Ronan scrubbed his elbow with a dirty rag, trying to scrape the blood and gore off his exposed skin. His final executioner's elbow had been unbelievably satisfying to deliver, but the aftermath was… gruesome, to say the least.

The silver lining is the system should dissolve everything into mana soon enough. I guess it's not all evil overlord bullshit, he inwardly joked. It didn't make it less disgusting in the immediate present, unfortunately.

He decided to distract himself by checking out the kill notification. The rewards for killing Rockmore had been decent. The rewards for killing a mini-boss had to be exceptional, despite the level difference.

You have killed [Vulparis the Trickster - MINI BOSS][Five-Tailed Fox Lv.51]!

Experience has been split among your party members!

Party Experience Bonus has been applied!

+29 Bronze Credits

+740 Copper Credits

+3 [Pugilist II] Mastery

+4 [Pain I] Mastery

+17 [Anti-Magic] Mastery

+2 [Stamina II] Mastery

+12 [Perception] Mastery

+22 [Grappling] Mastery

+Illusory Fox Pelt Lv.51 (Rare)

+Eye of the Trickster Lv.51 (Rare)

+Mini-Boss Shard Lv.51 (Mind)

Ronan was quite shocked that he hadn't leveled up, but on a second thought it made sense. Gaining levels had become exponentially harder after he'd reached level 50 and evolved his class.

He'd also just tipped over the edge of level 76 by killing Lord Rockmore. Thus, a monster 25 levels lower than him wasn't likely to give him another—even though it had been a mini-boss. He was more than satisfied with the other rewards.

Plenty of mastery points, including unlocking a new mastery path—grappling. He would need to wrestle more. He was mostly a close-quarters combatant, despite his experimental forays into magic and weaponry. Adding grappling to his already lethal pugilism would make him utterly unstoppable.

That wasn't mentioning the huge number of credits. He suspected there was a flat reward for defeating a mini-boss, which had been massively bolstered by his heritage's credit multiplier—which would be seeing another large increase at the end of this iteration.

The rich got richer, as was the way of the world. Even after the apocalypse, apparently, Ronan scoffed to himself.

The mind-aspected shard was also the highest level one he'd ever received. Hopefully it could get him to the next stage before he died again. Maybe even the next two stages, if the marketplace was kind to him.

He'd never actually progressed this far in any of his previous lives, so there was every chance some more mind shards—or any shards, for that matter—would be listed for sale. Ronan would be sure to watch the listings like a hawk.

He threw a sideways glance at Keith. He heard a snore from beneath the mound of blankets they'd scavenged. How the fuck is he still asleep? Lucky bastard. He just got experience and credits while having a nap. Well, I'll put him to work when we start searching for the sector pillar and the boss guarding it, Ronan said, an evil grin appearing on his face.

That only left the items the mini-boss had dropped. The pelt seemed fairly standard—it was an upgrade of the regular fox fur that shifted in the light. Ronan guessed that was how Vulparis was so hard to spot when it hid in the shadows.

He would be able to sell it on the marketplace for a nice chunk of credits, most likely. He wasn't sure if there were too many crafters yet, but they would certainly be hungry for quality materials. It does make me wonder about the tutorial. Would someone suited for crafting survive that hellhole?

That just left the Eye of the Trickster. Ronan had half-expected a literal eyeball based on the name and the system's propensity for grim shit. He was pleasantly surprised to find it was actually an amulet.

Eye of the Trickster Lv.51 (Rare)

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

The essence and power of a fox monster skilled in the art of illusions and mental manipulation. Upon Vulparis' death, it was condensed into this amulet, a permanent trophy for the one who hunted the Trickster.

The wearer of this item will always be given a path to escape an illusion, mental manipulation, and fate manipulation (reliant on tenacity and soul weight).

+50% Efficiency towards Crystalline Mind cultivation

+5 Tenacity

Ronan let out a whistle as he finished reading the description. The Eye of the Trickster was one of the best items he'd ever encountered. Arcane Needle—Lord Rockmore's rapier—was equally powerful, but less useful to Ronan than the amulet.

The cultivation boost and the small increase to tenacity were great, but it was the other aspect of the amulet that drew Ronan in. He remembered how frustrated and powerless he'd felt in the first few iterations fighting Lord Rockmore. How furious he was to learn that all his efforts were akin to a puppet dancing on the strings of a puppeteer when Vulparis' interference was revealed. He never wanted to feel that way again.

