Zarian woke up ravenously hungry and had a panic attack.
Prior to waking, he dread of looking down on a world covered in little castles with little caves under the surface. His friends were down there. The Ride-or-Die kiddos were down there. Ruvaria, Foodie, and Arnold of Ambrose were down there.
Then, with no concern or rcy, he’d eaten the entire world along with everyone on it. It had a nice crunch. An array of flavors popped and crackled as he chewed.
Then the dream ended.
After waking up from that, Zarian had to sit in his bed for the next five minutes. He had to get a feel for what was real and what wasn’t.
It was both interesting and annoying how soone could grow high in levels and stats, yet their personality remained. Their fears and joys remained.
The only way to change those internal things was to grow as an actual person. The System and its profiles didn’t affect those intrinsic stuff unless there was an overtly ga-like or magical maneuver, like empathy or mood magic.
Taking a deep breath in and out, Zarian felt his aura cycle around through him and for thousands and thousands of feet in all directions. Then he focused again on his surroundings.
Zarian didn’t find his enchanted bed as novel as he did months ago. Nor was he as imnsely impressed by having a spacious apartnt with full luxury anities compared to when Hannah had finished up making one for him back at the Central Library Artillery Tower.
She’d ensured he had the largest and nicest room in honor of his status and origins, despite the issues from the Darkrun Apocalypse.
His current room had its own mini kitchen and bar area. It had a sparkly bathroom with a shower and bathtub. There was an entertainnt area in front of his bed set within a sunken floor, and there was an enchanted crystal display screen on the opposite wall.
None of these things were novel for Zarian now. In fact, this room was smaller than his room back in Ride-or-Die Village.
But this room was special on its own. On first glance, it was easy to miss how everything comprised tiny, tiny cubes.
When he rubbed his hands over the comforter, it felt like a normal comforter. But in reality, it was woven from cubic shing.
The rugs on the floor were the sa, all soft mini cube stuff. The sa went for the sofa, the bathroom, the crystal display screen, the enchanted pipes in the walls that could make water flow and change temperatures, and even the dieval style refrigerator.
Hannah had grown skillfully better with that cube ability of hers. It used to be more obvious before.
The only thing Hannah didn’t make was the actual view. But she constructed their hotel with all the rooms having lake-side views. The structure was also on top of the tallest castle that was part of a blocky ring around the beautiful, reflective lake.
Zarian relaxed further as he looked beyond his wide and tall windows and the spacious balcony. Out there, he saw the lake under the pre-dawn, cobalt blue morning of a new day. ꭆÀ
Not even a single ripple disturbed the water for quite so ti. Then Zarian spotted a brief splash, which was the telltale sign of sothing lurking beneath the pristine lake surface.
Sothing to fish.
Zarian had never thought much about outdoor enjoynt before coming to the Infinita Star System. But he had to admit that the World of Castles and Caverns had so naturally pretty views that went along with its fantastical thes.
As Zarian enjoyed the view, he felt Para’s threads pierce gently out of his skin from around his shoulders and his back. She extended herself until she beca a simple dark red and leathery cloak without her glittery aura lights.
For the sake of the peaceful morning, Para remained dimd down.
Zarian wouldn’t have minded if she continued glimring like she ate countless galaxies and wore them just beneath the skin of the cloak. But he did like how Para could appreciate the peaceful simplicity of waking up to a beautiful view.
Then Para took things a step further by forming so tentacles from the ends of the cloak. The tentacles slithered over the edge of the bed and exited the apartnt room, leaving the door slightly ajar.
Zarian could follow along with his aura perception and Wonder, but he let Para do whatever she was doing to be a surprise.
He stayed in bed.
The pre-dawn morning was lightening up.
Because their travel hotel was on top of the tallest castle while facing north, Zarian didn’t have to concern himself over the direct sunbeams of the rising suns. He could take a peek around the corner if he wanted to see.
But even with how strong he was now, he was still a dark-type at heart. He liked the pre-dawn morning a little more than the sunrise itself, honestly.
He heard Bianca’s voice resonating through the hotel and through the open door. She was letting out her typical morning scream, like a rooster crowing.
By now, she would have the coffee finished.
Zarian waited in bed.
Para’s tentacles returned with a giant mug of coffee wrapped up. The dark drink had so magical twists added to it, so it wasn’t common quality coffee, it was uncommon quality, making it taste better while giving a buff to focus.
Regardless of the extra magic perk, Zarian enjoyed drinking coffee in the morning, especially after what happened with the Chira Tyrant Lair.
Zarian took a deep sniff of his coffee. He let it sit in the palm of his hands and felt its warmth.
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The coffee was actually scalding hot, but Zarian was too tough to feel bothered by that. Then he took his first sip and tasted all the textures, flavors, and slight magical highlights over his tongue.
He felt a miniscule but welcoming buzz that gave him so extra perk from the first sip alone. He took a minute to enjoy the first sensations of the first sniff and taste of coffee.
Then he took another sip and turned his focus elsewhere.
He was still hungry. But the hunger was for actual food of the world, rather than to turn the world and its people into food. Still, he and Para agreed to wait a little longer before satisfying their hunger.
It was ti for Zarian to assess what happened last night and look over his gains with a more critical eye. He invited Para to speak if she wanted, but the Parasite Cloak 2 wanted to take the backseat on things for now.
Zarian felt so concern over that.
Did he do sothing that made Para more reclusive?
He gave her so impressions of his concern.
All he could get from his friendly parasite was that she was okay and she would speak when she was ready, or if necessary. Para didn’t explain any further than that.
Was Para becoming an introvert?
