Jake stumbled back to his lodge in Haven alongside Eron, who decided to go with him as they kept talking. The healer was also doing what he could to speed up Jake’s recovery time, though he could only do so much.

While Jake’s resource pools turning to shit was definitely his biggest immediate problem, that didn’t mean it was the only one he was actively dealing with. Jake felt like he had just overused his boosting skill way above any extremes prior, as he had severely strained himself. Eron informed Jake that having his body repeatedly emptied of energy and then healed again hadn’t exactly been healthy either.

On the way back, Jake had explained some basic things to Eron about what had happened. Mainly because the guy had already figured out most things himself, including even guessing Jake had failed to upgrade a skill using the same kind of unique energy he used to help create Vesperia. Sometimes, Jake forgot the healer could be wicked smart.

There were still a lot of things he naturally didn’t know, and he hadn’t detected the use of Villy’s Transcendence either, something Jake, of course, didn’t share. He did seem to have an almost morbid curiosity examining Jake’s body, though. Which, according to him, was because seeing this kind of soul damage was a rare encounter, especially when it was the soul of someone as powerful for their level as Jake. Eron also told Jake that despite his soul clearly being weakened, it still burned brighter than the vast majority of people his level, so that was a kind of nice compliment.

“So, doc… what’s the prescription?” Jake asked in a joking tone once he was home and resting in a chair on his porch.

“Rest, meditation, and to stay active, at least mentally, to stimulate recovery,” Eron answered in his usual serious tone. “I estimate this extreme weakness you are experiencing should last at most two weeks more, while fully healing your soul will take a lot longer. Naturally, avoid facing anything with soul attacks as you are very susceptible to those, and before fully recovering, I would be careful about overusing your boosting skill and any kind of time dilation has to be avoided no matter what, as it can hamper your natural recovery. If you wish for a more pleasant recovery, using soul-soothing natural treasures or alchemical creations might be an option, but they will not assist in your recovery, and I would advise you against trying to speed it up using any kind of external support. The most complete recovery is the one your body will naturally have.”

Jake nodded and, after a bit of hesitation, asked: “Any insight on the damaged skill in question?”

Eron chuckled in response. “It’s good to see you can remain humorous despite your circumstances.”

… so that was definitely a no.

“Gotta stay positive,” Jake just laughed along before sighing. “I sure did mess up badly this time around.”

“Yes, you did,” Eron agreed. “You’re almost as bad as the morons who rode motorcycles before the arrival of the system. Did you know those death machines were dozens of times more prone to accidents than cars, not to mention the death rate should you get into an accident? Like you, those idiots also tended to significantly overestimate their own abilities, all the way up till they landed on my table.”

“Not sure how good of a comparison that is, and I get the faint feeling you weren’t a fan of motorbikes,” Jake smiled.

“I despise death, and I abhor people who put their lives in danger for no good reason,” Eron scoffed. “At least you have the excuse that should you succeed, you would achieve significant gains in your Path. All a damn biker would earn was slightly better fuel economy, assuming they were driving alone.”

“You know, my dad wanted a bike at one point, but my mom forbid it,” Jake commented.

“A wise woman,” Eron nodded in approval.

“Yeah, she thought the insurance was way too expensive,” Jake smirked, earning a disapproving look from Eron.

“I don’t think you understand the damage not addressing such a dangerous method of transportation caused to-“

For the next twenty minutes, Jake repaid Eron for his help by allowing him to rant about motorcycles, just nodding along during it all. He definitely had a lot of thoughts on the subject, and Jake couldn’t remember a time the guy had talked so much while remaining so normal.

Luckily, Eron was able to stop himself after a while, at which point he seemed to realize he had other things to do.

“Look at the time; I’ll take my leave now,” Eron said, having vented his hatred of motorcycles and their continued legality all the way up the integration. “I wish you luck in your recovery and remember to stay somewhat active even if it hurts. If you need my assistance, simply let me know and I shall see what I can do.”

“Thanks for the offer and all the help so far,” Jake said in a grateful tone. “And I promise to never ride a motorbike for the rest of my life.”

Eron didn’t comment on Jake’s teasing but just waved him off as the healer left the valley and Jake alone. With him gone, Jake sighed and slumped back on the chair while grimacing. “Should have asked for some pain meds…”

Alas, Jake was pretty sure something like that didn’t exist… besides maybe taking something soul-soothing, as Eron had mentioned. That was perhaps worth considering, but for now, he annoyingly did have a few things he needed to do.

