Adrenaline Junkie [Book 2 Complete]

Paleos's eyes followed Archie's back as he trailed behind his teammates and left the guild tavern.

After a few seconds of silence, Paleos' soft smile vanished, and he turned on his heel, scanning the room as he did.

Branch Manager Diwlos on planet Fractal had requested his presence regarding an individual claiming to be a Tutorial Participant from the 72nd Universe - one who claimed to have arrived less than two weeks ago and now sought membership with Omniversal Solutions.

Now that caught his attention.

The last he'd heard, the latest batch of Tutorial Participants from the 72nd Universe had completed their Tutorial around two thousand years ago - give or take a couple of centuries. And if he remembered correctly, the top scorer had been a female Nolxsa, whose Class was a Blood Witch variant.

She'd managed to acquire a grimoire that once belonged to a D-Grade Blood Mage while she herself was still stuck at E-Grade. But using the influx of records contained within the grimoire, she had bolstered herself into D-Grade.

While a D-Grade grimoire in and of itself was barely worth the parchment its contents were written on, she used it to its fullest - something he could at the very least respect.

Through relentless experimentation, battle, and study, she pushed herself to C-Grade, surpassing even the original owner of the grimoire. Last he'd heard, she had joined the Hollow of Wick and received a High Blessing from one of their Elders, the Detective of Blood.

She was the only one he'd remembered from that batch and the other three before it as comparatively the other batches in his opinion were shit, barely trudged along into D-Grade.

While it wouldn't be accurate to say it was uncommon for a Tutorial Participant to interact with the guild, given that their Tutorial Events often took place in locations filled with mystery and intrigue, it was typically the other way around.

Usually, it was a guild member who extended the invitation, offering the Tutorial Participant a place within the guild and helping to nurture their growth in return for documented and recorded findings within the Tutorial Events.

It merely added to the expanding dossier that he was creating for Archie Gracefield.

When he first arrived on Fractal - one of the many planets under his purview within his current space sector - he met with both Branch Manager Diwlos and Receptionist Svolia, who had conducted Archie's initial interview.

He was then informed how Svolia's interview with Archie was held in an interviewing chamber specifically chosen for its numerous truth-seeking wards, arrays, and enchantments, all bolstered by the Handbell of Harmony.

With, of course, the just as numerous protection magics that both protected and monitored the chamber, allowing him to watch what she claimed to happen with his own eyes.

While his own truth-detecting skill confirmed her words were true, guild procedure required the footage to be reviewed within the guild tavern, which could only be accessed by those with a minimum clearance of Manager.

The tavern not only replayed the recording but also reproduced the monitoring results of all protective and surveillance magics active at the time - magics that had been in place since the tavern's very inception, woven by one of the Gods or Goddesses of the guild.

To most other denizens of the Multiverse, that would sound… insane - why would a god or goddess personally weave security and monitoring magics into a building when they could easily have the many B, A, or S-Grades within the guild handle it instead?

The reason lay in the fourth cycle after the guild's inception.

In the seventh cycle, the Guild Master, The Voyager, received a singular, four-minute recording while in the midst of one of her voyages into the Multiversal Wonders, sent from a source unknown to all but the Guild Master.

The Voyager - the one who had explored sixty percent of the known Multiverse, far more than any other god, goddess, or being alive - paused her cycle-long expedition a mere two hundred thousand years in it upon receiving a singular recording.

The Voyager abandoned her expedition and traveled directly to the headquarters of Omniversal Solutions. There, she found the god who had originally submitted the recording and slaughtered him without hesitation.

She then proceeded to eliminate anyone connected to him - every god and goddess who had interacted with him within the past cycle and a half, which included all those within the Recording Analysis Division of the guild.

After the Voyager's culling, she resumed her expedition, but not before issuing a message to every member of the guild: any act of forgery, no matter how minor, on official documentation or recordings would be met with immediate and absolute execution.

No exceptions. No appeals. The truth, she declared, was the spine of exploration and discovery, and to bend it was to betray the very foundation of the guild.

It was then that sweeping preventions were put in place to ensure such an incident could never occur again. Gods and goddesses decreed that no mortal, regardless of rank or reputation, would be permitted to weave, alter, or manipulate any recordings or documents once submitted.

From that point on, only divine-tier analysts and systems overseen by the gods themselves were allowed to handle such records. The Recording and Document Analysis Division became one of the most heavily scrutinized departments in the guild, its protocols more rigid and unforgiving than ever - standards that have remained unchanged, even now, sixty-six full cycles later.

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Cycles later, an S-Grade intern of the Recording and Document Analysis Division became loose-lipped at a guild event, where it was revealed what The Voyager saw.

The recording contained a singular infinitesimally micro frame that betrayed the truth of the recording, imperceivable to all but the most Perception-focused individuals.

What was the singular infinitesimally micro frame that caused it all, you might ask?

For less than a fraction of an attosecond, the mana signature of a single blade of grass, one known to grow exclusively within the Sudanrian Prairie, fluctuated. In that fleeting instant, it mimicked the mana profile of vegetation found only in the Pol Rainforest on planet Ynris… three entire universes away from where the recording was supposedly made.

"A fraction of an attosecond," Paleos muttered under his breath, turning to face Branch Manager Diwlos and Receptionist Svolia, who deeply bowed to him.

"You've done well, it was correct of you to contact me the moment you noticed that the readings were indeed incorrect," Paleos complimented Diwlos, who deepened his bow.

"The only times where the readings could become jumbled are when a god or goddess involves themselves in the recordings of the interview or when the System is involved," Paleos informed them both.

"You might not have known this - under normal circumstances, it's Sector Branch Managers like myself who would interview Tutorial Participants from the 72nd Universe. But due to the System's influence on their souls, any attempt to monitor them yields null results. And it will continue to do so until the Tutorial Participant evolves into D-Grade."

