For whatever reason, the nights of that world were quite short, but despite that, Luke was able to obtain a whole lump of one billion gold coins. Thanks to that, he was able to buy even tier twenty-one skill books. He was quite curious to see what he could get with that. He wanted something that had as much potential as space magic, though. Something against mages would actually be pretty neat... However, much to Luke’s surprise, he only found skills books up to the twentieth tier.

"Memory Manifestation, Rank Promotion, Will Embodiment... Those are all conceptual powers..." Luke thought while frowning. "I suppose anything beyond this is new territory. Wait, this is..."

Spatial Domain

It grants you the power to create a space where only mana is Absolute. Time doesn’t, and physical bodies can’t move by themselves.

Cost 500.000.000

That was what Luke could do with space magic, but why was that a skill when space magic was ten times cheaper? In any case, since the system recognized that as a skill, then Luke assumed someone had learned it before him... or it was added to the system the moment he came up with that?

"This seems rather troublesome... I wonder if someone already is exploiting this like me..." Luke rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Still, that means..."

Luke decided to check other skills around the same price, and he found some interesting ones as well. Time Shackles, it was a spell that put the target into extreme slow motion status while crushing them with the power of gravity. Temporal Invisibility is a spell that grants the user the power to launch attacks without letting the enemy see it and also makes all the attacks hit the target at the same time when the user wishes for it... a combination of time magic and invisibility. Tetra magic... a combination of the four basic elements. While they don’t nullify each other since they don’t assume their real physical form, they still cause the four types of damage.

"All of those skills are a combination of high level magic, a further use of a single type..." Luke thought. "Still, my mana clones aren’t here. The power to make mana turn into crystals and absorb them later isn’t... this only puts more questions in my head."

Instead of buying those skills, Luke decided to invest in his resistance. He couldn’t train gravity resistance and darkness resistance, or even time resistance yet, but he decided to learn those alongside light resistance; those skills together cost half a billion gold coins. The numbers were starting to become insane.

"I suppose Aivern will also have trained or gained experience to level up Light Resistance up to its utmost limits, that is why I need to do the same to counter that," Luke thought. "He probably met many individuals that exploited the system in one way or the other, but I am pretty sure that the creation of mana crystals and mana clones is something even unknown to him since the system didn’t recognize it."

Once that was done, Luke had thought of going to train his skills for a while, but then he realized something. Those who survived that tower level should have obtained a lot of power and gold coins; thus, they would have gotten the most powerful skills the system could offer on their hands. Light, darkness, time, and space... Those types of skills are certainly the most dangerous. Luke could use light and space, but the one that is most hard to counter is time, he didn’t want to learn it since he didn’t think it suited his fighting style, but it was certainly one skill that had a lot potential to be fiddle with.

Time Manipulation

It grants you the power to control the time of yourself or of things around you. The level of the skill, the intensity of the skill, and the Resistance of the skill against time magic determine the amount of mana you will spend.

Cost: 250.000.000

In the end, Luke learned the skill while thinking about something... That tower sure was one hell of an annoying place, but it still gave him the chance to get a lot stronger than before. It was rare to find so many troublesome opponents, after all. Perhaps not rare, but they were always conveniently located. That helped Luke, but it probably also helped make other overlords get stronger... But why?

While he was thinking about that, Luke went to his dimension and began to train. This time, he didn’t worry much about the time that he would be spending there, since he felt that he was almost at the end of his journey. He wanted to believe that he was only a few moments away from success, but he knew that instead of success, he might soon face failure and death... That was why he had to do his best now so that he wouldn’t regret it later.

"Preparations... I need more preparations for every single possible scenario," Luke thought while he started his training. "It is time to go all out and make some sacrifices."

Rather than lose everything, Luke would rather lose a few things... with that kind of mentality, he began to work, and eventually, he began to change. From a mere human to a manifestation of a single desire: to kill those who tried to take the things he valued the most away from him.

A very, very long time had passed since Luke had returned to the real world. So, when he did it, he truly felt a lot of joy. In that dimension, while not being bound by time or his physical limitations, Luke also couldn’t feel alive or human anymore... Again, being human has its own share of problems, but it wasn’t a bad thing entirely. Only a few people could claim that they didn’t feel any joy in their lives. Because people feel sorrow is the reason why they can truly feel and recognize joy. So, sorrow, to some extent, is necessary for humans... Luke had a lot of time to think this time, and that was one of the things that he realized.