He needed to talk to Miranda about everything that went down and get others up to speed with what he learned about this “I” figure. There was also his connection to the Fallen King that felt odd. Jake was confident that the Unique Lifeform had been affected by what Jake did; he just wasn’t sure how. So, talking to him once the King was back was definitely something Jake had to do.

As a final thing, before he reached out to people… when it came to his Palate of the Malefic Viper and the internal stomach, it was just as the Viper had said. Jake couldn’t even look inside it, and it felt like the space was utterly sealed off. The only trace it was even there was the incredibly slight feeling of something being absorbed. The half-a-Planetary Core was still being consumed, albeit so slowly Jake could barely register it, but at least it was something and proof that the skill continued to function for the most part.

The biggest problem was definitely what the Viper had mentioned about upgrading it. In its current state, Jake couldn’t be able to get any upgrades no matter how much insight he got about the skill. It was locked at legendary rarity, which wasn’t the worst, but he would need it fixed at some point, and he doubted even an evolution to B-grade would help anything. Shit, maybe an evolution would even downgrade it.

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Perhaps the only thing Jake could hope for was that Villy would find a solution while Jake finished up this damn system event. That… or the meeting he would have when he reached level 300 in his profession, could end up helping in an unforeseen way.

Only time would tell. For now, he had to talk to Miranda.

Getting up from his lawn chair, Jake went into the lodge and used the magic landline phone to contact the local witch. Just infusing the item with mana to make the call felt painful, but he soldiered through long enough. She quickly picked up, worried.

“I heard reports you returned to your lodge with Eron… what happened?”

“I think it’s better you come over in person… using this thing is giving me a headache,” Jake said, really not liking the sensation of using his mana to speak right now. It was like the magical variety of having a really sore throat and being forced to talk loudly.

“Alright, I’ll be over shortly once I finish up here,” she said, Jake shutting off the connection after that as he saw no reason to continue straining himself by keeping it active.

Jake went to relax as he waited for her to arrive, lying down and resting. He felt like shit, and he couldn’t help but admonish himself for the shitty timing of doing this during a system event with a limited duration. Especially not one that also included interacting with other factions, including Ell’Hakan.

It was also just after Arnold and company made the teleporter somewhat functional, allowing them to assist the planets outside the alliance. This should be a prime time to go around killing Prima Guardians and gathering potential allies – or at least assuring other factions wouldn’t side with Ell’Hakan.

But, as Jake was now, that wasn’t a possibility. Even if he recovered somewhat, it was incredibly risky to travel around. Before, Jake didn’t care about being caught in some silly trap, as he was confident in escaping or fighting anyone who tried to mess with him… but now?

Well… alright, Jake still had confidence in escaping, just not the consequences of doing so. He ultimately still had his Jake Juice and could use it on himself to put up a good fight, and he did believe doing so would remove all that currently ailed him… at least for a while. But after, shit was bound to be even worse than they were now. Exactly how bad things would be, Jake didn’t plan on finding out.

In summary, Jake would effectively be useless for a good while. Perhaps he could help out once he’d recovered a bit, but even so, he wasn’t sure if he should. If Ell’Hakan noticed Jake had severe soul damage, he would definitely try and take advantage. No, it was better to hide away and just act uninterested. No one should really know what had happened outside of Eron, the Fallen King, and Miranda.

Even if someone did learn he suffered from soul damage, Jake doubted Ell’Hakan would believe it without any proof. It could just as easily be a ploy to bait in the other Chosen, after all. So, staying back and not providing any definite proof Jake was feeling under the weather felt like the right way to go.

Time passed, and around half an hour later, Miranda arrived at the lodge. Jake saw her coming through his sphere, which he had also felt forced to reduce in size to lessen the mental strain. Pulses were entirely out of the question for now.

Miranda walked into the lodge and saw Jake lying on an old sofa. She looked him over and frowned. “You look like shit.”

“Glad the outside matches my insides, I guess,” Jake said with a wry smile.

“What happened? What exactly did you encounter on that planet?” Miranda asked, worried.

