CHAPTER SEVENTY SEVEN

  Richard shot forward—ignoring the shouts of surprise from his teacher.

  “Master!” Richard called back over his shoulder. “Could really use a funky baseline right about now! Feeling like I’ve got a couple of happy feet in desperate need to footloose, if you’re picking up what I’m putting down!”

  “You-! Now-?! But I just…?!” his master swore. “… argh…! For the love of-!”

  Despite his annoyance, if the look of concentration which immediately replaced his exasperation was anything to go by, Richard reasoned he recognized the necessity as surely as he did. There wasn’t anything else in his arsenal that even stood a chance of putting down a middling E Grade for good. Least of all when he inevitably lost the element of surprise.

  He crossed the distance between himself and the creature in a matter of moments. The world around him, meanwhile, grew visibly gloomy as he neared. The blanket of liquid darkness spilling across the sky like some inky tidal wave.

  Until three entire quarters of the firmament was completely covered.

  He quickly closed into grappling range. Though stunned, the creature, meanwhile, was beginning to come round. Periodically, it’s eyelids would flutter or it’s claws flex and retract. Just the sight of it immediately set off alarm bells in his head. No time to think, he reacted. Threw his hands out, just as the creature’s eyes snapped wide open.

  Instead of the swift decapitation the creature no doubt expected to deliver, the surge of black gunk which spilled from its pores made sudden movement all but an impossibility. Hundreds of thin streams rapidly syphoning into his palms, while the not-quite mascot twitched and writhed in free-fall.

  Richard had no idea what he was doing to the creature beyond draining it of its resources. Not really. And he didn’t particularly care either. For him, it was enough to know that, after this, the creature wouldn’t be hurting anyone close to him ever again. Passively, Richard watched as the light left the creature’s eyes. As its sclera slowly filled in with black.

  Only once it’s body had fully gone limp, and it’s breaths shallow, did Richard ease up on the intensive mana drain. He didn’t actually want to kill the creature. Not here. Not now. Except, the second he tried to pull back he realized, with horror, that the decision wasn’t entirely up to him. His avaricious hyper conductive mana channels… outright refused.

  His heart lurched.

  No, no, no, this can’t be happening.

  He clamped down on the hungry pulling sensation with everything he had, only to be rebuffed. Tried to erect his previous mental barriers to no avail. Frantic now, he threw every mental trick in the book at his stubborn channels. Meditation techniques, mantras, hymns.

  Nothing worked.

  No, it was worse than that. The constant suction didn’t even falter. It was as if the avaricious nature of his channels had been toying with him all this time. Gave him the illusion of agency because it couldn’t have been bothered.

  Now that it’d, apparently, found itself a treat too sweet to quit, however, any attempt of his to somehow rein it in was seen with contempt at best. Richard could only watch as the very life was seemingly drained from the creature. Eyes growing dull, fur turning grey, muscles turning soft and atrophied.

  Until, with one final, disbelieving gasp, the creature breathed its last.

  In the next moment, several things happened in rapid succession.

  ?CONGRATULATIONS!?

  Through hard work and careful diligence, you have improved the baseline purity of your mana by -8 degrees.

  CORE GRADE: {CoRruPT}

  (-23 Level Purity)

  *DING!*

  ?-|—(You have slain an enemy: PURRSEFONE OF SANDS; THE MIDNIGHT EARL [Lvl 157 ELITE])—|-?

  Experience Gained. Bonus Experience Gained for Slaying a Monster Elite. Participation Points Gained. Bonus Participation Points Gained for Slaying a Monster Elite.

  Bonus Points and Experience Gained for Slaying an E Grade Monster.

  [+31,400 Participation Points]

  *DING!*

  ?—Achievement Earned!—?

  Slay a Named Elite Monster at least Eighty Levels Above You.

  For Achieving Such a Remarkable Feat, You Have Been Granted a Title!

  +-|—[Mighty Monster Slayer (III)]—|-+

  (Passive effect: you have a perfect sense for the location of elite monsters in a hundred kilometer wide radius, both named and regular.)

  (Active Effect: When in the presence of an Elite, the user’s strength, endurance, resilience, and regeneration parameters are increased by 10% (Lasts indefinitely. Zero cooldown.))

