Chapter 903 - One shard
POV Ceruleran Parlor
“10 million shards on him dying,” a mora woman in an all-white sundress says.
“10 million he takes one of the Champions with him,” the man with a bear face counters.
“Lady Kindness, are you not going to join our bets?” the woman with a half-spider body asks with a polite smile on her human face. Her spider face unblinkingly watches the Ruler with all its eyes.
“It would be unfair to bet against you kids,” the Ruler waves it off and rests against the person who is Nathaniel Gwyn’s handler, a woman with black hair with bits of red in it. “And what do you think? How will your ward do?”
“Adequately,” she answers.
“How very serious,” Kindness smiles even more, leaning against her friend.
“Seeing what he has done as of late and how he did against Nyssa Volare, he could probably face one of the weaker Handlers, couldn't he?” This time it is a lynthari, uncharacteristically entirely covered in fur. Body, face, all of it. That lynthari man even has a slightly more cat-like mouth he smiles with as his fluffy tail swings.
“Thankfully, there are no such people accepted into this parlor,” the demon man with glasses sitting near him snorts. “The human has guts.”
“If even you say so,” the lynthari gives a quick flash of his fangs. “How is your buddy, the Hornless, doing? Not scared he will be next after Envy?”
“How brave of you to talk about him that way when you wouldn't even be able to stand in his presence. Or did you hide your heartbeats from us? Are you at the level of Lord Wrath to talk that way?” the demon returns.
“You, my handsome fellas, can fight once this is over. Do not ruin this rare opportunity for the others, especially as I'm putting on a show for you.” A feylith woman with huge wings wearing a sleeveless dress smiles at the two men and then gestures at the spider woman. “My dear, we haven't heard your opinion.”
“Oh, Lady Lust, my opinion does not matter in comparison to everyone present here,” the spider woman gives a gentle smile. “But since it's you who asked, in my humble opinion, the human will make it out alive. As for his state, I'm not sure about that. The Champions he has decided to challenge seem like a great fit, but we all know there are always surprises.”
“I wonder what Diligence would bet on. Kant, what would your Colony leader say?” the man with the bear head asks another member of the parlor.
In reaction to that, the vessel of the Ruler of Diligence lifts his head from the device he was toying with, something akin to a far more complicated Rubik's Cube.
That vessel is a huge, muscular velnar man sitting there hunched over, timidly giving a quick, nervous smile. “The First One wouldn't care, I guess, but I personally hope he gets crushed. Though Zant seems to like him, so maybe not? He could be a decent guy I could befriend, but he made fun of the First One, so he can die too. It's complicated!”
The voice that comes from him is soft too, unfitting of his muscular body or the words he just spoke. Then, ignoring everything else, he looks back down at the device and continues to tinker with it.
At that moment, the door opens, a new figure stands outside, simply giving a nod, one of the local employees taking care of the place and the needs of the people inside.
That selari man giving a polite nod says, “The Ruler of Greed has sent a message that she is betting 100 million shards on the victory of attendee Nathaniel Gwyn. An anonymous Ruler has also bet 1 shard on the attendee Nathaniel Gwyn.”
With that, the doors close to an explosion of muttering once the selari man leaves.
“It can't be.”
“It wasn't him, right?”
“There is no way.”
“It has to be a prank. Possibly Humility? She likes those kinds of jokes.”
“As if he would ever notice someone like that human.”
“But isn't he his Adept?”
And then the Ruler of Lust snorts, “That high-nosed bitch Greed once again doesn't even show up and just sends a message like we are some trash.” The feylith flickers her wings in annoyance.
While hiding the gesture, Kindness gives a big smile to the Handler she rests against, who rolls her eyes.
Then the attention of everyone turns back to the screen just as the man in huge armor takes a step onto the 5th floor, once again sacrificing 15 stats of Constitution.
"Now, I am curious what-" the words of the bear man cut off.
That man then leaves, returning to the 4th floor.
"Oh, did our attendee get cold feet?" the lynthari gives a chuckle that shows his fangs in their full beauty, but his words also halt.
The armored man on the screen enters the 5th floor again, only to instantly leave so he can enter the 5th floor again while the people present watch in shock.
"What the actual fuck."
And again.
And one last time.
