[You're joking, right?]

I was back inside one of the simulation rooms at the GPA building. I had taken extra care not to alert Tessa to my presence, since what I was doing would probably traumatize her.

"I'm not, unfortunately," I replied to Sephera, taking out the purple core from my Inventory. "Everything so far has been Skills, Items, or weapons, and with my stats being so high, I need stuff that can match up to them."

"Am I not all you need?" the Soultaker protested in my left hand. "I'm quite certain there's not a single entity that can withstand a single slash from me now, aside from my master. Just use me and keep farming souls!"

"Don't forget, you act as my second lifeline," I reminded the sword. "If you run out of numbers, I automatically die."

"You'll respawn anyway."

"Yeah, but what about you? I'd hate to lose a good weapon."

The Soultaker, stunned, fell silent. I reluctantly injected a million Stat Points into the Grudge core, watching it flash with a blue light before disappearing. I checked my Skills, finding a new one simply called 'Mountain of the Unforgiving'. Casting it would create a portal similar to how Chronia did for me and Celine.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt for you to be more prepared..." the Soultaker finally mumbled, almost shyly. "Just as long as you keep using me."

[Did you just... tame a sadistic sword...? No, you just raised a flag with it...] Sephera momentarily forgot about my rather insane plan.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" I fired back at her. The Soultaker shivered in my hand, as if embarrassed. "Hey, don't make things worse and shake like that!"

[Uh, good luck with the structured dying strategy or whatever, Player. I'm just going to go tell the other Admins about this...]

"What- don't get the wrong idea!" the Soultaker exclaimed. "I meant... we're partners, you know? I just... want you to keep using me. It's not like that. Really..."

"Stop talking!" My voice was a little higher than I was comfortable with. "You're making it sound like I have an illicit relationship with a literal sword."

[Technically-]

"Not another word from you either, you lazy Admin!" I snapped before Sephera could say anything. "The Soultaker and I have a mutual agreement. It'll cooperate with me until we find its master. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Hey!" the Soultaker protested, sounding offended. "I'm not some object you can just–"

"Ahem, I was going to surprise you, but it seems like you're in the middle of something, no?" A familiar voice spoke up behind me.

I spun around, finding Tessa standing there with a mixture of fear and confusion on her face.

"...I can explain."

----------------------------------------

"Hmm, so you have a sentient weapon? While it's certainly not common, it's not unheard of, either." Tessa gazed at the blue runes that glowed softly on the Soultaker's blade.

I hesitated, unsure whether I should reveal the full truth to Tessa. After all, the Soultaker's master was still out there somewhere, and I didn't want to risk revealing too much. But then again, I couldn't exactly lie to her either.

"This Player will eventually reunite me with my master after harvesting countless souls." The sword bluntly declared in my hand.

"Hey! Don't make me sound like a villain!"

"Oh, I see." Tessa nodded, as if this was a perfectly normal thing to hear. "Well, in that case, I'm curious about what you plan to do, Luquier. Did you think you could slip under my radar in my own building?"

"K-kinda..." I stammered.

The chairman giggled, stepping up to me. "Hey, you might be stronger than me, but you've got a long way before you can outsmart me." Tessa smirked. "With that core in your hands, I'm assuming you're going to run a dungeon resonance by yourself, right? In that case, can I tag along?"

I raised an eyebrow, not quite sure how to respond. "I... "

"Oh, you don't have to explain anything to me," Tessa waved her hand dismissively. "I already know you're up to something completely unhinged. I just want to tag along for the experience points."

This woman... first Tommy, and now Tessa. Did they think I was just an EXP farm?

"That's... fine by me." I begrudgingly agreed. I didn't really have a reason to reject her request. It made sense as a Player to level up as much as possible, and the experience from mobs weren’t divided. In terms of mutual relations, she definitely favored me, and I wanted to keep our alliance strong. Plus, I was pretty sure she had a good grip on my character, allowing me to do this in her building with no extra supervision. "But you're not just coming along for the ride. You have to help."

