I tapped my pen on the metal desk in an overcrowded classroom.

  Today, all the other teachers had scheduled meetings or events, except for Master Jujud. She was supposed to teach about goblin clans.

  So I went to her class.

  She didn’t show up.

  Instead, Master Fred, one of my other teachers, was teaching in her place, despite his own supposed meetings. Apparently he’d just ignored them.

  “What’s going on?” I grumbled under my breath.

  Sip woke with a start. “Eh?”

  “Nothing.”

  Master Fred put down his chalk and whiteboard—his preferred method of illustration.

  “Now…class…what did I draw?”

  He had changed the scheduled lecture to an old lesson in his current series on dungeon ecology, discussing mana wells, perhaps the single most vital aspect of the way dungeons form and expand.

  And yet, as much as I loved learning game logic, I struggled to convince myself there was any point to be here.

  I’d only left Sern, Junior, Rose and Axel with the intention to return the moment I considered myself strong enough. And I was clearly, obviously strong enough now.

  Wasn’t I?

  I didn’t need to go to class.

  I didn’t need to pay attention.

  “Grind?” Master Fred asked, clearing his throat. “Something…on your mind?”

  I glanced up, feeling the eyes of all the other students on me.

  “Ah. No.”

  “Good.” He didn’t smile. “Pay attention. This’ll be…important for today.”

  Fred was an alright guy. While he looked really old and wrinkly, in-game the man was technically five years old. He liked to wear a suit, though I’d seen him in jeans and a sweater a couple times.

  But most importantly, he was freakily strong, possessing power in the tens of millions.

  He’d probably get a lot more respect around the school if he didn’t have such a bad hunch and slurred speech. The speech in particular was agonizing. He had to speak slowly and in simple sentences so his students could make out what he was saying.

  All very boring. It was a mercy that he had classes only once a week.

  The class ended.

  Students stood from their chairs, laughing and smiling to one another.

  Sip poked me in the side. “You should turn around.”

  Master Fred was looking directly at me.

  “Brace yourself,” he mumbled.

  The next moment, I smashed facefirst into the middle of the desert.

  My head rang like a bell, and my blood hammered in my ears and chest, not to mention the sharpening adrenaline rushing through my body.

  “Teleportation?” I asked, spitting sand.

  Master Fred smirked, standing directly beside me. “Something like that. Follow along. You have a single task today.” He pointed to some hills in the distance. “Kill that.”

  I staggered to my feet, swaying back and forth as the nauseous sensation in my stomach gradually faded. “The ground?”

  “No.”

  He continued pointing. “The thing inside it.”

  All around us, sand began shaking, first in a steady rhythm, then violently, splitting the harder rock beneath us.

  Master Fred didn’t seem to mind, effortlessly sealing the cracks under his feet with mental energy. “You are stronger now,” he said. “We have a test for prospective first courts. Kill a five-month Excavator.”

  “Excavator—” I squinted, realizing the hill had moved closer. “Is that a monster?”

  Master Fred nodded. “A little one. Fairies eat them for breakfast.”

  Now he smiled. “Kill the beast, be a First Court,” Master Fred said. “Simple.”

  “Does everybody seriously know about that?” I grumbled.

  Speaking of which, I still didn’t know why fairies were so valuable.

  Maybe I should ask.

  Would Sharon find that offensive?

  Maybe not.

  I stared down at my hands.

  Why did I care? My level of power was already ridiculous.

  The Excavator was accelerating now, giving off intense but vague waves of mana.

  And what was an Excavator? Master Fred had his hands in his suit pants, so he wasn’t too worried.

  The blob disappeared.

  I looked for Master Fred, but he was already gone, likely having teleported, judging by the potent mana where he’d previously stood.

  Hang on, it wasn’t just there. All the mana around me was reacting, expending energy in semi-translucent bolts.

  The ground bulged upward.

  I swallowed, clinging onto Crapshoveler for dear life.

  An explosion tossed me upward, scattering the shredded hunks of rock into the sky. Within the center of the blast, a massive chitin drill swiveled around, fixed to the body of a long, feathered worm with little black dots and a thick coat of dust.

  It was taller than a house and longer than anything I could conceptualize, bunching up the ground for miles into the distance.

  I swung Crapshoveler around, drifting safely down in a series of staggered rings.

  The Excavator made a low clicking noise, ramming into the earth, moving enough sand and rock to totally envelop its body.

  But it wasn’t actually gone.

  A beast of that size didn’t move fast. Instead, it dug a few yards beneath the sand, considering itself safe while the head moved itself to better attack.

  I planted my shovel into the ground, opening a hundred and twelve fields.

  Xoiae had given me thirty large magic crystals, each able to evolve four abilities. Between all of those, I enchanted every single one of my hundred and twelve abnormality manifestations, keeping a couple crystals around in case I ever needed them.

  Though I’d like to use multiple crystals on an ability, they don’t work like that. Stronger crystals produce better results relative to the ability’s power, meaning I would need stronger crystals to improve my abilities any further.

