Chapter 425 - An Offer (Patreon)

As we pass through the area, I start having a strong suspicion Lily wasn't primarily hunting here but decided to lurk around in hopes of meeting me when I return. When I ask her, she doesn't even lie, just mentions that she expected me to return half dead.

I can't even refute that, to my slight annoyance.

After Beyond, where everyone seemed to be willing to betray their comrades just for an opportunity to betray somebody else harder, it feels somewhat nice. Even though I know she probably still has a crush on me, she doesn't push it as before. Current Lily just feels like a naive young girl looking for excuses to be around the person she likes.

I have already rejected her a few times, so I don't mention it again. I'm sure she will get over it soon enough.

Or hell, maybe she can stop being like that and, like a normal person, like me, push these kinds of stuff to the side. Maybe she really is a Lust subclass.

There is also my loot and other items I have stored in the holes in the ground before leaving for the Beyond. Mana stones, weapons, materials, weird leathers, pieces of bones of powerful monsters, alloys, mana stones with information, and more.

According to Tess, this floor will take a while, so I probably have at least a few months to experiment properly. I still have a mana stone with Restrictive Training Emblem from LissLiss.

Three mana shaping exercises.

Arcane items to examine.

Materials to try to smelt.

Quests I should start getting to earn Beyond Stay Tokens.

Things to learn about this floor.

An idea for my first own technique and so much more.

The grind never stops, indeed, and I wouldn't want it any other way. No matter how powerful I am currently, I'm still just a speck of nothing in the eyes of some people. Other Earth's rounds, other attendees in Beyond, then all these things waiting to happen after the tutorial.

Champion rank, Absolute rank, Ruler rank, and maybe something beyond that?

That reminds me, I need to find some Champion candidate and try to test that challenge thing.

“Lily, even one year after the start of the tutorial, we know shit all.”

She slows down her run to match mine and tilts her head, “We know a little bit.”

“Nah, we know nothing.”

“Why does it sound like you are happy?”

“Because I am. Group of five monsters to the right, the ones that pop from the ground.”

“Got it!” Lily changes the direction of her run and charges the monsters.

Before we regroup with others, we can try to level up a bit.

Stopping in place, I watch as she puts the bag with our stuff on the ground and charges them. Not even using her skills, just the pure strength of her body, she starts annihilating the monsters. It might be me, but it seems like she is using less mana than before. It all seems to be the result of her duel against Tess during the tutorial.

There, because of her impatience and inexperience, she got nearly toyed with and made to waste her terribly low mana reserves.

Currently, against leech-like monsters piercing through the ground, she just boosts her body with short bursts of mana she uses instead of [Sacrifice].

Grasping it a bit more will allow her to become more efficient in time and not waste [Sacrifice] just like that. There are probably a few more things to it, as I'm sure Tess and others cooperated to make nice training plans for each other.

“Sophie is still refusing to go to Beyond?” I ask as Lily returns.

She moves a lock of her hair off her face and looks at me, “Izzy keeps telling her to go, and I think Sophie will do it soon. She is probably just waiting for you to learn what waits after Trials. Learning it's just another place with Stay Tokens and that she can return to Izzy might finally make her go.”

“I think she would do well there.”

“Yes, her skill is scary but it will take her a few months to get through Beyond trials when she goes. Did you think of meeting Savant, Gareth, or Tacita there?”

To her question, I hesitate a bit.

Should I try to contact these three to meet in Beyond when they get there? Should I try to find people from Earth other than Victoria?

They could be probably more trustworthy than others, as most of the attendees seem to stick with others from their planet.

It makes sense that in such a new environment, the bad feelings they might have against each other get pushed away. In Beyond, it's us versus them, as the place seems to be too dangerous to just explore on your own.

“We will see later,” I answer, deciding to push the decision onto future Nathaniel.

***

It takes a day longer to reach the rest of Group 4. At this point, Lily's excuse of just hunting nearby is thoroughly destroyed. So she just stays quiet, and I decide to ignore it in exchange for her helping me carry my stuff.