It was for that reason that Ronan decided he was going to use his one and only slot of his Brand of the Temporal Artificer to make this amulet a permanent addition to his iterations. He wanted to keep it with him, even if the next challenge he faced led to his death.

Using the chronos enhancement wasn't too complex. He'd struggled to figure out how to apply the brand at first, but quickly realised it worked similarly to his skills. That is, he needed to form a mental image and infuse it with his desire to brand the amulet.

Once he did that, he felt a resonance deep within himself. Not from his body, but perhaps his soul? It came from a part of him that felt utterly sealed from the world, but the power that flowed out wasn't quite his.

The best approximation he could come up with was the feeling of being blessed by the Temporal Obelisk. Which made sense really, given that the obelisk was how he obtained his chronos enhancements.

The stream of power flowed out of his body and surrounded the amulet in a translucent obsidian veil. Then, the amulet seemed to drink in the veil. Now, as he observed the amulet, Ronan felt a subtle thread linking the item to himself.

He undid the clasp on the chain and then put it around his neck. The pendant was a spherical gemstone, streaked orange and black in a swirling whirlpool that was reminiscent of a fox's hide. The silvery metal ring it was set against looked like water splashing as a pebble was dropped into a tranquil pond.

Ronan felt it looked quite pretty, all things considered. The metal felt cool against his chest, but more than the physical sensation, he felt as though a barrier had been formed in his mind. That brought him great comfort. He would not be manipulated against his will again.

With his loot now organised and appraised, bar the arcane needle—he wasn't yet sure if he would sell it on the marketplace or simply keep it for the inventory value—Ronan was ready to get some rest and continue exploring the sector tomorrow. It was time to find the boss, then claim the sector pillar to complete the first phase of the integration.

Keith had complained a little when Ronan woke him up, which was frankly ridiculous given what he'd slept through, but Ronan simply chuckled and told him to take the second watch. He'd begun to protest but Ronan had fallen asleep by the third word. Fighting two of the most powerful enemies he'd encountered in a row took its toll.

This morning, they'd woken up bright-eyed and ready to explore. To Keith, this was the 'first' time they were going around the city and the sector, but Ronan had managed to map out around sixty-five percent of the sector throughout his many lives. He had two main objectives now: find any survivors, preferably people not associated with Rockmore, and locate the sector boss.

They still encountered plenty of foxes as they travelled. In fact, Ronan felt that there were even more of the evolved scavengers prowling the sector after he'd defeated Vulparis.

There were two possible explanations for that. The first one was that defeating the mini-boss set some kind of natural progression in motion. Maybe the boss could feel the death of its subordinate and had sent its minions out to investigate. The other option, which if true would make Ronan exceptionally glad to have the Eye of the Trickster, was that Vulparis had somehow been manipulating the entire city to hide a bulk of the foxes from human eyes.

That would have taken a lot of power though, and I'm not sure a mini-boss should be that ridiculous, he thought to himself. Who knows… In any case, our goals are clear.

Given that Ronan no longer received worthwhile experience or even credits for taking out the foxes, he left Keith to fight most of them to help the guy level up. It might seem useless in the long run—Keith didn't keep his strength across iterations—but having a stronger ally might make the difference when the time came to fight the boss.

Ronan knew he might die in the fight, but that didn't mean he would go up against the creature expecting to lose. There was every chance the pair of them could win the battle on the first try.

They were exploring a part of the sector that seemed to have once been a park. However, Ronan grew increasingly convinced that the system had seriously fucked with it as they ventured deeper in.

There had been a metal wall around it—not the metal, gated kind that London parks often had, but just a thick sheet of metal—which didn't remind him of any metal he'd seen on Earth before.

That was only the first oddity. A few of the trees were typical English varieties—oaks and sycamores for the most part—but the vast majority were… alien. Even the grass felt strange. It was rigid, snapping as he stepped through it rather than bending.

The further they went, the more it resembled a jungle than the open space of a park. "I feel like I'm being watched. Is it just me or do these trees seem… observant to you?" Keith asked, inching closer to Ronan.

He'd been about to dismiss the claim, but honestly Keith had a point. For the past couple minutes the hair on the back of Ronan's neck had stood on end. It did feel as though someone was watching them. Or something.

At that moment the ground around them burst, throwing up chunks of soil and rigid grass. Ronan felt something wrapping around his legs. Then, he was weightless, yanked into the air.

What strange manner of creature are you, and why are you trespassing in the sacred-holy sanctuary-nursery?

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