"We shall take this knowledge to our graves, Sector Branch Manager," Diwlos reassured, with Svolia furthering her bow in agreement.

"See to it that you do, and you will find yourselves on a faster track up the guild," Paleos said as he walked toward the teleporter within the main hub of the tavern and accessed its terminal.

As he stepped onto the teleporter pad, he gave them one final order before returning to his own Sector Branch Guild Tavern. "Send me anything and everything Archie Gracefield and his two associates submit - the moment you receive it."

A Novice Forgesmith, fresh out of the first Tutorial... Paleos thought as he stepped off his own personal teleporter pad and stared at the vast expanse of space. Now that's interesting; how did a Tutorial Participant acquire a Class that only those within the Workshop were supposed to be able to obtain?

Shaking off the blood on his right Embergrasp Gauntlet and the Beastcore he held within it, Archie then squatted slightly atop the corpse of a Grumblebark he had just killed and took a sip of water from his Water Tin.

He watched as Aoife effortlessly pierced their bark-like hide, raising her shield just in time to deflect the metallic, hammer-shaped paws of another Grumblebark charging from the side. Without missing a beat, she spartan-kicked it away, creating the space she needed to wrench her spear free and drive it into the other's gut.

Glancing toward Tim, who flew above them holding an honest to god camcorder with both hands and recording both what they came across within the forest grove and the fight that happened not long after their arrival within it.

Grumblebarks were typically guardians of forest groves, known to keep to themselves due to their instinctual hibernation cycles, usually retreating into deep sleep two to three seasons each year on Fractal. According to the quest notice the trio received, this season was not one of them, as they had slept through Winter, and the current season is Spring.

Guild Quest: Irregular Grumblebark Migration
As an Iron Trekker of Omniversal Solutions, you are now eligible to undertake quests on behalf of the guild. Virum, a provisional guild officer, offers you the following task:
Quest Details: You are tasked with both culling the native population of a race within the Tanglebloom Forest called the Grumblebark and discovering why they are irregularly migrating from their groves and not hibernating. You must also detail the steps you took to locate the herd of Grumblebarks and explain the reasons behind their migration.
Requirements: Submit the Beastcores of the Grumblebarks your team has culled, along with the standard documentation and recordings required.
Reward: 40 Silver Helix Coins & ?
Shared with: Tizalz Iskarion Malzeth and Aoife

It had been listed as one of the beginner team quests offered to Tim when he and Aoife received their licenses. Declaring himself the greatest leader under the sun, Tim accepted quite a generous clawful of them and shared the quest with the other two as soon as they left the guild tavern.

And of course, due to him being the last one to say "Not it" because, of course, you need to verbally say it, he was on documentation duty.

Rolling his eyes and looking through his notifications, Archie quickly skimmed and decided to look through his own Status Page.

*[Grumblebark Lv 72] has been slain – XP has been given.*
***
*[Grumblebark Lv 74] has been slain – XP has been given.*

Archie Gracefield
Race: Human E-Grade Lv 86
Class: Nature-Attuned Pugilist Lv 90
Profession: Novice Forgesmith Lv 84
Health: 12109/12109
Mana: 5330/5330
Stamina: 11032/11032
Stats:
Vitality: 897 (1210)
Strength: 1133 (1699)
Endurance: 788 (1103)
Agility: 462 (600)
Intelligence: 476 (618)
Wisdom: 410 (533)
Willpower: 238 (333)
Perception: 477 (620)
Free Points: 0
General Skills: Identify (Common), Nature's Meditation (Epic), Vital Sight (Radiant), Spirit Link (Epic), Botanokinesis (Initiate)
Class Skills: Leeching Strikes of Fury (Uncommon), Savage Charge (Rare), Adrenaline Rush (Legendary), Vital Metabolism (Epic), Retaliation (Uncommon), Relentless Flurry (Rare), Primal Roar (Radiant), Thornscourge Expansion (Epic), Spirit Bond (Rare), Last Stand (Rare), Earthen Grasp (Uncommon), Sixth Sense (Uncommon), Hyper Impact (Uncommon)
Profession Skills: Forgesmith's Flame (Uncommon), Mana Smithing Mastery (Common), Advanced Runic Mastery (Uncommon), Material Insight (Rare), Gaze of the Forgefather (Radiant), Core Resonance Forging (Uncommon), Runic Amplification (Rare), Whispers of the Forge (Radiant), Runic Archive (Epic), Elastic Sizing (Rare), Runic Mending (Uncommon)
Bloodline: Adrenaline Junkie (Unique) [+10% to Strength and +10% to Willpower]
Affinity: Greater Nature Affinity (Epic)
Blessing: Blessing of the Forgefather (High) [+10% to Strength and +10% to Endurance]
Titles Collected: Bloodline Progenitor [+10 Vitality and +5% Vitality], Flawless E-Grade Evolution [+10 all Stats], Legendary Innovator [+20 to all Stats and +10% to all Stats], 72nd Universe's Harbinger [+20% to all Stats]

Not bad at all if I do say so myself, Archie smiled to himself, hopping off the Grumblebark corpse and back onto the blood-stained grass below.

However, just as he was about to head toward Aoife, who had just flicked her spear clean, and Tim, who was now recording the inside of the grove, he felt an odd tingle around his heart. A moment later, his Spirit Nucleus launched itself out of his spatial storage and into the air, forcing him to catch it hastily, almost letting it drop onto the ground.

Cradling it in his arms, Archie felt the distinct warmth of a fresh egg; he instinctively knew - the spirit beast he'd been waiting for was about to reveal itself.

Wait, why does it look like…? Archie asked himself, before making a sound of realization. That's where that went.