The feeling of pulling descends upon me, and I leave the 1st floor of Beyond.
With all the items I’ve acquired from the dozens of lurkers and the first expedition I joined, along with the ones Whitey killed before. There are so many I had to pile them up and lash them together with rags I tore from my clothes, plus some threads I made of mana.
Honestly, I was only able to do it because so few lurkers attacked me. At most they came in groups of three that I was able to handle with a bit of effort, sometimes they even came one or two at a time.
I find it suspicious that more of them didn’t follow me, considering how much I should have been attracting them with so many kills. But I think it might have something to do with how scared they were of Whitey—if they even are capable of feeling dread. If not, it might be their survival instinct.
As I depart, I find myself in the area where I usually meet my handler, who’s currently sitting behind her table. She doesn’t even pretend to be working, choosing instead to stare at me.
“I swear, if you try to take these items from me, I will change handlers, even if you name every single fucking Ruler,” I tell her right away.
My handler glances at the items and then back at me.
If she won’t talk, I will. “And what do you want? I thought I could only ‘visit’ when entering Beyond.”
“Yes, such ‘visits’ are required, but I can ‘summon’ you on the way out too.”
“I see. So what do you want? Do you have my shards for the white sand?”
“Actually, yes.” After waving her hand, a window appears in front of me.
Request to transfer +70000 shards. Confirm?
Yes/No
Quickly, before she changes her mind, I confirm the transfer, a sense of suspicion flowing through me immediately afterward. The number is almost too round. Did she by any chance take 30%? Do I even want to know? I decide not to ask and be happy for now.
“So what did I do this time?” I ask.
“I won’t even mention how royally stupid what you just did was,” the handler lifts one of the papers off her table, reading from it.
“It worked out in the end.”
“There are so many different ways you could have gone about it.”
“Yes.”
“Easier ways, less painful ways, ways with a higher chance of success.”
“Yes,” I confirm again.
“Damn pride maniacs. After seeing it work the first time, you might just get the idea to challenge every lurker with an interesting skill or ability on the 1st floor to gain knowledge and rewards.”
That surprises me. It’s exactly what I was thinking.
My handler, seeing my reaction, taps on the table, her frustration evident, “It won’t work a second time. It shouldn’t have worked at all in the first place.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
“No. It is not.” She pauses as if listening to something. “We’re almost out of time. Before you go, here—your identification emblem, updated.” She waves her hand.
There’s a burning sensation on the back of my left hand, and my D-rank Obsidian Black shifts to C-rank Ivory White.
I take a moment to admire the new emblem and remark, “That was an easy jump from D rank to C rank.”
“It was not.”
“I see., I say, deciding not to argue. “One last question. That deer... was he really...”
For a moment, she looks confused but quickly remembers, a quiet laugh escaping her lips. “Of course not. The ruler from the 1st floor was a phantom goblin.”
She meets my gaze, and, disappointed by my lack of reaction, simply smiles playfully. “Information like that is extremely valuable, certainly not something you should possess yet. It’s nice that you want to know, but don’t be too... greedy.”
As I get pulled away, she waves, “I shall see you later.”
“It could be the system messing around for the purpose of the tutorial. Weakening arcane items to give people an easier time learning to make arcane items or to help them get used to their power.”
“Wouldn’t it make more sense, in that case, to create a rarity between epic and arcane?”
“I don’t think the tutorial is capable of twisting things that much. You could just as easily say that these items have had their power sealed, and it’ll take some effort to get them back to their full power.”
“So outside of the tutorial, there won’t be so many damaged arcane items?”
“Possibly.”
“Yup! Also, look at what a nice piece of metal this is.” Lily chirps, handing me a piece of black metal with a coppery sheen.
Voidcopper (Arcane) - A dense, jet-black metal with a faint shimmer, Voidcopper is known for its ability to deflect magical interference. It’s favored for crafting shields, amulets, and armor due to its capacity to absorb minor spells, lessening their impact before dispersing the energy harmlessly.
“Yup, it will be useful, but check this out,” I say, throwing her a ball of thread that’s probably got me more excited than anything else.
Amberlace (Arcane) - A warm-toned, honey-gold fiber that is both durable and flexible. Amberlace has an innate ability to stabilize nearby magic, allowing it to withstand complex enchantments without losing structural integrity.
Lily reads it and then rubs it against her cheek. “It’s weird. It feels like metal, but it’s kinda warm and also... soft?”
I catch it as she throws it back to me and immediately stow it away, “It’s a shame there wasn’t more, but I can probably use it for some decent stuff.”
“Is it common to get so many items from one or two Beyond expeditions? Isn’t it too... easy?” She asks, gesturing at the piles of upper epic items, I intend to sell later, and some other stuff.
“Easy...” I say, stretching the word. “It was doable.”
“How many times did you almost die?”
That requires a bit of thinking.
As I think it over, I count on my fingers, “I’ll only count the serious ones. So first would probably be when Specter cut my throat. I could’ve probably died fighting that icy lynthari too, if I had fought him alone, but honestly does that even count? I joined to help Derick, and Savant joined in too. Don’t tell him, but his domain was a bit of a help there. Then I almost died fighting that group of lurkers before Whitey came. Lastly, there were a few times during my fight with Whitey. If I hadn’t had mana stored up beforehand or your healing marks, I would’ve probably died anywhere between two and five times.”
“So, that’s what you call doable?” she asks.
“Yup.”
“I’m already curious to find out what happened there.” She stands up, glancing at the piles of items one more time. “It wasn’t just for the items, right?”
“Nope, but it’s a nice bonus. If it had been too much of a bother, I would’ve thrown them away in a heartbeat.”
“So what was it you went there for?”
"I’ll tell you after I check it out myself. Could you go check on Biscuit? I want to try something in the meantime. If you can get Biscuit to forgive me, I’ll let you choose an upper epic item as your reward."
“Only one? You do have over 20 of them.”
“Maybe two if you teach him to stand on his hind legs.”
“And walk while asking for sustenance?”
“Please, no.”
She giggles. “Okay then, good luck.”
As she leaves, I rest my back against the boulder nearby and close my eyes with every intention of checking on the results of my wager. I don’t know what to expect, certainly not how the system would even go about delivering this kind of knowledge. Will it be a book? Or a mana stone inscribed with the information? A feeling? Will the knowledge just flow into my mind?
Sensing my intent, the system just seems to know what I want, and I find myself in a different place. I can still feel my body sitting in the same spot when I try, so I figure this place is likely somewhere within my mind.
A desolate hill stands before me. The landscape is hauntingly barren, the ground is cracked and dry ground with jagged rocks jutting out from seemingly random points making the entire scene feel alien.
The sky is a swirling mix of gray clouds that only serves to make the place look even more bleak, bordering on post-apocalyptic. And the dim light that barely manages to pass through the clouds only adds to the feeling.
There, at the top of the hill, stands a white monobloc plastic chair, and in that chair sits a tall figure. With long, beautiful white hair flowing down from his head, and I can see his black horns, even from here.
And the figure is watching a TV set on a cheap Ikea-style table.