Merchant Of Yliaster

"What's up?" Gender's voice welcomed him to the real world, as the real world suddenly returned to Maxwell's sight. It was an instant event, and before he could realize, he was staring at Gendor's face.

"Sorry, I was distracted for a moment," he replied. It would be better to forge another identity similar to Drakhabgar when it came to being the first Primarch. He knew that his identity was already compromised, as he didn't exactly hide it in the tournament, but he could at least divert some attention until sectors reconnected.

Now that he was back in the real world, he was a bit surprised to feel a connection that wasn't there before. It was similar to his connection to Felix and Blueberry, yet it felt a bit more oppressive. His connection to the former two was more like equals, while this new connection definitely was not.

So this is the connection with Ella? Maxwell could feel the general direction of the woman, but anything other than that would be beyond him for now. He also had a lot of notifications pending, but he postponed checking them until he was alone.

"So, where were we? Poisons?" he asked, feeling a bit detached from the situation after spending some time elsewhere. The ease with which the system played with time made its unquestionable standing much firmer in his eyes.

Gendor threw him a questioning look, but he still pulled an incredible amount of medicine out of the cabinet beside him. It was apparent that the cabinet was an artifact, as it was not big enough to hold all of the medicine.

"Just take these with you, and give them to me when you are finished," Gendor said, piling them on the table. Maxwell counted the medicine, finding 40 bottles on the table.

He concentrated and repeated the command he had given before to the medicine, watching the mana inside change subtly under his command. He excluded two bottles for himself, fully planning to take them as payment.

"No need, I will just take these in exchange, though," he said, and stored the only remaining medicine in his ring under Gendor's uncomprehending gaze.

"What? Are you done? How is that so easy? Teach me how to do it too if it's that easy," Gendor shouted, looking from bottles to Maxwell interchangeably.

"Let's call it a trade secret," Maxwell laughed and walked out of the store, leaving a disgruntled Gendor behind. It was fun to see the man so disturbed over something.

Immediately after he left the shop, Blueberry left his mind, appearing on his shoulder. Maxwell glanced at the bird, suddenly realizing that the bird had been in his mind as he travelled to the dimension created by the system.

"Chirp?" Blueberry chirped, staring at Maxwell's eyes, and the bird's expression was so humanlike that Maxwell couldn't help but laugh.

"So you have seen it all? I'm not sure if beasts have one of those or not, but things will get really interesting if they do?" Maxwell spoke lightly as he walked towards the forest. His form slowly disappeared from the people's eyes, as they started to ignore him subconsciously.

He walked and started to check his notifications, and before everything came the level-ups.

Sense Of Shattered Reality* Leveled up 20→26

Everhanging Soul Constructs* Leveled Up 12→23

Soul's Dominion* Leveled Up 72→80

Etheric Duality Leveled Up 50→69

Elementary Soul Energy Manipulation 85→92

Magic Carving Leveled Up 86→87

Soul Over Matter* Leveled Up 32→45

Soul Imbuement Leveled up 60→80

Hypnotic Stealth Leveled Up 4→7

Records Of Curiosity Leveled Up 2→12

Resilience Of The Curious Mind* Leveled Up 2→3

So records of curiosity still give skill experience. Maxwell thought. Otherwise, this much advancement would make no sense. Usually, this would be a good thing, but Maxwell could see that there would be problems if he leveled his skills too much using this method.

The advancements he would get in that case would truly suck, as he wouldn't have done anything original by just spamming the same exact spell over and over again. He refocused his attention on his skills, and his eyes widened seeing the next ones.

Partial Ethereal Body advances to Ethereal Body Temporarily.

Temporary elevation is over.

Residual Effects remain.

New Partial Ethereal Body Ratio: 8,5 : 1,5

I owe a drink to him, I guess, Maxwell thought. Herman, cutting his vitality tether, apparently did something to him that has changed his trait fundamentally. He doubted that he would be able to advance this much without receiving help from a weird skill like that.

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His next notification, too, was something concerning this, and he immediately started reading.

Skill "Soul's Pilgrimage**" Acquired.

Soul's Pilgrimage**:

You experienced an existence beyond the physical world, yet survived. Your tether remains, damaged but unbroken. Break it, and you shall see the truth.

That doesn't sound weird at all, Maxwell thought. Getting a tier three skill directly was incredible, but Maxwell was doubtful about the uses of it. In the battle, he definitely felt that he could do much more with his skills, but the fact that he needed to recreate the world around himself to be able to do anything made the buff kinda pointless.

Still, this was the only path for him to get closer to comprehending the method the butcher used to cut the world, so he would practice. Learning that magic wasn't the only way in this multiverse had been a bit alleviating, as while it was good and all, magic always felt incomplete to Maxwell.

