The Extra's Odyssey

-(Past || After Leon was teleported and before Nathan defeated the Abomination on his side)-

The world reassembled piece by piece and before Leon could confirm the identity of the newcomer he was already standing somewhere else.

Grrrrr-

His perception picked multiple presences surrounding him. Just as he tried to take a stance to fight again, he reeled, clearly too injured to continue.

At the same time, a somewhat familiar voice entered his ears.

"Defeat these monster- huh? You aren't a summon. You are… Leon?!"

A girl in her early twenties was covering him while the monsters attacked. Squinting he tried to recall where he had seen her.

Aquamarine eyes, a bit fatigued, short trimmed aquamarine hair that didn't even reach her shoulders and a battle hardened appearance.

He didn't recognize her. He found her voice to be familiar, but there was no one who looked like her in his memories.

However, this wasn't the time to rest and question her. ƒ𝑟𝐞𝗲𝘄𝙚𝚋𝑛ｏ𝙫𝒆𝒍.𝒄𝘰𝓂

Cough-

"Where am I? And what is the situation?"

He brought an elixir out of his storage ring and downed it in one gulp. Although the girl was stopping the army of monsters alone, she couldn't counterattack.

Staring at him for a few moments, she hesitated to answer.

"Dungeon of Trials, 3rd [Singularity] Trial, [Puzzle-Type]. I used [Rescue Summoning] to call for help and you were summoned."

Blinking for a few seconds, Leon's brain went into overdrive.

After saving Nathan's soul core, he was back to his previous self. As for the one who arrived later to fight the Abomination, he didn't think it was Nathan, or rather, he was refusing to believe that it was Nathan. Because that would mean he had abandoned Nathan even though he returned to fight the Abomination.

The girl gave Leon a side-along glance and commanded a dozen magic circles at her fingertips. The sight was ludicrous. She was only Iota-rank, yet the magic she was deploying was beyond Rank 4, no, looking closely he realized that he couldn't evaluate the rank of the magic she used.

She wasn't using magic chants nor was she using spells to increase the number of her magic spells, Leon doubted she was using skills to increase the magic circles, yet without a doubt at least a dozen magic circles were floating in front of them, stopping the magic attacks of the eagles attacking them.

Nevertheless, Leon had seen too much today to be shocked by this alone. It was the identity of the girl which shook him.

"Anna…?"

"Hmm"

The girl hummed in agreement, too busy to give a proper reply.

What happened to her appearance? Why was she on the 3rd [Singularity] Trial? How did she become so strong? There were too many questions, but too little time to ask them.

While his limbs were almost healed, Anna spoke awkwardly.

"Ehm, can you help?"

Anna could defend at best. Stopping a hundred high Iota-rank monsters was already remarkable, almost heroic… and a bit absurd, she couldn't do more than this. If they didn't escape, they would be defeated. And given the weird System messages that came weeks prior, defeat meant death, a permanent one at that.

"I can now"

Zap-

Leon jumped to his feet and, activating his stigma, went out of the protective area created by Anna.

"Wait! All of them are at least high Iota-rank! Don't go outside! We need to run!"

Anna paled. Although it was years ago they met, it would've been only a few months for Leon, he couldn't defeat a hundred high Iota-rank monsters by himself.

"You'll die! What are you doing?!"

Knowing it was best to show results than asking her to believe in him, Leon jumped into the middle of the fray.

The eagles were each 2 meter big and throwing wing blades and using wind magic to attack. Making sure that every monster was in range, Leon closed his eyes and took a stance.

"Fourth Form: Domain"

Taking a deep breath while sensing every little movement of all monsters, Leon used a technique from his traditional art.

"Fifth Form: Thousand Divine Slash"

He slowly yet powerfully swung his blade as if dancing. Twirling around, his figure blurred, but at the same time, it was as if he was moving in slow motion.

Anna almost forgot to breathe at the mesmerizing scene, at least until he stopped dancing.

Thud-

Something fell.

Thud- Thud- Thud-

Before Anna could realize what transpired, the eagles fell from the sky. Some had their entire bodies cleaved while some were deactivated, some had a small yet fatal cut on their bodies, and some were unharmed yet undoubtedly dead.

[Congratulations, you have killed Lvl.21 Azure Eagle. You have gained….]

[Congratulations, you have killed Lvl.24 Azure Eagle. You….]

[Congratulations, you have killed Lvl.20 Azure….]

[Congratulations, you have killed….]

[Congratulations, you have killed….]

[Congratulations, you have killed….]

[Congratulations….]

[Congratulations….]

[Congratulations….]

[Congratulations….]

