Chapter 486 - Dinner (Patreon)

After a round of sparring, Tess and I reached the top of the tower, looking at the city around us. Right away I noticed a few higher towers with a better position that would offer a nicer view of the lake.

“Do you think Sophie will be mad we damaged the training hall?” Her hair moves in the gentle wind at the top as she sits down on the roof.

I follow her example and sit down as well. “Who will we blame it on?”

“The twins would immediately tell on you if you tried to blame it on them. Lily and Min-Jae seem to be the best options.”

“I agree, also, did you just call him Min-Jae?”

She smiles. “He asked me to call him by his first name, apparently that signals that we are close friends. He almost asked Maya as well, but it seems he is rather shy around her.”

“He told me to call him by his first name months ago.”

“This isn’t a competition, Nat.”

“Sure.” Even though the sun isn’t visible here because of that dust or whatever it is surrounding the moon, it feels a bit warmer, so I open up the blanket a bit for Biscuit to enjoy it as well.

“Do you plan to take him with you while you act as a bodyguard, or will you allow us to finally touch him?” Her eyebrows lift in an amused yet questioning manner.

“I know, the moment you guys get to hold him, pet him, you won’t be able to resist and will try to take him away from me. That's something I can’t allow. Also, it’s up to me to protect him while he’s like that.”

“You mean while he is in food coma?”

“It’s not a food coma. He’s digesting the Champion-ranked monster´s body and… cultivating or something. Expunging impurities from his body.”

“So, food coma?”

“Yes…” With a sigh, I carefully hand him to her, and she just as carefully takes him with the blanket.

I watch as she gently touches the top of his head and pets him with only a few fingers before using her entire palm, surprised by how small his head is and its softness. I can see it on her face and the big smile she shows.

The sleeping Biscuit puppy is defenseless, so she pokes his round, soft belly, pulls on his paw, and then leans in and sniffs him to her surprise, laughing shortly.

“Emotional Support Corgi, ESC, you said?” she asks, that wide smile still on her face.

“Sometimes it feels like it. Izzy told me months ago that Biscuit feels like there is no evil in him and that you can feel at ease around him.”

“Only until the moment he decides to nom a being close to level 500.”

“It was terribly weakened with almost all of its powers suppressed.”

“But he ate it. The building-sized deer with bones not even slightly damaged by acid that melted Lily’s arm as if it’s nothing. She told me that.”

“If you put it that way…” I let the sentence dissipate and lay on the roof, allowing myself to rest just for a while. There’s no training, no worrying. Just for these few minutes, I allow myself to relax while I listen to Tess giggling like a small kid and doing whatever she does to Biscuit.

“What happened to the other guys?” I ask after a few minutes, recreating the evil cube and reactivating the Restrictive Training Emblem.

“Famir took over the group we made. He and Heryd and their groups stayed with us after we split. For the entire six months. We promised to meet in a few weeks. We grew that group pretty big with their help and killed plenty of powerful sleeping monsters.” She seems reminiscent for a while. “Is it weird I considered even those times fun? Other groups pushing and hunting us, fighting against monsters, dealing with city leaders, collecting information and exploring amazing places?”

“I’m not the right person to ask that.”

"I guess you are not," She then pulls Biscuit closer and rubs him against her cheek, her golden hair falling onto his tiny head. She then asks quietly, “Do you remember apologizing to me during the tournament for what you did on Earth?”

“Yes.”

“It was all forgiven long ago.”

As I look at her, she lifts Biscuit in front of her face, his hind legs hanging down together with tiny, fluffy tail. Biscuit covers most of her face, only her eyes poking from over his head. The wrinkles in the corners of her eyes tell me she’s smiling.

“Ah... that’s good.”

“It is, isn’t it?” The smile can be felt even in her voice, but by the time she puts Biscuit back on her legs and wraps the blanket around him, it is gone.

As her face takes on a more serious expression, she turns to me “I will guard the fort while you’re at that dinner with Sophie and will talk to Maya so she can bodyguard Sophie when you need to do your own stuff. I already asked Izzy to help and we got Sophie to slow down her plans a bit, so we have more time for preparations. So for the next few weeks; this will be our base, and after we return from the Beyond expedition you have scheduled for us, we will finally push to leave the 6th floor. I just think it’s better to go to Beyond while we have a safe base here on the 6th rather than just after starting the 7th and leaving others alone to deal with it.”

"Let’s see if it works out that way. There’s still a lot to gain here, so I wouldn’t complain—but things never go as planned. Hopefully, the other floors won’t take as long. I want to clear them all."

“Me too. Now, if you’ll allow me,” she carefully hands Biscuit back to me, “I have to go and get that smartphone from Izzy and I really hope it’s not broken yet. Then I’ll listen to Earth´s music on repeat until I fall unconscious.”

***

Sophie walks first, joined by her second assistant. Mila stands behind to take care of defenses, while Tess does the same. I follow closely behind in new clothes I had to put on.

