Chapter 939 - Candy
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 the touch longer and concentrate, or give an out-loud order to activate the tattoo.
Unfortunately, I am being cheated here, and it cannot be used on me. It seems that due to the assholish system, I am not considered a correct target.
Anyway, the tattoo must be used smartly. In the best case, I will use it on someone with a very, very high mana stat so I can keep a nice percentage of that to myself.
It truly has been a long time since I have seen my second most favorite ant. Maybe I can try to contact my most favorite Zant and ask him to let me meet Dili. In the best case, somewhere on Domus.
And I will have to require that, for no specific reason, he, during that meeting, connects to the Colony and gathers as many stat points as possible.
Then I want to pet him.
Yes, I want to pet that gigantic house pest. A good ant. There’s no hidden motive here, I just want to pet him. After all, why not? Is the desire to pet a giant ant not relatable? Normal humans do that, don't they? They feel the urge to pet a Bengal tiger, a polar bear, a lion, or an angry, hungry corgi. The most dangerous creatures on Earth.
There might be a high chance of, and I use the scientific term here, kaboom, but I think it is worth the risk. For science.
Of course, I still don't know if the tattoo will work and if there isn't some sort of limit. But I am an optimist at hearts when I want to be, and right now I like to imagine that the tattoo has a sort of absolute effect, working even on much more powerful targets. After all, it is exactly as the system notification said. It is unusual.
I don't think I have met with a similar effect until now, and permanently increasing my stats in that way truly sounds like either a prototype or a rather forgotten method. Overall, this brings out many more questions.
Brich’s body is heavier than I even expected as I throw him over my shoulder with just a minute or so remaining until the end of the event. That is also when Fiona and Dame Vesta join me as well, both of them alive, though carrying the marks of the fight.
The Duchess is smiling even as she is keeping her hand pressed on some special bandage she applied to the hole straight through her side.
“I never faced such impressive projectiles before. The sheer piercing power and the anti-healing effects were astounding. And Nathaniel, your sister came up with the corpse of that impressive Empyrean Heir, and everyone else started to fight for pieces of her body. It was extremely barbaric and so exciting! I was able to scare a few people and secured myself two toes, a piece of her arm, plenty of blood, and some bones. I don't know what to do with it, and I am sure some weaker people will die due to the radiation of the pieces they got!”
“It seems so,” I agree with her. Not wanting to act like an ass and ruin her excitement, I instead gesture at her wound and ask, “Are you doing well?”
“I find myself feeling rather lightheaded, and my passive abilities and healing skills refuse to address the wound, so it continues to bleed. I cannot even utilize the healing marks I purchased, as the projectile appears to cause the injury to reject mana in a peculiar fashion.”
Fiona then gestures for me to stay quiet and sways slightly. She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath or two, and opens her eyes again, still showing some of that excitement. A bit of blood flows from her mouth.
“I almost passed out right here!” Fiona says. “Nathaniel, in case I do pass out, can you carry me too? I would prefer a more dignified hold than what you are showing with Lord Brichant, but if left with no other choice, carrying me like a bag of potatoes works too!”
Looking at the red-haired woman, I am once again reminded that people in the Hell tutorial indeed aren't normal, with the exception of me. Beyonders, and especially S ranks, seem to be even worse. With the sole exception of me.
I reach into one of my pockets and fish out Lily's finger bone that has one of her most powerful healing marks on it. She often likes to gift them to us to use on other people, or to just get some money by selling them. It is like a grandma giving pieces of candy to her favorite grandchildren.
She even spoke of thinking about making a necklace out of them after shaping the bones into something a little nicer.
As always, the activation requires a bit of my mana, and I know that the ownership will carry over to the next person whose mana or blood touches it. I can also activate it manually without all that, but Lily likes to make them completely dumb-proof.
When I throw it to Fiona, she grabs it automatically, and a bit of the blood she has on her hand touches it. This makes the healing mark turn to dust, allowing that healing mana to immediately flood her body.
Lily spoke of some diagnostic marks, regeneration marks, the marks that heal in one powerful burst, and such, and I have multiple sorts of them. I am not even sure which one I handed out, but I am confident any would work, as Fiona doesn't even seem to be in that bad of a state.
Actually, this should be her most optimal battle-ready state.
I simply refuse to carry her as well, and I watch as her eyes widen as if she has just taken a sharp gulp of strong alcohol. Her face twists in a bit of pain that instantly disappears as if it was never there. With even greater surprise, she pulls back the bandage, revealing skin that is smooth and perfectly restored.
