Chương 45: Chapter 44 - Complacency

"Zhenyu! Zhenyu! Do you have any explanations regarding the accusation that you paid Artigan off to spare you and your teammates?" Ortris, famous orcish reporter.

"This is a Guild matter and my license has been revoked pending investigation. I cannot say anything. Thank you." Zhenyuxin, aka Feng Zhenyu of the Rising Yets. Ryan was mid stride when the bullipede launched. Far, far closer than Seffara had been when she'd thrown her container. He used [Instant Dodge] to reposition. The skill normally forced his max velocity towards a direction he chose. This time he pushed against the skill to try to decrease the speed. It didn't quite work.

His left foot smashed into the ground, hard, absorbing the impact of the landing. There was a whumph of wind–the bullipede was already passing him. His soulsword flashed outwards, piercing the bullipede's side as it went past. The blade held with his right, his left hand holding down his wrist. His hands trembled as he fought to not lose control. Ryan let out a scream.

"Ahhhhhhhh!" What felt like an eternity passed in a moment as the entire length of the bullipede rushed through his sword. He had to fight against each segmented section, pushing the blade against the torrent of carapace. When it ended, his own pushing force ended with him pushing straight ahead. Seffara had been right, it was like cutting through an oncoming train. His wrists would have snapped if he'd used one hand. He breathed heavily, arms shaking, then turned around to see his handiwork.

The bullipede writhed behind him, desperately trying to right itself, not understanding that it was already dead. A gash started from the first third of its body and ran down its entire length. It bled green and revealed the pulsing insides of a dying insect.

"I win." He put his blade on his shoulder and started his victory whistle, walking towards the dying insect. It screeched at him and kept scrabbling at the ground, probably wondering why it couldn't move its body properly. It tried to coil up–but then finally noticed the giant wound on its body. The bullipede straightened up and flopped onto the ground, away from him, trying to flee. Ryan could feel his Epic building. The bullipede started trembling, desperate.

Its compound eyes meant that it couldn't look away from him. Finally, the monster in front of him felt true fear. The [Rogue] approached the giant mass of an insect, he casually dodged the flailing twitch of the dying bullipede as it attempted a desperate attack. He took another step forward to stab and–Gamielle appeared at his side.

"What are you doing?"

"Killing it. Why?"

"Just leave it to die. You almost died right now." She pointed at his chest. Ryan stepped out of range of the bullipede and looked at where she was pointing. A small tear was visible at his chest. It was where the tip of the bullipede's tusk had grazed him. He'd been so focused on stabbing the insect that he hadn't even realized how close that attack had come to killing him.

"Huh." Gamielle looked at him, like she was concerned about him. The bullipede let out another screech and Ryan walked around her.

"You're ruining my achievements, get out of my way." He took out his shield from his back and held the soulsword in his right. It twitched futilely as Ryan dodged while keeping the shield close to his torso. Then he stabbed forwards. [Double Stab] It twitched again and a strike came from his right, he weaved backwards then stabbed it again. This time trying to activate the skill without the Trial System's help. A screech of pain, a twitch again, this time Ryan parried. It was far too weak now.

He stabbed forward, trying to focus on the skill activation. What were Zahiru's words again? Did he even need it? He remembered the feeling earlier of forcing his [Dangersense] to listen. He pulled on something else, his Epic. Burgeoning with all the momentum of soloing a monster that tunneled around in Sector Four. Listen to me and activate by yourself you sonofabitch. Precursor skill [Quick Stab] (common, Active) learned! Good. A [Quick Stab] went through the Bullipede's eye.

A spectral image of his blade went a little ahead of the actual one as it stabbed first. Precursor skills worked off the same levels of their successor. [Double Stab] provided a spectral blade? So would [Quick Stab]. It wasn't that useful of a skill. But the activation without the Trial System would help him learn [Double Stab] quicker. It'd still need honing and refining. Unlike a Trial skill, learned skills didn't just activate and autocomplete.

He had to guide the whole thing, practice each moment so it didn't fall apart. It was a good thing he had a great practice target. Stab, dodge, Stab, Stab, Parry, [Quick Stab]. [Double Stab] It activated faster and he felt it was closer. The bullipede no longer moved. You have slain a Mutated Tusked Bullipede (S2 Apex) x1 The corpse of this creature qualifies for a System exchange. Exchange the creature? Y/N? He let out a satisfied sigh and turned to Gamielle.

The [Mage] was staring at him like she was reevaluating him. The same look she gave him when he was in the middle of Ulverra, about to take a realmer hostage. It pissed him off. How dare she try to judge him? [Unrelenting Aura of Intimidation] was at its peak. It demanded he keep pushing, to not falter.

