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POV Ruby "Diligence, sometimes I do not understand the system. How much sense does it make to throw all these tutorials at that mana-obsessed lunatic? It's like throwing ninety-nine gray lizards at a dragon instead of nine. With his specialization in macro-level destruction and his reserves, Nathani

I steer clear of anyone nearby and keep walking by myself. My guess is that the system just likes to throw people in at random because of... reasons. Maybe Pride prefers it that way and is watching it all while eating popcorn. Maybe it is all the Ruler of Diligence's fault again. Most likely, it is

POV Nathaniel I want to reread the notifications, but a presence I feel nearby draws my attention. It continues to move at a slow, walking pace, still a mile away from me. It feels familiar and yet very different from the usual attendees. So I turn and start walking towards it at a similar speed. I

With just two days remaining until the tournament, I make my way through Megacity as I visit Crimson Forge, the biggest of the auction houses, and the guild headquarters. I leave some messages to be sent to Duncan and Lochi on the second floor and also meet with Talon and the vice guild master. I ev

“[Lap Pillow] skill activate!” Lily says as she gets on her knees and puts my head on her legs. Her fingers weave into my hair, massaging my skull and sometimes gently scratching it so I can feel her nails. I forcefully open my eyes, thankful for this distraction, even as the majority of me is deali

POV Ruby I watch as Nathaniel pours multiple barrels of what he calls mana water over his Nameless Tree and feeds it more body parts from the Demigod. He either doesn't realize it or doesn't even care about it that much, but the water he is pouring is unnatural, extremely rare, and just... just some

Due to the presence of that water and the nature of the Demigod's body, teleporting it outside is difficult even if the lion is dead. Demigods also seem to have something akin to the natural barrier people with the system have. The natural barrier helps with many things and grows more powerful as yo

Setting up an array that hungrily devours mana from like half the continent is surprisingly simple. What is even more shocking is that it remains surprisingly stable. I'm very flabbergasted that it didn't blow up while I went to the Beyond a few times, always buying a tutorial stay token to return a

Mid vacation post! I hope you did not get jumpscared by the notification. Anyway, I am enjoying my vacation and I hope you guys are doing well. But back to the post. Book 9 cover is finally completed and we can have a good look at Adrian and his vessel! I would say the cover is 90 - 95% lore accurat

Even while the probes continue to head deeper, I keep training. That's what these past months have been about, a near-constant training, experimenting, and preparing. Not having to deal with other people, the floor quest, and other distracting stuff, I could really explore some things. Still, it is

Neither Lily nor mini Kindness are moving now, so as I make my way through the destruction, I let out a slightly annoyed sigh. This is especially true as I look into the distance and see the airship we arrived on doing its best to escape this place. It has already picked up a nice bit of distance. O

[Calibration - lvl 29 > Calibration - lvl 30] I could remove Lily's healing marks on me, yet I don't do that. I find her use of them extremely fascinating, and it is fun trying to come up with ways to counter them. I am of the opinion that the surprises, the skills you don't know how to deal with, a

"To become a Ruler? Me?" Lily asks. Both of us and mini Kindness are sitting opposite each other near the window in the airships. This one is akin to a huge wagon tied to a balloon, powered by multiple propellers running on mana batteries. It is a kindred transportation vehicle, and this group of th

POV Bodyguard Ulrik of Frontier The guild master of the Primordial Knights enters the room with his vice guild master and the man called Talon by his side. I stand guard behind our guild master, who has Sophie Martinez by his side. It draws my attention that this pretty, black haired woman gives a s

I shut off the memory as quickly as possible, with the world around us disappearing as if someone were shutting off the lights in a huge hangar. It starts at the edge first, and then, with increasing speed, moves towards the center. There is even a distinct echo of heavy mechanical thumps through th

The party is over, and even though I didn't even consider it a place to relax and have fun, some people see it that way. Now that I am back at the guild, I have to do my Guildmaster job, as the vice guild master keeps asking for my opinion on things he could solve better on his own. Most of these th

“That sounds much better now,” I say, nodding to Ruby. She lifts her glass toward me, both of us looking out at the party as I ask, “Look, I wonder, just by the way, with no real reason behind it... Who would you say has the highest mana stat here? I'm curious about my fellow Amplificators.” The cor

I don't even have to call attendee protection services against this kidnapper of a man, and just like how Elian appeared near me, Ruby appears here as well. It is annoying, but I guess it is the right of older people to brag to younger generations by making impossible appearances like that, ones tha

POV Dame Vesta I am a Dame, and my name is Vesta. Knighted by the Grandmaster of my order, just as my mother was, and her mother before her. Our bloodline is older than the roots of the Crescent Tree itself, the very tree planted by the slave-turned-King whose glorious dynasty leads us to this day.

