The monsters stand packed shoulder to shoulder. Their chitin looks rough and dark like scorched bone. Their eyes glow with a dull red that never blinks. Their arms end in hooked blades that jut out like broken scythes. Their mandibles click as they breathe, and the sound fills the whole room like grinding stones. Their legs bend the wrong way, and each step lands with a hard scrape against the floor.

  Nimirea watches on silently as Jacob tackles the first monster horde.

  The Celestial Tower doesn’t have large floors and many rooms. It’s one room per floor with a bunch of monsters all packed together. Even with a team of people capable of fighting at Diamond Rank, it would be hard to clear it easily.

  She’s watching as Jacob ducks under a blow, swears to high heaven, and then bisects a Demonic Insectoid Swordsman at Level 530.

  Nimirea’s Eye of the Prophet lets her see which Skills he’s actually using.

  First Step of Mephistus to move while his infernal Veins are firing at full power. His newly acquired Infernal Well is very sluggish in the way it transfers power around his body. It shows that he hasn’t had time yet to level it up with the Grimoire.

  At the same time, Nimirea, who has always thought Jacob had just been lucky, is forced to admit something.

  His natural inclination for Mana circulation is… incredible.

  Her Skill, among other things, tells her the level of the Skill used.

  [Infernal Well - Level 5]

  Then, moments later.

  [Infernal Well - Level 7]

  One would expect that he would have to be able to stop and use the Grimoire in-between fights for him to advance this quickly. Instead, he’s just going at it like a madman.

  Jacob might have put up a calm demeanor with her, so much that it shook her. Yet, now, she can see his frustration in the furious way he slashes at the monsters.

  He’s rattled by what happened.

  Yet, Nimirea would lie if she herself didn’t admit that Jacob rattled her.

  [Shard Dominion - Level 100]

  Nimirea sees Jacob parry and redirect a sword of a Demonic Insectoid Swordsman into a Demonic Insectoid Archer, killing one and then piercing the neck of the other.

  The monsters here are just at Early Diamond Rank. If Jacob is struggling so much against them, he’s got no chance of making it to his master’s Secret Room.

  And even if he did, there would be nothing he could do for Baalrek.

  It’s the Mad God’s curse we’re talking about. It’s something his master couldn’t do anything about. He should just destroy the Soul Fragment and get out of here as quickly as possible.

  Yet, Nimirea is under a very specific impression.

  Jacob didn’t have a strong reaction to the fact that she corrupted the Soul Fragment that Baalrek had left in Jacob’s soul. But, he doesn’t seem like a man who’s despairing. Instead, with the way he’s fighting…

  [Sigil of Baal - Level 100]

  She sees him slow down a group of the insectoids and activate his new Skill, Diavolo Hypercut, which he evolved from sacrificing Diavolo Draw and Flame Slash.

  [Diavolo Hypercut - Level 1]

  It generates an impossibly sharp energy attack which easily cuts through a small wave of monsters.

  [Diavolo Hypercut - Level 3]

  Then, one more slash.

  [Diavolo Hypercut - Level 5]

  Insane, she mutters. That’s not the Grimoire.

  She knows better than giving all the merit of what’s happening to the Grimoire Extraordinaire. She knows much better than that because she knows just how hard it would be for Jacob to split his focus during the battle. Therefore, he must be using his talent for improving Skills on a subconscious level, in a way that feels completely natural. It’s like slightly adjusting your foot placement on harsher terrain, something that comes natural to all creatures. Yet, what Jacob is doing is the equivalent of sprouting new limbs and being able to use them as well as the ones he was born with.

  He finally cuts down the last monster and is panting and wiping sweat from his forehead.

  “Already tired?” Nimirea mocks him. “You know, there are eight more floors,” she says.

  “There’s no problem, I just need a moment to rest,” he says as a portal appears at the center of the room.

  “Take your time,” Nimirea says, not really knowing what else to add to the conversation. The previous exchange with Jacob left her so stunned that she’s not sure she wants to have any more exchanges with him and his sharp tongue.

  Jacob meditates for a while and Nimirea, at some point, sees him frown.

  “Problems?” She asks.

  “Hellraiser Sword is… way more complex than I imagined. The debuff effects are locked away and… each requires a specific Mana loop.”

  “It’s a very versatile Skill,” Nimirea comments. “Something like that would normally require years of practice. You’re too used to burning milestones one after the other. Some things require sacrifice.”

  “You should get a tattoo of that word,” Jacob replies, which makes Nimirea clench her fists. Seeing her getting mad, he actually opens his eyes from his meditative state and says, “I don’t think everything takes time. I think some people want to suffer—it gives them purpose. Without something grinding them to dust, they feel useless. There were some people who justified their miserable lives in the mines in that way. Oh, at least I suffer like a dog, which makes this absolutely terrible condition worth something.”

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “I don’t think I understood what you mean,” Nimirea says. “And why are you bringing up the mines so much?”

  “I didn’t know you were just the worse version of a type of character I’ve seen back in the mines so many times,” he replies.

  “Elaborate on that, Jacob.”

  Nimirea tries to make it sound like an order, but it oozes curiosity.

  “It’s pretty clear that some people want to justify their suffering by glorifying a shit life, right? You say that the hard work you’re doing is important—if it was meaningless, you might want to kill yourself otherwise.”

  “Sure,” Nimirea shrugs.

  “But the more interesting part is that the suffering has nothing to do with the work. It has to do with the story they tell themselves. They think that they’re noble because they endure pain. They want to believe that misery buys them a virtue they didn’t earn. They cling to the idea that their pain made them good men. If they stopped hurting, they’d have to admit they weren’t good at all. They’d just be men who wasted their lives in a hole. And once you accept that, the whole thing becomes… unbearable. You have to ask yourself why you’re down there. So, if you take away their suffering, they have nothing—they are nothing.”

