Sset - You didn't join at the scheduled time yesterday.
Noname - I was in the middle of training. Will tell you all when we meet again.
Sset - Sure, as for us, we already located the Black Tower. It will take us a few days to get there.
Noname - Planning to go in already?
Sset - We’ll see. We need a bit more information. The twins have been fine so far, but they still have to endure a lot of bullshit. If possible, I will get them out.
Grumpy - Hello Noname, are you doing ok?
Noname - Yes, it's going pretty well so far.
Grumpy - Good! I examined that finger bone you left with me a bit more and got a few ideas. We can try them out when you get back.
Noname - Sure. I have to go now.
Sset - See you tomorrow at the scheduled time.
Grumpy - Later!
I turn off the Beyond Community and check my quests, just in case. Though I still have one side quest:
Side quest: Reach level 250
Reward: body upgrade
As for the floor quest, it’s the one for the 6th floor. There is no further mention of my training or my two week timer.
It really seems as if the Ruler of Envy used the function of summoning a disciple here, combined it with the running instance of my 5th floor, and twisted it. And that seems to have caused some kind of backlash, so it looks like the Rulers can’t mess with the tutorial as much as they might like.
I wonder how the Ruler of Greed feels about that.
The murderer from Easy difficulty, likely desperate to escape his imprisonment and our plans to permanently kill him, accepted the first suspicious invitation, only to have his status taken.
All of that begs the question, is the tutorial the creation of a single Ruler, a collaboration, or is it a product of the system with some wiggle room for the Rulers to exploit? Can they mess with the system itself? That seems unlikely; in that case, they would probably be able to mess with the tutorial more. They still seem to be bound by some rules.
Somebody comes to a stop in front of me and I pause, shelving my thoughts and looking up. Lissandra stands there.
“You will speak with the Champion. She said she will only share the information I need after dinner… with you.”
“Uh, what?”
“She took a liking to you, little pup, and she wants to mess with me like some common child. So just go, we will be leaving soon afterward. We’ve wasted enough time here.”
There are no more words from her as she returns to her seat in the corner, continuing to work on the arm, which I note is significantly smaller than before.
“Are you being courted by the Champion, little pup? Be careful what you drink; she might be trying to take advantage of you.” How quick she is to tease me.
For some reason, I don’t find that funny. Niall is extremely powerful, and it would be a simple matter for her to do whatever she wants, no one here could stop her. This palace could easily be a lawless hellhole if someone as powerful as she wanted it that way.
“She’s just trying to spite Lissandra. You can imagine how she deals with her.”
“Whatever makes you feel safer, feral one. Well, it doesn’t have to be so bad. She’s quite the beauty, as far as human women go, I think. You might even get some gifts from…”
I shoot a mana orb at Myrra, who returns fire with shards of her Aurora glass. I block with a small barrier and sigh. Not wanting to push things further, I head outside.
“At least dress yourself up…” I hear Myrra shout from behind me.
The Frozen Reaper guy greets me as I leave the apartment. Unlike the other one, he doesn’t seem to smile much and leads me quietly through the tunnels after greeting me.
It takes 5 minutes, but we enter one of the big caves which opens out into a beautiful green patch of forest and a pretty clearing. Crystals as tall as me poke up from the ground, shining with soft blue and yellow lights emanating from their cores. Niall sits on a blanket, spread over the grass, nomming on snacks.
“Is this a date?” I ask as I plop down.
“Ha! You might be somewhat handsome, but I’m sorry to announce you are far from my type.”
“Sounds good.”
“That woman is extremely tiring. I’m trying to be nice, but even I have my limits, you know.”
“Wouldn’t it be easy for you to deal with her?” I can’t imagine Lissandra being strong enough to face the Champion directly, even in her weakened state. From what Niall showed me before, I guess she could use a third of her full strength? Maybe a bit more if she decided to risk the backlash. She has been severely weakened, but she’s still powerful enough to deal with almost anything that gets thrown her way.
Lissandra could probably deal with her through some fuckery, but it wouldn’t be clean.
Niall lays on her back and looks at the ceiling, which, I find, is full of crystals as well. “Probably yes, but that woman is sneaky. If I failed to kill her in one hit, she would pull some bullshit, and a drawn out fight would probably cost the lives of the people around us or attract attention from the Veil.”
“Makes sense,” I say, grabbing a snack from a convenient plate and moving it closer to Niall.
