Chapter 467 - Knowledge (Patreon)

The feeling of pulling descends upon me, and I leave the 1st floor of Beyond.

With all the items that are piled up from dozens of lurkers and the first expedition I joined, and the ones Whitey killed before. There are so many they are just piled up and tied with clothes I tore and tied together, plus some threads I made of mana.

I was able to do it as not that many lurkers attacked me. At most, groups of three that I dealt with with some effort, or sometimes just one or two.

It’s suspicious more of them didn’t follow me, considering how much I should be attracting them with that many kills. But I think it might also be because they’re scared of Whitey—if they are capable of feeling dread. If not, it might be their survival instinct.

As I depart, I find myself in the area where my handler sits behind her table. She doesn’t even pretend to be working and instead stares at me.

“I swear, if you try to take these items from me, I will change handlers, even if you name every single fucking Ruler,” I tell her right away.

My handler glances at the items and then back at me.

If she won’t talk, I will. “And what do you want? I thought I could ‘visit’ only when entering Beyond.”

“Yes, such ‘visits’ are required, but I can ‘summon’ you as you are leaving too.”

“I see. So what do you want? Have my shards for white sand?”

“Actually, yes.” After waving her hand, a window appears in front of me.

Request to transfer +70000 shards. Confirm?

Yes/No

Quickly, before she changes her mind, I confirm the transfer, a suspicion flowing through me right after. The number is too rounded up. Did she by any chance take 30%? Do I even want to know? I decide not to ask and just be happy for now.

“So what did I do this time?” I ask her.

“I won’t even mention how royally stupid what you just did was,” the handler lifts one of the papers off her table, reading from it.

“It worked out in the end.”

“There are so many different ways you could have done it.”

“Yes.”

“Easier ways, less painful ways, ones with a higher chance of success.”

“Yes,” I confirm again.

“Damned pride maniacs. After seeing it worked the first time, you might come to the idea of challenging every lurker with an interesting skill or ability on the 1st floor to gain that knowledge and rewards.”

That surprises me. It’s exactly what I was thinking.

My handler, seeing my reaction, taps on the table, her frustration evident, “It won’t work the second time. It shouldn’t have worked at all in the first place.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

“It is not.” She pauses, as if listening to something. “We’re almost out of time. Before you go, here—your identification emblem, updated.” She waves her hand.

There’s a burning sensation on the back of my left hand, and my D-rank Obsidian Black shifts to C-rank Ivory White.

I take a moment to admire the new emblem and remark, “That was an easy jump from D rank to C rank.”

“It was not.”

“I see.” I decide not to argue. “One last question. That deer… was he really…”

For a moment, she looks confused but quickly remembers, a quiet laugh escaping her lips. “Of course not. The ruler from the 1st floor was a phantom goblin.”

She meets my gaze, and, disappointed by my lack of reaction, simply smiles playfully. “Information like this is extremely valuable and not something you should possess yet. It’s nice that you want to know, but don’t be too… greedy.”

As I get pulled away, she waves, “I will see you later.”

***

The first to meet me is Biscuit.

I still plan to have a talk with him about the mark Luna sensed on me and other animals might sense as well. Maybe even Noodle can sense it, or Biscuit marked me because of Noodle.

But what’s with the people and animals around me? A mark from Lissandra, a mark from Biscuit. What’s next?

Biscuit lies near the place where I teleported from, the pile of items nearly falling on him, making him quickly stand up, his eyes still sleepy. Biscuit shakes his head, and with a small yawn combined with a welcoming bark, he rushes to me, his nearly nonexistent tail wagging.

As he gets close to me, he slows down. A few more steps later he stops, his nose constantly sniffing.

I take a step forward and kneel, reaching my right hand towards him. I don’t pet him right away but let him sniff my hand—something he likes to do sometimes.

After sniffing it, Biscuit barks and bites me. Even then, he does it in a way there is no damage; it doesn’t even hurt.

Turning around, he leaves, totally ignoring me and not even creating a telepathic link between us.

He doesn’t look back even as I call him with offers of Archdeer jerky, and I’m left there alone.

***

An hour later, Lily returns from her hunt, the twins still gone.

“Nat!” With a happy smile, she uses the opportunity to sneak in another hug.

After scanning my body, she, in one swoop, heals the remaining wounds, finishes growing limbs I have pieces missing from, and also quickly places a few healing marks.

“It went well?” she asks.

“Pretty good. I’ll tell you all when the twins are back so I don’t have to repeat myself. How did things go here?”

“A few powerful monsters showed up, and a day later, some native tried to kill us. Aaron and I nearly died, but I patched us up. He felt close to three question marks.” She touches my arm again. “You used all the marks.”

“Yup. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without them. My passive sucks.”

“I told you!” She seems to be giddy, knowing she helped me that way.

What a silly bulldozer-like healer.

“Yes, yes,” I answer her. “Do you want to help me sort out the items I got?”

“Sure!”

I watch as she reaches one of the piles, and generating just a bit of that gray mana, she cuts my mana threads that keep it all together. She even glances at me while doing so.

Is it some sort of show of dominance?

