CHAPTER 38: CHAPTER 38: YOU ARE TIRED, EXTRACTING LEVELS TO THE REAL WORLD

Ding!

[Congratulations, you have leveled up to Level 17!]

[You have gained 5 points in all of your attributes, and 5 free points to distribute.]

---

It had taken hours of grinding.

Stark pushed through wave after wave of monsters, killing them without any hesitation.

And finally, he hit his target.

None of the nearby monsters could touch him anymore.

As long as he didn’t bump into an over-leveled one, he was fine.

Everything else was just fuel for his growth.

And the best part?

[You have gained 17 Evolution Points!]

[You have gained 379 Lives!]

"Perfect," Stark muttered. His face lit up with satisfaction.

The grind was starting to drag on, though.

[Experience Decay] was kicking in hard, and the amount required to reach the next level was absurd.

[Level: 17 (7,200/100,000)]

The numbers didn’t lie. It would only get worse from here.

But while testing things, Stark had discovered something else.

Back at level 16, he’d tried killing a level 11 [Ruined Sentinel General].

The fight was easy. He expected a small reward because of decay.

What shocked him was different, he got no Evolution Points.

The first time he’d killed that boss, he received 7 EP. Now? Nothing.

"...So it applies here too." Stark narrowed his eyes.

That confirmed it. There wasn’t just [Experience Decay] and [Lives Decay].

There was [EP Decay] as well. Bosses only dropped good EP rewards if they were the same level or higher than him. Otherwise, it was wasted effort.

Meaning... he couldn’t slack.

If he wanted power, he had to continuously take on monsters equal to his level or stronger.

That suited him just fine.

While leveling, Stark had also been stacking up items, filling up his inventory.

’I need more space,’ Stark thought. ’I need to find another way to expand my storage.’

Later, when he reached the first NPC town in [Eternal Soul], this would matter even more.

Because NPCs weren’t useless decorations.

They could buy loot too. And they sold equipment.

The catch? NPC gear wasn’t cheap.

And if Stark wanted to compete against top players, he’d need room for resources.

Before he could plan further, a panel appeared.

[You are tired.]

"Oh." Stark blinked.

That only happened if you stayed too long in [Eternal Soul].

It didn’t hurt him now, but the penalty would worsen the longer he ignored it.

Sluggish movements. Reduced combat power. If he pushed, it’d be suicide.

He had half-expected not to see the warning at all.

In his last life, he’d spent months inside this game, barely blinking.

But that was only because the further you advanced, the less "tired" you would be.

He’d thought maybe his body was just... immune. Apparently not.

This was the system’s way of forcing breaks.

Stark sighed. He couldn’t ignore it forever.

Still—

’I have time. Enough to reach 25 before the first event,’ Stark thought with a grin. ’I’ll be fine.’

For now, he’d do one last thing before logging off.

He opened the [Extraction Menu].

---

[1. Extract Class and Talent] (Completed)

[2. Extract Level]

[3. Extract Skills]

[4. Extract Equipment]

[5. Extract Bloodline (Not available)]

[6. Extract ??? (Not available)]

---

He picked the second option instantly.

[Do you wish to use 1,000 Lives to extract your levels to the real world?]

[Note: This will synchronize your levels in "Eternal Soul" to the real world, up to level 25.]

He already knew the details. Levels could be synchronized to the real world.

The cap was 25 for now. Beyond that, the cost skyrocketed.

Everyone who played should’ve realized something by now.

If the [First Calamity] had "First" in its name... there would be more.

It wasn’t just calamities either. Events. Bosses. Threats. The system wouldn’t stop throwing them in humanity’s face.

But Stark didn’t care. Not yet.

"Yes."

Ding!

[You have consumed 1,000 Lives.]

[You have synchronized your levels (up to 25) to the real world.]

His attributes carried over as well.

Which meant his body outside the game was no longer "normal."

Stronger, faster, tougher, everything stacked up.

With this durability alone, a normal bullet would bounce off him.

[You are exhausted.]

"Yeah, yeah." Stark rolled his eyes at the message.

The system was persistent.

He couldn’t feel the exhaustion himself, but the panel didn’t care about his opinion.

Ding!

[Do you wish to leave "Eternal Soul"?]

[Yes] [No]

For the second time, he selected [Yes].

His body broke down into countless glowing blue fragments. Slowly dissolving, until he was gone.

He’d be back soon enough. For now, he needed a few hours of rest in the real world.

...

Meanwhile.

"Oh," Grace muttered. "Oblivion went offline."

She was standing next to [Ghost], her current teammate.

They had been grinding together for a while now.

Even giving her best effort, Grace could barely manage a quarter of Ghost’s damage.

Ghost was on another level.

"I find it weird you’re friends with that guy," Ghost said casually, cutting down a level 17 [Ruined City Guardian].

Fwish! Slash!

[Weakness hit! Instant kill!]

The monster dropped instantly.

That wasn’t just raw power. That was Ghost’s hidden edge.

She wasn’t a normal assassin.

She had the hidden class [Vengeful Assassin], already one of the strongest assassin paths.

And her Talent? Even more broken. SS-Level [Eternal Ghost].

It granted her two passives right now. One of them was what she had just used.

[Passive #1: If you manage to hit an opponent’s weakness, there is a big chance you will instantly kill them.]

That one sentence explained why Ghost was feared.

Even bosses weren’t safe. If she found the weak point, she could instantly deal the entire HP pool as lethal damage.

A [Ruined Sentinel General] with 35,000 HP? Dead in one strike.

Of course, against monsters like [Man of Steel] that had no obvious weak spots, this passive did nothing.

But for everything else? She carved through them like paper.

’Still,’ Ghost thought, watching the monsters respawn around them, ’my leveling speed is slowing.’

Grace, meanwhile, fired bolts of magic from a distance.

She wasn’t as fast, but she made herself useful.

"If only I had a healing spell," Grace sighed. "I wish I had rolled a priest or something."

Ghost shook her head with a grin. "I don’t think that’s how it works. I feel like... [Eternal Soul] picks the class and talent that suits you best."

"You think so?" Grace frowned, scratching her chin. "Maybe... I guess that means I just need to try harder to be a support mage, huh?"

It made sense.

Most mage players chased flashy attack spells.

Fireballs, lightning, explosions. They wanted to be the center of every fight.

But there was another path. Support mages.

Instead of killing everything themselves, they boosted allies with buffs and tactical control.

Some would even say support mages were more useful than pure damage dealers.

Grace seemed to realize that.

Her eyes lit up with determination.

’If I can support [Ghost]... and maybe even [Oblivion]... that’d be perfect for me.’

"Alright, let’s keep moving," Ghost said, grabbing the drops from the last corpse. "Oblivion’s offline. Good chance to get ahead."

Grace tilted her head.

She didn’t really understand why Ghost was so competitive.

Oblivion hadn’t shown much interest in racing anyone.

But Ghost clearly wanted it. So Grace simply followed.

Together, they stepped deeper into the ruins.

Ding!

[You have reached the "Outskirts" of the "Ruined City"]

[Lives loss rate: 20]

They had finally arrived at the same area Stark had been farming for hours.

Needless to say, it would take them a while to catch up, allowing him to rest.