Chapter 4: Chapter 3 – Reluctant Quest

clap- clap- clap- CLAP-

"Woah- hoho.... HAHAHAHA CONGRATULATIONS BUTTER!" Remus rejoiced, and in an instantaneous burst of speed appeared in front of Butter, then plucked out the dagger from the kid's grasp.

"Nope, nu-uh... no weapons for kids," he told off the kid while twirling said weapon in his hands, judging its weight.

'Hmmm... too light for my tastes, but this'll have to do...'

Remus took the dagger by its handle into his jaw, bitten to a horizontal hold and promptly struck his shackles' bows, freeing up his hands, but also snapping both colliding objects simultaneously. As these metal pieces were falling, a minute burst of Mana prompted them through the heads of multiple baddies. What was left of the shackles were sent spinning through the air, crashing and blowing up the heads of many of the baddies. That coupled with the two pieces of the bisected dagger drilling into many more of them, declared his threatening presence.

x27 Pyramís Rector Slain 
+2777.777% Essense Accumulation

Level Up!
Level Up!
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Level Up!

Everyone was left shell-shocked, apparently, content gawking at him. He found this quite characteristic of his offenders, as only slavers such as themselves could be so overzealously self-absorbed to not have anticipated him unshackling himself. He then spat out the broken dagger's handle to have them awaken out of their stupor, maybe giving a few knicks to them Pyramís.

whiiiiickkkk-

x2 Pyramís Rector Slain 
+0.833% Essense Accumulation

Blood rapidly sputtered out of their necks, splattering all over their fellows, trickling off to a halt when their corpses flopped down, succumbing to gravity. The sounding thumps of the bodies broke the momentary silent reprieve.

"Woops, sorry-not-sorry"

After being confined to such a small cage for so long, Remus was looking forward to really stretching his muscles. He shrugged, "looks like ya lot are tougher than ya look aye", and pounced onto the closest offender.

Chaos ensued. They pincered him. Weapons and Magic spells thrusted from all directions, boxing Remus up in danger. He was in the eye of the storm. In the next moment, his knee crushed jaws, shins skidded against ribs, shoulder atilt—dodging the shots fired—succinctly measured dodges, palms twisting and turning to blast the horde some ways away for space. Any weapons that tried to come close were flung away overheads with kicks so hard that the vanguards had to push through the pain of bleeding palms while reengaging, well only if they lived long enough. Those that didn't simply croak in the heat of battle took up poor attempts of punches while disarmed to try to breach an offence.

So smooth were his moves, it was almost like a dance. An inviting deathly waltz. Remus—the main star of the show, an idol of simplistic carnage, an avatar of the reaper, a whirlwind of lacerations—the storm they committed themselves to feed into, endless zealotry apparent.

'Welp, still got my touch... though probably could've gotten more of 'em if I put in more force... sigh- such a misopportunity...'

"This is getting out of hand guys! Let's move it somewhere less crowded!" Remus said over all the noise.

He mowed a way out of the encirclement and dashed through the tracks of the previous tridaily processions, with the Pyramís hot on his tail. At a consistent pace, he cut through the eerie, darkened woods.

"C'mon guys! Ya lot are SLOW!" 

The majority of the chase had him at a lead of 20 metres, only letting them resume the fight when he appeared in a familiar clearing roughly an hour later.

"Huh?"

※ Realm Breach #793 Recognises You

"NOOOOOO! NO- NO- NO- NO- NOOO!" Remus bellowed to the sky and crumbled to his knees.

※ Forced Transfer Commencing...
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Briefly, a familiar vibrant glow signalling Remus' disappearance from the chasing mob that attempted to circle him. But the mob wasn't particularly startled. Each and every one of them, after a simple chant that was probably meant for some sort of affirmation also flashed out of view.

***

During Remus' stunt, the many now unguarded prisoners shuffled away from the mayhem and came out relatively unscathed. None of their capturers cared about their beholden lives and left on the chase for him. Realising this, they made a mad dash opposite to said chase in hopes of rescue, if not, just simply escape.

Mia sat in silence, clutching Mr Hans tight. She seemed impassive but internally was burning with grievance. She messed up. She now knew how foolish her thoughts were. All it took was a single short-sighted act to tempt fate. 

Hukk! Cough! Cough! Cough-

 "Potion- " the skewered said.

"OH! O- Okay!" Mia scrambled to the ring beside her and scoured for a shimmering red bottled liquid.

As soon as she had the potion in her hands, she pulled out the skewering spear and dumped the whole bottle on Mr Hans' shoulder.

