“Come human, face me!” Tinemouth said. “If you defeat me, this world will be yours! You will have access to god-like powers!”

That was a very interesting offer, but the bait was too obvious. Tinemouth probably had set a few traps inside his castle, or maybe he was confident of his victory in a direct combat. In any case, he would gain a lot by fighting against me, and I didn’t know if he was telling the truth. I would fight him anyway, but only after a few preparations. I sit on the ground and then I began to create magic arrows, my ammo was running low, and I needed a lot more to defeat that ‘’ Troll Emperor.”

“What are you waiting for?” Tinemouth asked, and I could sense the annoyance in his voice. “Come and face me, don’t you want power and riches?”

I ignored him and kept creating magic arrows, he seemed to have a big mouth, and for some reason, he wanted me to go and meet him. I didn’t know why, but he couldn’t leave the place where he was, so I decided to use that in my favor.

Pathetic, human!” Tinemouth shouted. “Aren’t you a warrior? Aren’t you going to avenge your fellow humans that died by my orders?”

“I’m not a warrior, and I’m not going to avenge strangers.”

To my surprise, five trolls appeared out of nowhere right in front of me. Stella used the electric prison in one and used the thunderstorm on the others; thanks to her; I had time to react. I used my most powerful arrows to get rid of them as fast as possible since Stella couldn’t fly in that space, she suffered some damage, but soon she healed after she ate the trolls. I felt very uncomfortable seeing that, humanoid creatures being devoured wasn’t a pleasant sight.

Anyway, it seemed that I pissed off Tinemouth, but that wasn’t surprising, I was really talented at that, after all. I wondered if he had teleported those trolls, but I discarded that idea. When the trolls appeared, they weren’t ready to attack; it took a full second for them to see me and raise their weapons.

‘Did he create those trolls just like that big rat which had the dark orb?’

If that was really the case, perhaps he didn’t lie that I would obtain god-like powers. The fat rat only could create rats, and he only could create trolls, so the power was pretty much the same.

‘What was the name again? Replication?’

Unlike Harry’s copies, those monsters’ were strong. I stayed on guard waiting for new trolls, but nothing happened. Only after five minutes other five trolls appeared and just like before we crushed them.

‘It seems he can’t use that power at will… or is he trying to make me drop my guard?’

That same process happened a few times, Tinemouth tried to taunt me, I ignored him and then after five minutes five trolls appeared. It was a pain to stop the meditation, but I didn’t have much choice but to move, after all, they could create those ice lances from the ground.

After two hours, Tinemouth noticed that his actions were useless, so he stopped. But after half an hour, thirty trolls appeared coming from the interior of his castle.

‘So, he really can create only five trolls every five minutes… but it is strange… how can he create such powerful creatures so easily? Is he using a statue? The other trolls don’t have so much MP.’

Instead of approaching, the trolls used their range attacks, so we had no choice but to retreat. It seemed that he also could control or give orders to those trolls. However, he wasn’t exactly a genius. He could have blocked our path, but instead of that, he made his trolls follow us. In an open field, I killed them quickly.

Once I returned to his castle, I decided to ask some questions to keep his mind busy. I needed some time to create magic arrows, and I wouldn't be able to defeat him anytime soon if he attacks me every five minutes. It was good that I could break my limits and obtain a lot of coins, but I had to search for survivors. I accepted that job, and I had to finish it.

“Hey, why are you doing this? And when your planet got connected with the earth?”

“Why?” Tinemouth’s voice sounded confused. “The path to obtain power is endless, I’m the strongest in my world, and there are no more challenges here for me. That’s why I want to fight against your race and become even stronger. and I have been doing this for the past forty days.”

It seemed the dungeon connecting worlds appeared right after we completed the virtual reality. He wanted to get stronger by fighting against us, so he probably couldn’t obtain orbs and coins by defeating his own trolls…

“Wait a minute; you can’t get stronger on this planet… that means that you are the only one who survived until now?”

“That’s right,” Tinemouth said proudly. “After my planet got assimilated, my race struggled to survive. We reclaimed our planet, but the assimilation was just the beginning. Many invaders attacked our planet and absorbed the mana from it, until the very last drop. I managed to survive, and then I obtained the power to rule this planet.”

Many weird terms were popping out… but I only focused my attention on the word invaders. It was hard to believe, but things were getting even weirder. The assimilation was probably the term we could use to represent the arrival of monsters and of that damn voice. Mana was perhaps the energy that made us able to use magic, so, MP stands for mana points. Earth just got assimilated, so the planet has lots of mana, and that energy was used to strengthen every living being, and that was why those invaders attacked his planet. Then that means… earth was already being targeted. Those dungeons were basically portals to make aliens monsters arrive on earth.

‘The assimilation granted earth the ability to participate in a huge battle royale of a cosmic scale… we obtained crazy powers, and the planet is also receiving a lot of mana. But in exchange, we also became a target for races who are participating in this battle royale for centuries, maybe for thousands of years… what a headache.’

Suddenly, I didn’t feel like attacking him anymore. He fought for centuries, and he could create trolls that were stronger than ninety-nine percent of earth’s survivors. We weren’t in the same league. He was probably even stronger than the dragon we faced before. But why can’t he attack me directly? Why doesn’t he just invade earth already? I couldn’t even imagine how strong he could be after fighting and breaking his limits for centuries… something was off.

