“Okay, so meeting Miria is entirely off the table.” Snowstorm says, leaning forward in his seat. It took a few minutes… okay, more than a few minutes, but he got over it. It just made too much sense and his brains overloaded, I guess. “Autumn too.” he adds.

  ‘Miria? Who is that?’ Pyro asks, leaning back in his seat and running a hand along his face.

  “Someone who would murder you if she found out you were the one who killed Abhor.” Snowstorm says, waving a wing to the side. “They're both protective of Abhor.”

  “They wouldn't kill him.” I protest. “Not if I asked them not to. Right?” I glance over to Aftermath, who has an eyebrow raised. “...Right?”

  “Miria feels quite distraught over how she could help you, Abhor. She's seen the turmoil you've been going through, and can't seem to figure out how to get to you.” Aftermath explains, now without any ringing divinity. His words make me pause, then slump. Fuck, what is wrong with me? She's so kind, and yet I’ve been hurting them. And worse, I'll likely hurt them even more if what I plan to do ends up working. My power will undo it, though. I still have to go through with it. But back to the matter at hand.

  “I think we could try.” I say. “But with you in human form, using a different name, and not using your soul weapon. Get them used to you before showing them?”

  “That could go ok, or extremely horribly.” Snowstorm says, then sighs. “I guess what else do we have to do. This could work.”

  “Or we could be upfront about it?” I offer. “I don't want to lie to them.”

  ‘No offence, buddy, but I don't intend to die.’ Pyro says flatly.

  “Meh, dying isn’t that bad.” I say, waving a hand dismissively. “Only moments of excruciating pain followed by numbness and emptiness as you find yourself floating within an infinite void where time is wrong.”

  “That sounds like purgatory.” Phoebe says, frowning. Then she pauses. “Wait, is that…”

  “Yeah, it sucks, don't actually try dying. 0 out of 5 stars, would not recommend.” I say, trying to joke to lighten the mood. “Let's not think about this for a while. Let's go find somewhere to eat, and check on the kids. Then I'm going to need some power leveling.”

  ‘Why would you need power leveling so early? You aren't trying to hit tier 3, are you?’ Pyro asks, leaning forward in his seat. ‘You don't have anywhere near that kind of time.’

  “I know.” I say. Then I grin. “But I’ll get damned close. Then I'll be purchasing some of the most expensive skills on the menu, and hopefully get a good fusion. I've got 2 purchases left.”

  <{0}>

  “So this is that sandwich place you mentioned?” Phoebe asks, staring down at her habanero chicken sub.

  “It is!” I grin, my shark teeth then tearing into my meatball sub like a starved shark. “Jeez, what do they put into these things?”

  “You're gross.” Snowstorm rolls his eyes, then takes a bite of his BLT.

  ‘This is tuna, right?’ Pyro asks, opening his tuna sandwich up with his hands. We all sit at a picnic table in the Verdant garden, my favorite garden closest to the Tree. At the moment it's me, Phoebe, Snowstorm, and Pyro.

  “Why wouldn't it be tuna?” I ask as Pyro closes his sandwich, still frowning suspiciously at it.

  ‘There was a whole thing with a sandwich store. Accused of their tuna not being tuna. I don't remember how that ended, but I'm pretty sure it was tuna. Don't remember though.’

  “Oh. That's special.” I say sarcastically, raising an eyebrow. I Glance to Snowstorm before turning back to the other two. “Hey Phoebe, Pyro, is it ok if I ask your levels?”

  ‘Sure.’ Pyro shrugs. ‘Solid 50. Haven't leveled yet since tier 2.’ He rubs a finger against the scar on his neck then turns to Phoebe. ‘If you don't mind sharing.’

  “Alright.” she shrugs. “I’m level 92.”

  “Damn.” I let out an impressed whistle, then pause. “Huh. I didn’t know I could whistle.”

  ‘I can't.’ Pyro offers.

  “Seems anything involving your mouth is useless, huh?” Phoebe teases. I spit out my sandwich, as does both Snowstorm and Pyro.

  “I did not know you had that kind of sense of humor.” Snowstorm says, staring at her for a moment before looking back down at his sandwich. Phoebe blushed and looked down at her feet.

  ‘Nor did I.’ Pyro admits. ‘I like that kind of humor, though. Becca used it a lot.’

  “Becca?” I ask. “a friend of yours?”

  ‘From my old world.’ He explains. ‘Only had 2 or 3 real friends. Becca and Marco were some good ones.’

