Chapter Thirty-Seven.

<>(Zack)<>

"Sorry, Gold," I apologize to the frightened Beastborn. "I just had… I'm not even sure what that was."

He tilts his head to the side. I'm not sure how to explain it, so after thinking for a bit, I decide to just tell him about my visions, and how I can see the future, and sometimes, current events. How it normally comes as dreams, and how this time, it seemed like I was watching the Shadow of Life himself.

Gold listen intensely, then once I finish, he shrugs and gives me a look and impression that lets me know he needs food to cook. I pull some out of my Inventory and hand it to him, and he dips his head to me, then runs off into the kitchen.

I stand and stretch, walking to the table as I try to sort that out. The Dragon was just screwing with him, of that, I am sure. He gave legitimate reasons to not send another Dragon after me, but he really just wants to see if I can kill the one coming in the spring.

Gold finishes breakfast and we eat, then I head into town as he starts washing the dishes. One of the knights gives me a funny look, then walks over to me. He's one of the high-Level ones who was here when I got here, but I never learned his name.

"Zack?" He says.

"Yes?"

"You look quite refreshed for someone who gained ten Levels overnight," he tells me. "I thought I heard you were saving your Static Class Experience for a little bit."

"Yeah?" I say. "I am. Plus, I slept through the…"

No.

No. Fucking. Way.

The Dragon didn't… did he?

I pull up my Status.

"Holy fuck!" I exclaim, and he the knight jumps. Did I accidentally use my Demonic Voice? "Sorry. Holy fuck. That's… that's insane."

"What?" He asks.

"Uh…" I say. "This wasn't me."

Pretty sure the 'Father of All Dragons' is really fucking with the Shadow of Life. Because I'm not a Level 4 Blood Novice, but a Level 4 Blood Acolyte – the exact number of Levels away from Archpriest of Blood for me to use my Static Experience to reach Mastered.

"You just magically gained ten Levels?" He asks.

"Yeah," I pull up my Skills. "Holy fuck! He hit my Skills, too!"

All of my Skills are at their required Levels for me to just go straight to Archpriest of Blood without worrying about grinding them up even a single Level higher.

"What?" He looks confused, and I give him a cheeky grin. "What?"

"Would you believe me if I told you an ancient Dragon gave me some free Levels and Skill Levels?"

He laughs.

"Good one, Zack," he says. "A Dragon being able to do that in the first place is ridiculous, but willingly granting one of us Levels for anything? Yeah, right. Don't want to tell us, then don't."

"Seriously," I say. "An ancient Dragon wants to fuck with the Shadow of Life, because he was wanting to kill me now, because I'm getting too powerful, too fast for his tastes. The ancient Dragon refused, then granted me some Levels, but didn't tell me, so here we are."

"You snuck out," he shakes his head, chuckling. "See you around, Zack."

Heh. No one's gonna believe me on this, and they're just gonna think I snuck out and grinded the night away. Oh, well.

While I'm here… I start doing the Level adjustments. I can only go up to Level 10, because I have to accept the advancement, so it takes me a few moments to go all the way up. As soon as I master it, I acquire the notification, then look at the one that popped up as soon as I hit Archpriest of Blood Level 1.

Qualifications Met: Champion of Darkness 1 Archpriest of Blood 1 Class Available: Dark One (Rank 2)

Now that I've finished taking on Classes, I accept Dark One.

You are Now a Level 1 Dark One! +1 STR +1 END +1 VIT +1 INT   +1 WIL

So it has two more starting Stat base than Rank 1 Classes do. I think I remember Nik mentioning that, and that it still only gains an additional two Stat Points with each Tier, though each Tier is named the same. Seems the System didn't want to come up with new names for each Tier of Class for Rank 2 Classes, and possibly for Rank 3, and if there are any above it, for those, too.

It's just simpler, Big S tells me. Besides, at Rank 2 and above, the distinction between the Tiers isn't really needed. You're already over Level 80, so at this point, you're in it for the grind and such. Most people who reach a Rank 2 Class are over Level 100, and are truly dedicated to the job assigned to all. Most. There are a few who aren't, but they aren't that big of a problem. Usually. How did you get your Skills and Level up to where you needed? I couldn't lower them below where they were, which is weird. There are only a couple of reasons a Level would be 'set', including one of us bestowing a Level Blessing upon someone, but none of us did that to you.

An ancient Dragon gave them to me.

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Uh… please tell me you're joking.

No. I had a vision involving him angering the Shadow of Life by refusing to send a Dragon to kill me now. I woke up, had the Levels.

Huh. Well. Don't tell the others. They wouldn't believe you.

You do?

Describe said Dragon.

I give him as much detail as I can about the Dragon, and I can feel him listening intently.

Yup. You saw him. That's… that's… yeah, that's him. I wasn't aware he even still bothered looking into this realm. Guess you caught his attention somehow.

Probably because of a ranting asshole.

Probably. Anyway, I gotta go back to doing what I was doing.

Was it something called 'napping'?

Yeah. How did you know?

Just a gut feeling that you're lazy as fuck.

I'm running the entire System…

While napping.

Yeah.

Sleep well.

Thanks. You, too.

Me, too?

He doesn't respond, so I shrug it off as the kid-being just feeling some exhaustion, then I continue to walk through the streets, making my way to the alchemist's shop. As I do, I notice my vision blurring and body feeling heavy. No matter how hard I fight it, my body continues to grow more and more lethargic, until my vision turn black and my body drops.

Emptiness, as far as can be. It is everywhere yet nowhere, real, yet imaginary. It surrounds me and is within me, and yet it's not there at all. What is this place?

