Chapter 750 - Everyone knew it was coming (Patreon)

From the kids, I learn that it is possible to summon a personal screen to watch the event. It is even possible to filter out people to watch the person you want. So, of course, I now sit outside, resting against the side of Wolfy and surrounded by kids, Lily on one side and Biscuit, who, even this time, does not participate in the event.

Same as that black-haired bulldozer, the corgi stays in the common area, and even for the same reason, though he is not as forceful about it as she is. That damned, stubborn girl.

Now, Biscuit in his puppy form lies in my lap, and even though he tries to hide it, I notice him helping me. Just that tiny little bit as he gets rid of what I cannot contain fully, so it does not hurt the kids. And the kids include that enormous black wolf as well. Though annoyed, he lets us rest against him and watches the event with us.

Enan, Seneca, Deva, and quiet Irwys, Min-Jae’s disciple, are all here. We also finally meet a vyssari girl called Rye, Tess’s disciple.

She is just like that tiny vyssari child I met in the Megacity. Tiny, huge eyes, cute scaly legs, and a small, round face.

It makes me want to protect her with my life, feed her all my precious earth sweets that remain, and tease her just so I can watch her be angry at me, which would make her seem even more cute. Just like a little kitten trying to be dangerous.

She is blonde and has eyes that seem to be a trait. They are… weird. It is hard to guess their colors as it continues to shift according to the light and sometimes her mood. It is to the point I wonder if she does not have a bit of feylith blood, though she does not seem to change her hair color.

Rye is quiet, just like Min-Jae’s Irwys, but unlike him, she is more decisive. Once we sit down, she rests against my side in a way that seems like a cat finding a spot warmed up by the sun to rest on.

I realize my body is warmer than usual, even with my control, but it is not to the point of hurting anyone, so I let it be to not spook her away.

Even the system screen she watches the event on is smaller than the others.

Now only Lily’s Pallius is missing, once again making me realize how stubborn that girl is. Hah, I guess I will have to supply her with a few dozen of my left arms. After the body upgrade, they will be incredible sacrifices for her. Or maybe I could buy her flowers or something. I will have to ask Tess… no, not her. She would make fun of me. I will ask Izzy.

I hear Deva shout excitedly and turn to watch her screen. There we see Sophie and Izzy, just the two of them inside one of the dungeons. Like the others I have seen, this one is different as well. It is an old, breaking-apart stairway heading towards the sky in what almost looks like an old rocket silo.

They already walk for what I guess is over ten minutes, and no changes are apparent in the environment. But this time, Sophie seems to have detected something and disrupted it. The air near them flickers in the area, and the stairway disappears, revealing that the entire environment changes to a boneyard, with many skeletons as tall as buildings.

From behind one of them, a creature looks up. A lizard with a third vertical eye in the middle of its forehead and four protrusions looking like tentacles expanding from its head.

It hisses at the same time as Noodle drops from Izzy’s arm and grows in size to match the monsters.

Fragment of the Eternal Flame blazes around Izzy, and her veins become visible through her skin. Sophie waves her hand, and Blackie escapes from her shadow, throwing himself against a pile of bones from which a golem made out of them steps out.

Then, more monsters like the first one start appearing. Dozens, hundreds of them start climbing from under the bones and massive corpses around. Each of them is the same in looks, just maybe one-fifth of the size. The entire area starts flickering with the environment constantly changing as the fight starts, with Noodle coiling around both girls to protect them, and the golem rushes to the fight with loud stomping.

Deva continues to shout for Sophie to finally stop playing around, with all six arms in the air, and curses probably a bit more than a kid should.

I feel a tug on my clothes and look to my right at the tiny vyssari girl.

“What?” I ask.

She points at Biscuit.

“Go on. He doesn’t bite.”

The girl nods and starts reaching out her hand.

I cannot help myself but add, “I think.”

That causes her to stop and look back at me. That cute face furrows in an expression that reminds me of Tess so much. With a tiny sigh, she then reaches anyway and starts petting Biscuit’s back.

At this point, I wonder, with her being so tiny, she could probably ride Biscuit in his adult form, right? Or be really close to it. Honestly, wouldn’t even I be able to ride on Biscuit if he turned into his horse-sized form?

The corgi just turns around to look at her and yawns before turning back and lying his head on my leg.

“Deva,” I rest back lazily and call towards the thylarin who still cheers on her master.

Just for a moment, she glances at me, annoyed, “What?”

"I have met several replicas of the Last Elf, and I even spoke with that petty saboteur. I also met the Ruler of Greed and the Ruler of Diligence, or at least their vessels. I ran into the Ruler of Kindness as well, and she helped me throw some guy off a balcony. I think I have seen the vessel of the Ruler of Wrath, too. By the way, have you heard about the Ancient Monster, the Absolute, Lissandra Hawthorne? Yes? Good. I met her, too, and she is trying to become my master. What else… oh, the intent of the Ruler of Envy spoke to me at one point, and I met a demon with five hearts, a lunatic that nearly became the Ruler of Wrath. One more thing, if you shout at me again, I will lock your kinetic movements until Sophie comes out and I will let the others stuff grass into your mouth or bury you in dirt."

There is no shouting, but her eyes are beautiful to watch. All six of her hands look like they are squeezing someone’s neck.

Then I reach out and ruffle Enan’s hair too while flicking his cat ears a few times to his utter shock.

