Cyril Sarnath

Chapter 158

Hey everyone, we're still one chapter behind. I am aware of that, so don't worry. Once my cluster headaches are gone, I would catch up. :)

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Hunter stood in front of a dominion. It was barely perceptive to the naked eye but to his spiritual sense, the dominion screamed in the spiritual silence of its Level 0 surrounding. Clearly, the dominion was of a higher Level but Hunter couldn’t pinpoint it. The dominion’s spiritual fluctuations were too chaotic and unpredictable, a...

Chapter 157

Hey everyone, my apologies for my lateness. This is Friday’s chapter but due to an episode of cluster headache, I am struggling with my time. I will do my best to get back on schedule soon. Enjoy!

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The situation got serious the moment the soldiers turned on Keynes’s group. Their particular attention was on Columbus, which made sense. To them, he was the real threat. But the question was why had they turned on them so suddenly? The opening of the second rift could have b...

Chapter 156

Keynes was still trying to grapple with understanding what Lem Solaris was telling him about Talents and skills. Not everything was new to Keynes, some things had been explained by Alice but there was something about Lem Solaris’s way of talking—the utter certainty that Alice had always lacked—that made it feel more fundamental.

For the first time, Keynes looked at ordinary Talents like a fireball or his mother’s Soothing Talent with new appreciation. Things those Talents could ...

Chapter 155

“That’s some reckless shit,” Keynes said, standing on the wall and watching the hordes of monsters below. The Resistance hadn’t even built outer walls so the monsters weren’t contained like most uncleared rift clusters. Somehow, the Resistance managed to actively lure the monsters towards the city. Columbus didn’t know details, saying it was developed after he’d left the Resistance.

I want that thing.

Keynes had to admit, it looked impressive and at...

Chapter 154

“What do you mean she’s breaking from the System?”

“Now that the System of this universe is functional again, it has begun to clean up errors. Spiritual companions that had been activated before the System went online malfunction.” Keynes remembered Alice explaining this to him. “Your spiritual companion doesn’t want to become a mindless element of the System and…she rebelled, I guess?”

Alice did what? Even with 35 attributes into Mind and the Pure Body ...

Chapter 153

Keynes ground to halt, his boots dug into sand. He stared at his Attribute Interface for a couple of seconds, growing frustrated. Not a single percent into maxing out any of his attributes. He was still at 0% in all of them. His time in the rift with Kora and Jedd hadn’t amounted to any progression either. He’d noticed that his body could endure more physical training but working out harder made no difference. Why?

He huffed even harder, as if trying to get someone else's attention ...

Chapter 152

Roughly a few days after Keynes had entered the rift, Wagner attended another regular Solar Council’s meeting. He had expected some tension, after all the world was in flux. In the heart of it was Syberius Sael’s death. Every faction in the Solar Council vied for the remnants of the Old Blood. The Old Blood as a collective had ceased to exist shortly after Syberius Sael’s death and they were easy pickings for the stronger players. Untainted Paradise distanced itself from the whole affai...

Chapter 151

Traveller froze.

It was the human ascender’s spiritual companion and yet it was not. There was power to it that exceeded all the ascenders on the planet collectively. Traveller didn’t feel threatened, nothing in this universe was capable of harming him, but he was puzzled. So, he attempted to inspect the spiritual avatar and get some kind of response.

The spiritual avatar pulsed with energy, transforming into an human-sized silhouette made out of pure light. Its energy increas...

Chapter 150

Hey everyone. I'm back here though I won't post on RR yet. I am still working on editing/rewriting early chapters and there may be some delays here as well. There are some changes I wanted to highlight. First, I dropped giving names to chapters. It is bothersome and I don't see any value in it unless it is part of brand (long/funny chapter names). The other thing is slightly changed narrative style with elements of "city building" or as it is described on RR "ruling class". Because of Keynes'...

Chapter 149: His Personal Assistant

Hey guys. I am going on another break. The plan is to take off February but it may extend if necessary. This time I am not planning to relax but to edit the beginning of the story. I had hopes I would be able to do it as I go but other commitments constantly get in the way. I have to sit down with a clear mind and start fixing the story because the current state is hurting the story and I must change it.

