Retcons from 153:

  > “Oh, I won’t do anything to you. In fact, Sid’fril explicitly made me promise I cannot lay a finger on you without your consent, however for this I don’t need to do anything but disable that pesky journal you acquired.”

  Changed ‘told me’ to ‘made me promise’.

  > Finally, her eyes landed on the final object, and just as she was about to sigh, she had a realization.

  > Sid’fril made him promise to not lay a finger on me, and he wants a vessel, huh?

  Changed the text in italics.

  Retcon 154:

  > She dares to try to use my contract conditions against me? How does she even know about it!

  Replaced the second sentence.

  Chapter 155:

  Amber was living her best life. She didn’t track the passage of time, she simply attacked. She strained herself and healed, all the traces from the hydra fight were now gone at this point. Anything that could have encumbered her was out of the way. Well, except for a mishap that happened a while back. It had truly been something that had almost stopped her heart from how disappointing it had been.

  She remembered it vividly even now.

  Her mouth tasted of iron. Her lungs burned with fire. And her muscles ached with the pain of strain. It was the state she had been in for the past hour, constantly exerting herself to push her limits further. And just like the hydra, going even beyond that and drawing strength she didn’t know she had.

  Her vision was blurry, but amidst the haze of objects around her, she could see one thing: her target. The Primordial Spirit of the Shattered Tower. The god that wanted her to become a vessel. And that’s why, even though she felt like collapsing; even though she was on the verge of passing out; she pushed forward.

  She went farther, even pushing her own swordsmanship in ways she didn’t think of. After all, what kind of god would just let her hit him without even dodging? That’s why she found herself improving, and yearning for the ecstatic feeling of seeing said improvement. The feeling of growing stronger?— No, the feeling of growing more proficient, pushed her even further.

  And at that moment, at the most critical of all moments, it happened.

  She used Primordial Primordial Blazing Bolt on the Dragon Slayer Sword and?—

  It shattered. It shattered upon the Primordial Spirit’s face as its shards went flying all across the room. They flew like deadly shrapnel, breaking the walls and one of the most Essence filled ones even nicked the cheek of the Primordial Spirit. Yet instead of showing any discomfort, Amber saw a wide grin flash for a moment.

  Meanwhile, in sharp contrast, she was heart broken. When she glanced up, she could feel the primordial’s gaze. Almost as if saying; what will you do now?

  That moment had marked the biggest break in their fight since she got the potions. However, while Amber was initially lost, her quick wits solved it. She made sure to voice how much it emotionally hurt her to not have an indestructible weapon to hit the Primordial Spirit with. That action alone had caused the primordial to solve her plight shortly after.

  Such was the kindness of a god.

  And thanks to that kindness, Amber was on cloud nine. At first, she was planning on extorting the Primordial Spirit once she got tired, all to make him give up. But right now, as she fought with ragged breaths, she couldn’t help but wonder.

  Will I ever get tired of this?

  Deep down, she already knew the answer. It was an answer coming from her very soul, from her very being, from her very Essence. It was crystal clear to her that she wouldn’t. For as long as she pushed herself like this, her endurance was endless.

  Indeed, regardless of the time that has already passed one could say that Amber was just getting started.

  * * *

  The Primordial Spirit of the Shattered Tower had many things in mind. However, a suppressed memory came to mind. Something that he had been told by another god resurfaced, and it was something that he had denied for so long, but now… now he understood.

  “You don’t give humans enough credit,” the Primordial Spirit of Lighting said to him, smirking. “You know, while most aren’t notable in any way. I still guarantee you that some may become gods with enough time given how vast their population is.”

  “Ridiculous.”

  He had snorted at his words back then. Sure, some humans had indeed achieved great heights after the advent of the System, but at the same time he always chalked it up to luck, to well used opportunities. To the simple fact that they had used others. If they had run into him they would have gained nothing. And more than anything, he was sure even if he met them he wouldn’t have thought of them as anything special.

  And that’s why he had dismissed his words for so long. Now, he had met Amber and he thought the same at first, but that was just at first. After everything he realized one thing; he had been wrong.

