There may also be some inaccuracies, since English is not my native language.
Essentially, TBATE is first translated from English into my native language — and in that process, some details are already altered to make it more understandable for us. Now I'm taking that adapted (and somewhat distorted) version, revising it, rewriting it, and then translating it back into English.
I hope you'll point out any mistakes in the text that I might have missed.
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Arthur Leywin POV
"Why aren't they waking up?" Regis asked when we reached the center of the room with the chimeras.
The long corridor had returned to its original state when we entered the shelter, but no matter how many times I passed by the statues, they did not move. Regis flew up to the statue of a warrior with a sword. "Are they broken?"
"I don't remember exactly, but I think it's because of your victory in the trial?" Lucius said, examining the statues.
"Maybe," I walked up to one of them and swung my fist.
Not daring to use more than a tenth of the aether in my core, I hit one of the statues, causing cracks to appear in its leg.
"Not bad," I thought. "Ounce by ounce, or whatever unit of measurement is used, aether is much more powerful and effective than mana." However, I was not satisfied.
"Hey, Regis. Enter my hand again," I ordered, holding out my right palm. "I want to check something."
"Okay, but we really should come up with a name for this."
"Why?"
"Well, it would be better than if you shouted, 'Regis, enter my hand!' That's probably the worst battle cry I've ever heard."
Closing my eyes, I wondered if Wren, the asura craftsman who had given me the acclorite that eventually became Regis, knew what it would turn into. At the time, he claimed he didn't know, but now I couldn't help but wonder. He always seemed a little crazy to me. "All right. Why don't you think about it while you sit in my hand and be useful?"
"Gauntlet Form," Lucius said, standing aside "You came up with the name Gauntlet Form"
"Oh, that's a good name, I like it, I came up with it, didn't I?" When Lucius nodded in response, Regis flew into my palm, covering my entire hand with a layer of smoky black color.
I immediately felt the aether I had released earlier being drawn to Regis. After the remaining aether in my body concentrated in my right fist, I struck another statue.
The blow split the statue, but there was no release of aether, as when I used the same technique against the merged chimera.
"I don't have enough ether to release it as an attack," Regis said.
I gritted my teeth. "Okay. Tell me when."
I released more aether from the core, and it immediately rushed to my right fist. After almost half of the aether from my core had been absorbed, the smoky black glove surrounding my hand began to glow the same reddish-purple color as my core.
"Now!" Regis barked.
I punched the statue in front of me, releasing a stream of black and purple energy from my hand and destroying both the statue and the wall behind it with a shockwave that distorted the very air around me.
Regis fell from my hand, stunned. "I can probably use that move again."
"Me too," I replied. "It took a little less than half the aether in my core."
"Well, looks like it worked," he remarked, studying the aftermath of our attack.
Clap clap
"It looks way cooler in real life than it does in text," said Lucius, clapping his hands and approaching us.
Since the chimeras weren't showing up, there was no point in staying there any longer, so after spending the next couple of minutes replenishing my aether core with the aether arrows Lucius had given me, we headed for the door that was supposed to take us to the next floor.
Without saying a word, Lucius walked over and took out a chimera arrow. Before I could ask anything, the aether from the arrow entered his body, and only then did he throw the arrow aside, put his hand on my shoulder, and reply, "Regis, can you enter my body and direct all the aether into the hand I'm keeping on Arthur's shoulder? This is necessary because otherwise we might be thrown into different zones. By creating an aetheric connection, I hope we'll enter together."
Regis nodded and, without asking any questions, flew into his body. Lucius twitched slightly, and a moment later, the aether concentrated in his hands and tried to connect with my aether.
I allowed our aether to connect.
"Let's go," I pushed the tall metal door, and we stepped inside.
Lucius Zogratis POV
"Let's go," as soon as Arthur pushed the tall metal door, we stepped inside.
I was met by a hot blast of humid air that clung unpleasantly to my skin. However, the slight discomfort from the atmosphere immediately evaporated at the sight that opened up before me.
"Holy shit..." Regis muttered, also looking around.
We had entered what could only be described as a jungle, except that many of the trees were strikingly white, with leaves glowing in various shades of purple. Strangely, the trees grew not only from the ground, but also from the ceiling of the huge cave.
The uncomfortable air instantly became comfortable when I realized that this was exactly the area we needed. I needed
Despite the alien beauty of the jungle, my attention was quickly distracted when the door through which we had entered began to disappear.
