The deer quietly nibbled at the surrounding foliage, when suddenly an arrow pierced through the trees, slamming into its side, and… bouncing off. The deer continued to chew as it stared down at the offending object, wondering why the forest had decided to poke it. Had it eaten too much grass? Not enough leaves? Should it be eating bark? These thoughts were cut short as the ground opened beneath it, and with a short cry it fell.

"I told you arrows aren't effective against Rune Beasts." Thomas commented, shaking his head.

"Then make stronger bows!" Chris retorted.

"Why waste the effort when you could just throw a knife and get a similar result?" Thomas countered.

"Because I like bows." Chris grumbled. "I have to think about throwing knives too much. With bows, you just pull and release."

"Eh, eventually it becomes instinctual." Thomas shrugged.

"Not for me, it doesn't." Chris sighed. "My brain doesn't really do automaticity, so I have to consciously do everything."

Thomas blinked. "Wait, seriously?" He paused. "Like, even breathing? Do you have to actively breathe all the time?"

"No, my autonomic processes are all fine." Chris waved dismissively. "All the basic instincts are there, I simply have issues forming new processes."

"Huh. Weird." Thomas shook his head. "Anyway, you got the deer. We going to do anything with it or should we move on to the next one?"

"Next." Chris replied, opening a portal for him. "Connecting unwilling creatures to my world gives me a headache, so I'd rather do it all at once."

Thomas nodded, walking in before Chris closed the portal and took out his bow again, heading towards the next bounty. "Not gonna lie, this is a pretty convenient way to travel." Thomas commented as he sat down in a nearby recliner. The five of them, including another Chris, were all sitting in a copy of Thomas's living room while Chris traveled. Thomas was almost a little jealous.

"I feel lazy." Ursa muttered. "Can't even cultivate in this place. Or do tasks."

"I'm working on it." Chris replied.

"You can't do tasks?" Thomas asked, raising an eyebrow.

Ursa nodded. "The system refuses to acknowledge my actions here."

Thomas frowned. "Interesting… I suppose that's another mark in the 'steals' column. Damn, and I was really hoping it created it!" He sighed.

"We'll see what happens once I get some energy in here." Chris commented. "But if you want to train, I can send you back to town. I can't leave because I don't have enough material, but you guys are free to do whatever."

Tiffany blinked. "You can open portals at that distance?"

Chris frowned. "It isn't really a matter of distance. I can open a portal wherever I have a portal point. I left a portal point at Thomas's house, so I can send you back there, no problem."

Tiffany stared at him for a moment, before letting out a weary sigh. "The Hidden Blades would have loved to have you on their side."

Chris nodded. "I'm useful to have around."

"Actually, while we're in a place where we can be absolutely certain no one is spying on us, I'd actually like to talk about what our options are." Thomas interjected, leaning forward in his seat. "Obviously we're going to have to fight them eventually, but the further we can push that eventually back, the better. How long can we play along before we have to break ties with them?"

"If you can hold off until the war begins…" Tiffany muttered. "That's when they'll be at their weakest. They'll be occupied with the other sects, and won't be able to send too many resources after you. Or, you could wait until they've won, attacking before they've recovered from their losses. As long as you keep Chris and the other two hidden… you'll also need to keep Jocelyn happy. She thinks she can use you, so she's focused on turning you into her tool. Once she figures out she can't, she'll turn on you in an instant."

Thomas frowned. "Does that have anything to do with her desire to seduce me? Well, Victoria."

Tiffany coughed, flushing slightly. "Jocelyn is- the Rune she's chosen to focus on is Training, and her version of training revolves around making her charges as dedicated to her as possible, which… includes physically. She gets you addicted to her, until all you can think about is making her happy."

"Gross." Chris commented.

"People shouldn't abuse sex like that." Jade muttered.

Thomas shook his head. "So the longer I play along, the better, but in order to play along, I have to let her play with me… Fan-fucking-tastic."

"It isn't all bad." Tiffany offered hesitantly. "She's very skilled. As far as pure pleasure goes, I've never been with anyone better."

Thomas's expression twisted. "That- that almost makes it worse! I don't want to enjoy having sex with her! She's evil!"

"The world is evil!" Tiffany retorted. "Jocelyn simply does what's necessary to survive!"

"By using people? Turning them into her sex slaves?" Chris asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow.

"In this world, if you don't use people, people use you!" Tiffany snapped. "That's how it works! Don't blame Jocelyn just because she's better at it than most!"

Chris narrowed his eyes. "Does that make this a World issue then?" He asked, turning to Thomas.

"Huh? No, she's just wrong." Thomas waved dismissively. "There's plenty of good people around. Like my parents and Maurice."

Tiffany snorted. "Yes, 'good people' that you used by pretending to be their daughter!"

Thomas hesitated. "That- I was- their daughter was dead! Because of you, I might add! All I did was give them something where they would have had nothing!"

"I dunno… I'm kinda on Tiffany's side on this one." Chris commented. "You did lie to them for your own convenience. Kinda shitty."

