Chapter 449 - Something you are addicted to

For the first time, that Champion down in the hole seems to bear a different emotion than his usual lazy confidence. It’s not anger, it’s not even surprise. He just seems genuinely curious, his eyes ticking between me and the part of his bond that is unsealed.

Neither of us moves closer to the hole. I know for sure that if I enter it, I won’t be able to exit; it’s made just like that. It’s not because of the mana, no, it’s something entirely else I cannot understand yet. Out of all of the things here, I’m probably the most curious about that hole.

“Mind telling me your name, oh Lord Champion?” I sit down, and the bond lets me.

“My name’s Caius. What betrayed the presence of my bond? I thought she hid perfectly.”

“Izzy told me,” I answer without any worry, already confirming through Community they are fine.

“That’s curious, we have listened to your telepathic communication and my bond was hidden even from her skills.”

But not the system channels, I want to say, but it’s not like he would know.

“She is more talented than you would have expected. So what was the twist? We made a deal that I will come back later and free you, but there you are, sending your bond and trapping me here.”

He isn’t sitting, and his eyes are constantly on me, as if he is reading something, taking every one of my movements into consideration.

“Neither of us truly believed it, Nathaniel. Those were just empty words we said aloud, trying to deceive each other. My bond would kill your group members and store the bodies of the ones with these interesting skills and later come up with a way to fully free me. Meanwhile, I would watch you die here and later take your Mana Wavelength Iris.”

“So there was never a chance for us to free you?”

“People tend to be easier to manipulate if they think they have something I might want. They barter, they feel safe, and they are easier to push where I want them. None of you, Nathaniel, could get me out as you are now.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

“Indeed.”

“Can I ask a few more questions?”

The darkness that was about to surround me pauses, and then there is a feeling as if it’s looking at its master, waiting for an order.

Caius smiles and gestures with his arm, "Please."

“You said I’m already taken, what have you meant by that?”

“It’s not complete, but there is a mark left on you by someone very powerful. To say it more barbarically, it is something like: ‘this is mine, I found it first.’ Marks like this are very archaic, something Absolutes and Champions of old did. Nowadays, things work slightly different.”

As the presence reaches to me I ask the last question,“Do you remember what I said to you before? When you asked me if I want to kill you.”

“Yes, you told me you would kill me.” Caius smiles, and the pressure around me increases. A feeling that his bond is about to tear me apart.

Then I take a step and jump into the hole.

There is nothing stopping me. You can enter, but you cannot leave.

The sheer surprise on the Champion’s face as I land next to him is fun to watch.

My vortex core is full of primordial energies, and as Caius punches against me, all of the kinetic energy is depleted at once in an attempt to push him away and strengthen my body.

Even crippled and not being the warrior type, the Champion moves with incredible speed. The arm I use to block his hit evaporates into nothing, even with all the kinetic energy. Even with my unique passive.

But from all that gore, a single shining white thing floats out. A grain of sand that seems to be even more visible in this hole serving as a prison.

All the mana I got from my passive explodes from me, and the grain of sand becomes charged, swirling around crazily while Caius dodges it. It also pierces through my body, drilling holes into it as it moves erratically all around the hole.

From down here, I hear the Champion’s bond for the first time. It screeches, and the black smoke throws itself into the hole, knowing it will get trapped, but hurrying to try to save its master.

My body crashes against Caius, and a swing of his arm opens my belly, intestines spilling out.

It’s worth it; just that short moment of imbalance causes him to miss, and the white sand grain touches him. A tiniest touch on his skin. Barely a split of a second as it passes by.

And it’s over.

He stops moving. The bond stops moving. And I push my organs back inside of my belly.

The air vibrates and starts shaking, and the sound comes from all sides. Tons upon tons of white sand rushing inside.

Somewhere hidden in the desert, huge mana reservoirs explode, dozens of them, the explosions of such enormous amounts of mana is felt even down here. Something most likely serving to charge the sand that now, charged, rushes down there through three huge tunnels.

Caius and his bearing change, as if he can’t believe what just happened. Anger appears on his face, the anger of a powerful man who now takes a step towards me, arm lifted to deliver a finishing blow.

He doesn't say anything about me dying here with him, but I cant help but to tell him, “I told you I would kill you.”

These words make him pause for a moment.

I use that opportunity and say, “Use 1 Day Beyond Stay token.”

Before the hit lands, I disappear. I feel my body and mind spinning and the area surrounding me changes.

