1% Lifesteal

It was an Anomalous Realm—more accurately, a dungeon. Such realms were extremely rare and valuable; the Tomb of Harrkanna was no exception.

Jacob stood beside his party in the middle of the tomb. It was a peculiar realm. The time within reset every 28 hours and 16 minutes, but if someone was inside the realm when it should be reset, it would be postponed until those people left.

Anomalous Realms such as this one were strange in many ways, the most notable of which was what happened when an object from within was removed. For the Tomb of Harrkanna, anything taken from within—barring prime vestiges, given that they manifested—would immediately turn into ephemeral sand and evaporate into thin air.

But there was one exception—the crown of Harrkanna, an item that resided on the head of the monster that waited as the final confrontation at the end of the dungeon. Well, the crown itself, which was made from pure gold, did vanish into thin air if taken out. But one of the jewels embedded in it didn't. A tiny little fragment of crystalline, shimmering material—a shard of tzenekite, one of the most valuable materials known to humanity.

There were many reasons why tzenekite was valued so highly, but the biggest one was that it was the main ingredient in a particular type of construct. Stars weren't the only way essence could be stored within the soul. With tzenekite, there was a way to artificially create a secondary, minor core that acted as extra storage—a satellite.

The lowest grade of satellite provided only 1% additional capacity, and the highest ever made contained 5%. This seemed like quite a disappointing increase to many, but satellites were exceptional in one regard—they could regenerate their total capacity in a single second.

Even the lowest-grade satellite could generate enough essence to offset the cost of a minor physical boost or cheaper ability requiring continuous casting.

But, as was the case for anything in life, the greater the power, the greater the cost. Even ignoring the absurd price that started in tens of millions and ended in hundreds of billions of dollars, the overuse of a satellite could seriously injure an archhuman or even kill them in extreme cases. Many thought it clever to endlessly temper themselves with the near-infinite reserves a satellite could provide. Many died doing so.

Just because the satellite could provide the essence did not mean that an archhuman's body could handle the output.

Essence-replenishing treasures and meditation at least purged a part of the already present reflux essence within an archhuman's body.

Satellites didn't.

Jacob paid close attention to his recently upgraded two-star satellite. A small but bright dot illuminated the inside of his ethercosm with the luminance of a distant supernova. The increase in his power was already quite noticeable. He had kept Ignite Muscle active throughout every fight during their delve and only relied on his physical abilities. Thus, he hadn't spent even a single percent of his 179% essence capacity.

His dad had bitched quite a bit about the 67-million-dollar price tag, but in his opinion, it had been worth every penny.

Besides, his old man was exaggerating. Most of the material came from the dungeon they owned. Not selling something wasn't the same thing as buying something.

He shook his head and brought himself back to the present.

The small sandstone chamber they found themselves within had disgusting liquid splattered over every wall. The minor enemies within the cave were undead mummies. He would appreciate it quite a bit if they were dry and skeletal, but unfortunately, every single one was as if they had been dipped into black sewage. It was slimy and gross. But at least the enemies weren't particularly threatening. Not to their party, at least.

Phillip used a small cloth to wipe the excess sludge off his vest before it could dry and damage it, and the new girl—Karen—wiped the blade of her saber with a rag. Much of it had gotten onto her white clothes, and some had even stained her curly hair, but she paid no heed to either. The material her robes were made of wouldn't be damaged by something so minor.

His eyes flicked to his girlfriend, Rachel. She was screaming at Theodore because he interrupted her talent with Scattered Starlight. Theodore was trying to pacify her, but Jacob knew better than to think the man would succeed. Once Rachel got going, nobody could stop her.

Slowly, his gaze traveled back to the new girl. Her tan skin was smooth, and her body was lithe. She was a bit more muscular than Rachel, and the contours of her robe revealed a rather well-toned body. He licked his lips, mentally comparing her to his girlfriend.

"Jacob," Phillip called. "Let's get going."

