parties dedicated to tracking down powerful beasts," William exined. "They have countless ways of finding them. And don''t forget, special cases like the Saintess exist, she could divine his location with ease. It''s not a question of if they''ll find him, but when. Does knowing that change your choice?" Sol hadn''t considered that before, but after a brief pause, he shook his head. "No. If anything, I''m even more determined to bring him along." ''At least if the Saintess foresees the Raijin, she''ll likely see me with him. Hopefully, that''ll keep them from sending anyone after us.'' He thought to himself. William gave him an approving nod. "Good. Let''s head back, then. They should havee up with a name for him by now." ... By the time they returned to the guild, night had fallen. Inside William''s office, they were greeted by a familiar sight¡ªAnnabel, sitting cross legged on the floor, practically buried in the Raijin''s fur, while Amber leaned against the wall with her arms crossed. "I take it you''vee up with a name?" William asked, raising an eyebrow. Annabel looked up excitedly. "We did! His name is¡ª" She paused dramatically, throwing her arms up. "Puffywuff!" The Raijin''s ears ttened as he shook his head furiously. "Awuuu! (Anything but that!)" Sol resisted the urge to facepalm. "That''s¡­ really the best you coulde up with?" Even William seemed momentarily speechless. Enjoy new tales from My Virtual Library Empire Annabel burst outughing. "No, of course not!" She turned toward Amber with a mischievous grin. "His real name is¡ª" Before she could finish, Amber, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke. "Thorwyn." Annabel blinked. Her mouth, already open mid sentence, froze. She turned to Amber with wide eyes. "Wait¡­ what?" "Thorwyn." Amber repeated, her voice calm as ever. Annabel gawked. That wasn''t the name she had nned to say. But¡­ it was one of the many she had thrown out while brainstorming. She had been listing names nonstop, not expecting Amber to contribute at all. And yet¡ªsurprisingly¡ªshe had. Annabel''s shock quickly turned to pure delight. She pped her hands together. "Amber! You were actually listening to me this whole time?" Amber didn''t answer right away, instead ncing at the Raijin¡ªno, Thorwyn¡ªwho perked up at the name. After a brief pause, she gave a small nod. Annabel gasped dramatically. "Oh my gods, I thought you were ignoring me! You were so quiet, I figured I was just talking to myself!" "I wasn''t ignoring you," Amber replied simply. Annabel beamed. "I knew you cared!" She turned back to Thorwyn. "So? What do you think?" Thorwyn tilted his head before letting out a satisfied rumble. "Awoo! (Thorwyn¡­ I like it!)" "He says he likes it." Sol tranted for him. Annabel pumped her fist in victory. "Yes! Sess!" Sol, watching the exchange with mild amusement, crossed his arms and smirked. "At least we dodged Puffywuff." "Hey! That was a perfectly valid choice," Annabel huffed. "But fine, fine. Thorwyn it is." William chuckled, shaking his head. "Thorwyn, huh? It has a good ring to it. Strong, but not distant."@@novelbin@@ Amber gave a small nod of approval, while Annabel looked as if she had just won the greatest victory of her life. Thorwyn, for his part, seemed content, his tail thumping against the floor as Annabel resumed scratching behind his ears. Sol let out a small sigh, some of the tension in his shoulders easing. At least one thing had been settled for now. As the group enjoyed the moment, William shot Sol a knowing look. The name was decided. But the real challenges were still ahead. For now, though, they could enjoy this brief moment of peace. Chapter 359 Boring Punishment "Hyuuun¡­ (I''m sorry¡­)" Thorwyn softly apologized, his ears drooping as Sol maintained his frowning gaze. Seeing the Raijin''s downcast face, Sol believed he had finally gotten the message across. But now, he wasn''t sure where to take it from here. ''He does seem sorry¡­ Should I leave it at that?'' He considered it but quickly dismissed the idea. He didn''t want Thorwyn to think bad behavior only led to a stern talking to. "Hmm¡­" He tried to think of a proper punishment but came up empty. Turning to Amber, whose hair and clothes were still a mess from the wild