Warning! The 10th wave is now in progress.
The mont I get that notification, an aftershock rocks our area. A mushroom-like purple and white cloud blooms far in the distance. So far away, a part of wonders how tall that mushroom cloud would have to be.
Most of the horizon quickly takes on that shimring purple and white hue, just before the next explosion thunders through the surroundings. It almost looks as if soone drew a dark blue line to the ground from so point in the sky and connected it to the ground just before the mushroom ford. A high-pitched noise rings out, followed by three shockwaves in quick succession as three more blue lines are drawn in about the sa area.
I look up from my place next to the heart, tracing the horizon with my gaze.
Lissandra hovers there, pale blue mana flickering around her feet and hands, looking toward the explosions.
She observes as more effects of the explosion expand towards our “territory,” only for them to be stopped by an enormous barrier. A rush job, set up by either the Lumorans or Mimics to prevent the attack from reaching this place.
Even so, I don’t think she is satisfied judging by the expression she is making.
She lifts her arm toward the sky, and her Mana Heart beats. A monstrous amount of mana floods from her, compressed and held tightly in her control, without so much as touching us or the surroundings. She grabs that mana, molds it, shifts it, controls it.
A single pulse expands out in all directions with her at its epicenter, traveling at an incredible speed that only increases the farther it goes. It passes through our territory without affecting it at all, and when it exits, the mountain range surrounding it crumbles.
In that mont the tall, rocky mountains remind of more of a sand castle being blown away by a hurricane than the tall sturdy bulwark they seed the mont before.
And the shockwave continues.
The nearby forest.
Another mountain range.
The massive lake.
All crumbling, blown away.
Then Lissandra, in one quick movent, brings her arm down and it all stops, the expanding shockwave pulling itself back at even higher speeds with a loud thump and a feeling reminiscent of an implosion.
My ears ring, and my body tumbles, as the returning shockwave throws off balance.
Lissandra isn’t there anymore. It would seem her warning has been delivered.
I take my eyes off the sky and turn back to the heart, continuing to build on the base Lissandra left for .
Just a few more days and I will be ready.
Back within my ntal space, I find myself appearing in another place I recognize, the 4th floor.
This ti Whitey is wearing the sort of clothes I’ve co to associate with the sort of person who’d shout “You can’t arrest , my dad is a lawyer”.
The desert is covered in the bodies of bus-sized ants, and standing in the distance, is the First One, the pitch-black ant whose carapace almost seed to absorb the light, duking it out with the Fallen Hero. The armor, powered by the damaged heart of the Champion, is in a stance that causes each of his strikes and punches to send shockwaves through the area. Dozens, hundreds of ant bodies litter the ground around him.
The First One, though, can receive vitality and strength from the Colony, and that allows it to face him.
Sowhere in the distance, another huge army of ants is surrounding a group of demons. Multiple hearts beating and generating the multitude of primordial energies so of them possess. And between them, stands a younger version of Whitey, who, unlike the version of him I saw on the 1st floor, stands tall, and his power surrounds him, even now clearly surpassing the remaining demons.
The monstrous bodies freeze mid-air around him, Needle Point snipes the ants attacking at range, and a seemingly undeveloped Wraith Dance takes him all across the battlefield where he proceeds to face the most dangerous ants.
“We made the First One fight the Fallen Hero.” Whitey, sitting next to , smirks. “Fucking ant followed us to wipe us out before trying to head on to Virelia, he thought the Fallen Hero was still miles away. Try to guess how we did it.”
His red eyes gleam in dark satisfaction, and his clothes emphasize the darkness of his demonic soul further.
“Whatever, I already have a lot of things to deal with and no ntal capacity for this. Let’s just fight.”
“Spoken like a true human: I swing stick. I punch. I bite. Ugh ugh.”
“Spoken like a true demon, better at shit-talking than fighting.”
The desert around us explodes as we charge each other.
The lumoran Champion with the crystal arm cos more often now seeming more desperate each ti.
We already opened the box she brought previously, using brute force, and it was empty.
I should have expected that, but in the sa way as I feel amused, I feel frustrated.
As for the Cockroach, she t with the lumoran Champion only once, all the while surrounding them with a field that made overhearing or seeing anything impossible. It took only a few seconds, but when the field disappeared, the Champion seed to be in a better mood. Bowing to Lissandra, she then left. Sothing tells that the Cockroach’s show of power, not so long ago, bumped her up to a higher threat level than they expected.
I want to ask what the eting was about, but I don’t think I will get an answer, so I just curse her in my head. Quietly, in case she can listen sohow.
Warning! The 11th wave is now in progress.
Warning! The 12th wave is now in progress.
The waves don’t have a schedule; sotis there’s more ti between them. We think it’s because a bigger group of Mimics is being brought in.
