The second dimensional integration is complete
The message appeared before every single player in the world, informing them of the start of an even bigger change.
The beginning of that change was signaled by the appearance of the same rifts that appeared a few months ago. Tearing and glitching in the sky, the rifts opened to let the flying ships go through.
“I greet the elder,” Reginald kneeled as a holographic projection of an old man was displayed by a crystal ball being held by a woman wearing silver armor.
“At ease Reginald,” the elder replied. “Have you secured a medallion for the construction of the academy?”
Reginald presented a case where seven medallions were neatly secured.
“Oho? One would have been enough for the construction of the academy. These would also secure external facilities,” the elder was pleased. “Well done, Reginald. With this, you’ve proven yourself competent to be the headmaster of this dimension’s academy.”
“Thank you, Elder,” Reginald responded.
“We will provide the funds required for constructions. Begin immediately and spread the word of the establishment of the academy,” the elder instructed.
“As you command.”
The elder nodded in approval before the projection disappeared. The silver armored woman and all the other soldiers behind her kneeled in front of Reginald. “You heard the elder. Let us begin the construction of the academy!”
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The second dimensional integration is complete
Syrus raised an eyebrow at the message. “What awful timing,” he commented as Gluttony crushed a ghoul under his feet.
They were currently locking down the passageway leading to the altar room, preventing the ghouls from passing. Meanwhile, inside the altar room, Syrus watched as the raid team struggled to face the single ghoul that entered using his raven.
Sloth was on standby to portal Esther out and potentially finish of Julian he foolishly got himself fatally injured.
“I wanted to increase the reward further, but if he’s pathetic enough to die here, I have no choice,” Syrus grumbled. “Hm?”
One of his ravens showed him a rift opening near the old settlement. Judging by the elves that gathered beneath the rift to welcome the new arrivals, it was a safe guess that the people arriving would be elves.
“Where’s Sevina?” Syrus muttered as he switched between ravens to find the dark elf.
Syrus quickly spotted her with Eliza hunting in the forest of their new base. He breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that there was no potential conflict on that side and focused on his current problem.
The ghouls were dropping low-mid grade mana stones. A good enough quality to give to Gluttony to make him stronger. But Syrus doubted it was enough to give him a skill, so would probably resort to giving Gluttony more skills using Antagonizing unit.
“Looks like I need to speed things up,” Syrus summoned his lizard man soldier. “Deal with the ghoul inside,” Syrus pointed to the passageway leading to the altar room.
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Julian had faced ghouls before. Before he regressed, these creatures were nothing to him. But now, he was barely overpowering a single one. “Screw you!” Julian activated his skill and sent a flaming slash at the ghoul.
It hit its target, but it clearly lacked the damage to finish it off. To make matters worse, the ghoul was ripped to shreds by a familiar bladed chain.
“The fuck is that thing doing here!” Julian yelled as the same lizard man that injured him in a rift appeared before him.
The lizard man spun its chain, tearing through the walls of the nexus structure. “It’s going to collapse!” someone yelled as the ceiling began to crumble.
They all rushed to leave the altar room, ignoring the calls for help of the injured who couldn’t get up.
“Agh!”
Looking behind him, Julian saw Esther whose leg got under some rubble. She tried reaching out to him, but quickly gave up as they looked each other in the eyes.
For a second, Julian hesitated but chose to leave her behind.
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“Disappointing,” Syrus commented as he lifted the rubble off Esther. “I wonder how the system even chooses its heroes.”
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“C-chief,” Esther looked up at him in surprise. “H-how? Why?”
Syrus picked her up in a princess carry. “Can’t lose a bookkeeper,” Syrus smirked as they passed through a portal.
They returned to the settlement’s medical hut where Yria was healing the injured players. With the shy goblin’s increase in level, she had gotten a healing skill which she now uses to provide medical treatment.
“Esther!” Jasmine rushed to hug Esther while she was still in Syrus’s arms.
“W-where’s my son?” Wanda approached them.
“He left the scene just as I arrived,” Syrus answered.
Esther chose to remain silent. Syrus placed her down on a bed before turning his attention back to his ravens monitoring the scene at the nexus structure. Things were still in chaos due to the structure beginning to collapse, but it was mostly due to the players rushing to escape.
“That’s no longer my concern,” Syrus muttered as another portal appeared in front of him leading to the entrance of the collapsing nexus structure.
Something he needed to figure out was the source of the monsters. From what he knew, the monsters in the nexus were some kinds of flaming cat, not ghouls, so the monsters came from somewhere else.