ride, he asked, "What do you think? Should we leave it at that and keep going?" She immediately shook her head. "No. Punishment." "Awoo?! (Punishment?!)" Thorwyn took a step back, but Sol ced a firm hand on his back, keeping him in ce. "You''re not wrong, but the question is what kind of punishment?" Amber didn''t answer right away. As she thought back to her past experiences under Cane, multiple ideas surfaced. "Whipping, denailing, acid bath, magic target¡ª" "Whoa, whoa, wait! That''s straight up torture, isn''t it?!" Sol cut her off before she could continue. While Thorwyn didn''t understand what those punishments were, their names,bined with Sol''s strong reaction, made him tremble in fear. Pitying the poor wolf, Sol patted his back reassuringly. "Don''t worry, it''s nothing that extreme. Right, Amber?" At first she didn''t see how it was extreme, but then realized that unlike most, she could regenerate limbs with her talent skill. Only now realizing Sol was asking for something less severe for the wrong reasons, she nodded. After some further consideration, she said, "Pull carriage. No running. Now technique." "Huh? That should work, but are you sure?" Sol asked. Having Thorwyn pull the carriage at a walking pace would slow them down significantly. "Yes. Learn restraint. Reduce liability." She didn''t borate further. Instead, she climbed back into the carriage and began untangling her windblown hair. While she didn''t care much for appearances, the mess was obstructing her vision. Sol nodded in agreement. Thorwyn had no trouble using hisw technique, but hisck of restraint could lead to real consequences if left unchecked. If a little dy now meant preventing a disasterter, then it was worth it. Discover more content at My Virtual Library Empire Turning back to Thorwyn, he said, "You heard her. You''ll pull the carriage without running or using yourw technique." "Awoo? Hyuu¡­ (That''s all? I can do that, but it''s going to be so boring¡­)" Sol crossed his arms. "Yeah, that''s the point. Maybe next time you''ll think before almost running people over." Thorwyn''s ears drooped. "Awoo¡­ (But running fast is fun¡­)" "I get it." Sol said, patting his back. "But you''ve been alive for, what, a little over a day? There''s more to the world than just running fast." Thorwyn tilted his head. "Awoo? (More?)" He didn''t know how that was possible. Sol nodded. "Yeah. Look around while you walk. Pay attention to your surroundings. You''ll see things you would''ve missed if you were just sting past everything at full speed." Thorwyn still looked uncertain, as speed had been all he had known since he was born, but Sol could tell the idea had taken root. With a slight huff, the Raijin reluctantly lowered himself into position, allowing Sol to reattach the shadow stone reins. Once everything was secured, they set off again, but at a much slower pace. At first, Thorwyn looked utterly miserable. He trudged forward, ears ttened, tail dragging, the very image of a dejected beast forced into the most boring punishment imaginable. Sol chuckled under his breath but didn''tment. For the first fifteen minutes, Thorwyn barely spoke. He walked in a straight line, ncing around asionally but otherwise remaining silent. However, as time passed, little things began to catch his attention. First, it was a rustling in the grass. His ears perked up as he turned his head, spotting a small, long tailed rodent scurrying through the underbrush. "Awoo? (What''s that?)" Sol followed his gaze. "A Skiddler. Prettymon around here. They''re fast, but not very strong. They usually run instead of fight." Thorwyn''s tail twitched slightly, interest piqued. "Awoo¡­ (Fast, huh?)" "Not your kind of fast," Sol said with a smirk. "Awoo! (I know that!)" Thorwyn huffed, poorly hiding the fact he didn''t actually know and kept moving. A few minutester, a vibrant blue butterfly fluttered past his face, making him blink in surprise. He turned to Sol again. "Awoo? (And that?)" "That''s a Skyveil Butterfly. They coat their wings in a thinyer of mana, which helps them fly longer. They''re harmless, but they''re useful for finding Moon Flowers." Thorwyn''s eyes tracked the butterfly as it drifted away. "Awoo¡­ (Pretty¡­)" As their journey continued, Thorwyn