As we pass through the area, I take a moment to think and begin to suspect that Lily wasn't so much hunting here as she was lurking around in the hope that she would meet me upon my return.
When I come out and ask, she doesn't even lie, stating, without a hint of shame, that she expected me to return half dead. And, to my slight annoyance, I can’t refute her logic.
I find it refreshing, especially after experiencing the community in Beyond, where everyone seemed like they were willing to betray their comrades just for an opportunity to betray somebody else harder. Even though I know she probably still has a crush on me, she’s not pushing quite as hard as before. Now Lily just feels like a naive young girl looking for any excuse to be around the person she likes.
I’ve already rejected her though, so I won’t mention it again. I'm sure she will get over it soon enough. Or hell, maybe she’ll stop being like that and, like a normal person, like me, push those emotions to the side. Maybe her subclass really is Lust.
My mood has improved since I returned, part of it is the trust I’ve found myself having in this girl and the rest of Group 4. It's a surprisingly warm feeling.
Then there is also all the loot and other items I have stowed away in various holes in the ground, set in place before leaving for the Beyond. Mana stones, weapons, materials, weird leathers, shards of bone from powerful monsters, alloys, mana stones dense with information, and more.
According to Tess, this floor’s going to take a while, so I probably have at least a few months to experiment properly. Heck, I still have a mana stone with that Restrictive Training Emblem from LissLiss.
Three mana shaping exercises.
Arcane items to examine.
Materials to work on smelting.
Quests to complete in the name of earning Beyond Stay Tokens.
Any number of things to learn about this floor.
An idea for my first own technique and so much more.
The grind never stops, indeed, and I wouldn't want it any other way. No matter how powerful I am now, I'm still just a speck of nothing in the eyes of the right people. The other rounds of Earth's tutorial, the other attendees in Beyond, and that’s not even getting into everything waiting to happen after we finish the tutorial.
Champion rank, Absolute rank, Ruler rank, maybe something beyond that? That reminds me, I need to find another Champion candidate and see if I can’t test out that challenge thing.
“Lily, even after a year in the tutorial, we know shit all.”
She slows down her run to match mine and tilts her head, “We know a little bit.”
“Nah, we know nothing.”
“Why do you sound happy about that?”
“Because I am. Group of five monsters, off to the right, the ones that pop from the ground.”
“Got it!” Lily shouts as she changes direction and charges the monsters. Before we regroup with the others, we can try to score a few levels.
Stopping in place, I watch as she sets our stuff on the ground and charges them. Not even using her skills, just the pure strength of her body, she starts annihilating the monsters. It might be me, but it looks like she’s using less mana than before. It seems to stem from her duel with Tess back in the tournament.
At the time her impatience and inexperience led to her being almost toyed with as she was forced to waste her terribly low mana reserves.
Now though, faced with these leech-like monsters piercing through the ground, she falls back on the tactic of boosting her body with short bursts of mana instead of relying on [Sacrifice].
Taking the time to truly grasp her strengths will make her more efficient, and ensure that she doesn’t have to waste [Sacrifice] on every little thing. There’s probably more to it though, I'm sure Tess and others cooperate with suggestions for their training regimens.
“Is Sophie still refusing to go to Beyond?” I ask as Lily returns.
She moves a lock of her hair from her face and looks at me, “Izzy keeps telling her to go, and I think Sophie will do it soon. She is probably just waiting for you to tell her what’s waiting for her after the Trials. Learning that it's just another place she can go with Stay Tokens and that she can return to Izzy might finally make her go.”
“I think she would do well there.”
“Yeah, her skill is scary. But it’s going to take her months to get through her Beyond trials when she goes with that time limit. Have you thought of trying to meet up with Savant, Gareth, or Tacita?”
I hesitate for a moment before responding to her question. Should I try to contact the others in an attempt to meet up in Beyond when they get there? Should I try to find people from Earth other than Victoria? They would probably be more trustworthy than the others, as most of the attendees seem inclined to stick with others from their planet.
It makes sense that in such a new environment, their petty resentments for each other get pushed away. In Beyond, it's us versus them, the place just seems too dangerous to explore on your own.
“We’ll see, later,” I answer, deciding to push the decision onto future Nathaniel.
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It takes another day to reach the rest of Group 4. At this point, Lily's initial excuse of hunting nearby is thoroughly destroyed. So she just stays quiet, and I decide to ignore it in exchange for her help carrying my stuff.
