Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto stretched out on a silk-covered divan on a white sandy beach in the Fifth Realm, looking through a mirror of water at her followers. Unlike Susanoo, she had never had a chance to mark any of her people before the Sublimation. When her patron, Amaterasu, was killed, she was given to the victor – the System – to use as it willed. The result was she didn’t get to go around picking interesting people and creatures to watch after the Sublimation, and she ended up being nothing more than a glorified office worker doing paperwork for the System’s heavenly bureaucracy… which had literally millions of deities doing the same work every part of the day.

Thankfully, her scheme to get back at Susanoo for his taunting had worked, so she now had some vacation time, as well as a few hours every day free to use as she wanted. Her fellows in the neighboring cubicles were extremely envious, needless to say.

Her followers were mostly gone now, to her sorrow. The Sublimation had been kinder to Japan’s people than it was to most Earthlings, but that was because such a large portion of the population had at least some Tier 2 or Tier 3 bloodlines hidden in their ancestral pasts. She had been particularly unfortunate, as less than a thousand of her followers remained alive, most of them in Akibahara. Her shrines had been overwhelmed early on, failing to serve as refuges as the ones of those gods who had maintained their freedom had. That had led to those that survived abandoning their faith in her, weakening her further.

Thankfully, her levels were locked in, as the System had picked her minimum power levels upon Sublimation. The loss of followers decreased her MP regeneration and reduced her xp gain, but she would never fall below her current level, as long as she didn’t do anything truly foolish.

However, Uzume was one of the kinder deities from her pantheon. It pained her to watch her followers suffer, so she was hurriedly investing those that had survived with what remained of her divine essence. It cost her levels and massive amounts of her MP, but the skills and spells she was arranging to fall into their hands would hopefully keep them alive.

She had another window open, watching Tsukuyomi’s favorite pet. That it had linked up with that infuriating murderer had startled her, but it made sense given the man’s talent for survival. Tsukuyomi’s blessings had granted the rabbit an insane amount of Luck and a natural tendency to increase it. Up to now, its antics had served as a comedic background to an otherwise despair-inducing situation.

However, Luck was not a stat that was always positive… at least in the short term. Most mortals in the Patchwork System believed luck to bring about purely positive experiences, but the fact was that those with high Luck inevitably had the wildest rides and troubled lives. They were unlikely to truly suffer and die of mishap, but in exchange, they inevitably encountered the most unlikely of situations.

Which was why the bunny was so amusing.

On second thought, she was happy to anticipate the horrors Lyam was likely to experience in the future, now that he was attached at the hip to that rabbit. He would probably only experience the quiet life when he had the power to make most of the System’s tribulations meaningless… and even Uzume and Susanoo didn’t have that kind of power.

Her personal paperwork fairy, Lia, appeared out of a dimensional gateway beside her head, “Boss, it is time to get back to work. Susanoo has been slacking, so the client list is starting to back up.”

With a sigh, Uzume rose to her feet, the divan vanishing into spirit energy which flowed back into her body. The diaphanous silk scarves covering her body were instantly exchanged for her black pants suit with its crimson tie. She had done what she could for her followers for now. Until she had built up more divine essence, she could do no more.

“Sorry for fobbing things off on you so much, Lia,” Uzume said apologetically.

The ancient Fae that looked like a little girl with wings shrugged, “Hey, at least you don’t eat me like Mab used to. If I wasn’t a true immortal, I’d be dead a hundred thousand times over from my time in the Winter Court on Earth.”

“Is paperwork better than that?” She asked curiously.

The Fae developed a far-away look in her suddenly glazed eyes, “I keep telling myself it is. Who knows?”

Uzume winced and wondered if that would be her in a few more centuries.

____________________________________________________________

The System was full of joy. The current crop of ‘specials’ was turning out far better than it could have ever anticipated. While a far larger percentage of Earth’s population had perished in the last few months than was normal for a Sublimation, those that had survived were already on par with or approaching the average of the First Realm.

Hundreds of new Classes, thousands of new abilities and techniques, and even a few dozen completely new spells and perks had been given to it by its ‘specials’. A few of those born in its world were already accessing some of the newly-created Classes, and the growth that resulted pleased the System greatly.

It was somewhat annoyed that its newest Pinnacle Beast special had managed to avoid being transcended, but the soul bond with another special looked to have potential to provide even more of what the System desired in the future. The System was patient, so it could wait until the beast’s master reached the Pinnacle of the First Realm as well. The new race the beast had added to the System as a result of the bond also gave it food for thought.

