A hall was surrounded by verdant field at the center of the green forest, engulfed by the orange hue of the setting sun.

In the hall supported by several mottled gigantic pillars, three group of people were tensely gathered.

The three leaders of the group were discussing something at the middle of the hall.

Beyond the hall was a massive gate equalling the height of a ten-story building.

"That's the gate for the next stage." Cipriani spoke with his gray eyes gazing deeply at the girl wearing a green scholarly robe.

"Quite obviously, you don't need to tell me that." Lily spoke expressionlessly.

Claire who was standing a distance away from Cipriani, and in front of Lily, was displaying an obvious sign of anxiousness, as her left foot was tapping lightly on the floor.

It had been hours since Jeemin left the party to her own control. She made contact with Cipriani as soon as she climbed the stairs.

At first, everybody treated the other side with hostility and started drawing swords at each others' throats. Until Cipriani dispersed the tension by treating them as an equal group.

But Claire soon realized how terrifying Cipriani was, when Lily's group made contact with them.

Lily and Cipriani only stared at each other for a moment, but they were able to make the people around them shiver in fear.

Claire didn't know how to explain the formless pressure they used as their form of confrontation, but it was enough to make her raise her cautiousness against them.

Perhaps captain knows about it...

But the captain she was waiting for hasn't still arrive, it's been hours since then.

At this moment, she can't even talk to the two people in front of her even though she also had the same status of a leader in the meeting.

"Claire, your name was it? How many people died when you crossed the mansion? You can choose not to answer if it's too much."

"?"

Claire was in a daze after she heard Lily talked to her suddenly.

"Mhhm. I understand. It must have been painful. Cipriani here told me that they lost around 15 to 20 people, but the thing is, there's something I can't understand. We've easily crossed the mansion without suffering any casualties."

"Ahh no..—" She almost blurted out that they had used a talisman to cross it but immediately changed it midway and replied, "Our captain found a way to remove all the traps."

Hearing this, Cipriani narrowed his eyes and immediately view Claire's group in a different light.

Lily's eyes lit up and spoke, "Wait, speaking of your captain, is he a male or a female? Because we found a strange guy at the mansion holding a spear, wearing a black leather robe, and seems to have lost his left arm."

Claire thought for a moment and only replied with a nod indicating that Lily was talking about their captain.

"So, about the alliance..." Cipriani coughed.

"... The next stage has considerable level of danger that neither your group nor my group can handle alone. I suggest we formed a tripartite alliance to deal with it."

"That sounds logical. Claire, what do you think?"

Somehow, Claire could feel some hint of gratitude in Lily's eyes 

"Yeah, I think it would be reasonable."

Clap.

"Since we've reached the conclusion of the meeting, the meeting is adjourned. Let's meet again when the gate is already open."

Cipriani gave the two a nod and left the hall as he headed towards their base of operation with his subordinates in tow.

*

The sun was already gone when Jeemin went inside the tunnel and arrived at the hall.

His eyes flashed with greed when he saw the gigantic gate beyond the hall as he felt the cold breeze around him.

[All participants has arrived]

[You've received Universal Points +1]

[Next stage will be open after 3 hours.]

His eyes wandered around the hall and the outside surroundings for a moment before he shouted, "I need a task."

After several seconds, in the dark and cold hall, a young girl clad in bronze armour suddenly appeared in front of him.

Her eyes were dark violet and her hair was jet black. She had a face that seems gentle and meek. Her height was just about Jeemin's chest.

After taking off her helmet, she shook her head as she fixed her jet black hair.

She creased her eyebrows and tilted her head as if to study him.

"You sure?"

Jeemin nodded at the young girl before him. Her gaze made his hair stood on end, even his stomach started to churn when he looked at her eyes.

"I don't know who told you about this... This was supposed to be kept as a secret agreed upon by the higher ups." Her commanding but comically childish voice drifted to his ears as she sighed.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

[Special task has been issued]

[Emperor's Representative has received the Authority]

Information: Unavailable

Task:

Kill any of the following:  Lily, Dae Kyung-Sam, Claire Williams, John Augustus.

Difficulty: ???

