Roughly one minute ago, the Earth Elemental Lord reached Haje, and the two met in battle. Like Haje, the elemental did have four arms, though no hands or fingers at the end. Something that relevant due to how about 50 seconds ago, Haje had torn one of them off with little resistance. 45 seconds ago, the Lord countered with just a basic strike of using its earthen limbs like oversized clubs. When Haje then blocked the attack with ease, the first flickers of a certain emotion entered his core.

By half a minute ago, the Lord was down to its last arm. Something that was also effectively its last limb, as the bottom section of its body didn’t have legs, but almost seemed partially merged with the ground. When it reached this point, a sound like a deep rumbling vibrated through the air and earth alike. Not knowing what to expect from this, Haje created a bit of distance and chose to stay on his guard.

Now in the present time, the emotional flickers Haje had felt earlier had now solidified. Surrounding him were the torn apart and destroyed bodies of regular Earth Elementals. That rumbling earlier hadn’t been the warning of some powerful attack, but instead a call for the Lord’s lesser kin to arrive from all directions and come to its aid. Something which just served as a sudden boost of Experience Points for Haje, and nothing more.

As Haje looked down at the basically already beaten and half-broken Lord, he felt only disappointment.

When Jordan had told him about it, his thoughts had naturally gone to the Lord of the Mountain back home. And perhaps, even if done subconsciously, that might have been a mistake. In Haje’s mind, the Lord of the Mountain was and still remained an indomitable force that was closer to a natural disaster than just another living creature. So as soon as he’d heard about the beaten Lord now before him, his expectations had quickly been built up.

Yet the truth of the matter couldn’t be more clear now. Even if Haje hadn’t touched a single monster on his way here, his effective Level had already been just a bit higher than the Lord’s. But since he had gotten stronger, that disparity had only grown by the time he encountered it. And since the Lord had been desperate enough to throw the other Earth Elementals as a gathered group at him, that had only resulted in a couple more Levels for Haje to become comparatively even more powerful.

Perhaps if Haje had come here when his effective Level had still been at 15, this might have been an actual fight. But instead, it was just as one-sided of a beatdown as it could really get. With a foregone conclusion, all that was left for him to do was deliver the finishing blow and get it over with.

And yet…rather than do that, staring at the Earth Elemental Lord as it struggled to even rise back up caused a new emotion to well up within him. One that was being fed by his earlier disappointment and converted it into a different feeling.

“Do you have nothing else to show me?!” Haje’s voice boomed with anger. “Are you just a dumb beast- no, less than a beast- who only knows how to swing your arms?! Is your name as a Lord only because you’re a coward that can only call your kin to be killed first?!”

Haje clenched his four fists, before he stomped over to the elemental. When at its full height, it’d loomed over Haje as something roughly twice his size. Yet with most of its limbs broken off and part of its main body destroyed as it lay on the ground, even that difference between them had been forcibly removed.

His four arms reached for the Earth Elemental Lord and tightly gripped its main body. Squeezing with enough force to partially crush that which he gripped, he pulled up the elemental from the ground. The Lord weakly tried to swing at him with its one remaining limb. Though the attempt at retaliation was so utterly pathetic, that Haje didn’t even react as it it uselessly bounced off him.

“Well?! Do you have still have something that you haven’t used yet?! Even when faced with death, is just swinging your own still all you know how to do?!” Haje angrily asked as he let go with one arm, and raised it as a tight fist above the elemental. He waited a moment, hoping that just the threat of the impending blow to end its existence would cause it do… anything, really.

But again and again, the so-called Lord just weakly tried to make use of its remaining limb. Disgusted, Haje just let go and allowed it to drop back down with a loud thud that shook the ground. To tell the truth, not even Haje was quite sure why he was reacting with so much passion. For anything else, he would have still felt disappointed, yes, but then be quick to kill it and move on. But now he was just delaying, even hoping that it might suddenly prove him wrong and at least surprise him with something exciting.

Yet perhaps somewhere deepdown, Haje could relate to the being before him. Jabelites were their own Species, but there were obvious comparison that could be drawn between them and Earth Elementals. Both had a heavy association with rock and earth, and were less born and were instead more supernaturally created from arcane sources. Maybe it was due this comparison that Haje’s expectations had also been influenced by the extra factor of using his own kind as a basis.

Are you truly so pathetic? Or was I wrong to expect more? Haje asked himself as his anger subsided and slowly turned into a sense of regret. With a heavy sigh, he brought down his fist to finally just get it over with.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

***

Far above in a space station hidden in its own sub-dimension, a certain couple of individuals were watching with great interest. Out of everything else currently happening on the planet, Haje was currently the center of their attention. It only made sense, once one knew that the situation currently happening was… unprecedented, to say the least.

