“What in the studded star…?”

Roderick exclaimed, his eyes widening through the lens of his glasses as the tower that was seemingly out of place in the fortress just… vanished.

Along with its disappearance, a vast hole of nothingness appeared over, nearly swallowing everything in its vicinity. However, it was as though everything was distorted. The air flow that was being sucked in through the portal that seemed to swallow everything to pure darkness seemed disjointed, sometimes breaking apart the stone walls of the fortress and swallowing them whole, but at other times it just stopped mid-way, falling to the fortress’ grounds.

Needless to say, it was hell for their soldiers that were around the fortress. While their numbers were low, they spread about the fortress, trying to find this boss to take over the biodome. But since the tower disappeared all so suddenly, it took all of their power just to get away. There were some unfortunate casualties, some of the soldiers getting dragged in as though their bodies were choked by some odd pressure, and quickly mashed to bloody paste as soon as they were taken by the void within the hole.

Their numbers were drastically reducing, but that also included the pesky traps and monsters that laid within the fortress walls. It was in some ways a boon, and in other ways a complete travesty.

“What’s going on? Give me answers, now!”

Roderick shouted to his nearby retainers, each one he swore being absolutely useless at this sudden unexpected situation. Each one, undoubtedly, was taken aback by what they saw, but they fumbled about, trying to find out what was happening, but failing miserably.

“M-My lord, the tower, it… it seemed to have imploded in on itself,” One of the retainers, a lanky mage type, answered with trembling fingers holding a set of parchment that he wrote earlier. “But as for the source of the imploding, it… it’s just not possible. We have no idea. The only theory we have is that something occurred from within.”

“Was it the townies?” Roderick growled. “Did they do this?”

“I-It shouldn’t be possible, not at least according to the Mana output that implosion is emitting,” The lanky mage said, now assured in his voice. “That amount of power, that raw energy… it would even give you a spot of trouble, My lord.”

The other retainers who listened in all stared at the lanky mage blankly, unbelieving of what they just heard. They were probably expecting Roderick to lose his control over the insult.

But Roderick wasn’t some fool. If he hadn’t felt the energy being dispersed from that sudden boom, he would actually feel insulted, but the retainer was right. If even he was close by, it didn’t matter how high his resistances were–he would probably be mashed into bits as well.

Which proved that it wasn’t possible the Journeymen lord and lady was able to pull this off.

“For now, pull back the soldiers. Make them gather around the farthest side of the fortress, before the portal disperses. And I want someone to find my stupid son and get him to come back here!”

The retainers gladly did their duty, at least glad to be away from Roderick. While it was a decent chance to get at the boss, he raged at the amount of inconveniences they had to go through, and now they had towers exploding out of nowhere.

“Honestly, what are the gods planning for me?” Roderick muttered, feeling his headache rise up again.

…..

The explosion happened almost instantly. It went by so fast that Zeke hadn’t the time to find out what had gone wrong.

The portal was supposed to open up even before the boss fight, but even after defeating the boss, it never showed. Even Zoan was shocked to find that, even ordering Zeke to make his barriers to protect everyone.

He also felt something connected to him in that vast haze of his mind, as though someone or something intervened with his casting. It didn’t disrupt his barriers, but enhanced them to the point that he felt that it was no longer his own.

But even then, it happened way too quickly. He knew it did because he suddenly found himself lying on the dirt-trodden ground, gasping harshly as he rose to his hands on the ground.

His body ached everywhere, but it wasn’t as bad as he expected. It was in the same state after defeating the boss. He managed to recover some mana while they were discussing, but it went right back to near zero again. Thankfully his collar didn’t give him any trouble.

His first instinct when waking up was making sure that nothing around him was going to kill him. His Mana Manipulation and Kinetic Perception aided him in his endeavor, and he let out a breath of relief knowing that there wasn’t any hostile movement towards him.

But then he panicked again when he found out he was all by himself.

“Shit, Mikky?! Everyone!?”

Zeke stood up, his legs wobbly from being taken aside from the tower explosion and looking around his vicinity once more. His surroundings were almost darkened thanks to the lack of lighted crystals that were broken off in chunks all around him. At the least, he knew that he was still within the biodome. Another point is that he was somewhere that wasn’t the forest, but more around the mountain region where more rocky pillars and stones were around.

Well, he called them stones, but really they were earth-based crystals. Their brownish, sometimes grayish color just seemed so similar to stones, but in truth their feel was crystalline like true crystals. It was a strange feeling, but in the end it was all the same background.

But his heart started beating rapidly as he found himself completely alone.

“Was everyone separated after the explosion?” Zeke muttered to himself. “Made sense, since we haven’t gone out through a portal… but now what?”

