It was difficult to say for sure whether the combat challenges scaled more harshly than the magiscript challenge across levels.

  On one hand, magiscript was an esoteric field that required a lot of studying and practice to get any good at, the first waves of each grade being nearly impossible to clear for a newcomer that lacked the necessary background.

  On the other, each level was only offset by about three waves, which was arguably more forgiving than the combat challenges. After having experienced many of those, Percy was quite confident that the sixth wave of each grade was roughly on par with the first of the next one.

  In other words, to get to even the first bonus reward, one had to be capable of fighting a whole grade above their own – a feat equivalent to being an elite disciple on Thess’kala. Given how few people of such talent even a massive greater spring had at any given time, a tiny world like the Vault should have struggled to produce any.

  The fact that figures like Gabe – who could attempt the sixth waves even without outside assistance – emerged fairly regularly was testament to how effective Metatron’s cruel rules were at creating mortals with blessings and powerful bloodlines.

  The good news was that advancing to the next grade automatically boosted one’s strength greatly, making the first few waves of the combat challenges quite accessible even to a relatively untalented person – something that couldn’t be said about magiscript. However, getting multiple bonus rewards from the combat challenges was harder in many cases.

  That dynamic had changed slightly after Percy brought his boosting art and the Moirais’ Decree to the Vault, since Synchronization had made it much easier for his hosts to get to or past the sixth waves even without him holding their hands.

  After all, Synchronization was what had allowed Percy to comfortably fight Yellows fresh out of the Guild, back when he had only possessed Orange cores himself.

  It wasn’t until he obtained his mutated eyes, his enchanted equipment, his trollsfury potions, and various other trump cards that he had grown powerful enough to fight two grades above his own. As for three… that had only become possible following his fusion with Micky.

  That was all to say that he wasn’t very surprised to learn that his friend had made it past the tenth waves of the combat challenges by himself. Gabe had managed to clear the sixth ones with minimal help and a weaker second core years ago, so his advancement and Synchronization had naturally pushed him much higher.

  ‘Wow, you would have qualified as one of the most talented people on Thess’kala!’ Percy exclaimed as he watched Gabe dismantle the golems of the sixth wave of the swarm challenge with ease. ‘Hell, it’s supposedly rare for even the top contestants in the void tournament to fight two grades above their own, which means that you’re technically a cosmic-level genius right now,’ he added.

  The same hulking constructs that had given the two of them so much trouble years ago barely slowed the powerful Green down this time as he helped Percy earn some easy credits.

  Gabe chuckled. ‘Ha, you don’t have to flatter me. I would have carried you through the challenges anyway. Besides, we both know that those elite snake people would be kicking my ass if you taught them Circulation too.’

  Percy shrugged, not denying it. Of all his trump cards, his boosting art was by far the simplest to replicate. If the day ever came when it spread throughout the universe, he would instantly lose a lot of ground compared to his peers.

  ‘Then again, it would put sapients in a much better spot against Cardinal Devils,’ he noted, thinking back to his conversation with Metatron.

  In the same way that he was starting to open up toward Remior lately, to hopefully elevate his world into a proper greater spring, perhaps it would be worth spreading some of his secrets to the powerful factions in the future, to aid them in the fight against their common enemies.

  It wasn’t something that he would entertain while he was still heavily disadvantaged toward them, but rather something that might be worth considering after he and his people closed the gap to the top.

  Focusing on the task at hand, Gabe flapped his six magical wings to dive toward the last golem like an eagle, shifting his body slightly as he neared his target. The upper pair made of blue flames and the lower one that consisted of green gales propelled him faster, though the massless middle pair made of white light didn’t contribute to his speed at all.

  On the flipside, it was the deadliest of the lot, slicing through the monstrous construct like a hot knife through butter – or rather, a sharpened scimitar cleaving through wet tissue.

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  Gabe landed behind the crumbling golem with a heavy thud as the cube declared his victory.

  “Congratulations! Wave 6 has been cleared! Calculating rewards…”

  “Awarded credits: 6000. Current balance: 162743.”

  “Wave 6 is a special milestone. Bonus reward is available. Please voice your request. NOTE: Bonus reward is limited to the Green grade.”

  “Uhm… I’ll save it for later,” Percy said, not missing his beat.

  “Evaluating request…”

  “Evaluation complete. User has 6 bonus rewards pending.’

  Of his eleven previous rewards, Percy had already used the three Yellow ones, converted three Reds into an Orange, and three Oranges into another Yellow, leaving only one Red, two Oranges and one Yellow.

  Gabe had helped him clear up to the tenth wave of the gauntlet challenge already, so the addition of the sixth wave of the swarm challenge had just granted him his second Green reward. They still had four easy waves to clear before they entered uncharted territory, and they hadn’t even attempted the magiscript challenge yet.

