Chapter 327 - I'm back (Patreon)

I observe as all of the inscriptions inside Vega's eye disappear one after another. All the work the duplicate put into it is gone, and his [Tether] as well.

Surprisingly, his eye stays. For a moment, a golden circle appears around her pupil before it disappears, leaving her eye bloody red again. Yet, I can sense that it's the eye of the duplicate, the one with a weakened trait.

The little half-demon senses the change as well, and for a moment, it looks like she's going to cry, but she holds it back and just comes to sit beside me. Without asking, she leans against me, and I put my arm around her.

“He asked me not to cry in case he fails,” she says quietly.

“Did he?”

“Yes. He told me to become strong and kick your ass sometime in the future.”

“That sounds like him. Do you feel like crying?” I ask her.

She nods, “But I promised I would not. He would want that.”

“Bullshit,” I say, and she looks up to me. I continue, “I know for sure that he would be happy knowing someone cried for him.”

I put my hand on her head and caress it.

When she burrows her head into my chest and her body starts shaking, I continue to hold her.

***

An hour remains until the end of the floor when my minion asks, “Master, you still owe me for losing the bet against me.”

“Yes, I do. What would you like?”

“I want to know why you named me Vega. You said there is a meaning to it.”

“Who is Vega? I know only minion.”

To that, she smiles but only slightly, her mood still not back to her usual self. She pokes me, looking up at me with her big eyes.

“There are tens of constellations in the night sky where I'm from, and one of them is the northern constellation of Lyra. It's one of the smaller ones. In it, there is a single brightest star called Vega.” I grab her horn, but do not shake her head; I just let its pointy part poke the tip of my finger.

“The tutorial is a small place in the end, one of the many. The same as there are tens of constellations, there are plenty of tutorials. But inside of this small place akin to a small piece of the sky, I found you,” I say, a bit embarrassed.

In my head, it never sounded so… cheesy. I still didn’t change my mind. To me, Vega shines brightly with her curious and cheery personality, even though she has plenty of flaws. But saying it out loud just doesn’t feel like me.

“I hope you are happy because I won’t repeat it, minion.” I show my dominance over my disciple to feel manly again.

In answer, she doesn't make fun of me; she just smiles a bit more.

The remaining hours of this floor pass just like that. My silly disciple holding onto me, and I can feel the warmth of her small body against mine. Her heart is beating strongly. I hold her hand, and on her forearm, I paint simple inscriptions that are single-time use, something to help her create stronger weapons made of mana.

This time I also give her a few more things, but nothing over the rare grade. Epic items seem to be valuable even though I tend to get them so easily. Over this floor and visiting the Hard difficulty community, I have learned that barely anyone out of them has an epic graded item.

Giving one to under level 40 Vega could bring too much attention to her. I also think it's better if she grows up without relying on items. She also already has a weakened version of my trait that will gradually awaken as she grows stronger. Hopefully.

I listen as she talks to me about her plans, how she is slightly scared at the fact that she will have to rely on herself again. She tells me how much she will miss me and forces me for the tenth time to say that I will find her when I get out of the tutorial.

Lastly, I give her a small piece of weird metal that reacts weirdly to kinetic energy. It's something I got from the auction on the 4th floor, and now it feels like so long ago.

Vega has decided to rely mainly on her kinetic energy, so she might have better use for it. It will also force her to continuously examine it and search for people who could know something about it.

It's akin to me giving her a quest since she seems to be lost at the moment.

Finally, I notice that she glances at something I can't see, and I know the portal to her world is there.

As I stand up, she lets go of me somewhat unwillingly and quickly collects a few things she is taking with her.

“Will you miss me, master?”

“I will.”

“You really will?”

“Yes.”

A few short steps and she hugs me again, “I think you aren't such an asshole you like to say you are. Master is really kind, but also really hurt,” the last words she nearly whispers.

Looking up at me with her red eyes glowing, she gestures to me to lean lower and when I do so, she gives me a quick peck on my cheek.

“When we meet next time, I will be calling you Vega only. So try to stay alive until then, okay?” I call to her as she takes steps towards the portal.

She gives me one last short glance, “I always liked it when master called me minion.” One last cheeky smile, and then she disappears.

