cerim

Chapter 192 - Information on Calamities

“It's one of the information pieces we paid for. I think it was one of the most expensive ones,” Hadwin glances at Tess, and she nods, confirming it.

While taking the rest of the mana stones I didn't pocket off the table, he continues, “The first one we learned about is the Colony. We've already had the luck of meeting some of them.”

“Good ol' bus-sized ants,” I say.

“Yes, millions or perhaps even billions of ants. No one knows. The entire thing we considered a...

Chapter 191 - We have a deal

Not messing around, I quickly explain it to Sophie. "Lissandra left something for me: coordinates to her world. You probably can't see them in the system shop because you don't own any, and they seem high up there when it comes to pricing, but I do. The prices of coordinates start at twenty thousand shards, and some of them are much, much higher."

"So where do I come in?" Sophie asks.

"It's simple. You will learn the coordinates and 'save' them. Then I will sell my coordinates to ...

Chapter 190 - Can't help wanting more

Well, it's not as confusing as I expected it to be, and I don't even feel dizzy after using the skill.

It's as I thought: [Tether] will currently allow me to teleport back to the place where I left the anchor, which is something like a construct or imprint.

When I try to set up the anchor again and then another one, the first one crumbles.

Oh, that's unfortunate, but it's nothing some leveling in the skill wouldn't take care of.

I use as much mana as I...

Chapter 189 - New Primary Class

“Oh, we can deal with them later, can't we? I see that you got a haircut and went shopping a bit. Why don't you look around our base? We kept a nice room for you.” The way Tess says it makes me even more suspicious and I notice a cheeky shine in her eyes, but she is right. It would be best to take some rest and go over my Primary Class options.

I keep having to hold myself back, and now in the safety of the city, I can go through them.

“Others went out to hunt, and I'll tell...

Chapter 188 - Blimp

I already know where to look for the rest of Group 4, but it takes me some time to reach them. I slowly walk through the city and take in its atmosphere which makes me shiver. The city is so confusing, so exciting. Everything feels so… new.

Unlike small towns with barely a few thousand people I visited on the second floor, this one is much bigger and weirder. Lynthari are moving through the streets, each of them much taller than humans and, in most cases, much higher leveled.

Th...

Chapter 187 - It's fine

So, after investing stats from all the level-ups, my mana is well over a thousand. That means no more leveling for a while. I grew way too quickly and I need to get used to it. My own pride won't allow me to have all that mana and not be used to it or not be able to handle it. In the same way people from Hard difficulty were to my standard terrible at handling their skills and stats.

After getting to the others, I will spend some time training, testing, and all that good stuff. My curre...

Chapter 186 - Just four more levels

Did I just get caught in the net or cage-like thing by a bunch of ants? It sure looks like it.

Still, I'm not that worried, as the ants seem to be able to pass through that net easily. At some point, the net turns into something like a mana barrier that seems to allow only them to pass in and out.

Right behind the barrier, I see the ants grouping up.

When I shoot a mana projectile at the barrier, it doesn't even dent it. Instead, a pulse of mana is sent through the barrier a...

Chapter 185 - Night into day

There is no hesitation as my mana swirls through my body and powers up the skills I need to use. It moves with all the confidence I feel and is fed to the skill that transforms it and reaches out from my body toward the fireball flying at me.

The giant ball of flames pauses in the air and returns to its round shape. I push more; my mana resonates as I take over the flames with my usage of [Redistribution] and [Resonance].

How hard can it be to dea...

Chapter 184 - Flames

Before they get to react, the orb filled to the brim with thermal energy leaves my mouth and floats near me. Then I start releasing short bursts of concentrated flames from it instead of exploding it at once.

The already darkening area lights up with the yellowish glow of my flames, and monster after monster is set ablaze and killed immediately.

Entering deeper [Focus], I methodically change my position and continue to search for and attack the invisible ants that...

Chapter 183 - Favorite kind of monsters

So the ants are still there, waiting on the mountains but not entering the plains. Car and bus-sized nightmarish monsters with their dead-like eyes are crawling creepily over the rocky surface of the mountains or anthills or whatever it is. Even though they have no human-like eyes, I keep getting the feeling that all of them are staring at me.

Hundreds of them are there. Fewer than when we were running away, but I already saw a few of them leaving, maybe to call more friends.

Ther...