Audra's witch spells, for example, were still a mystery for Maxwell, as they made little sense from a pure magical standpoint. Maybe they worked on a different set of occult laws, but this still meant that magic was only a way of manipulating the world.

Obviously, technology was another way, and Maxwell didn't doubt that it would be a contender for the top. After all, technology was a concept that was poorly defined, and it could actually include anything. Pure science could be applied to magic and the occult, and Maxwell was pretty sure that people would eventually design machines working with the principles of these fields.

He focused, and with the guidance of his new skill, it only took a few seconds for him to lock onto his vitality tether once more. The link was there as always, but he could see what the system meant by damaged. The tether didn't really have a physical form, but if Maxwell were to imagine it as a string, his would be a very, very thin string.

As he focused, the thought of trying to sever the tether completely right now came to his mind, but an immediate sense of crisis stopped him. Not that he would try this in the center of a city, though. Well, maybe.

After shaking his head helplessly, Maxwell returned his attention to his notifications. And was welcomed by a few title notifications.

Title Acquired: Primarch Of The Galactic Federation

Title Acquired: One Who Stands On The Everchanging Peak

Title Acquired: Universal Noble

Title Acquired: Survivor of the Reality

Primarch of the Galactic Federation:

You stand at the peak of the Galactic Federation, being one of the exclusive eighteen.

One Who Stands On The Everchanging Peak:

In a universe filled with trillions of people, you are the best in strength, for now.

Universal Noble:

In your universe, your nobility remains unquestioned.

Survivor of the Reality:

True reality is not easily comprehended, and not easily survived. You've briefly seen it and survived to tell the tale.

Apart from the second and last title, others were more like a formal way for the system to tag his nobility.

The second title made him smile. He really liked how the system didn't outright say that he was the best. The world was a strange place after all. That was even more correct now that he had seen Herman doing things he couldn't understand at all.

The fourth title was a bit disturbing, but it made sense considering the completely incomprehensible reality Maxwell saw when he was cut from physical reality. Nothing there made sense, and even with his broken skills, Maxwell didn't feel like he was closer to making it make sense.

Next notifications were about the tournament and nobility itself, though some of them were still interesting.

The contest for nobility rankings is over.

Phase 1 is coming to an end.

Nobility ranks will be given out in 43 minutes and 23 seconds.

The level limit will be removed after the timer.

As a Primarch, the Authority of the user is set to the highest within the federation.

A bit of help would be nice, Maxwell thought. He still had no idea how he could use this authority, and it was starting to make him a bit irritated. He doubted that nobles had any physical authority over people, but he figured there would still be useful functions. Functions he still didn't know about, thanks to the system.

Still, he supposed the timer was cool enough for now after going blind for many days.

Ella opened her eyes in her office, looking around in detachment. The room felt stifling to her after the incredible expanse they were in previously, but she knew that there would be problems if she tried to leave now.

She was strong, she knew that. Even more so after the recent events, but she also knew that she could hardly defeat hundreds of people. She sighed as she took a sip of the sickly sweet tea at her table. Sendir had always been a depressing place, but the initiation made the place evolve in a very disturbing way.

The planet had been in service for around four hundred years, as far as Ella knew, and it was mainly used for experiments. After the initiation, though, there was no federation to keep them ethical or humane. Not that they were, by any means, but she could see now that they were still pretty good compared to now, back in the day.

As she was lost in thought, she realized that there was a bell sound in the room, and she moved towards a panel on the wall. As she closed in, the panel slid down, and two men appeared before her.

One of them was in a complete uniform, being a soldier belonging to the local lab, but the other man looked completely miserable. He wore rags, and his body was covered with terrible scars, some of which were really new. What made the man truly miserable, though, was his eyes. They had no will to live inside them.

The soldier threw the man in the room, making him fall on the exquisite carpet, and he didn't even make a sound as he fell. Ella just stared at him for a moment. "Fix him, you have eight hours," the man said, and turned back to leave without even checking on the guy.

Ella felt her new emotional control skill trigger, and with the skill, she realized something that she had been ignoring for some time now. The man walking away stopped and turned towards her with mechanical motions. He walked into the room and started to undress, removing layers of armor in a practiced manner.

After he was done, with a fluid motion, he grabbed a fork from Ella's dinner table and stabbed his own throat with it. The blood splattered on the ground, and no sign of the thing he had done could be read from the man's eyes until he died.

Ella didn't see that, though, as she was already out of the room in a completely different attire. The armor felt weird, but she found the feeling comforting. With the armor, she would have less fear to suppress.