The message was choppy, going in bits and pieces. Reina thought it was written by someone delirious. Maybe on the brink of death or poisoned.
๐๐ง ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฆ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐๐ช๐ต๐ญ๐ฆ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฏ๐ด ๐, ๐๐ช๐ข ๐๐ถ๐บ๐ถ๐ฆ, ๐๐ช๐จ๐ฉ ๐๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ด๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฆ, ๐ข๐ฎ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ. ๐๐บ ๐๐ช๐ต๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ด๐ด๐ฆ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ช๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต ๐ด๐ข๐ค๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ'๐ดโฆ
"The rest I couldn't make out," said Reina helplessly. "From there it goes into incoherent rambling," she continued. She then produced the only other sensible fragment:
๐๐ต ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฑ๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐๐ข๐จ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ต๐ฆ ๐๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ต ๐๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ด๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐จ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ณ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฅ! ๐ ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ช๐ฏ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐จ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ณโ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ข๐ญ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐บ ๐ด๐ถ๐ด๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ป๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ. ๐๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฆ!
"It ends there."
Zane wasn't sure what to make of it.
Thatโฆ came out of nowhere.
"You're worried," said Zane. He could feel it.
"I don't know," muttered Reina. She sighed and shook her head. "I'm just... it's a lot. It probably won't amount to anything. I know. I justโฆ"
Reina never even stuttered usually. It said something that she was at a loss for words.
Zane stroked her head. "You worry too much." It was true. He could almost see all the overthinking going on under her little frown.
"You're right. It's probably nothing. And if it's something, you have me," he said simply. "I'll be here for you. Always. I promise."
And he felt the blossom of warmth coming from her. He felt her relax a little. He wondered if using Sage Mind like this was cheating. Then again, he'd never been the best with feelingsโhis own or other people's. At least this way he could understand easier. It felt like making up for a lack, more than anything.
The message was pretty cryptic, and neither of them knew what to do with it. All this stuff about murdering and vengeance and priestesses... it was so distant it felt pretty much meaningless.
So Zane reassured her again and felt a little more tension go out of her. They set it aside.
He started asking her about other stuff to take her mind off it. He asked her about how the week had been going since she felt all knotted up with stress. As she went through her troublesโnegotiating trade routes with Elias, dealing with the increasingly belligerent Harbormasters, tamping down on intra-faction territorial squabbling, he felt her starting to unwind. So he just kept nodding and asking her questions, trying to be genuinely curiousโtrying to be there for her.
At some point, she paused, pursed her lips. "I don't want to bore you."
"You never bore me," said Zane, and that was honest too. He could listen to her forever. She smiled, closed her eyes, made a happy little noise, and nuzzled deeper into his chest.
He started giving her a massage, gentle as he could, and she sighed. "How are you so good at this?" she murmured.
Of course, he was cheatingโhe could feel all her stresses. "Just relax," he said softly to her.
And slowly, she did. Slowly all her stress melted away until she was just a warm bubble of contentment. "You know," she said sleepily. "I'veโฆ never had this before."
He blinked at her.
"Justโฆ this." She nodded to him.
"โฆMe?"
She gave him a little smile. "I meanโ" And she started talking about how she grew up. Her father was never there, and her mother was a preschool teacher during the day and worked shifts as a line cook in a hotel kitchen during the night until her hip gave out. Then it was just Reina, having to work a second job all through middle and high school to take care of her motherโhaving to help raise her little cousins and put herself through college all the while. Her whole life she'd felt she had to live for the people counting on her. She'd never felt like she could breathe. Until now. Until she was with him. She said she felt a little guilty about it sometimes.
Zane frowned. He wasn't sure how to say this, so he said it the only way he knew how. He just said what he meant. "You're the most caring person I know," he said. "Andโฆ" he paused. He wasn't sure how to say this eitherโah, fuck it. "Iโฆ love that. But sometimesโฆ it can be too much. Maybe if you give too much of yourself away, there's nothing left." And he gave her a little kiss on the forehead. "Please don't do that. I really like you here."