A moment later, a pinprick of light forms, rapidly growing larger and larger until the light washes over me like an explosion, leaving in its place a crystal easily a hundred yards in height. It glows with a light within it, fading to shadows around the edges as it slowly turns. It is a myriad of colors, from reds to greens to blues to purples to whites to browns to oranges to yellows, shimmering and shifting until turning dark and starry, galaxies clear within it.

Yet we are still surrounded by the nothingness, just my vision-self and the Crystal… a Crystal which seems to contain an entire universe within it.

"So…" a deep, male voice rumbles. "A new one has formed."

"Indeed," a melodic, female voice echoes. "A new one has formed."

"It has been a long time," the male says.

"Indeed," the female says. "What do you think will happen, now?"

"We have an observer," the male abruptly says. "Someone is here."

"Who?" The female asks. "Only we exist outside of-"

"Sh!" The male hushes her. "Whoever it is has likely learned more than they should have already."

Silence follows, leaving me alone with the universe-containing Crystal and the knowledge that there are two beings around, though I can't sense them at all. There is nothing around me, not even existence…

Not even existence…

The Crystal… that contains all of existence, doesn't it? Or rather… Existence.

"I can't sense them," the female says after several long minutes of silence.

"Nor can I," the male says. "Yet there is another."

"Who can escape our notice?" The female asks.

A Child of Existence, no doubt. I allow myself to float forward after they fall silent once more, likely trying to sense me again. I will myself to take on some sort of form, finding myself looking like myself once more.

I reach out to the Crystal…

Is this my father?

"FOUND YOU!" The male exclaims as my hand touches the Crystal.

The moment I make contact, I find myself falling through it, and I continue to fall, unable to stop myself. Worlds, galaxies, asteroids, comets, stars, moons, and more all pass by me as I pick up speed, everything turning into a blur until I eventually see what looks like Earth coming at me at a high speed.

I pass through its atmosphere, and find myself falling from a great height into a valley surrounded by mountains, a shimmering, pearly barrier of oranges, yellows, and pinks surrounding the realm in the distance.

Then, I fall through the roof of the Dark Temple, slamming into my own body, lying in a bed.

I jolt up with a start, breathing heavily, disoriented from the sudden shift in my perspective and sensations. That was… what the fuck?

Looking around, I realize that I'm in my usual bed in the Dark Temple, and Nik is looking thoroughly startled beside it. Gold's hiding behind him.

"That was unexpected," Nik lets out a breath. "Normally when someone wakes from Power Jump, they don't jump up like that."

"Power Jump?" I ask.

"Yeah," he nods. "Power Jump is the condition when one rapidly gains Levels. I was going to warn you about it as your Skills got closer to what was needed, as it's best to spread out using Static Experience over several days as a result. Especially that much. It just knocks you out, though…"

He trails off, thinking.

"What?" I ask. "How long was I out?"

"That's the thing," he says. "Normally, if you're hit by Power Jump, you're out for several hours to several days, depending on how rapidly you gained the Levels. It's extremely rare. There are also no recorded cases of anyone acquiring more than twenty-three total Levels rapidly enough to get hit by Power Jump. You gained more than fifty in just a couple of days. You should have been out for at least two months, by our estimates."

"Should have?" I ask. "How long was I out?"

"Long enough for me to reach the market, pick you up, bring you back here, and tuck you in."

It felt like an eternity…

"What did you see?" He asks.

"Huh?" I give him a confused look. "How did you know I saw something?"

"Everyone who gets hit by Power Jump sees something," he informs me.

Ah.

"I'm… not sure I saw the same thing as them," I say.

"Why?" He asks.

"What is normally seen?" I ask. "Please answer that, because I'm pretty sure my unique circumstances affected what I saw."

Nik thinks for a moment, then nods, probably realizing that my ability to have visions probably did affect what I would have seen.

"Normally," he explains. "They see a vision of a sort of Crystal, green in color. Something dealing with the elements. And finally… it's difficult to explain, actually. I'm the one who hit twenty-three Levels, abusing some tough Monsters mixed with Static Experience buildup from Special Monsters. Even having gone through it, it's hard to describe what I saw. In the end, though, it allowed me to learn how to use several new Skills and the requirements for a Class. I'm not sure if I was simply learning how to use them and unlock them, or if I was seeing their creation. No one who's had Power Jump has been able to tell."

"You gained 23 Levels rapidly?" I ask.

"In two days," he nods. "It was hard enough to do that, too. We've honestly been surprised you hadn't been hit by Power Jump before, but considering your inhuman constitution, it made a bit of sense to us after some thought. The bigger the jump, the more Skills one will see and learn how to unlock. I'm only the second recorded case of learning of a Class. It also takes more to cause it the higher your Level is already.

"So," he says. "What did you see?"

"Erm…" I feel my face heat up. "What I saw? It kind of makes what you saw pale in comparison. Oh, and I didn't learn any new Skills or Classes. Well, how to unlock them."

"Odd," he says. "What did you see?"

I think… I think I stepped outside of Existence itself. Literally outside of it, and saw its formation. Whatever that space was outside of it… it wasn't a space. It wasn't anything. It didn't exist. And yet… I was there. And so were those two.

With me being outside of Existence, there was no real time, which might be why I saw the formation of Existence itself. But those two beings… what were they? The moment the male voice sensed me, his voice… it was filled with so much hostility.

"Zack?" Nik interrupts my pondering. "What did you see?"

"I think…" I hesitate for a moment. "I think I saw everything."