Chapter 28: The Theif’s Advancement To Bronze

Everyone was horrified when they saw the five Yangereu and fifteen Suaps.

The relief that had appeared on our faces only moments ago vanished almost instantly. Arthur’s sword slipped from his hand, falling as the smile on his face faded completely. The sight before us was enough to crush whatever happiness we had felt after finally killing Yangereu and the three remaining Suaps.

Eliza tsked.

"Let’s just f*cking run," Arthur gasped.

His voice carried none of the confidence from before. There was only the desperate realization that the situation had changed completely. We had just finished our previous fight, blood still wet on our blades, lungs still burning from the last exchange, and now another twenty things were running toward us like the ground itself had turned against us.

"Look at their speed, they are gonna catch us, we are dead, we are dead," Theodore cried.

Even Mary, who usually maintained a straight face no matter what horror stood in front of her, looked genuinely horrified. Her hands trembled at her sides, knuckles white around the hilt of her sword.

I felt it too—that cold, crawling certainty that we had nothing left to give. My arms ached. And still they came.

Eliza looked toward us.

Her eyes were calm in a way that none of ours were, and somehow that calm was worse, because it meant she understood exactly how bad this was.

Then she spoke.

"Give Edmund a characteristic of the Beast Fiend."

Mary gave me one characteristic without a second thought, pressing it into my palm before I could even ask what she meant.

I looked at the characteristic in my hand. It pulsed faintly, warm, almost alive, humming with a hunger that didn’t belong to me.

Eliza’s expression remained serious as she explained what I needed to do.

"Edmund, remember—clear out any negative or positive feelings and go in a state of cogitation. Otherwise, you may turn into a mindless beast. Now consume it—fast."

I exhaled.

I looked at it for a moment before letting it down my throat.

The moment I consumed it, everything changed.

Time seemed to stop.

I could no longer feel my body.

There was no sensation of movement, no feeling of my limbs, nothing that told me that I was still physically present. Yet my consciousness remained.

I was still aware. I opened my eyes.

And I found myself in the same place once again.

The endless fog stretched in every direction, with the impossible sky scattered with stars of every color I had ever seen and several I had not. The enormous pillars stood around me, and I was once again at the center of them. I had no hands or feet, yet I remained aware of myself, aware that I was standing there, small beneath something vast and patient.

Spiritual power radiated outward from everything around me, pressing against whatever remained of my soul with a weight that should have crushed something as small and insignificant as myself.

Then Yangereu came.

He appeared a moment later and bowed to me, his massive form folding with a reverence that felt wrong coming from a creature that had, moments ago, been trying to tear my friends apart.

I watched him, saying nothing, feeling nothing I could name.

Then, without anything else happening, his form simply crumbled and joined the endless stars, scattering into motes of light that drifted upward and vanished.

I remained there, surrounded by the endless fog and stars, waiting for whatever came next.

Then I saw it.

A Bronze sphere was hovering close to me, small and unassuming against the vastness of everything else.

I reached toward it with my consciousness, since there was nothing else of me left to reach with.

The moment I did, everything changed again.

I fell into the endless fog.

There was nothing beneath me, nothing around me that I could grasp onto, and yet instead of fear, I felt something completely different.

Peace.

The sensation spread through me as I continued falling, weightless, formless, unbothered by the absence of ground beneath me.

I closed my eyes.

An inexplicable source of pleasure filled me, spreading through whatever passed for my body in this place.

I could not understand it. I could only feel it. Yet I knew it.

Then my eyes opened.

I was back in the same battlefield once again.

But this time, I was looking directly into a Yangereu.

It was only one foot ahead of me, its four arms already drawing back, pincers snapping open, close enough that I could see my own reflection in the dark curve of its horns.

[You Have Advanced to Bronze Core!]

[True Awakening Initiated...]

[True Affinity Unlocked!]

[Affinity: Theif]

"Interesting," I said.

The Yangereu attacked.

I jumped into the air, rising ten feet above where I had stood the previous second, dodging the pincer as it came toward me with a speed that, moments ago, would have taken my head clean off.

I jumped ten feet into the air and then looked at the Yangereu, and for the first time since the horde appeared, something other than fear settled into my chest.

’Status.’

The familiar display appeared.

[Status]

Name: Edmund Rhys

Title: N/A

Core Stage: Bronze

Affinity: Theif

Talent: C-Rank

[All Stats Doubled!]

Vitality: 38

Strength: 74

Endurance: 36

Dexterity: 28

[Spirtual Power Is Sextupled]

Spiritual Power: 48/48

Weapons Equipped: The Fire Breathing Glove & The Sword of Rhys

[+25 Plot Points Awarded As A Gift From The System!]

Plot Points: 32

’Thanks for your generosity, I guess.’

Unleashing a strength that surpassed even Eliza’s, I brought the weapon down directly into the Yangereu’s skull.

It parted cleanly down the middle, collapsing outward in two distinct pieces.