Hell Difficulty Tutorial – Stubbing Book 8 (Ch.615-695) at the start of August

Ever since I found myself here, I’ve had this feeling, like someone’s watching me, and the more time has passed and I’ve had the opportunity to examine things, the more I’m beginning to suspect that it’s the one winged wyvern.

With Rulers likely to interfere, I repeatedly wonder what the plan is. Right now, it seems like most of the attendees are being used as hostages to keep the Rulers in check.

But even though this wyvern seems to be at least as powerful as a Ruler, I wonder if it could truly face someone like Wrath or Greed. Which also invites the question: why hasn’t either of them killed the wyvern, be it alone or with help, in an effort to move on to the next floor of Beyond?

The only thing I can think of to explain it is that the wyvern’s had thousands of years to set up its domain and make it incredibly powerful in the process, to the point where challenging it within its domain would be suicide even for a squad of Rulers. After all, I’ve been told that wyverns are domain specialists.

When the wyvern was killed by Pride so he could pass onto the next floor, it’s possible that the domain was heavily damaged in the time it took the wyvern to revive, making the next challenges against the wyvern easier.

So, all of this is likely running on a timer. I don’t think the Rulers are going to allow the wyvern to build up such a powerful domain again, not here on Xyphos, and if pushed, I think they’ll even sacrifice the attendees in the process.

It depends on how valuable Xyphos is to them and how much they don’t want the wyvern to be free. They can’t move freely, though. At any moment, a certain cockroach might exit the Labyrinth with a new heart beating in her chest.

It’s a huge mess all around, and I really have to wonder why the Ruler of Diligence would have done this.

I put those thoughts on hold and sigh. It’s fun to blame it on him, I have to say. It’s actually very fun. For a being as old as him, a few years of a few thousand people blaming him for stuff is likely nothing, bearing no consequence other than the annoyance that he can’t even use it as an excuse to kill me or something.

I like these kinds of games. The ones where I test how far I can push before I see consequences.

I am someone who proudly calls himself an asshole.

Still, I really can’t bring myself to envy him, considering what he has to deal with. If it were me, I know I would’ve been much more radical and attempted to deal with it through sheer force. And yet, the Ruler of Diligence continues to try his best, following the code he must have set for himself once he became a Champion on Myrra’s and Eris the Matriarch’s world.

Out of all of the Rulers I’ve met, that ant is among the most normal, and that’s saying something, given the fact that he’s a giant house pest. It almost makes me want to try to help him out of pity, and because I know his code would force him to pay it back.

That occupies my mind for the moment, along with the wyverns’ domains. I wonder if these existed pre-system or if the wyverns became domain specialists after learning to bend mana to their will as the system spread.

Other parts of me watch Tacita, Dennis, and Fuci playing around, all three of them pushing their speed to the limit.

Dennis is very fast in any single burst that takes him in a straight line, though it takes him some time to recover his bearings. I suspect it’s the result of all his stats and his skills being stacked into that single burst, meaning that his thoughts can’t really keep up. I notice it, but when he moves so quickly, it seems almost like he’s pre-programmed his body to manage itself while his mind catches up to his movements.

There are advantages to that incredible speed, but it has its weaknesses too, though he won’t be likely to encounter many able to keep up with it. When he moves like that, his speed almost reaches Tacita’s level when she goes full out.

But in the end, that’s all there is to it. It’s a single, short burst. Tacita can maintain that speed for dozens of seconds. She can maneuver instead of just shooting off in a straight line, and her mind can keep up with it on pure instinct alone.

Ridiculous, I say.

[Selective Adaptation - lvl 19 > Selective Adaptation - lvl 20]

Reading the notification that suddenly popped up, I use the tip of Veto to stab my arm again, watching as it locks [Selective Adaptation] once more.

As the dagger locks the skill, the skill tries to fight back and adapt. Even though it’s only locked for a minute, I’ve come up with a theory that after hours of repeating this process, I should be able to forcibly level the skill by abusing this feedback loop. It even broke through the bottleneck, so it should become easier to level up now, and I certainly have the time.

Xyphos is quite a large planet, I suspect that it’s much bigger than Earth, and yet we’re still coming across barriers with Easy difficulty attendees inside, making me suspect that many of the attendees were simply clustered together. The corporations, meanwhile, have been sneaking around, mostly meeting with Hell difficulty attendees who’ve been moving freely through the incredibly hot desert, though they rarely visit those locked inside the barriers.

I wonder what these five corporations think of this whole situation. Are they powerful enough to put pressure on the Rulers by making use of the structures behind them, or are they just sitting there quietly and hoping things don’t get any worse? And in the end, how can we abuse this to our advantage?

There isn’t much value we could have, but we have one clear advantage: the system shop for tutorial attendees isn’t available outside of the tutorial.

Surely there are certain materials or items these people are interested in. Maybe they’d even be willing to give an attendee items to sell, even if they only get 10-20% of their value, just to get their hands on certain items or materials.

So, the adventures of Group 4 continue as we make our way toward the remaining members, who have somehow ended up much further away than the others.

The hours turn into days as we make our way over to them, not meeting any enemies other than the heat and the corporations landing in their ships nearby to engage in trade.

Our modus operandi remains the same.

We want information. As much as possible, and we’re willing to trade one of Lily’s trademarked 3.2 healing marks.

Yes, marks, multiples even. For better information, obviously.

Sometimes we ask about wyverns or the gods, and even though such information is very valuable, we get bits of info for a few marks Lily places on whatever targets they bring. In other cases, we ask for water and other supplies, which we often share with attendees trapped in the barriers to make more progress toward the unofficial quest that’s been issued by Diligence.