Investigating the scene, Syrus had the dynamite rats crawl into the holes where the ghouls came from and ordered them to detonate at the sign of the source. “I need to make some scouting rats too,” Syrus noted as one of the rats detonated.
The ground began to cave in just as the players inside the nexus structure began coming out. Syrus ignored them as the ground continued to collapse until something shot out from the ground and hovered in the sky.
“Who dares?!”
Syrus raised an eyebrow at the hooded man. “Bring him down.”
Chains shot out from Gluttony and snared the man. Using his four powerful arms, Gluttony yanked the man out of the sky with so much force that he shot like a bullet to the ground.
“Now, who the fuck are you?” Syrus questioned.
The man refused to answer. Syrus was about to order Gluttony to rough the man up, but Ignia appeared behind him. “Don’t bother. He won’t talk.”
“How do you know?” Syrus raised an eyebrow.
“A hunch,” Ignia replied.
Syrus just narrowed his eyes at her. “We’re taking him with us,” Syrus told Gluttony.
“As you command,” Gluttony grabbed the man, holding him with both his upper and lower left arms.
The portal led to the new settlement. As he and Gluttony passed through, the portal quickly closed before Ignia could even make an attempt to approach.
Since the settlement was still under construction, it was obvious that they didn’t have prison, nor a way to even stop a player from using their skills to escape. Even if the place was a safe zone where conflict was prohibited, there were still many ways to escape prison.
“We’ll deal with this guy now,” Syrus gestured for Gluttony to follow.
They went into the forest outside the range of the settlement. Gluttony tossed the hooded man on the ground. Syrus didn’t know if the man was acting, but he just laid on the ground motionless.
“Break a leg.”
Gluttony grabbed the man’s left leg and crushed it under his grip. The man yelled in pain as his hood was removed, revealing pale skin and a tattooed face. Syrus grabbed one of the man’s fingers and bent it the wrong way.
The man screamed again. “I won’t talk no matter what you do to me!”
Syrus broke another finger. “I’m not asking.”
A third finger snapped and the man screamed in agony once again. When the man ran out of fingers, Syrus ripped his ear off.
“I’ll talk!” the man yelled.
“You got one minute,” Syrus stated.
“I’m from a clan full of dark mages called Lurking grave,” the man confessed immediately. “I want sent to this dimension to set the foundation of our clan’s immigration.”
“You don’t strike me as someone that does a lot of good. How did you awaken as a player?” Syrus questioned.
The man scoffed. “You believed that hoax about only people who do good deeds awaken? As long as you do enough good to outweigh your sins, you can awaken. Kill one but save a hundred,” the man answered.
Syrus figured that’s how the awakening system actually worked. “Your ghouls. How many can you make?”
“As long as I have human corpses, I can keep them coming,” the man answered, seemingly ignoring the pain of his mangled body.
“Alright then,” Syrus smirked.
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Julian arrived back at the settlement and was met with chaos. Somehow, the injured that were left back at the altar room arrived before him. And with the sheer number of them, they couldn’t all fit in the small medical hut.
He was about to yell when someone slammed his head into the ground. He managed to glance to the side to find the spear woman who hung out with the goblins.
“If you’re going to throw another fit, then get the fuck out of here,” she stabbed her spear just beside his neck. “Understand?”
Julian reluctantly nodded. The woman huffed and released his head before marching away. He was tempted to stab her with his sword right there, but Julian noticed the eyes of the dragon watching him at a distance.
He faced a dragon before.
It costed an arm.
Julian decided to not get healed and went to his hut instead. On the way, he passed by Jasmine and Esther. He stared at her with wide eyes and was about to approach her when Esther looked away from him. At the same time, Jasmine stared daggers at him.
“How?” Julian muttered.
“The settlement chief saved them,” Wanda approached him with a bowl of soup. “Jasmine was ba-” Wanda was interrupted by Julian slapping the bowl from her hands.
“I don’t give a shit about those useless bastards!” Julian yelled as his mother just stared at him in shock.
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“Is it even worth putting him down?” Syrus muttered.
The more he observed Julian, the more disappointing he turns out to be. It constantly makes him question why the system chose such a worthless person to become a regressor.
While Syrus was observing Julian’s incompetence, he had taken the necromancer to the prison that Sloth had scouted a few days ago. Originally, Syrus had no plans for a place filled with criminals, but now, he did.
Gluttony slaughtered the criminals.
The necromancer turned the corpse into ghouls.
Gluttony slaughters the ghouls.
Syrus got experience and mana stones.
How was Syrus sure they were slaughtering criminals? They were grown men that didn’t awaken as players wearing prison clothes.
It was fairly obvious.
The screams of agony continued.
“Keep at it until I feel better.”