Owen woke up, his entire body feeling refreshed. Darting into a sitting position, he activated his bracers, but nothing happened. Looking down, he finally realized where he was, but it didn't make his situation make any more sense. The last thing he remembered, was being inside of the tier ten gate and killing the boss. That made him curious and he quickly turned his attention to his waiting system notifications. His eyes felt like they were going to bulge out of his head as he stared as the collection of notifications he had missed.

*You have successfully slain, Defiant: Superior Grade Echo of Daedalus - Level 260

You have cleared a tier ten gate with more than half of your time remaining. You have cleared the tier ten gate solo, you have been awarded 500,000 credits*

He felt a nervous excitement enter him as he stared at the first few notifications. He realized he really had technically cleared the gate by himself, but he was curious why Malik hadn't been considered a factor if he had weakened the boss. Pushing those thoughts from his mind, he stared at his hands. He had done it, even with help, he had pushed himself to become someone who other people could depend on. But more importantly, he had become someone who could stand on his own.

Thoughts of fighting the minotaur and then finally the boss flooded through his mind and it felt like a wave of relief crashed through his body, washing away hidden pressures. He wasn't so disillusioned to think he could've cleared the gate on his own, but the fact that Malik had only needed to weaken the final boss slightly was enough for him to feel proud of his progress. He looked at the other notifications and couldn't keep a wry smile from his face.

*You have gained the title, Gate Expert, for being among the first ten people to clear a tier ten gate solo on a newly inducted world.

This title grants the user a 5% stats bonus while inside of an gate that spawns on your world.*

*You have upgraded the title, Goliath Slayer, to the title Savant of Slaughter, for killing a boss more than 200 levels above your own.

This title grants a 10% bonus to all stats*

*You have gained two levels, you have 8 unallocated stat point(s)

Your Class, Polymath's Apprentice, has gained a level

Your Secondary Class, Covetous Wielder of Chaos, has gained a level*

Owen was starting to understand why he felt as good as he did. He had gained almost 100 additional stats points while he was sleeping. He did a quick check on his core and sighed when he realized he was going to need to spend some time absorbing experience again. He had already absorbed all the experience from the minotaur, but the amount of experience from the boss was almost too much. It was more than almost all of the experience from the minotaur combined. He felt his breath catch in his throat when he realized he still had even more notifications.

*You have gained the title, Deifying Odds, for creating a skill that stretches the bounds of what is possible.

This title grants the user 20% bonus to the Physique Stat*

*You have created the skill Celestial Embrace.

Despite the erratic energies, you have surpassed all odds and forcibly combined energies that should never be forced together inside of your own body. This skill boosts the user by up to 200%. Each energy can be used to boost the body separately to different effects, while only boosting the body by 50%*

He immediately wanted to test the skill, but reread through all of his notifications first. He felt amazing and power surged through every fiber of his being, but he was confused as to why no one had come to his room. He hadn't indicated that he had woken up, but he was still confused as to how he had even gotten back. Looking back at the skill, he moved to get out of bed to go test it, when he heard someone clear their throat. "Where do you think you're going?" Owen recognized the voice as Malik's, but that only confused him more.

He moved back to the bed like a kid caught with a hand in the cookie jar. Malik was standing in one of the far corners of the room shaking his head. "Not even a day has passed and you're ready for more action?" He asked sarcastically. Owen was somewhat embarrassed, but asked the most pressing questions on his mind. "Where are my friends? Also, how did we get back?" he was about to continued. but Malik stared him down.

"I had to use one of my skills to get us back, before you bled to death. Seriously, I'm not sure why you thought you could imbue your body with combat resonance, but you looked like you were partially made of string cheese by the end of that fight." Malik said as he pulled up a chair. Sitting down, he passed Owen a mug of coffee, before taking a sip from his own mug and continuing. "Your friends are also fine, though they seem to think its my fault you came back so injured."

Owen felt relief wash through him, though he threw a mocking glare at Malik. "Oh sure, leaving me to fight an enemy more than 200 levels above me wasn't your fault. In fact it's crazy I got injured at all." Malik frowned but didn't immediately say anything. They sat in silence for several seconds, before Malik sighed. "Okay, for real man, what's going on with you? Did you regress or not, cause frankly I haven't been able to tell. There are moments when you seem like you aren't, but then I see you fight and do things I thought impossible." Malik was giving him a flat stare now.

