I waited for what felt like a couple of minutes before I heard the door open once more. The slow and calm footsteps approached, and my ears trembled after every single one. Soon, he stood over me, this time no armor. The Light Maker looked at me with a hard to read expression before shaking his head.
“I expected you to run away.”
I snorted. “Do you think I can?”
“No.” He let out a breath and inched a vial towards my mouth. “If I wanted to kill you, I would’ve done so now. So just drink.”
I complied even though I was skeptical, and soon the familiar warmth spread through my body. Though it was much stronger than what I remembered. I felt my bones slowly shift with flares of pain, I felt my flesh grow hot and my blood boil. The fiery vitality spread through my body. I let out a small grunt as I began to rapidly recover, meanwhile I heard The Light Maker sit down across from me. He let out a loud sigh.
“Tell me the real reason you need to deal with the Blight Corruption.”
I squirmed a bit, before I finally managed to croak. “I think it’s best if you stay out of my trial.”
There was only silence as he seemed to wait for me to fully recover. A few minutes passed as my arms slowly cracked and came together. It took some time, but eventually I sat up with some sweat trickling down my forehead. My gaze slowly trailed through The Light Maker, only to notice his body was marred with scars, and his face was— a bit vacant, in deep concentration as if thinking. He was a human man, probably old based on the gray hairs I could observe.
There were a few more moments of silence before he finally spoke.
“Tell me, why should I stay away?” His voice was calm and unfeeling, it was weird.
I took a breath. “It’s not something you should get involved in.”
He raised his brow. “Why not? Let me remind you whose life is in danger here.”
“If you kill me, it’s not as if you will get to live after the fact.” I snorted. “You are too weak, I am just trying to complete the trial because things have gotten out of hand. My current trial objective is corrupted.”
He frowned. “What do you take me for a child? The corruption of The System is nothing more than a rumor to scare children from having big ambitions. Oh, what’s that? You want to go past A Grade in the future? You can’t! The big bad corruption of The System will get ya!” he scoffed. “Do better if you wanna lie.”
“Big bad corruption, what do you mean?” I was a bit lost.
“You know— or maybe you don’t. Maybe you just heard it as a senseless rumor. It is said that The System has gone through so many changes and interferences from powerful figures that some of its rules contradict themselves, causing inevitable errors. The System is like a computer—”
“I don’t know what that is.” I interrupted.
He paused for a moment before making a different analogy. “Like a machine, that has a wheel that can’t spin in two opposite directions at the same time. This leads to the so-called System corruption. It is said that once an entity, aka: us, gets corrupted then our soul is taken away.”
I frowned. What was the corruption I saw on Elasia then— was she corrupted? I didn’t really understand it.
“Surprised? It’s a tale to scare people from aiming big. It is said that certain species will get corrupted upon reaching B grade, C grade, A grade, whatever lies beyond— it’s just a lie sold to stop aspirations and dreams from happening. Those that are born long after their civilization is integrated don’t have it in them to fight, and those that rise above become heroes. There are those that move on for a better life—” He paused. “Why am I even telling you this, ah, yeah it's that lost gaze of yours.”
He met my eyes with pause.
“It’s innocent and full of curiosity, and yet when the times matter it becomes sharp, but you’re still ignorant.” I frowned. “You have failed to see I discarded the idea of killing you since I sat down again, and you haven’t leveraged it to your advantage. Instead you keep quaking in your boots simply letting me run my mouth.”
His gaze made me angry. “Fuck you.”
“You sure are easy to read.” He chuckled dryly. “I’ll get to the point. I do want to get rid of the Corruption source, however, it’s closer to a sense of duty to finish what I came here for rather than something else. And— well, compared to the other two Dark plant affinity users I’ve seen in my lifetime you actually don’t have that, hm…” He paused. “Bloodthirst or hatred for life.”
I frowned— he was telling the truth based on everything I could tell, but it still just— I was unsure about a lot of things.
“So even if you don’t kill me, what gives? Also— are you sure you wouldn’t die if you kill me from the contract violation?” I asked with some skepticism.
“I don’t wish to try it.” He shrugged. “That said, do explain to me: why are you here, in the Crimson Stretch, what is your trial about?”
