Chapter 382 - Chronicle of the Past (Patreon)

“Hey,” Tess moves closer to me.

“What is it this time?”

She laughs shortly, amused by my reaction, “I wanted to confirm something. Lily seems disappointed with you about that thing with Tacita, but I wonder if it's really it.”

“What do you mean? I’m an asshole. It's simple.”

“Really? Why then was your first reaction to grab Lily and teleport to Tacita to help her? I saw it, I have good eyes. I also sensed you preparing your teleport.”

“You must have seen wrong.”

“Did I?”

“Yup, it was all Lily’s idea.”

“Are you worried Tacita might become attached to you?”

“Are you crazy, Tess? That girl is bonkers. She isn’t attaching to anyone.”

“You are lying. But I wonder why. Would that be too annoying to you? Are you scared of having someone like her attached to you? Maybe you just like to look like an ass so people will leave you alone.”

“Totally. Anyway, did you see the last event? What do you think?”

Tess looks at me for a bit and then lets go of the previous subject, “I will be challenging The First One. Lily will probably go against The Fallen Hero. Sophie is also going to pick The First One for obvious reasons. The rest still isn’t that sure. Did you already decide?”

“Yes, but I also got a few ideas. Could you get Channeler and a few people from Easy difficulty? I will give them some items if they use their challenge the way I want.”

“That sounds intriguing. I will call him. And don’t forget to give some items to Channeler, he was helpful most of the time.”

Who does she think I am? I’m already preparing some nice stuff for my future PR guy. Enough stuff to make him the most powerful Easy difficulty attendee.

***

I spend half a day training with Lily, trying to beat some sense into her and improve her efficiency. She tends to use too much mana and needs to invest more into it as her duel against Tess showed.

Using a lot of her stats for constitution is nice as it means better body parts to [Sacrifice], but even that requires a bit of her mana. She also spends a lot of mana regenerating her body, which now costs more because of higher constitution.

The perfect version would be her getting hurt only rarely and getting advantages of her tough body through [Sacrifice], but Lily likes to cosplay a bulldozer during fights.

In the future, the power of constitution and some additional traits could make her much tougher to the point where it is more viable, but that will take a while.

Then I spend a bit of time with Izzy, showing her better ways to use her flames. Sophie helped her a lot with that, and Izzy herself is pretty good, so it's just a nudge towards a different direction.

As always, I also remind Maya to not be a scaredy-cat and level her [Focus] more.

So far, no one from Hell difficulty used their challenge right for the 5th event. We have people monitoring the common area where it’s set up once again, with multiple screens all over so people can watch them challenge.

Some people from Hard challenge powerful monsters they met on previous floors and couldn’t defeat. Others challenge humans they want to learn something from, stretching fights as long as possible.

Challenging to learn is the way to go, I think. Yes, some want to overcome their trauma and near-death experience, but that’s not for me. My challenge is already decided, and I will do it closer to the end. Not like it is that far, just a few more hours.

When people from Hell difficulty start challenging, I teleport to the common area.

It’s a bad day for ants as I watch both Sophie and Tess obliterate the First One.

Something nearly snaps in me as I see that black ant again, standing there as if alive even while seeming like an empty husk.

Tess is usually quiet about this kind of stuff, but I think The First One was something she sees as her big failure. Even though she doesn’t talk about it or show it to others, I’m sure it bothers her a lot.

As I watch her fight that ant, I think I can understand that partially. Even though it won’t be a satisfying revenge and it won’t change anything, it will be a step ahead. She might need this more than anything else she could have gained.

Her fight isn’t even that difficult. Without the support of his [Hive Mind], the First One is weaker, and the now much stronger Tess defeats the black ant.

When she gets out, Maya makes sure the others leave her alone, and Tess sits to the side of the roof near us. There is a solemn mood around her as she clears the things in her head.

Sophie also gets in and it’s even worse for the First One´s Avatar. He just freezes on the spot as his skill and Sophie´s [Manipulation] clash. He stays like that for the rest of the challenge. Sophie just holds him there, tearing as much knowledge as she can from his usage of [Hive Mind] he tries to use to counter her skill.

Where Sophie back then failed, she now succeeds, and the entire time holds him. But I don’t think she feels as satisfied as she would have hoped. The First One is an Avatar and without his Colony is just a weaker version of himself. That’s something I can say even while hating the ant. He was truly formidable back then.

The Challenges continue, and at some point, Savant appears there as well. He says the name and appears inside, facing a young-looking man. The ten-second countdown starts, and Savant starts his preparations to face him.

“Champion Tristan, he said,” Sophie, who is back on the roof, mumbles.

That makes me check the man again.

Tristan has a young, friendly looking face. He is slim, and his blonde curly hair makes a contrast to his mostly simple black clothes with a few golden ornaments. His eyes are sharp and have a slight orange hue to them. He looks very dignified even being an Avatar he is now.