They already planned multiple times on what to do should Zeke ever be separated from the group again. Mikella and the others trained constantly to ensure they wouldn't die without his barriers, but the same couldn’t be said about him.

He could protect himself just fine, but the real issue was finding the others again. He could use his own personal rune stone he made, the same one that Val used to contact Cloud so long ago. Since he couldn’t use his barriers, he had to get the material needed to make the runes to make an emergency contact to Mikella, who he shared the stone with. But it could only work once, and unfortunately they haven’t had enough materials to make more. He didn’t want to waste his only emergency contact method without having some sense of his situation.

His notifications were blaring in his eyes, revealing the rewards Zoan helped him get from the boss. The two items were strange. The Skill Unison Fragment and the Otherworldly Skill Orb felt as though they were designed for him and Mikella, particularly the last item.

“The hell are these items for?”

“They are for you and Mikella to use and grow stronger.”

“Gah!”

Zeke jumped to the point that his entire body flinched from the sudden voice. His nerves were already strained enough as it is, so when he turned to find none other than Zoan in Clara’s body just chilling there, standing by the side, he scowled.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Damn it, Zoan, you almost gave me a heart attack!” Zeke snapped back, not really caring who he’s talking to at this point.. “Can you not suddenly show up without warning me?”

“I only just arrived,” Zoan responded as though it was obvious.

He furrowed his brows in anger, but at the same time, he was more than glad to see her fine. Clara’s body didn’t look hurt, though there were hints of dirt and muck on Clara’s dress and still unemotional face. Still, it was better than what could have happened.

“Though I suggest not using the first one just yet,” Zoan continued, explaining as though she was a lecturer. “It would be wise to wait before you have enough high-rarity skills to fuse with. As for the other, you can use that immediately. It will allow you to gain another slot for an Acquired Skill.”

Zeke’s eyes widened. He only just learned along with Mikella that as otherworlders, they only have three slots to learn Acquired Skills, while compared to the residents of Tarial, the world they live in–they can learn all sorts of Acquired Skills as long as they meet the requirements.

The fact that the orb can help them gain another slot for another useful Acquired Skill felt more like the kind of epic reward he expected from beating the last boss. Then again, the fact that it was limited in the first place felt kinda cheap, but he’ll take everything he can get. He can basically learn any Acquired Skill regardless of stat requirements, after all.

However, he didn’t go for the orb immediately. He still glared at Zoan, his anger still fuming from what had occured back at the tower.

“Before I do that, explain what’s happening to Clara,” Zeke demanded. “What did you do to her?”

“Do you think I am so incapable of handling a child?” Zoan raised her chin, becoming somehow intimidating even as a little girl. “Do you even know who you are talking to? I am an angel that has far surpassed humanity. To keep doubting me and asking such questions is an affront, to say the least.”

Well, that certainly proves how she thought of us.

Zeke wanted to scoff, but he managed to control himself. In the end, they had it right–Zoan only saw them as tools that shouldn’t question their betters. It was the same in his old world, but somehow this felt worse–he didn’t choose this.

“Look, I’m not insinuating anything bad,” Zeke reiterated. “I’m only asking because I’m worried. I can’t work well if I think you’re hurting Clara. Mikella will agree with me on this.”

Personally, he doesn’t think he can answer for Mikella’s stead, but she’s so predictable on this matter that he can practically hear her answer even from far away.

Zoan, for once, took a moment to answer. She tilted her head, almost confused, but Zeke realized she was considering. Then, eventually she answered.

“Clara is perfectly fine,” Zoan said, lifting her hand over her chest. “This child would not work properly if it is injured. She is only unconscious, as she was when I met the two of you in my realm.”

Zeke narrowed his eyes. He can only trust her words as he had no way for her to prove it, but he wondered whether that would actually go as she planned.

Then the tower incident came to mind, and he asked.

“Alright… I’ll trust you on that. But back at the tower–what happened?”

The tower not letting them go, the boss not dropping the loot, and the strange glitching notifications. This has clear tower-stuff all over, and if the gods were responsible for the tower, then something was wrong.

Who else but an angel in service of the gods would know about it?

For once, Zoan grimaced. Her usual stoic and unemotional face kept breaking when the tower was mentioned. It wasn’t a big change compared to before, but her eyes darted to the ground in deep thought.

“That was not supposed to happen. I expected the loot to be affected as it is not often that an otherworlder has the ability to defeat the Master of the Tower.”

“The Master of the Tower…” Zeke muttered. That name sounded cool as fuck, but he kept that to the back of his mind. Then his eyes widened from recalling the skeletons he had seen. “The otherworlders… they were already dead before we found them. They were just skeletons. Did you… know about that?”

“So they have perished within the tower. It was unfortunate that the tower had appeared in this dangerous biodome, but perhaps it was better that way.”

