Viers shed the persona he wore all day and became simply himself when he was in private. As smooth as changing gloves.

The sun had fallen and night loomed. When it was possible, Viers preferred to separate training, socializing, and the like during the day.

Villains, him included, had unexplainable harmony with shadows and nights.

After dark was the time to improve his ‘unvirtuous powers’, so to speak, since he obtained those not by heroic means.

Improving his power, plotting his next move, perfecting his dark magic, experimenting on souls of the fallen, weaving intricate vile intrigues… Like a sword, all these villainous qualities needed to be tempered before he could use them as a sharp edge against his enemies.

In this fantasy world he found himself in, gaining new power to cut his enemies down was one of his raisons d'être. Actually, without power he might as well be dead. He knew there already were people hunting him. If his power wasn't up to par when he encountered them… it might be his turn to be beheaded.

I’ve fulfilled the requirement to advance to Level 2. My everyday training paid off.

When Viers returned to the sanctuary of his rented inn room, he put Clarissa’s call on queue and focused on raising his Level base first.

As an avid gamer, Viers held raw levels very highly. In an RPG, a character’s level represented one’s strength in plain numbers. As his level rose in the game, he could defeat enemies that he formerly had trouble with. Viers carried the same logic during his reincarnation here.

He understood perfectly this wasn't a game and yet he couldn't deny that he approached problems with a gamer’s mind. He much preferred grinding for levels first before fighting a tough boss.

One of the reasons he didn't really like MMORPG was the level cap. Whatever the game’s storyline was, the char didn't really get stronger anymore. The end game content usually consisted of raids, veteran dungeons, PvP, faction wars, etc… all for better gears.

As if human potential has limits.

Needless to say, Viers understood why level caps exist in MMOs. Without it the game’s balance would be out of control. Viers knew many people enjoyed gaming together with each other and a healthy game environment was a necessity for that. Viers didn't blame them, as they couldn't blame Viers for having his own opinion.

For example, the world isn't fair or balanced like a carefully crafted MMO world.

His own existence was the very definition of unfairness. When was there a case where a reincarnator’s isekai life was fair? He didn't find a single story about such things.

No system boundary to restrict or limit him and so Viers fully intended to exploit the Hell out of it. He couldn't care less about naysayers. He had his own way of doing things.

Level, Level, Level.

After almost a year living in this new world, Viers comprehended that Pathseeker’s Level was the same as xianxia’s major cultivation realm. It didn't have fancy names like Body Forging stage, or Qi Creation stage, or Spirit Severing stage. However, every Level’s rank was no less powerful.

Unless the practitioner was special, Level 1 couldn't defeat Level 2 and Level 4 couldn't defeat Level 5.

Unlike in the games where a level 60 could defeat a level 65, a Pathseeker’s Level represented a massive disparity of power. Viers knew full well that if he challenged a Level 2 in a straight fight, the other side would wipe the floor with him, despite all of his reincarnation advantages.

But Viers wasn't one for playing it fair, and he had no interest in fighting someone who was obviously stronger than him. He wasn't a battle junkie and there were many ways to skin a cat.

From Level 0 to Level 5, that was the limit of mortals. Viers knew about Level 6 and beyond but it's too far and out of reach for the current him so reaching Level 5 was his current goal. One step at a time.

Level 2, here I come!

Viers began his Advancement, the process of breaking through to the next Level.

Every Pathseeker started at Level 0. They absorbed external mana and bit by bit infused their Intio with it. The lower quantity and quality of the mana, the longer this process became. After reaching the threshold and breaking through the limit, Pathseekers then rose in Level.

Viers gathered the mana from all around him and forcefully infused it into his Intio. Since the Intio was already at the limit of a Level 1, it didn’t absorb any more mana. The situation was akin to a bucket that had been filled to the brim, pouring more water into it was useless. However, the bucket could be made bigger… by forcefully making it hold more water than possible.

That was Advancement, filling one’s Intio with mana and trying your best to keep the mana inside the Intio for a certain amount of time.

“…Mhhrg,” Viers grunted.

His first effort failed, mana leaked out from his Intio. He’d failed to make a breakthrough.

Oh well, time to try again, Viers began his second try.

He had experienced this ordeal before, when he transitioned from Level 0 to Level 1. It took him twentysix times before the Advancement succeeded. Viers already prepared his heart for tens of failures.

***

Floating in a black space, there was an object glowing. Viers was looking at this object with tired yet excited eyes.

The object was an octahedron object the size of a basketball. Like two glass pyramids glued together at their flat side. It was pulsating with power, power that he formerly didn’t have.

