Chương 187: Chapter 184 - Priority One: Valee Dubois

If you expected Ryan to be twiddling his thumbs while seeing off the heroic adventurer like some helpless damsel then you didn't know him well enough. He had immediately rushed back, almost demanding Grettfield to take him back to Valee's mansion. [Return to The Realm] Gamielle was there, still sitting, as if waiting for him. She turned around in his presence, Cerul stopped mids-quawk when Ryan glared at it. Now was not the time.

"I know you have fourther Fallen, Gamielle. Are they in Sector Four right now?"

"I do, and they are. A few of them are watching and standing by." She put up a magical screen that was broken up into eight different sections. Each section showing a different angle of Sector Four. Naturally, just because her mother had banned her from entering Sector Four, it didn't mean Gamielle would accept the letter of the law. She had found her own methods to get reports back. Ryan stared at the screens, each showing a different angle, far away.

"Why are they all just watching from a distance?" Gamielle's voice was cold.

"The Fallen don't interfere with the living, Ryan."

"Dragonshit! You hang around Sector One, luring people like me and Zedart into traps." Gamielle wrinkled her nose, her tone tinted with a bit of anger." I do that so my mother's not the one doing it." Ryan recoiled and Gamielle explained further.

"You did it for me. All of the Fallen attacked The Realm together."

"We do it when there's no risk to you and we can help you get stronger. We don't interfere when there's a chance that you'll die." But that wasn't the complete truth either. Gamielle did play favorites—like giving him hints by disappearing whenever there was danger. Gamielle was just staring at the magical screens. The Flesh Titan was right on top of Shara. If she died, the Fallen would be exposed and they would all be branded as monsters.

"Ryan, did you think about what would happen if the Fallen just swept up every single problem?"

"This is different, Gamielle. This is a damned genocide."

"It's the same thing. You think it doesn't hurt whenever I see you and Zedart go out into another Trial? When I can't do anything?"

"I bet you wouldn't be saying the same thing if this was the Obsidian Sect—" SMACK! Gamielle slapped him in the face. Cerul's eyes widened and backed away quietly while Ryan just glared at her. The [Mage] was flushed with anger." How dare you."" How dare I? There's people there, there's children that are terrified and parents willing to give it all for the others. This isn't a fucking balancing game for achievements, there's actual lives—""THEN WHAT?!"

Gamielle screamed, letting her frustrations out against the brilliant but stubborn idiot in front of her. Ryan had realized she was going to say no so he went straight for her heart.

"The Fallen sweep the board or save as many as they can, they reveal themselves to the world and then they find out that a tenth of the adventurers the world thought were alive are dead! They all rely on the Fallen and stop challenging the Trials and all of the achievements go to my mother. Then who's going to stop her? And then, when my mother and the Tyrants die trying to do the impossible, who's going to be left protecting The Realm?!"

Ryan opened his mouth to interject but Gamielle interrupted, not allowing him to speak.

"Don't you dare say it's going to be you. You know that's irresponsible." He glared, with nothing to say. Neither could see eye to eye with the other but that was because neither of them were wrong. Shara was hounding Sideark, the Flesh Titan closing in. That section fizzled out as Gamielle made a different section the focus for all the scenes. A figure was blazing across the gray land. Sonic booms following her wake. Someone had broken the sound barrier as a fourth realm. Valee.

He didn't know she could even do that.

"Watch Ryan. For someone like you, this is probably the hardest thing for you to do. But if you're going to become a Tyrant, then I think it also might be the most important lesson for you to learn." — Sector Four… When Artigan had first ambushed Valee's team in the Trial he had once asked her why she had picked such a weird build. He asked it because it was so out of place from someone that was talented and in a minimalist team of three. Her build looked like something someone unambitious would take.

A [Rogue] and an orc. A good balance there, strength mixed with dexterity. Her skills were the same way. Balanced. Unambitious. A sensory mental skill: [Enhanced Senses]. A physical active skill: [Double Step]. A physical passive skill: [Quickened]. Someone who was ambitious and talented would normally pick skills that could meld. Specializing in a singular strength then relying on their teammates to cover their weaknesses. A balanced build was good and all but it didn't let you do things that others couldn't do.

It didn't let you stand out. A safe foundation for someone that wasn't that ambitious. But that was where Ryan had it wrong. Valee wasn't just talented, she had been one of the best. She knew exactly where she stood amongst her peers. Her goal was something that people really only theorized but only dragonslayer's children really ever tried to go for. If she understood it right, Shadowstrider was the same as her. The truly ambitious set their foundations for their Epic before they hit the fifth realm.