Unfortunate. In other words, the otherworlders that were within the tower of the biodome never stood a chance even if they managed to leave.

Zeke would’ve been furious. He would’ve screamed at Zoan and nearly lost himself in it. However, Zoan’s voice, however stoic, didn’t contain any form of mockery. If anything, she sounded like a higher up in a corporation that heard that a bunch of newbies were sacked due to budget cuts. It was unfortunate, but that was the reality.

Perhaps due to his own experiences in the working world, he could somehow stomach this. Not really, but he somehow managed.

As for the Master of the Tower, that meant that they were never really expected to defeat the Master. There were so many questions he wanted to ask, but he was sure that if he kept going, he would only piss off this overly powerful angel some more.

He picked up the orb from his storage pack, thankfully put there the moment he received his notification. When he pulled it out, it was a crystal like sphere similar to marble, but it shone with colors that were bright, but not overwhelmingly so, like looking at a lava lamp.

The inside of the orb had swirling colors like the lamp, except it was dominated with all the colors of the rainbow, slowly flowing like a river throughout the sphere. There was a hint of power throbbing from the orb, the feeling of authority like the system, but not similar to the angel.

This shit was special, that was for sure. Even the Identify said so.

> Otherworldly Skill Orb (Unique):

>

> An orb made by the system for the otherworlders traveling to Tarial. Allows an otherworlder to expand their Acquired Skill list by one slot.

>

> Requirements:

> Otherworlder from the world Earth

The item was Unique, a grade he hasn’t seen yet. Then again, he wouldn’t be surprised if this item has never been seen at all before the otherworlders showed up. With this, he would be able to learn another Acquired Skill. He still planned on taking the body enhancing skill like Acrobatics for his Spirit, but it was still nice to have another option.

“Okay, so… how do I–”

“Swallow it whole.”

Zoan didn’t even give him the chance to finish before giving him the ultimatum. The damn orb was almost the size of his palm. It wasn’t impossible, just… hard.

He let out a tired breath. He was going to have to do this either way, so without further complaint, he opened his mouth and shoved the entire orb down his throat.

It was not pleasant. Not at all. He felt like he was about to choke and die right there. However, he persevered, and eventually the damn thing finally dropped to his stomach.

Then it got worse as the orb’s energy suddenly expanded, filling up his entire torso and soon his whole body. He felt the opposite of how his mana would run out. It was the sort of heat that was different from being full of mana. It was nauseating and uncomfortable as the heat even got to his eyes, forcing him to close them as he knelt to the ground and shivered from the intense power and heat from the orb.

Soon the feeling passed, the heat slowly dissipating as Zeke breathed rampantly to take back his oxygen. His notification revealed that he, indeed, got the upgrade.

> You have consumed the Otherworldly Skill Orb. You have expanded your Acquired Skill list by one slot.

Yippie.

Zeke drawled in his head, happy that he got another skill slot, but not really enjoying the current ‘aftertaste’ of his insides expanding like a hot air balloon.

Once the feeling passed, now feeling bloated if anything else, he turned to the angel in disguise.

“Okay… so now the fragment. You’re saying I shouldn’t use it yet?”

“Precisely,” Zoan nodded sagely. “You are still not yet at the level where fusing skills will bring any benefit in the long run. It might provide power now, but it would be a minor boost compared to how it would be if you raise your skill levels even higher.”

Hearing that, Zeke would be glad to tell this to Mikella who planned on fusing her mastery skills together. Nobody really had an idea on how it worked, and even the lords weren’t exactly filled with knowledge regarding skill fusions. But with this crystal…

But before Zeke was considering calling Mikella to give her the current news, Zoan suddenly asked him a question.

“By the way, You have taken up Unarmed Mastery. Correct?”

The question was so sudden it stopped Zeke’s thought process. Figuring that there wasn’t really anything bad to withhold it (and he has no clue how she knew if Clara wasn’t here when he learned the skill), he answered anyways.

“Uhh, yeah. Why you ask?”

“I noticed that your stance and overall body behavior has improved. However, you are still a full mage in terms of stats. I also noticed your runes that you have carved into your flesh. I take it you have found a way to circumvent the stats?”

Now Zeke realized just how serious Zoan is as a user of the system. He didn’t even tell this to Clara and yet Zoan managed to figure out how his own rune buffs worked. Either she has a skill that lets her see through him, or perhaps she could see his status as some sort of bonus for an angel keeping an eye on them.

“Y-Yes…?” Zeke answered, still hesitant as his mind was whirling.

Finally, the next moment made Zeke freeze up as Zoan, the completely stoic and unemotional angel in disguise, grinned.

“How fascinating. Tell me more.”