"So, where's Stargazer?" Lev immediately asked.

  "Runespires. We will pick it up later. How much mana do you have left?"

  "Still over 40%. Why?"

  "Clear the spider dungeon again. There is something you should see."

  Lev could safely say he had never been so curious in his life before. Holding back questions, he overloaded his manipulation skill to reach the spider dungeon as quickly as he could.

  ****

  Now one matriarch core richer, Lev followed Drakys to his chosen destination. Passing the smithing spire, they entered the central spire and ascended through the elevator.

  "Where are we going?" Lev asked, unable to keep the curiosity at bay.

  "To the top. I like a spot."

  Night was starting to cover the horizon when they reached the sparsely crowded roof. Drakys led him to a corner, deploying a circular formation. Lev tried to observe it, intrigued, but it was all masterfully concealed.

  "We are invisible and under many different privacy wards," Drakys explained. "I talked to your teacher and his group before coming here. They explained your circumstances but knew little about your past life, something that you probably held back purposefully."

  "… What about it?"

  Drakys smirked a little. "Nothing. We are here for something potentially more exciting. Nobody will pry your traumas out of you."

  "Just get to the point," Lev sighed. "I hope my excitement wasn't for nothing."

  Drakys nodded seriously, seeing Lev had some actual baggage for his mood to worsen so quickly. "Orianna mentioned you came from a world of skyscrapers called 'Earth. ' We have ancient records saved from different civilizations that existed even before the Empyrean Empire's origins, and some of them showed divination results similar to what you described. Sadly, nobody could read them."

  Similar divination results…

  The thought boomed in his head, echoing with increasing intensity. Lev took some deep breaths, realizing his heartbeat had sped up considerably.

  "Can I see them?"

  "Of course. That's why I brought you here," Drakys replied, summoning a thick, weathered tome.

  Lev leaned forward, gingerly accepting it and bringing it closer when his entire being paused, heart skipping a beat. The title of the tome was written in giant silver letters, readable to his mind.

  It was written in English.

  "You okay, boy?"

  "… Yeah," Lev gulped, before nodding. "Yeah. I can read the title."

  Drakys' eyes widened, excitement overtaking him too. "What does it say?"

  "What We Lost."

  ****

  Lev tossed around in his bed, unable to sleep back at the inn. Drakys left quickly after Lev could read the title, Monarch knew to do what.

  Can't say I didn't see this coming, Lev thought, mind still stuck on that old tome. Everyone here has names similar to what we had on earth, and even the time-measuring units are the same. Other details like month names have been forgotten for some reason, but there were too many signs for this to be a different universe.

  Seeing that there was little chance of sleep, Lev pushed all thoughts out of his mind and tried meditating. It took a lot of effort, and the first hour passed in trying to keep the myriad of thoughts out of his mind.

  Be it his class, titles, future titles, future team, his mentor's job, the special attention from Exalted, lack of Sherron's company because she acted so childishly, Orianna's warm hugs, or his mentor's patient curiosity, all of it kept distracting him.

  When he finally managed to empty his brain of stray thoughts, things became weird. Normally, one could observe their mana pool with high clarity but now, it stood out to him in unprecedented detail.

  From how a stream of mana entered his pool out of… nowhere, apparently, to how instead of growing in size, mana increased in quantity in some other way. Lev remained entranced by the stark detail for a long while, fascinated by the inner workings of his soul even if nothing made sense.

  Most of it was censored, but the experience was still breathtaking. He now knew that mana pools didn't behave like liquids filling up a pool and that mana regeneration was completely cut off from any outside factors.

  Someone knocked on the door, breaking that peaceful state. Blinking bleary eyes, Lev realized the suns were already up. Scanning his mind, he felt refreshed and ready to go.

  Donning his armor, Lev opened the door. Drakys stood there alone, giving him a once-over.

  "Did you sleep well?"

  "You can say that," Lev replied. "So?"