  “What was your world like?” Snowstorm asks curiously. “I read much on alternate realities, but I find it's better to seek the source of information that intreagues me for a bigger picture.”

  ‘Honestly? Less shit than this place.’ Pyro admits. ‘And that world was shit. I myself read a bit of history. My world was, when I left at least, practically the same as universe 1’s planet earth before the collision of realities.’

  “You know, going between is possible.” Snowstorm muses. “Get your void step to Mythic, maybe just legendary, and it could be done.”

  ‘Legendary? Mythic?’ Pyro glances between us. ‘Nobody in Camica besides the Grand General has any skills of that level as far as I know. Do either of you have any legendary skills?

  “I do.” I say. “Used to be legendary. Now mythic.”

  “Which skill?” Phoebe asks, leaning in a bit too close for comfort. “I've always wondered about such powerful skills! What does it do? Rip holes in the void? Give you infinite control or darkness?”

  “It reverses time when I die.” I say, moving a bit away. Her enthusiasm is nice, though a bit uncomfortable. She stops at my words though, instantly sobering.

  “Oh…” she says, glancing to Pyro, but hiding it quickly. He noticed it, however, and sighed.

  ‘I've been dancing around that too much.’ He says eventually. ‘I have two things to say.’ Before I could even ask what they were he barreled on. ‘First, I wanted to apologize for what I did. truly apologize. No reason or excuse is worth enough to call taking the life of someone who doesn't deserve it ok. Even if you aren't dead right now. Second…’ He pauses, then continues. ‘Why did you choose us? To remember, I mean. It's obvious that everyone else I've met only knows of it by word of mouth, not memory, which means your skill has a limit as to how many people can remember. You chose the two of us. Why?’

  “Actually, that's easy.” I say, leaning forward in my seat. “because how could I have convinced you to come here if you didn't remember?”

  ‘that…’ He pauses. ‘Honestly, I was expecting a far more complicated answer. But still… thank you.’

  I smile.

  “No, thank you. That fight gave me some ideas.”

  {Checkpoint set}

  <{0}>

  {Level up}

  {Level 61 -> 62}

  I stretch my wings as I groan, looking down at the boss mob I killed. A fairly easy fight. All things in my tier are easy. Well, all things that aren't Pyro, apparently. I frown as I stare at my level. 4 hours running through this dungeon and I've leveled 5 times. Phenomenal leveling speed, all things considered, but not fast enough. I need to level as fast as I can. And then, when the day of the invasion comes…

  I shake my head and growl to myself in order to avoid thinking about it, then push the door open to the next room. This dungeon is artificially created. One of Aftermath's subordinate gods created the core. Artemis, I think. This place is full of vicious iterations of prey animals. Wolves, foxes, deer, rabbits, everything. Or rather, dire wolves, dire foxes, mutant deer, Jackalopes, and every other vicious forest creature there is.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  The next room I enter into, I find to be a large, long cave system. Mana runs through the walls, interfering with my mana sight, but not enough to keep me from peering through the walls for mana signatures of creatures. What I find is bears. Figures.

  The first I encounter is a large bear with brown fur and obsidian spikes jutting out of its back. I send out a shadow bolt, which pierces into its tough hide, making it roar as it charges me. I slam it into the wall with my tail, then bite down. It hurt my teeth a bit, but the crunch was satisfying as it slumped against the wall. I spit out a mouthful of fur and continue on.

  <{0}>

  The boss room of this floor features a larger, better version of the bears I fought before. The obsidian bears, fire bears, and metal bears fusing into this lava and molten metal bear that spews fire and rock out of its mouth while barreling at me at top speed. I dodge the first attack easy enough.

  dark mana claws

  I rake down into the creature with my claws, now coated in black, flowing energy. Most imagine darkness moving like fire, flickering and shifting as so, but that simply isn't the case. It moves more like a liquid unbound by gravity, pulling on itself and keeping together. The benefit of mana types like water, ice and earth, is that after spending the mana, it's just there to use. But fire, dark, light, and air, they expend themselves simply existing, meaning a constant drain on my mana pool to maintain. A miniscule amount, of course, but every drop matters. Mana is a watered down version of essence. That means being somewhere with dark essence, there'll be dark mana. So I can absorb dark mana at the same time. And this place isn't particularly bright, so the trickles of mana I lose are replenished in short order.

  I create a thick barrier of mana to reflect the following strike of the bear, a series of Obsidian spears shooting out of its back. I grin.

