Late Evening - Mid Summer : Moriai | Leyfa Askr

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  - Kazzaer Aldinn ~

  "Sir, would you like some tea?"

  "No thank you." Quickly waving off the cold, elven butler, I gave Miss Tsvetok a stressed gnce before turning back to a few handwritten notes she gave me after the flight from Pal. "Haah..." -What a ridiculous idea...-

  To summarize, the stack of paper detailed everything Russia wanted out of a iation with the Queen, some things more ihat others, before tellio not cave in to a good offer if it meant it would throw her uhe bus.

  With Russia ly being a political ally of the Uates, it was a demand that would seem eous to most.

  However, if I chose to work with her, she detailed how she would force the Russian parliament to send the Uates a request for a formal alliance.

  sidering the disaster that was on the horizon, it was an offer I couldn't pass up. But the more I sat on it, the more unsure I became. -ISO members don't usually have the ability to guarantee such as...- Rather than being g bodies, we were simply representatives that could be overruled if the gover wished.

  Sure, our words carried a lot of weight and were rarely objected to, during our meeting in Pal, we even instated rules and policies without so much as looking at what our respective govers had to say, but that was because of one simple fact.

  We discussed everything in front of the world.

  As long as the pn leased the people, the gover wasn't given a choice but to follow it, at least generally.

  However, this meeting was different, not only would it not be broadcasted to the world, but while global tensions appeared to settle some after the annou of the rank-up arrived, an alliance wasn't something that could form so haphazardly.

  The thing was she had no reason to lie. -With disaster breathing down our necks, her of us afford sparking a war...- Ah would greatly be from an alliance.

  So, I trusted her.

  That was at least until the air in the meeting hall ged.

  Out of nowhere, the maids started panig, rushing about, and whispering to one another about something regarding the Queen.

  At first, I thought it was simply them getting ready for her to e inside, after all, there was a very noticeable shift in the flow of the ambient mana around us right as they started panig.

  But I couldn't have been more wrong.

  *Tap-Woosh* As the door swung open, my gaze fell on a familiar, older elven maid. -Eir Igna...-

  "I apologize for making you all wait." Speaking so emotionlessly it made me unfortable, she fidently walked in with a t demihuman following behind her. "The Queen , unfortunately, not make it to this meeting, so for the time being, I will a her pce."

  -What?!- Miss Tsvetok and I instantly jolted.

  "This here is Madam Ormr, the leader of the Frost Walkers. She will be joining us in pce of her son, so I hope you be uanding." Not giving us anything more than a gnce, she walked up to the end of the table and, without hesitation, pushed aside the huge chair intended for the Queen. "Now, to avoid any further deys," Straightening her posture and holding her head as high as royalty, fidence crept into her voice, "Allow us to begin."

  -----Early Afternoon - Early Fall : The Forest of Giants | Temnota

  - Evreir ~

  *ooom* *Tap* "Hoooh..." Finally taking a step back with a long, stressed breath as a storm of mana rampaged around me, I used my aura to move the massive wyvern mana core behind me, over Eve's bloody, unmoving body, aing the blue fog of mana it exuded flow into her abdomen. -To think I'm still able to feel this kind of ay...-

  Momentarily l my gaze down to my shaky, blood-covered hand, loosely holding a scalpel-like bde, I finally gave my nerves a ce to unwind before tossing it in my iory and squatting back dowo her.

  It had been several hours since I began my emergency procedure at that point, but even though things had been progressiremely well, I could never shake the unending ahat tied my stoma a knot.

  But that was all because Eve's fate, after holding her life in a delicate bance for several hours, would ultimately e down to the final step.

  Looking over at an unreizable pile of flesh and blood o me, I had already removed essentially all of the ans that were unreizably shredded the first time I ruptured her reserve, f her body to pletely rely on mana rather than attempting to heal, and thankfully, while it took some time, her body found a new equilibrium.

  There was one major issue though.

  If I were to pull away the massive wyvern core h above her, she'd die in a matter of mihe tiny, grape-sized mana core that had reformed in her y abdomen simply didn't tain enough mana to keep her alive, and if I left her with it, she would most definitely die. -So I have to try and reform it...-

  Meaning I had to rupture it again.

  But even though it rocedure I had done on myself in the past, I was abnormally nervous. "Hooh..." -I just 't overthink it... pared to what I did to myself, this is nothing...-

  Finally raising the wyvern's mana core up over me, I reached out over her abdomen, folding my finger bad flig her grape-sized reserve, crushing it against her spine. *Crackle*

  Almost instantly, a mana vortex appeared where the core once was, and knowing it would only st an instant, I hastily lowered the wyvern's mana core before flig it as well, sending cracks spreading through it before a huge wash of mana flowed out of it and funneled into the vortex like a cracked egg. -Perfect...-

  L the wyvern ore, till it was almost ying oomach, I stood up, pag around it while carefully trolling the flow of mana from the core, flig it to steadily increase the flow of mana proportionally to he the vortex grew.

  Until eventually, the vortex grew to a point where, at its ter, a jelly-like formation of liquid mana gathered around a faint white cloud, dissolving the skin and muscle around it before slowly beginning to spin and circute. -There we go...-

  Quickly pulling the wyvern's core away to lessen the amount of mana the vortex could pull from it, the vortex finally started dying down, and a shell started to form on the core.

