Alexia

  The Corruptor stares at me for a good three seconds before opening its mouth and letting out an incredibly annoying and painful hissing screech that sounds completely glitched out. Almost like some sort of abomination that’s a hybrid of a broken and buggy computer and an incredibly angry cat.

  Then the Corruptor’s entire body begins to glitch apart. Only to reform again as a large ball of corrupted energy that suddenly begins rushing my way.

  As if the thing decided to give up on survival just to focus entirely on killing me and nothing more.

  And no matter how many times I teleport away from the orb, it keeps charging right at me.

  Striking it with quantum lightning doesn’t help much either, nor does sending arcs of quantum energy at it.

  I grit my teeth as my attacks barely leave a dent in it. Then I change my own tactics from smaller attacks to one enormous one.

  Another attack just like my first major attack against the monster.

  And while charging the attack up, I do my best to build distance between me and the Corruptor.

  But after doing that, the creature’s orb of corrupted energy suddenly speeds up. Rushing straight towards me. All while getting faster and faster by the second.

  To the degree that I barely have the time to finish preparing my attack.

  I do manage to finish it though. So I launch the attack directly at the Corruptor to finish it off.

  Only to realize something the moment my attack makes contact with the orb.

  I’m not strong enough to destroy this orb as I am right now.

  Especially since the rifts around me are all closed due to the corruption in this orb making everything incredibly unstable here. Even with my skills active.

  My eyes rapidly begin to grow wide as my soul begins to deplete more and more.

  Quickly dropping down to just ten percent of my soul left remaining. At which point my item activates on its own.

  Quantum Lock.

  And the instant it activates, everything slows down for ten seconds as time itself slows to a crawl. Giving me enough time to activate another couple of my items.

  Amulet of the Molten Fiend and Ancient Wrath.

  Two berserk status items.

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  Both of which send me into a frenzy as things begin to grow blurry in my vision and my focus singles in on the Corruptor I’m attacking. Meanwhile my attack itself quickly grows in strength.

  Enough that it finally begins to cut into the orb.

  Slowly at first before gaining ground and slicing right through the large orb of Corruption. Sending quantum lightning running rampant on the inside and vaporizing the corruption at a rapid pace.

  Marking the end of the battle as system messages play out in my vision.

  [Level 2501 Defeated. User’s earned EXP has been increased a significant amount due to killing a being whose level is higher than their own. User’s earned EXP has been increased an enormous amount due to killing a being whose Tier is higher than their own. User’s earned EXP is increased for killing a Corruptor.]

  {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 2500! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +2 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.}

  [*New Active Skill* – Quantum Collapse: Allows the user to force a target into a state of absolute death across all realities, probabilities, and existences. This skill cannot be blocked, healed from, or avoided. Attempts at resurrection in any manner are impossible. This skill cannot be used unless the target is considered to be considerably weakened.]

  {Congratulations! You have leveled up to the level cap of Tier 5! In order to break into Ascendant Tier, you must complete the following requirements based on your class: Kill twenty-five Corruptors. Raise a single skill to Ascendant Tier. Kill one user at the cap of Tier 5. Kill one being at Ascendant Tier. Raise Energy Manipulation to Tier 5.}

  I barely even register the messages as my berserk state continues to rage on.

  Only for me to suddenly snap out of it out of nowhere to find the Quantum Ruler smiling at me through a rift with his fingers in a position as if he just snapped them.

  Then the rift vanishes, making me unable to see him again.

  And the pain from the backlash follows that, making me grunt in anguish.

  Damnit, this hurts…

  The pain spreads all across my entire body, and it’s far worse than anything I’ve ever felt before.

  At the same time, I notice my soul is at critically low levels as well. Beneath even one percent of my total soul.

  Without hesitation, I ditch the galaxy I’m currently in and enter a rift into the Quantum Realm. At which point I fill up on energy.

  Even if this energy isn’t the same as my soul.

  Then I finally focus on the messages and notification I got.

  And what I see is…

  Uh…

  Hmm.

  The new skill sounds incredibly useful. It’s a sort of True Death skill.

  One that can’t be avoided or undone in any way.

  I can’t imagine how much soul it’ll take to activate though. So I’ll think about that later.

  Next up is the Legendary Feat.

  And that is something.

  An entire one hundred percent increase in my stats against things in a higher Tier than my own.

  That may just make it possible for me to beat the Ascendant Tier boss of the Tier 5 dungeon. Which will also clear one of the requirements for reaching Ascendant Tier.

  Even though I was kind of just hoping I’d be able to reach Ascendant Tier before going back there…

  That’s a shame.

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