[A/N: Thanks for your thoughts. I needed another POV for future chapters.]
Seth stared at that system notification, breathing heavily and raggedly from what he had just endured and pushed himself through. His eyes went momentarily blank, and he nearly fainted on the spot from sheer mental and physical exhaustion. But he managed to hold himself together through pure stubborn will, looking down at his own body, which was now completely covered in blood from head to toe.
'So the goal was to forcibly take control of my own body within the memory,' Seth thought with grim understanding. 'Fuck this skill and its Trials.'
Without wasting another second, he cast a teleportation spell and vanished, reappearing instantly in the private room that had been given to him within the palace. The moment he arrived, he cast a cleaning spell that removed all the blood from his body and clothing. Then he immediately collapsed onto the bed, desperately taking the chance to rest and recover.
***
"Only a very few specific skills do that kind of thing to people," the King spoke calmly from his throne, his voice measured and thoughtful. "I'm guessing he selected the skill [Survival], and must have pushed it immediately to the absolute hardest difficulty level available. The blood covering his entire body is a clear sign of him pushing his willpower far past its natural limits."
Within the throne room, he paused the magical recording that showed Seth covered completely in blood, freezing the image in mid-air.
"Evelin," he said softly, his gaze shifting downward to where Evelin was kneeling respectfully before the throne.
"What do you think we should do about this situation? What course of action would be best for our empire's future?" he asked calmly.
Although he already had a specific plan forming in his mind, he genuinely valued the fact that Evelin was highly intelligent and possessed the ability to make the best possible choices in critical moments like this. Her perspective was worth hearing before he committed to any particular path forward.
"The best choice for our empire, my lord..." Evelin began carefully, choosing her words with care. "It's to bind him permanently to our empire through blood ties. If we could have an elf bear his children, we would not only form an unbreakable bond with him personally, but we would also ensure that someone in this empire inherits his extraordinary talent. The best person suited for this role would be..."
Evelin froze mid-sentence as the realization hit her with full force—who else could possibly be the best choice but her? Since the King's daughter had gone missing years ago and was presumed dead, he had no daughter available to arrange a marriage with Seth.
He only had sons, all of whom hated Evelin to her very core, despising her specifically because the King was actively planning to give the throne to her instead of to them.
"Evelin, do you want to know why not just anyone can use the purification pool?" the King asked gently, his tone almost fatherly.
Evelin shook her head slowly, uncertain where this line of questioning was leading.
"Because those of direct descent from our ancient ancestor show the best results when using it, and even then, most of us struggle greatly to purify our talent to A-tier and above," he explained carefully. "Yet you managed to purify your talent all the way to SS-tier, something that should have been completely impossible."
His words caused Evelin's pupils to shrink in shock as understanding finally dawned on her—she understood exactly what he was implying with those words.
"Do you honestly think I would give my throne to just anyone?" he continued, his voice carrying both warmth and absolute conviction. "You are the future queen, my daughter... But before you can sit upon this throne and rule our people, you must follow that man and tie him down to this empire permanently. Make him ours."
Evelin nodded seriously, her expression hardening with determination as her mind immediately began racing through all types of different possibilities and strategies she could employ.
"Seth is incredibly arrogant by nature," she said softly, thinking through her approach carefully. "Someone like him, once he says something, wouldn't go back on his words—his pride wouldn't allow it. I already have a plan forming in mind."
The King nodded approvingly, watching her rise and leave the throne room with purposeful strides. Once she was gone, he turned his attention back to the frozen magical recording of Seth covered in blood.
Seth was a tool far too powerful and unpredictable to destroy, which meant the King had to use him to the absolute best of his capability and manipulate circumstances to the empire's advantage.
****
Back on Earth, time continued moving forward relentlessly, even in Seth's absence. Seth had left exactly at the two-month mark after the world had first awakened to mana and undergone its fundamental transformation. But on that very same night he had departed through the dungeon gate, tier 7 monsters began spawning throughout the world for the first time.
And with their appearance came another significant change—monsters that were born naturally in this world rather than spawned began appearing everywhere. These native-born creatures didn't suffer from the standard fifty percent debuff that affected spawned monsters.
They were inherently stronger, more dangerous. For example, a typical tier 2 Goblin that was spawned had a combat power of just 20. Without the debuff reducing its strength, that same goblin would have a combat power of 40.
But these newly born native monsters possessed combat powers of 50 or even higher right from the start, depending entirely on their individual talent ratings. With these newborn monsters being able to freely leave their spawning regions without restrictions, they quickly took complete charge of their territories.
They began leading organized attacks on human-controlled regions, systematically swallowing up portions of human territory bit by bit, while devouring humans and absorbing their energy to grow even stronger.
It didn't help the human situation at all that these monsters were actively working together in coordinated groups to combat humanity effectively. But the overlords who were truly struggling the most were specifically those who hadn't pushed themselves hard enough to reach their combat power limits before the shift occurred.
