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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Lucius Zogratis POV.
When the door that had brought us here dissolved into white light, we found ourselves in a boundless meadow of glowing white wildflowers and tall blue grass. Arthur and Regis glanced at me. Connecting to Arthur's consciousness, I sent chapters 261 and 262. This time it was even easier than usual. A few moments later, Arthur glanced at me.
"Can you give me the next chapter?" he asked.
"No, only after we get to the portal will I tell you something," I replied, shaking my finger in front of his face. "Any ideas?"
Frowning slightly, he looked ahead. "Let's get to the bridge first."
"And that's the whole plan, wise one?" Regis said mockingly.
Arthur gave him a cold look. "Don't you dare go into the burrows!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm not an idiot," Regis said, flying alongside me.
With that, we ran forward carefully, trying to make as little noise as possible. After two hours of running, we saw a giant rat the size of a puma emerge from its burrow.
"Damn," I muttered, watching as the creature opened its mouth and let out a loud squeal.
"Well, that was to be expected," said Arthur, reaching out his hand to me. He gave me his sword so that I could store it in the system and it wouldn't get in the way while we were running.
Focusing my thoughts, a rank sixth white dagger appeared in my right hand, and a rank fifth black sword appeared in my left hand, which I threw to Arthur. Exchanging glances, we sprinted forward at a higher speed, realizing that we could no longer move quietly and carefully.
Within a couple of minutes, hundreds, if not thousands, of rodents, each the size of a puma, with glowing purple claws filled with aether, were chasing us... and they were all incredibly angry at us.
An aura of black and purple flared on Arthur's right fist as he spun around, coming to a sudden halt. The army of giant rodents was rapidly approaching.
As soon as he had enough ether to attack, he slammed his fist into the ground, causing a shockwave that distorted the very air around us and sent a deadly blow through the advancing horde. Dozens of aether rats fell dead, but hundreds more ran past the corpses. A second later, the black sword was in his right hand as he began to quickly and deadly kill the aether rats.
I hooked my index finger on the ring attached to the pommel of the dagger and pulled it out in a sparkling white arc. Concentrating the aether in my hands, I, though not as impressive, became a whirlwind of blade and fists, slashing, stabbing, and striking every giant rodent within reach.
At first, it was difficult to wield the dagger. Arthur showed me only sword stances and stances for striking with hands and feet, but even so, as I watched Arthur, or more precisely, how he wielded his sword, I quickly began to understand how to use the blade more effectively. Once again, my eleventh rank talent helped me, and insight after insight poured in as I changed something in my technique with each swing of the dagger.
It was fun. I realized in the previous zone that I was having an incredible amount of fun fighting someone like this, and this was confirmed in this zone when the blood of the aether rats flowed down my blade and face. My smiling face.
Using the ring at the end of the handle, I could slip my finger through it, freeing my hand to strike or parry with my palm. The shorter length of the dagger meant that strikes and swings were faster and more accurate, allowing for sharper and more unpredictable movements. Around me, the beautiful blue grass was trampled and stained rust-red with blood, and the corpses of giant rodents with purple claws began to pile up in gruesome mounds.
Despite the carnage, the aether rats continued to arrive, forcing us to turn and run again, risking being overwhelmed by their numbers. As if participating in a bloody marathon, we repeated this cycle: running to thin out the horde, then stopping to suddenly bring death to the front runners of the pack. Meanwhile, a vast field of tall blue grass stretched into the distance like some endless, surreal ocean.
My body was more than ready for endless running, and the rodents with aether claws posed little threat in small groups, especially since there were two of us, we could sometimes group together, spending as little aether as possible, but after about two hours, I began to wonder how much further we had to run, since we had been running for a little over four hours in total.
Unlike the centipedes, the rodents' bodies did not contain a drop of aether except for their claws, but the aether fruits I kept in my system came in handy. It was a funny sight when Arthur and I ran away from an army of puma-sized rodents while eating aether fruit.
"That way!" Regis shouted, veering slightly to the right and picking up speed.