  112x [(-100) 10k mana]

  The fields unloaded manifestations into my hands, bulging up and out into an orb. I squeezed, condensing my attack to a single piercing strike.

  The orb left my fingers.

  A sheer wall of burning red and yellow energy tore into the ground, liquifying everything on contact. Sand vaporized.

  Then the transcendent damage kicked in.

  Mystical rainbow energy wove through the ground. Golden ribbons of mystical rainbow energy wove through the ground, punching holes into the monster below, blasting out in a storm of hot glass as true damage finally triggered.

  {Young-type Excavator (-2234.4k) -403.4k Hp}

  [Lead]

  [Young-type Excavator has been dealt [11200*1750%] Transcendent damage. This damage has ignored this monster’s innate resistances.]

  [Young-type Excavator has been dealt [11200*1750%*114%] True damage]

  Even though the monster had negative health, it wasn’t dying just yet.

  [Young-type Excavator has been dealt [True Damage]]

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  [This unit has lost [2234400] instances of [Health] [Strength], [Durability], [Endurance], [Potency], [Mana], [Attackspeed], [Regeneration], [Innate resistance], and other statistics.]

  Smoke blew from my hands as I fell.

  The Excavator was flying into the air, emitting a guttural clicking, sending shudders through the ground. Wings sprouted from clumps of feathering all along its body, beating frantically.

  Cracks had appeared in the chitin head.

  [This enemy has taken [Mortal Damage] (50% or Above)]

  [This enemy has been executed by damage source : True.]

  [This enemy does not meet the requirements for [Reaper Harvest].]

  The clapping sound of explosive thunder stripped the sand from the ground, flashing white hot with mana as the feathered beast ignited into a ball of prismatic flame.

  It blackened, then vaporized, crashing back down in a loose cloud of ash, stats, and Exp.

  Master Fred blew softly, clearing the air in an instant.

  “One hit.” He chuckled. “Impressive for someone of your rank.”

  I crashlanded into the pile of exp.

  {RANK UP!}

  [Progression to Brass : 100%]

  [Progression to Lead : 91.1% (+1000k Tank-type Exp)]

  ~

  {GRIND}

  [Brass]

  “Radiant Echo”

  [ (+300000) 100k Hp (+70000) 100k Str]

  [(+20000) 100k% AtkSp (+400000) 100k Mana (+150000) 100k Dur 100k Dex]

  [10% AuraMP 10% SwrdAff 8% TotalManaRegen]

  [3 Int]

  ~

  (Stats have been compressed. Increased Maximum power output. Decreased fine power control. Stats have been rounded to tenth’s place.)

  I reflexively toned my health down, feeling a sense of weightlessness under my absolutely ridiculous strength. And yet, at the same time, my skin felt as durable as granite.

  When I switched my health back to normal, my feet punched through the sand.

  “Careful there,” Master Fred started. “Your ratio of strength to health is the same as before, so you won’t feel much difference just walking around, even though you’re moving with ten times the force.”

  I swiped at the air, kicking up a cloud of dust. “Woah.”

  Master Fred scratched under his wobbly chin. “I’ll admit…I’ve never heard of Transcendent damage sources in the second area…much less True…You’re awfully lucky to get an ability like that.”

  “Yeah.”

  I flexed my hand.

  “Guess I’m a first court now,” I said.

  Master Fred raised an eyebrow. “What? Does it…feel too easy?”

  I chuckled. “Yes.”

  “Well that was. Most people take several hours and nearly die at least a couple times.”

  He scratched his wrinkled face. “Hey, that True damage of yours works on anything, right?”

  “It should,” I stated. “Why?”

  Master Fred pointed upward. “There’s a storm coming. No rain, mind you. Just dangerous mana moving around, feeding the monsters in a wide area. Do you know what makes those?”

  I nodded, recalling several lessons.

  “Stormhavens.”

  “We can’t kill them.” Master Fred took a moment to pick his nose, before continuing. “You…wouldn’t think that’d be…so…hard, since they’re very docile. The problem is…they’re incorporeal. Like ghosts. We don’t have guys to beat it. They’re busy. So you go kill it.”

  “How old are they?”

  “Oh any age,” he said, smacking me on the shoulder. “That storm’s bad. Maybe thirty years old. Why’d you ask?”

  I jumped onto my shovel, reaching onto the flat blade. “Just curious.”

  Crapshoveler wobbled beneath me, gradually accelerating. The next moment, he was off, tearing through the clouds while I hung on for dear life.

  The sky turned into a sea of pitch black, illuminated in moments by flashing energy. Bolts of mana were so concentrated as to appear solid, forcing the air to turn into enchanted water.

  The very moment I pierced through the cloud, every single bolt jolted away from me, like scattered fish in a pond.

  I spun, tracing a trailing bolt back to its source. Here there lay an inner, denser sea of clouds so thick they condensed into actual blackish water.

