Chương 130: To Grow Stronger

Gaston stood at the edge of the third sector, peering back at the mass of devastation spread behind him. Once the competitors had entered the third area, violent battles had become the norm, with everyone fighting tooth and nail for a chance at claiming the Star Shard. Even the two normally hidden Space Brothers had been dragged into the chaos, all because of one persistent obstacle. Feormere. The anomaly. The thorn in their side.

He had become impossible to shake, and worse still, he had stopped being merely an annoyance. Now, he was a genuine threat. Twice already, Gaston had come dangerously close to having his star shattered, which would have denied them their only reason for invading this damned integration: claiming two Star Shards.

"Ark," Gaston muttered, watching Feormere appear on their trail once more, "I'm going to kill him." For once, Ark neither admonished him nor argued.

"Twenty minutes," Ark said calmly.

"You have twenty minutes to kill him, otherwise…"

"Yeah, yeah, probability drops, and we fail. I get it," Gaston rolled his shoulder and flexed his muscle.

"No more holding back."

"Remember," Ark continued, his voice hardening, "if you start using skills, you have to kill him. No failures. No mistakes. Total annihilation." He clenched a fist as three orbs shot free and began to orbit Gaston.

"Have I ever failed before, brother?"

"Only once," Ark intoned.

"Only once," Gaston repeated, and then he vanished. Gaston reappeared at Feormere's side in the middle of a full-powered swing. He fully expected the human to dodge, Space Jump, or attempt something equally absurd. Instead, wooden armour surged up around Feormere's body and warped as Gaston's fist struck it cleanly. The wood splintered and exploded, sending shards spraying through the air.

Two of the orbs at Gaston's shoulder surged forward and detonated, but the resulting blast was swallowed by a roaring wall of mana that surged like a tidal wave, knocking Gaston backwards and forcing him to jump aside.

"How much mana do you have?" Gaston snapped as he opened his palm. Before he could conjure a void orb, Feormere's hand appeared and clamped around his wrist, cancelling the skill activation entirely. The interruption caught Gaston off guard just long enough for Feormere to twist and hurl him skyward. Gaston shouted as he tumbled through the air, desperately trying to track where Feormere had jumped to, but he couldn't locate him in time.

A sharp clap echoed through the battlefield, and a massive vine erupted from the ground, slamming into Gaston and launching him even higher into the sky. None of this was going as planned, so Gaston forced himself to reset his thoughts and vanished. He reappeared on the ground and tumbled as his remaining momentum carried him into a tree, the impact rattling through his body. He bounced back to his feet as Feormere appeared above him.

This time, Gaston was ready, and three void ropes leapt from his palm, wrapping tightly around Feormere's body and pinning him in place. Feormere's eyes widened in surprise as the skill locked him down and slammed him face-first into the ground.

"Ha! Didn't expect that, did you! You aren't so tough… You just have a ridiculous amount of stats," Gaston said as he kicked out, sending Feormere's bound form crashing into a rock that exploded on impact. Yet, somehow, as he rolled, Feormere kicked off the ground and sprang back to his feet. His gaze sharpened as he assessed the void ropes wrapped around him, and a chill ran through Gaston as he clearly saw the instant Feormere reached some sudden realization.

__ Joe stared at the strange space skill holding him in place as a crucial memory surfaced. The ropes binding him resembled a substance he had seen before, deep inside the void tear that had led to the void cell in his arm. If this rope was made from the void, then moving through it should be possible. So he did. Joe slipped through the ropes as if they did not exist at all, the sensation effortless once the understanding clicked into place. He had a space class, after all, and he could move through the void.

Trying to trap someone with the void when they could pass through it was almost absurd. He laughed out loud as he ducked an armoured fist and kicked Gaston's leading leg out from under him. The cloaked man tumbled sideways, shouting in pain as Joe's follow-up kick landed squarely against the side of his head. Joe rebounded and turned just as Ark appeared behind him, attempting to deploy a strange mechanical web to bind him.

Ark no longer seemed content to simply observe and had finally joined the fight, which suited Joe just fine. He had grown over the past year, and despite still being stuck at the level 170 bottleneck, his body's improvements had made him deceptively stronger. Strong enough, in fact, that he now held a clear physical advantage over both of them, a realization that brought him no small measure of satisfaction.