Barely anyone ever attempted to do anything like it because getting an Epic before realm five really needed you to do some crazy things. And even if you did them, there was no guarantee that you'd get offered one. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it And when you did get offered one through specializing? The Epic often overshadowed the rest of your skill build. Almost making your previous Trial skills pointless in comparison. The truly ambitious ones?

They set the foundation they would specialize from before being offered an Epic. By having a good spread of skills you would have plenty of Trial Skill upgrades that could synergize with your Epic. Uplifting it further. That was what none of the fourthers really understood. Epics were what mattered. They were what defined dragonslayers. Zedart used his like it was another boosting skill. Juniper clearly didn't understand hers that well. Ryan likely stacked up Epics without optimizing a single thing…

he might have been a special case. Still, none of them truly got it. You were supposed to build around your Epic. One well-mastered and well-synergized Epic could help you become one of the strongest dragonslayers. And Valee had been offered an Epic at realm three. The wrappings crafted from a long dead Realmer shone as they unravelled. Her Epic coursed through them as they sunk into the earth, they began to wrap themselves in rock.

Then she swept her left hand forward, great earthen whips lifting out of the ground and slamming into the leaning titan's face. It staggered for a moment, though clearly didn't do much damage. It was simply surprised that such a small creature could manage such an impactful strike. The tips of the earthen whips had embedded itself deep into the flesh. Valee roared—and leapt. The earthen whips from her left hand pulled her faster towards the titan.

The bindings from her right arm unearthed, wrapped around an enormous shape, shaking the surface. Dragging up an enormous earthen spire from the ground. [Adaptive Terrain: Harden] A trick Valee had learned while studying how the Unwanted used their natural gifts to harden and soften the earth. Valee had learned it with her Epic and pushed it further. [Threaded Thoughts] + [Adaptive Terrain: Zero Friction] The earthen spire broke free from the ground at an alarming speed.

Gliding across the frictionless surroundings. Artigan had shown her Epic's weakness. It had enormous range and capability but she lacked the mental capacity to truly let it shine. Grand Elementalist M'erra had shown her that her Epic was truly complex, she had barely scratched the surface of it. So, she picked a mental skill to help. With [Threaded Thoughts] she could narrow down her Epic and duplicate it. Making it more efficient in the end. This was how you built around your Epic.

Identify bottlenecks and pick skills that shored it up. Then find synergies with the rest of your kit. Epics were vast things. They almost never synergized with one thing alone. The spire shot out like a spear. Running on instinct, the Flesh Titan saw the great earth spire and pulled back, trying to stand up as a dodge. Valee laughed in her mind. It had only helped pull the earthen spire out faster. Valee became the fulcrum to the Flesh Titan's might.

She heaved, using her new mental capacity, adjusting the angle, pulling in her arms digging the wraps on its face deeper and the spire shot out like a bullet— And slammed into the Flesh Titan's chest. Two of earthen bindings flailed around in front of her, blocking all the throwing weapons from the appendages. That was the amazing thing about [Threaded Thoughts], it was perfect against predictable, known threats. The Flesh Titan stumbled backwards, one step, two steps. Then fell.

A stone pillar sticking out from its chest. The echoing crash was a shock to everyone around. Even the shadows stopped to turn towards the titan that had just been felled. Sideark's camera turned back from the titan and towards Valee.

"What the hell was that?!" Valee gritted her teeth, sinking the bindings in her right arm back into the ground, wrapping them up with earthen stones.

"It's still alive." As if her words were coming true, the Flesh Titan's knees pulled up—it then lost control of its legs and they went back down. The spire in its chest apparently made the rest of its movements difficult but Valee could tell with [Tremorsense] that it was still quite healthy. She turned to Shara.

"Is its core not in the chest?" Shara shook her head.

"The core was already destroyed. I do not understand how it still moves." Valee blinked. Ryan had said he'd blown up the core before. If so… then how was the construct still moving? As if answering her question the sea of inky hands that surrounded them started sweeping towards the Flesh Titan. A traveling, squirming wave that passed around them, refusing to get close to Shara's aura. They gathered into the Flesh Titan's chest, entering the wound. Now that the sea of inky hands had massed—the spire began to shift.

Valee considered running towards the Titan but thought better of it. A swarm of inky hands was much harder to manage than a singular giant. She was just glad that the inky hands hadn't realized that. Though this really wasn't a good sign at all. Once enough of the spire had dislodged, the Flesh Titan regained more use of its limbs, it raised a hand and pulled it out, dropping it beside it. Valee made her decision.

