Chapter 460: Powernap

Thalion appeared on an endless stretch of tall orange grass that swayed in the wind. The smell was pleasant and reminded him a bit of Earth, and the peace was something he could have enjoyed long term.

If there hadn’t been the lion-headed warrior standing opposite him, he would have just lain down and let the sun shine on his face.

“Greetings, Thalion. I am Ratgul, the architect of the treasure hunt you just won. Welcome to my place.”

Ratgul’s voice was strong, and he stretched out his hands far and wide, clearly proud of what he had created.

“Hello,” Thalion managed to say.

The pressure from what he had been through only a few minutes ago made it hard to engage in small talk.

“I have to say, I didn’t expect an F grade to win. So before we start with the training, why don’t you tell me what you want to learn?” Ratgul asked.

For Thalion, this was going far nicer than he had first expected.

“Well, first I’m going to evolve. As for what I want to learn… there aren’t many things I don’t want, but improving my fighting as the Crippled Eclipsari is definitely high on the list. Since it looks like you also enjoy close combat with your claws, I figure you know a thing or two?” Thalion said, getting a bit more used to talking. After so much stress, it was a lot harder than he had thought.

“Ra, ra, ra—yeah, I kinda like using my claws,” Ratgul laughed out loud before getting more serious. “One rather important point. Do not evolve right now.”

“Wait—why?” Thalion managed to ask. He really wanted to get going.

“Well, for multiple reasons. Here, you cannot gain any experience, but we can improve your body tempering by quite a lot. This will result in a better evolution. The higher you rise in rarity, the bigger the difference between someone who just managed to slip in and someone who is about to break through to the next level. Besides testing out your new forms, there is no advantage in evolving here.

“And think about it. I know you are exhausted after the whole ordeal, and staying F grade for so long while everyone else was gaining level after level must be hard. But do you remember the reward for being first place? From now on, when evolving, you will never get weaker—which is a huge deal. Every hour you invest here right now will spare you thousands of years later,” Ratgul explained.

Thalion understood and agreed.

There wasn’t much to think about, and he wasn’t great at thinking clearly after the ritual had almost nuked his body.

“That makes sense. On another note… how much time do we have? And would you mind if I take a little nap before we start?” Thalion had really thought he was fine when accepting the invitation, but just standing there and talking already felt like something was pressing against every word.

“Ra, ra, ra, ra—sure, go ahead and take a nap. We have time. But I must say, between the five I’m training right now, I already like you the most.”

With those words, Ratgul simply disappeared.

Thalion, too exhausted to bother in any way, just fell onto his back and looked up at the sun.

It wasn’t completely silent—Saranya was complaining that she didn’t want to be placed in the spatial amulet ever again and the Primordial Bloodseed fantasized about the taste of different blood types.

For Thalion, that didn’t matter much right now.

He closed his eyes.

<--

The first system event concluded, and while Thalion was taking his time in Ratgul’s domain, time wasn’t fully stopped in the outside world.

The gods were on edge after waiting for their Chosen to return from the trial.

These were the trials where Chosen could die—and the gods would only find out once it was over—which, of course, tugged on the nerves of even the most powerful beings.

A Chosen was a large investment, and getting one through to godhood was essential.

Yet besides seeing whether their investment was still alive, many gods had other reasons to be interested.

For example, who had taken the top places—which was always something gods cared about.

The next reason applied only to a few gods, plus almost all the elven gods who had blessed Chosen in the new universe:

Did they manage to catch Thalion—and more importantly, get the name of his patron?

Kaelir appeared in the mountain fortress they had built after arriving here following the tutorial, and in an instant his patron locked onto him.

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“Greetings, my Chosen. How was the trial?”

The telepathic message carried quite a pleasant tone, which meant his patron was in a good mood.

Kaelir was just unsure whether that would last long.

He also struggled to find the right answer to this question.

“I made contact with the other elves, and I now know the rough location we need to move toward. We also fought the human Chosen, who are weaker and outnumbered. I placed fifteenth, and the system event was categorized as Level Seven,” Kaelir sent back, trying to avoid some of the more peculiar information.

“Level Seven… then everything in the top thirty is more than acceptable. Can you send me the leaderboard list?” Pyrael answered in a calm tone.

This was, of course, what Kaelir had feared.

He would have liked to say something to soften the shock for his patron, but he couldn’t find the right words and simply sent the leaderboard.

Then the silence stretched.

“Interesting. How did our Thalion end up in the first position? I assume the information about him being F grade was wrong? I shouldn’t have trusted that silver snake in the first place,” his patron said, breaking the silence.

“Actually, that information was correct. He was still in F grade,” Kaelir corrected carefully.

If the gods began fighting, nothing good would come of it.

Silence.

…

“So am I missing something, or why is an F grade in the top position of the leaderboard in an E grade trial with Level Seven difficulty?” Pyrael finally broke the silence with an outburst.

