Chapter 682 - If you read this, I am likely dead

If you read this, I am likely dead.

Damn, I always wanted to say that.

Anyway, in my hunger for knowledge and abilities many would call unnatural, I dug too deep. Well, not actually dug dug, but metaphorically dug. If you are not a crayon eater, you got what I meant.

Anyway, again, maybe I should have paid more attention to the early signs. They were all there, but in my pride, I ignored them.

But before that.

Months have passed since I returned from the quest where I met the pettiest elf alive. I still cannot forgive him for splitting the base in half, then trying to kill me by exploding the part I was on. In an incredible show of greed and pettiness, he did everything to stop me from saving the Fragment of the First Sun from the planet’s surface. I mean, it was lying there for hundreds of years, so clearly no one else wanted it.

Ever since that quest ended and I got my rewards, I kept asking my handler when I would finally get the promised S rank Beyond quests and events. So far, the answer remains the same:

Fuck off.

My handler stays cryptic as always, so I can only hope it will be soon. She says if everything works out, I will understand why she chose these rewards.

In these past months, a lot has happened. I think it surprised more than a few people in the Primordial Knights when I became an A rank. According to the contract, my salary should escalate along with the benefits, but of course, they pushed back, hiding behind some fancy clause that lets them postpone things.

I fought back too. Literally.

Turns out blowing up half of the guild’s sparring zone makes them give you more respect. Those fancy clauses suddenly became less strict, and I got my escalators leading to better pay. Not like I need that many shards. I doubt there are many Beyond attendees with more shards than me, but it would feel wrong not to get what I deserve.

Weslin acted like a big tsundere about it when I blew up the sparring zone, screaming at me, complaining with that vein on his temple bulging like it might pop. But I believe, deep down, he was happy for me.

My progress to clear the third floor to reach the fourth, where I might meet Nyssa, continues well. Together with Weslin, we are creating a safe zone for the Beyond floor quest. Of course, we are not going for a small one, but building a bigger one. I am fine with it, since it is more dangerous and more interesting. The branch leader and the security lady also say it will help with the standing of the Primordial Knights. So we gather materials, build outpost arrays, and kill monsters. A lot of monsters.

There were a few situations where it got dangerous, but my partner and I are a good combo. Weslin gets punched in the face, and I blow up the area, often with him using his primordial void to strip defenses when the enemy tries to block it.

Once in a while, Weslin leaves to train alone. For some reason, even I see it: a spark inside him reignited, an ambition to get stronger. I think he and the security lady were together for a few weeks, but they broke up. Maybe that is why. The kind of motivation where someone hits the gym after a breakup, except instead of that, Weslin hits monsters.

Anyway, Talon tells me there are rumors that Weslin might become an S rank before the tutorial ends. That would make him the third one in the Primordial Knights.

I have found out a bit about it out of curiosity, but both Luan and Weslin have a similar time left in the tutorial, while Nyssa has even more months left than they do. It is even said she might soon be the strongest S rank.

Overall, I like Weslin. He is a cool guy, and I bet if I keep acting this way, it will not be long before he says, “I’m too old for this shit.”

I really want to hear it.

So, if I really am dead as I said at the start, someone please give Weslin my collection of antomic bombs, sparrow obliterators, and all my prototype items. Especially the mana batteries shaped into crowns and halos. I think they would suit him.

Do not, for any reason, let the Doc get my body. I repeat, DO NOT LET THAT CATBOY GET MY BODY.

Burn it if you have to. Now that I think of it, even dead, it should be resistant to fire, so I do not know… throw it into a volcano or shoot it into outer space.

Group 4 is also doing well, from what I have seen on the ninth floor. That floor is a one year survival challenge, so I do not worry about spending most of my time in Beyond. I think it also helps group 4 prosper. Those beautiful lunatics keep getting stronger.

Sophie killed Faora. Just like that, she ended her. May that feylith bitch revive one day so Sophie can kill her again. I always knew Sophie was a terrifyingly talented mind mage. I even told her to stop being a scaredy cat and start using her abilities, but now I am actually a little scared.

