“Oh, you are back,” Lily says the moment I enter the house, holding her hands behind her back.

It's almost amazing how shameless she is acting.

“Lily, I saw…” I start.

“Oh, I didn't see you coming. Welcome back.” she interrupts, and we both fall silent.

I open my mouth to say something.

“Healing,” Lily says, quietly coughing, as if trying to mask saying that, and I stop.

“Hehe, it's nice to see you, Lily, for the first time in a few days!” I say instead, and with a giggle, she turns around.

“That creepy woman, Obelia, was looking for you. Is she annoying you? I can scare her off with [Disintegration],” she says while walking towards the living room, and I follow her.

I give it a little bit of thought. Maybe I should be a bit nicer to Lily. To get on her good side the same way I'm getting on Biscuit's. Maybe she will also become extremely powerful the way the Absolute candidate, Biscuit, does.

“Lily, don't disintegrate people just because they are a bit annoying,” Tess shouts from the living room.

“But Tess, she is bullying Nat!” Lily defends herself.

“As if, she is most likely scared of him and wants to have a good relationship with him,” Tess says as we enter the room.

“Another reason to disintegrate her,” Lily whispers under her breath, but I hear it.

Oh boy. This is getting scary.

“Asshole!” Izzy immediately comes and jumps into my arms, even though we haven't seen each other in just a few days. Her skill, as so often before, reaches out to me and examines my emotions.

“You seem in a good mood, something good happened?” she asks, letting go and returning to Sophie, who waves at me.

“I improved my skills,” I tell her before Lily gets the wrong idea, and then I move towards the armchair in the corner.

Before I sit down, I can hear Lily whispering to Izzy, “Is he telling the truth?” and Izzy nods innocently in response.

Okay, let's never become weaker than Lily. I mean, never ever. Things could get dangerous if something like that happens.

“Anything interesting happened while I was gone?” I ask as I sit opposite Tess.

“Well, you heard about Obelia already and not much else. We sorted the items and are mostly taking it a bit slower, getting some rest after the expedition. In a few days, we will start going to hunt again, and we plan to test the items we got. Especially the three epic ones,” she says.

She grabs some weird fruit from the table and takes a bite, “I want us to level up as much as possible, both levels and skill levels.” Tess then puts the fruit down, “I don't like this one,” she turns back to me, “We are quite rich, Nat, so we are looking into auctions and some expensive items that we could buy and continue to use. We are also paying a lot for as much information on Calamities as possible.”

I also grab fruit from the table, a different kind than Tess's, and take a bite. It tastes good, so I quickly finish it up, and when I look around, there aren't more of them.

“I will continue to practice with Sophie, and I made a deal with Myrra, so she will be coming in a few days,” I tell her.

“What kind of deal?”

“I will kill the Living Tree in a few months,” I say, and that's when I notice that everyone else is silent and looking at me, “I already know how I will do it, so I just need some time to prepare. In exchange, I will have people stop annoying us and maybe a little bit of support. Now that I think about it, I might have to beat one or two guild masters, but that much isn't a problem.”

“I see,” Tess says.

“That's it? 'I see'? Tess, he just said he wants to kill that tree alone!” Lily rushes towards us, looking between me and Tess, “I know you are strong, but that thing…” she shudders, most likely remembering the darkness of the tunnels.

“Nat wouldn't say it without a reason, Lily, and I'm sure he will tell us a bit more. He likes to act mysterious,” Tess says calmly.

Wow, that's a bit annoying, isn't it?

That's when I hear Biscuit shout at me. He uses a word I've never heard him use before.

(Bitch!) Biscuit shouts happily while hovering in the air and moving towards me from upstairs.

“Biscuit, what did you just say?” I look around, and there is one person that is avoiding my eyes. A petite black-haired girl, “Lily?” I ask her.

“Maybe I called Obelia like that once or twice, and Biscuit…” she says quietly.

What are you teaching the doggo? I mean, what the heck!

“Biscuit, don't use that word ever again, okay?” I say as I grab him from the air and pull him closer to my chest.

He looks at me and tilts his head a bit while his tongue is sticking out a little.

(Bi…)

“No! Don't say it!” I shake him a bit, but he seems to like it.

(Bitch!) he shouts while I shake him. His eyes shine intelligently, and I don't know if he really doesn't know or just enjoys bullying me.

A scary thought comes to my mind. Is it possible that Biscuit is learning from me? Not only skills but also somewhat copying my behavior? He learned mana arms before me, but that was so he could reach for food. He also learned telepathy, but that's also so he could ask for more food. He then continued to improve his mana arms together with me.

Later, he started resisting my [Disruption] at the same time when I started experimenting with defending against such attacks.