She smirks, opens her mouth, and I throw it in.
“I could get used to that. I heard about some noblewomen who had a bunch of bare-chested pretty men to feed them grapes. What do you think?”
“Will you answer a few of my questions if I do?”
“No, I won’t. And stop asking so much. You have question after question. You probably have centuries to live, so enjoy the process of learning and growing stronger. It will be lonely and boring once you get to the top.”
“I don’t know if I have that luxury, but I won’t bother you.”
“Good. Anyway, your subclass is Pride, right? Yet you wouldn’t have hesitated to do what I requested?”
I throw another piece of fruit into her mouth before answering, “No, I wouldn’t. It’s a low price to pay.”
“Weirdest fucking pride I ever met.”
"Thanks." Multiple questions come to my mind, but I hold them in, laying back on the blanket instead.
It’s nice and cozy here, and after days of no sleep and nearly nonstop training, I allow myself to relax just for a tiny bit.
“You seem to be in a better mood than you were,” I tell Niall.
“The method your companion gave me is amazing. I don’t remember the last time I saw something like that. She might be better than Tassian was with his emblems. It’s kinda scary.”
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
“So it’s going to help with your heart?”
I feel a mana wave wash over us as Niall checks if anyone is around.
Only then does she continue, “If it had continued like this, I would have been dead in 5 years maybe, but with this method, I can get that thing out of my heart in a year or two and then heal fully. I can be a proper Champion once again.”
“It was that bad?”
“One hundred years, that’s how long I’ve been fighting it. It tires you out and changes you as a person. Dozens, hundreds of failed attempts, feeling powerless. All the self-doubt… But now there is hope, and I will give it my all. Just like you, little psychopath.”
I turn my head to the side. Niall is looking at the ceiling with a smile on her lips. It’s the most real smile she’s ever shown me. As if a flame that was about to die off regained its former brilliance. It’s pretty.
“I see.”
“You seem like the type who can keep his mouth shut, but if you tell anyone else, I will pull your head off your neck.”
“Sounds like a reasonable thing to do to such a shameless traitor,” I note.
“I know, right?” she smiles, “Now take this mana stone. It contains the formation she wanted, and tell that creepy woman thank you from me.”
I take the mana stone. It’s small, and when I try to inspect it, I find it to be encrypted. Rude.
“I will pass it along and wish you good luck with your heart.”
“Luck won’t have anything to do with it. I’m a Champion, am I not? It’s time to remind myself of that.”
----------------------------------------
Back in the room, I pass the stone to Lissandra and head to the couch. Soon my kinetic energy training will start, and I would rather be immobilized there than on the cold floor. I'm almost glad for that, as my social batteries are getting dangerously empty. I might need to close myself in a dark room for a few days and turn off my notifications.
“It’s all here,” Lissandra says. The monster obviously decrypted the stone within seconds.
Well, Niall didn’t seem like the type to break a promise. Most of all, she seemed honestly happy while trying to hide it.
“Give me your mana, little pup.”
“Sure,” I sigh and start sending it towards her.
Then I pause. Something’s not right.
“How much?”
“All of it, the mana from your reservoir as well.”
I stop and cut off the stream, my mana seeping back into my body.
It becomes quiet.
Lissandra stands there in the middle of the room. Wearing her casual clothes, a black dagger on her waist, but something feels off.
“Why?”
“So I can kill that Champion. Our little kitten doesn’t have enough for me to do it cleanly.”
She takes a step towards me and reaches her hand.
“No,” I say.
Lissandra tilts her head, “Have you forgotten what she is, little pup? Just a fake. The shadow of a Champion that ceased to live millennia ago.”
“I know. She is fake just like you.”
She doesn't let it show, but I know it hit her. It must have.
“Not even close to being like me. Why are you reacting like this, I wonder.”
That makes me think for a moment before I answer, “If you asked me a few months ago, I would have probably done it without hesitation.”
“So what changed?”
“One of the reasons I want to become strong is so that I can do whatever I want. To stop being forced into things. To stop making compromises I don’t like.”
“Such a childish reason and something impossible for you. You will never be that powerful.”
“Then I will die trying to reach that level.”
“I see.”
