Chapter 953 - Searching for the limit (Patreon)

POV Ruby

I watch as Nathaniel pours multiple barrels of what he calls mana water over his Nameless Tree and feeds it more body parts from the Demigod. He either doesn't realize it or doesn't even care about it that much, but the water he is pouring is unnatural, extremely rare, and just... just something he shouldn't be able to get his hands on. As are many of the things he in the end got his hands on.

There are places where such a water appears naturally, yes, and there are people and organizations able to produce it too, but doing it in the way he did? Worst of all, that lynthari helping him didn't even break any rules, even behaving as crazily as he does, he always skirts very carefully around them.

Out of everyone in the Beyond, he is likely more aware of all the rules than even some of us. Not like I would care about that, and it wouldn't hold me back from stopping him if he annoyed me, but the problem is Kindness likes him. All because he once cooperated with the Aurate Consortium in an attempt to kill her, and that attempt was one of the three best so far.

It surprises me a bit that Nathaniel was able to befriend someone like him, but at the same time... not that much, as I watch Nathaniel sit down to start preparations for an attempt to forcefully evolve his traits.

Just these gathered, prepared materials are things many S-ranks would kill for, and even some Champions.

That said, some of said Champions would die attempting something similar to what he does. However, Nathaniel has an unsettling talent for knowing exactly how far he can push, as much as some might think he just suicidally pushes ahead. And with someone as talented as that healer of his, I do think he will succeed.

Watching the same scene, Diligence next to me mutters, “He can't keep getting away with this.”

“Why?” I ask him.

“He can't keep getting away with this!” he blurts out faster and snaps his mandibles.

“If you are annoyed by the elf and the gods' chosen in the tutorial, don't take it out on my ward.”

“Even they might frustrate me less than your ward, Greed. At a certain point, you will have to agree that he is searching for a way to mess with the tutorial just to spite us and for his own amusement, rather than doing anything of use to himself.”

“Just a little bit over one year and he is gone. If you are that impatient, you can try to ask him to kill the gods' chosen during the tournament, and maybe both of them will die.”

“I do not have to remind you that it should be impossible to die during the final tournament.”

“There is always a way. You yourself remember such cases.”

“Yes, rule-breaking ways that ruin the intention of the tournament. I still have some semblance of respect towards the rules we all should follow, so I won't be using any of those. It is already enough that the system reacted to the presence of the chosen and has made such vast changes to their final tournament. Have you seen it?”

“I did, but unlike you, I think it will be a bit more fun this way,” I answer, and watch Nathaniel start to shave his head once again in front of the huge glass container filled with pink liquid that he brought here to submerge himself in during the process.

Actually, there are even circles drawn around it with his blood and further containers that will infuse their own solutions into either Nathaniel or the main container.

Surprisingly, he does all of it here on the 12th floor with just his healer nearby, instead of somewhere just outside of Megacity and with the help of that lynthari too.

“So why did you come here?” I ask Diligence, who went quiet after my answer, also observing Nathaniel and speaking of the shoddy craftsmanship he is witnessing.

“Wrath came to me to ask for Materia,” he says simply.

And he doesn't need to say more for me to understand.

“Did you lend it to him?” I ask after a minute of silence.

“Obviously, I did not.”

“I see.”

That answer causes Diligence to snap his mandibles again. “I see. That's what your ward likes to say instead of answering properly. Though, I have to agree that when said by him, it is somehow more annoying. It is fascinating in a way.”

With that, he is gone, and I curiously observe Nathaniel. As always, when I see him dive into these crazy things, I feel a fire ignite inside of me. But I long since learned that reacting to this is foolish. At the levels where my fights would take place, it would just be suicide.

However, even then, that feeling is still there. Not enough to force me to hurriedly complete my preparations and head towards the place where I located the imitation of Master Lissandra, but enough to frustrate me.

POV Rafael Vaughn

I follow one of the Hard Difficulty returnees who drove me here up the mountain in the Alps and towards the huge chalet up there.

For a bit, I stop just to take in the beautiful view, and my guide doesn't seem to mind, even smiling a bit as if it is a similar reaction to what he had. If I recall correctly, he is called Andreas, he is from Greece, and during the third tournament, he was known for his great body reinforcement that was at the top among hard difficulty attendees.

After getting a fill of the view, I follow behind him, just at a normal human walking speed.

It is something Christoph prefers. When he doesn't hurry, he takes jets, uses cars, or just walks around, and in a way, I think it is calming to the people around him. Be it attendees or the normal humans that he surrounds himself with.

He could easily fly around, probably set up teleportation. I'm sure he can do that, but... I don't know... there is a charm and familiarity in doing it the old way? I myself feel calmed when I just walk normally or drive a car. It is like I want to feel normal and nostalgic about my life from before my tutorial.

Andreas holds the door open for me and smiles at the woman who rushes over, apologizing that she didn't do so herself. Another attendee, this one a scout from Normal Difficulty. Anaya from India. And behind her, I see two more Normal attendees, Zuri and Mosi, siblings from somewhere in East Africa.

As we pass upstairs and walk past a hallway with one side fully made of glass and an open view outside, I glance into rooms where there are more humans and attendees, all talented people attracted to Christoph, who seems to have a great eye for talent.

Near the door, there is Heidi, a woman from Germany and widely known as the most powerful Hard Difficulty attendee. She, as always, has that solemn dark face with a big scar on her left side.

I know there have been some questionable missions she has done for Christoph, and though I have to acknowledge the results as improvements on certain things, I don't know how to fully feel about them. Maybe it is just that part of me still grasping onto the past and fighting against change that especially people from Hell Difficulty seemed to quickly accept.

