Chapter 729: Limit Breaker, Combat Simulator, System Gifts

Author’s Note: An illustration of Jasmine (the Seventh Queen) has been added to the novel’s front page. You can find more pictures of her on the Discord server. You can join the Discord through the link provided in the novel’s synopsis.

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When Alice opened her eyes again, she found herself sitting on the bed inside Isaac’s spatial domain. Everything around her was exactly as it had been before she disappeared, and for a moment, she simply sat there while trying to determine whether what had happened had actually been real.

Then, notifications appeared.

[Warforged System activated.]

Alice ignored the notification for now, and looked toward Emily and asked, "Emily, have I been here since earlier?"

"Yes?" Emily replied while tilting her head, her eyes asking why she was asking such a question.

Alice’s expression changed immediately as she realized what had been happening in front of her. "You two need to stop playing around for now because I have something important to talk about."

Isaac and Celia immediately stopped. Isaac had a red marks running across his neck and shoulder, although they were already healing rapidly, while Celia casually licked the saliva from her lips as she stayed where she was.

Alice then explained everything she had seen and heard. As soon as she finished, Isaac and the others fell silent, and nobody spoke for several moments while they tried to understand what the information could mean.

Eventually, Alice looked toward Isaac with a serious expression. "Is it possible that you’re the War God’s reincarnation, or perhaps his direct disciple? Why else would he react so strongly when he heard your name?"

"I honestly have no idea. From what I know, a reincarnator should have recovered their memories by my current age, but I don’t remember anything like that. Besides, if I were really something as important as the War God’s reincarnation or his direct disciple, I should have been able to do much more, especially considering Celia’s visions and the memories you’ve recovered," Isaac answered after thinking about it.

Everyone fell silent again because they understood exactly what Isaac meant. Just as Alice was about to say something to reassure him, Celia, who was still standing close behind Isaac, suddenly wrapped her arm around his neck and pulled him into a rough chokehold.

"What do you mean you could have done much better?" Celia asked angrily. "Don’t you dare say something stupid like that, because you did your best, and that’s something I appreciate more than you realize. Don’t you dare belittle your efforts."

Her tone was clearly scolding, but Alice could tell that Celia was angry on Isaac’s behalf rather than actually upset with him. Celia tightened her arm slightly before continuing, "I don’t want to hear you acting like you failed to help me or anyone else, because that’s not true."

"Celia is right. You’ve done more than enough for all of us, so you shouldn’t keep blaming yourself for things that were never completely under your control," Alice added. "

Emily also nodded in agreement, silently supporting what the two of them had said. Isaac smiled after seeing their reactions and reached up to gently caress Celia’s head.

"Thank you," he said.

Isaac then decided to change the subject before the conversation became too depressing. "Anyway, we can’t figure out something like this right now, so there’s no reason to keep focusing on it. Alice, check your System and tell us what you received."

Alice nodded and opened her System.

Most of the information displayed there was already familiar to her, so she ignored the things she already knew and focused on the new additions.

[Skills: Limit Breaker (Transcendent+ Rank)]

[Combat Simulator]

[Gifts: Basic System Guide, System Binding Reward.]

[Quests]

[Achievements]

Alice first focused on Limit Breaker. The skill’s rank immediately caught her attention because Transcendent+ was an extremely high rank, and judging purely by the rank, it was now the strongest skill she possessed.

She opened the skill description and began reading its effect. Her eyebrows rose slightly as she reached the important part, and the change in her expression was obvious enough for Isaac to notice.

"What happened?" Isaac asked, clearly noticing her surprise.

"I got a skill, and it’s a Transcendent+ rank skill," Alice answered.

"Transcendent+ rank? That’s amazing. Congratulations!" Isaac said with a happy smile.

Alice looked at his expression for a moment before explaining the rest. "The skill has two functions, and the passive function permanently removes the limit on my stats by one rank. When I use the active function, it removes the limit by another rank for thirty minutes."

Isaac’s smile froze. Celia was completely stunned, and for a moment, she looked as though her jaw might actually drop, while even Emily couldn’t hide her surprise.

Their reaction was completely understandable. Alice was currently only an Adept, and the maximum stat limit for someone at that rank was 2,000.

Of course, Alice could already fight opponents at the Overlord rank, but that wasn’t because her basic stats were comparable to theirs. Her strength came from the combination of her powerful buff skills, near-immortal—zombie like—healing ability, combat skills, Magic Arts, and most importantly, her Conqueror Title, which made her stats twice as effective.

All of those abilities combined allowed her to fight enemies far above her own rank. Now, however, her situation had changed completely.

Her stat limit had permanently increased from 2,000 to 3,000, which was the stat limit of the Elite rank. This meant that the effectiveness of her buffs and Conqueror Title would also become even stronger.

That wasn’t even the end of it. When Alice activated Limit Breaker’s active function, her stat limit would temporarily increase to 4,000 for thirty minutes.

