"Your skill does contribute. But if you were strictly 'Positive' or 'Negative,' you'd use three tis more energy for techniques opposed to your alignnt.
Yet, your energy consumption for 'Healing' is the sa as 'Unhealing'."
"I see. It's because I'm 'Balanced'."
Eliza nodded, her gaze returning to Evan's System Archive projection.
'aning Dad's 'Malevolent Life' Series skill is inherently 'Negative'…'
"Now that's out of the way, shall we head down to the 'Final Trial'? It's different as it has Two Phases.
Phase one is a 'Mini-Dungeon', but Phase 2 is a bit Random."
Evan explained, eyeing the large double doors before them. The doors lacked handles but had slots resembling their brooches. After inserting their brooches, the doors vibrated and opened to reveal the entrance to the Mini-Dungeon.
Inside,?was a clearing leading to two paths.
"Which one are we taking?"
"Both. Let's split up and race to see who reaches the end first. If I win, you'll go along with my idea,"
Eliza looked at Evan with a puzzled expression, clearly questioning the purpose of this sudden competition. Evan just smiled and whispered sothing in her ear. What he said made her cheeks flush red, and she?shot him a glare?before choosing the leftward path.
"I'm going ahead!"
Evan couldn't help but laugh at?the way?her attitude had taken a complete 180. He then turned to the rightward path, strolling in leisurely.
'I might be able to predict Phase 2 based on the enemies in Phase 1.
But it's only about 60% accurate.'
Evan pondered as he walked, his mind wandering the possibilities. Ten minutes later, he turned a corner and halted. At first glance, the floor seed normal, but Evan could sense hundreds of hidden traps.
"I'd just run through faster than?the?traps?can activate."
With that decision, Evan propelled himself forward supersonically, covering the?kilotre-long?distance in just 3 seconds. But upon reaching the end of the hallway,?his body was covered?in a sticky green substance.
"Who thought a poison shower for the last 100 ters was a good idea?!"
Evan exclaid, cursing as he retrieved a fresh set of clothes from his inventory. Using a mix of water and fire magic, he cleaned himself before changing into the new outfit.
Examining himself in the mirror afterwards, Evan noticed the beginnings of facial hair.
"I?definitely?don't look 15 anymore, more like 17. This outfit suits , though."
He was now wearing a dark grey long-sleeved t-shirt and black jeans made from?the?silk and steel threads?of a grandmaster-level spider monster.
Over this, he wore a long black jacket that reached below his knees, paired with matching laced combat boots. On his left wrist was a silver chanical chain watch, and a plain bracelet peeked out from under his right sleeve.
His short black hair was swept back?as he checked his height using magic, confirming he was now 5 feet 9.9 inches.
"Basically?5'10."
After stashing his old clothes and mirror, Evan continued down the hallway.
"When I left the 'Tower of Trials' after spending over half a year there, I told myself I wouldn't enter any trials anyti soon."
Evan?reminisced, recalling?the six months he and his party had spent in the 'Tower of Trials' last year, aiming to reach the Grandmaster Level before his birthday.
As he walked, he stepped on a trap magic circle, overloading it with magic power and causing it to crumble before it could activate.
"…Now, not up to a year later…I'm inside ANOTHER set of 'Trials', ones that?could be considered?more troubleso than that Dungeon Artemisia created."
Adjusting his shirt cuffs, he sat on a nearby stone?and retrieved?a juice pack from his inventory,?sipping?it.
"Good thing this is the last of trial.
But too bad this dungeon is only the 'Phase 1' of the whole 'Cavern of Trials' series."
Disposing of the empty juice pack, he drew his obsidian black sword and approached the large double doors ahead.
Entering and watching the doors close behind him, a ssage appeared before his eyes.
[The Trial would begin Imdiately.]
Evan sighed, running his hand through his hair as he read the ssage. But his expression quickly changed to shock when he saw the 'things' materializing a few ters behind the ssage.
"No fucking way….!"
Gripping his sword tightly, he adopted a battle stance, swearing?once more.
"You gotta be fucking kidding ."
Almost instantly,?a bolt of golden lightning shot towards him, aiming to rip a hole through his skull.
"A 'Replica' trial? Seriously?!"
Evan dodged the?lightning,?before holding out his hand and punching the wall of lightning blocks that ford behind him.
A small fla appeared in front of him?and?reacting instinctively, he cast an Elental Shield just before it ignited into a massive Oxyhydrogen explosion.
Teleporting out of the smoke cloud, he reappeared near the doors and used wind magic to disperse the remaining smoke.
Suddenly, his shadow animated, wrapping its arms around him and holding him in place. Feeling the restraint, Evan sighed softly, looking up at the four beings?in front of?him.
"Kayla's Arc Lightning and Thunderclap, Milena's Oxyhydrogen Explosion, Kuro's Shadow Bind.
What's your move, 'Amy'?"
Floating before him were expressionless replicas of his Spirit Companions, hands?outstretched as they activated their Unique Skills simultaneously.
"That's NOT good…!"
His vision?was suddenly consud?by overwhelming darkness. He felt flas, lightning, and ice converging on him from all directions.
Blinded by the darkness, he couldn't see the?true?forms of the attacks but could sense their imnse power.
As such—
"Blessing of Destruction. Limit Break."
—He went all out.
"Burn, sarthim."
The explosion of radiant, prismatic flas Evan conjured overwheld and extinguished the three incoming attacks, nullifying their threat.
The binds restraining him burned to ashes, and he teleported behind the airborne spirits, unleashing a point-blank Vindiction's Strike.
The humanoid spirits scattered, with 'Kuro' launching a dark light ball at him and?then?diving into 'Milena's' shadow.