Tiny Rye does not escape either. I lift her and hold her in front of me and stare at her as she stares at me. It is as great a feeling as I had thought it would be. I almost want to hug her too, but I do not push it, and instead, I put her back and boop her tiny, tiny nose while saying, “Biscuit, one deer jerky if you brutally attack this tiny vyssari.”

It does not take even a second for Biscuit to twist around, shrink a bit, and jump against her, which finally forces her to make a tiny noise from her serious face. A cute squeak as Biscuit starts licking her face and rubbing himself against her, energetically, but very gently.

Looking to my left, Irwys meets my eyes, scared and worried of what might come, but I just shrug, “We introverts should stand together.”

He nods eagerly in relief.

My last target is Seneca, whose hair moves more wildly in a darker shade of blue. Even so, I reach towards the hair only to change direction at the last moment and poke her ribs a few times to tickle her.

In revenge, a flame ball crashes against my face, but I barely notice it, though it would likely kill someone from Easy difficulty.

Satisfied and feeling much better, I close my eyes and breathe deeply.

Life is too short to not rage bait kids.

***

The kids, as silly as they are, mostly forget what I have done half an hour later, and we watch the event together. Well, other than Deva, that girl sure can hold a grudge, though she does not shout anymore. She is suspecting–correctly–that I would do just what I threatened to do.

I am an asshole.

Rye rests against my right side, and Biscuit against her, while Seneca watches, lying with her head on my knee. Irwys is to my left, sometimes excitedly pointing out things on the screen and showing them to me. Enan, meanwhile, talks to Lily about lynthari.

There are so many people fighting in the dungeons, and the dungeons come in countless varieties. All of them contain monsters, though power levels differ greatly. There are a few Hard difficulty groups that get wiped out by Champion grade monsters, as well as Hard difficulty guys facing level 1 goblins.

I know the capabilities of Group 4, so I mostly watch the people from other rounds of Earth’s tutorial, especially the Kings.

At this point, I have confirmed that Jean is likely the strongest out of them, if I do not count Vic, obviously. I'm not absolutely sure, but I think his Physique now uses even primordial energies that hit him to speed up his healing and increase his durability, and it feels like he probably got an adaptive defense passive that makes him more durable the longer he faces a certain element, primordial energy, skill, and such.

That boy Maxim with his void wolves is also interesting. He is young, yet decisive, and he can now summon new shadow monsters so large that one even flies and carries him around.

Derick and his wife, Noelle, are still a good duo, and the slim man is faster, his attacks and the tattoos on his body disrupt mana more easily, and they seem to have gone through a huge upgrade.

I'm also curious about Baek, but most of the time, the laziest king just tags behind his group, and that girl Kang Jiwon, who seems to have gone for bulldozer sim gameplay, just like Lily.

Yet, over all of them and over everyone from the other planet, Vic shines the most, and I don’t say it because she is my sister. Her duplicates cooperate better and better and always move with clear intent, while her body is easily the most powerful out of Earth’s tutorial.

She isn’t as strong as Jean, as fast as Tacita, and doesn’t have regeneration as Lily. But damn, she is impressively durable, and her strength and speed in spikes almost match Jean and Tacita, though it destroys even her body. And that durability and other capabilities are shared with all of her duplicates as well.

But I still have a bit of a hard time thinking who would win if she and Tacita fought. And I swear it isn’t because I have an irrational fear of Tacita, who might be my natural-born predator.

Once the fights become more boring as people just walk through the dungeons, I turn my attention back to myself as I just notice something. The progress of the body upgrade is slowing down and alleviating some pressure put on me. It is nothing huge, only around a 20 percent drop in difficulty that will probably rise again soon, yet it still feels like having a horse sized corgi taken off my shoulders, letting me finally breathe.

Even then, I do not stop. I take it as a sign of weakness from my torturer and keep attacking the changes made to my body, working around them, working with them, and watching how far I can push them while learning from every change.

It is also when a few notifications sound.

Due to the individual enhancement part of your body upgrade, and based on your performance so far and the recalculated state of your body, additional adjustments have been applied to your traits to reflect individual enhancements more accurately.

Mana Wavelength Iris 2/3 > Mana Wavelength Iris 2/4

Mana Physique 2/3 > Mana Physique 2/4

And then another one.

Congratulations, you have successfully combined [Accumulation], and [Mana Manipulation]!

A new skill has been created.

You have acquired [Current]

[Current - Level 0 > Current - Level 19]

And then, as I move just a tiniest speck of mana through my body.

I knew it was coming, Biscuit knew it was coming, the system knew it was coming.

Yet still, fuck the system.

Congratulations, you have acquired a new skill!

[Mana Manipulation]

[Mana Manipulation - Level 0 > Mana Manipulation - Level 74]

Welcome back, my beloved.

Next Chapter

***

Author note: Hey hey! First off, thanks for paying your taxes!

Secondly, I’m still not sure on a name for the new skill. I really like "Current," but I feel it could be even better - I’m terrible at naming things.

There are the names I’m currently considering, but don’t be shy to share your thoughts or even suggest completely new ideas. The name should hint at the skill’s ability to channel large amounts of energies, hold, and store them. Metaphorical names work too - just look at "Eclipse." The name doesn’t describe the skill directly, but it fits and it’s cool as hell. Something like "Ur Line" or "Ley Line" is another example of that.

Here are the ones I’m thinking about: Conduit, Current, Transference, Transfer, Channel, Torrent, Flow.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!