While past details on previous Mergings were known, they became more sparse the further back one researched. Such was the natural erosion of knowledge over time, as even immortal beings either forgot things, died through means other than old age, or the records themselves were destroyed for one reason or another. But for what was known, a conclusion could be safely drawn that while each Merging was different, the System still implemented similar general patterns and procedures.

But for the multiverse as a whole, Haje as being was what many could only call an anomaly. A Class and Skill like his simply didn’t exist, at least until now, of course. Which brought up another point about new Mergings. While the same general patterns repeated themselves, they were also used by the System for what could be considered as experiments. Where it would introduce Traits, Classes, Skill, Titles, and other features that simply had never existed before.

Yet it was always during this first generation of Mergings that the System chose to stir the pot, one way or another. And for the 42nd Merging, Haje’s Class was a ladle that had indeed was stirring the metaphorical pot by a frankly ridiculously degree. To the point where his Class just felt utterly broken that even the pair of observers couldn’t believe the System had actually chosen to introduce it.

While the first generation of Mergings always progressed at an abnormally fast pace than normal denizens of the multiverse, there were usually limits. For example, when going by information known from the past dozen Mergings before the 42nd, it generally took at least a month before someone could solo kill Level 19 foes. And even, it would often be a struggle that was usually overcome by a mix of luck and finding a favorable match-up.

This was partially due to just how inherently strong such high Level beings were from their natural Stats alone. But also because of how Mergings typically worked. A case that had already been observed to also seem true for the 42nd Merging as well.

The Earth Elemental Lord simply hadn’t been ready for someone as strong or stronger than itself to challenge it. Something that would also be true for every other Lord-type creature spread across the planet, in fact. At the same moment that the Merging truly started after everyone had affirmed their Classes, randomly selected creatures all across the planet had been evolved into Lords. Well, random at first glance, but the System had its patterns and own ways that made sense, even if only just to itself.

But over the last few days, these new Lords had slowly grown in strength. Not due to gaining Levels, the Level 19 Earth Elemental Lord had been at that Level from the very start. Instead, it was simply a matter of them growing into their newfound power. Something that generally speaking would take about two weeks as a steady process. Had Haje just hypothetically waited that long to battle it, he would have likely gotten a much better fight as the elemental would have learned and mastered earth magic.

And in addition to discovering more of their powers and getting used to then, the newly ascended Lords would have also grown more cunning and intelligent with time as well. Perhaps not quite to the point of being truly sapient, but smart enough to form whatever tactics and strategies befit their Species. Yet for at least this elemental, that was one being whose built-in potential would now never be realized.

Poor Haje, of course, obviously had no way of knowing any of this now. And by the time he did, his mind would havel already long since moved on to the next challenge.

Speaking of a potential next challenge, just like how the record claiming of a Mandate led to the a Quest, the two observers expected the same now. They were absolutely certain once the Earth Elemental Lord was dead, something would be triggered by the System. Especially as the time taken for its demise was so ridiculous when compared to the usual standards and expectations set by past Mergings. As they watched the screen that featured Haje, however, one question entered their minds.

Why had he just stopped himself from killing it?

***

Haje had brought his fist down, but then stopped just an inch from the elemental’s body. Just a fraction of a second ago, an idea had suddenly popped into mind. Did he even to be the one to actually kill it?

As far as good day’s went in terms of Levels and Experience Points gained, Haje almost definitely had been enjoying the best good day on the planet already. A large portion of which had been facilitated by Jordan’s aid to evolve his Skill, and then point him toward what’d ended up being a very, very good time for Experience farming.

Despite his disappointment with it as a fighter, it was just a fact that this Lord would provide a ton of Experience Points. But rather than take it all for himself, why not offer it as what could be called tribute to his own Lord? Perhaps it wouldn’t make sense for many, to give something so great away to someone he’d only met during what was still that very same day.

Yet to Haje and his clan, the idea of time impacting the value of a friendship would be a baffling one. To them, the declaration of one as your friend or foe was all that mattered. He could know Jordan for a day or a decade, and it truly wouldn’t make much of a difference to him. What did make a difference, however, were the Advancement Crystals given to him.

For the Jabelites, weapons and armor was a large part of their culture, where Haje had been a bit odd for relying so heavily on just his own stone body. But even so, he still accepted gifts relating to battle. Because their world was a harsh one, where creatures always needed to be hunted down. For them, giving away a tool that could potentially be part of their own arsenal held a great meaning.

In Haje’s mind, the Advancement Crystals given to him fell into that same category. And while he could pay that back by just getting the gems Jordan had asked to get, it was just strange to give back the same type of item that you’d just been gifted. Which was why he decided that the Earth Elemental Lord, or rather the Experience Points it gave, would be his gift in return. But that did beg just one final question.

Would he try to get Jordan out here, or just break off a bit more of the elemental and carry it back?