Evan unfurled his wings, dodging the dark light ball, and released over a dozen Everlasting Chains to pursue the flying spirits.
'Hydra.'
The silent skill activation caught the Replicas off guard, and in their attempt to evade the serpentine dragons, they inadvertently entered the paths of the chains.
Evan swiftly bound their legs with the golden chains, pulling them together and hurling them towards the ceiling.
Riding the montum, Evan spun around, drawing his palm along his sword to engulf it in flas.
"sarthim; Red: Hell Unleashed."
Swinging his sword in a wide arc, a torrent of blazing flas erupted, engulfing the airborne Replicas and reducing them to ashes in a searing inferno.
**KAAABOOOMM!!!!
Evan landed gracefully, his gaze lingering on the explosion that had blown a hole in the ceiling.
Suddenly, his shadow twitched, and a clawed paw erged, slashing at him, however, Evan pivoted, seizing the feline Replica by its paw and yanking it out of hisshadow,before slamming it onto the ground.
With a swift swing of his sword, he beheaded it and deactivated his skills.
"That was easy.
Guessthat's all theyare;just Replicas.
They aren't aspowerful, durable or assmartas the originals.
The real Kuro wouldn't have attacked from my shadow afterI saw him go intoMilena's.As for capturing Kayla AND Milena simultaneously? Impossible with therealspirits."
With a light sigh of exasperation, Evan approached the door on the opposite side of the room.
Exiting the Mini-Dungeon, he found Eliza seated, waiting for him. Unable to contain himself, he burst into laughter once again.
"You cleared it in less than 25 minutes? Is that how much you don't want to try out having sex by the window?"
"NEVER! I have zero exhibitionist desires!"
Evan's laughter grew louder at Eliza's response.He'd only brought it up as a jokeafter seeing it talked about in the book Roselia had gifted him for his birthday.
But Eliza had vehently refusedto even entertain the thought of it.
"You know... the more you resist, the more eager I am."
Evan did not have any desire to fuck his girlfriend by a window, but it was fun to tease hersohe kept bringing it up.
Elizawas mostlycertainhe was teasing her, but that lingering 1% of doubt kept her on her toes.
"If you ntion this again, I'll toss you into the nearest active volcano."
"Alright, alright, I'll stop. Just joking anyway."
Evan chuckled, flashing her an amused smile. He sat beside her, pulling up the System Archive with multiple floating tabs as he browsed througharticles,while Eliza stared at him dumbfoundedly in silence.
The reason for Eliza's astonishnt wasthe factthat she could see the Reincarnated Hero System tabs—every single one of them.
With aquickglance at the navigation bar on the side, she could see so ominous sounding headings like 'The Eight Disasters', 'Demonic Hand Genocide Plans', 'False gods' Sacrifice Ritual', and similar stuff.
"…Evan."
"What's up?"
Evan responded nonchalantly, still scrolling through the 'Dungeons' category and opening the details pane for 'Cavern of Trials I'.
"I don't think I'm supposed to be seeing this, am I?"
Eliza wascertainwhatever Evan was looking at was a significant secret of his.
However, the boy only placed a hand on his chin and wore a contemplative expression as he spoke.
"I doubt 'you' would be able to see it if there was a restriction on revealing its existence.
While most of the contents of the 'System Archive' have restrictions, revealing the existence of the System itself to 'you' should NOT be an issue."
Eliza had apremonitionthat Evan was about to drop another bombshell on herbutbefore she could speak, he continued.
"It's called the 'Reincarnated Hero System'."
"…"
"Causality didn't act up, huh? So, I guess there are no problems foryou.
Let test sothing out."
Evan shifted his focus to the Archive, navigating to the 'Eight Disasters' category and then readouta line.
"In Tarse, the Demonic Hand plans to c?????r??????????e??????????a????????????t?????????????????e??????????? ??????????a??????? ??????????????????d?????????????i????????????--
So, it's not bugged."
Clearly,the Law of Causality's information restriction remained, confirming Evan's theory that revealing the System's existence to 'Eliza' was permissible.
'I'm guessing it'd act up if I tried this with soone else.
Roselia might befinesinceshe's pretty muchfiguredI'm not from Aidos. Kayla could know, considering her closeness to Artemisia.
But anyone else?Definitelya NO-GO.'
Evan considered this before turning to Eliza, who looked at him with a complex expression.
"What?"
"Evan... whatever this 'System' is, I don't think it's sothing you should have told ."
Hearing her, Evan smiled gently before replying.
"Sweetheart, let's not pretend you and Roselia haven't already pieced so things together."
Eliza visibly flinched at his words.
Evan chuckled softly and planted a kiss on her forehead. Rising from his seat, he headed down the hallway ahead of them.
"Let's go. I've predicted our next Trial."
Watching Evan's figure disappear into the dark hallway, Eliza remained seated, her mind awash with countless thoughts.
'Reincarnated Hero...'
In revealing the system's na, Evan inadvertently added more weight to the suspicions she and Roselia had about him.
She recalled her Uncle George had once ntioned that Evan's body and soul seed oddly 'Out of Sync'.
She also rembered monts when Evan's choice of words about Aidos and its inhabitants seed off.
'He sotis says 'ThisWorld', or 'YouPeople of Aidos'….'
Considering Evan didn't make much effort to conceal these inconsistencies from her, it wasn't surprising that Eliza had ford so theories, especially after two years together.
Roselia had evendirectlyasked Evan if he was from another world once, though he had sidestepped the question.
The Demon had told Eliza about this exchange, along with Evan's non-answer.
If not forthese suspicions, Evan would never have allowed Eliza to truly 'see' the system or even reveal its na.
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