I tap on Biscuit, signaling him to shrink so I can focus on the others. He seems to misunderstand, though, and instead of shrinking his body, expands even more, forcing me to strengthen my manabloc chair before it cracks. He snuggles against me playfully, and I can hear his breathing close to my ear while his wet nose pokes my ear.

My body is barely visible under him, and I peek to the side so I can look at Tess. “Where did we hear this from?” I ask.

Instead of her, Sophie answers, “I learned it not long ago, from Luan.”

I push against Biscuit and move him slightly. He seems to think I’m playing and pushes back with excitement, rubbing his head against mine. I peek from the other side this time, bringing Sophie into view.

As if she’d been waiting for just that moment, she meets my eyes. “Luan didn’t tell me much about the man, not even his name or even what guilds he could be in. He only mentioned it as a warning. I’ve tried to learn more, but Frontier still refuses to explain. Maybe I will get a bit more once I reach the 4th floor.”

“If Frontier knows, isn’t it possible that the Primordial Knights know something too?” Tess asks, looking at me.

I give up peeking and mumble from under Biscuit, and answer without looking at her, “I’ve never asked, to be honest. I could try, maybe Weslin knows a thing or two. But isn’t it more likely that Luan’s bullshitting? It’s a strange thing for them to know about, much less for him to share with you so casually.”

I can’t actually see Sophie, but I can just imagine her shaking her head. “Luan is… difficult. He follows that odd sense of honor he has.”

“Does that honor include attacking a bunch of Beyond newbies?” I ask.

“Apparently, yes. He was ordered to guard Faora, so he did just that. He’s much the same with me. If I decided to kill people, he would guard me while I did it.”

“He didn’t do a very good job guarding her.”

“I think that was deliberate, probably under orders from Frontier. I saw him fight more than once, Nat. Luan is insanely strong. If he had truly done his best to protect her, it would have ended very differently.”

“So they wanted you instead of Faora, and you fell for it by just offering yourself up?” I ask.

“I think it was more than they already had a replacement for Faora in mind. I just made the offer myself before they could bring their replacement in, and Luan decided to accept me. Frontier seemed to agree. If I’m not good enough, I’ll probably end up the same way that feylith bitch did.”

“Dead.”

“Yes, they’ll probably kill me off.”

“Izzy, what do you have to say to that crap?” I call toward where I think she’s sitting, leaned up against Giga Noodle.

“If Sophie dies, I think I may die too. I am too weak to survive alone,” our empath says simply.

“Is that some kind of emotional blackmail?” I ask, not expecting such words from her.

“Maybe. Who knows. Sophie certainly doesn’t. I can feel it, even when she tries to hide it. She can’t hide anything from me. So yes, it’s very possible that if my dear sister Sophie, whom I love more than anything, dies, I’ll die too.”

Daaaaamn.

Silence fills the room. No one knows how to respond to Izzy. Ever since we pushed her to act on her emotions instead of always trying to please us, she’s started acting out like this. Just like a feisty teenager, using her powers every now and then to get her way.

I don’t think for a second that it’s ill intended or meant to hurt any of us. Even someone like me can see that. It’s just the result of Izzy trying to find her place instead of constantly bowing to our feelings, even if it does mean she acts this way from time to time.

Honestly, it makes me kind of happy. It feels better, and somehow right, even if it does make some things more difficult.

Biscuit expands even more and then bites at me, taking my entire head into his mouth. I can smell his breath and see his tongue and teeth. He grabs me gently, playfully shaking my head before letting go and licking me with a tongue bigger than my torso.

“Eww,” Dennis blurts out, making the obvious mistake.

“Biscuit, get him,” I say.

The giga corgi jumps off me, breaking some of the furniture in the process, and rushes at the poor twin, who vainly lifts his hands in front of his face. He might even try to teleport away, and I might even disrupt that attempt.

Lily stands by my side. Looking up, I see her offering me a towel. With a nod of thanks, I take it and wipe off my head, while Lily sits in the armchair next to me.

Tess is already speaking again. “So far, it seems right to assume that the First Beyonder is going to be stronger than anyone from Earth’s tutorial, judging by the way the others treat him. The top guilds seem to know more about him than we do, yet they’re still acting like this.”

“So, S rank then?” Lily asks from beside me.

Tess shakes her head. “I don’t think that’s it. While yes, he could be S rank, that alone wouldn’t earn him so much attention. From what Nat’s told us, we know more Rulers are meddling around as Handlers, so it’s possible they’ve been telling their attendees more about this man. It seems to be less about his current strength and more about his potential.”