UGH! Gaaahh! Ahh-

Mr Hans squirmed as his flesh stitched together, a punctured shoulder no more.

Tears streamed down her face. Mia freed herself of all tension and fell onto Mr Hans, hugging him.

***

Remus simply wasn't having it. He refused to be stuck in such a desolate crimson wasteland again. So he tried replicating what he did for his escape attempt last time, to no avail.

※ Clear Realm Spawns To Exit Realm Breach

A repeated System notification was the all finality that he got from all of his attempts. He tried and tried again, even risking attacks from the Pyramís that had surrounded him as groups and groups appeared. They evidently had no problem following him into such an unpleasant place. He was appalled by the reality of his circumstances.

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In all his life, never had he felt so powerless. Remus always had a clear vision of his life and grasped control of how he was to experience life, well only until this moment. In this pivotal moment, he made an oath to find a way to never again be surrendered to the whims of this Realm Breach.

[§] Quest Granted! [§]
※ Clear Realm Breach Of All Coalesced Realm Spawns
Reward
※ Realm Breach #793 Exit

What had gotten him far in life was his mindset. He never settled on anything concrete until it was truly proven in front of his eyes, as he knew that preconceived notions can be sometimes limiting. All knowledge is held with an asterisk of 'can be subject to change'. This openness meant not needing to handle the correction of wrong wisdom, which led the impetus to his record-paced advancement in Cultivation, besides his natural talent.

He just needed to adjust to the new rules presented to him, but still, the mechanics of this new System were infuriating to Remus. Before anger internalised, he cooed himself 'I'll be out soon enough. Just gotta get this done with ASAP...'.

"Fuuhhh- Breathe in, breathe out.... Fuuuhh-, Hup! I'm ready!" He refreshed his initiative.

In light of this revelation from the System, he decided that these flesh bags were more of use to him somewhere else rather than contributing Essence for what he did not know the use of. Nor accumulation of Essence seemed to be anything urgent as of the moment. Although he did note that Essence felt somewhat familiar, that thought was put off to the back burner as he had a lot of pest clearing to do.

"Well guys, follow me!" Remus beckoned towards the tunnels "Looks like you-lot'll be helping me out of this mess!", and he jumped over their heads, occasionally stomping on shoulders and helmets. Finally passing the human barrier they made, he sprinted into the biggest tunnel in sight.

During his speeding through the tunnels, again he met those eldritch wolves. This time they were alive and seemed a lot bigger, almost twice as big compared to before. This clued to Remus on what happened here,'somehow they made these monsters bigger and stronger'. Instead of engaging the monster, he manoeuvred around it and left that task to those following him.

"Hah, finally helpful~" He grunted in reluctant acknowledgement, "I'm not one to really bear grudges, but for that evil you fed me that day I suppose labour is the least you could do" he shrugged.

The fighting didn't really slow most of them down, as they simply left a squad to deal with Freddy-Kruger-Esque demon and continued on to chase Remus. This happened multiple times as they encountered multiple of those demons. It got to the point where not many were right behind him but never did tarry as that would prove overconfident of himself. Human versus human warfare was something deeply ingrained in him, be these beasts were something he had never fought before.

The closest creatures to have resembled such grisly things that he had seen were Magical Beasts in Murim, But those were a rarity and the single time he fought one, he almost died. Though it was granted that Magical Beasts seemed a lot more refined, simply being a very small portion of normal animals having elevated themselves through virtue of their instinctive form of Cultivation. No doubt Magical Beasts would prove much more intelligent than brutish demons. So Remus took care not to be complacent. Especially since their scythe claws didn't seem sanitary, so he wouldn't want those touching him.

In the single second that it took to glance to his back to check on his chasers Remus took a tackle to the side.

UFFGGG!

Remus skidded on his side to a halt a stone's throw away from the tunnel's wall. "Ouch! Well credit is due to you beasty! You're a lot smarter than I thought... just another thing to remind me about needing to be mindful and adaptable. Really it was-" He somersaulted to the side mid-speech.

'Tch! These demons really give no care for manners' he was set on giving this demon a beating instead of leaving it to his coolies. So while dodging he changed trajectory by transitioning into a midair flip, and kicking against a temporarily made Mana platform. He then infused his fist with Mana and punched the head of his attacker with a simultaneous burst of Mana on impact. The giant demonic wolf's head exploded, with all the gore showering on his coolies. The headless body gave away and dropped.

1x Mauthe Reaper Slain
+0.15% Essense

For him, these notifications were getting annoying, so he willed the System to disable them. They didn't seem particularly useful, as they only gave kill confirmation. No need to detract from a perfectly good habit just because of some convenience presenting itself. That would be fertile ground for breeding negligence. Only fools and dead people don't confirm kills with a few more jabs and stabs, so leaving such pop-ups to distract him seemed stupid. 

