Chapter 398 - Heading inside (Patreon)

At one-third of the way to the top of the pyramid, I make Myrra stop. Then, while keeping my mana in check, I send my senses further from the Veil Ignition Station.

As I thought, the temperature there is dropping rapidly. It’s not because of the weather; no, the pyramid is absorbing it all at a scary rate and from a huge area. All that heat is absorbed by the metal and sent somewhere inside, part of it radiating from the surface.

The drop in temperature is so huge I’m sure I would die out there without my thermal energy. Not only because of my stats. No, I’m sure even someone like Myrra would be in big trouble. Especially seeing how effectively and hungrily the heat is sucked from the area.

Myrra notices it as well. She herself likes to use ice and fire attacks, so I’m sure she can sense that much.

“So the Ignition Station is partially working,” she notes.

"Seems like it."

What surprises me is that we see a group of around 100 people at the bottom of the pyramid putting on something like a space suit with plenty of mana stones connected to them. From up here, I can’t examine what they serve for, but my guess is it’s something for survival in the extreme temperature outside.

These weirdos are planning to head out.

Plenty of them have big baskets, and others are pulling even bigger ones, connected to ropes.

Both Myrra and I take a break and examine these people. After a few minutes of preparation, they head away from the pyramid into the dark. They walk quickly, and when they get a bit further, they take out some tools and start scraping frost from the metallic surface that surrounds the pyramid.

They start throwing that frost inside the baskets, and when the place is cleared, they move further.

Are they by chance collecting it to use it as water?

When I look around, I notice there are more groups like that, all around the pyramid, each with at least a hundred people who work quickly.

Once in a while, one of them starts panicking, touching the suit he is wearing. It seems like some sort of damage. Maybe a broken mana stone, damaged suit, anything.

Then it takes just a few seconds for that man or woman to die, the body ignored by the others. Surely left behind to be collected the next day, even if it’s just for the suit that could be repaired or for the items that person could have.

“They don’t drink the water from the area, and there isn’t any source in the pyramid, so this is their way to get some.” Out of nowhere, Lissandra is there, also looking down at these groups of people.

“Don’t they have people with skills that could help with that?” Myrra asks. It’s a naive question.

“Such people are most likely grabbed by the more powerful groups and used to control more people,” I explain.

“All childish games,” Lissandra sends her senses towards me and Myrra and then nods. “We will be splitting. Pup, you will head into the pyramid. Kitten, you will go to the top. Do whatever you want, and in 24 hours we will meet at this place.”

For a moment, it almost looks like a time off. The time I would, of course, use to train. But Lissandra doesn’t disappoint as she turns to me and grabs the bits of mana my body is leaking.

Out of that mana, she forms a small orb and makes it float over my shoulder, “Keep that orb from breaking down for the next 24 hours. If you use too much mana, it will burst. If you use too little, it will disappear. The amount required to maintain it will keep changing.”

Of course, it will keep changing. I don’t even answer her and already turn my attention to the orb. Right away, the orb almost bursts, and then while I lower my mana, it almost disappears as the requirements change.

A few seconds later, they change again, and then a minute later again. There is no rhythm or consistency; the times for change are extremely random. Sometimes half a second later, sometimes a minute later. Even then, it’s not as simple as the amount of mana needed changes constantly by just a bit.

What an evil thing. How do I create it as well?

At least Lissandra did have a tiny bit of common sense, and the inscriptions on my body weakened a bit, not disrupting my mana that much. Of course, they are not entirely turned off. The amount is perfectly calculated to make me barely have the capability to do anything else.

Myrra also gets a similar task, and then both women disappear their way, leaving me on my own as I try to grasp the orb and stop it from bursting open. It takes ten minutes before I’m used to it to the point I can use kinetic energy to force my body to move.

For a moment, I almost feel like just sitting down and laughing. I need to use kinetic energy to move, I need to take care of the orb, and I need to take care of my mana which is constantly disrupted.

What amuses me is that I’m not even that angry. I feel amused by the sheer craziness of my situation while I can barely walk like a drunkard.

I could probably use my domain or crown to make it easier, but that would ruin the point of this training. So I just continue like that.

In this state, I walk through the platform, step, whatever it is, and head towards the skeletal remains of the snake. It takes me a while, and as I get there, I’m already more used to it.

Of course, five men stop me just as I get to the broken parts of the pyramid and the huge bones.

They stare at me, I stare at them. No one says anything until the man with a level of around 200 smirks, his eyes shining a bit, most likely a trait.

All five of them attack me at once, their similar lightning-like attack working together, connected through the man with the highest level.

Not knowing what would happen to the orb Lissandra left to me if I used [Tether], I use [Resonance], and the attack dissolves into nothing just as it’s about to reach me.

I boost my body closer to them with the external use of kinetic energy, and the air resonates, letting out a high pitch as I get within effective reach.

Two men die immediately, their heads exploding as their defenses are terrible.

