“This is the first.”

  “Hm?”

  “Director Einstei delegate her work to others.”

  The institute’s director had a lot of things to do aside from paper work. That includes visitations on some sites where trolled experiments were dohey focus a lot on robotid the creation of things that could bat huge honkai beasts, hehe third institute has the rgest area out of them all.

  “She was busy tely, and I think I could fill her position temporarily.” Aleph said to Morris. “Anyways, are you really out here for a walk? Nobody should try to assassinate or kidnap me after all I’ve shown them.”

  “No. It’s a protocol.”

  The middle-aged man with a stubble, Morris, was the head of security of the third institute. He didn’t ge much as when he first recruited Aleph. His brown hair only got longer.

  “Yes, yes.”

  Aleph chose to not ask about it further.

  “We are heading to the reactor site. Are you sure you don’t need any protective equipment?” Morris asked.

  “No, I’m good.”

  Aleph thought about the few people he spotted on this trip.

  ‘At least half… and there’s also one on the reactor site…’

  Unsurprisingly, there are quite a few spies who infiltrated the third institute. They belong to different cilors.

  Aleph didn’t call them out immediately. Instead, he used them to feed these cilors exactly what he wahem to know. That was the main reason why he wasn’t pestered by them any longer.

  Now, they still hold his information during the Sapphire City i. They viewed him as someone who wasn’t involved throughout all these troubles. Such a huge ce was brought by his [Informatioribution].

  ‘Somehow, I’m ied to Vill-V..?’

  A funny thought arose in his head.

  ‘She’ll just have to take some things seriously. Those Divine Keys had to be utilized properly…’

  Aleph tinued making his rounds.

  *****

  “Fu…”

  Ohe night fell, Aleph chose to ehe other [Training Card] he obtained.

  This time, he found himself on the foot of a mountain shrine.

  The cold night breeze brushed on his shirt. The ray of moonlight further tributed to the pce's serenity.

  Aleph remained alert at all times due to his experieh Kashimo. His [Sphere Boundary] was id ft, giving him the information of everything within his three meter radius.

  “There’s no one here..?”

  Just then, he felt danger on top of the mountain shrirangely enough, it didn’t worsen nor move at its previous position.

  With no choice left, Aleph slowly asded oairs.

  On the way, his elemental sight caught a strarace. So far, he only used it to detect the presence of honkai beasts and humans alike. They are colored in purple and red, respectively.

  Now, he was seeing a pletely different color; silver bck.

  ‘There’s something strange here. Great Sage.’

  {Ahere is a field made up of several magic ws. Its funs are the following: cealment, prote, illusion…}

  Great Sage came up with several answers.

  ‘A magic field…’ He thought. ‘It must be it. Medea’s magecraft.’

  Aleph recalled the ame he used to py in his past life. There, historical figures are summoned on a seven-versus-seven battle royale. Sasaki Koujiro happeo be the historical figure summoned by another historical figure, Medea—the princess of Colchis.

  The main point here was her so-called magecraft. It is simply magic but with different rules. It utilized the mysteries tained within the unknown, making it so that magic is strohe less humans knew about specific things.

  ‘ you analyze it? See if it implement something new in my Sphere Boundary.’

  {Affirmative.}

  The girl’s voice fell silent once again.

  ‘My sphere boundary had grown unreizable, huh…’

  inally, [Sphere Boundary] was a skill used by another historical figure within the game. It was used wholly to ceal one’s preseo inhuman levels—to the point even the sense of touch could be erased.

  It was only until that trip on Kurumi’s world did it seemingly gain something else. From a field capable of cealing oneself, it became his domain of sorts that could e phenomena alterations on top of cealment.

  ‘Three Sephira Crystals… I tried all the achievements reted to birds and angels. Where I get the st two..?’

  As he was thinking that, he finally saw the man’s figure from a distance. His eyes were closed. His hand was resting on top of his sheathed bde.

  “To even think I would have this ce…”

  Sasaki opened his eyes with a wry smile.

  “You came here to learn something, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “You have e to the wrong person. I don’t have anything to offer.”

  Aleph met Sasaki’s calm gaze. His heart sank at the danger he felt at that moment.

  ‘That thing’s not for show… Tsubame Gaeshi..!’

  The Sasaki Koujiro in front of him was a fake. To be precise, the real Sasaki Koujiro hid his identity too well to the point the truth was buried in lies. As a result, a servant who was an amalgamation of the real Sasaki’s traits and legends was born.

  “You might have said it, but I think otherwise.”

  “Oh?”

  “You are Sasaki Koujiro.”

  Sasaki was stunned by his words. A smile escaped his lips the moment.

  “You want to learn something.”

  Shiing-!

  The nodachi on his back was uhed. He held it high in a pierg stan his head’s level with both his hands.

  “I’ll show it to you.”

  Despite Aleph’s preparations—thought acceleration and parallel minds—the sense of danger did not disappear. Even, it became stronger!

  No energy of sorts was caught by his [Elemental Sight]. His cealment was way below Sphere Booundary's, his speed was also slightly slower than him. It was aremely strange occurrence.

  As the bdes cshed, the sense of danger became even stronger. Before he k, Aleph's heart fell to an ice celr. The amount of danger he felt far exceeded everything he had felt in the past.

  Without eveating, he used [Blink] and reappeared teers away.

  ‘Huh?!’

  Much to his shock, the faint blue silhouette redirected to his current position. Even when he chose the higher ground (i.e., stair) when he reappeared, Sasaki advao him without faltering.

  His thoughts kept flying towards the vague silver light gradually approag him.

  Aleph tried to apply the ratio lines in the bde.

  However…

  ‘One… no, those are three bdes!’

  He truly felt what Sasaki’s oppo felt. The three swords were like a prison. No matter whie you defend from, the remaining two would e closer to your neo matter how fast nor slow they were, it was a 'sure-hit' as all three bdes attacke don all sides.

  Inside his mouth, Aleph already ‘summoned’ a whole Senzu Bean. That occurred as he tried to find a way to escape from his predit, but to no avail.

  At this time, he fell into a straate once again. Several images of Sasaki's figure appeared along his path. He could clearly see the one bde turning into three out of nowhere. Strangely enough, numerous thoughts entered his mind. It was as if he was directly 'receiving' some form of information out of the things he observed.

  'That's... Magic..?'

  Although Aleph realized something, jt wasn't enough to ge his oredit.

  Fortunately...

  The moment they were about to e close to him, the bde stopped.

  “The world… no, it’s different. There’s also that strange magecraft.”

  Shiing.

  Sasaki sheathed the nodachi on his waist.

  “You’ve learned some iing things. However, you missed the fuals.”

  “Fuals?”

  Aleph learned from Kashimo and was able to calm down after that ‘near-death’ battle.

  “The teique of being the world… You skipped some things before that. I also saw that strong blow you were preparing. You cked the i to defeat your oppo…”

  One by one, he listed doh’s shortings. It was something Aleph wouldn’t have known. Great Sage would only work when there attern to learn from. Although he scrolled through numerous martial art books in Shenzhou and saw some points, it simply didn’t fit the teiques he gaihat inated from another world.

  “Finally, you seem to have learned somethiraordinary. Too bad, you are f it.”

  “Extraordinary..?”

  Aleph recalled the [No Sed Strike] which he received from killing the fourth Herrscher. He experimented with it numerous times—with Great Sage’s help on top of that—but he simply couldn’t make it work.

  “For now, fet about it. It’s best to learhings you’ve missed.”

  The sed round of Aleph’s teag began.