So, a person would think that my passive would fully take care of my mana, right? Its description goes like this: Mana-Fortified Resilience (Rare) - The user's resilience strengthens with their current mana reserves, boosting resistance to physical strain, and also enhancing resistance to various energies.

What a bunch of crap!

The passive most likely doesn't negate the effect of too high mana fully, it might be because it's of too low rarity. Sure, it helps a lot, and when I cycle my mana as Lissthaniel showed me, I don't even have to waste [Focus] on holding it back.

As always, I blame the system and send a rude message to BenDover in the Community. He seems to be getting used to it and answers just as rudely. The guy doesn't know how petty I am.

I'm able to wait years for the right chance so it doesn't matter if the Community Tournament happens only every 4 years like the Olympic games or once per year. I will wait and then... huhu.

But dealing with my increased mana also reminds me of my other passive that is helping me with it. Mana Flow (rare), the passive I got from my Mana Channeler class together with the active skill [Mana Surge].

At the start, I was quite happy with it but as more time passed, I start feeling quite disappointed. The class needs a serious upgrade to be viable. Lately, I almost do not use Surge as I can do something similar on my own and the passive doesn't even feel that strong anymore.

Plus, I didn't even get a sniff of a sub-class. As I told Tess before, I think the sub-class is something we get after reaching the 4th floor. As for an upgrade or new Primary class, I think we will get it at level 150. That's when we will turn from one question mark to two question marks. Isn't that quite cool?

We also have already moved beyond the wall and our camp is a beautiful grassy field with white trees that have golden leaves. The stream of water nearby is the reason we keep staying here. People continue to bathe in it daily and we drink water to the point our bellies are bulging.

The only time we leave is to hunt some sparrows. The past few days were peaceful. We continue to keep a watch all the time, but there is not a single monster here after we killed the undead ones so we take it easy and restore our energy before we get ready to move beyond the blue wall that is ahead of us.

“You are thinking again? You should be paying more attention to your surroundings,” Tess says, but I can hear in her voice that she doesn't mean it that much.

“That's why you are here. But anyway, how is it going?”

“You would have known if you didn't spend most of your time somewhere beyond the white wall,” Tess pokes me slightly, “But it's going pretty well. Sophie is trusting me a bit more now, Maya still listens to me,” she pauses, “that also reminds me that you could give Maya a few pointers with [Focus] and [Armament].”

“I don't think she would like it.”

“I can talk her into it, don't worry. Lately, she is quite cooperative so I don't think it would be a bad idea to help her a bit if you are willing to.”

I continue to look down at the grassy green fields. We are both sitting on a skyscraper-like tall white wall, our legs dangling from the edge. The view is beautiful. A stunning, almost fable-like area down there creates a sharp contrast with the permanently cloudy weather and the ruined city behind the wall.

To answer Tess's question, I just nod. It shouldn't be too annoying to spend a few hours helping Maya out. I trust that Tess knows what she is doing and I need to help once in a while since she is dealing with this annoying stuff.

“Hadwin is also quite cooperative, he helps me a lot and he is good at dealing with Kim, Aaron, and Dennis. You could give him some pointers as well,” Tess says carefully.

“Oi, I'm already helping Kim and Lily and you added Maya to that. Just tell Kim to shoot rocks at Hadwin and tell Hadwin to defend with his [Strengthening]. But tell him to only use it at places where the rocks are going to hit him and not on his entire body. Or you can keep throwing him off the wall until he is able to strengthen himself enough to not get any wounds.”

What am I, a teacher? I can observe them a bit more and help them when I want to learn their skills or something, but right now I'm too busy with Lissthaniel, my mana, preparing for another construct. I barely even hunt.

“I will do that, but Lily is also a bit of a problem. After you talked with her she is a bit more open and spends some time with other girls, but she keeps asking where you are. I guess you know the reason.” Tess's eyebrows lift up as she looks at me.

“It's fine, she will get over it,” I answer.

“Nat, she saw you explode two people in front of her while you laughed, yet she still continues to look at you like you are a prince on a white horse. I don't think she will get over it.”

Dang it.

“Can't you add her to your harem?” I ask.

“Nat…”

“Okay, okay. Maybe I can start burping in front of her, eating with my mouth open, and slurping loudly when I drink.”

“The hell, that's so childish,” Tess puts a hand in front of her mouth and quietly giggles, “well for now it's not too big of a problem so we can leave it as it is.”

Good, if we ignore it long enough, it will solve itself. That's how it works.

Right?

“Little pup, are you dumb or something? It's obvious that the attribute upgrade is as strong as it is. You can only ever upgrade a single attribute. I think you underestimate the importance of that,” Natssandra says, " and most people get their attribute upgrade around level 150."

I move a bit closer, still cycling my mana, and listen as the brooch made of meat speaks. Actually… maybe I could call her sausage? Don't people throw whatever into the mixer and create a sausage out of it? This is slightly similar.

“You have only 4 attributes, and each attribute has the same 3 possible upgrades for everyone. Every upgrade then has 3 stages. That's basic. For example, the mana attribute has Amplification, Restoration, and Potency. I went with Potency and got to stage 2, really close to stage 3. You went for Amplification and reached the 1st stage.”

Or maybe she's more of a meatball? There are some of my bones in it, so that's not as fitting.

“The strength upgrade, for example, has these options: Intensity, Efficiency, and Momentum. So, as I said, you take that creature you call a dog, put it near a firestone you set for half efficiency, and let it cook for ten…”

“Hey, what the heck!”

“Oh, so you are paying attention. I had a feeling you were ignoring me,” Lissandra says.

"Obviously, I'm listening. " She's giving out some free information - useful free information. I need to get as much as possible before the system decides it's enough. For now, it seems like we either haven't gone beyond what the system judges as acceptable, or it just straight-up doesn't detect her. Either way, good for me.

The reason might also be that she's made out of my left hand and bears some of my personality. At this point, I don't even know if it was the original fake Lissandra's intention or just a lucky mistake.

Lissanthaniel then continues, and I listen carefully.

When I open Beyond Community, it still shows that only three out of ten people are in there. Also, Savant is in the chat.

Savant - If you wanted to act as if you were dead, you should have told Grumpy to keep her mouth shut.

Oh, dang it, Lily.

Savant - So how did you like Beyond's first trial?

Noname - What happened? Aren't you friendlier right now? Will you ask something from me in the next message?

Savant - As if. I just think if we start talking here a bit more, the third guy will join. I think he's one of the 13. Well, now, 10 people that didn't use the community up until now.

Noname - Or he/she is someone that started in Beyond the same way we started Hell.

Savant - Even you should know how impossible that is.

Noname - This would be an interesting thought.

Savant - You wanted to say scary.

Noname - Yes, yes.

After a few more messages, I close the window and think about what I said, then just shake my head. There's no way someone started in Beyond.

Then, while sitting and leaning against the tree, I look at the remaining members of group 4 who stand in a circle, all of them looking down at the fleshy, and in my opinion, quite a gross item on the ground.

Yep, I just took Lissandra from her home, the dusty floor of a nearly ruined house, and let her touch some grass. I also introduced her to the others, so no one can complain that I left a thousands-of-year-old grandma in a house alone and without any company.

“Are these finger bones?”

“I see some veins, and this looks like a fingernail?”

“...so disgusting.”

“Take it away…”

“Isabella, can you burn…”

Hadwin splits from the group and stops in front of me, and I look up at him, still leaning against the tree while sitting on the ground. It's quite nice.

“Nathaniel, what the fuck,” the older man says.