The man licked the roof of his mouth as he made clicking sounds with his lips. "We go when I say we go."

Phillip sigh-growled like an angsty teenage girl and shook his head. "Whatever."

What a fucking loser.

Another fifteen minutes passed. He wasn't waiting for no reason. While his new satellite could handle the burden of Ignite Muscle, his body couldn't. He closed his eyes and relied on his second affinity to cast Rejuvenating Water Body.

It provided some relief, and his satellite covered the total cost of using it. But even this couldn't last forever. The essence of using a tempering technique wasn't dispelled immediately. A part of it kept accumulating within an archhuman's body, and if too much of it gathered, it could cause rampant backlash.

Thankfully, water was among the gentlest essences, allowing him to keep the recovery technique going for nearly ten minutes.

By the end, he felt like a new man.

"All right," he said as he got up. "It's time to keep going."

The others got up and followed him.

One of the best parts of dungeon realms was that they were almost wholly predictable. The only random part was which enemies would become deviants. But, even then, as long as it wasn't the boss, that rarely proved to be an issue.

In the last few corridors, they had to go through several traps. They circumvented all of them. They waited for the rolling boulder to pass by, threw weighted bags onto the pressure plates, and in the last room, the one just before the fight against the boss, they had to pass over a large pool of sand. The sand dragged anyone who stepped on the wrong spot into it.

Theodore merely raised his hand and cast Illumination in the memorized pattern. A shimmering path of light glowed through the sand, highlighting the exact route they needed to take to safely make it to the other side.

It looped and coiled considerably, so they made shortcuts by jumping over the gaps.

Karen, flexing her impeccable skill as usual, simply leapt across the sand trap and allowed the wind to carry her to the other side.

Finally, they stepped before the massive slab door. It slowly sank into the ground, revealing the intimidating figure of Harrkanna—the eight-armed mummy. The monster stood frozen in the middle of the opulent ancient chamber, which was hewn in chiseled sandstone. It stood around fifteen meters tall and held eight weapons, one in each hand.

The arms, from left to right and up to down, held a platinum whip, a golden axe, a silver saber, a steel longsword, a bronze executioner's sword, a pig iron mace, a wooden staff, and a sandstone club. And, of course, the golden crown on its head.

Jacob looked over at Karen. "Are you ready?" he asked her. This was the woman's first time participating in delving into this dungeon. They had prepared her to the best of their ability, but words were hardly enough to properly elaborate on how the boss worked.

Its behavior remained consistent, even if it appeared as a deviant, but that didn't make it any less frightening.

Yet she nodded. "I am confident," she said softly—coldly.

"Good. Get into position," he told the others. Once they stepped into the room, the boss would start moving.

Phillip stood at the forefront. Rachel stood behind him, both feet on a patch of shadow.

Theodore closed his eyes and focused on conjuring Illuminate, and Karen stood just behind Phillip.

Jacob stood to Theodore's right, waiting for the man to finish his spell. A few moments later, he opened his eyes and threw a ball of white light. It flew with unerring accuracy at the boss and splashed across its body, distributing itself into tiny clusters of stars. Those stars revealed the exact weak points Theodore had seen with his talent. They rested upon the most fragile parts of bone and within joints most weathered by the passage of time.

The boss twitched, and the whip in its upper left arm moved, swinging a bit.

Phillip lunged forward. The boss opened its empty eye sockets and screeched as it swung the platinum whip at the man. With a seemingly effortless flick, the tanker readied his shield and redirected the force behind the immense blow into the soil, creating a massive crater upon impact.

Rachel sank into the shadow she had been standing on and appeared behind the boss. Her dagger was coated in her Red Venom as she attached a Black Whip to the boss's neck and pulled herself up, swinging her blade and leaving a long, sizzling gash up the length of its back.

The mummy screeched in rage as it twisted four arms behind itself and assaulted Rachel, but the woman jumped back, swinging around a large pillar and vanishing into the shadow.

