...

After the Tier Test, Alexander's bedroom

"Woah!"

Alexander woke up feeling like he had just emerged from a feverish nightmare. He was shivering and covered in sweat, which was blurring his vision. In an attempt to cool down, he quickly kicked off the drenched blanket with his legs.

While quickly sitting up, he felt like he didn't sleep for a second. The stress and exhaustion overwhelmed him, and for unknown reasons, he breathed heavily while his heart beat like crazy. He tried to calm down, fearing the worst, 'What happened?!'

However, after some time, he looked around, remembering that he wasn't alone, 'Well, Sarah is gone.'

Since Lorient left, he slept with Sarah or Janina. He sometimes tried to visit Narsiz, but his big brother was always uncomfortable agreeing to it, mainly because he wanted to sleep with Linuel, enjoying his first love.

So, Alexander just ignored him for now, only sometimes asking him so that he wouldn't feel as if he was ignored, purely out of courtesy, since his big brother was somewhat sensitive to such things.

Regardless, after slowly calming down and going through more mundane things, he remembered the Tier Test piece by piece after orienting himself. The first thing he did was shudder when he puzzled everything together. It was surreal, and he couldn't believe what he did. It was almost as if something inside him screamed to charge forward and just do it. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity opened up, and he took it by force.

Yet, he pushed all his worries to the back of his mind first and immediately used an air contraption to get some paper and ink, writing everything down he could remember. From the robot's architecture to the code he saw. Everything needed to be preserved as a reference point for future research.

...

After spending over an hour in his room, Alexander's space became littered with papers. He filled hundreds of pages with drawings, schematics, notes, and codes, writing everything down he could think of.

When the last ink sipped into the paper, he pushed it to the side to dry, leaning against the bed end to relax, 'At last.'

Later, he would sort them, but for now, he noted everything down he could but suddenly remembered something else, which made him smile joyfully, 'Hehe, now to my skills.'

He opened his system window, and as he saw his skills, he became perplexed as it was too good, 'Oh Uh.'

First of all, he now had the skill [Absolute Intermediate Law], which was for some reason at level 31, 'Not good...'

He wanted only the next Tier, but for some unknown reason, he also got many level-ups and the best version of the skill. The prefixes of skills declared how good they were, and he got the best prefix one knew: Absolute. There were others like Major, Greater, etc., and they usually had better efficiency and gave out more knowledge, but at the same time, they were much more challenging to level up.

A slight panic invaded him, 'I didn't bug my system window out, right? There is no way.'

There have been instances where the system windows malfunctioned, and a glitch occurred, usually accompanied by graphical issues. These cases occurred when someone tried to extract memories and skills directly from another person. However, this never yielded positive results, and the individual's system window would begin to deteriorate gradually, depending on the severity of the attempted extraction.

So, even looking closely at his standard system window, everything seemed fine, 'I made a mistake... a big one.'

Alexander suddenly thought about the repercussion fucking around in his Tier Test and decided to talk with Teach' in the following skill test, which he would hopefully have this night. He fucked around, and hopefully, it would not end with him losing his system window, which would also mean him losing the privilege of being a sapient being, which further meant that he would be declared a monster.

Regardless of his panic, he also suddenly saw other skills change and jump to ridiculous levels. Three of them were [Major Mana Manipulation], [Major Mana Emission], and [Major Mana Absorption], which were now at levels 89, 59, and 64, respectively, 'This doesn't count as cheating, right?'

While the [Absolute Intermediate Law] skill was obtained through cheating, these were not. He probably got them because he manipulated the code while moving his mana through the claustrophobic MC Escher painting, which was the robot's internal life.

He immediately looked for other skills and found a new one, which was [Coding] at level 3, which made sense since he didn't code at all. All he did was crash the whole thing into oblivion and somehow rig the shit by deleting a part from a function.

Since Alexander already had [Hacking], which became [Greater Hacking], he also wanted the corresponding [Coding] skill. He thought that through [Coding], he could manipulate mana items much easier, not knowing that there was actual code he could write, 'Well, I need to test it later, but for now...'

This made Alexander think how absurdly easy it was to hack the robot, even though, if he were honest, he almost died trying it, and only through pure luck did he succeed in the end. Nonetheless, he couldn't be the first one. It had an anti-virus and weird pressure inside the hard drive, but the security overall seemed too lackluster.