"Hey now, two against one is just cheating," Joe said as his hand flashed forward. He sent a mana wave at Ark, but the skill was blocked by a large barrier, forcing Joe to jump back as a faint whirring of gears and grinding cogs filled the air. Unable to see Ark clearly from his position, Joe shifted sideways to figure out what he was doing, only for Gaston to anticipate the move and meet him with a brutal punch that caught him completely off guard.

Joe reeled as his barding exploded on impact once more, offering practically no protection at all. The failure of the skill grated on him, forcing him to rely on his Mana Stream defensively to compensate for the lack of armour. His barding was starting to feel useless in fights like this, especially against opponents of this calibre, and he needed another way to bolster his defences. His body was far more durable now, but it still had limits, and he could not simply tank every blow forever.

As he strained to think through a solution, he finally caught sight of Ark, who was now wielding a gigantic cannon aimed directly at him. Joe tried to move, but Gaston activated a strange void skill, and the air around Joe suddenly felt foreign and heavy, like thick water, preventing him from jumping away. He could only watch as Ark's cannon fired, unleashing a building-sized beam of mana straight toward him.

Joe immediately poured a massive amount of mana into his barding in a desperate attempt to reinforce it, while simultaneously activating two seeds beneath his feet. Two enormous purple vines erupted upward just in time, interposing themselves between him and the blast. The beam tore through the vines moments later, but its power and momentum were heavily reduced before the remnants slammed into Joe, and even then, his barding still failed as the impact detonated around him.

"Useless skill. Even the vines absorbed more," he complained bitterly as he tumbled across the ground and crashed into another tree. He forced himself back to his feet quickly, and he noted the steam pouring from Ark's cannon. There was no chance he could fire another shot soon, giving him a brief window to recover. Gaston, however, pressed the attack, and Joe weaved through the onslaught, narrowly avoiding any truly devastating blows.

As he jumped back to create space, his eyes lingered on the battered vine that had absorbed most of the blast, and a thought took shape in his mind. If only he could wrap himself in those vines instead, they would offer far more protection than his failing barding ever… Joe reformed his barding, wrapping his entire body in living wood until he looked like a walking abomination. As he continued to evade Gaston's attacks and the orbiting orbs, he tried planting seeds directly inside the barding itself.

To his surprise, it worked, and the wooden armour slowly began to swell and fill with seeds.

"Ha! Why the hell didn't I think about this before?" he exclaimed, genuine delight breaking through the tension. Gaston paused his assault and vanished, reappearing beside Ark, who had already reloaded his cannon and was aiming it at Joe once more. Hidden behind his mask of wood, Joe smiled and activated Seeds Will Grow. A veritable forest of vines erupted from his barding, coiling outward in thick loops and layering over his entire body in a rolling purple ocean.

He felt a faint chime echo through his mind as the skill shifted and evolved, locking into something new. Just as the transformation finished, the cannon below discharged again, sending another massive beam screaming straight toward him. While his focus was fully consumed by the formation of the new skill, he failed to dodge or move aside in time.

The beam slammed directly into his vine-covered chest, but instead of exploding on impact, it rebounded off him, launching Joe backwards through a line of trees before he skidded across the ground and crashed into a small mound of churned earth to a stop. He rose to his feet almost completely unharmed, his new barding having absorbed the attack entirely. Roughly half the vines had withered and fallen away, turning black as they dropped like dead leaves from a branch.

Joe calmly poured more mana into the armour, replacing the dead growth and restoring his form in moments. A laugh almost escaped him as he felt just how effective this new defence was, freeing him at last to focus his Mana Stream purely on offence. He pulled out his quarterstaff and flooded it with his entire Mana Stream, the weapon pulsing and humming ominously under the sheer weight of power coursing through it.

For the first time, he saw real shock register through Ark and Gaston's eyes as regret began to set in. Before they could fully process what had changed, Joe vanished and reappeared between them, his quarterstaff crashing into Ark's armoured chest. The blow sent Ark flying into the surrounding trees as the metal casing around his body warped and cracked, sparks bursting into the air.