While many beasts could take on humanoid forms at higher levels, as their intellect grew and their species evolved, few managed to actually transform into a new race with a completely different genetic code. While the resulting transformation was one tier lower than its beast form, the System anticipated repeated evolutions before it once again reached the Pinnacle.

So, the System being the System, it began preparing to accelerate matters… after all, it hadn’t properly tested the mortals in that region in centuries. They could do with a bit of tempering.

___________________________________________________________

Urgo greeted Lyam upon his exit from the teleportation circle personally. The exit for the Challenge Dungeon was deep beneath the headquarters of the Adventurers Association in a room that was normally kept locked. Access to the dungeon was normally a reward for great service to the Association, and so he normally kept all teleportations to and from that particular dungeon to this room.

“Well, you certainly got my attention. I guess Laevarian was right about you,” He said right away, deciding to be open about his relationship with the elf. He was pretty sure Lyam had guessed that the Challenge Dungeon wasn’t the normal test for applicants to the Association, anyway.

“I am guessing that Laevarian already made his escape?” Lyam asked, a wry smile twisting his features. It was somehow fitting that the elf would have taken to his heels while Lyam was trapped in the dungeon he sent him to.

“Yes, he is gone already,” The big orc admitted.

“Well, I did impose on him a lot on the trip here,” Lyam muttered in resignation, ignoring the bunny-girl clinging to his side.

“Well, getting sent to the Challenge Dungeon works out to your advantage, though. Getting through the first level alive is one of the potential tests for iron rank, so I’m going to go ahead and give it to you,” Urgo said, tossing Lyam a card made of iron with his name and Class inscribed into its surface.

“That card is your identification. Spill your blood on it before you leave the building, so it binds to you. It will automatically upgrade when you pass the tests for higher ranks, though you will not be eligible for a promotion for another year, given your initial rank,” Urgo explained.

“Does it have any other functions?” Lyam asked curiously.

“It records all of your jobs and inserting it into a mission console will give you access to the jobs fit for your rank. The front desk will accept all those Ragar materials you got, since there are ongoing iron-rank missions for most of the stuff they drop,” The orc said the last as more of an afterthought than anything else.

“Thank you, then… and do I need to do anything special for… her?” Lyam gestured at the rabbit girl, who had at some point fallen asleep draped over his shoulders. She hardly weighed anything, so it was only noticeable by the high body heat she gave off.

Urgo had to stop himself from laughing outright, “Familiars fall under the ‘soul-bound equipment’ regulations. You are responsible for any curses, blessings, or trouble they cause. Other than that? There should not be any problems.”

“Anything else I should know?” At this point, Lyam decided to just set aside Laevarian’s actions. Compared to the effort it took to keep the bond with the bunny girl from overwhelming his personality, forgiving Laevarian’s dangerous mischief barely caused a flinch. Not that that would stop him from getting back at the elf later, should they encounter one another again.

“Well, I am pretty sure the Duke’s agents will be watching you for some time to come. Given how good his spies and diviners are, there is almost no chance he has failed to figure out you are from the newly-Sublimated world. Given that you have proven your ability in the Challenge Dungeon… you can probably expect a letter to arrive at your door within the next few days,” Urgo replied, giving Lyam a somewhat sympathetic look.

Lyam sighed with resignation, “And I assume leaving the city right now to avoid getting tied down is not an option?”

“Duke Vugra is not particularly vindictive, but he will likely consider it a sign of untrustworthiness if you do,” Urgo replied, the orcish fighter’s expression and tone of voice indicating that such a result was far worse than the words alone could convey.

“I guess I will have to settle down and wait at that room Laevarian found for me, then,” He said with a sigh.

Urgo smiled, tossing Lyam a large bronze cylinder that registered as a enchanted apartment key when he looked at it, “That is the key to your rooms. I will have one of the newbies who passed the regular Trial Dungeon direct you to it as their first mission.”

“And you?” Lyam asked.

Urgo gave him a look, “It is a bit impolite to ask the business of someone of higher station than yourself when no obligation has been incurred against them. I will answer because Laevarian asked me to back you where I can, but do not expect it from others. I need to give a full report on your run through the Challenge Dungeon to the Duke, so he has an idea of your abilities. Local law requires I do that, and it is not one of the points I can challenge under Association regulations of adventurer privacy.”

Lyam winced, “I… see. I am guessing you saw everything, then?”

“Yes, including your first meeting with that… thing,” Urgo said, looking troubled as his eyes alighted on the slumbering rabbit girl.