  Demishift

  I let the barrier dissolve and leap forward. I roll under the creature's claw swipes and call my trident to my hand. I thrust it up into the creature's throat, and the fight is over. I yawn, dismissing my trident into my soul with a flick of my wrist. I then find myself rudely reminded where I am as over 4 tons of dead bear falls on my head.

  “Ugh.” I mutter, pushing myself out. I stand and stretch, then look down at the bear.

  “I wish I had a storage skill.” I say to myself as I wave a hand, pulling the bear into my spatial bag attached to my waist.

  {Level up}

  {Level 63 -> 64}

  Two levels from one floor is really good, I suppose, but not when you remember it took 5 hours to do. Jim, how many floors are left?

  {Jim:46}

  Really? How many have I gotten through?

  {Jim:14}

  I sigh. Alright. Guess I’ve just got to keep going.

  {Jim: I recommend taking some time to rest.}

  It’s only been 2 days, I’m not even tired.

  {Jim: Your mind and you body are 2 different things. Rest in the next safe zone.}

  I stare at the screen for a moment. Then I nod. You’re right. Yeah, I’ll do that then. Just one more floor. The safe zones are every 5 floors.

  That decided, I move to step into the next floor… and fall into the water. I gurgle for a moment before forcing my head to the surface and glance around. I groan. A water level? Seriously?! Who decided a water level was a good idea?

  With a deep breath, I sink down into the water. My mana sight isn’t much help underwater, given how saturated every droplet of the stuff is. What is helpful, however, is my night vision. Even in complete darkness, I can see everything in complete color. What I see makes me want to sigh, which I would have done if not for the water that would enter my lungs. I’ve got a decent hold on water magic, but haven’t begun on my wind magic. I would have made a bubble of air with my water magic but, well, where would the oxygen come from?

  I turn left to right, taking in my surroundings. I immediately spot 3 different types of creature, which seems to be the trend across the floors. Firstly, eels as long as my tail with sharp teeth and probably electricity. Secondly, a tiny little blue fish with faces shaped like lances that move in large schools. Thirdly, large black sharks that hide in the shadows to attack. Too bad for the sharks that I’m such a good counter to them. I can see them just fine.

  I swim lower as best I can. The water is fresh, not salty, despite these fish clearly being ocean fish. Are lake sharks a thing? Probably not. I’ll have to ask Snowstorm when all is said and done.

  The lance fish, as I’ve decided to call them, noticed me first, turning and immediately darting towards me. I take a moment to think as they get closer. How do I attack? Fire magic is my only real AOE damage affect, and it’s less than useless underwater. Dark magic is quite singular most of the time, and water magic… wait.

  I focus on them, then move all the water away from them, creating a pocket of empty air around them and letting them fall a hundred feet down to the stone floor. I chuckle. Oh, now that’s fun.

  I spend the next few hours doing the fish equivalent of stealing the ground under your feet, watching them all fall to the ground. It doesn't kill many of them. No, they're tier 2, fall damage practically doesn't exist for them without gravity magic. Now that I think about it, gravity might be a good affinity to expand into. One day, though, not today. I have too many abilities as it is. Anyway, the fish are dead. Murdered real good, you know?

  Upon reaching the boss room, I consider what I'll do. Inside is a… bigger fish. Who would've guessed. It looks like a shark, but really stretched out and a lot more flexible, with jagged teeth that flicker with electricity. If this wasn't a water level, I'd wipe the floor with it. But this guy has water magic. When I try to yoink the swimming grounds away from him, just enough water for it to swim in remains, allowing it to float about like normal. My eyes widen as a bolt of electricity arcs out of the creatures mouth, directly at me. So much for hunting animals, huh? Well, I guess fishing is a thing. Is fishing considered hunting? I'll ask Snowstorm later.

  Anyway, to avoid being cooked from the inside out, I use water magic to separate the water around myself from the rest of the room, creating a thin sheet of air separating a sphere of water from the electrically charged water. The sea serpent lets out a roar… somehow. I don't think water likes when things try to roar in it. Could I roar in water?

  I cross my arms within my little sphere, considering how to deal with this creature. I think I want to solidify my water magic as a skill. I originally wanted to wait to solidify all 4 base elements together, but do I have time for that?

  No, I need to think long term. I should wait. I want the quad affinity skill. I can't let my potential fall for direct gain in the near future. Perhaps… Wait. I made sure that I have 10 days until the invasion. That means my skill fully recharges before the invasion. So…

  I look down at the trident as it forms in my hands. I run the central prong lightly along my throat, and grin. I rear my right arm back, wreathing the trident in shattering energies, and throw it with all my might. The trident flies through the water, not slowing down in the slightest from the water resistance. It pierces through the tail of the serpent, and it lets out yet another roar, this time of anguish, before rushing at me. The trident vanishes, reappearing in my hand, my other arm now coated in shadows taking the form of jagged claws.

