Jake had spent another month rapidly progressing since his shopping trip. The most monumental event was when Jake finally laid down the ritual circle framework for the Pollendust Bee Queen. He had prepared enough cores and, with some of the materials he had bought, could begin the initial stages.It was a bit like how Mystie had used her ritual for a long time before Jake came along. Jake would do something similar but at an even higher level. The ritual circle itself had a radius of about ten meters and was placed on his lawn, surrounded by a barrier he cheated to get made by just having Duskleaf erect it. This initial stage would last quite a while and was likely going to be the longest.Besides the ritual, Jake had just been slamming out potions and working on a special kind of soul poison he really wanted to make. It was harder than he had thought it would be, but he still felt he was getting closer to his goal.With this also came some levels. It felt like they had been coming ev

Miranda had been observing the battle from afar until, suddenly, a huge magic circle appeared and blocked out her view. When it disappeared, Jake was gone, and she hurriedly contacted him with worry… only to discover he had been put out of commission and was now somehow on the other side of the planet.Having seen the battle, Miranda was confused about how Jake had fought but did not question it. She knew their opponent had a Bloodline that influenced emotions in some way, so she chalked it up to that. Not that it mattered right now, as she had more important things to do.Jake’s warning before any attack arrived had allowed her to gather people in time. Hank and his children, Neil and his party, Lillian, and Phillip had arrived in her underground ritual chamber. When Miranda had seen Jake and the alien invader fight, she’d moved right away to have Neil prepare their escape path in case anything went wrong. She only vaguely remembered Jake mentioning this Grand Mangrove River and how

Getting a massive sand worm to eat you was actually way easier than Jake had expected. Not that Jake should have expected much from the get-go; it was a stupid expectation. All he had done was just land on the sand, get semi-close to a natural treasure while using Arcane Stealth, and boom—a worm popped up and swallowed him. It was a level 198 worm—so damn close to evolution, too.The worm nearly instantly noticed it had caught something it didn’t want and tried to spit him out. However, Jake held on inside its massive maw as he spoke, "Hey! Worm! Make a deal!"It did not react aside from continuing to thrash and trying to spit Jake out. That was when he realized that the sand worms had no ears and probably not even a sense of hearing, making him switch to telepathy."Worm. Make deal. You help me, I help you. If not, death."As he said the words, Jake took out a handful of earth-affinity herbs and tossed them down the gullet of the worm. It was a gamble… that paid off immediately, as t

Factions in the multiverse varied widely. Some factions integrated themselves nearly everywhere quite easily, such as the Court of Shadows. The Court of Shadows found themselves present even in territory and planets run by the Holy Church as long as they kept themselves covert. It was an unspoken agreement that the two factions had kept for many eras, allowing the Church to get rid of individuals they would prefer not to send members after themselves. Let’s just say there were many circumstances where having assassins for hire was just more convenient.Valhal was also the sort of place that could have "halls" or small groups operate within other’s territories without dominating land themselves. They did occupy some land—unlike the Court of Shadows, where none knew the true location of their headquarters—but not as much as others. The reason for this was simple.One could be born into the Holy Church. Born into the Risen. Born into the Altmar Empire. But this was not true for Valhal, t

Jake waited expectedly for Sandy to return. As he waited, he also considered an option he hadn’t even thought of before… What if Sandy turned hostile? There was a legitimate risk that the worm would return stronger than Jake, as the evolution could lead to intense power growth. No, it would definitely lead to immense power growth.Moreover, Sandy didn’t need him anymore. He had helped the worm reach C-grade and even went and gone something incredibly stupid: pouring all his mana into the damn meteorite. Oh, and then there was the issue of C-grades apparently coming, and as he stood there, Jake could even feel a few approaching auras.Did I fuck up badly? Jake asked himself.He had originally only approached the worm to give him a lift. Their entire relationship had been transactional. Shit, Jake had even threatened Sandy. He knew that if someone else had threatened him to either help or die, Jake would have fought, or at the very least looked for every opportunity possible to strike b