Thomas scowled. "Look, even if you can turn every relationship into an exchange of benefits, it's missing the point! There's a difference between a healthy and natural connection and manipulating someone to make them do what you want!"

"True." Chris nodded thoughtfully. "Also, it's one thing for two people to enter into a mutually beneficial relationship, it's another to turn on someone just because they won't enter into said relationship. Forcing someone to be used just because you're scared of being used yourself is pretty shitty too." He paused, before giving Thomas a look. "That still doesn't make what you did right, though."

Thomas frowned. "I think I'd cause more pain by telling the truth than just playing along. They want a daughter, I need a family. And I've been as honest with them as I can be, even telling them I have memories of a different World. They know I'm different, but… they still accept me as theirs. And I accept them as mine, too."

Chris cocked his head, considering it for a moment, before shrugging. "Fair enough. If it works, it works. Not much point in causing trouble if everyone is happy with the situation. Which means… disregarding their methods, does the Hidden Blades system work, or does it cause undue suffering?"

"Suffering." Ursa muttered. "A lot of suffering."

Tiffany sighed. "If you fall in line and do what's expected of you, then the Hidden Blades are fine. But as I've said before, they have no patience for anyone they don't have a use for."

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

"And if you don't fall in line, they'll grind you down until you do, or you turn to dust. They don't care which." Ursa growled.

"Okay, Hidden Blades are still evil. Noted." Chris nodded. "What's our plan then?"

"For now, we need to keep our heads low and focus on getting stronger." Thomas replied. "Jocelyn alone could probably wipe out this entire kingdom without breaking a sweat, and she's just an Elder."

"She's still in the Circulatory Realm, though she's getting close to the Unification Realm." Tiffany explained. "Other than her, the Hidden Blades have four other Elders, two of which are in the early Unification Realm, the Sect Master, who is in the middle of the Unification Realm, and the Grand Elder, who is at the peak of the Unification Realm." She paused. "For reference, your friend Horace is also in the early Unification Realm."

"And we'd have trouble with peak Core Forging Cultivators." Thomas sighed.

"So we need time to get stronger, gotcha." Chris nodded, before pausing. "Well, in particular, I need a method to get stronger…"

"Which means we have a couple months until I join the sect, plus however long I can manage to handle Jocelyn." Thomas continued, his expression twisting. "We also need to make sure we keep the collateral damage as low as possible. Defeating the Hidden Blades becomes pointless if we end up turning the region into a wasteland."

"True…" Chris muttered, before pausing. "Do you think there's a way to get this done without fighting? Or at least without war? I can't imagine the entire sect is evil. It's probably just the few people at the top we have to worry about. Like in my World. Take out the Elf King, and the rest will follow."

"We'd still have to get stronger, but…" Thomas trailed off thoughtfully. "Depending on how reliant they become on the system… it could work? Maybe?"

"If you take out all the Elders and the Sect Master, no one else in the Hidden Blades would even dare to oppose you." Tiffany assured them.

"Well, then that sounds like a plan, huh? Keep the Hidden Blades busy while we grow, then take out the leadership and subdue the rest." Thomas nodded in satisfaction.

"You make it sound so simple." Tiffany sighed, shaking her head. "Past Core Forging, growing stronger isn't simply limited by your cultivation speed. In order to advance, you aren't simply required to understand your Runes, but to create your own understanding of them, to make the Runes yours. To build on the foundation provided by your Core Runes. It isn't something one can simply accomplish in a matter of months. Reaching the heights of the Elders would take you decades!"

"Then that's how long it will take." Chris shrugged. "We aren't doing this because we think it will be easy. We're doing it because we believe it is necessary, and so far everything you've told us about the Hidden Blades has only made me more sure about that. So we will hide for as long as we need in order to grow strong enough to stop them. Because it's necessary." He then turned to Thomas. "Also, we've reached the next location."

Thomas got to his feet. "Then let's do this. We all need to be growing stronger."

*

Chris rubbed his aching head as he stared at the four freshly subdued Rune Beasts, shooting the boar a particularly nasty look. It'd been particularly stubborn. "Okay, now, energy." He muttered, pulling it out of the Beasts and into his world. "And-" He tried to bring in Thomas's system from his other world, but… "Huh." Chris frowned. He… didn't know how? For his other rules, he could easily recreate them, because he'd made them in the first place, but for Thomas's system… he couldn't do anything, because he didn't know how it worked. "Well, that's annoying."

"What? Something wrong?" Thomas asked.

"I can't bring over your system." Chris explained. "I'll need you to give it to me again."

"Really?" Thomas asked, giving him a weird look as he sent the system into the world. "Why?"

"I'm not sure…" Chris muttered. "Maybe it's like a computer? Your system is like a piece of code I didn't write, so even though it's on my other computer, I have no idea how to get it on this computer, since they aren't actually connected."

"Interesting…" Thomas muttered.

