Zeke was either the greatest genius to ever live, or an absolute idiot that should’ve died long ago.

Despite the odds stacked against him, he somehow managed to get away from the final blow of the giant knight capable of breaking his best barrier he could ever make.

What’s more, he did so with just a speck of mana he had left within. It still left him at zero and a smidge more than that, but the coldness left behind was nothing compared to the backlash of getting ‘yeeted’ out through the portal.

As he flew through the open sky, the sky he could finally see after many days spent inside the strange dungeon, he thought about what just occurred.

It was something he liked to call Newton’s Third Law of Motion.

Well, to actually say it like that would be an insult to the man, but Zeke likes to pretend he did something as smart as that.

First of all, with what little mana he could make, he decided to get creative. His Barrier Craft helps him create what he ‘believes’ to be a barrier–a conjured wall of light whose’ duty serves a specific purpose of the caster.

That is just one aspect of his skill. The second aspect that his Barrier Craft is capable of is the supportive kind, the one that is meant to protect him from outside danger.

His skill being called ‘Barrier Craft’, rather than just ‘Protective Barrier’ or ‘Defensive Barrier’, had a meaning in itself. It was meant to be crafted into anything Zeke wanted to be. It didn’t just have to be completely defensive like he previously understood.

So he decided to do something drastic. He created the barrier with the sole purpose of not defending, but transferring the attack.

He didn’t know exactly how he managed to do it. His life was on the line and he wasn’t really thinking straight from the pain and anguish going through his body. But he somehow made the barrier shift and twist into something else entirely.

Right when the giant knight was about to turn Zeke into a meat paste, he acted.

He knew his barrier would be weak, no matter what. No amount of mana could take on that giant knight at that point. Instead, he conjured it knowing full well it won’t ‘protect’.

In fact, he made two barriers, each one completely different from the other.

The giant knight’s sword hit the first barrier. It should’ve broken apart immediately, and then quickly destroyed the second barrier after, then split Zeke apart like a melon–if he didn’t explode from the force alone first.

But that didn’t happen. It was precisely because of the first barrier. It transferred all the motion out from the giant knight’s blow. It took in all of the momentum of the swinging sword to itself.

That would be the coolest thing Zeke had ever done, but reality was never cool. Even if he could do exactly that with his barrier, he wasn’t stupid to believe the barrier could absorb all that momentum.

Eventually, that momentum will go right to him, being so close at the time, and eventually make him explode like a melon… at least, that’s what he thought at the time. His imagination was a little messed up since he only had just a few seconds to pull a miracle out of his ass.

That’s where his second barrier came in. He figured that he could transfer the power, then stop the power immediately from getting over to his side with the other barrier, eventually stopping the blow at its entirety.

That was how he worked Newton’s Third Law into his skill. If one force tried to go after another force, that force must be able to meet it. It didn’t exactly have to be equal to that force, not with magic into the mix.

He decided to make the counter force into an ‘anti-force’ of sorts, just transferring into a new type of force that the second barrier could be able to absorb.

He truly thought that would work. Unfortunately, not going to college made his theory lackluster. While it certainly did transfer the momentum, his second barrier just wasn’t strong enough–or rather, it just wasn’t capable of fully stopping the entire force.

It did, however, serve its purpose. While the ‘damage’ was left out as he expected, the powerful momentum was still there, and following that, the motion eventually managed to get to Zeke the moment the sword struck his barrier.

In short, the backlash came about, and Zeke was dealt with that momentum in full. Thankfully, the ‘damage’ was non-existent. He just got shot off with a powerful blast strong enough to make him fly as if he was shot by a cannon.

Easy as pie. Even now, he was utterly amazed at how that plan actually worked as he casually crash landed, his body breaking apart at the force of his body hitting the solid ground. Thankfully, it wasn’t made of stone as the grassy ground made a very long trail of ruined dirt and grass thanks to his landing.

Eventually, he slowed down, the leftover momentum finally dissipating. He just laid there, pain riddling his body in more ways than he wished to recognize.

But… he was alive.

Zeke laughed, unable to truly process what just occurred. But he knew one thing. If he still felt pain even after going through the portal, he was still alive.

He never thought he would be so thankful for the pain. If it didn’t exist, he would’ve thought it to be just a dream. Of course, the only reason why he wasn’t bawling like a baby from this pain was entirely thanks to his Pain Resistance working overtime.

Blinking notifications came up to him, putting aside his pain for the gains he made for himself.

> Mana Perception Level Up! It is now Level 5.