“If you thought it was bad from your perspective, I can tell you it was worse from mine,” Lyam said dryly.

Urgo gave a grimace of his own in answer before shaking his head, “Still, the way you murdered poor S’kick’tik with that surprise attack… honestly, that was pretty awful. He is not a bad sort, once you get to know him.”

Lyam gave him a flat glare, “Dead is dead. While I did enjoy the snack, and his conversation was informative, he was still an enemy. I would have had to kill him anyway in few minutes.”

“The next time you go in, I suggest just heading for the boss room. If you kill enough of the dungeon’s puppets to free his consciousness, he will probably unleash the stuff he is normally forbidden from using,” Urgo said with a smirk.

“Like what?” Lyam asked, his curiosity getting the better of him almost instantly.

“Death Magic. Normally, he is limited to Corruption, but his true mastery is Death Magic. The dungeon keeps him from using it normally, as it would make the first level unfair. However, if he is in control when someone who pissed him off enters the boss room…” Urgo shrugged.

“I guess I will have to avoid the dungeon from now on, then,” Lyam said with a shrug, careful not to jostle his passenger.

Urgo turned around, and Lyam followed him as they left the room, headed for the stairwell.

“If you want to rise in rank here in Daena, you will have to challenge it again. Every city has a Challenge Dungeon, and getting to a certain level of it is a requirement for all the ranks beyond iron except Diamond,” Urgo remarked.

“For the moment, I don’t think I want anything to do with that dungeon,” Lyam said, wincing the idea he might have to enter it anyway.

Urgo’s face twisted in mild distaste at Lyam’s use of a contraction, but he shook his head slightly, reminding himself that Lyam wasn’t native to the System’s world.

“Well, I will probably have work for someone like you in the near future. A new Sublimation means new Zones, which means new cities and resources if we manage to reclaim them soon enough. We will want someone who knows what is valuable and what is not on any raids,” Urgo remarked.

“‘Reclaim?’” Lyam quoted him quizzically as they made their way up the stone stairway, floor by floor.

“The only way to create a System-recognized settlement is to achieve victory in a Raid on a Raid Zone and obtain the Zone Core hidden within. The owner of the Zone Core can then found a city, depending on the size and potential of the core. Of course, larger cities like Daena have multiple cores… to be specific, there are eight cores in Daena, one of which is beneath this Association,” Urgo explained.

“Also, do not expect me to explain everything to you. We have a library of basic knowledge on the fourth floor for newbies to study. I am not a wannabe professor like Laevarian,” Urgo warned grumpily when he realized he was being quizzed by a newbie, however capable.

Lyam winced, wishing discretion was an option. One thing he was noticing was that his Saevere side was far more powerful than his other ‘warm’ personas, so it was almost impossible for him to stop himself from indulging his curiosity when he didn’t need to sink deep into the icy waters of his deepest psyche. He was beginning to realize why the race he picked was apparently unknown to a relatively scholarly person like Laevarian.

After all, excessive curiosity could be deadly, if one wasn’t careful. More than one assassin had met his death when he decided to let his curiosity about a client or a target cloud his judgment.

They were deeper beneath the headquarters than Lyam had thought, because they went up five flights of stairs before they reached the lobby. In the lobby, there was still a line of young newbies headed for the registration counter, just like before, and it occurred to Lyam to ask how long he was in the dungeon.

“A little under a day. There is a ten to one time dilation in the Challenge Dungeon, one of the functions that lets the dungeon repopulate relatively quickly,” Urgo said absently as he looked around the lobby until his eyes alighted on a young girl with wolf-like ears and a tail.

“Shel! Get your pretty ass over here!” He yelled, causing the lithely built girl to jump before scrambling over to them.

The girl was dressed in tight leathers from neck to ankle, her feet in soft leather sandals that left her clawed toes bare. A rapier with a basket hilt was sheathed on one side, what looked to be some kind of rune-encrusted firearm holstered on the other. Her right eye was covered by some kind of thin lens surrounded with thin black metal that flickered with enchantments, strapped over it like an eyepatch.

From her aura, she was probably near level fifteen, possibly as high as seventeen or as low as thirteen. He could sense a good deal of mana for her level gathered below her navel. He couldn’t guess what her Class was, but since guns were apparently useless for those who didn’t have a Class related to them, he assumed it was something along the lines of the Gun-Mage Class he was told about.

“What is it boss?” The girl asked inquisitively, the eye with the lens focusing on Lyam speculatively.

