Chapter 1381 - Staff of the Magi

Jake could only take his hat off in respect for the valiant heroes of the Holy Church who so selflessly sacrificed themselves to allow his escape. Truly honorable people who totally had a choice in the matter, as they uselessly struggled to defend themselves against the quite frankly overpowered Magi.

He hadn’t even made his way to ground level before all the members of the Holy Church were slaughtered, not even managing to land a single counterattack. Not that it would have done much, as the Magi seemed to constantly be surrounded by a field reminiscent of Pride that gave him control over all environmental mana within a few kilometers of his massive body. It took little more than a thought to summon a barrier to defend himself, and Jake’s only method to stop him momentarily had been Primal Gaze, and that sure hadn’t felt nice. Even now, he could barely see anything, and he knew that should he try to use it again, his eyes would likely explode right out of his eye sockets.

After the Magi had killed the members of the Holy Church, he naturally didn’t get his staff back. The group did drop some items, including all the stolen goods they’d taken from the stores, which at least gave the cyclops pause as he inspected them. If Jake had to guess, he would say that the residents of the Inner City thought all Administrators were on the same side, given how they operated in the same way, and how nobody dared to fight others while surrounded by the giant natives all around them.

This likely contributed to the Magi’s hesitation, buying Jake a few more seconds before the high-tier B-grade started searching his surroundings again, starting with the house Jake’s Eternal Shadow had dispersed within. Chances were the Magi guessed Jake was still somewhere nearby, which also explained why he proceeded to seal off the entire building.

Once it was sealed, the cyclops started making his way from room to room, simply walking through them while looking straight ahead. Jake, who was still trying to reach ground level of the building opposite the one the Magi was searching, wondered why the high-tier B-grade was doing what he did, but soon he understood.

That’s his only way to search for me.

Likely for balance reasons, the Magi didn’t have any potent detection magic, meaning he had to rely on the passive field around him to search every room. In other words, he had to physically move around and make it cover every corner of the building if he wanted to spot someone like Jake with a powerful stealth skill.

The cyclops having to search in such a time-consuming way meant Jake quite easily reached the ground and rushed towards one of the grates leading into the sewers. Jake originally hadn’t intended to ever go through the sewers, as it was obviously slower than traveling above ground, but it was definitely the safest place, as the cyclopes seemed to never search there.

Once in the sewers, Jake finally let out a sigh of relief as he nevertheless kept an eye on the Magi, who was soon done searching the house. Once finished, he frowned, looking angry, but eventually, he seemed to give up. The Magi lifted his hand, summoning a magic circle beneath himself that instantly teleported him straight back to his residence, as far as Jake could tell.

At least it felt to be in the direction of the residence; he couldn’t fully tell, though. The escape function of Wings had a tendency to leave him a little disoriented, and plus, only three seconds after the Magi teleported away, Jake felt his Hunter’s Mark be snuffed out, making him momentarily pause again.

Was it noticed?

Jake had gone with the assumption that none of these high-tier B-grades could detect his Hunter’s Mark; however, it appeared he was wrong. At least he believed he was wrong. It was also possible the Magi had used some all-purpose cleansing spell on himself or something, but it was equally possible that his Mark had been detected and eliminated.

One thing was for sure: Jake didn’t want to encounter that Magi again if he could at all avoid it. If not for the escape function of Wings and his quick use of Eternal Shadow, Jake would have been in for a very bad time. Fighting the Magi wouldn’t be a matter of winning, but only a question of how long Jake could keep up. Escape without Wings also didn’t seem possible, given the sealing barriers the high-tier B-grade could so casually summon.

Shaking his head, Jake tried to shrug off the thoughts of what he would do if the Magi discovered him again. He would just have to avoid that happening. Instead, he switched his focus to something more positive.

While it had been a very risky home invasion, given the owner of the house, he had come away with quite the haul, and now that he was alone, hidden away in a damp sewer, he finally took out his loot.

The staff appeared in his hand, the perfect size for him to wield. It remained a simple-looking weapon that was just a slightly fancy wooden stick, and it didn’t even radiate any obvious power. However, when touching it, Jake felt the immense amount of energy stored within, and when he used Identify... yeah, it was even better than expected, and his risk had definitely been rewarded in abundance.

Pun intended.

