Chapter 632 - Without looking back

POV Kim Min-Jae

Even after the reset, the portals to the 9th floor remain where we stood when the quest was completed. They didn’t reset with the loop. Mine is near the Library, where I head. As I reach it, it stands there with jagged edges, revealing a view into a completely different area. A green rainforest lies beyond, and the portal floats in the middle of the hallway like a framed picture. I notice something strange about it. When I connect to the link I share with the others, I realize they noticed it too.

The portal is shrinking slowly. At this rate, it will become too small to pass through in just five minutes.

Before the sense of loss hits me, I, and everyone else, move to gather the things we want to take from the Academy to the next floor. And just like that, a choice lies before us: stay here, likely trapped until the end of the tutorial, or head to the next floor.

Greeting the people I meet along the way with a smile, I hurry and enter the Library. Even now, the natives move around as if nothing has happened.

There, in the Library, Tyven already sits, even though, according to his schedule, he shouldn’t be here.

“Hello, Kim,” he greets me with a smile. Septa sits on his shoulder, wobbling from side to side while keeping her many eyes on me. This time, she has all eight of her legs.

For a few seconds, I just stare at him.

Then, even though I have only a few minutes, I take the last few steps and sit opposite him.

“Are you a Candidate, Tyven?”

“Yes.”

“H-ho...” I start to say something, but stop. Instead, I ask, “Did you try to kill Nathaniel and Tess?”

“I’m sorry. Are they your friends?”

“Yes, they are. So why?”

“They seemed to be working with Ari, so I tried to either remove them or create leads that would point them and Ari toward Vance. Unfortunately, you all missed the hints I left at the scenes of the attacks. To be honest, you and the others weren’t very good at this, Kim.”

I can’t help but chuckle and bury my face in my hands. “Why haven’t you killed me? Why haven’t you killed Ari?”

Tyven reaches toward Septa, letting her playfully nibble his finger. “Killing you would have drawn too much attention. But mainly, I enjoyed watching you, Kim. You might not believe it, but after three and a half years of doing the exact same thing, it gets boring. Even you didn’t notice when I occasionally read a different book than in the previous loop. But that’s not surprising, I was careful and always swapped them before you came to the Library.”

He smiles, proud of his little trick. It’s that same slightly shy smile he always had.

“As for Ari, she was very useful. I just needed her to never suspect me. As an Examiner, she couldn’t risk killing a non-Candidate, since doing so would kill her too. That kept me fairly safe. Besides, she was good at hunting the others.”

He notices me looking at him and shifts slightly. When I glance at the place where his missing arm is, he adjusts his uniform to cover it. He was always sensitive about it. As a thylarin, he doesn’t belong to the rare ones with six arms, and even being one short of the usual four makes others look down on him. I noticed that.

“What now?”

He shrugs. “The others are dead, Kim. I won. I’ll become a disciple of the Ruler if they think I’m a good fit for their subclass. If not, I’ll probably die the moment I leave this record. Until then, I’ll study here freely, without hiding. As for you... you’re a bug. You’ll disappear with the next reset. I’ve seen many like you, so I can tell.”

Without any warning, something shoots toward me. Ready for it, I use [Telekinesis]. Just a short distance from my neck, it stops, a dart. No, not a dart. One of Septa’s legs. Now she only has seven.

“Impressive. I never thought [Telekinesis] could catch it. I figured you’d try to use a barrier like everyone else.” Tyven still looks calm, as if waiting for something.

But that something doesn’t happen. For the first time, his expression shifts.

One of the nearby walls explodes, and an alarm pierces the silence. The missing wall reveals a view towards my portal to the 9th floor. Through the falling debris, Nathaniel steps into the Library.

“Yoo, I thought we were stealing this Library,” he says, and I sense him placing defenses around the area.

Tyven looks at him, and Nathaniel returns the gaze without hesitation. He even lifts up a piece of paper.

“You already marked it and kept trying to break the Core to reset the loop, right, you little shit? I always thought it was weird how Ari started using the Core so late. Seems like she couldn’t locate it before the end, and it was you resetting the loops, wasn’t it?”

