Chapter 89

  The charge came like a tide breaking loose.

  The first line advanced first, disciplined despite their bestial appearance. Overlapping plates of coral shields locked together, barbed spears appearing between them. The water at their feet churned as they moved, each step was heavy and synchronized. Behind them, the two burly salamanders, the elites between the elites, split wide, flanking with predatory intent. And behind it all, the white-scaled commander raised one slender hand.

  The water in the chamber flared with a new sheen of light for a moment.

  Raime felt the mana flaring all around him just before the attack came.

  A barrage of water lances erupted from the ground itself, spearing upward in a forest of daedly trees. He dodged, stepped and slid between them with movements too economical to be anything but a clear calculation. He tried to take hold of a lance as it was passing by, his hand passed through it, numbing but not breaking skin. He noted it calmly.

  This guy has high control, and is not using brutw force, but I find this attack wasteful, does it have other plans? Except for the obvious harassment?

  The shield wall was nearly on him.

  Raime inhaled once, deeply, and let go.

  The world slowed—not in the artificial way of divided perception, but in the honed stillness Neimar had drilled into him. Awareness spread outward, not as sight or sound, but as pressure, and motion. Every footstep, every twitch of muscle, every fluctuation of energy registered as ripples in a greater whole.

  Raime stepped forward to meet the wall.

  The first shield slammed toward him, a blunt, crushing strike meant to stagger. He met it with his palm.

  A precise burst of kinetic force layered into the moment of contact. The shield didn’t stop—it reversed. The salamander behind it barely had time to hiss before the impact drove it backward into its own ranks.

  The formation buckled.

  Raime was already moving.

  He slid inside the gap, elbow snapping up into a monster jaw, shattering it. He lowered to dodge is leg then struck low, kinetic energy pulsing from the shin. Two salamander’s legs broke with a wet crack, the creatures collapsing screaming into the water.

  A spear thrust from behind—Raime twisted, redirected it and pushed it into the throat of another.

  The wielder stumbled forward, momentum betraying it. Raime channelled his core energy into his arm and drove a fist glowing with inner light, straight through its skull. Punching a clean hole through bone and brain alike.

  Blood sprayed, steaming faintly.

  The shield wall dissolved into chaos.

  The white-scaled commander reacted instantly.

  It hissed sharply, both hands sweeping outward. The water in the chamber surged, rising into spinning currents. Blades of liquid pressure screamed toward Raime from multiple angles.

  But he didn’t dodge.

  He used his position in the middle of the enemies to defend himself, pulling with his telekinetic force he made six salamanders stumble into the path of the attacks, the water blades slicing into them, chopping limbs and killing them all, the residual force slammed into a barrier Raime constructed around himself, harmlessly returning to water droplet and falling to the floor.

  Raime glanced toward the commander, eyes bright.

  “That wasn’t very smart.”

  One of the burly salamanders pushed aside all the monsters in its way, coming from the left, a mountain of muscle and scale. It wielded a massive club made of coral, swinging it in a brutal arc that would have pulped an elephant.

  Raime stepped into the blow.

  The maul connected with the ground, and for a heartbeat the cavern shook.

  Then the kinetic prison snapped shut.

  Raime had caught the weapon, stopped it where it stood. Like Excalibur in the rock, the salamander roared, muscles bulging as it tried to force the weapon free, but he wasn’t the king here.

  Raime smiled thinly, then he swiped with his hand and the head of the mini-boss went flying, cut cleanly by a kinetic blade.

  He tore the maul free from its grip, spinning and threwing it in the ranks of salamanders, it killed three outright, then spun away, deflected by a shield into the crystal wall where it landed, discarded. Raime followed through, driving a palm into the closest creature’s chest with explosive force.

  The salamander flew.

  It slammed into its companions, giving Raime a bit of a breathing room. Just enough to have enough space to face the next threat.

  Here it comes.

  The second mini-boss struck from behind.

  Claws raked across Raime’s back, but he was not there anymore, he moved like a phantom behind the monster, nearly leaving an afterimage in the monster retina.

  He pivoted, light flaring along his arm again, then it pooled at his fingernails. Claws of burning light extended five inches or so, he slashed at its back, in the same attack he was about to receive, severing the monster spine and generally half its organs.

  The salamander weezed and fell into the shallow water, it would be dead in less than ten seconds.

  Raime didn’t pursue.

  The commander was on him now.

  A roar echoed through the chamber as the white-scaled being raised both arms. The crystals in the cavern responded, light intensifying. Mana flooded the space, thick and heavy, pressing against Raime’s senses.

  The water beneath his feet began to rise.

  Then it collapsed inward, forming a single, massive sphere of compressed liquid that hurtled toward him like a meteor.

