When Degritone awoke, he saw Stavch flows and that announcement, but no light, despite seeing the Stavch flows for photons near where he was seeing from.

As soon as he dismissed the announcement, he got more.

Predetermined Class Evolution!

Error: Class unable to be upgraded based on predetermined aspects. Trying a stronger aspect.

Error: Class unable to be upgraded based on predetermined aspects. Trying a stronger aspect.

Error: Class unable to be upgraded based on predetermined aspects. Trying a stronger aspect.

Error: Class unable to be upgraded based on predetermined aspects. Trying a stronger aspect.

Error: Class unable to be upgraded based on predetermined aspects. Trying a stronger aspect.

Error: Class unable to be upgraded based on predetermined aspects. Trying a stronger aspect.

Error: Class unable to be upgraded based on predetermined aspects. Trying a stronger aspect.

Error: Class unable to be upgraded based on predetermined aspects. Trying a stronger aspect.

Error: Class Ideal is at pinnacle of what the System is capable of. Detecting if Class currently has an Archetype.

Success: No Class Archetype found. Upgrading Class to Archetypical.

Class Evolution!

Lolicoknight becomes The Lolicoknight

All unobtained Skills become Major, Themed Custom Skills

Level rewards increased by

930 Free Stats

6500 Unassigned Resources

If he'd had a heart, he'd have had a heart attack from the combined fright of both the "You are being hunted" message and all those errors, plus the surprise that was the absurd increase in Stats. Once he closed that announcement, he was given yet another telling him to choose how his Class's Resources would be distributed per Level. He increased Health Regeneration per Level by 2500, Stamina and Mana Regenerations per Level by 1250, Health per Level by 700, Stamina per Level by 200, and Mana per Level by 100.

This resulted in his Class being The Lolicoknight. And so, he had a lot of Free Stats to spend. Somewhat learning from his mistake, he added 7000 to Endurance and 3000 to Bonus Health, then 4000 to Strength, 1000 to Agility, and the remaining 28710 to Vitality. This finally broke him past ten million Health Regeneration. Not quite the same as before the System update, but in terms of per second value, much faster.

As he pulled up his Status, he realized just how wide it was getting and made the Regenerations show on a new line in the same box, rather than showing them all on one line, and while he was editing hit Status, he decided to go ahead and make it a bit more colorful.

Name Degritone Race Human Resources 2045028.78.../2045028.78... (+14979312.395...) 572938.143.../572938.143... (+22529050.75...) 772893.157/772893.157 (+12917467.619...) Class The Lolicoknight lv47 Experience 0/112800 Strength 5793 Endurance 8393 Vitality 48710 Agility 1490 Physical 3304 Magic 3093

He wasn't sure if he'd keep it, but he knew that his "temporary" was permanent, and if he closed his Status, it would stay at least for as long as he doesn't change another aspect of his Status, and by then, he'll have grown attached to it. So, after much deliberation, he closed his Status.

This prompted yet another error.

Unknown race!

You are the first of your race introduced to the System. As such, you get to name it, and you will be measured for your race's Stats.

Error: User already has a race. Please report to your nearest Architect how you encountered this error. The Architects have been notified that this error actually happened for once and are working on fixing it. Awaiting compensation.

Degritone only had to wait a few seconds for another announcement to take its place.

Compensation

For being detected as a new race despite already being Human, you gain

1 Architect Interview Ticket

1 very minor wish

Degritone tried a few things, wishing to be back on the planet he was before, wishing to be back on his own planet, wishing to have his clothes, wishing specifically for his class ring, nothing worked. So, he tried moving to wishing for Stats, specifically stating, "I wish for the maximum allowable percentage increase to all my resources and regenerations from a very minor wish."

Which was granted, resulting in gaining 0.25% to all Resources and Regenerations. He then checked out what the ticket was. It appeared out of his chest in the same way his Class Evolution Tokens had and turned out to be a piece of paper with the structure needed to create a hydrogen atom on it, with the text "Rip me to transfer to an Architect" on it. Focusing on making is disappear, it sunk back into his chest.

Next, he worked on figuring out where he was. He saw the Stavch flows indicating air and light around him, but he was unable to see. Similarly, he saw the flows for some sort of ground, but couldn't feel it. He now realized a downside to being pure Stavch: He would need to figure out how to feel, in a literal sense, or have any of a human's normal senses.

Setting that aside for now, he went to message Melena, but found the messages to be messed up and garbled like they were when he was out between multiverses. Seeing this, he checked if he was gaining Skill experience. He wasn't. Wherever he was, it was having the same effect on the System as being outside its range, despite it actually interacting with him.

He had a few theories, though the base assumption was that the System tried to process souls in some way after death. The specifics, he decided, were irrelevant, assuming they just made the System stop working in the ways they did because people would occasionally stay conscious in their souls long enough to get some messages off, so they just scrambled the signal.

Or something.

There were a few ways he could go from here. He needed to get back to the slave lolis to save them, but the way to get back was unknown. He could work on figuring out cross-world travel, but that felt like a bad idea, given how long he's already spent not saving the lolis. He could also just use the ticket and hope the Architect wouldn't kill him, but that seemed like a bad idea given he is being hunted, probably by the Architects.

Why they weren't here yet was also an unknown. Another thing he could try, and the one he settled on, was to intercept the ticket's transfer mechanic with his own coordinates in the same way So'Ejan had done to send him out of the multiverse, but using coordinates he'd memorized to bring him back into the world.