Then, ignoring the future Ruler, Nat turns to me.

“Are you still thinking of staying here?”

“I... Yes.”

“You know you could die, right?” He gestures at the spider leg still floating near my neck.

“I know. But there’s so much I can learn from him.”

“Oh.” He gets it instantly. As lazy as he can be, Nathaniel picks up on some things incredibly fast.

Then he nods. “It’s your call. Normally, I’d smack the back of your head and stop you if I thought you were about to do something this stupid, even if you hated me for it. But not this time. If it’s a mistake, it’s yours to make.”

Relief washes over me at his words, and I watch as dozens of mana arms start tearing the Library apart, throwing everything through the portal into the rainforest beyond. At the same time, he connects with me and shares the method he used to locate the Core. It’s incredibly complex and yet laughably easy once you know the trick.

As he heads toward the portal, he turns back to me and declares, “I’ll be stronger in the future than he ever could be.” Then he looks at Tyven. “I thought I recognized those orange eyes of yours from somewhere.”

There’s a lot hidden in those words, and then he disappears through the portal, which continues to shrink. The storm in my head won’t quiet down while the countdown ticks away.

The portal shrinks, every second shaving away the chance to act. And still, I can’t bring myself to move. I’ve gotten used to this place. I like the Academy and the Library. I like being a student, learning without the weight of my family’s expectations.

Here, I’m someone. I’m more powerful than most Assistant Professors, and so many people look up to me. That, too, is holding me in place.

Then there’s Tyven. Even though he’s just a Candidate for now, he’s someone who will become one of the most powerful. Just how much could I learn just by watching the steps he takes and the decisions he makes?

But maybe that’s just the excuse I need. A way to justify splitting from the rest of the group before I make a decision I’ll regret, one that might break what we’ve built. I know how I feel. Lissandra saw it too, and there’s no way Nathaniel didn’t.

Yet...

As the remains of Nathaniel’s barrier begin to crumble, I activate my skills and move in the way I prepared long ago. I shift gravity so the portal becomes the floor, and books and mana stones rain down toward it. I help them along, breaking the defenses just as the twins and Sophie taught me. I locate the hidden rooms full of rare books Nathaniel told me about.

A few seconds later, I pass through, without looking back. I don't even ask why he tried to kill me, I already know.

***

POV Nathaniel

Congratulations! You have cleared the 8th floor of the Hell difficulty tutorial. Welcome to the 9th floor: The Pit.

You have acquired:

Passive skill combination token (up to low arcane)

Two 14 Day Beyond stay tokens

100,000 shards

Trait strengthening token (up to 2nd stage)

I get the rewards first while observing the area around me. A dense greenery of a jungle. Even the air here is humid and hot, I can feel it as I breathe. After multiple scans, I confirm there is no enemy nearby, and Tess does the same.

Finally, after a lot more books rain through the portal, Min-Jae also passes through the entrance and steps onto the hundreds of books and mana stones piled up all around. The others are similar, bringing a lot of items.

Surprisingly, even Biscuit is here, holding in his mouth a huge cooked something that looks like an animal leg, likely stolen from the kitchen. His tail wags proudly from side to side. He must have heard us talking about stealing things from the Academy and decided to steal something as well. I even sense as if he’s looking down on us after checking what we’ve stolen.

Materials, items, food, and water supplies, enough to last months. Someone even threw in some mattresses, cabinets, and piles of clothes. The sheer combination of things piling up around us is impressive.

“Everything not glued to the floor,” Dennis says.

“Yup,” Aaron confirms.

Looking away from them, my eyes meet with Min-Jae’s. A brown right eye and a yellow Gravitional Wavelength Iris. He looks at me for a moment without averting his gaze, only looking away after the twins come nearby, talking about how he really wasn’t joking about stealing the entire library.

While doing yet another scan, I think about it. Min-Jae is what, now, 17 or 18 years old? Damn teenagers. I'm sure I wasn't like that, right?

I could also blame it on the tutorial. I might do that later.

