Dual Realm Exchange System

The group broke camp shortly after breakfast.

Whatever awkwardness had been created by that morning’s revelations did not magically disappear simply because everyone picked up their equipment and returned to work, but Moonveil Forest was remarkably effective at forcing people to focus on more immediate concerns.

Paulina took the forward position beside Julia as usual, although her tail had developed an extremely irritating habit of wagging whenever she glanced back at Damian.

Julia noticed every single time, became embarrassed on Paulina’s behalf for reasons known only to herself, then immediately pretended she had been studying the surrounding trees instead.

Eunice walked slightly farther behind than normal.

Damian noticed, but said nothing.

There would be time for that later.

For now, they still had a sector to clear.

As the group moved through the forest, Damian finally turned his attention toward two notifications he had been deliberately leaving unopened since Ravelhorn’s death.

Yeah...

He knew.

He had somehow found time to accidentally fight Valor, acquire administrative immunity, train Kellan from Level 1 to Level 7, get two girlfriends and discover that said girlfriends were apparently daughters of people powerful enough to casually rearrange the political map of Valoria...

Yet he had repeatedly ignored his own fucking loot screen.

At some point, even Damian had to admit his priorities were becoming questionable.

The first notification belonged to .

[Eligible slain remnant recorded.]

[Target: Ravelhorn the Reveler.]

[Final State: Archfey — Legend Stage.]

[Current Plundering Ratio: 19.5%.]

Damian’s attention sharpened.

Ravelhorn’s physical body had been thoroughly introduced to the concept of nuclear fire, but apparently that meant absolutely nothing to the Feat.

It had previously extracted Attributes from people Damian reduced to ash in Shengyuan, so as long as enough of a slain being’s existence remained for the Dual-Realm Exchange System to recognize them, the method did not particularly care whether Damian had left behind a neat corpse.

The extraction began.

[Compatible Attribute selected.]

[Attribute Plundered: CHA.]

[Attribute Gain: +7.8.]

[CHA: 12.4 → 20.2.]

Damian nearly stumbled over a root.

”Holy shit?!”

Paulina glanced backward. ”What?”

”Nothing!”

She stared suspiciously for another moment before continuing onward.

Damian looked back at the notification.

Of course it was Charisma.

Why wouldn’t Ravelhorn’s random contribution be fucking Charisma?!

The bastard had convinced Dark Goblins to reorganize their entire society around his plans, manipulated monsters across southern Moonveil, inspired Mirelle’s absolute loyalty, carried enough personal magnetism to dominate every conversation he entered, and apparently built a reputation that survived centuries of exile from the Wild Court.

If anyone possessed an obscene Charisma score, it would naturally be the charming Satyr musician whose response to becoming everyone’s enemy was to keep smiling and playing his lute.

Still...

+7.8 from one kill, huh?

Damian’s lips twitched.

His Charisma had just jumped from 12.4 to 20.2 without spending a single Free Attribute Point, and unlike some temporary spell or equipment effect, the gain belonged permanently to his accumulated existence.

He suddenly understood why devouring protagonists always became complete lunatics.

This shit was addictive!

The second pending notification opened immediately afterward.

[The Divine Forge has completed evaluation of accumulated equipment usage.]

Damian became even more interested.

Finally!

He had crafted the entire Supreme Adept equipment set shortly before this operation, then proceeded to subject it to espionage, hundreds of kilometers of movement, multiple battles, repeated teleportation, sword combat against enemies vastly beyond his supposed Level and enough magical abuse to qualify as unreasonable product testing.

If all that hadn’t moved the bars, Damian was going to file a complaint with whoever handled warranty disputes for cosmic golden fingers!

The updated record appeared.

[Divine Forge Equipment Progress:

Supreme Adept Upper Battle Robe: 786/10000

Supreme Adept Lower Battle Robe: 641/10000

Supreme Adept Combat Boots: 1125/7500

Veil of the Hidden Path: 1460/9000

Ring of Folded Horizons: 1330/5000

Titan Foundation Belt: 742/3500

Flowing Hand Band — Left: 604/1500

Flowing Hand Band — Right: 712/1500

Amulet of the Living Word: 487/4500

Longtian Sword: 8940/100000.]

Damian’s eyes moved slowly down the list.

Hoh!

Nothing had reached an advancement threshold yet, which was slightly disappointing but entirely reasonable after what amounted to only one major operation.

More importantly, the distribution made sense.

The Veil of the Hidden Path had spent hours concealing Damian while he stalked Mirelle and infiltrated Ravelhorn’s meeting.

His Ring and Combat Boots had been abused through repeated relocations at speeds and frequencies no sane Mage would attempt voluntarily.

The Flowing Hand Bands had supported both spellcasting and melee combat constantly, with the right band naturally benefiting more from Damian spending a large portion of the battle trying to stab a centuries-old Fey to death.

And Longtian...

8,940, huh?

Damian glanced at the sword resting against his waist.

”Still ninety-one thousand and change remaining.”

Grrrrrr...

”Don’t complain. You have the highest number!”

Longtian vibrated indignantly.

Damian smiled.

Honestly, this was excellent.

The thresholds were large enough that equipment advancement would remain meaningful rather than turning into something that happened after every fight, yet actual use produced enough progress that Damian could realistically grow equipment alongside himself instead of replacing everything every few Levels.

That finally cleared every pending post-Ravelhorn notification he had deliberately ignored.

Now he could focus on the ongoing operation.

”Paulina, your left!” Julia cried out.