While it was the best idea he thought of, he decided to figure out at least sight before doing so. An effectively completely blind, unfeeling, transparent humanoid would probably appear to be some sort of monster to the average person, and being able to see what he was trying to avoid would help significantly as he made his way back to the world gate.

After a few minutes pondering how to do this, he realized he was somehow able to see the System, including the Resource bars he set up during, and hasn't paid attention to since, the early days. He brought up his Status and it was plainly visible, despite him not being able to see light. Must interface directly with the soul or something, then, he thought. So, he went about using the newly 100% customizable interface to show him reality.

He was on a perfectly flat stone surface with one half of his vision slowly being filled with new souls in columns of millions and the other half already filled with them. Each soul had some complex Stavch flows around them that he did not recognize. He happened to be the very bottom most soul in his column, with the next soul being only a few inches above his head.

Shelving exactly what was going on for later, he decided to do one more test before moving on. He hit himself with his Skills a few times so his Health was low enough to actually damage his body. He could not successfully cut his "skin" with anything but a condensed weapon at half Health, everything else either just did damage to his Health and nothing else or shattered in the case of his Ghouls' hands and teeth as well as his Mana sword.

He then tried at just high enough Health to be left with at least 1 after the attack and he found that the Mana sword was barely capable of cutting his new body, so it wasn't like he was effectively immortal to non-condensed items. He only had 5793 Strength and could cut himself. His opponents would have at least twice that, if not more, especially in the case of So'Ejan, who probably had three or more tier 12 or higher Paths completed.

Though, he figured he would be very hard to kill for anyone with around ten thousand Strength or less, assuming they didn't have a Skill that specifically damaged bodies more than usual. I'll need to make myself squishy to allow me to be comfortable to cuddle with. Later, though. Oh, I'll also need to go find my body and memorize the Stavch flows for my semen just in case.

With all that out of the way, he prepared the proper coordinates structure, activated Exotic Nervous System at maximum power, and ripped the ticket. It was then a test of reaction time. He had roughly a millisecond of relative time to replace the coordinates with his own. Given he was the one causing the change and he'd seen the teleportation structure so many times thanks to his observation of his first time leaving the multiverse, it was relatively easy to successfully replace the coordinates on time.

He quickly ran to the world gate and transfered himself back to the world he was working on taking over. It didn't take him long to find the bottom half of his body and memorize the flows for a sperm, and then he moved on to find the Village Dungeon he'd originally come to this town for. With Stats now well over twice what they were, and over thrice the Health, he was sure he could at least survive a single blow from the guard, but he did not want to risk it more than entering the Dungeon without permission.

Of questionable luck, the same guard was in charge when he got to the entrance. Degritone would be unrecognizable, given he was wearing no clothes and about as visible as a thick, old window. Just as Degritone entered the vision of the guard, he realized he should have just stayed on Earth this time. It wouldn't have been abandoning the lolis if I'd not been here before doing earth dungeons, but now I'm already here.

The guard noticed the shimmer in the air and said, "Halt!"

Degritone did not, accelerating to his new maximum speed, a little over mach 10, to enter the Dungeon. The guard created a barrier between Degritone and the dungeon, which he bounced off of. He donned his Mana armor and Mana weapon just as a mace hit his back. Given Degritone's new Strength, his armor did not crack. Checking his Health, he took roughly 4000 damage from that one attack.

Almost nothing.

He rolled over before a second attack could hit him and stabbed at the guard. They reacted too late and took the hit to the shoulder, protected by armor, letting Degritone apply Mark of Antipathy. From the chunk of Stamina taken for Empower, Degritone knew the attack had done roughly half damage, roughly 35000 damage. Degritone was not a powerhouse in terms of damage.

However, he had time on his side. Every second, the guard was taking over ten thousand damage from Bloody Aura applying Acidic Blood, and now he was Withering for the next seven and some seconds, taking 5% of their maximum Health per second. That attack also meant they would be taking a small amount more damage due to Withering Hands reducing their percentage damage reduction.

Degritone began cycling between Omen of Famine and Omen of Pestilence as the next attack from the guard came in, which he parried. However, it seemed the guard had an anti-parry Skill, as a ghostly copy of his weapon flew out of the weapon upon contact with Degritone's sword and impacted Degritone, doing almost unmitigated damage, hundreds of times more than if he'd just taken the hit straight on. He decided a couple Revitalizes were appropriate.

With each second being almost 1900 seconds for Degritone, the inevitability of his win seemed an eternity away. It was going to be a long slog for Degritone, and he finally realized why people don't like this strategy in this world. This would be worse than soloing an endgame dungeon in TERA as Slayer with the regeneration on Overhand Swing Glyph. He needed to do who knows how many millions of Health of damage while hardly doing any.

His only possible saving grace was if Withering stacked. He flicked himself twice just to check and he didn't think it did. So, he decided to speed the world back up so he wouldn't be in this fight for hundreds of hours, just fast enough that he could react between attacks if need be, but not enough to actually do anything beyond speed back up.

Almost an hour of subjective time into the pummeling, he needed to reapply Withering and accelerated himself just as his opponent's weapon began glowing red. Degritone was able to get a stab in as a trade for the mace hitting him square in the chest, breaking a hole in his armor and doing almost nine hundred thousand damage to him.