Chapter 959 - Communal Regenerative Onsen (Patreon)

Instead of going to the tower, I stay true to my nature and hide from people. Heh, Nat-ure. Anyway, I quickly locate Miwa, the Japanese woman crafter from Hard Difficulty still surprisingly has her robotic pink arm made by Champion Keiron during the second floor.

Surprisingly, because even now I want to borrow it. And if I want to, the others must have wanted it as well. Yet she was able to defend it.

But I am an adult man. A responsible one. I have grown as a person, and I have changed. I will not steal it, and I will not let the shiny toy tempt me.

“My eyes are up here,” Miwa says.

“Are your eyes robotic and made by a Champion?”

“They are not.”

“Maybe one day,” I say sadly.

That causes her to let out a laugh, and I notice some tension in her body disappear.

When I look at her, I give a slight smile. “It is still good ol' me, Miwa. I will not start eating children or tearing off your arm because I got a little bit stronger.”

“A little bit stronger might be the understatement of understatements. Though what would someone from Hard Difficulty like me know? I cannot even sense any mana from you.”

“It is the illness called chronic mana deficiency.”

“Not just mana deficiency?”

“It is getting worse.”

“I feel terrible for what you are going through. You should find a cure quickly, and if there is anything I can do to help, just let me know.”

“Unfortunately, there is no such cure. It seems to be genetic.”

“Please accept my condolences,” she says, a more noticeable smile appearing on her face.

“Accepted.”

“You know, I still have these manabloc weapons and armors you made for me during the tournament. I have been using them as part of my training, and even after a year has passed, they remain extremely stable, showing no signs of decreased durability or sharpness.”

“I will make some new ones for you, they will be much better.” I pause for a moment as I start thinking of that fun task. “Though I will probably have to be careful so there is no leakage and you do not get mana radiation poisoning. Also, them exploding or unwinding after a few months could be a problem. Tearing apart a city block sort of a problem. But do not worry about it, my skill leveled up, and I can temper mana really well now, and if I use kinetic energy…”

It causes me to pause, wondering why I have not spent a few hours, maybe a day, creating an ultimate manifested, tempered construct. My passive weapon that would have weaved parts and calibrated to be as deadly as possible.

Even just remaining as an extremely durable construct, such a weapon could be useful. Well, the reason is obvious, I just do not like to rely on items. But as previously, I could make plenty for some people I like. They will not count as items, so I won’t be able to sell them in the tutorial shop, but I can do that with some others. Though, even here I wonder if it is worth it.

Looking at it logically, my time is extremely valuable. With my net worth currently over forty million, let's say, to simplify things, that it is my annual income. No, let's simplify it even more and make that annual income 36,500,000. That means 100,000 shards per day.

I do not know how much I could possibly make during the tournament to make the investment worth it. And I do not want to hear people trash talking my design again. I always thought my items looked cool-ish, but the others do not see it that way.

But I bet I will make and sell some items anyway. Because it sounds like fun. I can afford some play time before I lock in and head out to solo the 13th floor.

“A weapon in my hand devastating a neighborhood sounds like something to worry about,” Miwa notes, bringing me back to the conversation.

“Miwa, I am absolutely disappointed by your staggering lack of excitement for getting your hand on a new fancy toy. By the way, I can make a textile out of mana. I call it manatex.”

I pause and look at her to see her reaction.

When she does not say anything, I nod in satisfaction and continue. “I can knit... no, I can weave. Please redact that I said ‘knit’ out of your memory.” I pause and look at her again.

“I apologize, but I am not skilled enough to do something like that.”

“You cannot?”

“I am sorry.”

“Well, forget it anyway. But as I said, I can weave mana threads for you, so give me some shapes you would like for your armor. Have you seen the territory smithies already?”

“I did, but in their current state they are not much to my liking, to be honest.”

“We will find the creepy guys pushing to upgrade the communal bath first and force them to put points into the smithy instead,” I say as we begin to walk towards the tower.

Leticia and Luna are nearby, and the silly woman rushes close, riding on the horse-sized golden retriever.

“Nathaniel, Miwa! Seriously, I love tournaments so much! It always feels exactly like meeting old friends during a mandatory corporate retreat in the mountains. You know the vibe. The kind of job where you pull in seven figures a year just in base salary, stroll into the open office around two in the afternoon, and immediately head back out to get your artisanal mocha kombucha slush or something. Then you spend eighty percent of your working hours sitting on ergonomically perfected beanbag chairs in the company cafeteria, while "brainstorming" with buzzwords as an in-house barista makes you a custom avocado latte. And right at the peak of it all, you sell off every single one of your stock options a week before the company completely collapses. It is just so cozy and wholesome!”