“It was because of the last stage. It gave an enormous amount of leaderboard points, and the end basically turned into every faction fighting against everyone else while Thalion stole the main prize. The last stage was a blood stage, which is why the vampire managed to get second place.” Kaelir explained desperately, hoping to ease his master’s mind.

“Well… was this vampire also an F grade? I assume this Thalion hadn’t been on the leaderboard until the final stage?”

This was what Kaelir had feared, but he had no other choice.

“Actually, he was in first position for the better part of the trial. No one knows how he managed that. Only in the later stages did we manage to surpass him. Thalion earned millions of points in the early stages, while we only gained a few thousand. There had to be some kind of cheating.”

Silence.

“Interesting. The reason why our dear lord is so interested in this man is because his patron has likely found a way to relay extra support without being punished by the system. Since there were many capable fighters in the trial and no one managed to even get close to him, this might even apply to system events—which would make it even more important.

“The emperor has a young daughter, and most other elven gods would also be keen on knowing such information. These system trials are where most Chosen die. This could have an even bigger impact than knowledge of how to cheat in the tutorial.”

Silence.

“Finding this human in the open world might be impossible. So instead, you will level as fast as possible while focusing on connecting with the others. We need to win the war and cast a net in which the human can get caught. Should he appear on the battlefield or be seen anywhere, you know what to do.”

Relief rushed through Kaelir’s body when he heard those words from his patron.

He wasn’t angry at him, and he didn’t see this event as a failure.

The reward for Kaelir also wasn’t something minor.

He now possessed a new dark red staff that surpassed the two he had previously used by a large margin. Such craftsmanship was very rare in the multiverse, and this staff would even evolve together with him.

“As you wish, master. I have one more question. When can we construct the portals to connect to the elven empire?”

“For now, only through the incursion we have ongoing on this planet. It will take a few months—if not longer—until that kind of access is permitted. I will inform you when the time comes. This will likely be after you connect with all the other elves but before the true war between the factions breaks out.

“Now prepare yourself and focus entirely on leveling. You need to reach D grade as fast as possible.”

With those words, the patron broke off the connection.

<--

“This system event was a mess, and everyone I entered with got slain by a single man,” Eric reported to Solarion, who also wanted to know what had happened in the trial and what his little Chosen had been doing.

“Don’t worry yourself. This can happen. Most of those you know will perish in the coming years, and that will keep happening over hundreds of years and never stop. Death is simply a part of life, and only a scarce few will ever manage to live forever.”

Solarion tried to calm his Chosen.

“It’s more than that. This person wasn’t another Chosen. Instead, it was some prince who can immobilize you with a simple touch and then kill you with green mist he breathes out that devours everything. I also lost to the prince and was about to die—but I was saved. Yet in the final stage, when that same person had the chance to kill the prince, he didn’t.”

“Hm. This prince really is of a troubling nature. But don’t worry. In a few months, we can open the portals and you can come by. Then we’ll have some fun training sessions and make sure the others eat dust if they want to mess with you.

“As for the person who saved your life—don’t let it touch you. No matter what the reason was, it doesn’t matter right now. You cannot question him, and you need to progress—and fast. Gain levels as quickly as possible and reach D grade. If the elven Chosen next to you hits D grade first, you will have to run.

“When the war on this planet is over, we’ll have more time to work on rarity so that you won’t hit a wall in the higher levels,” Solarion advised.

“You’re right. I’ll set out. But I just don’t like it. There’s this feeling that I’ve been missing something. Ethan and the others tried the whole time to convince me that Thalion is evil—and normally I wouldn't have agreed—but now I’m not sure anymore…”

“Hah. This Thalion saved your life! In fact, nothing is simple when it comes to that man. Insiders say the vampires and elves also want him badly. A mortal who piques the interest of multiple gods is very rare. If you get the chance, could you ask him about that? I’m very interested in what he has done,” Solarion laughed.

“I didn’t know that. But yeah, sure. I’ll ask him when we meet again,” Eric replied, his mind already focusing on the tasks ahead.

“Oh, and you can also invite him to visit me when the portals are intact. Someone who managed to unnerve the elves like this is a person I’d also like to take a look at. Now I begin to wonder why I didn’t notice him in the tutorial. Normally, I don’t miss those who can create a ruckus for the elves.”

Solarion laughed again, and with that, the connection disappeared, leaving Eric alone in the courtyard.

This system event hadn’t gone at all like he had wanted.

The plaza had been filled with fighters who had entered the system event—but only a few had returned, and most of them had left early in the trial, drastically reducing their chances of reaching higher grades. Losing over a thousand years of potential progress was no small thing.

For Eric, though, it had been worth it.

He had gained a title that increased all his light abilities—something he would test after taking a nap.

The last battle had been too exhausting and he needed to rest now.