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  This man was but a frog in a well, I could tell. He seemed to have done great things. By merely looking at him, time itself showed me what he had dohese st few years. He hunts tless monsters, growing stronger, all to save his world. What a pity this is—that he has met me instead. He shall have a premature death; he could reach higher iower. But it is not like it truly matters either way. I will destroy the tower, after all.

  “Although I have to admit that yic is powerful, it cks substand the true meaning behind prehending the Dao of Time,” I said. “I would have spared you if there were other circumstances, but you dared to attaot only me but my family and my beloved ones. For that, you deserve death. Ah I shall bring to you.”

  “B-Bullshit…! This is BULLSHIT!” The young Joseph lost his mind, screaming like a madman after seeing his magic, which he always thought owerful, fail him.

  He jured his magice more, as I yawned a bit. I still felt slightly sleepy from st night; it was quite an intense night, for sure. Well, this body of mine was still strong, at the very least, even when slightly sleepy.

  I looked at my appearance, and by fully assimiting the Rivers of Time and eling the Primordial Dao of Time, I could bee the Embodiment of Time. My body and my robes merged together into a being of endless spiraling and swirling time, resembling gray, silver, and white light. The river's silver color was s, and its position so de seemed as if I was covered on an armor made of mercury.

  “DIE! DIE AND GIVE ME YOUR CREDITS, YOU BITCH!”

  Joseph lost his posure as he unleashed more of his “time magiumerous projectiles in the shape of spears and swords were unleashed. I couldn’t believe he called these things time magic; I was going insane by how ridiculous his own cept of time was. He was pletely wrong.

  “I told you already that these do not affect me. Do you truly believe you are allowed to call these things time magic spells? You simply grab raw Time Essend mold it into a sword? Seriously?” I sighed as I caught all his projectiles with my bare body, which then absorbed them. “Well, at the very least I give it back to you! Here.”

  I bined all the projectiles and then summohem out of my body, resembling a giant gray spear, shining with bright, translut light. Which pierced his barriers and then his chest.

  CRASH!

  “Ugh…! ARGH!”

  He touched the spear with his hands as he absorbed it bato his magic, his wound instantly healing as he accelerated the time of his regeion skills.

  “I haven’t even shown you what I do yet…!” He gritted his teeth, smiling maliciously as he raised his hands into the skies. The heavens above split open, with endless waves of gray essence flowing. “I was born with the innate ability to manipute Time Essence. I’ll use all the Time Essence of this world to crush your existeo nothingness."

  With a furious roar, the young sorcerer jured his stro magic. The Pilrs of Time of the World of Eclipse all gathered around me, in the form of two semi-transparent palms! Even I was in awe due to the fancy show—not bad! Now this looks like an Immortal Teique!

  “{Divine os Palms}! {Cage of Deg Time}!”

  With a furious and, both palms attempted to crush me. I felt the endless amount of time essence swirling around my body, trapping me inside a small pseudo-dimensioime itself started to decay, which, as a result, could even disie matter.

  “Hahahah… That ought to do it!” Joseph smiled viciously.

  Yet…

  Crack, crack…!

  “Huh?”

  Crack…!

  “No…”

  CRASH!

  The palms gained tless cracks and then shattered into pieces, disappearing. My body was unbound, unscathed, and boundless. I looked at him, skipped time, and appeared above him in an instant.

  “Y-You teleported?!”

  He blocked my ining attack with his staff, an explosion of Time Essend Primordial Essence cshed against one another, and the eower trembled.

  “Teleportation? No, this is simply skipping time. I call it {Time-Skipping Step}” I smiled. “What, you ’t do that?”

  “I-I do that too!” He cried, quickly trying to imitate my movements as we cshed against one another, an explosion that distorted the pilrs of time of Eclipse eg above the skies of Nexus City.

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  Yet, despite his fidence, he was uo y abilities. He pathetically kept trying, to no avail, though. This is when he finally realized that his powers weren’t as versatile as he imagined.

  “So young and foolish, it almost makes me shed a tear due to ynorance.” I sighed. “Maybe in aime, you could have bey disciple.”

  “What are you talking about?! FUCK OFF AND DIE ALREADY!” Joseph kept screaming like a mad beast. All the Time Essence he maniputed enpassed his entire body, as he took the shape of a giant made of crystalized time, resembling a knight steel armor.

  Using his relics, he teleported short distances of space towards me, appearing and disappearing. Yet I simply stood there, waiting for the perfeent. His giant scythe swiftly desded from above, and I swung my closed fist upwards.

  BAAAM!

  His on exploded into pieces, cracks spread through the rest of his armor, and it quickly fell apart once more. His face, full of disbelief, quickly started to be enpassed by fear. Yet he was too prideful to escape; he started using all kinds of relics against me, but none worked.

  “Why? Why is nothing w against you?! What are you?! How?! It is time! It’s supposed to affect EVERYONE! Nobody is free from time itself!” He cried.

  “That would be the case if I didn’t have my own internal time.” I smiled. “This body of mine assimited a piece of a Primordial and Immemorial Treasure, it is capable of giving me my own internal time. I am ued by the time flow from the rest of the world or outside. Though you ’t even do that yourself, you simply force the Time Esseo take shape; that’s not time manipution. This is time manipution! {Time Regression}”

  FLASH!

  Once more, time was rewinding. Joseph watched in utter disbelief as we moved back to the point where he had just fired me a barrage of sword- and spear-shaped projectiles. He kept his memories because I allowed him to do so.