I finally saw it too. Far ahead, the painfully familiar teleportation gate glowed brightly, but we knew it was too early to rejoice. Throwing Arthur an aether fruit and getting one for ourselves, we quickly absorbed the aether from the fruit, replenishing our aether reserves to the maximum. A chasm at least thirty meters wide separated us from the gate. At the bottom, we could see a stream of glowing red, and from the heat emanating from the depths, anyone could tell that it was lava.
Arthur and I exchanged glances and nodded to each other, and Regis flew into Arthur's body. As we ran and fought off the rats, we discussed a plan, and seeing this chasm, we came to the simplest solution.
The moment I showed Arthur this chapter, we tested the simplest method of crossing the chasm. Jumping was the easiest solution.
With more than a hundred aether fruits in reserve (about thirty for Arthur), we began to pump aether into our legs and jumped forward from a standing position. By directing all the aether into our legs to jump, we could jump more than 17 meters from a standing start. This was more than enough, as the world record for a running jump in my world was 8.95 meters, and we had more than 17 meters from a standing start.
After pumping more aether out of the core, we accelerated rapidly. From such acceleration, the aether in my core began to flow out quickly. I could barely run at this pace for five minutes, but we were very close to the precipice. Finding myself very close, I directed all the aether to my legs and pushed off as soon as I was dangerously close to the cliff.
My body was thrown up high when a warm wind hit my face. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Arthur flying right next to me. A couple of moments later, I realized that we were flying further, passing over the precipice. After flying more than 50 meters, I began to descend first, followed by Arthur.
The sharp descent and impact from falling at such a speed would have killed anyone from my past world, but thanks to the reflexes and strength of this body, I landed carefully with a roll to slow down. Getting to my feet, I came face to face with Arthur, who had also landed easily and was already on his feet.
Regis flew out of Arthur's body, swaying slightly. "That was easy. Why didn't Arthur just jump over the gap in the first place?"
"Because he didn't have enough aether, and because we don't have channels, we can't achieve the effect we want. You can see for yourself that one jump completely drained our cores." I said, adjusting my clothes, which were not damaged anywhere. So much for high rank.
"Yeh yeh the system, aether fruits, blah blah," said Regis, flying up to the chasm and looking at the thousands of rats whose cries could be heard even on the other side of the chasm.
Exchanging glances with Arthur, I took out a couple of fourth rank improved aether crystals from the centipede. Sitting down, we spent twenty minutes replenishing our aether reserves and resting a little. After drinking some water simply because we wanted to taste the cool water, we exchanged glances and approached the cliff, beginning to descend using the spears we had obtained in the previous zone. We broke off the shafts, leaving only enough to feel like rock climbers. Regis was in Arthur's body the whole time.
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I took a deep breath. Even after a couple of minutes of checking, it was still nerve-wracking to actually dive into the molten river, because if I didn't calculate the amount of aether correctly, I could die there, although the chance was small.
Pulling my hair back into a ponytail, I dipped my feet into the lava flow and immediately felt a tingling sensation piercing through me as I pumped aether from the core to keep from burning alive. But I immediately realized my mistake because I felt almost no pain, meaning I had pumped too little aether, causing my feet to start melting. Realizing my mistake, I pumped more aether from the core, and only then did my muscles stop melting.
Arthur lowered his feet into the lava only after another ten minutes of experimentation, but after sitting like that for a couple of minutes, we climbed back out and, splitting up, began digging in different directions with one goal in mind. Using a dagger with a white blade, which, after becoming ranl sixth and reinforced with aether, began to dig and break through walls so much easier and deeper that after only forty minutes, I found it...
An aether crystal.
The one I found was about four meters in diameter and extremely saturated with aether, which made it a stronger and more convenient source of energy to absorb than even a centipede, not to mention fruit. And although I had a rank sixth aether fruit, I didn't take it out, so I couldn't even compare. It was the presence of a massive aether crystal in this area that made what we were about to do possible. We needed a way to pass a huge amount of aether through the body at once.
There was a limit to how quickly we could temper and purify the aether without any catalyst.
Throwing the huge aether crystal into the system inventory, I went over to Arthur to help him find the aether crystal. As soon as I reached the original funnel in the wall where we had stopped, I decided to open the system. I immediately received a hundred notifications from pain adaptations, and the penultimate notification was what I wanted to see.
[Rank fifth aether crystal x10 or upgrade to rank sixth?]
