The Gamer's POV

The Present...

——

"Before you do what you have to do, I have something for you." Clara smiled brightly.

Cedric, who had taken off his mask and let it vanish, arched a questioning brow.

"Guess what...?" Clara stepped closer to him, dipping her hand into her satchel without even giving him a chance to guess. With care, she took out her Mana Vision Box, cradling it in both hands as she stared down at it for a few seconds.

"I finished it." Her expression dimmed as she looked up at him.

Then, to his surprise, she reached out and offered him the device.

"...?"

He was startled, but Clara took his hand, placing the box gently in his palm.

"I want you to have it."

Cedric didn’t retort, though he hesitated for a moment before taking it. Keeping his eyes on the device, he asked, "Why are you giving me this? You seemed to like this particular work."

She beamed. "Isn’t it obvious? It’s the work I love the most! So I want it to be with you. Promise you’ll take care of it?"

Then, as if remembering something, she perked up and dipped her hand into her bag again.

"Oh, here!" She pulled out a small piece of folded paper. "Here’s the manual. It’s quite easy to use, so you won’t have any trouble figuring it out."

Cedric exhaled as he took the paper. A few seconds later, both the device and the manual slowly vanished from his palm into his inventory.

"Thank you, Clara. I’ll make good use of it."

She smiled softly, and her eyes glinted with unshed tears.

Then, she took a breath and nodded.

"I’m ready!"

’I can tell you are lying...’ Cedric nodded stiffly.

He turned to see a lean man with a walking stick not too far behind her.

The man, who had always had tired eyes, also gave a small nod.

At that moment, hundreds of feathers appeared around them, turning into ravens that began to orbit them in a dense circle, forming a black curtain to hide the two of them within.

Cedric stepped forward, cradled her head, and brought her against his chest. "Goodbye, Clara."

Clara, who had been stunned for a second, relaxed and closed her eyes as she embraced him.

In that quiet moment, she breathed her last in his cold embrace.

Her skin suddenly began to turn to ash, and fine cracks raced across her entire body. The grey embers then began to disperse into the swirling air until the only things left of Clara were her clothes.

Even Barnaby had vanished into the wind.

Cedric stared down at his empty hands for a few seconds before muttering quietly, "On my authority, I swear your next life shall be a peaceful one, filled with the things you loved."

He sighed, stepped forward, and crouched down. Reaching over, he picked up the golden necklace she had left behind.

While he was studying it, his form had already begun to disperse, joining the feathers that were now falling to the ground.

***

Sometime later, Cedric sat on the highest ledge of the cathedral, waiting for this Triad Game to come to an end.

As he waited, he studied his profile:

~~~~~~~~ Character Profile ~~~~~~~~

Character Name: [Cedric Mortimer]

Age: [18]

Level: [25]

Grade: [3]

Element: [Darkness]

Exclusive Class: [Gamer]

Exclusive Class Attributes: [Gamer Privileges]

Bond Name: [Aika Soryu]

Bonded Ability: [Chrysalis]

Exclusive Skill: [Flames of decay - Lv10], [One with the Ravens - Lv10], [Ten Kleshas and Kushalas of Karma - Lv3]

EXP: [2,650 / 10,000]

Karma points: [N5000 / P650]

~~~~~~ ============== ~~~~~~

’It seems I don’t gain anything from the death of my subject of influence. If anything, I feel like I’ve lost,’ he thought.

After killing Clara, he had gained nothing... not even Experience Points. Regardless, he wasn’t bothered by it. Instead, her death had left a bitter taste in his mouth.

He sighed, absentmindedly stroking the square vision box in his hand.

After a few seconds, he set his emotions aside to study his gains.

’Aika gained about 5,000 EXP after killing that demon-looking creature earlier, which brought my total up to roughly eight thousand something.’

It was a solid gain, but he was not satisfied with that. Rather than settling at the peak of level twenty four, he decided that he needed to at least move up to level twenty five.

So, after the ordeal with Clara, he had gone to hunt a few more creatures until he finally crossed that threshold.

He would have continued the hunt to gain even more, but he was running dangerously low on both mana and essence. He was also completely exhausted, both physically and mentally, so he figured it was time to stop and rest.

Besides, he was feeling quite good about himself. He had accomplished a massive amount in the span of just twenty-four hours, so stopping here was fine.

...Cedric smiled.

There was another reason he was feeling incredibly satisfied, and that was the fact that his third exclusive skill had leveled up!

He could now summon another of his creatures.

’It happened earlier than I had expected, which is a welcome surprise. I’ve already decided who to summon for the second ring,’ he nodded to himself.

After a moment, he stored the Vision Box into his inventory and took out a round whisper-globe.

Cedric had long suspected that this whisper-globe, given by the moderators of the Triad Game, was used to record the conversations of the Cadets up here. It was also used to broadcast a cadet’s location to their opponent after they had claimed a relic.

So, Cedric had made sure to toss the annoying thing into his inventory the moment he got up here.

There were also a few round magi-tech devices floating around, used to monitor the battlefield from above. Cedric didn’t have any problems with those. He had plenty of ways to avoid them if he wanted to.

Setting that aside, he looked down at the whisper-globe and channeled a bit of mana into it to activate the device.

After fiddling with it for a moment, a screen displaying the timer popped up.

[00:30:34]

’Hm...’

At that moment, the golden necklace appeared in his free hand. He twirled it casually around his finger and muttered, "I hope there won’t be anyone who comes to challenge me for it."

Not long after he spoke, Arlo, the bird sitting beside him, chirped, "Of course. Worry not. There is no one here who would be brazen enough to come get it from you. You are the Lord of Decay!"

Cedric chuckled as he leaned back against the stone spire of the cathedral.

Time passed in silence, and indeed, no one approached him until the timer eventually ran out.

At that moment, dozens of blue runes erupted from the whisper-globe, swirling around Cedric in a dizzying column of light. A split second later, the magic collapsed inward, and Cedric vanished, returning to the noisy arena.

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