It beca clear that even with newfound skills and levels that there would be no quick solution to dealing with the noxweed monster. Now it was more of a collection of clustered roots than a single entity. Further, Ryan had vastly overestimated just how much volatile mana he could produce. It turned out that continuously draining his core actually decreased the rate it would replenish by a noticeable amount.
So instead, Ryan practiced the day away, occasionally stopping to help destroy a cluster of roots. For so reason, Cerul wasn’t half as pushy as it had been before.
After a full twelve hours, Ryan stretched and sat back down. Finally tired.
Perhaps that was the true lesson here. That he needed to take so ti to consolidate his gains, that there wasn’t always a quick solution to every problem. Realistically speaking, he had fifteen years until the next highest trial attempt, and even the assistant at Raidco’s Mastery could tell that his body hadn’t acclimatized.
It was just… that there were far too many options for continued power in his hands. This had been just one of the class crystals as well. What would happen if he started switching out to another class and started doing the sa thing?
How much stronger could he get?
Ryan took a deep breath.
Calm.
Huh, I might need to talk to Barry about that.
“You okay?”
Gamielle appeared next to him as he tried to calm himself down.
“Oh, hey Gamielle. What’s up?”
“I’m asking you that question. You look awfully conflicted for soone that’s been leveling up Epics like a madman.”
Ryan scratched his neck. “I don’t know, I feel like I could be doing more. I know I’m making good progress but I feel like I could be going faster.”
“Faster than leveling up Epics and learning a new one in a day? That was an Epic, right?”
“Yeah [Manabane Strike].” Ryan said, then he couldn’t help but brag a little too. “I managed to get it to level two as well.”
Gamielle made a face. “Yikes, and you want to go faster?”
Ryan laughed. “Yeah, I know it’s greedy but… I just feel like sothing’s always around the corner. That I need to get as strong as I can now before sothing goes to shit.”
Gamielle visibly winced at that. “Sorry about that.”
Ryan shook his head, feeling a little bad himself. “I’ve already said, I don’t bla you. I know you wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t for your mom.”
Gamielle stared across the red horizon. Cerul was panting in the background, almost lying dead on the ground, exhausted.
“Well, if you want my opinion. You should take so ti to relax. Rest a bit, gain so levels through normal practice. Act like an actual adventurer your age and enjoy life a little, you know? If–if there’s anyone that deserves it, it’s you.”
Ryan smiled, it was nice to know she genuinely cared. He let the red sunlight hit his face and closed his eyes.
Maybe I can just rest for a bit.
——
At the border of Sector 11 & 12…
An enormous pink snake slithered underground. Recently, sothing like this would have been absolutely unthinkable for a creature like her. Which was a problem in itself, the her of before would have never thought of digging in the dirt as being undignified.
The boy scout had been right.
Draconic pride had been ssing with her mind. She had preferred the form of a dragon for too long in recent years. While it had co with a lot of power, the impulses it gave were just as strong.
So she imdiately did sothing undignified for a dragon. There were no dragons that liked to dig underground like this. At the very least, none that would call themselves a dragon. It helped reset her mind, reminded her that she was first and foremost, a [Shapeshifter]. That she was a being that took the ideal form of others and enhanced it further.
Now she was going to take the next step in her evolution.
Then she would make Ella hers again.
The giant pink snake flicked its forked tongue out of the dirt and stuck high into the air. The Witch Tyrant’s illusory mana domain was the easiest to trigger in the air. By exposing the smallest amount of her body she could into the air, the less likely she would be detected.
It brought the tongue back into its mouth. Less than a tenth of a second had passed, more than enough to catch the scent particles in the air and process it in her mouth.
Her target’s sll was stronger now. Not only that, Pinkie couldn’t taste any excess mana that might indicate the Witch Tyrant’s observation.
It made her warier.
Was it possible that the Witch Tyrant wasn’t keeping track of the Passive Tyrant? Normally that would have been an absurd idea, but after getting punched in the face…
Things had changed. The Witch Tyrant wasn’t splitting her mind half as much. It ant she had far less coverage over The Realm. Still, not keeping track of the Passive Tyrant? That was only possible if the Passive Tyrant was annoyed with her. Even then, it was like not keeping track of a walking natural disaster.