"Sure," Tessa flashed a grin. "What do you need me to do?"

"Well, I- what can you do?" In hindsight, I realized there wasn’t really anything she needed to do.

"My Title is the Tempered Disaster. What do you suppose that entails?"

I thought back, recalling how Tessa was able to call a storm back in the Grudge dungeon and darken the skies during our first lunch. "Er, you can control the weather?"

"I can manipulate natural disasters," Tessa corrected with a wink. "Storms, hurricanes, earthquakes... pretty much any of that." A red system screen popped up next to her.

[Tempered Disaster (A)]

[Acquired by obtaining 5 different elemental skills, 1000 points in Magic, & successfully using 3 Disaster attribute spells simultaneously.]

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

[Effect: User becomes synced with nature; able to conjure natural disasters. High resistance to all elemental damage.]

If it wasn't for my Title upgrading, I think I would've been a little jealous of hers. But, seeing as it was an A-rank Title with relatively low requirements, I couldn't help but feel arrogantly proud of my Title's strength.

"Hmm. That'll be useful," I lied, knowing full well I didn't need Tessa to do anything. It was just a pet-peeve of mine for party members to leech off of me without contributing. Though, I guess in this case, I was leeching off her free meals.

"Maybe I could call up a storm to slow down the mobs? Make it easier to farm them."

I didn't have the heart to tell her that with a combined Rainfall and Flooded Kingdom, no monster would be able to move.

"Er, sure," I replied, accepting the party request from her. "As soon as the Grudge comes out, just hide. I'll take care of everything from there."

"Copy that."

[Party Leader: Tessa Iskra | Level: 2335]

[Luquier Vaunt | Level: 1390]

I nearly choked at her level. "What the hell? I could've sworn you were near my level earlier this morning!"

"Huh?" Tessa tilted her head. "Yeah, I leveled up quite a bit in the initiate dungeon. My stats are not the same as yours, Luquier. I was able to gain the maximum amount of experience points."

Damn. Despite myself, I felt a little envious. I guess that was the tradeoff for exponential return.

"Well, are you ready?" I pushed my feelings aside, casting the dungeon skill. A green portal cracked open before us. Just like before, it had the same requirements of A-rank Titles and a minimum of 1000 Health. This time, the level was hidden and it had a three hour limit instead of the original two.

"Of course. I'll be counting on you," Tessa replied with a mischievous grin.

----------------------------------------

[System alert: You have died.]

[System alert: Final Gambit triggered. Reviving user...]

I sucked in a deep breath as I was revived for the umpteenth time. Behind me, near the base of the mountain, Tessa was busy setting up a camp as I continually blew myself up against the stun-locked undead.

When we first entered, the same four undead mobs had rushed down from the burning tip of the mountain, but I promptly Duplicated myself and had my clone use his Holy Element empowered Flooded Kingdom to root them all into place. It was a dangerous gamble, but I used Final Gambit to immediately take out a couple of the level 1392 monsters, relieved that my clone was still active after I died.

Tessa had been initially dumbfounded and distraught the first time I killed myself, but she eventually got used to it and started setting up camp when she saw how dominant my clone and I were. She probably figured there was a reason why I was doing this and didn't question it any further. I worried that she would’ve reacted strongly, but once again, her claim of Players being not quite right in the head proved true.

Meanwhile, I was both relieved and disappointed, the former due to Final Gambit being able to one shot the mobs because it dealt more than thirteen million damage- something that their measly 75000 average Health couldn't hope to contend with. I was disappointed because I knew I'd only be able to gain rewards after the first kill, immediately leveling up eleven times and becoming too strong to gain anything else. At least I got an additional fourteen million Stat Points, bringing my final total up to twenty-three million.

[You know... I was joking before, but I'm seriously starting to think you enjoy this.]

I scowled, briefly pausing my suicidal crusade. "I don't enjoy the pain! Nothing about this feels good to me!"

[But... you just die so easily, as if it's normal to you ._. Do you even feel the pain?]