Just you wait. I already have an idea how to improve my mana to make it difficult even for [Disintegration] to damage.

Sitting on the ground next to her, I also start going through the items, separating them into multiple piles.

One for the items I will sell. Another one for items I will disassemble to learn a thing or two. A pile for the strongest items to later decide what to do with. A pile for materials, and more.

“Should it be that easy to get damaged arcane items?” Lily asks, holding the staff and dagger I got from my last adventure.

“I keep asking the same.” I take these items from her and put them into the pile of items to decide what to do with. later

I could sell them in Beyond, to the system shop, maybe rent to someone from group 4, or take them apart for materials or to gain experience to make an arcane item of my own.

Eldertree Staff (Arcane, Damaged) - Once able to summon ancient forests, this staff could bring entire woodlands to life. Though weakened, it still invokes powerful roots and thorned vines that erupt from the ground, briefly ensnaring enemies and causing significant damage to all caught within its grasp.

Nullstrike Knife (Arcane, Damaged) - Nullstrike Knife is incredibly sharp, capable of slicing through the toughest armor. The poison it once held is nearly gone, but it disrupts mana on contact, hindering magical defenses. Occasionally, it releases a pulse that temporarily silences all spells in the immediate area.

Looking at them now, they aren’t that bad. As their rarity says, they are much more powerful than upper epic weapons.

“Any idea why there are that many damaged arcane items? I would expect them to be more durable.” Lily brings up a good question.

“It could be the system messing around for the purpose of the tutorial. Weakening arcane items so people can have an easier time learning to make arcane items or get used to their power.”

“Wouldn’t it make sense in that case for there to be a rarity between epic and arcane?”

“I don’t think the tutorial is capable of twisting things that much. You could probably look at it from the point of view of these items having their power sealed, requiring effort to get them back to their full power.”

“So outside of the tutorial, there won’t be that many damaged arcane items?”

“Possibly, but don’t quote me on that.”

“Yup! Also, what a nice metal.” Lily hands me the piece of black metal with a copperish sheen.

Voidcopper (Arcane) - A dense, jet-black metal with a faint shimmer, Voidcopper is known for its ability to deflect magical interference. It’s favored for crafting shields, amulets, and armor due to its capacity to absorb minor spells, lessening their impact before dispersing the energy harmlessly.

“Yup, it will be useful, but check this.” I throw her a ball of thread that I’m probably the most excited about.

Amberlace (Arcane) - A warm-toned, honey-gold fiber that is both durable and flexible. Amberlace has an innate ability to stabilize nearby magic, which allows it to withstand complex enchantments without losing its structural integrity.

Lily reads it and then rubs it against her cheek. “It’s weird. It feels like metal, but it’s slightly warm while also… soft?”

I catch it as she throws it back at me and store it right away, “It’s a shame there wasn’t more, but I can use it for some nice stuff.”

“Is it common to get that many items from one or two Beyond expeditions? Isn’t it too… simple?” She gestures at piles of upper epic items, which I will sell later, and some other stuff.

“Easy…” I stretch the word. “It was doable.”

“How many times did you almost die?”

That requires a bit of thinking.

While remembering, I count on my fingers, “I will count only serious ones. So first would probably be from Specter when he cut my neck. I could’ve probably died against that icy lythnari too if I fought him alone, but does it even count? I joined to help Derick, and Savant joined too. Don’t tell him, but his domain helped there a bit. Then I almost died against that group of lurkers before Whitey came. Lastly, multiple times during the fight with Whitey. If I didn’t have mana stored or didn’t have healing marks from you, I would’ve probably died two to five times.”

“So, doable?” she asks.

“Yup.”

“I’m already curious what happened there.” She stands up, glancing at the piles of items one more time. “It wasn’t all for the items only, right?”

“Nope, but it’s a nice bonus. If it became a bother, I would throw them away at any moment.”

“So what was it you went there for?”

“I will tell you after checking it out. Could you go and check on Biscuit? I want to try something. If you can make Biscuit forgive me, I will give you an upper epic item of your choice.”

“Only one? You have over 20 of them.”

“Maybe two if you teach him to stand on his hind legs.”

“And walk while he’s asking for sustenance?”

“Please, no.”

She giggles. “Okay then, good luck.”

As she leaves, I rest my back against the boulder nearby and close my eyes with the intention to check on the results of my wager. I don’t know what to expect, how the system would even deliver this kind of knowledge. Would it be some book? Mana stone with information? A feeling? Would the knowledge just flow into my mind?

Sensing my intention, the system seems to know what I want, and I find myself in a different place. I can still feel my body sitting in the same spot when I try, so this place is likely somewhere within my mind.

A desolate hill stretches before me. The landscape is hauntingly barren, with cracked, dry ground and jagged rocks jutting out everywhere. The entire scene feels alien.

The sky is a swirling mix of gray clouds that makes the place look bleak, post-apocalyptic even. Dim light barely passes through the clouds, adding to the feeling.

There, at the top of the hill, stands a white monobloc plastic chair, and in this chair sits a tall figure. Long, beautiful white hair flows down, and the short black horns are visible even from where I stand.

That figure is watching a TV placed on a cheap Ikea-style table.

***

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