The cat had had enough power to restore the orc's health pool while keeping Alicia and Shen's health and energy pools spent. That was unfortunate but not terrible. The real issue would be if Shaar'Tuok had also kept its memories and knew their tactics. That's what their plan was for.

Shen realized they would have to use it almost as soon as their attack started.

When Shaar'Tuok saw Shen rushing at it, it held one shield to each of its sides then rotated. His body twisted fast, and no matter how quick Shen was or how much in sync he might be with Alicia, backstabbing the orc would be impossible.

To begin with, Alicia couldn't even accurately hit the orc's front or back while it was moving that fast. Even if she managed by luck, Shen couldn't put his spear through the opening fast enough. The most likely result would be his spear shattering.

But they had a plan, and that was all that mattered.

It started with a distraction. Shen tried to hit the orc repeatedly, only to always fail. As he had predicted, his spear even shattered once, forcing him to buy a new G-tier one.

| Purchased: Any Weapon (G) | -10 AP

| Remaining AP: 8,204

A couple minutes later, Alicia did the same as him. She threw three fireballs straight at the orc, and none ever reached inside.

They did wonders for covering the monster's line of sight though. While the explosion of the third fireball was going, Shen was already in the air. He had jumped high and was going down on the orc at high speed, his spear straight down.

A fireball was going down ahead of him. Alicia had cast it at the start of the fight, unseen by the orc—hopefully.

The fireball exploded, also hopefully opening a hole at the top of the orc's defensive bubble. It was invisible, so they couldn't be sure.

Shen let a smile when his spear went down deeper than it would if the bubble had been there.

His weapon pierced the orc's helmet on the top and penetrated the monster's flesh all the way to the middle of its chest, where it found a heart.

| Shaar'Tuok (E) | 8,204 → 8,284 AP

Shen fell to his knees on top of an empty plate armor and two shields, their former owner turning into motes of light. Alicia had also assisted with the kill, so she got 20% AP. Fair enough, he reckoned.

"Screw Achr," he whispered. This was the true power of middle bosses! And this was his power! To die needlessly was grating on him more and more!

Though Shen reckoned he had died to the Void Spawn too.

"Screw the Alliance too," he mouthed and turned to the Shuuhs.

Then he slapped himself hard.

'What am I thinking?! I died out of arrogance, and now I'm blaming others for my failure? That is not my Path.'

The Eternal Empire had literal thousands of anecdotes on powerful cultivators finding death by blaming others for their own faults. Shen had never thought he would one day have to heed their warnings—he had hoped, but not truly believed he would get healed—yet he had heard them all the same.

No, more than that, he had seen it happen.

Feng Yin had been the most beautiful girl born in their clan in the last hundreds of years and a hardworking cultivator. Everyone admired her, and Shen himself had had a crush on the girl. One day, Cai Shai, scion of the Cai Clan, Fourth Seat of the Eternal Empire, had taken a fancy to her and ignored her refusals. He was stronger, and the unpronounceable happened.

Feng Yin killed herself right after telling everyone the truth.

Shen's father killed the boy in the headquarters of the Cai Clan itself.

Cai Shai, however, had been the first—and only—born of Cai Huan, the leader of the Cai Clan. When his son was struck, he had been away. When he returned, he blamed the Feng Clan for what happened instead of his inability to raise his son honorably.

The ensuing Duel of Honor ended with Cai Huan's funeral and the Cai Clan losing their position as the Fourth Seat. They had been swiftly eaten by their enemies after that.

It was hard for Shen to stop feeling angry at Achr or the Alliance right now. The feeling had already been born. He would have to continuously work on it on the following days or even weeks.

For now though, he had monsters to kill who deserved his righteous ire.

The Shuuhs had stopped approaching midway through to Alicia and Shen. He got close to Alicia to plan.

"Something is wrong," she said before he could open his mouth.

Shen frowned. "What is it?"

"These are living beings, right? Actual living beings. That orc... he— it looked like someone who was used to fighting. It had fighting skills. Why wouldn't it think of protecting itself from attacks from above?"

"They are probably limited in more ways than just their power," Shen guessed, not finding it strange at all. "Otherwise, we couldn't deal with beings with a lot more fighting experience than us."

"That feels wrong though," Alicia replied.

Shen nodded. "In a way, it isn't much different from killing children. But they deserve it, and I'll not give them mercy because they have a handicap."

"I wouldn't say the same as killing children," Alicia said, clearly uncomfortable. "But yeah, they deserve it. What now?"

Shen looked at the nearby groups. One was fighting what looked like giant bugs as tall as three men, and the other some plant-looking tentacles. None seemed like they would approach him, and he didn't want to steal other people's prey either. He focused back on his own foes.

"How many fireballs you have left?" he asked.

"Twenty," Alicia said with evident pride.

He nodded in approval. "Good. Could you test one of them?" He pointed at the Shuuhs.

Her reply was sending a fireball toward the floating balls of glass. The fireball penetrated the glass unhindered and exploded inside.

| Shuuhs (E) — 0 / 900 | -900

All 900 health points disappeared in a flash of light, and their boss counter went down by one.

"What the fuck?" Alicia said, sounding as disappointed as Shen felt.