I would like to ask you for feedback. You are welcome to leave it a comm...

Chapter 148: Imbalance

I am not going to lie, the second part is lacking in my eyes and doesn't project his character as well as I wish it should be I am going to rectify that in the next chapter.

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Before they moved on onto the topic of imbalance, Keynes had had to acknowledge again that Kora’s insight could be incorrect. He suspected that there must be a story behind the odd insistence. But these thoughts barely skimmed the surface of his mind. He was still excited by the revelation regarding th...

Chapter 147: Precision

“This is a perfect spot.”

The green plateau was peppered with short grasses and flowers. Keynes spotted scattered rocks all over the plateau, some were covered by moss. Beyond the plateau was forest that inclined with the ground, eventually thinning and turning into a lone mountain. Frankly, the mountain lay beyond the boundary of the rift.

Though he hadn’t used a rift orb that upgraded any rift’s Level, Keynes suspected that by doing so, the boundary simply expanded inclu...

Chapter 146: Monastery

The biting air of the high altitude was a minor inconvenience for Tom. The benefit of being a Level 5, though things weren't as lush as they seemed. Being a "human essence" Level 5, as they called people who had levelled up before the outbreaks, had become a curse. If Tom levelled up now, solely with rift essence, he would be much stronger. Discounting maxed-out attributes, he would have 6 points more in each attribute. This wasn't the worst. With each level, the difference was only going to ...

Chapter 145: A Friend

Natalia couldn't remember the last time she had been so stressed. She'd been invited to a meeting with the Head of Rifts, but after her encounter with two founders, she didn't know what to expect. She hadn't been the most friendly person to these two, and a disciplinary hearing was in the realm of possibilities.

She walked through the maze they called Emerald City, with a young man guiding her. She'd stayed there not that long ago, but it looked like a completely different place now. "H...

Chapter 144: Like a God

Keynes woke up with growing apprehension about the impending event. He was going to level up today, achieving Level 4 and the third degree of the Perfect State. He'd inquired Alice about the potential buffs and rewards for this ascension, but she'd remained tight-lipped.

As he got out of bed and finished his morning routines, he noticed a message on his tablet: Jedd Eldin had entered negotiations with Untainted Paradise. Keynes added a note to the hiring department to be genero...

Chapter 143: One of the Best Days

"Wait—what did you say your names were?"

Esopp repeated their names, and the cluster manager's expression turned to one of shock. His face shifted rapidly through a range of emotions, finally settling on fear and being overwhelmed. The others remained confused but wary, with the exception of Natalia, whose irritation was reaching a boiling point. Esopp, for some unknown reason, was smirking.

The two founders watched in silence as the cluster manager processed the new information...

Chapter 142: Neutral Aura

Finally, the additional chapter has arrived!! From now one the highest tier is on 14 chapters ahead. :)

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"What about Withered Regrets?" Keynes asked as he and Esopp approached the first dome.

Esopp scowled. "There's a prerequisite," he said grudgingly, clearly disappointed with the consumable. Alice remained silent on the matter, so Keynes waited for Esopp to continue.

"In order for Withered Regrets to work, I must get 100% toward the next level," Esopp explained, "b...

Chapter 141: Silly Requests

"Oh," Keynes said, realisation dawning on him. "So you can detect the essence inside me?"

Kora's frown deepened as a mixture of emotions flowed from her aura. She was confused, startled, and excited all at once. They wound between the workers gathered outside the rift, noticing the higher number and levels of workers at this rift compared to the others they had cleared that day.

Keynes's attention was briefly diverted as he saw Natalia speaking to the cluster manager and Ulf headi...

Chapter 140: Carry Team

I rushed with the chapter today and so I didn't have time for a proper proofreading. Apologies for the errors.