  Jacob cracks his neck.

  “They want to suffer because they want the credit that comes from suffering, the admiration they think they’re owed. And mind you, I’m not talking about all miners. Just a very specific, self-righteous type who puts everybody else in danger with their foolishness. They don’t want ease because it would expose that they chose that life. That’s why I don’t trust people who brag about pain—they’re selling something. Usually to themselves.”

  “You think that’s me?” Nimirea laughs. “I don’t bleed because I want admiration. I bleed because power has a price, and I decided to pay all of it and more. You lecture me about using my misery to feel good, but aren’t you hiding from your own misery, is that the recipe you’re using?”

  “No—“

  “Yes. What are you invested into that means something to you?” Nimirea asks. “Why are you not crying about your master?”

  “Because I’m not you,” Jacob replies. “I don’t need to cry out loud to feel—and I don’t need to fake feeling in order to act. I will get King Baalrek’s sanity back.”

  “AH! So you admit you’re actually after that! I knew you were delusional. The Mad God, Jacob, the Mad God himself cursed your master. What do you think you can do?”

  “I guess there’s only one way to find out,” Jacob says, entering the second floor.

  Stunned by the refusal to answer, Nimirea follows Jacob.

  * * *

  Nimirea sees Jacob trying to level up Hellraiser Sword.

  Among Diamond-Ranked Skills, that is probably the highest end there is. It’s very powerful because it’s foundation to a Class—he wants a debuff Class and that’s just one Skill that provides all he needs, all the debuffs.

  In Nimirea’s optics, she understands why Jacob is chasing Hellraiser Sword. And it makes sense. Plus, he has the Grimoire supporting him.

  But the harsh truth is that Jacob already struggled way too much on the first floor. The Celestial Tower has a whooping nine floors and he’s getting all sweaty and to the limit of his own ability on floor number one. That means, in Nimirea’s books, that he’s MAYBE capable of getting up to the third or fourth floor before he might be in actual danger of losing his life.

  The second floor holds more of the Demonic Insectoid Swordsmen and Archers, much more densely packed, which makes them exponentially harder to deal with.

  Jacob uses Embrace of Darkness, one of the Skills he absorbed before the first battle.

  Embrace of Darkness sucks enemies dry, but the difference in Rank between Jacob and the monsters means that while, yes, it’s a much more powerful version of Web of Withering, there are too many monsters for him to use that effectively. There’s no way he can survive just by going on like this.

  [Embrace of Darkness - Level 3]

  [Embrace of Darkness - Level 7]

  His leveling up speed keeps being incredible, but he’s barely making any progress on Hellraiser Sword and that’s what he really needs to survive on the later floors.

  [Hellraiser Sword - Level 9]

  Nimirea can sense Jacob’s Mana fluctuating erratically within his body, causing internal damage, yet he remains unable to generate the required loops that would enable him to harness the full potential of the Skill.

  The second floor ends with a Jacob full of minor wounds, forced to wait half a day in a meditative state under the watchful gaze of Nimirea.

  She keeps wondering.

  How does he think he’s going to survive? Is he just full of bravado? He’s not an idiot. He’s a lucky bastard but he’s not an idiot. His gamble exposed my identity without trouble, so, what does he think he’s gambling on this time? And is he ready to casually stake his life on this? Why? He condemns my sacrifice but then acts like this? It makes no sense at all.

  “Jacob,” Nimirea, now bored, calls him out as his recovery process is almost completed.

  “Yeah, milady Dark Leader?”

  “I will slowly kill you when time is ripe. But I have a question.”

  “Please, ask. It’s not like you didn’t lock us up together. It feels like you really wanted to spend some alone time with me.”

  Nimirea takes out a vial of poison from her Interspatial Ring.

  “Why do you need a buff to beat me up?” Jacob asks, confused.

  “This is not for me,” she says. “It’s a very painful poison. Not deadly for someone like you. But very painful. It’d be the equivalent of being tortured for three days straight.”

  “Three days worth of poison?” Jacob shudders.

  “It should last a week, actually. I was just describing the level of pain.”

  “Ok, ok. Then, ask your question.”

  “What should the miners who’re bitter and, oh, so like me, do in your opinion?” Nimirea asks. “Should they organize a coup? And then what? Should they try to strike fortune on their own, to find a Rainbow Skill like you did? And what about those with a family? Rainbow Skills are not in infinite supply. In fact, outside this current era, it would be impossible to see so many appear at once. So, what would you have the miners do since you seem to have all the answers?”

  “Stop lying to themselves,” Jacob says, looking at her in the eye. “Stop using misery to justify the predictable pain of staying in a terrible situation. You can accept to stay in this terrible contract you forged for yourself, but admit that you signed it.”

  “So, you’re not interested in their freedom?”

  “If they want freedom, they can get after it. But they have to accept the fact that they might die to get it. I did. I risked my life. But I never lied to myself.”

  “So…”

  “Just don’t lie that the situation sucks and go on to pick something, even the shit situation.”

  “That’s it? Is this what the big hero stands for?”

  “Mining without great Skills or any inherent interest in it always sucks. And you can apply that to everything. If I can fix an injustice, I will because I want to. But I can’t choose for others. If I could, I would choose for you not to be a murderer and a monster. At best, I can show others like you what I choose and do. That’s about it. You make up your own mind about the rest—don’t leave it to me.”

  That said, Jacob steps onto the third floor.