“Every S rank is considered to be a future Absolute, so are you saying the First Beyonder is being seen as a Ruler candidate?” Min-Jae asks.

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Sophie sneaking nervous glances at Izzy, who is sitting on the floor against Noodle. And Izzy meets her sister’s gaze with a wide smile, which only seems to make Sophie even more uneasy.

“It’s hard to say. Lyraen, Nyssa, and Solae are all considered powerful future Absolutes, but no one’s calling them Ruler candidates. No one’s called our First Beyonder anything like that either, and yet at the same time, it feels like some important people are giving him way too much respect,” Tess says.

“What even is he? Some kind of mass murderer with an insane talent for mana? A hermit who meditated for decades in the mountains and awakened mana before the tutorial? Another monstrous corgi, maybe a member of Biscuit’s family, just to make it dramatic?” Maya snarks, waving her hand.

Biscuit, hearing his name, stops and turns toward her, away from Dennis, who is still hiding his face from Biscuit’s giga form. Maya immediately realizes her mistake, but it’s too late. With a squeak, she lifts her arms, trying to shield herself from the attack of the now horse-sized corgi.

Everyone else ignores her, and only Dennis gives her a quick salute, silently thanking her for her sacrifice.

“He would’ve had to survive the surface of Beyond as a level 0, assuming he started there like the rest of us. Even now, people are saying the surface is often more dangerous than the fifth floor, even S ranks have been known to die there,” Lily says.

“Wouldn’t he have to have gone through three trials before that?” Min-Jae wonders. “All of you did, right?”

“Well, we can ask him. If he really does end up joining the tournament.” I say, lowering my voice, not wanting to draw the attention of the beast now pressing its huge nose against Maya’s face while she giggles and struggles to push him away. “Sophie, did you find out what they need you for already?”

“It’s the same as with you. While Nyssa’s hoping you’ll help her to the sixth floor, Frontier hopes my mind magic will do the same for them, though in a different way than the Primordial Lunatics. Apparently, Bloodline started stirring things up as well and got Crimson Forge to join them. My Handler said it’s been a long time since he saw people racing so hard for the 6th. He also mentioned a rumor that something big happened on the lower floors.” Sophie shrugs after glancing away from Izzy.

“Yeah, the Cockroach is there. Also, really? Primordial Lunatics?”

“Everyone calls you guys that. And I think your master being trapped there isn’t the only thing that went down. Something else happened on the lower floors.”

“That’s for others to trouble themselves with. Do you want more explosive cubes or temporary tattoos?”

“Not really, but I will take a few more of your mana woven clothes. That shirt you gave me is insane. Some guy offered me a lot of shards for it.”

“He was likely interested in industrial espionage, trying to obtain the design or replicate my patented process. And Sophie, it is not mana woven, it’s manatex.”

“Screw off. I’ll give you the design and work with you on it.”

“I’m hurt,” I say, turning to my right. “Are you seeing this, Lily? This is what I have to deal with. Will at least you defend me?”

“No,” she says with a bright smile. “Your designs are terrible.”

“First floor, Lily would’ve defended me.”

“First floor, Lily would be blushing and staring at you in secret,” she says with the same smile.

“Typical lust subclass girls,” Dennis sighs.

“Biscuit, get him!” Lily says right away while pointing at the twin.

Looking up from his place on top of Maya, Biscuit lifts his head and tilts it, ears flopping. A smile-like expression spreads across his face as he stands up and charges Lily, who squeaks and falls to the floor.

The brutality of the attack is too much to watch, so I turn away and look at Tess. “How is your Beyond party doing?”

"It is going quite well. We have Leticia and Luna joining us. Jean, Lucien too, and..."

"Lucien?"

She sighs. "Spacepup."

"Oh, I see, that little shit."

"Then we met up with a few more of Leticia’s and Jean’s beyonders. We were working with Baek for a while, too, if you can call it that."

"No sight of Vic?"

"None at all. I bought some bits of information from the guilds. She was seen on the 2nd floor a long time ago, so I suspect she might be on the 3rd already or maybe even making her way to the 4th."

"I tried looking too, but I could only find scraps about her. Did you know there is an option to pay off the information guilds to keep them from sharing your info? I mean, people will still sell it if someone offers enough, so it ends up being a matter of who pays more, you to make them shut up or the other party to buy your details."

