In a hotel filled with countless rooms, Max sat quietly in one of them, his attention focused on the two skill scrolls he had purchased from the Jane Market not long ago.
He had sold all the mana crystals and items he acquired from the Burning Wilds dungeon to the group of old men eager to reward him for defeating the Minotaur.
As part of the deal, Max had made two requests: that they keep his visit a secret and provide him with a safe place to lay low for a while.
They agreed without hesitation—after all, the sheer value of the mana crystals was impossible to refuse.
After selling everything, Max walked away with approximately 50,000 UNI, a small fortune. Using part of this wealth, he had acquired two new skills, one of which was a rare-rank skill—an investment he hoped would be worth every UNI.
---
[Ten Directional Shield, Rare]
Max opened the scroll and quickly learned it. ’They said they only have very few rare-rank skills, and defensive ones are even rarer, but I was lucky to get my hands on this skill.’
---
[Ten Directional Shield]
– Rank: [Rare]
– Level: 0
– Description: Allows one to create shields to protect themselves. The highest level of this skill will allow one to create ten such shields, greatly increasing their defense.
---
Seeing the description of his new skill, Max smiled. ’With this skill, my only weak point has been covered.’ He mused.
He had noticed that he could fight in close combat with his fists and sword. He could fight at long range with his Magic Bullets skill, but he was severely lacking in defense.
Apart from his sword, he had nothing else for defense, and even that was a stretch since his sword was his only weapon.
’Let’s learn the other skill too,’ Max smiled and learned the second skill he had bought along with the defensive one.
---
[Float]
– Rank: [Common]
– Level: 0
– Description: A skill that allows one to float in the air.
---
’It’s a common-rank skill, but it’s good too, I guess,’ Max sighed. Apart from a defensive skill, he had hoped for a skill that would allow him to fly, but as luck would have it, flying-type skills were even rarer than defense-type skills.
So, Max had to be satisfied with what he got in the market.
"Big Brother."
At that moment, Mimi appeared before him, not alone but with the fire fox spirit and the peacock frost spirit.
"What happened, Mimi?" Max asked, curious, seeing her come out of his Dimension of Spirits with her friends.
Mimi looked at Max with a sad expression. "Mimi has to go back."
"Go back where?" Max frowned.
Mimi lowered her head and said, "Mimi was also captured by some bad people, but Mimi made friends there." She pointed at the fire fox spirit and the peacock frost spirit. "Mimi came to look for Big Brother, but Mimi must go home now."
"What? You were also captured?" Max was shocked, fury rising within him. He couldn’t believe there were people who would kidnap kids.
"Did they do anything to you? Have you been hurt?" He asked, his expression full of concern.
Mimi shook her head. "Mimi is fine, but Mimi has to go home now."
"Home?" Max frowned. "Where is this home of yours?"
"Here!" Mimi replied.
Almost instantly, Max found himself sitting on the ground in a vast forest. He could hear the roars of monsters, beasts, and much more.
"What the! How did I come here?" Max was shocked by the sudden change of scenery.
"This is Mimi’s home." Mimi said, looking around with her eyes sparkling.
"Your home?" Max wondered if a forest was a place for a kid to live, but it was also true that Mimi wasn’t just any kid. She was too mysterious and possessed abilities that humans could only begin to comprehend.
"Big Brother, Mimi will go now!" Mimi said, as she began running around with her friends.
Max panicked seeing that. "Mimi, send me home, please!"
"Mimi forgot!" Mimi suddenly stopped and shot something to Max.
Max caught it and noticed that it was a scroll. ’A skill scroll?’
She then smiled sweetly. "Mimi will meet Big Brother soon." With those words, she made a portal beneath Max, who suddenly found himself back in the room he had just vanished from.
He blankly stared at the walls of his room, lost in thought. "Who is Mimi?" He wondered. It was one thing for her to live alone, but to live in a forest and have friends who were spirits made her very special.
"Also, why does she keep calling me Big Brother, and why did she come looking for me?" Max sighed as he pondered. "She’s a mystery to me, but she did save my life, so I look forward to our next meeting."
The thing that worried him most was that Mimi had been kidnapped by bad people. Though she had escaped, it wasn’t guaranteed that she wouldn’t be captured again.
’I hope you’re okay, Mimi,’ Max prayed for a moment before calming himself down.
Putting away the skill scroll for now, he pondered his plans.
’With 19 days left before the recruitment test of the Phoenix Order, I should use this time to level up all my skills to level 100,’ he mused.
Although it would be challenging to spend another 19 days in the Dimension of Time, he didn’t care if it made him stronger.
’I don’t want to feel that helpless again,’ Max recalled how he had felt when confronted by the Lionheart Guild and then the Blade Family.
He felt helpless in those situations, with no strength to do anything. He was like a rat in the land of lions, tossed from one enemy to another with only the faint hope of survival.
’I must be strong enough to escape from those situations and better fight back,’ Max clenched his fists in determination. He knew his enemy was the Blade Family, and after his recent confrontation with them, it was clear. Facing the overlord of the East Region alone would be a joke to others, but for Max, it was his only path.
’I should level up first before practicing in the Dimension of Time,’ he decided, before taking all the cores he had collected, along with some he had recently bought from the market.
Max observed the cores and wondered if he could level up to level 7 with them.
For some unknown reason, he felt that he was absorbing a lot more cores, including higher-level ones, than others just to level up one level. Max knew this was a problem for him.
As far as he understood, those with high-rank classes should have a smooth path to Adept Rank or even Seeker Rank, yet he, with a SSS rank class, was struggling to level up in Novice Rank.
’Is there something wrong with me?’ Max wondered, his brows creased in a frown.
’Let’s forget that for now and focus on what I can do,’ he dismissed the depressing thoughts and began absorbing all the cores he had before him to level up.
It wasn’t until he finished one-third of the cores that Max leveled up.
[Congratulations to Max Voidwalker for leveling up to level 6 of Novice Rank.]
But he didn’t stop there and absorbed the remaining cores, hoping for another sweet level-up.
"…."
But reality was often crueler than expected.
"Damn, I absorbed three level 10 cores, ten level 9 cores, and many level 8 cores, only to level up once from level 5 to level 6?" Max muttered, gritting his teeth. He felt that the higher his rank, the more high-quality cores he seemed to need to level up.