My target’s steps faltered and its eyes unfocused as it fell forward.

  It wasn’t exactly like cutting the strings on a marionette, but it was close enough. The fact that the mob had already been in motion probably had something to do with it, considering the signals had already been sent from the creature’s now-missing brain to the rest of its body.

  The creature’s brain was now safely stored within my storage ring. Its former shell would join it as soon as the system informed me that the creature was well and truly dead.

  Based on my experiments in the dungeon, that might take several seconds.

  While I knew that it was possible for some species to survive for a while without their brain, I hadn’t encountered any such creatures before. I doubted the monkey-like simians were one of those rare species.

  As expected, the notification icon started blinking a few seconds later. I smiled and collected the dead creature’s body before turning to the other four simians I had locked in stasis.

  Since my attempts at using the technique against the creatures of the rift while still at Tier Eight had not gone very well (they’d only worked against the weakest beasts), a bit of testing seemed to be in order.

  With the first such test working perfectly, I decided to try the technique against multiple targets at the same time.

  Unfortunately, my own spell prevented me from using it while they were protected by Time magic.

  Since I was still hidden by my enhanced Arcane Stealth spell, I canceled Stasis and watched as the four creatures reacted to their companion seemingly disappearing.

  Their sudden alarm actually worked against me since it caused their natural resistance against mana intrusion to magnify, but it wasn’t enough to keep my mana technique from seeping into their bodies.

  A moment later, four additional simian brains entered my ring. The simians remained standing for less than a second before collapsing.

  It was almost too easy.

  “I should see if I can pull that off at a distance,” I mused, thinking back to my time visiting Earth.

  I’d easily been able to heal at a distance, using my sensory field to target and control the spells. Using the ‘brain snatcher’ technique the same way shouldn’t be all that different.

  “You should be able to,” Lisa agreed silently. “Now that the technique is strong enough to bypass their resistances, the method used for targeting shouldn’t make a difference.”

  While I agreed, I still wanted to experiment a little bit.

  After collecting the creatures’ remains, I continued through the forest, occasionally stopping to harvest valuable herbs and other flora I encountered.

  While not all of the items that I gathered were valuable in the traditional sense, they were all edible, which meant they could easily and cheaply be transmuted into tasty dishes.

  By this point, I technically didn’t need much food or sleep to survive. I didn’t even need to breathe very often. But I enjoyed the first two, so I made sure to incorporate them into my schedule regularly.

  Breathing, well, it was more of a habit at this point than anything.

  As I walked, I drifted away from the simian area of the forest and toward what remained of the susorc settlement.

  Though the boss had been defeated, I hadn’t done much to cull the number of susorcs. I’d killed a few patrols, none of which had respawned, but there were still a lot of the boar-like humanoids remaining in the rift.

  Sensing a group of six in the distance, I targeted them through Spatial Sense and quickly verified that my technique did, in fact, work as expected.

  Granted, it took a bit of time and a lot of mana, making it not really feasible in an active engagement. But when I could catch a small group unaware like this? It was perfect.

  After collecting the remains of the susorc group, I took a short break to eat and regenerate my mana.

  “So that works. What else should I test?” I asked Lisa.

  After a moment, Lisa spoke within my mind. “Perhaps you should try putting something into your target’s body instead of removing an organ?”

  “Like what?” I asked.

  “Poison,” she replied. “The simian boss has a Poison affinity. It might be worth incorporating that into your future attack against the lacusin boss if you still plan on defeating the simian boss first. I do not think any of the underwater creatures are resistant to such substances.”

  “That’s not a bad idea, though I’ve never dedicated much effort toward poisons in Alchemy.”

  Left unsaid was the fact that my Alchemy skill was not the greatest. It was… okay, but nothing worth being proud of. Still, with the right ingredients, I had enough skill to make a potent poison.

  The remains of a Poison-affinitied boss would certainly make for potent ingredients.

  “So, you think I should make a poison and teleport it into their stomach?” I asked.

  “Or heart. Either would work fine.”

  Well, I did say I wanted to use a different approach for each boss.

  “Alright. I can try that,” I agreed. “I’m going to practice the ‘brain snatcher’ technique for now and see if I can’t make it a bit more mana efficient. I’ll plan on targeting the simian boss in two weeks. That should give me plenty of time to tweak the technique if needed.”

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Two weeks later, I sat hidden in a tree near the simian boss’s treehouse. I’d culled a huge number of foot soldiers since I started targeting the monkey-like creatures, leaving the boss with far fewer minions to call upon.

  Not that it was going to get such a chance.

  Hidden by Stealth, I targeted the boss through the narrow gaps in the treehouse walls.

  Unlike the other creatures I’d targeted, the boss immediately recognized it was being attacked and bellowed a warning with the first brush of mana.

  I lost sight of the boss when several simians rushed into the treehouse, blocking my view. Thankfully, my attack had already breached the creature’s defenses, and I was able to continue threading the tendril of mixed mana into its brain.

  Though the now frenzied residents of the simian village had no idea where I was, vines burst from the trees in and around the village. I could sense them reaching and grasping for anything that didn’t belong, hoping to snare the offender who dared attack them.

  I carefully teleported near the center of the village, floating invisibly on a pane of Space mana beyond the reach of the aggressive vines while I maintained my focus on the technique.

  It wasn’t truly a spell since I wasn’t using any kind of spellform to shape the mana. Instead, I controlled it through will and intent, forcing the mana to follow my wishes.

  Direct Casting. It was such an amazing skill.

  A very human-sounding cacophony of screams followed the appearance of the boss’s brain within my ring, and the chaos around me exploded.