  "We're going to the pit."

  "Huh, how will I get there?"

  "Let me worry about that," Drakys smiled. "Let's go."

  "There goes my plan to work towards gold rank," Lev grumbled, following the Exalted.

  "I asked Hakim about it. He can deal with that. No need to grind merit points when it's much more important to work on yourself."

  "More handouts, great."

  Drakys chuckled at his lack of enthusiasm but didn't comment. It took some time to leave runespires before the Exalted formed a telepathic connection with him.

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  "Close your eyes and lower your senses as much as possible."

  Lev didn't question it and followed the instructions. One moment, they were standing, and the next, Lev was getting dragged along the Exalted at speeds he couldn't hope to comprehend above ground.

  Unable to see, the best he could guess their speed was that just a glimpse would make him vomit. He wisely kept his eyes shut.

  ****

  Some hours later, or perhaps it was just one hour, Lev didn't know, they stopped in front of the pit's gates. The first thing Lev did was lie down and keep his eyes closed, trying to get his bearings.

  The experience was incredibly trippy, regardless of how Drakys tried to keep it smooth. It felt like being on a bullet train without the comfort afforded by being inside it. Though he had no idea what it felt to be like inside one.

  "Please, don't ever carry me like that again," Lev breathed out, mind still scrambled.

  "Bah, man up," Drakys waved away his complaint. "It will get much easier after you become a Master."

  "Man up he says," Lev rolled his eyes under the armor. "I'm fucking eleven."

  "No you ain't."

  "I- ok, I'm not, but the point still stands."

  "Stop complaining. Orianna and Sherron are waiting."

  Lev was up in an instant, almost throwing up from the movement but it was worth it.

  "Let's go."

  Drakys, once again, attracted everyone's attention. Lev followed behind, ignoring it just like the Exalted did. Somewhat unsurprisingly, they eventually ended up in front of Alec's suite.

  Drakys knocked once, and the door opened before Lev could use the card in his ring.

  "You got here pretty quickly," Alec commented, greeting him with a nod.

  "Yeah, he is tougher than I expected," Drakys casually replied, sauntering in.

  Lev followed after giving his mentor a short hug. Inside, there were new faces—two of them specifically, who were observing him like an especially interesting exhibition piece.

  Orianna and Sherron were also present, and Lev went straight for the hug after coming out of his armor.

  "Should I leave or will they not eat me alive?" Lev asked Sherron.

  She grinned back. "You'll live. I think."

  Orianna shook her head a little. "These two lovely women are Katarina," she motioned to the woman with black hair and green eyes, "and Lara."

  Lara looked similar to Katarina, just with hair a pretty shade of crimson instead of black.

  [Mage - ???]

  [Mage - ???]

  "Hey," Lev gave them a little wave and smiled. "I'm Lev."

  Katarina stared at him without any emotion before turning to Sherron. "Introductions done?"

  Sherron sighed, the sound dripping with pain and suffering. "Yes, unfortunately."

  Lev didn't even get a chance to run before Katarina was on him, holding him in place by the arms.

  "So you're the wonderboy, hmm?" She stared into his eyes, her face inches from his own. "How did you get my mother's title?"

  Eh?

  "… Your mother's title?"

  "Youngest Prodigy. I know it gives 15 to each attribute and doubles every threshold. What were the requirements?"

  Lev's brain was trying and failing to comprehend what was happening. It took several seconds for him to blurt out a single thing.

  "You're a princess?"

  Lara pulled Katarina back, giving Lev some room to think. "Right, sorry. I just had to be the youngest to ever unlock a class."

  "That's all?" Lara asked gently.

  "Yeah, just says I am the youngest sentient to ever unlock a class."

  "Youngest sentient…"

  Katarina sat back down, lost in thought. Lara looked contemplative too, so Lev looked at Sherron for clarification.

