Zane ran into a second building. The wall exploded in a shower of cobblestone and wood. He stomped, halting himself before he did any serious damage. …Which left a giant crater in the road.
By now there was lots of staring and pointing and shouting going on. At first, folk were confused. They must've thought some homeless man had broken into their city and was wreaking havoc. Then they realized it was him and started cheering.
He looked down at himself—his general state.
…This was not a good look.
He started thinking about how much effort Reina put into making him presentable. Keeping up a good public image. He scratched his head.
Probably a good idea to go somewhere else. Before this little mess got any worse.
He leaped away.
Before the Change, he never felt his body much. Unless something was hurting. But now he felt every little part of himself intimately. His body was as much him as his soul. He could feel his tendons, his calves bunching, compressing, coiling tighter and tighter, loading up with vast wells of burst-power—then launching in a CRACK! of a go.
One moment he was standing in the midst of a bewildered crowd. The next the air was howling past him, running cool fingers through his locks as he rocketed through the clouds.
After he dropped in the middle of a forest he spent a while running into things. Mostly trees this time, thankfully. He gave a few teenagers a bit of a fright. Some dusty giant running around smashing into things—they ran screaming. But otherwise no real harm done.
Except to his face. But Zane's face was very hard, and repeated smashing had conditioned it well. It healed fast.
By now he was just used to running face-first into things. He wasn't sure what that said about him. It was kind of remarkable. Avery once theorized his face was some kind of damage magnet. Any attack that was thrown anywhere near him would somehow swerve around and smack him in the face. This was also Zane's experience of the matter.
It was a lucky thing he had a block for a head. Strong square features, strong jaw, strong bones in general. He found he could soak a lot of damage in general, but his face particularly was some kind of heavy-duty sponge.
Which was all to say—after running through several feet-thick layers of Spirit Steel, and a handful of walls, and more trees than he could count, he was doing mostly fine. Just smarting a bit.
Some firs and leaves still got up his nose though as he bumbled about. Lots of sneezing.
All in all, it was a successful breakthrough. He was quite pleased with it. Slowly, he picked his way back home.
He still couldn't test run his body. But that was fine.
He would have his chance very soon.
***
The only thing left for him to do was to look into that Pagoda Soul Treasure.
But for that, his Soul would have to recover. In the meantime, he didn't have much to do—he'd run out of essence treasures and steel treasures, pretty much. And the Leveling requirements for those had gotten so high he'd need higher-grade treasures to make a dent there.
Which meant there was pretty much only one way to Level now.
…He was just thankful Reina had gotten a new passive Skill from her Inheritance. It made her body very pliable and flexible, like a willow—it meant she got the endurance she needed to keep up with him. The next two weeks they went at it almost nonstop.
𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!
𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟚𝟙𝟟 -> 𝟚𝟙𝟠
𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!
𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟚𝟙𝟠 -> 𝟚𝟙𝟡
…
𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!
𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟚𝟚𝟜 -> 𝟚𝟚𝟝
…
𝕊𝕜𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕦𝕡!
𝕄𝕖𝕡𝕙𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕠'𝕤 ℙ𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕤𝕦𝕣𝕖𝕤 𝕊𝕦𝕥𝕣𝕒 𝕀𝕏 -> 𝕏
𝕊𝕜𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕖𝕧𝕠𝕝𝕧𝕖𝕕!
𝕄𝕖𝕡𝕙𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕠'𝕤 ℙ𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕤𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕊𝕦𝕥𝕣𝕒 𝕄𝕪𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕔+ (𝕄) -> ℝ𝕒𝕣𝕖 (𝔼)
In that time, Evan got up to Level 214 and got his second Concept. Avery got up to Level 206—she was making good progress on her third Concept. Both of them were very determined to do their best to help Zane tackle the Superdungeon.
Reina, meanwhile, got up to Level 219.
When she first powered up to Core, her signature healing Skill—Architect of Restoration—had evolved into 'Maker's Touch'—which was an even stronger version of an already absurdly strong Skill. With her at his back, Zane had a hard time imagining anything at the same level taking him down.
Even Reina was surprised at how potent her Skill was—it said something about the caliber of her Mistress Maker title.
After those initial Skill gains, though—especially in recent weeks—she had her hands full with Zane.
He was quite grateful. He made her lots of omelettes in this time. He was getting pretty good at it.
As for the rest of the world—he heard the same World teams that tackled the A-Rank dungeons would go for the Superdungeon Gates. It would be divided up by region. Europe and Asia and Africa and Oceania and the rest. Eze would lead one team, Vanessa another—Cristina Dos Santos yet another, and Jason and D'Angelo did their own thing. And so on.
Zane lay there in bed one early morning, just thinking. He already knew who he would have on his team. Avery and Evan. And the woman currently splayed all over him, soundly asleep. Head pressed into his neck, her ample chest slowly rising and falling against his broad one.
He looked at her fondly. She was an absolute champ. As soon as they got into the Superdungeon, she would have to do less—he would have access to stronger Leveling treasures. Until then… they agreed they simply had to keep going like this. It was for the good of humanity. There was just no other way.