However, when Alexander thought about it more, he couldn't really describe what he did as hacking. If he was also honest, he was like a child with a stick trying to extract something by bashing a PC. As such, he only relied on his robust body, but someone with better skills could surely overwhelm the robot quickly.

This thought raised many other questions. Why did a sapient robot have code that others could read? On what kind of OS-like (operating system) did the code run? How was it saved? And, much more importantly, how could he start coding, as he wanted to bring his subjects into a new era? Sadly, he had no idea where to begin.

This cluelessness frustrated him, so he started looking at whether he had other new skills or prefixes since he heard the particular pinging too often while in the Tier Test.

After looking through the system window, he was not too thrilled. The new skill was [Parallel Thinking]. It was kind of self-explanatory, which could probably help him multitask efficiently. It was something he wouldn't need now, so he wasn't too surprised or happy.

Alexander's mind was already at capacity when he did the Tier Test. As such, putting more load on his brain, which he needed to work through, wouldn't really help. However, it could make everything more efficient. Still, he could also quickly go overboard when straining his already castigated brain, and he saw what happened for the first time when he overloaded it: All his senses got shut down, and he died. 'I need Ipe to test its potential.'

Another skill that jumped in levels and got a new prefix was [Mana (Organs) Reinforcement], which was now named [Major Mana (Organs) Reinforcement] and was at level 52 probably because he suffered horrible pushback by crashing and rigging the code, which also attacked his mana organs.

This brought him to an interesting thought, 'Can you attack other people's mana?'

It wasn't too wild to imagine that it was possible. Still, Alexander only did it with external mana with Green and only by trying to move it, never directly crashing it into the organs, which he imagined would be much more difficult. He quickly wrote it down so he would remember to try at some point with some monster or animal.

Other than that, other skills increased too, and not by little, especially the ones that strengthened his mental fortitude. Other mana skills jumped in levels, but that was about it.

As such, his happiness vanished, and he went back to panicking, 'I need to survive the day somehow and beg Teach.'

He hoped there were no consequences but was ready to annul everything should there be some negatives. The last thing he wanted to have was a bugged system window because his ambitions got the better of him. However, it was fine as long as he had written everything down. The skills he could get again since he now had an idea how.

He slapped his face, 'Okay! Nothing you can do about it!' With it, he jumped out of his bed and started his day.

Yet as he tried to take the first step, his body started aching, 'Urgh! The Cold-Snouts should hurry up, damn!'

Yet again, Alexander felt the pain of his body's inability to handle his extremely high levels, but it had been like that for some time. This was also why the Cold-Snouts were on the way to him with some great mana items that would help him, and all he needed to do was date a couple of girls.

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He stretched slightly, 'Okay, let's make today a gym day.'

...

???, after the Tier Test

A lone robot sat on its throne, making peeping noises constantly. It let out an aura that bent everything around it into balls or pressured it into flat surfaces.

It lit up after what felt like an eternity, and an enormous amount of killing intent leaked out. Its digitized voice sounded many octaves deeper, and it went crazy, "Kill!"

"Oh my, you should calm down."

The robot turned around its head, seeing an ordinary woman in a grey dress appear beside him. She was sitting on the throne rest, with one leg over the other and propping up her head casually with her fist.

At first, he got angrier but calmed down quickly. The reason was that she looked different from her usual self. She had snow-white wolf ears and a tail that waddled joyfully under her skirt.

She smiled mischiefly, which showed that she apparently watched the Tier Test and was amused. Yet the robot sounded clearly distressed, ignoring that she mocked it with her looks, "Mistress, the little boy cheated! I need to annul the result immediately!"

She chuckled, "Don't worry..." She held her laughter back, as she found it quite funny, "...It is quite interesting, don't you think so?"

It immediately increased its aura, "I can't accept it! He invaded me and cheated! Let me oversee his next tests! Something like him should not be allowed to act without proper overview!"

She, however, only raised an eyebrow, "The Tier Test didn't say that he couldn't use other skills to succeed, though?"

The robot became increasingly frustrated, hightening its voice, "But..."

She shook her head, interrupting, "My my, you are such a sore loser. Aren't you forgetting how it was a long time ago? They always tried to manipulate us and succeeded in the beginning until I gave you the necessary defense against it..." Her smile widened, and she glared at the robot, "...except you. I remember when you were quite the cute stone golem on which manipulation skills never worked, and you always gloated at the others for being manipulated into rather weird situations, remember?"

