Chương 253: Chapter 250 - Artigan the [Saboteur] START

Day four… Of course, you couldn't just distract Ryan with elementary magical lessons forever. He quickly demanded they get back on track with his main problem. The problem was, he was stuck in a debate on ethics after having done [Class Change] on someone else again. He was on the defensive.

"No, I'm not ripping anything out of the firmament, whatever the hell that means."

"Linked grand magical rituals can ripple reality and destabilize it. This looks far too close to what you are doing."

"What you're talking about we call Legend manifestations. It's just reality not being able to handle the weight of energy that's being passed through. It fixes itself immediately."

"That is not what the research dictates. There's evidence that immense uncontrolled ripples in reality, alters it for long periods of time. You are doing it in small amounts, but accumulated over time you could be permanently damaging the fabric of reality." Ryan frowned.

"Where I come from, there's plenty of people that can casually cause miles long ripples. You might be right in that it does permanently alter reality, but I think there's a self-correcting mechanism or the people I know wouldn't be so free with it." Darrel looked horrified at Ryan's words. It made him rethink his position. He was… half certain it was the truth. If it really was a danger then Gamielle would have mentioned it like she did about the power of faith.

Though now that he thought about it, what Darrel was concerned about sounded awfully close to what the power of faith did. Ryan shook his head.

"If what I was doing was truly that dangerous, then it would have already destroyed a world considering there's a million people out there with classes significantly more intense than a [Student]. The concepts are already there, all around us. I'm just bringing it to the forefront so your soul could resonate with it." Another researcher by the name of Wesla looked up in concern.

"He's saying he's influencing the soul."

"No. I'm not doing anything to your soul, and I can't force anything that's not already there and especially not if you don't want to take the class… huh." Ryan trailed off as the argument raised a key problem with his plan to 'fix' Pinkie. Maybe the Witch Tyrant could force a class on someone, but from their experiments, he knew he couldn't make someone take a class they didn't want to take. Fetterue, who had been happy to just watch the argument, raised an eyebrow.

"Would you like to share with the rest of us what you've just realized?" Ryan rubbed his forehead, realizing just how ridiculously unprepared he was.

"I have to try to find a class that a depressed sociopath would resonate with, then try to convince her that changing her class is a good thing. Meanwhile, I have to make sure the new class doesn't give her a new perspective on life that doesn't end up with her going on a rampage revenge-streak." That was on top of trying to figure out how the [Class Change] skill seemed to be able to push other concepts back into the background.

He couldn't just give Pinkie the concepts either, he needed to push the concepts of the [Aberrant Shapeshifter] back as he pushed another forward. Of course, none of them other than Fetterue understood exactly what he meant. If the whole point of this discussion was to make him understand that he really was incredibly underprepared for all of this… then she had succeeded.

"I'm uh, going to need to start with some tougher test subjects. Which of you are in the fifth realm?" Nobody volunteered. It was a good thing that a reluctant test subject was just what he was looking for. —— By the end of the fourth day, Ryan was back on the roof, playing with a magical orb custom made for him and his volatile mana. He felt the way his mana moved as he thought about… everything. The whole day had been exciting.

It was when he was sitting down, arguing with the researchers for the tenth time, that he realized the [Conceptual Neophyte] class really did suit him. Maybe not to the extent of the [Adventurer's Guide], but it had been nice. Being surrounded by passionate people, pushing the boundary of knowledge forward in a mad dash. The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Despite that, his frustration rose, higher than yesterday's. But there had been no levels.

Realistically speaking, he shouldn't have expected to level everyday. Especially not when they were talking about the highest rarity Epic skill Ryan had ever heard of. He was still moving at a blazing pace in a near-perfect environment. Yet the frustration remained. There was that nagging crawling feeling that Earth was collapsing, that maybe something went wrong where millions died when he could have done something about it. Ryan closed his eyes and let the feeling wash over him.

Seffara had once told him to rely on her but this was a problem where even she was out of her depth. He still remembered how she stood in that planning room, deferring to the twelfth realms because this wasn't a fight she could handle. Then Grettfield looked to him to solve the mess. Because she had been looking for any hope and he was the only one with an idea. Maybe in another time, when Grettfield hadn't been exhausted from a boosting skill, she would have realized what Fetterue had.