Chapter 182 - Solo hunting time

The plains spread as far as I can see, and only Tess says that she sees some hills in the distance. It's noticeably warmer here and the ground is rocky with patches of grass here and there, and some trees once in a while.

But best of all, there are no bus-sized nightmarish red ants. I mean, some oversized ants might be fine, but it stops being funny when they start flying. Creepy jackasses.

I would have shown them something if I didn't have to taxi our small group. Oh boy, I would...

Chapter 181 - Not a cloud

On our way back from the hole, everyone is surprisingly quiet, deep in their own thoughts. Learning about how deep that hole was, I also start to watch our surroundings more carefully.

The mountains that surround us are all terribly tall. Yet there is something that I do realize: they are a bit weirdly shaped. I can't exactly point it out, but something feels off about them, and now that I look, they start feeling off more and more.

"Maybe we should leave a bit sooner than expecte...

Chapter 180 - The hole

More days have passed and this time, during the night, all of us are awake and staring up at the clear sky. At the debris that orbits the planet, reflecting the light of the moon. Some pieces are giant, probably much bigger than we think as they are so far away; other ones are much smaller and look more like dust shining when direct light lands on it in an otherwise dark room.

It's pretty, and there are so many questions that come to mind that, in my eyes, make it even more alluring as ...

Chapter 179 - Trying to find a way

A bit later Hadwin asks to talk with me and I agree.

His first question is, “She went easy on us?”

“Yes, I think she just wanted to punch me a few times. Don't ask me why; I always treated her nicely,” I shrug my shoulders. “She most likely wanted to keep us on the third floor. Maybe to do some experiments. Maybe to get one of our Mana Hearts. Who knows.”

“She sounded different from the brooch, and her form didn't look like her on the second floor,” Hadwin sa...

Chapter 178 - Pairing

Interesting floor quest, to say the least. At least we have an option to pick one of the four Calamities. As for what the Calamity is, I think we will find out as time passes. As before, we could easily spend a few months here.

Another interesting thing is Community. I've joined it a few times and there are just us, the group 4.

Savant either hasn't cleared the floor yet or doesn't talk, so that's it. It also means that we can talk only to people from groups that are on the same f...

Chapter 177 - Choosing Sub-class

Pride could be offered because of my own pride and confidence in myself, which sometimes borders on recklessness. Yet time and time again, I choose to trust in myself to the point that it might kill me one day.

Patience could be something I got due to my willingness to endure pain. I think I've proven multiple times that I'm willing to just shut my mouth and endure whatever the tutorial or monsters throw at me.

As for Greed, that one is obvious: my greed...

Chapter 176 - System Shop

As always, there are no explanations. Just a few sub-classes offered by the system.

This will take a bit more thinking. I already have an idea of how the system works at places, so it should be better than before. Plus, I have some information from Lissandra. I also have told others to wait with their subclasses for a bit. I can tell them bits of what I learned.

But, I bet there are already some impatient people who have already picked their subclass.

Anyway, sub-classes are...

Chapter 175 - Sub-classes

Lissandra then pauses and closes her eyes again, taking in a deep, slow breath; the smile on her face increases.

I don't feel any mana from her, none at all. It's as if her heart isn't beating and creating it. Yet the danger I feel from her is extreme. My instincts, my senses, all of them warn me and scream at me to run. The woman in front of me is much more dangerous than the people we just dealt with.

"Lissthanie?" I throw at her, testingly.

She shakes her head, "I'm sorry...

Chapter 174 - Revival

"What have you done?" For the first time, the king's voice bears emotion in it. "How do you have that mana!" he screams. "You shouldn't be able to!"

The small black orb in the palm of my hand doesn't let out any sound; instead, it's as if it's devouring all the sound around, and unnatural silence ensues. The orb flickers and I notice the colors in a small area around it become dimmer, then brighter, and even changing the lights.

Then it threatens to explode, so I force my...

Chapter 173 - Unshackled

POV Kim Min-Jae

Nylian and Aias immediately disappear in a blast of golden flames that engulf them immediately. The flames explode toward where Nat is pointing, right toward the trio of warriors sitting to his right.

Golden flames devour everything in their path. A huge part of the room is gone—walls, ceiling, furniture. The door we entered through. All melted from existence, and the remaining uneven edges where the flames struck still glow red-hot.

Even t...

