Chapter 345 - Why do you care? (Patreon)

For a moment I look at her and Maya seems to be serious. Tess probably wants to cement Group 4’s force in the minds of everyone here, no matter if from Beyond, Hell, or other difficulties.

Making sure the barrier around us is up, I note, “I would be showing my hand before the duels. Tacita, Savant, and Gareth would see plenty of my skills or other abilities.”

“Yes,” Maya agrees. “Tess also thinks so. She knew you would say that so she asked me to tell you: Why do you care if they see? You are on a higher floor than any of them so just fuck them up anyway.”

Those two sentences from Tess, delivered to me by Maya, make me shut up for a while, and as Maya says something, I filter it out.

Once again I did that. Sneaking, covering, and hiding my abilities to gain the upper hand. I worried my opponents might exploit them even though they were all on lower floors than me.

Yes, Tacita might counter me. Yes, Savant’s full abilities are still a mystery, but why should it stop me? I used to be more cocky and confident. 

It’s as if I placed them all on the same level as me. Even if it’s true, I shouldn't be thinking like that; I should be an arrogant piece of crap. My subclass is Pride, isn’t it?

“Okay,” I answer to Maya, “I’ll do it.”

Tess must have realized it as well, even during the 1st event where I was saving up my mana so much for the final confrontation. So now that silly blonde is poking towards where she thinks I want to be. 

She is really good at reading people, isn’t she? 

I activate my [Mana Crown], and when it appears over my head, I redirect all the mana I was collecting inside the orb into the crown. Storing it there is much more stable and puts less pressure on me.

Even then, the empty space inside the crown barely fills. What a scary mana battery kind of skill.

I make my Thermokinetic Mana Heart compress the mana it generates as much as it can and redirect the stream of generated mana into the crown. My body mana is full, and my reservoir is full too, so all newly generated mana will flow into the crown. In five hours, a nice amount of it should be generated.

Vortex Core is also full, compressed Primordial Energies swirling inside of it.

That is amusing enough. The Armorer said it on the 5th Floor. My body is extremely mana-conducive. Is is thanks to my Mana Circuit, my passives, and my constructs. It's almost as if I'm turning myself into a mana battery, the rest of the body serving to conduct and use that mana, even my second trait.

Just let's not end up as the Armorer's Lord who got used as a mana generator for the fallen Skyhold Bastion.

“I will do some preparations so see you later,” I gesture to Maya and, carefully put Biscuit on the ground.

The best doggo decides to do his own stuff and wobbles, following Maya away.

Tacita is observing me with her lively eyes, leaning against the tree, brown hair falling down her forehead. Her eyes flicker towards my crown a few times and thoughts flash behind.

As if she is imagining our confrontation in her mind. I can tell, I did the same so many times already.

“Do you think you could take me down?” I ask her.

She pauses for a moment, but only a short one. Tacita then smiles brightly, her eyes squinted into a dangerous gaze.

“I see.” There is no need for more words.

Even as I walk away, I start already preparing ideas on how to best use my mana here.

I like the idea of using ethercrystals they also mine here. With some good inscriptions, I could maybe turn the entire mine into a bomb. But the quest here is to defend the place and not to blow it up, unfortunately.

Or I could turn myself into a bomb, something inspired to what Lissandra did at the end of the second floor. The system would surely keep me alive.

The problem with that is that I don’t want a permanent construct like that, and I don’t know if the system would remove it. The progress I make on my body during the event will probably stay even after I leave it.

We have learned that it is impossible to level a skill during the event, but often they level up after the event ends, as if all of that experience is collected and applied in the common area.

There is also a fact that after I left the 1st event, my body was fully restored and my mana returned to the state from before the event, but would that happen to the constructs made during the event? Especially now when I have no [Restriction]?

Well, let’s not risk it and go with a single-use one; it will be a bit more difficult without mana conductive paint, but still manageable.

“Mind if I join you?” Lily nimbly rushes to me, leaving the others discussing behind.

Grumpy (Hell, 4th)

“If you won’t distract me too much, sure.”

“Are you saying I'm distracting you?” she shoves me playfully, a smile on her face.

I have a feeling of déjà vu. I'm sure she said that same sentence a long time ago, but this time it feels different. It feels more like a joke rather than her being pushy.

“Yes yes, by the way, do you want my left arm? You could use it for [Sacrifice] later. After you restore it, we can check how much it costs you and if you regenerate that mana before the attack starts to see if it’s worth it,” I offer her.

With her being restricted, my arm could give her an impressive boost. And who knows, maybe even this will count towards my points.

“Sure!” the petite healer answers without hesitation.

I might have offered it, but please at least pretend to be a bit shocked and hesitate. 

 ***

“Are inscriptions difficult?” Lily asks as both of us sit on the edge of the outermost wall, our feet hanging over the edge.

Down below us, a massive clearing opens up,  descending downhill. Despite the chilly air, the view of the surrounding mountains and valleys is breathtaking. It's that sort of rough untouched natural beauty.

