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The summoning of a Tier 4 Arch Cherub had cost them plenty of powerful paladins back in their home kingdom, apparently. It took a heavy sacrifice of quality humans who were willing, and those didn’t grow on trees.

It was safe to say the Stalwart Paladin Kingdom had taken their shot at Zarian and failed royally. Maybe they might try again with another enormous round of human self-sacrifices, but Zarian doubted they would get another high tier angel figure after losing Metatron forever.

Well, that mattered little to Zarian. His mind was fixed on his experience of being unraveled and held in the hungering jaws of Para’s consciousness.

Most people would find that horrifying. But not Zarian. He looked back at the moment with Wonder.

Despite how nice Para could be to those who weren’t her food, she was still a monstrous entity summoned by a high quality and evil skill. So Para had done great at protecting him from herself.

But Zarian still remembered the sensations of being at the mercy of that insatiable hunger. He remembered the central pillar of Para’s inner nature, which wanted to eat him up and then eat more and more.

It felt like he’d gone on a spiritual journey that reached beyond the mechanical system runes attached to his profile. It had been a journey that delve into the essence of the Parasite Cloak +2 skill.

What he’d found was something akin to Overwhelming Darkness. An endless hunger. A threat to all things. A parasite that was made to eat and grow, eat and grow, until it could consume worlds, galaxies, and perhaps the universe and beyond.

That was the truth of Para.

She was designed to be a big, bad threat, just like Overwhelming Darkness, but on a smaller scale.

Zarian should’ve been turned into another meal while the parasite had the power to do whatever she wanted. Yet, she hadn’t. She lived up to her words instead, turning toward a more idealistic attitude than a monstrous one.

“You really chose to be above your nature, Para,” Zarian said, hand pressed to the window. “I think by studying you, I’ll get closer to controlling Overwhelming Darkness. But damn it all, there’s so much to study. The gravity spell needs more studying. Then there are all the other spells. And I have to prepare for more political crap flying my way.”

The cloak fluttered and moved on her own, wrapping her leathery material around him for another comforting embrace. Para hadn’t talked much for the past week, only using gestures and mental impressions.

Zarian figured she wanted to give him time to sort himself out without injecting her own personality into the mix. He was thankful for that. Truly, she was the best parasite and article of clothing a man could have.

So far, he felt alright and put back together thanks to Para and Gilbert for having healed him last week. He also had a better grip on his Unraveled Mind trait by feeding his Level 0 Tranquil Mind skill a larger supply of aura.

“You’re the best, Para,” Zarian said. “Come, I think I’ve done enough brooding and being a hermit. Let’s see if the others want to join us for breakfast.”

Para was happy to hear that. Zarian smiled a little as he thought about the parasite and darkness connection. He should get back to darkness cultivation, especially now that he had a new epiphany.

He still considered the gravity spell as a major part of his journey. In fact, it could be the biggest factor overall.

Maybe he could go at his Overwhelming Darkness issue from multiple angles, especially with his parasite epiphany.

Hm, I can feel that itch to study and progress, Zarian thought. I lost time taking a week off, but I needed to chill after what happened with the World Boss Event.

Before he could lock himself away again and study, there was other stuff to do. He hadn’t stayed a hermit for the past week without having some major ideas that would change the course of things.

Hence, he needed a group meeting.

“I should learn to cultivate while staying conscious,” Zarian said, tapping into the nearest spiders close to his fellow Floridians.

Lucky him that Gilbert, Bianca, and Hannah were in the tower, and so were some of their leading guild members.

“Hey, guys. I’m heading over to the top kitchen. Come meet me there for breakfast and a chat. Fair warning, some of it will be serious, but not all of it.”

Zarian received all positive confirmations they would show.

Naomi was still in the Blood Prairies with Reiki, Ezda, and the gnolls. He imagined Naomi doing badass stuff in those savage lands, like any proper Marine.

He was almost tempted to have Empress Ruvaria teleport Naomi back and forth for an update. But he figured he would go see her on the way to fulfill his next major idea.

Zarian left his room wearing some comfortable shorts, his gauntlets, and soft-felt shoes. Beyond that, his cloak covered up everything else, now back to being attached to his back.

They would save the battle kilt appearance for later fights.

On the way to the top kitchen, Zarian finally looked over the notifications from the defeat of a World Boss. The rewards were heavy despite Metatron being Level 60 at first.

This was prime proof that fighting something with higher levels wasn’t the only factor in earning experience and other gains. Metatron’s good +7 was the biggest factor.

