Hi3rd: Achievement Hunter

It didn't take long for Mei to carry Aleph to the couch. She couldn't help but notice his clothes' pristine state.

'A great sage. It's an apt description.'

It was hard to imagine that a 'peaceful' person like him could destroy cities with a strike of his hand. The change in his surroundings was drastic everytime he did his own thing. It was as if there was something in him that elicited peace and tranquility.

Caught in her own thoughts, Mei found herself looking at Aleph's sleeping face for ten entire minutes.

Beep-!

The phone in her pocket vibrated. She answered the call and was greeted by her secretary's slightly hurried tone.

"Chairman. An incident report was sent over fifteen minutes ago." The secretary paused for a while before continuing, "I think you should check it."

Mei ended the call soon after. She found the incident report—a document consisting of thirty-five pages.

A simple scan was enough to understand the gist of it.

"It was destroyed..?"

She involuntarily looked at the sleeping man. Ninety-nine percent, she was sure it was caused by him.

"The satellite feed wasn't interrupted. The entire city disappeared in an instant."

Mei suddenly recalled something.

"Instant disappearance..?"

It was a normal night. She was studying diligently for her term-end examination when the ground rumbled. A loud explosion occurred in the ancestral hall where the remains of the previous family heads were kept.

When she went there, she saw her father's figure. A large hole was torn open on the ceiling. Rays of moonlight illuminated his kneeling figure.

Strangely, the lightning blade in his grasp was eerily silent. It was supposed to emit lightning arcs intermittently, yet it remained still now.

"Chichiue!" (Father!)

At that time, Mei rushed to her father's side. She was close enough to hear the words he had been mumbling.

"Was everything meaningless?"

Before her fingertips could touch him, he disappeared. All that remained was the Sentinel deeply embedded on the wooden floor as well as his clothes.

Such a scene sent Mei to a severe shock. She wasn't able to process it until a few days later. The seventh descent occurred at the same time as her father's funeral, which was why she wore a pure white outfit.

'What did his words mean? That everything was meaningless..?'

The lingering frustrations gathered again. She, who did not possess sufficient strength, couldn't even properly deal with the Flamebringer. How could she have the capabilities to know the reason behind her father's death?

'Strength.'

Without saying anything, she stood up from her seat and headed to the training room.

*****

"Five days…"

Aleph was in a slight daze when he saw the date on the digital clock. His sight turned to the prompts he didn't close during his encounter on the event horizon.

[How Did We Get Here: Arrive on the Horizon of Existence for the first time.]

[Anywhere the Wind Blows: Break free from the Horizon of Existence on your own.]

[Kabukimono: Interact with one's deepest secret for the first time.]

These achievement prompts had indirectly answered some of his doubts.

For example, the light that he saw.

"What even am I..?"

Aleph was certain that his strongest power wasn't Albion's inheritance, but the 'light' he saw that day. He connected it to his hunch, to which he might be able to use it after he completes the Blank Sephira Crystal.

"The light was buried, all along."

Keeping this horrendous pun to himself, Aleph checked the rewards they gave.

[Wandering — Sequence 3: Wanderer (Exclusive Skill)]

[Great Sage — Database]

[Fused Domain]

The moment he saw the few achievements, he let out a laugh. It became stronger when he saw the first reward.

"This is really… What a coincidence."

Aleph was aware of his resemblance with Scaramouche, a character belonging to another world. If it wasn't obvious enough, his name coincided with one of the classic songs in his previous world.

Kabukimono, which translates to wanderer, was one of the names he bore.

Finally, the most obvious connection was the first reward.

[Wandering: An exclusive skill belonging to Sequence 3: Wanderer under the Door Pathway. It enables travel to and from the astral realm and similar planes of information. Travelling through this method negates any impact to the material realm.]

From its description, Aleph could tell it was the advanced version of his prior findings. Using the information dimension, he could 'compress' his information and travel. It was done instantaneously—its advantage compared to other abilities.

Now, this ability turned it from a 'one-time' ability into something he could use. After all, he destroyed Kashimo's Earth when he tried to do just that.

"Database…"

Aleph paid attention to the second reward.

[Great Sage — Database: The database compiled by the original Unique Skill. It includes every information stored up until its subsequent evolution.]

The first thought that came to his mind was:

"Evolution?!"

He had a hunch back then. Great Sage was extremely broken when it came to analyzing things. Ever since it came to his side, Aleph's life became ten times easier.

Upon seeing that the evolution he pondered did exist, he was more than happy.

"I hope she can find some clues inside this…"

Finally, the third reward's turn came.

[Fused Domain: Combines every single Domain Expansion and Domain-related abilities into one. The energy consumption is cut by half. Its cast time was cut into three fourths of the original time. The mental strain is reduced by half.]

This time, Aleph fell silent.

"Fu…"

He exhaled lightly as he prepared himself to adapt to a new fighting style.

With the emergence of new cursed techniques, it did pose a problem on which one to use. Whenever Aleph chooses one to initiate a Domain Expansion, he discards the other two's Domain Expansion.

Thinking of using his Ratio, Adaptation, and Star Rage all at the same time, a wave of excitement swept through his entire body. If he wanted to, he could even use the Nullification Field at the cost of his Adaptation.

The endless possibilities were examined by Great Sage's absurd analytical abilities.

In the end, Aleph muttered:

"How insane…"