Rogue Villain-Chapter 347: Speed

With a ride between his legs that could easily surpass the speed of sound, Ackster made quick work of the world. He flew through the miniature world until they found an exit.

Ackster wondered why the beasts native to the world hadn’t left, but he quickly got the answer when the bird tried to fly through the tunnel entrance. The bird already knew what would happen, so it slowed down. But it still tried since it would be easier to demonstrate than get the jiggling Mio to convey what it was trying to say.

The bird’s beak smashed into an invisible barrier like it had hit indestructible glass.

’I guess that’s why the beasts only stared me down after I left the tunnel.’

Ackster whipped his wrist, summoning the Demon Sword into his hand. He infused it with his three sources before cutting through the barrier like it was water.

Ackster’s senses picked up on the barrier trying to repair itself, albeit slowly, so he urged his mount forward. The bird flew through the rift with an uneasy expression.

With its speed, it had already visited every last corner of its world and had long since grown bored of it. It had longed for the world beyond the barrier. But now that the next step—or flap of its wings—would bring it into the world beyond the barrier, the bird felt hesitant.

But after glancing at its rider, the bird’s hesitation vanished, and it flew through the rift in the barrier.

With the bird’s speed, they quickly traveled through the tunnel until they encountered the next thing the Alchemist had built or added to his maze. However, he didn’t encounter anything like the miniature world again.

Most rooms he found were empty. Those who weren’t empty had only dust or remnants of items and treasures. However, they did find several more large domes like the one the bird had called home. It was just that every single one was barren without so much as a hint of life.

The barren miniature worlds were probably failed experiments, while the one Ackster coincidentally found was one of, or the only, successful ones.

As Ackster flew around in the Alchemaze, he didn’t only discover a bunch of different rooms. He also discovered why the Alchemaze was called that and not Alcheunderground lair. Even with his ride’s GPS-like mind and his own senses, they ended up going in circles a couple of times and returning to forks in the path they had already gone through.

Ackster sighed. It was a combination of the Alchemaze’s complex construction, the subtle designs and color of the tunnel walls, and magic. He wanted to break through and go downward to see if he could get to the world’s center through the Alchemaze. But he couldn’t risk causing a cave-in. They were too deep for him to dig himself out before his hair turned grey, not to mention his party members, who might also suffer from a cave-in.

Ackster sighed and summoned his Demon Sword into his left hand as he retrieved his Nomi.

*Go as fast as you can without crashing.*

Ackster gave his bird an order. They had been taking it slow—relatively—so they didn’t miss anything. But if they were just going to fly in circles until they got anywhere, they might as well go fast.

Still, the bird wouldn’t be able to reach top speed with all the narrow tunnels and tight corners, so it would still take a while until they got anywhere. While waiting, Ackster figured he might as well take a look at his status, which he hadn’t done for quite a while now.

[Name: –]

[Profession: De■■■■■]

[Inventory]

[Stats:

[Strength: SSS]

[Agility: SSS]

[Fortitude: SSS]

[Ichor (Inferior): E]

[Spirit: Ex]

[Stamina: SSS]

[Wisdom: SSS]

[Skills:

[Diamond Body]

[Pain Tolerance: Ex]

[Overhuman Senses: SS]

[Conditional Immortality]

[Clear Mind: Ex]

[Limit Breaker: Ex]

[Monster Muncher: SSS]

[Stubborn Well-Being: Ex]

[Unstoppable: SSS]

[Sea God]

[(Unimportant Whatever Art): SS]

[Smelting Furnace: S]

[Berserk: S] 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

[Demon Sword]

[Sword God’s Disciple/Sword]

Ackster narrowed his eyes. His growth wasn’t numerically explosive. But several of his key skills had grown, even if only a little.

Unimportant Whatever Art had jumped several ranks since he last checked. Limit Breaker had broken through to the Ex-rank, most likely because of what happened when he caught the bird. Overhuman Senses had grown by one rank.

However, none of Ackster’s stats, aside from Spirit, which was linked to his soul, had broken through the limit and reached Ex-rank. That was a little disappointing, and Ackster had trouble believing it or understanding why. His body was one of his greatest assets, even if mostly thanks to Diamond Body. But at his current realm, any of his stats reaching the next rank wouldn’t be strange.

His body had also recently undergone a substantial metamorphosis during his rebirth. Was it really accurate to describe his stats as merely SSS-rank? Or maybe it would be more accurate to say they hadn’t yet reached the requirement of the next rank. His stats had yet to exceed their limits, perhaps.

The ’Ex’ in Ex-rank had to stand for something. Why not the word ’exceed’ as in exceeding the limits of mortality?

Ackster tilted his head in a vague nod. It made sense. The multiple transformations his body had undergone had raised their upper limits. His body needed to get even stronger if he wanted his stats to reach the next rank. It was just that lifting weights or killing things to absorb their existential power would hardly be an effective method.

Ackster set that aside for the moment to let his idle mind figure it out while he focused on something more important.

The second letter of his profession had revealed itself. An eight-letter word with the two first being ’D’ and ’e.’ Ackster wasn’t sure what to think. Why was it blocked? What was it? And why was his profession being revealed letter by letter?

Overall, Ackster was curious about his profession since it was obviously better than something common like adventurer. It also wasn’t in brackets, which was nice. But the mystery was discomforting and worrying.