Chương 210: Chapter 207 - He’s back

[Spellweave Perception] leveled up! [Spellweave Perception] level 4 -> 5! The levels came in steadily as he toiled the day away in Sector Five. It was said that skill levels were merely a marker of your progress in the skill that the Trial System assessed. It was also why skill descriptions changed the more you used them and you could gain multiple levels at once. But that wasn't the whole picture either.

Especially when you realized that skills could be leveled from defeating tough foes or coming across a particular accomplishment. The Archmage Tyrant had once said that it was the Trial System incentivizing adventurers to take more risks. If you didn't think you were strong enough to beat the next Trial? Risk your life and gain levels that way. It still left one question on his mind.

"Hey Gamielle?"

"Hmm?"

"Why does the Trial System limit skills to four slots? Do you think it's a resource limitation or is it a soul thing?" That was the current consensus on the realmnet. Ryan had a different opinion considering the things he knew now. Naturally, Gamielle understood more about the nature of the Trial System than he did.

"Trial skills are held by the Trial System and are individual from you and any of your capacity. The real reason for the limit was because the Great Civilization that created the Trial System didn't believe most people were capable of growing fast enough to complete the Trial System without specializing in one way or another." It was in line with what the Manager had said. The time limit was what was making the Trial System impossible, not the capability of the adventurers themselves. It still left the question.

"But then why does the Trial System give an extra trial slot for S+ achievements?" Gamielle nodded." Most people can't grow fast enough to meet the standards. They left room for people with both exceptional circumstances and overwhelming talent. The last thing the creators wanted was to limit anyone's growth if someone like that was found. So the extra slot is for exceptional people in exceptional circumstances." Ryan wasn't sure when it had happened, but he no longer felt out of place being called talented.

At the very least, even he couldn't fool himself into believing that he lacked something silly called talent. A squawk from above interrupted their discussion. Cerul was telling him that break time was over. Ryan sighed at the slave driver and focused on his skill, noticing the way it activated on its own, pushed along with the [Veilpiercer Assassin]. Unlike others, he had the unique opportunity to note down the differences between a skill activation with and without a class.

He could activate the skill on Earth where he didn't have access to the [Veilpiercer Assassin] class and then activate it in The Realm with the class. The results were fascinating on their own. It was similar to how he was nudged towards seeing and intuiting concepts as the [Conceptual Metamorph]. The [Veilpiercer Assassin] was pulling the skill along, leading it in a more efficient manner and making him notice things that he might have missed without the class.

It was subtle enough to be difficult to notice, but enough of a visible difference that it could be considered an edge. And that was before he resonated with the class. When he used [Conceptual Meditation] and resonated with the [Veilpiercer Assassin] class, it was an entirely different ballgame. The world became clearer, sharper, his skills felt like they were just natural abilities he'd had all his life.

The other thing that happened was that he was constantly hunting for illusions, expecting to see them whenever he turned his head. Every time Gamielle threw up an [Invisibility] barrier, he wanted to stab through it. The more the Noxweed plant hid away from the daylight, the more he wanted to dig it up. It was likely what an obsession felt like. Ryan found the location quickly enough. At this point, the Noxweed plant had dug in so deep that even Cerul had difficulty finding any more clusters by itself.

But not for the [Veilpiercer Assassin]. It took twenty minutes to move enough dirt to find the cluster of roots. They knew instinctively they had to dig down to escape predators but they also no longer had enough intelligence to realize they needed to dig much deeper to escape from him. The sword went through with a trickle of volatile mana. You have slain an Apex Noxweed plant This is a System enhanced monster. An Inter-Realm System Portal will be appearing at its corpse immediately.

[Spellweave Perception] leveled up! [Spellweave Perception] level 5 -> 6! [Arcane Volatility] leveled up! [Arcane Volatility] level 11 -> 12! [Manabane Strike] leveled up! [Manabane Strike] level 1 -> 2! Finally, after an almost embarrassing death and days of hard work, a pillar of multicolored light appeared where the last dead cluster of roots lay, signifying the true end of the particularly resilient piece of weed. An unbound system portal was unleashed upon the world.

