A portal twisted around Aaron, transporting him away from the trials and to his new quest. And to some surprise, he appeared beside Benigoreng.

  The scenery was very familiar. It appeared that the System hadn’t just taken the ichthyoids' likeness for the trial, but the entire world they lived on. Except this wasn’t the city.

  There was the same beautiful coral and sea formations as he had seen previously, but there was no sign of civilization here. Well, not any recent civilization.

  Below them, two massive ichthyoid statues wielded crossed tridents that hung over a rather ominous-looking cave tunnel. And surrounding them were ruins that covered the ocean floor as far as he could see.

  “That’s it,” Benigoreng nodded toward the tunnel. “The passage leading down to the world core.”

  “Wait a minute,” Aaron raised a hand. “I need a little explanation. You said your world core was dying, or dead, I forget. Not important. But you didn’t mention something plaguing it. Also, I kind of got the feeling you couldn’t do anything about it. Now we’re just going to waltz in there and solve the problem? Why couldn’t you just do that?”

  “You’re correct, human. It is not as simple as it sounds. Deep within my world, there are two Leviathan energy leeches. These massive beasts have grown powerful from feeding on our world core.”

  “Why not just march down there with an army and kick their ass? Those sea serpent riders were pretty badass.”

  “Because we can’t,” Benigoreng sighed. “Even in its frail and dying state, the world core still holds great power. Power enough to determine who enters its inner chamber, and who doesn’t.”

  Aaron nodded along. He was listening, but it was hard not to run off with his imagination. The whole thing about world cores was truly fascinating, and he found himself wondering what Superearth’s world core would be like and if they would be threatened by such things.

  What if someone like Darius takes control over it?

  It was a troubling thought, but luckily, he was in the perfect situation to find out a little more about how these things worked.

  “So, anybody can just take over a world core?”

  “No. The entrance to a world core can usually only be opened by the world lord, which requires at least eighty percent of world control.”

  “I see. And do you get anything for that?” Aaron probed, wanting to learn as much as he could while he was here.

  “You do,” the sea king confirmed. “Additional System controls related to planetary control. It was once the throne room for our kings many centuries ago. I inherited this world after it had already fallen from its graces, and have never been inside.”

  “Tragic,” Aaron said.

  “It is. And now they control the world core. But they do not control the levers of power which the world core answers to. This is our chance. Despite their control over it, they cannot stop me from entering with a party of up to five, as I am the elected king of this world.”

  “Why only five, and how did they get in there in the first place if only the lord controls it?”

  “Firstly, they have latched onto the core, giving them direct control over the world core and granting them many abilities. However, despite that, they cannot restrict the rightful ruler of the world from entering the inner core. And when it comes to entering restricted areas, my direct party is subject to the same rules as I. And a party had a limit of five.”

  “And secondly,” he continued. “They are parasites. They clung undetected to a long-dead king after he ventured into the depths to destroy one of their hives. When he returned to the chamber, they escaped and began to grow strong, draining our world core’s power.”

  Aaron nodded along. These leeches sounded like a real pain. Also, he really didn’t know too much about parties, but he remembered raiding parties because of the trials. As far as he was aware, they could be huge. But it sounded like different rules were applied to raiding parties and direct parties.

  “I had long planned this fight… but with four of my champions at my side,” Benigoreng continued. “We were almost ready before the System offered us the quest. We couldn’t turn such an opportunity down, and now here we are.”

  “Quite the story, mate. Sorry, you just got me and not the rest of your champions–”

  “No!” The sea king raised a hand. “I should be on my knees bowing to you. You proved yourself by reaching my chamber and besting me. Having you at my side is far more valuable than my champions. I shall be in your eternal debt for this act of kindness.”

  “Err, cheers mate,” Aaron said. He had never been the best at taking excessive compliments. Also, he wasn’t sure if the sea king knew how many times he had died to reach him. If he did, maybe he wouldn’t be quite as confident in taking on this challenge alongside him. Then again, he felt oddly confident.

