That starry sky again. How many times had I admired its infinite depths? Of course, we mustn't forget the planet gravitating in the middle of the starry field: white and black, clear and hazy, light and heavy. All the opposites seemed to be embodied in this mass that gradually engulfed the surrounding stars. No, it was much more than stars.
It was space itself that was distorted or consumed in this case. Bringing the stars closer every second until they were fully absorbed. This planet was a monster. But it was an adorable monstrosity because it belonged to me and me alone. Or did I belong to it? I didn't know and didn't want to explore the subject any further.
After all, my only Desire was to see the entire environment devoured by this planet. Distractedly, I watched a star plunging into the planet. Or rather, the planet closing in on the star. It was a genuinely restful sight to behold. Just the planet's uniform surface, a symbol of the perfect equality in which everything lay, filled me with immense, unalterable joy.
How I'd love to be an integral part of this planet. I found myself thinking that by accepting the offer of this ball where all matters are, I would discover my Identity if you could call the contents with the same characteristics. I was firmly convinced of this. Just as I knew, this mass was the final destination of all things and existence in the World. Yes... Undoubtedly... It was indeed the end of everything.
However long it took, it would all end here. Even eternity had no choice but to bend to these absolute rules. Even Time and Space couldn't escape it. Even me..." Am I really sure about the latter?", I mused perplexedly. Unfortunately, I could only wait for the day when Truth would reveal itself to me. In the meantime, I had to contemplate the fading starry sky.
Strangely enough, I had the impression that this was my duty, the task assigned to me by the World itself - no, by a being far beyond the World. I could only deplore my failing memory for having dared to forget the purpose of my existence. So I wept, without knowing why, for what seemed an inordinately long time. My thoughts emptied of all substance, while I felt soothed and empty.
At that moment, my only certainty was that I could no longer feel my existence. This alone shook my entire being. "I must get closer to the planet", I thought hastily as I felt its comforting presence recede. However, I quickly calmed down, wearily realizing that I couldn't influence my events. The moment when I would be forever united with... With what, anyway?
For a few moments, my thoughts stopped until my eyes widened at my stupidity. How could I have forgotten such an obvious fact? Of course, it could only have been my beloved Void. For the moment, it appeared that the moment when I could become one with the Void had not yet come. I didn't despair, however, for that moment would eventually come. It's true... whatever happens...
My past self was so right and wrong simultaneously; it's distressing. She was right to believe that the moment would arrive inexorably. On the other hand, she was wrong to think it didn't matter how long we waited. Isn't that right, dear? Okay, you're not happy that I call you "System". But wait a little longer; I can't possibly call you by that name. I still haven't recovered from that shock after all... Well, let's get on with it.
I woke up as my apostle opened her eyes with difficulty and started breathing again. It took me a little longer to recall the latest events and understand the significance of this landscape. I could only gasp in exasperation at the situation we were now trapped in. In fact, I was mostly appalled by the stupidity of my choices and ashamed of my lack of caution.
"I definitely should have listened to my sister", I thought regretfully. Strangely enough, I couldn't trust her in certain situations when there was no justification for refusing to consider her opinions. I didn't feel particularly proud either. So why? To my chagrin, all I heard was the sound of my sister's disgust at her surroundings.
So, I ended this reflection and scanned the problem at the root of my apostle's expression of repulsion and the pungent smell in the room. Blood, blood everywhere, blood in abundance, that's all I could find no matter which direction my sister turned her head. Only her body, apart from her back on the floor, was not covered in blood. So, the flow of blood from her body had indeed taken place.
The Void had done such a good job that I had doubted the existence of this undeniable fact. But the price was worth the service. The mana required to stand on all fours was significantly higher than before. It was even more complicated and exhausting to move without the spell than before. In fact, even with the spell, moving was so exhausting that we had to take breaks every five minutes.
Of course, with mana consumption slightly higher than mana recovery, we couldn't afford to stay here for more than a few hours. After all, the mana could only be partially recovered during the breaks, which had to be short. At most, two or three minutes for each, given the heavy traffic of humans, each more dangerous than the last.
Indeed, on my last excursion, I was surprised by the number of humans in the corridors. Of course, the population density was much lower than in the two cities I'd visited. Yet I felt more uneasy here, probably because the humans seemed more vigilant and observant.
Not to mention the fact that the presence of certain humans seemed to be effaced or camouflaged, making it more challenging to spy on their movements. The latter must be the manifestation of either spells or skills. Fortunately, they weren't the only ones with new spells or skills. I had chosen my two new spells. One was an analysis skill.