[Rank fifth aether crystal x10 or upgrade to rank sixth?]
Hehe, it seems they've already started doing what needs to be done. After selecting the rank sixth aether crystal twice, I walked back to the place where Arthur had made the depression and sat down, lowering only my feet into the lava. Melting my fingers, waiting for them to regenerate by absorbing energy from the centipede's aether crystal, and then repeating this again, regulating the flow of my aether, I maintained this state for about half an hour until I felt the aether moving close by. Turning my head, I saw Arthur dragging a huge crystal with a diameter of about two meters.
Waving his hand, Arthur threw the aether crystal at me. I caught it easily and put it down next to me. I took out two renewed aether crystals, gave them to Arthur and Regis, and then watched as a notification appeared
[Rank sixth aether crystal x10 or upgrade to rank seventh?]
[Rank sixth aether crystal x10 or upgrade to rank seventh?]
Without saying anything, I upgraded to the rank seventh. I then handed my rank sixth aether crystal to Arthur and Regis.
[Rank sixth aether crystal x10 or upgrade to rank seventh?]
[Rank sixth aether crystal x10 or upgrade to rank seventh?]
Mentally choosing to upgrade to the rank seventh, I summoned these two crystals, intending to pass them on again to upgrade to the rank eighth, but the moment the two crystals were in my hands, I froze when, a second later, a dense and pure aether aura burst out of the two beads in my palm.
"What the..." was all Arthur managed to say when the aura of pure aether burst out of the bead, completely flooding our cave with dense aether.
Yes, the beads, two huge aether crystals, had changed and become the size of a bead with a diameter of about four centimeters. The energy in this one small bead was thirty times greater and much purer than that of the crystal from which it had come. And I had two of these beads.
I immediately hid the beads in my inventory, and the suffocating aether aura slowly disappeared. I calmly looked at Arthur, and a faint smile spread across my face. Bringing my finger to my mouth, I summoned the two beads again, and once more, the suffocating aether aura enveloped the entire space. Without saying a word, I handed Arthur and Regis a bead each.
[Rank seventh aether crystal x10 or upgrade to rank eighth?]
[Rank seventh aether crystal x10 or upgrade to rank eighth?]
Is this still called a crystal? It didn't matter. I chose to upgrade to the rank eighth and took the beads from my two companions.
"Can you tell us what's going on?" Regis said in a serious tone. "What's with this aura of pure aether?"
After thinking for a moment about how to play this out, I opened my mouth when the plan came into action.
"Remember I said that this system has an invisible rank?" They both nodded. "It seems that they can be divided into two levels: ordinary and unusual. When you go from ordinary to unusual, there is a very qualitative leap. Therefore, the originally strong aether crystal changed significantly when it transitioned from ordinary to unusual. We were also very lucky that all these times we got x2, which allowed me to raise this invisible rank, well, except for the last time, when our luck ran out. It seems that this luck came from dozens of x0.5 in the centipede's lair."
This was partially true, as I initially lied about the capabilities of the system.
But the general idea was similar: the transition from the rank sixth to the rank seventh was an incredible leap in quality. Even a hundred rank sixth aether crystals cannot compare to one rank seventh aether crystal. First, the quality was obvious to my eyes: the rank seventh crystal was like a bright sun, while the rank sixth crystal was like a dim torch. Second, the amount of this high-quality aether was more than thirty times greater than in a rank sixth aether crystal.
But now I had confirmed something: the transition from sixth to seventh rank was too huge. The rank seventh was simply a transition to another world compared to the rank sixth. If I were a cultivator world, I would describe it as a transition from the mortal level to the immortal level. That's exactly how the difference between ranks six and seven felt.
I can't even imagine what's going on with the rank eighth at the moment.
But... no matter how much I trusted the main character, it would be foolish to reveal all my cards in a world where you can read other people's memories. I needed Arthur's trust the moment I woke up in the sanctuary, so I decided to reveal what I knew about the original plot.
But I couldn't explain how it all came about, so I didn't mention the wealth system at all and greatly reduced the capabilities of the communication system.