At this point, it’s safe to say the war is in full swing. The lumorans still have the advantage thanks to being on their ho planet and their Absolute still has defensive chanisms he can use, but the Mimics have bigger forces now.
Part of wonders if being the Absolute of your planet gives you so kind of advantage on your ho planet. Maybe so kind of boost. Maybe even allowing you to enclose the whole planet in your domain through your connection to it as its Absolute.
It’s one of the things we’ve taken to theorizing about between Sophie, the twins, and myself while we work on preparations for the heart, which, as it turns out, are nearing completion.
Myrra is sowhere else, doing sothing with Lily and Maya. Lissandra got bored, so she’s taken to training them. I can tell it’s not easy by how they look when they return to the house once every few days. As if the souls had been torn from their bodies. A tired expression that almost makes no sense considering how powerful their bodies are.
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I think it’s safe to say everyone’s sparred with everyone at this point. Izzy with Myrra, Sophie against Min-Jae, the twins against Maya, against Tess, Tess against Izzy, Sophie against . Etc. etc.
The improvents can be seen, as everyone gives feedback and learns to react to different types of attacks.
Lily cosplaying as a bulldozer.
Sophie’s ntal warfare.
The twins’ illusions.
Maya’s ever-changing battle style.
My aerial bombardnt.
And no one holds back, so there’s no shortage of injuries. Terrible ones and even death remains a distinct possibility—just a single mistake on either side would be fatal. But that’s not sothing we shy away from. Tess pushes for the experience just as hard as I do.
I know I keep saying it, but group 4 is scary. Each and every single mber. Even Izzy, who would be expected to be the weakest because of her age and [Empathy] skill.
But that sa skill allows her to partially predict attacks of her opponents to the level where it is comparable to my kinetic senses that allow to feel the slightest movents. Sotis even better, given that my kinetic senses are honestly easier to trick than whatever it is she’s doing.
And her purple, green, and blue flas are easily comparable to my golden thermal energy.
Then there is also Noodle, who counts as her bond. Noodle is very durable and can absorb mana from most attacks. He can expand in size or shrink. He also has an independent store of the mana he consus, which he can share with Izzy. Plus, he possesses the sa flas as her.
I could go on in a similar way about everyone in the group, but the point should be clear.
And just like that we enter our last days before the tournant, where the 10 rounds of Earth’s tutorial will finally et. All the people from Easy, Normal, Hard, and Hell difficulty. Not to ntion the Beyonders.
Myrra is now one of our round’s Beyonders. The 10th one, the last spot.
She refuses to type in the Community, to the point that I wonder what alias she inherited from that Easy difficulty murderer’s status.
Later that night, the process starts. The preparations are done. We’ve rehearsed the process ti and again and even planned for errors. There are only a few people around . Lily, Dennis, Aaron, and Sophie. And I would bet that the Cockroach is probably watching from so hidden perch as well.
I plop down and slide deep into [Focus]. This ti I power it with black mana. The smallest “whiff” I think might carry through the procedure, but I don’t think I’ll be likely to have the freedom to do it again once we start. My mid-Arcane passive helps to endure it, and there are probably a hundred of Lily’s healing marks placed all over my body.
There are also about two dozen copies of my left arm laid out in a pile next to Lily. Enough to out heal an atomic bomb to the face.
Actually, now that I think about it, would it?
I quickly shake my head and focus on my part in all of this, putting together the finishing touches, connecting everything together, and kni…weaving the Ley Lines together.
My vortex core is gone. I removed the Thermal component of my Thermokinetic Mana heart the day before, leaving with a simple Kinetic Mana Heart, again. But an improved one with greater output, obviously.
Minion will be happy.
I close my eyes and nod while reducing my defenses and turning off my passives.
Lily starts imdiately, and a portion of my chest disappears, opening up and revealing my raw, beating heart.
For that short mont, a thought flashes through my mind.
Just how easy it would be to kill now or cripple my Mana Heart for years.
Then Lily gets to work.
The new heart will be placed laterally to the original one and to the right of it. For that, Lily is using space between the ribs and existing organs. It will also keep it separate from any critical structures. This heart won’t be connected to my veins at all.
Of course, there isn’t really much space, so Lily is compressing one of my lungs slightly. Apparently, it should be fine as they have an excess of capacity as it is, and probably even more now with all these stats. She also has to remove a portion of my spleen on the left or my liver on the right. I leave that up to her.
When she is halfway done, I get into deploying the structures I’ve prepared and stored in my mind. Using threads, I shield the area where my new heart is set to go. I use [Knitting] and Mana Weaving to create sothing strongly inspired by my Mana Circuits, this ti for thermal energy.
