Vilastromoz grinned as he waited for Snappy to return. Genuinely, he hadn’t been sure if Snappy would actually give his True Blessing to the worm. He had gone with the tried-and-tested strategy of starting with the most extreme example of a Blessing while only expecting a Divine Blessing. A Greater Blessing also wouldn’t have been that off from his expectations.He would be lying if he said it didn’t please him. Then again, Snappy was better at judging the abilities of the Cosmic Genesis Worm than the Viper was. As mentioned, then while they both walked Paths where consumption was a big part of it, Snappy walked one where eating things was the primary element. If Villy was a master, then Snappy was a grand master.As expected, Snappy returned soon after handing out the Blessing, looking a bit worse for wear. Giving out a True Blessing was never easy, and it quite literally ate your Records when you did it. If giving out a normal Blessing—even a Divine one—could be said to consume a li

It was a fight that he knew they could not lose. One that could perhaps decide the fate of the planet he had now come to call home.The King meditated as he healed himself as much as possible. He wished he had the skill to set up a proper formation to help him in his regeneration, but sadly that did not fall within his skillset. Having anyone else make such a magic circle also wouldn’t prove very effective due to the uniqueness of a Unique Lifeform.The King consumed and slowly absorbed a Soul Marble, feeling his body fill with energy. He would take another one just as the Ashen Phantom Devourer attacked again, but that would also be his final one.One might ask why the King stayed in a losing war for months. There truly was no logical explanation for this besides an unwillingness to retreat and abandon his claimed territory. He was a King, and an enemy had invaded his domain, so he had a natural urge to defend it. That he knew the benefits he could gain from killing another Unique Li

Sword met trident as the clang of metal sent them both back. The blade rose again, the robed nahoom retreating with measured steps. Miyamoto pressed forward as several more blows were exchanged, his opponent backing away with every attack.The mana in the air began to heat up as the swordsman dodged to avoid a beam of concentrated sunlight descending from far above. Around the alien invader, a ring of golden light formed, the very plains around them seeming to resonate with him. The ring moved in front of Ell’Hakan as the trident stabbed forward, releasing an explosion of golden flames and forcing Miyamoto to leap back."This planet keeps perplexing me," Ell’Hakan spoke as he spun his trident, leaving trails of flames behind it. "The information on you was limited. I genuinely expected those two to be capable of killing you, and even if they failed, to at least put you out of commission for a good while. It appears I was way off.""To reach for true power is to subvert fate and expect

What the actual fuck? Jake thought as William finally started stringing together sentences more than a few words long. He began to explain what he had done since returning from the tutorial, and it all just felt so odd to hear.Right after returning, he had met up with the psychiatrist—not a psychologist, though Jake still kinda didn’t know the difference—as well as her child. They had then set off, and William had leveled, gotten a Pylon, and done all that one would expect someone to do in the early days of the system.Besides going to the First World Congress, that is. Both because William hadn’t wanted to go, and his master had discouraged it.From that first mention of his master, Jake began to notice the pattern.William had then kept doing what he did, and… well, he had done a lot more than Jake knew. He had met with Reika and talked to her while she made her way to Haven. He had met Sultan at some point, too, and even met Jacob several times. As for what he had done with them?

Jake and the King didn’t really encounter anything of note as they both flew skyward at a relaxed speed. Both were in weakened states, and while Jake was quickly recovering, the King was not. Hence, the relaxed approach.On the way up, Jake infused some energy into the rock that was totally not an egg that he had received from Sandy. It had only been a few hours since they parted, and Jake would be lying if he said it wasn’t a bit weird that he was already back again, but it wasn’t his fault that he sucked at predicting his own future plans.Okay, it probably was his fault, but in Jake’s defense, he had been somewhat mentally occupied with taking down the Ashen Phantom Devourer."You mentioned that you made it here with the help of a C-grade entity," the King said as they flew up. “Will this entity be willing to assist both of us?"About now, it should probably be made clear that Jake had not shared much of how he had traveled across the world, much less talked about Sandy. He’d just