I learned to float and somewhat fly, and he did so a bit later. Even his tentacles seem to be able to disrupt mana slightly similarly to my skill. And now this personality. Is he trying to bully me in the same way I like to bully him and others?

We can't have that!

I shake him a bit more while pleading, but nothing helps. The cute corgi continues to shout his new favorite word while his eyes look as if he's making fun of me.

Goddamn it, Biscuit.

Two days pass in peace. For an hour or two a day, I interact with others. I spend another three to five hours a day working with Sophie on coordinates, and I have a feeling that we are on a good way.

I also spend around three hours sleeping, and the rest of the day I use to practice my skills and inscribe mana stones with construct-like circuits. I don't forget to examine the stones the old man gave me.

Sure, I could go and get some books with more theory, learn about inscribing stuff into mana stones and more about what works and what doesn't, but there are a few problems with that.

The first one is that I just straight up hate studying and prefer learning stuff from practicing and repeating if possible. I don't mind learning from my mistakes.

Another and the main reason is that I don't want to be tied down by the knowledge they have and their perception of what is and is not possible. From talking with the old man, I did learn that one of the best, and probably the best enchanter or inscriber, was Elydor, and in some ways, I'm already better than him.

In large part, it's thanks to my skills that are really good for this kind of stuff.

[Perception] that allows me to perceive what's happening inside of the stone. [Mana Manipulation] allows me to move mana with the delicacy that is needed for this kind of work.

[Mana Domain] creates a small field around the stone I work on, increasing my control over the mana even further.

[Mana Infusion] thanks to which I can push my mana even inside higher-quality mana stones that people usually have trouble with.

[Resonance] to inscribe it all inside and most importantly, [Focus] that grants me nearly inhuman concentration, allowing me to keep switching between skills while keeping the construct from dissipating before I decide to inscribe it.

Oh, and there are also my constructs. They are something similar to inscribing the stones, but instead of using mana stones, I'm inscribing inside my body. Almost as if it's an item.

Some might consider it a bit creepy, treating the body as if it's an item, but I'm not like them. I don't mind losing an arm or two; Lily can restore them. I can get hurt; it will heal, and I constantly push and abuse my body.

Similarly, I don't mind throwing away items and don't want to be tied to them; I partially don't mind doing something similar to my body.

I cut off my thoughts and stretch my body while connecting to Sophie's net. Just yesterday I learned how to do so without destroying it, and I even started helping her to improve it. Unlike her, I don't know how to anchor the net and make it semi-permanent, so I just make some changes that she goes through and applies them.

It's still fun, especially when Sophie gets annoyed as I keep finding small mistakes she didn't notice.

Hmm, maybe she isn't annoyed because of the mistakes but because of the way I tell her about them, but that's her problem, isn't it? If she doesn't want me to make fun of her, she shouldn't make mistakes in the first place.

I open my hand and look at the stone I was working on.

Thermal Mana Stone (uncommon): An azure mana crystal etched with intricate circuits. When infused with mana, it radiates a comforting warmth, a useful tool for those braving cold environments.

“I want to sell it,”

Do you really want to sell the following item for 20 shards?

Thermal Mana Stone (uncommon): An azure mana crystal etched with intricate circuits. When infused with mana, it radiates a comforting warmth, a useful tool for those braving cold environments.

Yes/No

I confirm, and the stone disappears from my hand, sold to the system shop.

In the past two days, I was able to create a few more of them and sell them. Unlike items we sell that come from the floor, the ones we create are sold for 50% of the amount we can buy them for.

Uncommon pieces of gear are usually around 40 shards, so getting 20 is 50%. When selling items we get from the floors, without working on their ratings, the amount of shards is much less.

For example, the epic equipment we got from the third floor is sold in the shop for around 4000 or more shards, and we can sell it for 200, which is 5%. Sometimes it's 10% for some items.

I feel someone carefully touch Sophie's net, and then there's a hint of surprise. I send back something like a greeting, and that person uses the net to connect to me, and I let their voice sound in my head.

(You should have some locks and mana signature detections so people won't be able to connect to your field,) the voice says calmly.

(Probably,) I send back and wait.

(I see. Can we talk? I came alone.)

(Sure, you can come into the house.) I finish and cut off the connection, then spring to my feet. I yawn, stretch, and then put on a shirt that I find comfortable and that has become my favorite one.

I create a domain that reaches downstairs. Within that domain, I create an anchor and use [Tether] to teleport there. Immediately, I take a step and gently slap the back of Lily's head that already waits there.

“No [Disintegration] allowed until I say so,” I say as I pass by her and open the door.

Obelia greets me with a short nod, and when I step to the side, she enters the house.