Thankfully, my mental defenses are better than ever. I gave up on having mental defense passives and instead developed a new way to protect my mind. When training with Sophie, it seemed to shock and even scare her.

That must be a good thing.

Instead of defending against mind mages with labyrinths and walls, I went for a better strategy. I lovingly call it “Oh, You Dumbfuck Walked In”.

Tess continues to develop her [Declaration] and got a fancy new skill to boost both the range and purity of her primordial lightning. After she found the right metal for her javelins and started using that railgun-like attack, she became far scarier than before.

The piercing power of her attacks is now comparable to my [Empyrean Lance], but much faster. I mean, much, much faster. And she can shoot those things from miles away with really high accuracy.

She also started sparring more with Lily to reduce her weakness in close range combat, and damn, it gets really close sometimes. Tess and Lily are now on the second floor as well, while Sophie, with help from Luan and support from Frontier, is on the third.

As for our petite bulldozer? Well, she grew her own unholy mecha. A massive suit of armor made from her own flesh and bones, stored in our camp so she can wear it. It allows her to go toe-to-toe in melee against much larger monsters.

I do not know if we will be able to drag it up to the tenth floor, but there is still plenty of time on the ninth. And damn, it will likely turn into something terrifying. Lately, she also started experimenting with growing wings, and the other day I saw her pummel a bunch of level 350 monsters without using even a speck of mana. Purely with her body.

Min-Jae has not been resting either, and his flight speed is the fastest after me in group 4. Well, only he, Tess, Biscuit, and I can fly, but it is still impressive.

He now has a better hold on his gravitational primordial energy through [Telekinesis]. He also started experimenting with what Malika once tried to do to me: the thing where you pierce natural defenses and compress the brain.

And he reads. A lot. Sophie made a wooden cabin for him, and somehow, he made it float a few palms above the ground while storing books, mana stones, and other things inside. He has to recharge it, but it is the first step toward his very own floating island.

I already reserved the second one from him. He agreed to make it for me after his own. We are even thinking of stealing one of those huge aircraft carriers and making it float. We both agree that these ships always looked cool, and making them float will only make them better. If I am not wrong, they cost just a few billion dollars, so we can have Lily heal a few CEOs or something for quick cash. Or we will steal it.

The twins can now place marks on items and teleport to them when they want. These marks last for a long time, and they love putting them on the daggers they throw around. It reminds me of something, but I cannot come up with what exactly. They are also investing heavily into Dexterity while working on their [Haste] and stat sharing. I think when one of the twins stacks all their stats and they go all out together, they become almost as fast as Tacita for short bursts.

They have also created nastier ways of using [Connection] in fights and are getting good at using their opponents’ skills against them, thanks to their combined minds.

I have spent weeks with Izzy, too, hoping to understand her Fragment of Eternal Fire. After losing the Fragment of the First Star, I am determined to improve my channeling and get a new fragment on the thirteenth floor.

Both Izzy and Noodle are really good at burning stuff now. I tried to compare their fragment to my thermal energy, and it is really difficult. I think when it comes to raw damage, their fragment is stronger. Thermal energy feels differently focused.

I talked about it with the Doc while applying the trait strengthening token to my Mana Physique, letting him observe me while I squirmed in pain. He just said he does not care about that kind of stuff.

Good enough answer.

When I also applied my second token to push my Mana Physique to the second stage, I thought the Doc would jump out of happiness. I passed out, but he collected a lot of data, which I went over later with Lily. We spent many long nights studying and theorizing.

As for Maya, I keep getting more jealous of her tattoos day by day, the way she stores mana and even her mecha blueprints inside them. She has become really good with tricolored mana and honestly uses it more often than I do. Where I like to overwhelm with quick attacks using normal mana, she is precise, like a sharp tool. She trains in martial arts for hours every single day. Every night she also plays the musical instruments we borrowed from the Academy.

Before, I thought she might not be able to reach Champion rank, but now I am almost certain she will.

I also met Biscuit’s new friends: a T-Rex, a Chameleon, and that creepy-murderous maniacal-little-shit-ferret-looking-spawn-of-the-devil.

