Chapter 450 - Hiding under blankie

Changing my handler? There is no fucking way.

Lady Handler is someone I will stick with until the very end, yup.

I was angry at her? When? Who? Such bullshit, I would never do that.

Anyway. I take a few steps and rest my back against the cold wall, finding myself back on the Entrance floor. 

It’s better than being on the 1st floor, and the reason is I didn’t reach the “checkpoint” so I will have to start over.

I slide down to the ground, and as during my 1st visit, there are people glancing at me, but everyone is on a time limit, so they do their own stuff.

Who would care about a bloodied man with a totally broken arm, blood covering my entire front from a cut belly and a few more minor wounds that would kill a horse or some monster equal to that?

At least my mana is restoring, and the feeling of it is better than I would have thought. That desert truly was a godforsaken place. Another reason to work on ways to counter that. I wouldn’t want to end up like that blue guy and his bond.

With one day remaining, I don’t bother trying to extend my stay here and instead spend an hour collecting my mana, assessing damage, and moving my heat across my body to heal the wounds. 

I also talk in the Community a bit, but it all seems to be a big mess over there. Now, in a safer place, they’re venting out their grievances. Most of them being tired and mana-deprived probably doesn’t help. As before, emotions seem to be the constant weakness, no matter how powerful we become. 

It looks like we’re still humans in the end, all of us.

I also already start thinking of preparations I could do before I return to the 6th floor. There is a very high chance I will end up deep underground, buried in white sand, stone and remains of the prison that held that Champion.

Sure, there is a small chance the system will teleport me to the surface, but yea… who am I even kidding? I will most likely end up deep under, just a bubble of space created around me before I get buried. There might be even more bullshit thrown my way.

Seeing that the system doesn’t mind people using Stay tokens as a get-out-of-jail-free card is very suspicious, almost nice and highly abusable. Just spending 10k shards to buy yourself a free escape.

There has to be a problem with that.

I might also get into trouble with enforcers here. Apparently, there is a guild that oversees the contracts, and even though the one I signed before going to the 1st floor of Beyond was one of the lower tiers, it could cause me trouble. Probably nothing too serious as there is no one alive to go against me, and I can blame it on Whitey.

The mana I regenerate I transfer into primordial energies and store in my vortex core. There is a chance before I return I will get rid of all my mana and try to get out using my energies.

Standing up and walking through the crowd of people, I let a bit of mana seep into the identification emblem, and the letter D appears on the back of my left hand. The color is the usual black. How did that woman say it before? Obsidian Black for D rank, Ivory White for C rank, Royal Blue for B rank, Shimmering Silver for A rank, and Radiant Gold for S rank.

Looking at it a bit longer, I let it disappear and reach near the center of the outpost. The place with hundreds of bulletin boards.

Talking to the merchant nearby, I spend a few hundred shards to buy a single sheet of paper and pen. It’s the one with the option to keep the message longer; in this case, it will take a month before the message will disappear and the paper will burn.

The price was close to a thousand.

I got robbed.

Still, I take a pen and start drawing. It’s a picture of a bear that is meant to be Cinderbear from the 1st floor. Vic always said that I have no talent for drawing, but in my opinion, it looks quite good.

Just in case, I write down below: Fuck Cinderbear.

Seriously, fuck that guy.

Then I write some keywords like Earth, a few of the Continents names and similar keywords. I also draw some popular memes to spice things up.

Lastly, I mention that I’m from Earth and looking to meet anyone from the Earth’s tutorial. I mention my intention of coming back to Beyond in 1 month and staying here for a few days long expedition. I calculate when it should be and what time should be showing on the countdown to forced return so they can time it as well. Then I use the pen to pin it on one of the bulletin boards.

Satisfied with my work, I leave.

I’m not sure if Tess and Lily will be here by then; I will need to ask them, but in the worst case, I can come here on my own and then later with them - they won’t have that many stay tokens anyway, so I could show them around.

Going my way, I find the blacksmith I talked to before, probably the best one from this outpost. As I enter his shop, he looks up from the ax he was tinkering with. It’s an annoyed look I know so well.

No one likes to be interrupted when they have fun.

His eyes slide on my torn, bloodied clothes and still visible wounds. I also do not have any equipment at all.

“The crazy guy with Flamebearer?”

“The crazy guy with Flamebearer,” I confirm.

“I almost didn’t recognize you. If you still have the ax, I offer you 20 thousand shards.”

“The last time you offered 26 thousand.”

“Yes, but it looks like you need shards more urgently now,” he says shamelessly.

I can’t be even mad.

“Not selling, but look. What would you do if, let’s say, hypothetically, someone told you you will be teleported deep underground, the space that used to be a huge cave but now buried under tons and tons of sand. It would happen…” I check the time, “In around 21 hours. Hypothetically, of course.”

Even though annoyed, he seems to be amused and straightens up, scratching his beard, “What floor? Hypothetically.”

“Sixth floor, Mana Desert.”