Arthur, clearly shaken, rushed toward the metal door, but it was too late. His hand passed through it, and he was left grasping at air.
"Shit." Arthur said, turning around and looking at me calmly smiling, he asked, calming down a little, "Did you know the door would disappear? Is this the zone you read about?"
A shadow of a smile appeared on my lips as I nodded my head and my long hair swayed like a blanket over my naked body. "Yes, that's exactly what I read about. We'll spend the next week in this zone."
Arthur's eyes widened slightly as he stepped forward. "Is there any way to get through this zone faster?"
"Yes, unless the advantages of this zone end too quickly, but that will depend on our success, and don't worry, time here flows 1 to 7 compared to the world," I said, turning and starting to walk, continuing, "Let's go, this area is too open for resting."
The two of us delved deeper into the ethereal jungle, noting every oddity, of which there were many.
We discovered thick, pale vines connecting the trees on the ground to the trees growing on the ceiling. Hundreds of blue balls filled the air, some floating up, others down.
My senses were on edge as we cautiously made our way through the dense thicket of otherworldly trees. From time to time, I saw shadows darting from tree to tree at such a speed that my untrained eyes needed time to even begin to see them.
Arthur seemed unable to shake his unease, waiting for the moment when something in the forest would try to kill us.
Regis, on the other hand, enjoyed the scenery, flying above the treetops that blocked most of our view.
"I can't see much except for these two-tailed monkey-like creatures climbing up and down the vines," Regis remarked. "Oh! And you know those floating blue balls? I think they're from the water. I saw some monkeys hanging from the vines and drinking from them."
"Regis, you'd better calm down a little. Relictombs are almost always dangerous," my words caused the aether in Arthur's body to cover his body as he tensed his whole body and assumed a posture in which he could react to most attacks even while walking.
How did I notice this? The eleventh-rank talent was too strong. I had already mastered almost 80% of what Arthur was showing me. It was a cheat code for quickly understanding combat and everything related to it.
Regis toned down his enthusiasm but still looked around curiously.
"Over there! It was a different color and a little smaller, but I saw several monkeys eating it," Regis said, pointing to a pear-shaped fruit hanging from a branch above us.
Arthur looked skeptically at his companion hovering above us, next to the fruit. Then Arthur's gaze shifted to me.
"This aether fruit is edible and will be the strongest as far as I remember. The others will contain less aether, but for starters..." I sat down on the soft grass that tickled my bare body unpleasantly. "It's time for me to get an aether core too."
"Are you sure now is the right time?" Arthur asked skeptically, looking around at the unearthly terrain. "Can you at least tell us what this area is?"
"Yes, that would be very helpful. It's annoying that you know what might be here and aren't telling us," Regis flew up close to me, grumbling.
"I don't know what will happen if I take the aether core from the system. Maybe nothing will happen, or maybe I'll fall asleep for a couple of days like Arthur, so I'm giving you a hint," I said, pointing to the fruit. "It's an aether monster. It's easy to defeat it. You just have to try to grab the fruit, and when it tries to close its mouth, you gather the aether in your hand and hit it from above. It's simple. You'll figure it out yourself."
Arthur wanted to say something, but noticing that I was closing my eyes, he remained silent, letting me concentrate.
I really didn't know what to expect. It could be either hellish pain or pleasant warmth, at least that's how it was in many fanfics.
Opening the system, I turned the page directly to the seventh rank (four-sided physique). Next to it, as in the game, there were quite a few, definitely more than twenty cells.
Taking a breath in and out, I dragged one of the aether cores directly into the slot.
At that very moment, warmth rose in my chest like a wave, spreading throughout my body, and slowly I felt the core.
It was a strange feeling, but it was as if I had looked inside and seen it with my own eyes, even though I knew I was still sitting with my eyes closed. The purple-red core pulsed with life inside me, wanting to break free.
A smile spread across my face, both because I had an aether core and because a plan had formed in my head as I saw the absurd possibilities of the system.
I couldn't wait to try out my new powers. The aether I had consumed a couple of times from the aether arrow was powerful, but the effect quickly wore off. Now, even more powerful aether was right inside my body. I couldn't direct it quickly yet, but I could control it. Aether is the strongest form of energy in this world, and now it was in the form of a core inside my body, waiting for me to give the order.