For now, I open and check our newest quest.

Floor quest:

Survive for one year

Rewards:

???

???

So mysterious. And I had hoped we were going for the record time, reaching the 13th floor. One year… that's quite a long time. With the current countdown, we’ll finish this floor with one year and seven months left and four floors to go. Still probably enough time to clear them all within the five-year time limit.

A part of me wonders what this floor will offer to justify such a long duration. But from how it looks now, it’s more about survival and leveling up rather than some mystery like the last floor.

Of course, that’s assuming we weren’t just thrown into some giant area, and there are dozens of cities around.

It also brings up the interesting problem of what to do with all these things. At least for now, Sophie has already started creating some smaller buildings, manipulating the trees around and weaving them into structures. Branches grow into walls, and the earth lifts up.

Tess and Min-Jae also begin moving all the stuff. Group 4 is indeed full of beautiful loot goblins. I remember the stories I used to hear when I was young. The prince saved the princess from the dragon, and behind them, the dragon’s cave collapsed and buried all that gold. Or the archaeologist finding ruins filled with treasures and jewelry, and after killing some sort of mummy mage, the ruins get buried in sand.

All these situations likely carried a lesson about letting go and focusing on what truly matters.

Well, not on our watch. I’m sure the people here with me would dig out the dragon’s treasure from under tons of rock. Hell, some of us would probably dig up to get the dragon’s corpse instead, just to study it.

Another question. Do dragons exist in the system?

I want to know.

System, tell me. I promise not to make fun of you the next time I regain [Mana Manipulation].

There is no answer, as expected. But it seems like my good mood is showing again, so I force myself to calm down and help the others set up defenses around our base.

***

A few days have passed the way early days on each floor usually do. Some danger, but relatively safe, by Hell difficulty standards. This floor, this world, as far as we’ve observed, seems to be one huge jungle. Even Tess saw nothing else, no matter how high she flew or how much she strained her [Farsight].

The density of monsters is also pretty high. Some sorts of snakes, red monkeys with two tails and four arms, living trees pretending to be normal trees, weird vines surprisingly resistant to fire, and all that stuff.

One strange thing is that there are barely any flying monsters. Even if they can fly, they don't go above the crowns of the huge trees here. So after Tess’s single flight, we decide not to fly around either. At least not until we figure out whether there’s a dangerous monster scaring the flying ones off, or something else entirely.

Everyone here also didn’t push much for hunting. Instead, we’ve been focused on regaining skill levels, buying passives, and working on the builds we had been theorizing about back on the 8th floor.

Even though our skill levels reset, with some effort, it’s possible to level up fairly quickly. We just need to prove our qualifications.

So even after just these two days, my status is looking pretty nice, especially with my new skill locked in.

Name: Nathaniel Gwyn

Title: Champion Candidate

Difficulty: Hell

Floor: 9 - The Pit

Time left until forced return: 2y 251d 16h 15m 33s

Traits (2/3): Mana Wavelength Iris 2/3, Mana Physique 0/3

Lvl 309

Strength: 241

Dexterity: 231

Constitution: 430

Mana (Stage 1/3 - Vast Mana): 1633 + 1633

Primary Class: Mana Weaver (Unique Arcane)

Sub-class: [Adept of Pride]

Active skills (8/10):

Focus - Lvl 66

Perception - Lvl 64

Redistribution - Lvl 64

Mana Manipulation - Lvl 68

Ley Line - Lvl 56

Eclipse (Pride) - Lvl 40

Empyrean Lance - Lvl 24

Manifestation - Lvl 1

Constructs:

Reinforcement

Mana Regulator

Mana Sovereignty Mantle

Kinetic Mana Heart

Sealed Ignition Heart (Fully Sealed, 3/3)

Passive skills (5/5):

Mana-Kinetic Conversion Reservoir (Unique Epic)

Mana-Fortified Mind (Low Arcane)

Mental Attunement Loop (Mid Arcane)

Mana Wavelength Tyrant (Mid Arcane)

Subdermal Combustion Weave (Mid Arcane)

Tokens:

Beyond 3 day stay token

Beyond 1 day stay token

Passive skill combination token (upper arcane)

Communication with your disciple for 10 minutes

Send a single item to your disciple (up to epic rarity)

Beyond 30 day stay token

Beyond 30 day stay token

Beyond 14 day stay token

Beyond 14 day stay token

Passive skill combination token (low arcane)

Trait strengthening token (up to 2nd stage)

Shards: 1,139,631

To create it, three skills were used: [Knitting] as the main one, with [Mana Domain] and [Mana Crown] as supportive.

