I tap on Biscuit, signaling him to shrink so I can focus on the others. He seems to misunderstand, though, and instead of shrinking his body, expands even more, forcing to strengthen my manabloc chair before it cracks. He snuggles against playfully, and I can hear his breathing close to my ear while his wet nose pokes my ear.
My body is barely visible under him, and I peek to the side so I can look at Tess. “Where did we hear this from?” I ask.
Instead of her, Sophie answers, “I learned it not long ago, from Luan.”
I push against Biscuit and move him slightly. He seems to think I’m playing and pushes back with excitent, rubbing his head against mine. I peek from the other side this ti, bringing Sophie into view.
As if she’d been waiting for just that mont, she ets my eyes. “Luan didn’t tell much about the man, not even his na or even what guilds he could be in. He only ntioned it as a warning. I’ve tried to learn more, but Frontier still refuses to explain. Maybe I will get a bit more once I reach the 4th floor.”
“If Frontier knows, isn’t it possible that the Primordial Knights know sothing too?” Tess asks, looking at .
I give up peeking and mumble from under Biscuit, and answer without looking at her, “I’ve never asked, to be honest. I could try, maybe Weslin knows a thing or two. But isn’t it more likely that Luan’s bullshitting? It’s a strange thing for them to know about, much less for him to share with you so casually.”
I can’t actually see Sophie, but I can just imagine her shaking her head. “Luan is… difficult. He follows that odd sense of honor he has.”
“Does that honor include attacking a bunch of Beyond newbies?” I ask.
“Apparently, yes. He was ordered to guard Faora, so he did just that. He’s much the sa with . If I decided to kill people, he would guard while I did it.”
“He didn’t do a very good job guarding her.”
“I think that was deliberate, probably under orders from Frontier. I saw him fight more than once, Nat. Luan is insanely strong. If he had truly done his best to protect her, it would have ended very differently.”
“So they wanted you instead of Faora, and you fell for it by just offering yourself up?” I ask.
“I think it was more than they already had a replacent for Faora in mind. I just made the offer myself before they could bring their replacent in, and Luan decided to accept . Frontier seed to agree. If I’m not good enough, I’ll probably end up the sa way that feylith bitch did.”
“Dead.”
“Yes, they’ll probably kill off.”
“Izzy, what do you have to say to that crap?” I call toward where I think she’s sitting, leaned up against Giga Noodle.
“If Sophie dies, I think I may die too. I am too weak to survive alone,” our empath says simply.
“Is that so kind of emotional blackmail?” I ask, not expecting such words from her.
“Maybe. Who knows. Sophie certainly doesn’t. I can feel it, even when she tries to hide it. She can’t hide anything from . So yes, it’s very possible that if my dear sister Sophie, whom I love more than anything, dies, I’ll die too.”
Daaaaamn.
Silence fills the room. No one knows how to respond to Izzy. Ever since we pushed her to act on her emotions instead of always trying to please us, she’s started acting out like this. Just like a feisty teenager, using her powers every now and then to get her way.
I don’t think for a second that it’s ill intended or ant to hurt any of us. Even soone like can see that. It’s just the result of Izzy trying to find her place instead of constantly bowing to our feelings, even if it does an she acts this way from ti to ti.
Honestly, it makes kind of happy. It feels better, and sohow right, even if it does make so things more difficult.
Biscuit expands even more and then bites at , taking my entire head into his mouth. I can sll his breath and see his tongue and teeth. He grabs gently, playfully shaking my head before letting go and licking with a tongue bigger than my torso.
“Eww,” Dennis blurts out, making the obvious mistake.
“Biscuit, get him,” I say.
The giga corgi jumps off , breaking so of the furniture in the process, and rushes at the poor twin, who vainly lifts his hands in front of his face. He might even try to teleport away, and I might even disrupt that attempt.
Lily stands by my side. Looking up, I see her offering a towel. With a nod of thanks, I take it and wipe off my head, while Lily sits in the armchair next to .
Tess is already speaking again. “So far, it seems right to assu that the First Beyonder is going to be stronger than anyone from Earth’s tutorial, judging by the way the others treat him. The top guilds seem to know more about him than we do, yet they’re still acting like this.”
“So, S rank then?” Lily asks from beside .
Tess shakes her head. “I don’t think that’s it. While yes, he could be S rank, that alone wouldn’t earn him so much attention. From what Nat’s told us, we know more Rulers are ddling around as Handlers, so it’s possible they’ve been telling their attendees more about this man. It seems to be less about his current strength and more about his potential.”
