I open my mouth to try to talk to them, to make them stop, to ask them to wait, or so I can explain, but a single glance at the lumorans’ faces tells enough. And I know the rules.
There is no talking the mont soone is identified as a mimic.
The attacks get pulled into the crown, none reaching at all, so with eerie efficiency they switch—lee attackers rushing toward .
So of that absorbed mana channels through , powering [Redistribution] and halting their movents, providing just the second of reprieve I need to break through.
The scout leader, whose na I don’t even rember, lets his hold slip. He blocks my way out of the camp, switching from his bow to two daggers, mana seeping from his crystalline features. And he attacks to kill.
Fracture devours the mana I hold in my body. Resonating as it always does, all the forces it contains straining to break free. [Eclipse] holds it down, but it’s more difficult than ever before.
The sword has sensed the Mana Crown, and it either doesn’t like it or likes it too much.
Fracture and clashes with the scout leader’s sword, my sword slicing through with ease. Destroying mana, material, and connections. All his barriers, defenses, body strengthenings are for nothing as the sword cuts through his chest just over his heart.
[You have defeated Bowbound Seeker – lvl 376]
[Lvl 301 > Lvl 302]
[Lvl 302 > Lvl 303]
Wraith Dance takes over his corpse and into the snowstorm, leaving the black crown behind to start devouring the defensive arrays of the camp to force them split their forces and hopefully slow down Serabeth.
Over and over again, I channel kinetic energy and mana through my body to take myself as far as I can.
I cut through every mark and tracking technique they try to tie to with Fracture. The sword remains unsheathed, its bone-and-white-molten-sand blade fracturing further as black and gray smoke swirl wildly within.
My arm holding it barely has any flesh left on it, and the blade has eaten holes into the bone. The healing marks I activate do hardly anything to fix it, and my mana is unable to hold it back. But left with no other choice, I run, I fly, and I use the sword to break through any attempts to slow down.
I regulate my heart’s signature. I try to stop any movent or vibrations from passing beyond my body. I regulate my mana and keep it inside.
Hour after hour, I’m tracked by lumorans and rcenaries trying to locate and catch up to in the storm. Each would be capable of facing alone, and multiple attacking at once would easily be enough to kill .
When barely anything of my arm remains, I put Fracture in its scabbard which also cracks imdiately. Even though we did maintenance not long ago there are signs of it being worn, along with the damage to the sword’s handle.
I slide against a tree and make snow fall from it, hiding entirely. More than before, I calm my mana and beating heart, relying on my eyes alone as I watch for any movent in the mana around . Even though the ever-present movent of the snow and wind is there, I try to use my kinetic senses as well.
As I do, I open the Community. Ignoring the wall of ssages from Group 4 I write mine.
Nona (Hell, Group 4) –I'm fine, just don't be stupid. Keep checking the number of people in Beyond before you declare dead.
So of the ssages I see are a bit… emotional. Especially from Lily and, surprisingly, from the others as well. After a while, they calm down, likely Tess telling them the sa thing I wrote.
Nona (Hell, Group 4) –gonna hide. If things get too dangerous I will go to Beyond.
With that, I close the community to avoid getting distracted by the ssages and check my tokens.
Tokens:
Beyond 3 day stay token
Beyond 1 day stay token
Beyond 1 day stay token
Communication with your disciple for 10 minutes
All good.
I give my arm another once over, realizing that it’s the most damaged I’ve seen so far by Fracture. From previous experience, I know it will probably take a week… or three for it to fully regenerate, even with Lily’s healing.
Still better than dying. Much better.
Before I continue that train of thought, I teleport myself through the [Ley Line] I set before. The area where I was implodes, and imdiately I feel myself pulled to the ground. My insides twist, and before I myself implode, I teleport again and throw another line far off into the distance.
That feeling grabs on my insides again, a pulling sensation as my flesh, bones, and organs start trying to move toward a single spot to implode on themselves. It disappears with the teleport, and I shoot multiple lines and change the defensive field around , strengthening it with my [Mana Domain] and [Eclipse]. This ti, that feeling slides by , the area behind imploding into itself, a loud pop resounding through the area as the air rushes to fill the empty space.
Again and again, dozens of these attacks follow , attempting to slow down my movent or change the gravity affecting so I fall in a different direction.
Serabeth herself is hunting . Soone I have no ans of surprising as I did with the scout leader before.
Finally, her skill—likely higher level than anything I have—takes hold of and sends crashing into the ground. And then it grasps my [Ley Line]. Even though I’m sure it costs her a lot of mana and effort since disruption isn’t her specialty, she implodes the line of mana.
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And she is a mile away while doing so. A distance that won’t take more than a mont for her to pass, as I observe her mana signature and feel the increasing strength of her hold on and the effects of her attempting to implode my entire body.
The world loses its colors, and my mind races as black mana powers my [Focus]. Dozens of thoughts rush through my mind at breakneck speed.
Should I fight her? Do I have a chance? Is it worth it even if I win? There are likely multiple people behind her.
The way she uses her skill is interesting, so I try to observe it. Min-Jae could find it useful, so a part of takes note to create feedback for him.
And through all this, one more thought holds sway over my mind.
Who is the impostor who ssed up the Signature Isolation Frawork?
“Use Beyond 1 day stay token.”
With that, the area around changes. The bone-chilling cold is gone, the attempts to squash end, only to be replaced by that never-ending void in a sea of stars and my handler sitting behind her old wooden table.
“Hello,” she greets.
“Hello,” I reply, and with a groan push myself back to my feet, only to find one of them missing.
