Chapter 41

Only one person in the Innate Dimension had the necessary skillset to stimulate a person’s nerves – Ersa, an older woman with an innate gift related to muscles. She spent the first half of her life working as a masseuse when she came up with a technique that combined her innate gift with a lightning skill.

The military was always on the lookout for special individuals, so when they learned someone could easily raise a person’s control over their body, they reached out and paid a vast sum for the exclusive right to their services. Forty years have passed since then, yet the number of people lining up for the procedure was longer than ever.

When Markus slipped Keith into Ersa’s busy schedule, Keith underwent two hours of electrifying therapy a day. While painful, the results spoke for themselves. After each appointment, Keith found that his control over his body skyrocketed. It was almost at the level of controlling each muscle fiber individually.

Over the following two weeks, Keith found everything to be less strenuous. From simple day-to-day actions to working out, it all took less effort. Most noticeably, when Keith trained in his Void Shadowstep skill, he found that he made a lot of unnecessary actions. By cutting back on wasteful moves, the skill gained level after level and eventually passed level 300, allowing Keith to phase through physical as well as magical attacks.

Filled with more motivation than ever, Keith decided to go all-in and learned the over two hundred skills he previously used with his orbs. Honestly, trying to level so many skills at once was too inefficient, so Keith selected a few core skills to focus on.

After numerous considerations, he decided on Mana Bolt, Mana Shield, Chain Lightning, Yggdrasil’s Grasp, and Wraith’s Cry. Unfortunately, Yggdrasil’s Grasp and Wraith’s Cry took all of Keith’s Mana to cast a single time. He wouldn’t dare to level such costly skills if he couldn’t draw Mana from his Grimoire.

Now that Keith couldn’t overwhelm level 300 monsters by spamming skills from countless orbs, he needed to fight lower level monsters to raise his skill levels to increase their damage.

With all of this together, Keith’s schedule looked like this: one hour of working out, two hours of therapy, and eight hours of fighting monsters. At the same time, he’d harvest the Bramblethorne from his farm every three days and sell them to Mr. Ivory for 75,000 gold a batch. After deducting the cost to purchase more seeds, Keith gained around 50,000 gold every three days. Together with Adeiv’s checks, that amounted to almost 1 million gold a month.

When Keith finished Ersa’s therapy, Markus gave Keith 5 million gold without batting an eye. Following that, Keith took on one mission after another, living his life to its fullest. He got beat up by a martial arts instructor, went through boot camp, learned alchemy under his grandfather, and did various other missions.

With such a busy lifestyle, the weeks flew by, and three years passed in the blink of an eye.

****

Deep in a restricted area within Fort Hellsing, Yara sat before a command table filled with documents. To her left and right sat various high-ranking officials like Frod and the other leaders of the four families. Contrary to public belief, the first leaders of the four families never passed away and instead have been guiding their descendants from the shadows.

At this moment, Yara finished flipping through a report detailing the strength of their current forces and gave a satisfied nod to General Rodney. “100,000 have reached level 500, impressive.”

Due to the limitations of the Innate Dimension, the number of monsters near level 500 was minuscule, making it hard for people to go beyond level 480. In the Grandsky Realm, people at level 500 were a dime in a dozen and weren’t anything special, so at first glance, the combat force Yara had cultivated wasn’t anything much – but there was a key difference. All 100,000 people at level 500 were geniuses who created their own skills, elites among elites. After pouring endless resources into them, they were the best the Innate Dimension could offer. Their talent was comparable to people level 700+ in the Grandsky Realm. So long as they could survive, they would become a commendable force.

Yara turned to General Catherine with a furrowed brow. “Has Zeidrick’s skill level reached level 700?”

Before succumbing to Sloth’s curse, Yara’s main body handed Yara a few items from the Grandsky Realm. The most important was a type of item called an inheritance containing a set of crafting skills at the transcendent grade.

In the Grandsky Realm, there were four grades above Mythic: Ancient, Divine, Celestial, and Transcendent. Unlike how common Mythic items were in the Innate Dimension, Transcendent items were incredibly rare. Only a peak force like Yara’s now destroyed sect could get their hands on a few Transcendent items.

General Catherine, a heroic young woman with sword-like eyebrows, shook her head. “He said it's impossible without better materials.”

“Very well,” Yara sighed. “I was hoping he could forge Ancient grade equipment for us once the gateway opens, but it seems like I was too hopeful. How close is he?”

“Just over 690,” General Catherine replied.

Yara was relieved. “That’s not too bad. With Zeidrick’s talent, it’ll take a week or two at most to reach level 700 once we get him what he needs.”

A high-ranking official commented, “I’m a little jealous that brat gets to level his skills past 500, unlike the rest of us. My skills have been stuck at level 500 for decades now.”

The official’s remark resonated with everyone in the room. Yara’s tales of the Grandsky Realm left them eager to explore such a vast land, so all of them had been waiting expectantly for the gateway to open. They didn’t find it fair that the Innate Dimensions put shackles on them.

Yara looked over to a middle-aged man wearing a pair of boxers covered by a bathrobe. Sporting messy hair and an unshaven beard, he looked like someone experiencing a hangover. Since the meeting began, he never looked away from an empty spot on the wall, nor did he blink. This strange man’s name was Frisk – the head scientist of the military and the smartest person in the Innate Dimension.

Frisk’s innate gift allowed him to simulate anything as long as he had the corresponding knowledge. The more knowledge Frisk accrued, the more he could simulate. For a scientist, that was the best tool they could ask for. While other scientists needed a large budget to create experiments, all he needed was to activate his innate gift and input the necessary parameters to see whether his theory was correct.

Frisk was the main reason his civilization was so technologically advanced, with the magic tablet, magic network, and mana reactor being just a few of his many inventions. That was why Yara and the other officials didn’t say anything about his attire during this important meeting. Shaking her head, Yara asked, “Frisk, how are things on your end?”

Startled from being called, Frisk turned to Yara and blinked for the first time in over an hour. “Uh, pretty good, I guess.”

“And specifically?” Yara asked patiently.

Frisk shrugged. “The parts to assemble 500 modified magic hub towers are all ready to go, as you requested. It took me working around the clock to make them in time, so a raise would be nice.”

Magic hub towers were relay stations that broadcasted and received certain signals within range and were the foundation behind the magic network. According to Yara’s grand plan, Frisk modified 500 towers from a helpful tool for society to a tool for war.

“Splendid. You did well.” Yara gave a warm smile and tactfully ignored his last comment.

Frisk raised a hand. “Then can I go now?”

“Fine. I bet you weren’t listening anyway,” Yara remarked in annoyance.

“Haha, you’re so wise!” Frisk stood up, spread his bathrobe, and gave a deep bow to the room before taking his leave. The high-ranking officials smiled helplessly before continuing with the meeting.

Several hours later, Yara returned to her abode and collapsed onto her bed, overcome with exhaustion and anxiety. Her heart paced rapidly in her chest as she started to hyperventilate. Alarmed, Yara sat up and dived into karma, following threads and searching for answers. What she found soothed her nerves. The future was promising.