It was finally Karen's turn. The woman opened her eyes and ran at dazzling speed, flowing through the air as if it were dragging her rather than resisting her passing. Within a moment, she made it to the mummy's feet, and with a single swing and the sound of air collapsing before the cleave of her blade, she cut one of Harrkanna's legs off.

Jacob grinned. Theodore's prediction was correct. Picking that woman had been the right choice.

Theodore placed a hand on Jacob's back and cast Holy Blessing. A small but significant burst of power echoed through Jacob's body as he activated Hydraulic Flex and dashed forward, his body enveloped in a faint mist as his Ignite Muscle blazed within.

With a single, mighty leap, he entered the boss room and jumped on top of Phillip, who used his shield to activate his talent—Redirect Force—to push Jacob straight toward the heart of the collapsing giant—right at a small cluster of bright stars scattered upon the sternum.

Jacob's grin widened. The rush of power—the exhilaration of a perfectly executed plan—coursed through his blood as he prepared a Titanic Strike. His fist landed, living up to the ability's name as deep cracks spread throughout the mummy's body.

With his talent—Shatterstrike—anything he struck acted the same as glass. Like a sculpture of brittle ice, the boss's torso shattered into large pieces, breaking its ribs apart and cracking its spine in two.

The fight ended almost instantly.

***

As Jacob and his party left the sandy desert through the passage leading into the realm, the golden crown in his hands evaporated, and a single crystal remained on his palm. Despite its incredibly small size, it was prized at nearly 300,000 dollars, it was quite the reward for a mere three hours of work.

He couldn't keep the smile off his face. Before adding Karen to their team, the boss fight was a lot more challenging. As long as the mummy was still standing firmly, it could fend off an attempt to end the fight early, requiring quite a bit more effort on the team's part to take it down.

Not only did this frequently result in injuries, but it also damaged their equipment and caused excessive fatigue. A delve's profits were only as valuable as the contrast to the expenses invested in it.

Thousands of dollars in equipment damage, injuries that had to be treated with expensive medicine, and fatigue that forced them to end their day early for the sake of rest could, at times, swallow up as much as half of the profit. But with Karen on board?

He had to admit, he was getting quite excited.

As they made their way out of the dungeon, they immediately stepped into a lobby. There were no employees currently present, and it wasn't nearly as large as the one at the main entrance to the gorel realm. Well, that was to be expected. This lobby had been constructed underground in a passage realm of intermediate difficulty.

Its entire purpose was to create a safe room for those leaving the dungeon after a delve and to ensure there was no trouble.

Their team slowly removed heavier pieces of armor and got comfortable as they prepared for a break. Anyone with access to a recovery technique used it, and Theodore made rounds with recovery spells. The holy affinity was quite something.

Eventually, the team was done with their after-battle recovery. They would rest for the next hour and then continue hunting inside the intermediate realm. They were qualified for one of the more difficult ones, but after a dungeon run like this, it was best they took it easy.

Jacob talked to Rachel for a while, but she eventually excused herself and went to the toilet.

Before long, Theodore sat down beside him. "So…" the man started. "What do you think of the new girl?"

"I think she's hot."

Theodore snorted. "That's not what I meant."

Jacob took a moment to think about it. "Frankly, she's too much. Her talents, both prime and natural, are top-notch, and her mentality is superb. She might even get the lightning affinity at the third star, and if she does, none of us will be able to keep up with her. Maybe you can, but I can't. Not unless I get a big opportunity. Either way, we're just resume padding for her. I'm sure she'll be out in a year or two."

"Damn," Theodore said, snickering a bit. "Surprised to see you so pessimistic."