I am worried, but Biscuit is cute, so he can do whatever he wants.

So here I am. Things are going well. I have everything. Money, houses, a dog. I might even get myself a car. Young, no loans, secured for life.

But it was not enough. Not for me. The more I level up and put stats into Mana, the more I feel my body breaking apart. My constructs pushed it further, and my mind has been strained beyond the limit. I have become very good at it, though. Escher’s Cube, Penrose Triangle, Klein Bottle, Möbius Strip. I can see them all clearly in my mind. They look real to me, and in my mind, my mana moves through them even though it should not.

That was my calling. It made my mind far stronger, and Mana Cycling much easier. It allowed me to accumulate more mana than ever before, and it let me split my mind into many more fragments. I set the basis for techniques and optimizations I named Sequence Pinning, Load Rotation, and Parallel Mapping.

But then something changed. At first, I barely noticed, just small hints, but over time, it became impossible to ignore.

My separated minds began to optimize themselves, only by the tiniest fraction, about 0.05 percent, and only on occasion. Especially the older ones, I kept running for months, like Mapthaniel and Assholethaniel.

I kept them running because I needed them.

After all my experimenting, I discovered not every mind fragment had to be the same. For example, Mapthaniel slowly stripped down useless functions, increasing efficiency and freeing processing power. Some fragments need more raw power, others more speed, others stability, durability, or long-term persistence. I came up with ways to do that.

Then I found out something Mapthaniel did behind my back.

It had one job, one simple job: to maintain the map of any area I enter so I did not have to.

But that part of me, Mapthaniel, split itself, creating a new sub-sub-mind. Then it gave the sub-sub-mind a single task.

To maintain the map so it no longer had to.

So if I am dead, it is probably my own fault. This time it was not a butler.

Anyway, my new unique arcane passive is strong, but very different from what I wanted and expected.

I considered selling Mental Attunement Loop (Mid Arcane) and buying another low arcane passive to combine with Mana Fortified Mind (Low Arcane). That would have left me with these three passives plus the new one:

Mana-Kinetic Conversion Reservoir (Unique Epic)

Mana Wavelength Tyrant (Mid Arcane)

Subdermal Combustion Weave (Mid Arcane)

This would not leave me a slot to get two upper arcane passives. I still do not want to give up any of them, and if I had to, it would probably be my unique epic one. But for now, I wait. I think I am really close to turning kinetic energy into mana, thanks to months of observing this passive.

So that passive combination token (low arcane) will likely rot in my inventory forever.

The only choice left was to sell both Mana Fortified Mind (Low Arcane) and Mental Attunement Loop (Mid Arcane).

After that, I got Retinal Fractal Interpreter (Upper Arcane) and Wavelength Signal Differentiator (Upper Arcane).

That got me a new passive. Something called Mana Wave Predation (Unique Arcane).

Even without strengthening the trait, my Mana Wavelength Iris is stronger than ever before, while at the same time, I can process much, much more than ever before. It is all made in preparation for my third trait far in the future, and thanks to advice from the trait grandpa.

Simply said. If you use mana and face me, you are fucked if you aren't A LOT stronger than me.

P.S.: This letter will destroy itself in five seconds. I tried to estimate your reading speed and time it so that it burns right as you reach the end.

P.P.S.: But enough jokes. I know we already talked about most of these things, Weslin, but thanks for reading anyway. I just really wanted to write a letter like this. I also set it so it reacts only to your mana signature. Please tell the branch leader I will be back in two days instead of a few minutes. I want to check on my group, and that asshole threatened me with some breach of contract fine or some other bullshit. I will…

Before the man can finish reading the letter, made of yellow paper with visible threads of mana woven into it, it bursts into wild flames. A massive blaze of golden fire shoots up to the ceiling of the room, setting it on fire.

Multiple alarms ring all at once.

(You little petty shit, what have you done this time!) A voice echoes in the room.

"It is me. Nathaniel is not here."

(Oh.. I..)

Weslin ignores her apologies. He brushes the ashes from his hands and with a single pulse extinguishes the thermal flames. For a moment, he stares at his hands where he held the letter.

“What the fuck.”

***

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