Derek watched the final Aspect dissolve in his palm as he slotted it.

  That had taken a long time, but he’d finally gotten them all, leaving him with remaining XP in the single digits, but a bevy of new [Skills] and fifty new Stat points from the various Aspects, though the latter had been rather haphazardly distributed according to what the Aspects demanded, rather than by his own choice.

  And those were the main [Skills] he’d gotten out of the deal, at least the ones that wouldn’t be overriden by the FTL Aspects the moment he could.

  Alright, and now …

  So, those were his current offerings …

  [Arcane Duelist] was out, for obvious reasons. It was of the lowest quality, and it was related to the use of the rapier that Derek had been using less and less.

  As for [Scholar of War], oddly enough, it shared a name with his [Skill], but was of a significantly lower rarity and not quite what he wanted or needed.

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  [Studious Captain] was solid but not outstanding, and he was going for another [Class].

  [Erudite Warmage], meanwhile, was gratifying to see as it meant that his studies did translate to real progress.

  And finally, there was [Adapted Human]. That one was … well, it was a good [Class], but it was also the precursor to [Chimera], and as such, the moment he’d seen it, he’d known he’d fallen short of his goal.

  And as [Chimera] itself was not on the list … Derek glared at the slot currently taken up by his draconic Aspect, which lacked a suitable candidate for stacking.

  He supposed he could pay the 1,000 XP to remove that, slot in something that could be doublestacked with what he could access himself, then take it back out again if that did, in fact, unlock [Chimera], and put in the dragon Asp- … except he’d get a free Aspect slot at that point anyway.

  If he’d thought things through properly, he’d have realized that and been able to grab something more immediately useful while saving the dragon Aspect for later.

  Well, that had been dumb, but it was still fixable. The first Aspect would have been wasted, as were the thousand XP used to slot it, and the thousand XP he’d have to waste to remove it, but in the grand scheme of things, that wasn’t a ruinous amount.

  Also, Space Elemental had the same issue, but that one was actually helpful, and he couldn’t take advantage of the free slot “loophole” twice.

  Though, at the same time, there was at least one documented case of someone managing to get [Chimera] with a Lesser Space Elemental Aspect unstacked, so perhaps he only needed to deal with the dragon “issue.”

  And if that still didn’t do it … he’d have to resort to some more serious measures.

  Derek had thankfully decided to save all the various Aspects that had dropped while he’d been XP farming, so he did have those, but he’d still need three thousand XP to remove and add the Aspects in question.

  Back to summoning he went.

  As for the Aspects he’d slot temporarily, he settled on golems; he had those, and they’d also work with his idea of a “serious measure.”

  He was done with that by evening, down the five Agility he’d gotten from the Drake Aspect, but up fifteen Fortitude from the double-stacked golem Aspect he’d gotten instead.

  Yet nothing had changed with the offered [Classes].

  Yeah … serious measures it was.

  ***

  Five hours later, night had fallen Derek was ready to do something monumentally stupid. Namely, earn a Tier 6 Aspect, any Tier 6 Aspect, so he could slot that. It wasn’t normally needed for [Chimera], simply having enough was normally, well, enough, but having gained some of his Aspects via the bloodline had apparently screwed some things up, and the thought of making everyone wait while he readied one hundred and twenty-four thousand more XP … he couldn’t ask that of them. Trying something risky for a few days seemed like the least he could do.

  But calling this “risky” was vastly underselling both the danger involved and the precautions taken.

  Tier 6 “only” covered Levels 26 through 49, and would be on the weaker end of them to boot, so nothing that genuinely threatened the structural integrity of the academy, but it was at a point where warning people about what he was about to call into this world was necessary.

  Furthermore, Derek himself had to prepare in all sorts of ways, of which relocating to a larger room was only the least.

  He’d also grabbed a reinforced pickaxe, gotten better healing potions, and replaced all armor with simple, form-fitting clothing that would merely protect him from road rash … which was just about the only thing that armor could save him from, considering his current limitations.

  Then, he spent nearly an hour preparing the field of battle, using [Quagmire] to soften up the ground and form “traps,” infusing [Mana Burst] into nearly fifty [Spellmines] scattered around the ground, with the latter cued to only target summoned monsters.

  His bloodline’s healing mana capacitor was full, his overall mana pool was also topped up, Derek had mapped out the entire room and planned when, where, and how to manipulate space, if the opportunity arose.

  Around the room were scattered several layers of corridors that were likewise a part of the summoning room, a place to play the “mouse” part of “cat and mouse” within.

  And there was every chance all of that wasn’t going to be anywhere near enough … but at the same time, the [System] put hard limits on how many preparations, especially traps, could be made before it invalidated the fight and withheld the loot (though injuries to the summoner and damages to surroundings would remain no matter what).

  It. Was. Nuts.

  But at the same time … he’d be mad if he didn’t try it. Or at least that was what Derek told himself as he triggered the summoning circle for the Lesser Rock Titan and the world trembled.

