You only live once as someone smart said, so taking care of yourself is the best you could do. Making sure your body is healthy is a must. And how better to do that here in Hell difficulty than by obliterating your enemies before they can hurt you?
I pick Arcane Resilience (Epic): The user's body has adapted to resist the side effects of powerful spells, significantly reducing the physical toll of casting.
I will fuck up anyone before they get close to me and be able to hurt me, yup.
My genius sometimes terrifies me.
Black mana thing, just wait! Soon! From experiencing it on the 3rd floor, I know I'm still far from ready, but I'm getting there!
10,958 shards disappear and a new passive appears in my stats. Now that I think about it, I could buy more passives, rare ones, but I think it will be a better idea to start saving up. I'm sure the second round of Beyond will give me some juicy rewards and probably some shards as well.
There's also a side quest that I got some time ago.
Side quest: Reach level 200
Reward: 2nd Trait
Yup, finally the second trait. Seeing how amazingly well Mana Circuit serves me, the second one surely will be strong, especially with the fact that traits can be strengthened up to three times and I already strengthened my trait once.
Another side quest that appeared is this.
Side quest: Get five skills to level 40
Reward: Skill upgrade token
Even the side quests are getting harder. Breaking through the bottleneck to level 40 isn't easy at all, and even after all this time, I have only a single skill over level 40, [Mana Manipulation].
Sure, I still plan to sell the skill upgrade token for a nice amount of shards. Or maybe I'll just use it for some of my less important skills. My decision to not upgrade my most important skills still holds, and I think I'm getting better and better, the decision also showing how easily I got rid of Elydor. Damn, I miss the guy; I wish I could see him again.
I stretch and yawn and check my body. The new passive is already changing and affecting it, but as often, and similarly, with stats, it isn't an immediate change but a slow, gradual one. Looking at the progress, a day or two should be enough, just in time for a few days of practice and testing before Beyond.
In a good mood, I open the community.
Noname (Hell, group 4) - Mana is the best stat.
AnotherOneHere (Hell, TheGuild) - I don't know, I prefer not dying.
StrongestOne (Hell, group 4) - Skill issue!
Min-Jae joins in and stands by my side. Nice one.
Brainiac (Hell, WhiteWing) - Noname, at this point I'm sure your brain is replaced with mana.
Savant (Hell, Alone) - That would be possible only if he had any to begin with.
BenDover (Hell, IDK) - Nice one, Savant! Also, fuck you, Noname.
My favorite member of the community still seems lovable as always. He and his group also came to the 4th floor some time ago. His IDK group and group called TheGuild which lost one member on the 3rd floor.
Noname (Hell, group 4) - Tournament when?
Brainiac (Hell, WhiteWing) - Probably never? To be honest, it's getting annoying.
BenDover (Hell, IDK) - Such a shame. I would really like to see you with my own eyes, Noname.
Notification! Congratulations on reaching a milestone, the required number of groups has reached the 4th floor in all the difficulties.
Preparation for the Community tournament is in process!
All the groups from all the difficulties within the 5th round of the Tutorial from planet Earth will be able to join.
The tournament will start at the end of year one in the Tutorial.
Then the notification disappeared.
Brainiac (Hell, WhiteWing) - Ooooooh, shit. Hehehe.
Brainiac (Hell, WhiteWing) - Hey, Noname, as we said before, the moment the tournament is announced, I will apologize for everything, right? Do you remember that? So sorry, dude! I will make sure to buy you something nice. Hehehe.
AnotherOneHere (Hell, TheGuild) - Wow, finally!
StrongestOne (Hell, group 4) - OMG!
Hadwin (Hell, group 4) - I just joined, did you guys also get the notification?
I don't say anything else and just close the community after seeing no reaction from BenDover. Somehow, for some unknown reason, my mood is even better now.
Just a bit over 4 months. Wait for me.
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I continue to stare at Maya and can't help but think of how dumb I am. How the hell did I not think of that?
She stands in front of me, a big wide smile on her face, and I have to look up to see into her eyes.
The young, dark-skinned woman is currently surrounded by her [Armament], but it's not as it usually is. No, this armor that surrounds her body is much bigger than usual. Maya is three heads taller than me right now; her [Armament] is big and bulky, looking more like some sort of mech or power armor. The mana is of a darker shade of blue than usual, and I can sense that it's powered by a few rare items she bought.
She uses mana batteries that are able to store mana. There are some losses, and efficiency is worse, and they are really, really expensive. But as rich as I am, Maya doesn't seem to care as she bought multiple of them and then spent a few days filling them with her mana.
Maya moves; the movement is a bit awkward, but she quickly gets used to it as the smile disappears from her face, and she slides into [Focus]. It's somewhat unnerving to see such a massive object moving so quickly as she even continues to improve on what she is doing. Her armor is changing slightly and becoming thicker or slimmer at places, each change draining more mana from her mana batteries as she doesn't have enough of her own to power it fully.
When she stops, the armor disappears, and she lands back on her legs, canceling [Focus] and smiling at me, "Say it."
"That was goddamn cool," I say honestly.
"Right?!" she takes a step closer, her eyes nearly shining with excitement, "But imagine if I improve on it and get a better mana battery. In the future the armor I create could end up being as big as a house."
I can only nod and clench my teeth. That… really is cool.
"Say it again!" she pokes my shoulder a bit, and with a sigh, I repeat how cool it is.
Letting her bask in her glory a bit, I then ask her to show me how she did it, and she starts explaining, happy to share it with me.
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The next person to kidnap me from my room is Lily. After threatening to use [Disintegration] on my door, I leave the room.