  She had been striking at him for five months at this point and it was showing no signs of stopping much to his dismay. Even if it stopped, would it even do anything? After all, a month ago such a thing had happened and all that came out of it was her exploiting the Essence contract he had engaged in.

  Such shameless actions had filled him with boiling anger back then, but very slowly, very very slowly. The feeling of realization that had come to him months ago; the realization that perhaps there was no end in sight because the human was insane; returned. And it returned stronger than ever. For weeks now he had been having a weird feeling.

  At first, he couldn’t place it but soon he realized what that feeling was:

  Impending doom.

  And the source was the human attacking him. It was a feeling born from a human. It was… unbelievable. It was so unbelievable that he was beginning to regret his choices. But part of him didn’t want to admit defeat. Perhaps it was due to his pride, or perhaps it was out of foolish hope. Whatever it was, it spurred him to hold on from yielding as the attacks continued.

  At this point, all of the floors below the 100th floor of the tower were wrecked. While it was expected, it still caused his heart to slightly bleed. After all, restoring the tower from this extent of damage wasn’t exactly easy.

  In the end, even as hopeless as it seemed, he couldn’t let this woman get away with all of this.

  There had to be another way.

  So, gritting his teeth, he thought. He thought long and hard about things. He had to come up with something to stop this insane woman, to get what he wanted. But the question was… what? What could possibly make the woman stop? If he teleported she would just chase, if he placed a barrier she would hurt herself with it, and if he tried anything else?—

  It all looped back into extorting him.

  Whatever he tried, it seemed that the woman would just use the contract that he was bound to against her. So, what other options did he have? Her lifespan wouldn’t be running out any time soon…

  This is… the Primordial Spirit grimaced. He couldn’t remember the last time he was stuck between a rock and a hard place like this. Is the reason she’s so excited is due to pushing her limits?

  He vividly remembered the explanation the human had given him on why she liked Vir. And indeed, he could observe the reason why she was so excited during this fight. She could go all out and try all sorts of insanities?— he had observed such behavior from her during her climb of the tower too.

  So the reason this human could keep going was out of enjoyment, and the reason she extorted him to get benefits was so she could continue pushing her limits. Which means, all he had to do was come up with a way to snuff out her enjoyment.

  So, he just had to come up with something. And once that was done, his plight would inevitably come to an end. Nobody could force themselves to do something that brought them no enjoyment, not endlessly.

  For once, he saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and it was within reach. Obviously, it wasn’t going to be easy given the contract binding him but, he wasn’t a god for nothing.

  The Primordial Spirit broke out into a wide smile.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  * * *

  Amber pushed, she continued even when her arm came off from the strain it was going through, and it was all due to the benevolence of the Primordial Spirit she had been fighting. Without his potions, this experience wouldn’t have been possible. She would have long died from running out of Essence and burning her own lifespan at this rate.

  But now, thanks to the potions, such concerns were meaningless. The only concern she had was how to do more damage, how to hit harder. Of course, her usual combination of doing her usual body enhancing things ?— from making herself bleed to make use of the strengthening self-buff of Demonic Frenzy, to using other more simple enhancement skills such as Crimson Break ?— was great.

  There were also the temporary enhancements, once she could only use periodically such as her usual combination of Accursed Strength and Accursed Reignition. The first skill basically increased her strength based on the strength of the curses on her body, and the latter skill increased the strength of the curses themselves. It was a great synergy, and she could take it even further by using other skills such as Accursed Battery.

  However, this wasn’t enough; she wanted to transcend that strength and do more. But she was at a loss, after all, she hadn’t engraved her bones with runes yet?. And she didn’t really have any other paths to further increasing the absolute peak of her strength, which was an absolute shame.

  Or maybe, there is something.

  Her mind remembered something suddenly, an Essence ability she hadn’t used all this time. Accursed Knowledge. It was a simple ability, allowing her to make curses using Essence. But wouldn’t that essentially allow her to increase the amount of curses on her body at any given time?

  Moreover, if she used the Curse of Disintegration on herself ?— ignoring the pain ?— wouldn’t that make Accursed Strength go beyond a new peak?

  What she just thought about brought her a surge of joy that made her let out a long laugh, which seemed to make the Primordial Spirit blink.

