Chapter 130: Dawn of Mankind – Part 3

Chapter 130: Dawn of Mankind – Part 3

The gentle rumbling continues for a long minute, but nothing visible happens, so we just wait.Nêww chapters will be fully updated at novelhall.com

Roxanne stares at the psychedelic mini-moon, entranced by its beauty. "Say, Aoi, aren't these orbs suspiciously similar to how you use your ball of conjured water?" She wonders out loud.

Aoi raises her nonexistent eyebrows in confusion. "Are you talking about their round shape?" She answers through [Bind] because the string going down her throat makes it hard to speak.

"No, you silly-...!" Roxanne grumbles and flashes a glare. "The way you and the Symbols use these orbs is similar. Even the fact that it floats behind you is similar."

"Oh... yes, I guess that's true..."

Aoi stands up and begins walking closer to the mini-moon, but then the spirit elemental sees the orb inside her stomach break, and we hear the dulled sound of glass shattering.

"Ah~... ah~... ahn~...!" Aoi moans repeatedly as her body absorbs the magical glass dust that the orb instantly turned into.

The mini-orgasm quickly subsides, and she spits out the string, then we watch her closely for a minute, but she doesn't seem to be experiencing any negative side effects from what just happened.

"Can I swallow an orb...?" Roxanne suddenly asks, her thin tail tense with desire, and Ciel also starts feeling things she isn't proud of.

But Lina gives them both a judgmental look that smothers their depravity a fair bit. "Really...?" The little gloomy girl mumbles flatly.

"We can save them for later..." The thirsty succubus asserts, then orders the golems to collect the orbs and keep them safe.

"Are these orbs mana solidifications?" Jarn questions our guides, who, for the first time, don't jump at the sound of her robotic dual voice.

"No, but they're pretty unstable, and they generally don't survive [Item Box] or [Gate]," Lolo kindly explains.

"Some people pay a few silver for each one brought back, but I think that's hardly enough to justify the effort for nobles like you," Nikolas dryly adds.

Hmm...

I pull out a simple wooden box and use [Telekinesis] to put a small orb inside it, then I put the box back into my "Items."

Nothing happens, so I pull out the box again, and the orb seems to be perfectly fine.

I fucking love cheating.

I pull out more boxes and hand them to the golems so that they can separate the orbs into groups stable enough that they won't suddenly blow up from a simple bump.

With the thirsty girls appeased, I turn my attention back to the mini-moon and ask out loud, "Okay, now what...?" Then Jarn relays my question.

"Things start to get weird here," Lolo replies with a smirk.

"They haven't already?" Jarn perfectly deadpans, but the bunny girl has no comment.

Nikolas turns his red eyes to the Templars. "You pious people should know about the ultimate goal for all humanoids, right?"

"Yes. It's to level up, become stronger, and also grow as people, becoming a better version of ourselves. That's Ascension," Timas politely responds.

Then he turns his stern stare to the golem bimbo. "That's the whole point of these 'trials,' to guide us towards Ascension, and that orb should be full of godly power, which you'll have to extract, somehow. We never saw it in person, but we heard that it causes hallucinations, so be careful with that."

"Any pointers on how to 'extract' this power?" Jarn flatly adds.

The two guides share an awkward look.

"That 'swirling liquid' inside the orb isn't raw mana, so you should be able to separate it from the 'godly power,'" Lolo hesitantly suggests.

"[Alchemy]?" Roxanne blurts out, her horns suddenly looking quite sharp from her excitement, and Jarn echoes her question.

The pale rabbit absentmindedly rolls up one of her floppy ears as she considers, "That could work, but if you take too long, a Symbol with a hint of godly power should appear, and keeping your orb untouched will help you a lot in defeating it."

"Is it a God-Ruler-level Symbol?" Lina worriedly questions.

The duo chuckle softly, then Nikolas sighs tiredly as he runs his fingers through his furry tail while Lolo kindly points out, "Well, not exactly, since nobody but the emperor would be able to defeat one..."

I scratch my chin with a claw as I ponder. This orb triggers our [Sense Mana] because it's similar to raw mana, but not quite the same, so could it be affected by [Redirect Mana]?

Then Roxanne and I share an excited look while the rest of the girls frown in concern.

These scientific questions must be answered!

Hana can easily "pull out" the "liquid" from the orb, but it comes out as physical matter, except for the green, gray, white, and black colors, which all turn into a toxic mist, especially that last one.

Technically, the orb is under her control, so trying to use [Redirect Mana] on it will cause a Warped Reality event, and those are never fun.

"I can just put it down, it's fine..." Hana calmly assures us, yet she cries internally at her loss of "power."

I search for an alternative, then I spot one of the boxes of small orbs...

"Don't break them..." Aoi whines bashfully, taking a note from Alissa and Lina on how to be cute.

"I'll be as careful as I can," I soothingly reply as I magically pull out one orb, but she isn't completely appeased.

Roxanne and I sit down in front of each other, then we stare intensely at the orb full of light blue swirling "fluid."

I move her points around and put twenty of them in [Alchemy], bringing it to 20+10 (added points plus trained points), then she extends her hand towards the orb and activates [Extract Ichor], but it instantly fails.

She tries [Extract Pus], [Transmute], and [Duplicate] in sequence, but they all also fail just like the first one, puzzling as well as irritating her.

"I think it's because this stupid blue jizz doesn't stop moving," she harshly complains, her dagger-tail pointing at it threateningly.

I take over and use [Redirect Mana] on it, trying to get it to remain still.

The swirling noticeably slows down, and I feel that I've managed to attain a weak "grasp" on it. The problem is that this skill requires my spirit to have direct contact with the orb, so my MP is being drained at about five points per second, which is annoyingly high.