“Ten thousand shards,” I say.
An understanding flashes across her face. She smiles a bit and then looks away, staring out at the horizon. I also follow her gaze as the fake sun begins to set over the destroyed Echo Plane. Dame Vesta climbs out of somewhere inside her clothes and gets onto the top of Fiona's hair.
We stand there bathing in the fake rays of the weird source of the lightning at the ceiling of this enormous dungeon somewhere in the center of our universe.
I hoist Brich's body higher on my shoulder, and a slight breeze pushes against us.
“Mister Gwyn,” Fiona says with a distant gaze, “I am ashamed to inform you that I currently have 5365 shards.”
“I see.”
“I lost them all gambling.”
“I see.”
“Yes.”
After that, we continue to stand there until the Echo Plane shakes, phasing us back onto the original second floor of the beyond.
On my way back to Megacity and through the Beyond floors, I stop by the Catboy, setting up a later meeting where Lily will participate as well. I promise him that Lily will bring Kindness's clone in exchange for his help with my trait upgrade that I chose out of my constant pop-up reward messages.
Due to my promise of bringing Kindness's clone here, I get a system vow from the Doc that he won't eat the Empyrean Heir's heart I will leave there, or mess with the sample of the Wraith's heretical blood and some other materials.
The catboy even promises me to defend it. No, he vows to me to defend it all, even against Handlers. I know a big part of Handlers are Absolutes, but the way he makes that declaration, I believe him that he would do that. There is a chance he would fail, but I don't underestimate his legendary spite that I learned about. That Absolute would sooner or later die in some original, exotic, and horrible way.
I barely keep Brich's body from his grubby fingers too, and some time later, upon reaching Megacity, I drop the lumoran in front of the headquarters of Crimson Forge and leave right away. Calvorn stays there as well, properly shut and sealed, though with a promise that I will have a conversation with him before Brich finishes his tutorial and returns to his world.
Sometimes it is easy to forget that that man, that crazy lumoran, is likely the most talented person of his world out of millions or hundreds of millions.
There is a high chance he will become their Absolute.
Life is weird like that.
Once I reach my room in the guild headquarters, I head straight to the balcony where I sit down next to Ruby, who watches the city below. Heretic's Needle clangs on the table as I drop it there. It is as long as my feet and seems to be made out of metallicized blood.
Ruby ignores it for a while, but that doesn't last long, and she turns to look at it.
I carefully examine her expression but fail to find anything on it, as she does a good job hiding it, so I just snort, a bit annoyed.
Likely due to that, she gives a small smile, and after she taps on it, the needle disappears, teleported somewhere else.
“You are invited to join a party in a few days,” she says.
“Am I?”
“Yes, as an S rank you receive an automatic invitation to it. The party is about welcoming a new wave of Handlers to the Beyond. There is an entire tradition set around it, about which you can learn more from some of Thane's people.”
“I'm not a party type.”
“I think you might want to see some of the new Handlers.”
“You seem annoyed,” I note.
“Because I am. There are people abusing ancient rules we set long ago when we built the Beyond and forgotten about most of them already. Due to the way we handled it, there isn't much I can do about it either. You could say they have diplomatic immunity until they break some of our rules.”
“That sounds a bit more fun. Count me in then. Any more info you can tell me about the event now that it's done?”
"What is there to say other than the obvious? I made it so Brich would go because that meant Calvorn would be there, and with that, there was a very high chance of the Wraith appearing."
"But not 100%?"
"No, but I was fairly confident. Amusingly enough, there was a third team too, made of three S ranks, but the Heir that appeared near where they were noticed you instantly and went after you, and that team wasn't able to catch up before the event ended."
"Any specific reason why I angered the heir that much?"
"Similarly to the wolf clan that your cute bond is a visitor of, the Empyrean at the time, from where the Heir was from, used to hunt down anyone with the bloodline. It was likely due to a similar reason the wolf clan avoids using pantophagic energy too much."
"You won't tell me what the needle is for?"
"I won't."
"I expected as much. Also, please, tell Kindness to stop stealing mini Kindness from Lily. She always grumbles about having to fix the clone after Kindness uses it as a vessel, but she improves a lot doing so, and some of the things she does afterwards scare me."
"Actually, this is Kindness being tame and somewhat reasonable. Once in a while, there are decades when she decides to be much more bratty about the things she wants, and as you can imagine, there is not much she would fear."