Or maybe Pinkie was being too paranoid after all, perhaps she wanted this to happen and that it was all within her—
“AHA!”
Pinkie hissed in a panic as powerful hands wrapped around her neck, lifting her enormous mass out from the ground. She tried to bite in a panic but found that the human that was holding onto her was deft enough and likely experienced at wrangling giant beasts like her.
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Pinkie stopped trying to bite when she saw who it was.
Both the snake and Tyrant stared at each other for a second. The Tyrant had clearly been excited at the idea that there was another creature that was willing to stalk her.
That look lasted for only a brief mont.
“Oh, it’s you again.”
The Passive Tyrant dropped the snake in disappointnt. Pinkie landed roughly and thrashed around, prioritizing throwing her tongue out to figure out if the ambient mana here was higher than it normally was. It wasn’t, though it didn’t necessarily an the Witch Tyrant wasn’t watching.
“You alright?”
She rapidly changed her body into a small humanoid drake. Pinkie’s eyes darted in a panic.
“Do you know if the Witch Tyrant is watching?”
“Lihua?” The Passive Tyrant looked around, “I don’t think so? Sotis I can tell, sotis I can’t, it’s like a ga we play.”
Only you would consider sothing like that a ga. Pinkie didn’t say. The damned Passive Tyrant could tell soone was watching her from her instincts alone. Even the Witch Tyrant’s observation was included in this. It was probably one of the reasons why the Witch Tyrant was so powerful. She was constantly trying to improve her illusory abilities against the Passive Tyrant’s detection. The worst part was that the Passive Tyrant treated it like a fun ga. A way to hone her instincts to detect even the faintest observations.
It was stupid and overpowered and one of the least dangerous things about the Passive Tyrant.
But, well… if all of this was true then.
Pinkie grinned. “I am close, Passive Tyrant.”
The Passive Tyrant crossed her arms, looking a little annoyed. If there was one thing that could piss her off, it was promising a good fight but not being able to deliver.
“I don’t think you are.”
“I swear it. I just need you to answer a question.”
The Tyrant sighed. “I don’t see how answering a question would help, but why not? Go ahead.”
Pinkie’s pulse quickened. Yes, this was it. Once she had her answer Pinkie would complete her transformation and beco a proper Tyrant. Not even the great Witch Tyrant could tell her what to do then.
The best part? The Passive Tyrant was more than happy to help. She had even tried to help the first ti. Pinkie just hadn’t understood how important the Passive Tyrant’s perspective was back then. Nor did she know the right questions to ask.
Thanks to Ryan, now she did.
Pinkie’s malford grin would horrify even the worst monsters. She felt the concepts spin around her as her body started to bubble, scales being absorbed for tougher muscles and human skin.
It was enough for the Passive Tyrant to break into a grin.
Yes I am close, you feel it now, don’t you?
Pinkie asked her final question. The final perspective she needed to truly [Shapeshift] into the monster that was in front of her. Biology, concepts and perspective, she would copy them all.
“Why do you detest killing those beneath you?”
The Passive Tyrant frowned in confusion, she took a mont to think about the question, then she answered.
“Because it’s stupid?”
One of the muscles on Pinkie’s arm tore itself from the answer. The swirling concepts ca to a screeching halt as she blinked.
“What?”
“What? It’s just stupid.”
Pinkie tried to put that reasoning into the right mindfra, she tried to understand it and apply that thought, forcing it despite her [Shapeshifter] instincts telling her it was wrong—and then she felt a part of her brain collapse.
Pinkie was paralyzed for all of two seconds as she reford her own brain. She shook her head.
“No. I need to know why you think it’s stupid.”
The Passive Tyrant looked genuinely confused, and she was not the Witch Tyrant. She wasn’t lying or trying to trick her.
“It’s stupid because why would I kill those weaker than ?”
She could tell even without her [Shapeshifter] class that sort of answer would not work. It was a dumb circular answer that didn’t answer the actual question.
Pinkie’s shoulder drooped.
Of all the things she had expected, this was not one of them. She had not expected that the Passive Tyrant herself hadn’t really thought about why she acted the way she did. After all, the Passive Tyrant was a creature of instinct, not of soone that sat down and tried to plot out complicated pointless paths and saw things from other’s point of view to find the most ruinous path possible for his enemies.