Owen wasn't sure what to think and started laughing. "You really think that I regressed?" He started laughing louder as he fully thought the idea through. "Shouldn't I basically know everything then, or better shouldn't I be stronger or even the strongest." It felt good to laugh and Owen let out another laugh, before his brain processed what he said. "Don't tell me, you actually somehow regressed or something?" Owen asked, a part of him hoping it was a joke.

"You aren't a regressor?" Malik asked, though he sounded resigned as the words left his mouth. Owen could only shake his head in confusion and his mind ran through the memories of the past day with Malik. "But you are?" Owen asked, but mostly for conformation. He had already felt like something was off and so while it was surprising, all of Malik's knowledge made more sense now.

Malik nodded slowly and sat back in his chair. "You must know the other regressors then?" There was a hopeful tone to his words and Owen just stared. Several seconds of silence passed, before Malik let out an awkward cough. "I guess that's probably a no then." Owen nodded and there was another brief bout of silence.

Owen wasn't entirely sure why it was so surprising to Malik, unless it was really common to regress, but he doubted it. Malik seemed lost in thought for several minutes and Owen spent the time rereading through some of his recent notifications. He was still excited at the boost of power and wanted to share the news with Myra and Peggy, but that brought his eyes back up to meet Malik's who was staring at him now.

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"Dude, please either speak or going ponder somewhere else, causing you are freaking me out." Owen joked, and some of the tension left the air. Malik grinned, but his face fell back into its serious visage. "You guys have to pack up and run." Malik said seriously, but continued before Owen could interrupt. "Since you aren't someone who has been through this before, Rochester wasn't around for this long. One of the first tragedies I remember, was the destruction of Rochester three days after everyone came back."

Part of him didn't want to believe Malik, both when it came to him being a regressor, but also the fall of Rochester. It was his home, it had only become more so as he, Peggy and Myra had put in the effort to build something. The idea of it just being gone, felt foreign. Owen wasn't sure how to describe the feeling with words, but he turned his attention to Malik as he continued.

"This city, its built between two dimensional veins." Malik started though he stopped at the blank look Owen gave him. "A dimensional vein is the energy source that creates gates on different worlds. Normally, there are dozens scattered throughout the planet that create a net of energy that keeps them spawning. The closer together dimensional veins are, the more gates, as well as higher tier gates, spawn." Malik continued.

"Can you break these veins?" Owen asked hopeful, but Malik shook his head and Owen could see from his face that it had been a dumb question, at least to Malik. "They are pure energy, so unless you had a way to absorb an entire planets worth, no there isn't a way to get rid of them." Owen sighed and rubbed his face with his hands, before speaking again. "So what, we need to flee, before there are a ton of different gate breaks?" Owen asked.

Malik nodded and continued explaining. "Basically, Rochester exists too close to an intersection of dimensional veins, so gates are appearing faster than your group will be able to clear them." "But how come we haven't had problems yet then? We have been at it for several weeks, without any issues, how come now all of the sudden it will be a problem?" Owen asked. He would never claim to be a master at reading people and frankly he felt like he was probably awful at it. Yet he felt like Malik was being honest or at least sincere. It just didn't explain why it felt like the situation was being blown out of proportion.

He and Myra had kept careful track of gates and how often they were spawning. From everything they could put together, it didn't feel like it would ever be a problem, especially since they had teams that were dedicated to essentially full time gate clearing. He explained it all to Malik who winced and shook his head. "Regardless of any system messages about earth having finished a tutorial, it isn't true. Well it is, but only partially. Do you remember the guild event that is going on, the whole reason your guild currently has a bounty?"

Owen said he did and Malik continued. There was some excitement in his voice, as if he was finally getting somewhere, though Owen still felt confused. "Essentially, after a guild has claimed dominion over earth, that is when the true 'tutorial' is over. There won't be a limit on what level gates can spawn on earth. The same goes for how often gates spawn. It will feel more random, but it will still be more frequently than now. The system is already pouring more energy into the dimensional veins and gates are spawning increasingly fast."