Heidi steps to the side, and Andreas stays with her as I enter the room where Christoph waits together with an attendee I recognize as Ines from Spain. A Hard Difficulty healer from Heidi's group.

Christoph looks younger once again, this time like he barely entered his thirties, and as always he is wearing one of the tailored suits that only make him further imposing. As always, I wonder if it's only him being so powerful that makes him seem younger or if maybe it's his active effort.

From what I have seen of him, he seems to be a man who at least slightly looks down on normal humans, so it wouldn't be a stretch for him to look down on aging as proof of weakness. Especially as it came out how old he actually was before the tutorial. But who wouldn't do the same if possible?

He gives his charming smile, stepping ahead and offering me a firm handshake before inviting me to sit down nearby. He doesn't send Ines away, and we get into a short, polite exchange.

Then he gets to the reason why he has summoned me here. “Do your appearances still stand as planned?”

“Yes. Nothing has changed. I won't complain about my role, Christoph, but I'm getting sick of meeting that many people.”

“Really?” Christoph pretends to be taken aback with a smile. “To me, it seems like you are enjoying it.”

I watch his movements and gestures, and think of what he said, and it is true. I don't mind all this attention, and in a way it is... nice? Millions, billions of people knowing my face, leaders of countries carefully choosing their words when speaking with me. And the fact that I am a part of something so important, and that allows me to take care of my family and friends.

Christoph asks for a lot, but also rewards much more. I can say with confidence that every attendee or human that he chooses and that works with him is well taken care of, as well as their entire families and as many people as they wish.

And people are desperate to get onto his good side. After all, they know once Hell Difficulty is back it will be them who will become his most important.

“I have gotten your report, and honestly, a few more people warned me about the same,” he says as he takes a paper file from the table and quickly scans through it. "Ultimately, it’s nothing unexpected or too difficult to handle. The Romans knew that to keep the masses quiet, you need to give them bread and circuses. This time around, it looks like we're sticking to the bread."

He stands up, fixing his clothes and buttoning his jacket as he briefly taps the shoulder of Ines before walking towards the window and continuing to speak. “I want you to spread the word instead of the other people, as I'm confident you will know how to let it out properly. Ines will explain more to you, but with a little bit of my help she was able to come up with a cure for cancer and a few more illnesses,” he waves his hand almost dismissively.

When he turns back to me, he doesn't even seem to care about that news that will possibly save tens of millions of people.

As I look at his face, his near empty eyes, I'm even more confident that he doesn't care at all.

He seems to notice my look and blinks a few times before smiling with that perfect smile again. “It is good news, for sure, but most people won't care, so for them we will have a different gift. Together with the organization NORA, we will start a testing and training program from which selected people will be helped with training and leveling.”

POV Nathaniel

While I continue to breathe in the solution filling the tank, a notification finally dings.

The first thing I do is open my eyes, and reaching for one of the mana cubes I left outside, it dissolves, turning into a cloud of mana that shapes into a huge hand that slaps against the side of the container, fully coiling its fingers around it. It then squeezes until the reinforced glass cracks, and all of the liquid that has been giving me a feeling akin to being burned and frozen at once pours out together with me as I hit the ground.

I begin to violently cough up and vomit out all the liquid, noting pieces of my organs, flesh, and bones in the mass. My entire body feels oily as my pores ooze out a black liquid akin to old motor oil.

When I cough once again, Lily is already next to me, not healing me fully, but increasing my regeneration in a way that allows my ongoing trait evolution that we forcefully triggered to continue. For some reason, she still regrows my hair, which grows until it is as long as hers. Even in the state I'm in, it causes me to look at her when I forcefully pause my coughing, and she gives a reassuring and gentle smile while carefully healing me.

Once again I vomit it all out, and the pain that I thought was already starting to weaken becomes worse, making me feel it in my very being and forcing me just to curl on the ground. Still, I cannot afford to pass out, and all of me focuses on that task. To keep myself awake, to continue Mana Cycling, to deal with the thermal energy from my heart, and to use my eyes to continue to aid the trait evolution.

And I still feel that fear. The only thing I want to do now is to shake, let emotions overwhelm me, and just let the darkness surround me to find some relief in losing consciousness. I almost died now. I felt that desperation of watching my life flicker in front of my eyes, passing away, and with me not being able to stop it. It kept getting out of my hands, and it felt like nothing I did helped. I was shown, reminded that I wasn't enough, and all of it almost ended here.

I would like to think that it was my determination, my will shaped by my past to push me through, but even I am not that arrogant. There are people who have thousands of years of more experience, people who went through much, much worse things, so how could my earthly problems compare to that?

In the end, it was just me pushing and pushing, searching for the limit where I knew I had nothing left to give. At that time, I didn't even feel fear during the process as I watched my life slip away. I just kept trying, and the notifications I can see now are proof of this.

[Mana Manipulation - lvl 88 > Mana Manipulation - lvl 89]

The purity of your Empyrean Ichor has been increased!

41% > 50%

Your trait, Mana Vessel, has begun forcefully evolving!

This evolution is being influenced by the ongoing external factors, your performance up until now, and is taking place to more accurately reflect your capabilities and the state of your body.

Mana Vessel 2/4 > Panarchic Mana Vessel 0/3

Panarchic Mana Vessel - The user's body functions as a biological reactor with an internal volume exceeding its exterior, allowing it to compress and instantly release extreme amounts of mana.

And my constitution dropped to 5.

Next Chapter

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Author's note: As you have noticed, there are three options for the name of the evolved trait: Prime, Boundless, and Panarchic.

I still haven't fully decided, so I left all of them in to see which one you guys like more.

If someone comes up with an even better one, I will use it too, so let me know what you think!