I didn’t know if it was right to talk about it. But— maybe Elasia could kill him if I said too much? She would certainly kill him by any means possible if it meant saving Lumina, that I understood. Then— maybe, just maybe… it was fine.
“My trial objective is to create an Artificial Heart, my current one anyway. I took some book from the underground, and it changed into that.” I sighed. “Then the treant appeared and I must protect the book from the treant, but it cannot seem to sense the book if it's within my ring.”
The Light Maker oddly tensed up. “Wait, hold— if you have the book in your ring. And the treant is looking for it then—”
“Then?” I prodded with a sense of foreboding.
“Then, it’s not that it cannot sense it but rather—” His expression became pale. “I always thought Blight Corruption turned things into senseless things, but after seeing them attack you all in conjunction maybe, then… They are all interconnected.”
I frowned. “I think they are, why?”
“It’s not that it cannot sense it, it’s just that it’s waiting for the opportunity and that opportunity should be here soon.” He stood up and went to his room in a rush. “Maybe it cannot sense it as clearly, but it clearly doesn’t matter—”
The door closed. And his voice became a bit more muffled.
“Explain to me the Artificial Heart thing in a bit, in the meantime grab your things since we have to leave.”
I tensed up realizing how serious he was. I rapidly stood up and looked for my bow and spear only to find them on the ground. Just as I was getting a hold of the two of them, I heard the door open once more, and soon I was greeted with the Light Maker in full armor.
“Alright, we are leaving right now.” He ushered. “Explain the Artificial Heart thing on the way.”
“Why are we leaving now?” I stood up.
“Because, if the things already know where we are then it’s only a matter of time before—”
The entire base rocked with a dull metallic sound.
“Before the monsters raid our base…” He finished with a sigh.
The lights flickered and I heard the metallic echo throughout the base and at that moment The Light Maker turned to me. His visor stared at me for what felt like an eternal silence. I tensed up and my voice became slightly quiet.
“What?”
“You have to get stronger.”
“No shit!” I snorted.
“Spearhead everything, you will try to kill everything and I will finish them off. The more levels you get the better for us.”
“Wait, I haven’t distributed attributes for some time now and—” The base rocked. “I also haven’t chosen a level up skill since level 65, apparently I have a higher chance to get something good.”
“So, you’ve skipped four chances and are now on the fifth?” He thought out loud. “Distribute your attributes, and regarding the skill, wait until level 95. It will be the 7th chance. Remember, seven is the lucky number. At least after five.”
Right, seven. Five of a Kind was also five… so seven and five.
I nodded and The Light Maker spoke.
“Distribute your stuff before it’s too late—” The lights flickered. “Hurry.”
In a rush I opened my status, and saw I had 48 free attribute points. I was unsure about where to put them, but The Light Maker was my ally — somehow — so I had to account for that. I had plenty of mana thanks to Elasia’s help. I didn’t need any more Vigor, Agility was unnecessary, then that left me with: Perception. The ability to perceive things better, to be aware of my surroundings and make sound judgements based on my instincts…
There was a brief second of hesitation before I placed all 48 points into it. I felt my senses expand outside the base and I felt the Lycans pouncing on the walls.
Name: Blair | Level: 85
Race: (Elf)??? (D-Grade)
Grand Feat: The Realm Breaker
Feats: [Lone Survivor], [Bottomless Ambition], [Champion Of Champions], [Champion Of Illusion], [Pest Control], [DeathShot], [Five of a Kind], [Pacifist of the New World], [Evolutionary Herald], [Bane of the Elite Monsters], [Bringer of Civilization], [Untamed One], [First Leader]
Prophecy: Scarlet Shift (C-Grade)
Basic skills: Universal Understanding (NaN), Universal Inquiry (NaN)
Free attribute points: 0
VIG: 204 | END: 70 |
STR: 68 | AGI: 100 |
PER: 274 | WIS: 358 |
Skills: [Proficient Archery (Uncommon Passive)], [Explosive Shot (Rare)], [Power Draw (Uncommon)], [Penumbral Instinct (Rare Passive)], [Frictionless Slide (Rare Passive)], [Burrowing Shot (Rare)], [Flashbang (Rare)], [Mana Manipulation (Epic Passive)], [Three-Marked (Rare Passive)], [Frenzy (Rare)], [Enhancement Mimicry (Epic)]. [Dynamic Mana (Epic Passive)]
Prophecy Skills: [Seed Manipulation (Rare Passive)], [All Dark (Uncommon Passive)], [Friend of the Dark Plants (Rare Passive)], [Blooming Combustion (Epic)], [Plant Mutation (Epic)]
Attunements: Dark plants (III)
Prime Currency: 5,250
I sort of expected to trigger the requirements for the C grade Evolution, but they weren’t there just yet. Maybe I was getting a bit too ahead of myself, but nevertheless I realized the danger I was in. That we were in. I took a deep breath and spoke.