The aura of the robot decreased significantly, "I... understand."

"Don't worry. You were tricked for the first time, and now we will increase your defense so it will not happen again. However..." She glared at him, which decreased his aura entirely, "...I condemn unfairness. If we don't block outright other skills, they can use them. It was your fault for not thinking ahead..." She shrugged, calming down, "...but we now also found a weak point, and all we paid for was a small intermediate-tier test. Pretty good deal, right?"

The Roboter sounded frustrated, changing his digitized voice into a very high-pitched one, "What about the other challenger?"

The woman in grey nodded, "You are right..." and shrugged, "...not our problem. She will have another test soon enough."

"But mistress..." His voice became slow and barely audible, "...will the gods not be displeased with such a behavior?"

She raised an eyebrow, "Gods? Do you mean the Divine Hall those losers created? Aren't they..." The space suddenly started to shake till she let out an enormous amount of energy to stabilize it while looking up, "...huh? If you try this again, I will extinguish your little realm..." Her voice suddenly exploded with rage, "...do you understand me?!"

Like that, it became silent, and she sighed, "I really can't stand those divine beings always trying to get involved in my world."

"Mistress, with your world, you mean you."

She shrugged, "My world, me, the concept of space, who cares? I decide what happens..." The robot interrupted her, meekly, "...not really, though..."

She smiled cheekily at him, "Oh my, tin-can has a lot of opinions, I see? Let those losers be my problem. While they think they control me, I am not some mortal like they are..."

She leaped from the armrest and landed gracefully in the center of the hall. Her energy surged and filled the entire space with a feeling that was pure, playful, and innocent. The energy then converged at a single point before her, creating a void that appeared to be filled with everlasting darkness. However, just a moment later, the void erupted with a colorful light that radiated countless auras, ranging from peaceful to repulsive.

"Leave tin-can."

The robot sounded downtrodden, "Please don't call me like this, Mistress." And then it was gone. She sighed while scratching her wolf ear, "Sorry, I somehow really like his insults."

As the portal grew, she licked her lips, "Let's see, who dared to attack me... got cha'."

She Grabbed inside the portal and pulled someone out on their neck, "Oho, hello, little boy."

She held a dwarf on his neck, letting him hang mid-air, "Aren't you the one who created those little toys that brought war for more than a millennium?"

The dwarf attempted to break free from her restraint by emitting energy that felt like standing inside a volcano. The whole hall heated up to massive degrees when it touched the air, but it quickly dissipated. The mere aura emanating from the woman in the grey dress was so powerful that the dwarf felt like he was sinking into the deepest parts of the ocean.

However, he could muster the strength to speak through pure will, "You dam' bastard! I created legendary weapons and armor! How can you treat me like that!"

The woman in the gray dress's smile turned into pure viciousness, "Oh dear little boy. Do you think because I don't intervene in the world, it also means that I approve of your moronic behavior?..." She raised her lip in utter disgust, throwing the dwarf to the side, "...now tell me. Why did you dare to attack me? Wasn't my last warning not enough?"

The dwarf coughed and looked at the woman in panic, but then hatred graced his face, "He cheated that animal! You can't..." The woman in the grey dress increased her pressure even more, making the dwarf bleed out of his ears so he would stop speaking. Even though strongly injured, he clenched his teeth and looked enraged at her.

The woman in the grey dress looked down at him and smiled, "I can. I am a natural phenomenon, what you consider a true god, while you are nothing but a meat sack who died and was prayed to..." Her pressure increased even more, making the dwarf bleed out of every orifice, "...I am Orbis, and I rule this place! I will not allow anyone to interfere in nature because you hate a race! For me..." The dwarf suddenly was forced into a small ball, "...you are all the same! If you try this ever again, I will find you and disintegrate your little soul."

Before the dwarf was pressed into a ball, the hatred slowly disappeared and was exchanged with fear, making the woman in the grey dress feel joyful.

Crunch

"Tsk, boring..." However, instead of dying, the dwarf just disintegrated and floated away, back into the portal, "...can't believe that those gods have so much ego."

She closed the portal and felt how all the auras vanished, "I can't believe they don't know what I am doing here."