"Sideark, get the queen out of here. I can't promise I can keep you both safe while I fight."

"How many more of those earthen spears you got?"

"One more, I'm not going to use it."

"Are you crazy? It's down now, now would be the time to hit it with another one. Then we should run together." That assumed Valee had the physical strength to pull another one out of the ground. That one had felt like it had strained all of her muscles. She stretched her arms.

"Running? I'm going to kill it." The Flesh Titan's chest was filling up with inky hands that held each other in a chain. The great gaping wound an ocean tide of black. Whole again. It glared at the first threat it had seen, or perhaps it was remembering when the first plucky savior had blown up its chest. It sat up, glaring at Valee. Zedart could only annoy it. Shara was just slightly dangerous prey. For the first time in its new existence, the Flesh Titan saw a true threat. Valee smiled, wild fire in her eyes.

"You see me now? Come then, let's dance." She rose, her earth-wrapped bindings lifting her up high, making her a bigger target. Each of her tendrils curving downwards with her in the middle. Someone else might say that she looked a little like a daddy long-legs spider. Before it could recover–she pounced. Ten great limbs of earth landed on the chest of the Flesh Titan, faster than it could block her. The sharp hardened earth at the ends pointed and started rapidly stabbing into the ocean of black.

When the Flesh Titan tried to swat her away she simply swung around to its back. And the Flesh Titan roared in pain as it destroyed a huge chunk of the inky hands by itself. Valee laughed.

"Not so bright are you?" The earthen legs started tearing into the Flesh Titan's back, keeping three earthen threads close to block any throwing weapons. So easy, so predictable. The Flesh Titan roared, trying to grab at its back, to get the dangerous threat off. But it couldn't—its limbs were too clunky compared to the Valee. Each of her tendrils could pull, push, lengthen, stab, and loosen. She had hundreds of different maneuverability options compared to the Flesh Titan's two hands.

For people like Zedart the real problems were the shadowy hands and they had zero chance of grabbing onto the pointy sharp hardened earth. If one of the thicker inky hands grabbed on? Then she could just let the earth of that binding go. But she hadn't even needed to bring out that option yet. Valee found out another skill working far better than expected. It let her see where the inky hands might rise. [Tremorsense] She was slowly understanding the Flesh Titans anatomy better.

The muscles were well stitched together, but didn't have mana to course through it. It was the Inky hands that provided it. A symbiotic relationship in a sense. The inky hands provided the mana, the Flesh Titan holding the mind in its runic muscles. It did raise an interesting problem. There was no singular functional weakness. Valee could see that even the runes were repairing itself when the Flesh Titan regenerated. A lack of an antimagic skill was biting her in the ass.

Still, healing its flesh was using up the shadows and she could keep this up for a while. Valee swung away at the Titan, her bindings a whirling flail of earth that kept tearing away at both appendages and flesh alike. The Flesh Titan had enough, it roared and jumped backwards, trying to squish the thing tearing at its back. Valee simply leapt off. From the outside perspective, it looked as if Valee had brought down the Flesh Titan for the second time.

The Flesh Titan was now thrashing with its limbs as if it thought she was still on it and ripping it apart. Valee landed on the ground, her wrappings in a neutral position of holding her up while she stood above. She was happy to wait, recovering her mental capacity as much as she could to go for another round. And with that, with the witnesses and Sideark still recording her. Having done something no other fourther could do, Valee heard a notification. Title: Strongest in the Fourth Realm (Epic), Obtained!

Valee blinked at the screen, then immediately removed her previous Rare title and slotted in the Epic one. There was such a huge difference in stats it was insane. She was pretty sure she was both physically stronger and had more mental capacity than when she'd first arrived. Not that it would be enough to kill the Flesh Titan. Shara and Sideark approached her, arriving by her side as the titan stopped thrashing. Valee turned around.

"What are you two still doing here?" Sideark was recording her, it was half the reason why she was still standing above. Shara turned to Sideark.

"He came back after he realized you were winning, yes?" That was definitely getting cut out of Sideark's recording. The Flesh Titan was getting up.

"You should go. It's not being held up by a single spell. I'll need to whittle it away for hours. Get out of the leveled zone now. I can keep it distracted until then." Shara eyes followed the regenerating chest of the rising titan, her eyes crackling with both aura and uncontrolled mana.

"I do not wish to run away, yes? I think I'd like to end this thing once and for all." If Valee didn't have [Enhanced Senses], she'd have called Shara a liar.

"You got a plan?"

"Yes."