Congratulations! You've successfully completed the 5th floor's main quest in the fifth round of the tutorial for Hell difficulty. An entrance to the 6th floor has been created.

I place an anchor near the portal to the 6th floor and extend my [Mana Domain], placing another outside where I teleport.

Right away, I sense strong mana radiation everywhere, and the Veil seems to be burning in the sky with veil monsters all over the place. Killing the ones that get to me, I lift off and head towards the Valley.

Then, sensing a mana signature in the air, I change direction and head towards one of the cliffs with a nice view nearby. There, up top, I find what remains of my duplicate.

Inside of his body near the chest, I detect a hint of his mana. Pushing my emotions away, I take a tiny mana stone out of there.

When I send my senses towards it, it's something akin to simple notes. A few sentences my duplicate was inscribing there up until the last moment.

Intent is bigger fucker than thought. Never trust. Wanted to kill Vega. Liar.

Ruler of Greed helped. Saved Vega. Payback?

Black mana scarier than thought.

I could kill you back then. I was stronger.

Apologize to mom. Hug Victoria for me. Be nicer to others. Fucking call them friends, at least in your head. Boop Biscuit´s nose.

Remember me once in a while.

Thermal energy flows from inside of me, and golden flames slowly envelop him, burning off what remains.

Then I destroy the small mana stone after making sure I remember every single word.

Flying once again towards Mana Valley, I sense a black mana orb nearby. It's much stronger and filled with much more mana than even before. It continuously devours any mana that comes by, and it might be only me, but it feels like it slowly, very very slowly, starts pulling onto ambient mana. I don't even have to think about what causes it to be like that. Only a core of the ignition station would be enough.

Finally, in the Valley, or what used to be it, I find a giant crater. Its immense size and the damaged area are hard to comprehend.

Whatever my duplicate did, the explosion of the core and Gaiathra combined caused all of this. For a moment, I imagine the consequences on Earth if people capable of something like this arrived with some preparation.

Otherwise, there doesn't seem to be anything too useful. Bones of Gaiathra are scattered everywhere, but since I already have a Champion's bone, these don't appeal to me at all.

So, I head back, and when I teleport back inside the hiding place, I collect everything I have wanted. Then, I accept the reward for one of the previous quests, and a lot of food and water appear in front of me, which I also take.

With all these items, I pass through the entrance without any more hesitation.

Congratulations! You have cleared the 5th floor of the Hell difficulty tutorial. Welcome to the 6th floor: Astral Prison.

You have acquired:

Skill combination token

Skill upgrade token

5000 Shards

100 stat points

Trait strengthening token

I invest 100 stat points into mana and check my status

Name: Nathaniel Gwyn
Difficulty: Hell
Floor: 6 - Astral Prison
Time left until forced return: 4y 0d 13h 22m 51s
Traits (2/3): Mana Circuit 1/3, Mana Wavelength Iris 0/3

Lvl 237
Strength: 113
Dexterity: 110
Constitution: 268
Mana (Stage 1/3 - Vast Mana): 1015 + 1015

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

Active skills:
Focus - Lvl 48
Mana Manipulation - Lvl 47
Perception - Lvl 43
Redistribution - Lvl 45
Resonance - Lvl 45
Mana Domain - Lvl 36
Tether - Lvl 35
Regalia - Lvl 23
Infusion - Lvl 28

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

Passive skills:
Mana Reservoir (epic)
Arcane Resilience (epic)
Phoenix Embrace (epic)
Mana Overload Absorption (epic)
Cognitive Fortress (epic)

Titan's Backbone (epic) 1/3

Tokens:
Beyond Difficulty entrance token

Shards: 59,725

Well, it seems like the system rewarded me with a skill combination token for that Floor´s main quest, the reward that used to be ???.

“I want to sell skill upgrade token.”

Do you really want to sell the following item for 5000 shards?

Skill upgrade token

Yes/No

I confirm and my shards increase to 64,725.

It's a nice thing to have, for sure.

Then I take a better look at the place I'm on, the floor called Astral Prison.

It's dark, only the surprisingly bright stars lighting the place. It is totally barren. There are no trees, no vegetation, no signs of water. Just dark, rocky terrain with a lot of pointy mountains all over the place. In comparison to the post-apocalyptic world overgrown by vibrant vegetation, this place feels nearly depressing.