He couldn’t sense her examining him, so he felt she was mostly harmless. She reminded him a lot of one of his early girlfriends, perky and active but likely to be murderous when the mood took her. Her aura wasn’t dripping with blood like his apparently was, but it was somewhat stained with dark karma, which he was getting better at detecting due to his efforts to cleanse his own in the dungeon.

“This guy is a new iron-rank in town. I want you to show him to his room in the Sandhouse. If you do this for me, I will let you try out that new alchemical bomb recipe you made inside the Trial Dungeon next week,” Urgo replied, grimacing slightly as he mentioned the reward. The look her was giving her was the kind of look Lyam had seen on the face of a boy at the orphanage when his little sister decided she wanted to eat the beetle she caught in the sandbox.

“Ooh, a new iron-rank? Does that mean he can be a party leader? Can I form a party with him? Does he have lots of money? If he has lots of money, can I ask for a loan?” She chattered the questions in a rapid-fire manner, apparently as they came to mind, with no effort to filter them whatsoever.

“Do what you want, Shel. I gave you the mission and offered the reward, now either accept it or reject it so I can find someone else,” Urgo replied impatiently, apparently irritated just to be talking to the excitable creature.

“Alright, alright! I’ll take the job! Thanks for the permissions! I think that new bomb will be a good addition to my arsenal! Oh, do you think he’ll be willing to come with me?! That would be so awesome! It’s so annoying when the goblins try to sneak up on me when I’m testing my concoctions!” She said, even using contractions – to Urgo’s evident displeasure – in her haste to get everything out.

“Shel, just stop. If you want to ask, ask him. I have work to do!” The orc announced as he practically ran for the stairway to the second floor.

To Lyam’s horrified fascination, he watched Shel’s bright-eyed gaze switch to him, her happy grin making him feel slightly sick to his stomach. He had a feeling that it was going to be a long walk.

______________________________________________

“What’s with the demi-human girl? Where are you from? Do you like bombs? I like bombs! I like how they splatter goblins! I don’t like goblins. You don’t like goblins do you? I didn’t think so. Nobody likes goblins!” Shel continued to chatter as she guided him through the streets, people giving her wide berth, as if she was carrying some kind of horrific plague.

Apparently, the wolf-girl was a bit famous.

“Did you know the Sandhouse is mostly for Felinor and Lupines? How did you get a room? I wanted a room there but they said I was too loud. Don’t you think that’s rude? Can I live in your room while you are somewhere else? I promise not to blow it up more than once a month!” Her voice was cheery as Lyam strove not to react to the somewhat disturbing turns her questions and statements kept taking.

“Shel, I am not letting you use my room,” Lyam said firmly.

She pouted for a moment, before going back to her chatter as if nothing had happened, “Then can you convince the owner to let me rent a room? I promise to be good! I’ll even promise not to blow anyone up… unless they sneak into my room, then I’ll blow them up! But I’ll make sure to burn the remains somewhere else!”

The fact that the little wolf-girl kept going back to the idea of blowing things – and people – up told him he didn’t want her living anywhere near him… which was probably why she didn’t have a room there, “Sorry, I do not think I could convince anyone to take you in, much less a total stranger.”

“Aw!! Why does everyone say that! I’m perfectly nice and a peaceful neighbor! I’ll even blow up any rats I find in the cellar!” She whined, once again mentioning blowing things up. Apparently, this was going to be a theme of his interactions with her.

“Iz ‘cause ye always yap abou’ blowin’ stuff up, ye daft little git!” Caluz said as he emerged from their destination, a massive apartment building that seemed to be made out of a single block of yellow sandstone. Doors of wood with runes glowing visibly across their surface indicated the entrances to the various homes, though there didn’t seem to be any windows. The roof was made of light brown clay tiles, and there were vines running up the sides of the building from the rain forest like gardens below.

“Uncle Caluz!” The girl squealed and latched onto the much, much larger lupine humanoid, hugging him firmly. She was obviously undeterred by the mixed emotions in her ‘uncle’s’ expression.

“Don’ ‘Uncle Caluz’ me, ye little bugger! Ye still owe me eighty-thousand credits for the place ye blew up last week!” Caluz scolded.

“If I can sell my new bombs to the rat-catchers, then I’ll have your money, Uncle! They are really awesome! When the rats eat the bait, the bombs go into their bellies, then they carry it back to the nest. Next thing you know, BOOM!” She replied excitedly.

“Ye blew up ma storage shed with that last week, ye daft lil’ puppy!” Caluz scolded.