<You’ve defeated Arch Cherub Metatron, The Welcoming Voice of Good, Level 60 Heavenly Singer!>

<You’ve defeated Cherub Corrupted Metatron, the Harrowing Voice of Doom, Level 90 Flappy Whiner!>

<You’ve leveled up from 80 to 84! Stat points dispensed!>

Leveling up was supposed to get harder at these levels, but Zarian and his fellow Floridians were still blazing their way up. After all, four levels in the Level 80s from one event was a pretty big jump there.

Then again, it felt like they’d made bigger strides beating a Master, so the temptation to hunt down more Masters remained.

Now for the skill gains. He focused on the levels first.

<Your skill, Parasite Cloak +2, leveled up from 34 to 40!>

<Your skill, Spectral Spider Network +2, leveled up from 25 to 29!>

<Your skill, Summon Wizard Hat +2, leveled up from 27 to 34!>

<Your skill, Advanced Grimoire of the Voidling Exile, leveled up from 3 to 9!>

<Your skill, Grimoire of Black Magic 102, leveled up from 24 to 25!>

<Your skill, Grimoire of the Dread Mire Hell Gator, leveled up from 21 to 25!>

Wow, that was an impressive haul. No level ups for Overwhelming Darkness, which was to be expected.

His advanced voidling grimoire was one level away from Level 10, which should grant him another void spell upgrade. Better yet, he had two new advanced skills, which led to his other grimoires evolving.

<Your skill has advanced! From Grimoire of Black Magic 102 to Advanced Grimoire of Black Magic!>

<Advanced Grimoire of Black Magic (Level 1): You have grown more studious in the arts of dark and evil magic, which is reflected in this advancement. You can evoke spells without summoning the grimoire. Your studying prowess and creativity are greater as a wizard of nefarious means. You can further advance old or new spells. You currently have 3 out of 7 learned spells: Bloody Lifesteal, Raise Advancing Skeletons, and Black Fire.>

<Which spell do you want to advance?>

Zarian had spent part of his week off considering which of his first spells he should upgrade. Each of them had their own merits and could help him greatly in their own unique ways.

But after all the unrest and chaos from the World Boss Event, Zarian knew what to pick. To better secure Ride-or-Die Village, it was time for his skeletons to get an upgrade.

<Your spell has advanced! From Raise Advancing Skeletons (Rare) to Deploy Expert Skeletons (Epic)!>

Huh, that sounds badass, Zarian thought.

<Deploy Expert Skeletons (Epic): Raise, advance, and deploy humanoid skeletons. Skeletons can advance quickly, sometimes immediately, based on their most recent magical experiences or based on what they were prior to being skeletons. All skeletons will have the Animated Undead, Self Sufficient, and Bone Tether Energy traits. Certain skeletons that have endured extraordinary experiences while leveling up can become experts with your blessing. This spell comes at an exorbitant price for each newly deployed skeleton and newly made expert. Scales with Wonder and Mysticism.>

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Zarian nodded in satisfaction. He wouldn’t need to maintain the skeleton spell ever again. Each skeleton would come out Self Sufficient from the start and could advance and level up on their own.

They still had to be humanoid, and each new skeleton was far more expensive now. He imagined turning advanced skeletons into experts would cost even more, maybe to a ridiculous degree.

Granted, that was okay with him. He would rather pay a larger aura price for better and more badass undead than spend aura cheaply on weaker undead.

Having skeleton expertise and supremacy was the way to go.

“Too bad we spent up all the skeletons we had in our pocket dimension,” Zarian said.

Para gave him an apologetic impression.

Zarian chuckled and said, “We will have to get more. All that useless flesh will be yours for the taking when I reap up a fresh batch.”

That cheered up Para real quick.

Zarian had walked slowly at first to give him time to review stuff. The top kitchen wasn’t far away, however. It was right on his floor, which contained all the rooms of the Floridians and special VIP guests.

Before he finished reviewing the notifications, he reached the gourmet kitchen.

Everyone working in the tower knew the Floridians had weird quirks. Because of that, the kitchen and dining area weren’t separated. All the noisy and messy parts of turning large carcasses of beasts and monsters into delicious food became background noise while at the tables and booths.

Zarian sat in the booth against the wall that was out of the way of the well-paid cooks from the Windy Strider Kingdom. Rhea Hemlock had vouched for each one and hired them herself.

Nothing but Level 50s. All different types of rare adventurer cooks. None of them were Foodie’s equal, but they were decent enough.

Zarian watched as various adventure cooks wrestled with a creature with many tentacles that seemed to have revived itself while in the middle of being prepared as a meal.