Applying my "Willpower" to slow the fluid down further seems to work, but it's mentally tiring and doesn't even stop it completely, so we brainstorm a better way to do this.

"Didn't you, like, chant when you did that cool thing with pure Light mana back in Legado?" She curiously questions me.

I snort and retort, "It didn't exactly help the mana stop; it just guided it where we wanted as we cast a pseudo-spell."

But she just grins. "Maybe you can chant something to make it stay still, then."

Right, chanting is like a "mental attunement" that helps spells become more powerful, so this could work...

"This is water, though, so it's your specialty," I point out and push the orb towards her.

She pouts and adjusts her glasses, displeased that she'll actually have to put some effort into this. "Fine, I'll do it all myself...!"

I smile warmly at her and give her five points in [Redirect Mana] so that it's at 5+1, which is equal to my level and also the maximum since I'm the skill's creator.

"How about using [Godly Language]?" Yunia suddenly suggests.

The rest of the girls give her a concerned look. She doesn't really know the side-effects of altering reality with that skill.

But then she elaborates further, "Can't you use it in a 'small dose' just to help you learn what that 'divine power' is supposed to be like?"

"That's more doable," I hum back and pick another orb.

My [Godly Language] is at 30+5, but adding more points starts giving diminishing returns, so I think this skill level is enough.

"Show me your 'godly power,'" I order while using the skill, and the faintly glowing orb suddenly dims, but then a little dot of sparkly light comes out of it and hovers before my eyes.

Cool...

"What's the difference between this 'godly power' and [Light Magic]?" I ask out loud.

Ciel sits down beside me and watches the sparkly dot intensely, trying to grasp all of the information that she can from this weird phenomenon. She quickly becomes enamored by it due to its concentrated "divine allure," and after a moment of admiration, she finally remembers to answer my question, "You channel the Gods' powers through 'Piety,' your understanding of their wishes, while [Light Magic] lets you shape that power to your will, but it becomes tainted by your perception. On the other hand, this..." -She points to the little star- "is just like a dungeon core, 'pure divinity.'"

Suddenly, the dot is snuffed out, and the glow returns to the orb, then the feedback hits us.

I blink blankly, suddenly finding myself laying on my back, then I groan along with the other girls as nausea washes over us. My muscles whine that this was very much an unfun test, and I swear I hear a bonk as a horrible headache flares but goes away after a few seconds.

Then I sit up just in time to see the sparkly dust of the broken orb fade away.

Then Lina spots a hint of a rainbow color, but an underground eruption launches the lump of meat upwards.

Check...

I turn around and point at the clump.

Mate...!

Then I cast [Telekinesis] while Yunia recasts [Chain Life], holding it perfectly still in the air.

Alissa's arrow pierces the orb, and it explodes with a blinding light, showering us with divine power.

"You are now level sixty."

"It's working!" Hana shouts excitedly, then our minds are suddenly connected as we get a glimpse of Paradise.

Intermission - Alkibiades Alkimeonids

I open the doors to his office, revealing the eerily dark room that I've always hated. The back wall is made up entirely of black-tinted windows, making it seem like it's always night here, though I admit the view is nice.

I walk forward, my muffled steps echoing in the completely silent room, then I stop before his desk, and he finally raises his eyes from his piles of notes and messages, but I almost frown at his appearance. His white hair and beard are starting to thin out, making him look like a low-level old peasant.

If only he shaved...

"I did it, Father. I humiliated myself before the lizard boy," I growl angrily.

His wrinkled face starts to warp into a smile, but it quickly loses strength, and he gives me those dead, measuring eyes of his again.

He opens his mouth, and I swear I can see cobwebs down his throat, then his hoarse voice attacks my pride with his disapproving tone, "The knights said that your acting was terrible. Did you even apply your skill?"

But I've got no patience for this. "Why the fuck do you care? I got you the damn report." Then I point to the fancy little piece of parchment that his two spies wrote for me.

He narrows his eyes, and my muscles lock up as he makes his displeasure physically perceivable. "You made him unnecessarily wary of us."

But I easily resist it and snort. "As if he wasn't already. I'm pretty sure he realized who I was the instant he looked at me." Father isn't so young anymore that he can make me bow with just his eyes.

And a small smirk wrinkles his face further. "Oh? Well, that's still useful information to know."

I groan and shake my head. Why does he try so hard to stay at the top?

He notices my displeasure and sighs tiredly, then he gets up and slowly walks around his desk as he gives me a subtly condescending talk, "Son, there are talks that he's a Prince, a hidden bastard of the Emperor. Either that, or his Gift has given him unknown powers that allowed him to rise like a star, and we can't underestimate someone like that."

He stops and turns two pieces of parchment around so that we can read them, but I know these two very well. The report on the destruction of our office in Goldcross, and the report of a Grim Giant briefly appearing inside Escanso. Then he taps them as he smirks at me like a know-it-all.

I narrow my eyes annoyedly and clarify, "He's like Reinhold, an 'upstart,' not a Prince that was given everything from birth. He's also suspiciously talented in the style of a magical swordsman, so his Gift must be more than just [Monster Summoning]."

Father comes up to me, then slaps my cheek gently as he gives me praise, "That's exactly the kind of information that we need, and if he's like Reinhold, then do you understand that we have to act before it becomes impossible due to his inhuman growth?"

And I exasperatedly reply, "Yes, I'm not stupid, I just take issue with your methods."

He snorts and turns around, then starts slowly returning to his seat. "My methods have ensured our position," he croaks dismissively as he waves his hand.

Then maybe we should just give it all up, already! I'm of the mind to do exactly that when I take over, damned be the consequences... that is, if you ever retire, you damn stubborn old goat.

Maybe he knows my intentions, and that's why he'll never give up his seat until he dies of old age...

Intermission end.

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