Huh, I didn’t notice it. That was closer than I thought, Serabeth.
I recreate it with mana which I weave together with mana, making use of the new technique. I do the sa for the missing portions of my right arm which may as well be bare bones. Then I allow myself to use Lily’s healing marks to restore the parts that weren’t damaged by Fracture, which also gives my feet back and makes stumble as my mana prosthesis is rapidly replaced with flesh and blood.
“What do I have to thank for eting you here again?”
“There is information I want to give you, and I think I can because of so guy… doing stuff. But it will cost a bit, and I won’t be able to share much for a while afterward.”
“Do I want to hear it?”
“I think you do.”
“Tell .”
“If you return to the 7th Floor after one day, it’s highly likely that you or so other mber of your group will die.”
“Why.”
“This is the third ti you’ve abused a stay token to avoid danger. The system doesn’t look kindly on that.”
I form a chair from my mana and sit on it while facing my handler. She is very powerful, so it’s possible she could be trying to hide her intentions and manipulate into sothing. Hell, her next piece of advice, or offer, whatever words she decides to use will probably be designed to prod in a direction she wants. But at the sa ti, I don’t think she is lying.
“What are my options?”
“There are two of them. The first is to use all of your stay tokens and extend your stay as long as possible. Then when you return, there will still be backlash, but not as severe, and though it will still be dangerous, you should be able to survive it.”
I let my mind race as I imagine all the consequences of that. I should be fine, but Group 4 will have to take care of themselves for a while. After I was wrongly identified as a mimic, with the probability of saboteurs or hidden mimic in the camp, everything spiraled further. Then there’s the mystery of what the Champion’s trying to accomplish, what the Ardenyx pilot obtained, Exoria, Praxion, and more.
It feels annoying to leave such an enticing mystery behind.
“The second option?” I ask.
“I told you about it before, but all of Earth’s rounds of the tutorial have been synchronized, which allows you to take Beyond quests. As your handler, it’s up to to use my influence and resources to sort through the available Beyond quests for you—obviously according to their requirents and your current rank—and that’s what I did. Leaving the tutorial for a few days and going on a Beyond quest before returning to the 7th Floor will work even better than using stay tokens to extend your duration.”
“You really want to pick the second option, right?”
Crossing her arms on her chest, she leans back in her chair, that smile of hers crawling on her lips. “Please, don’t insult my intelligence. We both know which option interests you more.”
“And that option just happens to fit into your plans sohow.”
“What plans? I’m just a handler.” Her eyes et mine with a challenging look, daring to respond.
“Sure,” I say, waving my hand dismissively. “So what are the options?”
She stops leaning and picks four papers off the table and taps on the first one. “Planet of Cairnthal went through the pairing a hundred years ago. It’s fairly peaceful at the mont. Its Absolute created a court where the four strongest families, each led by a Champion, are competing to beco ‘the strongest,’ while the Absolute watches on in amusent. This info is extra from . So the quest cos from a powerful Champion who is looking for an attendee with a high grade mana based trait.”
“Huh, so my eyes or physique? What do they want? Experintation?”
“Nope.” My handler shakes her head and lifts her hands. The left one uses the thumb and pointing finger to create a circle and the finger of the other one moves to…
“Okay, okay, got it. Where the hell did you learn that gesture? And no,” I refuse.
She laughs. “Are you sure? The pay is really…”
“No,” I repeat.
With the sa big smile, she continues. “The second one is a Champion looking for a teacher for his son who awakened kinetic energy.”
“Wouldn’t a few days be too short for it?”
“He can create so sort of mind space to drastically increase the speed of your thoughts. This gives the illusion of more ti passing. It’s probably only three to ten tis faster, but with enough preparation, he can maintain it for a long ti. It would probably lt your brain without your mid-arcane passive, but you should be able to keep up.”
“It’s the best one so far. Why are they picking attendees instead of searching for people from their planets?”
“It tends to be easier than searching normally, and the system allows them to be sure of what they are getting. Maybe they don’t have a qualified person on their planet, maybe they don’t have a coalition backing them or don’t have access to the coordinates of other planets. It could also be that they can’t travel to different planets. And the system likes it too because it allows you to gain experience with the system outside of the tutorial, so it subsidizes the paynt.”
“Oh. Got it. So it’s cheaper for them.”
“Often yes. It also gives you a chance to build connections. Anyone capable of accessing Beyond quests probably has the potential to beco a Champion at so point in the future.”
“I see. The third?”
"The third one is looking for soone with a highly mana conductive body for experintation. It could help you learn more about body modification, but the risk of death is... well, significant. The pay’s terrible, but I doubt you’d care about that anyway."
With a sigh, I stand up and let my chair disappear. “So what’s the one you really want to take?”
“Don’t worry you’re going to like it.”
Then she tells , and I really do.
Trusting my instincts, I decide to go with the fourth option.
We don’t wait any longer, and I follow my handler without a mont to send a ssage to my group. Not that I could do it from Beyond anyway.
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My handler waves her hand, and a set of double doors extend from the floor. They even look like normal doors; with no inscriptions or anything crazy like that.
I take a mont to look them over before taking the knob and throwing them open, revealing a long, dark hallway.
Even though this place is taking out of the tutorial to sowhere extrely far away, there’s no wild surge of mana or even the slightest unsettling feeling. I simply step through and find myself outside the tutorial, in a different place.
Just the sheer thought that it could be so easy is incredibly scary, especially given that I now know more about the powers of the beings overseeing the tutorial.
I hear the doors close, and when I turn to look, they’re gone.
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