  I create a burst of water to send me back just before the electrified jaws can make contact with my sphere. I pull the air back to me, instead creating a coating inches from my skin, allowing for less chance of becoming a Kentucky fried dragon(KFD, I'm trademarking it). I slash downwards at the serpents head with my shadow claws, forming a jagged hole in its skull larger than most could survive. However, the scales are tough, likely a mutation enhancing their affect. However, nobody likes a hole in the skull, and the serpent reacts with an electrical pulse zapping everything inside the room. I whistle and nod respectfully. Now that's some good damage. Well, if it hit me it would be. Unfortunately, it left itself open.

  {Level up}

  {Level 64 -> 65}

  <{0}>

  {Level up}

  {Level 74 -> 75}

  {Class evolution available}

  I allow myself to flop down into the bed of the 30th floor rest zone, my form warping back into that of a dragon. Every limb is splayed out in a different direction and I'm tired as all hells. Not physically tired, no. Mentally tired. Using all my mana up over and over again is taxing to the mind more than the body.

  “I wonder what my options are…” I mutter to myself as I open the menus.

  {3 options available: shadowsong knight(Rare), High Chronomancer(Epic), Tetranox Shatterblader(Epic+)}

  I force myself to sit up and look down at the options.

  “Just from the names, what sounds interesting to you?” I ask absently.

  {Jim: The shatterblader is the highest rarity. I have no opinion beyond that.}

  “Thanks for your oh so valuable insights.” I yawn, looking over the options. I start with the rare option.

  {Darksong knight(rare):A warrior of steel and trident, who listens to nothingness and hears its voice respond to him. Evolves skill: Penetrate the veil(High)Epic+ to Reave the veil(Medium)Epic+. Grants skill: Shadow armor(Medium)Rare+. Soul weapon gains form: Naginata form}

  Reave the veil does the same as penetrate the veil… but for a slightly higher mana cost. Shadow armor creates a barrier of condensed darkness against my body to ward off the dark. I… think it has potential. The shadow armor would absolutely be helpful. But I feel that I already got a mutation for the purpose of defence. A naginata would be a useful blade to have, but I’m more proficient with thrusting weapons than I am with slashing weapons. The name of the last one gives me slight worry as well, as I use prongs, not blades, but we will see.

  {High Chronomancer(Epic): To embrace the path of a true wizard, bound to shatter the laws of time and reforge them according to the wielder's will. Evolves skill: Breath of time(High)Rare to Chrono-beam(High)Rare+. Grants skill: Lesser time dilation(High)Epic. Grants soul weapon form: Staff form}

  Chrono-beam is an improved version of my breath skill, with more control over how I use it. Lesser time dilation lets me slightly increase or decrease the flow of time through myself. Somehow this is simultaneously far better and far worse all at once. It gives me another option: Magic focus. That's all well and good, but I'm a mainly melee fighter, with long range and AOE sprinkled in for good effect in order to maximize utility. I'm not the world's most optimized creature. No, I doubt I could be if I tried. But just looking at this option, I know I'd choose the first option before I chose this one. Onto the last one.

  {Tetranox Shatterblader(Epic+): Holding darkness in one hand, time in the other, and rending them to shreds, so all may see your might and wrath. Evolves skill: Breath of time(High)Rare to Breath of distortion(High)Epic. Gains skill: Temporal change(High)Epic. Gains soul weapon form: Blader trident}

  Breath of distortion is like the chrono-beam, but far better. I can drastically manipulate the affects of the beam and how it changes what it hits. I can overlap multiple moments of time onto each other, send something into the future, send it into the past, anything. Temporal change seems to be a better version of a skill I had tried to get before. It gives me the ability to “snapshot” my physical state, Once per day, I can swap my body over into the snapshotted state, without any injuries or toxins or anything. It gives me a real second chance in a fight without dying. The blader trident was the one that gave me the most pause, until I read through it more. The prongs of the trident now aren't just points for piercing, the edged of the prongs become bladed, and shaped more like shards of glass or kunais. It'll give me the option of swinging the trident to clash instead of pierce, but it's not like the naginata. It'll also assist with piercing power. All in all, I know which option I'm picking, no question.

  {Class: Tetranox shatterblader(Epic+) selected}