Back on the 2nd floor, I heard multiple people say that Champion Tristan is the being closest to the title of the Absolute from the entire Eladore. Even closer than Champion Keiron or the mind mage emperor. And that man took Savant as his disciple for some reason, even declaring him a candidate.

Now they face each other, Savant radiating as much mana as he can, focusing it all on defense. To stay alive for as long as possible and learn from the man who took him in.

When the countdown stops, the duel doesn’t even take a second. Tristan barely moves, and Savant dies.

Appearing outside, Savant doesn’t seem to be dissatisfied, and I see the calculations going behind his cowardly eyes. Maybe he came up with better ways to forfeit duels that just started. Maybe he learned to say the word “Forfeit” much faster.

Maybe… I shake my head and sigh. Damn, this will be annoying me for a while.

Biscuit’s challenge is the huge deer with white glowing antlers. The deer is extremely majestic, each step he takes makes him look like a being from a fable. Like a kind of spirit our ancestors would have worshipped as their god in ancient times.

The deer dies nearly immediately in a single hit that makes sure not to damage the body that much. Before Biscuit gets teleported out, tentacles surround the deer as he tries to take him out with him.

Appearing outside without his prey, Biscuit seems extremely confused and disappointed.

(Food!) he shouts.

His head moves from side to side, and he even tries digging with his front paws into the rooftop and sniffing.

(Gone!) there is a lot of pain in his voice.

I pick him up, and while he keeps complaining over and over again, I feed him pieces of my decreasing reserves of deer jerky.

“Hang in there, buddy,” I try to comfort him.

I think Biscuit was a 2-year-old corgi when he got into the tutorial together with us. On the 1st floor, he “awakened” for lack of a better term. He still could be considered a kid, child, even younger than my minion or Izzy.

However, I find his naivety extremely endearing. His attempt to pay for stolen friend meat with pieces of glass he thought were similar to mana stones they used as currency. Packing up pieces of meat into wrappers of candy, thinking it might make us happier because he saw how much we enjoyed them. And more.

His worldview is simple, and even most of his abilities were gained just to get more food. Tentacles to reach places where we had hidden food from him, telepathy so he could ask for more food.

“You are one cute little thing, aren’t you?” I whisper, making sure no one hears, and boop his nose a few times.

(Gone!)

“We will get you some later, don’t worry. And where did you see that deer? Did you face a monster like that on the 5th floor?”

(Food!) He confirms.

Notified by Sophie, I look at the screen where Min-Jae faces monsters I haven’t seen yet. It's bipedal with human-like features and four arms. Its skin looks like it is made of metal. Maybe something Min-Jae met on the 5th floor?

Soon the reason for this challenge becomes obvious as the monster seems to possess a skill similar to [Telekinesis].

Min-Jae, like people before him, uses this to observe the monster and try to learn as much as he can. There also seems to be a hint of worry and hate towards the monster. Maybe it caused him trouble before.

In the end, the boy wins. It's still not fully satisfying, but his fighting feels just a little bit less tense. At the end of his challenge, he even seems to enjoy it.

The twins go one after another, both of them summoning the same monster. A small blue one with a huge head and a thin body who keeps creating illusions. That monster seems to be much stronger than they are able to handle, and after a while, they both lose. Even so, I can see their excitement as they exchange their wordless conversation.

The another one from our group is Maya, and she faces a female lynthari I don’t know. The warrior is wearing simple armor and has a longsword with her.

“It’s Maya’s teacher from the 4th floor. One of the best sword masters of Virelia. The lynthari liked Maya and accepted when Maya asked her to teach her. She agreed and In exchange, Maya had to accompany her when she went to the city and shout vulgar stuff at people who tried to talk to her teacher,” Tess explains to me with a giggle.

“Typical lynthari.”

“I know, right? Still, Maya liked her a lot and learned a lot. She didn’t have time to say goodbye, and I think she wanted to see her one more time. Maybe even learn a thing or two or see how much stronger she has become.”

On the screen, it looks like Tess said. Maya is getting pushed back by an extremely skilled lynthari. In her moves, I recognize some Maya likes to use. The lynthari also likes to quickly switch between weapons she creates from mana. She uses a shield she switches into a spear, immediately after a dagger, and then back to a sword.

That style is extremely confusing and very versatile. It requires a lot from its user, but the result is worth it.

Maya holds back and focuses on her technique instead of exploiting her probably now higher level than that of her teacher's. Because of that, she loses, but she doesn’t seem sad at all. Instead, she is smiling proudly, most likely satisfied with her own growth.

“Can you connect me to Channeler?” I ask Dennis, and with a nod he does so.

(You guys can do it, I will pay as promised if it works.) I send thought the connection.

(Sure thing! The guys are excited!)

Then I watch as down below, one man separates from his group and heads towards one of the screens. I’m too far off to hear what he said, but I know the words. They are the words I told them to say.

“I want to challenge the winner of the 1st round of Earth's tutorial's 1st tournament.”

The man then disappears, teleported inside the arena to face his challenge.

The Chronicle of the Past, this is how this event is called.

***

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