Chapter 960 - Start of the 1st event (Patreon)

After the important agenda meeting, we leave the room, and someone writes “No girls allowed” on the door before locking it.

At one point, there was a conversation about the possibility of asking all of us to make a System vow to never speak to the girls about what has been discussed, nor allow any girl inside our "fort". It shows a clear worry that some of the younger members of this... this... this whatever it is, have for their lives in case it ever gets leaked.

Because of the promise I gave, I stay behind longer than anyone else, putting up a few more defenses that I am confident even Sophie or Tess won't be able to bypass without triggering an alarm. Weirdly, even during all the experimenting I currently do and the training I do while abusing the fact that I cannot die, it feels calming. Maybe it is because of how silly it is.

Once I leave the room, another presence jumps down from the wooden beam and shoots out, stopping in front of the door, which I lock.

Tacita stands there, Fuci peeking from her sleeve as she points to the text on the door with a question in her eyes.

“As far as I know, you are a girl, so you are included in the ban as well.”

She points at Fuci, and the golden baby ferret looks at me with the same question, and I look back at it.

“I think Fuci is allowed.”

To that, the mute girl stomps softly, yet angrily, and draws into the air.

(╬ಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

“That one is weirdly detailed, where did you steal it from? I didn't make the rules, so don't complain to me.”

(･θ･)

“That is up to you. If they won't notice you, it is their fault due to their lack of perception, and they deserve what is coming. But if you twist it up and the girls think I led this, I will take Veto away from you.”

(￣^￣)ゞ

“If you are smart about it, you can threaten the boys and make them declare you an honorary member or something.”

(─‿‿─)

“Sure, sure. I have to go. Lily is approaching, but I will slow her down so you can run.”

Without even drawing an emote, Tacita disappears at such speed that Fuci keeps its head looking at me, and when she accelerates, it gets yoinked and pulled in the direction of her run.

“Nathaniel, are you done with your Boy Scout meeting?” I hear Lily call from across the hallway as she moves closer. “Just let me know if we're doing the body modification experiments we have planned.”

“Sure,” I call back, as I make my way towards her. “I have a few hours.”

In the end, the experiments take five hours. As I noticed previously, due to the healing aura of the tournament, the modifications do not stick, as the body is quickly reverted to its original state. I think only skill level-ups and such System stuff are able to apply properly within it.

Otherwise, after each wound to your body, you are fixed back to mostly the same state as you were when you entered the tournament. Though even here it is slightly fascinating. To allow you to participate in the tournament at your peak state, it feels akin to the System restoring stamina, refreshing your mentality, or whatever you would call it.

It also hints that a skill with similar effects likely exists. Even if that isn't much of a surprise.

Still, I do not need the body modifications to apply, and the healing aura might actually be more useful towards the experimentation. Sure, you need to be faster, use more mana and effort, and even then, you can't dig these modifications too deep as you race against the tournament healing.

Of course, I can still complain about this not being optimal, as I would love to control this insane healing, but I am a changed man. I am responsible, and I don't even complain as much as I used to.

So, Lily and I are mostly trying outrageous stuff we call “starters”. We try to create a core of body modification and see how much it fucks up my body and in what way before I die and get healed by the System.

If we do it properly, we will be able to find a perfect starter, use it outside of the tournament, and build upon it. Here, we can be as ambitious as we want.

Using some tricks Lily learned from observing the glory that is Biscuit's majestic corgi form? Give it to me. A bit of DNA from the immortal ruler? Why not. Trying to change my mana heart with the knowledge we learned from the Demigod's Divine Heart? Hell yeah.

Stuff from the Adjudicator. Modifications based on the mini Kindness and upon the changes caused by the Ruler possessing it. Trying to grow my Mana Tree inside of my body. Using the Ignition Heart as a spark plug to constantly spark my Empyrean Ichor. Replacing my blood with manasol. Replacing my blood with manasol and black mana. Replacing my blood with black mana. A third heart grown by Lily and made to try to create Empyrean Mana. Trying to duplicate my Noumenon Pupil and grow a third eye just to see what it would do. Testing my Panarchic Mana Vessel. Simulating an upgrade to my Synergy Feed. Splitting my mind into 1000 subminds. Splitting my mind into 2000 subminds. Splitting my mind into 3000 subminds.

The last one came as a surprise, with us having to move the goalpost higher and higher. Yes, I know my mind is durable, and yes, these subminds were simple ones with the calculation power of perhaps an Easy Difficulty attendee each. Yet it was a pleasant surprise to see how far I could push it.

Lily did some of her own experiments as well, with me here mostly to serve as an Emotional Support Attendee, though Lily preferred Emotional Support Asshole.