As is often the case, the planning and preparations took longer than expected, taking almost a week, and now only 24 hours remain before I have to join the party. Annoyingly so, I have been delivered clothes by someone who just knocked on my door and left afterwards like some annoying children from

My new tattoo is on the palm of my hand, and it is fairly simple. Just a circle with two smaller circles inside it. It is also of ever-changing color and reflects everything in the area. Since I got it, I keep poking myself, my arm, my leg, my chest, and even my forehead. A few times I tried to hold

POV Nathaniel The coating around the pill dissolves, and whatever Doc cooked up floods my body. It reaches my mana and my blood, which holds hypercondensed mana, and begins to thicken both of them. It is almost to the brink of crystallizing, and the pressure inside my body increases, forcing both to

POV Cerulean Parlor “Pick it up,” the man on the screen says, and the parlor erupts into excited shouts. Some of the people present even stand up, jumping up and down. “I TOLD YOU! I FUCKING TOLD YOU! I LOVE THAT MOTHERFUCKER!” The demon man with glasses keeps shouting and moving across the room, hi

The notification of the reward is there, simply stating that it will be given after the event concludes. I have many thoughts about the possible nature of the Mirror that I would like to delve into, but with the Wraith approaching, I decide to think of them later. Meanwhile, the Empyrean Heir is get

"Am I correct to assume the change in the system message has something to do with your lovely sword, Brich?" Fiona asks, still politely. "You can be sure of that, bitch! He might now be my true master, but I will fucking enjoy watching you bunch get a second asshole torn into you!" Calvorn stops lau

“Please sit down while we wait,” Victoria offers. At her invitation, I pull one of the chairs from a nearby table on this terrace and sit right next to her. Fiona introduces herself and her bond, and Brich introduces himself as well. As Brichant, naturally. After that, Victoria introduces her teamma

As I am about to leave the Black Tower outpost, I find one person blocking my way out of the building. That annoying catboy stands there, twitching his ears while, as always, wearing his white lab coat. After looking around to see if we are alone, he gestures for me to lift my hand. I do so, and he

Brich, who had been quietly fiddling with the ant-antenna headband on his head, lets out a snort. "She called your shirt stale pond-ice, Nathaniel," he says. I look down at my frosty-green polo. Stale pond-ice? It was the nicest thing in my closet. I think. "Fair enough," I say to Fiona, leaning bac

Following Ruby's instructions, the next day, I head to the meeting place. And that is, as always, in the upper parts of Megacity. I thought about this not that long ago, but it is like everyone powerful or important likes to have their place as high as possible. No, not on some lonely tall mountain,

“Tess, I have never been so insulted in my young life, and-” “You are twenty-four, almost twenty-five; you aren't that young anymore.” “-I can't believe you would even ask that. Of course we will kill all the kaijukakalulu.” “It's Kaiepochjiu, actually.” “Shut up, Sophie. As I said, Tess, I'm terrib

A bolt of lightning crashes from the sky, and Tess steps out of it. She is about to say something, but I hold my hand up. “It's nice to see you without you trying to stab me with an arrow, but I've got a lot of notifications to go over. And I'm way too curious about them, so if we don't have all the

Even after all these years, I am confident I could navigate it with my eyes closed. Though I am taller now, the number of steps required for me to take is less. I pass through the hallway, avoid the broken bicycle resting against the wall that no one ever bothered to steal, and walk beyond the corne

The fish falls silent after delivering the message and starts flopping around like a normal fish trying to get free. Without much hesitation, I throw it behind me, where it slaps against the face of the Demigod charging my way. The entire mental space continues to break, and the thought acceleration

