After cuddling for a while, Lily said, “Right, aren’t you forgetting something? You need to check your status, remember? All that fuss about increasing your mana circuits, and you forgot to check the most important thing.”

“That’s not the most important thing to me, alright?” Claud replied. “But you’re right. I forgot.”

“Oh, you…” Lily patted his back. “Go on! I’ll amuse myself by watching your expressions, so don’t worry about me at all. Also, I should pick up painting or something. It’ll be nice to see your expressions change when you look at your status.”

“Painting, huh?” Claud nodded. “Sounds fun. Maybe I’ll do the same or something…anyway, time to get down to business. Status.”

[Name: Claud Primus

Class: Omen

Lifespan: 639 years

Active Skills: Presence Nullification (9), Flight (5), Binding Order (7), Cleanse (6), FiBoD;O??? (0), FiBoD;O??? (0)

Passive Skills: DiL???C, Mana Locus, Omen, Understanding, Master of Permanence

Mana Circuit Superimposition: 4.00

Mana Control Proficiency: Master

Authority: 4

Comments: Having cast off your second shackle, Omen, you are now on the river of understanding. Your actions and intentions will light the way ahead, but where will you stop? Not even the Axiom can see where it ends, but we will laud your awakening.]

Claud looked at the comments in his status, and then narrowed his eyes. There were a lot of things to be surprised about, to be honest, but the most surprising thing of all was the comments in his status. He hadn’t thought about it that much during the Second Tutorial, but his status back then had quite the comment too.

Axiom. What exactly was the Axiom?

“Hmm…” Claud puffed up his cheeks and decided to not dwell too much on that statement. It wasn’t an…omen; it was simply a statement about how some super entity had its eyes on him, but again, there were a bit too many coincidences that were falling into place for him nicely. Whether this Axiom was responsible for them or not, Claud didn’t know, but he got the feeling that by showing him that particular future in his Second Tutorial, he had averted it.

“Something wrong?” Lily asked. “You look worried.”

“…I suppose I can’t really hide it, huh? The comments in my status have gotten quite scary recently,” Claud replied. “Do you know what the Axiom is?”

“The fact that you can ask me probably means it’s something the Coloured Gods, the Moons and the Dark aren’t thinking too hard about,” Lily replied. “But I don’t know what the Axiom is, although I’m sure I can tell you the dictionary definition.”

“So no luck, then…”

“Did you know that your disappointed face is quite adorable?” Lily asked. “I rarely get to see that side of you, since you’re usually quite upbeat.”

“Please don’t get any ideas, okay?” Claud wiped off a beat of imaginary sweat. “I’m going back to reading my status…I did tell you about the passive skill Understanding, right?”

“Yeap, yeap. Go on!”

[Skill: Absolute One (Order)]

[Skill effects: Grants immunity to all injury and abnormal effects for ten seconds. User gains access to an endless source of condensed mana at the same time.

Order bonus: Mana Control Proficiency is raised by two ranks for thirty minutes. This increase can transcend all limits. When used with any other skill, that skill’s duration increases to seven days and has boosted effectiveness.

Evolution requirements: Acquire 4 Fragments of Fate.]

[Skill: Mana Locus

Skill effects: Duration to regenerate one mana circuit cut down to thirty minutes. You can now detect sources of mana and prana within a kilometre around you.]

[Skill: Mastery of Permanence

Skill effects: Your resistance to incoming attacks and other forms of corrosion increases.]

“Hmm. Quite the gain, I suppose.” Claud looked at the three descriptions in his interface and nodded. His Absolute One now had a secondary element to it; it would raise his already monstrous Mana Control Proficiency to whatever came after Master for thirty minutes, rather than just being a ten-second wonder. It also augmented the next skill used after it, lengthening its duration to an absurd level…but it was completely useless.

Why would he want to expose his current location just to improve a skill’s duration to seven days?

His Mana Locus had turned into a detection skill for some really odd reason, but fortunately, he had actually prepared for it in the Second Tutorial. Ever since he noticed his ability to take in details of the entire city, Claud had trained his ability to use his Energy Universe skill — which he had back then as the Frozen Emperor — as much as possible, which was why he wasn’t rolling on the floor.

