Weapons of Mass Destruction

Like my minion before, I walk from behind the trees and enter the exact same clearing she entered back then. There, these three people greet me.

The murderer from Easy difficulty stands there awkwardly. He is not tied, and there is no mana holding him at all. Yet, he stands there with a terrified expression, not daring to move or say anything.

Myrra looks just as I remember her, tall and cheeky. Her white hair easily flows in the wind, and her golden eyes are squinted with a happy smile.

The emotion I'm feeling right now is extremely silly.

There is just one problem: her tail sways from side to side in the manner she does when there is danger around.

“Feral one, be very careful, she made a deal with some being to kill you,” Myrra warns me.

And the third person lets her say it. It's like it doesn't matter at all if I know. That absolute confidence tells me she will deal with anything thrown her way.

Lissandra sits on the stone nearby. Unlike her version I just met in the 5th event, she is young and beautiful, an ethereal kind of beauty that's hard to grasp or describe. Her silver hair flows over her shoulder, tied into simple ponytails. She is wearing black clothes, more fitting for a male, but looking easy to move in.

As before, her body is flawless. That's the word I could use. It's like it’s made with the single purpose of being as athletic as possible. As she shifts, I can see that in each of her motions. Every movement sends a shiver down my back as if I'm standing in front of a peak predator.

It's a sentiment confirmed by the calm in the area around us. All over the forest, monsters are fighting, veilshriekers crawling, the Veil intensifying this pressure. Yet, the small area around us has not a single monster nearby, as if they do not dare to enter her territory.

Lissandra doesn’t say anything for a while but continues to observe me very intently. Behind her eyes, I know she is thinking of something. Something very important.

“I've decided. I won’t kill you, little pup,” Lissandra states, as she makes her decision. She was always quick to do that.

She jumps on her feet, picks up the black dagger that was stabbed into the stone, and puts it on her belt. The moment she does so, time around us feels like it slows down, and the pressure increases.

A single giant orange eye appears there and grows in size until it covers a third of the sky, which turns pitch-dark.

“Fake one, we made a deal,” the voice of that entity I met multiple times roars through the air, making it vibrate and the world shake. “Do not dare to try to…”

“I have a few requirements, of course. If you break any of them, I will kill you, little pup,” Lissandra tells me, totally ignoring the thing in the sky.

“Why?” I ask her, also ignoring the intent.

I wouldn’t take it lying down, but seeing her now, it feels like I wouldn’t stand a chance against her. None at all. It’s this primitive feeling that’s hard to describe, and she is the only person who makes me feel this way.

If it comes to it, I will fight till the end, but this… this would be throwing my life away. I hate it. I dislike how weak I feel and the difference in our strengths.

This won’t do. This can’t go on. There is no way I will allow myself to feel this way.

Seeing it’s not getting attention, the intent in the sky disappears, its anger is easy to imagine. The world becomes normal once again, and the sounds come rushing back as the sun appears back in the sky.

“Good, Envy is now gone. He won’t be able to mess around with this tutorial for a year or two. Maybe less if other Rulers share the backlash with him, which could be quite possible.” Lissandra turns to Myrra, “Little kitten, kill that man but freeze and keep his heart.”

Myrra does so right away. The murderer from Easy difficulty tries to use his mana and defend himself, but a single hole is pierced through the middle of his forehead, and his body falls on the ground like a puppet without strings.

Lissandra takes a few steps towards me and taps with her finger right over my heart.

“Originally, I agreed to deal with Envy so I could get your heart and status, little pup. The man that just died was supposed to be used so I can transfer his status to this female lynthari you saved in such a silly way.”

As she talks to me, I examine the black dagger on her belt. That thing is totally the one I made on the 3rd Floor and came back to bite my ass. It currently doesn’t even try to absorb any mana. It just sits there.

I find it very, very interesting. Something I should try to experiment with. But maybe I should pay attention to Lissandra. She seems to notice me getting distracted, and I know if I push it more, there will be consequences.

So I say, “You made a deal with that entity. He wanted me dead, and you agreed, asking in exchange to be moved here, this floor was probably kept ‘alive’ by the entity and maybe because of my and my duplicate’s attempts to have it kept running after I leave it.”

Lissandra gestures for me to continue.

“The plan was to kill me as the entity wanted and for you to take my heart and status, the status of that now-dead man going to Myrra. Then you would either on your own or with some help become Earth’s tutorial attendee and get out of it when it ends.”

“Simple, isn’t it?” Lissandra takes a step back and gestures at Myrra to come closer.

“Are you not worried about breaking the deal you made with Envy?”

“Little pup, why would I even keep the deal with someone who would break it at any moment? Envy is just inept to allow himself to get used that way.” She says it towards the sky, to someone who might be listening, “But if he is dissatisfied, he can wait for when I will get out of the tutorial, and we will solve it then.”

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Even though her original was just an Absolute, when her word got scanned and included in the tutorial, she doesn’t seem to care. Back then, she would be weaker than a Ruler, and now, much weaker than her original self, she still shows confidence to face him.

But something has changed about her, I have noticed.

