In the meantime… the only thing to do now, besides eating whatever steel he could find, was to do the last real effective way of Leveling. Which was Reina.
𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!
𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟚𝟘𝟡 -> 𝟚𝟙𝟘
𝕊𝕜𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕦𝕡!
𝕄𝕖𝕡𝕙𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕠'𝕤 ℙ𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕤𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕊𝕦𝕥𝕣𝕒 𝕍𝕀 -> 𝕍𝕀𝕀
It wouldn't be so bad if she didn't have to get up to do her very important job the next day. But with what he put her through some days, she'd be wiped out until early afternoon.
Like today. He woke feeling pretty good. Refreshed. As usual he found himself clutching something soft, molded well to his body. He yawned, sat up—she slid off him limp.
"…Reina?" he said, blinking.
She let out a soft whimper, still splayed out.
He felt kind of bad. He had the thought that he'd bring her lunch in bed. It would be a neat surprise. He went down to their kitchens and tried making her lunch—it had been a while though since he'd done so with his new body. Everything felt so flimsy to him. He broke knives. Then plates. Then the oven. His hands always felt too big and too clumsy for kitchen utensils. It was irksome.
About thirty minutes in, he had a stray thought.
Maybe he should give it up. Maybe he was only good for breaking things.
Reina was always the one who made things out of the two of them.
He was just about to give it up. Then a thought flashed through his mind. He frowned down at the blackened plate.
No. This egg will not defeat me.
***
The egg did not share his opinion on the matter. It proceeded to thrash him—with contemptuous ease—for the next 2.5 hours.
But after that, he finally made a breakthrough. It was an effort of sheer will. After a over a hundred frustrating minutes, and thousands upon thousands of defeats, most would have quit. But not Zane.
He would make an omelette.
Three hours later he completed it.
It was an incredible feeling. Even if he did not get a Skill level from it, he felt that he deserved a Level up. It had been harder to learn than most other smashing Skills in his experience.
It was a pretty bad omelette. But he finally had the mental upper hand, and it spurred him on. By then he had run through a few cartons of eggs. Also a few dozen pans. But he kept going.
Finally—after another hour or so of maximum effort—he ended up with a non-burnt thing that looked mostly decent. He could only hope it tasted as not-bad as it looked.
He started making the next part of the meal set. He was quickly gaining confidence. The fruit basket was Reina's favorite, and he knew just what kind of strawberries to get—a specific kind she liked, grown in one of Nova Roma's vineyards. He fetched them from a Bag of Holding.
These at least were easy. Or maybe he just felt it was easy because his kitchen skills were Leveling up so fast. The trick was to hold the strawberries very gently, so that they did not explode when you picked them up. And then put them on the plate. It only took him two tries.
At last, he put the two items together. Strawberry and omelette. The meal was complete.
He was quite excited. And proud if he was honest—that was hard. He put it all on a plate, and turned, and found Reina standing there yawning, rubbing her eyes, nightgown hanging loosely off her.
"I heard an explosion," she mumbled. She looked around at the mostly-blackened kitchen. "…What happened?"
She thought they had come under a ballistic missile attack that Zane had repelled or something.
He blinked. "Uh."
He explained what was going on—what he had been trying to do. She was trying very hard not to laugh—keeping a straight face, nodding—but he could feel her amusement growing by the word. Soon she had to put a hand over her mouth to keep it together. "Oh," she said at last.
He felt kind of dumb. He blinked down at his blackened hands. He probably should have just run down to the chef's quarters.
But once she got over her amusement she was quite pleased. She gave him a smile like the morning sun coming out. It was hard for him to imagine why she appreciated his effort but she did. She savored his burnt egg like it did not taste like burnt egg and said she loved it and gave him a kiss. Zane decided she was probably a saint.
***
The next few days, they Leveled Mephisto's Pleasure Sutra 3 times more.
Another thing—after taking her Bloodline, Reina's body had improved a lot too. Her body had gained the qualities of the Godbeast nature spirits. Her regeneration improved a lot, but her flexibility and pliability particularly. It meant they could push harder, Level faster—by the end of it she was on the brink of Level 200.
Meanwhile—in their other time—Reina also spent a good deal of time trying to figure out the Superdungeon. She gathered as many resources as she could—notebook relics, memory recordings, that kind of thing. She also simply used her own photographic memory, trawling through every notification that had popped up for clues. She had an incredible ability to sort it all out in her head, make connections out of it all. She started piecing together clues, making theories.
Usually, she spent a few hours in the evenings talking it through with Zane as they cuddled. Zane mostly lay there and listened as carefully as he could and nodded. She said it was very useful for her even though he didn't do anything. She liked bouncing things off of him.
So far they knew this. The challenge was a route. It would pass through 4 floors, each one deeper into the Superdungeon, each of increasing difficulty.