“Just a little glitch! The next bombs aren’t as powerful and release ivatris into the air around the point of detonation! It takes care of the entire nest in seconds!” She chattered back at him, her mad grin never fading.

“An’ I still say yer daft, you silly girl! Ivatris kills everythin’ what touches it! Are ye tryin’ to kill me tenants?!” He screamed back at her.

“But it will kill the rats! All rats need to die!” She countered, as if this were an objective reality acknowledged by the cosmos.

… how the hell is this girl not in prison? Lyam wondered.

The bunny girl stirred on his shoulders, then somehow got up so that she was riding them instead of being carried, her inquisitive crimson eyes looking at Shel and Caluz’s exchange with interest.

:The girl smells like boom booms, Master! The rabbit exclaimed in his mind.

:Boom Booms?! He asked her incredulously before he could stop himself. Ask a stupid question…

:Boom booms are boom booms, silly Master, Her voice was somewhat confused, as if she couldn’t understand why he didn’t instantly grasp what she was saying.

Get a stupid answer.

He hated the fact that a part of him thought the way her mind worked was adorable. It was oddly difficult to keep that part of himself from weaving itself through the rest of him.

:Boom booms scary… loud. Old Master’s daddy tried to use boom booms against monsters. Boom booms made him go boom boom, The rabbit turned girl said gloomily, obviously depressed at the memory.

“But it’s the perfect solution! If I get in trouble for blowing people’s houses up, then I have to use poison with less explosives so that the rats die without blowing up the house!” Shele replied to Caluz’s exclamation earnestly, obviously believing every word and completely ignoring his point about the poison killing off the people living here. Lyam was hit by the realization the girl honestly either didn’t care or was incapable of considering anything beyond her goal… which was apparently the extinction of all rats, everywhere.

Caluz was obviously at his wits’ end, as he couldn’t seem to say anything to her invincible wall of circular logic, which was utterly incapable of incorporating the concepts of ‘overkill’ and ‘unnecessary collateral damage’.

“Shele, if you want to kill rats, maybe you should just use a less… indiscriminate poison without explosives?” Lyam suggested before he could stop himself.

Shele blinked, looking up at him as if he were the one that was insane, “I already compromised by adding the poison and reducing the charge, now you tell me to get rid of the explosives?! How am I supposed to explode rats without explosives?!”

OK, so she has two objectives… blowing up rats and driving them to extinction. They just happen to intersect perfectly in her mind… Lyam thought, sincerely wishing he had never met the wolf-girl.

It took Caluz almost an hour of ‘reasoning’ with Shel before she finally left, looking disappointed. The big wolf-man turned to Lyam and shook his head in exasperation, “‘dat daft wee lil’ one never changes. I promised her pa I ‘ould look after her, but she is as daft as a serein pig in winter.”

“So… my room?” Lyam asked, holding back a grin now that the girl’s presence was no longer being inflicted on his person. The rabbit-girl was looking around inquisitively from her perch on his shoulders, and he was trying to ignore the way she kept jabbering inside his head about every little thing. It wasn’t as bad as Shel’s insane gibbering about explosives and rats, but it was not pleasant either.

“Ah, sorry boyo. Shel always knocks me off the stump. Follow me,” Caluz said, his large, furry hand motioning for Lyam to follow him as he went up the stone stairway on the side of the apartment building.

They went up three flights of stairs, eventually reaching the fourth floor of seven. He came to a stop four rooms down (there seemed to be a total of thirty apartments on each level, with a stone terrace running around the circumference of the building) and directed Lyam to take his key out.

Lyam removed the block-like key from his inventory, and the moment he brought it to within a foot of the door, it vanished, as if it didn’t exist. He raised his brow, and the bunny’s chattering went silent for a moment. He could sense her startlement, but he had no intention of easing it, since it meant she wasn’t blathering about every little thing she saw inside his head.

The inside of the room was surprisingly wide, with two beds large enough for someone like Caluz to sleep on comfortably in the back, two leather-upholstered wooden chairs on the right, and what looked like it might be a kitchen to the left.

“De kitchen ‘as an oven and stove with ‘eat enchantments. De crapper be behind dat door,” He motioned to a dark wood door behind the chairs and to the right of the beds.

“Got a good cleanin’ enchantment in de crapper, so ye have naugh reason to worry,” He said when Lyam looked at the bathroom in trepidation.

“No baths ‘ere. No space for it. Dere be a bathhouse down de street, though,” He finished.