The third one shoots a lightning burst-like attack at me that I block with the barrier. I immediately reform it into a spike that pierces through his heart, destroying the shield he creates.

The fourth one starts running, my mana projectile piercing his knee and then the back of his neck.

The leader, with lightning surrounding his body, charges at me, short bursts of lightning shooting towards me in quick succession.

Just for a moment, my eyes activate, and then I disrupt his armor, and he staggers, surprised by the fact. Even so, he lifts his arms to protect his head, and the armor reactivates again. But not in time.

A spear made of mana pierces his chest, and when the wound starts healing thanks to some self-regeneration skill, I change the spear’s shape, tearing his chest from the inside.

When he falls down dead, I take some time to calm my mana and the orb that changes frequencies multiple times in three seconds. Then, moving my body with kinetic energy, I kneel down in front of the man and send my senses towards his eyes, examining that trait of his.

Similarly to mine, there are some inscriptions, but most of them are too detailed to get something out of them. They are a bit different from when using them for weapons.

I have noticed it long ago that the traits tend to be like that. I’m sure there are even more things made by the system to make it much more difficult to obtain a trait just like that. It’s partially possible like Min-Jae got his left eye or as my minion got an eye of Duplicaniel, but even then, the traits are weakened in comparison to the original.

It would be nice if in the future I could steal traits in a similar way, but if it was that simple, everyone would be doing it. There must be some sort of trick the system does.

So, taking my time, I even pull out one of the eyes and check the connections and nerves, and at some point, I cleanly cut it in half, examining it visually from the inside.

There are a thing or two I notice but nothing too interesting. The trait also seems to be much weaker than my eyes, so in the end, I just give up and let go.

When I clean my hands on the man’s clothes and stand up, I quickly check the pockets of the men.

I take a few small mana stones, some pieces of metal and bone I fail to identify, and then continue on my way towards the skeletal remains.

***

What I find on the other side of the pyramid are not only skeletal remains but also bits of flesh. It wasn’t visible from a distance, but there is some still remaining on it. What is also interesting is that the bones suck in the heat from the pyramid that then flows through them.

After ten minutes of watching people work, I also determine that that’s also what allows all these people to carve out the flesh and scrape the parts of the bones, getting something like bony dust out of them.

It seems like they also waited for the night as I didn’t see them during the day. They wait for the pyramid to absorb heat, some of that heat is taken to the bones and gets warm, at some places boiling hot. That in exchange allows them to be able to scrape the bones of a very high-level being and separate tiny pieces of its flesh.

It’s most likely something generations of these people have been doing.

So fascinating, so exciting. So fun.

Generations of people over a hundred or so years. Thousands of people eating the flesh of the same monster. Trying to come up with ways to use the bones and other parts. Coming up with ways to get more out of it.

It’s something I would never see if I was on Earth. Something I would never even think of. Yet here it is, thousands of people crawling over that humongous corpse just to get scraps off it.

I could watch it for hours, but I have to remind myself what I’m here for.

Before entering the pyramid through the hole in the side, I take out my voidsteel blade and use [Resonance] to make it even sharper. Then I carve out a few pieces of bone I put away.

Lily can check it for me later. Our progress to make my bones stronger and maybe even more mana conductive is going well.

Now that I think about it, it might be weird for me to keep giving pieces of bones, human as well, to a teenage girl, but I’m sure she doesn’t mind.

A few people shout at me and even throw some attacks my way, but I ignore them mostly, only blocking the ones about to hit. Then I slide through the hole in the wall inside the pyramid.

The hallway I enter has an extremely smooth surface, and there are no inscriptions on the sides at all. There are not even any lights. More than a hallway, it looks like a vent to channel heat through. I even have to lower my head a bit as I enter inside.

In front of me, I create a single thermal orb that lets out soft yellow light.

Once again, I pause to concentrate on the mana orb that changes its parameters multiple times, each in a very annoying way.

When it calms down slightly, I enter deeper, feeling the warmth from the walls now even more than before. Soon enough, I might even be forced to fight against that heat; it’s getting warmer that quickly.

It takes me five minutes, but from the tunnel I’m passing by, I enter a much bigger one, and I increase the size of the orb.

The light falls upon the smooth surfaces of the tunnel. It’s hot here and very quiet. Only the orb is lighting up the area, the pyramid otherwise devoid of any other source of light. As always when I explore places like this, I feel my excitement increase, something additionally enhanced by the fact I’m alone.

It was a long time since I was truly like that. Minion, Duplicaniel, then the tournament with so many people around. After that, Lissandra and Myrra. I think I have endured it nicely, and if needed, I’m capable of dealing with it.

But now, I'm on my own while exploring this place that once served to channel traits and skills of the Champion, I feel happy.

Yes, I think happy is the correct word to use.

Heading deeper inside the pyramid, I ignore the fact that no one from the natives tried to follow me in or stop me.

***

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