  A bird sat in the middle, crackling and sparking. He glanced at me as I opened all my fields.

  I tried not to think how high up we were.

  I’d only get one shot.

  In total, I now had five hundred thousand maximum mana, one hundred thousand of which I’d already spent. That’d do fine, as long as I cut up the blast into the right number of partitions.

  112x [(-3175) 60k Mana]

  The orb briefly slipped out of my control, turning gray. I had to grit my teeth, applying tremendous mental force to keep it frozen in a loosely red state.

  What was different about this blast?

  One blob separated, utterly ignoring my command. The red orb blasted into the Stormhaven, disappearing in a ripple of dark feathers.

  {Stormhaven : +297.036k Mana}

  Huh?

  The bird completely absorbed not only the attack, but my transcendent damage.

  I swerved around, intentionally firing a tiny blast with my regenerated mana.

  But instead of a scrap, I unleashed a white hot beam of blue force, punching into the bird. The damage rippled over the Stormhaven’s milky blue feathers, flashed with mana, and completely disappeared.

  {Stormhaven: +1120.175k Mana}

  The storm haven swelled up like a balloon, processing the remaining Mana in an instant. The energy of the cloud worsened, until enough lighting flashed at any given moment to give an impression of sunlight.

  What was going on?

  {Help : Transcendent damage cannot be dodged, cured, or avoided, and grows more potent when healed, or when additional damage is applied. This damage is twice as effective against incorporeal enemies, and mana constructs.}

  ~

  {Additional bonus : [Transcedent] damage deals [True] damage]

  I wasn’t dealing True damage. Transcendent damage cannot be blocked, but there’s nothing stopping it from being absorbed or dodged. And because that Transcendent damage was never dealt, it was never converted into true damage either.

  I was only making it stronger.

  The Stormhaven flapped his wings, as if to rid them of dirt.

  {StormHaven}

  [Silver]

  [1m Hp 1.4m Str]

  No.

  It had only a million health. I dealt twice that to a monster just a few minutes ago. With a power like what I had, I couldn't possibly be helpless. Never in a million years.

  I started dividing my firepower into as many pieces as I could. In each, I created a mixture of red and blue.

  Purple attacks worked in a complicated way I didn’t fully understand. But if I just tried everything, there was a good chance something’d work. Besides, at this point I’d already given him so much additional mana that whatever came next would be a drop in the bucket.

  But something was wrong. My damage kept increasing, even as I tried to hold back.

  [1.3 bars of mana spent : Radiant Echo : 20.2x Transcendent damage multiplication]

  Right.

  Radiant Echo increases the power of Transcendent attacks based on the total mana I’d used.

  And yet, nothing was working! I couldn’t deal so much as a—

  The stormhaven shrieked, flashing with a burst of True damage.

  {Stormhaven : (-1325) 1m Hp}

  First, he blinked.

  Then he began to pick the smoky feathers from his dark coat, otherwise unfazed.

  Something had hit!

  “What was that?” I asked no one in particular.

  “Gray,” a grainy voice helpfully mumbled from over my shoulder.

  Oh yeah. Since Master Fred was a Silver, he could probably give me advice from several miles away.

  “Thanks—?” I spun in a circle, immediately cutting off.

  I faced a woman about my height and age, wearing a suit of chainmail armor. If I’d met her before, I certainly didn’t recognize her.

  Her skin, armor, hair, and eyes were static.

  They buzzed like a broken television, distorting the air around her body.

  “Gray absorbs,” the woman said.

  “Uhh…” I shrugged. “Okay.”

  I pushed my ability to the absolute limit, unleashing every single point of mana I had.

  I stopped holding back, creating a massive grey manifestation. The monster roared, smacking the ball with the tip of its wing. But rather than explode, the material seemed to warm up, cracking with mana, sticking to the feathers. It steadily increased, until the orb was a bright, glowing orange.

  And once that happened, it unleashed all its energy in a blast of scalding transcendent damage.

  {Stormhaven (-12089.7k) -11089.7k Hp}

  [This enemy has been executed by damage source : True]

  [{Stormhaven} meets the requirements for Reaper Merchant Hunter of Death.]

  [You have gained [112] new abilities]

  The bird screamed, shining like a star as it disintegrated into a pile of ash. I shielded my eyes, laughing like a madman.

  Beneath us, the storm clouds shook, turning gray around the edges.

  The woman took a step closer.

  We looked at one another for a briefly uncomfortable moment.

  I cleared my throat.

  “Need a ride down?” I asked, summoning my shovel.

  She just watched me.

  “No?” I smiled. “Well, thanks for the help.”

  “I was…unnessesary,” the woman whispered. A faint orange glow started at her shoulder plates, working down to her feet. “Apologies. Sir.”

  I frowned, glancing over her head. “Do I know you?”

  {Absolute Complex Abstraction : Detonation : Active}

  The woman exploded in a burst of volatile energy.

  // {Notice} //

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