Avery started wondering what the heck was going on—their Levels were shooting up too fast. Reina was Top 7 in the world now. When she heard this she gave them both the biggest raised eyebrow Zane had ever seen. She made her face the raised eyebrow emoji.
Evan, as usual, was totally unaware of what was going on, which they were all very thankful about.
***
There were 30 days until the Superdungeon.
Zane's Bloodline work was done for now. He'd need to get 8 drops to unlock the next layer, which seemed to be Bone Tempering. The Bloodline requirements seemed to double per layer.
So the only thing he had left to work on was his soul treasure.
The final treasure from the S-Ranked Dungeon. The Red Moon Pagoda.
It had fused into Zane's soul—and stayed dormant ever since, pretty much. Other than granting him a pretty strong boost to Emperor's Soul, which came in handy, he hadn't made much use of it yet.
It was an intricate little thing, a crimson-and-gold tower in the center of his soul.
He felt like some ape carrying a bazooka. Like he could tell somehow that it was very strong. He just had no clue what it did. Or how to use it.
One day, when he'd recovered enough, he found himself back in the Law room of his private Dojo.
He would figure out what this thing was. And how he could use it to make himself even more powerful.
ℝ𝕖𝕕 𝕄𝕠𝕠𝕟 ℙ𝕒𝕘𝕠𝕕𝕒 [ 𝔼𝕒𝕣𝕥𝕙 (𝔼) ]
𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕤𝕚𝕘𝕟𝕒𝕥𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕥𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕤𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝔼𝕞𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕠𝕣 ℝ𝕖𝕕 𝕄𝕠𝕠𝕟, 𝕣𝕦𝕝𝕖𝕣 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 ℝ𝕖𝕕 𝕄𝕠𝕠𝕟 ℂ𝕝𝕦𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣. 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔼𝕞𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕠𝕣 𝕨𝕒𝕤 𝕒 𝕊𝕡𝕒𝕔𝕖 ℙ𝕚𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕖 𝕕𝕦𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕎𝕒𝕣𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝔽𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟𝕤 𝔼𝕣𝕒 𝕨𝕙𝕠 𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 ℕ𝕚𝕟𝕖 𝔾𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥 𝔽𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟𝕤 𝕕𝕒𝕣𝕖𝕕 𝕟𝕠𝕥 𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕖𝕟𝕘𝕖. 𝕎𝕚𝕖𝕝𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕪 ℝ𝕖𝕕 𝕄𝕠𝕠𝕟 ℙ𝕒𝕘𝕠𝕕𝕒, 𝕙𝕖 𝕖𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕓𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕙𝕖𝕕 𝕙𝕚𝕞𝕤𝕖𝕝𝕗 𝕒𝕤 𝕥𝕙𝕖 ℍ𝕖𝕘𝕖𝕞𝕠𝕟 𝕠𝕗 𝕒𝕟 𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕚𝕣𝕖 𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕣 𝕤𝕪𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕞.
𝕀𝕥 𝕨𝕒𝕤 𝕤𝕒𝕚𝕕 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝔼𝕞𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕠𝕣 𝕔𝕠𝕦𝕝𝕕 𝕜𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕕𝕖𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕖𝕤 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕓𝕦𝕥 𝕒 𝕘𝕝𝕒𝕟𝕔𝕖—𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕒𝕝𝕝 𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕊𝕜𝕚𝕝𝕝𝕤 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕣𝕠𝕤𝕖 𝕒𝕘𝕒𝕚𝕟𝕤𝕥 𝕙𝕚𝕞 𝕨𝕠𝕦𝕝𝕕 𝕚𝕟𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕥𝕒𝕓𝕝𝕪 𝕗𝕒𝕚𝕝. ℍ𝕖 𝕔𝕠𝕦𝕝𝕕 𝕕𝕠𝕞𝕚𝕟𝕒𝕥𝕖 𝕒 𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕣 𝕤𝕪𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕞 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕥 𝕞𝕠𝕧𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒 𝕗𝕚𝕟𝕘𝕖𝕣. 𝕋𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕨𝕒𝕤 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕡𝕠𝕨𝕖𝕣 𝕠𝕗 𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕤𝕠𝕦𝕝 𝕊𝕜𝕚𝕝𝕝𝕤, 𝕒𝕞𝕡𝕝𝕚𝕗𝕚𝕖𝕕 𝕓𝕪 𝕥𝕙𝕖 ℝ𝕖𝕕 𝕄𝕠𝕠𝕟 ℙ𝕒𝕘𝕠𝕕𝕒.
𝔼𝕒𝕔𝕙 𝕝𝕒𝕪𝕖𝕣 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕥𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕤𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕤𝕥𝕠𝕣𝕖𝕤 𝕒 𝕔𝕣𝕦𝕔𝕚𝕒𝕝 𝕥𝕖𝕔𝕙𝕟𝕚𝕢𝕦𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝔼𝕞𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕠𝕣 ℝ𝕖𝕕 𝕄𝕠𝕠𝕟'𝕤 𝕊𝕠𝕦𝕝 𝕀𝕟𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕚𝕥𝕒𝕟𝕔𝕖. 𝔼𝕒𝕔𝕙 𝕝𝕒𝕪𝕖𝕣 𝕦𝕟𝕝𝕠𝕔𝕜𝕤 𝕦𝕡𝕠𝕟 𝕞𝕒𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕡𝕣𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕠𝕦𝕤.