It seems to be around midnight, and I stand on the polished and perfectly smooth black stone that seems to stretch on forever. There is nothing as far as I can see. No hills, no trees, no mountains, no clouds. Just straight and perfectly polished black stone flooring. The sky is full of beautiful stars and nebulas.

My heart generates mana again, and there’s that sweet sensation as it starts filling my body.

As before, my handler is sitting on the chair behind an old wooden table on which she has stacks of papers, plenty of mana stones, and some items I fail to identify.

She moves a thread of her black hair with a hint of red to the side and looks at me with her big brown eyes, “You are in a bit worse state than before.”

I follow her eyes and look at the wound on my belly. It’s closing slowly, but at least the organs are not spilling out.

“Will I get notifications even here?”

“Yes,” she confirms, most likely knowing what I wait for. “You know, you might not be as normal as you think.”

Huh? There is no way that’s true. She should look closer at group 4.

In the end I still nod, it’s better to agree with crazy people so they leave you be. Then I wait. And after a while, it comes.

[You have defeated Grimshaper - lvl 495]

[Lvl 263 > Lvl 264]

[Lvl 264 > Lvl 265]

[Lvl 265 > Lvl 266]

[Lvl 266 > Lvl 267]

[Lvl 267 > Lvl 268]

[Lvl 268 > Lvl 269]

[Lvl 269 > Lvl 270]

[Lvl 270 > Lvl 271]

[Lvl 271 > Lvl 272]

[Lvl 272 > Lvl 273]

[Lvl 273 > Lvl 274]

[Lvl 274 > Lvl 275]

Worryingly, there’s no notification about the bond. I'll warn the others as soon as possible; there's a chance we missed something.

I then invest the stats gained into mana.

“Happy?” she asks me as I close these notifications.

“He was a Champion, I should get more levels,” I complain still.

“Oh really? Do you truly believe that?” My handler smiles and leans back, watching me from behind the table.

I don’t bother answering. It’s more than clear that I just abused the environment, and Caius was weakened so I can get an ‘assist’ at most. But that doesn’t stop me from thinking the system is an asshole, stealing XP from me.

“You know you could have died. What if the transport to Beyond didn’t activate?”

“Why would it not, it activated before with Whitey.”

“The system might have disabled it later after you abused it.”

“As if I was the first person to ever abuse it like that. If the system didn’t like it or could, it would have been changed hundreds of years ago,” I just wave my hand.

Overall, my plan was simple. The guy couldn’t sense the grain of the sand within my body. I have tested it a few times before, I even sent away all the spears to make him lower his guard.

I’m also not too proud to not accept that I would die without Beyond entrance token. But why wouldn’t I use things like Community and items from the system to my advantage?

As for the Beyond entrance token, I got it from killing a thousand monsters over level 200. The 1 day one. It worked nicely, the guy most likely thinking it was because of my amplified emotions.

“I will get to you in a minute,” I tell my handler.

Then, while she sulks, I open quest notifications, starting with the old one.

Congratulations, you have killed 1,000 monsters over level 200.

You have received Beyond 1 day stay token.

Congratulations, you have reached level 275.

You have received Beyond 1 day stay token.

Congratulations, you have survived.

You have received:

Beyond 3 day stay token

Active skill combination token

Yeah, seems about right.

I look at my handler, “Hey, isn’t that reward too much?”

“What did you get? Let me check.” She picks some paper from the table and taps on it a few times, “Oh, active skill combination token? It’s fine, survival quests can be like that, especially with personalized rewards, plus even though he was crippled and trapped, you did kill a Champion, so it counts as quite the big achievement.”

“I can live with that.”

I ignore my handler again and, for the first time in a long while, open my status. My eyes first head towards my stats to check the result of the restrictive training emblem.

Strength: 141
Dexterity: 137
Constitution: 309
Mana (Stage 1/3 - Vast Mana): 1131 + 1131

I then close the window and open it again. It's still there.

Yeah, it's not bugged. The training method has gained me 25 levels' worth of stats. Around 20 in Strength and Dexterity and over 30 in Constitution.

If Lady Lissandra continues to give me such fine things, I might fall in love with her. I think I should also apologize to her; I’ve treated such a fine Absolute too harshly.

She might give me something similar if I beg enough. Buying her a gift or two could also work so she has a better opinion of me. So what could such a fine woman like her like?

I lovingly check the useless stat increase. Sure, they cannot compare to glory of mana, but getting them for free like this means I can put more stats into mana.