To that I can only stay silent and suffer. I think as of late Lily has started to enjoy it like some sort of competition or a game, and I am not sure if I want to know what it led to.
“Then, thank you for the needle. I will make sure to pay you back. Later, I will send someone to you with more information about the welcome party.” Ruby stands up and disappears even before finishing that movement.
With her gone, I create a few training orbs and open my status.
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 125d 22h 11m 33s
Traits (3/3): Preeminence Eyes 3/5, Mana Vessel 2/4, Empyrean Ichor (Purity: 36%) 2/5
Lvl 490
Strength: 398
Dexterity: 384
Constitution: 9
Mana (Stage 1/3 - Vast Mana): 5174 + 5174
Primary Class: Mana Primarch (Unique Pristine)
Sub-class: [Adept of Pride]
Active skills (8/10):
Focus - Lvl 88
Redistribution - Lvl 86
Eclipse (Pride) - Lvl 83
Manifestation - Lvl 74
Weave - Lvl 61
Mana Manipulation - Lvl 88
Jüdrajil - Lvl 29
Calibration - Lvl 25
Constructs:
Kinetic Mana Heart
Sealed Ignition Heart (Partially Sealed, 1/3)
Sovereign Chassis
Tattoo of the Fractured Mirror 3/3
Passive skills (5/5):
Heat Resonance Restoration (Low Pristine)
Cognitive Vector Module (Unique Pristine)
Adaptive Defense (Low Pristine)
Mana Tempering (Low Pristine)
Synergy Feed (Mid 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 (x2)
Mid Pristine item
Shards: 9,724,423
That reminds me that I will need to get my shards from the auction for the items I put there, as well as see if I have a buyer for the key to the 6th floor of the Beyond after all. With all this, I can count on a really nice sum being added, especially for talnium.
Once I leave a message for Lily, I can head back to the Catboy tomorrow and begin preparations.
This time I will be evolving my eyes.
Comments (68)
New handler guna get slimmed
Nat refused to carry Fiona, not because he is lazy, but because he didn't want another red-headed woman getting the wrong idea and behaving jealously :P
Has it always been "The Beyond"? I thought it was just Beyond?
A cool name for the eye upgrade could be singularity eyes? Cos of what Liss Liss did on floor two, maybe big nat dog could get an even stronger variant of mana manip through just his sight? Idk how itd work, but i liked the name :)
Do you think the stat mirroring will have different results depending on which attribute the target has enhanced, and which stage they are at? Like if he mirrored a mana potency stage 2, would he somehow acquire a small permanent improvement to the potency of his mana?
wavelength iris to Preeminence eyes to something even further evolved based on mana primarch... ya, his brain and eyes might really explode this time
Only if he's incompetent. This will be good training for him, and he might finally start to close the gap between him and the noble ladies pets.
Omg mirec really reads comments! We asked him for it previous chapter and he gave us the status window updated! What a goat!
why the eyes tho?
Who wants to bet this trait upgrade will result in his constitution lowering again
The way Greed worded that, it seems possible to me that some of the anti-System people are going to be Handlers.
So Nat will fight new Handlers and if they lose to a tutorial attendee like he is, they get dismissed and can't become Handlers.
Holy shit Nat actually has a decent amount more than a year left in the tutorial. This whole time I thought it was just a little over a year. He’s already the highest leveled attendee within the past 3000 years and he has 1 year 100 days+ left??? I think he genuinely has a decent chance of reaching absolute level before the end of the tutorial. Hell, he’s already capable of creating scalar beacons, something that only absolute level beings can do 🤷♂️
Tftc
Would make too much sense to use this as a shortcut to raising his constitution above that of a baby’s for him to actually consider it I guess.
I wonder what Nat will pick for his mid-pristine item that he’s had a token for so long? Probably not a weapon, but maybe something to complement the chest piece that the 3 aliens are making for him
I was wondering how Lissandra would get back in the story. Perhaps she will become a diplomatically immune handler.
I suspect Adrian will be party as well.
Also also: why not, as payment for the needle, accept a measly couple handshakes or even a hug or two from Ruby?? Seems only fair.
I thought Mana Manipulation was 89?
Also!: 8/10 active skills??? I know it's actually 9, but still it seems like one of the most exciting points for character advancement/evolution: what is he going to get as his next skill? I know he likes to do ahit his own way but I'd love to hear what ruby or lissandra think he should work towards to take on christoph or eventually Pride.