We meet the others at the small outpost that apparently belonged to Black Tower, a smaller one, but better than the main one that is apparently too destroyed to fix quickly. It makes me wonder how they got twins out and how much damage they caused. Even though they have pathetic mana reserves, Group 4 can be scary at times.

Well, not Biscuit, he is perfect as he is.

He is also the first one to welcome me, our future animal archmage and overlord of Earth and the best doggo of the 6th floor floats towards me.

Something has changed, and it seems like he wants to show me.

Of course, I notice it right away. Biscuit's movement speed while floating is probably around 6% faster. Still much slower than if he decided to walk and barely noticeable, but I can see that!

“You are moving much faster now, Biscuit,” I note.

My suspicion is confirmed by his short tail that starts wagging from side to side excitedly.

(Food!)

“Yes, you are!”

Even faster wiggle, and I let him float in front of my face where he boops my nose with his front right paw. I do the same and boop his nose, which our future overlord gracefully lets happen.

“Stupid Tentaniel!” Izzy also rushes closer and grabs me into a hug, her skill attempts to connect to my feelings, but I block it.

It's scary enough she can sense them on the surface just a little bit. Maybe there is some sort of social norm for the use of such skills, similar to social norms on when it's fine to teleport away from a conversation. Something tells me we are all currently behaving like brutes when it comes to our skills and the way we use them in certain situations.

“You are not allowed to call me like that,” I knock on her head with my fingers.

“Stupidthaniel?”

“Also no.”

“Tent Cr…”

I knock on her head again before she can finish.

Meanwhile, Noodle, who is as always around, coiled around her arm, looks at me and nods. I do a similar gesture and send a whiff of my mana to him, which he gratefully noms on. I notice he is also curiously looking at the items we brought here, especially the pouches with bones from Bone Fortress and the pieces of bone from the remains of a monster that rested against Veil Ignition Station No. 2.

Interesting, I will have to spend a bit more time with Noodle. His ability to eat mana always fascinated me, and we might be able to make a trade.

“Listen, can I keep that claymore?” The one saying that is of course Maya. She is already with Lily, who carried the damaged arcane weapon.

“No.”

“You have that ax already, you don't need a claymore. You don't even like using long swords and prefer short swords, javelins, or nuking the area.”

“I plan to examine it to see if it can do something cool. I might try to smelt it and the ax to create an undamaged arcane weapon if it fits.”

“Such a waste,” Maya shakes her head. “But welcome back. Tess, Sophie, and the twins are dealing with some shit. There is a small group trying to mess with the web Sophie set. Kim is hunting somewhere outside.”

“That's fine, I can talk with them later,” I say and send my senses through the area.

There are a few people who notice my wave, but I mostly ignore them after not finding anyone powerful. Our new underlings, taken from the survivors of Black Tower raid, and Tess and others are dealing with them. As always, I'm thankful for the extrovert gang taking care of that kind of stuff.

“Want to know what we renamed Black Tower to?” Maya asks me with a smile and lets go of the claymore.

“No, I don't,” I answer. I already have a strong suspicion.

“Tell him anyway!” Izzy challenges Maya and dodges under my nose flick maneuver.

With a smile still on her face, Maya continues, “Welcome to the group called Angry Kittens.”

I knew it.

***

Hours later I'm sitting in one of the rooms of the main building, I find myself a spot close to the window. The view is quite shit, and what I'm sitting on isn't a comfy armchair but some variation made of cold stone.

Of course, nebulas and a starry sky are nice, that much I can't take away from the 6th floor, but otherwise, there isn't much to look at. It could work better if the window was bigger and its view wasn't mostly at the small outpost below.

And there, in the outpost, a few dozen of the surviving members of Black Tower move around.

So far, it seems your strength is the most important here, and killing most of the previous regime proved the strength of our group. Sophie's ability probably helped a bit as well.

Sure, from what I’ve heard, the old Black Tower members still fight sometimes or just leave, but most of them decided to stay. Things like strength in the group exist even here, and leaving outside on your own doesn't seem to be a good option.

“I would rather ditch them and do our own stuff,” I tell Tess once again.

This time, it's even Sophie who sighs and gestures something wildly at Tess. Just the three of us are in this room to plan our next steps.

