–

  When the first spell circle came off, the mana orb started bubbling. Ryan had to spend an hour just trying to get it to calm down again. This wasn’t a process he was familiar with at all. Adventurer [Mages] that paused in their ascent to study at the Institute of Magic generally formed their cores using their own magic. In those cases, realm evolution was completed in seconds. Even Realmers generally took minutes at most for their realm evolution.

  It took thirty minutes before he got it under control from releasing of Rick’s stability spells. It didn’t look like the job was going to get any easier from there too. He could feel it wanting to bubble under the stability spells.

  “It would be easier if you lowered your aura barriers.”

  “And have you blow me up? No thanks.”

  Rick clicked his tongue in annoyance. “So little trust. I gave you my word.”

  “You gave me your word that you wouldn’t cause disasters in The Realm. Not that you would help me.”

  That seemed to genuinely surprise Rick. “I guess I did, didn’t I?” Then the [Mage] shrugged. “I truly am trying to help in good faith.”

  Ryan understood that Rick wasn’t one of those [Mages] that played mindgames with everything. He also understood that Rick was someone that did as he pleased. There was zero chance Ryan was going to let his guard down around someone like him.

  When Rick saw that Ryan wouldn’t trust him for a second he simply sighed. “I should have noticed it sooner, your looks, the promise you made me make. You’re the spitting image of the Witch Pioneer when she was younger.”

  Rick was talking about how the Artigan mask looked like in the illusion. That wasn’t Ryan’s fault but Rick didn’t know that. The Witch Tyrant had a preference and she had put on an illusion that suited her tastes.

  “The real question is…” Rick continued. “What has she done to make you so opposed to her?”

  “None of your business.”

  There was zero reason to give Rick any information that could be used against him. He’d already shown his cards when he told Rick his bottom line.

  They stayed like that for another minute. Ryan was trying to regain the mental energy to push again to stabilize his core. He really wished he had a better understanding of what he was doing exactly. This was nothing like his arm evolution at all. Back then it was like crafting an entire arm to use the fuel his Epic provided. There had been methodology, time and practice.

  This was more like… being thrown into the deep end while he tried to keep a ball of clay in shape. A ball of clay that really, really wanted to explode.

  Something was wrong. He could feel it.

  “Why are mana cores mostly spheres anyway?”

  “To not even understand the basics.” Rick shook his head. “Excess mana likes to converge into a single point. We [Mages] make it into a sphere because it’s the most natural shape that it wants to be.”

  “If I remember correctly, monsters don’t always have spherical mana cores. Actually even some adventurers don’t have it.”

  Rick looked down on that idea. “A spherical core churns the mana the most uniformly. It provides [Mages] the best platform to begin their spells.”

  Yet the Trial System could and would give non spherical mana cores to certain adventurers. Mostly for people that were attempting to specialize in multiple disciplines. Now he was getting the feeling he was on the right track. He was still swimming in the deep end but it felt like he had a clearer direction.

  “Yeah, but I’m not a [Mage]...” Ryan trailed off. “Hey Rick, you said that the best way to form a mana core was to use concepts right?”

  –

  Ryan had a rough idea of what he was doing. It was like how his right arm had settled when he refused to compromise or make things easier… it suited the idea of a Tyrant. But at that time his arm came first, then the class. What if you could do it the other way round?

  So… what suited his magical capabilities? What concept was waiting for him that he knew already stuck out?

  All of his focus was placed on the surrounding magical stability matrix of the volatile core. The one that was keeping his core from blowing up.

  Ryan stopped trying to rein in his mana core, letting it bubble and spike outwards. Hitting one of the spell circles and shaking it entirely.

  One-Eyed Rick didn’t do something silly like ask if he was sane or had lost his mind. This was something he must have been curious about too. Nobody, even at dragonslayer, let concepts guide their realm evolutions. It had been thrown as an idea to bait Ryan into thinking Rick had some mystical secrets that nobody knew about. Though it turned out there had been some truth to the lie.

  Ryan came to the same conclusion.

  The Trial System was a perfect evolution because it prioritized using concepts first. It was so obvious now that Ryan thought about it. There was a reason why you would meet with the Manager and pick your classes first. It was the same for the fifth realm evolution too. You would meet with the Manager, pick a class .

  The Trial System would form your body and circulation system based around the concepts of the classes.

  Ryan let the concepts guide him, the concepts that he knew were there. They had been building up all this time waiting to be let out.

  Ryan didn’t understand where the last one had come from, yet it felt right. The core started rumbling as they stood there, as Ryan let these concepts settle around him. It started to break down Rick’s spell circles even faster, the concepts that were being infused into it were anathema to anything trying to contain it.

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  He could move around concepts that he didn’t have the class for.

  Ryan grinned at Rick, who was completely entranced by what he was doing. The [Seeker of Magic] looked up at him in confusion.

  Then in a fit of madness—Ryan pulled his arm back into the tunnel.

  For a second, the stability circles stayed, confirming that the Witch Tyrant had been instigating her ban on Rick leaving the place herself. His spells then shattered entirely all at once–and with it came the explosion.

  Ryan’s shoulder exploded outwards, unable to explode uniformly because of the barrier of aura. Chunks of his muscles exploded out and splattering the walls and Rick’s face. He grinned as Ryan focused only on the concepts, trying to rein them in.

  Make it become his.

  The concepts settled around him, the uncontrolled mass now having direction. No, it was less direction and more that Ryan truly embodied what they were.

  A class.

  The orb of mana started to take shape, following the lines of the concepts that were dancing around him. His deeds and determination were guiding the way. It started to shrink, though it did not keep to a spherical shape. Spikes were scattered around the surface, like it was the end of a spiky wrecking ball. Light blue sparks flickered in and out around the tips of the spikes.

