Death... and me



Somewhere in the borders of the Swamp of no Return, a very subtle Spatial Oscillation happened in the barrier separating the Swamp and the outside. Still, because all of the Elder Devils available were here, they were still able to detect such a thing. It's just that no one came here to check why it happened.

The reason for that was the actual situation of the Swamp of no Return. The energy inside was increasing nonstop, making the barrier look more like a balloon that kept increasing in size. This kind of Spatial oscillation was happening pretty much everywhere within the borders of the Swamp that kept expanding.

However, this oscillation was different from the others. It only lasted a fraction of a second before completely disappearing. Little did the Elder Devils know, but a Spatial Connection between the inside and outside of the barrier was created in that place. It was used so that a certain Pixiu and a Human could get out of the Swamp.

Sure enough, those two figures were none other than Sesame and Roan. Before Sesame brought the two of them out, they used Sesame's Spatial Concealment as well as Roan's Divine Sense Bending skill. That guaranteed that no one saw the moment they appeared there. They obviously didn't stay there for long. Right after, Sesame opened another Spatial Gate and entered it with Roan.

A few hours later, the Protecting Barrier of the Swamp of no Return finally couldn't hold anymore. All the concentrated energy inside the balloon burst out as the barrier broke into pieces. What followed was an explosion of ridiculous proportions, spreading outwards through tens of thousands of kilometers, annihilating everything in its path.

Fortunately, due to the Swamp's odd abilities, the Elder Devils from the past had long since cleared the area, so no city could be found anywhere near the explosion site. Of course, there were bound to be Devils scattered around in the range of the explosion, but they could only count themselves unlucky for that.

As for the Devils inside the Swamp of No Return, they were a lot luckier. Most of them didn't even know what was happening yet, and because they were too far away from the borders due to being lost, they didn't get close to the place where the energies accumulated the most. Simply put, those far inside the Swamp didn't have to worry about the explosion.

Crazy Luman and his Lakures did stay close to the border, though. However, Luman was already at the Peak Stage of the Space-Time Realm. At his level, an explosion with such a wide range didn't have the power to harm him. The rest of the Lakures in his care were inside his Pocket-Dimensional Realm, so they were obviously fine as well. 

Sesame and Roan knew nothing of that. Well, they knew an explosion was going to happen, but that simply wasn't their problem. Sesame was just focusing on moving to a city far away from the Swamp he knew about. As for Roan, well, he and Rean inside the Dimensional Realm were busy with another thing. As soon as they got away from the Swamp, the Soul Gem System sprung to life.

*Pin!*

[Hosts have successfully acquired the Swamp of No Return Universe Foundation Fragment.]

[Reward: 500000 Destiny Points.]

[Total: 533215 Destiny points available.]

[The system will now be unavailable for the next 50 hours. The Dimensional Realm will be kept open, but all system-related functions will be disabled.]

'Oh! So we finally got the reward for the quest.' Naturally, Rean heard that while he worked on Hex inside the Dimensional Realm.

Roan, who was outside, agreed with him. 'Indeed. Still, Sister Orb should be awake, no? Since she is a separate sentience.'

[Yea, yea, I'm not gonna pretend to go silent because of the upgrade. Still, don't expect me to help with anything that needs the system's access.]

'Not a problem,' Rean didn't mind it. 'We will just keep analyzing Hex during the next 50 hours. You won't have the system help, but you can still work with me to see how Hex's runes work.'

[That's exactly what I was thinking.]

Kentucky, who was also hearing the conversation, couldn't help but ask. 'Does that mean random destiny changes will not give Destiny Points anymore?'

Sister Orb confirmed his words. [That's correct. You have to understand that although Gem created the system, he made it in a way that it would evolve by itself. I liked the idea, so I didn't intervene in this process. Since the system decided that it was necessary to only give Destiny Points through quests, that means it is the best course of action for it. After all, its improvement is directly connected to how well we do. It wouldn't make things difficult for itself.]

'The system did say when it gave the last quest that a lot more Destiny Points would be rewarded once that happened, so I guess we can expect quite a boost.'

Roan only found one problem with this change. 'That's good and all. However, quests are given to us randomly. If no quests come around, there will be no more Destiny Points.'

Rean and the others went silent. Indeed, they never knew when a new quest could suddenly pop out. In the end, Rean just shook his head. 'It's not like we can do anything about it. Let's wait for the system to turn back on and then we can check the changes.'

Without another choice, Roan could only accept the idea. 'We will do as you said.'

Outside, Sesane wasn't hearing anything since the twins' group was using their Soul Connection. Instead, he was paying attention to his surroundings. Finally, he found what he was looking for. "There you are! I knew you wouldn't disappear even after all those years."

Roan looked ahead as Sesame opened a tear in space, bringing the two of them out of the fabric of space. Right in front of him, a city had just appeared. It's just that...

"This is quite a small city..."