For some reason, even a barber showed up, giving me a haircut and styling it simple, yet nice enough to earn a few compliments. Izzy also snapped a picture, leaving me surprised that there was still some storage left on the phone.

Heading to dinner we don’t take any fancy carriage or ride some flying monster or whatever people here would like to use. Instead, we just walk. There are plenty of sneaky touches reaching toward us. Attempts at mental manipulation, attempts to leave a mark on us, detections, and more. All of it is simply and swiftly deflected by Sophie as she walks sharply, her posture confident and head held proudly up. Her expression is very different too, colder, more confident, and just dangerous.

Whenever people reach towards us, she reaches back, causing exactly twice the damage they would have caused.

So far, she also defends me and her second assistant who is also a mind mage but weaker, so I’m just enjoying the walk and the feeling of my new clothes. I think they’re the most comfortable I’ve ever had in the tutorial. Except for that shirt I bought for 10 bucks seven years ago. Even though it’s bleached and has a few holes, I still used to wear it on Earth when I went to sleep. It should be thrown somewhere over my chair back on Earth.

I hope no one stole it.

(Now that you and Tess are here, I can push more, so I will do just that. It will result in more attempts towards controlling you or me. Will you be okay?) Sophie is the first to break the silence.

(Sure, go wild. It’ll be more fun that way.)

(I'm confident you would act differently if you didn’t have that disgustingly powerful passive to protect your mind.)

(That’s true; you know how much I love mind manipulation. I would likely blow up this city from a distance.) The same as me, I’m sure she remembers our… clash from the first floor.

(I also find these powers disgusting,) her voice is quieter even though no one else shares that communication link. (Manipulating people can be useful, but just how disgusting these powers are, taking away someone’s free will and being able to do these things.)

To her assistant’s surprise, Sophie slows her walk and points to her right. (There are 10 people in that small house. A bunch of people taken over by one of the weaker mind mages. I could erase his mark, his protection, and order them all to start killing each other.)

She starts walking again. (Just how simple it is even here, where people have mana, levels, and stronger natural barriers. Imagine what I could do on Earth. By the time I get out of the tutorial, I should be capable of turning millions, tens of millions of people into slaves.)

(Do you want to?)

Sophie laughs. (It’s damn crazy that’s the first thing you ask. I don’t want to, but if it means protecting Izzy? Protecting someone else from our group? I’d like to think I’d hesitate.)

(Why would you? Isn’t your sister more important than people you don’t even know?)

(I... do you realize the moral implications of that, Nat?)

(Yes, very clearly.)

(And you would... you would choose your sister over millions of people?)

(Yes.)

(...sometimes it’s really easy to forget how you are.)

(I’m not saying I’d do it with pleasure, obviously. My goal is to become powerful enough to never be forced to make that choice. But want to hear a secret?)

(Please tell me, Nat.)

(No matter what you do or try to prepare, there will be fuck-ups.)

(So I should stop worrying?)

(Nope. Just do the best you can so that even if something fucks up, you can say there was nothing more you could do.)

(I wish I could.) She waves her hand, and a few guards in front of us part, letting us pass through. Before walking again, she glances at me, fully serious but with a faint smile. (People like me don’t get happy endings, and there’s a good reason I was thrown here.)

She decisively turns around and steps toward all of that.

The building towering in front of us is much taller than our tower. Likely the second tallest in the city. It’s pitch black, with a surface smooth as if polished.

White inscriptions making amazing ornaments coil on the surface of the entire tower, letting out a gentle light. The trees framing the pathway have similarly colored round lights floating among the branches, moving gently as if resting on waves.

The dinner isn’t happening in the tower; instead, it’s outside, in a beautiful garden framed by multiple types of trees, coiling pathways, flowers, and pillars showcasing art and inscriptions. The air hums with a strange energy, thick and charged, as if the very atmosphere is watching us. Shadows flit between the trees, figures passing by in cloaks and fine robes, each giving off a sense of purpose and mystery. Somewhere deeper in the garden, music plays softly, adding a haunting echo that blends with the whispers of the crowd around us.

There are dozens of people moving around, and Sophie’s protection disappears from me as she lets me fend for myself.

As if expecting just that, dozens of careful touches reach toward my mind, each of them making my blood boil. Even though they’re unable to do anything, just the sheer fact that they try makes me want to smash in their heads.

My mind, my freedom is very important to me, and it’s something that has only grown stronger in the tutorial as I met these forces capable of taking that freedom away.

I make sure to remember each and every one of those signatures, especially the three that are more powerful or sneakier than others, trying to take me over more seriously.

After clearing my mind, I use [Focus] to strengthen my resistance and follow Sophie, aware of dozens more scrying touches reaching for her than for me. It’s almost as if each step closer to the center of the garden sharpens their interest, drawing them in like moths to a flame.

***

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