POV Myrra

“Did it work, Lady Lissandra?” I ask after a minute.

The silver-haired young woman in front of me looks away from an empty space in the air and nods, “It works as expected. I should soon be able to do the same for you. Because we still have work to do on your status, we’ll be getting our own instance and waiting to synchronize with little pup once we’ve gotten you fully instated.”

“Sorry for the trouble and thank you very much.”

She waves it off and gestures for me to follow, and I comply, having grown accustomed to her eccentricities.

As we walk, I look her over once more. She’s shorter than me, with silver hair, and a pretty, if stern face, but most of all, there’s this aura of confidence around her—as if nothing can stand in her way. A fact I’ve seen bourn out time and time again.

When we visited a ruined continent to recover the remains of an Absolute's heart. When she combined said remains with the heart of the Champion. When she spent months working on her new heart and then tore open her own chest to implant it. When she then pierced it through with that orange eyed bone dagger to reignite it.

The first beat of that heart was nearly powerful enough to render me unconscious before she took control. And it only took a second for her to do so. Now I’m having trouble imagining just how powerful she might be, despite her insistence that she’s still far from attaining her original power and will need years to recover and adapt to her new body and heart.

She calls her body unsatisfactory, she says her heart is weak, and she’s always complaining about her skills being rusty. The knowledge and skills she’s honed over the millennia now feel too vast for the fragile frame she currently inhabits.

But even after completing her new heart, she’s still holding on to that black dagger on her belt as we walk on the surface of this new planet. And she is satisfied it’s a new instance and not a continuation of the one Nathaniel previously visited.

The sky in this place is covered in clouds of dust which settle overnight to reveal a stunning view of a brilliant night sky.

And now we stop—a desert full of white sand in front of us.

“Are you sure, Lady Lissandra? That man in the Last Rest said the desert was made by an Absolute a long time ago.”

“Little kitten.”

“I'm sorry!”

With that, she takes a step through that invisible border and steps onto the white sand, which doesn't react to her at all. It doesn't so much as twitch even as her new heart continues to generate that incredible mana.

I’ve seen what happens to the people thrown into the desert by the competing groups that rule this place; I’ve seen what it can do and how it reacts even to the slightest bit of mana. I watched as a swarm of brilliant white particles tore them apart.

Lady Lissandra stands silently, bending down to scoop up a handful of sand, and letting it slip through her fingers.

“I’ve suspected this for some time now, but it seems like modern Absolutes and Champions aren’t what they once were. All these trinkets, arrays, and emblems… leaning so heavily on the system's gifts without ever truly understanding them.”

The last grains of sand fall to the ground as she turns to me, her silver hair flowing in the gentle breeze, “It all feels so detached, so devoid of passion and genuine effort.”

The words come softly, yet they have a strange sort of weight to them. “Little kitten.”

“Yes!”

“Follow close behind me.”

Without another moment’s pause, she takes a step forward, heading deeper into the desert.

I follow close behind, stepping onto the white sand without a hint of hesitation or worry.

As expected, the sand doesn’t react to me or my mana, and I continue along her path.

 

---

 

POV Nathaniel

 

Please pick two skills from the following list to combine.

 

Warning! Combining these skills will reduce the level of the acquired skill.

Warning! Combining incompatible skills may result in worse skills.

Warning! After combining these skills, it will be extremely difficult to reacquire the skills used in the resulting combination.

 

List of skills available for combination:

Perception - Lvl 54

Resonance - Lvl 60

Mana Domain (Pride) - Lvl 57

Infusion - Lvl 49

Mana Manipulation - Lvl 60

Bone Knitting - Lvl 24

 

Okay, I have an opportunity to repeat what I’ve come to think of as a pro gamer move and a big fuck you to the system. I can combine [Mana Manipulation] with another skill and regain it later.

The question is if I want to with the primary class upgrade looming so close. I know that primary class offers active skills as well, and it seems to be the only way to gain active skills other than learning them, evolving skills, or combining skills.

I'm sure the system has ways to deal with it if I happen to have filled all my slots, but do I really want it? With all my preparations, my primary class offerings should be goddamn good, so I will probably get some kind of amazing new active skill. Something on the level of [Focus], [Redistribution], [Mana Crown], or [Ley Line], which for the time being aren't among the skills available for combination.

But [Resonance] and [Mana Domain] are, and they weren't an option for the previous skill combinations, meaning this token is of a higher tier than previous ones.

So the options are:

[Perception] and [Resonance]

[Perception] and [Mana Domain]

[Perception] and [Infusion]

[Perception] and [Mana Manipulation]

[Perception] and [Bone Knitting]

[Resonance] and [Mana Domain]

[Resonance] and [Infusion]

[Resonance] and [Mana Manipulation]

[Resonance] and [Bone Knitting]

[Mana Domain] and [Infusion]

[Mana Domain] and [Mana Manipulation]

[Mana Domain] and [Bone Knitting]

[Infusion] and [Mana Manipulation]

[Infusion] and [Bone Knitting]

[Mana Manipulation] and [Bone Knitting]

Then there are my personal favorites.