He chuckled as an invisible spectral spider spun an arcane web with stun blast runes close to the thrashing tentacle creature. The stun webbing erupted and struck the creature hard at its center, staggering it. The cooks chopped the creature dead for sure and thanked the spectral spider before the little guy spiraled out of view.

“Excuse us for making all this noise, my liege. As always, I hope we aren’t a bother as we serve you the best food across all the Walled Continent!” said a greasy and sleazy looking strider man. He was the head cook, and Zarian had kept forgetting to get the man’s name.

He would always say the food here was the best across the continent. Zarian kept holding back from correcting the man, which made him forget to ask for the head cook’s name.

Zarian was about to ask when Bianca blitzed through the kitchen-diner area in the blink of an eye. Suddenly, she was sitting in Zarian’s lap, her arms around his neck, her legs kicking off to the side, her feet still bare like an elf princess, while her colorful and glittery dress fluttered with her movements.

Bianca took in a big breath.

Zarian pressed a finger to her mouth. “Wait.”

Bianca huffed. Then she sucked in another big breath. This inhale was out of defiance.

Again, Zarian interrupted her with a finger to her mouth. He pressed a little harder on her lips and rubbed from side to side.

“Waaaait, por favooooor,” Zarian said.

He retracted his hand.

Bianca batted her long eyelashes at him and screwed up her mouth. She pouted like a puppy. When that didn’t work, she broke out into tears.

Zarian ignored her crocodile tears. He had to stop Bianca before she got started, or she would distract him from reviewing the rest of his gains.

Meanwhile, Gilbert swaggered in. Hannah came in next with Rhea following obediently at her heels.

The normally proud Hemlock woman was like a shadow to her shorter boss. Then Roland, Amabel, and Lora came in with differing levels of reverence, since it wasn’t everyday they could sit at the big kids’ table.

The booth Zarian had chosen filled up fast, and that was before Empress Ruvaria made her grand appearance. She stepped out of thin air in a new dress that was pale green, beige, and covered in highly expensive cerulean-colored jewels.

She smiled directly at Zarian. He didn’t know how to react. She had left him alone for an entire week. Hell, she made him a little nervous. He now knew how much of a naughty, naughty elf she was.

I don’t want to be the Adventurer King, Zarian thought. I should tell her that before her motivations become too rock solid to change.

Ruvaria looked refined, regal, and in control, and mostly everyone felt that … until Bianca snatched up the elf. The princess held the empress in her lap while still sitting in Zarian’s lap.

Ruvaria lost all of her haughtiness, powerless against Bianca.

Burdened by a needy princess and a naughty empress, Zarian ignored the stares from Roland and the cooks. He ignored Gilbert’s snickers. A whirlwind of conversations spun around Zarian as he examined his last advanced skill.

<Your skill has advanced! From Grimoire of the Dread Mire Hell Gator to Advanced Grimoire of the Hell Gator!>

<Advanced Grimoire of the Hell Gator (Level 1): Your mastery of this folktale is frightening and advanced. You can evoke spells without summoning the grimoire. You can triple cast or intensify any section of the folktale with super hellish effects. You can further advance old or new spells. You currently have 4 out of 8 learned spells: Quagmire Pit, Dread Mire Bite, Dread Mire Bellow, and Dread Mire Hell Gator.>

<Which spell do you want to advance?>

Zarian didn’t think about this one for long.

<Your spell has advanced! From Dread Mire Hell Gator (Legendary) to Dreadnought Hell Gator (Legendary)!>

Huh, that is both cool and disappointing, Zarian thought. It seems like the legendary quality is fairly big, so even upgrading a spell within that quality doesn’t mean it’ll advance to mythical quality.

Oh well. At least the new version of the hell gator should be interesting, on top of having four new folktales to add to the combo.

<Dreadnought Hell Gator (Legendary): Summon the Dreadnought Hell Gator in the first half of the multi-spell combo. This advanced version of the hell gator is beefier and can absorb more damage while having the ability to turn what it eats into extra vitality. The cost in aura is massive. Scales with Wonder and Mysticism.>

Again, Zarian didn’t mind paying big for the best high-quality spells. However, this was becoming a consistent pattern where his advancing spells and abilities were requiring more and more aura.

Hell, even his gravity spell research had given him plenty of warning signs. The aura cost to use the real gravity spell was beyond what he was ready for as of now.

That meant his next decisions mattered a lot more. Thankfully, the Star System didn’t skimp out on the rewards for winning a worldwide event. So there was more to review.