Taking a deep breath to calm down and focusing on my newfound core and the aether surrounding us, I slowed my breathing, and the concentration on my aether core, which felt like muscle tension, caused changes outside my body.
I can gather the surrounding aether into my core.
I slowly opened my eyes, not quite understanding how much time had passed, but considering that Arthur was standing in the same place, I could assume it was not long.
A smile touched my lips as I looked into Arthur's wide-open eyes. Standing up, I slowly enveloped my body in aether, and in that same second, a soft aether blanket enveloped my body, removing the unpleasant effect of the humid air. At that moment, even the air seemed to become cleaner.
But after a second, I realized that at this rate, the aether would completely disappear from my core within twenty minutes. My core was only in its initial stage, and I didn't have any channels to direct the aether, so it dissipated quickly, but that was to be expected. Realizing this with a sigh, I stopped concentrating it throughout my body.
"How much time has passed?" I simply asked, looking at the orange "fruit" that was enveloped in a purple glow of aether.
"Just a couple of minutes. It looks like the system is helping you," said Regis, examining my body. A second later, he flew into my body. I felt him spinning around the aether core, examining it for a few moments, and then he flew out. "Your core is exactly like Arthur's."
At that moment, Arthur was just standing nearby and seemed to have already come to terms with something, as he didn't even start talking but simply shifted his gaze to the aether "fruit."
A few moments later, the mighty Arthur Leywin was sitting on a branch, a branch that didn't even bend under his weight. It was strange, but this was a magical world, and a magical tree that could sprinkle gold instead of leaves wasn't something strange, just a very strong tree, which wasn't so strange.
As soon as Arthur quickly reached for the fruit, the jaws snapped shut. The jagged teeth passed very close to his fingers, releasing a large amount of aether from its core, enough to envelop his body in a purple-red glow. He struck the transparent beast.
The transparent beast let out a piercing scream, a demonic fusion of an alarming siren and a baby's cry, causing Arthur to lose his balance from pure shock and nearly fall from the tree, but at the last moment he managed to hold on to the tree, but Regis, who was very close to Arthur, lost consciousness, his incorporeal form, light as a feather, fell onto a branch at Arthur's feet, his flame flickering as if he might go out.
Arthur struck the squealing creature again, and its soft body went limp.
Opening its mouth, he stuck his hand inside and pulled out a fruit, showing it to me.
[Rank fourth flytrap monster fruit x10 or upgrade to rank fifth?]
Mentally choosing x10, I turned my attention to Arthur.
Crouching down, he checked on Regis, who was coming to.
"What happened?" asked the black ball in a trembling voice.
Arthur smiled and handed Regis the orange fruit. "I got it."
Regis pretended to examine the fruit, although I could see he was embarrassed about losing consciousness.
"Did the system work?" Arthur asked, still sitting in the tree.
Instead of answering, I simply held out my palm, and an identical fruit instantly appeared in it.
Arthur smiled as his eyes darted around in search of fruit in the jungle.
I pulled one of the fruits toward Regis. Understanding my thoughts, he tried again to grab the ethereal fruit. But as before, he held it for a couple of moments and let it go.
[Rank fourth flytrap monster fruit x10 or upgrade to rank fifth?]
A hint of a smile appeared on my face as I mentally chose to upgrade to rank fifth. "This time, x2. Looks like we're in luck today."
Exchanging glances with Arthur, we nodded, and in the next moment, each of us took a bite of the fruit. The fruit was slightly sour, reminiscent of fragrant lemon zest. Then, as soon as I swallowed it, I felt a change in my body.
I understood the difference between the third rank and the fourth at that moment. This fourth rank fruit not only contained purer aether, but also contained about ten times more aether than the third rank arrow.
I was jolted by pain as my insides twisted, my body trembled, so I had to sit down on the ground while my aether core slowly absorbed energy from the piece of fruit.
Thanks to the pain adaptation I received from the system, it was easier for me than for Arthur, who was twisted as if he were dying, his whole body curled up in a fetal position, twitching uncontrollably.
"Arthur! Lucius!" Regis shouted, his voice distant and muffled, but my attention was focused behind him, beyond the line of trees.
Heavy, rapid footsteps grew louder, and the ethereal trees, whose branches remained unbowed under Arthur's weight, swayed violently on the path leading straight toward us.
It was the boss of this zone.