‘Ehhh… well, I guess the choice is pretty obvious,’ John analysed his choices. The goal of the Perks was still to allow him to teleport through walls. To that end, Detail Perception – Elementals was useless. In general, it was incredibly niche. It was incredibly rare to deal with an elemental that was not, by the physical manifestation, obviously an elemental. The connection was a tad better, but John needing to have both targets in range made it awful again.

Aside from his preference to stay in the backline, there was the fact that his contact lenses could already deal with this. The Connective Gaze Attribute let John see the line between not only an elemental and its summoner, but between all kinds of familiars and their summoners, creators or contractors. It was a strictly worse version of something he already had.

‘I guess it’s made with blindness in mind,’ he tried to justify what something this weak was even doing in his choices of level 6 Perks. The second Perk, Motion Reading was at least functionally an upgrade. Agility 250 had given him rough awareness of things going on in a metre around him. Motion Reading was more detailed, warned him of attacks earlier, and had a larger range. If he had been a melee fighter, it would certainly have been attractive to Daredevil it up a bit. With his goal and build in mind, the last option was clearly what he should go with, however.

Sensing light levels in areas he couldn’t see was going to be useless in most situations, but he figured it wasn’t as niche as Detail Perception and more helpful for his build than Motion Reading. Therefore, he went with it. Afterwards, he had Gnome construct a couple of obstacles for him to see what he could teleport through now.

Obstacle 1: the simple thin wall. This one was overcome easily. John had been able to do it before, so it was more of a warm-up.

Obstacle 2: the isolated thin-walled room, possessing no doors or windows. This was overcome easily as well, which was a pleasant surprise. Previously this had been the last obstacle he managed to clear. If the air of two places was connected, that usually made it easier for John. Now, his supernatural awareness of the darkness within the hollow space gave him enough details to work with that Magus Step let him teleport into it.

Obstacle 3: the isolated thick-walled room, possessing no doors or windows. This was overcome with a minimum of concentration. The thickness of the wall was roughly equivalent to street-facing facades of brick houses and the stone used was denser as well.

Obstacle 4: the isolated room with walls two metres thick. This was not overcome and existed purely so John could test the limits of this new ability. He was vaguely aware of the thing behind the wall. He could definitely feel that there was a hollow core. It wasn’t enough to get inside, though.

“Alright, looks like I got what I wanted out of Unfound,” John announced to everyone.

“Will you max it out?” Undine asked.

“Good question,” the Gamer considered. Because of the nerf, he had considered getting into Silver Arcanist next. Since he had adjusted well to the changes, going for another response measure was not strictly necessary. Maxing out Unfound, getting access to the Modification, Overclock and Advanced Class, could be a worthwhile endeavour. “Let’s go with yes. It’s only 4 more levels.”

That decision made, John checked out his current status.

As wanted, his effective mana regeneration was up ever so slightly. 23 wasn’t much better than 22, but it was better.

‘I could up that by another 1 if I invested the SEP,’ John thought. He had the one lying around since Gnome evolved. ‘No, that would be wasteful. Even investing it into the Artificial Spirits would be a better usage.’

Skill Evolution Points had, roughly, 3 uses: 1. evolve a Skill, 2. grant an Artificial Spirit a Special Perk (with the cost permanently increasing by 1 for the next time this mechanic was used on that AS), and 3. buff an elemental. Options 2 and 3 were clearly filler that existed only to drain resource surplus. John didn’t think of having 1 unused SEP as enough of a surplus to waste it on mechanics like this.

Instead, he kept it for when Mana Chain got maxed out. He did so much with that Skill, he wanted to see what an evolved version looked like. There was a risk in evolving the Skill, due to all of the Perks associated with it. That risk was also part of the reason why John wanted to do it. He wanted to see how the system would react to something with attached mechanics changing.

John looked over to Magoi’s tower. It had now been about an hour since Rave left, the time split between him indulging himself and him going after, pleasantly easy, Unfound Class Challenges. There was nothing holding them back anymore now, so they would soon resume clearing the Twisted City of Ohmior Raid.

Rave, either by pure coincidence or through her uncanny ability to read him, suddenly appeared in the premises of the tower and came jogging their way. “There I be,” she said. “Ya want another quick BJ or are we going in?”

“Want? Always. We’ve wasted enough time though,” John said and led the way towards the entrance of the Raid. He couldn’t quite suppress his curiosity and asked, “So, how is Lee doing?”

“Girl is smart, she got the Aura figured out. As per physical improvements… I shall keep my lips zipped.”

“Tease,” John complained, as they stepped into the darkness. “Maybe I should try prying your mouth open, hm?”

“Ya would stuff it quicker than I could spill the beans, ya big ol’ horny nerd,” Rave bantered right back. “Plus, ya got to love the wait. Ya did it to yourself.”

