cerim
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Chapter 715 - The Loot, the Beyond quest, and the two assholes
🕑 Added 2025-10-16 09:04:17 +0000 UTCFor now, I decide to ignore the fact that my residence was broken into to deliver these items. Actually, fuck it. What the hell is this crap? Do I not deserve some privacy? Just a tiny bit? I will remember this insult, and my revenge will be terrifying.
Stopping in front of my house, I look from a distance. Sure, having some space to myself and another “save spot” is nice, the facilities too, but how valuable is it really to me? The facilities are either comparable to or slightly worse than those in the Primordial Knights’ headquarters. I do realize that for anyone in the guild below the top five or ten, this residence would be amazing. But for me… actually… should I maybe turn it into an Airbnb? Rent it out for shards? Surely others have already thought of it.
Me, a landlord?
Wouldn’t an evil demon king be a lesser evil than that? Do I really want to sink that low just for some shards?
I stop my thoughts there, scared of the answer, and rush the rest of the distance. I open the gate and enter the house through the terrace. There, in the middle of the living room, stands a tree very similar to a Christmas tree. Suspiciously similar. It’s alive too, as I touch and smell it.
Did… did she? No, there’s no way she would go to Earth just for this kind of lame joke. No way. I mean, I would totally do it, and damn, I would keep praising myself for how funny I am the entire time while doing it. I would cherish that memory for decades even.
I sniff a few more times and touch the tree. Around it, there are small boxes packed up in cute wrapping paper with reindeer and all that.
“Are you watching?” I turn toward the ceiling, asking with great suspicion.
No answer comes, so with a groan filled with annoyance, I sit down and start opening the boxes to take out the items I saved from the Ancient Armory before Diligence blew it up.
Crystalfuse Mana Stone (Low Arcane) - A crystalline node for mana storage. Its internal lattice is built from countless folded channels that cycle energy in endless motion, preventing loss or decay. The mana stone can store mana and recharge equipment or sustain arrays for extended periods. It stabilizes mana and equalizes ambient pressure to keep everything working in optimal form. It often serves as a high-density mana source for item cores.
Prototype Armament Core (Mid Arcane) - An incomplete resonance engine intended for direct item integration. Its shell encloses a tri-layered rotation chamber where condensed mana continually cycles, designed for adaptive item merging. When embedded into compatible equipment, it enhances output and reduces mana loss during use. The unstable cycle generates amplified resonance and massive internal stress, forcing the Core to regulate itself through momentary energy discharges. The item is classified as unfinished.
Memory Imprint Stone (Mid Arcane) - A mnemonic crystal engineered to copy and mimic structured consciousness wavelengths. The stone contains an imperfect copy of a memory weave suspended in permanent stasis. Each weave carries trace sequences of knowledge locked beneath layered encryption that resists both extraction and erasure. The imprint remains self-contained, constantly replaying to preserve data integrity. Made as an experiment for an Ego weapon, the item is classified as unfinished.
Harmonic Material Alloy (Low Arcane) - Residual metallic shards recovered from failed item assemblies. The piece retains partial inscription imprints. When exposed to mana, the fragments emit faint harmonic vibrations and attempt incomplete alignment to the original item’s structure. The alloy composition resists corrosion, extreme temperature, and decay, remaining semi-active despite centuries of dormancy.
Binding Resonant Threads (Mid Arcane) - Filaments composed of mana-responsive alloy strands intertwined with crystalline nodes. The threads can establish harmonic synchronization through micro-oscillation, allowing high-speed information and mana transfer. Their internal structure reacts dynamically to external stress, tightening and reinforcing at varying oscillations.
And lastly, the main item. The tiny red mana stone I got from the pillar at the last moment.
Red Heartstone (Upper Arcane) - When completed, it can be bonded to a user through blood. A self-optimizing inscription array construct sealed within a heartstone frame containing personality circuitry. Its sub-layers of arrays alternate between node compression and expansion, producing rhythmic surges that resonate in a way that mimics a mind. When completed, it can be turned into the Ego Core of an item.
In a way, this could be called Calvorn Junior, but the most important piece is missing, the piece that would “awaken” it. But that’s a problem for the future. For now, it’s an extremely fascinating item that I’m sure is far more valuable than its rarity implies. Damn, even unfinished, it’s Upper Arcane. Once completed and set into a proper item, it could be great.
There are a few more items, though these are definitely the best catch. They’ll give me months of work, experimentation, and knowledge to apply to my skills.
I learned long ago that there’s a clear overlap between Mana Manipulation and the circuits etched into items. Someone might call me a madman or a dumbass for thinking that, but that person knows nothing. My level in [Mana Manipulation] is proof that it works for me.
Might not work for others, but that’s not my problem.
Anyway.
Beautiful.