"You bastard!" Gaston shouted as he thrust out his hand and tore a hole in space with a sharp flick of his fingers. Joe leapt backwards as the tear widened, staring into the churning void beyond, instinct screaming that whatever Gaston was planning was something he did not want to face head-on. But before he could react further, Gaston moved with deceptive speed and reached into the tear, pulling out a small, square cube just as the void sealed shut.

"Ark. I'm activating the Cube of Mortis!" Gaston yelled as he pressed a hidden button on its surface. Joe tried to move, but the pulse of mana unleashed from the cube was impossibly fast, washing over him in an instant. The air around him warped and condensed, forming a rigid cube that locked him in place, eerily similar to the prison that had once held Veda when he first met Corel. This one, however, was far worse. He could not Space Jump, could not see beyond its walls, and could not feel any opening at all.

He was completely trapped. __ Gaston cursed under his breath as Ark reappeared beside him, one hand clutching his bloodied torso. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Can you keep going?" Gaston asked tightly. Ark nodded and swallowed a healing pill, though his expression remained strained. Gaston still did not understand where that last attack had come from. Feormere had never displayed that level of strength before, and the unsettling thought crept in that the anomaly might have been holding back all along. The idea made Gaston shudder, as they had barely managed to contend with him even two against one.

If Feormere truly had more in reserve, then this was going to become a serious problem. For now, Gaston forced the thought aside as he and Ark moved toward the next sector. The Cube of Mortis had been his final contingency, a last-ditch measure meant to guarantee their claim on a single Star Shard. Having been forced to use it this early filled him with unease, and he did not want to dwell on what it would mean when they inevitably faced the anomaly again.

"Ark, I think I hate this integration," Gaston grumbled, the words heavy with exhaustion as his hope began to fray. He did not need Ark to explain what this setback meant for their calculations or the already narrowing margins of success, because he knew the truth well enough on his own. Failure was not an option, not when everything they knew stood to be lost if they fell short. __ Joe floated inside his prison, suspended in absolute stillness, unable to move even a single muscle.

He had no way to tell how much time had passed, but it felt like hours at the very least, and the weight of it slowly settled in. It was probably time to admit defeat. Another Star Shard had slipped through his fingers. God dammit, he thought bitterly, frustration boiling beneath the numbness. Just when he had finally turned the tide and started to win, they had pulled out some cursed cheat item that rendered him completely helpless.

'You did well,' Uriel said softly within his mind.

'I was very impressed that you created a skill mid-battle.'

'Thanks,' he replied, the acknowledgement hollow but sincere. As he remained floating there, powerless, waiting for either the competition to end or the cube to release him. He let his thoughts wander. There would be one more competition in a year, one final chance to obtain the array he needed to move his friends away from danger. There could be no more mistakes. He thought about Gale and the time they had spent together.

The unhinged bird woman was undeniably a handful, yet despite himself, he felt an odd fondness for her. A sibling, she had called him. He would have shaken his head if he could. The idea still felt absurd, and yet the vision he had seen lingered at the edges of his thoughts, refusing to be dismissed. As he mulled over it all, a subtle unease gnawed at him, something small but persistent that left him unsettled.

'Uriel,' he asked quietly, 'were you around before the system arrived? Do you have any memories of that time?'

'No,' she replied.

'I have no memories from before you received your bloodline.' That was new, and it sent a ripple of questions through his mind.

'So you don't remember the bloodline gate either, or anything from before you started speaking to me?'

'It's fragmented,' Uriel said after a pause.

'I was still asleep during that time, but I vaguely remember events.'

'I didn't know that,' Joe replied.

'Neither did I,' Uriel added. Congratulations. A victor has emerged. The Star shard has been claimed. The prison around Joe collapsed, and he was unceremoniously dumped on the ground. He lay there for a while, face pressed into the dirt, before finally pushing himself up and dusting his clothes off.

"Next time," he muttered, just as he was teleported away and returned to Thropia. Back home. Joe took the loss of his second missed Star Shard in stride. He still had one more chance, and if push came to shove, he could always try to gain the funds he needed the hard way. When he walked into his house, however, he was surprised to find it empty. He checked his mini-map and spotted the four brats lounging near the training grounds, which was normal enough.