Finishing that, he continued onward, but this time with a more subdued pace. Going too far ahead won't help him really make use of all this free labour, so this way those coolies of his will catch up, and they'll be handsomely rewarded for their work done with more beautiful, beautiful work.

***

Yawn~

"This taking too long, cus this place is too freakin' big!" Remus said. Then an epiphany hit him. 'If they're so hell-bent on taking my head, I think a little game of hide-and-seek would serve my purposes awesomely! I'll just have them scour all of the tunnels in search of me, then they'll have to clear them along the way!'

"Work harder yall, imma work smarter, and Thanks!" he said with renewed enthusiasm and waved goodbye before he tore through the air with great speed, leaving his coolies far behind.

"Now I just need to find a place to hide..." he murmured in contemplation.

***

'Just because the name of the game is training, doesn't mean it shouldn't be fun.' This is a philosophy held by Remus that allowed him great enjoyment throughout life. A life mostly consisted of fighting, training, fighting, training and fighting. Rinse and repeat. This was further exacerbated by the fact that his consistent improved Cultivation resulted in a decreased need for sleep, food and other essentials of the norm. So most of his life was centred around combat.

Piggy-backing off such training philosophy, Remus intended to make this game of hide-and-seek the most enjoyable past-time in a very long time. Both the Mauthe Reapers and the Pyramís have proven weaker than himself, so the Quest wasn't actually much of a challenge, but more of a slogging chore. So enjoyment would be appreciative towards his morale much like what he emulated while in captivity.

The experience of being caged was quite bracing to Remus as it allowed him to slow down in life, to really consider his bearings. But he still took up practice seriously and enjoyed the novelty of it all. He took up dancing to recalibrate his coordination which felt a lot more light after the recent visit through Epsilon. The same be said of his speed and strength, which he instilled better control by dexterously launching all those snails into the distance. It was fun and in the same vein, beneficial as it acclimated him to all his physical Attributes that felt elevated. But the novelty wore off quickly following the worsening of the food over time. In his books, bad food was a sin most heavy.

If Remus walked out of that cage even a day later, he would've raised hell. He was never scared of the fools that caged him. Those extensive moments of weakness that allowed him to be bound did not indicate the level of his capabilities, not even close. He held some cards hidden close, that would've ensured his release while razing all else to ashes. Even now he was being mild in his approach to retribution. The proof was his Epithet. It meant many things, one of such hinting at a comparison to a legendary Magical Beast, undefeated in Murim, the Weeping Swan. All that encountered it were ensured either death or a painful existence filled with unrelenting mania.

Remus had a lot of ideas to try. It just happens that this Realm Breach was the perfect place for them. It was now his playground and he also had a lot of toys to work with.

"This'll beeee fuuunnn!" Remus sang to himself, "Well before that I... Display Status".

[System Tier II]
Name: Remus
Epithet: Black Swan
Level: 25 - Initiate
Unallocated Attribute: 75

Attributes:
⟩ Strength   | 42/50 [+]
⟩ Vitality   | 36/50 [+]
⟩ Endurance  | 33/50 [+]
⟩ Dexterity  | 31/50 [+]
⟩ Speed      | 37/50 [+]
⟩ Perception | 31/50 [+]
⟩ Acuity     | 39/50 [+]
⟩ Intent     | 43/50 [+]
⟩ Attunement | 38/50 [+]
⟩ Vitae      |  1/50 [+]

Vitae Expression: #???
Mana Katas [1/1]:
⟩ True Refinement (5☆)
  [72.5%:Brilliance]

"Hmmm... what are those?" He wondered and willed all his Unallocated Attributes into Vitae and the air turned suffocating. The world was twisting, making walking straight a struggle. Each step brought him speeding beyond what he could perceive with sudden minute pauses littered in between random intervals. Perception warped. His walk had him erratically balancing with the mechanical tilting of his torso and arms. The reception of this all was akin to walking on a tightrope that randomly moved up and down. He attempted standing still but his legs noodled always a bit too far front or in some rare moments, they barely moved at all, he couldn't put his feet parallel. All he could do was a scrambled walk.

"OH- F-k, just when I was going..." was all that he could get out before surrendering himself to delirium as the oppressive force that descended imposed levitation upon him. Remus was handled much comparable to a dingy in water, with invisible currents crashing on him, ushering him forward through the tunnels at a stifling pace.

***

Activated Epithet: Black Swan

Recalibrating Parameters...
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