"Annoying." Chris retorted. "But not relevant at the moment. Let's see how to make this work." Chris took the energy from the Rune Beasts, focusing on the new structure created by the system, trying to figure out how the two would interact. He knew the system needed energy, he just wasn't sure how it would get it. Thomas said the system worked through tasks, so… Chris attempted to allocate himself a task. The moment he did, he felt a… draw from somewhere. The task was possible, but it needed something else to go through, which was obviously the energy, but how was he supposed to give it to it? Chris cocked his head as he followed the draw and found a reservoir of some kind, a sort of metaphysical one. The energy didn't actually go there, but it was like he was putting it in reserve for a certain use, and once he did…

[Do 44 push-ups (0/44): 4 pts.]

"Hmmm." Chris eyed the screen that had suddenly appeared in front of him, before shrugging and getting down to do the push-ups and receive his four points. However, he didn't have a status… at least, not until he looked for it and the page appeared in front of him. "Huh." Chris grunted, turning to Thomas. "It works."

Thomas blinked. "It does? But… huh. I guess I'm not connected to it?" He frowned, feeling a bit weird about that. The system was his. It felt weird for it to exist apart from him.

"It'd be kinda weird if it was, wouldn't it?" Chris replied. "You gave me the framework, but it uses my resources. It'd be weird if you had control over it."

"But it works in-" Thomas began, before pausing. "Wait, hold on." He found a task he could complete fairly quickly, doing it as fast as possible, receiving a couple points in the process. "Ha! It worked!" Thomas exclaimed, before yelping as Chris smacked him upside the head.

"Don't steal my shit." Chris raised a warning finger at him.

"I was just checking!" Thomas protested, shooting him a dirty look.

"Then do something cheap." Chris retorted.

"It was only three points!" Thomas countered.

"Could have been one." Chris replied.

"You're ridiculous." Thomas grumbled.

"So I've been told." Chris nodded.

Thomas rolled his eyes. "Okay, you have the system now, which means you can access power systems. But how do you get access to power systems besides mine? No offense, but when Greg awakened in his World, it was under the power system of the World he was in. If your world doesn't have a power system…"

"That would probably be why the Awaken option is grayed out." Chris commented, giving the status page a better look. None of the cultivation options were available, though the recovery button was, as were the skills. Not that he had much use for recovery. "And I still think it has something to do with the cores… they have the software, I just need to figure out how to get to it."

"Well, Andrew figures out cores by pulling them apart… have you tried that?" Thomas offered.

Chris blinked. "I-" He frowned. "Well, I didn't even know cores were a thing until recently, so no. Plus, it feels wrong to do something like that to my subordinates… they're a part of me now, and that would mean essentially killing them, wouldn't it?"

"It would…" Thomas replied. "At least, it should, but our abilities are fucky, so who knows? And it's definitely better to test it on one of them than on a person." He gestured towards the waiting Rune Beasts.

Chris sighed. "I suppose." He eyed the boar for a moment. "Alright, let's see what makes you tick." He muttered, raising a hand and pulling the boar apart. All the usual information was there, the boars form, the material composition, everything, along with… "Hmmm… interesting." Chris muttered as the boar reformed a couple dozen meters away, looking none the worse for the experience. Just like with the system, he had a new structure in his rules, and his status page had an active Awaken option. He also had a new reservoir to fill. "So, I have to allocate energy to where I want it to go…" Chris muttered to himself. Not only that, but after checking his other worlds, he found that he had a reservoir in his World too. "Where did you come from?" He frowned. Had he analyzed a core before? He reviewed all his memories… no, he hadn't. Strange. Chris shrugged, before analyzing the other three Rune Beasts as well, seeing as it hadn't done them any harm, before pausing and hitting Tiffany and Ursa as well.

"What the fuck!?!" Tiffany exclaimed as she found herself pulled apart and strung back together in an instant. "What was that?!?"

"Ah, right, people don't like it when I suddenly do things." Chris muttered to himself, still focusing on his world. He now had four reservoirs to allocate energy into. "But, I think I have this figured out." The reservoirs were for the different types of energy, which would be given to whoever did the thing necessary to gain it. The interesting part was each reservoir was distinct, so he could fill the points reservoir, then use that same energy to fill another, making it so that energy could be used for both. Now he just needed someone to cultivate.

Tiffany appeared next to him with a yelp. "Would you stop doing that?!?" She growled angrily.

"Last time. Now, please cultivate." He gestured, creating a comfortable sitting spot for her.

Tiffany glared at him for a moment, before sitting down with a humph and closing her eyes. Chris watched the energy swirl around her, bringing in more energy as she continued to draw it in. After a moment, her eyes opened and she glared up at Chris. "Happy?"

"Quite." Chris grinned, waving his hand and sending her away again with another yelp.

"I wouldn't poke her if I were you." Thomas shook his head. "She may be connected to your world, but she's still crazy."

"Eh, she's fine." Chris shrugged. "But it worked! She cultivated! My world lets people cultivate!"

"Yes, that's very good, but she was already able to cultivate." Thomas pointed out. "The question is if you can cultivate."

Chris paused. "True… well, I suppose I need to do a few more tasks then."