Eden left the Dungeons and Dragons world after that, intending to give things a week before returning. He estimated that a week was long enough for the news to spread all over the realms and simmer in the minds of the various Gods, and it also represented over a dozen years for Tasha and Orcus, which should be enough for them to prepare.
On the Player side, it took Gojo a day to finish everything he had to back in the Jujutsu Kaisen world, and return with the promised ten fingers.
[All Attributes +5]
Even with the increased number of fingers, Sukuna's soul was crushed passively, far too weak to ever do something to Eden.
Watching Eden gulp down one finger after another, Gojo exclaimed, "Nothing? Seriously? Not even a tiny reaction?"
Eden gave him a side eye, groaning, "Be more like Morgana and focus on your lesson."
Morgana smiled but remained engrossed in the material Eden had handed out, and Gojo did the same after a moment, after a roll of his eyes.
Satoru had taken to follow Eden's lessons with Morgana, as he was uniquely attuned to space. Although his Innate Technique dealt with the concept of Infinity, he applied it through the medium of space. This gave him a unique advantage over space magic.
Of course, the lessons were not free, as Eden also observed and learned from Gojo's technique. While much of it would forever remain impossible for Eden to replicate, like placing infinity between himself and enemy attacks, it still represented insights.
However, Eden did not dedicate the following week to spatial magic, but to Avatar of Wrath, to turn it into a full Conjuration spell that he could use to its full potential. And with that, Eden got his first taste of what learning magic at Tier III was like.
Back when he was stuck at Tier I, figuring out 7th Circle magic felt like trying to complete a million piece puzzle with a fog before his eyes, as well as a million other pieces that belonged to various other puzzles scattered around.
Now that he had reached Tier III though, all he had to do was complete the million piece puzzle. The fog and the other pieces were gone. It still represented a large task, but it was infinitely easier.
And since Eden was modifying a spell he had already thoroughly mastered, it was like he was working on a half-finished puzzle, so by the end of the week, he had gotten himself a new spell.
[Wrath of the Dead (7th Circle): Consume the power of a soul to wreathe the body of the user. Deal an additional 380 (495) necrotic or radiant damage with unarmed attacks. Heals the user for 100% of the necrotic damage dealt, or deal 250% the radiant damage in healing deficit for 15 seconds. Damage type chosen when the spell is cast. The effects last for 10 (30) minutes. Cost: 1370 (350) MP.]
Eden had gone back to the old name of Avatar of Wrath's precursor, since it was basically an up-cast version of that old spell. Eden had the ambition to inspire himself of his Angelic Flame so that he could deal both Necrotic and Radiant damage with each strike, and thus both heal himself and stop his enemy from healing, but that was a bit beyond 7th Circle, so that would have to wait for a higher spell.
Now, when he cast this spell, along with his Perfected One III, it would be like casting an 8th Circle Avatar of Wrath, or maybe even 9th Circle.
Other than this spell, Eden did spend some time on his Cursed Energy, but he was already stuck at the very limit of 7th Rank Output, so a week was not enough to break through it. It did not matter, fighting Asmodeus would be the perfect opportunity to break through that barrier.
Eden had also wanted to work on his Avatar of Wrath, as the spell had gotten somewhat redundant with his Perfected One Perk. One of the greatest features of the spell was that it granted him Resistance III to Fire, Poison, Lightning and Cold.
However, since his promotion, Eden was naturally Immune to Poison, and Resistant to the other three, so that part of the spell was completely useless to him. Eden intended to shift the spell to either erase that part of it, or shift the resistances to physical damage, but he did not have the time to do so, unfortunately.
Honestly, there was a lot Eden wanted to work on, but so very little time, he had been forced to focus on one thing. That thing had ended up being Starburst and Shattering Darkness.
By the seventh day though, while Eden was preparing for the incoming fight, something unexpected happened. A Player was making waves.
A rookie, who had taken his mission world by storm as a dark horse. A rookie that interested him.
----
Accepting Dreamland's offer was about the last thing Ludwig would have normally wanted. Although he had grown up poor, and society had done its best to keep him down the social ladder, he had a loving family, a girlfriend way out of his league, and things in general started looking up.
Until they didn't. His mother was diagnosed with cancer, and while it was early stage, his family was far from being able to afford the treatment.
That's when Dreamland made its devious offer. An offer he would have refused at any other point in his life, yet that had arrived precisely in that moment.
After that came the tutorial, and under the spirit of greater rewards meaning a faster return to Earth and treatment for his mother, he picked out the Nightmare difficulty.
Except that Dreamland was so much more than he could have ever guessed. His Tutorial took place in the world of Halloween, a choice that felt deliberately hurtful as he had just done a marathon of the franchise with his girlfriend. The girlfriend he had left behind to get into this place.
Still, even with the plot of the movie fresh in his mind, it took everything he had and some more to survive his Tutorial. Were it not for his Talent, which he later learned to be quite potent, he never would have triumphed over Michael Myers.