Although it didn't greatly enhance my abilities in this area, it was highly versatile. Analysis of sensations, information, feelings, intentions, etc., was possible thanks to this skill. My only concern with this skill was that it didn't function below its standard capacity. Moreover, I'd had difficulty getting it up to level 2.
Yet I had created it by attempting to replicate the Void's ability to analyze. The analysis skill should have been much more intuitive to manage. So, where had I gone wrong? I breathed a sigh of disappointment, convincing myself that there was no point in pursuing the matter further, given that the skill didn't seem removable.
Even if I could figure out how to remove it from the Status, I had no guarantee that the place reserved for the skill would become usable again. Of course, I could always change the skill's algorithm to make its use less grueling and painful... in theory. In practice, algorithms can only be adjusted to a limited extent.
So, I couldn't add just any functionality to the algorithms. Significantly, as the restriction increased with level, this didn't necessarily mean that the skill became specialized in one area. On the contrary, it could diversify, but the direction of this diversification was more and more controlled the higher the skill level.
I could only see this as a means created by the System to ensure that skills proved manageable. Versatile skills were thus forced to be less precise than those more specialized in a particular field. Nevertheless, I saw a flaw in this reasoning.
The first skill I had obtained, "Physical algorithmic conversion of Skills", appeared to be an intriguing exception to this law. It allowed me to convert some of the physical energy of the people killed by my first Magic into free space that could be used to create or develop Skills reasonably efficiently.
As the levels increased, the manipulation of the algorithms improved, and the variety of algorithms I could write increased. Logically, the energy required would increase even faster. However, this was hardly the case. In fact, the opposite was true. As the levels increased, the algorithms became more energy-efficient and varied.
This enabled me to partly counteract the drastic increase in time needed to modify algorithms with each level upgrade or to create skills with more complex algorithms. As a result, this skill became both more versatile and more precise. Precision refers here to the increased energy efficiency of the algorithms.
Such a skill would prove extremely valuable in the long term, as it increased the speed with which I could create skills and thus my ability to survive in the World. It would prove even more incredible if it could extend its energy conversion to other planes and/or extend my algorithmic writing ability to different functions of the Status.
As I contemplated the skill's unheard-of potential, a noise akin to an object falling abruptly interrupted my thinking. Before I could even give the order, my apostle hid behind a stack of closed boxes beside us as quickly as possible. I could feel her mechanical heartbeat quicken as we stood on guard, ready to fight if necessary.
But the long-awaited threat has yet to arrive. One... two... five... ten... twenty minutes we waited in fear of being spotted before finally deciding to emerge from our hiding place. We breathed a sigh of relief, although our primary emotions were amazement and bewilderment. Where had we fallen? I asked this question in the foolish hope of an answer that no one could immediately provide.
After relaxing almost wholly, we scanned the room to the smallest nooks and crannies, looking for the object that had caused the noise. However, our search proved fruitless, as so many tools on the floor could have possessed the necessary characteristics to create such a noise. Moreover, we couldn't even be sure that the object had fallen in this room.
Even if it had, I couldn't imagine the size of the tool for the sound to reach us with such intensity despite our distance. Indeed, the rooms I'd been able to explore so far in the Academy were, on average, much larger than in any other place I'd been, except for the Refuge. The latter was unquestionably on a whole new level of excess.
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The Academy also stood out for its relative cleanliness compared to the two filthy cities I'd visited. Of course, there was still enough dust to make my apostle cough violently and rust on every corner. Not to mention structures barely standing or even on the verge of collapse.
This didn't reassure me about the safety of this place as a place to explore and, above all, as a place to live. I hoped the Academicians' rooms were in better condition. Otherwise, I couldn't imagine the number of deaths from collapses that must have occurred here regularly. Nevertheless, I feared this was just wishful thinking on my part.
In any case, the halls here were vast, even if they weren't very high. Indeed, they were only ten meters high on average, although this could vary immensely. Some rooms were only two or even one meter high, barely enough to stand on, if at all. This fact didn't matter to us. In fact, it was an advantage.
In our current state, my apostle was forced to walk on all fours, and her movements were slower and less agile than before despite the spell that made movement as easy as possible. As a result, our fighting style had been vaguely modified to match these various restrictions. Of course, our new fighting technique was far from perfect, but it was enough.
In any case, we couldn't wait indefinitely to walk the halls of the Academy. In addition to all the reasons I'd mentioned the last few times, I had a natural compulsion to attempt the impossible by exploring a place where both humans and the environment wanted me dead. If I'd known about the first one, I'd woefully failed to anticipate the second.
