Isaac spoke with excitement.
"System, share Emily’s Lord Talent!"
A soft chime echoed in his head, followed by the familiar lines of glowing text.
[Kingdom of Ghosts (SSS rank) received]
[SSS-rank Lord Talent Fragment received]
Isaac blinked.
Then he laughed.
’I got the Lord Talent and the rank fragment!’
This was not what he had expected.
He had thought the system would copy the talent, or give him the talent fragment.
Instead, it had handed him both of the things!
He pulled up his Lord Talent screen, his eyes scanning the list.
[Lord Talent]
1. 100% Drop Rate
2. Kingdom of Ghosts
More lines followed beneath them.
[Both Lord Talents will be active on your City with 100% effectiveness.]
[You can use the additional Lord Talent Fragment to upgrade any one of your Lord Talents. Upon being upgraded, other than the upgrade, the Lord Talent will gain an additional bonus (only possible if the Lord Talent reaches SSS+ rank or above), and your Lord Talent can be shared with your Sub-Cities with 100% effectiveness.]
Isaac stared at the words for a long moment.
"Holy crap!"
If he upgraded his 100% Drop Rate talent, it wouldn’t just make his own city ridiculous. It would mean Emily’s city could use it at full strength too, instead of the weakened version sub-cities normally got.
That kind of sharing was locked behind SSS+ rank and above. And now he had access to it!
Grinning, he didn’t hesitate.
He selected the fragment and pressed confirm.
[100% Drop Rate (SSS rank) → 200% Drop Rate (SSS+ rank)]
The screen faded.
Isaac’s expression slowly turned strange.
"This..."
’Isn’t this a bit too overpowered?’
’Is something like this even allowed?’
Anyone who had spent time in dungeons knew how drop rates worked. Most monsters dropped common materials, sometimes rare ones.
But there were special dungeons and special monsters that only appeared once. They dropped something called a "unique" item.
Those uniques could be anything. A ticket to enter a sealed dimension. A key to a one-time trial. A weapon that could only ever exist once in the world. A potion that could rewrite a stat line.
Because of their value, the system made sure only one would ever appear from each dungeon or monster.
But now...
Isaac would get two.
Two unique items from a single source!
Just thinking about it made him grin.
He took a breath and calmed himself down. Getting excited in the middle of negotiations and tribal politics was a good way to miss something important.
He opened the sharing interface and sent the buff to Emily. A small window popped up, showing her acceptance a moment later.
[Sub-City confirmed. 200% Drop Rate active with 100% effectiveness.]
"Good," Isaac said softly.
That alone would make Emily’s city into absolute monsters when it came to resource collection.
He stood up, rolled his shoulders, and got back to work.
A few ogres were waiting nearby, big shapes hunched slightly as they tried to look less intimidating around the human administrators.
Isaac assigned them to help fine-tune the trade agreement with the Eltari race. The ogres would handle security and enforcement.
The humans would handle numbers, contracts, and all the things that made Isaac’s eyes glaze over.
Once that was settled, he didn’t linger.
He found Emily, gave her a quick nod, and told her he would meet her at home later.
Vale and the Sword Empress were already waiting on the other side.
Instead of teleporting to the Crawling Serpent Tribe, Isaac had a different plan. They mounted the Crimson Sky Wyrm, its massive wings beating slowly as it lifted them into the air. The wind cut past them as they rose, the ground shrinking below.
This was to intimidate the Crawling Serpent tribe, who would be angered after Emily eliminated a lot of them.
Of course, it was their fault to begin with, since they were the ones who initiated the battle.
Vale, sitting near the front, glanced back.
"Why did you suddenly call for me?" he asked.
His clothes were torn in several places, and there were dark stains on the fabric. He looked like he had walked straight out of a battlefield.
"To use your curse on the Crawling Serpent Tribe. We killed quite a few of them recently, so there’s a high chance they’ll try something clever or stupid. I’d rather be ready for both."
He paused and looked at Vale properly.
"Anyway, why are you so injured?"
Vale shrugged, like the question barely mattered.
"I was training."
"...Training?"
"Yeah."
Vale clicked his tongue and looked away.
"Celia is getting stronger. If I don’t keep up, that brat is going to get cocky."
A sigh escaped him, the sound tired but stubborn.
"Today, I only beat her because of my abundant combat experience. She’s still getting used to that Legendary weapon you gave her. Once she does, I might not win anymore."
So he had been out in the wilderness, fighting monsters until late at night, just to protect his pride as the older brother.