As if I wouldn't have done it anyway.

I also know at some point the stat gain will slow, and the emblem will need to be unlocked more, or much more mana will need to be used. But that’s something I can work on as I already have plenty of interest in emblems. Plus, I can probably store a LOT of mana in the crown and use that to power the emblem in addition to my body and reservoir reserves.

Seems good.

I then open my entire status.

Name: Nathaniel Gwyn
Title: Champion Candidate
Difficulty: Hell
Floor: 6 - Astral Prison
Time left until forced return: 3y 308d 16h 06m 11s
Traits (2/3): Mana Circuit 2/3, Mana Wavelength Iris 0/3

Lvl 275
Strength: 141
Dexterity: 137
Constitution: 309
Mana (Stage 1/3 - Vast Mana): 1131 + 1131

Primary Class: Focused Channeler (Epic)
Sub-class: [Adept of Pride]

Active skills (9/10):
Focus - Lvl 53
Perception - Lvl 50
Redistribution - Lvl 50
Resonance - Lvl 51
Mana Domain (Pride) - Lvl 45
Tether - Lvl 40
Infusion - Lvl 37
Mana Crown - Lvl 39
Mana Manipulation - lvl 54

Constructs:
Reinforcement (Construct)
Thermokinetic Mana Heart (Construct)
Mana Regulator (Construct)
Mana Sovereignty Mantle (Construct)
Vortex Core (Construct)

Passive skills (4/5):
Arcane Resilience (Mid Epic)
Phoenix Embrace (Mid Epic)
Cognitive Fortress (Mid Epic)
Mana-Kinetic Conversion Reservoir (Unique Epic)

Tokens:
Trait strengthening token (2nd stage)
Beyond 1 day stay token
Beyond 3 day stay token
Active skill combination token

Shards: 149,748

I could live with that. Yup. Not bad at all. Just wait for me, Whitey. I'm gonna kick your ass very soon, just a few months, and you are done.

Well, for the second time, considering you are already dead. What a loser.

In much better mood, I turn to my handler, “I would like a different handler.”

She tilts her head to the side and smiles, “Would you?”

“Yup. Someone more useful and cooperative. How does the thing with handlers even work?”

“Oh, it's quite simple,” she doesn’t seem to be insulted and instead answers my question. “When you enter Beyond, every handler has a chance to pick you up. If it's only one handler, they will get you. If it's multiple, there is either bidding on you, or the other handlers will step back either through threatening or previous deals.”

“How many handlers wanted to get me? And how much information do they have on me?”

“Quite a few wanted to get you, but there have been others from your planet who drew a lot of interest, especially that man. Before you ask, I won't tell you more. As for the information, just some basic ones like your status, excluding the most powerful skills and traits. Then some records of your performance on the floors. As for the full records, only the Rulers can see them and probably a dozen more people. Then, of course, your handler after you get one.”

“See, that’s quite good, why couldn’t you be more cooperative before. So I want to ask...”

She lifts her hand to stop me from talking, “Your time here is limited to just a few minutes, and we’re nearing the end. In a few seconds, you'll be sent to the Entrance floor. If you still want to change your handler, you can do that; just say ‘I want to change handler,’ and the system will offer you some options.”

Finally, she stands up and moves around her table, stopping in front of me. The look she gives me is like an adult tricking a dumb kid.

“Both you and I know you love to gain power or information on your own. You have that insatiable curiosity and weird pride you are building. You complain, you curse, but the feeling it gives you is something you are addicted to.”

She lifts her finger and waves it from side to side, and I can’t help myself but to follow it with my eyes to her amusement

“But this time, allow me to give you information few handlers can give you. Information you can’t talk about outside of this place.”

My handler moves her face closer and whispers, “There are 13 floors, each tied to one of the Rulers. This was something Greed wanted. Through her immense power and trickery, she persuaded the other Rulers to agree, and they altered the previous version of the tutorial.”

Her voice becomes even quieter, and I can feel her warm breath on my ear as she whispers there, “Only one Ruler refused, and no one was crazy enough to try to force him.”

The next few words reach me, “On each of the floors, you can meet a Ruler from some point in their past, if you're lucky or unlucky enough. The floors are made from their planets or places important to them. This is my gift - an answer with many more questions.”

She is smiling as I get pulled away to the Entrance Floor, her brown eyes glowing, “Tell me, do you still want to change your handler?”

***

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