Chapter 501: Massive Level Up
Ryder was sitting on his throne in his Throne Room alone.
Rale had gone to prepare the Royal Guards for departure. The High Dukes had gone to arrange the army they were given command of.
Ryder was left behind with nothing to do. He decided to log out. According to Rale, the entire evening and night was going to go for Preparation. Since he could do nothing but wait in this trying time, he decided to leave.
Even though it was still night in the real world, at least he could try getting some sleep even though he didn’t need sleep at the moment.
He stood up and opened the log-out screen, and left the world of Divinity which happened to be a few moments before Miyali stepped inside the chamber.
"Hmm? He isn’t here? Did he go to rest?" she wondered.
According to Rale, Ryder was here. Guards also agreed that Ryder was inside. If he wasn’t here and didn’t go out, that could only mean he was resting in his special treasure, according to her.
...
Ryder logged out of Divinity when it was still night in the real world.
He kept the glasses to the side and didn’t even bother getting up as he closed his eyes and fell asleep.
Even though he wasn’t tired, he didn’t have any difficulty sleeping.
But only did he sleep, but within a short four hours of sleep, he even had a lovely dream about enjoying his life with everyone close to him.
In the dream, he was in the real world with Rale, Alice, Esmi, Shu, High Dukes, and almost everyone he considered his friend or had good feelings towards. They were all on a beach, playing volleyball.
His dream was only broken when it was morning. A volleyball landed on his face, which he had missed to hit back. That proved to be the end of the dream.
"That was a good dream. I really should get more natural sleep. No matter how much rest I get in Divinity, it’s never this peaceful. I somehow feel stronger and more refreshed," Ryder muttered as he sat up while stretching his arm in laziness.
"Janus, is it time now? Can I finally get Luke’s powers? You’ve been delaying it for a long time. You said you’ll give my reward to me today. Don’t negate on your promise again," he said as he slid to the side of the bed.
Placing his feet on the cold floor, he walked towards the bathroom, not thinking that he’ll get a response. He was sure that Janus was going to ignore him again and delay the promise after a few hours like he had been doing since the last few days.
"Get the body out. I’ll give you the body," Janus said, contrary to Ryder’s expectations.
Ryder was about to push the door open to step inside the bathroom door, but he stopped as he heard Janus’s words.
"Really?"
"Really," Janus answered. "Bring the body of Luke out."
Ryder stopped his plan to get a shower at the moment. This was more important. He wasn’t sure if Janus’s mood was going to change later. Now that he was ready, it was to be done.
"Alright."
Turning back, Ryder walked towards the main door of his room to lock it so that no one could enter when he had a body lying in the open.
After locking the door, he opened his Inventory and brought the body out.
A man’s dead body laid on the ground with a bullet hole on his head.
"What next?" Ryder asked.
"Place your hand on the body’s chest," Janus told Ryder. "And apply some pressure."
"Alright."
Ryder sat on his knees in front of Janus as he placed his right hand on Luke’s chest and applied a light pressure.
"Is this right?" he asked.
" Stay like that," Janus answered.
Something started happening in the room, which felt a bit strange. Small specks of light started coming out of Luke’s body and flew towards Ryder’s forehead, and started entering his body.
Ryder could see the speck of light entering his body with his own eyes, but even as they entered his body, he didn’t feel anything different. He couldn’t feel him getting stronger at all.
’Maybe I’ll get it when it’s completed,’ he thought as he decided to let the process continue.
It was after ten minutes when the light transfer stopped entirely.
It was also when Ryder heard Janus say, "It’s completed."
"What? But I feel no difference. Did that guy even have any strength at all? Or was his ability that made him scary different and not his strength?" Ryder asked, but he didn’t even wait for a response as his mouth opened slightly as he saw Luke’s body disappearing slowly.
He couldn’t even ask why it was happening before the body was completely gone. Nothing was left of the body.
"The heck? Not only did I not get any strength, but I also lost the body that I could’ve used Dead Revival on?" he complained as he stood up.
"Absorbing his Essence and strength had that effect. It’s normal. A body can’t exist without strength," Janus answered.
"What strength? I get nothing," Ryder muttered as he gazed at his hand.
"Stats!"
He commanded to see if his real-world stats had increased or not.
[Ryder Flynn]
[Race: Human?]
Ryder had long seen up to here when he smiled wryly. "What do you mean, Human? Is there really a need to put question there?"
Shaking his head, he continued reading more.
[Level: 1000]
[Strength: 99999]
[Defence: 99999]
[Speed: 99999]
[Dexterity: 5000]
[Intelligence: (Better to not say so you’re not embarrassed)]
Ryder stood blankly as he read the stats. What did this mean? He couldn’t believe it. He was Level thousand in the real world? How?
The last time he checked, he was much much lower that even calling him closer to level 500 was an insult to level 500.
How was it that he was so high now?
"So this guy was stronger than that Immortal-looking old dude I killed in FBI headquarters?" Ryder was confused. This Luke guy was really tens of times more threatening than that?
His level up from that was much less. What he forgot to consider was that he had received real-world experience after killing the old man, which made him level up. He hadn’t absorbed his strength. That’s why the level increase was so less compared to now.
At the moment, he had absorbed Luke in his entirety in essence.
The only reason he didn’t understand the difference was because he hadn’t received Experience after killing Luke. After all, Luke hadn’t attacked him first. If Luke had attacked him and then he killed him, he would have received Exp as well. And now, getting this level up would have made him realize the difference.
"Man, losing this one body seems to be worth it. But you’re right. This guy was dangerous. So dangerous that I had no idea. Thank you for warning me about him in the form of this mission," Ryder thanked Janus as he closed the screen.
Janus didn’t reply and went into oblivion.
"Cheh, you wouldn’t answer. That’s fine. I’ll still thank you. You helped me a lot," Ryder said as he smiled. "I’ll forgive you for basically calling me stupid by not showing intelligence for that. Don’t think I didn’t notice that."
He again walked inside the bathroom to freshen up.
Holding the doorknob, he tried turning it only to end up breaking it with the lightest of touch.
A weird look remained on his face as he watched the broken doorknob.
"Sigh, this strength... I just touched it because I knew something like this might happen, but even then, it did," he muttered, wondering how he wasn’t able to control his strength despite being careful.
"Sigh, I should try to make it less. Or increase my contract. It’s the sudden jump."
...
Ryder had freshened up and even finished showering. Unfortunately, it all came at the cost of breaking a few things.
He stood before the main door that he had locked, staring at it as if he was staring at his long-lost enemy. He needed to open the door, but he knew it was tough.
With a gentle touch, he tried to hold the doorknob, but even that made an indent on it.
He didn’t lose his composure as he knew that it might be risky, and it’ll only make him lose even more control.
He gently twisted the doorknob, opening the door successfully.
An accomplished look appeared on his face as he succeeded in opening the door, which seemed a bit funny. Even he found it pitiful that he was celebrating being able to open a door.
Unfortunately, this was where he was at.
Not only did he have to touch things carefully not to break them, but he also had to walk slowly because his speed was a bit fast now. It was going to take some time. He had already decided to practice at the roof after finishing dinner so he could at least have a layer of control.