  Raime made to dodge, then stopped.

  No.

  He remembered Neimar’s lessons. Not just about power, but about control.

  He stepped forward, letting the sphere come hurling toward him. As it did, he reached out, and twisted the kinetic vectors holding it together.

  The sphere unravelled.

  The water detonated outward, smashing into the shield-bearing salamanders instead. Dozens were crushed, bodies flung aside like toys.

  Raime exhaled slowly.

  “Enough training,” he said.

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  He vanished, reappearing amidst the remaining rank-and-file monsters, fist and elbow and knees becoming instruments of absolute violence. Each strike was precise, economical and absolutely lethal.

  The salamanders died in droves, until finally, only one remained.

  The white-scaled commander stood alone amid ruin and corpses, breathing hard, eyes blazing with cold fury. The water around it churned, responding instinctively to its will.

  Raime rolled his shoulders, ignoring the blood trickling down his back.

  “You’re different,” he said conversationally. “Can you understand me?”

  The creature hissed, lips peeling back to reveal rows of sharp teeth. It spoke again in its guttural tongue, but now there was something else layered beneath the sound, an intent, sharp and clear.

  Raime tried to connect with his mind, but the only thing he managed to get was rage and a series of images.

  Intruder. Enemy. Threat to the Core.

  He tried to send a message back, but there was something stopping his attempt at communications. Raime felt it then.

  The System’s imprint. A cage.

  Something ugly stirred in his chest. “I thought so,” he murmured.

  Then the commander attacked without warning.

  This time, it didn’t shape water, it became it.

  Its body blurred, dissolving into a serpentine torrent that surged across the chamber, reforming behind Raime in an instant. A blade of pressurized liquid formed where its arm should have been, slashing downward.

  Raime twisted, the blade grazing his robe as he moved out of the way, there was no time to dissect the attack as he did before, the boss was fast.

  “Yes,” he said. “That’s better.”

  Let’s see how it is to fight a water mage.

  Light erupted from his core.

  The chamber dimmed as Raime stepped fully into Neimar’s teachings—not techniques, but principles. Will made manifest. Intent refined into form.

  The commander struck again, water blades flashing in complex, layered patterns meant to overwhelm him with their sheer numbers.

  Raime stood still.

  Each blade shattered inches from his skin, undone by a light field layered so finely it looked like threads of sunlight decided to revolve around him. He started moving forward as the assault upped in intensity. His mind was busy analysing and blocking all the attacks when he reached just a step from the boss. He raised his arm, light flowing inside it until it exited in a steady glow from his palm. He seized the commander’s own arm as the contact with his energy it reformed, fingers closing around solid flesh.

  The salamander screamed as light flooded into the contact point.

  Raime yanked it close and drove his forehead into the creature’s face, enhancing the strike with kinetic energy. He followed with a knee to the abdomen, kinetic force slamming into its organs.

  The commander was still standing strong, bones unbroken, and tried to dissolve again.

  Raime didn’t allow it.

  He wrapped a kinetic prison around the creature , then put his palm against his head, flooding the pathway to its core, locking it into physical form and preventing him from using his spells. The water stilled.

  The commander thrashed, claws grasping uselessly against invisible chains.

  Raime leaned close. “I want to know,” he said quietly.

  Light flared, and he plunged into the creature’s mind again, deeper.

  He saw fragments. A world of endless wetlands and oceans. A thriving species. Then the System’s arrival—cold, absolute. A test issued, not negotiated.

  No alternatives, no mercy. The monster was old, really old, a descendant from the great white serpents of their world, enormous beasts who commanded respects and authority. He was the last one that stood on his planet as they failed their integration. The great beast of old sold themselves to outside powers to save their skin.

  The monster rage was absolute as it was reminded of the happenings during those times.

  Raime withdrew.

  The kinetic prison tightened.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, and meant it.

  He focused his energy into a blade of light alongside his hand, then speared it into the chest, where he could feel the heart beating. Raime felt a great deal of resistance, the bloodline of this creature must have been extraordinary to grant him such resilience, it was a pity, but it was these being, or humanity.

  The body went limp.

  Raime stood alone in the crystal chamber, water lapping quietly at his boots, breathing slow and steady.

  His thoughts were going in circles as his eye shone with a fierce light.

  Then he turned toward the pulsing azure glow deeper within the cavern.

  And he walked toward the Core.

  Just a moment before he touched it, a chime sounded in his head. He felt many during the fight, but this sounded different. He opened the notifications.

