Alex’s POV

A familiar middle aged man that carries his name with pride walks my way after the flow of mana slows to a crawl. My closed eyes and the interference from the temporal warping spinning down make little difference as a little seed beside my heart streams the world in my brain.

It took me a while to get a skill similar to Nash’s perception field anywhere near a usable state and it has severe limitations such as a range of 9 meters and atrocious resolution, but when I quiet my heart enough, I can listen to it and learn so much about the world without having to use my eyes or ears.

As I step out, Merlin smiles sadly in the eery silence of the instance.

The last remaining pair of people.

And soon even he will be going away.

“You are certain you don’t want to stay just one more month?”

“If I spend over a million Mithril right now, even with the Pando’s coin shenanigans that we managed to pull, you are still going to be some 300 thousand short for the 39th month. You won’t be able to cover that in the remaining time. We no longer have the personnel to milk all the villages even our own instance let alone the thousands of others that it took to get to this point. The portals may be up, but we don’t have the people for anything beyond the automated mining operations still up for Mithril and Orichalcum.”

I nod along before interjecting.

“Why do you still refer to them as Mithril coins instead of Aether like the Automaton taught us? Then we can talk in thousands instead of millions.”

“Because we haven’t been able to trade for a single Aether coin. But never mind that. The important stuff: keep your eye on the prize, even if we don’t know exactly the real advantages we will be able to get by extending your stay in the village, I don’t think they will be trivial.”

“Didn’t the librarians hint that the main benefit is just that our protection period would be extended? The fact here is a much better learning environment than back on Earth given how much guidance the system provides?”

“As far as I have been able to gather, yeah. But I don’t want to take anything for granted least I end up suckling on sour milk. And even if those are the main benefits, I really doubt we won’t get absolutely anything else. Even a single extra sweet candy can still brighten a kid’s day.”

The minutes tick down with precision in a much more robust clock after a team poured over the main time piecing the middle of the village for a solid month. Not even the system’s shinanigans managed to make this one drift more than two seconds a day which would have been nearly trivial back on earth even a hundred years ago, but now required hundreds of clocksmiths and dozens of engravers. And it had self adjusting features based on the sunrise and sunset with even greater precision.

With the commonplace precision that we came to expect from tech on Earth, the gong bangs the very second that the Automaton teleports to our instance. He walks our way casually like today is the last day of school when even the teachers are laughing and strolling around.

He nods at Merlin.

“So I guess I will only have this little pup to entertain me from now on.”

“Yes. Take good care of him.” Merlin bores his gaze on the automaton.

“I will do what I can.” The automaton says straitening his shoulders ever so slightly. With a glance at the chests of coins. Hundreds of tons of gold atop automated floating platforms. A good portion of it Pando’s coins, complemented by the system’s currency.

A smile comes to my face that I cannot hide. We did pull a few shenanigans under the system’s nose. Our supply grew to nearly a thousand Aether coins that we could simply restamp every month as long as we had the Mithril, Gold, or whatever material we made them from.

Best of all, as far as we could tell the Automaton was simply taking the currency out of circulation in a wink wink kind of deal. So we didn't have to worry about them being reintroduced any time soon and crashing our internal economy with hyperinflation.

Even without the basic form of the perception field that I can use with my seed, I can feel the momentum that the automaton is stealing from his own movements as the system nearly guides his hand up and forces him to take the next step.

Merlin stares at him, with such intensity and focus that the world seems to grow heavier. All the mana is sucked in as he maintains a domain around him. For the hundredth time, he tries to get a good glimpse at the automaton’s runes except that this time they aren’t aimed at other people, but himself.

The very best chance to get a real glimpse and then he is gone.

He puffs out faster than the blink of an eye and I’m certain of that because I didn’t blink.

The automaton goes around and starts to clean up the hundreds of heavy boxes teleporting them away in handfuls even though I know that he could have done it all at once with the flick of a finger.

“Enjoy your remaining time.” The automaton says before teleporting away.

I frown but decide to put on a good show anyway. For as much as he did have his own interests, the automaton had been very accommodating in so many ways given the soft spot he acquired for humans, the least I could do was to try and make things interesting.

I open the faux inner world and let out the Titan who takes a few steps back and goes back to his tree for another sun bath…. at 7 in the morning.

As for myself, stuck at level 200, though with the commensurate stats to put even Nash’s to shame, I lean back, let gravity take hold for a moment and then take off in a sprint.

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My level 100 + kills all fold together for me to reach beyond ordinary limits.

I guide the air around me to avoid most of the drag. Running helps me rely on the environment to keep the ground intact as I take off like a bullet train. Even my spears skills give me a hint more dexterity just from having it at my hand.

Nine steps later, I’m 100 meters away crossing the training field.

The very world bends to my will helping me accomplish my actions.

I let spear wielding take the forefront and weave on the course.

Small spheres pop from the ground, mana fully recharged. Each a thing of beauty combining wood and metal, including even hints of mithril that I would have to extract given I didn’t have room for the entire thing in my storage besides all the other things I would be bringing back to Earth.

As the floating balls follow their preprogrammed settings, a new course that I wasn’t familiar with starts. With a mix of physical attacks and magic, I’m forced to use a lot more of my mana, stamina and occasionally a hint of health, but I’m the spear wielder and soon I’m back in the zone dancing like its last day alive.

The world bends to my will with the help of my single level 200 skill as I cut and slash even through the soft mithril strands in the enchanting with my spear.

One less working training in the pile.

I glimpse the last upgrade it had gotten.

The smithing brothers really reached a whole new level.