“Alright. I will make two treants. However…” I glared at The Light Maker. “If you kill them in crossfire, I might also die due to mana link. So, just don’t attack them.”
He slowly nodded. “Now I see why you were throwing up blood when I picked you up.”
I shook my head with a sigh and took out some seeds from my ring. Much to the man’s curiosity.
◇ ◇ ◇
I spit out blood as I felt a burning pain go through my very core, I felt as if my mana had burnt my insides for the briefest second as the seed disintegrated. It was the second time it happened, and all I could do was frown with annoyance.
The Light Maker wasn’t very impressed. “I told you that more than one is outside of your capabilities.”
I simply grumbled and took a bead from the Royal Azalea that was next to me, before throwing the rest into my ring. The Light Maker had told me that I would only be able to make a single Treant until C grade after observing me do it, but I didn’t listen, and the fact that he was right annoyed me. Apparently it was simply something to do with the limits of my being.
Meanwhile, a Sangir Tree Treant stood behind The Light Maker. At first he examined it with a lot of detail, but he dismissed it after a few seconds. The lights inside the base were long gone now. However, there was something I realized. I could sense my mana whirling within the treant’s insides, churning and animating it. There had been a skill that made it last thrice longer, though I was unsure of how it actually worked. That said there was something that made me curious about the mana within my treant— Maybe the treant could use my skills?
“Well, I estimate we have about two more minutes.” The Light Maker commented, interrupting my thoughts. “Anything you wanna review?”
I shook my head as I felt the mana within me stop burning. “No need to wait. Let’s just do it.”
“Is that so?” He sounded amused. “Like I said, you are spearheading stuff.”
I nodded as we moved to the front door. Grabbing some arrows from my ring. The Light Maker stood close to it seemingly ready to open it. But I simply ignored him, and decided to test a theory.
“Treant explode the door!”
“What—”
Hundreds of vines engulfed my vision and attacked the door, however there was no movement from the mana much to my disappointment.
“Stop!” I commanded once more as some of the vines dug into the metal, at that moment they all went limp and retracted.
“What are you even doing?” The Light Maker asked with evident annoyance.
I snorted. “I was just testing things.”
“Blegh, what could you possibly test?” He answered even more annoyed but I ignored him.
“Whatever.” I took out extra arrows and nocked the initial three into my bow. “I’ll blow the door now.”
The Light Maker shook his head as he saw my mana coarse through my bow. I took a breath and pushed mana into the arrows, overwhelming them with reactive energy to explode on contact, and with a small frown. I fired, the arrows streaked for a split second before they boomed on the door with a flash of green. I heard the metal tear, and my vision became briefly green, but I did not pause.
“Kill all of the monsters!” I commanded the treant as I saw the gaping hole past the base.
The wisp of green flame flickered, with undulating light waves that showed what laid past the darkness. Twisted beings with unnatural protrusions, baring their fangs with eyes full of hatred— wretched and deformed. One of the monsters roared, and soon all of them did, sending echoes through my ears as if they were drums of war.
I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was metallic and solid. When did he—
“You can do it, Realm Breaker.” He spoke in the calmest way possible, almost dismissive. “I believe in you.”
I nearly sighed and got ready for battle.
Azrie
You can read the entirety of book 2 (up to chapter 155) on patreon!
I also opened a ko-fi, where you can read from chapter 137 onwards!