Luna and I exchange glances, and the retriever speaks by just keeping her mouth open and pushing sounds out. “I refuse to apologize for my bond. You, Nathaniel Gwyn, are so much worse than she is, so do not look at her that way.”

Defeated by the unbeatable logic, I give up and instead reach out to Luna, who tilts her head, enjoying it as I scratch behind her ear. One of her legs even stretches and keeps twitching as she closes her eyes and leans into the scratching.

“I apologize for her, Nathaniel, she has been a bit grumpy ever since we joined a Beyond expedition with a group of lynthari,” Leticia says cheerfully.

Like turning a switch, Luna instantly opens her eyes and growls, shaking and almost making Leticia fall off her as the golden retriever shouts. “DO NOT REMIND ME OF THESE DERANGED CREATURES, LETICIA!”

She twists her head to look up at her bond, but Leticia keeps laughing and purposefully keeps herself right behind Luna’s head, and Luna keeps jumping to shake her off while shouting. “NOT A HUMAN. NOT A CAT. DEVIL-SPAWNED HYBRIDS INSTEAD! THEY ASKED TO PET ME! THEY WANTED ME TO WALK ON TWO FEET LIKE SOME BIPEDAL MONSTROSITY!”

The rant continues, but I grab Miwa's arm gently, pulling her away with me from the distracted duo.

Before reaching the tower, we split as she heads back to the smithies, and we set up a meeting there later.

Dennis is resting against the entrance to the tower.

“Yo,” he greets me, lifting up his hand, but I entirely ignore him, passing by. Inside near one of the corners, another Dennis stands, his signature near imperceptible and sulking. “I thought this illusion would get you. It even got Sophie, and we worked really hard on the sound.”

“Did it trick Izzy?” I ask, and that causes him to sadden more.

Without him saying anything, I know the answer. It might be a push, but I think out of everyone from the tutorial or any attendee in Beyond, Izzy can detect sentient presences the best with her [Empathy].

Even I do not think I would be able to hide myself fully from that skill.

(Izzy does not count.) Aaron says.

To that, I agree. We have tried to compete and hide from her a lot, but always to no avail. Her not counting is something we tell ourselves to be able to sleep at night.

“By the way, do you remember that crazy gray kitten from the second tournament?” Dennis asks.

“It’s hard to forget.”

“Well, it is back, and it has been asking for you in a way that sounds like it wants to cut open your belly and slurp your organs.”

(It disappeared already, and I do not know what scared me more, the fact it is sneaking around and I do not know where, or the thought of finding it.)

“I will look around for it a bit later. Anything else fun?”

“Yup, you know that mysterious group from our round of the tutorial we were betting on who they were?”

“Faintly.”

“Well, Min-Jae’s guess was the closest, so he won the bet. It is a necromancer or something. Everyone else from his group died, and he is using their bodies as puppets. Some old guy from California.”

“California?” I get out.

(I know, right!) Dennis shouts. (I thought the same! You would expect a necromancer to be from somewhere dark and cold-)

“As dark and cold as your prejudices, Aaron,” Maya walks from behind the corner, resting against the wall while crossing her arms over her chest.

Due to her wearing a tank top, it is clear to see her noticeably bigger muscles as well as the by the day denser tattoos of her Mana Archive covering her arms, shoulders, and spreading further. On her waist, there is a belt with a hundred mana stones, each filled to the brim. Some of them were filled by me and by adapting my mana frequency to hers.

Let us say if that belt exploded... it would be spectacular.

(Well, I am sorry that when a quiet old guy, and by the way Nat, he uses poison too, so totally not suspicious at all, comes out of nowhere without communicating in the Community, not participating in the previous tournaments, and puppeting dead bodies of his group, I do not trust him instantly. What a great coincidence for him that they all died one after another. I am sure they also donated their bodies to the cause.)

“Mind mage?” I ask.

“He is not, Soph confirmed it.” Maya shakes her head.

"Want me to beat him up?"

(Yes.)

"Yes."

"No," Maya says and then adds more quietly. "For now. He is suspicious as hell, but so far he has not done anything. Plus, you just do your stuff, we can handle him if it comes to it."

"Sure," I answer, and follow behind her with Dennis as she leads us upstairs inside the tower. I continue my training even now, holding it entirely within my body and mind rather than letting it show on the surface.

