Chapter 670 - Like children

Io is first to talk. “Before any of you do something stupid, how about this. The item is something we got thanks to Nathaniel and Barion, and it’s possible we wouldn’t have gotten it without their help at all, since I don't think we would have been able to open the door. I think we can all mostly agree on that.”

He looks around and waits for someone to argue, but no one does.

Nodding once, he continues. “I would suggest that the item is sold, and Nathaniel and Barion split 70% of the value, while we get the rest.”

I understand what he is trying to do right away. In some way, it can be taken as Io trying to help us, even if it also looks like he just wants a cut.

Some of the others likely wouldn’t like seeing us walk away with such an item. How much could it be worth? Ten times the cost of upper arcane? Twenty times? With upper arcane items being around one million shards, that’s a huge amount.

It is unfortunate I cannot see the tutorial shop here, but after coming into “contact” with my first pristine item, stuff of that rarity should show to me in the shop, same as it did when I found my first arcane item.

So, obviously, the others would feel robbed, no matter how little sense that might make. Maybe they would even convince themselves that they were guarding us or something in the meantime, and they deserve a cut.

What Io does should somewhat keep the group working together, for a while longer.

It's insane by itself that we even managed to find such an item here, and behind such comparatively terrible defenses for its value.

By my estimation, low pristine items are something proper Champions would probably have, with upper arcane items being a starting point for baby Champions. Of course, none of that is confirmed, and with the way the system likes to "nerf" some items, just like it did with the Sword of Aeons, so they don't ruin the floor. It's just hard to estimate.

Actually, with Sword of Aeons being one of the most powerful items in Lissandra's world, a world that went through a lot of pairings, it could likely be upper pristine, or possibly even the next rarity. It all depends on how scaling works within pristine rarity. I still haven't even personally experienced the difference between an upper arcane and a mid arcane item.

It also brings back a thought I had not that long ago. I think if I'm lucky and abuse Beyond and the system shop a bit more, it should be possible for me to get millions of shards. Even now, I still have two and a half million of them. So, wouldn't I be able to make enough to buy a low pristine item on my own before the tutorial ends?

Isn't that a bit too insane? Is that one of the reasons why First Generations are so often revered in worlds I have visited? The number of ways you can use the tutorial to get stronger and the number of advantages you get is sometimes mindboggling.

At this point, it just feels like it's by design. To turn us into beings no one can stand against when we return to our world. The ones that will decide the direction of our planet, and be the first in line to fight during the Pairings: protectors, leaders, and teachers. Or whatever we choose to become.

In some ways, it's truly terrifying if you're a normal human. Imagine beings you almost no longer dare to call human, appearing seemingly out of nowhere, launching projectiles at you from orbit, setting cities on fire, outhealing the concentrated attack of entire militaries, or moving at speeds no human vehicle is capable of—just by using the strength of their own bodies.

Well, my thoughts aside, what Io is trying to do in the end relies on people not being greedy. I don't know how much Io actually believes it will work by sharing the shards we would possibly get for the item, and how much he just hopes to make some of the others hesitate.

Malika, I don’t think, would cause trouble. And Io… I don’t know what to think about him for now, as much as he makes a good impression so far. Barion might be greedy for it, and the same goes for the vyssari and that gray man.

Only then do I realize I forgot about someone. I turn around to see Tacita squatting near Barion, who holds the item. She pokes the cage a few times, then grabs onto it and pulls it toward herself when Barion tries to move it away from her. There she leans closer to it and even sniffs it a few times.

Well, in the end, it's not like I’ll drop my guard around anyone here, no matter what happens.

“I agree with that,” Barion says in reaction to Io’s idea, and looks at me. He gives up trying to get the cage back from Tacita.

To that, I shrug and nod.

Looking around, Io gets similar reactions from the others, and it's decided that Barion will carry the item around for now.

When we start moving again toward where we estimate the bigger facilities to be, Malika stops by my side with that typical demonic smile. Clearly a sign that she is up to no good.

“How many of us do you think will make it, funny human?”

I’m already thinking about why that item would be locked in that room, why it was seemingly so far away from the elf, and why it was even there in the first place, so I barely pay her attention.

Just as she leans toward me, I glance at her red eyes, then move higher and look at her horns.