Chapter 172 - The last king

The third and last warrior is a woman called Nylian. A tall redhead with a sharp look in her eyes. She also wears similar armor to the other two but it's bracketed on her left arm that is connected to somewhere in the middle of the tower.

In silence, we walk through the hallway, our steps echoing around the hall. Walls on each side are painted with beautiful sceneries of mountains, forests, or lakes, and are lit by lights at the ceiling that have a shine that lights the hallway in a lig...

Chapter 171 - The Tower

“So I do it like this,” Lily lifts up her hand, and in the shine of white light, her pinkie disappears. At the same moment, I feel mana in her body rise up, even if only slightly.

I'm not jealous at all, not even a little bit. What she did now is [Sacrifice] her finger to raise her mana a little bit. Her skill allows her to do that and probably more. She can regrow the sacrificed finger, and it will cost her more mana than she gained from it, but the main advantage ...

Chapter 170 - Camaraderie

Yeah, Edwal is bonkers. Gone, not that well. He said adios to his sanity and jumped over the cliff. He locked it and threw the key away. No matter how much he tries to cling to what I guess is life from before the Decay, he is not normal.

I don't know if it's caused by the Decay or by thousands of years of life, and to be honest, I do not care that much. He is someone that we will need to deal with.

I spent an hour running around the inner city. I practiced my poor man's ...

Chapter 169 - Bag of silver color

"Nat, I think I might have fallen for Tess," Kim says.

What the heck? Why are you throwing such a bomb at me out of nowhere?

As if knowing what I'm thinking, the boy continues, "I can't tell it to Aaron or Dennis. They would surely tell her, and I don't know how I would survive that. But you, I know, will keep it to yourself."

Oh boy, should I ruin it for him? I might not tell it to Tess, but she is smart when it comes to this kind of stuff. I'm absolutely sure she has alrea...

Chapter 168 - Delicious food

I spend ten minutes going through the cabinets and the box powered by a mana stone that freezes the food inside it. Then there is another one that only keeps it cool, similar to a fridge.

All the food, all the ingredients, all the drinks, everything is perfect and fresh.

While throwing some meat at Biscuit, I examine the fridge and the mana stone imbued in it, along with the mana circuits going through the entire box.

When I'm done, I start eating all the food I collected an...

Chapter 167 - Thousands of years

Lily and Tess leave, and I immediately take what seems like a super comfy giant armchair in the corner of the room with a nice view through the window that covers nearly the entire wall, offering a view of the garden outside.

Then I gesture to Biscuit, and with one bark, he starts running toward me, using two mana arms to jump himself up to me into the armchair.

For that, I get a rude look from Isabella, who tried to lure Biscuit closer to her so she could hug him and keep him clo...

Chapter 166 - Civilized

Okay, let's not send mana towards the man. Seeing question marks, he should be in the level range between 150 and 300. Sentient being with high stats and plenty of levels in skills.

Something much more dangerous than a beast with mostly limited intelligence.

While Tess and Hadwin talk to the man, I continue to observe him with my eyes only and also examine the city behind him.

It's beautiful, yet I see no movement down there. Parks are empty, there is no one on the street. N...

Chapter 165 - Warrior of the last king

A quiet laugh sounds from the brooch. "So, you've realized it," she says.

I stay quiet.

"Won't you change your mind? I could be a valuable help if I get back my body, even if I still won't have my mana. I believe I would be able to restore even my heart, given enough time."

The offer she gives me sounds tempting, but I don't have to think about it.

"No," my answer is short and final. I then throw the uncommon mana stone Sophie found, and I took it from her, "You can pu...

Chapter 164 - Time to say goodbye

So, that's it. The fourth construct is something I would consider a huge success. The mantle takes around ten percent of my mana, which continues to change through the mana pathways that cover the entirety of my body.

I can turn it off or on when needed, but I decide to have it permanently running in the background.

Then there's the Reinforcement construct that takes thirty percent of my mana. The two constructs combined take quite a nice chunk of my mana, but the effect ...

Chapter 163 - 4th construct

"You can't hurt Soph!"

"I'm not going to hurt her."

"Lies, you really want to punch her every time you see her." The little girl squeaks at me while looking like an angry kitten.

Damn, Izzy, you are getting better and better at reading me. The problem is that your skill works with so little mana it's hard to block it. To be honest, it's quite fascinating.

"Do you need something from me?" Sophie says from behind little Isabella, who covers her older sister with her smal...