“Yes, I know that. On another note, Lily and I should be able to reach the third floor soon.”

"As long as some guild doesn’t kidnap me and try to force me to join them," Lily calls from under Biscuit, who does not even move, just lies on her with a proud expression.

"Any serious trouble?" I ask her.

"There’s always some kind of trouble. Most of the time, the guilds are super nice and generous, though when I reject them, they tend to get annoyed and try some shit," Lily mutters.

I glance at Tess, who shrugs. "We’ve long since known Lily was a highly sought after healer. But I’m keeping an eye on her, as are the others in my party. Plus, it helps that even if they get through us, that just means they get to face Lily."

"The Bulldozer," Aaron whispers with a dark face.

"The Terminator of Lust," Dennis adds in the same tone.

"Biscuit, get them!" Lily calls from underneath.

Unfortunately for her, the corgi only expands in size more, totally obscuring her beneath his bulk. He yawns and settles in more comfortably.

----------------------------------------

After an hour or two, everyone calms down, and the conversation continues more smoothly, and I share some of my own information.

Working with Min-Jae, we go over his library, while he recommends a few mana stones that I immediately take for study. In exchange, I tell him some things I learned from the Doc, like how to get the most out of the Gravitation Wavelength Eye he has, and how to make it fully integrate with his body.

There also turns out to be something like an improved version of what Min-Jae does with gravitational energy to train his body. I got it from one of the demons from Primordial Knights. I bought it cheap, too, I just had to beat the guy until he almost died.

It’s been a long time since I saw anyone as happy as that, so I think I may have gotten scammed. Somehow.

After getting a design from Sophie, which she sometimes comes to check on as I work, I start weaving a shirt from manatex. It is something I started doing out of boredom, clothes made with a base of Ley Lines. So far, I still can’t make them entirely out of Ley Lines, so I have to thread them together with Mana Weaving, in a manner similar to the way I used to apply [Knitting].

I switch between these techniques as I go. I’m not all that good at it so far, but I want to learn where to use Ley Lines, where to use more flexible knitted lines, and where I should weave in more durable threads. All for maximum comfort and defense. I even had Maya tell me a bit about tailoring, since she knew some things about it from before the tutorial. That learning session ended with us coming up with new ways we could apply it to our armor.

It is weirdly calming. Stretching threads of mana, compressing them, using [Manifestation] in different spots. I am still not sure how long they’ll last, but they should hang around a few months at the minimum for sure. Each of these pieces has durability on the level of mid to upper epic armor, just without any added effects. For now.

As I do this, I let my mind wander. Part of me listens to the low murmur of conversation, part of me observes Biscuit resting against my leg, and another part opens my status, which I stare at while I work and plan my next progress.

Name: Nathaniel Gwyn

Title: Champion Candidate

Difficulty: Hell

Rank: A, Shimmering Silver

Guild: Primordial Knights

Floor: 9 - The Pit

Time left until forced return: 2y 84d 19h 59m 6s

Traits (2/3): Mana Wavelength Iris 2/3, Mana Physique 2/3

Lvl 346

Strength: 291

Dexterity: 272

Constitution: 476

Mana (Stage 1/3 - Vast Mana): 1744 + 1744

Primary Class: Mana Weaver (Unique Arcane)

Sub-class: [Adept of Pride]

Active skills (9/10):

Focus - Lvl 70

Perception - Lvl 68

Redistribution - Lvl 70

Mana Manipulation - Lvl 70

Ley Line - Lvl 65

Eclipse (Pride) - Lvl 49

Empyrean Lance - Lvl 31

Manifestation - Lvl 16

Accumulation - Lvl 19

Constructs:

Reinforcement

Mana Regulator

Mana Sovereignty Mantle

Kinetic Mana Heart

Sealed Ignition Heart (Partially Sealed, 2/3)

Mental Frame

Thought Maze Circuit

Thermal Flux Regulator

Passive skills (4/5):

Mana Kinetic Conversion Reservoir (Unique Epic)

Mana Wavelength Tyrant (Mid Arcane)

Subdermal Combustion Weave (Mid Arcane)

Mana Wave Predation (Unique Arcane)

Tokens:

Send a single item to your disciple (up to epic rarity)

Passive skill combination token (low arcane)

Beyond visitor token - 1 year (unlocked after tutorial)

Beyond 4th Floor High end residence permit

Beyond 7 day stay token

Beyond 14 day stay token

Beyond 14 day stay token

Shards: 6,686,111