  *Vwoop* Not wasting any more time, I quickly pulled bay scalpel before carving aatches of blue flesh that had solidified into mythril from the insane ambient mana.

  And almost instantly, the hole in her abdomen started to rapidly heal, and her dition stabilized. In a matter of seds, color returo her skin, and while she wasn't breathing, her heartbeat was firm, and her nervous system was active. -Thank goodness...-

  She had survived...

  *Puff* Finally catg a break, I fell bad sat down, only keeping an eye on how much mana she was still abs to make sure her newly formed core wasn't going te itself.

  But thankfully, there was nothing to worry about there.

  As miurned into hours, I slowly moved the wyvern's core farther and farther away before eventually putting it ba my iory and starting to up.

  Not wanting to draw the attention of any critters, I was quick to put the mess of flesh I had carved out of Eve into my iory, before pulling out a towel to up the blood.

  But just as I went to do that, Bel, who had been sitting behihe whole time, watg the procedure, walked up and took it out of my hands.

  "Please don't worry about ing up anything... You've already done enough..." Her voice was riddled with worry. "I'll take care of it, so please take a moment to rest."

  Unfortuhough, while it was a kiure, she didn't quite realize the situation we were in. *Vwoop* Immediately pulling aowel out of my iory, I got to wiping without so much as a stutter. "It's alright, this isn't the time nor pce for rest."

  Suddenly stopping iracks, the gentle sway iail stopped. "What do you mean? You look exhausted."

  -I am...- But unfortunately, the moment I lowered my guard, Eve would die. "You do know this ish, right?" Seeiilt her head, everything suddenly clicked. "Eve was suffog. I ruptured her reserve to force her body to start living off of mana pletely." Although acc to her she had already 'asded', after everything that had happened, she had only taken the first step before now.

  And even now, she had only made it to step two.

  But assion is an arduous jourhat couldn't be rushed. -At least not more than necessary...- Having a momentary fshback to a time when I performed the procedure I just did on Eve on myself, my expression turned cold before quickly f myself to switch gears. "Anyway, acc to my system, you should have system panels and suow. Have you tried it at all?"

  "Huh?" Her gaze instantly so me. "N..no... I wasn't aware I had anything like that..."

  -Iing...- "Trying saying 'System Open'."

  Giving me a weird look for a moment, she hesitantly turned away. "System open?" *Vwoop* Almost instantly her face was lit up with a purple hue I only ko belong to my system. "What the... It looks.. kind of buggy though..."

  -Uh oh...- My i instantly turo worry. "How so..."

  But as she turned her pao me, a wave of relief washed over me.

  World: "Temnota"

  P Rank: ERROR

  Mission Type: Low Intel Assassination

  Local Server: Uo ect - ected to tral Server

  Popution: ~234,000,071Total Gold: 0Iory and GearUpgrades and Stats"The p rank says error, and.. that popution 't be right..."

  -It looks exactly like mine.- "It's right. The p ranks increase up to 0, then it goes to ive 0, and then it errors out."

  Tensing up, her ears folded back. "So.. you mean to say that Rank 0 isn't the top of the mountain..?"

  Nodding with a smile, I found her y a bit amusing before a tilt found its way into my head. -Huh?- Watg her tail slowly tuck between her legs, my curiosity quickly turned into fasation. "Are you.. afraid?"

  Finally notig, she stopped iracks. "N..no, that's not possible." Without realizing, she got flustered. "I'm a robot, I don't have aion like fear programmed into me..."

  "But I ged the rules that bound you with the system. Perhaps one of the limits I removed gave you the ability to learn fear." -The only other thing I could think of would be the mana meifusion...-

  But giving her a mana core didn't necessarily ate sentieher, especially since I knew firsthand that having mana didn't make a beiient, with treants being a prime example.

  However, Bel was undoubtedly feeling something.

  Something that would make her mind wander for endless hours, causing time to slip by while we waited for Eve to wake up.

  But of course, I wasn't too fond of wasting time like that, so, to pass the time, I decided to try and teach Bel how to use and trol mana. It was essentially just me reying what Eve taught me to her, however, the more I spoke, the more my mind ran wild with ideas, and the more mistakes I found in my own practice.

  Before I k, with some help brainst from Bel, my abilities were advang even faster than when Eve was teag me, and after a week, I had a much better foundation of knowledge and skill when it came t with my aura and trolling my mana. Of course, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows because the actual volume of mana I was able to pull out of my reserve tio be severely limited, but there was some minress there as well.

  It eventually came to ahough. -Hoh?- Feeling a presence approag from the grass field, I turned around to see the spine-covered drake from when we first arrived walking towards us while dragging the bloody corpse of some lizard-like creature. -By the looks of things, it's not ing for us...- Rather it looked like it was just bringing food to its den.

  However, over the st few days, Bel and I had brainstormed on how I could get more mana out of my reserve at once, and while most methods worked, there was one way we thought would really work.

  Live practice. -How perfect...-

  But as I stood up and started stretg, Bel's worry exploded. "A-Are you sure you fight that?! That has to be at least level two thousand!"

  Hearing her guess, I wao ugh. "Try eight or housand." Watg it walk across the pin, my guess was just oep below the demigod wyvern I killed. -But it's on the ground, and...- *Vwoop* Pulling out my axe, I swung it over my shoulder. -This time I'm a little better equipped.-

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