  A sickly green cloud leaked out of the boss’s abode, followed by what looked like a walking cadaver missing huge swaths of fur. The gaps oozed blood and pus from open sores, though the creature barely seemed to notice them.

  I almost felt sorry for the thing.

  It fell from the branch leading to the boss’s treehouse and landed on a group of gathered warriors. The resulting screams made it clear that the grotesque creature’s body carried whatever Poison the boss had inflicted.

  I watched in morbid curiosity as the village fell deeper into chaos.

  Eventually, my eyes returned to the boss’s treehouse. There had been no movement from within since the sore-covered entity exited in a cloud of Poison.

  A cloud that had not yet dissipated.

  Not wanting to contaminate everything, I was hesitant to store the boss’s body, or any other potentially Poison-coated items, within my ring.

  With a frown, I cast Create Dimensional Space and anchored the spell to one of the many enchantment bases I kept stored in my inventory. It wasn’t the right base to use for such an item, so it wouldn’t last nearly as long as a properly made dimensional storage would.

  But that was okay. It would work well enough for now. It would also keep the remains of the Poison boss separate from everything else.

  Keeping my distance, I used a variant of Recall to collect the defeated boss and stored it directly inside the temporary storage device.

  After glancing around the chaotic village and seeing nothing left of interest, I teleported back to the stone room that I’d made my home.

  Four bosses down, and only one left to go.

  I was so close to completing this horrible challenge rift and escaping. It was almost enough to make me rush right into the lake and assassinate the lacusin boss without waiting.

  “If this doesn’t work, I’m just going to yank out its brain and be done with it,” I said, feeling a little frustrated at how long it had taken me to create a poison I felt would be strong enough to kill a Peak-Tier Nine rift boss.

  “I agree,” Lisa said as her avatar looked over my shoulder. “However, you should at least test it against some of the weaker lacusins instead of going directly for the boss.”

  “I will,” I agreed. “I’ll probably kill several of them on my way in, just for the material. I haven’t really paid much attention to them since they aren’t much of a threat.”

  I’d have to be sure to use non-poison methods for most of them if I wanted to use any of the materials later. The ones I poisoned would go into the ‘contaminated’ storage device I used to hold the remains of the simian boss.

  “Don’t forget they prefer swarm tactics,” Lisa reminded me.

  “I won’t forget. I remember what happened the last time we scouted the area.”

  It was before I’d reached Tier Nine and the creatures had easily located me, even though I’d been exceptionally careful with my approach.

  They’d swarmed like piranhas being fed a chunk of raw meat as soon as the first one got a hint of my presence. I barely managed to teleport away before they got me.

  I didn’t think it was a failure on the part of my Stealth spell so much as an environmental thing. Most lacusins had a Water affinity, and, being underwater, I imagined they were easily able to sense my presence, even with my precautions.

  After sealing the last container of poison made from the remnants of the simian boss (plus a few additional ingredients), I stored the entire collection and sighed.

  If everything worked out right, the next time I entered this room, I’d be leaving the rift for good.

  “I wonder if they’ve all moved on,” I said quietly as my thoughts shifted to my family and friends. And Master Kairos. “I mean, I’m sure they’re not just sitting around waiting for me, but… did Master Kairos ascend? How far have my family members progressed? I missed all the kids’ awakenings. They’re all practically strangers.”

  “There’s only one way to find out,” Lisa said supportively. “Finish this challenge and escape. You’re ready.”

  I quickly made my way to the lake where the lacusin tribe made their home.

  After casting Stealth, I forced myself to stop breathing and stepped into the water. Unlike last time, there were no ripples on the surface to betray my presence.

  Knowing how sensitive the creatures were to changes in the lake, I decided to mitigate some of the problems I anticipated facing.

  Stretching my Time domain over the entire lake, I cast Pause on everything within the domain.

  Such a feat would have been impossible not that long ago, but now that I was the same tier as everything else in the rift? It was totally doable.

  Moving to the first pair of lacusins, I teleported two doses of poison directly into the creatures’ stomachs. The action immediately broke the spell holding them in place, and the evil-looking mer-creatures let out a shrill scream upon seeing me.

  I worried that the reverberations from the scream might interfere with the spell holding the rest of the creatures in place, but my fear was unfounded.

  Not getting whatever response they expected, the two monstrous merfolk hesitated. That hesitation was enough for the poison to go into effect, causing the lacusins to curl up and wail in pain.

  I felt a little bad about their suffering, so I removed my newest weapon and shifted it into a spear. With very little effort, I had two lacusin bodies joining the remains of the poisonous simian boss.

  “I don’t think I care for using poison,” I informed Lisa.

  “Understood.”

  Deciding to forgo the substance I’d spent weeks crafting, I continued forward.

  I passed several frozen lacusins along my journey to their stronghold. I killed each one with a different type of weapon, testing their effectiveness against the aquatic creatures.

  It was unfair, but I really didn’t care. They weren’t real like beings outside of the rift, and my sense of morality didn’t apply to them beyond not causing undue suffering.

  By the time I reached the boss, my storage ring was well stocked.

  Seeing the creature as the key to my escape, I didn’t hesitate to wrap it in the strongest restraints I could manage before sending a tendril of mixed mana into its body.

  My action broke the spell that was keeping the boss from noticing me, and it immediately started trilling, releasing a high-pitched warbling sound that I could only assume was a call to arms.

  Unfortunately for the boss, I’d killed anything remotely close by that might respond. There were still a lot of lacusins in the lake, but none were close enough to intervene.

  I’d made sure of that.

  Within half a minute, the limp body of the lacusin boss was safely stored within my ring. The weight of confinement had finally lifted. Had I not been underwater, I would have taken a deep breath of relief.

  I only had one more step to take, and I would finally be free.