Zarian was still a little worried, but he didn’t press Para any further. For now, she acted as a silent and comforting presence, wrapping him up with the cloak while he held his mug with two hands and sat cross-legged on the giant enchanted bed.
Zarian glanced over at the physical loot stacked on the wooden cube-made study desk. It was in the corner near the wide and tall windows.
While his eyes were on the loot, his thoughts worked over the events from the lair crawl.
He rembered how excited he was about a challenge before things turned out drastically tough from the start. He rembered seeing how wild Naomi looked while covered in temporary scars.
He rembered the ntioning of Ekri the Tailor before marching out and leading a direct assault on the heart of the lair. Things had gone right and wrong from there.
“We should’ve gone back and got the rest of the party before we jumped down to face the sunken citadel,” Zarian said with a sigh. “I broke my promise to Gilbert. That was dumb. No amount of cunning and tactics I can get from free evil 4 can hide the fact that I got hella cocky again. I put myself in a position where I had to use Overwhelming Darkness in the worst way.”
The results had spoken for themselves.
Yes, things turned out fine in the end.
But Zarian had nearly given in to his dark urges and beco an apocalyptic and existential threat again. He’d literally wanted to eat stars and worlds, cosmic systems of galactic and universal size, then work his way up to eating entire interconnected multiverses and their primordial protectors.
The horrifying part was how he’d felt closer to his darkness than ever before during that mont. That had given him more control, more power. An unbelievable amount of power, really.
But the cost of all that power had co with the risk of changing him forever.
Now Zarian had to question if cultivation was both a gift and a curse.
Did having more control over his One Percent Power an he would continue rging himself further and further with the dark and cosmic hunger that threatened all life?
Was there a point where he could overco these horrific urges and temptations? Then would he gain all the benefits without the consequences of his massive and terrifying power?
One way or another, he still had to cultivate.
He had to see things through. There might be a breaking point if he cultivated enough.
But he also had to admit cultivation wasn’t exactly a thrilling experience, and it ca at the sacrifice of his wizardry studies. It made adventuring a little risky when so much of his focus was on cultivation, making his abilities overall weaker.
There were a few solutions.
One, he could cultivate at night and study wizardry during the day.
He would be more connected with darkness at night. That should ease up the burden of cultivating his Overwhelming Darkness and make it so it was less miserable, and he was less vulnerable.
Then, during the day, he could study his ass off.
He could go a few weeks without sleep at this point. Maybe a little less while grinding away. He would just need to catch up on sleep now and then.
As for the second solution, Zarian thought he should lean on the help of his powerful friends more. He should’ve done that before he and Naomi entered the sunken citadel.
Zarian spoke aloud, mostly for himself to hear. “We risked our health too much when Gilbert could’ve kept us healed. Hannah could’ve crushed that doomsday spell device faster and more competently. And Bianca’s Bianca, full of talent and always able to help or dominate. Looking back, we should’ve gotten the full party.”
Zarian took another sip of his coffee before continuing. “Or hell, we should’ve just bought them along as auxiliaries. If Naomi just wanted most of the lair for herself and , the others could’ve followed along in the back and stayed mostly inactive. Then, when shit gets real, they can jump in right away.”
The more Zarian thought about it, the more he felt a little angry with himself.
He’d taken a lot of ti to develop his party of Floridians. He’d seen them grow from weak Level 1s to the mighty powerhouses they were today.
He hadn’t always been there for everything, especially not in the past couple of months when Zarian had to work on multiple disciplines of study. They’d developed themselves on their own during that ti and beca all the greater for it.
Still, he’d chosen to live his adventurer life with others by his side. But when he had the option to bring along more, he’d turned that down.
He didn’t bla Naomi. She was the only one who had an epic class among a bunch of legendary classes. She needed to push her limits constantly to avoid falling behind.
But Zarian was pretty damn sure that Naomi was the second strongest of the party now. He hadn’t learned the full details of her changes just yet. He was just sure Naomi had gotten sothing incredible based on how giddy and delirious she was by the ti they went to sleep.
He was glad for her. She’d resisted his darkness for quite so ti. She deserved whatever she’d gained from that.
However, her joy didn’t take away from how Zarian felt like he had royally screwed up and made a major strategic mistake.
“Auxiliaries,” Zarian said. “If I ever get the feeling that we’re up against a dangerous situation like that again, I’m calling in auxiliaries.”
The idea was simple. There were the main crawlers. Then there were the auxiliaries who would only help during extre ergencies.
That way, the main crawlers could develop themselves as necessary without going into deadly situations half-cocked. Of course, this could still lead to situations where the auxiliaries had to crawl, too, but that was a necessary evil.
Besides, this was for hypothetical situations. After Zarian and Naomi’s explosive growth, everyone else would want to throw themselves into so crawls and catch up later.
At the very least, Zarian could reference the auxiliary idea for the next ti a situation like the Chira Tyrant happened. Because at so point, even Zarian had to admit the challenges and rewards weren’t worth the potential mayhem and existential end of all that he held dear.
There was the threat of being trapped in a jar, too.
Zarian didn’t really care about that. He’d happily accept the jar treatnt if he fucked up again.
“Dealing with is a hell of a problem, isn’t it, Star System?” Zarian asked.
A golden notification box appeared in front of Zarian’s face.
“Sorry,” Zarian said.
The notification box disappeared without another response.
Zarian nodded to himself and took a few more sips of coffee. The pre-dawn morning was on the verge of ending and becoming true dawn.
When Zarian saw the first golden ray of sunrise beaming past his windows, he turned his attention fully to his notifications. He rearranged them based on what he wanted to go over first while the fun stuff waited toward the end.
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