  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

  SYSTEM NOTICE — Balance Review Concluded

  Reviewing Authority: Multiversal Council — Joint Oversight Committee

  Status: Finalized

  Summary:

  – Continued restriction or indefinite suspension of rewards deemed structurally destabilizing under active Integration conditions.

  – Risk Assessment indicates elevated probability of systemic divergence should compensation be withheld.

  Decision:

  The Balance Review is hereby dismissed.

  All pending rewards will be issued immediately, with adjustments applied.

  Quest Chain Resolution

  Quest Chain: Restore the Shattered Path

  Stage VII (Final): Completed

  Tutorial Path: Concluded

  Council Determination:

  – Completion conditions exceeded minimum success parameters.

  – Rift destruction achieved under adverse probability conditions.

  Reward Adjustment:

  Original tutorial-grade rewards deemed insufficient.

  Compensation Tier: Escalated

  Reason:

  – Tier V Rift involvement

  – Anomalous survival margin

  – Council liability acknowledged

  Achievement Compensation Review

  Achievements Affected:

  – Realmwalker (V)

  – Against the Impossible (V)

  – One against many (III)

  Council Ruling:

  Achievements achieved prematurely relative to Integration Phase.

  Standard rewards would create progression imbalance against the entity.

  Outcome:

  Rewards tailored to the entity “Raime”

  SYSTEM DIRECTIVE — Reward Issuance

  All pending rewards are hereby released.

  Additional Compensation Applied for:

  – Reward values increased to offset delay-related issues.

  – Rewards adapted to offset previous Anomaly status.

  – Ongoing integration.

  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

  Finally, what kind of council take this long to review some rewards? What am I talking about… bureaucracy will be the same, no matter the universe. Or multiverse. What the hell is “one against many” anyway?

  He read all multiple times, that was a lot to unpack, but another ding stopped his thoughts before he could start thinking about all the implications those messages entailed.

  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

  SYSTEM NOTICE — Reward Issuance Authorized

  Issuing Authority: System Core

  Oversight: Multiversal Council (Non-Interventionary)

  All previously suspended rewards are now being distributed.

  Compensation modifiers applied.

  Clear a Tier V Rift.

  Rift Tempered (V)

  Your body and mind have been conditioned by hostile reality layers.

  Effects:

  – Greatly reduced spatial disorientation within Rifts, void-zones, and unstable dimensions.

  – Resistance to Rift-induced corruption, pressure, and energy bleed increased.

  – Environmental penalties from non-native realms reduced.

  This trait will continue to evolve through Rift exposure.

  Survive and clear a Rift with a probability of success below 0.001%.

  Rewards Issued: Cognitive Calibration — Convergence Bias

  Your cognitive processes have been subtly recalibrated.

  When pursuing a desired outcome, your perception, timing, and decision-making now favor actions that lead toward successful resolution, even when those actions are not immediately optimal or obvious.

  Effects:

  – A faint sense of rightness attached to certain choices.

  – Momentary hesitation before actions that would lead to long-term failure.

  – Improved synchronization between intent and execution.

  Kill 1,000 enemies in a single battle, alone.

  Rewards Issued: Relentless Momentum

  Combat sharpens you instead of wearing you down.

  Effects:

  – Killing an enemy temporarily reduces mental fatigue accumulation.

  – Sustained combat increases movement efficiency and action fluidity.

  – Diminishing returns apply to prevent runaway escalation.

  Quest Chain: Restore the Shattered Path

  Final Stage: Completed

  Tutorial Status: Concluded

  Council Assessment:

  Tutorial-grade awakening is insufficient.

  Entity progression exceeds early-integration parameters.

  Entity: Raime

  Awakening Tier: Advanced (System-Sanctioned)

  Stability: Approved

  Core Changes Pending Confirmation.

  Mana has been unlocked as a valid System substrate.

  You are now eligible for Class Selection. Due to anomalous core development, standard class offerings are restricted.

  The following options are available:

  CLASS PATH SELECTION AVAILABLE

  System-Crafted Class

  Description:

  – A bespoke class will be created using one of your dominant affinities.

  – Mana will form a secondary core, operating alongside your existing core.

  Effects:

  – Access to mana-based skills and scaling.

  – Hybrid progression between two energy systems.

  – Increased versatility at the cost of higher complexity and instability management.

  Assisted Class Creation

  Description:

  – Mana integration will be forgone entirely.

  – The System will assist in formalizing your existing core into a full class framework.

  Effects:

  – Greater specialization.

  – Higher efficiency, deeper mastery, and unique mechanics unavailable to mana users.

  – No access to mana-based systems, spells, or standard resources.

  System Note:

  This path is irreversible.

  You will no longer qualify for mana-dependent classes.

  This decision will define your long-term progression.

  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

  “Damn…”