[Chosen One: You were born a being of good and light. Immunity I to Necrotic damage, you deal additional damage to beings of darkness and receive lesser damage from them, your attributes improve faster than normal and you learn all skills, especially those related to light, far faster. The effects of this Talent improve with good actions.]
He was fresh out of his Tutorial when he learned of the Nightmare Realm, the bar for people like him who had chosen Nightmare Difficulty for their Tutorial, and he had been surprised at the number of people.
More than anything, however, he had been shocked by the scope of Dreamland. He was introduced to the bar by Derek, a Tier I Player whom he had met in the Market Place. It was Derek who told him much of what he knew about Dreamland, including that there were some people in that very bar capable of wiping out entire worlds.
It was on that first day in the Nexus, while he was still getting to understand the place, that he brushed death for the second time of his life.
Derek had gone to get them drinks, since he apparently knew the woman manning the bar and could get a discount (he got no discount), and Ludwig was sitting by himself, when a sentiment of existential dread overcame him.
One of the most important aspects of Derek's Talent was one that was ironically not shown by the System, and it was his ability to sense evil. Michael Myers, as Evil Incarnate, had appeared to him as a giant beacon, which helped Ludwig always see him coming, thus negating his stealth.
Although he knew for a fact that most of the Players he met were vastly stronger than Michael, none of them exuded as much evil as Michael did.
Until he felt him.
One moment, there was nothing, and the next, he was overwhelmed by such a strong feeling of evil and darkness that it became nauseating.
He froze for a moment. He did not dare move, in fear it would see him.
And yet, as a pristine hand grabbed Derek's chair, a hand that felt like a black hole sucking him in even while in his peripheral vision, he grabbed onto the chair, and looked at that great evil.
Someone else would have said it was just a man. A man with a pair of black feathery wings, but a man still. Ludwig could tell he was so much more however.
And still, he said, "T-the seat is taken, actually."
His voice came out squeakier than he had intended, and the moment he said them, he regretted.
Before, the man had just been passing by. Now, he was focused on him.
The source of that great evil stared at him for only a moment, but that moment felt like it was stretched several times over. Despite knowing there was a no-killing rule, for a moment, Ludwig felt that he was about to be snuffed out.
Then, the 'man' smiled, apologizing, "My bad then," and conjured a copy out of the chair, dragging said copy along with him to another table.
When Derek came back, he learned of the man's name. Ozymandias. A guy known for being a mad man with an extremely high bounty on his head. The man did not feel mad to him.
This impression was put to the test only a few minutes later though when Ozymandias kidnapped a man, and returned with him skinned. Then, half the bar left to fight him, and lost. And somehow, Ludwig knew that he was no man, but the Demon King. He did not know how he knew it, but he did.
The encounter was terrifying, but also inspirational. If he had that kind of power, saving his mother would barely take an afterthought.
The week after that incident, everyone talked about one thing, and that was Ozymandias. Somehow, he had gone from Tier I to Tier III in a single mission, and had risen to the third position on the bounty list. There was also Stryfe, the Tier III Player who had been skinned, who returned to the bar severely traumatized, from what Ludwig heard.
Then, the time for Ludwig's first mission came. It was in the world of Assassin's Creed. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.
It was a world that had been explored thoroughly, and that should have gone simply. Except Ludwig had felt inspired by what he had learned Ozymandias had done, and went against the 'Golden Path', which consisted of taking the side of the Borgia.
Instead, Ludwig had helped Ezio Auditore, a hero of his childhood, take down the Order and discovered ancient Isu technology doing so. As it turned out, his affinity for light extended to Isu artefacts.
Ludwig had not killed anyone. It was something he abhorred, he was no killer, yet that had only resulted in him getting more enemies.
That was how he had landed himself in his current situation. He had been on his way to the Nightmare Realm when he had been stopped by a group of Players. Some he recognized as fellow Players from his recent mission, and other he knew to be stronger because he could not see their Status.
Those groups ended up scattering, however, when a man appeared. His status was full of question marks, but the exclamations from the other Players told him everything he had to know.
This was Seat Placius, a Tier III Player from Pantheon. Pantheon was one of the most powerful Tier V Guilds, as they had more than one Tier V Player, and Seats were high ranking officers within the Guild.
Placius looked like a cold man. He had a buzz-cut, a large scar that went from the left side of his chin to the right side of his forehead, and he was dressed in a suit of enchanted armor.
And when Ludwig refused him, Ludwig felt what he now recognized to be 'killing intent' from the man. In other words, he was projecting his desire to kill him through some sort of power.
Although this killing intent was something inherently scary, Ludwig also knew himself to be safe as he was still in the Market Place. The Market Place was a safe zone.
Then, a hand gently tapped the top of Placius' head, and the man was split in half.
The owner of that hand then flew off wordlessly, looking disappointed.