The first on the list are [Resonance] and [Mana Domain]. Given the way they appeared in the list of options for my prior skill combinations and I’ve just acquired a higher-tier token, it means they’re high-quality skills, and logically their combination should be stronger—if they make for a good fit, and I think they might.

[Perception] and [Mana Manipulation] could also be pretty good, but I suspect the skill would be similar to my trait, which I think will just end up being stronger, especially now that it’s gone through a second round strengthening with assistance from my new passive. And I still think I should skip using [Mana Manipulation] this time in preparation for my primary class upgrade.

Then there’s [Resonance] and [Infusion].

Leaving this decision to the future me, I lean back in my manabloc chair and open the Beyond Community. It looks like the cockroach is curious and talks to people there.

Hadwin - I'm not the man called Hadwin.

Gareth - Then why do you have that name? You even belong to the same group.

Hadwin - I don't understand why I should explain it to you, child.

Noname - You should be able to change your Community name to match your real name. Apparently, it's possible to change it but only once and only to your real name.

Hadwin - Little pup, are you dumb? The only reason I can talk here is because the system thinks I am that person. How would it make sense for me to change to my real name?

Noname - I hadn't thought of that.

Gareth - Noname, are you ok? Little pup? Are you getting bullied?

Noname - Yes.

Hadwin - Is there any difference between this and other Communities?

Noname - Not much. Just the degree of censorship on certain information, and we can communicate across the floors.

Tacita - ヽ(ー_ー )ノ

Hadwin - What is that?

Noname - I... I don't know how to explain.

Tacita - (・_・)ノ

Hadwin - Whatever it means. I will be leaving now. Also, little pup, I have kept my promise and gotten ahold of that heart for you. I hope you kept yours.

With that, she is gone.

Tacita - ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

In the real world, I turn towards Lily, who’s sitting nearby in the same style of chair as me, examining a set of healing marks she’s placed on a range of different materials to see what happens.

“Lily, Beyond Community.”

She looks quickly up at me and then stares into the empty space in front of her, reading the messages.

Grumpy - (づ￣ ³￣)づ

Tacita - ＼(〇_ｏ)／

Tacita - C= C= C= C= C=┌(;・ω・)┘

Noname - Gareth, how is your group?

Gareth - We are still on the 6th floor, but we have a plan. It’s probably going to take anywhere from a few weeks to a month or two if everything works out. We’re proceeding slowly and safely. What about you guys?

Noname - You know it, every floor is easier at the start.

Gareth - I can only agree with that. A few days ago I tried asking Savant where he is, but he didn't answer, and getting that kind of information from Tacita is...

Tacita - ヽ( `д´*)ノ

Gareth - I apologize! Anyway, as I told Sset, I should be there at the scheduled time, Noname. See you then!

With that, I close the community and check the numbers.

Easy difficulty 1159/2000

Normal difficulty 842/1000

Hard difficulty 223/500

Hell difficulty 36/250

Beyond 9/10

Easy difficulty has lost about 200 people since the last time I checked. Adjusted for the ones who already used their difficulty change token, which is surprising, given that people don’t tend to die as much nowadays.

People in Hard difficulty seem to be theorizing that some of them may have already cleared the tutorial and gotten out, but it's hard to confirm. Even now we can only communicate with people from other difficulties only when they’re on the same floor as us. That's why I haven't seen Channeler for a while along with some of the others. Beyond is the only exception to that.

It's an interesting thought, leaving the tutorial after clearing the 13th floor, and I'm curious to find out if I'm still the only one who knows the exact number of floors. So far estimates have ranged from 10 to 20, to 50, even a hundred floors in some cases, and it's hard not to feel a bit smug about that.

As for the other difficulties, Normal is only missing around 20 people who likely died, Hard lost 20 or so as well, and Hell lost three. I even think some of that may account for casualties in Gareth's and Brainiac's group, but I haven't asked.

Two days remain until the Beyond expedition, and preparations are in full swing.

Setting up a safe house.

Collecting information about the new floor.

Healing marks, items, mana batteries, charging our crowns, sacrifices for Lily in the form of my severed left arms stacked in her armory.

My training with Whitey and my decision not to hold off beating him before I proceed to level 300. If the situation allows, I will reach level 300 within Beyond and continue down the path of mana.

I’ve been thinking about it, and I think my pride may have gotten the better of me, making me want to defeat him with kinetic energy alone and at a lower level than him.

That in and of itself may as well have been a slap to the face, almost like I was looking down on him—a man in as much awe of kinetic energy as I am when it comes to mana. I can confirm that just from seeing his memories and the way he fights.

I’ve been too greedy, but it's not all bad, I have learned a lot in the process and will continue to do so. But my path is the pursuit of mana and always will be. Everything else is supplementary.

Once again, I look over the options.

[Resonance] and [Mana Domain]

[Mana Domain] and [Infusion]

[Resonance] and [Infusion]

I think I’ll keep [Mana Domain] as it is, focused solely on mana. I like using it on my body alone, almost as if I’m declaring it my personal domain of mana, making it even harder for someone to disrupt my body’s flow of mana. That leaves me with one option.

 

Congratulations, you have successfully combined [Resonance] and [Infusion]! A new skill has been created.

You have acquired [Eclipse].

[Eclipse - lvl 0 > Eclipse - lvl 8]