We meet the others at the small outpost that apparently once belonged to Black Tower, a smaller one, but it’s apparently better than the main base which took too much damage for quick repair. It makes me wonder how exactly they got the twins out and how much damage they caused. Even though they have pathetic mana reserves, Group 4 can be scary at times.
Well, not Biscuit, he is perfect as he is. He’s also the first one to welcome me, our future animal Archmage and overlord of Earth and best doggo of the 6th floor floats towards me. Something has changed, and it seems like he can’t wait to show me.
Of course, I noticed right away. Biscuit's movement speed while floating has increased by around 6%. It’s still much slower than his walking speed and it’s barely noticeable, but I can certainly tell!
“You are moving much faster now, Biscuit,” I note.
My suspicion is quickly confirmed by the excited wagging of his short tail.
(Food!)
“Yes, you are!”
His tail wiggles even faster at my praise, and I let him float in front of my face and boop my nose with his front right paw. I mirror his action, booping his nose in return, which our future overlord graciously allows.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“Stupid Tentaniel!” Izzy shouts, rushing closer as she pulls me into a hug, while her skill attempts to connect to my feelings only for me to block it.
It's scary enough that she can sense them on the surface, even a little bit. Maybe there is some sort of social norm regarding the use of such skills, similar to social norms on when it's fine to teleport away from a conversation. Something tells me we may as well be behaving like brutes when it comes to our skills and the way we use them in certain situations.
“You are not allowed to call me that,” I chastise, flicking her in the head.
“Stupidthaniel?”
“Also no.”
“Tent Cr…”
I flick her in the head again before she can finish.
Meanwhile, Noodle, who I can always count on to be present somewhere, coiled around her arm, looks at me and nods. I return the gesture and send a whiff of my mana his way, which he gratefully noms on. I also notice him looking over the items we brought here, especially the pouches of bones I took from Bone Fortress, though he seems even more interested in the pieces I got from the remains of the monster that was resting against Veil Ignition Station No. 2.
Interesting, maybe I need to spend a bit more time with Noodle. His ability to eat mana always fascinated me.
“Listen, can I keep that claymore?” The one saying that is, of course, Maya. She’s already taken up a spot next to Lily, who carried the damaged arcane weapon on the way here.
“No.”
“You have that ax already, you don't need a claymore. You don't even like using long swords, you prefer short swords, javelins, and nuking the area.”
“I plan to examine it to see if it can do something cool. I might try to smelt it and the ax to create an undamaged arcane weapon if it fits.”
“That’s such a waste,” Maya moans, shaking her head. “Still, welcome back. Tess, Sophie, and the twins are dealing with some shit. There is a small group trying to mess with the web Sophie’s set up. Kim is hunting somewhere outside.”
“That's fine, we can talk later,” I say, sending my senses through the area.
There are a few people who notice my wave, but I mostly ignore them after failing to find anyone decently powerful.
What I do find is our new underlings, taken from the survivors of the Black Tower raid, and Tess and the others in the process of dealing with them. As always, I'm thankful for the extrovert gang taking care of business.
“Want to know what Black Tower’s new name is?” Maya asks with a smile as she lets go of the claymore.
“No, I don't,” I reply, already having a strong suspicion.
“Tell him anyway!” Izzy crows in challenge, as she dodges under my attempt to flick her nose.
With a smile broadening on her face, Maya continues, “Welcome to the group known as Angry Kittens.”
I knew it.
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Hours later I'm sitting in one of the rooms in the main building, I find myself a spot close to the window. The view is absolute shit, and I'm not sitting in a comfy armchair, rather I find myself in some abominable variation made out of cold stone.
Of course, the nebulas in the starry sky are nice, I have to give the 6th floor at least that much, but otherwise, there isn't much to look at. It could work better if the window was bigger and the view wasn't so swamped by the small outpost below.
And there, wandering through the backdrop of the outpost, are a few dozen of the surviving members of Black Tower going about their tasks.
So far, it seems like a person’s strength is the most important consideration here, and killing most of the previous regime proved our strength. Sophie's ability probably helped quite a bit as well.
Sure, from what I’ve heard, the old Black Tower members still fight from time to time or just leave, but most of them have decided to stay. The concept of strength in numbers thrives even here, and camping outside on your own doesn't seem to be a good option.
“I would rather ditch them and do our own thing,” I tell Tess once again.
This time, even Sophie breaks down in a sigh, making a wild gesture at Tess. It’s just the three of us in the room at the moment, planning our next steps.