She did scary stuff, such as trying to grow a second head or trying to fully mimic things like Victoria's duplication. And here she was able to create a copy of herself, though it did not move at all, and Lily wasn't able to control it due to lacking that sort of mental talent. Even so, wouldn't that make a great puppet for Sophie? Sure, she has a nuclear version that is Blackie, but it wouldn't be that bad, and Lily could make changes. She could make the "clone" almost as durable as herself and maybe give her more arms, longer arms, make her taller, and more.

Still, our black haired healer sadly said that, from her observation, the clone wouldn't be able to last that long and would begin to degrade after a few minutes.

Then she continued with more experiments with her imitations of Demon Hearts and applying the knowledge she got from Mini Kindness and Biscuit to herself instead of me. It could be said we got busy, and these five hours were full of experimenting without a break, with all of it being just a beginning and us planning for more in the upcoming days.

After leaving, I do training on my own. I move further away from the people from Earth and even set shields around myself so that I won't kill all the Easy Difficulty attendees from our planet due to a slip-up.

I even start manifesting items for Miwa and a few more people.

There is also a possibility of trading them directly to people from other territories in exchange for materials, information, and similar stuff, so I create plenty of them. It doesn't even take much effort or concentration, and I temper them too. For the most part, I hold myself back.

Sure, I make them durable and sharp, but not too much. I reserve that for a bit later and for people from Earth only.

I am confident that if I put my effort into it, I will be able to create weapons made of manabloc with threads of mana woven through that will last for decades. Their sharpness and durability will be approaching pristine rarity, even if they won't have any other effects.

That is something I want to do because I am simply curious how far I can push this part of my ability. I always loved doing that, and there is a chance that by doing so, I will come up with a new, interesting application or two.

During the 24 hours of the second day, that is what I do, and in total I die three hundred forty-nine times.

While I wouldn't say it is nothing, my mind endures it easily. In comparison to the years I spent in thought acceleration with Lissandra, this almost feels like I am lazing around, so I constantly force myself to push more than I planned. I only stop ten minutes before the first event starts, focusing on calming myself down and coming back into reality.

I spend even these last minutes alone, as I don't feel like rejoining the others. It helps me to keep my focus sharp and firm, without the presence of my friends taking away from that.

My heartbeat slows down to ten beats per minute, each generating a powerful thump of kinetic energy. Ignition Heart gets unsealed a little bit more, ready to supply me with more mana in case I spend the already crazy amount I currently hold.

With my pupils ready to be switched to active mode at any moment, I wait, holding a sword made of my ichor and empyrean mana crackling over its surface. I observe how the light reflects on it for a while, before I put it into its sheath on my back.

I further calibrate my body to the incoming battle, and threads of mana so durable I don't think anyone outside of the S ranks can pierce, weave through my clothes.

My kinetic output tempers my defensive layers just that little bit more when the notification pings and I get moved.

All million or so attendees from the 100 tutorials appear at the same place.

It is a far reaching stretch of flatland with pale blue grass and white flowers. There are mountains, there are giant trees, there are ancient, half-broken towers and fortresses, and there are even multiple huge skeletal bodies as tall as skyscrapers, lying on the ground with similarly huge weapons pierced through them.

In the air, hundreds of quarter mile wide cubes float in the air. Each of them has a different area on each side. A garden, a building, flowers, or waterfalls raining from the sky, and so much more.

And the notification dings again, bringing the attention of all attendees to it.

The 1st event, Convergent Chronicle of the Past, will start soon!

You will have a minute to select your opponent, otherwise, you will be moved out of the area of the 1st event.

You can select your opponent from within the database of the Beyond or the tutorial floors, and that opponent will be summoned as an Avatar. Be advised that the avatar will act more akin to a tutorial native rather than a mindless entity, however, it will still possess one single function, which is to locate and defeat you.

Your opponent will be summoned within the area of the 1st event alongside the opponents of the other participants. You and your opponent will both be given the ability to sense the exact location of each other, but it will be up to you to reach it before it might get defeated by someone else.

You can die 5 times during the event and will be moved to a different place within the setting after each death, but that counts only towards damage from other participants. Damage from your opponent killing you ends your participation in the event.

You can defeat other attendees and their opponents, and the points you receive increase according to their rank. However, summoned opponents give more points on average, and much less than during the sub-event.

Once your opponent is defeated, you will be teleported out of the area of the 1st event.

Please, make your selection!

Then the one minute countdown starts, and I look at the mixed bunch of people around me.

The event is fairly simple. If I select someone powerful, such an opponent won't be killed easily and will allow me to kill the opponents of other people and other participants too. However, there is also the risk that such a powerful opponent would find and kill me quickly, ending the event for me right then and there.

