Duskleaf appeared beside the Malefic Viper and joined him in staring down at the young human within the time chamber."Did you ask me to come by simply to confuse me?" Duskleaf asked the Viper while looking down at Jake.He had a break from assisting his master, as he could handle everything there himself for now. This had allowed Duskleaf to send his clone back to help the little elf girl catch up and make sure she stayed on top of her studies without any of his personal projects being affected. He even had time for this brief excursion to see what Jake was up to. At first glance, he didn’t learn much…Though there was one thing."Why has he embedded the weapon in his chest?" Duskleaf asked. He saw that Jake had the weapon he had created firmly stabbed into his own chest—or, more accurately, into his own heart. At first, Duskleaf thought he was absorbing some of the curse energy from it directly into his body, but he felt no movements of energy."Good question," his master said, smil

Jake instantly knew. He felt the awareness of sim-Jake slowly slip away as the bone katar began to show even more cracks. At the same time, Eternal Hunger hummed with power as if it was growing by the second, actively consuming something incredibly valuable—sim-Jake himself.Despite knowing this had always been the plan, Jake still felt a sense of sadness. It was a weird sentiment, but he felt like he had become good friends with his other self. To have him disappear like this wasn’t something Jake wanted to see, but it had been inevitable from the beginning.All Jake could do was help make sure the Legacy he left behind would be worth remembering for eternity.The hydra kept attacking Jake as he picked up the pace. He dealt more damage, making the beast faster and stronger due to the berserker effect, and truly pushed himself. He was in the zone as sim- Jake did what he had to do. After a few seconds, Jake felt the full change. A humming of sorts went through his body, and the bone w

Jake knew the question of how long he had been in time dilation was just a stupid joke, but he still thought about it seriously. The last time, he had spent fourteen years or something in time dilation, and that had translated to a few months. Would it be more? Jake considered and concluded it couldn’t be more than half a year, even if that would be a while.However, he did notice one thing. His token had no new messages left behind on it. The last time he was in the time chamber, he had gotten some messages in the meantime, with the messages appearing whenever he exited. This time, he hadn’t gotten any. So, maybe less than three months? Forty years resulting in three months passing would be a one-to-one hundred sixty dilation, which seemed like… a lot? Was it a lot?Needless to say, Jake had no way to math it out. But he did have one way to find out quickly without having Villy tell him."How about we make a bet on whether I can guess the time? Down to the hour.""Oh, interesting. Wh

While it was true Jake usually didn’t like to get involved in the fights of others, he didn’t really count this one. They were just throwing stuff at each other, accomplishing nothing. What did the bears hope for? That the big tree would run out of energy? They had a limited time to be there, from the looks of it, as the tree gave off a constant aura that slowly wore them down, and coupled with the thrown root balls, they could end up getting hurt unless they left at some point.In some ways, looking at it annoyed Jake. Neither side was willing to take any risks, just trying to play it slow and safe. Suddenly, it made a lot more sense why none of these beasts had managed to properly progress in C-grade with so long passing… They were slacking off.It was honestly an excellent area for beasts. The passive mana alone would allow most to grow into C-grade if they managed to form a den and properly absorb it for long enough. The problem, as always, was the quantity of this energy. It was

The treants had both grown significantly more powerful after the infusion of power from the Ethgleam Mothertree, making it apparent there was great synergy between them. It did not come as a surprise, considering the treants were called Ethgleam Elderbark Treants, but it was still fascinating to see how two completely separate races would end up influencing each other as such, ultimately winding up with an intimate link.It was good, too, as it meant Jake at least got some entertainment value from the fight. The two of them barreled at him like hulking monstrosities, a faint layer of magic protecting their bodies and a shimmer of soul magic revolving around their vine-like appendages.One of them reformed its hand to resemble a club, then it swung down hard in an attempt to squash Jake—who was already teleporting away. Soil flew everywhere from the powerful impact, and Jake felt the ground shake a bit beneath his feet where he had just stepped.As he looked at the flying soil, he got