Chapter 262 - Revisiting (Patreon)

“I will need a bit more time for this,” I tell Myrra.

“Sure, I will keep watch,” she answers and continues to sunbathe without any shame.

Immediately, I open the Community again and wait.

During the time I spent helping her before the fight against the Calamity, Lily improved a lot and I believe that she didn't enter Beyond unprepared. The problem is that the trials are customized to everyone who does them, testing their weaknesses and forcing them to improve their skills so there is a limit to how much you can prepare.

I examine my feelings; there is a hint of worry, but also satisfaction. Lily could have entered Beyond anytime after I left, and her doing it now means that it wasn’t a too emotionally controlled decision. She most likely thought about it on her own and decided that she was ready, without even letting Tess know, as I see Tess's reaction.

It’s something I wanted, and it’s where my and Gareth’s opinions split apart. Me and Savant seem to be thinking similarly, and Gareth is nearly the opposite of our opinion, while Tess is somewhere in the middle between the two.

Noname - How was she in the past few days?

Sset - Mostly fine. After Hadwin died, she threw away the bow and decided to fight close range, starting from now.

Oh, I think I can see why she decided to do so. Lately, she ended up in the role of ranged damage dealer with her projectiles and healer when needed. Seeing others get hurt probably forced her hand, and she decided to go into the frontline and use [Disintegration] close range while relying on [Reconstruction] to keep her alive.

It’s something I can understand, considering what happened in the past time.

Sset - She should be fine.

And so, we wait while constantly checking the timer and counting down one hour, as well as keeping an eye on the number of people in Hell difficulty.

Easy difficulty 1340/2000

Normal difficulty 870/1000

Hard difficulty 259/500

Hell difficulty 44/250

Beyond 5/10

I find it hard to focus on anything else, so instead of working on the array in the meantime, I just keep toggling between the timer and member count. It’s silly, honestly, as if something like this would even help anything. As the time comes closer, my eyes stay glued on the counter.

10 seconds

5 seconds

1 second

Beyond 5/10 > Beyond 6/10

Gareth - Group 4 is a bit crazy if I have to say so myself.

Grumpy - Hello.

Gareth - Welcome, Grumpy! Good job!

Sset - I’m glad you are fine. Where are you at the moment?

Grumpy - Nearby, I will come to you.

Grumpy - Is he here?

Noname - Hey, good job with the first trial.

Grumpy - …

Grumpy - When are you coming back?

Noname - When you guys deal with the Calamity. Sset can tell you more.

Grumpy - You still promised to owe me after we saved Soph and the twins. So you better keep your word.

Noname - Yes.

After that, we exchange a few more words and I turn off the Community.

Lily seems to be anxious and unhappy, but it's not something easy to solve. She is just someone like that and she is the only one that can deal with it. I, on the other hand, have decided to be more selfish and stop worrying so much about others. Yes, I have decided to stay with the group after the start of the 4th floor, but not to this point. I'm not someone like Gareth and will never be like that.

Quickly, I fix the array and turn to Myrra, “Ready.”

Unlike before, when we used charged mana stones and items to activate it, I’m capable of operating it on my own and without any items. There is almost no need for mana stones, as there are only two of us, and I will be able to handle such expenditure with my mana.

“I thought you were losing your touch, feral one. It took you quite a long time.”

“You know, I slowly lose all the respect I ever had for lynthari,” I don’t let her bully me.

She nods seriously, “That’s what often happens when you get strong. You just reached a strength that is above us, so we lost a mystique to you and reverence. It’s obvious that you would feel differently about us.” Myrra enters the array and stands next to me, “It’s also me that changed a bit. Now without the matriarch and her personality affecting us, all the lynthari will change.”

I’m about to ask what she thinks is happening in the city now, but I change my mind. Myrra must know something and that's why she doesn't want to return, and I’m sure I will find out before the floor ends.

What I find sad is that there might be a war, and the last words of Eris come to me from the message she left. The ancient lynthari loved her kin and humans as well. She created a system that allowed them to weirdly coexist and even put her life on the line to protect the future of both races.

And for her sacrifice, she hoped for a single thing. For humans not to blame young lynthari that never were part of the war and for the two races to get along. A simple, nearly naive wish coming from someone who fought in the war of Champions and Absolutes.

I cut off this line of thought and activate the array. After testing and preparing a lot, it is quite easy and after a few minutes of charging, both Myrra and I disappear from the desert.

The desert view is replaced by a rocky area with a forest to the right and far in the distance, I can see the towers of the Old Capital.

“I see that we have a few scavengers here already,” Myrra’s canines show as both of us detect presences around us.

They are most likely camps they set up while some of their members go through the city.

“Want to bet that they started moving there the second the First One ran from Virelia?” I offer.

“I won’t bet with you on that. It would be too easy for you. I just thought I ordered to block all the arrays, but it looks like there are some we didn’t know about.”

The end of this floor is approaching, so there is no need to hesitate or be nice. Myrra also talks about scavengers with disdain, so I do not hesitate and start moving towards one of the camps.

On our way, I purposefully trigger one of the detection stones they left around the camp and it sends a signal.

“Hey! You two! We know about you, so come out!” someone shouts from there and even sends his mana against us, as a pressure and threat.

Still using Mana Cycling to hide my mana, I do as told and a curious Myrra follows me.

“Fuck, another lynthari,” the man sighs when we get close to each other.

Ten or so humans surround us.

[Elemental Mage - lvl 141]

[Shadow Assassin - lvl 128]

[Terra Guardian - lvl 152]

[Storm Raider - lvl 129]

...