“Thank you, Caluz. I am sure this is more than enough. I know the deal Laevarian made gave me a deal for a month, but how much would a lease for this apartment cost to extend?” Lyam asked.

“Ah give discounts to friend, so a flat thousand credits a month. Canna make it any lower. Gotta make a profit,” Caluz explained.

Lyam considered for a moment before offering, “How about I pay you for another month in advance? I do not know how long I will stay, but who knows if I will end up holed up in a dungeon for a week or more.”

“Fair. Shake on it,” Caluz said with a nod, holding out his furry paw of a hand.

Lyam shook the hand and transferred the credits when the trade interface came up, causing Caluz to give a toothy grin before turning to leave. However, just as he reached the door, he looked back over his shoulder with an even wider grin, “De walls are thick, so do na matter if ye get a bit loud,” He said with a snicker before exiting the room.

Lyam remembered the bunny-girl at that moment and wondered why he couldn’t hear her whining in his head. He looked up to see if she was still on his shoulders and found them empty. When he turned around, he found her curled up in a fetal position on the leftmost bed, sound asleep.

Lyam went over to the bed and sat on the edge. For the first time in over a week, he felt completely at ease. He decided to begin a process he hadn’t undergone since the Sublimation…

… that of organizing his personas.

Normally, his personas were created organically as needed and deleted when their traits were no longer necessary. The exceptions were his core personality, his ‘cold’ persona, and his ‘daily’ persona. In truth, the part of him that currently existed on the surface was no longer capable of reaching the core personality. This was something he had done to himself in early childhood to prevent total insanity as his ability to handle his emotions became compromised.

While they weren’t different ‘personalities’, the fact was that he couldn’t feel his own core motivations when he was using his personas, except at a distance.

As he delved within himself, touching the core of who he was the first time in over a month, he winced at the overflowing sense of loss that bathed him. There were things in the old world that he knew he was unlikely ever to recover. The children of the orphanage he had decided to support with his blood money, the old woman who had helped him put himself together after his last foster family broke his mind, the small cabin he had to himself in the mountains of Colorado…

… all the little things he lost with the Sublimation, the sorrow and rage, the hate for the System that resided underneath it all. He confronted them stoically, enduring the pain, rage, hate, and despair of the past month, all at once. Everything he had compartmentalized and suppressed to prevent it from interfering with his own survival, everything he had covered up with a smiling face or the icy cold part of his mind and spirit, he had to allow to burn its mark into his soul.

This was the reason why he was relatively well-adjusted for someone that should have been considered insane, from a technical perspective. He understood that you couldn’t just put off emotions forever, that failing to face those emotions that refused to fade entirely was foolish and short-sighted. He had made that mistake once, and the results had not been to his liking.

It took most of the rest of the afternoon and well into the night for the storm of emotions to subside and even out, the scars and remnants returning to their ‘boxes’ inside him. The only emotion he found he couldn’t dismiss that way was the soul-deep fondness for the bunny who had forced a connection to him.

He examined the connection, trying to find a way to seal it away when he couldn’t afford to pay attention to it. Unfortunately, it became increasingly evident that it was more like a computer virus rather than a normal emotion. It actively attacked the barriers he built into his psyche, worming its way through holes that should not have existed as if it belonged there.

This… is going to be trouble, He thought to himself, the thought resonating more than it would normally due to the deeper connection to his core personality his consciousness currently possessed. His core personality was laced with old emotional and mental scars and trauma, healed over but still painful at times. It had taken years for him to create his current emotional and mental stability, and the bond with the rabbit-girl threatened that.

The colder, detached part of himself was unthreatened, so that was not going to be an issue, apparently. His ‘Cold Mind’ as his status described it, was fundamentally untouched by emotion from his core or his surface persona. There was nothing for the link to latch onto, so it couldn’t touch that part of him.

That was a relief, at least. Lyam didn’t relish the idea of being endangered in battle by a sudden surge of lust or fondness for his familiar. The lust was relatively easy to compartmentalize and shove into one of the ‘boxes’ in his mind. The unnatural surges of love were more problematic.

Now that he had experienced the emotions that had been threatening his psyche for the past month, the pressure that had been slowly threatening to damage his spirit was gone. While he wasn’t normally aware of this kind of pressure, he knew from experience that it existed, even when he wasn’t feeling it consciously.

Interestingly, he got a skill out of his little bit of introspection.

Meditation sub-skill, Spirit Cleansing, is now 75 (Master, hidden Sublimated Skill). As this skill was merely hidden, you receive only half rewards for reaching Master rank.