"Of course I do," I grumbled, wiping sweat from my brow as I continued to rush towards the undead. "It's not like I have a choice in the matter. And it's not like I can't feel anything when I die. It's just... it's the only way to get stronger."

[To be fair, you pretty much dug yourself into that hole, going all-in on the Risk stat.]

"And if I hadn't? You think I'd have been able to get to this point? I would've spent ages in that tower that you so poorly designed."

[ >:( The nerve! If it wasn't for me, you'd probably still be in my tower, trying to level up once for all eternity. And how did you get to that point, huh? It wasn't because of your own hard work. It was because of me and my glorious design.]

"Glorious design?!" I shouted, causing Tessa down below to jerk her head up at me in confusion. She probably thought I had lost my mind, seeing me scream at Sephera's messages that were only visible to me. My clone gazed at me with a sympathetic smile. How blessed. He couldn't see Sephera's messages.

"What did you even do for me?" I hissed quietly to her. "If I remember correctly, all you did was laze around and ask me meaningless questions until I gained an Achievement for dying so many times."

[I kept you company, didn't I? >:c ]

"And that helped me, how?"

[Well, you didn't go crazy in my tower, right? Not that I'm sure you haven't, but it would've been better than to stay there alone with no one to talk to!]

"If I knew it was going to be like this, I'd have gladly muted you if there was an option for it!"

[...]

Yeah, okay, maybe I went a little too far.

[System alert: Admin Sephera has added an Emergency quest.]

[Quest: Apologize, Appreciate, & Compliment!]

[Description: Profess your sorrow and gratitude to Admin Sephera and give a genuine compliment.]

[Penalty: User's clothing will be destroyed.]

"Hey! Can you really do that?! Isn't this abusing your authority?!" I shouted hysterically. I wasn't sure if she could, but I wasn't going to take that chance.

----------------------------------------

After hastily clearing Sephera's unreasonable quest, I managed to return my attention towards farming my Achievement. With over an hour left, I was down to a handful of mobs. Since I didn't want to trigger the Grudge so early, I headed down towards the base of the mountain, my clone keeping his flood active. Sephera seemed content, occasionally repeating the embarrassing words of gratitude and praise I made up on the spot.

"Hmm? Not going to finish them off?" Tessa asked, as she glanced up from her cooking station. In the two hours I had taken to meticulously farm the mobs, she had set up a rather cozy camp at the base of the mountain, complete with a small fire and various pots and pans. I could smell something delicious wafting through the air, making my stomach growl.

"You really want the boss to spawn now? When you're clearly busy doing something?" I replied dryly.

"Good point. But, all you'd need to do is do what you did last time, right? Die somehow and then that gross specter comes to kill it?"

"That would be a good plan, but I can't this time," I shook my head. "I got a new Achievement that gives me immunity to all Evil attributes."

Tessa's grip slackened on the ladle she was using to stir whatever it was she was making, her eyes widening in understanding. "You can't die, you mean. So... how are we supposed to clear this dungeon? Wait, no, you have a plan, don't you? You've thought this out already."

I grinned, a bit sheepishly. "Well, I'm not gonna lie, the plan is a bit crazy. The original dungeon break told us just to survive until the timer ran out."

I could tell Tessa was a bit nervous, but she nodded anyway. "Okay, I'll trust you. I leveled up quite a bit from this, so I'll continue to rely on you." She paused. "Do you have a back-up plan?"

"Nope. I'm sure I'll think of something on the spot if I have to."

Tessa chuckled weakly, obviously still worried. "Well, I'll be here to watch you, at least. And... if you need any help, just say the word. Hungry?"

"Yeah, I could go for some food," I accepted, feeling a bit guilty for eating when I had plans for dinner with Tommy. Eh, I'd be hungry again after this. Becoming a Player really increased my appetite.

****

[Updating…]

[Name: Luquier Vaunt | Level: 1401]

[Stat Points: 23100065]

[Achievements]

[Even Death Can't Stop Me!]

[Number of Deaths: 761 | Mental Shock Reduction: 76.1%]