Time limit: Until Adaptation Zone ends

Failure:

Death.

Rewards:

Starter Pack

Jeemin's eyes widened to a circle as didn't expected the task would be like this. 

But in the memories.... Wait..

He gritted his teeth as he felt like he was tricked. When he recalled the foreign memories earlier, he swore he only saw some names and rewards and the task was obviously not to kill. The only thing different was...

..the name attached next to the task. In the foreign memories it was Ancestor's Task, not Emperor's Task.

"Can I return the task?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because it's a special task. If I were you, I'd start now, you don't have time left." She spoke with a commanding tone as she studied him with interest.

"Since we're the one who issued the task, then I'll teach you how to open your mana paths."

Jeemin was sweating buckets as he stared at the task window before him when his ears suddenly perked up.

Mana?

"The easiest way is to have a picture of your veins and blood flow in your head. Then imagine them becoming into something else. Like a flow of energy, from there, you would command the energy to carve a path inside you so that you can store them in those paths."

When Jeemin was about to ask for clarification, she disappeared like smoke.

*

Jeemin went outside the hall and sat under a tree with a stone on his hand.

There are four names written on the soil in front of him.

John Augustus, Lily, Dae Kyung-Sam, and Claire.

He crossed out John Augustus' name since he didn't know him, he crossed out Lily's name when he considered the number of people protecting her. He then crossed out Dae Kyung-Sam's name as he have no idea where to find him.

The forest was huge and dark and there was no time left to find Dae Kyung-Sam's whereabouts.

I need to be the first one to enter the next stage, I can't waste time anymore.

At this moment, he started to doubt the foreign memories.

Maybe the task I received was different is because the event from the strange memories happened in a different time?

He couldn't help but be curious about the origin of the strange memories imprinted on his head. 

But time was running out.

*

He exhaled as he sat down like a monk and closed his eyes.

Clear thoughts, random thoughts, go away. Come again another day—

He frowned as his mind started to sing.

Clear, clear, clear.

Soon, an outline of veins on his body formed in his head.

A scene of blood flowing in his veins and pulses of his heartbeat gradually emerged from his mind.

'Haaa.'

As he maintained his focus, the blood coursing through his veins suddenly became formless. They lost their thick red colour as they became dimmer, and dimmer, until they turned black.

'Huff.'

His breathing unconsciously became regularized. He felt free and yet caged. The black liquid in his mind slowly coursed throughout his body.

He frowned as the pathways suddenly became complicated, numerous veins diverged and converged as the black liquid continued traveling its path.

Some subparts of the liquid diverged from the main body as it went into the other pathways.

He suddenly vomitted blood when numerous subparts of the main body crashed to each other because of the messy paths. But instead of cutting off his focus, he forcibly continued imagining the pathways.

He followed the main body, enduring the pain whenever another subparts crashed on each other, like opposite trains traveling on the same track.

Jeemin avoided trying to view the pathways as if he was above them, since they're so convoluted that they end up forming illogical paths at all.

As blood dripped down from his lips, he urged the main body of the black liquid to make one cycle all over his body.

His face contorted in pain  when the other subparts of the main body clashed at each other again.

Veins popped out from his temples as he endured the pain and continued on pushing the main body to finish the cycle.

But when he saw that there were no paths left in front of the main body, he frowned.

How could I make a cycle if there's no path?

He only thought for a second, before pushing the main body again, fearing that he might lose his concentration.

But he was shocked when the black liquid fell from the 'track'. And when he kept on urging it to move, the black liquid gushed out at the end of the pathway.

[Mana Ejection has been learned]

When he opened his eyes he saw a black aura gushing out from his left shoulder, specifically from where his arm was originally connected.

[Foundational Skill category has been added on your status window]

He raised his eyebrows and deactivated the mana ejection skill.

He sighed when he felt not a hint of joy when he gained a new skill.

'Haa, huff.'

If I don't kill, I would die instead; and I need to get the cultivation art on the beginner's starter pack according to the strange memories.

He stood up as various thoughts whirled up on his mind.

*

The sky was dark as the clouds blocked some of the lights coming from the stars.