So far, I’ve seen plenty of horn styles. Shorter, longer, thicker, bending toward the back of the head smoothly, or sticking out to the sides or forward. There are many types of them. Malika’s horns are on the shorter and thicker side. They have that somewhat smooth-looking black texture and curl backward, then slightly to the side.

“Want to touch them?” Her words bring my attention back to her.

“Want to get punched?”

“Want to kill the others later and keep the rewards and items to ourselves? Or we can do it right away if you say so. I don’t think they can stop you and me if we really try,” she says out of nowhere and in the middle of the hallway, where everyone can hear.

And I believe she means every word.

Her eyes shine, and she isn’t at all bothered by the others who stop after hearing that. They watch the two of us in a way that makes it obvious they’re ready to fight, according to what I answer.

Malika seems to find it even more amusing, and I can sense her heartbeat speeding up, her gravitational demon heart thumping louder and sending vibrations through the air. Around her, dust rises, and the light twists strangely. That pressure I’ve felt around my brain is here again. Not directed at me, but surrounding everything, ready to snap at the others.

Her white hair rises as well, and her red eyes gleam a deeper red. “That quiet girl seems to be with you, so we can take her in if you want. The three of us would be more than enough for this quest, wouldn’t we?”

“What are you saying, Malika?” Io asks in a firm voice.

Malika just looks into my eyes, and ignores our supposed to be leader. “Just a single word from you, we can kill these weaklings.”

“No,” I answer simply.

She blinks a few times, and the pressure around her lessens. Her hair starts to fall back down. A few expressions flash across her face: surprise, confusion, then hesitation. She looks me over again, like she’s trying to figure something out.

Gradually, her eyes squint and turn sharp, dangerous, and that pressure rises again—this time directed at me.

“Maybe you aren’t as strong as I thought you were. Maybe you’re just a human after all.”

***

POV Barion

And here it is again. I just knew I shouldn’t have accepted this quest the moment my handler mentioned other strong Beyonders would be included. It’s just near impossible for people like them to cooperate efficiently, with all that confidence and their personalities. There’s a lack of trust, and everyone just thinks they know better.

Most of all, we already suspect each other, and this item isn’t helping. Truly a beautiful work of art, and better than anything I’ve ever seen—by so much, even. Right now, I really want to drop everything else and just study it.

That demoness sends out gravitational waves in a way that makes my detection cubes scream warnings into my head as I watch the danger level rise. It even triggered some of my automatic barriers, which now surround me. Just like before, I anchor one of my explosives to the window, ready to blow it off and run if it comes to that.

And that man just stands there against her, seemingly not worrying about her at all.

He isn’t even using that amazing eye trait he kept relying on while we were trying to unlock the door. He doesn’t channel that disgustingly high amount of mana through his body, that more conductive than most of the mana-conductive alloys I know. I really want to ask him about it, but I'm worried about how he would react.

“Maybe you aren’t as strong as I thought you were. Maybe you’re just a human after all,” the demon says, and the pressure rises even more.

More of my barriers trigger, and more warning tones ring in my head. The visor, made with a thin layer of incredibly expensive liquified voidcopper and fueled by the inscriptions I’ve etched into it, moves down over my face.

“Yup, I’m a human,” that man answers.

Through the visor, I see something akin to yellow smoke rise up around the demon. It spreads throughout the entirety of the bigger hallway we’re in and especially concentrates around the two of them. It clings to the floor, covering it. It’s something only the visor lets me see.

“Yes, you are just a human,” she repeats, and that yellow smoke rises further. It follows her, twisting around her body as she moves, and it starts concentrating around the man’s head.

I would expect Io to jump in, but he seems to know more than me and just steps back, letting it unfold.

That usually collected and calm face of the man changes. I still remember a hint of almost childish excitement while we were working on the lock, but none of that is here now. It becomes colder, almost arrogant, before shifting again.

He breathes out and lets out a chuckle.

“Like children,” he says in an amused tone.

Then mana seeps out of his body. It presses out, and through my visor, it looks like a torrent of water, like the first flaming blaze of a new sun. It shows as a mix of bright pale blue and darker blue combined.

More alarms ring in my head, and more of the defensive mechanisms on my chestplate activate. Another visor slides down in reaction to it. My cubes move in front of me, and the battery in each one activates, creating more layers of defense.