It sounded pretty clunky once it came out of his mouth. There was a reason he didn't spend his time confessing his feelings usually. But he thought, eh. They were true. He wasn't about to be embarrassed about it.
"Zaneโฆ" sniffled Reina. He didn't need to reach out to her to know what she was feeling right about now.
Then she started kissing him.
****
After a bit, he could tell where this was headed. He thought now was a good time to bring out that Skill.
๐๐๐ก๐๐๐ค๐ฅ๐ '๐ค โ๐๐๐๐ค๐ฆ๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ฃ๐ (๐น)
๐ธ ๐ป๐ฆ๐๐ โ๐ฆ๐๐ฅ๐๐ง๐๐ฅ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ฃ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ช ๐ฅ๐๐ ๐ป๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ก๐๐๐ค๐ฅ๐ ๐๐ ๐ฃ ๐๐๐ค ๐๐ ๐ง๐๐ฃ ๐๐ฆ๐ฃ๐๐๐ ๐ฅ๐๐๐๐ฃ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ช๐๐ ๐ ๐. ๐น๐ช ๐๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ค๐ค๐๐๐ ๐ฅ๐๐ ๐ก๐ ๐จ๐๐ฃ๐ค ๐ ๐ ๐ก๐๐๐๐ค๐ฆ๐ฃ๐, ๐ฅ๐๐๐ค ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ฅ๐ค ๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ฅ ๐๐ค๐ค๐๐๐๐ ๐ฅ๐ ๐๐ ๐ฆ๐ก๐๐๐ค ๐ฅ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ ๐ฅ๐๐ ๐๐๐ฅ ๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐ง๐-๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ฃ๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ค๐ ๐ฅ๐๐ ๐ค๐๐๐ค๐๐ฅ๐๐ ๐๐ค, ๐ฅ๐๐ ๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ฃ ๐ฅ๐๐ ๐๐ค๐ค๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ฃ๐๐๐๐๐ค.
Reina was pretty enthusiastic about trying it out. It was pretty easy getting started too. They got the theory down quickly, then started experimenting.
Long story shortโhis new empathy Skill was proving incredibly useful in far more ways than he'd expected.
This was definitely cheating; getting instant feedback was very helpful. And since the goal was to try to get it as intense as possibleโฆ
He was just thankful there was noise-proofing on the walls.
Reina gained 8 Levels that night.
***
She woke around noon, still pretty out of it. Zane saved some of that morning's breakfast for her and brought it for her in bed on a platter.
After she got some food in her, he got his first demonstration of her new powers. She waved her hand a couple of times and fixed up the broken bed... the cracked walls...the cracked ceiling... he winced. They'd gone a little overboard.
Afterward, they just sat there chatting pleasantly. They were keen to get at it again, but sadly Reina had a Faction to run. So it'd have to wait a few hours.
He knew he'd be getting itchy again soon. Soon he'd want to get out there. For today, thoughโฆ
This was really nice.
***
Reina also gave him some 'dividends'โwhich were a bunch of treasures she'd bought with Guild money, set aside just for him. Since he was the most valuable member of the Guild, she said he should reap the best rewards too. Or so she said.
It was sound logic. But he sensed she just wanted to shower him with affection. She had this habit of trying to use logic to justify things like this, but Zane could tell.
In any case.
There were a few C-grade Law Fruitโfor some reason, Fruits seemed to be the standard measure for Law treasures. He was too burned out to use those. But he did drink the many C-Grade Vials of Elixir.
๐๐๐ง๐๐ ๐ฆ๐ก!
๐ผ๐ค๐ค๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ง๐๐ ๐ก๐ -> ๐ก๐
***
Later that day, he got a message. It was from Avery, from some Safe Zone in Wyoming. She said she was having a blast. She was on her way back to the West Coastโshe said she'd made all kinds of new friends along the way. She said they'd probably meet up soon, maybe near San Francisco. She also said she learned a bunch of new tricks and challenged him to a duel. "Get ready to get the shit beaten out of you! แ(โโธโผโถ)แ"
That was actually how she closed her message.