Chu Yin and her well-trained army, for example, didn't face this same desperate struggle. They were easily able to kill off the weaker monsters in large numbers, while leaving the genuinely stronger tier 7 and above creatures to be handled exclusively by SS-tier and above fighters in her forces.
Chu Yin was successfully able to take over numerous regions thanks to a simple but effective strategy—the overlords of these monster-controlled regions would foolishly step out personally to lead their armies into battle.
The moment they exposed themselves, she would slaughter them without mercy and immediately claim control of their entire region. So the land under her direct control grew dramatically and rapidly, expanding her empire. All while her personal combat power also continued climbing steadily upward.
By the end of just the first week after Seth had left Earth, her combat power had more than doubled from where it had been. Thanks to her Omni Ice ability, she discovered she could freeze her own body inside ice that actively made her stronger over time.
It was a creative application that Seth had suggested to her before leaving—she had the power to freeze absolutely anything, so why not freeze away her own limitations and force her body to adapt and grow beyond them? Why not create Ice with which did just that?
It required her to reach level 3 out of 5 with her Omni Ice ability, but once she finally achieved that milestone, she discovered she could create a thin layer of specialized ice around her entire body that actively made her stronger over time.
But the ice was brutally cold, forcing her to endure temperatures that would kill most beings even though her resistance to cold was already maxed out at level 5. Her ice was fundamentally special and unique, possessing properties that allowed it to bypass such resistances entirely.
By week two since Seth had left Earth, her combat power had climbed to an impressive 300,000 without any need for equipment or gear to boost her stats. At that point, however, the growth rate had slowed dramatically to the point where she had to freeze herself in progressively thicker and thicker layers of ice if she wished to continue experiencing that same accelerated growth.
But it was a full month after Seth's departure that she got truly creative with her approach. Why not simply create some kind of limit-breaking ice that could shatter the natural ceiling on her power? Sadly, the MP cost required to create such powerful ice capable of actually shattering her fundamental limits was far too high for her current reserves.
But instead, she discovered she was able to create modified ice that could help others break through their own barriers. Meanwhile, she figured out that by creating ice with far greater drawbacks and negative side effects, she could dramatically increase the ice's positive effects in proportion. So by intentionally increasing the pain she experienced, she could grow substantially stronger in return.
[A/N: I don't remember if I explained Chu Yin's ability before, but she has Omni Ice. This lets her create any type of ice or space she can imagine. This is the standard "hax" power granted to anyone with an SSS-tier ability. They can generate any form of their element and give it unique effects or properties.
For example, someone with an SSS-tier Fire ability could create flames that burn time, space, causality, concepts, even reality itself. Once someone reaches Level 5 in an SSS-tier skill, they can pretty much ignore traditional combat power. At that level, almost no one can beat them, regardless of raw stats.
To illustrate: imagine someone with 500 trillion combat power fights Chu Yin, who doesn't even have one million. Normally she'd be overwhelmed—but Omni Ice bypasses that. She can create Ice that freezes concepts, time, space, reality, or anything else she targets. Because she's attacking something the opponent can't resist, their 500 trillion combat power becomes meaningless.
Now, someone said something about how the creator of Jojo and the anime world should also have UR tier talents. But the thing is, the Jojo verse has a cap at the SS tier. For example, let's say the creator of that world wished to have Wonder of U. As we have seen from All Fiction, abilities start in their weaker state, before they slowly reveal it's true self as one tier up, and stop at the level one had wished for.
Now, regarding the idea that the creator of JoJo or its anime world should, should anyone there gain an UR-tier talents:
The JoJo universe is capped at SS tier, not SSS or UR. For example, even if the creator of that world wished for the ability like Wonder of U, its development would follow the established system:
Abilities begin in their weaker, initial form. They slowly awaken and reveal higher functions over time. They stop evolving once they reach the tier the wisher intended, or unless they find a way to evolve their talent.
Doomsday Adaptation is an SS-tier ability—although it's close to reaching SSS-tier. Why not higher? Because Adaptation suffers from the same counters that work on SSS-tier talents.
If someone with an SSS-tier ability creates a type of Ice, Flame, or conceptual element specifically designed to turn off adaptation... well, a battle would go something like this.
Enemy: I can adapt to everything and anything. Haha, what can you do?
Person with SSS tier talent: How about creating Ice that turns off adaptation, or can't be adapted to, or ice that adapts to your adaptation, and adapts faster, as I can simply add space, time, reality, and all types of stuff to ensure it would always adapt faster than you?
People with SSS-tier talents have terrifying flexibility that lets them cheat the rules.Want to warp reality? Then an SSS-tier user can just freeze reality, burn reality, or rewrite it themselves to a scale you can't rival..Have a strong talent? They can freeze your talent, burn your talent, or alter your talent directly. Their abilities scale conceptually, not physically.
So, with all that in mind… what the hell is the MC's ability for it to qualify as UR-tier?Gojo's ability alone shouldn't be enough to reach that level...]