Chapter 323 - A week remains

The plan the duplicate came up with is to give Vega one of his eyes, which will most likely give her a weaker version of the Mana Wavelength Iris. Of course, that's not the entire plan.

The duplicate did practice inscribing and stuff more than me and came to the conclusion that trying to inscribe his eye and give it to Vega might be the best plan. Unlike inscribing a mana stone or material, it might work better, and we also have a lot of experience with creating constructs.

Of course, the problem is that he can't create a personality imprint. Even after weeks, he is not even close to that. That's how difficult it is.

So his plan is to have the asshole from Beyond, the bored intent, help him with that.

Giving his eye to Vega is also part of the plan as she will leave the tutorial fairly soon. Outside of the tutorial it should be safer for him than inside where he would be constantly worried about getting deleted while changing the floors.

It's an interesting plan, and I can't understand it fully or how the heck is it even the best idea he came up with. But he did spend a lot of time thinking and theorizing, so there must be something to it.

He is a smart guy, even though slightly mad.

However, the last piece of the puzzle remains, getting the asshole intent to help create his personality imprint in the eye that he will transfer to Vega. For that, the duplicate said he knows where to push. The intent seems to be bored, so it might be able to strike some bet or deal.

I do not try to stop it as I have judged that it won't put Vega in danger. In the worst case, the duplicate will fail, and Vega will get a weaker version of my trait. I also think that she could accept the trait the same way Min-Jae did with the eye we got on the 4th floor.

While thinking all of this, I float in the air and look as tens of people from the Sanctuary rush into the Bastion that has landed nearby, crushing a smaller hill to do so.

In the distance, a burst of mana explodes, the Housekeeper fighting a big group of veilshriekers. On another side, the duplicate fights in the air against veilbinders, a flying variation of those monsters. Even though they are human-like with creepy-looking wings instead of arms and one more pair on the back. Their legs are connected together into a single tail limb thing with a spike at the end.

I, on the other hand, have a dozen or so highly compressed projectiles floating near me, and shoot them when needed. Sometimes I infuse them with kinetic energy, sometimes with thermal, or I just compress them further, making them extremely durable and shooting them at speed breaking the sound barrier.

It's something I'm quickly getting better at.

Under my barrage, no monster reaches the people getting on the Bastion, and I even level up once.

Lvl 231

Strength: 111

Dexterity: 109

Constitution: 266

Mana (Stage 1/3 - Vast Mana): 897 + 897

When everyone is aboard with everything they could take, I watch as a pulse of mana is sent through the barrier of the Bastion and more of it reaches the bottom. A shockwave is sent from under the giant flying island, and the massive inscriptions on the bottom light up.

With a dull humming noise, the Bastion floats into the air, and I watch it.

I don't think it will ever get old, watching this huge mass just float there. How the hell would something like this even get old? Just imagine an island the size of a small city floating into the air. Imagine the sheer weight of it all. And then watch it float there as if it's light as a balloon.

Having dealt with monsters I wanted to, I fly towards the Housekeeper, and floating over her, I let a compressed flame as thick as my finger shoot from in front of me. It pierces through the monsters, cutting them apart, and leaving burned but smooth cuts. I move it over the area, finishing the rest of the monsters before landing near her.

She lowers her defenses, and then touching her shoulder, I teleport us towards the anchor I left on the Bastion, the duplicate appearing near us at the same time.

The Housekeeper moves some hair off her forehead, a smile on her face as always after she fights. But even now, she doesn't seem like she got pushed to her limit and had to fight all out.

When she leaves, I turn to the duplicate, and both of us resonate our mana around us, creating a barrier that makes it impossible to listen in on what we say.

"The Bastion's Barrier changed slightly again," I tell him.

"The Armorer just doesn't want to give up," while looking around, my duplicate says.

"Well, let's continue acting like we didn't notice. That guy thinks he is sneaky and just doesn't like us, and if he is onto it, some others are most likely as well."

"The Housekeeper doesn't seem like it, but the Butler and the Gardener could join him just to fuck us over."

"Most likely," I agree. "Well, in the worst case, we will kill him. I don't like how creepily he looks at me."

"He does it even since you burned your eyes off while transferring mana to the core. 'Magnificent mind,' didn't he say so? Maybe he wants to dissect you."

"He is free to try. If he tries to, I will get rid of him, and we will take over the Bastion. But it's nice to have him drive it around and defend against the attacks so we can do our stuff."

"It's not that long until the end of the floor, so let's hold on," the duplicate seems to agree with me. "I will go and meet the granny and Irvin. They seemed inclined to help, but I will ask for more details and continue to work on the eye."

"When will you contact the intent?"

"It said it would talk to me one day before I disappear to offer me killing Vega again, so I will ask it then. Anyway, I will continue to practice. I will help you inscribe another weapon at night in exchange for some help with it later."

"Sure," as I say so, the duplicate disappears, and I detect him joining Vega, who moves closer to him.

For a while, I stand on the wall and watch as the Bastion floats through the air, a constant barrage of attacks hitting the barrier. All of them from flying monsters at levels between 100 and two hundred.