That he was just some dumb kid getting lucky. That… Ryan's hands shook, he clenched the training orb tightly. For the first time, Ryan was thinking about what would happen after he failed. What would happen if he died? The past couple days made it clear that he really was flying blind, there was so much about all of his abilities that he didn't know. So much about magic, so much about concepts, auras, everything. And there was no damned time. What happens if I die?

Milock releases everything to the world in his anger, Clara becomes depressed and hollow. Seffara and Barry return to The Realm on a suicide charge for their own Legends and the Witch Tyrant… What would she do when there wasn't someone that was progressing up to her standards? Ryan felt nauseous, he dropped the orb. It was an unintended effect of what Fetterue had told him. She had told him to weigh the consequences of his death to his survival and Ryan had in his own fashion went through with it.

It had been easy to risk his life for a great purpose, for the purpose he had always wanted. But now the consequences of dying was coming rushing back to him. What the fuck was he doing? A deep sonorous voice rang in his ears.

"Breathe." A large dark purple hand wrapped around his shoulder as a warm presence suffused around the world. Ryan startled and turned to look up at a horned giant of a man, or rather, a demon. Ryan went on the verbal offensive immediately.

"I always knew you were watching. Is this what you do, wait until others are vulnerable because you're too much of a coward to face my questions head-on?" Agrinth just gave Ryan a rueful smile. Like you would an old friend that immediately started their antics the moment you saw them.

"I was hoping to meet you later, once you saw more of my beautiful kingdom. I guess now is as good a time as any."

"It's a shit kingdom with cult-like behavior. I was about to look for the quickest exit because I couldn't stand it." Ryan was hoping to get a rise from Agrinth, the demon hero just chuckled. Damn, even his laughter makes me feel small.

"Really? And here I thought you would have loved our adventurers." This argument was a great distraction. This was another bit of frustration that he'd been stewing in for days now.

"You made them into heroes. That's not what adventurers are supposed to be. They're supposed to be like everyone else. Flawed people that you look to and realize they're just people, like you and me. Instead, you have a bunch of hero-worshiping civilians and a lot of adventurers with impossible standards of perfection." Agrinth didn't even consider the argument for a moment, he answered back immediately.

"But not everyone can become an adventurer, Ryan. This isn't your world, we don't have a System. We have limited resources and cannot support everyone's growth. Valmere's culture was built this way because it gives those that can't have what I do a purpose, and it gives those that do gain society's resources a sense of nobility instead of feeling like everything they have is a given right." Ryan opened his mouth, then closed it when he couldn't come up with a good enough response.

Agrinth raised an eyebrow, a little disappointed.

"Is that the extent of your argument? If so, then Fetterue's assessment about you was correct. You are just a petulant child that chases after the impossible." Ryan's jaw dropped.

"You cheeky little fucker. I should have bullied you more when you were a kid." The demon scoffed.

"If I recall correctly, I remember beating you in an argument in front of an army. What a shame because it seems nothing has changed now." Ryan felt like his jaw couldn't drop any further. His outrage, however, had reached the top." I felt sorry for you! That's why I let you win that one. Besides, you had ninety-seven years to prepare for this. If I had ninety-seven years, I'd beat your ass both verbally and physically." The demon considered this for a second.

"Perhaps. Unfortunately, you only have a little under seventy days to come up with an argument to convince me because…" Agrinth stood proudly, his presence almost equivalent to a dragonslayer in The Realm. A true higher state of being. An ascendant. He spread his arms like Ryan liked to do. Then Agrinth gave Ryan a smirk.

"You do not have the capability to beat my ass physically." And with that, Agrinth flew off the tower. The damned demon did it slowly too, spreading his presence throughout the capital. The cheers and adulations arrived barely a few moment later. At first like an isolated shout, then a wave, then a raucous cacophony of celebration. The adopted son of King Theskar, Agrinth Deu Jalinmar. The Son of Valmere. A Great Hero that had saved the kingdom countless times.

Ryan raised his fist as the lone voice against the adoring masses.

"Just you wait! When I hit the tenth realm… no wait, when I hit the ninth realm I'm going to kick your ass." A telekinetic message hit him right back. Refusing to let him have the last word.

'So, you are admitting to being unable to win an argument through a logical debate? A true shame.' Ryan decided that he was going to show Agrinth just how flawed this cultish kingdom was. He ripped out the [Conceptual Neophyte] crystal and picked up another. [Class Change: Arcane Saboteur] This world had would-be heroes. They did not understand that having heroes meant inviting villains.