gradually started noticing more and more things¡ªthe way the trees swayed with the wind, the different footprints in the dirt, the shifting clouds in the sky. Sol watched the change with satisfaction. At one point, Thorwyn suddenly stopped and pointed his nose toward a bush with sharp, dark green leaves. "Awoo? (That nt smells¡­ weird.)" Sol leaned forward, squinting. "That''s an Ironleaf Shrub. It''s tough, but if you crush the leaves and mix them with hot water, it makes a tea that helps with exhaustion." Thorwyn''s ears perked up. "Awoo! (Really?!)" "Yeah, but it''s really bitter." "Awoo¡­ (Ah¡­)" Though they were traveling much slower than nned, Sol had no regrets. The punishment was working in a way he hadn''t anticipated. Thorwyn wasn''t just learning restraint, he was learning more about the world itself. Hours passed. Thorwyn, who had once sulked and grumbled about his punishment, now walked with eager eyes, tail wagging slightly as he took in the sight ahead. Therge city gates loomed in the distance, with crowds of peopleing and going. The sheer size of the ce left the young Raijin awestruck. "Awoo! (Woah! What''s that!?)" Sol smirked.@@novelbin@@ "That''s Kerman City. And also ourst stop before we leave Crestelia." "Awoo? (What''s Crestelia?)" "The kingdom we are in." "Awoo? (We''re in a kingdom?)" There was still a lot Thorwyn had yet to learn. Chapter 362 An Invitation Thorwyn''s tail wagged as he took in the bustling streets of Kerman. "Awoo! (Wow! Even more people than outside!)" "That''s right," Sol nodded. "Get used to it. Many cities like this stay just as lively even after sundown. C''mon, let''s find a spot away from the main road to put away the carriage." Once they found a secluded area, Sol stored the carriage in his spatial ring. Thorwyn tilted his head. "Awoo? (What do we do now?)" Sol stretched his shoulders before answering. "First, we stock up on supplies. Kerman is thest major city in the Crestelia Kingdom. Once we leave here, it''ll be a long stretch of wilderness before we reach another town or city." Thorwyn''s ears twitched, perking up at the information. "Awoo? (How long?)" Sol hummed in thought. "It depends, but at least a couple of weeks, possibly more. The only things between here and the next city are beasts, monster tribes, and the unknown." Satisfied with their first order of business, Thorwyn followed up with another question. "Awoo? (Where are we heading next?)" While he was happy to follow them anywhere, he was curious about their next destination. Sol echoed the question aloud, more to himself than anyone else. "Where next? That depends¡­" He already had a rough route nned toward the Sapphire Scales Alliance, but certain factors could alter their path. Before he could answer, Amber suddenly spoke. "Sol." Her tone wasn''t urgent, but it carried enough weight to make him pause. She hadn''t understood Thorwyn''s howls, but since Sol had repeated his question, she caught on. Her gaze flicked subtly to the side, alerting him. Sol didn''t react outwardly, but he nodded slightly. "I know." Then, without hesitation, he turned to face what appeared to be a nk stone wall. Tilting his head slightly, he asked, "So this is how you repay me for helping you?" A sharp gasp came from the empty air, followed by the sound of hurried movement. A secondter, a shimmer rippled against the wall before vanishing, revealing a kneeling figure. "I¡ªI am truly sorry! I meant no disrespect to the Savior!" The voice belonged to one of the orcs from earlier. His green skin and muscr frame made him an imposing presence, but at that moment, he remained low, his head bowed in genuine remorse. Thorwyn''s ears ttened in shock, he had been the only one who hadn''t noticed the orc, then perked back up in recognition. "Awoo! (One of the green men from before!)" The orc clenched his fists, lowering his head even further. "Forgive me. I did not intend to spy, but I could not find the right moment to reveal myself." If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the vition. He then unsheathed his short sword and presented the handle toward Sol. His voice was resolute. "I swear I will not say a word to another soul about what I''ve heard. And if that is not enough for you, please take