“Every S rank is considered to be a future Absolute, so are you saying the First Beyonder is being seen as a Ruler candidate?” Min-Jae asks.
Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Sophie sneaking nervous glances at Izzy, who is sitting on the floor against Noodle. And Izzy ets her sister’s gaze with a wide smile, which only seems to make Sophie even more uneasy.
“It’s hard to say. Lyraen, Nyssa, and Solae are all considered powerful future Absolutes, but no one’s calling them Ruler candidates. No one’s called our First Beyonder anything like that either, and yet at the sa ti, it feels like so important people are giving him way too much respect,” Tess says.
“What even is he? So kind of mass murderer with an insane talent for mana? A hermit who ditated for decades in the mountains and awakened mana before the tutorial? Another monstrous corgi, maybe a mber of Biscuit’s family, just to make it dramatic?” Maya snarks, waving her hand.
Biscuit, hearing his na, stops and turns toward her, away from Dennis, who is still hiding his face from Biscuit’s giga form. Maya imdiately realizes her mistake, but it’s too late. With a squeak, she lifts her arms, trying to shield herself from the attack of the now horse-sized corgi.
Everyone else ignores her, and only Dennis gives her a quick salute, silently thanking her for her sacrifice.
“He would’ve had to survive the surface of Beyond as a level 0, assuming he started there like the rest of us. Even now, people are saying the surface is often more dangerous than the fifth floor, even S ranks have been known to die there,” Lily says.
“Wouldn’t he have to have gone through three trials before that?” Min-Jae wonders. “All of you did, right?”
“Well, we can ask him. If he really does end up joining the tournant.” I say, lowering my voice, not wanting to draw the attention of the beast now pressing its huge nose against Maya’s face while she giggles and struggles to push him away. “Sophie, did you find out what they need you for already?”
“It’s the sa as with you. While Nyssa’s hoping you’ll help her to the sixth floor, Frontier hopes my mind magic will do the sa for them, though in a different way than the Primordial Lunatics. Apparently, Bloodline started stirring things up as well and got Crimson Forge to join them. My Handler said it’s been a long ti since he saw people racing so hard for the 6th. He also ntioned a rumor that sothing big happened on the lower floors.” Sophie shrugs after glancing away from Izzy.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringent.
“Yeah, the Cockroach is there. Also, really? Primordial Lunatics?”
“Everyone calls you guys that. And I think your master being trapped there isn’t the only thing that went down. Sothing else happened on the lower floors.”
“That’s for others to trouble themselves with. Do you want more explosive cubes or temporary tattoos?”
“Not really, but I will take a few more of your mana woven clothes. That shirt you gave is insane. So guy offered a lot of shards for it.”
“He was likely interested in industrial espionage, trying to obtain the design or replicate my patented process. And Sophie, it is not mana woven, it’s manatex.”
“Screw off. I’ll give you the design and work with you on it.”
“I’m hurt,” I say, turning to my right. “Are you seeing this, Lily? This is what I have to deal with. Will at least you defend ?”
“No,” she says with a bright smile. “Your designs are terrible.”
“First floor, Lily would’ve defended .”
“First floor, Lily would be blushing and staring at you in secret,” she says with the sa smile.
“Typical lust subclass girls,” Dennis sighs.
“Biscuit, get him!” Lily says right away while pointing at the twin.
Looking up from his place on top of Maya, Biscuit lifts his head and tilts it, ears flopping. A smile-like expression spreads across his face as he stands up and charges Lily, who squeaks and falls to the floor.
The brutality of the attack is too much to watch, so I turn away and look at Tess. “How is your Beyond party doing?”
"It is going quite well. We have Leticia and Luna joining us. Jean, Lucien too, and..."
"Lucien?"
She sighs. "Spacepup."
"Oh, I see, that little shit."
"Then we t up with a few more of Leticia’s and Jean’s beyonders. We were working with Baek for a while, too, if you can call it that."
"No sight of Vic?"
"None at all. I bought so bits of information from the guilds. She was seen on the 2nd floor a long ti ago, so I suspect she might be on the 3rd already or maybe even making her way to the 4th."
"I tried looking too, but I could only find scraps about her. Did you know there is an option to pay off the information guilds to keep them from sharing your info? I an, people will still sell it if soone offers enough, so it ends up being a matter of who pays more, you to make them shut up or the other party to buy your details."
