The boss had stood up and was about to move. Jake had no illusions about being faster than any of the creatures in this biome.

  With a clench of his jaws and a spike of fear, Jake flash-stepped to the left, narrowly missing grasping claws, then he turned and without even taking the time to verify the path was open, he flash-stepped again at the exit.

  He almost missed the door when a claw caught his shoulder, ripping it open and making his trajectory slightly change. Jake slammed into the side of the doorway so hard, that if he hadn’t been clenching his jaws, he would have lost teeth. Luckily, enough of him was in front of the door that he careened off the edge, barely making it through before the boss’ powerful hand narrowly missed him.

  Frustrated bellows followed him as he was transported back to the Faceted’s room.

  Jake rolled across the floor, ass over head, and slammed into a rock or a pillar. He lay there for a while, staring at nothing while he recentered himself and questioned his life choices.

  What the hell? What the hell? he kept repeating in his head. The last saucy look from The Morrigan flashed through his mind. Did she know this was going to happen? His thoughts spun, going through everything that had happened from the moment he was sent back to Earth.

  What a mind fuck.

  Jake lay there a few more minutes. He had to be back in the room with the Faceted now, but the alien hadn’t said anything yet. With a grunt, Jake stood and dusted himself off. The bloody gash in his shoulder hurt, but his flesh was already knitting together enough to stop the bleeding. After reaching the peak of Gold-rank Body Refinement, his natural monster abilities had gotten even better.

  The Faceted stood behind the lectern in the same place it had been before. As soon as Jake saw the creature, he felt strange. The Faceted’s emotions were actually creating pressure on the air. A sensation like ants walking on his skin made Jake mildly uncomfortable.

  Jake was suddenly reminded of how this place had first seemed to him, with a vast emptiness and cloth streamers hanging from the ceiling. He suppressed a shiver and said, “I’m back.”

  “So I see.”

  When the Faceted didn’t say anything else for an uncomfortably long amount of time, Jake frowned and cycled his cultivation base to center himself. Something was off. “So…how did I do?”

  The Faceted waved a hand. “Prepare to choose a reward. Please say that you would like one reward, and provide me with three phrases or keywords of the types you would like, and then the Assessment Room will display some appropriate options for you.”

  Wait a second, this isn’t what these things normally say at all, thought Jake. He grew suspicious. Faceted already couldn’t be trusted and had to be watched for fuckery. What was happening now was off the scale for potential trickery. “What was my rank?”

  “You did very well. Now please say that you would like one reward and provide me with–”

  “Oh hell no, asshole. Tell me my fucking rank, now.”

  “Why is it necessary?”

  “You know why it’s necessary. First of all, to make this official. I know you might be able to omit things, but you can’t straight out lie, so tell me my rank, please.”

  The Faceted was quiet for quite a while. It finally said, “You have achieved an S rank, but it is highly irregular and I disagree with the decision on your performance.”

  “What? You disagree?” Jake hadn’t been expecting an S rank. Maybe B, or even A, but he hadn’t killed any monsters in the biome he’d been through, and he’d left one biome completely untouched.

  He’d actually been hoping to get a higher valuation after exiting from a higher difficulty biome door despite not having killed any of its guardians. With that thought, he touched the nasty wound in his shoulder and made a face. It went down to the bone. Without his obscenely strong bones, the wound likely would have ripped his arm off.

  The gamble had come with risk and he’d almost lost out.

  “Yes. Your clever use of skills to pass through a higher rank door than your abilities would otherwise allow I can accept. However, leaving the testing area entirely with external power, then returning with more power of your own is highly irregular. Attaining more power–a significant amount and more titles–during an assessment can result in a better ranking, but I do not believe you deserve it since you did not leave on your own power. My suggestion was to penalize you with the lowest possible completion rating, but the Collective disagreed…and has intervened.”

  “Oh really?” There had been multiple, fascinating little bits of information in that explanation. Jake tried to capitalize on it to learn more. “Does the Collective decide on all of the rankings?”

  “That is not necessary for you to know.”

  “Uh huh.” He couldn’t think of how to press the Faceted for more information quite yet. “So I got an S ranking, huh?”

  “Yes.”

  “Awesome!” Jake smiled. “So that means I am eligible for two rewards. I should also be able to choose rewards higher than A rank. Don’t try to screw me over again.”

  “Now I deeply regret allowing you to take part in a challenge.”

  Jake shrugged. “Yeah, well, we’re all gambling here. You gambled and you lost.”

  “It might not be wise to antagonize me further.” The Faceted’s mental voice was growling.

  Jake’s mental eyebrows raised. A Faceted “talking” with so much obvious emotion was surprising. He smiled and went for the throat. “Yeah, well, you lost any possible sympathy from me when you tried to trick me and fuck me out of my prizes. I risked my life and spent a ton of time on this result. It didn’t just fall out of the sky. Other Faceted I’ve met and have dealt with might have been bastards, even tried to trick me, but they were always honest. Their attempts at misdirection were a bit smoother too. You are the first base level scammer.”