  “Shall we kick some energy sucking bastard ass then?”

  “We shall,” Benigoreng nodded and led Aaron down through the tunnel.

  It was quite the journey down into the world's core, and sure enough, they reached what looked like a formidable forcefield. As Benigoreng had mentioned, the sea king invited Aaron into his party, and they harmlessly passed through the forcefield.

  Eventually, they reached a massive chamber, and at its heart was an impressive core about the size of a large house with a marble-like surface. Energy crackled all around it like a plasma sphere, and it didn’t take long to spot the leeches.

  Leviathan Energy Leech [ Level 100 ]

  Titles: [ Energy Hog ]

  This wasn’t any ordinary challenge, Aaron realized as he looked upon the gigantic sea creatures. They were at the base of D grade, making them incredibly formidable foes indeed. But only a single title, leading him to believe that despite their level, they might not be so strong.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “Were your people always restricted from reaching D grade?” Aaron probed. He wanted to know a little more before the fight started; after all, he could die now.

  His first thoughts were that, despite looking scary enough, a couple of base D-grade beasts shouldn’t be too hard for an entire civilization to deal with.

  “Our world was a vassal to a larger empire within our sector. D grades and above were recruited as warriors. A shortsighted practice that left us unprepared to defend against these horrors when they showed themselves. It was right after our king left with his elites to join a battle alongside our overlords. With them gone, our people could do little, and we lost control of our portals as the leeches took control over the world’s core powers. With no control over our world, we couldn’t call for help.”

  “That’s it? Your overlords couldn’t do anything else?”

  “They didn’t care enough to try. We were just one weak world among thousands that bowed to them. Once the portals were closed, the task of freeing us from these beasts became too much of a burden, and they left us to solve it ourselves.”

  That’s rough. But at least it explains why a couple of base-level D grades could conquer an entire world.

  At first, Aaron had been a little anxious about the fight. He hadn’t really made sense that this ancient civilization had been overthrown by something relatively weak, and figured they must be stronger than they looked. But now? Well, the pieces had all fallen together, and he felt confident enough in challenging these beasts.

  “Alright, makes sense. So, shall we do this?”

  “One each?”

  Aaron nodded. There were two leeches, and two of them. Hopefully, he had what it took to hold out against even a weak D grade.

  They spent a minute buffing and activating Skills, and then shot toward their respective opponents.

  And the moment they did, Aaron understood precisely why these leeches had caused such a problem for the fishmen.

  Snapping their suctioning maws away from the core, they turned to them and sucked. Literal whirlpools swirled into their razor-lined mouths, and any and all energy in the direction they faced was drawn into them.

  Even Aaron, with all of his reserves, regeneration, and adipose filled to the brim, could feel the overwhelming draw against his energy, and was weakening by the second.

  It wasn’t easy to avoid either. The attack didn’t even need to land, just be faced in his general direction to pull all of his energy out, making it extraordinarily difficult to avoid.

  He even tried eating and cycling to see if he would overwhelm its power, but that was useless too. It consumed far, far more of his energy than he could possibly recover.

  His brow bent, and there was only one thing left to do. Throw caution to the wind, and punch the fucker in the face.

  Shooting forward with incredible speed, he did just that. But the results were a little different from what he had expected. The physical punch did almost nothing, although perhaps that shouldn’t have been a surprise against a D-grade beast.

  However, the spiritual punch was perhaps the most effective it had ever been.

  The leviathan leech screeched in rage and slammed itself against the chamber walls, loosening rocky debris and howling.

  It did not like its energy being attacked.

  It had one very big problem, though. For all its power, it was a big motherfucker, and it was not hard to hit.

  Also, it seemed almost entirely reliant on energy-stealing Skills. It drained Aaron incredibly fast, though, which was actually pretty scary despite the fact that it did not cause any direct physical damage.

  And since he couldn’t escape its attacks, he decided to tank them, slamming spirit punches into it as he ate simultaneously.

