CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

  “Huh?!”

  The collective exclamation shocked Richard from his state of numb acceptance.

  Huddled around the campfire, practically smothered by the combined attention of the tiny tireless terrors, naturally, all he’d wanted to do was get some cultivation in. Only, come to find out, in quite possibly the least convenient way imaginable, that his body wasn’t nearly so recovered as he’d thought it was. Apparently, manipulating mana through your body for days at a time without the rather convenient advent of mana channels to- well, channel said mana, can lead to certain… complications down the line.

  Mainly being, every time he manipulated his mana now, he was literally tearing himself apart from the inside. He could actually feel it grating against his internal organs, sanding dust from his bones, and wearing away at his tendons.

  All less than pleasant sensations, I’ll have you know.

  There was nothing for it.

  He’d have to evolve to F Grade, and soon. At least then he’d be granted some rudimentary mana channels—one for his spine and four for his extremities—what they liked to call “training channels,” back in his day. Until that time, he’d resolved himself, he’d just have to take it easy on the mana manipulation for now. Of course, there was still the matter of improving his poor talent, boosting his mana capacity, gaining prestige, and killing a named elite before he’d be allowed to evolve, but that could all come later.

  Right now, even though the wasted time irked him to no end, what he most needed was rest and recovery.

  Which was ultimately why he’d been given no other choice but to sit and suffer through an avalanche of nonsensical chatter, without even the glimmer of hope—like, say, a bullet through the brain—on the distant horizon. Until, that was, the ladies conversation peaked his interest.

  “Level fifteen!” the rambunctious one—he thought her name was Maya?—exclaimed. “As in one five? You’re already in double digits? Man that is so unfair! I’m only at level four!”

  “That low?!” the girl, Marlene, cried out.

  Eyes widening, she immediately clamped her hands over her mouth, as if she might put the words back.

  “What? And you’re saying you’re any better, huh, MaryMaryMary? Isn’t there that saying about stones and glass houses? With your kill count, I’m like double whatever you got, so I don’t even wanna hear it! What level are you guys at anyway? I need to see how I stack up.”

  Hesitantly, Eva was the next to respond.

  “I’m level three.”

  She turned to Robin.

  “Eight, like I said,” the woman still a bit shell shocked following Denise’s revelation.

  “And we all know miss designer handbag over here used her cheats to get to level fifteen.”

  The woman in question pursed her lips at the comment, but refused to take the bait.

  “Which just leaves…?”

  Everyone’s eyes fell on Marlene. The girl squirmed under the combined attention.

  “Uh-? Umm… Level fifteen?”

  Both Robin and Denise snapped to attention, sitting ramrod straight.

  “How?!” they both cried out in unison, before glaring at one another—Denise incensed by the news, while Robin was merely confused.

  “Cheaters!” Maya shouted at no one in particular. “I’m surrounded by cheaters! That’s it! I call hacks! There’s gotta be a way to report this, right? Swear it has to be a bug or something!”

  “Girl, how many of the little demon creatures did you kill really? Is there something you haven’t told us about? A special monster or…” Denise was searching for any reasonable explanation for the discrepancy.

  “N-no! It weren’t nothin’ like that! Swear on my granddaddy’s grave, I didn’t! I k-killed nine of ‘em, just like it said I did! I thought all ya’ll were leveling as quick as I was till just now. On account of it being easy mode and all.”

  Denise pursed her lips and glared, clearly unhappy with this response, but, following a stern look from Robin, the woman eventually settled back into her camp chair. Maintaining a knuckle white grip on the ability cube in her hands. His, ability cube, if he wanted to split hairs over it, though he highly doubted that particular boss monster dropped any of the ability cubes he’d need. And even if it did, in his experience, Uncommon ranked cubes weren’t exactly hard to come by. He’d let it slide, this once, though he could tell a conversation about loot distribution was unavoidable.

  Mainly being, don’t touch my things or I’ll be forced to kill you. Not really much of a conversation, but at least it’s concise.

  Very real threats aside, he was feeling- well, he was kind of in shock to be honest. And here he’d been under the impression only the talentless dregs were tossed into the super easy mode tutorial. Not so, it would seem. Most surprising of all was that the most timid of the bunch was apparently the most talented among them. Go figure.

  Did not see that coming. Is it too late to get on her good side?

  Of course, without having a look at her screens, there was no way to know for sure. A good Master Formation went a long way, but without peerage and soul grade, it wouldn’t take you to the heights of power, merely to the outskirts.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Still. At least in terms of leveling talent, she may very well be a future powerhouse in the making. If she can get her chronic insecurity in check, that is. Ugh! So unfair. Opon save me from talented individuals.

  With these newfound revelations, however, he was left with a bit of a dilemma. Did he seek to aid them in any way. Use his future knowledge to aid their ascension? Considering he didn’t recognize either of them from his previous timeline, they either hadn’t lived up to their potential, or had died somewhere along the way. With a few words in receptive ears, he could probably change that. Though it would mean revealing himself prematurely. And with that came the risk of discovery by the creature. It’s large yellow eyes glinting from somewhere in the trees.

  Watching. Always watching.

  Richard shuddered. Yeah, no. He wasn’t sticking his neck out for these people. He’d let them sink or swim by their own merits. Having seen firsthand what constituted the cream of the crop, the 0.001%, a high grade Master Formation wasn’t nearly enough to impress him.

  I mean, they’d need to have a peerage ranking of Earl, at least, for me to even consider-!

  “Well,” Denise ground out. “If there really were no tricks involved, and you really do level as quickly as I do,” she didn’t even consider the thought that the girl might level even faster than she did. “Then can I just go ahead and assume you have one of these as well?”