Of course, our trades always end the same way.

The corporations leave. Tacita reappears from her field with more shiny loot from the ships she snuck into, and all of Lily’s healing marks get triggered by the scratches she’s caused in the process.

The 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' mentality remains as relevant as ever, and the more we use this strategy, the more proficient we become.

After about the tenth time, I begin to suspect the corporations either aren’t sharing information with each other or they actively can’t. Although Sophie brings up an even more probable reason: it’s possible that each group we meet is acting as an individual cell trying to get some stuff from attendees 'off the record,' which is why no one we meet talks about how his buds made this trade and marks mysteriously triggered.

Sometimes corpos notice the marks vanishing and return to complain, but even here, we have a plan.

Simply put, how could we help them? The trade is done. It’s their fault for not restricting their test subject, and it must have damaged itself somehow. We have warned them about how the mark triggers, and they even watched the process and confirmed the mark’s placement.

Not wanting to pick any fights, they leave because of the shadow of a certain black ant threatening corporations not to mess with the attendees.

Among the information we get is that Starless Sky was, as we already knew, one of the Godkings, the most powerful of the gods. The hierarchy generally ranks them as Godkings, gods, and then demigods.

Godkings are usually the oldest and most powerful, with Starless Sky representing the concept of a sky devoid of stars. In rumors, one of his powers makes navigation near impossible, and this is where we wind up needing to have a long conversation.

Sophie says it is because early civilizations used stars as markers to travel vast distances. Tess mostly agrees, though she thinks that it’s because if there are no stars, there isn’t any light, and without light, you can’t orient yourself.

They have a short, stubborn battle between themselves, fighting over that small distinction.

Once they are done, we theorize the extent of those powers. I suspect it might make teleportation nearly impossible, with a possible mental component that causes people to move in the wrong directions or have trouble estimating distances.

Dennis mentions it could affect time, perhaps by dilating it in some way, which causes most of us to look at him in confusion. Then he calls us all idiots, telling us that we tend to measure the passage of time by the cycles of day and night, and that without light, it might change our perceptions. He gives an example of how, when you are inside pure darkness, the passage of time is nearly impossible to estimate.

Izzy asks if it means the Godking might slow down time or our perception of it, which is where I share my experiences with thought acceleration.

Our healer wonders if no stars means no heat, likely being tied to the concept of an entirely dark, cold universe. And that mostly matches what I saw before the game ended.

Another piece of information is that the Starless Sky died in a fight against a dozen or so Rulers during the System War, as they schemed against him to claim the incredible system rewards killing him offered. In the end, his death later led to the erasure of all elves, whom he was protecting along with a few more gods.

Apparently, only the Ruler of Justice is rumored to be still alive from the group that killed him, while no longer bearing the position of a Ruler.

All this information makes my fingers tingle the more we learn.

And now we are, for the first time, meeting with the Aurate Consortium, and these people are clearly at a very different level from the previous corporations. Their ship is huge, heavily defended, and the mora woman who speaks with us is accompanied by an Adjudicator whose form is entirely hidden under a black jumpsuit.

Tacita doesn’t even try to sneak onto the ship and stands nearby, giving us a signal that it’s going to be impossible.

The mora, who introduces herself as Raga, continues in our conversation, "While I’m surprised you know that much about Starless Sky already, I have to disagree with the information you’ve mentioned and what the other corporations told you. According to our company records, Starless Sky died in battle against nine Rulers, not a dozen. He killed eight of them, and only the Ruler of Justice survived back then. The Ruler of Justice then gifted the greatest shard of the dead Godking’s Elysian Frame to Pride before disappearing from the records."

"Did he by any chance die after challenging Pride?" I ask.

"Not to my knowledge."

"Weird," I mutter.

Lily brings confused Raga’s attention back to her as she asks one of the questions we prepared in the group: "What does it mean to bear a god’s stigma?"

"I can’t reveal such information due to our company’s policies, but I believe you might find a corporation willing to shine a light on it," Raga says. "But... if Mister Nathaniel Gwyn would be willing to trade a 'black mana' orb with us, I might be able to share such information." As Raga says it, my own blank voice sneaks in to replace whatever fake name she gives "black mana."

"Kindness has black mana as well, get it on your own," I say.

"That is indeed correct, but we like to make comparisons between all persons capable of using it, and so far we have been able to gather data from over 90% of bearers that have appeared in..." Raga pauses and then smiles, "...let’s say a very long time."

"Still no."

"That is unfortunate. A mid sized vial worth of your blood?"

"No."

"One of your eyes?"

"No."

"A sample of your flesh, bone, and hair?"

"No."

“If the price is a concern, we can increase the scope of information we offer in exchange.”

"I just don’t think I should be sharing much of anything with you," I say after taking a glance at the Adjudicator.

Raga gives that typical mora smile, which feels even wilder, taking into consideration that she is twice as tall as any of us.

She gives a short bow. "In that case, I will take my leave. I thank you for a pleasant conversation, and Lady Lily’s healing mark will not be needed at this time. Please don’t feel like you owe us anything, as this was not my intention. We shall meet again soon, now then."

Raga walks up to the ramp, and the Adjudicator stays behind with her head turned toward Lily, whom she seems to have been watching the entire time. At the top, as she’s about to enter the ship, the mora turns around, narrowing her eyes in a mix of curiosity, surprise, and annoyance as she stares at the Adjudicator.

The mora hisses something, and a short pulse shoots from her, bouncing off the core embedded in the middle of Kindness’s clone.

Only then does the Adjudicator turn around and walk up and under Raga’s eyes, enter the ship, after which she follows her.

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