Cerul circled the pillar of light and screeched triumphantly—then dove, right towards the entrance on the ground. That was until Ryan extended his shattersword and swung it at the overeager bird. Cerul came to an ungraceful halt in midair and screeched in outrage. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

"CAWW-CAWW-CAWW!"

"Hold it, I'm not betraying you, I just want to get my achievements first."

"CAWW-CAWW-CAWW!"

"Stop yelling at me when I did most of the work you ungrateful bird." Both of them glared at each other, Ryan holding his sword to the side, daring Cerul to try to dive for the portal entrance. The staring contest lasted for ten seconds. Cerul blinked first, then spat on the ground. Ryan shook his head and put his hand on the portal. This is an inter-realm system portal. You may only teleport to inter-realm system portals that you have been approved for. This is a free portal.

This portal must be claimed before it can be used to teleport anything. Do you wish to claim the portal for yourself? Y/N Ryan pressed yes. Realm quest obtained! Quest Completion Objective: Defend the portal for thirty minutes. During the quest the portal's light will not be obstructed by any means. A multi-colored hue will show that the portal is being attempted to be claimed. You must stay within a 3. 67 mile radius from the portal's light. The exact zone will be demarcated in your vision.

Quest Reward: Control over an inter-realm system portal. Twenty four hours of immunity from portal challengers. Quest failure: You may not attempt to take this portal again. —— Most of the monsters in the immediate vicinity of the explosions had already evacuated prior to the pillar of light appearing. Very few were strong enough to challenge the oddly blue crow domineering in the skies, and any that came close was pelted by a barrage of deadly sharp feathers. If that wasn't enough then…

well the crow would defecate on you and wait for its other ally to come back. And when he did, the monsters all ran. He did not chase them for he cared little about those too weak to harm him. But that had been the immediate vicinity. Things were different now that a pillar of light was visible from vast distances away. These creatures of Sector Five rumbled from their pillar dens, rose from mounds of noxweed plants, disturbed fine red dust as they arose. Even a group of adventurers started to make their way.

This particular band of adventurers had gained time off from aiding in mass migrations and were close enough to make it to the light in time. The fact that the portal hadn't been taken meant that there was an adventurer trying to claim the portal. They, of course, had to check it out. This was what normally happened when a system portal spawned in The Realm. A battle for supremacy amongst the vibrant lifeforms that thrived here. The stupid ones fought each other to get there first.

The smarter monsters stepped back, letting the others go first. They were confident that the first monster to arrive at the portal wouldn't be the one to take it last. The adventurers blended into the horde, following a herd of slower six legged boars that chewed on Noxweed plants along the way. They took their time to arrive. Joining the rear of the horde that had slowed down as they surrounded a clearing.

What the first monsters that were in front of the pack saw was this: A large bird—not giant for the fifth realm standing on the ground, staring angrily at the horde as if daring them to come closer… and a single silver-haired elf wearing a shiny black mink coat. Artigan sat casually, as if the monsters around him were of no interest to him. They all felt it. Fear. An overwhelming amount of danger that promised death if you came close.

Artigan had his arm over his bent knee, lightly holding a shattered sword in his fingers. A confidence that even against this beast horde that he'd be come out on top. Arrogance. Two of the monsters dove in, either incapable of feeling fear or the call of the system portal was simply too tempting. They all watched as Artigan flicked his left hand twice and shattered the sound barrier. One monster was pierced instantly by a knife while the other one dodged theirs—right into another knife.

The overwhelming force and speed of the knife punctured through bone and flesh, fragmenting inside both monsters' bodies and paralyzing them in shock. Two more knives penetrated their eyes and into the brain. He had barely moved. Artigan still sat there grinning at one of the corpses, pulling out another knife from his pouch—the monsters all tensed—as a small fuzzy green orb jumped out from under the second monster and flickered back into the horde.. That disturbed all of the monsters greatly.