“I suppose I did,” John conceded. Moments later, they were on the spawning platform. One march through the teleporter and they were in the cleared-out boss arena. From there, they entered the next segment of the Raid. After the Tower Knight had been defeated, part of the structure had opened up as a new corridor.

The first thing they had to contend with was one of John’s much hated ‘jump and dodge the bombardment’ segments. Beyond that, they were faced with the same old Ohmior Knights. Notably, these were five levels higher and came, at the lowest, in groups of three and, sometimes, in groups of six. That was a mild difficulty increase from the previous segment. With them still having a higher level and being really used to dealing with this type of enemy, the group still advanced with relative ease.

John noted that the surrounding architecture was more militaristic than before. The buildings were still stacked on top of each other, the colour scheme of beige and light purple remained consistent, but the flowing artisanry was replaced with hard edges and wide roads optimal for supply deliveries. Several buildings were either damaged or reinforced with slabs of simple grey concrete. Some parts were even trapped, with blades and needles darting out of the walls or floor as the group advanced. There was also a dearth of ghost or ghoul enemies. There were only Ohmior Knights.

The narrative of the Raid seemed to say that this part of the city was forbidden from the regular citizens. John was interested to see where it would lead them. He would remain interested for two days, as they explored their way through the military district, filled with dead-ends and small fortresses. Neither were filled with items of interest. The additional enemies to fight were a good source of experience, however.

Halfway through day 5 of the Raid, and another 4 levels stronger, 2 thanks to the enemies and 2 thanks to Experience of Love, John finally laid eyes on the next boss arena.

Hidden underneath a grey concrete dome, the boss stood in the ray of light that fell through the sole hole in the ceiling. The room was dull in every sense. The walls were undecorated and rough. The floor was cobblestone, covered in soot and turned black. The boss was only marginally more interesting to behold. An unarmed Ohmior Knight, not even equipped with extra limbs, he was covered in marks of battle and ash. The lights that flickered behind the visor of others of his kin were inactive.

The only interesting sight inside the dome, visually speaking, was the door behind this knight. Large and black, a polished colour, not the forced dark of burned remains, the two wings of the gate were surrounded by a silver frame. Arcane energy covered the entirety of this gate with chains of glowing light purple, all focused around a metal seal at the centre. It was segmented into four runes.

The group only stood in the entranceway of the dome, wary to not activate the boss ahead of time.

‘If this wasn’t a Raid, this is where I would turn around and not touch anything related to this until I was like level… 600 at least,’ the Gamer thought. Mindlessly messing with ancient seals without knowing what was behind them or why they were placed was something only stupid anime protagonists did. Thankfully, this place was just created for him (or for Gaia’s entertainment, depending on perspective).

“Anything interesting?” Siena asked.

“Kind of, yeah,” John said. “A lot of the loot table is recycled, so that’s unfortunate, but there’re four somewhat intriguing things in here. The Ohmior Armour Instructions, which will probably show how one could forge these sets themselves, the Ohmior Sentry Schematics, which I have no clear idea what they are supposed to teach, and the Spellbook. Been a while since I encountered one of these.”

“Not that you look around for a lot of them,” Salamander pointed out.

“Most Spellbooks describe incredibly basic spells that I have better versions of,” the Gamer countered. “Bothering to find one that might let me learn something worthwhile would cost me more time than to get another Class Level.”

“Doubt this one would be basic…” Gnome mumbled. “I mean… it is a legendary drop.”

“Which also means we probably won’t see it,” John said and scratched the side of his head. “Wonder what ‘Guardian’s Resolve’ is as well, but I got no clue. Anyway, everybody ready for the first try?” The agreement was given all around and Aclysia sent to lead the group.

They walked in carefully, John in the middle of it all, looking around the dull dome some more. Absolutely nothing else of interest could be found. He forged a simple map in his head.

‘I’ll adjust it as necessary,’ he thought.

Finally, the boss warning popped up. The group continued further, until they were twenty-five metres in, about halfway between the entrance and the motionless boss.

One more step by Aclysia, and the Guardian’s eyes suddenly burst to light in a flash of arcane purple. Ash and dust dropped from its damaged armour as the form quivered. The screeching of rust simulated the years of waiting this created enemy had suffered through in terms of symbolism. While its limbs straightened and moved in snapping fashion, a tendril of energy reached out from the seal to the boss. The moment it connected, the skeletally sudden movements grew smooth and controlled. The gaps in the armour shone with soft blue and purple.

The left of the seal’s four runes was extinguished as light oozed from the hands of the Guardian. In its hands grew a crystal, gradually forming into a long shaft with a large axe-blade at the end of it.