POV Nathaniel
I take my time, getting used to my lowered constitution while I look around. As always, I appear in a different spot from before, so I pull up the map in my mind and try to locate myself in relation to the two Champions I want to face.
The ones I picked are not that far from each other. There is only one other Champion somewhat close-ish, but they are known for having poor perception.
So far everything goes according to plan, and as I use mana and kinetic energy to move my armor, the earth shakes under me. Through so many layers of defenses, the air smells weird. Too clean, maybe?
After ten or so minutes, I’m somewhat adapted and begin to trigger the preprogrammed skills I have stored in the vast archive of my unique pristine passive. One after another, these intricate steps activate, requiring me to fuel them.
Useful for sure, but not as fun as having to adapt and actively do it. But it is fun in its own way. Humans are just built to strive for convenience, efficiency, and ways to game the rules, from the intern trying to find ways to slack off at work, to some asshole CEO thinking about how to avoid taxes just a little bit more.
An [Empyrean Lance], unlike any I have made before, stretches as tall as I am in my Regalia. It then launches high into the air, tied to a thread I [Weave] for connection so I’m ready to pull it back, plus some kinetic propulsion nodes glued to it to add more oomph.
[Empyrean Lance - lvl 71 > Empyrean Lance - lvl 72]
I watch that lance disappear beyond the fake clouds, thinking it might be one of the last times I see it. After all, [Empyrean Lance] is something my current class gave me, and it will be gone once I get a new one. Though I have my plans here, too.
Multiple normal projectiles form all over, floating near me, each half my height and as dense and heavy as I can make them.
Continuously, I allow my eyes to take in more and more information while doing a last check-up and fine-tuning the movements of my armor.
It might be because I’m dallying a little, but I open my status to give myself that last boost of confidence.
Name: Nathaniel Gwyn
Title: Absolute Candidate
Difficulty: Hell
Rank: S, Radiant Gold
Guild: Primordial Knights
Floor: 12 - Ancient Weapons of War
Time left until forced return: 1y 176d 19h 10m 3s
Traits (3/3): Preeminence Eyes 3/5, Mana Vessel 2/4, Empyrean Ichor (Purity: 36%) 2/5
Lvl 443
Strength: 395
Dexterity: 379
Constitution: 10
Mana (Stage 1/3 - Vast Mana): 2536 + 2536
Primary Class: Mana Weaver (Unique Arcane)
Sub-class: [Adept of Pride]
Active skills (9/10):
Focus - Lvl 86
Redistribution - Lvl 84
Eclipse (Pride) - Lvl 79
Empyrean Lance - Lvl 72
Manifestation - Lvl 69
Weave - Lvl 55
Selective Adaptation - Lvl 49
Mana Manipulation - Lvl 88
Attunement - Lvl 29
Constructs:
Kinetic Mana Heart
Sealed Ignition Heart (Partially Sealed, 1/3)
Sovereign Chassis
Passive skills (4/5):
Heat Resonance Restoration (Low Pristine)
Cognitive Vector Module (Unique Pristine)
Adaptive Defense (Low Pristine)
Mana Tempering (Low Pristine)
Tokens:
Send a single item to your disciple (up to epic rarity)
Beyond visitor token - 1 year (unlocked after tutorial)
Beyond 14 day stay token (x 22)
Ten minute Disciple Communication token (x3)
Mid Pristine item
Shards: 6,123,923
There is, obviously, my new construct that went much smoother than expected. As silly as it is for me to say, I’m just an attendee using a shovel to recreate something the system integrates on microscopic levels with eons of data.
Yet, I’m very happy with this one.
Congratulations, you have created a new Construct. The name will be kept as such and will be shown in the status under active skills and over passive skills. Well done!
Sovereign Chassis (construct): A controlling chassis integrated deep inside of your body and mind. It is directly connected to your Cognitive Vector Module, allowing for scaling up that is limited only by your mana.
It does all it could previously, just better, and most of it is thanks to my passive and the vector module it created deep inside of me that I connected to.
That is why my constitution is now ten. My construct, with the help of my specially dedicated submind and my unique passive, takes care of it all. It does body reinforcement, it helps with Mana Cycling, it helps with primordial energies, it keeps the mana inside of me mine, and all that stuff.
