Chapter 278 - Rules (Patreon)

"Master! Look, look!" a silly half-demon with those undeserved four trait slots rushes towards me, her red eyes showing a smile.

In her hand, a rare dagger is coated in nearly transparent, pale blue mana. That mana flickers and would most likely disappear after hitting anything stronger than air. Yet, she is still smiling happily.

"My [Mana Manipulation] also leveled up!" she adds.

I stop examining the effect the mana compressed by my heart has on my skills and give her full attention, "Are you sure you didn't cheat?" I ask her.

That scares her for a moment, but looking at me, she quickly regains her smug expression. "Master is trying to joke?"

"Maybe," I reach out and pull on one of her horns, shaking her head while holding it.

Her small hands try to push me away, but even though my body is probably the weakest out of group 4, I don't lose against level 13.

In the past few days, she has become scarily comfortable around me and constantly fights for my attention, always rushing to me when she succeeds in her training. At first, I thought she was too naive and even asked her about it. For the answer, I got looked down upon by a 6-year-old girl. I swear she looked down at me like I'm stupid!

I mean, what the heck!

Her answer was that: It's fine because I'm her master.

To get a confirmation, I will need her to interact with more people, so I will use Darren and visit their camp or whatever. I can't have her be too naive or trust people too quickly.

Also, before the three weeks end, I would like her to get her Primary class. I got mine after we entered the second floor and back then I was a bit over level 20, so I hope it will be a bit similar for her.

"What are you working on, master?" she plops on the ground next to me.

"I'm testing how much I can compress my mana and how much this compressed mana changes my skills when I use it to power them."

She nods, totally not understanding, yet looking up at me and listening.

"At first, I thought I would be able to compress my mana more, but at the moment it seems to be around 20% at most at full power of my improved heart."

"I see!" she nods.

She is totally lost.

"Some of my skills react to compressed mana better, and others almost not at all. I have a theory that the higher-tiered skills don't get that much from mana compressed by only 20%. But it also could be caused by the type of the skill. For example, concentration-type skills like your [Concentration] and my [Focus] might not get that much of a boost. Maybe there is some threshold that I need to pass for it to work? Maybe 20% is just not enough? And if yes, how much compression is my black mana? Is it equal to the 1st stage of Potency? A bit into the second stage? Or am I totally wrong and there is something else in play? Is [Focus] not only compression but doing something else as well? But the last king recognized the black mana, so what was that? Did he misunderstand, or is black mana something that is not so unusual? Do you get black mana when you reach a certain level? Is there multiple ways to get it? Is…”

"Master?" she interrupts me.

"Yes?"

"Are you bullying me because half-demons can have 4 traits and humans only 3?"

The mana stone I was holding falls from my hand.

The little half-demon is not smiling, her face is mostly blank, but something in the way her eyebrow moves and her eyes are squinted tells me she is having a lot of fun.

Cheeky little thing, when did you get SO comfortable?

I lean closer and look deep into her eyes, but even that doesn't seem to scare her.

So, I just sigh and lay on the grass, looking towards the sky.

I have been defeated.

Currently, both of us are on top of one of the rooftops that has been overgrown with a few smaller trees, some flowers, and even a bit of grass. In between all that greenery, the cracked material of the building is shown.

“My minion, why do you trust me so much? Answer honestly.”

“It's disciple, master. Not minion,” she complains.

“Sure, minion.”

For a moment, she pouts and then lies on the ground next to me, also looking towards the sky.

“Master is the same as me.”

“What does that mean?”

“I'm little and dumb and I can't explain. So I will find the words when I become smarter.”

“Minions do not become smarter, they become dumber.”

“That's not true!” she complains immediately and I listen to her chirping for a minute longer before I send her to practice and I do so as well.

***

I have finally decided to sell the items I looted from the old capital. In the end, they might be good things to trade with natives of this floor, but I think shards are more valuable.

In the worst case, I buy some back for some loss and trade, if I need to. I don't think they use currency here as this world seems to be quite post-apocalyptic.

The amount of shards I get for all of them is quite nice - 5,260, making it so I have 13,542 shards. Enough for an epic passive if I really wanted or a few weaker epic items or one stronger.

For now, I decide to keep them. I'm still seriously thinking of buying a rare passive that I want to learn from and then selling it and buying another rare passive. Sure, I would barely get any effect from such low-grade passives and I would spend some shards, but I think the knowledge I would gain would be worth it. It's something I have to add to my ever-growing list of things I want to do.

My current priority is to fully explore my new construct and the effects mana has on my body. Another thing is more experimentation with black mana. This time I would like to use much less of it and for [Focus] again.

Maybe in the future, I could get some strengthening type of active skill and use black mana on it. Would that totally remove the pressure it puts on my body? Would that mean I can strengthen my body with the skill boosted by black mana and then generate more black mana and use another skill, now with a tougher body?

Who the hell knows, more testing is required!

I'm also getting closer to decrypting the mana stone that used to be lodged in the corpse of some man. The stone that used to contain a personality imprint of the Champion´s disciple called… called… Bob, I think.

Arcane archer Bob we fought in the ancient mine that guarded the array leading to the heart of the Colony. That guy.

I still have the stone and haven't given up. Maybe there will be a piece of information or two. In the worst case, I will ruin the inscriptions and try to turn it into a mana battery.

Whispering Echo Stone (epic): The Whispering Echo Stone is a rare, iridescent mana stone that serves as a powerful mana battery and harbors an imperfect personality imprint. There is something encrypted inside.