For example, Arthur knows that I have a communication system, but for him, I only have three communication slots instead of ten. For Arthur, I have a random value when the system is triggered, ranging from x0.5 to x2, although in reality it is x10 or a new rank. For Arthur, I don't have a clear rank in the system, and I pray every time that the invisible rank will increase, although in reality I have the ranks written down in black and white, even though I don't yet know what the maximum rank is.
Yes, I deceived him, but I don't want to risk, Agrona or someone else capturing Arthur, turning his brain inside out in search of information, and seeing my ability. Yes, these are paranoid thoughts, and the chance is small, but still. I need to have an advantage. If someone finds out about the system, they will be able to use Arthur's level to roughly estimate my own level, and then it could work in my favor, because in reality I will already be too far ahead.
Although I may just be paranoid, it's better to be prepared for anything in a world where there are deities capable of creating worlds and a fate that weighs on me with its mere presence.
The dark fire around Regis grew darker when I turned my attention to Arthur and nodded slightly to him, because when I upgraded to a new rank, the item I had given out did not disappear. We had three rank sixth aether crystals and one rank fifth in our hands.
"Arthur, we'll spend about five days here so as not to mess up the original plot." Arthur wanted to say something, but I raised my hand and continued, "You were originally supposed to stay in the previous zone for about a week, but thanks to me, we stayed there for barely a day and a half. I know you're in a hurry, but my strength lies in the fact that I know the original plot and can help you make the most of every opportunity, speeding up where necessary and slowing down where you can get more benefit."
Sighing slowly, I turned my attention back to Arthur. "This won't last long. The plot will move much faster from here on out, and we'll be able to speed up there. You know yourself, since I showed you chapters 261 and 262, that you left before finishing the ether channels. Now that your potential has increased, we must take advantage of it. With the system, we will be able to collect a few more aether crystals, and I hope to raise them to this unusual rank, or at least to the one that is now very close."
Arthur's head dropped as he looked down at his feet. "I know, I just want to see my family and..."
Shaking his head, his gaze became more serious. "You're right, I need to become stronger. I need to make my aether channels as strong as possible in these five days. Let's start right now." "
"That's the spirit!" said Regis, flying alongside us.
Third-person view
Taking a rank sixth aether crystal each, Arthur and Lucius lowered their feet into the lava. Because of how much aether they had to constantly displace to keep their bodies from burning, at first they could only stay in the river for about a minute at a time. However, each time they lasted a little longer.
At first, they burned their feet and healed them over and over again at tremendous speed, using up a huge amount of aether each time. The rank sixth aether crystal seemed infinitely large for the core of the first layer. Therefore, they performed this action until they achieved the result they wanted.
The result came two days later.
Ninety percent aether conductivity through the legs for Lucius, who, feeling no pain or fatigue, climbed into the lava again and again.
The next step was to involve the upper limbs in the process. Lucius repeated what he had already done, subjecting his hands to lava procedures and then initiating a powerful aether flow through the channels of his body. After another two days, he achieved a similar level of aether conductivity of ninety percent in his hands.
The five channels, previously weak and winding, with a thickness of a thread, became as thick as real veins after four days of extreme improvements. A significant improvement, if you ask, but thinking that this was not enough and that with this attitude he would not return home, he decided to take more extreme action.
Although the aether channels had improved greatly, they still stretched from his chest to his legs and arms in only five lines, which was not enough, so taking a rank sixth aether crystal and completely undressing, Lucius decided to act.
Regis did not like Lucius' actions and his expression.
"What are you up to this time?" Regis asked, looking at Lucius apprehensively.
But what Lucius did next made even Arthur, who had been distracted by the noise, flinch in surprise. This scene would remain in their minds for many years to come.
Without answering Regis, Lucius lowered his feet into the lava. After sitting there for a few seconds, he took the aether crystal with one hand and pushed off with the other, sliding into the boiling lava and enveloping himself in such a thin layer of aether that as soon as his body touched the lava, a hissing and bubbling sound rang out clearly.
"What the hell?!" Regis yelled, his shadow form distorted as he watched in horror as Lucius sank to the bottom of the boiling lava.
Arthur's eyes widened in horror. In that same second, he enveloped his hand in powerful aether and tried to grab Lucius, but Lucius was already sinking to the bottom.