Even then, I feel it. A mana level too high, too ridiculous, and moving too fast for anyone at our level to reasonably contain.

And then it increases further.

A torrent of blue waves fills the hallway in a way that makes it feel like we’re underwater, and it keeps growing denser. For a moment, I see an afterimage of a crown floating over his head, and golden rings form around his pupils.

“This is getting annoying. So stop, okay?” he says. Just those words.

And the demon stands there, looking like she’s grasping for air. The tips of her fingers shake, and her eyes are wide open. The area around her looks like the deepest trench of an ocean.

Malika just nods, and all that mana disappears in a second, pulled back into his body like into a whirlpool. And that body contains it all.

I still keep my eyes on him, but then another of my alarms beeps. I turn around only to find nothing there. Confused, I examine it to see if it triggered falsely, but there’s just nothing. Behind me, only Io, the vyssari woman, and that mute girl stand.

When I look that way too intently, Io moves closer. “Any problem?” he asks.

“Nothing. His mana must have damaged one of my detectors,” I shake my head, but still decide to be careful and check on it. I’ve detected part of the frequency, so I can modify one of my drones to find out what triggered it, or if it was just a misfire.

“Got it. If anything happens, please let me know,” Io says and passes by toward the demon. “With it solved, I think it’s time we move again.”

***

POV Nathaniel

The mood after the... altercation from a few minutes ago shifts and becomes calmer. People aren’t fighting as much, and we continue deeper into the evil lair of the likely pointy-eared megalomaniac. Along the way, Barion and I open a few more doors, and we even run into a couple more gilded monsters.

He asks me about the mana conductivity of my body using the same mana sciency bullshit jargon types like him seem to like. But he does it in such a polite and shy way that I can't help but feel amused. I cut off one of my fingers and hand it to him so he can examine it, using my passive and thermal energy to slowly regenerate it over time.

A few times, the room we’re in closes off. Either the Last Elf finally tracked us down, or some automatic defense mechanisms tried to kill us. But so far, all of us are still alive.

Io shines a few times, too. He teleports us one after another out of rooms that lock us in, but don’t have counters against his ability. They manage to stop mine for a bit, but I’m sure I could break through that kind of defense. Meanwhile, Io just sort of ignores it.

His ability to do that and bring all of us with him is straight up insane, to be honest. I don’t even think I could stop it right now, even though I keep observing it and trying to come up with a way to counter it.

We’re probably getting close to the middle of the asteroid now, and enter one of the larger areas. It’s like a huge cave that could easily fit a small city block. One of its entire sides has no wall. Instead, there’s a massive window stretching from floor to ceiling, reinforced with a metal web that probably makes it stronger. It gives us a brilliant view of outer space and the burning planet below.

It’s beautiful. The rocky cave surrounding us, the enormous opening covered with glass that seems like it shouldn’t be able to protect us from a vacuum, the movement of the asteroid, the darkness of space filled with what looks like infinite stars, and the planet below—it all just hits.

We decide to rest here for a while and continue prepping while moving around and checking the piles of boxes scattered all over the place.

I spend a lot of that time sitting not far from the glass, just staring outside and taking it all in.

Once we’re about to move again, I hear a few shouts and stand up to head toward the voices.

When I reach the others, they’re standing in a circle around something on the ground, hidden behind one of the piles of boxes.

Barion lies there, dead, with his head cleanly separated from his neck and a confused expression on his face.

The low pristine cage is near his body, along with all of his items.

Obviously, the murderer wouldn’t take anything.

The mood shifts again and turns darker, even as the others start examining his body and arguing. Everyone suspects everyone else, but no clear conclusion is reached, even though some are more suspected than others.

Then they take his items for themselves. Leaving them behind would be a waste.

I wait until they're done, then take the pristine item I had so much fun getting to while cooperating with Barion. For now, I tuck it into a smaller bag I keep on me.

No one says anything about it.

***

Next Chapter


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Patch notes (Chapter 669):

• the sentence that said the item was located in the middle in the corner of the room has been edited (like, what even was that)

• the end of the chapters was edited as well: Nathaniel shouldn’t know the value of a low pristine item and shouldn’t be able to check it in the shop, since the shop isn’t supposed to be available to him