Noname (Hell, group 4) - I'm here.

Sset (Hell, group 4) - That's good. I will have Izzy shoot bright orbs every few minutes. Try to track us. Other than the twins, we are all here.

Noname (Hell, group 4) - Will do so.

I close the community and check the floor quest.

Floor quest:

Escape Astral Prison

Rewards:

???

Epic-grade passive skill

5000 Shards

Increased daily Community limit

Communication with your disciple for 10 minutes

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

The floor quest is once again something I would not expect at all and rewards also. It seems like the system is slowly limiting the amount of shards as a reward. It's either that or the last two ones are expensive. There are no more stat increases anymore and once again there is a question mark reward.

Is it so the system can make them more personalized? That could be it. But in the mood I'm in right now the last two rewards interest me the most. Fuck, the end of the floors always leaves me like that.

I sit down on the rocky ground and sigh, looking at the starry sky. Even this barren area has some beauty to it, and never in my life have I seen such big stars and so clearly. On one part of the sky, I can even see a purple nebula-like thing. This night sky is beautiful.

“Use trait strengthening token on Mana Circuit,” I say, and the pain that follows allows me to take my mind off useless stuff. Filled with this burning sensation, I stare at the night sky.

I could have strengthened my Mana Wavelength Iris, but I haven't even mastered them properly yet, and strengthening them could be a bad idea and delete all the effort I made to be able to use them partially. There is also hope that a strengthened Mana Circuit will help me with my other trait and ever-increasing Mana. Just so I can continue ignoring constitution.

Who would worry about attribute imbalance at this point? For sure not me, that's for future Nathaniel to deal with.

Still, with my body burning, I push myself up to my feet and then in the air, looking for Isabella's orbs. There are no monsters, no wind, and no signs of civilization as far as I can see. Only the air feels chilly, surprisingly chilly.

Sending thermal energy through my body, I stay at a single spot turning around for a few minutes, and then change my position multiple times. I move in a spiral, slowly getting further from the place where I appeared in, looking for that signal.

When I finally notice it, I start heading there, pulling all the items with me. It's not as much as when I entered the 5th floor, but it's a few quite big bags.

Getting closer, I trigger a web of extremely delicate mana and it sends a signal somewhere. That trigger also makes a swarm of some mana creations fly toward me in a threatening manner. Small orbs with inscriptions in them and bearing a connection to their owner.

Well, it seems like Sophie did learn a thing or two.

Getting lower, I finally spot group 4, all of them sitting in a circle around a bright blue flame orb creating soft blue light and heat for them.

Tess is standing already, a long spear in her hand and a smile on her face. I'm sure she saw me even before the others could. Her blonde hair is shorter than before, but she somehow looks even more confident.

Min-Jae is also near her, looking around, searching for me. He seems… older now, it's hard to describe. He just straight-up looks more mature.

Maya, who stays sitting, yawns and says something to Sophie, who just shakes her head, but she is smiling. Both of the girls, even in this situation are ready for everything, but they trust others to keep watch.

Everyone seems to be happy, being together with people that also went through the same experience. Being able to share it all.

I feel Izzy trying to connect to me with her [Empathy] and I let her do so, curious what feelings she is getting out of me.

(Friend!) I hear from Biscuit and even through [Focus], I feel a smile climb onto my lips.

When I land, Lily reaches me with a few surprisingly quick steps and stops an arm's reach away from me. For a moment, I expect a slap or something similar, but instead, she stands there as if waiting for something.

I look at Tess for help, but she just stands there smiling at me, and near her, Izzy is wiping her eyes.

Back on the 1st floor, I thought more of myself and nearly ignored others, ready to throw them away. Yet, over and over again, some of them wanted to become friendly with me, even with my terrible personality.

I do not understand why; maybe they were trying to befriend someone stronger, maybe they are also a bit broken like me. Maybe they are just straight-up weird.

Why would you even try to befriend someone like me? I wouldn't do that. Yet somehow, we ended up like this, and I remember the words left behind by the duplicate.

For the first time in a long time, I have people I want to call friends, I guess.

“I'm back,” I say.

***

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