All of it is so giant, so unreal. An alien feeling even. “Most of the time I just go by feel and by remembering where it didn't work before,” I answer her.

“But isn’t it boring?”

“Is your plastic surgery skill boring?”

“It’s not plastic surgery!” she pouts. “I did it to improve my fine control. But I think I know what you are getting at.”

“Simple as that. Do you like all of this, Lily?” I ask her curiously.

Even while engaging in conversation, I make sure to keep filling my crown with mana and continue to inscribe a thin layer of my skin with pathways. I do it in this way so I can just use [Resonance] to scratch a thin layer of my skin, and it will all disappear. Or even if I just focus my healing passive there.

“This event or overall?” Lily asks.

“Overall.”

“I love it, Nat.” Lily smiles and looks towards the giant mountains all around, swinging her dangling feet, “It doesn't matter how much it hurts or how sad it is at times, I wouldn’t change it.”

Curious, I observe her and give a bit more attention to our conversation, “What do you like so much about it?”

She opens her mouth to say something but quickly closes it.

Looking at me for a second, she smiles as if changing her mind about something, “I like that I’m not alone the most. I like that I’m not weak anymore and that I’m useful. I’m changing, Nat, I’m not how I used to be and it’s scary at times.”

Quietly waiting, I let her think and just listen.

“I’m not talking about the stats, skills, or traits. What I meant is that I’m not the same person I was on Earth and I think the old Lily would be scared of me. But at the same time, she would also be happy for me. I think I improved a lot thanks to everyone.”

“Probably mostly thanks to Biscuit.”

That makes her laugh out loud. “Yes, Biscuit did the most work. Seriously though, most of it is Tess, she is like my friend, leader, and mom all combined into one.”

“She does a lot. You guys should help her and show how grateful you are, at least once in a while. No matter how she acts, it’s difficult for her too.”

“Yes, I think Maya noticed it first. Sophie a bit later. They became really good friends with her. It's only me who is slow when it comes to this stuff.” Leaning back, she sighs. “I think I’ll have enough mana to restore your arm again and replenish it before the attack starts.”

I nod and, lowering my defenses, coat my hand in resonating mana and cut off my arm at the shoulder, putting it on the wall next to another one.

Lily touches me right after, her healing mana closing the wound and slowly regrowing my arm. She can do it faster, but she either does it slower to be as efficient with mana as possible or uses it as an opportunity to touch me longer. Either of these could be it.

I bet it’s the second option.

To break the silence, I challenge her, “Guess what my subclass is.”

“Pride.”

“Close enough, you can try…”

“Pride.”

Dang it.

“Nat, it’s quite obvious and I think most of the group knows. But I think it suits you. I know pride is often considered something bad, but yours feels nice. It is a confident pride in yourself. I'm often jealous of you. How easily you deal with some situations and things that would bother me for days.”

My arm is now regrown up to my elbow as Lily continues, “For example, the thing with Tent Creep, I know I would cringe for days, but you are already over…”

She stops as I pinch her nose and shake her head, a playful laugh escaping her lips.

“For the future Ruler of Lust, you are quite the comedian, Miss Lily.”

“One day I will have to beat up Aaron for coming up with that. But you can try to guess my subclass too. Do you think you can do it?”

“Wrath,” I answer to her surprise.

Seeing the expression she has, I guess I hit the spot.

“How?”

“I guessed what you would pick and back then. We talked and you told me you wanted to learn to control your skills. I did have two more guesses but this felt like the most obvious one and you just confirmed it.”

After a minute of silence, she asks quietly, “Was it the right decision?”

“It was a decision made by you, that’s all that matters. You just have to do your best to follow through.” I stand up and stretch. “We humans have to try hard to not get left behind by our future animal overlords. Biscuit and Noodle are here and ready to take over the moment we show weakness so do your best.”

“What?” she blinks a few times, confused.

Oh, I think I didn’t share that part of my theory with others. Well, I will do it in the future, slowly to not scare them off.

“I will explain it to you later. I want to go and place a few traps, but I will be back before the attack starts.”

“I will pass this to Tess… and to our future animal overlords,” she says carefully.

Sometimes people don't appreciate me as much as they should.

Waving at her, I jump over the edge and fly further away from the walls.

The traps will be simple. Plenty of anchors inscribed into mana stones to make them last longer and upkeep more of them than with my skill alone.

Obviously, I won't be using my materials and mana stones. I bet the natives have some nice stuff hidden somewhere.

Sharing is caring, isn’t it?

I can also set up extremely dense but hair-thin threads of mana all over the place; that would be nice too. Running into them can cut you apart without even realizing it, and the amount of mana is minuscule. I will have to test how long they can last and how strong I can make them.

A few more surprises after that too. Maybe some setup for an avalanche or something for Min-Jae so he can use his gravity skills and more.

There is also a question of whether I decide to use the traps I set up. I might just wait it out and join the fight near the end when everything seems lost. That could look cool; I bet Biscuit would be proud of me, and I could do something flashy.

Anyway, whoever attacks will be welcomed properly.

***

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