Very nice.
Good.
Nothing’s missing. I counted all the items while Greed wasn’t looking, as it lay on the floor in her office. Just in case she tried to steal some.
MINE.
ALL THE LOOT IS MINE.
Screw Diligence or something like that, too.
Now, what to do with all this? I’m sure I could sell some of the items, but looking at the quality, I might not. Each item is at the peak of its tier, and none of them can be found in the system shop.
So the options are to sell them to locals or guilds. I bet they would go for a lot of shards, being experiments of Absolute from long ago and prototypes for Ego items and cores. People around here seem to fancy this kind of artificial bond. The right person might even buy them all as antiques. I bet some of these things are really old.
I could probably throw a few into an auction. I'm sure they have auctions here. Or I use them to make something and sell that instead, create some abomination of an item for myself, or hand it off to Group Four.
I’ll definitely keep a few batteries for Maya. With their capacity and some time to store mana, she could make something truly cool with her [Armament]. As for me, I’d rather store mana inside my halo or stop being a lazy ass and actually maintain the crown’s shape for longer than just showing it off at parties.
I bet I can do it if I try. It’ll just take more mental exercises. I love mental exercises, especially the kind where my head spins, my vision blurs, and it feels like someone is stabbing my brain. It’s one of my favorite things ever.
All things considered, it’s confirmed that the place I visited was likely where the Wraith made Calvorn and tied a huge part of his power to it for some reason. I’m sure I’ll get it out of the memory stone eventually.
There must be a major advantage behind it, considering how huge the disadvantages are. Maybe, while trying to become nearly immortal and able to jump from body to body, he had to do that?
It’s like Sauron tying his power to a ring for some furry-footed vyssari to find and throw into a volcano. Would the Wraith die if Brich and Crimson Forge destroyed Calvorn? Is the Wraith even alive after what Chris did to him? Did he absorb him? Trap him inside that fancy figure floating above him?
Some of these questions will need to be answered.
Then there are still the blueprints the crafty guy made for me in the Academy over several loops, the ones Sophie helped me with. A side project, sure, but not something I forgot about, and some of the items here could be useful for it, so they can probably stay. Actually, I can leave them here and should try to contact Brich to trade with Crimson Forge and have them help me improve the designs.
I know for sure I’m not giving them Calvorn prototypes or any information on the Wraith’s ego sword experiments. I also know I won’t tie my own power to an item. But I’m very, very curious if I could make an ego weapon of my own. Who wouldn’t want a talking sword? Doesn’t proper adventuring scream for that kind of thing? The personality would have to be better than Calvorn’s, and I still have no idea how, but it’s been done before, so it can be done again.
Even looking at these prototypes, I can tell I could finish some of them, turning them into proper mid arcane items, maybe even upper arcane with enough effort. There are like two dozen different versions of these prototypes here.
Or I could smelt the materials and create something massive. Maybe a huge armor like lumoran Champion Feroy from the seventh floor.
So many options, so little time.
There’s my long-awaited minion time, the Beyond quest on her planet, then the fifth floor, where Nyssa will probably want to go soon.
Then there’s Thane’s and the Ruler of Humility’s likely weird-ass event.
After that comes the tournament against another planet’s tutorial, where Christoph will probably show up too.
All in a span of two to three months.
Leaving my Christmas gifts where they lie, I move outside the house and stop for a moment as an interesting thought hits me. This is my property, a house I own in some weird alien city with a lame name, light-years away from the planet I was born on and spent twenty-one years growing up on. Yet this is my house, as strange as that sounds. Well, at least for a few more years.
I look it over, the copper gate, the trees poking out behind it, and the two-story house nestled against the rock. Not that bad. Not bad at all.
And don’t I also have a job now, working for a guild or corporation, one of the biggest ones here?
I shake my head to stop these thoughts, but they keep coming anyway. I even have a dog, coworkers, HR breathing down my neck whenever I screw up, and people trying to steal me from my current corporation. By stealing, I mean kidnapping. Seems to be some deep rooted Beyond tradition or something.
Add healthcare in the form of that weirdo catboy, and it all makes a twisted sort of sense.
Still thinking about it against my will, I reach the headquarters of the Primordial Knights. Entering inside, I find Weslin resting in the lounge alone, reading some kind of report or maybe a new study on mana, he loves that kind of stuff.
Surprisingly, he isn’t bald anymore. Very short white hair has started growing on his head, and he doesn't seem to shave it off anymore. Even his eyes have a faint red tint to them.