The absence of everyone else's dots wasn't unusual either, at least not at first. He was about to close the map when a tight cluster of familiar dots caught his eye near the village. His gaze lingered as recognition set in. All the women were there. Corel, Gao, Esha, Alice, Felicia, Tevenny… and even Varaiya and Shanna number two. A sinking feeling settled into his stomach. That combination meant only one of two things: disaster or a scheme in progress. More often than not, those were the same thing.

He decided to investigate, but first he needed a way to avoid being spotted by Corel's own mini-map. Pulling out his personal pillar, he scrolled through the shop until he found what he was looking for. A cloaking item caught his eye, an invisibility cloak priced at three hundred thousand credits. It blocked tracking and map-based skills but did nothing against direct sight, which was perfect. He purchased it and wrapped it over his shoulders, hoping it would be enough.

He Space-Jumped into the village and approached the building that housed the women as quietly as he could manage. Crouching beside a window, he slowly leaned in and peeked through a corner. Inside, he saw Alice and Esha standing before the others, clearly in the middle of a serious, diabolical discussion. They hadn't noticed him yet, and he smiled to himself at the small victory. The only reason he could even find the ladies on his mini-map was that they were in Landradad.

An area so steeped in his aura and nature energy, it was like an extra limb. Unfortunately, the room was wrapped in a privacy array, leaving him unable to hear a single word. He tried to read their lips, only to quickly discover that he was absolutely terrible at it and couldn't decipher anything they were saying. With a quiet sigh, he slid down the wall and sat beneath the window frame, resigned to waiting in defeat. He sat there for nearly thirty minutes before the door nearby opened, and someone stepped outside.

It was Shanna the second. Her eyes widened the instant she spotted Joe, and she immediately turned as if to warn the others that he was there, which only reinforced Joe's growing suspicion that something involving him was being discussed inside. Moving as quickly as a cat, Joe wrapped a hand gently over her mouth and made a quiet shushing sound.

"Now, now, Shanna. Telling on me isn't very nice," he whispered into her ear as he scooped her up and carried her out of sight of the house. Thankfully, the privacy array worked both ways, so his impromptu kidnapping went completely unnoticed. He set her down behind a tree that concealed them from the house and flashed her his best, most disarming smile.

"I apologize for manhandling you so," he said lightly.

"But I'm just dying to know what you ladies were talking about." He exaggeratedly wiggled his eyebrows, but Shanna only rolled her eyes and crossed her arms with a pronounced pout.

"None of your business," she replied flatly.

"When I tell Tevenny about how you grabbed me, she will be most unhappy." She nodded as if her declaration carried absolute authority. Joe chuckled.

"I'm sure she will forgive me, considering the circumstances," he said easily.

"Can I offer you a bribe?" As he spoke, he produced a rose from thin air and presented it to her with a flourish. Shanna huffed loudly and waved the flower away.

"I have absolutely no interest in flowers," she said dismissively.

"But a new dress…" She let the implication hang in the air. Joe caught the hint and shook his head with a rueful smile before transferring a hundred thousand credits to her.

"It's just the monthly meeting of the ladies of Landradad," Shanna said casually as she smiled at her sudden windfall.

"I thought you knew about it?"

"The ladies of what? Monthly meeting?" Joe asked, stunned.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Shanna didn't answer. She was already walking away toward the crafters' district, no doubt to purchase her new dress.

'Kakakakakaka.' Joe growled as he stormed into his house, shock simmering into irritation. A monthly meeting? How long had this madness been going on, and what in the blue hell were they even discussing? He knew, with absolute certainty now, that he needed answers, and he intended to put a stop to it. Since the conspirators were still gone, he decided the next best option was to question the brats. One of them had to know something.

He quickly found Shanna and Meris sitting by the lake, their feet dangling in the cool water while tiny fish nibbled at their toes. Both waved when they saw him approach, but the moment they caught sight of his expression, they jumped to their feet, clearly expecting trouble.

"At ease," Joe said, waving a hand.

"Can one of you please explain to me what the ladies of Landradad are?" Meris and Shanna exchanged a look that told him everything he needed to know. They absolutely knew.

"So you finally found out?" Meris laughed, unable to hide her amusement. Shanna lightly slapped her on the shoulder.

"Meris!" She turned back to Joe, looking apologetic.

"I'm sorry, Joe, but we were sworn to secrecy. Esha even made us take an oath." She pressed a hand to her chest and raised her fingers like a Boy Scout. Joe sighed deeply.