  It was weird how a faceless being could not move at all but still very obviously deflate. “There is another problem. I did not want to discuss it.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “My creche, my…family, is not wealthy. It is likely why my Assessment Room was placed in such an unfortunate place. I have been here a very long time, and have concluded that a large part of that was because of the energy cost, and the fact that my creche has lower level prizes. Warriors in this world were surprisingly…powerful. It would not have been appropriate for my Assessment Room to be placed in most high-traffic areas.

  “The length of time I have been here without a single challenger was a large part of why I allowed you to participate in this challenge. However, there was an astronomically low chance of you attaining an S rank in any challenge you picked.”

  Jake tapped a claw on his wrist. If he was understanding this right… “So your family is poor and you don’t have any prizes greater than A rank, right?”

  “No access to greater prizes,” grated the Faceted.

  Jake thought about what he knew about the Faceted, which was precious little. But now he knew that the Faceted got something out of their challenge portals. In the past, he’d thought they only wanted people to die or walk away empty-handed, but that didn’t seem to be the truth. He could reason now that some sort of exchange was best for them, otherwise, why would they bother with all of this? The prizes had to be the incentive to tempt warriors into their challenges. And the Faceted had known that Jake could complete at least one challenge without dying before letting him participate, so it would obviously benefit from that too…

  “What is your name, Faceted?” asked Jake.

  “Why should I tell you?”

  “Because if you don’t, I’m going to just write all of this off as a loss and leave.” It’d been a gamble. Jake had always thought of the Faceted as merchants. They paid for blood, sweat, and tears with prizes. But what if they weren’t merchants? What if they needed to give out prizes for their own wealth or power?

  “That is not necessary.”

  At that moment, Jake knew for certain that he had the upper hand. “So what is your name?”

  “I am called Hleceth.” The Faceted’s voice seemed resigned now.

  Jake thought furiously. “So, Hleceth, what if instead of two higher than S-rank prizes, I chose to ask you for one A-rank prize, and two other things.”

  “What two other things?”

  With a smile, Jake said, “How about one favor?” He held up a hand when the Faceted began speaking to his mind and interrupted. “Please hear me out. I think this is more than fair. The favor will only be honored if you have the power to grant it, either you or your creche–your family. And I want information. I want you to tell me about your people, answering three questions from me to the best of your ability.”

  Jake waited patiently while the Faceted thought, but he knew it was already a done deal. There was no way the Faceted could refuse such good terms when Jake could just walk out, especially since it would probably mean the alien would not get any sort of energy transfer for another few thousand years or however long it’d been down here.

  If negotiations hadn’t gone well, Jake could have threatened to block off the tunnel he’d dug to find this challenge room too. Luckily, he hadn’t needed to bring out the threats. He was still idly thinking about blocking off the tunnel anyway, but decided he probably wouldn’t be that much of a bastard.

  Besides, maybe another prisoner might fight this place in the future and benefit from it.

  Finally, Hleceth said, “Your terms are accepted, but only if you agree not to force me to tell you anything that would put my creche or my people in danger. That includes anything I deem too sensitive for outsiders to ever hear.”

  “Alright. Bargain struck,” said Jake.

  “Bargain struck.”

  Jake’s enhanced magical senses could barely feel the stirring of fate as the oath bound the agreement. “Since that’s done, let’s start with my reward.”

  “Very well. What are your keywords?”

  “My first keyword is Divine Sect of the Martial Wandering Dragon God. The second keyword is Mobile Protection. Last keyword is Unbound God of the Sword.”

  Two of these three keywords had worked well for Jake before with the Faceted. This time, he’d also added a simple keyword of “protection.” His fight with the minotaur had illustrated that Jake really needed a better way to block attacks than just flash-stepping. Sometimes to win, he’d need to be aggressive. A technique to defend himself better would be perfect.

  “Understood.” Hleceth waved an arm and a number of globes appeared in the air, hovering in front of Jake. If he focused on any of them, he saw an image of the reward and a brief description of what it did. “What do you choose?”

  Jake browsed the options, very familiar with this process by now. Steel Skin Mantra of the Berserker Aesthetic, Jim Taewon’s Venerable Bracers, Twice Blessed Serpent Scale Breastplate, Aegis of Five Trigrams Defensive Array. He skimmed them all, then focused on the three that he thought would probably be the most useful. Despite far fewer actual techniques than he’d hoped for, some of the alternatives weren’t bad.

  Skill Book of Chi-Formed Full Body Armor. Teaches the ability to coat the whole body in a layer or protective energy.

  Extraplanar Wide Spectrum Denial Targe. A mysterious metal shield that is said to have fallen from the sky into the hands of an ancient hero. Said to be able to change shape and move swiftly.

  Cultivator’s Earthward Diamond Armor Diadem. An adornment for the head that will form armor after activated. Most effective against spiritual energy.

  Jake made a face. All three items were tempting. He was even somewhat tempted to try altering the particulars of his agreement with the Faceted, but decided not to for several reasons. He’d just have to choose one.

  The Skill Book of Chi-Formed Full Body Armor was probably the most versatile. Jake had even heard of similar skills before during his many years working with Slim and pumping him for information on the Murim world. The problem was that techniques like this one usually gobbled up energy to maintain. In his last fight, Jake had been tapped out. He really didn’t need yet another technique to pour resources into; in fact, he needed to deepen his reserves and find ways to conserve energy.

