That night, he had no dreams.

He woke up in a messy state. His entire front was smeared with a mix of blood, tar, and mud. Once again, the position he found himself in was not comfortable, but proof that yesterday he collapsed from exhaustion.

His memory was hazy. After the first few punches at the bride, there were only glimpses of what happened. Disregarding all injuries and wounds he went rogue. It was quite shameful to admit that by the end, he was punching a corpse.

He searched for his glass. One of the lenses got part of it clipped off in the attack, but luckily it was nothing important. The same could not be said about his clothes which were beyond saving.

The robe that was the joy of his nerdiness got seriously damaged. No more did it reach below his knees, hell, it was barely even a cape. The hood got torn off. Worst of all, the damage was so great that the robe would not charge mana as fast as it used to. Now it required ten seconds to replenish zero point five mana.

“Darn,” he sighed and laid back. He had nothing more to worry about now that the wave was gone.

The grass was cold. There was not a bug in there. The entire field was his cozy little bed.

He watched the sky. There were no clouds in this world. Due to that, it got boring quickly.

As he lay there, he noticed a small yellow exclamation mark at the top right corner of his eye. He looked at it and text appeared.

[ You’ve got new messages ! ]

[ Check the Gaia Core ]

“That’s new,” he spoke to no one in particular. Leaning against his staff, he stood up. It was a difficult task, his entire body ached. Thankfully that seemed to be the extent of the damage they have caused; he felt no danger of getting infected by something. Still, even walking felt like a challenging task in his state.

Getting to the crystal, he saw had grown noticeably. When he put a hand on it, it soothed some of his pain by sending energy through his hand into his bloodstream. It had grown in power and this was the first sign of it.

Messages appeared in front of Tanuki.

[ Your Gaia Core has levelled up ! ]

[ LvL 1. ] – > [ LvL 3.]

[ You have gained 6 Expansion Points ! ]

[ Cards panel has been unlocked ! ]

[ Encyclopaedia panel has been unlocked ! ]

[ You have levelled up ! ]

[ LvL 2. ] – > [ LvL 3. ]

[ Level cap reached ! ]

[ You have gained ‘Wave 2 Rewards Box’ ! ]

[ You have gained ‘First Set Rewards Box’ ! ]

[ New encyclopaedia entry unlocked ! ]

Tanuki weakly laughed. “At least it was worth nearly dying.”

Since Wave 2 and Wave 3 happened as one, he got rewards for both, and enough experience to gain two levels for the Gaia Core.

That meant two new options.

“I wonder if every level will bring something new. If I had to guess, it will become milestone-based eventually. The next feature is at level five, then another at level ten… but what do I know? If the last wave proved anything, this world is unpredictable.”

His eyes grew serious.

“If things went just a little differently, I would’ve died yesterday. She rigged the mechanics to her advantage and used my lack of knowledge against me. I need to learn. Fast. Or the last wave will repeat itself.”

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Tanuki shushed away the notifications and opened the menu. It felt nice to see it with more tabs unlocked. However, it was also the first time he saw the [Messages] button light up with a yellow exclamation mark.

Inside, there was only one message. It was titled “Partnership Request”. When Tanuki tried to open it, a window appeared with text next to the real written paper.

It was from someone named Professor.

- - -

Mr. Hachiro,

Congratulations on your valiant victory against the plague!

For the last six months, I have documented its spread from realm to realm. Unfortunately, it was too far from my reach to contain, and my research provided me with no cure. Thankfully, its hunger caught up to it when it underestimated your strength. Your cleverness is truly commendable!

It is for the above reasons I am trusting you with this message. Believe it or not, sending this costs me great power further inflated by every letter.

The defeat of the bride awarded you with one “Dark Essence”. Essences are valuable materials that can only be gained from besting other bosses. My request is a selfish one, but one that promises great rewards in return. Should you have the courage to bestow that essence on an honest beggar like I, you shall receive a far greater gift in the future.

If you deny this request, I will honour your decision and cease contact. But if you find that great trust in your heart, I will present myself as a star in tonight’s sky. Offer the essence to that light and our mutual partnership shall begin.

I attached a healing brew to this message as proof of my honesty. I wholeheartedly hope it will suffice to soothe your wounds.

- Professor

- - -

The image of a small health potion sat at the bottom of the system message. Reaching out to it materialized the glass.

Tanuki was hesitant to drink it at first, but when he raised his hand to scratch his head, he felt all the pain bolt into his arm.

Yep. He was drinking it.

The potion tasted like fruit, which he quite enjoyed. It did not heal him, nor have any immediate effect. He took it as the potion needing to get into his veins where the magic would happen (quite literally).

Tanuki pushed the message aside to check his inventory. To his surprise, his capacity grew, and he had five pocket dimensions at his disposal. One of them bore what he was looking for.

He reached into the pocket dimension to grab the essence. He did so, but his palms still felt empty, yet he could feel it was there.

When he pulled out of the pocket, black smoke burnt through the gaps between his fingers. Opening his fist revealed a white orb floating in a smoky cloud. It had no smell, no sound, not even a physical touch, yet it floated above his palm, following his every move.

It was in a state of matter not from the familiar world. It could not even be mistaken for gas in appearance, but it was something wholly different. Especially the tiny pearl inside.

“What is that?” He tried to but could not grab it. Nonetheless, however confusing this thing was, Tanuki could not help but fanboy over its magical appearance. He was smiling like crazy while fooling around with the essence.

Items had descriptions that could be viewed to better understand how or in what way they worked. This one had no such explanation. At least, it was not available.

The gears turned in Tanuki’s head.

“Does that mean it should be researched?”

The research tab had already made the deadweight husk and that one fly available to be examined. Surprisingly, despite already having been researched, another sample of a soulless husk was here. Only one, as the other soulless husk from the last wave could not be retrieved.

[ Choose one! ]

[ 2x Soulless Husks ]

[ 1x Giant Fly ]

[ 1x Deadweight Husk ]

[ 1x Dark Essence ]

It raised some interesting implications that Tanuki chose to put aside for now. There was a much more interesting thing residing in his palm that he wanted to understand.

He chose to examine the boss’s essence but immediately stopped when he saw that it would take three days to finish. Not only was it a disappointingly long amount of time but he had other things that could be researched faster, providing benefits quicker, and he needed that if he wanted to spend his time efficiently till the next set of waves.

“Perhaps I should just give it to the guy?”

However, he was afraid of what would happen if this was a scam. What if this essence was really powerful and it would introduce some kind of useful mechanic? Or what if it was something to be eaten to gain new abilities?

Logic dictated he should keep it for himself. Intuition said otherwise.

“This Professor fellow gifted me a health potion. That seems valuable, I mean, that is what you need to make new minions. He pretty much destroyed one of his future minions to risk getting the essence. And also, that thing about future gifts…”

Logic took over.

“No, damn it! He is just trying to manipulate you! What if this is another one of those trickster gods? Wait, why did I drink his potion? Oh my god, am I poisoned? Shit! I need to throw up ——"

He looked down. His body was perfectly fine, the wounds much better and his pain barely noticeable.

“Oh.”