The air in the cavern was suffocatingly dense, and it was only due to the B-rank unisuit that I had created specifically for this moment that I could withstand the intense mana fluctuations.

I stood, and stared at the World Core.

It was the most beautiful thing Jarek—or Samantha—had ever seen.

It was a living jewel, a shimmering, multifaceted structure still mostly buried in C-rank minerals. It provided enough light to turn what would otherwise be a gloomy cave into a nearly psychedelic experience. One could spend days just looking at the dancing patterns, gleaning hidden truths about the universe.

The part of the World Core I had uncovered so far was the size of a modest house.

It exhaled Aether, leaking energy into the world above me.

Energy that was also feeding the Schema itself. This was how the Schema functioned, how it gained enough energy to find new worlds, and to maintain control of the ones it already had found. The Schema leeched energy from World Cores, turning what could otherwise be a stable system into an energy deficit.

Thousands of miles above me, the residents of Earth were engaged in petty squabbles. Now that the external threats had been cleared, the internal divisions grew more apparent. Spawning dungeons made land grabs common, and Europe was hotly contested.

Mira’s Faction offered huge financial loans—with strings attached—to aid in reconstruction, but Liling was hesitant to accept.

The World City’s teleporter gave humanity access to hundreds of other worlds, but it also enveloped Earth in futile struggle against various factions. As the newest member of Mira’s Faction, we were obligated to provide soldiers to defend against Human Empire invasions.

The teleporter didn’t connect to new worlds to explore, only old worlds to conquer or defend. And in the endless battle between the various factions, only the Schema came out ahead.

I had claimed a support role, so I wouldn’t have to battle on other planets. I claimed to focus on mining and progressing my Rune Master Profession.

But my true priority lay here.

It had taken years of preparation to get to this point.

At first, every weekly Acclimation, with every point placed in Luck, standing at the base of the Aether vent in Nova City.

And then, the yearly Acclimations, the adjustments as the Schema fine-tuned the Earth’s mana balance and ecosystems.

Every point placed in Luck brought me here, a single tunnel that delved all the way to the Earth’s core.

And above me was the tip of a single root. A taproot that ran thousands of miles through the Earth’s core to the base of Earth’s incarnation of Yggdrasil, the World Tree.

Normally, an Aether Vent would be conspicuous due to the vast amounts of Aether and Mana that get released into the atmosphere. But in this case, the World Tree absorbed the vast majority of the energy from the Aether Vent.

If I had decided to instead uproot the World Tree, and monetize my Aether vent, then by now—after just a few years of accumulation—I would have enough money to buy an E-rank planet.

I waited. As the root grew closer, the Aether density lessened, and the pressure on my suit grew more manageable.

The root grew about a foot per second, and I watched. And waited.

It touched the World Core lightly, and then seemed to thicken. Rather than grow longer, it grew thicker.

I watched, and waited.

The root branched out, digging into the C-rank metals around the World Core for purchase.

And then, with inexorable pressure, it pierced the World Core.

I placed my hand on Yggdrasil’s root, placed a few hundred mana into Mental Power, and wished.

I pictured a world where the Schema had never reached.

A world with magic but no levels, or status windows. A world of true magitech, with nuclear weapons that could destroy planets, and space ships that can travel through the void.

I pictured the city of Esther, with skyscrapers that pierced the clouds, the home of millions of Schema fugitives.

I pictured the world that housed powerhouses that even the Schema feared.

Take me to Excelsian.