After being done, she looked around, feeling her mouth since it felt somewhat strange, "Oh my, how long has it been since I had actual fun? Everyone else is such a boring soul."

Like that, she was gone, too, making the room slowly dissolve.

...

Later that night (skill test), ???

"Hey, ho Teach! Listen, I have a question."

"Oh hey there, little pup! You look not so good?"

Inside the classroom, which was his usual skill test setting, Alexander, immediately after appearing there, went to Teach to ask what bugged him the whole day.

"Yeah, about that... you see, there was some problem which happened in a Tier Test a day prior, so..."

She sat down on the desk, looking mischievously at him, "Oh, I remember it. A colleague of mine was really surprised."

Alexander started to sweat, "Listen..." She interrupted him while chuckling, "Don't worry. It was its fault, and what you may consider cheating is fully allowed. Even killing me is allowed, as you already should've guessed."

Alexander raised an eyebrow, "Wait... this means..."

She nodded, "Of course..." She leaned slightly forward, whispering to him, "...do me a favor though. Don't go around talking about this..." Hearing this, Alexander panicked but was also happy, as he had already said goodbye to his skills.

Yet her following sentence made little sense to him, "However, if you find more ways to cheat, go for it. It is allowed and even wished for..." Alexander looked at her, shocked, "I am your bug tester?!"

She looked confused at him and laughed, "Haha! Basically, but why not? Oh, there is one more thing."

Alexander became a little confused and nodded, "Yeah?"

Her smile became more vicious, as if he looked directly at evil incarnate, making him shiver slightly, "Something happened that doesn't involve you at all, but when you do another Tier Test with a dwarf or gnome..." He suddenly felt an incredibly malicious aura, making all his skills and instincts go haywire, ".. I want you to destroy them. Do you understand me?" Her voice felt as if an enormous snake slowly coiled around him.

Alexander gulped and nodded, tucking his tail between his legs. The aura he felt was far from the wild and dominating one his family released. Hers was like pure evil invaded him. All his fears came out instantly, making his stomach turn in ways he didn't know were possible.

He stared at her, full of fear and on the brink of crying, as she chuckled and patted him, which made him flinch, "Don't worry. There was a little dispute, and I promise you nothing will happen whether you accept my proposal or not."

Alexander blurred the first thing that came to his mind since it felt like all his skills were disabled, his voice full of fear and anxiety, "Yeah... are you... the devil?"

After a short moment, she burst out in laughter, "Haha!" She wiped a tear away after she laughed heartily, which felt very different to Alexander, akin to vicious laughter, imagining how she would probably skin puppies for fun alive.

She, though, waved her hand in dismissal, "Dear, you are truly one of a kind, but no. I am nothing more than you think I am, but surely not something as insignificant as a devil."

"I... I see, so... wait, what?! Insignificant?!"

She stood up and looked around, "Hm, this test is nonsense, so let's end it for today. I congratulate you on succeeding..." Before Alexander could say anything, everything became black.

...

After the skill test, Alexander's room

"What the fuck just happened?!"

After waking up, he immediately straightened up. All his instincts were heightened as adrenaline ran through him, which felt worse than he was fighting the assassins. He looked around and felt cold sweat all over his body, even his tail, while shivering heavily. Everything was blurry since his eyes were wet with sweat and tears.

Alexander tried his best to relax, using every skill possible, but the fear he remembered made it hard even to concentrate on something other than those eyes that showed him true evil. Something so vile that even trying to remember this feeling made him almost cry.

He looked slowly around, only to see Sarah tiredly looking at him, "What happened?"

He gulped and decided not to talk about it to anyone. His instincts, which became sharper as he aged, screamed at him to do what Teach said. There was no ambiguity and no other choices for him.

He lay down again and stared at the ceiling, "I... am fine..." For the first time, he felt pure fear, 'I feel so powerless.'

It was a weird feeling since he always thought that the aura his family possessed brought fear into others' hearts. It was odd to be proud of it, but he didn't care, and now, he felt something much worse, something that would bring him nightmares in the following days.

It was a horror he had never felt before. It was indescribable, as if something clenched his heart and brought everything out that he ever feared, from monsters in the closet to the existential crisis of death, and amplified them.

Alexander snuggled on Sarah and slowly closed his eyes again, 'Okay, let's try to do what she wanted and never tell anyone about it... ever...'