"Tacita is nowhere to be found," Maya says. Honestly, it is a bit amusing how many people tell me that, clearly worried about that sneaky Italian girl. "And your sister asked me to tell you that she still has some thermonuclear warheads if you want one or two."

"Isn't she great?" I instantly sing her praises. "You guys never gift me anything like that."

"Hey! During your last birthday, I gave you that cool scale I stole in Beyond!" Dennis complains.

"And I appreciate it."

"I gave you that magical puzzle box." Maya turns her head back to look at me reproachfully.

"And I appreciate it."

(I gave you my first kiss!)

"That is pure, unhinged bullshit. How can you even physically force those words out of the exact same mouth you use to speak to your dear twin brother?"

"This is where I leave you," Maya interrupts, turning into the left hallway while we continue straight ahead.

"Why?" I call after her, "They started it!"

"Apparently it is a boys only room!" she calls back, causing me to look at Dennis, who glances around, grabbing my arm and pulling me faster towards the door.

There, he lifts his hand and moves his mana in a specific way as he knocks on the old wooden door and the barrier covering the entirety of the room and the door.

"Jean is a bit too lazy to learn the technique, so he just knocks strongly, but you can learn the signal," Dennis says. "It is not too difficult-"

"Done."

"Obviously."

(Fuck you, Nat, it took us five minutes.)

The door opens into the room where Lucien, Lootenant, Brainiac, Swordmaster, Gareth, Maxim, Baek, BenDover, Tacita, Samuel, Savant, a few others, and for some reason Blackie and Noodle are currently gathered. The room is big, but quite filled with people seemingly not hesitating to fill it up with some random furniture, snacks, and likely cleaning it up.

All the conversation ceases until the door closes, the rudimentary but powerful anti-spying barrier snaps back into place, and some rush to greet me.

Surprised by that rush of people, I return the greeting to all of them, even to some Hard Difficulty attendees like Samuel, who is there for some reason, and then sneak to the side to sit near Savant, who had taken the best spot I would move to otherwise. So, I just sit next to him in a manabloc chair I create.

"We are missing a few members, but they will be informed later!" Dennis takes the lead as he speaks excitedly.

(We thank you for your participation and for your time, and we will try to make this meeting as quick as possible so it does not take away from your training, preparations for the events, and that other tournament-y stuff.) His brother adds swiftly.

"The first point of our agenda is very simple!"

(Very simple.) Aaron emphasizes.

"As you may have noticed, there is a certain facility that has received the most points so far, all thanks to ourselves, Master Lucien, who donated his and asked for Jean’s points, and a trade I did with Tacita in exchange for her investing the points she already got! May she continue to be as terrifying as always, and I pity whatever territory she is currently terrorizing."

I am the only one who glances up at the exposed wooden beam overhead.

(Communal Regenerative Onsen.) Aaron says.

"Communal Regenerative Onsen," Dennis repeats.

"Mixed-gender Communal Regenerative Onsen," Lucien whispers with an amount of respect teetering on the brink of worship.

That causes me to look at Savant next to me, and even as the others ramble and he tries to ignore it for a bit, I continue to stare.

Only when Dennis pulls out a paper and starts showing graphs and statistics, with the pros and cons of investing our points into the Communal Regenerative Onsen, does Savant look at me.

"I bet it was your idea," I say to him.

"Fuck you, Gwyn."

"How rude. Aren't you going to leave? This is a bit silly, isn't it?" I ask. "You could spend your time much more wisely."

"Most likely, but I could ask you the same question."

"Hmm," I mutter, and I lean back in my chair to listen to the conversation. Lucien and Dennis versus Samuel, who starts shouting at them, calling them stupid kids wasting time, and Gareth trying to calm it all down.

Aaron begins shouting at Samuel that he would sleep in bed while hugging his gun if he had it, and will likely start licking the shoes of the first uniformed army man he spots exiting the tutorial.

"Let us say that perhaps I have decided to have some fun with this tournament a little bit. And as I see it now, none of this will affect my final standing or rewards." I say.

"Then, perhaps, hypothetically, I am thinking the same."

"I see," I say, and we both go silent while the conversation erupts louder. Maximillian even summons his void or something shadow wolves, and I count down the time until Samuel starts calling for Tess.

"It was not my idea with the onsen, you dumb asshole," Savant says quietly out of nowhere.

In surprise, I turn to look at him, noticing a slight smile on his face as he stands up, heading towards the group while letting some of his presence press against the others.

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