"The blood of a god...?"

Robert stared at the vial with deep apprehension and a little bit of disgust. Seeing the look on his face, Rose laughed.

"Haha, I was joking. There's no such thing as gods."

Her laugh sounded almost eerie.

"....Well, at least not that I'm aware of."

Robert quietly nodded his head and waited for her to continue. Picking the vial, Rose casually glanced at it.

Rather than explaining, she asked a question.

"What do you know about the age before the Era of the Shattered World?"

It was a sudden question that Robert hadn't expected.

He stared at her for a moment before shaking his head.

"I'm not quite well-versed in such matters. But from what I've read, our civilization wasn't developed enough to create records of it."

The Era of the Shattered World occurred approximately three thousand years ago. It was the Era where the first recordings of the Mirror Dimension occurred.

That was as far as Robert knew.

Was there perhaps more to it...?

"I guess you wouldn't know."

Stroking her chin, Rose tilted the vial, allowing the liquid to move from one side to the other. The more Robert stared at it, the more uncomfortable he grew.

It really did seem like blood...

"I also don't know very well. Only the big shots know the full story. The one thing I do know is that..."

Rose slowly turned her head away from the vial to meet Robert's gaze. Suddenly, as if two hands had gripped his throat, he found himself struggling to breathe.

"....The Mirror Dimension is not a natural phenomenon. It was something that was created by what we call an 'unrecorded' or in a sense, 'gods'."

Unrecorded? God...?

"The deeper you venture into the Mirror Dimension, the more things you end up finding. Our organization has existed since the Age of the Shattered World until now, and even now we still don't know much about the Unrecorded. The only thing we managed to pick up is that there are seven of them."

Tak—

Rose gently placed the vial on the table next to her.

"Some texts suggest that there had been a fallout between the Unrecorded, leading up to a massive fight which resulted in the shattering of the known world, and hence the Mirror Dimension while other sources say it was the doing of one Unrecorded who had gone against the others to seek Immortality."

"Immortality?"

"Oh, yeah... We call them gods, but the unrecorded weren't immortal. Well, all except for one."

Frowning, Rose stroked her chine while mumbling, "I believe the first one to die was Oracleus? He died not much after he received his powers."

Oracleus?

She shrugged.

"The fragments are scattered so the information is still not there yet, but we don't really need to dwell too deeply into the ancient history."

Rose went on to continue.

"Our goal is to collect information and relics."

"Relics?"

Robert raised his brow.

Relics were items that were imbued with mana and had special properties. They could be created by hand, or found in the mirror dimension.

Rose nodded her head.

"Four in particular: the Extractor of Containment, the Astral Mirror, the Oracle's Eyes, and the Chalice of Collection. Our mission is to find and collect all four relics. Their importance is fundamental. They'll be the key to achieving our goal."

"Which is...?"

Rose smiled and shook her head.

"The full expansion of the Mirror Dimension."

Robert's eyes widened at the sudden revelation. Though he had somewhat guessed, it still came to him as a shock.

Why? For what reason did they want the Mirror Dimension to fully expand? Before he had the chance to voice out his questions, Rose started speaking again.

"We've yet to find any so far, but we're getting there. We've managed to narrow it down to a certain location."

Yet again, Robert was left shocked. A certain location came to his mind as he subconsciously mumbled,

"Haven."

".....That's correct."

Rose smiled.

"Their scent... They're all there. All four artifacts are in Haven. Hidden somewhere or in someone's possession."

"Ah."

Robert felt his body grow cold at the sudden revelation. The pieces finally started to piece together in his mind all of a sudden as he swallowed his saliva.

"I've seen your files. The one you were assigned to kill... He had the scent of one of the artifacts. It's a pity you weren't able to kill him, but you don't have to worry, there will be plenty of other opportunities."

Fiddling with the vial, she handed it to him.

"Drink this. It's your reward."

Hesitant, Robert reached out to grab the vial.

"....Is this really blood?"

"Hmm, who knows~"

With a smirk, Rose's heel clicked against the marble ground as she turned to head for the elevator doors again.

"It could be or could not be. It doesn't really matter. Just know this..."

Her steps slowed briefly.

"....The moment you drink that, your life expectancy will increase."

***

The days continued to pass.

It was now the weekend, and I was still stuck in my room. Today was an important day for me.

Staring at the bar and seeing it at 99%, I knew that it was only a matter of minutes before I finally ranked up to the next tier.

It was an exciting day.

"Huuu."

Taking a deep breath, I felt the mana inside of my body flow smoother and smoother. It was a weird sensation.

One that felt rather addicting.

Time continued to pass and the flow became smoother with each second that ticked. Not only that, but I could feel my mana core expand gradually as more and more mana started to seep into my body.

"Hmmm."

At some point, I started to frown.

I felt weirdly bloated as more mana entered my body. It was as if I had eaten a full-course meal and then immediately headed to a buffet.