There is also a new token I found in the system stop. I could swear that it wasn't there before as I keep checking the stop anytime I have some free time. I already bought three of these tokens.

Detachment Token: Used to remove upgrades from a skill, reverting it to its base form.

The description is short, and the price is a thousand shards for one. So, with these 3,000 of my shards gone, I do not regret a thing.

Symbiotic Transference, Advanced Mana Manipulation, and Dual Focus Consolidation. All of the upgrades are gone, kaput, reduced to atoms. And I didn't notice a thing and use the skills in the same way as before. All of these upgrades were months and months old, and my mastery over the skill already transcended them.

And with this, a new plan came. Maybe I can use the next skill upgrade token, observe it, learn what I want, and then remove the upgrade. It should work, right? The price would probably be around 6,000 shards to do so. 5,000 I would lose from not selling the skill upgrade token and 1,000 more for the detachment token.

With me currently having 10,000 shards, it's quite a price to pay, but I do not believe that epic is the highest rarity of item there is, no. There will be a rarity that is most likely 10, 20, or even more times expensive than epic.

When I will be capable of collecting such sums on a later floor, which I logically should be, 6,000 shards will be nothing.

For now, I will buy some new rare passive instead, as they are much cheaper, and learn from it, yup. The system refuses to teach properly, so it's obvious I will use whatever I can to learn myself.

“Master, you have a creepy expression,” I hear somewhere in the background.

Ignoring the voice of the silver-spoon, 4-trait half-demon girl, I continue to disrupt her mana, and she continues to try to fight against it.

It has already gone on for hours, and as she is using only a little bit of mana to try to fight against it, she can still keep up.

Still, even now, she is unable to fight against it, no matter how many times she leveled her skill in the process.

I freeze as I open my mouth to answer her. One of my mana threads I put down on the streets tore, and a signal had been sent to me through the thread that is thinner than a hair. Something nearly impossible to perceive without looking for it.

But, even so, the monster down on the street stops its movement, waves of mana radiating from it, trying to detect what interrupted it.

I stare over the edge of the rooftop where we are and gesture at my disciple to stay quiet.

[Veil Guardian - lvl ??]

The monster keeps sniffing and looking around, and when its head starts slowly turning towards the building where we are, I use [Tether] and activate one of the anchors I left in the buildings all around us.

At the other end, a mana orb bursts open, releasing mana and feeding inscriptions I created on the floor with mana-conductive paint. The inscriptions imitate a barrier-type skill to confuse the monster and to not be a simple pulse of mana.

Down on the street, the Veil Guardian screeches and rushes towards where the orb burst open. Every single step it takes cracks the road, and its movement is fluid and quick, the blades shining in the morning light.

“We are leaving,” I tell my disciple.

As we planned and practiced before, she quickly rushes and grabs her things, and I do the same.

Only a few seconds later, we are packed, and I somewhat awkwardly lift her into my arms; it's a bit weirder now that she is awake.

I leave a tiny black mana orb where I am and activate another anchor that teleports me far away from where we are.

After landing, I create a projectile that I tie an anchor to and shoot really far away. I create another black mana orb behind to make the possible tracking much more difficult or straight-up impossible, and teleport again.

Then we go down the street, and I continue running for another thirty minutes while reducing our mana trace as much as possible.

“What is your level?” I ask.

From by my side, she lifts her head, her red eyes meeting mine, “Fourteen. Master, are you not scared of that monster?”

“Not really,” I grab her for a moment and jump over a crater in the street caused by some explosion that happened long ago.

As I put her back on the ground, she asks again, “Why didn't you kill it?”

“You would probably die if we fought. Also, I don’t think I can kill it at the moment.”

“Is the monster stronger than master?”

“Probably.”

“And you are not scared?” she continues to ask.

So, I pause and lower my head to her level, “Silly disciple, listen carefully,” I pull her horn to make sure she gives me full attention, and when I let go, she covers it with her hands to defend it.

After finding the right words, I continue, “There will always be someone stronger than you. Someone more talented. Someone with a higher level. But, minion, there is no need to be bothered by that.”

“Disciple, not minion,” a quiet voice sounds.

“If you meet such a person, use whatever you can. Befriend them, act submissive or use tricks. Spit, bite, kick at the crotch. Prepare to hunt them, cheat. In the end, it doesn’t matter how strong they are, the winner is the one that is alive in the end.”

“But isn’t that… dirty?”

“Disciple, are you the strongest person on your planet?”

“N-no?”

“So why do you care? Powerful people can be honorable, and it’s better if they are, as they are easier to trick or deal with. Remember, only if you are super strong can you act honorably.”

Instead of answering, she just nods.

“Disciple, if you die, you won’t be able to see all that is there to see. If you die, you won’t be able to find out what you are capable of, and you won’t eat more sweet fruit,” I poke her nose.

Her red eyes are attentive, and in the morning dawn, their color is beautifully vibrant.

“If you become stronger, you can worry about such stuff. You can find friends you can trust. You can fall in love. You can be honorable if that’s something you want. But to get there, you need to use everything you have to stay alive."

I scan the area around us and when it feels safe I continue, "But there are some rules to follow so you won't become a savage. If someone shows you pure and unconditional kindness, try to not betray it, even if it means you get hurt. Don´t be cruel without reason and always set your priorities. And never hurt kids."

I let the silence linger, "Of course, it's your life, so live it the way you want to." Before she answers I stand up, "Let's continue."

After a few steps, my silly disciple rushes and joins me and we continue down the street.

***

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