  "They are just incredibly curious," she answered his silent question. "Nobody really knew why Queen Martha got the title in the first place, but they confirmed it was the same title."

  "Mother was pretty secretive about it, and for good reason. Obviously, that only made us more curious."

  Katarina huffed after speaking. "Really, I was tormented for so long for such a simple title? This feels like a cruel prank."

  Hey, don't insult my strongest source of power like that.

  Drakys clapped once, the sound loud enough that Lev's soul almost fled his body. He glared at the Exalted, who just grinned widely.

  "We're here for something much more important. Give me all the records," Drakys said and collected several books and diaries from Orianna and Alec.

  "See which ones you can read," Drakys handed Lev a diary. Opening it, Lev found it was written in English.

  "I can read this one," Lev stated. Since everyone was waiting for him, he started reading it out loud.

  'The only squad above level two hundred is going out again today. Lately, more and more monsters have started showing up outside our walls, never leaving us alone. It seems the world still has a lot of hardship in store for us.'

  "Seems like the earlier entries are missing," Lev said.

  'From our observations, they can reliably kill any monsters up to level 400, bless The System for their advantages, but four marks monsters still remain too strong. Only two have ever been brought down but it was a cause to celebrate nonetheless.'

  "Four marks?" Lara questioned before anyone else could speak.

  "Third threshold monsters, most likely," Lev replied. "They seemed pretty strong if they could kill monsters above level 500 before Master."

  "Even if the monsters were weaker due to the lower mana density, it is still an extraordinary feat," Drakys agreed.

  The next few pages were torn, their contents a mystery. Lev skipped to the intact ones.

  'The Sunwalkers have ascended another threshold. Each and every one of them has received an inconceivable boost in power, praise be to The System.

  We will survive.'

  "The first Masters of earth, makes sense for them to be freakishly strong," Sherron mused.

  'Four teams have been prepared, all of our finest combatants. The Juvenile astral walker will be rendered immobile by our strongest paralysis concoction and safeguarded in an -'

  Lev's reading paused abruptly as Drakys' aura unveiled itself for a brief instant, brimming with rage.

  "Sorry… just keep going."

  "What's so special about these astral walkers?" Lev risked asking.

  "They use space mana," Orianna replied. "The walkers are responsible for the fall of the Empyrean Empire. No matter how many monsters there were to fight, these were responsible for teleporting to populated planets and bringing waves of monsters with them."

  Lev's face darkened as she explained. He added the monsters on his just-created list of most hated beings. He would pay them back, eventually.

  'Salia gave birth last week, one of the first births in a long time. People refuse to relax when the sounds of battle keep them awake 24/7. Several people have picked up classes related to mundane professions…'

  The diary explained events about normal people, too wary of The System before, utilizing classes finally. Nobody had any questions about that. It took a while to go through them all before something unexpected came up.

  'The first space mage class has showed up. Just from the glossed-over details, I can deduce that the class is incredibly potent. Perhaps we finally have a chance to go outside these walls. Even if hope is almost non-existent, there is a small ember that refuses to be extinguished.

  Maybe, just maybe, there are others who survived. Maybe there is a world to return to, safe from this never-ending calamity.'

  "Space mage…" Lev whispered. The class sounded strong just from the name, but the sheer usefulness of a space mage seemed limitless. Unfortunately, that was all in the diary, not giving the present company any clue about how it may be possible.

  "Well, that was depressing. Felt like being teased by the tip-" Katarina started, interrupted by a slap on the back of her head. Lara shook her head, disgusted.

  Lev gave her an unamused look as well. "Please mind your language. There's an eleven-year-old present in the room."

  "No eleven-year-old knows what that means," she replied with a smile. "How do you know?"

  Lev looked at the rest of the room. "No one told them?"

  Their smiles were answer enough, and now the princesses were dying to know.

  "You can keep guessing," Lev replied with a toothy smirk, very much enjoying getting back at them after the earlier treatment.