  “Did something good happen?” he asked, dodging her attack.

  Amber grinned. “You could say that.”

  “I see you’re in a good mood,” the spirit mused, thinking for a moment. “Would you perhaps consider hearing my proposal?”

  Hearing that, she couldn’t help but pause. His words sobering her up a little bit, after all; the end goal of the god before her was to turn her into a vessel. To make her have no choice but to agree to something like that. So, his proposal was… well, it was probably a laid trap for her.

  “What is it?” She raised her brow.

  “Don’t look at me like that, perhaps it’d be something quite good for you, so just listen to this: how about you allow me to block your attacks and perhaps even attack you with reasonable strength? Of course, with reasonable I don’t mean things to incapacitate you but things you can recover from.”

  At this point both of them were standing in a wide and destroyed room, this place had been filled with light, flames, and electricity just a moment ago. The sounds of explosions that hadn’t stopped for weeks had finally ended, and replaced by a simple silence. One that Amber didn’t even pay attention to as he considered the spirit’s words.

  “You ask for this because it’s something you cannot do without my permission right?” Amber finally asked.

  The spirit nodded. “That’s right, what do you think of it?”

  “What will you get out of this?” Amber finally asked.

  The spirit stiffened, before shaking his head and smiling meaningfully at her.

  “Well, I was thinking that you’d grow bored if I gave you an insurmountable wall and eventually give up on this whole thing,” he admitted. “But think about it, isn’t this a worthy challenge for someone like you that enjoys pushing their limits?”

  They were clearly words meant for her to take the bait, but Amber simply felt relief. The truth was, the only reason she hadn’t immediately accepted the proposal with a roaring yes was because she was worried she was missing something. After all, one had to be careful when dealing with gods.

  But considering she could always make use of the contract left behind by Sid’fril?, Amber grinned. It was truly a boon she realized the meaning of what the spirit meant when he said Sid’fril made him promise he wouldn’t lay a finger on her without consent.

  “Let’s do it, then.”

  She accepted the Primordial Spirit’s proposal. With this, she could push herself even further. Maybe she could’ve asked for more details about the contract left behind by Sid’fril, but rather than acting in a calculating manner, she gave in to the prospect of further happiness.

  After all, if the spirit just dodging brought her this much fulfillment, what would it be like now?

  With a laugh, she pounced upon the spirit, her vigor renewed.

  * * *

  The Primordial Spirit of the Shattered Tower could barely contain his excitement. After all, the contract he was bound to required him to not lie in any way to Amber. And after she had figured out his deception at the start it was natural she would be wary of any proposal he made. But even with this wariness, and even hearing his motives she had accepted.

  It was all because of the way he had worded his proposal, he truly wanted to praise himself for his effort. Appealing to her human desires was truly the way to go. Now, for the first time in months he truly felt like he had the upper hand, and he couldn’t let go of this opportunity. Of course, he could anticipate the incoming problems such as her growing frustrated and trying to use the contract against him.

  But that wasn’t a problem, he could use that chance to mess with her pride and ruin her mood; after all, his main goal was just killing the seemingly endless motivation this girl had. Once that was done, what came after was simply trying to befriend the woman and perhaps making the time pass very slowly until she had no choice but to agree to his deal.

  Either way, what he planned to do after wasn’t important, because right now he saw an end to what was happening right now. All that was left was to realize it.

  With a wide grin, the Primordial Spirit began to fight back. Of course, to him it was the equivalent of doing some play fighting with a small animal, but nevertheless it brought him immense joy. After taking a one-sided beating for so long, how couldn’t it?

  And more than anything, he could actually hurt the woman.

  With a strike to her stomach, he broke multiple bones and sent her flying, spraying blood. It wasn’t going to incapacitate her, by any means, but this was just the beginning.

  The human landed on the wall, and he pounced, not letting go of this opportunity. Arriving before her, she grinned and counter-attacked with a powerful blow that eradicated the surroundings with blue fire. But aside from causing him to pause momentarily, it didn’t do anything else.

  “That’s not enough to stop a god,” he said.

  His knee drove into her stomach, pushing her into the wall once more. This is amazing. The god took it all in. The fact that the woman tried to fight back and was unable to do anything.