>

> You have gained +1 INT from your skill.

> You have gained +1 SPI from your skill.

> Barrier Craft Level Up! It is now Level 5.

>

> You have gained +1 INT from your skill.

> You have gained +2 SPI from your skill.

> New Title available:

>

> Death Swindler:

> The Grim Reaper applauds your cheeky cleverness. Not even when death is assured will you be stopped.

>

> You have gained +2 DEX from your title.

> You have gained +2 INT from your title.

>

> Title Skill attained: Not Today.

> Not Today (Title), Level 1 (Maxed)

> Death always comes to those who underestimate. That will not be you. Increase the chance to survive a lethal blow by 1%. Once activated, it will not be used again until a month has passed.

> You currently have more than 1 Title available. Your recent Title will replace the old one. You can change the Title whenever you wish.

>

> A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Seeing that he gained another Title wasn’t so surprising. In fact, it made sense that he would gain one after surviving that horrid ordeal with his life still intact.

What was surprising was the second Title skill. He wondered if he can just stack Title skills like this, but unfortunately it’s a give and take. After experimenting with it a little, he can actively switch his available Titles like putting on new equipment. He supposed the benefits of Title Skills is that he can switch it in and out whenever he wants. However, it looked like there’s a giant pause between switching it around.

So there’s a cool down for switching Titles. It would be pretty incredible to keep switching Titles on the fly during battle.

It was amazing how much he could think on this while his body was still in such a horrible state. He would heal himself by now if he had the mana, so Meditation was the way to go for now. It was getting a lot easier now, somehow.

“Zeke!”

His name was shouted to high heaven. That caused him to… well, not do much at all. His body wasn't responding to him like before, and it was probably even worse than before.

But he knew he could recover from this. He can, at least, yell to the best of his abilities.

“Hey…” Zeke said hoarsely, but soon coughed out a mouthful of blood which splattered over his neck and collarbone.

Well, he tried.

“Oh my god, Zeke, you absolute moron!”

Mikella shouted with an insult while sliding right near him and checking his condition. Meanwhile, Clara did her best to be by his side, her face still bloody but filled with worry as tears ran down her eyes.

“Bobo!” Clara shouted, tears beginning to flow again. “Bobo! Don’t die, please!”

…Bobo?

Zeke wondered what he heard when they were running for their lives. But now that Clara repeated herself, he just had to ask himself.

The fuck was a Bobo?

“Clara, sweetie, help this moron by crushing some fruits, okay?”

Mikella ruthlessly insulted the bloody man underneath her as she pulled out her barrel of fruits to heal his wounds. Clara nodded as prompted, helping to the best of her abilities to pick apart an orange and using her fists to crush it.

Small bits of juice escaped from her hands as they tried to enter into Zeke’s mouth, all the while a small torrent of fruit juice came from Mikella’s hands, crushing several of the fruits at once into his mouth.

If he was honest, he was starting to feel a disturbing pleasure from this. The juice pouring into his mouth made their way into his body, and now that his magical senses have gotten sharper than before, he could actually feel the juices doing their magic.

They contained a certain something–an energy that made Zeke’s body go into overdrive. His body was being restored marginally but rapidly, and his mana kept rising further and further than normal.

His mind whirled as the pain and pleasure mixed together, and several seconds passed before Zeke was able to recover. He used Recovery on himself, thankful that it was working properly as his healing magic soothed his wounds and stopped the bleeding. While his injuries were still too much for him to move properly, he was thankful to move at all.

“T-Thanks…” Zeke said, his voice returning back to its normal tone.

“Zeke, just how the fuck did you manage to get out of there?” Mikella finally asked after waiting for a bit. Zeke wondered whether she would apologize for calling him a moron earlier.

She wasn’t taking it back. He frowned as he thought about shoving his Title description to her face to prove otherwise. But he thought better since that might prove her point somehow.

“I, uhh… I think I exploited my barriers.”

“What…?” Mikella knitted her brows.

However, before Zeke could explain, he noticed the strange scenery for himself. He took a glance around, seeing the trees and the shrubbery around them.

And right at the very center of the clearing was a tall tower made entirely of stone just by itself at the center. It was such an ominous sight, and even more so considering that there wasn’t even an entrance inside to it or anything.

With his best efforts, he pulled himself upwards with Mikella and Clara’s help.

“Is that… where we came from?” Zeke said, mesmerized by the feeling the tower gave off.

“I think so,” Mikella said. “Though, I tried to get back in to try and save your stupid ass, but there was no way.”