How did she even get emojis into theโฆ nevermind.
He was still a little too burned out to get back on Law stuff. He decided to take a few days off so his soul could recover. His next stop was the B-ranked dungeon, Titansteel Tree, in Northern California. It'd started to leak, wreaking havoc all around itโthe local Factions had banded together to offer a pretty ridiculous sum of essence stones to anyone who could clear it. It would pretty much just be teams of World Rankers giving it a shot. And given the rewards, he suspected he'd be seeing quite a lot of them.
They didn't even need that to tempt Zane. Supposedly, B- and A- rank dungeons were a huge step up from C- and D- just like C- and D- were different levels from E- and F-.
He wanted to be fresh comprehension-wise whenever he got to treasure areas were in there. All the B-rank treasures he'd gotten so far had been huge for him. Now he was going somewhere stuffed to the brim with them.
He hadn't heard much about B-rank dungeons other than that they were extremely dangerous, even for World Rankers. They could only be taken on by World Ranker teams. And he knew they were structured differently too, with new mechanics, the same way C-ranks were totally different from E-ranks.
Some didn't even have 'Bosses' like he was used to. Just one 'Final Boss.' Instead, every single Monster there was like a normal dungeon Boss. Some were even stronger.
Zane was eager to find out.
***
He didn't spend his days strolling camp. He wouldn't call himself shy, but his ideal day was not having to talk to anyone. Except Reina. He'd had enough talking these past few days.
Still, though, he managed to pick up on a few things. He met Annie, the little girl he'd saved all those months agoโthe very first person he'd met after the change. She was overjoyed to see himโshe wanted to show him all her new moves. She was still a little girl and still feisty, but now she was also a Level 30 Barbarian mowing over grown adults. She was a little monster. When she said she wanted to be just like him, he hadn't thought she'd actually go through with it.
He saw a familiar face behind a little tea shop as he strolled back to the town square from the open-air tables where buffet breakfast was usually laid out. Behind the counter was Cale, beaming at him. Zane had honestly forgotten he existed for like a month there. They had a brief chatโCale had totally stepped down from leadership, and now he was happy running his little shop becauseโฆ that was possible now in the Luminous Faction. In the apocalypse. Weird to think about.
There wasn't a 'Coffee Shop Maker' class or anything; the System had no non-Combat Classes for some reason. But Cale had picked up a few brewing-related Skills. He said picking up non-combat Skills was much harder than combat Skillsโthe System didn't seem to like them.
Zane let himself take it easy for a few more days. He checked out some nearby Safe Zones. Watched the Rangers and the Priests drilling Skills in the lush open plains that had once been the Keeper's desolate Lair. He took a stroll through the Emerald Forest, now the 'Moon Fruit Orchard,' where anyone could walk up and pluck a juicy Moon Fruit off the bough, nurtured on supernaturally fertile soils, terraformed by the Beacon.
It was summer. Around noontime, you could see children running around the main square, splashing through the essence fountain. The sounds of their joy drifted over to him.
Sometimes he just looked out at all this. And just... soaked it in.
This was nice.
***
He ended up staying four days.
By the end of it, Reina was in the low Level 70s. He'd gotten two Levels out of it himself.
It was remarkableโhe would never have thought the Skill would be so effective. He'd also never leveled a Skill so fast; he'd gotten the Pleasure Sutra up to Level 3 already.
To be fair, they did spend a significant portion of their days, and most of their nights, drilling. The Skill, that was. By the end of it, Reina's Architect of Restoration was at 'Mortal B+ Grade'โwhich he assumed just meant B+ Grade. It was the strongest healing Skill he'd ever seen.