It felt... Uncomfortable.

But amidst the discomfort, I felt power surge through my body.

That feeling...

It blew all the discomfort out of the water as I persisted through it. Then... Amid my struggle, I felt something crack.

Cr-Crack!

It almost sounded as if a piece of glass had shattered. The sound was subtle and nearly imperceptible.

However, I caught it.

And it was from that moment that something within me changed.

The flow of mana inside of my body became faster and smoother. The core expansion stopped, and my perception of my surroundings changed a little.

It was an odd sensation.

I extended my hand forward and scooped it.

As expected, there was nothing, but...

"It feels like I'm grabbing something "

Was it the mana that lingered in the air? Or was it something else?

My mind didn't wander on those thoughts for much longer as I focused my attention on my hand where a magic circle started to form.

Clank. Clank. Clank.

Chains formed, wrapping over my arm.

"....It's faster."

To my pleasant surprise, the time it took for the chains to appear was faster than before. It wasn't by much, but it was definitely noticeable.

"Hahaha."

I laughed then.

It was a pleasant situation. Thinking about the fighting style that I had developed, this was certainly a massive boost for me.

"....Would I have been able to win against her in my current state?"

I thought back on the incident at the prison.

Back then, I had been able to contain her with my abilities. Had I been in the same situation in the past, but with my current abilities, would I have been able to achieve more...?

"There's no use thinking about it."

I eventually shook my head.

There were no what-ifs and the goal had always been to let her escape. There was no use dwelling on hypothetical scenarios.

"Finally..."

A sense of relief washed over me all of a sudden as I leaned back and stared at the ceiling.

"....I did it."

I had ranked up.

My chest felt light, and my lips pulled up. It was hard for me to contain my smile. I felt happy, and proud of myself.

The struggles weren't for nothing.

"Huaam."

Yawning, I squinted my eyes repeatedly. Having neglected my sleep to achieve such a result, I was starting to feel tired.

I glanced at the time. 1 P.M.

"It's still quite early."

Although I did want to sleep, I had classes tomorrow and I didn't want to mess up my sleeping schedule.

For that reason, I decided to go out and take a walk.

"Oh, right."

I suddenly recalled something and a destination appeared in my mind. Without a second thought, I headed there.

***

Since the nearest city to the Academy was located about two hours away, the academy established a shop where the cadets could purchase basic necessities and food.

It was a famous spot with it being always full every weekday. The only times it was empty was the weekend when most cadets left the Academy to go to the city.

Currently, Kiera was facing a problem.

"What do you mean, you can't sell me any more cigarettes?"

She smacked her hand against the counter.

"What sort of bullshit is this?"

"I apologize, but that's Academy policy."

"Policy? What policy?!"

Standing behind the counter was a middle-aged man with squared glasses and black hair. He stood stoically, unbothered by Kiera's fit of anger.

It was as if he had grown used to it.

"I've received reports of you littering the buds all over the campus. Not only that, but you've purchased nearly all of the supplies that come each week. For those reasons, the Academy decided to put your rights of purchase on hold."

"Ah!?"

Kieara almost lunged over towards the other side of the counter. It was taking every bit of her willpower to stop herself from doing so.

"I swear... You... This is nonsense...!"

How could she accept this?

Sure, yeah... She did throw away the buds everywhere, she did indeed always buy all the packs available, but...

"I can't accept this."

Smoking was like medicine to her.

Without it, she'd be...

"Fuck!"

The thought of not being able to smoke was starting to get to her. Just as she was about to scream again, a cool and even voice echoed behind her.

"If you're not buying anything, step aside."

"Which fuc-"

Kiera's words remained stuck in her throat the moment she turned around. Standing taller than her, Julien glanced at her with his usually detached gaze.

She stood still for a moment, staring at him without being able to say anything.

Her thoughts continued to wander towards the time back in the prison. The time he had helped her.

And...

"Uh, wait!"

He moved past her before she could realize it.

"How may I help you?"

The cashier greeted him with a smile.

"Fuck, this... Ah, whatever."

Kiera ended up letting it go. 'I guess I owe him and shit...'

Julien's gaze wandered around before settling to the right where the sweets were.

Tak—

He picked up a chocolate bar and placed it on the table.

"Is that all? "

Without answering, Julien reached out again and took another one.

Tak.

And another one.

Tak.

And another one.

Tak. Tak. Tak.

Gradually, chocolate bars started to pile up on the counter as he continued to grab bar after bar.

"The fuck..."

Kiera stood behind completely dumbfounded.

Tak.

"S-sir...?"

Even the cashier was left dumbfounded by his actions. Just then, Kiera met Julien's gaze as he placed the last chocolate bar on the counter.

As their eyes met, she managed to pick up his low mumble as he went on to say,

"Bribe. I'm getting bribes."