“Yes, I know that. On another note, Lily and I should be able to reach the third floor soon.”
"As long as so guild doesn’t kidnap and try to force to join them," Lily calls from under Biscuit, who does not even move, just lies on her with a proud expression.
"Any serious trouble?" I ask her.
"There’s always so kind of trouble. Most of the ti, the guilds are super nice and generous, though when I reject them, they tend to get annoyed and try so shit," Lily mutters.
I glance at Tess, who shrugs. "We’ve long since known Lily was a highly sought after healer. But I’m keeping an eye on her, as are the others in my party. Plus, it helps that even if they get through us, that just ans they get to face Lily."
"The Bulldozer," Aaron whispers with a dark face.
"The Terminator of Lust," Dennis adds in the sa tone.
"Biscuit, get them!" Lily calls from underneath.
Unfortunately for her, the corgi only expands in size more, totally obscuring her beneath his bulk. He yawns and settles in more comfortably.
After an hour or two, everyone calms down, and the conversation continues more smoothly, and I share so of my own information.
Working with Min-Jae, we go over his library, while he recomnds a few mana stones that I imdiately take for study. In exchange, I tell him so things I learned from the Doc, like how to get the most out of the Gravitation Wavelength Eye he has, and how to make it fully integrate with his body.
There also turns out to be sothing like an improved version of what Min-Jae does with gravitational energy to train his body. I got it from one of the demons from Primordial Knights. I bought it cheap, too, I just had to beat the guy until he almost died.
It’s been a long ti since I saw anyone as happy as that, so I think I may have gotten scamd. Sohow.
After getting a design from Sophie, which she sotis cos to check on as I work, I start weaving a shirt from manatex. It is sothing I started doing out of boredom, clothes made with a base of Ley Lines. So far, I still can’t make them entirely out of Ley Lines, so I have to thread them together with Mana Weaving, in a manner similar to the way I used to apply [Knitting].
I switch between these techniques as I go. I’m not all that good at it so far, but I want to learn where to use Ley Lines, where to use more flexible knitted lines, and where I should weave in more durable threads. All for maximum comfort and defense. I even had Maya tell a bit about tailoring, since she knew so things about it from before the tutorial. That learning session ended with us coming up with new ways we could apply it to our armor.
It is weirdly calming. Stretching threads of mana, compressing them, using [Manifestation] in different spots. I am still not sure how long they’ll last, but they should hang around a few months at the minimum for sure. Each of these pieces has durability on the level of mid to upper epic armor, just without any added effects. For now.
As I do this, I let my mind wander. Part of listens to the low murmur of conversation, part of observes Biscuit resting against my leg, and another part opens my status, which I stare at while I work and plan my next progress.
Na: Nathaniel Gwyn
Title: Champion Candidate
Difficulty: Hell
Rank: A, Shimring Silver
Guild: Primordial Knights
Floor: 9 - The Pit
Ti left until forced return: 2y 84d 19h 59m 6s
Traits (2/3): Mana Wavelength Iris 2/3, Mana Physique 2/3
Lvl 346
Strength: 291
Dexterity: 272
Constitution: 476
Mana (Stage 1/3 - Vast Mana): 1744 1744
Primary Class:Mana Weaver (Unique Arcane)
Sub-class:[Adept of Pride]
Active skills (9/10):
Focus - Lvl 70
Perception - Lvl 68
Redistribution - Lvl 70
Mana Manipulation - Lvl 70
Ley Line - Lvl 65
Eclipse (Pride) - Lvl 49
Empyrean Lance - Lvl 31
Manifestation - Lvl 16
Accumulation - Lvl 19
Constructs:
Reinforcent
Mana Regulator
Mana Sovereignty Mantle
Kinetic Mana Heart
Sealed Ignition Heart (Partially Sealed, 2/3)
ntal Fra
Thought Maze Circuit
Thermal Flux Regulator
Passive skills (4/5):
Mana Kinetic Conversion Reservoir (Unique Epic)
Mana Wavelength Tyrant (Mid Arcane)
Subdermal Combustion Weave (Mid Arcane)
Mana Wave Predation (Unique Arcane)
Tokens:
Send a single item to your disciple (up to epic rarity)
Passive skill combination token (low arcane)
Beyond visitor token - 1 year (unlocked after tutorial)
Beyond 4th Floor High end residence permit
Beyond 7 day stay token
Beyond 14 day stay token
Beyond 14 day stay token
Shards:6,686,111
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