***
By the end of it, his Statsโabbreviated to the most significant onesโlooked like:
โค๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฃ
๐ผ๐ค๐ค๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ง๐๐ ๐ก๐
๐๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฃ๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐: ๐๐๐ง๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐
๐๐๐จ๐ค:
๐๐๐๐ ๐ฃ ๐๐๐จ ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ฃ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ฃ๐๐ฅ๐ (๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ ๐๐๐จ ๐ ๐ ๐ฝ๐๐ฃ๐)
๐๐๐๐ ๐ฃ ๐๐๐จ ๐ ๐ ๐ผ๐ฅ๐๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ ๐ฝ๐๐๐๐ (๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ ๐๐๐จ ๐ ๐ ๐ฝ๐๐ฃ๐)
๐๐๐๐ ๐ฃ ๐๐๐จ ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ช๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ฅ (๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ ๐๐๐จ ๐ ๐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐๐)
๐๐๐๐ ๐ฃ ๐๐๐จ ๐ ๐ โ๐ฆ๐ฃ๐ ๐ฝ๐ ๐ฃ๐๐๐๐ (๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ ๐๐๐จ ๐ ๐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐๐)
๐๐๐๐ ๐ฃ ๐๐๐จ ๐ ๐ ๐ป๐๐ค๐๐๐๐ฃ๐๐ (๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ ๐๐๐จ ๐ ๐ ๐ผ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฃ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ช)
๐๐๐๐ ๐ฃ ๐๐๐จ ๐ ๐ ๐ธ๐๐ค๐ ๐๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ ๐๐๐๐ฃ๐ก๐๐๐ค๐ค
๐๐ฅ๐๐ฅ๐ค:
๐๐๐ฅ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ช: ๐ก๐ .๐ ๐
โ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฃ๐๐ฅ๐๐ ๐: ๐๐ก.๐ก
๐๐ฅ๐ฃ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐: ๐๐๐ .๐ก๐
๐ป๐๐ฉ๐ฅ๐๐ฃ๐๐ฅ๐ช: ๐๐.๐
๐๐ก๐๐๐: ๐๐ก.๐
๐๐๐ช ๐๐๐๐๐๐ค:
๐๐๐๐๐ฃ๐๐ โ๐ช๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐
โ๐๐ค๐๐๐ ๐๐ฅ๐ ๐ฃ๐ ๐๐๐๐ค๐ ๐๐
๐ฝ๐๐๐ฃ๐ช โ๐๐๐๐จ๐๐ ๐๐
๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ ๐
๐๐ ๐๐ฅ ๐น๐๐๐ฅ๐ซ ๐
Rising Storm Slash's Level seemed to have some carry-over from Rising Sun Slash.
He did wonder at his essence Leveling rate sometimes. It was pretty fast, butโeven despite his rough starting placeโhe felt he Leveled slower than most. It was a feeling he'd gotten for a while now.
When he brought it up with Reina, she said her Leveling rate slowed too once she got she got her Signature Title, which let her do a Class Change to an Epic Class called 'Sylvan Priestess.' She said it was probably how essence was distributed. Since Epic classes gave more stats and essence went into stats, it took more essence to Level.
In Zane's case, he had both a huge essence pool and huge stat gains per Level, relatively. So for him it seemed to take even longer.
On the bright side, it meant nothing the same Level as him could touch him, pretty much. Even Monsters higher-Leveled than him had serious trouble nowadays.
***
Even with his 'slow' Leveling, he still found himself sitting at World Rank 19 when he checked the Beacon. Nice.
Then he checked higher up the list and frowned.
It seemed there'd been a shuffle-up these last few days.
Irina Volkova (S)
D'Angelo Hall (S)
Emeka Eze (S)
Jason Walker (S)
Jian Shi Ming (S)
Yui Urabe (S)
Cristina Dos Santos (S)
Mike Masters (S)
Jason was 4โฆ Zane expected nothing less. But what surprised him was #8. Mike Mastersโthe leader of the Tomb Kingsโwas now #8.
And Dulce Ramosโthe Cartel boss who'd previously been World Rank #9โwas gone.