"Of course she did," he groaned, giving up on interrogating them any further.

"If you see Esha before I do. Tell her to watch her back." With that, he turned and stalked off. Nearly an hour passed before Alice and Felicia were the first to return from their meeting. They headed straight toward the sabretooth's sleeping area, only to be ambushed by Joe as they arrived.

"Hey, Felicia and Alice," he greeted smoothly.

"How are my favourite two ladies doing today?" Felicia stiffened at the odd tone, while Alice smiled at him in surprise.

"Hello, handsome. When did you get back?" she asked, completely missing the dangerous glint in his eyes. Felicia roughly grabbed Alice's shoulder, but it was already too late. Joe scooped them both up, one tucked under each arm, and with an explosive burst of power, leapt toward the nearest branch of Yggdrasil. Both women screamed as they were hauled skyward. Joe had underestimated how close the branch was and had to tap them both with a warning before Space-Jumping the remaining distance.

He not-so-gently dumped both of them onto the branch before taking a seat himself.

"Care to explain?" he asked, casually as they caught their breath. They settled opposite him, exchanging glances.

"Explain what?" Felicia asked, far too casually to be convincing. Joe raised an eyebrow.

"About these monthly meetings you… Ladies seem to have been arranging."

"Oh. So you found out about that," Alice said, failing to suppress a giggle.

"How long has this been going on?" Joe asked, rubbing his face in dismay.

"Oh. About since Tevenny arrived," Alice replied lightly.

"That only counts as when we gave the meetings a name," Felicia added.

"We actually had a few prior to that, ever since Gao and Esha moved in." Joe gaped at them.

"Over two years? Seriously?" They both nodded, utterly unconcerned by his reaction and not even bothering to hide it.

"Just tell me it's a girls' thing and it has nothing to do with me?" he said at last. Alice burst out laughing, and even Felicia had to turn away to hide a chuckle.

"Fuck!" Joe sighed in defeat. After returning the pair to the ground, Joe trudged back into his house and dropped into a comfortable chair. He poured himself a large glass of wine and decided to drown his worries. It didn't take long before Esha stormed into the room, glaring at him.

"So that was your ugly face I saw in the window," she said, pointing at him.

"You finally figured it out?" She sat beside him and motioned for a glass. Joe grumbled as he poured her a generous serving, which she downed in one gulp before demanding another.

"You took your time," Esha said between sips.

"I lost the bet. I was sure you'd find out within six months."

"I've been distracted," Joe groaned as he drained another glass.

"And honestly, I trusted you all. Look where that got me." Esha laughed and tapped his cheek lightly.

"Now, now, Farmer. Don't be sad. We only spend half the meetings complaining about you. The rest of the time we discuss… other things."

"Thanks," Joe said dryly.

"I take it you didn't win the Star Shard?" she asked.

"Nope. Bastards had some sneaky item they used at the last minute to trap me." Esha gave him a sympathetic look.

"Want me to ask Corel to give you a massage? Grind away those worries?" That actually sounded rather nice, so Joe nodded without much expectation. Esha chuckled softly.

"There's always next time," she said as she rose to her feet.

"One more chance." She placed the empty glass on the table beside them.

"As much fun as it is drinking away our worries, I must leave you be. I'm off to visit Samira. She's due in a month, and she wants my help arranging the baby's room." Joe lifted both eyebrows.

"So soon? Need my help?" Esha tapped his cheek again and smiled.

"You have terrible taste, Farmer. So not on your life." With that, she left him alone. She tagged in her replacement as Corel entered the room and settled onto Joe's lap.

"Hey, you," Joe said with a smile as she bumped her head against his.

"So you found out about the meetings?" she asked a little timidly. Joe waved a hand.

"It's fine," he said.

"I was just being dramatic. I don't actually mind. As long as the ladies are happy and having fun, so am I." After a pause and a look, Joe didn't quite understand. Corel leaned in and kissed him. It was a long, lingering kiss that stirred his desire, but the moment he tried to wrap his arms around her, she slipped free and jumped to her feet.

"I just remembered something," she said with one more soft kiss.

"I'll be back." To Joe's dismay and growing annoyance, she didn't return until long after he had already fallen asleep for the night.