I stared at the flying man, and my instincts started to scream at . He hadn’t taken any hostile actions against us, and he had even been rather polite. That didn’t an I had forgotten what had happened just a minute ago. The man was still flying in the sky as if he had been born a bird, rather than a human. Just the aftermath of his fight could have annihilated our village, and he had been so far above us during the fight that I had barely even been able to see his body. But the most dangerous aspect of his existence was the way he seed to bend reality. Even though he didn’t seem to be trying to change the world around him, the laws of physics and reality still warped in his vicinity, like a clay sculpture being molded in the hands of a master craftsman. It also reminded of sothing had seen before - the way the laws of reality had bent around the heroic-grade shooter we had fought back in the market.
However, the power of the heroic grade shooter was nowhere close to this man’s level. It was like comparing a candle to a sun. Just how powerful was this man? Did he have a skill in one of the Law grades? Or perhaps several skills at that level? Or perhaps he was a bit weaker, and the only reason I thought he was so absurdly powerful was because of my limited understanding of the true powerhouses of the multiverse. It was hard to say.
In a mont of impulse, I used my soul sight to look at him. Then, my eyes started to burn and tear up. The amount of life force in his body was ridiculous. I didn’t even have a fra of reference to estimate what his equivalent Fortitude grade would be. It must have been dozens of grades higher than the strongest creature I had ever fought, even the giant monster in our previous life. My best guess was that his Fortitude was sowhere between grade 50 and grade 100 - but with how far beyond my understanding he was, I had no idea whether he was closer to 50 or 100.
Instinctively, I knew. If this man wanted our herd of wandering towns to die, it wouldn’t take him any effort. He might be able to kill all of us with a single spell, or with a swat of his palms. He reminded of the eye from our second world - which had killed us just by looking at us. The four of us were much stronger now than we had been back then, but compared to this man, we still had a very, very long path ahead of us - right now we were like flies that could be squeezed to death at a mont’s notice.
“Ah, my apologies,” said the man, as he gazed down at our town. Instantly, I felt so of his aura lessen. He still warped and bent reality around him, but the effects weren’t quite so obvious. More importantly, I no longer felt as if he was bending reality in a way that was fundantally incompatible with my biology. I could probably walk closer to him without dying, at least.
“I forgot to stop flaring my domain,” said the man. He looked around the ruined, battered clearing, at the broken trees, injured village-bearing beasts, and the one village-bearing beast that had been partially obliterated during the fight.
He sighed, and shook his head.
Our ember shivered in fear and drooped like a wilted plant, while the man ignored it as if it were beneath him. He finally dropped out of the sky and landed softly on the snow in front of us, causing to lose sight of him as our village-bearing beast blocked my vision. Then, I felt a jolt, and space warped around . I noticed, with so amusent, that the man’s teleportation spell wasn’t very precise or complex. It felt more like he had a very rudintary understanding of space, and had then used an absurd amount of essence to brute-force a massive teleportation spell.
A mont later, my vision blurred, and then I found myself standing in front of our village-bearing beast. I looked around, and realized that every single person from our town was standing in a crowd arrayed around the man. Not only our town - every single person from the seven wandering towns had been teleported here by the man. I resisted the urge to run up and give Felix and Sallia hugs - while I was sorely tempted, now was not the ti.
A mont later, I also noticed that the living weren’t the only ones who had been summoned here by the man.
There was also a small smattering of corpses scattered throughout the living villagers. I realized that they were people who had died during the fight. There weren’t many dead - perhaps a hundred. However, that was still a big blow to a community of less than five thousand people. Not to ntion, there were plenty of other people who were seriously injured.
The man waved his hand at us, and a stream of light exited his body. It reminded of sunlight and happiness. It swept through the townsfolk, and when it touched , I felt a wave of healing magic surge through my body. It was similar to my own renewal spell, although it was far less sophisticated and efficient. Once again, it felt like the man had a very basic healing spell that he was supercharging through sheer essence quantity.
Still, it was enough for the injured townsfolk. Most of the injured people recovered from their injuries. Limbs grew back, damaged or ruined organs repaired themselves, and even long-lost limbs quickly regrew.
The man glanced at us again, before he looked at the pile of corpses again.
“There’s nothing I can do for the dead. I apologize,” said the man.
The [Priest] of our village glanced at the [Priests] of other towns, and seed to work up a bit of courage, before he shivered. “May I know how to address you, your… lordship? I assu you’re a planar traveller?”
The man nodded. “Indeed, I am a planar traveller. I ca from the evershadow to track down a puppet that slipped past the front lines. I apologize for my negligence - it was part of my sector, but I failed to prevent it from harming your town.”
The [Priest] seed confused.
“Front lines?” He asked.
The man kneaded his forehead, and I got a sense of overwhelming exhaustion and frustration from his facial expression.
“Indeed. Don’t worry about it. I doubt such matters matter much to your town - nor should they, unless you have any unusually powerful warriors here that wish to seek broader horizons.”
I blinked in surprise, and looked more carefully at the man. Unless we had any unusually powerful warriors that wished to seek broader horizons? I quickly put together the man’s statents, as well as what information the four of us already had from the Market’s System ssages. I quickly pieced together a more complete picture.
We already knew that this dinsional cluster was at war with a powerful multiversal faction. This man had just ntioned the front lines, and implied that he was so kind of warrior who probably fought to maintain them. He also ntioned that if we had any warriors who sought broader horizons, the war could be our business as well.
I suspected that the man floating in front of us was a warrior from another plane in this dinsional cluster, who was actively fighting against the external force we were at war with. Furthermore, he was actively recruiting - or at least, if soone could impress him, he would be willing to take them along.
I was tempted - going to the front lines of a multiversal war would be a good way to farm Achievent, and it would also be a great way to find more materials for more powerful items. Felix currently had a splinter of universal tree bark, and that was already quite good - but if we could get more or better materials, Felix might be able to create several high-power, incredibly impactful items for when we returned to the Market. There was no such thing as too many trump cards.
I wondered if there was a way to contact the man later, when I grew a bit stronger. I doubted he would be impressed with now, but perhaps in the future, we could join up with the front lines, instead of wandering the frozen wasteland in search of materials on our own…
Before I could ask the question, one of the other [Priests] beat to it.
“Do you need strong warriors? We have not heard of a summons from the higher dinsions for powerful warriors recently.”
The man shook his head. “Summons have indeed been sent out, but they were largely sent to population centers. A wandering tribe with only five thousand residents would, indeed, have missed the call for warriors.” The man frowned. “In any case, the thousand worlds are at war, and have been for several decades now. Do you have any warriors in your tribe who have reached skill Tier 6 or higher, or level 121 or higher with a reasonably strong compound spark? eting both conditions would be even better, but one of those two is the minimum qualification to actually participate in a proper battlefield.”
The [Priest] looked baffled. “We haven’t had soone reach level 121 with a powerful compound spark in a few generations. As for skills at Tier 6 or higher, there are none in my village.”
“I reached level 6 in my taming skill a few years ago,” said the mayor of our town. “But I want to focus on keeping my people safe.”
The powerful man’s face fell. “It seems like people with Tier 6 or higher skills are rare in your wandering tribe? Forget it then. I’m not one to take away the last defenses of a wandering tribe such as yours. Things aren’t that desperate yet.” He sighed. “What a huge loss. Nobody here, nearly a hundred dead, and a breach of the front lines under my watch. Damn.” Without another word of explanation or discussion, he shook his head, before I felt space bend again. Then, the man vanished into thin air, as if he had never been here to begin with.
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