"What's with that look? This is what you wanted, wasn't it? Sending children to fight in deathmatches, standing by as I kidnap an innocent Realmer. Challenge the world right? Keep doing the impossible? Why do you look so concerned?" If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. He hadn't even realized that he was already grinning at her. Had he been smiling the entire time he'd been using the flailing bullipede as a skill grinding target? Now that was psychotic.

No wonder she was unnerved. He dared at her to comment on his current state of mind. A part of him knew that she was being forced into helping her mother. Gamielle looked away and into the ground, her hands clenched. To her credit, she did truly look guilty. A different voice filled the air.

"It was not her who has forced you into your circumstances." Gamielle disappeared as the Witch Tyrant replaced her. She looked down at Ryan, giving him an arch look, blasting him with the rotting weight of her aura. He sneered.

"Aw, did Gamielle run away to her mother?" Her aura didn't even bother him anymore, with his Epic in full and his [Rebellious] title, he could almost fight back. Not in quantity, not in quality but with sheer fucking momentum. [Unrelenting Aura of Intimidation] Leveled up! [Unrelenting Aura of Intimidation]] Level 1 -> 2 The Witch Tyrant redoubled her aura, apparently everything before hadn't been her full weight. Her eyes sharpened as she drew on more mental threads. Once again, Ryan had made the Tyrant furious.

"Your skill is overriding your sanity, little [Rogue]." He laughed, then looked at the corpse behind him and sighed. He waved his Epic off. The active portion shattered entirely as the momentum broke. The Witch Tyrant blinked as he looked at her, bearing her aura without the need for his Epic's active. He put his sword away.

"No, Witch Tyrant, I don't think it is. Did you really hear about what happened with me and Pinkie? When she had a knife at my throat, I stepped forward, daring her to kill me. In front of my friends. Who she knocked out. You should be glad I'm not making good on my promise." The Witch faltered. She did not hide her surprise. You could say what you want about the Witch Tyrant. She'd never broken a promise. Not in known history. She'd made threats and promises and made good on all of them.

Deals with [Witches] were even a class thing, something that could penalize her, depending on her specialization. For a moment the Witch Tyrant was speechless, she'd been blindsided by her own rogue subordinate. Her fury was redirected." I will have a conversation with her."

"See that you do." She disappeared, leaving him alone with the giant insect corpse. It didn't matter, he knew she was still listening. He sighed once again.

"The truth is, I don't actually feel that different from when I was on Earth and in The Realm. This is who I am." He spread his arms, green blood splattered on his body as the monster disappeared in front of him.

"I want all of this." Ryan looked down to see what was exchanged for the corpse of an apex monster of Sector Two.

"Okay, I didn't want that." – Gamielle screamed at him as he ran through the forests. It had taken a few minutes before she had come screeching back, annoyed to hell that her mother had removed her from the conversation.

"I didn't run away! She took over! I didn't run!" Ryan laughed.

"Sure, sure." That was another key information of the Witch Tyrant confirmed at least. She did actually care about her 'daughter', or whatever Gamielle was. The floating girl pointed at the new item the System had exchanged the bullipede's corpse for.

"Why even carry that around?" Ryan was holding what looked like a giant fang over his shoulder. It was about two thirds as long as he was, shaped like a tusk with a handle on it. The thick end was about as wide as his torso while the tip contoured perfectly to fit his hands. A bullipede club was what had dropped from the system exchange.

"It's such a stupid weapon I feel like I have to carry it around. I think I could use it and beat up some adventurers for their lunch money." He mimed hitting a poor adventurer repeatedly with the tusk. Gamielle rolled her eyes and blew out her cheeks. Still annoyed about earlier. The jog continued. His bruises slowly being fixed as the healing potion did its work. It was nothing like the one Gamielle had used to fix his arm, everything itched and burned. Ryan needed to distract himself.

"So, going to post that fight on realmnet?"

"And make you look good? Why would I do that?"

"I dunno, increase my legend?" Gamielle looked disgusted at the implication.

"It doesn't work like that. Well, not really anyway. You still have to have done something or be someone worthy of a Legend. Even if it were possible to get a Legend through fame alone it wouldn't be good. It'd be a purely social one and not a combat one." Ryan scratched his cheek.

"It'd still be a Legend, is a fame based Legend really that much worse than something like a Legend based on illusions?" It had to be mentioned that illusion magic, even Epic boosted ones used by dragonslayers were nothing like what the Witch Tyrant could do.

"You got me there. Dunno, a Legend built on fame alone just seems stupid." Ryan wondered if it would break Milock's heart to hear that. His friend was working so hard too. – Gamielle covered his vision once again. He tried stabbing through but she stayed well out of distance.