“You are different now; you seem to have more of your original memories that should be lost because of your imperfect imprint. I wonder, did you make another deal with another Ruler?” I ask.

A small smile flickers on her face, but she doesn’t answer and examines the frozen heart Myrra is showing her. Myrra does it respectfully, and her eyes quickly perk up when she catches my gaze.

Lissandra prods it a few times before sighing, “Deplorable, but that was to be expected. Little kitten, we will use it to give you the status of an attendee. It will be more annoying, but I will make my own heart.”

Myrra nods, “Yes, Lady Lissandra,” and her aurora glass flickers around the frozen heart, as if packing it before she puts it into the bag on her side.

“As for you, little pup. I will let you live, I will declare you Champion candidate if I feel you deserve it, and I will even train you,” Lissandra continues.

“Why?” I can’t help but ask.

“I won’t answer that question for now. But there are five rules for the following two weeks, so listen carefully.”

She lifts one finger.

“If you use your concentration skill to affect your emotions during the following two weeks, I will kill you.”

Second finger.

“If you use the mana you used for this dagger,” she taps on it, “I will kill you.”

Third finger.

“If you fail to reach level 250, I will kill you."

Fourth finger

"If you fail to get three skills to level 50, I will kill you."

Fifth finger.

"If you fail to reach Adept of your subclass, I will kill you.”

She already seems to know a lot about me and my status. Too much to my liking, but I guess there are things that come with being thousands of years old and being the most powerful being of her planet for a similar length of time.

“That’s a lot,” I mention.

“Yes.”

“Like, a lot, a lot.”

“Yes.”

“Why don’t you just kill me?”

“I can do it if you have given up.” Because of the way she says it, I’m sure she isn’t joking.

“What will you do if I insult you a bit? Call you things. Be a bit honest about my feelings and what I think of your expectations?” I ask. I’m sure she knows how much I dislike it.

Lissandra stays quiet, but her eyes give a simple answer.

I have to hold myself back from saying anything too harsh, and it’s surprisingly difficult. Lately, I have been relying on [Focus] a lot to deal with this kind of stuff, so this feeling is weird as I already stopped using it for my emotions. Something I’m sure she already noticed. I'm able to keep quiet for now, but I’m sure more trouble will come later.

Level 250 is doable; I'm missing only 13 levels. Adept of Pride could be tricky, but maybe doable. It’s been a long time since I got my subclass, but I do not know the requirements. Black mana is a big hit to my power level, but it seems the cockroach has something in her mind.

The situation reminds me of the time she threw me into the dark tunnels full of flame imps, imps poisoning me and serpents. All for my training and because she was dissatisfied with my, in her opinion, slow growth. Maybe this is something similar? Such a lovely old lady indeed.

The worst will be getting 3 skills to level 50.

Active skills:

Focus - Lvl 49

Perception - Lvl 46

Redistribution - Lvl 48

Resonance - Lvl 45

Mana Domain - Lvl 40

Tether - Lvl 36

Infusion - Lvl 29

Mana Crown - Lvl 24

Mana Manipulation - Lvl 47

This will be dangerous. The bottleneck from level 49 to 50 seems to be really big, looking at how long my [Focus] is stuck at 49.

Lissandra, probably getting the reaction she wanted, takes a step closer, and the thing I expected since the start happens.

She hits the side of my head, hand open, with her palm. This powerful attack is…

Yes, she bitch-slaps me.

I'm sent to the ground even though I kept strengthening my body a lot ever since I saw her.

It annoys me that she used the perfect amount of force to make it sting and not hurt me further than that. It doesn’t even feel like an attack, more like punishing a kid for doing something stupid she doesn’t want me to repeat. This is most likely for the end of the third floor. Or maybe she just likes to slap people. Perhaps it is to show dominance or something. Damned cockroach.

Seemingly in a better mood, Lissandra turns around and heads somewhere between the trees. I'm left behind with Myrra and the corpse of the murderer from Easy difficulty.

“Myrra, let's run away from her.”

“It’s useless, feral one.” Myrra’s tail moves in an annoyed manner. She is even whispering.

“Did you already try? What happened?”

“Long time no see. How are you doing?”

“Why are you avoiding my question, Myrra?”

“I didn’t expect to see you again, feral one. That mana stone you left behind was an extremely cheeky way to try to help me. But it worked, so I have to thank you for that.”

I decide to give up on getting an answer to my question and instead look at the tail that so often betrays Myrra’s emotions. It now sways from side to side. She seems to be in a really good mood.

“You are her disciple now?”

“I wouldn’t say a disciple. Maybe a candidate to become her disciple would be more accurate? Lady Lissandra is very picky when it comes to these kinds of things.”

“Of course she does. Old people are like that. How much do you know?”

“Parts of it. The process is gradual for me, unlike Ms. Lissandra. If I get a status, I should be able to finally learn more. About this place, me, her, and about you, feral one. Who would have thought you and your group are even more interesting than I thought.”

As the conversation goes, I continue to observe myself. So far, not using [Focus] doesn’t seem to change that much.

I was worried about being unable to use it for emotions, but maybe it won’t be that bad after all.

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