You gain +4 to Willpower and xp for reaching Master in Spirit Cleansing.

Surprisingly, the surge of xp caused him to get close to a level up, despite the massive requirements to gain levels at his current one, “I guess raising skills like this would be a good method for leveling early on,” He mused aloud.

With a sigh, he took out some of the jerky from the dungeon and tossed into his mouth, chewing it quickly before washing it down with some water. He then laid some out for the bunny before going to the other bed, stripping along the way, and slipping under the covers.

It had been a long week.

__________________________________________

Things weren’t going well for Abdiel. Ever since his creator decided that Abdiel was going to be one of those left behind, the angel had known he was in for trials on par for the War of the Fall. Despite being a low-ranked angel, Abdiel had always been one of the best warriors in the Divine Host. Unfortunately, that meant that he was an angel unsuited for the role of guiding others, healing them, or comforting them.

His were the virtues of a soldier, first and foremost. He survived where others died, he killed without remorse or hesitation, and he achieved victory after victory… all tasks that would not be needed in the initial stages of the formation of a new universe.

However, they were absolutely perfect for a Wandering Raid Boss, which was why Abdiel found himself being given a particularly annoying quest while he was enjoying the process of de-winging a particularly annoying Fallen who had challenged his progress.

Agent Abdiel, please report to your new post leading the monster wave headed for Daena. You are not to fight in the battle, but you must ensure the wave properly tempers the denizens of the region. Further details will be provided upon arrival.

He winced as the Observer assigned to him implanted the command in his spirit. Angels, no matter their power or strength of will, were inherently vulnerable to the commands of higher tier divine beings, which most of the Observers were. It was like his Observer had taken the place of his creator connected to his soul, and unlike the Fallen, who had discarded that part of their nature, he had little choice but to obey.

More over, Abdiel was a consummate soldier… while he might passively ignore the spirit of an order, it was alien to him to actually disobey one.

Abdiel was preternaturally beautiful, his features perfect and symmetrical as any High Human. Unlike the six-winged Fallen he had just killed, he had only a single pair of wings, indicating that he could rank no higher than just below the lowest of the low of his kind. However, his power was such that even those at the highest ranks considered him a potential threat in his old world.

His level in the System reflected this.

Name: Abdiel

Level: 5000

Race: Angel (Tier 9 – adjusted for actual ability prior to Sublimation)

Profession: Divine Soldier

Class: Divine General

Title: Betrayed Hero, Humble Soldier, Enduring Divine, Wandering Raid Boss

Available AP: 0

Available SP: 0

Divine Essence 10237156/10237156 (due to unification of spiritual, flesh, and mental bodies, MP and HP are combined into Divine Essence)

Str: 1865

Agi: 1158

Dex: 1322

Con: 2103

End: 2300

Int: 364

Will: 1025

Cha: 179

Lck: 4

Martial Skills: Long blades 100, Short Blades 100, Shield 100, Great Blades 100, Axe 100, Polearms 100, Archery 100, Blunt Weapons 100, Barehanded 100, Aerial Combat 100

Magic Skills: True Sight 100, Life Magic 100, Fire Magic 100, Wind Magic 100, Divine Magic 75

Crafting Skills: n/a

Knowledge Skills: Anatomy 15

Spells: Divine Body, Divine Spirit, Divine Mind, Pierce the Darkness, Purification, Supreme Regeneration, Supreme Healing, Megiddo, Supreme Weather Control, Inferno V, Holy Fire (spell), Sirocco

Weapon Style: Abdiel’s Sword and Shield (Grandmaster)

Non-Combat: Divine Sight 100

Abilities: Soul Weapon (Grandmaster), Holy Fire, Loyal Bulwark V, Divine Punishment III

Perks: Slayer of Demon Lords V, Slayer of the Fallen V, True Victor, Born for War V, Godslayer V

Racial Perks: Divine Core, Flight, Divine Flesh, Immortality

Talents: True Survivor V (all skills and abilities related to survival increase in effectiveness by 200%), Power of the Divine IV (Divine Magic can be fully mastered; mind, spirit, and body are as one)

His abilities screamed ‘the ultimate warrior’ and were the results of training himself for hundreds of thousands of years before the Sublimation. Normally, angels didn’t bother training themselves or increasing their mastery of their own abilities. Low-ranking angels were usually little better than dolls with a basic intelligence implanted into their spirit bodies. However, Abdiel was the exception that proved the rule.