my life. But before you do, we wish to thank you for your assistance at the gate and also deliver an important message." Sol slowly stepped forward, reaching for the sword handle. Instead of taking it, he gently pushed the de aside. "Rx, it''s not that serious. I knew you were there, so I didn''t say anything important anyway. But what''s this about a message?" Slightly stunned by Sol''s casual demeanor, the orc quickly recovered and stood. Reaching into his vest, he pulled out a sealed letter stamped with the image of an axe. "Chieftain Kuruck of the Frostaxe n wishes to extend an invitation to you and your allies to visit our great city of Midnar and witness the Rite of Ascension. He hopes the Savior wille to serve as a witness." Sol epted the letter, his expression puzzled. "Umm, thanks for the invitation, but what exactly is the Rite of Ascension? Some kind of promotion for new A-Rankers?" The orc shook his head. "No, Savior. The Rite of Ascension is when Chieftain Kuruck steps down and passes the title of Chieftain to one of his children. It is one of the most significant events in our culture, urring only once every fifty years or so."@@novelbin@@ The orc''s voice carried excitement as he spoke of the ceremony, but he paused, suddenly tilting his head. "But¡­ what do you mean by new A-Rankers? The first son and second daughter are A-Rankers, but they have been for five years now." "Ah¡­ It was just a guess¡­" Sol said, hesitating. He had assumed the rite was rted to ascending one''s skills, considering the name. Most people, this orc included, weren''t aware of the path toprehendingw techniques. Not wanting to dive deeper into that topic, he redirected the conversation. "Why is the Chieftain stepping down? Did something happen?" "No, no, nothing like that," the orc said, shaking his head. "After recent events, the Chieftain decided that now is the time to step aside so the next leader can guide us toward peace." It only took a moment for Sol to understand the Chieftain''s intentions. ''Kuruck was the one who started the war over forty years ago. A lot of Crestelians probably hate him, and his presence might make peace harder to achieve. Stepping down and allowing one of his children to take over could ease tensions. And since Princess Valerie is about to be queen, the timing aligns perfectly.'' It was a smart move. While things wouldn''t be easy for the next Chieftain, a fresh leader had a much better chance of fosteringsting peace between Crestelia and the Frostaxe n. Pocketing the letter into his spatial ring, Sol said, "I don''t know if I''ll be able to make it, but tell your Chieftain I appreciate the invitation." Attending such a rare, once in a lifetime event would be interesting, but he had more pressing matters to handle. The journey alone would add over a month to their ns, time they couldn''t afford to lose. The orc looked slightly disappointed but didn''t argue. "I understand, Savior. I will inform Chieftain Kuruck." Find more chapters on My Virtual Library Empire With that, he bid farewell and disappeared once more using his stealth skill, [Invisibility]. Sol easily tracked his mana with [True Sight (Variant)], while Amber followed his movements through [Sand Sense] as he leaped onto a nearby building and vanished into the cityscape. "Awoo? (Where did the green man go?)" Thorwyn pouted, still unable to see through the stealth technique. Sol chuckled and patted him on the side, drawing his attention. "Don''t worry about him. We have things to do." He then turned toward Amber. "Can you go get the thing? We''ll meet at the Rusty Bedter." "Okay." Amber nodded before disappearing as well, using her higher tier stealth skill, [Vanish]. She moved swiftly, heading off in the opposite direction. Thorwyn''s ears ttened again. "Awoo! (Scarydy gone too!)" Sol shook his head and sighed. "She''s not a scarydy, her name is Amber." Thorwyn nodded in understanding, then corrected himself. "Awoo! (Scary Amber is gone too!)" "You¡­ Never mind. You''re lucky she can''t understand you." Sol sighed, deciding to let it go. "Let''s go buy supplies while she''s gone. We can take our time and explore the city if you want." At the mention of exploring, Thorwyn''s tail shot straight up. "Awoo! (Explore!)"