I notice it, he notices I noticed it, but both of us ignore it like the manly men we are. The kind that would rather repress every emotion until their deathbed instead of talking about feelings, the kind of men who can see each other for years, greet, talk, share drinks, yet never learn each other’s names, both terrified to ask now after so long, just waiting, praying that some random person will say the name out loud so they can finally know, the kind who will communicate entire life stories through nods and grunts, who think eye contact is a marriage proposal, who’d rather wrestle a bear than admit they’re friends, who call each other insults some people would kill them for, and who will die on the hill of “it’s not that deep bro” even when it very obviously is.
Sitting down next to him, I summon some evil orbs like always and start training with them. Even after all this time, they’re still a challenge as I keep modifying them closer and closer to their original, nastiest version.
Out of nowhere, Weslin glances my way.
“You and Malika… are you interested in her?” he asks, something that makes all my thoughts vanish before they reload again, confirming I didn’t mishear.
Weslin doesn’t even blink as I turn to him.
“Weslin, you dog.”
“Oh, shut up, rookie. So?”
“Not interested in her. Not even a little.”
“Got it,” he says, and goes back to reading.
***
Later that day, I inform Nyssa about my Beyond quest that should take a week. She just wishes me luck, saying she’ll soon be heading to the fifth floor and will meet me after I return.
I don’t know if she’s simply not in a hurry or if she felt how badly I wanted to go on this quest. Maybe it was the one-hour speech I gave her about my minion and our adventures together while praising her non-stop.
Either way, it worked out.
As Greed said, a portal appears right on time at my house. Just one step, and I’ll be on the planet where my minion lives with her gang of delinquents. It reminds me that I probably should’ve asked what this quest is actually about, and that Greed probably should’ve told me.
But… minion. Does the quest really matter that much? I just need to guard one asshole together with another asshole.
Before stepping through, I open my status to check my Absolute Candidate quest.
You have accepted your personalized Absolute Candidate quest, authorized directly by the system. A time limit is set to complete the objectives within one year of the quest being given. However, early completion will grant earlier access to the advantages tied to the title.
Your quest objectives are as follows:
- Raise the skill [Mana Manipulation] to Level 75
- Channel 50,000 stat points worth of mana within one second without any external assistance
- Confront a Champion level being without any of its power diminished, alone, for a duration of ten seconds
The quest is so easy, I suspect Lissandra might have given it out.
Fuck.
For the twentieth time.
Closing the window, I grab my baggage and the items I want to study even during the quest, then step through the portal that sends me somewhere impossibly far away.
I appear in a fancy room smelling of perfume that’s probably more expensive than some buildings I’ve seen. Looking out the window, I see the city in the distance and the vast garden surrounding us, and realize I’m inside some kind of large manor.
Lastly, I glance at the two assholes I mentioned earlier.
A widely smiling Lily and Savant, who meets my gaze for a second, then turns aside as if I weren’t here.
***
Comments
Audrey WJ
Ha, I knew savant would be one of them but Lily surprised me.
Ludovicion
Economic leach class.
Fdrugc
Tftc what wrong with landlords?
Natalie
I mean if the champion no longer exists to exert their power, then that counts as surviving it for at least 10 seconds in my book
Mark Bullock
Yeah well my comment is below yours and therefore must be before yours . . .
Fenrys .
They are both beyonders and this a beyond quest.
Poutine Au Syrop d'érable
How is Lily and Savant on Minion's Planet?
Nemesis
So, a theoretical question. If Nat were to kill a Champion in less than 10 seconds, would the objective complete, or would he have to find another and try again? Not saying he can accomplish that, just curious. Knowing the system, it wouldn't give him credit...
Krzychu0304
It seems most likely that someone ordered a high-level healer and 2 bodyguards (there is a misconception that healers must be weak in combat).
Kirin
Thank you for the chappie!
Val the mysterious Jedi
WTF cerim I've never been so happy and sad at the same moment, can't wait for the weirdo musskitears to get into shenanigans
facetiousk
This guarantees the title before the upgrade. Zero levels are required in the process. It's my current theory. 👀
facetiousk
Right, right... 1. So we challenge a Champion on minions home world to a "time-based survival" challenge. ✅ 2. Preps halo in advance by removing the 3rd seal to pump massive volumes of thermal PE into a manifested *black mana* crown. Allows the crown to go critical mass, detonating 50k+ equivalent mana points in less than a second ✅ 3. And, um, he manipulates mana *harder* in the process? ✅
Jonathan Nading
I really like this quest for Savant, actually. I remember him having questions about “connection/emotion” with Nat, he declined accepting a disciple (if I remember correctly?)…this should be good for him. Hopefully we’ll learn more about him, too. Cerim, you’ve got a pretty fun set of plot arcs on the horizon.
Terri Harris
The real question is which one of them is the asshole helping him guard, and which one is the asshole being guarded? Not to mention, why? If its Lily her quest is likely to involve adopting Nats minion. If its Savants quest, who cares, unless it harms minion, in which case, rest in peace Savant.