Tess, more patient than Sophie, just nods, “I know what you mean, but I want to learn more about the central region, the monsters in the area, and the other groups. So far, it seems like escaping is going to be a task in and of itself, and collecting more information can only make it much faster. You want to get to the next floor as fast as possible, right?”
“Don't treat me like a child, waving the next floor in front of me just to get me to cooperate. Sure, it's working, but don't do it.”
“Sure, Nat,” Tess says, smiling. “Don't worry, it might seem like a lot, but we spend most of our time training and hunting. Between me and Sophie, this barely takes any time.”
“You’d better be if you want to survive in Beyond,” I repeat.
I have already told her and others all I could about Beyond, and after that, everyone else other than Sophie and Tess left the room. To give us, the adults, the opportunity to talk, apparently.
“Just give me a bit more time and I’ll be ready to join you there and don't worry, I’ll try to set something up with Gareth and the others from Beyond. From the looks of it, we could have a big advantage if we went as a group.”
“Others I met there thought the same.”
“That's true, but we are different, are we not?”
“We are,” I agree.
Earth's Beyonders seem to be above average so far.
Tess has her crown over her head, actively storing lightning. Apparently, she is keeping it up almost constantly to fill it up, and it's still not full yet. It's an example I’ve already chosen to follow with my own crown as it floats over my head.
Taking a few steps, Tess puts her hand on Sophie's shoulder, who seems to be caught deep in thought, before asking “What do you think?”.
“I need a day or two to decide if I want to start my Beyond trials.”
“Have you already fulfilled all the requirements?”
“Yes, I did some time ago. I’ll speak with Izzy, so later, Tess, Nathaniel.” Sophie states, waving as she leaves the room, leaving the two of us by ourselves.
“So what's the plan? Do you want to continue on your own or wait for, at least, Lily and I?” Tess asks after Sophie leaves.
I return Tess' gaze, “I think I’ll go back before you and Lily enter. I’ll be more careful and only go for a few days, we’ll see if I can make some money with my crafting and get some more information. I might try to look for the others from Earth. Maybe even look into changing my handler. That way when I enter Beyond for the third time I’ll be able to save some time, and we can form a party if you make it there by then.”
“That sounds like a nice compromise. One more thing though. There is something I wanted to tell you about the twins…” she continues to talk and I listen.
----------------------------------------
Some time later the twins and I go out to hunt, just the three of us. Some of the monsters tend to be strong so I enjoy the fight, but I don't forget to watch the twins fight and slowly confirm Tess’ concerns.
So when we finally take a break I address them without dancing around the issue, "Tess wants you two to switch difficulty to Hard if you don't manage to get any stronger than you are now."
"I knew it," Aaron sighs, and Dennis just nods solemnly.
"So why are you telling us?" Dennis asks.
"Oh, I’m not finished," I say, lifting a finger. "You two are weaker than even Isabella. Even Min-Jae could take you on. Maya would wipe the floor with you. You would barely be a challenge for Sophie and Biscuit already kicked your ass during the tournament."
They stare at me, blinking.
"Together you might manage to pull some fuckery given the way your skills make you stronger as a pair, but that's it. Currently, you’re the weakest link in group 4."
I can see they don’t want to hear it, but I think it needs to be said.
"But?" Aaron asks.
"But you two have a skill called [Connection] and I'm sure I could make use of it to improve one of my skills, maybe evolve it or make improvements. It’s also probably much stronger than your use of it would imply."
"Great. Just great."
"Of course, I don’t expect you to teach me for free, so this is my offer. We’re going to work as a group for another 2 weeks and do our stuff. After that, we’re going to split into two groups. Mine will be Biscuit, Lily, and the two of you," I say.
I’ve been thinking and I think it’s going to be worth it. I believe I can make my [Resonance] stronger by observing [Connection]. During that time we can also work on body modifications with Lily. It's a good plan if I do say so myself.
"I will help you train and teach you how to handle your skills. I will also teach you Coordinates so you can improve your [Mana Manipulation] and get some shards. Of course, don't expect it to be easy. I might even throw in some extra tasks, just to make things more difficult for you."
They seem to be getting worried but I can tell they’re interested. They must have noticed it themselves. All the ways they’re lacking compared to the rest of the group. Maybe, on some level, they’ve been hoping for this.
"There will be some rules of course, but the main one is this: If, over the course of these next few months you fail to meet my expectations, you will use the difficulty change token when I ask."