And this isn't the end of it. I saved space for future improvements.
Taking a breath of overly filtered air, I move my hand, just the one of my real body, not the armor. The layer of woven mana threads opens a spot as I grab the syringe Doc and I prepared and modified for gradual activation. I inject it into my heart, which, according to our design, begins to speed up. I boost myself into the air and begin to run in that huge armor.
Slow at first, but with time, as I pick up momentum, I speed up, breaking through the trees and crushing huge stone boulders as the earth cracks and shakes under me.
More breaths, all slow and steady as my thought acceleration begins, and I concentrate on all my preparations.
[Focus - lvl 86 > Focus - lvl 87]
The area where I’m heading is ten minutes away moving at this speed, so I scan over my status again.
I had hoped to purify my Ichor a bit more than by 6%, but despite all the attempts I made, it refused to budge. I suspect it will require trait strengthening before I can do it again or just much more time.
There are also new passives.
Incredibly, an Adaptive Defense appeared in the list of buyable passives once I got [Attunement].
Adaptive Defense (Low Pristine) - Each incoming attack registers its damage profile upon impact. Subsequent strikes of the same nature suffer heavy, stacking mitigation, while associated status effects lose their effectiveness.
Since I have [Selective Adaptation] and all that, my future goal is obvious. If I fail to get [Adaptation], I might as well lie on the floor of the sacred machine and let kindred children paint on me until lead poisoning from the paint, in combination with my inborn mana deficiency, takes me.
Just for a moment, I allow my Ignition Heart to pick up and direct the thermal energy it generates through the nodes I built into the armor. Flames spark and then burst from the back and the bottom of my feet, sending streams of fire as long as a bus and pushing me forward faster.
I crash against a giant tree without so much as slowing down. I cross a river with water spraying everywhere and boost myself up a hill that breaks under me, causing a small avalanche that I ride on before boosting myself half a mile through the air.
After landing on a mountain, I run across the peak and jump off, adding another boost onto the trees in the middle of the forest and shattering them.
The flames boosting me ahead spread between the trees, raising the temperature, setting them on fire, and burning them to ash. Even as I get further away, the flames continue to spread, setting the forest ablaze.
When I step back onto the rock, the accumulated heat at the bottom of my feet from the nodes heats up the stone, partially melting it.
I open my status again and read the description of my other passive obtained by using a reward, and not by using 24 million or so shards like in the case of Adaptive Defense.
I also sold Mana Wave Predation, which I quite liked, but it had long been lagging behind now that I can do all these things actively to a greater extent, all thanks to what I've done to my body. Without it, there isn't even that little bit left to rely on, which will force me to push my active mastery further.
And then there is my newest passive, picked out of the three I was offered, with the others being Mana Permanence (Low Pristine) and Corrosive Current (Low Pristine).
Mana Tempering (Low Pristine) - The user's mana aggressively tempers with every impact it takes, meaning active manifestations grow drastically more unyielding and destructive the harder they are hit.
I wonder if there has ever been an attendee with four Low Pristine passives, one of them even being unique.
My scan detects the presence I’m going toward, and it detects me. Knowing what will attract the second Champion, I weave a powerful flame orb and launch it in the direction of its territory. That guy hates flames, and his detection range and reaction to them are very wide. He will be here soon enough.
Of course, the Champion grade being I’m currently heading toward awakens too and begins to shake up from its slumber.
I sacrifice a few huge chunks of mana required to move me along with the huge mecha and perform three very long range teleports, with the last one bringing me high up.
Appearing in the air, I release thermal energy through the nodes in my back and boost myself toward the ground at a speed I increase with kinetic energy.
I break through the top of the mountain, which explodes across the area, and the rock melts around me as I pass down and break deep into the cavern.
There, I slam against the still barely awake hydra that lifts its five heads up in confusion, right as I crash against its body and pin it against the ground.
Comments (109)
Thank you for the chappy and the next chapter button!
Nyssa was 100% over level 450 with her primary class upgrade.
A single drop of hair serum would kill this man.
If the 1-shard bet is Pride I'd bet its because his nascent-godhead detects Adept->Mastery transition incoming or something. Its such a tempting bit to get before upgrading the class to 450 I want to believe. A part of me also wants it to be Temperance, though, because of his conversations with Nat both in the tutorial ("Champion of my People" dialogue goes so hard) and via Felix at the Game. Identifying with Nat's need to protect his world from Fraudrian and all that.