Blair now has a discord server, join here
I waited for what felt like a couple of minutes before I heard the door open once more. The slow and calm footsteps approached, and my ears trembled after every single one. Soon, he stood over me, this time no armor. The Light Maker looked at me with a hard to read expression before shaking his head.
“I expected you to run away.”
I snorted. “Do you think I can?”
“No.” He let out a breath and inched a vial towards my mouth. “If I wanted to kill you, I would’ve done so now. So just drink.”
I complied even though I was skeptical, and soon the familiar warmth spread through my body. Though it was much stronger than what I remembered. I felt my bones slowly shift with flares of pain, I felt my flesh grow hot and my blood boil. The fiery vitality spread through my body. I let out a small grunt as I began to rapidly recover, meanwhile I heard The Light Maker sit down across from me. He let out a loud sigh.
“Tell me the real reason you need to deal with the Blight Corruption.”
I squirmed a bit, before I finally managed to croak. “I think it’s best if you stay out of my trial.”
There was only silence as he seemed to wait for me to fully recover. A few minutes passed as my arms slowly cracked and came together. It took some time, but eventually I sat up with some sweat trickling down my forehead. My gaze slowly trailed through The Light Maker, only to notice his body was marred with scars, and his face was— a bit vacant, in deep concentration as if thinking. He was a human man, probably old based on the gray hairs I could observe.
There were a few more moments of silence before he finally spoke.
“Tell me, why should I stay away?” His voice was calm and unfeeling, it was weird.
I took a breath. “It’s not something you should get involved in.”
He raised his brow. “Why not? Let me remind you whose life is in danger here.”
“If you kill me, it’s not as if you will get to live after the fact.” I snorted. “You are too weak, I am just trying to complete the trial because things have gotten out of hand. My current trial objective is corrupted.”
He frowned. “What do you take me for a child? The corruption of The System is nothing more than a rumor to scare children from having big ambitions. Oh, what’s that? You want to go past A Grade in the future? You can’t! The big bad corruption of The System will get ya!” he scoffed. “Do better if you wanna lie.”
“Big bad corruption, what do you mean?” I was a bit lost.
“You know— or maybe you don’t. Maybe you just heard it as a senseless rumor. It is said that The System has gone through so many changes and interferences from powerful figures that some of its rules contradict themselves, causing inevitable errors. The System is like a computer—”
“I don’t know what that is.” I interrupted.
He paused for a moment before making a different analogy. “Like a machine, that has a wheel that can’t spin in two opposite directions at the same time. This leads to the so-called System corruption. It is said that once an entity, aka: us, gets corrupted then our soul is taken away.”
I frowned. What was the corruption I saw on Elasia then— was she corrupted? I didn’t really understand it.
“Surprised? It’s a tale to scare people from aiming big. It is said that certain species will get corrupted upon reaching B grade, C grade, A grade, whatever lies beyond— it’s just a lie sold to stop aspirations and dreams from happening. Those that are born long after their civilization is integrated don’t have it in them to fight, and those that rise above become heroes. There are those that move on for a better life—” He paused. “Why am I even telling you this, ah, yeah it's that lost gaze of yours.”
He met my eyes with pause.
“It’s innocent and full of curiosity, and yet when the times matter it becomes sharp, but you’re still ignorant.” I frowned. “You have failed to see I discarded the idea of killing you since I sat down again, and you haven’t leveraged it to your advantage. Instead you keep quaking in your boots simply letting me run my mouth.”
His gaze made me angry. “Fuck you.”
“You sure are easy to read.” He chuckled dryly. “I’ll get to the point. I do want to get rid of the Corruption source, however, it’s closer to a sense of duty to finish what I came here for rather than something else. And— well, compared to the other two Dark plant affinity users I’ve seen in my lifetime you actually don’t have that, hm…” He paused. “Bloodthirst or hatred for life.”
I frowned— he was telling the truth based on everything I could tell, but it still just— I was unsure about a lot of things.
“So even if you don’t kill me, what gives? Also— are you sure you wouldn’t die if you kill me from the contract violation?” I asked with some skepticism.
“I don’t wish to try it.” He shrugged. “That said, do explain to me: why are you here, in the Crimson Stretch, what is your trial about?”