His only complaint was for his Mastery of Permanence, which didn’t really make sense to him. Passive skills were generally acquired after doing certain repetitive actions or after an intense stimulus, but he hadn’t taken damage or anything at all for quite some time.

“Why did I even get such a skill?” Claud muttered. “Lily, do I look like the guy who actually gets injured or attacked?”

“Nope.”

“Exactly! So why did I get such a skill?” Claud poked his skin. “Still, doesn’t feel like there’s any change.”

“If there were, I would have noticed,” Lily replied, a hint of pride in her words. “I mean, I poke your cheeks all the time…maybe that’s what made your complexion better.”

“It works that way?” Claud touched his cheek, which indeed felt a bit more supple. “True, my cheeks do feel softer. Like a baby’s, I suppose. Remember the little Dark babies? Yeah…”

Claud delved into the conversation over the possibility of softening one’s skin at length for a few minutes with Lily, before returning to the issue of his status. Lily was pleasantly surprised to learn that his ultimate skill had been upgraded, and then completely stupefied when he told her that his Mana Control Proficiency was at Master-rank now.

“Isn’t that supposedly the limit?” Lily asked. “How is your ultimate skill” —neither of them had spoken out the name of his Absolute skill, although Lily already knew about its existence long ago— “supposed to enhance your Mana Control Proficiency further?”

“Master isn’t the limit,” Claud replied. “Back during the Second Tutorial, when I was the Frozen Emperor with his ridiculous strength, my Mana Control Proficiency was at Transcendent. The control I had over my mana was even better than the control over my own body.”

“Really?” Lily’s eyes went round.

“Really, really. I even took the chance to practice it too. I think with some luck, I might be able to increase my Mana Control Proficiency to whatever lies beyond Master soon enough,” Claud replied. “It’ll probably need some stimulation, though. Maybe I should try my luck at fighting a penta-folder…I’m just kidding.”

He let out a breath. “Well, at least I’m in the upper classes of strength now.”

“That’s really a cause for celebration.” Lily let out a sigh. “I wish I can advance as quickly as you, thought. Maybe this Axiom thing really is watching over you and helping you. I don’t think there are that many people who manage to become a tetra-folder in a year.”

“Not even Nero, I think.” Claud laughed. “I can rub this into his face the next time we meet.”

“The next time we meet them, huh?” Lily’s face flickered. “Claud, be careful. If even small parts of the Second Tutorial turn out to be true, then you’ll definitely meet danger in the Trial of Aeons. Maybe you can’t even avoid participating in the Trial of Aeons to begin with, and that participation will lead to all kinds of danger for you.”

Claud nodded. “Once it gets closer, I think we’ll hunker down or something. In the end, I still didn’t grasp the events that led to…the disaster. I’ll have to prepare lots of artefacts for you, far more. I’ll also need to research how the Coloured Gods killed the Six Gods of Virtue without being a god at that time, and then—”

“Calm down.” Lily touched his shoulder. “There’s no rush. We just need to be more careful and more prepared. That’s all. You don’t need to be too scared. That might end up affecting you too.”

“The pupil has surpassed the master, I suppose.” Claud smiled. “Thanks, Lily. You’re right. I’m going to deal with this in a composed manner. Haste makes waste, after all.”

Lily beamed, and then adjusted his sleepwear. “Shall we go back to bed then? We’ve been up for quite some time, and I’m a bit tired.”

With a jolt, Claud realised that she had been watching over him earlier, and then made an apologetic smile. There were so many things he wanted to thank her for, but all of these reasons seemed to melt away as Lily snuggled up to him, before falling asleep a few seconds later.

Looking at her fatigued, yet happy face, Claud murmured a word of thanks and patted her gently, willing her to fall into a state of deep sleep. Only when her breathing stabilised did he relax and close his eyes.

No matter what came next, he would be prepared for it. That was the least he should do, now that he was aware of such a possible future…especially since he didn’t know if it was just an imagined one.

After all, everything had seemed too real.