“Hey, why don’t you invade already? What are you waiting for?”

Tinemouth didn’t answer; the answer was probably something very troublesome for him. He was strong, but for some reason, that strength wasn’t enough to make him invade earth. It seemed that he wasn’t all that dumb… or perhaps he was, it was hard to be sure.

‘He is sure of his victory in a direct combat… but don’t want to leave the place where he is… and he needs something more besides strength to invade earth. He is under some serious restrictions.’

I decided to retreat, I was in his world, even though he genuinely wasn’t the god of that world, he was in a situation far better than mine. Besides, it was stupid to approach a creature who had fought and survived for centuries. I climbed on Stella’s back, and then I gave the order for her to return to our starting point.

“Pathetic human…” Tinemouth growled. “Your weak and coward race shall be wiped out from your planet, by my hand.”

I ignored Tinemouth’s words, and then I faced the freezing wind again, I didn’t have to face him on his domain, I just had to stop his plans and then kill him when the opportunity arises. There was no need to rush.

After I returned to earth, I decided to investigate the surroundings, and it didn’t take long before I could see some strange things. First, the entrance of the dungeon was right in the middle of the frozen part of the destroyed city. I used Stella to fly above the entrance of the dungeon, and then I noticed the ice formed a perfect circle.

‘This ice is made by the mana coming from the dungeon… but didn’t he say the mana of his planet had been absorbed? Why is he trying to freeze the surroundings of a dungeon?’

I could probably discover why if I analyze his status, but it was too risky. While I was thinking about what to do, one hour passed, and then I felt the presence of five trolls crossing the invisible portal. Soon after that, I heard the sound of bones cracking and flesh being torn apart. After five seconds, their presence disappeared.

“What the hell…”

I rushed to see what had happened, but it was pretty obvious, the trolls had killed each other. After five minutes, the whole process repeated itself. Tinemouth gave them the order for them to kill each other on this planet, but why? When I thought about it, I decided to leave the frozen area of the city. I tried to analyze the frozen area, but I didn’t have to do it, it was obvious what was happening. After another five trolls killed each other, the frozen area grew five centimeters.

“Son of a bitch…”

I tried to measure the distance between the portal and the still non-frozen part of the city. The ice had covered almost six hundred meters in all directions from the epicenter of the dungeon. I made a few calculations, and I concluded Tinemouth was increasing the layer of ice by one centimeter every minute for the past forty days.

‘He is using his mana to create the environment of his planet on earth… then, even though he is far stronger than any of us, he needs to be in cold regions to be able to use his full power.’

I wondered if that was even necessary, even weakened, after fighting for centuries he should be stronger than the dragon. He was hiding something and couldn’t leave the place where he was. I tried to destroy that ice, but even my most powerful fire arrow was useless… that was the difference between our powers.

‘I can’t jump to conclusions… for now, all I have to do is to stop his plans.’

It will be excruciating, but I would have to stop him on his planet and under that blizzard. I needed to stop his plans, but I couldn't stop my training. I had to increase my mana pool every day.

‘It will be annoying… but it will also be a good training. I also need to search for survivors; I don’t know when this guy will lose his patience, after all… I guess I will have to learn the skill Harry learned and make my copy search for survivors; it should be fine since monsters outside the dungeons are many times weaker than those trolls.’

I didn’t want to ask for help, and I didn't Claire either. So, I returned to that city using the memory stone while I was invisible. Sabrina was there, but not she nor the others protecting the statue noticed me. It was noon, and the statues hologram didn’t emit much light in an open space.

Skill: Partial Replication.

Info: You can create a copy of yourself, your HP, MP, and STA will be divided between you and your copies.

Cost: 10 MP per copy.

Price: 50000 Evolution coins.

‘A clone who wants to create copies… how ironic.’

Since my copy wouldn’t be able to meditate, I created two backpacks that could share the same interior space.

Twin Dimensional Storage Backpacks Level 01: two backpacks connected by a single-dimensional space. The users can use to transfer anything. It can store 100 Kg.

Cost: 50000 Evolution Coins.

Ten times more expensive, thanks to a single function… but it couldn’t be helped; it was what I needed, and it was a handy function. While my copy could pick potions of monsters, it was impossible to tell if he would get enough to create his ammo. Besides, the chances of a troll dropping an item were bigger. I almost forgot that I also decided to buy a melee weapon.

‘I’m not skillful, and I'm very clumsy, according to Jerry, it is because I spent those five years in a lab. But this isn’t an excuse to stay like this forever… however, I also can’t choose a weapon too difficult to handle; my life is one the line, and I also like more practical things…’

That being said, thanks to Eric or not, I was a decent fighter using my fists. Although it wasn’t a thing that was in my control, but I could learn to control it and adapt to use it against monsters. After a few seconds, my melee weapon took shape.

Assassin’s Mechanic Arms: A sturdy pair of weapons that can also protect your entire arms. It uses the enemies’ blood to repair itself. There are a thirty centimeters long hidden blade in both arms; to equip or to hide those blades, you just need to use your mind.

Cost: 200000 Evolution coins.

I spent the evolution coins obtained in the last month all at once, but that had been a good and cool investment.