In the dark forest, a figure was roaming around as if he was trying to find something. After several minutes has passed, he finally found what he was looking for.

He went towards the blond girl wearing a military uniform with a sword on his hand.

The cold gleam of the sword immediately catched the girl's attention.

She raised her sword with her blue eyes reflecting the dark figure walking towards him.

"Who?!"

The figure neither spoke nor stopped walking towards her.

When she was about to shout, the figure went past the shade of the tall trees and revealed its true appearance.

She heaved a sigh of relief and said, "Oh, it's just captain. How are you? Have you dealt with your headaches? We were worried about you."

The moment Claire said those words, Jeemin stopped walking. His hand clasped around the cold hilt of the sword tightened and loosened, as if the holder was hesitating about something.

It's just a girl, they'll betray me in the future anyway. They'll leave me anyways... They'll turn their back on me anyways.. And they can't be mine anyways..

His mind was in disarray as Claire kept asking about his condition and told him how she was anxious when he still didn't return.

He could see the relief and worry in her bright blue eyes staring at him.

No... I can't fall for tricks like this anymore. They care for you for a month, but then suddenly vanished when they discover who you really are. And although it's not their fault that Rheena died, they should've made an attempt to go back for her instead of me losing my arm.

As he was about to raise his sword, Claire suddenly pulled out the greatsword from her pouch.

"Here, I can't really use this. I've really tried to, but I can't. It's yours now, no need to return it to me. You have no idea how abnormal the other two groups are, their leaders has this strange power..."

She explained everything that happened when he was gone from the party, from start to finish, as she left the greatsword on the ground.

Jeemin bit his lips since even before they entered the mansion, he already decided to leave the party on their own. He can't bear it anymore. Their disappointed looks and when they whispered to themselves when Seiji died.

The momentary disgust from Hyoon's eyes that he noticed when he was in a dazed staring at Claire at the mansion, struck a sensitive part on his heart.

Since he has an overly conscious sense of awareness, he could naturally pick on what people were thinking of him.

I'm not even thinking something perverted.

Since these people are talking behind his back, what's the use of keeping them around?

Since these people are disappointed in him, making him hate himself even more, what's the use of keeping them around?

This world is now his home ground. The vast knowledge he accumulated from numerous fantasy novels he read was enough to elevate him beyond these people.

He provided help when they needed it, what did he get in return? Talking behind his back? Disappointed gazes? Blames?

I've had enough of this shit. These flowery words are just tricks to benefit from me more. I need to...

When he was about to raise his sword, he stopped.

Because of what Claire said.

"... Oh Cipriani's right hand was a priest named John Augustus.. and then the leader of other group was Lily, her guards are.... they even mention about you... Cipriani's base is right there.."

John Augustus?

Jeemin's vision went clear the moment he was given a reason not to kill the girl in front of him.

The choice that he was about to take that he poured so much justifications to, vanished into thin air.

His heart was gripped by guilt as he lowered his head and thought back to the disgusting thoughts that went in his mind earlier.

He stared at his feet, as his eyes started to become moist. His eyes reddened from disgust and guilt as he gripped the sword hard.

"...I-I'm .. s-sorry.." he muttered unconsciously.

Claire suddenly stopped speaking as she looked at Jeemin with confusion.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"....I'm..." His throat went dry as he felt being choke when he thought about what kind of person he would become if he really killed the girl in front of him.

"..sorry."

It took several seconds for Claire to be able to speak as her lips opened and closed, thinking of an appropriate reply.

"You don't need to be sorry. In fact..." She sighed.

"... In fact I've lied to you all along. You see this sword here," she raised her broadsword and continued, "This has been in my possession even before we left the hall..."

Jeemin suddenly lifted his head up and asked, "What did you say?"

"..."

"You said... that you had a sword in your possession even when Rheena was about to be killed at the forest? Am I getting this right?"

His voice suddenly turned sharp as his feet moved on their own and carried Jeemin closer to Claire.

"You... why did you? Why didn't you..."

"Just why didn't you throw it at our direction?! I could have save Rheena, I could have preserve my arm. Why..."

"Captain what are you—"