Not a single one of them had noticed the green creature hidden within the folds of another monster. Artigan had. —— By the time the team of adventurers arrived, fifteen minutes had gone by. What they saw was not typical of a system portal raid. More than a couple apex monsters were turning back. Giant, medium-sized and small. What they were all known for was cunning, and all of them had deemed that taking the portal for themselves was a task too risky for their liking.

A single adventuring team couldn't have done that, at least none without [The Knight] anyway. The other thing that was weird was just how organized the horde seemed to be. The apex monsters were keeping things in check. If monsters started making trouble they would start shoving them into the center. Shoving weaker monsters as sacrifices wasn't the weird thing, it was just how calm they were all being.

System portals should have rendered many of these duller creatures out of their mind and pushing to take the portal for themselves. It really just left the question. Which team could it have been? It couldn't have been [The Knight] because he was retired. It also couldn't have been a group of teams because there'd been no notice on the Realmnet about an organized time like this. The only thing that it might have been was that it was a top tier team having chanced upon a portal for themselves.

They might have needed assistance for when the horde finally finished organizing. The adventurers trudged forward, weaving between the monsters, their cloaking skill hiding them and keeping the monsters off their back. There was a Spidene, a spider creature that saw through the skill but did nothing. Perhaps not believing that the adventurers were on the same side.

When they got ahead of the horde, what they saw was this: A pile of monsters scattered across the clearing, all mostly having been reluctantly pushed in, a single elf in the middle, a sword on his shoulder, robes that were loosely worn that fluttered in the wind. A single elf taking on a raidboss level difficulty on his own. Someone who couldn't have been in the fifth realm for longer than a month. Artigan. He turned and saw right through their cloaking skills. He grinned at them, welcoming the challenge.

The adventurers paled and ran. Adventurers had to know how to run, you see. It was part of the chaos in The Realm. Even a decent team like theirs could get wiped at any moment, even in leveled zones. So when you came across something you weren't prepared for? You ran. Artigan had somehow hit the fifth realm without using the known Fifth Trial entrance. And he was stronger than ever. —— Ryan clicked his tongue, making Cerul look up at where he was looking. Its eyes widened in surprise as it saw what he did.

A group of adventurers it hadn't seen originally, running the hell away. Cerul took off, ready to do its special move. It was something he noticed about the silly little bird. If the crow thought anything could be a threat in the future, Cerul pooped on it. A skill inherent to the Cerulean Crows that apparently let them track whatever they had defecated on. Adventurers that could use a skill to camouflage themselves in a horde of active apex monsters? They definitely qualified to be pooped on.

One messy bombing run later, Cerul flew back, looking satisfied at itself that it had hit the mark. Only a couple minutes later, the quest had completed. Title obtained: Solo Portal Conqueror (Epic) As if responding to the new achievement, Ryan felt his right arm stir. A slumbering ruler, one that was grievously injured, taking in the right quality of achievements to repair itself. It turned out that all he had to do to repair the [Aura Tyrant] class was to act like a domineering tyrant.

Ryan breathed a sigh of relief.

"Glad you're still alive buddy." —— When the portal settled and was claimed you could then use the inter-realm teleport like it was just another portal. What he hadn't expected was for there to be options available to him. Artigan should have been removed off the teleportation list for all the cities. He shouldn't have all of these options available to him at all. Then it dawned on him. Artigan was definitely removed but Ryan Robinson had been added to the list.

He could use the entirety of the inter-realm portal network.

"Whatcha thinking about?" Gamielle appeared next to him, as if giving him a warning not to be thinking about doing something monumentally stupid.

"Just that I really need to get a move on in learning how to control my fear Epic." … In the distance… A lone figure with a sword trudged forward through the red blasted plains. He had been traveling for multiple days now, entrusted with a mission to deliver what was apparently vitally important goods for the Unwanted. It was only that he had gotten lost. Every single pillar mountain looked the same and map reading was never his strong suit… while he was sure he was in the vicinity…

the distances and monsters involved meant that he needed to be more careful. After all, this was a realm five leveled zone and he was only a fourther. When the pillar of light shot up in the sky he shook his head. It turned out that Zedart was quite a bit further away than he expected.