Vega delivers another punch, and the Demigod's skull cracks a little. Then I grab her and move her into the path of an attack, causing its wing to break. The demigod moves and tears through the mana hands holding it, shaking us off and causing us to crash onto the street. Still holding Vega, I move

POV Sophie Martinez After all these long weeks inside the mental space, appearing back outside makes everything feel weird. My body feels heavy, and my thoughts seem more restricted. It is like I am trapped in my body. But there is no time for that. I need to bring the others out so we can use the o

There is a guard in front of the enormous metal gate, which is so thick it makes me wonder if it could endure a nuclear bomb or two or a hundred. That guard in front of it is a three headed corgi, the size of a regular corgi. (Pay) (Sacrifice) (Determination) All three heads speak. We look at each o

We currently all run on Level 2 thought acceleration. That means one second outside is around 16 minutes inside. At Level 3, it would be one second outside and three hours inside. Of course, these are not exact numbers. This is our own experimentation with many variables we failed to take into consi

“Now, this is a technique I haven't used since the 3rd floor era. And you know why? Because it's akin to a crutch. An Easy Difficulty demon could do that. Their pets could do that.” Nerdthaniel walks across the meadow while instructing most of the Group 4 members on how to compress mana. The goal is

Reflexively, I pick up Vega and hold her in my arms while she rests her head against my chest. She is taller now, and it is sadly becoming more difficult for me to hold her this way. Though I could live without the sound of her horns scraping against my bony chin. “Do you realize how dangerous this

“Sophie, what have you done?” It takes me a moment to realize that what I wanted to say was said by Tess, who stares the young girl down. Being the bigger sister now, Izzy moves protectively in front of her, and from behind her sister Sophie mutters, “Yes, it's likely my fault. I probably triggered

It is somewhat unnerving to watch them fight over who should cut my hair, especially as they begin to ask Izzy if she could burn it without hurting me, and Min-Jae starts to calculate how long it would take to pull them all out one by one. At some point, I filter that conversation out, turning it in

“I will go and meet with someone from Derick’s circle to make sure he gets the information. You don't have to come,” Tess says once we are both further away. Realizing she is doing this because she knows I dislike these kinds of things, I nod gratefully. “If needed, send me a ping through my mark, a

POV Talon Of course I recognize Guildmaster Gwyn. Even with the mask on, there isn't any other human who bears himself as he does. Accompanied by who I guess to be Tess Hansen, he makes his way down the stairs, approaching a group of five demons. I was one of the people ordered to gather information

With her arm locked in mine, Tess leads me toward the mansion. We are let inside after just a moment, as soon as she shows a ring on her pinkie finger. It is entirely purple, set with a bright yellow gem. The guard gives a small bow, and we step through the entrance. I notice that no one seems to be

POV Nathaniel Inscriptions are magic. I mean it, truly. Even now, I kind of don't know fully how they work. I go mostly by vibes, improvising, and constant changes to fix whatever circuit logic I just fried. My mind is durable enough for me to run some simulations and keep the structure open in my h

POV Nathaniel A good month has passed since we arrived at the resting place of Tariel the Undying. May he find peace in knowing that it could be worse. Instead of getting burned constantly for 300 years so he doesn't revive, he could be eaten by the kindred. If they weren't vegetarians, that is. I t

POV Christoph The man watches the corpse of the unit's leader for a moment, uncertain how to feel. After all, he can sense that this man was a distant relative of his, a part of his bloodline started all the way back during the time when he was Absolute of Thalassa. He also recognizes the procedure

POV Elisabeth Jonas, First Contact Specialist for the National Office for Returnee Affairs (NORA) I quickly finish the carac I am eating, thinking that if there is something to die for, it is this. Or at least until next week when I discover something better. My assistant rushes behind me as I wipe

The train makes a circle around the mountains, switching tracks a few times so we don't hit other trains. There is a lot of space for it, as almost as far as I can see is a grassy flatland only dotted with some ruins, smaller forests, or rivers. In the middle of this all, the volcano with the skelet

One day I might truly beat a severe illness that is, thank the gods, not infectious. Mana deficiency is something I have had to fight since my childhood, and most of my problems could be attributed to it. But now? With over 10,000 mana instead of the feeble whatever it was before? Yes, I should not