[Abundant Staff of the Magi (Unique)] – A staff created by the Emperor of Abundance to be wielded by the great Cyclops Magi, one of the eight Great Guardians of the Inner City. Now, its power belongs to you. Can be instantly converted into 250,000 Prima Credits or used within the Palace of Abundance for even greater rewards. Additionally, the staff can be consumed, granting you the Abundant Blessing of the Magi, massively increasing mental stats and magical prowess for a limited amount of time.Requirements: Soulbound. Will be forcibly converted into Prima Credits should you leave the Central Domain.

This item was different from anything Jake had come across prior, and was by far the best item he’d ever seen, going by all aspects of it. Just starting with the Prima Credits it gave was insane. 250,000 was more than ten times the second-best treasure Jake had found in this system event, and several times better than the best Golden Flower he’d obtained.

That wasn’t even its main function, though, but just the pity reward one would get if they didn’t turn it into more points within the Palace of Abundance. Assuming one even wanted to turn it into points in the first place, given the final function it had.

Standing there with the staff, Jake felt it would take little effort to activate this Abundant Blessing of the Magi, and he even got a good feeling of what it would entail, courtesy of innate knowledge granted by the system. He couldn’t fully tell, but what he did know was that consuming it would lead to an immense rush of power, and perhaps equally important... There wouldn’t even be a period of weakness afterward or any backlash of any kind.

Something that entirely broke the rules of the system.

Large sudden increases in power, especially those not coming in the form of a boosting skill, but in the form of external help, always had disastrous consequences. It was a simple rule to which Jake had yet to see an exception. However, this item entirely broke that rule, and the only explanation Jake could see was the setting.

This was a simulation. Rules were somewhat allowed to be broken here, since it wasn’t the real world. With death not being a true consequence, the system seemed more lax and willing to bend its rules, allowing objects like this, which upset the balance of power, to exist.

Of course, given the extremely high level of difficulty required to obtain the staff, Jake doubted there were many similar treasures in the World of the Exalted Prima. Still, it was a factor Jake had to consider.

For now, he put the staff away, with no intention of consuming an item that could only be used once for no damn reason. Perhaps he wouldn’t ever have to consume it, but it was a nice trump card to have available. The only sad thing was that he couldn’t bring it outside the Central Domain and use it to conquer a powerful Territory, but oh well, hopefully it could be used to gain something even better in the Palace of Abundance. Worst case, it would give him a shitload of Prima Credits, and he doubted Miranda would complain about that.

Turning his attention elsewhere, Jake did a final scan of his surroundings, contemplating his next plans. He considered exploring the sewers a little, but after getting a good look and noticing how many people were already down there, he found the notion exhausting.

Thus, after not thinking too long, Jake made his way back topside and looked towards the Palace of Abundance in the distance. Jake had only teleported a bit over ten thousand kilometers using Wings, as he assumed that if the Magi could follow him that far, the cyclops could have followed him anywhere. Plus, the less distance he traveled, the less time Wings would remain unavailable.

Limiting his travel distance also meant he hadn’t lost too much progress, though it would still take a while to get back, as he couldn’t travel at full speed through the city, especially not now. He could go faster than the last time, though, as Jake really didn’t find the prospect of robbing local stores at all appealing anymore.

Instead, he took to the rooftops once more and focused all his attention on getting to the Palace of Abundance, not intending to take any unnecessary risks on the way, as he had to wait for Wings of the Malefic Viper to be ready again in case he had to escape.

Hopefully, he wouldn’t get caught up in anything, as the Administrators were even more numerous than Jake had initially expected. With the size of the Inner City, one would expect it to be relatively rare to spot others, yet he saw over a hundred within his current Pulse range, making him guess there had to be at least tens of thousands in the Inner City already. Even that was a very conservative estimate.

I guess it does make sense, there is an entire universe of galaxies which could have Seats of the Exalted Prima, Jake thought, not intending to interact with anyone for the foreseeable future as he began his travel towards the Palace of Abundance, not intending to make any stops along the way before locating this so-called Gate of Abundance that would grant entrance to the Palace itself.

--

“This entire place is clearly discriminating against us non-sneaks,” the Runemaiden complained loudly, only able to do so due to her location. “Relegating us all to the sewers like this. Why do I feel like it’s some kind of social commentary by that damn Exalted Prima about how we belong in the gutter?”

“I fear the Runemaiden is reading a bit too much into it,” the Demon Lord chuckled, nevertheless looking like he found Carmen’s words amusing.