The tricky part was—they weren't always one floor deeper than the other. Some gates tunneled to weird places. Some were like chutes, dropping deep down—and they seemed to shift too, like the dungeon had a mind of its own.
It wasn't a pure prison, Reina surmised. The Monsters seemed to have some kind of power over it. They could influence it subtly. The Minotaur was not supposed to come out of that Gate. That flickering of the wards, the way those notifications spazzed—it was consistent with reports of what happened when the System was being tampered with.
Her big worry was that these Monsters would use their influence to try to kill him. They seemed afraid of him—or rather what he could become, she said. And she felt proud and scared at once.
She was certain they couldn't just portal him down to the very bottom, where those old gods lay. Or spring any other kind of instant-kill trap on him. They didn't have that level of influence. Based on her study of other Ur-Planets' diaries, it was more of a bending of the rules to make things harder than they needed to be.
"They can't make things absurdly unfair," he said, trying to put everything she was saying together. "There's… some kind of… soft cap. For each floor."
"That's right," said Reina.
Her head lay on his chest—she looked up to catch his eyes, blew a lock of stray chestnut hair out of her face. They looked at each other—him right-side-up, her upside-down.
"There's still some rules they have to follow—or at least, work around," she told him. "For instance, there's Kobold Prince Graxes' run. He was dropped on Floor 47, which is a full five floors deeper than what Ur-Planets normally get. The Monsters wanted them dead—badly."
She shook her head, frowning. Her eyes got this faraway look. She was going into professor mode.
"They stocked the floors of his run with the worst Monsters they could get away with. But it ended up backfiring since the deeper floors have better treasures—and stronger Bosses would drop far greater rewards."
"It's a bigger challenge," said Zane. "But if he rose to it. He would reap far greater rewards."
"That's exactly what happened," said Reina, nodding. "He went through that trial by fire and in the end—through skill and a good deal of luck—he ended up making it through the Final Gate and saving his planet. He went on to join the Azure Flame Faction. He'd eventually join the Inner Faction, earn an Elder position, and become the 'Sage of the Iron Flame.'… but that's for another time."
"Huh," said Zane. He paused. His eyes narrowed.
"If they want to throw Monsters at me. But killing them would make me stronger… they would be foolish to try this. Not against me."
That he was confident on.
"They will," said Reina. "It's worked for pretty much every Ur-Planet they've come across. Graxes was the only one out of 11 accounts featuring Ur-Planet heros who survived. Just one. But…"
She touched his cheek. "You're right… They weren't anything like you," she said softly.
He didn't know if it was arrogance to think that he could handle the challenge—he didn't know the true Level of the creatures down there. And he had to know he could lose. He couldn't be stupid.
But if there were ever a challenge tailor-made for him, it would be one where the stakes were high. And the rewards, even higher…that was where he thrived. He and Reina both knew it.
Reina was a little worried. But her belief in him had never been shaken. He wasn't sure it could be shaken; when Zane felt her with Sage Mind, it felt as solid as any belief he had ever felt in anyone.
They lay there for another few hours, just murmuring.
***
Evan and Avery had both absorbed their Bloodlines. They'd both hit Level 199 now too. They were on the verge of breaking through to Core, like Reina.
The event she was organizing was getting close—there they'd all do it at once, it was decided.
While they waited they went on a side quest.
"We're off to the South Pole!" Avery declared one day. She wore a big Captain's hat. Evan nodded happily. He wore a big scarf that covered most of his face but Zane could tell he was beaming.
"We're gonna go see penguins!" Evan exclaimed.
They were going to do this because Evan loved penguins.
They set off.
A few days later, they came back. They did not find penguins. However, Avery brought home a consolation prize because Evan was getting sad.
"Tadaaaaa!" said Avery. "Meet Reginald."
It was, as far as Zane could tell, some kind of unusually large rat.
𝕊𝕦𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕓𝕒𝕣𝕒
𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟙𝟘𝟛
"I believe this is what the System made of the Capybara," said Reina after inspecting it."That's… fascinating."
It was huge, like a small truck. It was fluffy. It shambled around. It did nothing of use that Zane could see. Most of the other creatures were friendly with it—it was quite a chill creature.
Evan was delighted with it. It was a creature that could receive hugs 24/7.
"Interesting fella, isn't it?" said Avery, inspecting it. "I'm pretty sure it has no Skills. It's useless!"
"How is it alive," said Zane.
"Well—here's the thing," said Avery. "There's no such thing as a Charisma stat. But if there were, it would be maxed. It has no thoughts going through its head at all times. It's great!"
He blinked at the rodent. It blinked back at him.
"Hm," said Zane.
"I knew you two would get along!" said Avery.
***
A week later, the representatives of every elite Faction in the world—including most every top World Ranker—portaled into the Arctic Circle. From there, through various ship treasures, they made their way to the North Pole.
The Luminous Faction was hosting a very important training camp, featuring a lecture from one Zane Walker. Nobody wanted to miss it.