Owen considered the explanation, but still wasn't convince. At least until Malik pulled out a familiar map. Owen stared at it for a moment, before taking it from Malik's outstretched hand. As he looked it over, Malik started explaining. "Those are currently all of the gates you guys have found, correct?" Owen nodded, as each of the locations looked familiar. The map was an aerial view of Rochester and its surroundings. It stretched to ten or so kilometers outside of the city in every direction and while it didn't feel a lot to him, it was enough that if a gate spawned outside the range, Owen wasn't too worried about it flooding towards the town.

Owen moved to pass the map back, but Malik raised a hand to stall him. "Now unselect that button." He said pointing and Owen moved his eyes to a small section that let him limit results. Knowing what was already coming, Owen unselected the option and the map added over a hundred new locations pinged on the map. "What the fuck?" He cursed as he flipped through each of the new additions. "These are all real?" he asked, hoping it was a lie, but Malik just nodded. "Most are either underground, underwater or ones added within the past week."

Owen continued flipping through, until he noticed a new ping pop up. Zooming in, he winced when he noticed it was one out of five that had spawned inside city limits. "A new one just spawned in." Owen cursed and Malik winced. "Yeah, that happens pretty frequently. The whole reason behind the system doing it, is assumed to be creating broken worlds." Before Owen could say he didn't know what they were, Malik continued. "Broken worlds are those that didn't make it through the tutorial or have fallen to gate breaks."

"Have you already explained it to my friends?" Owen asked, as he started trying to figure out how to evacuate everyone. Malik shook his head and Owen scowled. "Why the fuck not, aren't we in a hurry?" "You guys are in a hurry, but I'm not. The whole reason I came here was to push for level 200. Also, I can't really afford to have too many people knowing that there are regressors." Owen threw up his hands. "You could've just showed them the map," Owen half shouted. Malik just shrugged, "I don't think they would trust me, especially after you came back looking the way you did. I also didn't have the map the first time I met them, but I only made this map earlier today."

Owen pushed himself out of his bed and pull a set of clothes out of his storage bracelet. taking as little time as possible to get dressed, he moved towards the exit of the room. "You aren't allowed to pass on any information about me." Malik said and Owen was forcibly stopped in place. Wind seemed to be blowing against him from nowhere, until he turned around and stared at Malik. "I promise, but I need to go get things ready, we have what, a day?" "A day sounds about right," malik answered. "Maybe more, but I am going to need a system oath from you."

Owen nodded and quickly restated his promise. "I won's spread any information about you to anyone under any circumstances." Before he even finished saying the words he had turned around again and was moving out of the room. He felt the mana in the air almost click into place, which meant Malik had accepted the oath. He had been told about system oaths before, Xerxes had told him about them and the dangers tied to making them. You could easily trick someone into making a system oath, just so long as they imbued their words with their mana. It wasn't perfectly binding and it only held if the level disparity was more than five levels, but it was apparently still a common practice among most.

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Malik sighed as he watched Owen go as the oath locked into place. He was taking a big risk in leaving Owen alive, but he was a puzzle that Malik needed to solve. There were already too many uncertainties in the timeline and he wasn't even sure the city would be overrun. Just so long as Owen stayed, but Malik couldn't let him take the risk. They needed power by the time a guild took control and so far, the strongest person he had seen was Owen.

If Owen was the same level as Malik was now, Malik had no confidence in being able to kill him. Not only had he seen the guy tear himself to shreds by running a combat resonance through his body, but he had already begun healing within minutes afterwards. The fight hadn't even been the limit of the kid's power.

Malik quickly sent several messages to his sponsor. He had waited to message them, until he had found out whether Owen was a regressor or not, but now that he knew he wasn't, he was going to see if he could bring him into the fold. Whatever power Owen had access to, might be the key to defeating all of the worlds they would be going up against at the end of the year. Malik had already lived through that war and shook his head. They had been utterly annihilated, each world they had gone up against had been inducted more than a year before them.

That wasn't even the only thing Owen's special energy could help with, the game between the demigods was just as important and with Owen on his side, it might be just enough to pull ahead.