Chapter 70: Options

Chapter 70: Options

Neave found himself back in the sect, dragging a squirming Hunter over to the others.

He lifted him to his feet, pointed at him, and told Marven.

“Change of plans, pops! He will take over the job of recruiting disciples!”

“Huh!?” Everyone yelled at once.

“... What?”

Marven looked distraught.

“Where did this come from?”

“Oh, I’m going to be extremely busy for a while, so he must do. Either way, that’s about it, so, bye-bye! I’m going to be back after a while.”Ñøv€lRapture marked the initial hosting of this chapter on Ñôv€lß¡n.

“Neave, wait!”

“Hmm?” Neave gave Marven an impatient stare, “What do you want, old man? I’m in a rush.”

“Neave, you can’t just leave us alone. Ilkivir is still alive. What if he tracks the sect down again? There is no way we can just beat him.”

“Oh, yeah.” Neave fired a tendril of liquid spirit at Marven.

Marven immediately froze and waited the process out. It was highly uncomfortable. Once finished, Marven dropped to his knees, grasping his heart and panting for breath.

Neave pulled a large bag of rounded cores from his dimension ring and threw them at Marven.

“Some of those should be good. I’m sure you can become at least strong enough to stop him from slaughtering you all. Now, do whatever you want and stay alive, ok? Bye!”

Neave left the sect disguised as the young master and hit the road.

Now, it was wild assumption time!

First, Neave was pretty confident that the god, or... Astrador? Wait, how did he know his name? Neave was somewhat positive that the god never introduced himself to Neave.

Huh.

He must have heard the name in one of the many lives, or rather, deaths he had experienced.

Names aside, it was time to theorize! Neave was convinced that the god couldn’t leave the area around the chamber for some reason. There was a field of sorts surrounding the area. Neave could sense it, although it was faint.

This meant that Neave was effectively free to do whatever the hell he wanted outside of that area for as long as he wanted.

Neave ran through the capital's streets, masterfully dodging anyone passing and approaching the border.

His underground laboratory was terrific for experimentation, but Neave needed access to something he could only find in the wilderness.

He had already consumed quite a variety of treasures from Maecy’s ring, and the rest had been lost.

Sigh.

That would naturally have to wait until he found a way to secure a lot of treasures. He still had quite a few in his ring and would use alchemy to construct some incredible stuff. But it was one thing at a time now.

Next up, there was eating monster meat. Or just monster parts. Integrate was incredible, and Neave suspected it was responsible for much of his overall power. However, he had consumed so much stuff already that the effect was painfully minuscule. Perhaps a few diamond-rank monsters would do him good, but he would have to be able to kill them first.

Next up, physical training.

...

“Hmm.”

He thought of it for a while.

“No.”

It wasn’t that it wouldn’t work, but rather that the effect would be minuscule. Not to even mention that it would take forever to build up an impactful amount of strength.

What he did feel would be a good idea, however, was martial arts practice. Mainly due to his thunder nerves, it had a potent ability to help him memorize specific movements. This would be a fantastic way for Neave to solidify his skills and get used to using his full strength.

The main problem was that he didn’t have a good way to do it. The power would only have a permanent effect if he trained outside the nightmare realm. He would also have to have an appropriate opponent.

Ever since he had gained this spirit power, the only opponent he fought against that wasn’t wildly inferior or superior to him was Ilkivir.

Perhaps he could fight Marven?

...

Actually, wait, that was a brilliant idea! However, he would have to give Marven a while to get his spirit powers and get accustomed to them.

So, what else?

Neave gasped.

Blacksmithing. He needed a weapon. But... He couldn’t take one into the nightmare realm. Could he make one there? Yes, actually, he definitely could, but he couldn’t get a monster core. He could only use empty spirit.

That was a massive downgrade.

Neave paused.

Wait a minute...

Neave could take others with him to the nightmare realm. He had confirmed this with Hunter. Out of a corner of his eye, he spotted a slime, ponderously preparing for a jump.

Neave grinned ear to ear.

“Now... Wouldn’t that make for a fun little experiment?”