In the end, it was the latter that proved the most problematic and caused my downfall. As if to establish that it's never the individual who poses the most significant threat but the environment, the most cunning of dangers. Ultimately, learning this lesson would soon come to fruition in the most painful way possible, whether I was ready for it... or not.
However cruel my words may seem, I sincerely believe I deserved this punishment for being so reckless on this trip. Even if I have to consider that the hike wasn't a fiasco. After all, I had learned a great deal and had come out of it changed for the better and worse. However, to tell the truth, I regret how I was led astray by this excursion.
Of course, it was a necessary step in my final understanding of my Identity, Desire, and inalienable link to the Void. Yet part of me still hasn't entirely accepted this fact, even after all this time. I can't see anything but a waste of time pursuing such futile and meaningless goals. In fact, I feel ashamed of this part of my adventure.
Of course, I say that, but at the time, my goal seemed sensible and valuable for my self-understanding. Especially since, with the choice I'd made at the end of my excursion, I'd made it this far. No... Because of the intelligence and wisdom of the most formidable enemies I'd subsequently had to face, this was a painfully incontrovertible truth.
After all, even with all the outside help I'd received, I'd barely reached a satisfactory conclusion. What can I say except that the System is unquestionably a cheat... Still, this power and denouement were entirely predictable, in all honesty. In a way, you could be considered a God? I asked you this question during our confrontation, and you answered.
But I want to know your innermost thoughts on the subject before you... You still don't want to answer me? Well... I'll leave you alone for now. Although you might make an exception. Or you may believe there's still too much time to reveal these truths. I'll have to wait a few centuries, then... Ah! Oops! Sorry, my successor, I was chatting with the System...
I promise to pay more attention to you next time. Every time I get caught by the automatic transcription of my words, either rambling or conversing with the System, it's weird. As you can see, my relationship with the System is... complicated, if I do say so myself. It's not fundamentally evil, but it's not absolutely good either. I've rambled on long enough, so let's get back to it!
As for the reason that forced me to venture into the Academy, it was apparent: the insufficient energy of the corpses. In fact, just as I had left the first town to visit the mercenary city because of the laughable amount of energy corpses offered for leveling up my skills, it was this town's turn to have this annoying problem.
No matter how many more humans I killed, the energy I had to acquire to level up my skills and create more complex ones kept increasing exponentially. Of course, thanks to my energy-storing skill for writing algorithms, these required less energy for the same complexity as I went up in level.
However, each level drastically increased the complexity of the algorithms and the connections between them, as well as the space available for calculating variables and results. In fact, the latter was growing at the fastest rate, much to my dismay. So, to solve this problem, I had to look for a place where I was sure to find corpses containing far more energy than anywhere else.
After all, the Academicians were, on the face of it, much more robust than in town if my confrontation with one of them was anything to go by. Therefore, the energy they had to offer could cover my need to level up one or two of my skills. Of course, this was only conjecture.
Indeed, because of the method used to kill the Academician, I'd never been able to harvest the energy since his corpse had been perfectly absorbed by the Void. However, I was confident of my prediction. In any case, if I wanted to reach the top of the World, I was bound to have to face the Academy and its dangers one day.
Especially since, with my lifespan uncertain, I could very well die at any moment. So I couldn't bring myself to wait any longer, even if it meant sacrificing caution. In any case, I could not have prepared myself much more. After all, my Classless condition was already blocking me from creating higher-level spells due to my insufficient mana reserves.
Although I could still have expanded them, I was nearing the end of what I could hope to achieve as long as I didn't possess a Class. If I wanted to be able to use spells with more exciting effects and be able to substantially increase the level of my skills, I had no choice. Yes... I didn't have much choice, I thought as I looked around the room absent-mindedly.
I kept wondering what kind of room we'd ended up in and how far we were from the entrance to the Refuge. In fact, it was the latter that concerned me most, as in the Refuge, teleportation seemed to have no limit to distance other than the arrival point you chose. Thus, I could be at a place several years' walk away, or even further, from the Refuge exit we'd taken.
Another fact that puzzled me was the presence of teleporters. On our first excursion, we had yet to come across objects that hypnotized people and teleported them abruptly. Of course, we'd mostly stayed around the Refuge, venturing outside for less than a minute before we were seized by a feeling of being watched.
I never thought I'd fall into a trap in the safe zone around the Refuge. Even if other people didn't notice the existence of this zone, the System had some control. Of course, I doubted it had immense control, but it was enough to activate traps. Next time, we'd have to pay attention to the environment, even in a seemingly safe zone.