This was his Intio.

…Not much difference, except that. Viers observed his Level 2 Intio.

Inside the glass-like object, there was a flower. The flower resembled a White Camellia, its center emitted a faint golden glow. After his rise to Level 2, the flower became more vibrant.

This flower was very mysterious, it saved his life once. Viers didn’t know much about it, only that his healing factor came from the flower. When Viers got stabbed in the heart by Demetrus, the reason he didn’t die on the spot was because his healing factor was working in overdrive. It also burned a massive amount of Victa but it was a cheap price to pay for canceling one’s death.

After his fight with Demetrus, Viers fought Wollter and the Cockatrice. The consecutive battles drained his Victa reserves thus Viers decided to stay in Mokash town for a week while waiting for his Victa to refill.

Nothing I can do about it but wait and see, Viers eyed the flower. Still, only eighteen times for Advancement this time? Far better than my estimate… Serpentes Renovamen is really great.

After a few hours of struggling Viers had succeeded and opened his eyes as a Level 2 Pathseeker. He felt powerful, power welled up inside him. He used a bit of his Victa and the difference was obvious. The potency of it increased significantly.

Let's test my current spec.

From his Intio space in his realm of consciousness, Viers went to his personal underworld-themed prison, there was no lack of test subjects here.

“Hello, hello, miss me?”

The soul of Tarakai, the lowlife that wanted to kill him using poisoned soup was in Viers’ grasp. The soul had the form of a white-blue ball of fire with his human face inside it. Tarakai’s face shuddered and seemed to be pleading something.

“Sorry mate, can’t hear you. Your sacrifice -however unwilling- for the improvement of science has been noted.”

Viers started rummaging Tarakai’s memories. The subject’s soul tried to run away so Viers clenched it a little tighter.

Fascinating, he could not do that before. Oops, focus, focus…

There was a faint resistance but Viers forced his way in, like breaking a flimsy wooden door with a sledgehammer. Viers saw visions and heard sounds, memories of Tarakai.

“Oh wow! This is so much easier than before. Nice! Hmn… mhm… ooh, so that’s what would have happened if I ate your poisoned food. Damn, your second victim didn’t have it easy. What’s this… assassin’s guild entrance exam, pshh! What happened to ‘stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent’ hmm? Killing five people on the same Level as you… Well, your luck ran out mate, you met me. Shame, poison affinity huh? Who knew a small fry like you could have such a rare affinity.”

Let’s move to subject number 2.

Viers tossed Tarakai’s soul aside and grabbed another one.

“Demetrus! How are you, old buddy? Dead, I hope? Smashing! Lesse, lesse… Yep, like watching Y-tube with a laggy internet but it’s still somewhat doable… So you were in the middle of a job when you encountered me, eh? The target was… a businessman? That guy owes me his life then, since I automatically saved him by killing you… Oh, you’re married? Daaamn, you slept with your friend’s wife? Poor frieney~”

It’s harder than when it was with Tarakai. In the future I should dig deeper about this assassin's guild. His invisibility Arte seems to originate from the assassins… Onward to test subject number 3!

“Wollter! You have no idea how happy the town folks were when they heard you are dead… did you say something? Ah, you must be threatening me, yes? Ajoss… Ajoss… so that’s the guy, I’m gonna be honest with you man, his face kinda scares me. Good thing I don’t plan on meeting him, ever. Now this is interesting, password to your secret bank account! Ooo, so much!? Not even Ajoss knew, eh? Naughty boyyy, skimming funds before you send them upstairs huh? Mine now. Gwehehe! You shouldn’t have man, shouldn’t have… Ew! I don’t wanna see you naked. Now it’s in my brain! Not cool dude! Not cool… Hmm, you really were after Lena… burning her village’s warehouse? That’s low… You didn’t even love her. You just want to use her then toss her aside. God, what a prick you are.”

Three test cases. Tarakai was a Level 0 while Demetrus and Wollter were Level 1. Now that Viers had become a Level 2, he had an easier time using soul search on them.

The easiest was on Tarakai, Level does matter I suppose. The soul search training started to bear fruit. Also, I now have an idea about how to use souls in a suitable way for me. Hehehe, It’s gonna be glorious.

Tarakai, Demetrus, and Wollter certainly were not the only souls in his possession. He had about fifty of them, not counting the girls in the flower garden.

“Pheew, okay guys, that's it for today. I’ve got a date with a cute lamia princess. Adios, dead losers.”

Viers left, feeling no guilt or remorse. His next power-up was waiting.