With that, the effect of Pride is now gone from the non-existent domain, and I’ve placed it on [Eclipse], which I need to test more thoroughly later.

Of course, I also think I’ll gain a few more levels in some skills over the next few days, once I catch up on everything I’ve been doing inside the loop.

For now, I’m sad.

[Mana Crown] especially is something I’ll miss deeply. I didn’t want to use it for a combination, but in the end, I gave in. Please, forgive me. The crown barely made sense anymore, considering how full my mana reservoir usually is. I rarely used it. Another problem was the attention it drew from others when activated.

But!

There’s already a plan. With my new skill, I totally plan to manifest the crown on my own.

[Manifestation] sounds powerful. I mean, just reading the name gives that impression. What's strange is that it started at level 1, while most other skills at least began around level 9.

There are certain skills I liked the most, in this order: [Conduction], [Ur Line], [Foundation], [Framework]. The rest weren’t really worth mentioning.

[Manifestation] sounds stronger than all of them and is likely the hardest to level, by a wide margin. That could be because of its power, or maybe I just lack the talent or connection needed for it.

There are skills I am sure I’ll be able to push past level 80, where Champions typically have their abilities. A few, I believe, could even break through level 90 and enter the realm of Absolutes, and then further. [Manifestation]... I’m not sure. At level 90 and beyond, that skill would be insane.

But we’ll see. For now, I’m already preparing mental structures to try manifesting [Mana Crown], and I couldn’t care less about any trademarks or copyrights the system might have on it.

With this skill, I think it’s possible. I’ve used and examined the crown enough to understand how it works. Trying to manifest it should also help me better understand the skill itself. In some way, this skill is easier to understand than some of the ones I have tested.

For example, [Foundation] and [Framework] allowed me to gradually build something. I could start with a physical structure and add to it over time. [Manifestation] feels completely different. It requires the entire structure to be prepared in my mind from the start. It’s extremely unforgiving. The design needs to be nearly perfect. Even the act of manifesting is tough, requiring a lot of mana and facing significant resistance.

Maybe at higher levels it will get easier. Maybe I’ll eventually be able to keep building on what I’ve already manifested. But right now? No chance.The skill doesn’t even want to level up, no matter how many mana weapons I create.

At least the weapons it creates are strong. They should be, considering how carefully I have to prepare their structure. The downside is that they don’t last long and disappear after a few minutes. That’s another thing I hope changes as the skill levels up.

At least that cursed skill that I was sure would evolve into [Crocheting] or [Sewing] is finally gone. [Mana Crown] was a steep price to pay, but I’ll get my baby back soon. And once I learn to manifest crowns like that, what’s stopping me from manifesting crowns for thermal or kinetic energy? Imagine it: three crowns floating over my head, stacked one above the other.

Ah, the dream.

I also need to deal with my tokens. I have way too many. The passive skill combination token up to low arcane could probably be used, but I’d need to figure out whether I can combine it with my unique epic passive. Maybe sell Mana Fortified Mind, buy something else, and then combine that with the unique epic. Or reverse the process, sell the unique epic and keep the other.

I refuse to use a passive combination token for upper arcane just to combine mid arcane skills. That would be dumb. Same with using a 2nd stage trait strengthening token on a 1st stage mana physique. Wasteful.

It’s all something to deal with. Not a bad problem to have, but hey, why not complain a little about how tough my life is?

But seeing this Floor quest also means one thing. I might finally use these 30 day beyond stay tokens.

***

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