  The creature erupted from the circle in an instant, all ten meters of it, a height that would have seen it scrape the ceiling in the previous room, its magically reinforced titanium skeleton buried beneath layer upon layer of dirt and rock, a combination capable of warding off all kinds of attacks, devoid of inherent weaknesses beyond excessive force. And the damn thing turned out to be fast, as it threw itself at him.

  It was still slow, by the standards of its Level, but at the same time, Derek should in absolutely no way have been fighting something like this. But he was.

  And thus, he charged!

  A couple of steps carried him into what felt like a wall at first, an impact like hitting the surface of a pool you’d jumped in from far too high … and then the [Aura] whose perimeter he’d breached began to press down on him with no way to resist but to doggedly move forward.

  To charge right at the point between the monster’s legs, pickaxe in hand, [Variable Weapon Empowerment] burning at full blast, the head of the weapon pitch black and all but oozing lethality as he hammered the point through the Lesser Rock Titan’s shin.

  Or the surface layer of armor, at least, far less than three hundred points of mana worth of reinforcement should have bought him. Granted, everything around the point of impact cracked, rock shards and clouds of dirt cascading down as Derek legged it, feeling the air itself seemingly growing solid as the monster turned to gain a proper bearing on the ant that had run between its legs …

  A titanic fist slammed down a mere meter behind Derek, the resultant shockwave hurling him forward and out of the influence of its [Aura].

  Ow.

  Yet as he hauled himself onto his feet, the lack of pressure meant his flight from the monster left him feeling as though he were moving like the wind!

  … Which could only mean he’d likely find himself fucked over in a way that brought him back down to reality in the near future.

  And Derek didn’t stop running until he’d reached the far wall, turning to see the monster a mere fifteen meters behind him, and even that had only been achieved thanks to all the mines that had exploded beneath it and slowed its progress.

  Now that he was seeing it from further back, the damage he’d done really wasn’t seeming all that impressive. A single layer stripped away, though thankfully on a decently large area, leaving almost the entire right foot noticeably thinner.

  Yet it was just cosmetic damage. Any damage to anything save the skeleton underneath would fail to hinder it in any way, and unless he managed to dig all the way down to the core in the deepest part of its chest, he’d never be able to stop it.

  A pulse of mana collapsed space between him and the monster, bringing him within range of its [Aura] once again … and it within reach of his pickaxe, empowered with another two hundred and fifty mana, hammering cleanly through the rock armor and unleashing a shockwave into the layer of dirt beneath, overpressure rupturing most of that stone layer up to the knee, then he released the manipulation of space and ran.

  That worked all of five seconds, the fact that his back was to a wall preventing him from running in a straight line away from the creature. And escaping into the walls right in front of the monster would have it crash straight through immediately, actually putting him in more danger, as the concrete would add an area of effect to any attacks it made …

  When the golem kicked him, Derek divorced himself from gravity, letting the blow sweep him away rather than crushing his ribs. A fairly standard tactic among those who had a magic that allowed for it to be pulled off, but he’d failed to account for the goddamn [Aura] and the fact that it left him feeling like a fly stuck in amber.

  Oh, his “move” still sort of worked, lessening the impact and turning it into momentum for himself instead, yet by the time he’d hit the ground and stopped rolling, just about every bone in his body save his head, which he’d made sure to protect, felt like it was cracked at the very least.

  At least he’d cancelled the [Skill] in time and not wound up bouncing off the ceiling … so there was that.

  Derek could feel the injuries knit themselves back together while running his blooline’s mana storage dry in an instant, and his actual mana pool was almost empty as well.

  All in exchange for … motherfucker.

  All in exchange for taking off half the layers of the bottom half of one leg, with all layers effectively being sacrificial, useless as anything except bullet sponges keeping the main “body” in the form of its titanium skeleton further from harm.

  But even if it had cost him his reserves, that kick had opened up the range again, and that gave Derek an opening to run like hell, dive through the nearest door, and then move as far as from it as humanly possible without making noise, the “active effort to hide” suspending the [System’s] usual procedure of telling monsters where their summoners were.

  The crashing of walls being brought down began ten seconds later, but at a sufficient distance that Derek felt “safe,” or at least as safe as he could be, considering the situation, and he continued to scurry onwards, while waiting for his mana to regenerate …

  Unfortunately, the monster didn’t seem inclined to give him that time, crashing into Derek’s hidey-corridor not even five meters away.

  Shit.

  He ran, throwing out a [Hologram] of a black wall behind him, with the flat plane of darkness repeated every fifty centimeters or so, a layered barrier of sightblockers that would do precisely nothing to stop the monster, but, well, blocking its sight was the only goal, and it did that perfectly.

  Derek crept back out into the main room the moment he’d reached a wall, eternally grateful that the Lesser Rock Titan had a field of view comparable to a human, despite the fact that it had no eyes or other physiological reasons for that to be the case.

  And from there … he just stayed behind it, as the monster continued to smash everything it could in an attempt to find him.

  It felt like something out of a children’s cartoon, the burglar creeping behind the guard, following his every movement, always a single unexpected movement away from discovery, yet perpetually outside his field of view. Just in an adult context, with lethal consequences for failure…

  How long could he keep this up? He could defer the need for sleep for a good while thanks to his Fortitude, but staying focused for that long was a whole other kettle of fish.