Isaac coughed into his hand, hiding a smile.
Vale shot him a glare. He knew exactly why Celia had been getting so confident lately, and Isaac knew Vale knew.
"I’ll have the ogres and Fortified City 82 make a weapon for you soon," Isaac said.
Vale snorted.
But the corner of his mouth twitched, and he looked away again.
Isaac took that as a win.
Vale was one of the few Apex-rank species working under him. If he kept growing, he would become a force that could change the balance of an entire region by himself.
"You’re still taking the mana and constitution potions I gave you, right? How high are those stats now?" Isaac asked.
"Around fifteen hundred for both," Vale answered.
For a human, that number would have been absurd. For an Apex species, it was still on the low side.
Vale’s stats had been very low until recently since the city could not provide opportunity for his growth. It was only now that he was properly growing into his potential.
"Keep consuming the potions slowly. You’re already level fifty. Once you finish the batch, your mana and constitution should reach around five thousand. I’ll see if I can get potions for your other stats too," Isaac said.
"Alright," Vale said. He was drinking them slowly because drinking too many could cause mana poisoning.
The wind roared past them as they flew, and for a moment, no one spoke.
Isaac glanced to the side.
The Sword Empress was sitting with her eyes closed, her back straight, and her hands rested on her knees. She looked like she was meditating, completely ignoring both of them.
Was it because of how he had teased her earlier? The questions about seduction and all that nonsense? She had been cold ever since.
He decided not to poke that particular hornet’s nest while they were in the air.
The Crimson Sky Wyrm began to slow, its wings adjusting as the landscape below changed.
Isaac leaned forward.
He frowned as he saw something.
The Crawling Serpent Tribe.
Or rather, what stood near it.
A massive pit had been carved into the ground, its circumference almost as wide as the Ashfang Tribe’s entire settlement.
The inside was pure darkness.
Even with Isaac’s enhanced vision, he couldn’t see anything inside the pit.
Floating above the pit were glowing runes, arranged in a loose ring, humming softly as if sealing whatever was inside.
Vale frowned.
"What’s that?" Isaac asked, turning to the Sword Empress.
She finally opened her eyes and followed his gaze. Her brows drew together.
"That’s the Pit of Trials. The Crawling Serpent Tribe uses it," she said.
Vale’s expression stiffened. It was clear he knew the name, and he didn’t like it.
Isaac waited for more explanation.
The Sword Empress spoke again.
"You know how low-ranked monsters don’t have sapience, right?"
Isaac nodded.
"That means children of monster tribes will start attacking everything as soon as they get a bit stronger. They don’t understand community. They don’t understand restraint. Most tribes deal with that in one of two ways."
She raised one finger.
"The first is kindness. They treat their children well. Even without sapience, the children can feel the kindness. It makes them less aggressive. The tribe then feeds them important resources and trains them carefully, so they level up quickly and gain sapience."
She raised a second finger.
"The second is to throw them into the wilderness. Let them fight like wild monsters. Let them grow or die on their own. When they finally gain sapience, they notice a mark left on them by their parents. They follow it back to the tribe."
She pointed at the pit.
"Ashfang follows the first method. The Crawling Serpent Tribe follows the second."
Isaac looked back at the pit.
"That thing was created by their ancestors. For generations, they’ve thrown their children, resources, and countless poison monsters and toxins into it. The children have to fight through everything and climb their way out."
She paused, then added, "There’s a seal on the top. Only monsters above Elite rank can pass through it. By the time they reach that point, they’ve gained sapience."
"....What about the safety of children?" he asked.
"There is no safety. They either get stronger and climb out, or they die."
Her voice was steady, not cruel, but not soft either.
"That experience is why members of the Crawling Serpent Tribe are so individualistic. They put themselves before the community. But they’re strong. Stronger than most monsters of the same rank. Their mastery of poison is unmatched. That’s why the pit is still used."
Isaac didn’t respond right away.
He just stared at the darkness.
The Sword Empress watched his expression for a moment, then spoke again.
"Don’t think about interfering, Isaac. This is their tradition. They chose how to raise their children. And think about it. In the wilderness, you kill monsters too. Even if you ignore system monsters, the others are just creatures that never grew strong enough to gain sapience. If you pity these children, will you pity every monster you kill out there? You—"
"Crawling Serpent Tribe is going to serve me now, unlike the monsters in the wilderness. They belong to me," Isaac said, cutting her off. "That means the lives of the children here are my responsibility."