As I thought this, my sister's voice suddenly interrupted my thoughts. I focused my attention on my surroundings and was stunned. Small streams of water trickled from the holes in the pipes to my apostle's feet. How long had this been going on? Neither I nor my sister had the answer, having been too immersed in thought and shaken by recent events.
But one thing was sure. We had to get away from here as quickly as possible. Of course, the flow rate was derisory, but when moving on all fours, even a tiny film of water on the ground made movement more complicated and tiring. However, this problem was not the most urgent or even the most worrying. Little by little, the water flow onto the floor increased by a second.
At this rate, the room would be submerged in five minutes, to be optimistic. My sister rushed with all her might towards one of the doors leading to another room despite the apparent muscular pain that such an overexertion of her physical condition engendered. However, such suffering could be overlooked for the moment, given the death that lay ahead, if we persisted in this place.
An indescribable joy rose as we saw the door closing in on us. However, the emotion was only fleeting, for almost immediately afterward, a sharp, violent pain hit us. My apostle could only scream as loudly as her metal vocal cords would allow.
From the corner of our eyes, we could only watch in horror as electric arcs formed on the parts of my apostle's body in contact with the water. Or the toxic water-like liquid? Indeed, my apostle's skin was slowly dissolving on contact with the mysterious substance. My sister's body trembled at the mere sight of this despairing scene. Nevertheless, this was only the beginning.
As we continued to move forward despite our previous suffering, we could only laugh nervously at the sight of the new room. Because of the stairs near the door, we hadn't been able to see the floor of this room, which was also slowly being submerged by the corrosive liquid. This was all the more so as a quick examination of the adjacent doorways showed increasingly flooded rooms.
Of course, there was always the hope of finding rooms still open beyond these other rooms. However, even if I was sure of their existence, I doubted we'd have time to reach them before the rooms were completely filled with the noxious liquid. So, the only realistic option for us was to climb to higher ground to survive a little longer.
At least, it was an idea that seemed feasible in theory, with all the piles of wooden and metal boxes dotting the room. However, the idea soon had to be abandoned, as the liquid corroded the boxes, causing them to collapse. To make matters worse, as the contents mixed with the toxic substance as they dissolved, strong gas fumes appeared, causing breathing difficulties.
What's more, an unpleasant smell reached us, while bubbles regularly burst on the surface of the noxious mixture. In addition, my sister's throat became considerably irritated, while an intense burning sensation came from her watery eyes. When we thought nothing else would happen, a strange rattling sound came from the walls.
The response was swift. Sharp-pointed arrows rained down on us. Fortunately, my apostle could ward them off with her Magic, at least at first, because the flow was well over ten arrows per second. So, inevitably, a few arrows managed to reach her and pierce her body.
The shade of grey of the liquid around us became closer to that of blood as if to remind us of the alarming situation in which we were trapped. What's more, while the dangerous liquid was already well above her head, my sister tried to claw at the ground with all her remaining strength.
Although my sister managed to hold on tightly to the ground briefly, she could only give way as her muscles were exhausted and the waves grew more vigorous. After that, my memory became hazy. All that remained of this experience were vague recollections of regular pain. The cause was undoubtedly the various boxes that had resisted corrosion for longer and sunk, which my apostle's body had collided with.
The only other pain came from localized needle-like pains that pierced the flesh. Needless to say, the arrows were probably the cause. What's more, as the seconds passed, a feeling of nausea grew stronger and stronger while the very interior of my apostle's body seemed to be on fire. Of course, these were only sensations, but they were nonetheless disconcerting.
As for the latter pain, it was impossible to know whether it was a side-effect of the arrows or simply the toxicity of the mysterious substance. Either way, it didn't matter - we were going to die. Of course, the Void healed my sister every time, but so far, only in places without constant threat.
Would the Void be able to heal my apostle if arrows and poisonous substances were constantly attacking her body? Just asking the question terrified me, so I didn't even want to think about the answer. Or rather, deep down, I already knew the truth, but I didn't want to understand its horrific implications.
And so we sank into the depths of the toxic fluid, gradually losing awareness of our surroundings. The last blurred image I saw through my sister's half-open eyes was the floor opening up, giving a view of a space untouched by the dangerous liquid and vaguely human shapes. Apprehension and fear were my last emotions before her eyes closed for good.
So began the day, as our situation worsened and promised only to continue in this direction. Fortunately, I soon realized I shouldn't delude myself about what would come. After all, to say that my first real encounter with people from the Academy would not be happy was an understatement.
Unfortunately, kindness is not a trait shared by those who survive in this World and society. At least in most cases, I had witnessed a few notable exceptions during my journey to the World's top. Although it would be a long time before I encountered such anomalies…