Combined with her Saintess buffs, near-immortal healing abilities, powerful combat skills, and Conqueror Title, Alice had suddenly become an even more terrifying existence despite remaining an Adept. Moreover, this was just the first skill gained from her System. The future skills she could get would be definitely more terrifying.

"As expected of a skill from a Divine Rank item, it’s completely busted," Celia said after finally recovering from her shock.

"It really is," Isaac agreed. "Although, honestly, the skill is much stronger in Alice’s hands because of her Conqueror Title, buffs, and other abilities. If someone else received it, it probably wouldn’t make nearly as big a difference."

Celia nodded before looking at Alice with renewed curiosity. "Did you get anything else?"

"Yes, there’s a Combat Simulator," Alice replied.

"Is there any description for it?" Isaac asked.

"No, but there’s a Basic System Guide under my Gifts section," Alice said as she looked through the System again. "Let me check that first and see what it says."

Alice took out the guide, which appeared as a book on the System screen. As soon as she selected it, information appeared before her, and she quickly began reading through it.

"This... it’s a Combat Simulator. It will take my mind to a virtual place where I can’t die, and in that place, I can summon copies of people I’ve met. These copies will fight exactly like the people they’re based on, but the real person won’t realize what’s happening, and if I die to the same person ten times in a day, I won’t be able to summon their copy again until the next day," Alice explained.

"...What?" Celia stared at her in disbelief. "You can summon anyone’s copy, they’ll fight exactly like the real person, and you can’t die? Isn’t this the perfect way to find out all the hidden abilities and tricks of an enemy? This might even be stronger than Isaac’s System!"

"I never said I had a System," Isaac interrupted.

"Oh, shut up. We all know you have one. It’s obvious from how much you know about other people’s personal Systems," Celia replied without even looking at him. She adjusted her position and put her chin on Isaac’s head.

Alice ignored their argument and focused on the Combat Simulator. This was clearly one of the most important components of her new System because, depending on the ranks and numbers of monsters and Ascendants she defeated, she could receive different rewards.

She immediately activated it.

Her surroundings changed, and Alice appeared in a strange place covered by white tiles that stretched as far as she could see. A starry sky covered the area above her, and after taking a breath, she realized that she could still breathe here even though she knew this body was only a projection.

A System screen appeared in front of her.

[Select your opponent.]

Numerous names appeared on the screen, and Alice quickly noticed that Sera, the War God’s Angel weren’t among them. It seemed the Combat Simulator had a limit on the strength of the people it could reproduce, although she was surprised to see names such as Florahti Emperor and World Tree among the available options.

That meant the simulator could apparently reproduce extremely powerful existences within her Sector, but Gods or Angels were probably too powerful to be summoned. Maybe she could summon their copies in future. Alice didn’t care about any of that for now though, because there was one person she wanted to fight more than anyone else.

"Isaac Hargraves," Alice said.

The moment she said his name, a figure appeared several meters away from her. It was Isaac, and his expression was as calm as always.

A competitive glint appeared in Alice’s eyes as she immediately began activating her skills while the countdown started. She knew Isaac never went all out during their spars, and she didn’t blame him because he had become far too strong, but she had always wanted to know what he could actually do if he stopped holding back.

The Combat Simulator had appeared at the perfect time because it gave her a chance to fight a version of Isaac that had no reason to restrain himself.

Alice continued activating her abilities, but Isaac’s copy simply stood there without moving. She narrowed her eyes as she watched him carefully, wondering whether he was already using some skill to conceal the fluctuations of his mana.

’Maybe he’s activating his camouflage skills with evolved Aura and using them to hide the residual mana so that I can’t detect anything. Or perhaps he’s not using anything at all.’

The countdown reached zero, and Alice immediately transformed into a dragon before charging toward Isaac at full speed. The force behind her movement created powerful shockwaves, but Isaac didn’t seem bothered by her approach.

He simply raised one finger and pointed toward her, then—

[You have died.]

[Exiting Combat Simulator.]

Alice blinked as she suddenly found herself back on the bed inside the spatial domain. She stared ahead with a completely blank expression because the entire battle had lasted less than a second, and the only thing she remembered was Isaac raising his finger before everything ended.

She knew the copy of Isaac had regarded her as an enemy and therefore had no reason to hold back. Even so, the fact that he had defeated her almost instantly was difficult to process.

’He can defeat me in less than a second if he actually fights seriously?’

’No, did he even fight seriously? What if he was still holding back because he could easily deal with me?’

She slowly turned her head and stared at the real Isaac. His smile gradually became more obvious as he realized what had happened, and he couldn’t help giving her a slightly smug expression.

He clearly didn’t mind that the simulator had revealed some of his abilities because Alice had always been competitive with him, and he knew this would only make her more determined to become stronger.

"Seems like you fought Isaac. How did he fight? He never shows us all of his abilities, so at least tell us what you saw," Celia said curiously.

Alice looked at Celia with a strange expression before answering honestly. "I didn’t see it."

"Huh?" Celia stared at her in confusion.

"The battle ended as soon as it started. I didn’t even see what defeated me," Alice said, still looking at Isaac.