“Well… it isn’t as much what I encountered on the planet but what I tried to do there…” Jake said as he gave a brief explanation of what had gone down, of course leaving out some of the details he probably shouldn’t share. He did share just enough for her to get the gist of everything as she sighed.

“This was bound to happen at some point, you know that, right?” she said in a slightly scolding tone.

“Someone else pretty smart told me the same thing,” Jake could only agree.

“So how do you wanna deal with this situation?” Miranda asked in a serious tone. “People will notice your absence. Especially Ell’Hakan’s goons, who seem to have been tracking you and where you went. We can, of course, do nothing, but that may only lead to speculation… and it isn’t like the actual truth will do us any good.”

“I’m more worried about how this will impact the system event,” Jake shook his head. “We were competing pretty well with Ell’Hakan and the expansion of his alliance…”

“That will be difficult now, yes, but it’s more important to get you back in good condition. Did Eron have any suggestions for a quicker recovery? Does Haven have any resources capable of helping? Maybe you can ask Sandy if they have some treasure stored?”

“Eron suggested bedrest,” Jake answered, not hiding that he wasn’t happy about it. “At least for the first couple of weeks. After that, I can do some things, but I’m still limited.”

“I see,” Miranda said in a solemn tone. “You are definitely to stay on Earth. I will have a meeting with everyone else relevant and figure out how we’ll deal with this. Once Sylphie, Vesperia, and the Fallen King return, perhaps we should also have one of them stay with you for safety.”

Jake wanted to protest as he found the notion of having a protector insulting… but did he really have the right to complain when all this shit was his fault?

In the end, he just stayed quiet, resigning himself to let Miranda do what she thought was best.

The two of them spoke for a bit longer before she left Jake to rest. He also told her to please not let anyone else visit that day, as honestly, Jake really just wanted to have a good nap. Whenever he was young, he could sleep off most minor sicknesses, and while this certainly was a lot more major… sleep would at least make all the pain go away for a while.

It took barely any time before Jake entered dreamland, naturally having moved to sleep in his good old bed from all the way back in the Tutorial Challenge Dungeon.

“Are you certain you are alright now?” the True Royal asked the Unique Lifeform as the Fallen King was still sitting on a tree stump within the forest he had crashed into when he suddenly stopped flying.

“It has passed, yes,” the King answered as he felt his own body. Golden cracks had appeared on the mask but were healing rather quickly. Far quicker than if the Fallen King had been the one to cause the damage to his own soul. It wasn’t hard for him to realize what had happened, either.

Jake’s soul had been in an incident that caused it to take tremendous damage on a fundamental level, reaching deep enough to even hurt the Fallen King due to their connection. The Unique Lifeform couldn’t forget: If Jake died, the Fallen King would also die… and this instance had been very close.

Far too close for comfort.

“What caused this?” Vesperia kept questioning, Sylphie also looking worried.

For a moment, the Fallen King considered if sharing the truth would be wise, and ultimately decided hiding it would do him no good. It was far more likely they would discover the truth later and connect the dots, thus affecting their perception of the Fallen King negatively.

“Your Sire was involved in something,” the King said, making sure to communicate only to her and the bird. “I do not know more than that he has suffered some form of severe soul damage. The semi-permanent kind, at the very least.”

Instantly, the mood changed. Vesperia got a severe look on her face as she turned to the hapless World Leader they had been escorting to the Prima Vessel. “We need to get back as quickly as possible.”

“I shall fly as fast as I ca-“

“Not fast enough,” Vesperia said in a cold tone.

“Ree?” Sylphie let out a small screech, looking at the Fallen King with big eyes.

“I do not know, little one. We will not learn the exact situation before we return,” the Fallen King answered. “I will need a moment, so-“

“I understand,” Vesperia nodded, turning to Sylphie. “Speed above all else.”

“Ree!” Sylphie agreed, and before the World Leader could even respond, he was launched into the air and sent flying far faster than his travel speed.

“Will you…?”

“Yes, I shall return on my own,” the Fallen King gave her the go-ahead as the True Royal didn’t wait to follow after Sylphie, leaving the Fallen King behind.

After about a minute, the Fallen King lifted his hand and ran his claw along the fractures in the mask. This connection with the hunter had yet to truly pose an issue so far, but … this incident was a reminder…

I cannot be content. This is untenable and utterly unacceptable. No more hesitation or needless delays. I shall reclaim my own dominion fully… and be fallen no longer.