Perhaps there was still a little more ti until disaster struck.
The Passive Tyrant frowned, then looked up, high, high into the sky.
Pinkie instantly shot up in alarm. “Is the Witch Tyrant watching?”
“Nah, just the Manager.”
——
Earth…
When Ryan returned to Earth so he could rest, the last thing he expected was a book flapping its pages in his face. Which really showed how tired he was. At this point the minimum he should have expected was for a [teor] to have dropped in front of him.
He reached out to grab Chester with his left arm and it ducked out of the way.
Blearily, he turned to Milock. “What’s Chester doing here?”
As if in answer to his question, Chester manifested a bunch of crystalline orbs onto the bed.
Ryan blinked in realization. “Oh, oh yeah. That.”
He covered his face. He’d completely forgotten about his little deal with [Witch] Grettfield.
“I can’t fill those up today. I used up all my volatile mana pulling up so weeds.”
Chester spun its pages while bouncing back and forth in anger.
“Look, Chester, the deal was that… Shit what was the deal again?
Ryan had to rember for a second about the exact wording they used. Apparently that wasn’t good enough for Chester because it started clapping its pages even louder.
Milock decided to taunt him. “Making then breaking a deal with a dragonslayer tier [Witch], smooth.”
“I haven’t broken shit! The agreent was that she would give crystals to manage my arm and I would give her the filled crystals in return, that was it!”
He was starting to realize that he had technically made a bargain with a [Witch]. As nice as Grettfield was, that had been a really careless move. Chester was bouncing around the room like mad, getting angry because it couldn’t deliver the promised goods back to its Mistress.
Ryan facepald in realization. “And I gave her my story for free too. I forgot she offered eighty five million for that. I’m such an idiot.”
“Didn’t she offer you custom mana wrappings?”
“That was worth eighty five million dollars!”
Milock shook his head in exasperation. “Dude, I spend a third of my ti looking at stock charts and I’m the one that thinks you need to get your priorities straight.”
“I know right? I need to start making so more money.”
After Ryan chased Chester out of the hotel room, he took a look around.
“Where’s Clara and Barry?”
“Barry’s brooding in the other room and Clara’s gone shopping with Seffara’s card.”
“Didn’t we say we’d keep harassing him—I an keep Barry occupied?”
“Yeah, I don’t know if you noticed, but Barry’s a seven foot orc with four hundred pounds of muscle. He literally picked and Clara up and threw us outside.”
“Ah.”
With that, Ryan went to Barry’s room so he could fake snore loudly in there.
…
2 hours later…
“WAKE UP MAGGOT!”
Ryan’s shattersword was in his hand before the first word had finished. He almost started swinging before he recognized what room he was in.
Then he recognized the voice. Ryan sucked in a breath.
“Seffara! What the fuck! You’re back!? I could have cut the entire room!”
“Hah! Better to find out now than if your friends ever woke you up. I’m teaching them how to wake up an adventurer in a safe way.”
“You know what? I don’t even care, I’m so glad you’re back!”
“So am I kid, c’mon we’re all waiting in the other room.”
Ryan almost dashed out fast enough to cause a sonic boom. It probably wouldn’t have shattered the reinforced windows in the room but he didn’t want to risk it… nor did he want to pay for the damages.
He moved faster as he waited for the damned keycard to scan. At tis like this, it felt like everything was moving too slow for his superhuman senses.
Ryan entered the room as the smile died on his face. Everyone else was there and ecstatic that Seffara was back. Well, Barry looked as angry as ever but Ryan was absolutely certain that the orc was still relieved his friend was alive.
Ryan wasn’t.
Seffara was calling them from The Realm. They were using Milock’s laptop and they were doing a video call.
She had never called them like that before. She was a Destined like him, it was incredibly easy for her to hop back and forth between The Realm. She was always there when needed.
There was only one reason he could think of that Seffara wouldn’t imdiately co back to Earth to greet Barry.
Ryan's paranoid mind imdiately assud the worst.
“What’s wrong? You’re not happy to see I’m alive?”
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