<Your freedom alignment (Free Evil +3) grows: +4!>

He hadn’t used his free evil much the past week, but he imagined he was more cunning now. That would prove useful later when more political shenanigans come knocking on his door.

<Achievement rewarded! Attrition Warfare (Unopened)!>

<Achievement rewarded! Lesser World Boss Killer (Unopened)!>

<Achievement rewarded! Arch Cherub Silencer (Unopened)!>

<You have been rewarded 1 trait upgrade from succeeding on a Divine World Boss Event!>

<Choose to upgrade a trait that’s below Legendary Quality and doesn’t have restrictive growth parameters.>

<You’ve grown, earning +2 Willpower, +2 Strength, +3 Agility, +2 Wonder, +2 Mysticism.>

Wow, that’s a lot to examine and ponder over, Zarian thought, feeling somewhat thrilled.

Although there was one spot that he found that wasn’t thrilling. It’s been a long time since I’ve gained stats from effort instead of levels, and the stat gains aren’t as high as they should be.

It was harder to gain new stats through effort nowadays, not unless he did insane training like Naomi every freaking day. In fact, Zarian was pretty sure Naomi was hitting a wall, too.

They needed a certain someone’s help for more stats, which was very necessary. Zarian was thinking the road ahead was going to require more and more stat growth.

The ultimate death of Metatron wouldn’t stop the gods from going after him. They knew he could be sealed away.

They just needed an opportunity and more leverage.

If the power of traditional good could go beyond +7, then that meant the higher Zarian and his friends rose, the more exponentially powerful the enemies on the good side could become.

It was almost ingenious in a way, which made Zarian wonder how could evil withstand the power of good when good had so many advantages in overall power? The only way he could see them surviving was through underhanded tricks, threats, and overwhelming numbers.

Well, there was the case of The Dragon and Shadowfell, but those were mainly outliers.

Most, if not all, monsters were evil, in fact. There were a lot of monsters. A lot, a lot, which could keep the good side occupied.

Then there was Carrowmore, which existed as a dominant evil city nation on the Walled Continent somehow.

Zarian didn’t think Empress Ruvaria left them alone just because they were on different continents. She had a history with Ekri the Tailor, after all. Maybe the barons in Carrowmore had a way of keeping the empress off their backs, unless Empress Ruvaria truly didn’t care.

He had a lot of interesting political and historical lore to investigate once he had the time for it.

I wish I didn’t take a week off. But at least I can think clearer and see what needs prioritizing.

He noticed some concerned glances from the others, which had nothing to do with the princess and empress on his lap. They were still worried about him.

“Sorry, everyone, I’m just looking at my rewards now,” Zarian said. “I know, I know, I should’ve looked at them last week, but…”

Zarian trailed off, not sure how to excuse being inactive for a week. He knew he’d needed the break, but saying it aloud was weird.

Gilbert filled in. “You don’t have to explain yourself. We understand, brother.”

Zarian nodded. He appreciated the sentiment. So he tossed them a bone as the cooks hurriedly brought them food and drinks.

“You can fill me in on your changes and growth later. Chew on this for now. First, I want to celebrate Gilbert’s birthday at a lake I found. Hannah already has the enchanted rods prepared.”

Gilbert slammed his hands on the table. Thankfully, it was epic quality stuff. “You’re not pulling a fast one on me are you?”

“Kinda. I figure we can make a pit stop at the lake while on our way to the Blood Prairies. After the lake trip, we can check with Naomi, Reiki, and our gnolls. Then after that, I want to go to Grimrock.”

Zarian waited as his fellow Floridians gasped, froze, or looked at him wide-eyed. He carried on after a few seconds of suspenseful silence.

“We’ve held back on Grimrock for long enough. It’s time to wipe out the Grimrock Warlock and her corrupted goblins. Foodie needs to be saved. And Jack needs to be put down for real this time. So, yeah, think about that as I finish up.”

Zarian refocused on his gains.

Everyone else either burst out into a loud argument or sat in silence over the big news. Obviously, the Floridians were the most animated, which included even Hannah. At long last, they were turning their attention back to Grimrock and all that they’d left unfinished.

Zarian was glad to see the passion, even if it led to some friction. Going back to Grimrock now could have them forfeit the Wolf Dragon Mythical Regional Event, which was still on pause.

Zarian could explain his reasoning later.

He had achievements to look over and a decision on which trait to upgrade. He already knew it would not be Unraveled Mind. That one had its time under the sun already.

He wanted to choose something different that was also impactful. He had a strong number one pick already, but he held back to see what the achievements had in store for him.