Chapter 220: Congratulations on reaching a milestone
You only live once as someone smart said, so taking care of yourself is the best you could do. Making sure your body is healthy is a must. And how better to do that here in Hell difficulty than by obliterating your enemies before they can hurt you?
I pick Arcane Resilience (Epic):The user's body has adapted to resist the side effects of powerful spells, significantly reducing the physical toll of casting.
I will fuck up anyone before they get close to me and be able to hurt me, yup.
My genius sometimes terrifies me.
Black mana thing, just wait! Soon! From experiencing it on the 3rd floor, I know I'm still far from ready, but I'm getting there!
10,958 shards disappear and a new passive appears in my stats. Now that I think about it, I could buy more passives, rare ones, but I think it will be a better idea to start saving up. I'm sure the second round of Beyond will give me some juicy rewards and probably some shards as well.
There's also a side quest that I got some time ago.
Side quest: Reach level 200
Reward: 2nd Trait
Yup, finally the second trait. Seeing how amazingly well Mana Circuit serves me, the second one surely will be strong, especially with the fact that traits can be strengthened up to three times and I already strengthened my trait once.
Another side quest that appeared is this.
Side quest: Get five skills to level 40
Reward:Skill upgrade token
Even the side quests are getting harder. Breaking through the bottleneck to level 40 isn't easy at all, and even after all this time, I have only a single skill over level 40, [Mana Manipulation].
Sure, I still plan to sell the skill upgrade token for a nice amount of shards. Or maybe I just use it for some of my less important skills. My decision to not upgrade my most important skills still lasts, and I think I'm getting better and better, the decision showing also at how easily I got rid of Elydor, damn, I miss the guy. I wish I could see him again.
I stretch and yawn and check my body. The new passive is already changing and affecting it, but as often, and similarly, with stats, it isn't an immediate change but a slow, gradual one. Looking at the progress, a day or two should be enough, just in time for a few days of practice and testing before Beyond.
In a good mood, I open the community.
Noname (Hell, group 4) -Mana is the best stat.Ñøv€l-B1n was the first platform to present this chapter.
AnotherOneHere (Hell, TheGuild) - I don't know, I prefer not dying.
StrongestOne (Hell, group 4) -Skill issue!
Min-Jae joins in and stands by my side. Nice one.
Brainiac (Hell, WhiteWing) -Noname, at this point I'm sure your brain is replaced with mana.
Savant (Hell, Alone) - That would be possible only if he had any to begin with.
BenDover (Hell, IDK) - Nice one, Savant! Also, fuck you, Noname.
My favorite member of the community still seems lovable as always. He and his group also came to the 4th floor some time ago. His IDK group and group called TheGuild which lost one member on the 3rd floor.
Noname (Hell, group 4) -Tournament when?
Brainiac (Hell, WhiteWing) - Probably never? To be honest, it's getting annoying.
BenDover (Hell, IDK) - Such a shame. I would really like to see you with my own eyes, Noname.
Notification! Congratulations on reaching a milestone, the required number of groups has reached the 4th floor in all the difficulties.
Preparation for the Community tournament is in process!
Not knowing my thoughts Lily continues, "But no worries, I only got it so I can combine it with [Rejuvenation]," she tells me with a flash of determination.
"You still haven't changed your mind?" I ask, feeling a hint of curiosity.
"I did not. I will fulfill all 4 requirements and then enter Beyond. Tess will probably get there before me, but it doesn't matter; I will catch up."
"So why are you doing it?" This is the first time I'm actually asking her the question.
"I killed Kevin," Lily says shortly. "There's no way of going around it. I killed him, unable to control my skill."
She reaches out with her hand, a gray smoke-like mana swirling around it and slowly changing shape into that reminiscent of an arrow. Lily then, with extreme focus, waves her hand, and the arrow shoots toward a tree in the corner of the garden.
When the arrow hits, it doesn't pierce the tree nor stab inside. The arrow is weak, and smoke-like, so it instead crashes against it and disperses like smoke hitting it.
The grayish residual mana soundlessly splits the tree, etching out a big chunk of it, and a few wisps of the attack even eat up some stones on the ground after landing on it. The attacks disintegrate everything without leaving anything behind.
The size of the attack itself isn't that scary. It's the level of destruction I would be able to achieve a few days after the start of the tutorial.
No, the scary part is that Lily, just a bit over 100 now, and that this attack would be enough to kill a human or monster at around level 200. I have no doubt about that, not even a speck of it. That's how scary [Disintegration] is.
“So Nat, I will learn to control my skills. I will become stronger. I will heal and save anyone I want to save, and I will kill anyone I decide to. Not by mistake or lack of control, but because I choose to,” Lily says.
Back in my room, I'm about to practice again when a third person interrupts me. As annoyed as curious, I get on the balcony and look at Myrra standing on the street.
She waves at me, and somehow, I want to create a tricolored orb and throw it at her. I will need a lot of slacking to calm down after all this attention. My weak introverted heart isn't built for it.
I push myself with kinetic energy and land on the cobblestone next to the tall lynthari, and without saying a word, we start walking side by side.
“It’s been a long time since I saw you, feral one. A few weeks,” Myrra starts first, and I detect her bodyguard nearby, as always.
That once again makes me curious. I've seen her getting a lot of respect from the strongest human in the city and even from other lynthari, yet her level isn't that high. She has leveled a few times but is still under 200.
“I was training,” I say simply and quickly grab some sweets one of the merchants is selling while throwing him a mana stone probably worth as much as his monthly earnings.
I’m rich.
“I see,” Myrra answers simply, and for a while, we continue to walk in silence, and I slowly feel myself calming down as Myrra even picks quieter streets with a lot of calming greenery.
Is she maybe doing it on purpose after sensing my mood? I squint and look at her. Is... is she trying to tame me?
“Feral one, why is the matriarch’s granddaughter looking for you?” finally, she gets to the reason for her visit and turns her golden eyes towards me as we stop in the middle of the park, surrounded by trees with pink leaves.
Oh boy.
“Why is she going around and saying that she is looking for her underling, a strong, regal human with two differently colored eyes?” as Myrra says so, she shows a bit of her canines in a slightly threatening manner and leans closer to me.
Myrra continues, “Feral one, you are mine,” she nearly hisses, not really angry at me, but more annoyed that someone is trying to take her toy, “I don’t care if she is a once-in-a-millennium genius or the matriarch’s pampered granddaughter. You. Are. Mine.”
“No, Myrra, I’m my own person, and if you want, we can talk about our opinions on that again in a fight,” I answer her simply while returning her gaze.
Her next words will decide if I blast her away with a cone of kinetic energy or not.
In the end, Myrra looks away first and sighs, her fluffy tail swaying around in an annoyed manner, “You know what I meant, feral one! I found you first, so I won’t allow any other boring lynthari to take you away from me,” she just says, “Little princess will have to get through me to get to you, nya!” Myrra adds.
The last word she says makes me freeze and forget about everything; even the thought of a fight disappears from my mind.
“N-nya?” I ask carefully.
Myrra, as if realizing what she said, smiles apologetically and somewhat shyly. An expression I had yet to see on her face.
“Excuse me, feral one. It’s something a lot of younger ones lately like to add to their sentences,” she waves her hand as she starts walking, and I follow her, “to be honest, it’s getting really popular, and plenty of lynthari use it, you know how trends go.”