  One after another, the system messages came and went, some too fast, or bizarre, for him to fully appreciate. With his vision growing dark around the edges, and not knowing for how long he’d be out—or if he’d ever wake up again period, Richard did the only thing that he absolutely could notafford to put off for a moment longer.

  *DING!*

  You Have met all the Requirements for your First Class Selection.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Do you wish to select your class?

  YES/NO

  Richard selected yes, and his consciousness promptly succumbed to oblivion. Pulled inexorably into the depths of his soul.

  +++

  Breaths coming in ragged gulps, the simple fact that Shaper’s spiritual imprint didn’t actually need to breathe didn’t stop him from hamming it up regardless. That little stunt had taken a lot out of him, after all. He thought it only fair the world at large be made aware of as much. Not the why, necessarily—the reasons behind the full media blackouts weren’t exactly something he wanted to advertise—so much as the what.

  After all, if even he were pushed to such an expression of physical exhaustion, you just knew he had to have been doing something impressive. The imprint wiped a nonexistent bead of sweat from his brow for the exact same reasons, before he abruptly sobered up.

  Watched as the unconscious boy and his imperial ward spiraled ever earthward. Truly as helpless as they appeared, for what was probably the first time in recent memory. Silver light flashed in his palm as a minor edict slowed their descent. In return, his image flickered and dimmed. A great deal of his longevity used up in that unimpressive display.

  And that wouldn’t be the end of it either.

  Shaper’s imprint craned his neck. Glanced up at the shapeless elemental entity currently performing the equivalent of stretching after a good long nap. The thing wasn’t even fully awake yet, and already it blanketed the sky from horizon to horizon.

  When it did wake…?

  His eyes tracked the two children as they trailed towards the ground.

  “I’ll just have to trust in mother to see things through, and let the cards fall as they may,” he snorted. “What else is new?”

  The imprint’s only regret, before he tapped into the power reserves largely sustaining shapers legacy, that he’d never had the chance to say goodbye.

  +++

  Marlene sat in what was, effectively, a large and spacious waiting room. Though she thought it resembled an open plan lobby more than anything. It reminded her of a fancy hotel, or perhaps commercial airport? It was massive, for one.

  A well lit atrium decorated with all manner of plant life, floor to ceiling windows, and holographic advertisements galore—each selling all manner of expensive looking alien products. Not to mention the grand space was positively bustling with activity.

  When she’d first arrived with a flash of light and a wave of disorientation, she’d immediately been led to the plush couch nearest the reception desk by one friendly liaison flanked by two less than friendly looking soldier types in full combat armor.

  Much to her chagrin, though her reception had been pleasant enough—the female liaison periodically flashing her teeth, in what she hoped was a friendly gesture, as she rattled off a quick tour—her reaction to the reptilian soldiers… left much to be desired. Thankfully, she didn’t think she’d done any lasting harm with her use of Glacial Inertia, though the guard that’d been tasked with watching over her, most notably, stood much farther apart and less confidently than they had upon her arrival.

  The liaison, meanwhile, she hadn’t seen since. Likely for the best as, the last time she had, the reptilian woman had appeared decidedly unwell.

  She didn’t know why, but a part of her felt oddly vindicated by their reaction.

  That’d all been around three or so minutes ago, and, having been left with nothing to do but fiddle with her thumbs in that time, she’d become acutely aware of just how out of place she was when compared to the well put together pedestrians going about their day. Having been snatched right out of the tutorial, she was understandably filthy, unkempt, covered in blood, and, worst of all, she was pretty sure she stank to high heaven.

  Suddenly, Marlene rose to her feet, causing the guards behind her to startle. Shoulders slightly hunched, arms wrapping her middle, she turned to face the two soldiers. She ignored the way their hands unconsciously strayed to their firearms.

  “Y’all have a restroom I could use?” she hesitated. “And maybe a spare set of clothes? I’d hate to meet with your bosses lookin’ like this.”

  The two soldiers hesitated, before one jerked his head in a seemingly random direction. The other gave a crisp salute of some kind, before marching in said direction. Marlene hesitated for a moment. The blank helmets they wore, combined with the silent treatment, giving her very little to go on. Finally, she hurried after the one currently shouldering his way through the crowds.