One problem/ internal consistency issue with this chappie - Nat seems to think he'll lose [Empyrean Lance] with the class upgrade, but he definitely has no reason that we know of to think that. As proof: When he upgraded Focused Channeler to Mana Weaver, he still had [Mana Domain], which was one of his Focused Channeler skills, and didn't lose it in the class upgrade. So we've seen this exact sort of thing happen in a class upgrade without him losing a skill. That said, he does need to merge at least one non-[Mana Manipulation] based skill combo to make room for a new skill slot during this fight, or he won't be able to get new skills from his level 450 class, which would be sad. Midfight [Attunement] and [Selective Adaptation]? or maybe he hits Master of Pride mid-fight and there's a skill merge token reward for it that lets him do a 3-skill merger involving some of the skills he hasn't been able to feed to a token? Part of me was really hoping he'd figure out how to do a proper challenge and leverage that for unique rewards (I was specifically thinking of a Champions Level 2 Mana Potency upgrade, which there's no way to normally get and would both be game breaking and force Nat to push himself even harder, and his insane current tutorial status and Beyond ranking MIGHT with some fingers on the scales from Ruby/Kindness let him challenge for? If not the upgrade, then just even more raw mana stat from a mana centric champ)
He kept [Mana Domain] because it was strengthened with his Pride. Otherwise it would've been lost.
Cerim, wanted to say you’ve always nailed the nuance of showing mc do something that no one else does. It’s constantly a problem no one else wants to or could really deal with, just Nat - making sense why everyone is always shocked at it, not just mc dick riding. Even I still feel like come on man really? when I know you won’t let him stop until he’s at CON 1 or 0 probably, the maniac
Is it just me or is Nat building his own proto-Elysian Frame?
Huh, didnt think about that
I gonna take credit for nat sacrificing all of his constitution. As I said he would when we learned you had to sacrifice stats to move to the next floor.
507:1 Mana to consitution. Its beautiful.
Tftc! Did I just read what I read? I think I did. Mana Daddy wants the same power as Daddyraga! Which would make… Manaraga…
Of course…a hydra. Something with ridiculous regeneration. I’m guessing the other champion is a troll since the only thing better than going against one unkillable enemy is going against two.
Needs to drag out at least one of the fights for maximum skill gains, obviously. And, I suspect, an at least a partial reaction to his earlier fight against the Adjudicator.
Sovereign impact baby 🌋
He NEEDS to give his sovereign mech a crown
What are the odds Nat accidentally attracts a third Champion and stomps it too?
Dunno about stomping a 3rd, but the odds of pulling #3 are basically 100% according to Sod's law 😂
Can't wait to see what happens with his skills when he gains a new class; leaving a open passive slot seems wise- he ran into this sort of issue last time. But his active skills: he actually already has 10/10, he's just hiding one from himself. Very very interested to see how the system handles that- does it forcibly remind him of the fact when he has to get rid of something? I'm hoping we don't just sidestep the whole issue by auto replacing empyrean lance. I can't remember: did skills get auto-replaced last class upgrade? That seems unfortunate if so.
Nat seems to already accept losing empyrian lance- perhaps by some subconscious knowlege of redactthaniel and sneakythaniel telling regularthaniel that he needs to lose a skill this class upgrade, otherwise he may have attempted to merge lance with something else
TFTC
Thanks for the chapter cerim! This one really shows who our Moskito constitution mc really is. Rulers checking on him, he doing incredibly (stupid by most) things and fucking owning it having pushed further than anyone before. Damn amazing! Buuuuuuut: we need a double chapter week!!! This suspense till his class evolution is killing me :D
I dont remember why he's keeping his constitution so low. Does it have to do with his physique? Is he planning to upgrade it when he becomes a champion? Dont come for me; I know it was explained, I just dont remember the explanation haha
He wants to see what effects active skills have on his body long term, and the effects take place faster the lower his constitution. He mentioned even Lissandra seems interested in this experiment
He really pointed at his system and said 'there are only three attributes'.
There are four lights!