Tess, more patient than Sophie, just nods, “I know what you mean, but I want to learn more about the central region, monsters around, and other groups. So far, it seems like escaping from here will be quite difficult, and collecting more information could make it much faster. You want to go to the next floor earlier, right?”

“Don't try to treat me like a kid and wave the next floor in front of me to make me cooperate. Sure, it's working, but don't do it.”

“Sure, Nat,” Tess smiles. “Don't worry, it might seem like a lot, but we spend most of our time training and hunting. Between me and Sophie, this takes barely any time.”

“You better do if you want to survive Beyond,” I repeat.

I have already told her and others all I could about Beyond, and after that, everyone else other than Sophie and Tess left the room. For us, adults to talk, apparently.

“Just give me a bit more time and I will join you there, and don't worry, I will try to set something up with Gareth and others from Beyond. From the looks of it, we could have a big advantage if we went with a group.”

“Others I met there thought the same.”

“That's true, but we are different, are we not?”

“Yes,” I agree with her.

Earth's Beyonders so far seem to be above the average.

Tess has her crown over her head, storing lightning in it. Apparently, she is keeping it up nearly constantly to fill it up, and it's still not full yet. It's something I already mimic with my own crow as it floats over my head.

Taking a few steps, Tess puts her hand on Sophie's shoulder, who seems to be in deep thought, “What do you think?” she asks her.

“I need a day or two and I will decide if I will start Beyond trials.”

“Did you already fulfill all the requirements?”

“Yes, some time ago. I will talk with Izzy, so later, Tess, Nathaniel.” Sophie waves and leaves the room, leaving just the two of us.

“So what's the plan? Do you want to continue on your own or wait for at least me and Lily?” I get asked when Sophie leaves.

I return Tess' gaze, “I think I will go there before you and Lily enter. I will be more careful and go there only for a few days, will see if I can make some money with my crafting and get some more information. I might try to look for the others from Earth. Maybe even change my handler. Then, the third time I enter Beyond, I will save more time, and we can make a party if you make it there by then.”

“That sounds like a nice compromise. Another thing. There is something I wanted to tell you about the twins…” she continues to talk and I listen.

***

Some time later it's me and the twins alone outside on the hunt. Some of the monsters can be strong so I enjoy the fight, but I don't forget to watch the twins fight and slowly confirm what Tess told me.

So when we take a break I say without walking around it, "Tess wants you two to switch difficulty to Hard if you don't become stronger than you are now."

"I knew it," Aaron sighs, and Dennis nods solemnly.

"So why are you telling us this?" Dennis asks.

"Oh, I didn't finish," I lift my finger. "You two are weaker than Isabella. Even Min-Jae could take you on. Maya would wipe the floor with you. You would barely make it difficult for Sophie and Biscuit already kicked your ass during the tournament."

They stare at me, blinking.

"Together you might do some fuckery as your skills make you stronger when fighting like that, but that's it. Currently, you are the weakest from group 4."

I can see it's not something they like to hear, but I think it needs to be said.

"But?" Aaron asks.

"But you two have a skill called [Connection] and I'm sure I could observe it to improve one of my skills, maybe evolve it or learn to use it better. Your skill is also probably much stronger than what you are doing with it."

"Great. Just great."

"Of course, I don't expect it for free, so here is my offer. Tess wants us to stay together as a group for two weeks longer and do some stuff. After that, she wants to split us into two groups. Mine will be with Biscuit, Lily, and the two of you," I say.

I thought of it and I think it will be worth it. I believe I can make my [Resonance] stronger by observing [Connection]. During that time we can also work with Lily on some body modification stuff and other things. It's quite a good plan.

"I will help you train and with your skills. I will also teach you Coordinates so you can improve your [Mana Manipulation] and get some shards. Of course, don't expect it to be easy. I might even add some extra things to make it more difficult for you."

They seem to be getting worried but at the same time more interested. They must have noticed it on their own as well. That they are lacking when compared to the rest of the group. Maybe they even hoped for something like that.

"There will be some rules of course but the main one is this: If during these few months you fail in what I expect of you, when I ask you to, you will use the difficulty change token."

***

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