"You should slow down a little."

"What for?"

"Just a suggestion, have to time things right with the big Witch." He narrowed his eyes at her, then jumped up a particularly tall tree to gauge the distance to the next Trial outpost. He was probably thirty minutes away. At most.

"Do I have to listen to you?"

"It's a good idea, I'm only trying to help."

"Seriously?" He asked, a little annoyed, "doesn't this impact my achievements?"

"You were so much cuter when you just arrived as a first realm, it's like it was only yesterday!" Gamielle taunted, "yes, it might decrease your achievements a little but it should be a net positive. It'll give you more time in the Trial so you can spend it learning a skill." Ryan only knew one way to extend a Trial's time from the outside, and that was if the highest Trial was challenged.

When that happened, The Realm would desync from Earth and all dimensional portals would shut down while the highest Trial was being completed. This included the portals in and out of the Trials. Earth time left until the highest Trial must be completed: 41: 10: 30: 02 There was still plenty of time before the Tyrants would attempt the highest Trial in earnest.

"The hell is going on Gamielle?" She shrugged and gave him a mysterious smile, "who knows?" He tilted his head at her, then shook his head, "Nah, I'm good, besides I've already learned [Dangersense]."

"What? No you didn't!" Gamielle's yell of disbelief was all the motivation he needed to run as fast as he could. Whatever the Witch Tyrant was planning, he was planning on skipping that shit. – Ryan wondered if he was in control, then he realized it really didn't work for him and threw it away. It was just… what lay before him was so bad that he doubted the scene before him. The outpost was hilariously unmanned. Unlike the previous Trial entrance, there wasn't a massive fortress right next to the outpost.

Instead, the outpost itself was significantly more developed. Massive wooden walls with three towers all with an arsenal of modern weaponry. Half of them pointed towards the forest, the other half pointed inwards. It was designed to be manned by adventurers. Too far away from System portals and too close to a massively monster infested forest for Realmers to be considered safe. A failure in the Third Trial was significantly worse than a failure in the Second Trial too.

"Gamielle?" Ryan whispered.

"Yuh?" She was filing her nails. On his back. In her mission to slow him down, Gamielle had actually started flinging rocks at him. It was actual bullshit. Illusion or not, Legendary skill or not, surely there had to be a cost to ignoring the leveled zone like this. The Trial System would actively fight back against dragonslayers if they tried to cast through the leveled zones, surely the Witch Tyrant had to pay a similar price.

"Is this a trap?" He was looking at the singular adventurer sitting on the outpost tower. They were lounging and barely paying attention to the forest around them. That annoyed him, did they not know a dangerous Artigan lurked in the woods?

"Oh!" Gamielle exclaimed, like she hadn't thought of it, "yes! It's totally a trap, just wait here another, uh two hours." Ryan rubbed at his head. There were two options here. Option one: Gamielle wanted him to wait, and she was playing a double layered lie, pretending to make it so obvious that she didn't want him to stay so that he doubted if she'd even want it at all. Option two: Gamielle wanted him to charge in like an idiot and speedrun the Trial, her egging him on was to get him to move his ass faster.

Actually, there was a third option. She was just fucking with him as petty revenge.

"Seffara was right, [Mages] suck." Ryan decided to ignore all the petty doublethink and sit down and plan. Normally there'd be multiple teams waiting for a perfectly scaled Trial and at least one person on each tower. He knew there'd be less today but this? This was far too much.

"Gamielle, is a team already in the Trial?"

"A deal for a deal, stay put for an hour and I'll give you the information you need."

"Fine." The team he was targeting shouldn't have gone in yet so he didn't need to rush.

"Phew, thought I'd have to do something really drastic the System wouldn't like."

"What?"

"What?" Gamielle batted her eyelashes innocently. Well, at least that was another fact confirmed. It did cost something to push through leveled zones, and it would cost more the more she pushed. Then Ryan started wondering how much mana the Witch Tyrant had used for the lightshow. She really did enjoy being dramatic.

"So," Gamielle started.

"You don't know why there's nobody in the Trial outpost right now?"

"I know a lot of people went to experience Latarro's Epic buff. Still doesn't explain why there's one guy in the tower." That was the reason he had acted now, not later. Experiencing a full on heroic Epic wasn't an opportunity that came by everyday. He had bet on adventurers and their greed. He wasn't wrong. Gamielle blinked.

"Huh, so you did know. Well, it's not just one guy, there is a squad but–well… I'll let you find out." She said that while shaking her head. Ryan frowned at her then shook his head. He looked at the outpost, the one guy sitting on the tower, lounging. It really did annoy him. So complacent. Then he grinned.

"You know, I could do something really funny right now."