“I don’t regret a single bit of what I did,” Zeke said proudly. He noticed Mikella glaring hard at him, but at this point, he gladly accepted it. “You know it better than I do.”

For a moment, Mikella wanted to say something. She wanted to slap him from the way she looked at him, but eventually she calmed down. Her shoulders released the tension as sadness took over her expression.

“I don’t care. Don’t do that ever again!”

It was so sincere, it took Zeke out of his gloating mood. Now he felt like a jerk. Of course she would worry to the point of getting angry.

It may have been just three days, but they proved time and time again that they were partners. Even if they managed to get out, how can Mikella be okay with sacrificing Zeke like that even if it was by his own decision?

“I’m sorry,” Zeke said. He was earnest in his apology. “I didn’t know what else to do.”

He looked back at Clara, who kept holding onto him as though he might do the self-sacrifice all over again. He chuckled as he lowered himself to wipe away the blood covering her face. It was such an awful look to see on the young girl..

She groaned, not liking the rough way he was rubbing her face, but he needed to be a little forceful as the blood was beginning to dry up. Eventually, all traces of blood disappeared, leaving a rather miffed Clara to show up instead.

“There, all pretty again,” Zeke said with a smirk, but Clara clearly wasn’t pleased as she looked away with a rather loud ‘harrumph’.

He can’t seem to win against these girls, apparently. One was mad at him, and another was just annoyed at him now. But then something else caught his eye as he sensed the air being distorted around them.

No, it wasn’t the air. He stared right back at the castle-like tower, finally realizing where that distortion was coming from.

It was the mana in the air. His Mana Perception, now higher in level, could sense specks of cloud-like mana moving erratically around the tower. Particularly right at the bottom where supposedly the three came out of.

Then a giant portal came into existence. It was precisely what it looked like when they got out. His heart slammed against his chest as he realized what was coming out.

A giant hand made entirely out of metal was slowly coming out of the portal.

Zeke’s breath turned ragged, his panic returning in full force. Mikella’s face blanched as she immediately grabbed Clara who instantly quieted down after seeing the knight again.

Zeke didn’t have any usable mana left. Even after using Recovery, he was in no fit to take another of the giant knight’s hard hits even with his newly made transference barrier.

So the best he could do was raise his arms towards the girls, as though his body would serve as the barrier.

“We gotta run!” Mikella said, trying to drag Zeke’s shoulder and Clara’s arm to get away. “We gotta–”

But she stopped. The trio stared as the portal was being ripped open by the giant knight, trying to force itself out into the realm they were in right now.

But soon the portal started to shift, almost as if it was getting twisted. Unlike before with how the mana was acting erratically when it opened–this time, it looked unstable.

And Zeke knew then that whatever was causing it to go haywire wasn’t being done by some mortal figure. It was something bigger than he could ever be.

The tower itself also began to twist around. The solid matter of the giant tower contorted like the portal, eventually colliding into each other. It was as though it was imploding onto itself.

The portal was also causing the knight, struggling to break free and even showing its horned helmet for all to see, to get sucked into the portal. It looked like it was trying to get at them, but now it was trying to survive from getting sucked into the portal.

Strangely, the portal didn’t seem to be affecting the trio as only the tower itself and the knight was getting sucked back into the gravitational pull.

All the while, a horrible groan of anguish, pain… and fear escaped from the giant knight. The massive heap of death was afraid for its life as it struggled to break free of the portal’s grip. Its gauntlets dug into the ground and created several deep trails into the earth to drag itself out, but to no avail.

The pull was too strong, and the giant knight had no hope of escaping. As though doing one final act, the giant knight lifted its horned helmet, its blood-colored glowing eyes staring right at the shocked trio.

It gave a roar of defiance and hatred as the portal poured more power into the suction.

Another beastly groan of pain and despair escaped from the knight before it was sucked into the portal, along with the stone tower, and eventually, even the portal itself.

It all disappeared in a flash of an eye, leaving nothing but pure grass. There wasn’t even a small round of dirt where the tower used to be. It just… disappeared into nothingness.

Several seconds passed, but there was no longer any shift or distortions in the mana around them. It was just a small clearing now, just devoid of anything alive.

Zeke, Mikella, and Clara just stared, the silence bearing down on them.

Finally, Clara cried, and it was a true cry that a child would normally do, her bawling echoing out everywhere.

Zeke and Mikella only stood there, with Mikella automatically brushing Clara’s head to calm her.

It wasn’t much of a surprise that the adults also wanted to cry like children. They were too shell-shocked to just do anything about it.