Start of Volume 2, The Cursed Gamer!
Chapter 204: Needless Worry
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Neji's first sequence of action, no doubt, was to actually try out Mana. He had of course experienced the supernatural energy before, but using it while in Fusion and on his base form gave a different level of pleasure.
As it turned out, this wasn't an illusion, there was neither any 'catch'. He really, as sudden as it was, could use his Mana.
Finally, finally, finally.
He lost a huge lot of power in the last battle, most of his quirks too. But all of that is expendable. Didn't he gain all that power in just a month of real-world time? That loss didn't matter much. As for the loss of the thousands of levels from the Gods, he is lucky to have survived at all. Next time, they wouldn't have the weapon with them, and even if they do Neji would make a counter by reverse engineering the Sword inside his inventory.
This, however, was an opportunity he didn't think he would gain so soon.
After half an hour of running around, throwing spells and all, Neji had to stop since didn't know many spells to begin with. The Magic Spell books inside his inventory that he [Learned] were not that many since most went to Kurai everytime he got that type of drop.
Nonetheless, he had gained a few new skills from those books.
[Cleanse - Level 1
Details: Can clean the user's body and clothes of any stench, dirt, and other things considered unclean.
*Cost- 50 MP]
[Magic Missile - Level 1
Details: Shoots a bolt of mana from the user's finger, palm, or eyes. The mana lacks any sort of heat or other special characteristics and simply acts like a solid force - at least at this level.
*Cost- 500 MP]
These two were fairly common as far as spells went, but the next one was a special drop from clearing all the dungeons of the world.
[Mana Supernova - Level MAX
Details: The user spends all of his mana into a self destructive suicide bomb, erasing everything on sight upto kilometres from the explosion spot.
—Unless the user has a terribly strong body or some other special trick up his sleeve, this attack might as well kill him.
*Cost- All MP]
When he used this Skill a minute ago, the whole Void had turned blue momentarily. Of course, he was fine afterwards.
It was true that he didn't have his Permeation anymore, and even his Super Costume was destroyed by the explosion of the planet (and possibly that whole universe) after the Primordial's attack. However, with his [Last Man Standing] skill, he could quite certainly stay alive after suicide bombing himself, and because of his [Gamer's Body] his form stayed mostly intact too, except for a charred skin.
Undoubtedly, as his MP would increase, this self destructive spell would be strong enough to bring down galaxies, and even universes one day.
As he was sitting, waiting for his HP to heal, and consequently heal his charred skin along with it, Neji was dying to see his status screen. He also wanted to use his Void skills, but he figured he would wait until he left this place. Who knew what weird response he would get if he used Voidmancy in this place.
So he chanted 'Status' and this time the familiar oceanic blue page materialised in front of him.
===
Name: Neji Hado
Age: 16
Level: 290
Class: Voidmancer
Title: White Knight in Shining Armour
Race: [Draconic High Human]
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HP: 2900/2900
SP: 2900/2900
MP: 29000/29000
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STR: 290
END: 290
DEX: 290
INT: 290
WIS: 290
CHA: 450
LUC: ???
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HP REG: 1160/minute
SP REG: 1160/minute
MP REG: 11600/minute
Stat Points: 0
===
The biggest loss wasn't his levels. It was all the allocatable stat points he had spent on himself for the last 16 years. Except for his CHA, apparently. It defied reality.
However, as happy as he was to see the MP stat finally unlocked, finally setting it stone that he really could use Mana now, the "???" on Luck gave him an ominous sign.
Did he spend all his luck in the last battle? That should just make it 0, rather than the ominous question marks.
Perhaps did Lady Luck withdraw her blessing from him? He quickly discarded the second possibility too; because unlike what he had thought at first, this abstract being really thought of him well, enough to risk an Omniversal war for him (if her conversation with the Primordial was anything to judge upon).
If none of the aforementioned possibilities were true, there's a chance that his current presence inside the Void was messing with his connection with Lady Luck. As [Lady Luck's Boytoy] he was directly connected to the entity, unlike other people, so this might be the most plausible outcome. He would have also assumed she got in trouble while he was unconscious for 153 years, but according to Sisty time outside was more-or-less frozen-
"Um, about that." Interrupting his thoughts, Sisty spoke as she stopped switching his clothes to look for a suitable one from the inventory, looking into his eyes. "We aren't still as we sit like this actually, we are currently drifting in the Void, the nothingness is moving below us. As we speak, we have crossed a distance that should translate to billions of light-years, if this was the usual cosmos."