…

…

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

An endless amount of notifications covered Leon's vision. Engrossed in analyzing the technique he used, he missed the fact that he leveled up twice. It shouldn't have been possible with his low accumulation rate, but now his [Full-Frame] had evolved and he was reaping the benefits.

'I see. Even if I use the original version of my art and not the variant version, as long as I remember the essence of the technique, it shouldn't be a problem.'

Unknowingly, he clenched his fists. He couldn't forget how the Abomination toyed with him and thus he was trying to create something new.

Defeating the monster, Anna took Leon to her hidden area. She was excited, a little apprehensive, and to some extent, afraid. Leon, an Iota-rank awakener, had defeated almost hundred high Iota-rank monsters in a few seconds. She had every right to feel what she was feeling.

Leon fell to his butt. He was too exhausted to move, both physically and mentally.

As time passed, none spoke.

Noticing the side glances Anna was giving, Leon understood he had to be the one to initiate the conversation.

Fortunately, once he spoke, the ice was easily broken and Anna told him about what happened over the past few years.

"You chose [Puzzle-Type] [Singularity] since the beginning and because of this you were late for midterm exams?"

Having chosen an artifact, similar to Leon's artifact, from the 2nd Trial reward to change her appearance, nobody suspected her.

After the exam, she re-entered the tower immediately to grow stronger and reach a higher floor to get merit points so that she could revoke her upcoming expulsion.

Thankfully, since [Puzzle-Type] trials didn't depend on brute force, even she, a support mage, was able to clear them.

The problem arose when she entered 3rd trial and difficulty shot up by a large margin. Due to her depressed mental psyche from missing the exam, she hadn't prepared accordingly and made a mistake after beginning the trial.

"Hmm." Anna nodded. "[Puzzle-Type] is the easiest and the hardest type among the three types of trials. If you don't make a mistake, you can clear the trial without fighting, but if you made a mistake, you might have to fight monster 2 whole ranks above you."

Leon scowled. Two ranks higher, Tesla-rank. An Iota-rank defeating an Enma-rank was enough to call the awakener a top genius of Earth.

Defeating Tesla-rank monster as an Iota-rank? Even Pioneers would laugh at you if you tell them that this was possible.

Not only was there a large gap in stats between Enma-rank and Tesla-rank, Tesla-rank meant having already undergone one evolution. This, coupled with the fact that their enemies were monsters which are generally stronger than awakeners, made it more troublesome.

Anna continued.

"I didn't want to use my 1st Trial reward but a few weeks back the Support system of Tower suddenly went down and later I was forced to use the [Rescue-Summoning] artifact to save my life."

"[Rescue-Summoning]" Leon mumbled to himself. He recalled seeing something similar in his 2nd Trial clear reward list. "How many uses are left for the artifact?"

"None. You were summoned in the last attempt. The previous two summons were spirits, but they died quickly due to the overwhelming number of monsters."

Scribbling at the ground, Leon was lost in his thoughts.

[Rescue-Summoning] an artifact with fixed uses that can summon summons based on luck and the summoner's immediate problem. It wasn't anything but a miracle that Leon was summoned and thus escaped the jaws of death at the last second.

"What about you?"

Anna's question made Leon freeze. He recalled everything that had happened in the past day and his Noah-like expression began returning. 𝐟𝘳𝑒𝗲𝘸e𝒃𝘯𝒐𝐯e𝚕.c𝒐𝒎

He had been trying to forget everything, trying to believe that everything had ended. But even if he didn't focus on the identity of the person on Floor 14, he couldn't forget the faces of all those who died.

"Uhm, you have weird naming sense."

Anna's social skills were never good, and years of isolation only made the condition worse. She could tell that Leon didn't want to talk about the topic and tried to change it. But what came out of her mouth was a blunt response.

Not understanding what she was trying to say, Leon tilted his head.

"You also choose [Singularity] Trial."

Leon nodded. His growth made it clear as day that he had chosen [Singularity] Trial.

"Why did you choose such a unique name for your alias?"

Blunt as always, Anna didn't mince her words. Although her tone didn't show it, she was trying to tease Leon for the name.

Actually, she was thankful to Leon for choosing that 'unique' alias. Back when she almost gave up on her trial, the alias would make her giggle and uplift her mood. No matter how little it was, that comfort was her sole solace during those hellish days.

"Alias? For what?"

Anna was about to answer her when the ground shook heavily.

Boom- Boom- Boom-

The tremors increased in intensity, and a monster landed in front of them.

"How did it find us?" Anna grimaced.

The monster was high Enma-rank, something they could never hope to defeat.

However, thinking more, Anna got ready to fight. Maybe with Leon here, they could win.

Boom- Boom-

At that moment, four more Enma-rank monsters appeared.