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Goodman didn’t have a headache since he’d ascended to Level 1 but today one was almost upon him. He passionately hated dealing with the VIPs. He understood the need to level people up. He’d be a hypocrite if he thought otherwise since he was Level 4 himself and that was the sole reason he coped with the workload. But to Goodman, being in charge of a rift clus...

Chapter 139: Allocations, Allocations, Allocations

Still strugglign with persistent caughing and now developed a backpain (mostlikely from the caughing).

On the brightside, I am getting closer to finally add another chapter here.

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Rift essence was the true currency within Untainted Paradise.

Learning it wasn’t the only surprise waiting for Keynes. Another one came after reviewing the cluster manager’s duties. While the man signed off rift slot allocations, his decisions were supported by the company’s AI.<...

Chapter 138: Assistants

Why was picking an assistant such a pain?

Having a large pool of choices was supposed to help, right? Not this time it seemed.

Keynes swiped through choices on his tablet, paralysed by the insane number of suitable candidates. And all of this was after Keynes had applied his requirements and preferences, some of them quite harsh.

Some time ago, Wagner had acquired a Talent-hunting company that collected profiles of people looking for Talent-depen...

Chapter 137: Special Rift

My ininital plan was to add 14th chapter to Pefest State Ascender tier today but there are too many reponsibilites around house. Luckily, the next chapter is ready but unedited and if there won't be any unplanned hiccups, I'll add 14th chapter on Monday.

Merry Christmas every one!

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Wrapping his head around the Trait of Dominator wasn’t easy even with Alice’s explanation. According to her, there were many traits of varying potency and effect. Unlike buffs, they affecte...

Chapter 136: Trait

“Should we be worried?” Columbus asked some time after Keynes had left.

Esopp sighed, deciding to put the tablet aside. He had to give it to Wagner’s engineers, they’d built an insane piece of technology here. Of course, if one considered formations, runes and mana a technology, which Esopp kind of did.

“He’s just upset about his friends,” Esopp remarked offhandedly.

“It hardly looked like upset to me,” Columbus said. “Are you sure your son’s mess hasn�...

Chapter 135: Betrayal

Hey everyone!

I have been ill the entire week and had trouble writing this chapter, especially given its importance. I hope didn't make many errors. During edit, I found I used a wrong name...

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Wagner’s face was replaced with an aerial view of a building complex resembling a military compound. In the inner yard an open rift spawned monsters, which were quickly killed by a humanoid creature.

It had long arms, almost reaching to the ground, sickly pale and completel...

Chapter 134: Knowledge

Keynes stopped paying attention when the other three men moved on with their discussion to different political topics which had nothing to do with him. He’d listened to their conversation about Syberius Sael because he felt responsible for the consequences of lying to Andre Turtelli.

The tablet, Keynes came to realise, was something else. At first, it’d looked like a commercially available model but once Keynes dived into it, things got crazy quickly.

Through the tablet, Keyne...

Chapter 133: Meeting Room

Keynes opened his eyes.

How long?

Three days, came an immediate reply.

So it had taken him three days to fully synchronise his senses with those of his dominion. It showed a quality of dangerous time sink that wasn’t controlled or curated by hunger, thirst or other necessities. Keynes’s mind had been completely consumed by his dominion.

Synchronisation had been only a part of reason for its misguided time management; Keynes had watched dutiful men...

Chapter 132: Unfortunate Outcome

Hey everyone,

I had some time to think in the past month and it led me to seriously question many of my choices. I have published the story far too early with far too little preparation (especially when it comes to the magic system). The idea was to have many different systems that could intertwine which was a big mistake. I wasn’t (and still am not) ready for such an ambitious story. In the end, I was left with a half-baked system and this had too much impact on the arcs and storylin...

Chapter 131: Deception

Hey everyone, it is good to be back. In a couple of days, I am goign to pen an update about the future of the story. I am not dropping it or anythign like that but I am going to change my philosophy and attitude toward the story. I have realised that my initial inspiration for the story was badly placed.

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Keynes watched as the last of the monsters tore themselves apart. They were swift at killing each other. Why was that?

Dominion monsters are built differently from t...