After waiting a couple of seconds and realizing that he had achieved the result he wanted, Lucius directed the aether to his legs and pushed off hard, flying out of the lava like a comet. His body broke through the surface of the lava, and he flew out, leaving a trail of boiling liquid behind him.
His body melted so quickly and so intensely that as soon as he slipped out, he saw and felt nothing. His body was so badly burned that he looked more like a corpse. The skin peeled off his body, his hair disappeared along with his eyes, arms, legs, and his whole body looked like a piece of barely alive meat.
But his charred body held the aether crystal in an iron grip.
Arthur's eyes widened as he reached out, grabbed Lucius, and pulled him into the cave. Gripping the crystal more tightly, Lucius began to rapidly absorb the aether essence of the rank sixth aether crystal. After twenty minutes and using up about fifteen percent of the aether from the crystal, as he filled the core a couple of times and used all the aether for regeneration and directing new aether channels even in such a terrible state.
Having done everything he wanted, Lucius began to slowly grow flesh, his nails grew back, and long black hair with white strands that contrasted with his snow-white skin reappeared. His teeth, which had been melted, slowly recovered, and finally his eyes, writhing frighteningly, finally recovered.
All this time, his expression was cold as steel. Having fully recovered, he quietly exhaled compressed air and was about to start checking his body, but a sharp voice interrupted him.
"What the hell did you do, you masochistic suicide bomber? Do you want to die?!" Regis literally yelled. Over the past couple of days, he and Lucius had become quite close, and seeing this guy roast himself in lava was terrifying. Even more frightening for Regis was his calm face; even as Lucius's body melted, he didn't make a sound.
"I don't want to die, and that's why I'm doing this," Lucius said, feeling the changes in his body, his tone light. "I need to repeat this three times for an acceptable result. Arthur, will you back me up this time?"
But Arthur didn't answer. Even he watched Lucius with a slight horror, his lips curling slightly when he asked, "Are you sure you can handle it?"
"Hey, do you want to let him do it again?" Regis shouted, flying right in front of Arthur's face.
But Arthur replied through mental space, without taking his eyes off Lucius, "Look into his eyes, our words mean nothing to him right now."
Ignoring Regis' concern, Lucius nodded firmly, bringing his body closer to the lava again.
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Two days flew by in an instant. Lucius strengthened his aether channels and began repeating the explosive step in an attempt to take the god step, and he was close.
Arthur was also doing very well, and although he did not have the pain adaptation that helped Lucius greatly, Arthur's doubled potential and efforts compensated for this, because after seven hours, a notification arrived.
[Rank seventh aether channels x10 or upgrade to rank eighth?]
Choosing x10, Lucius looked at the bored Regis and even felt sorry for him for a moment. Regis had nothing to look at except two naked bodies, one of which looked like a charred corpse about seven times over, entering and exiting the lava and sharing their successes in their attempts to speed up the process. His flight was limited, so he often just stared into space.
Nodding to Arthur, who began to emerge from the lava, Lucius began to get dressed. Adjusting his darkened leather bracers and gorget, and twirling the white dagger he had grown quite fond of in his hand, he threw a turquoise cloak with a fur lining over his shoulders. "Ready to go, Regis?"
Regis's form seemed to come to life when he began flying at tremendous speed around the small cave they had made during that time. "I know from Arthur's memories that he was originally able to direct about seventy percent to his hands and about twenty-five percent to his feet. Tell me I didn't waste my time watching two naked madmen bathing in lava for the last five days."
Instead of words, Lucius let the aether escape from his core. However, instead of seeing a thin purple film covering his entire body, his aether burned bright purple, all traces of reddish tint gone. What really surprised Regis was that all the aether gathered in Lucius' right fist, then in his left, and then began to jump from foot to foot and back to his hand with such smoothness as if it were mana.
Arthur did the same thing. The aether moved easily through his body, not as smoothly as Lucius's, but still incredibly so compared to what it had been before.
"This..." Regis said with a stupid look on his face.
When Arthur nodded with a smile on his face, stretching his body, "Ninety percent conductivity to any point in the body."
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I'm hinting at this pretty strongly, but what do you think Lucius's plan is? It's a pretty obvious plan, I think.
Why is he choosing x10 on strong abilities instead of upgrading to a new rank to boost them even more?