I didn’t know if it was right to talk about it. But— maybe Elasia could kill him if I said too much? She would certainly kill him by any means possible if it meant saving Lumina, that I understood. Then— maybe, just maybe… it was fine.
“My trial objective is to create an Artificial Heart, my current one anyway. I took some book from the underground, and it changed into that.” I sighed. “Then the treant appeared and I must protect the book from the treant, but it cannot seem to sense the book if it's within my ring.”
The Light Maker oddly tensed up. “Wait, hold— if you have the book in your ring. And the treant is looking for it then—”
“Then?” I prodded with a sense of foreboding.
“Then, it’s not that it cannot sense it but rather—” His expression became pale. “I always thought Blight Corruption turned things into senseless things, but after seeing them attack you all in conjunction maybe, then… They are all interconnected.”
I frowned. “I think they are, why?”
“It’s not that it cannot sense it, it’s just that it’s waiting for the opportunity and that opportunity should be here soon.” He stood up and went to his room in a rush. “Maybe it cannot sense it as clearly, but it clearly doesn’t matter—”
The door closed. And his voice became a bit more muffled.
“Explain to me the Artificial Heart thing in a bit, in the meantime grab your things since we have to leave.”
I tensed up realizing how serious he was. I rapidly stood up and looked for my bow and spear only to find them on the ground. Just as I was getting a hold of the two of them, I heard the door open once more, and soon I was greeted with the Light Maker in full armor.
“Alright, we are leaving right now.” He ushered. “Explain the Artificial Heart thing on the way.”
“Why are we leaving now?” I stood up.
“Because, if the things already know where we are then it’s only a matter of time before—”
The entire base rocked with a dull metallic sound.
“Before the monsters raid our base…” He finished with a sigh.
The lights flickered and I heard the metallic echo throughout the base and at that moment The Light Maker turned to me. His visor stared at me for what felt like an eternal silence. I tensed up and my voice became slightly quiet.
“What?”
“You have to get stronger.”
“No shit!” I snorted.
“Spearhead everything, you will try to kill everything and I will finish them off. The more levels you get the better for us.”
“Wait, I haven’t distributed attributes for some time now and—” The base rocked. “I also haven’t chosen a level up skill since level 65, apparently I have a higher chance to get something good.”
“So, you’ve skipped four chances and are now on the fifth?” He thought out loud. “Distribute your attributes, and regarding the skill, wait until level 95. It will be the 7th chance. Remember, seven is the lucky number. At least after five.”
Right, seven. Five of a Kind was also five… so seven and five.
I nodded and The Light Maker spoke.
“Distribute your stuff before it’s too late—” The lights flickered. “Hurry.”
In a rush I opened my status, and saw I had 48 free attribute points. I was unsure about where to put them, but The Light Maker was my ally — somehow — so I had to account for that. I had plenty of mana thanks to Elasia’s help. I didn’t need any more Vigor, Agility was unnecessary, then that left me with: Perception. The ability to perceive things better, to be aware of my surroundings and make sound judgements based on my instincts…
There was a brief second of hesitation before I placed all 48 points into it. I felt my senses expand outside the base and I felt the Lycans pouncing on the walls.
Name: Blair | Level: 85
Race: (Elf)??? (D-Grade)
Grand Feat: The Realm Breaker
Feats: [Lone Survivor], [Bottomless Ambition], [Champion Of Champions], [Champion Of Illusion], [Pest Control], [DeathShot], [Five of a Kind], [Pacifist of the New World], [Evolutionary Herald], [Bane of the Elite Monsters], [Bringer of Civilization], [Untamed One], [First Leader]
Prophecy: Scarlet Shift (C-Grade)
Basic skills: Universal Understanding (NaN), Universal Inquiry (NaN)
Free attribute points: 0
VIG: 204 | END: 70 |
STR: 68 | AGI: 100 |
PER: 274 | WIS: 358 |
Skills: [Proficient Archery (Uncommon Passive)], [Explosive Shot (Rare)], [Power Draw (Uncommon)], [Penumbral Instinct (Rare Passive)], [Frictionless Slide (Rare Passive)], [Burrowing Shot (Rare)], [Flashbang (Rare)], [Mana Manipulation (Epic Passive)], [Three-Marked (Rare Passive)], [Frenzy (Rare)], [Enhancement Mimicry (Epic)]. [Dynamic Mana (Epic Passive)]
Prophecy Skills: [Seed Manipulation (Rare Passive)], [All Dark (Uncommon Passive)], [Friend of the Dark Plants (Rare Passive)], [Blooming Combustion (Epic)], [Plant Mutation (Epic)]
Attunements: Dark plants (III)
Prime Currency: 5,250
I sort of expected to trigger the requirements for the C grade Evolution, but they weren’t there just yet. Maybe I was getting a bit too ahead of myself, but nevertheless I realized the danger I was in. That we were in. I took a deep breath and spoke.