I've started strengthening my door with my mana and even imbued a few mana stones into it, painted it with mana-conductive paint, and then inscribed some circuits into it, making it probably more valuable than some houses in poorer parts of the city just from the cost of the materials themselves.
Yet, it's still too soon to test them against [Disintegration], but the time will come. Doing it could improve the durability of my armor and mana projectiles so I let Lily continue to act so rudely.
Lily leads me outside to the garden, where she stops and turns to me, "Now watch! This is [Reshaping]," she says.
I feel her collect her mana and activate her new skill, immediately the contours of her face start changing. Her nose becomes longer, her eyes seemingly bigger, and even her lips and cheeks change. It takes a bit of time, but soon enough someone different stands in front of me.
"What do you think?" the woman asks with a smile.
For the second time today, I say, "That was goddamn cool."
"Liar! It can't be used for fighting, so you probably don't like it that much." Lily giggles while her face starts changing back, and when it's turned back, I notice a few things.
Lily's hair shines beautifully in a dark black color, her skin seems soft and extremely clear. Her eyes and their color even seem prettier than before and her lips a bit fuller, not too much.
Is this silly girl slowly changing her face and making herself more pretty? She is, isn't she? That sounds exactly like something she would do.
Not knowing my thoughts Lily continues, "But no worries, I only got it so I can combine it with [Rejuvenation]," she tells me with a flash of determination.
"You still haven't changed your mind?" I ask, feeling a hint of curiosity.
"I did not. I will fulfill all 4 requirements and then enter Beyond. Tess will probably get there before me, but it doesn't matter; I will catch up."
"So why are you doing it?" This is the first time I'm actually asking her the question.
"I killed Kevin," Lily says shortly. "There's no way of going around it. I killed him, unable to control my skill."
She reaches out with her hand, a gray smoke-like mana swirling around it and slowly changing shape into that reminiscent of an arrow. Lily then, with extreme focus, waves her hand, and the arrow shoots toward a tree in the corner of the garden.
When the arrow hits, it doesn't pierce the tree nor stab inside. The arrow is weak, and smoke-like, so it instead crashes against it and disperses like smoke hitting it.
The grayish residual mana soundlessly splits the tree, etching out a big chunk of it, and a few wisps of the attack even eat up some stones on the ground after landing on it. The remnants disintegrate everything without leaving anything behind.
The size of the attack itself isn't that scary. It's the level of destruction I would be able to achieve a few days after the start of the tutorial.
No, the scary part is that Lily, just a bit over 100 now, and that this attack would be enough to kill a human or monster at around level 200. I have no doubt about that, not even a speck of it. That's how scary [Disintegration] is.
“So Nat, I will learn to control my skills. I will become stronger. I will heal and save anyone I want to save, and I will kill anyone I decide to. Not by mistake or lack of control, but because I choose to,” Lily says.
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Back in my room, I'm about to practice again when a third person interrupts me. As annoyed as I am curious, I get on the balcony and look at Myrra standing on the street.
She waves at me, and somehow, I want to create a tricolored orb and throw it at her. I will need a lot of slacking to calm down after all this attention. My weak introverted heart isn't built for it.
I push myself with kinetic energy and land on the cobblestone next to the tall lynthari, and without saying a word, we start walking side by side.
“It’s been a long time since I saw you, feral one. A few weeks,” Myrra starts first, and I detect her bodyguard nearby, as always.
That once again makes me curious. I've seen her getting a lot of respect from the strongest humans in the city and even from other lynthari, yet her level isn't that high. She has leveled a few times but is still under 200.
“I was training,” I say simply and quickly grab some sweets one of the merchants is selling while throwing him a mana stone probably worth as much as his monthly earnings.
I’m rich.
“I see,” Myrra answers simply, and for a while, we continue to walk in silence, and I slowly feel myself calming down as Myrra even picks quieter streets with a lot of calming greenery.
Is she maybe doing it on purpose after sensing my mood? I squint and look at her. Is… is she trying to tame me?
“Feral one, why is the matriarch’s granddaughter looking for you?” finally, she gets to the reason for her visit and turns her golden eyes towards me as we stop in the middle of the park, surrounded by trees with pink leaves.
Oh boy.
“Why is she going around and saying that she is looking for her underling, a strong, regal human with two differently colored eyes?” as Myrra says so, she shows a bit of her canines in a slightly threatening manner and leans closer to me.
Myrra continues, “Feral one, you are mine,” she nearly hisses, not really angry at me, but more annoyed that someone is trying to take her toy, “I don’t care if she is a once-in-a-millennium genius or the matriarch’s pampered granddaughter. You. Are. Mine.”
“No, Myrra, I’m my own person, and if you want, we can talk about our opinions on that again in a fight,” I answer her simply while returning her gaze.
Her next words will decide if I blast her away with a cone of kinetic energy or not.
In the end, Myrra looks away first and sighs, her fluffy tail swaying around in an annoyed manner, “You know what I meant, feral one! I found you first, so I won’t allow any other boring lynthari to take you away from me,” she complains, “Little princess will have to get through me to get to you, nya!”
The last word she says makes me freeze and the thought of a fight disappears from my mind.
“N-nya?” I ask carefully.
Myrra, as if realizing what she said, smiles apologetically and somewhat shyly. An expression I had yet to see on her face.
“Excuse me, feral one. It’s something a lot of younger ones lately like to add to their sentences,” she waves her hand as she starts walking, and I follow her, “to be honest, it’s getting really popular, and plenty of lynthari use it, you know how trends go.”