His eyes shine at that moment, and he opens his mouth and then closes it. Most likely thinking what he can say without triggering the system's censorship.

“I can prepare a metal sphere, it will be airtight and capable of enduring the pressure. I can offer items that would allow you to filter air to stay there for a while. Either to make preparations or wait for someone to save you, but with properties of that sand…”

“Hypothetically,” I remind.

“Oh, sure,” he nods quickly, “I would also hypothetically offer a lot of shards for that white sand. It’s the material I always wanted to try to work with.”

“Sounds interesting. So what would be the price of that sphere and to make it in time?” I ask, already expecting an outrageous sum, but it’s even worse than I thought.

“Five thousand shards. Netto. So it will be 6 thousand so Beyond can take its cut. I think it’s a good price, and I offer it in hopes of our future cooperation.”

Looks like I will be robbed for the second time today.

Damn it.

I swear I will try to use every single damn grain of white sand to make stuff to sell.

***

Around 12 hours later, I wake up. After a moment of panic, I remember where I am and close my eyes. Putting a blanket over my head, I curl up.

I paid for this room with an extraordinary number of shards, so I better enjoy it for as long as possible. I even thought about sleeping outside on some bench to save shards, but with these people around, someone might kidnap my ass and force me to serve as a mana battery.

Moreover, I think I deserve a bit of rest. The bath, freshly made-up bed, some basic new clothes - also too expensive.

While hiding under my blankie I will totally steal before leaving, I open the system window and scroll my status. It’s so pretty, and I still have a skill combination token, something I plan to use before returning. Just in case, I also check the timer, but I still have around 8 hours remaining.

It takes half an hour more before I feel woken up and recharged enough to deal with the world, and I push the blankets off to the side to stretch with one big yawn.

Taking a sip of the water and a bite of the food I bought here before sleeping, I check the scar on my belly. The wound seems to be healed, but the scars always take the longest time to disappear. Soon it should be gone, and with it comes an interesting thought.

I lift my right arm and look at the inner side of my forearm where the scar should be, the one I got even back on Earth.

It’s still there, the same as a few more smaller or bigger scars.

Lily could probably remove them with her [Plastic Surgery] skill, but they don’t bother me at all. I also need to find someone who was old before getting to the tutorial. I saw a few during the tournament, but I haven’t bothered asking them back then.

Currently, I’m curious how the system affects them. My scars are still here, but wouldn’t higher constitution remove things like some organ failures, heart problems, and similar stuff? How even system considers the difference between them and things like just some “visual” wounds?

I know what I will do. I will send a message to Channeler later, and he can find some grandpa and ask. 

“I want to use active skill combination token,” I say.

You have used an active skill combination token. Please pick two skills from the following that you would like to combine.

Warning! Combining two skills will reduce the level of the acquired skill.

Warning! Combining incompatible skills may result in worse skills.

Warning! After combining these skills, it will be extremely difficult to reacquire the skills used in the resulting combination.

List of available skills to combine:

Mana Manipulation - Lvl 54
Perception - Lvl 50
Tether - Lvl 40
Infusion - Lvl 37

And here we go again, I got excited for nothing and got some cheap-ass low-tier combination token or something. As before, some of my skills aren’t here. [Focus], [Redistribution], [Resonance], [Mana Domain], and [Mana Crown].

Sure, [Mana Domain] probably isn’t there because I boosted it with the subclass effect of Pride. The crown I got from a combination before, so it also makes sense, but there is no way [Focus], [Resonance], and [Redistribution] are that high-tiered, right?

I might really have to start working much harder on combining skills on my own or evolving them on my own. It’s something I kept trying but with no success so far.

Partially, I understand it; I’m just a newbie here, so things like this might take years longer, but I will complain about it anyway.

I already thought of what I would do. There is [Tether] that I got from my Primary class at level 150. It’s the skill I want to keep, so combining it should allow that. From the primary class, I also have [Mana Domain], and that is strengthened by Pride, so there is a high chance it will stay even as I change class at level 300. If not, I think I can get it back, unlike [Tether] that is a bit more difficult for me to get.

So the question is:

[Tether] with [Perception]

[Tether] with [Infusion]

[Tether] with [Mana Manipulation]

It’s not too difficult a decision.

Congratulations, you have successfully combined [Tether] and [Mana Manipulation]! A new skill has been created.

You have acquired [Ley Line]

[Ley Line - lvl 0 > Ley Line - lvl 9]

Oh my, that sounds kind of mysterious. But before testing it, let’s do something else.

I let five evil orbs form over my head, a mana shaping exercise left to me by the amazing Absolute that is Lady Lissandra.

Now, let’s see how long it will take to…

Congratulations, you have acquired a new skill!

[Mana Manipulation]

[Mana Manipulation - lvl 0 > Mana Manipulation - lvl 49]

Well, that was easier than expected.

Warning, after combining these skills, it will be extremely difficult to reacquire the skills used in the resulting combination?

The system can screw off.

***

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