In his time, he had killed demon lords, kings of the Fallen, and countless lesser deities on the orders of his creator. Here, with the System, it showed.

He didn’t relish the upcoming job, not the least because it wasn’t nearly as fun as wandering the Fifth Realm wreaking havoc on the Fallen and Demons who thought they would have free reign in a new world. However, it never occurred to him to defy the System and its representatives.

He merely activated the hidden teleport ability granted him by his Wandering Raid Boss Title and vanished from the Fifth Realm, a resigned look on his face.

____________________________________________

Duke Vugra frowned as he read the report on Lyam put together by Zin based on his own observations and Urgo’s report. While those from newly-Sublimated worlds often displayed abilities and personality quirks that were outside the norm for those born within the System, it appeared the newest world produced some truly idiosyncratic individuals from its survivors.

Lyam Aldren had displayed an extremely high level of talent and skill by surviving the first level of the Challenge Dungeon so early after his arrival. More importantly, a creature from the newly-Sublimated world had already reached the Pinnacle for the First Realm… an unprecedented occurrence so soon after the event.

The ‘Magic Bunny’ as the sensors the dungeon allowed to be placed within it referred to it, was a horrifying creature whose power was out of proportion to its level. Zin’s examination of the dungeon recordings going back two months showed a small creature the size of a man’s palm entering the dungeon two weeks before at level 25 and reaching level 300 by the time Lyam encountered it.

What was to blame? Most likely a divine blessing of some sort. The System allowed deities who had sufficient power and submitted willingly to select creatures to bless with power or talent before a Sublimation, a fact that most of those in positions of power were aware of. Divine Blessings always meant trouble, though, as those blessed tended to attract a disproportionate amount of attention from the System.

The same could be said for the Saevere (Vugra recognized the previously-extinct race from encounters early in his life), whose status showed several immensely powerful Perks and Titles, as well as inflated HP and MP stats that showed the System was favoring him.

Endless trouble for me this time around… how much of Daena will still be standing when things settle down? He wondered. He could prepare all he wanted, but Daena hadn’t been ‘tempered’ by anything truly challenging in over a thousand years. It was not out of the question that the System might take the excuse provided by the presence of such unique individuals to cause some kind of disaster to test them all. It had happened numerous times in the past, and he saw no reason why it wouldn’t happen again.

For Vugra, who had witnessed such events hundreds of times, it was a headache of colossal proportions. Most of his retainers were too young to have experienced the true horrors of the System’s idea of ‘testing’ the complacent. They would not prepare for what was coming with a suitable degree of urgency, and the results would inevitably damage his domain severely.

Unfortunately, Daena was an old Dukedom, meaning that while it was on the frontier, it still had the problems with being split between arrogant noble houses that the central kingdoms often suffered from. Vugra kept the noble families under him pleased by marrying their daughters and providing powerful offspring to lead their clans, but the sheer size of a Dukedom under the System meant that it was likely that at least a few clans would simply vanish during whatever tribulation was about to hit.

The Felinor presence on western border made it unlikely the danger would come from there, so his mind turned to the new cluster of Raid Zones to the east. With only a few Zones reclaimed by the survivors of Earth, there would be more than enough monsters to provide a monster wave capable of drowning the countryside in blood and death. The System rarely wasted its own power when it could utilize an existing force. Given that Fallen Orcs, Fallen Angels, and even a dragon… it was Vugra’s opinion that even if Gerahl and his followers joined in, defending the city proper would tax his resources greatly. Extending that protection to the walled villages and county seats would be impossible.

Well, those that survive will be useful in the future, those that do not would never have gotten far in any case, He concluded after considering the resources of the various Counties and Baronies under him. The clans would inevitably ignore his calls for evacuation and concentrating forces in the city, and the fiercely independent free villages would likely do the same.

Those that died would leave behind land that could be awarded to new noble clans in the future, and those that survived would gain and become more powerful. In his experience, there was no point in forcing the issue, as shortsightedness was the prerogative of mortal aristocrats.

The issue of Lyam Aldren he decided to handle as he had planned beforehand. Once the youngling had proven himself on smaller tasks, he would attach the Saevere to his erstwhile daughter’s diplomatic mission. While that would mean he would likely be caught out in the middle of the wave, whether at the Earthling enclave or in between it and Daena, it would serve to redirect at least some of the System’s ploy, if the Duke was fortunate.

If all else failed, he could simply use his Class’s Ultimate Ability to resolve everything, though that would cost him and his lands greatly.

He got back to work on writing out orders to his agents, his decision made.