  Extraplanar Wide Spectrum Denial Targe caught his eye for a few reasons, not least of which because it was associated with a hero and could change size. Gear associated with heroes and gods were almost always good and had hidden abilities. He thought about the area attacks thrown at him and how nice it would have been to have a barrier.

  The Cultivator’s Earthward Diamond Armor Diadem was a fantastic defensive item. Jake was somewhat familiar with jewelry that could form armor like this. It had drawbacks, though. For one, it took the armor time to recharge, so if you needed it while it was still charging, you’d be shit out of luck. It also seemed a bit redundant since Jake already had the Midnight Cloak. Lastly, while the Midnight Cloak was a growth type item and would likely grow along with Jake, this diamond armor wasn’t.

  I guess this is the difference between A-rank and S-rank rewards, thought Jake. The S-rank rewards would be appropriate for a warrior at any level of power. These items were good but sort of situational or maybe required a little more thought or ability to use them to their full potential.

  Look at me being snobby about A-rank rewards. Jake laughed at himself. In his first life, he could have only dreamed of seeing any of these in his lifetime.

  He was reminded of when he was stuck in a hole with a demon beast outside, and the decision he’d made then with the Eternal Struggle Reward System. Since then, the Area Map might have saved his life.

  Ultimately, what made his decision this time was the ability to protect himself better without using any energy to do it. “I will choose the Extraplanar Wide Spectrum Denial Targe.

  “I understand.” The orbs in the air disappeared. “I have placed it in your inventory.”

  “Good.” Jake nodded and grinned. “Now, about those questions.”

  Chapter 30

  Once Jake was outside the challenge portal, his hackles rose immediately. He shouldn’t have been gone from the Web Burrows for very long at all, but he remembered in a flash how he’d felt weird about the vast caverns he’d unearthed.

  And the worst, most deadly demon beasts in the Web Burrows were always in the large caverns.

  Jake thought he heard something in the darkness and didn’t stick around to find out what it was. He was really not wanting another fight to the death, especially one he would likely lose. Even with potential escape close at hand, it seemed stupid to tempt fate. He didn’t hesitate as he quickly made his way into the little tunnel he’d dug and got the hell out.

  Once he was back in the larger tunnel, he looked back at the long tunnel he’d dug, thinking about all the work he put into it. He was tempted to blow up the tunnel, and had just decided not to when he realized that he might not even be able to.

  He was back in the Web Burrows, where nobody used their energy properly and all means of storage and inventory were blocked. After trying to open his storage ring, he confirmed that it was still locked up tight. Luckily, he’d had some time to think through this problem and had a theory that he could test now.

  First, Jake held his hand out and mentally called for Blooming Honor. He wasn’t entirely surprised when it materialized in his hand just like it always had before. After all, Lady Brima might be powerful and was no doubt responsible for the suppression in the Web Burrows, but Morrigan was a god. Jake shook his head as he reflected again on what an insanely overpowered sword Bloom was. And no matter how powerful he might get, the sword would never be lacking.

  Even though Jake was going to be paying thousands of years for everything he’d gotten from The Morrigan, he was truly starting to feel like he’d gotten the better end of the deal.

  Now he needed to test his second theory. Jake concentrated and manifested Veil Piercing Phoenix Eyes. Using the experience he’d gotten opening the portal out of the World of Illusions, he actually managed to make some headway. He grinned.

  The situation was sort of like shoving a finger into a closing zipper and keeping a hole open. With some extra effort, he could get the hole open a little more, but trying to get anything out would be too difficult and complicated. However, he could put things…in.

  Bloom disappeared as Jake put it back into his inventory. “Success!” he hissed. Then he summoned the sword again for good measure before putting it away. Jake’s cultivation level still wasn’t the highest in the Web Burrows, but that hadn’t been the only thing that mattered in the first place. With all the other tools and weapons Jake had to work with now, he was in an exponentially better position of strength now, and even better positioned to leave.

  Now that Jake knew he could put things in his inventory, he was going to visit everywhere he had anything stashed away, but especially all the monster cores he’d gathered.

  And now that he could call Bloom at any time, not to mention his growing mastery of the mysterious Phoenix Dao techniques, the Web Burrows had just become significantly less dangerous for him.

  Jake grinned.

  A couple hours later, Jake had basically taken care of almost everything he needed to before leaving the Web Burrows. It was finally time.

  He had literally spent weeks on a random errand he’d finished more out of curiosity than anything. Jake was reminded of the JRPG video games he’d played as a teen where he’d spent more time on the side quests than the actual story. He laughed. Unfortunately, he knew he was still way, way under-leveled for the rest of the Murim. There was also no real way he could beat Lady Brima.

  Maybe he could distract her, though. At least enough to escape.

  While he’d been collecting his monster cores, he’d experimented a bit more with his storage ring. Now he knew that he likely could remove items from it, but if he did, it’d create a chain reaction that emptied almost everything of that type, and it’d only work with something he had a lot of.