  “W-Wha…?! WHAT?! We’re back?! How … How you do something I ’t? You… You’re even stro maniputing time than me... You’re…! Are you reted to the Grandfather of Time?”

  “What? Of course not.” I ughed. "I am simply a visitor. But Joseph, the clock is tig; your death is ing.”

  “My wha-”

  He was uo see it ing because I pced it before he could analyze his surroundings. Regressing Time also allowed me to edit the sario in which time was moving backward. Therefore, I simply pced my sword above his head. And then his entire body exploded into pieces as the sword desded like a deadly guillotine.

  SPLAAAT!

  Blood and guts exploded everywhere, raining dowhe rooftops of Nexus City. The ancer died as he came, very quickly.

  “How b! I suppose this is the full extent of... Oh?”

  Something else happened—something I didn’t expect, something I didn’t see ing! Joseph’s body suddenly went back to where it was before, reassembling him. I noticed several Runes glowing within him. He had fully regeed from a sure death!

  “Hahhh… A-As long as I have my Runes of Anti-Death, I won’t die, no matter what!” He ughed.

  “So this was your stro ability at the end, being a rat that ’t die, huh?” I smiled, lig my lips. “Okay! This might be a bit more fun!”

  I Skipped Time once more, appearing in front of him and grabbing his face. He screamed, attempting to hit my arms, but his attacks were so weak they were ughable. He certainly had no physical strength.

  “Aarrggh!Let go of me!”

  His magic simply dissipated o touched me; I couldn’t be affected by the External Time Flow, yet he kept trying stupidly. I imbued my hands with Photon Essend burned his body into ashes.

  “AAAGGHH!”

  He burned almost to ashes but quickly recovered again.

  “Wow, alright.”

  Again.

  And again.

  And again.

  He kept ing back. I was trying to decipher how that Skill worked, but then I realized that I didn’t really o.

  “Hahaha! It’s useless; you ’t kill me! I’ll keep ing back for you, Bing Xue! I will surpass you eventually! Now let go of me, and I’ll be on my way! If you ’t kill me, then there’s little point in wasting time with- Huh? My Status?!”

  His status forcefully appeared as I summo out of his soul by grasping it with my hands. Then, I pced my hands on his status and grabbed all of his stupid skills, crushing them and shattering them into pieces. He did say it was a skill, right?

  Crack, crack…!

  “N-No, what in the world are you…?!”

  CRASH!

  “M-My Skills?! NO…! NOOOO!!!”

  His skills shattered into pieces, disappearing into nothingness. He suddenly started vulsing, and rge ks of his soul disappeared along with his skills. Iing! So destroying a skill is like destroying a piece of a soul. For being so powerful, his prote against soul attacks itiful.

  “I learn something new every day; this Tower is truly full of wonders!” I ughed. “Now, Joseph, let’s see if you die again!”

  “S-Stop! No…! PLEASE STOP!”

  I imbued the Essence of Time into his body as I quickly used Time Acceleration on him. His entire body’s lifespan was drained in a sed, as his entire body, from his youthful and handsome appearance, aged to an old man, which then resembled a mummy, and stly, a dried-out corpse.

  “N-No… My… youth… My Time…! I IME!”

  As he screamed, nothing respoo him anymore. He had grown so used to using skills his own magic was not responding. Indeed, he had bee yet another victim to feed the system. He was someorong in his world, yet now? He was just another meal for the parasites in this Tower.

  “Goodbye, Joseph. I will not even spare your soul, just so you know. I will end your entire existence.”

  “A-Agh…! Please…! S-Stop… Sto…”

  His hands touched my arm before he fell into a pile of dust without being able to ever return to normal. His soul was eaten by my skills too, as I felt a new surge of Divinity and Mana. He was not a bad meal at all, I suppose.

  “The stro Sorcerer of the World of Acacia… You fought well.” I said to myself, slowly desding and joining back with my party. I hadn’t noticed, but half the city was watg the whole fight occur.

  “I’m back! Sorry for taking a while; is everyone okay?” I asked with a gentle smile, my body slowly going back to its former appearance. “Really sorry about that, my dears; it won’t happen again.”

  “N-No, it’s fine…” Urbosa muttered. “W-We just saw that, and it just happened… I am still thinking about it.”

  “It was certainly a ridiculous fight overall. I hought Pyers could do… that.” Said Merkite. “Yet, you were even strohan him! Incredible, I ’t believe I lost my virginity to such a powerful woman.”

  “Papa’s super strong!” Hekita celebrated as she came bay shoulders. “Papa, you teach me to be strong too?”

  “Oh? Sure thing, dear!” I smiled. “Papa will teach you everything! You will bee the stro cultivator!”

  “Yaaay! I will bee the stro cultivator… Huh? But I don’t want to cultivate pnts!” She pouted.

  “She didn’t mean it like that, dear.” My mhed a bit. “A-And well, I think I am growing used to seeing Bing Xue destroy a ridiculously powerful Pyer now.”

  “Me too.” Ruby sighed. “Anyways, shall we go? Whoever was that guy, I bet he wasn’t even that big of a deal.”

  “Y-Yeah…” I nodded, preferring not to reveal his true identity as the world of Acacia’s st hope.

  It was certainly a distinctive tract, from a bloody battle to a peaceful and warm versation. I think I get used to this, yeah. It is not a bad feeling at all. At least the battles end quickly and don’t st years like in Murim, so it could be said that my life has bee very rexing in parison.

  “Wele to the Adventurer’s Guild! Ah! Bing Xue! Wele!” Little Peperina greeted me happily. “You came back alive! Amazing!”

  Well, it helps that there are a lot of cuties around too.

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  Pach