The purple light of the crossing portal slowly dissipated, giving way to a spectacle that made Diana and Rhea pause in their tracks for a few seconds.
If the First Circle looked like a moldy, decaying industrial slum, the Second Circle: The Ivory Citadel looked like an empire of dark splendor.
The city rose in circular tiers over gigantic canyons of white rock. Tall buildings of light marble and polished iron boasted imposing architecture, crisscrossed by suspension bridges where carriages powered by mana crystals glided smoothly. The streets were broad, illuminated by bluish magic streetlamps, and the air no longer smelled of soot and trash, but of medicinal flower essences, noble perfumes, and dense arcanum.
Yet the beauty of the place carried a subtle, terrifying weight.
Diana used [Analysis Vision] on the pedestrians walking along the grand main avenue:
- Ivory Patrol Guard -> Level 18
- Magic Cloak Merchant -> Level 14
- Solitary Adventurer -> Level 22
The density of power there was incomparable. Almost every inhabitant moving through the Second Circle was Level 10 and up. A Level 6 girl accompanied by a Level 5 scout were, in that citadel, unbelievably small fish in an ocean full of sharks.
"It's beautiful…" Rhea murmured beside Diana, her amber eyes reflecting the city's blue lights. "And scary."
"It's just a bigger market, Rhea." Diana said, adjusting the strap of the reinforced pouch on her belt. "And the bigger the market, the greater the value of what we can take."
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'The Ivory Refuge' Inn - Citadel East Sector
Unlike the rustic inn room in the Dust District, The Ivory Refuge was an upper-middle-class establishment in the Second Circle.
The entrance hall was paved with polished marble, and the clerk was an elegant demon wearing a dark velvet vest.
Diana stepped up to the counter and paid in advance for two nights in a private third-floor suite, ordering room service with a full feast of roasted prime meats, light wheat bread, and local fruit juices.
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[FULL FINANCIAL AUDIT - CHAPTER 10]
Previous Balance (Entry to Circle 2): 13 Silver and 50 Bronze (1,350 Bronze).
EXPENSES IN SECOND CIRCLE:
- Private Suite Rate (2 Nights at Ivory Refuge): -2 Silver Coins (200 Bronze).
- Prime Meat Feast and Room Supplies: -50 Bronze Coins.
TOTAL SPENT: 2 Silver Coins and 50 Bronze Coins (250 Bronze).
[NEW ABSOLUTE POCKET BALANCE: 11 SILVER COINS (1,100 Bronze!)]
Exactly eleven silver coins stashed securely.
As soon as the lavish meal was served on the suite's fine wooden table and the staff member departed, locking the reinforced oak door, Rhea looked at the hot food and then at Diana, awaiting orders to gear up for the next hunt.
"Where are we hunting today, Diana?" Rhea asked, adjusting her dagger sheaths. "There must be quest boards near the central gate-"
"We aren't going anywhere today." Diana cut in, kicking off her hunter boots and slumping into the room's upholstered armchair.
Rhea blinked, thinking she had misheard. "What…?"
"Today is a rest day." Diana declared calmly, closing her eyes and resting her head against the plush upholstery. "No training. No dungeons. No hunts. You're going to eat this entire feast, take a long bath, and sleep until tomorrow morning."
The silence that followed in the room was absolute.
Steeped in shock, Rhea stood frozen in the middle of the room, her wolf ears perked in utter perplexity. For someone who had witnessed Diana's insane, relentless, obsessive pace all week long, the word 'rest' sounded like a translation error in the infernal tongue.
—EXCUSE ME?!
The System interface popped up in the middle of the room, flashing frantically with golden lines of text exhibiting comedic, unbelievable shock.
—THE WORLD IS ENDING! SOMEONE CALL A MAGIC DOCTOR!
—The workaholic girl, who hasn't stopped bleeding and hoarding coins for seven straight days, just declared a 'Rest Day'?! Are you sick, Diana?! Did a venomous bug bite you in the portal?!
Diana cracked one eye open, glaring at the screen with pure contempt.
"Stop being stupid, trash can." Diana said coldly. "A smart investor knows when to pause for asset maintenance. We fought three consecutive matches in the arena, crossed an interdimensional portal, and changed environments. Continuing to hunt with a worn-out body and mind is the stupidest way to make a fatal mistake."
Rhea, realizing Diana was serious, let out a slow sigh of relief. A timid, immensely grateful smile surfaced on her lips.
"Thank you… Diana." Rhea said softly, walking over to the table and picking up a mouth-watering piece of roasted meat.
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Night fell over the Ivory Citadel.
Around two in the morning, the suite was plunged into absolute silence. Rhea, lying on the soft bed with fine linen sheets, slept soundly, her chest rising and falling in a calm, relaxed rhythm.
Diana was not sleeping.
She was sitting on the suite's small stone balcony, observing the blue lights and marble towers of the subterranean city beneath Hell's purple sky. The cold night wind ruffled her black hair.
Diana raised her right hand and snapped her fingers.