“Alright. I will make two treants. However…” I glared at The Light Maker. “If you kill them in crossfire, I might also die due to mana link. So, just don’t attack them.”
He slowly nodded. “Now I see why you were throwing up blood when I picked you up.”
I shook my head with a sigh and took out some seeds from my ring. Much to the man’s curiosity.
◇ ◇ ◇
I spit out blood as I felt a burning pain go through my very core, I felt as if my mana had burnt my insides for the briefest second as the seed disintegrated. It was the second time it happened, and all I could do was frown with annoyance.
The Light Maker wasn’t very impressed. “I told you that more than one is outside of your capabilities.”
I simply grumbled and took a bead from the Royal Azalea that was next to me, before throwing the rest into my ring. The Light Maker had told me that I would only be able to make a single Treant until C grade after observing me do it, but I didn’t listen, and the fact that he was right annoyed me. Apparently it was simply something to do with the limits of my being.
Meanwhile, a Sangir Tree Treant stood behind The Light Maker. At first he examined it with a lot of detail, but he dismissed it after a few seconds. The lights inside the base were long gone now. However, there was something I realized. I could sense my mana whirling within the treant’s insides, churning and animating it. There had been a skill that made it last thrice longer, though I was unsure of how it actually worked. That said there was something that made me curious about the mana within my treant— Maybe the treant could use my skills?
“Well, I estimate we have about two more minutes.” The Light Maker commented, interrupting my thoughts. “Anything you wanna review?”
I shook my head as I felt the mana within me stop burning. “No need to wait. Let’s just do it.”
“Is that so?” He sounded amused. “Like I said, you are spearheading stuff.”
I nodded as we moved to the front door. Grabbing some arrows from my ring. The Light Maker stood close to it seemingly ready to open it. But I simply ignored him, and decided to test a theory.
“Treant explode the door!”
“What—”
Hundreds of vines engulfed my vision and attacked the door, however there was no movement from the mana much to my disappointment.
“Stop!” I commanded once more as some of the vines dug into the metal, at that moment they all went limp and retracted.
“What are you even doing?” The Light Maker asked with evident annoyance.
I snorted. “I was just testing things.”
“Blegh, what could you possibly test?” He answered even more annoyed but I ignored him.
“Whatever.” I took out extra arrows and nocked the initial three into my bow. “I’ll blow the door now.”
The Light Maker shook his head as he saw my mana coarse through my bow. I took a breath and pushed mana into the arrows, overwhelming them with reactive energy to explode on contact, and with a small frown. I fired, the arrows streaked for a split second before they boomed on the door with a flash of green. I heard the metal tear, and my vision became briefly green, but I did not pause.
“Kill all of the monsters!” I commanded the treant as I saw the gaping hole past the base.
The wisp of green flame flickered, with undulating light waves that showed what laid past the darkness. Twisted beings with unnatural protrusions, baring their fangs with eyes full of hatred— wretched and deformed. One of the monsters roared, and soon all of them did, sending echoes through my ears as if they were drums of war.
I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was metallic and solid. When did he—
“You can do it, Realm Breaker.” He spoke in the calmest way possible, almost dismissive. “I believe in you.”
I nearly sighed and got ready for battle.
Azrie
You can read the entirety of book 2 (up to chapter 155) on patreon!
I also opened a ko-fi, where you can read from chapter 137 onwards!
Blair now has a discord server, join here