  Wherever she went, or however she tried to defend, he was unrelenting. Not to say the woman wasn’t trying to do things, she had been experimenting with her Essence the entire time and curses.

  But that just made her all that much easier to beat up. After all, if her attention was split, how could she possibly hope to even defend against him? At the same time, as he kept beating her up for days on end, he realized something.

  The more time that passed, the less she focused on their fight, something that caused him to start feeling anger.

  She had been so excited about this fight, she had dedicated herself for this, but once she was given the opportunity to push her limits even more she suddenly stopped trying? This level of disrespect was simply unforgivable. Yet, it showed no signs of stopping.

  Days passed, days turned into weeks, and that’s when he finally lost his temper.

  “You dare ignore me just because I cannot kill you?!”

  He punched her into a wall as she spat blood. Sure, she was trying to fight, but it was half-hearted, she was clearly a lot more distracted with whatever experiments she was doing.

  “Even if I cannot incapacitate you, I will make you regret this.”

  He appeared before her and at that moment, her voice finally echoed.

  “I understand it now.”

  In response, the Primordial Spirit sneered and punched again, but this time she dodged. Her eyes looked sharp now, and with a grin she placed a hand on her chest.

  “Accursed Strength, and Accursed Reignition?—” Her strength soared. “And again?—”

  It wasn’t an unfamiliar ritual, but somehow, this time it felt different. Not that it changed anything as he attacked the woman again. Yet, without fail, once more, she dodged?. Then, she teleported away.

  The Primordial Spirit turned and saw her holding two arrows of different color as she grinned.

  “Primordial Accursed Bolt, Primordial Disintegration Bolt?.” She stabbed herself.

  “You think that’ll change anything?”

  Sure, her power was reaching unprecedented levels, but he was still a god.

  He appeared above her, bringing his leg down as a tremendous explosion echoed. But, unfortunately the woman had dodged.

  She’s finally taking it seriously now…

  Just as he was about to chase after her, the woman appeared and grabbed him by the arm. Then, she slammed. Flipping him mid air, he hit the ground and his skin tore from the vice grip of the human.

  For the first time, the Primordial Spirit felt genuine pain. Sure, one could argue that he wasn’t using any protective spells or body enhancing skills, but the fact that his blood was shed caused him to pause. After all, she hadn’t been able to reach this level of power before.

  “Finally.” She breathed. “I can fight back now.”

  Hearing her words, the Primordial Spirit paused.

  He had a bad feeling about this. One that soon came true as a painful beating ensued. A knee to the stomach, a sword to the clavicle?— an attempt to behead him. Everything genuinely hurt. They were, of course, surface level injuries, but he had no choice but to run.

  Due to the need to control his strength, any attempts to fight back were useless, for she would just dodge everything.

  And it all, genuinely, began to terrify him. This human who was supposed to not even be strong could do what someone nearing the final Class Advancement could do, even if temporarily. That was not all, more than anything she managed to acquire such a power in the middle of their encounter. She hadn’t gone out to level, she hadn’t accepted a Class Advancement or anything like that. No, she simply evolved with her own knowledge.

  Of course, humans could do that, but… not like this. Not to this extreme, not this fast.

  Gritting his teeth he blocked the swinging sword as an explosion of scalding flames engulfed him. What had been a gentle breeze now felt like an uncomfortable burn, and what would have been a mere scratch now turned into a painful small cut. Sure, she had poured everything she had into that attack and the beating was over, however…

  The Primordial Spirit watched as the human woman panted and readied her sword to block his counter attack. Her skill was over, yet her eyes were bright as she spoke with tiredness.

  “I look forward to payback for what you’re about to do next month.”

  …he simply didn’t want to continue anymore. This human was… too much. No matter what method he could think of, for a battle junkie that wanted nothing but to push her limits, there was no way for him to come out ahead with the contract that had been forced onto him. And there was absolutely no way to break her spirit. Especially since the human knew how to exploit it from the beginning.

  Moreover, ignoring all of that, he was simply tired of Amber’s exploitations. This… human, if it could even be called that, was too much for him.

  “I give up.”

  He finally said, defeated.