"I'm just being real," he said, shrugging. "I had postponed my ascension for years, hoping my talent would become usable with weapons. If the situation remains the same at my third star, I'm going to be shit out of luck with my options," he said. "Don't get me wrong, my talent is great, but I'm too slow to fight barehanded. With three affinities, I can't use an affinity shard to get a wind affinity. Without weapons to extend my range and compensate for my lack of mobility, I can't keep up with geniuses like her."

"And you think I can?" Theodore asked.

Jacob snickered. "You rat bastard. With your affinities and talent, you'd be useful even if you were paralyzed from the neck down."

Theodore laughed, shaking his head.

Both men watched as Phillip slowly approached Karen, who was sitting alone. The man sat down next to her, and Jacob sneered, "The nerd's got his game on. Let's watch."

The scout chortled but then raised an eyebrow. "Why are you so mean to Phillip? Don't get me wrong, I don't give a shit, but I am curious."

"I never wanted that stupid kid in my party," Jacob said. "He was shoved in by my dad. I mean, come the fuck on, look at him!" He pointed at Phillip. "Just look at his body language. He's trying to hit on that girl, right? But read his lips." Then he repeated mockingly. "'I am quite impressed by your style, Young Mistress. It greatly showcases both the history of your clan and your personal experience'—ptoo!" he spat to the side. "Disgusting virgin. I prefer people like you and your wife's boyfriend."

Theodore choked upon hearing that.

Jacob grinned at him widely. "I actually talked to him the other day."

"Dude… can we please not talk about this?" Theodore requested nicely, but—

"He was quite the asshole," Jacob continued despite the man's pleas. "Dude is so self-centered it's incredible. And he's shameless to the bone. He's a lot like you, you know. Maybe that's why your wife—"

"My ex-wife!" the man corrected. "Anyway, I don't give a shit what that whore does and with who. Me and her are history."

"Can I have a round with her, then?" Jacob asked, prompting Theodore to shoot him a death stare. "Chill, lil' bro, I won't touch her," Jacob laughed as he ruffled the man's brown hair. "But I might invite Liam to our party."

Theodore froze. "Why would you do that?" he asked. "We're already full, and you don't even know what the man's capable of."

"Strange… I think I remember you vouching for the guy just a while ago… I wonder what changed," Jacob said teasingly.

Theodore stood there in silence for a few seconds.

Jacob, meanwhile, was trying his best not to burst out laughing. "I mean, the dude didn't even wait 24 hours to—ow!" he yelped jokingly as Theodore punched him in the shoulder. Jacob laughed, and Theodore shook his head, preparing to get up.

"Mr. Santorio!" someone called from the door.

Jacob raised an eyebrow. "What's going on?"

The person standing at the entrance explained what was happening at the passage to the gorel realm.

Jacob's blood ran cold.

"A terrorist attack?" Theodore mused. "That's something, all right. What are we gonna—"

"Get ready, everyone," Jacob declared. "We have to go."

"Whoa, hold on a bit!" Theodore insisted. "This could be pretty dangerous depending on who is doing this. Maybe it would be a bit wiser to wait until your father takes care of things?"

"Hell no," Jacob said, shaking his head. "We have to check things out. We're the most qualified party within this entire hub. We have to step up."

***

Just a bit outside the entrance to the gorel hub, a man wearing full armor sat on a boulder. He rested casually, observing the crowds of confused delvers as they gathered at the blocked entrance. "You poor children," he said, shaking his head sadly. "I really am so sorry for doing this," he uttered with pain in his voice.

Then he returned his consciousness to his main body, which was deep underground.

He was sitting cross-legged on top of a massive runic formation. The runes shimmered with ethereal white light, reinforcing a seal on a passage.

His body appeared youthful, but he had an aged air around him. His golden eyes were slitted sharply, and his large forehead was topped by a hairline, forming an M-pattern in his black hair.

His body was skinny, and his left arm was missing.

"I cannot provide you with salvation," he said, sighing deeply. "But from your ashes," he said, putting his arm down to the runic formation as it flickered lightly. "From all our ashes…

"We can at least give the children a chance."