“I’m telling you right now, if the Palace of Abundance is also a forced stealth mission, I’m definitely getting a thirty-day vacation from this damn simulation,” Carmen continued her complaints.

“I fear you may not be the only one suffering from such a fate if the Palace remains hostile to our Paths,” the third member leading their small group said with a light smile, her golden eyes scanning the path ahead as the nasty atmosphere seemed to passively avoid her, as if not to affect her royal appearance.

“You’re just sad you can’t be in dragon form, though actually, there would totally be space for it in this oversized sewer,” Carmen said half-jokingly, not actually wanting the golden dragon to enter her true form, as that would make things a little too cramped in places.

Plus, they were traveling off to the side of the sewers along a narrow path, with a large river of sewage running right next to them. Then again, calling the path narrow felt wrong, seeing as it was still over a hundred meters wide; it was just that, compared to the several-kilometer-wide river, it did appear narrow.

The three of them had met up shortly after entering the sewers, forming quite an odd group who belonged to three very different factions. Carmen from Valhal, the Demon Prince from the Nine Hells, and Aishalstromoz from the Regalflight. All of them were already aware of each other due to the Nevermore Leaderboards, where they all had respectable positions, with the Demon Prince standing out, effectively having the number two spot after Jake kicked Ell’Hakan’s head in and blew up his planet.

Behind these three unlikely allies were more than fifty other Administrators who were following them at a respectful distance. Somehow, they’d become leaders of a ragtag group of mostly unaffiliated administrators who didn’t have any bigger factions to seek out, and after a few had joined, others just started joining, assuming it was some kind of commune.

Carmen didn’t particularly care as long as they didn’t get in the way, and fortunately, in these sewers, they didn’t have to worry about cyclopes randomly appearing and yelling for help to summon overpowered B-grades. Aisha had already reported how a Blademaven had appeared after some Administrators had made too much trouble topside, and she’d had to escape into the sewers herself, barely getting out alive.

The three of them had briefly discussed the option of fighting one of these cyclops elites if it came down to it, and the conclusion was that it would be stupid to throw their lives away for no reason. These high-tier B-grades were clearly not designed to be beaten, and Carmen felt bad for anyone who caught their ire.

“Got another one approaching,” Aisha said, looking towards the river of sewage.

“I really don’t wanna punch any of those things again,” Carmen remembered the last time she tore one apart and how she smelled like shit for half an hour afterward, no matter how much she tried to clean herself off.

“Fine,” Aisha shrugged, as Carmen also spotted the movement down the river as a creature came riding the current towards them. A few seconds later, an ugly as fuck hairy fishlike creature with long spindly arms emerged from the river and jumped straight towards them, as the golden dragon gave it a glance.

“Searing Claw.”

With her words, the ugly B-grade was blasted towards the back wall of the sewers as a large burning dragon claw emerged from nowhere and slammed into it, pinning it to the wall. The creature let out an ear-splitting shriek as Aisha raised her hand and started clenching, the giant burning dragon claw closing around and crushing the B-grade in response.

It tried to escape, but with a final push, the entire creature was crushed into paste, sending smelly and already rotting flesh and blood flying everywhere, but fortunately, Aisha had killed it far enough away so that none of it hit them.

“Admittedly, I would also prefer you didn’t get that viscera all over you again,” Aisha said in a joking tone as the flaming claw in the distance faded away, leaving only a black burning print where it had crushed the B-grade hairy fish.

“I am so looking forward to getting out of this place,” Carmen sighed, giving the dragon another look. She still didn’t fully understand how the magic of this golden dragon worked, but it was clearly pretty damn strong, given she had effortlessly disposed of anything she decided to attack. Hell, it had even allowed her to escape a Blademaven.

“Oh, I do concur with that statement,” the Demon Prince said, still in a chuckling move, looking ahead of them. “How about we head straight for the Palace of Abundance and ignore all these side rooms with treasures? I’m getting the feeling that delaying too long will result in a worse outcome than missing out on some treasures.”

“Anything to get out of this hellscape,” Carmen said, before correcting herself a little. “No offense, I’m sure the Hells are actually way nicer than this place.”

“Some of them are way worse,” the Demon Prince said, shaking his head. “Though certainly the scent tends to be better. Assuming you like the smell of burning flesh, that is.”

“At this point, I’m willing to take anything other than this,” Carmen muttered as she was wholly on board with rushing forward and getting to the Palace of Abundance sooner rather than later.