“Because that’s how I want to live. Any wrong done to me, I will repay tenfold. Any wrong done to those I care about, I will repay a hundredfold. And if I don’t feel like it, I won’t kill. I don’t care if it’s because I’m in a good mood, I don’t care if it’s because I slept well, or if it’s just because they showed me the slightest bit of goodwill.”
Congratulations, you have fulfilled the requirements to level up your subclass!
[Initiate of Pride] > [Adept of Pride]
You have started to build your own pride, a pride unique to you with its own effects and bonuses.
You will now also have an easier time detecting those with the same subclass and be able to determine the stage of their subclass.
The effects of the previous stage are now strengthened.
You may choose one skill that will be affected by your Pride the most!
I push these notifications away and face Lissandra.
The silver-haired woman smiles softly, “Congratulations on reaching the second stage of your subclass,” she says.
Without any movement from her, the inscriptions for my Burden Enhancement flare into full effect, and I freeze on the spot.
Immediately I rush to gather my mana and deactivate the inscriptions, but Lissandra is already standing in front of me. The black dagger pierces my skin, the tip of it just barely touching my heart. A disruptive effect floods my body, putting an end to all my efforts like it's nothing.
Instead, I flood my body with kinetic energy, and the fingers on my right hand flex as I force myself to move.
“Impressive, little pup. You really do have a tiny bit of talent for kinetic energy, I must admit.” The mana she absorbed turns to her, and she quickly makes some changes to the inscriptions, and I find myself unable to move at all.
"I understand your Pride better now. It has the potential to make you very powerful, no, it requires you to be very powerful. It will support you, and make you even stronger, but if you fall, it will crumble with you. The moment you give up, it will make your downfall truly terrible. It fits you well."
The black dagger continues to absorb my body’s mana, which is already thirty percent gone.
“If you do anything, little kitten, it will end badly for you. I’m not going to hurt him.” Lissandra says that single sentence and Myrra stops mid-step.
Seventy percent of my body’s mana is gone, and Lissandra returns my gaze easily.
"If I had you decide between Myrra and that Champion, I'm sure you would pick Myrra without any hesitation, little pup. It's just that you are that greedy, and that might be a reason why..." The rest of her words get censored.
Lissandra seems amused, noticing it as well.
Ninety percent.
And all of my mana is gone.
“I would like the contents of your reservoir, but this should be enough.” She says pulling the dagger free, but the inscriptions remain, and with them my inability to move.
No matter how much I try, or how much kinetic energy I use. Giving me a last glance, Lissandra exits the room.
A minute passes, and my finger twitches again.
Two minutes pass, and more fingers move.
Three minutes, and I twitch my leg.
A single powerful pulse of mana washes through the entire workshop.
Just one, and then there is nothing.
The lights flicker, and the air filtration starts shutting down. At the same time, alarms start sounding, and screams of surprised people reach me pouring in from outside.
Both of my legs move, and I stand only to immediately fall, my face buried in the cold floor. My kinetic energy is nearly gone, and slowly being replaced by my strained mana regeneration.
The door opens again, and Lissandra enters the room. Her right arm is hanging uselessly at her side, broken, and twisted, blood dripping from it. A deep wound mars her face, and one of her eyes is injured. Nothing else. Though she does carry a small bag, containing a few spare items and the remains of a certain heart.
“We are leaving. You will be going first.” Lissandra moves her hand and the inscriptions on me lose their effect, making me stumble.
Forcing myself to calm down, I look at her.
Breathe in. Breathe out. Control your emotions.
It's too late to do anything now.
I take a step toward Lissandra and then pass by her, opening the door.
Fire fills the hallway heading toward me, and I reach into my reservoir, absorbing the power of these flames until they weaken, revealing a man with an expression of wrath on his face. He doesn't bother to control himself as the invisible heat fills the tunnel. There are no flames, yet the air flickers and the walls glow red hot, melting like butter.
I activate the tiny anchor I left in the hallway the moment we came here, which is behind him. The anchor explodes with kinetic energy, gouging at his back and causing him to stumble. Seizing his moment of distraction, I absorb all of the heat and then release it at once in a thin, laser-like stream.
He lifts his hands in front of his head and even manages to block the attack for a moment, dispersing it across his palms, but it's too concentrated, and it pierces through his hands and head.
[You have defeated Solar Ascendant - lvl 266]
[Lvl 241 > Lvl 242]
Then, as people flee in confusion to the ringing of the alarms and the functions of the Workshop slowly die, we exit the compound and head north.