  Apparently, his friend had already made it to the fifth wave in that one, so getting another bonus reward shouldn’t be too hard with Percy’s help, but whether they could get the combat challenges to the twelfth remained to be seen.

  Of course, Percy already had what he’d come here for – the means to buy the books on seal-crafting that he needed above all else. He didn’t rush to buy them just yet, once again to give Metatron the impression that it wasn’t that important to him.

  His fellow clone had worked with Tlaloc on the Blue challenges too, though they’d gotten stuck on the third wave of the magiscript challenge and the fifth of the swarm challenge. They were currently progressing through the gauntlet challenge, though it didn’t seem like they would be able to climb much higher, based on how slowly their credits were starting to trickle in.

  ‘They must’ve just cleared the third wave. I don’t think they’ll get past the fifth…’ the Green clone thought.

  Sadly, getting to the Blue bonus reward with a weaker second core and just regular Circulation didn’t seem possible. Not to mention that Tlaloc had unfortunately awakened another pure affinity, leading credence to Percy’s hypothesis that Huehuans were cursed with some sort of bodily defect.

  ‘This is still a lot of credits though. Maybe I should have waited and bought even more spatial seals from Metatron…’

  After thinking about it some more, he shook his head. He already had plenty of storage space. Besides, his current balance consisted of most of the credits he would be able to earn in the foreseeable future. Getting any more would require him to greatly strengthen his friends or start sending Violets and Whites to the Vault.

  It was best not to burn through his resources too fast.

  Gabe deactivated his bloodline, his majestic wings dispersing into a cloud of colourful motes. He didn’t seem to be in a rush to let go of his boosting art, however. Apparently, he’d been working hard to improve his endurance so that he could keep the spell going for longer. These easy waves served as the perfect exercise to help with that.

  Percy seized the opportunity to study the glowing lines on his friend’s body. Gabe’s channels shone more brightly than most of Percy’s other hosts – or maybe it was just the fact that even the ones deep inside his body were fully visible through his transparent skin.

  The fire and air patterns weren’t anything new to Percy, though the former sported an atypical blue colour thanks to the man’s blessing. Percy paid more attention to the third set of pale lines corresponding to the light affinity.

  They were far narrower than any other mana channels Percy had seen, but also more numerous, crisscrossing through every square centimetre of Gabe’s skin – not unlike a densely woven fabric. More importantly, the lines passed through every point where the fire and air patterns intersected, once again suggesting that this was a common phenomenon with composite affinities.

  The imbalance between his cores used to be an obstacle to fusing his affinities, but clearly one that Gabe had managed to overcome after enough training. The fact that his second core had caught up certainly helped, though Gabe had obviously managed to fully incorporate his blessing into the fused mana as well. Seeing that, Percy couldn’t help but wonder whether he should try getting himself a water blessing.

  ‘Metatron mentioned having a water Ring of Sacrilege, didn’t he?’

  Recalling what the titan had told him, Percy was impressed that the Vault had amassed as many as four different rings out of a mere ninety-nine, when most actual greater springs didn’t even have one. Perhaps, this had more to do with the artificial world’s mobility allowing Metatron to keep them from being stolen, than the other factions’ inability to acquire them.

  Would the titan be willing to lend Percy one though? He’d only need to borrow it for a couple of years, but the logistics were a bit problematic. Even if he convinced the god to temporarily part with the precious artifact for the right price, how would this work? Would Metatron let him bring it to Remior with no guarantee that he would return it? Or would Percy have to bring his elemental body to the Vault – something that he wanted to avoid at all costs?

  There was also the question of whether this was the right blessing for him. No matter what it did, he would prefer one of the ice affinity, to avoid introducing an imbalance into his core.

  Perhaps he shouldn’t be so picky, since composite affinities were supposedly a hundred times rarer than the common ones. However, after having seen how easily residents of greater springs could use affinity-changing treasures to upgrade their elements, he was starting to think that there were more composite rings out there than he’d initially expected.

  ‘Let’s not rush this,’ he thought.

  Percy was still quite young – all things considered. He had also barely scratched the surface of what was possible with his bloodline, so there was no reason to make any reckless decisions.

  If he failed to find a better blessing in a few centuries, it wouldn’t be too late to haggle with the titan. Besides, he doubted that a Green or even a Blue bonus reward would be enough for him to rent a Ring of Sacrilege for any length of time.

  ‘Now what? Do you want to take a break, or keep going?’ Gabe suddenly asked, breaking him out of his thoughts.

  Percy shrugged. ‘Let’s get through all the waves that you’ve already cleared before. We can pause after that to plan ahead.’

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