Percy was once again in the space between worlds, finally ready to return to the Vault. However, he wasn’t in a rush to look for a proper host just yet, wanting to test something else first.

  Seeping into the first injured body he saw, he found himself possessing some kind of Red critter. A cursory examination of the creature and its surroundings revealed that it was just a mundane animal – it didn’t even qualify as a magical beast. It resembled a rodent that he estimated was small enough to fit inside a man’s hand.

  ‘I won’t be completing any challenges with this guy, that’s for sure…’ He shrugged – about as well as his current physique would allow. ‘Metatron can do whatever he wants with him after I’m done.’

  Technically, his new pal was now a two-cored specimen that the titan was obligated to feed and treat well based on their previous deal, though Percy would be lying if he said he truly cared what happened to the equivalent of an alien rat.

  Placating the creature so that it wouldn’t move around too much, he forcefully suppressed the blessing in his soul, feeling his spectral traits about to run amok again. He stopped right before he injured himself, concealing the concept as best as he could.

  Before fusing with Micky, he had yet to perfect this technique, though his elevated mental prowess had made things easier since. Of course, it was either this or maintaining an empowered connection to his main body – he couldn’t handle both at once. At least, not without impacting his ability to undertake the challenges.

  ‘There’s also a chance that Metatron has learned about the blessing already…’ he reminded himself.

  While he’d done his best to hide it during his escape from Thess’kala, and while he’d barely spent a few seconds in the artificial world at the time, he might have failed to trick the titan. On top of that, Kassorith had seen all three of his spectral traits at work, so Metatron had everything he needed to piece the information together if he knew anything about the subject.

  ‘Oh well… there’s no going back now. Besides, it’s not like I had a choice.’

  He sighed mentally. The alternative had been to fall into Syrreneth’s clutches, losing all his gains from the greater spring.

  The good news was that he’d thought of an excuse since then, so even if the titan grilled him about the blessing, Percy might be able to keep the Mirror Lake and the Ring of Sacrilege secret.

  Summoning a portal on the ground, he allowed himself to sink inside, landing on the cold, metallic floor of the artificial world. The critter panicked upon seeing towering humanoids walking everywhere around it, one even coming close to stomping the poor thing to death. Scurrying away, it searched for the nearest spot to hide from the giants.

  Meanwhile, Percy had lost any interest in his host’s shenanigans. The creature wouldn’t have been alive without him, so coming here was just the price it would have to pay for its second chance. If it got lucky, it might even get pampered by Metatron.

  Focusing on more important matters, he reached into the deepest recesses of his mind to activate Ludwick’s Compass. Evidently, Percy could freely control the colour of the pyres too, so he ignited the nearest training cube with a blue flame to differentiate it from the amber marks that would hopefully lead him back to Robari one day.

  Leaving the creature behind, he returned to Remior, doing his best to retain the location of the Vault as he did so. He had to bring the mark back to his main body, otherwise his other clones wouldn’t be able to track down the artificial world.

  After getting replaced by a new clone, he set out for the Vault once more. Reaching the blue flame suspended in the middle of nowhere didn’t take long, though the “sight” that greeted his eyeless wisp made him frown internally.

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  ‘Success? Or not quite?’

  In the distance, he sensed a world with sapient souls. There were fewer people than most other places he’d been to, though many of them were at the higher grades. It had to be the Vault, right? What were the odds that the mark had accidentally led him to another lesser spring with similar demographics? At the very least, this would suggest that his new mindset wasn’t entirely useless.

  Still, he wasn’t in a mood to celebrate either.

  The artificial world was quite far from the mark and was moving away rapidly. It hadn’t been that long since he left – Percy had rushed to Remior and back as fast as he could have – yet he would have surely missed it if he’d taken any longer.

  ‘Okay… I don’t think the mark was off. Maybe the Vault is just constantly moving through the cosmos.’

  Hopefully, regular worlds didn’t do that – or at least not nearly this fast – otherwise he’d struggle to use Ludwick’s Compass the way he wanted. This was something he’d have to investigate later, but he’d have to send his clones to the Vault the good old way for now.

  Since he was here, he decided to take a peek at the artificial world from the outside.

  ‘Hmmm… I can see mortals up to White, but no gods or demigods,’ he concluded after a while, finding that odd.

  Percy knew that Metatron had both under his command, so he had no idea what this meant. Had the titan enchanted the place to conceal its deities? Would he even bother to do that? And even if he did, why would he let the mortals remain visible?

  No… a better explanation was that their top dogs happened to be away on missions. Whatever the case, it didn’t look like Percy would be able to learn how much military might Metatron had under his control.

  He scanned the Vault in search of a host. A local would be ideal, as they would be familiar with the challenges and have a body ready for Circulation. As a bonus, Percy wouldn’t have to drop an outsider into the callous titan’s tentacles.

  Sadly, he found nobody on the verge of death even after waiting for several minutes. While the Vault was obviously a brutal place, its population was clearly small enough that they didn’t have someone dying all the time.

  He suddenly had the urge to chuckle. ‘Wow… today is really not going my way, is it?’

  First, the mindset hadn’t worked as intended, then he’d failed to scout out the Vault’s strength, and now he couldn’t even find a local to possess. It might just be karma for the way he’d treated the critter.

  ‘Whatever. No sense in crying over spilt milk.’

  Since the artificial world was still within view, he was bound to find a host if he stuck in its vicinity for a couple of days, though the other clones would likely have to look for outsiders.

  His goal for the next several months was simple. He wanted to possess a Yellow-born sapient at Yellow, while his siblings would pick an Orange Orange-born and a Red Red-born. This would allow each to access a different set of challenges, while their second cores would start at the same grade as their existing ones, giving them the greatest boost.

  Percy had even packed enough food and healing potions into the seals to last him for several months of training, so that he could prepare the bodies for Synchronization. They were all going to be eligible for free sizian meat thanks to him, but he didn’t want them consuming any beast mana and risking an accidental advancement if he could avoid it.

  With that much fighting strength, the combat challenges would be a breeze. Thanks to the Scribing trait and his runecrafting practice over the past few years, the same should be true about the magiscript challenge.

  ‘Let’s aim to clear at least six waves for each level,’ he thought.

  He’d obviously try to get as far as possible, but he wanted to get all the bonus rewards at least. With over twenty thousand credits and nine additional prizes, he expected this to turn into one of his most profitable missions yet.

  Most of the things he had his eyes on were related to magiscript – because of course they were. This was one of the best places in the universe to study the art, and it tied heavily into his future plans. However, there were a couple of additional things that he was interested in.

  As for the Green challenges?

  Well… Percy was confident that he could complete a few, but they were more problematic than the rest. Finding a dying Green-born to possess would be a pain, so he’d probably have to settle for a Yellow-born who had advanced once, ending up with a weaker second core.

  Also, the magiscript challenge was bound to be an absolute bitch even after taking his recent progress into account, so he didn’t know if he would be able to clear six waves.

  ‘Either way, I only have three cords at the moment. It’ll have to wait until one of the other clones is done.’

  Thinking about all the valuables he was about to get, his non-existent lips parted into a grin. So far, Metatron had come on top of most of their trades. Sure, Percy had gained a lot from the Vault too, but the titan had basically taught Circulation to all of his subjects because of him.

  Thankfully, all of that was in the past. Percy had finally amassed enough tricks up his sleeve to start getting a lot more out of his deal with the titan.

  ‘Let’s rob this place clean.’

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