All of them are of a similar level and show no visible signs of their alliance to any guild.

“I have to tell you that we have the support of high-positioned lynthari, miss, so I will ask you to leave,” he says towards Myrra. He talks carefully, partially telling the truth and partially bluffing.

Well, it's not unexpected for a few lynthari to do this kind of stuff.

“Oh my, feral one, what are we going to do? Should we leave?” Myrra’s eyes glow in dim light and her fluffy tail twitches a bit, showing her playful mood as well as annoyance at being told off.

Some things do not change that easily.

“Give me everything you got from the Old Capital,” I say simply to the people surrounding us.

At the same moment, I stop focusing on cycling my mana and allow a part of it to leak. Before they can even say something, the pressure from my mana hits them, and no words come out of them.

To show the difference between us, I activate [Redistribution] which holds them for a few seconds, barely allowing them to breathe. Then a pulse of [Resonance] disrupts their skills.

I let go of them, and without saying much, they rush into the camp, taking out all the stuff they got from the city.

When they bring them in front of me, it's quite a lot. Some equipment, some mana stones, and other items. Most of them are not that valuable.

I pick the most interesting ones while ignoring the looks they give me.

As we leave the camp to reach another one, I sense a pulse of mana shoot over me towards the camp I’m heading to and stop. The pulse was clearly sent through the item, most likely as a warning.

A javelin forms over me, and I put an anchor on it before boosting it towards the camp where I was heading.

Then I turn around and return to the camp we already looted.

“W-what? We already gave you everything you wanted?” their leader shouts.

“Did you send the signal to the other camp?” my question is simple.

“What? We didn’t do…” Before he finishes, a blast of kinetic energy sends him rolling through the camp, crashing against everything in his way.

I reduced the power by a lot, but even this was enough.

After taking a few steps, I stop in front of another guy. “Did you send the signal?”

Immediately, he nods, none of them even attempting to fight.

“See, it was not so difficult,” I say to calm him down, but it seems to make him shake even more.

Pushing him to the side, I reach the tent where they guard most of the items, and a small orb forms over my palm, compressing and quickly turning golden, releasing immense heat even in this state.

“I would run away,” I warn them and throw the orb in between the items.

Myrra reaches her hand towards me, and I touch her, both of us disappearing and appearing near the javelin I tied an anchor to. A few seconds later, the camp we just left explodes into golden flames that, with a roar, devour everything in their way.

“Quite ruthless,” Myrra says while looking at the humans that surround us.

“I’m not in a very good mood,” I answer her, and more of my mana radiates from my body, pressuring the men and women who stand against us.

They shout warnings among themselves, preparing for a fight, but I do not stop there. Like a tsunami, waves of mana radiate from me in the center, putting pressure on them, showing them my level. An amount of mana that hints at a much higher level than I currently have because people are rarely dumb enough to invest in the mana stat so heavily.

The expressions on the faces around me change. From determination and anger to shock and fear. They drop their weapons, deactivate their skills, and step back, sweat on their foreheads, hands shaking.

They are the kind of people who recognize strength and know what to do in such cases. Members of guilds that do not hesitate to kill people to gain an advantage.

So, I do not stop there and reach into my reservoir, more mana radiating from me, making my presence felt for miles away.

Slowly, one after another, they drop to their knees, unable to even look into my eyes.

Only then do I stop, and my mana disappears in a moment and pull the one I radiated back into my body.

“Bring me everything you got from the Old Capital,” I order.

***

After looting a few more camps, my bags are getting full, so I get a few guys to carry them for me. So far, there are some metals they got from smithies, upper rare items with interesting effects, plenty of mana stones, some having inscriptions I haven't seen so far.

There are also pieces of wood that are extremely durable and, even after hundreds of years, look like new. Some mana batteries too.

I pick only the best things and ignore the rest, and most of the guys we visit don’t even try to fight with us and just immediately give us stuff.

Myrra, bored, talks to them a bit and learns that there are even two lynthari in the city that she seems to know. Mohg and Gawyn, a duo that she says is well known for their damage output. Apparently, they are lynthari troublemakers, and some of the young lynthari who like to play around the most. It seems like now, without the influence of the matriarch, they became even worse.

Mohg and Gawyn organized a group of humans from a few medium guilds with plans to find some interesting items in the city.

What pisses Myrra off the most is that they went here even before the fight against the Colony started, letting other lynthari deal with it. In the end, she just sighs and says cryptically that it doesn’t matter.

We leave all of our things near one of the arrays, and I put a few mana orbs nearby, some of them should last a day at least. There is no anchor on them or any effect, and I don’t even explain it to the men carrying the stuff we looted. Their imagination will surely come up with more terrifying stuff than the lies I could come up with. We leave them without saying more and seemingly not caring about the things, and that seems to scare them, so they quickly leave.

So after going to all the camps, we head inside the city, where the biggest group should already be, over a week into the search.

And here, we find the corpses of two dozen humans, thrown around the streets, smashed against the floor, bloody splats on the ground. Men with holes in their chests, a woman's body without a head.

Blood is everywhere, a massacre done with the pure power of physical stats that I confirm by checking the remains with my eyes, there is no mana around.

“Looks like your lynthari duo did have some fun,” I say to Myrra.

She doesn’t answer, and with a frown on her face, we continue following the trail of blood and massacre, finding a dozen more corpses. Torn-off limbs are everywhere and organs are splattered on the walls.

We reach one of the towers near the center of the city, and here we find two more corpses. Lynthari with their chests caved in, one of them with their head pulled off and the second one without an arm.

Both of the lynthari are very dead.

***

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