In any case, when Luke returned, his followers noticed that something had changed about him. Even though his power didn’t increase that much, his aura was different. It was weird... It was like someone else had taken his body all of a sudden.

"I suppose this is a goodbye," Luke said after turning around. "We didn’t work for long, but you guys helped me. So, as a reward, I will give you the chance to leave this hellhole. You can leave the rest to me."

Before his followers could do anything, Luke used time magic and made them redo all the steps they had done in the last few weeks. He distorted time and space to make them retain their powers while they returned to their homelands. Once they realized what had happened in a split of a second, they couldn’t open their eyes in shock.

"Well then..." Luke said. "It is time to end this."

"Are you finally ready?" A voice echoed in the area.

"You finally decided to end your silence... I can’t say that I don’t understand your reasons, but you are very annoying," Luke said.

"It is only natural, do you understand my nature now, if you do, then you don’t have to ask why things are like this," the voice said.

"Understanding and accepting are two different things, sometimes they are connected, but sometimes they aren’t," Luke said. "Regardless, I had a lot of time to think while I was preparing... It seems that you can even notice those changes, even though you can’t see what I did there. I always wondered... why some things seem predetermined even though the universe ended up being destroyed many times... The answer that I reached was the fact that the nature of the sapient beings is quite deterministic. I can imagine that I was the same asshole in my other lives, and I didn’t achieve much because I relied too much on Rina and Shalia. Putting that aside, the answer lies in our nature. I was bound to have limitations unless something serious happens and forces me to overcome and adapt. But what is nature? What is human nature? What is the nature of sapient beings? After I met that shadow, I began to realize that it is because of our spirits... I can’t say for sure since I don’t remember things from the past like Aivern, but I think that our nature changed a little every time the universe restarts. Deep down, even when we aren’t aware of it, we change and adapt... the same thing can be said to the worlds that use the shadows and their chosen ones. So, it means that our nature or spirits are that strong. However, if our spirits and natures are that strong... what happened to those that died in the other runs of the universe and didn’t have the chance to be reborn again?"

"If you thought and understood that much, then it means that you know who I am," The voice said. "You are right, people have spirits and they are shaped based on their experiences. Something that happened to someone where they were a kid might change their whole view of the world for the rest of their lives. While that wasn’t supposed to be something real, the reset of the universe makes it possible... you are carrying a small part of the spirits of your previous lives. However, those who are lost on the way and can’t accept how things turned out, they join us... we are the lost voices of those who had fallen in the other resets. We built this tower in order to lure all of the overlords and to prevent another reset... it is a natural response, but it is also unnatural, we want to stop it. We don’t want to exist as a single mass of thoughts and unfulfilled desires, and the only way to escape that destiny is by fulfilling our goal. Still, for every thesis there is an antithesis. "

"Aivern..." Luke said.

"Yes, he is an individual that tried to stop the destruction many times, as such he eventually obtained the power to attain the memories of his previous lives, while he refuses to admit that he is living in the same universe that was destroyed many times, it is an fact that he has the same power as us," the voice said. "After witnessing so much destruction and death so many times, it seems that he only wants closure... In one way or the other. He thinks that the universe shouldn’t exist since it failed so many times, but he still tries to create someone able to surpass him. He is contracting himself, but within his contraction, he found an answer to this whole situation."

"I get it... While I get it, it doesn’t mean that I won’t go easy on him," Luke said. "I will make him regret all of his actions against me, my family and friends."

"That is your nature and what is your spirit wants, you have the spirit that wishes for retribution," The voice said. "It might be enough to defeat him, but it might not be enough to solve the whole situation. Do you know why?"

"I have a fairly good idea why... Still, I won’t know until I try," Luke said.

"You are someone who was put against the wall time and time again, always facing impossible odds and opponents much stronger than yourself," the voice said. "Maybe you have what it takes to do this... However, if you fail... You will only join them and you will never be reborn. You will become a part of the problem."