  Sometimes a spike would shrink, sometimes one would form and shoot a bolt of light blue mana outwards.

  Designed to break things down. Refusing to be contained in a singular shape.

  The rest of his arm started to form in front of his very eyes, a chunk of flesh that was being crafted by a layer of volatile mana itself.

  It was like it was completing itself, his light blue mana traveled down his arm, following the pathways he had built for it, changing it in small areas but remaining largely the same. He felt it, he clenched his left fist.

  A mana core. A spiky volatile mana core lay in his shoulder, generating more mana than he knew what to do with. It traveled down his branching circulatory system and started pouring out volatile mana that sparked in the gray air.

  Rick looked over in interest.

  “Well, you wanted to be a [Mage]-killer. Congratulations are in order, the concepts around your arm puts even me on edge.”

  The arcane part of the class seemed to mean that more of Rick’s concepts had shown up in his own self than he expected. His pure white mana was now tinted with blue. A very light blue now.

  Rick scratched his chin. “Why don’t you stick around for a little bit? I do wish to see what we can do with that arm of yours. Plus I have a few other things I can help you with. Just in case I truly am stuck here forever.”

  …

  Ryan stood up at the entrance to the fifth Trial. He turned back to One-Eyed Rick, giving the [Seeker of Magic] one more steely eye. The mad dragonslayer waved his hand lazily.

  “You have my word. I’m not some duplicitous [Witch] that twists their meaning. Besides, I have never been hostile to the natives of this land. Only offering my services to those that wanted it.”

  Ryan nodded, he had heard some of Rick’s stories and would confirm them with Gamielle later. He still didn’t like the bastard but as long as he kept to his word then Ryan would tolerate it.

  He looked back at the Fifth Trial entrance. A modified mana cannon strapped to his left shoulder, a personal golem that was as tough as an eighth realm hanging off his back. Rick had changed much of its design to repair it. It was now removed of flesh and almost as tall as Ryan was. It also looked like a metallic green skeleton when it was activated.

  Rick apparently couldn’t do more than use Rax’s enchantments or the Trial System would restrict it in leveled zones. There was also Rax’s spear in his right hand.

  He looked less like a [Rogue] and more like a solo mercenary preparing for war.

  Ryan took a deep breath and entered the portal. First he would complete the Fifth Trial.

  Then it would be time to confront the Manager.

  –

  In the bottom of the Cataclysm Abyss, Rick sat there watching the little mage-killer take his next step in his evolution.

  “Tsk, smart one that.”

  That [Rogue] had immediately seen through what Rick was planning. Only when Rick promised not to cause chaos in The Realm did Artigan accept the deal.

  He stepped towards one of the cave entrances and poked a finger through. Testing whether or not he could go outside.

  To his surprise his finger was rebuffed.

  “Hey Witch! What gives?”

  The Witch Tyrant descended on him. If she had appeared like this, even at his peak he would have kneeled. This was someone that had truly delved into the hidden depths of magic itself. She sat, a little ahead, a tea table in front of her, sipping from a cup of tea.

  “You attempted to take over his body. Do you call that helping in good faith?”

  “Pah! Who’s to say that wasn’t all planned? By foiling a real life-threatening attempt, he made progress in his concepts did he not?”

  “I. It is I who says it was done in bad faith.”

  Rick scratched his chin at the imperious, unfair declaration by the Witch. “But the deal was that you would let me roam free if I helped him in good faith was it not? Did I not do that? In fact, is this result not better than you could have hoped for? He’s even using some of my concepts!”

  “Tore it apart from you.”

  “Pah!”

  Rick had been preparing for this argument the entire time. The Witch had always been true to her word, though everyone always did end up on the losing side in the end. In fact, Rick would argue that half the reason why he had failed to judge Artigan appropriately was because he had been planning against this encounter instead.

  He wasn’t stupid at all, the simple fact was that she was here, ergo, she had something in mind for him.

  Rick tilted his head. “So, if we’re at an impasse. Then what can I offer to regain my freedom?”

  The Witch Tyrant lowered her cup and gave the mad [Mage] a small smile.

  “There are some projects that could do with your help.”

  …

  Rick shook his head as he was taken away from the Cataclysm Abyss. He gave one last look as they tunneled out of the leveled zone in Sector Four. It was a fascinating place of mana being warped to take the form of the environment around it. A continuous feedback loop of ruin and loss.

  Though there was something else that truly kept the feedback loop in place.

  Struggle.

  Despite the death and ruin, life still flourished here. Despite everything, they struggled to survive, to grow and overcome. It was baked into this sector and oh so easy to overlook.

  Rick also wondered at the creation of a flesh titan that had just been left there. It wasn’t marvelous work, and he could see the remnants of Artigan’s aura lingering on the corpse. As the red aura started to flicker away, more and more of the flesh giant started to knit together. The ambient mana shades, black hands of thoughtless mana, somehow moving in tandem to bring in scattered flesh together.

  A spark of intelligence forming in its mana core.

  Looking, seeking, searching for those that had left the loop. Those that dared to escape the perpetual struggle.

  “You are not going to do anything about that?”

  “Why would I? It looks like an excellent tool to use against the generations to come.”

  “You truly have changed.”

  “”

  Rick considered it for a moment, he raised a finger to wipe it out of existence. Then he remembered.

  “Ah, I made a promise not to cause death. Nevermind.”

  The shadow enhanced flesh titan continued to regenerate underneath them. A disaster festering at the bottom of the Cataclysm Abyss, waiting to climb up and repeat the cycle of ruin, death and struggle.

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