  For nearly half an hour, the bizarre spectacle of walking after the monster continued, working until it didn’t.

  Derek had no idea what had gone wrong, and likely never would, but when the monster moved, spinning to face him with an alacrity that still shocked him even now.

  Yet he charged, the familiar feeling of smashing through the outer edges of its [Aura] still crushing and painful, pickaxe aiming at hte leg he’d been working on all this time, slamming home once, then twice before he fled once more, dropping his weapon just to be able to do so just that little bit more quickly, both separating himself from gravity and kicking off the monster’s chest to hurl himself as from it as possible, only risking a glance back once he’d left the range of its [Aura].

  Derek could feel his heart leap into his throat as he saw the creature’s fist swish past mere centimeters from the bottom of his boots, the wind created by its enough to send him tumbling, but even so, what really drew the eye was the leg. Or rather, what was left of it.

  Above the knee, everything was as normal.

  Below it … he grinned savagely. Below it lay only a titanium rod, ending in a skeletal “foot,” finally giving him a clean target.

  As he landed, Derek spun, ignoring the fact that the titan was chasing after him, and concentrated hellfire in his right palm, compressing it into a lance to hurl into the legbone, right where it had been exposed.

  Even if he’d poured out the entirety of his mana pool five times over, he wouldn’t have been able to burn through the leg as a whole. With just the “bone” exposed, however?

  As its lower leg fell off in a spray of sparks and molten metal, the golem began to fall, forcing Derek to scramble away to avoid having it end up on top of him, and get clear of it as it was already rising back onto its feet, using the stump as a replacement for its right foot, its gait unsteady. But it was still advancing … slowly.

  For all its absurd ability to build functioning joints out of rock, the placement of said joints was fixed. And, unlike a more powerful rock-type monster, it couldn’t simply shuffle around some mass to create a fully intact, if smaller, form.

  Next step … run like hell and hope he’d slowed it enough.

  That was when the hurled chunk of debris slammed into his back, pitching Derek across the floor with what felt like at least a few broken ribs.

  What the hell had it thrown?

  Thankfully, he’d still managed to keep his wits about him, rolling to his feet and continuing to run while he channeled mana into his healing ability, drawing directly from his pool and finally glancing behind him the moment he’d gotten far enough.

  The fucking thing was throwing pieces of its own goddamn leg.

  … That made a disturbing amount of sense.

  Burning the last drops of his mana, he used another [Hologram] to shield his sight, then snuck into the walls again, to recover his mana.

  Yet this time, he only had a scant thirty seconds before the monster began smashing up the corridors again.

  Fucking hell.

  ***

  Three hours and a half a dozen more rounds of “combat” later, Derek was out of hidey-holes and breathing heavily, scrambling back from a Lesser Rock Titan that had likewise suffered, having lost the lower portion of its other leg, and was currently crawling across the floor, dragging itself along with its massive hands, both of which were only lightly damaged.

  Derek put his hands together and dumped almost the entirety of his mana pool into the [Disaster Relief] spell, taking all the debris scattered throughout the room, and chucking it into one corner, where it fused together into a solid, stable, block, all to deny it ammo.

  With a sigh of relief, he turned to face the creature, licking lips that had gone dry at some point in the fight.

  He wasn’t quite done, not just yet, but he’d won.

  The monster was still terrifyingly fast for something of its size and mass, even dragging itself across the floor, but it had nevertheless been significantly slowed, which bought him the time to start burning off its fingers, one by one.

  Between its innate toughness, the fact that he hadn’t been able to knock off all the protective layers, and the defensive properties of the [Aura], each one required a genuinely eye-watering amount of mana to destroy, but after an entire hour of running away and hurling hellfire every time his mana had regenerated, it was done, further cutting down on its mobility and ability to drag itself along.

  So Derek cast yet another spell, an enchantment if you wanted to get technical, [Frictionless Field], sinking into the floor of the summoning room. It wasn’t quite as absolute as the name indicated, had the monster still had the extra friction provided by digging its fingers in, it would likely only have been slowed, but with only stumps remaining, it was effectively immobile.

  From there, it was a simple matter of “flying” above it using his usual combination of zero gravity and [Mana Burst], dropping down on its back, and ramming a glowing orange rapier into its torso.

  Then, once the strength and anti-armor enhancement had faded, Derek switched to the armor-destroying variant, which could, if sufficiently spammed, reduce the structural integrity of whatever the weapon was stuck in until it simply fell apart, effectively melting a hole through the rock, down into the core of the monster while the flailed beneath him.

  Until, eventually, a message finally flashed before his eyes.

  Oh …

  Derek sighed in relief. Finally done.

  But at the same time, the one thing he’d really wanted, the Aspect, had not dropped. Which also meant that he’d have to do this all again …

  ***

  Four tries. Four tries and seven days. That was how long it took him to get his Aspect, even with the increase to the drop rate, fighting up such a steep Level difference should have given.

  He only hoped that this would finally prove enough …