None of the attacks damage the barrier at all, and sharp beams shoot towards them, tearing the monsters apart with ease. Even the Veil Guardian I see watching us from a distance doesn't attack and just continues to trail us.

The fully powered, floating Bastion is formidable enough to deal with these monsters. Even after a hundred years and with some of its functions broken and mechanisms damaged.

That makes me wonder what was able to take it down when it was at its prime with its Lord, a man at a level over 300 defending it as well.

 ***

A few days have passed, and my handling of black mana is getting better and better, and I'm happier and happier with buying the new epic passive.

I am also going through upper rare items I took from the Veil Ignition Station and finishing their inscriptions, turning them into epic weapons to sell.

Together with the duplicate, we also made some mid and almost upper epic grade items out of them.

Back on the 4th floor, I turned two epic items into an upper epic one, but that was with the help of the Craft Guild of that floor. A lot of help. It seems like I'm still a bit off from making epic items fully on my own, but I will get there.

Examining the damaged arcane axe that belonged to Nevan's father humbles me a lot. The weapon, no matter how damaged, is something that I admire extremely, and it shows how much there is left to learn. And arcane weapons most likely aren't even the peak.

It doesn't demoralize me at all; instead, it awakens my competitive spirit.

Even on Earth, I used to become very good at something once I got to it. It doesn't matter if other kids were more talented or had better opportunities. I have always thought more about it, I always did it more deliberately, and I always trained more. I possess a hunger that the more talented ones often lack.

And if I meet someone with talent at the level of genius and hunger equal to mine?

Well, in such a case, I will push even more. I will risk my life. I will sacrifice my limbs. I will hurt, and I will bleed. People will call me crazy. And then I will push even further.

Savant? Weirdo that started in Beyond? Who cares.

It will be me coming out on top.

 ***

A week remains, and I have sold everything I could sell. Metal ingots, lower-quality alloys, mana stones I consider not useful, and much more. I sold items I couldn't inscribe and inscribed all I could. I went through the Bastion and sneakily sold a lot of items from their storages.

All of this has gained me enough shards to get to 49,725.

Together with my duplicate, we also hunted more Veil Guardians, and I sold pieces of voidsteel blades.

As we kept coming back to the Bastion after hunting them, I noticed that the way the Butler and the Housekeeper look at us changed. Their behavior changed as well.

The Housekeeper seems more interested, and I notice her keeping a hand close to her weapon every time I'm nearby.

The Butler keeps one rift open at all times so he can activate it quickly.

The Gardener spends most of his time in his garden, where he has plenty of defensive mechanisms.

The Armorer seems to be more and more interested day by day. I feel his gaze on my back. I feel his senses within the floating island as he keeps observing me.

The little bit of cooperation we did have seems like a house of cards, each side ready for everything. Them against me, the duplicate, and Vega.

In between us, there is Vitalist Granny, her father Irvin, and Nina.

Nina seems to hate me, but she doesn't dare to do anything. I think it is part of knowing she wouldn't be able to do anything and partially she also realizes that it was for a big part her father's fault.

The granny and Irvin spend a lot of time with Vega and the duplicate. They theorize, discuss, and plan.

Vega seems to be excited at the thought of getting a new eye, but that eye could disappear the moment the duplicate disappears as well. It just sounds like something the system would do.

So in the end, it relies a lot on the intent and on how much the duplicate can amuse it and create a deal. The logic is that even the intent would be unable to save the duplicate without giving him some more permanent “status,” and on this floor, only me and Vega are with one.

I won't agree. No matter how much I might consider it to be a bit of my fault or even if I pitied him or regretted it. I won't do it.

As for Vega, the duplicate won't do it.

In the end, the plan is simple. The eye being a body part makes the duplicate hope it will be less susceptible to erasure than a mana stone. He also said he found it easier to work with. It is a piece of his body with mana circuits and bearing his passives and mana.

I don't understand it fully, but he spent more time thinking of it, so I don't argue. Something tells me that he hopes that even if he fails, he might be able to get the intent to make so Vega can keep his eye. A last gift to our disciple.

Just in case, we will also keep Vega's original eye. It would be unfortunate if the duplicate failed and Vega ended up without one eye.

That's where the two healers will help. They also seem to be planning to weaken the eye further so it will awaken gradually. Mana Wavelength Iris is a powerful trait, and we don't want our minion to melt her brain if she uses it too soon.

Overall, things go well. I progress with black mana, and my handling of my eyes improves. I made a lot of shards. Vega is getting stronger by the day.

But it all feels off, and I don't think this floor will have a nice ending for the duplicate. No matter how much he plans, trains, and hopes. He was put in a shitty situation, and the only way out seems to be killing me or Vega and striking a deal with someone he can’t even trust.

I have gained a lot thanks to our cooperation, and I thought I knew what I would feel if it came to this, but… this is a shitty feeling.

That's when I also decide to never do anything similar again.

And I'm sorry.

I won't say it out loud, and I don't think it's needed. I'm sure he knows.

***

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