I just thought of something fun...probably not realistic but still fun. So Nat can store pre programed constructs into his mind now. I dont see anything saying they have to be constructs of his own making! So wouldn't that mean he possibly could store a hige amount of Lilly's healing marks? They are constructs after all arnt they? Can you imagine he's got somewhere in the range of 500 healing marks saved up and how much of a cheat he would be?
My guess would be he would fail since he is unable to replicate the intricate component that rely on healing skills. At least for now
"'Oh, did our attendee get cold feet?' the lynthari gives a chuckle that shows his fangs in their full beauty, but his words also halt. The armored man on the screen enters the 5th floor again, only to instantly leave so he can enter the 5th floor again while the people present watch in shock. 'What the actual fuck.'" Noob Handlers don't even recognize top tier strats. I bet they're all chumps with over 100 constitution!
Nat is going to finally add (6) points to Con next level up …so he can do it again and drop it to 1
He would never waste points that could go to mana that way, he'd just re-enable active tempering for constitution.
I think it would be super funny for the system to fix his constitution when applying his new class upgrade. The system decides that as a nice reward for doing so much it grants nat 200 free fixed constitution.
Make it 201 constitution and its a real reward
thanks for all the chappies
Nat still has a year and a half left in the tutorial. The real question is what will the final tournament be like when the champion level nathaniel competes against everyone else at the same time?
All those poor planets without most of their first generation to guide them. RIP.
Isn't kindness laying on greed? and the bear man going back to the 4th floor? wth is going on in the first half of the chapter? it's impossible to follow the conversation there before nays pov... I can't tell who's talking.. I know someone out here can help me! please pretty please
I believe kindreds is laying on greed, yes. But greed in her handler ID, which isn’t widely known to be Greed. When Nat first meets her she is pretending to not be Greed if you remember — I think it’s the same here.
Why did the Ruler of Dilligence have to trash the 5th floor of Beyond? We all saw Nate busting a couple of Champs but that Mana blast that wiped the whole floor was completely uncalled for and only a Ruler could do a thing like that.
Is mana tempering just adaptive defense but for mana instead of his body? He really is just going for the end goal of making his body fully mana no con and relying on his adaption skills and construct to hold his mana form together
Nat also buys some passives with the intent to learn from them and eventually replicate them manually if he can. He mentioned in this chapter about how he plans to push his active skill to get the effects he previously relied on Mana Wave Predation going forward, forcing him to do it actively. I can definitely see him planning to do the same thing long term with this one. Tbh if he can't unlock Mid-Pristines in the system shop 'farming' a few low-pristine passives to learn from them might be a fairly effective way of learning new tricks and pushing his skills up higher and higher.
We've got confirmation that Humility is female. Do we think it could be Niall?
I think it’s Dili. 1 shard bc he is not one to gamble needlessly, but I think because he was on the front lines witnessing Nat’s recent exploits he thinks Nat will succeed.
I wonder if Lust knows Greed is present, but since Ruby won't reveal herself, Lust uses it as an opportunity to be a bitch
Thank you!
Will Nat's abuse of stat lowering nake Rulers remove the penalty for future Beyonders?
this assumes the Rulers have influence over floor 5. There are theories floating around that the real world dungeon starts on floor 5, and floors 1-4 were added on by the tutorial when creating Beyond
He should use Redacthaniel to rename the disciple communication token to “Minion Communication Token.” Can’t rely on the systems weak naming sense.
That would be proper.
12th floor nat is the one destined to surpass 3rd floor nat
Bet he would have gone lower than 10 if he could have
Pride the goat may have interacted with Nat our goat
If its pride that has bet on him. Its probably because hes slightly impressed with Nats pride towards mana. Afterall, I doubt theres another attendee currently with such resolve and dedication towards a single stat. Not even Tactica or Jean... sure they choose it over everything else, but not to the point they could actively die. I can imagine since the systems arrival, there probably haven't been many that have taken the path Nat has.
Like the handler said, Nat is an Adept of Pride
Kevin is still stronger
Rulers know each other disguises, so I find it hillarious that Lust just throws garbage on Ruby while she sits there and can't defend herself, what a gremlin
Tftc what happened to the 50 million shards from selling Ruby's sleeve? Is he dropping skills for his new class?