Shen sighed. With his improved eyesight, he could see Purrrkrrr sitting at a distance, looking at them. He doubted he could get to it though. He had no qi to resist more than one attempt to reverse his time—if that much!—and then he would be defenseless. Who knew if the cat wouldn't turn him into a puppet just like he guessed the Shuuhs were now.

At least that's what he believed Purrrkrrrr wanted him to think.

"The cat is scared," Shen said.

Alicia squinted her eyes. "What? Where?"

"Back there," he pointed. "It might be a trap, but I think it wants us to not go for it, that it's sacrificing the Shuuhs for its own safety. I believe my little trick countered it more than I thought it would. But are you willing to bet on it?"

"Really?!" She asked and looked annoyed at him. "How many times are you going to ask the same thing? Go for it. If there's even a slight chance to deliver justice to these fuckers, I'll take it."

Shen nodded. "Kill a glass ball if it looks like I'll lose or if you're in danger," he said, the rushed at the cat.

Purrrkrrr realized what was going on at once. The Shuuhs threw themselves in Shen's way, and a strange field tried to push him away, but his qi-filled body resisted it. Soon, he had gone through them and closed in on the cat.

The monster didn't try to use its time-reversal ability again. Instead, it tried to run, and it was pretty quick. Unfortunately for it, Shen was almost as fast.

His Autaur Boots would let him run at F+ speed forever. The descriptions didn't say that they also decreased how much qi he had to spend to go beyond that speed. Shen would've run out of qi without the boots before reaching the cat, but it only took him twenty minutes to accomplish his goal, thanks to them. He was more surprised at Alicia surviving that long without getting attacked than at getting to the cat.

He passed by countless battles, noticing that the groups of humans that he considered the strongest were the ones who got bosses of different races mixed up. The weaker humans all faced enemies of the same races. This test wasn't about numbers at all but about balance. The stronger who chose to care for the more vulnerable people had a much easier time.

Shen was surprised to assess that the Immortal Emperor would approve of that. A society of only the strong was fated to die out. Everyone was needed and valuable for the Eternal Empire, and it seemed the Alliance taught the same way. It was the first time he saw any indication of that, except maybe for how they had saved Earth.

When he got to the cat, it spoke for the first time. Shen didn't waste a single neuron listening to it.

Purrrkrrr reacted by attempting his time-reversal skill again. Shen resisted it and screamed in pain as his health points and qi were burned. Meanwhile, he thrust his spear against the monster.

He smiled victoriously when his enemy turned into motes of light, right before he was surrounded by light and teleported away.

Shen materialized in a beautiful bedroom. The walls were white with golden symbols that shone and gave it a lovely atmosphere. A large window let blue light come in to add to the place's mystique. The double bed had no curtains, which Shen found odd, but its dark wood and golden details were also beautiful.

His spear, backpack, and the set of plate armor the orc had worn, together with one tower shield, were at a corner. He guessed the other shield had been given to Alicia for her participation in the kill. Other than that, the place was empty.

He went to the window and looked out to see an infinite green ocean below a blue sky that seemed to be made of liquid light. His building was made of black crystal from the outside and extended as far as his eyes could see to the sides. It had five floors, and he was at the top one.

Shen then turned to walk to the dark wood door with golden details, and at last, the system told him what was going on.

Tutorial - 3rd Stage

Congratulations!

You've reached the third stage!

In the first two stages, you've felt what the Original Races felt when the Void Spawn came from nowhere. All were unprepared, but some survived with the guidance of the strong who knew better—even if the elites couldn't always give their weaker ones good explanations of how to grow more powerful. In your case, the Guardian System took the role of guidance.

(...)

Shen thought that the Alliance had done a great job keeping him going while feeling utterly lost. Since that's what they wanted, they were competent at theatrics at the very least.

He kept reading.

Tutorial - 3rd Stage

(...)

After some time, the survivors realized they needed help and put their differences aside to unite against their common foe.

The Multiverse Alliance is, as its name implies, an Alliance. We have long since learned that it's impossible to resist the Void alone.

Overconfidence kills as much as lack of preparation.

The third stage represents that slight reprieve and sound decision of uniting in this ever-going war for survival. It is about sharing experiences and making connections.

(...)

So, it was networking and politics time, two things Shen had absolutely no confidence in.

Tutorial - 3rd Stage

(...)

For one week, you can learn, rest, or talk to each other.

If you want to learn anything, ask for it, and you'll be told how much AP a class with those contents would cost. Prices will be equally split with up to ten people willing to learn the same subject if you start together. More than ten people can join the same class, but the price will be the same for each individual as a ten-people class.

You can be teleported to anyone's side by saying their name. If they are in their room, you'll be teleported outside of it instead.

No one can enter your room without your permission.

You can be teleported anywhere, except someone's room, by saying the place's name.

(...)

Shen liked the classes the most. He definitely wanted to learn some things, and the Guardian System had already proved it could give him powerful Skills. If he could get classes on his martial arts with the same level of expertise as the Skills Subsystem, he would reach new heights.

Even if he couldn't, though, just the opportunity to learn more about the Alliance was almost priceless.

It was unfortunate there was no way to gain AP though— or so he thought until he read the last part of the message.

Tutorial - 3rd Stage

(...)

There are two ways to pass this stage: find nine people willing to go to the next stage with you, or be one of the top 10% competitors in the AP Arena.

After all, even with numbers, the strong are still needed!

Enjoy!

Shen smiled.

He loved the sound of "AP Arena."