"Show yourself, System." Diana said in a low tone that didn't carry beyond the balcony. "No jokes. No ironic text. We need to talk."
The floating System window appeared before Diana.
This time, the interface didn't flash with silly animations. The screen's golden light dimmed, adopting a dense, calm, solemn tone.
[SYSTEM: DIRECT COMMUNICATION INTERFACE ACTIVATED]
—What is it, Diana? The System's voice echoed directly in her brain, cold, dry, devoid of any mockery. Rhea is asleep. Speak.
Diana leaned her elbows on the balcony railing, interlacing her fingers before her face, staring at the screen with dark, terrifyingly sharp eyes.
"I know how to do math." Diana began, her voice calm as a frozen ocean. "I spent my entire life being number one in mathematics and logic. And the numbers of my evolution don't make an ounce of sense."
The System didn't respond, merely keeping its screen lit, listening.
"An ordinary human soul newly arrived in the First Circle takes, on average, one to two months of daily labor and high-risk hunting to reach Level 5 or obtain official citizenship." Diana listed, counting off each item on her fingers. "Most die before that or become slaves."
She stepped closer to the screen.
"Rhea and I reached Level 6 and 5 in exactly seven days." Diana continued. "I received a constant 20% experience bonus. I absorbed a permanent Luck point from Vex's body. I unlocked my Skill Tree at Level 5 when the default lock is Level 10. And Rhea… Rhea is leveling up nearly twice as fast as any native hybrid would, simply by being at my side."
Diana locked her gaze on the center of the golden window.
"Don't tell me this is 'luck' or a 'system bug'." Diana hissed, her voice packed with dangerous authority. "What is wrong with my soul? What are you, and what are you hiding from me?"
Silence lingered on the balcony for ten long seconds.
The cold wind of the Second Circle howled softly between the marble towers.
The System's floating screen began to shift color. The default golden shade faded away completely, giving way to a dark, deep, glowing hue like molten black gold. The borders of the window acquired ancient, complex runes Diana had never seen before.
—…
The System's voice resonated in Diana's mind. It was no longer the thin voice of an ironic guide. It was a deep, ancestral voice, loaded with a resonance that made the very structure of Diana's soul shudder slightly.
—You truly are an amazingly annoying girl, Diana.
The voice whispered.
—Most mortals who receive bonuses and power simply smile, thank the heavens, and enjoy the gift without asking questions. But you… you want to audit the universe itself.
"I don't like free handouts." Diana replied without blinking. "Everything in this world has a price. If I'm receiving more than others, it means the bill is coming at some point. I want to know who is collecting."
—Nobody is collecting, my dear.
The System said, its screen emitting a subtle wave of energy that warmed the balcony air.
—The answer to your abnormal evolution is not an outside spell. It is your own soul.
Diana furrowed her brows. "My own soul…?"
—Your hunger, Diana. The System explained, each word falling with crushing weight. Your greed. Your absolute, diseased refusal to accept being anything less than the top. The Level System of this world was created for ordinary mortals… but your soul is not ordinary.
The screen flickered with a hidden message that appeared and vanished in half a second:
[ANOMALY RECORD: GREED DISTORTS THE RULE]
—Your desire to take everything for yourself is so dense, so ravenous, the System continued, that your very presence forces my interface to rip maximum resources out of every monster, every event, and every battle. And whoever walks beside you… catches the fallout of that hunger.
Diana stared at the black-gold runes on the screen.
She felt no terror. She felt no fear of being an 'anomaly'.
On the contrary: a feeling of deep understanding and a dark, devastating pride expanded in her chest.
My greed… Diana looked at her hands under the blue city lights. My desire to have everything… is so vast that it bends the rules of this world.
"And you?" Diana asked the dark screen. "What were you before you became my System?"
The System's voice let out a low, dry laugh filled with ancient nostalgia.
—I was the interface of the one who ruled the Citadel of Gold in the Fourth Circle millennia ago. I was the guide of the one who taught Hell the true meaning of the word 'Possess'.
The screen reverted to its default golden hue, and the voice reclaimed its usual sarcastic, ironic tone.
—But my former master fell. And now I'm stuck with a seventeen-year-old brat who complains about my service and runs financial audits every single night.
Diana let out a low laugh, a short, icy, entirely predatory laugh.
"Then get used to it." Diana said, turning her back to the balcony and stepping back inside the room. "Because I won't fall like your former master. I am going to take this interface all the way to the top of the Seventh Circle."
—Aha. Sure. Go to sleep, my dear anomaly. Tomorrow the Second Circle is gonna show you what happens to those with too big an appetite.
Diana lay down on the soft bed of The Ivory Refuge.
Final Notes:
First off, the impossible happened: Diana decreed a rest day. Officially, cows are about to start falling from the sky, just wait and see.
And oh, the system revealed her secret too, there was that as well- obviously, the most important thing is that first part- (Heavy sarcasm here, lol)
The story has a Patreon!!! If you'd like to support us there, you'll get access to 10 early chapters. Thank you so much in advance <3