Manther
Fracture-thaniel: "Hey, do you have any spare mana?"
Manther
If Swordthaniel is a Fracture-remake, its gonna be even more of a mana addict
TBONEMAN
They got the same quest
Hugh Peeble
Wait? Lily and Savant are on Minion’s planet? I am confused…
Nictis
Swordthaniel? Swordthaniel.
Youkai-sama
Merry Christmas 🎄 muthafucka! 😆
Colby Jordan
Thank you nateapedia.
Sir Supports Alot
Going back I feel like it should be said, becoming an absolute candidate does NOT bar you from being a ruler candidate, same as being a champion candidate doesn't bar from absolute candidate. Absolute candidate is just Natty's next step. And being one before the body upgrade may improve the rewards even further like when he got his unique passive because of being champion candidate
OshiFantasy
Likely nat is only caring about the other arcane items, he did mention having enough to melt down to make a lumoran champion suit in total
J W
No he will just shunt assholethaniel into it.
daniel singleton
Nono this quest Is nobal lady's pets level if this was a normal level quest he would have to make a his body crate mana the level of a star
Andrew
Thank you!
13L00D13ANE
Well that happened when she learned how to act around Nat.
Terri Harris
Yay! So happy for the Lily reunion! I just know wedding bells are in their future. A certain Corgi will be there with a bow tie. Nat will have the exact same expression on his face as always. Only doing it to please Lily or due to a lost bet.
TwistedVanity
Only a few others items? Didn't her do a massive rampage of loot snaring extreme? Like way too much for him to hold hence attached to him via mana strings?
CT
"Easy quest by Lissandra, Normal behavior by Nat." Cannot imagine someone more qualified for those very accurate assessments. -_-
zoarian
Oh no, Nat's next sword will have a sassy personality on top of being destructive to the wielder.
FroggingurMom
Cerim should make a horror story about a tenent of Nats where he randomly shows up in their house in the middle of the night the day before rent is due to say that it's being increased by 200%
TheOne320
Since when is Lily an asshole?
Ivan Jelenić
Is Weslin growing out hair and keeping his eyes red to hit on Malika (probably literally hit, knowing demons lol)?
zoarian
If Weslin ever dies, he'll definitely say "I'm too old for this shit" before passing away. I hope he survives but out of the current cast, I think he's most likely to kick it. Close to Nat, a bro, but relatively little screentime and not part of the core group. When I read the description of the Red Heartstone I totally expected Nat to jam it into his body somehow, discount Savant style
Ivan Jelenić
Yes!
Bartlomiej Głowacki
Lumoran champion Feroy from SEVENTH not sixth floor
Apollo Greed
Tyftc!
13L00D13ANE
I feel like Cerim tossed that in there just to snub all the porn fanfic writers.
Lance Beam
TFTC
Nerø
Why not do everything all at once? Like what he did when he faught Lissliss for the champ candidate title. Channel 50k mana to reach Lvl 75 in [Mana Manipulation], use that mana to last 10 secs against a Champion. That's the most normal thing to do, no?
Liam Zay
I feel like Nat would be the kind of guy to do the channel 50 k points and face a champion at the same time.
asdsa fasfas
Press F for all Malika/Nat shippers
Nemesis
Oh man, I wonder if Lily is going to drag him off for a little date during this quest?
Arnon Parenti
What's nasty about it? Nat is literally there already, a whole year is such total overkill.
Adrian Rake
Because men are men 🤷🏼♂️
BlackRazaras
Thanks for the chapter
Gravitea
Great chapter!
tost
the doggy of an old lady could do it easily!
tost
Thanks for the chapi! I think there is an opportunity lost just listing the items with description... this could be written out more imho. E.g. the "little Nat" coming through enjoying the presents and savoring the unpacking OR "Assnat" getting totally annoyed by the tape and ribbons, hindering him at opening the presents until he rips them open in a fitt.....
Lizy Flore
Also, why are the standards for masculinity the same everywhere ? Urgh.
Sondadir
Oh fuck, that's the mother of all quests. Confront a champion at full power for ten seconds ? The system's standards for absolute are wild !
Lizy Flore
Lily and Savi ? Why do I feel like it’s foreshadowing for his body upgrade ? Something is gonna go wrong on this quest won’t it ?
Predyca
tftc
Nerø
Holy shit. That Candidate quest is nasty as fck. As for the beyond quest, who's the one being protected? Savi? Maybe Lily? TFTC!!
Hylleberg DK
“The quest is so easy, I suspect Lissandra might have given it out. Fuck.” Hahahhah
Clown Quest
Great chapter thx
Niclas Elmers
Tftc
Claro reyes
Tftc!
vEnviouz
TFTC!!!
Isaac Lung
First