  Eating in the middle of a fight really wasn’t practical, whilst dodging and all that. But when he was just standing still, throwing punches, it was very different.

  The massive leech did not like this. Aaron wasn’t just breaking down its energy reserves, which it coveted greedily, but attacking its ability to regenerate and cycle energy.

  But Aaron quickly realized that this was dangerous. He had come far, but his technique simply didn’t work against the stronger foe. The leech was simply better at draining him, even though it wasn’t directly attacking his energy organs or preventing him from regenerating.

  Within seconds of the fight starting, he was almost completely drained of everything, and even with the powerful energy-draining attacks he was countering with, and the fact that it couldn’t regenerate itself, the leech was actually recovering its energy faster than it was being drained.

  The energy siphoning of the leech was simply incredible, and it was clear that Aaron couldn’t beat it at its own game.

  This wasn’t good. In a moment, he would be sucked entirely dry of energy and likely killed. Heck, he didn’t even know whether or not the leech could drain aether as well. If it could, perhaps it could destroy his spirit.

  He needed a new plan, and fast.

  Glancing over at Benigoreng, he saw that the sea king wasn’t faring much better. Still, he was level 99, and he had a powerful array of Skills under his command, and had drawn blood and caused several wounds to open across the leech. However, the leech had almost completely drained him as well in the process, and unlike Aaron, once Benigoreng's energy was depleted, he would be a sitting duck, unable to recover.

  “Watch out, this might do something!” Aaron shouted, and the drained face of Benigoreng turned and nodded. It seemed that the sea king understood how desperate the situation had already become, even though the fight had just started, and was happy for him to try whatever he wanted to even the odds.

  Turning to the world core, Aaron shrugged. This was perhaps a very, very stupid idea. But he had to try it.

  Delving into his spirit, he threw almost all of his remaining aether into a spirit punch, leaving just enough for backup, and he swung at the thing.

  The world core was the heart of a literal planet, and channeled tremendous amounts of energy through the System, granting both life and power to the inhabitants. And it did not like someone messing with its very flow of energy.

  Now, this was a very specific attack. Attacking the core’s energy itself would have achieved nothing. It had energy equivalent to millions, if not billions, of people, and essentially beyond comprehension for someone of Aaron’s level.

  But it still cycled and produced energy, just like everything else in the multiverse, and whilst Aaron’s punch barely had enough power to stop that process for a microsecond, it had cataclysmic consequences.

  An explosion of energy burst out, filling the entire chamber with blinding white light. There was no escape, but to his surprise, it didn’t directly harm them.

  Instead, the blast was the most incredible EMP he had ever witnessed, and it drained all energy within the chamber in a split second.

  Aaron fell to the ground completely helpless. He literally didn’t have an ounce of strength in his body. Literally all energy had been drained from him, and he couldn’t even lift himself.

  However, he immediately realized that his spirit remained intact. It too had been weakened by the energy explosion, but nowhere near to the same degree.

  Drawing on the power of his spirit, he used every ounce of his mental willpower to push aether through his [ Reverse Cycle Faux Core ], kickstarting it back into action.

  Gasping for breath and drawing in water, he felt a tingle of energy return to his body.

  Squeezing his eyes shut and gritting his teeth, he forced more and more energy to cycle through him, and soon his core had fully reawakened, and with it, he restarted his energy organs.

  His fingers began to twitch, and he felt a sliver of strength returning to his body.

  It was barely anything, but it was enough to grab food from his scabbard and painfully chew it down.

  The moment food landed in his belly, the situation began to change, and Aaron’s energy began to flood back through his veins.

  Still eating and taking in large amounts of water, as it was no easy task eating deep under the ocean, he looked around.

  Benigoreng and the two leeches were still, their bodies unmoving and floating in the chamber devoid of energy.

  He could sense that they were trying to do what he just did, but whilst they were stronger than him, and better at draining energy, they didn’t come close to comparing to his resilience.

  Clenching a fist, he swam to the nearest leech as he continued to recover his reserves.

  It was time to put these big bastards out of their misery.

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