He was taxed 50% by Ruby then bought the int-scaling mind processing passive
I ship Adaptive Defense and Mana Tempering 💘
yes
Still stronger than the strongest base level human pre-system, physically weaker than a noble lady’s pet’s newborn
So did he finally fix his body by recreating it into a single construct?
Perhaps.
He literally can't pay 15 Constitution to enter the floor again lol
I wonder what would happen if he tried. If it's deadly then this means he can't revisit floor 5 again until he raises his Con
TFTC! GO MECHATHANIAL! ROCKET PUNCH HHHAAAAA!!
How many is he going to kill ?
Yes.
Normal attendees be like; you have a con mana ratio of 1:5 thats crazy, Meanwhile nat; 1:500
"What the actual fuck." Ah these people still aren't familiar with Exploithaniel despite everything they've seen of him so far? Maybe these bozos were invited so Greed can make bank out of betting against them.
He’ll just draw every champion on the planet to him and detonate the largest mana bomb in the history of the tutorial to wipe them all out at once.
Poor hardworking hydra wondering why the Ruler of Diligence woke it up from its sleep
The Ruler of Diligence really needs to stop dropping his stuff everywhere. He threw away is mana scraps and crushed the poor sleeping hydra…smh
Didn't he already use the mid pristine item token for the twins or is this from another reward?
It's a reward for entertaining 6th floor
Yes lower the Con to the limit... Maximize the changes to his body... Allow the flow to fix his mana defficiancy.
Man, I hope Kant's first name is Immanuel
Yeah, hahaha
😂 nat with " and I'll funkin do it again" moment, lowering his constitution to get the best reward, damn hummingbird body
Can't wait to see where this Constitution of 10 business is going! Completely normal behavior and still so starved for mana. Someone please give him some. Poor guy! Tftc!
Thanks for the chapter!
It's smirk-worthy remembering how Nat invested all his first stat points into constitution.
We don't talk about that time...
"Dynamic, ENTRY!" 😆
Can't wait for nath to decrease his constitution to 1 and maybe 0 if that's possible! Btw nath started with 3 constitution so he's almost back to what he was when he was a base human!
TFTC. I can't help but think that as massive as that alpha-strike was on the hydra, when OrbitalBombardment-thaniel's Empyrean Lance hits the second champion, it will be cataclysmic!
Totally 10 Con Normal Absolute Candidate Attendee Nat....doing Totally Normal Nat Things.... Glorious!
That hair growth serum would actually kill him now
10 Constitution! He really is a hummingbird :O If it is Pride betting one shard, I wonder what it means? A tacit approval of Nat's path? It's still surprising he'd know about anyone from a Tutorial given how powerful he is. Maybe Nat's more on the radar cause of Liss?
Pride isn’t stupid. Nat is one of the most powerful Beyond attendees possibly ever with over a year still remaining in the tutorial. He is also the personal disciple of the image of his greatest foe to date in Lassandra while also being an adept of his own subclass. There is no genuinely powerful ruler remotely connected to the tutorial who doesn’t know about Nat and with all the connections Nat has to the ruler Pride there is no way he does not pay attention.
TFTC!
Thank you for the chappie! If only we saw the total reactions of everyone in the Cerulean Parlor to Nat reducing his con further. Maybe if he gets enough mana it’ll just replace his body.
This is my going theory for a while now, Nathaniel will replace his body completely with mana ( already have a human shape vessel and just here he made human density mana orbs ) and at the very end will advance to be a new kind of mana god
Mana daddy stomping on a poor sleeping hydra champion. The horror.
Interesting that not even other rulers can tell its Greed in disguise. Do they all assume she is a subordinate of kindness?
Tftc
12th floor Nathaniel is the Goat!! He has upgraded his hummingbird constitution to mosquito constitution. Hopefully this will help with his chronic mana deficiency
Man this really just keeps getting better for every book. TFTC
Damn you got my ass with that filler chapter, really excited to see what will happen
Why does Greed hide their title as ruler to some?
I just think she likes messing with them
TFTC! I can't wait to see what Jaeger-thanial can do
What was the last time you ate out?
I'm dying here Nath is the best
What's the constitution on average level one ? I forgot
Tftc!!
TFTC!!!
!
TFTC!!