Neji frowned. "You are implying…"
"Yes, since you woke up, we have moved from the depth of the void and travelled to a spot where time was allowed to pass a bit in the outside world. Though at most, even places such as [Nowhere] – the Prime Gods' plane, and [World of M] – Lady Luck's home plane, should at most have experienced a few hours."
He already knew what Nowhere was from her last explanation, so this time she Sisty gave him a short explanation on what the World of M was, and it turned out to be the resident world for the omniversal Manifestations of the abstract beings. That meant, his worry about Lady Luck's safety might as well be… justified.
He would hate it if she got into trouble for him.
"Ugh, of all things." Neji groaned. It seemed not even abstract beings like Luck were outside consequences. That only made the image of Primordial stronger, seeing how he did things without any consequences, at least not any that met the eyes.
His good mood was immediately ruined. He couldn't sit around while his biggest benefactor was getting punished for him, no way in hell! Though he doubted he could do anything at all, he still needed to try.
"Sisty-"
"I know what you are thinking, but I have no idea how to reach the World of Manifestations. That's not a place where you can enter, not as you are right now anyway." His trusty system relayed, making him bite his lips. "However… Um, don't take my word for it, but you can ask Yue or Raven about it. Especially Raven, knowing her origin."
That seemed plausible. Raven was an expert of Dimensional Magic and travel. Even if she couldn't help him, her father Trigon should know something about it. Though it's a long shot since she would rather kill herself than talk to her father…
But, Neji was going to take the chance. He needed to see what he could do to help Lady Luck in any way. He couldn't leave her as she was, not after what she did for him.
"You sure it's a good idea to open a portal to Arcane Plane from here though?" Neji, standing up and tidying his pale purple shirt, asked cautiously. "It's the void, after all. The last time I tried opening a gate to Void, you saw what happened."
Last time, the tentacles of some eldritch being were dancing from within the void, calling towards the Goddess.
"It's fine. Opening a portal to and from the void is different from one another. Also, as I said before, we are on a different part of the Void than the gate you opened. Though if we keep wasting time, we might end up in a similar place."
Her last words served as a fair warning – he really wasn't in a hurry to meet eldritch Gods – so he immediately used his connection with the Arcane Place, which he could still feel from this place, and opened a blue portal without any waste of time.
The portal bloomed like a blue sunflower in this absolute darkness, spiralling like a vortex. Neji turned to Sisty, receiving a nod as she jumped back inside him, her body flickering out of existence. That wasn't her real body anyway, just a projection.
He stepped inside the portal, feeling a healthy warmth that the void lacked. The vortex spun for a second and he was at his destination, stepping out calmly.
No, not his destination. Not the one he was expecting, at least.
"...?"
He didn't reappear in the Arcane Plane, it didn't seem so. Not only was the room different, but he could also feel an extra sense of authority in that Plane that his current location lacked.
Above all, he was facing a person, a woman – sitting on the huge bed that stood in the middle of this nicely illuminated room, with windows that showed a mystical cloudy garden outside – as she stared at him, first surprised, and then relieved.
Before she had won relief, the woman looked like she was depressed, rediating the energy of a little girl grounded in her room, her glossy silver hair messy, roughly spotted around the horns in her head, and her eyes almost red.
"It worked." She mumbled, sighing in solace as she spread her arms. Neji felt a strange force, though gentle, as it pulled at him and he soon found his face pushing against her soft bosom.
"I finally found you, my baby. I was worried you were dead for good since my connection with you was severed, but it just seems to be my punishment at work." she said in a motherly voice, tightening her hug, while Neji stayed silent.
While confused at first, he quickly understood who she was. The truth was only more solidified once he used [Observe] on her.
[-???-]
…In his whole life, granted he couldn't use it on the Primordial God because of range issues, she was the first person in ever to have received such a reply from Observe.
He hugged her back, her celestial scent entering his nostrils and giving him a pleasant comfort.
"I was expecting an introduction, but I guess it's fine now." He said before going silent and hugging her for a long minute before softly pushing her back. "Here we finally meet, M'Lady, it's a pleasure."
Although seemingly offended at the hug being cancelled, the personification of Luck, the supernatural abstract entity - Lady Luck smiled at him.
[Image Here]
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Author's Note: 😩 New week! Vote powerstones before lady luck comes to look for me!
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