Spear of the Wielder (3 Reforgings)

Attack +27

Agility +27%

A named weapon made for the Wielder of the Spear.

And though it didn’t have any fancy skills or other stuff, I love its simplicity. The work of actual metal shapers instead of the strange and confusing scheme of measuring someone's blacksmithing skill by how well they controlled mana. Not that mana was useless, but t was a small aspect of blacksmithing and a secondary one at that.

With my simple and reliable weapon, sweeping arcs cut through everything, slicing through a hundred different shapes, shields, walls of forces and anything the buzzing spheres put in my path.

Even their attacks.

Now that is real skill, though it tended to not be very useful in practical combat when an enemy mage lowered their guard and trusted that their stream of fireballs would keep me away, a single cut could open up a path instantly.

The hours pass and my training shifts into a hundred different forms. And even the Titan joins me, while he tries to move without crushing anything. Often hints of former sessions show up, but everything tends to be pretty random and I leave the choice to the automated systems as they are usually on point selecting the scenarios.

An hour before noon I stop everything so I can meditate at the very slow pace of ‘real time’.

The seconds tick slowly as the first attack of the month approaches.

I slow my heart and take everything that isn't going to contribute of from my mind before ruthlessly eliminating all distractions and becoming the one who is purpose incarnate. I make each of my moves heavy and driven by deep meditation aiming at the results I want.

I clear my mind to be able to deal with the chaos of the world, to swing and dance amongst the enemy in such a way that they can’t even react as they encounter something they never thought would be amidst them.

To be connected to reality and moving before thought, always before the much slower actual thought.

The time ends and I walk forward unconsciously, but also more aware of everything around me than ever.

The clearest perception field to date streams in my mind. Automated defenses flatten the spikes and barbed wire in a small circle around me as I jump from the walls.

The enemy sprints forward.

Probably the smallest attack in a while given that we reduced the inhabtants in half.

Fifty goblins, in a pathetic show.

Five sweeps of my spear as I let them surround me about two hundred mana later none remain as I sly them without even thinking twice. Soon after Nash left, a few reluctant goblins kept showing up, but that trend trickled to nothing and even when we could take prisoners, none even considered surrender.

An hour later comes the real attack, this one trying to base itself on my strength and level. Though even if I kept my level capped at 200, I had plenty of skills to match and exceed the expected strength of someone that just crossed this second barrier.

I nod as the number stream in from the thousands of life force detectors.

Seven thousand enemies.

Likely an average level in the 130 range, a few 150 and finally a 200+ Arch Shaman or Goblin Chief.

A giant being steps down from the wall and goes around stomping and flattening dozens of the enemy with his arms. I’m way more precise in my blows, but not any less devastating.

A heavily enhanced Mithril weapon well developed skills using Aether let me keep up with the Titan. And the little being in my chest was the icing on the cake. A seed fast becoming more than a mere friend, but truly a part of myself.

The battle develops as usual.

With hundreds of automated defenses with carefully tuned strength and utility to minimize their impact in the eyes of the system while optimally defending it. Defenses that would make little difference if I suddenly left, but they could make full use of all the opportunities that I opened.

Thousands of enemies accumulate at such a quick pace that I can barely count them, but shields, fireballs, mana blades and root explosions all combine into the perfect instrument.

The chief shows up, stronger than half the army combined and he forces me to fight more conservatively instead of fully riding the edge of a razor to finish the fights as fast as I could. I needed a little buffer to correct the inevitable small mistakes I would make. Against common goblins, my defenses could hold in time for me to get back on my feet. But against the goblin chief, any missteps without enough maneuvering room to recover would be fatal.

The blows are strong, but not overwhelming.

Its weapon and armor are impressive… when compared to the smiths in instances that failed to achieve a +20 rating.

Even the strongest instance usually didn't get to our level and we had not only exceeded that on our own, but we had also gathered thousands of instances into a collective to build a stratospheric skyscraper. We were no longer in the realm of mortal engineering, but knee deep in a fantastical land with our development.

Its level ends up being only 199 a smidge short of a transformation, which lets me keep up with him even with only a couple of years of training with the spear.

I push all that I’m outward, I wield all my Aether and attach meaning to every action. I go beyond the ordinary.

The guidance of the system is faint, even with me mostly following the normal steps of power simply accelerating it with Aether, but I take all I can get as I push myself to the next level.

I turn more aggressive, approaching my limits. I let my opponent hone my instincts, improve my sense of battle and make each of my moves fluid. He has a thousand friends and not a hint of strain given he is fresh and I had a thousand slayed foes at my feet.

He pushes me to the very edge of what is possible, and I can feel there is something for me on the other side if I just take this last step, but it’s like a word on the tip of my tongue and desire is not what is missing for me utter it.

Then a fist grabs the head of the last other goblin and squeezes crushing the carefully constructed sand castle I build. A wave washes over it erasing its existence from anywhere but my memory.

The Titan looks at me still fighting this last opponent but the pressure that had been building puffs out of existence as he realizes what just happened and the hopelessness of his situation.

“It wasn't this time,” I say.

The lumbering being stares at me as the gobbling chief slides from my spear and I can almost feel as if he fully understands my words.

“No sad. You fight more, third attack coming.”

I shrug and turn inward. Perhaps this time I will face a real opponent, an actual level 200+ goblin chief. That, plenty of Aether and my love of the spear should be enough to step over this last step.

And if it isn’t, I have another 3 months to improve and test myself. Even if I have to mess with the runic defenses of the village to increase our threat rating and the power of the attacks.

Just remaining in the instance on other people’s dime didn’t sit right with me.

I can’t come back without anything to show for it.