This new system isn’t even close to being anywhere as well integrated as my existing circuits. There is much less of it, which will make fine control a bit more difficult, but these pathways are strong and will allow for effective delivery of thermal energy. I also make sure they go through my body, head, limbs.
The rest will be upgraded later, based on anything this early version turns out to lack and according to my needs.
I make sure all of it is separated as much as possible from the previous systems. I also don’t forget about dissipation nodes just in case I need to dump so stored energy. Despite Sophie’s jibes, I do not make one near my ass and instead place them on the palms of my hands, soles of my feet, and one bigger one on my back.
Throughout this process, the twins continue to help make sure everything is properly connected to my body, while Sophie continues to monitor my body’s reaction to the process. She also points out any slight mistakes or ideas for improvent.
Obviously, my body is getting fucked up during all of this. Lily tries to suppress any flashes of pain as much as possible and any damage I can’t deal with, she heals instead. She follows what I’m doing, fixing up the damage I leave in its wake, and staunches any bleeding.
Once in a while, she steps in to activate so of the healing marks to “revitalize” .
With the surgery nearing completion, I extend more Ley Lines toward the heart on the ground, now thankfully cleaned. The threads connect to the heart, and I reactivate the structure that seals it up, built on the foundation Lissandra left for .
The threads that touch the heart all burn, and I cut the thread before that heat can reach my body.
For a mont, I stare at it.
Then I try again.
It all burns once more.
And again.
We make modifications, but the process repeats.
When Sophie shares another idea, I cut off the conversation.
So that’s how it is.
I tried to approach the problem intelligently and prepared thoroughly, yet it still refuses to work.
Fuck it and fuck you 3rd Floor Nathaniel.
More of my mana compresses turning black and seeping into my body, powering my mind and body. My thoughts go into overdrive and the world fades to black and white. Within this state, I find that the heart has just as vibrant a color as my mana. The color of an exploding volcano radiating around it with each heartbeat.
I reach out, grab the heart, and chuck it into my chest. Then I use three healing marks to close the wound imdiately, leaving the heart inside. I also cut off the remains of my charred hand before the heat can spread any further.
Lily screams and reaches to open my chest to remove the heart. The twins also say sothing, but it all fades into distant noise.
All my passives reactivate, especially my newest one, Mana Wavelength Tyrant.
I teleport right over the lake and start dropping down, as the water around imdiately starts to sizzle and continues even as I reach the deep bottom of it and sit there.
My mind races and continues to deal with the damage. [Focus], [Redistribution], [Eclipse], [Mana Domain]
, my passive, all work together to suppress the new heart in my chest, and I continue to redirect all the heat out of my body.
Even underwater, the rock underneath starts cracking and lting. The sheer pressure evaporates the water around , creating a bubble of air, and continues to evaporate any water that rushes in.
And I do it MY way.
I reconnect, I weave, I suppress, I build upon.
I fucking Knit.
All while healing mark after healing mark activates, and my body barely holding together, overheated and burned. My Mana Cycling stops too, and all my mana surrounds , fighting the foreign energy as well.
Slowly, step by step, I adapt, fix my mistakes, and improve on the structure.
I suppress that goddamned heart. With my teeth clenched, ignoring the pain and scalding water, and even the molten rock around .
It only takes a few minutes but it feels like hours.
When it all ends, the water of the lake is all gone. The bottom of it is covered in molten rock, and new water from the waterfall slowly starts filling it again.
I activate my last healing mark, perfectly calculated, and stand up.
Then I check my notifications.
[Focus - lvl 61 > Focus - lvl 62]
[Knitting - lvl 24 > Knitting - lvl 25]
[Knitting - lvl 25 > Knitting - lvl 26]
[Knitting - lvl 26 > Knitting - lvl 27]
[Knitting - lvl 27 > Knitting - lvl 28]
[Knitting - lvl 28 > Knitting - lvl 29]
[Redistribution - lvl 58 > Redistribution - lvl 59]
[Eclipse - lvl 19 > Eclipse - lvl 20]
[Eclipse - lvl 20 > Eclipse - lvl 21]
[Eclipse - lvl 21 > Eclipse - lvl 22]
[Eclipse - lvl 22 > Eclipse - lvl 23]
[Ley Line - lvl 47 > Ley Line - lvl 48]
Congratulations, you have created a new Construct. Well done!
You have acquired
Sealed Ignition Heart (Fully Sealed, 3/3) - The Ignition Heart is a furnace of raw Thermal energy, pulsating with a ferocity that threatens its host with every beat. Encased in a fortified cavity knitted with heat-resistant threads, its imnse power is restrained by three intricately crafted seals. These seals greatly temper its destructive output, but their release will unlock a force capable of scorching anything in its path, including the body that wields it.
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