  One moment, something long and reflective appeared in the woman’s left hand, as if from thin air. And in the next? With a dulcet chime, the noble presence of a bona fide Duchess blasted out and away in all directions, to wash over the clearing in a wave of bone rattling vibrations—taking nearly everyone’s breath away. He said nearly, because he was currently so paralyzed by shock, that taking that surprised breath might as well have been an impossibility.

  You’ve gotta be forking kidding me.

  In her hands, she held what looked to be an elegant, stainless-steel rapier. Owning a swept hilt, it was far broader about the blade than you would’ve expected from your standard rapier. About forty two inches long, it was polished to a mirror shine, and had carefully laid inscriptions running all along the blade. Intricate rune-work that seemed to dance in the flickering firelight.

  +-|—Ducal Regalia: Singsong Rapier [Lvl 1]—|-+

  [Epic]

  Silence reigned within the campsite, as many of those present were subjected to the presence of a higher authority for the very first time. He wasn’t sure if they’d noticed it yet, but where they’d each been sitting somewhat straight a moment ago, they were now displaying an unconscious bend. As if bowed under the weight of the woman’s mere proximity. Though, if he was honest, the suppression was rather mild for her peerage rank. He’d known Dukes and Duchesses to flatten entire armies with their Presence of Authority alone, which was obviously a far cry from the subtle nudge he was feeling now.

  He chalked that up to her inexperience, however, rather than any intentional aura suppression on her part.

  And it wasn’t just them that were affected by the presence either. The very mana permeating the air growing visibly agitated. Swirling towards the woman, no, the Duchess, with a bouncy sort of eagerness. As if little puppies welcoming their master home. Drawn to her as if by gravitational pull. Marlene’s eyes widened at the fantastical display. Although… most notably her back did not bend. Which could only mean…

  No… you- you can’t be serious…! Two?!

  Looking around somewhat sheepishly, Marlene bit her lip, before donning a thick blue cloak with an intricate metal clasp. The item appearing around her shoulders as if from spacial storage. A ripple of force pushed every one back a step, nearly putting out the campfire. In that same instant, a presence, much like the first, only several times as powerful, blasted out and away from the unsuspecting girl in a wave—commanding deference from all those present.

  If the effect of the Duchess was relatively subtle and unseen, this girls presence was undeniable. Those closest to her immediately hunched over, as if in pain, though he knew from lived experience it wasn’t anything of the sort.

  The presence of a Royal Princess was far gentler than that, after all.

  More of a subtle caress than a straightforward demand, though the end result was ultimately the same.

  Kneel.

  Even the Duchess was having a hard time resisting the urge to bend the knee. Though, if the sweat beading her brow, and constant trembling were of any indication, she was definitely giving it her all.

  Ahh! No wonder Denise was so hostile basically from the very beginning. Even if only subconsciously, peerage recognizes peerage. She must not have liked the feelings of inferiority she felt whenever she looked at the girl.

  If the mana had been a puppy racing to meet its master where Denise was concerned, with Marlene, it was as if a mother embracing her missing children. A lover surprised by their spouse, just back from war. It rushed to greet her. To caress and attempt to draw her eye. The ambient mana growing increasingly thin as it was all drawn towards Marlene.

  +-|—Royal Regalia: Mantle of Motion [Lvl 1]—|-+

  [Ancient]

  So not one, but two high ranking nobility in his tutorial. He almost wanted to laugh. This was a joke right? It had to be. There was no other explanation. He was well past disbelief, or even jealousy at this point. After all, when dealing with beings so far above you—that outclassed you in every way since the day they were born—after a certain point, you just had to accept that, sometimes, life just wasn’t fair.

  Seriously though, this is so unbelievably rare! Am I dreaming or what? Like, what are even the chances of something like this happening?! 0.0001%?! Less?! I mean, c’mon, what’s next, huh? An honest to gods imperia-!

  A presence unlike any of those that’d come before enveloped the clearing like a rapidly expanding blanket of dense fog—bringing with it feelings of intense hunger, so pervasive, that, even though many couldn’t have stomached another bite only seconds earlier, suddenly it was as if each were on the brink of starvation. Stomachs growled. Several people groaned. And many were literally brought to their knees. Made to kowtow, their eyes bulging with fear and incomprehension.

  Completely unprepared to weather even the weakened presence of an Imperial. All but Marlene, of course, who, while clearly still affected, managed to remain seated despite the strain the effort cost her.

  In an instant, every spec of ambient mana was sucked from their surroundings. Evacuating first the clearing, then the forest beyond. All of it funneling in a ginormous cyclone towards a single unsuspecting figure. The origin source of the domineering presence. One of, if not the only one of the children he could even remotely tolerate, on a minute to minute basis, given her general propensity for keeping to herself. A girl after his own heart, he never heard a peep from her. Only blessed peace and quiet. Unnatural peace and quiet, he now recognized in retrospect. So much so, that one might not have even realized she were there.

  It definitely was not the behavior you expected to see in a four month old child.

  The little girl, with her untamed cloud of kinky black hair, and too large amber eyes—looking like she were actively cataloguing everything around her. She was dressed in a similar onesie to his own. Only now, there was a newfound addition to her wardrobe.

  +-|—Imperial Regalia: Pacifier of Perennial Consumption [Lvl 1]—|-+

  [Legendary]

  Richard nearly passed out then and there. There was only so much of this ridiculousness he could take in a day!

  At this point, I don’t think anything less than a god descending from the heavens right this instant could get a reaction out of me. Opon protect me from these blasted high nobles! Ugh… wait! Is that why my talent is so low?! All the bandwidth was used up by these bona fide monsters?! I swear, this entire tutorial is getting on my very last nerve! Talented sons of- daughters of-! Argh!