  Nobody stopped her.

  Over the next ten minutes, she was led to a futuristic looking restroom, washed herself off in the builtin shower unit, and even donned a slightly baggy pair of clean clothes—roughly tailored to her human proportions. There was even a medical unit that helped seal her wounds free of charge.

  The experience so transcendent, especially after the day she’d just had, that, by the time she’d exited the restroom, she felt brand new.

  It was only as they began to make their way back to her seat, and her wandering eye caught the large projection of a holographic screen, that her good mood plummeted.

  She broke away from her guard, began to shove her way through the crowd gathered below the screen. Or at least she tried to. The irritated hiss proceeded the elbow to the face, if just barely. The next thing she knew, she was lying on the cold stone floor and her eye felt hot and swollen. Above her, she thought she could hear the unintelligible hissing take on an unmistakably derisive tone.

  Something molten and agitated bubbled up inside of her, and, instead of pushing it back down as she was so used to doing, she let it erupt instead. Immediately, the noble authority of a system recognized royal brought everyone in her vicinity to their knees.

  Marlene got to her feet unsteadily. She brought a hand to her eye, then pulled it away with a hiss. Shot a glance towards the lizard she was pretty sure had aimed a potshot at her on purpose, and watched him squirm under her continued scrutiny.

  He began to hiss incomprehensibly.

  An acidic smell hit her nostrils then, she saw the pool spreading beneath the trembling reptilian’s knees next, and suddenly, it occurred to her that the reptile man fully expected to die for his transgression. Ashamed of herself, Marlene quickly retracted that strange sense. Despite this, however, not a one of the aliens dared to rise to their feet.

  I don’t have time for this.

  Putting the pangs of guilt from her mind for the time being, Marlene marched forward—the kneeling figures parting before her like the Red Sea—until she could confirm what she thought she’d seen from a far.

  It was a live broadcast of some kind. And it depicted nothing good.

  Abruptly Marlene spun. Wet hair slapping herself in the face.

  “Keshra? Keshra Rae’Shafeer! Ain’t that what you said your name was? Apologies for my tone, but I need to speak with your bosses right away!”

  A flurry of activity followed her words and, after several interminable minutes—in which Marlene’s eyes remained glued to the screen and its ongoing developments—her frazzled looking liaison was literally dragged forward to stand before her.

  Marlene turned.

  “I really do wanna apologize for all this,” Marlene tried to meet the woman’s eye, but the liaison couldn’t seem to pick hers up off the floor. “Wouldn’t have called you here if it weren’t important.”

  “Y-yes of course,” the lizard woman hissed. “A-anything you need, your highness. This worthless Vacoor is only so grateful to be of service.”

  “Good, now-”

  “A-and, if I might add, your magnificence, please know that any perceived slight or offense against your esteemed personage was purely unintentional on my part! I-in fact! I would be willing to execute one of my men here and now as a sign of my deepest sincerity.”

  Marlene stared at the woman like she was crazy.

  “What? No! Listen, my friends are in trouble. They need me, and I can’t exactly be there for ‘em if I’m stuck here playing patty cake with my imaginary friends all day. Tell your bosses I know what I want. Tell ‘em-”

  Something weighty and intangible flowed over the gathering of spectators then. And, most peculiarly, this time it didn’t come from Marlene. In fact, it was a feeling unlike anything any of them had experienced. The faintest echo of something so great, so profound, that it confounded the senses entirely.

  Slowly, ever so slowly, Marlene, along with every other person present—hell, every other member of the enlightened races currently tuned into the broadcast—turned to study the stark change that’d occurred in just the few seconds they’d looked away.

  More specifically, the figure with the divine aura currently intruding upon what was always suppose to be a low level, largely insignificant tutorial.

  What could only be a divine archetype in the flesh.

  If the unveiling of one outstanding baby had been the point in which the multiverse took notice, this was the moment in which the movers and shakers of the multiverse scrambled.

  The most predominant thought among them being:

  “Can’t be… is that?! Damn! I thought we’d gotten rid of the bastard.”