Honestly surprised by that declaration at the end! Mana vessel seemed like such an obvious choice. And yes I know it's all intentional but seeing the constitution at 9 gives me palpatations. Also how does his OCD allow for this??? I feel like he would be extremely annoyed at the improper number and try to find a way to raise it to 10. I keep expecting the low constition and mana focused physique trait that eventually he's going to wind up a vaguely human shaped cloud of sentient mana at some point. A mana physique evolution just seemed like the obvious next step towards perfection.
Unless upgrading mana vessel causes Nat to explode. He's right on the cusp.
TFTC
Nyssa as a Handler would be funny, though it's likely Liss, Magi and possibly Hornless
Didn’t it say he finally made a choice and chose the trait upgrade token? Shouldn’t that appear in his status?
Is this handler event the thing that is supposed to humble Nat?
I wonder the same
I m a little bit sad thinking about third floor's nat, i m sure he would have waited for the next body uprade to evolve is blood, switching his mana heart with some monstruous mix between the empireen heirs one et the one from the god from the 12 floor, injecting himself with some heretic blood, empireen et nissa one, just to see the impact on the body et the nature of the incredible evolution this combo seems in capacity to give! He would be dying yes, but that would have created the most powerful batterie self-sustened, and completely hermetic by the same way! Im sur the little catboy would love this idea
Imagine if the reason Ruby is upset about the new handlers coming in is because Lissandra is one of them. She is going to wage some sort of passive-aggressive war against Ruby to get Nat as her ward
Or it’s Cristoph
Beyond is such a cool concept, a starter world for the hard core tutorial attendees, and a place for those looking to be at the top to learn. Plus gamble
Does nat even own an epic item he could send to minion?
Nat own manabloc can already considered upper arcane at this point i believe
Has he got another hidden skill? Surely something else would have appeared by now if he didn't?
He's hiding knowledge of a specific skill not hiding the number of skills
I knew it he would have been the best target! darn system blocking perfectly fine exploits! Nat need advice from a certain spiffy brit.
Soooo. Fraudrian is a handler now? Or the last elf? The godking? Those are the only ones I can think of being worth for ruby to mention
Some of the companies / conglomerates that they snubbed or stole from on the 11th floor? They might be more interested in Lilly than Nat himself, and just get into conflict through / because of that.
TFTC. The max level for traits is normally 3, Nat is going to raise his eyes to level 4. I can't remember if having a level 4 trait a prerequisite to become a champion.
They may change to something else and reset to 1/3 as we've seen before.
Please just use the tattoo on Ruby...
Hmm pretty sure dilly has more total mana if he took on all the stats of his entire colony like nath said!
Thank you!
Go for the eyes Boo
Handler party; a perfect place to shake hands and obtain some mana stats!
From newbie handlers? With some of them being champions, Nat will likely have a higher mana stat than they do.
Thank you for the chappie!
"Hmm my eyes are debilitating to myself? Whelp! Better evolve them!"
More like "I am just barely nearly getting my eyes to the point where they don't hurt me anymore. Better upgrade!"
I was betting on the mana vessel evolution
Same
Tftc!!! I wonder how Greeds gonna humble Mr. Mana.
Humble? Nate? Never. We are all in for a surprise.
Eyes + Wraith blood would go in an interesting direction. The blood rejects any other authority, the eyes take over mana...
Ooh, eye evolution! What's he going to get? Surely not eminence eyes 😂
Possible names: - Eyes of Precedence, eyes which establish new laws of mana - Corona Eyes, cause of the eclipse theme + crown - Eyes of Totality, cause of the eclipse theme
“I lost them all gambling.” "I know of a way how you could repay me instead" *looking at Dame Vesta for no particular reason*
He is still owed pats per his prediction
So he's got the "amount of mana" specialization but its still at stage 1 of 3. He's level 490, at what gosh darn levels do these things advance? Are there champions and absolutes out there with levels 1 and 2?
I believe it upgrades when they become a champion and then a ruler
Thanks for the chap, can't wait to see what he's cooking for his eyes
Cerim is truly devious, he purposely told us, what nat plans to do, and then tomorrow he won’t tell us anything about name or description of the upgrade… truly corrupt by dilli
Thanks for the chapter 🥳❤️
"with the sole exception of me", yeah sure buddy
Hey its important to be self aware, he is just mentally noting all these people who lack it 😂
Tftc
TFTC!!!