I really like this sort of setup, and with a million people around, this is sure to turn into a magnificently apocalyptic, and utterly glorious mess.

And all around me, I start hearing people from lower difficulties saying out loud the names of their opponents, while the higher difficulties select them mentally.

"One of these ants from the fourth floor!"

"I select the Bandit King from the second floor."

"Battle Weredeer from the second."

"Cinderbear. I'm from Easy difficulty, so don't mess it up!"

And so much more. Thousands of voices all around speaking at once.

Skills begin firing up. Someone puppets one of the huge skeletal monsters, and it stands up with an earthshaking noise, towering tall over everyone here. Another person uses [Telekinesis] to control half mile long weapons, turning them into projectiles. A myriad of defensive arrays and domains clash against each other. Hundreds of people shoot from the ground like beams of light, each trailed by a different color as they move through the sky onto the cubes.

With a few seconds remaining, someone even pulls one of the cubes towards the ground, counting on using it to kill many attendees and summoned opponents the second the event starts.

There is so much happening, it makes a grin appear on my face.

Lissandra's name lingers on my lips, and I almost say it. I would throw my plan away, summon that monster here as an opponent, and cut this event short for everyone.

I want to do that, to watch the chaos and try to survive longer than anyone else, and use that second before everyone here dies to gather as many points as possible.

I think if my mood was slightly different, I would throw it all away and do it. The tiniest change, maybe if I put my left shoe on first instead of my right, and I would make that decision. That is how close I am to saying her name.

But in the end, my focus hardens, and I say simply in my mind, "Adrian from the time when he completed his tutorial."

I want to face the old him, not Christoph, because that's not who I think is the real him. I want to face him at the peak of his arrogance and from before he got broken.

At the same time, the same number of opponents start appearing as there are attendees. They appear all over the place, often within a group of attendees: monsters, humans, vyssari, huge fish out of water, plane sized birds in the sky, and worms deep underground.

Champions too.

The attack I was preparing circles through my body one more time and explodes out with such ease only my evolved trait allows, and it instantly evaporates tens of thousands of attendees and opponents within the wide area around me. It presses against the buildings and destroys many of them. It flattens the forest and creates huge waves on the nearby lake.

This time, during the event, I do not care at all.

More people disappear due to the opponents I killed, and those attendees are moved somewhere else.

Another of my attacks detonates in a different direction, cleaving through the mountain, cutting it in half, and killing people in a straight line that creates a mile long crevice.

My defensive layers temper as the air shakes from some oscillating wide area attack, and I locate the attacker, killing him with a single projectile sparkling with empyrean mana. I teleport away to avoid an attack from one of the summoned Champions, and rise to the sky.

The air screams, and an image of two papers sliding against each other appears in my mind as I cut one of the floating cubes in half, exploding its core, which sprays a liquid around like rain.

Raising the temperature in the area from my heart causes the liquid to catch fire, as it proves to be flammable, and it rains down, killing thousands.

The huge skeleton monster moves nearby, each step shaking the ground, and one of the huge floating weapons pierces through it, stabbing it against the mountain, which then explodes as a huge white snake burning in flames coils around it.

I lift my hand and swing it down, and like a hammer slamming, a perfectly circular and flat indent erases one of the mountains nearby and thousands more participants with it. All the fire rain in the air dies off as I absorb the heat and add some of my own, and I shoot a beam of roaring flames stretching towards the ground, moving all over the place as I concentrate it and burn the attendees. Furthermore, I compress it and add to it, turning it into a golden laser as thick as my finger that slams against the barrier of one of the stronger attendees here and burns through it, ridding him of one of his lives.

During all of it, I float in the air, and hundreds of attacks rain against me, causing my clothes to flutter around me like in a powerful wind. Yet none of them, no projectiles, no disruption, no oscillation, no primordial energy, or fragment slam through, instead further tempering my barrier.

I locate a group of a hundred or so attendees in the distance, connecting their forces to cast some wide range attack, and my pupils activate, sending an overwhelming amount of information through my mind. Thousands of calculations flash, my mana dances within me, and through my sight alone, their effort breaks apart. As if a strong wind is blowing into it, the mana that turned into particles gets blown past by them, flickering and beautiful.

A monster pierces the ground to attack them, but it is halted mid-air by my kinetic energy, and one of my lances pierces through it, stabbing into the ground and detonating, killing the monster and all of the participants.

Then I locate and get information on Adrian's position and descend towards the ground. Once I land, I explode in a burst of speed as I break into a run, simply blasting through thousands of bodies in my way, killing them on impact, but running in a straight line towards him.