𝕋𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕥𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕤𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕔𝕠𝕟𝕥𝕒𝕚𝕟𝕤 𝕤𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕟 𝕝𝕒𝕪𝕖𝕣𝕤.
𝔸𝕥 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕤𝕥 𝕝𝕒𝕪𝕖𝕣, 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕥𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕤𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕚𝕤 𝕘𝕣𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕕 𝔼𝕒𝕣𝕥𝕙 𝔾𝕣𝕒𝕕𝕖 – 𝕌𝕟𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕞𝕠𝕟. 𝔼𝕒𝕔𝕙 𝕤𝕦𝕓𝕤𝕖𝕢𝕦𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕝𝕒𝕪𝕖𝕣 𝕘𝕣𝕒𝕟𝕥𝕤 𝕒 𝟙𝟘% 𝕚𝕟𝕔𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕤𝕖 𝕥𝕠 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕡𝕠𝕨𝕖𝕣 𝕠𝕗 𝔼𝕞𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕠𝕣'𝕤 𝕊𝕠𝕦𝕝.
ℙ𝕣𝕖𝕣𝕖𝕢𝕦𝕚𝕤𝕚𝕥𝕖 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕦𝕤𝕖: 𝔸𝟝 𝕊𝕠𝕦𝕝 𝕋𝕒𝕝𝕖𝕟𝕥, 𝕊𝕠𝕦𝕝 𝕊𝕜𝕚𝕝𝕝: 𝔼𝕞𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕠𝕣'𝕤 𝕊𝕠𝕦𝕝
Reina theorized it was in a similar category of thing to a Soul Weapon. A kind of tool that bonded to him. He could activate more and more of it as he went.
His soul was already his greatest source of strength. But so far he hadn't done much with it Skill-wise.
He hadn't even faced many Soul attacks. His body was hard to hurt, but his soul didn't have much in the way of defense. Just his sheer size. Most of the time that was enough up here, but Reina was a little concerned. They didn't know what strange old Monsters they could find down in the Superdungeon. She was worried he would face much more sophisticated Soul attacks. Things he couldn't big his way through so easily.
If he could figure this thing out Reina thought it could be big for him. He didn't know what awaited him, but it had to be pretty good, he figured, if you could dominate a star system with it.
Finally he'd recovered enough to give this treasure a real good look.
He closed his eyes. His mind went blank.
And slowly, colors filled in.
He saw the Pagoda in his mind's eye—crimson walls etched gold, glowing softly. It started growing bigger.
He felt himself descending. And suddenly he wasn't in the physical world anymore. He stood in the Astral Plane.
All that was physical grew blurry, a haze of shifting colors. Strange red mists rose from nowhere, trickling over, veiling the world… he looked before him.
There was the Pagoda. A massive tower before him striking high into a blurry sky. It was the one sharply defined thing in this whole place. Deep-red walls with rich gold motifs—the beams struck proudly out. Carvings of dragons circled the pillars. There were seven jade-green tiled roofs, one for each floor.
It gave off an ancient timeless aura, the way some old mountains do.
At the very front there was a fat red door. Two golden knocks hung in the middle. Zane stepped up to it. He just felt he should—he felt a certain connection to this place. Like it was a second home, long-forgotten.
Sure enough—the doors opened up before him, like they were welcoming him.
He looked around, scratched his head. Then went on through.
***
The first floor was a perfect octagon. Seven red doors, each a piece of art—all scribed over with golden murals and symbols—marked each of the walls.
A red moon hung bright in the middle of an obsidian-black floor.
And atop it stood a single statue. An unkempt old man with golden rings running down his thick beard, running up his burly arms. He was grinning devilishly. But he had narrowed, intense eyes. Like he was sighting a target—and he was just about to fire.
𝔼𝕞𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕠𝕣 ℝ𝕖𝕕 𝕄𝕠𝕠𝕟
ℂ𝕚𝕣𝕔𝕒 𝟡𝕥𝕙 𝕄𝕖𝕘𝕒𝕟𝕟𝕦𝕞. 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟝𝟠𝟚.
ℝ𝕦𝕝𝕖𝕣 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕋𝕒𝕣𝕜𝕒𝕤 𝕊𝕪𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕞
Zane did a double-take at the Level.
582.
That was the highest he'd ever seen, he was pretty sure.
This Emperor used the treasure Zane was standing in as his primary weapon?
Right now it was just graded Earth Uncommon. But once he unlocked all the floors—just how high of a rarity grade would this thing get?
Hmm.
… He was getting ahead of himself. If it was this impressive he doubted it would be very easy at all to unlock even just one of these layers. Much less all of them.
He went up to the first door.