Damian snapped his head upward.

A Blink Dog had vanished from Julia’s firing line and reappeared near Paulina’s exposed flank.

Normally, Eunice would already have reacted, but this time, she hadn’t.

The Priestess stood several meters away, staring in the correct general direction but clearly half a second behind what was happening due to being in a mild daze.

In combat, half a second was plenty of time for teeth to enter someone’s side!

Damian immediately raised one hand.

”Resisto!”

settled over Paulina just as the Blink Dog slammed into her.

The Beastwoman twisted with the hit, her reinforced body taking considerably less punishment than expected before one muscular arm hooked around the creature’s neck.

”Got you!” Paulina growled angrily.

CRACK!

Paulina drove it into the ground with an overhead suplex, breaking the creature’s neck and spine with ease while Julia’s arrow finished the job.

Damian frowned.

That was the third time Eunice had missed something this morning.

The first had merely forced Julia to reposition when a Redcap moved through an angle Eunice normally watched.

The second happened when Paulina pushed forward expecting reinforcement and discovered several seconds too late that the usual protection wasn’t coming.

This one could actually have hurt.

Eunice realized it too.

Her face paled slightly.

”I’m sorry. I...”

Paulina looked toward her but surprisingly didn’t joke.

”It’s alright.”

Eunice nodded, but knew that it clearly wasn’t.

The sweep continued, but Damian began paying closer attention to her rather than the monsters.

A beautiful golden-haired Priestess walking through Moonveil Forest shouldn’t have been nearly this distracting when Damian had two women who had literally confessed their feelings to him a few hours ago.

Unfortunately, feelings did not obey administrative convenience.

Damian sighed inwardly.

Pretending Eunice’s rejection hadn’t bothered him was complete bullshit.

All four Valkyries occupied a strange place inside him that Damian had never properly examined because everything had happened too quickly.

They were the first faces he saw in Valoria, the first people to help him without demanding something in exchange, and the first proof that this strange world wasn’t simply another hostile environment Damian needed to exploit until he became strong enough to return home.

Somewhere along the way, their ridiculous little dynamic had taken up far more of his heart than he realized.

Without them...

Damian suspected he would have become an entirely different person.

He might never have seriously pursued Mu Qingyao.

He certainly wouldn’t have been remotely receptive toward Shen Xueyi.

Hell, he might not have built the Baines Noble Family in anything resembling its current form.

Why recruit people, train them, improve their lives and gradually become responsible for them when he could spend those same resources upon himself?

Why save Kellan?

Why involve himself so deeply with Otter Village?

Why care about making his retainers stronger instead of simply hiring replacements whenever someone became inadequate?

The coldest version of Damian would not have become evil, as that fundamentally wasn’t him.

However, he would have been neutral in the truest sense, transactional, focused, and almost terrifyingly efficient.

All that would have mattered to him would have been to earn money, acquire power, study dimensional travel, return to Earth, save his mother, and restore his father if resurrection proved possible.

Everything else would have been made to wait.

Day after day, realm after realm, advancement after advancement until nothing stood between Damian Baines and the two people he had spent half his life trying to protect.

In other words...

He would have become precisely the kind of man Julia feared.

The kind who genuinely loved his family but somehow spent years away from them because there was always one more mountain to climb first.

Damian’s expression became complicated.

The Four Valkyries changed that path almost immediately.

They made him laugh, made him flirt, and made Valoria feel like somewhere he was actually living rather than a resource map attached to the Dual-Realm Exchange System.

The reason Damian had naturally drifted toward the path of a Hero rather than some cold-hearted Neutral bastard was not because a system notification ordered him to be kinder.

It was because four women found a dying stranger inside a forest and decided he was worth saving.

That mattered to him, and because of that, Eunice mattered to him.

The fact that she mattered to him was precisely why Damian couldn’t simply dismiss her reason for rejecting him.

She had an oath, a faith, and a life that existed before he appeared.

Damian would have been a complete asshole to claim he respected her as a person, then become angry because her priorities didn’t conveniently rearrange themselves around him.

So yes...

It hurt, but he would deal with it.

That was life.

By the time the sun reached its highest point, the final hostile pocket in their assigned sector collapsed.

Julia put an arrow through the last Redcap’s throat while Paulina crushed another beneath a brutal downward strike.

Eunice had recovered enough focus to perform properly during the final engagements, although Damian noticed she became unnaturally quiet whenever the fighting paused.

Damian left her alone for now.

With the immediate danger gone, he spread several constructs across the battlefield and began collecting valuable materials while the ladies rested.

Monster cores, usable hides, teeth and claws were snapped up by him.

He nabbed anything recognized by guild procurement or useful for crafting, entering them in organized piles before disappearing into storage.

Paulina sat against a tree drinking water while Julia inspected the condition of her arrows.

Eunice rested nearby with her staff across her lap.

Then a bush moved, causing everyone to look over.

A small figure emerged from the greenery wearing the expression of someone who had spent several hours doing something she considered extremely clever.

Damian stopped collecting materials and folded his arms.

”Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in!”

Paulina narrowed her eyes. ”Where have you been?”

”Working!” Janet replied indignantly.

Julia looked unconvinced. ”Since before breakfast?”

”Some of us contribute through subtlety rather than punching everything we see.” Janet protested shamelessly.

Paulina’s ears twitched dangerously.

Janet wisely changed the subject.

”Cough... I found the Dark Goblins!”

That immediately drew everyone’s attention.

Damian’s remaining constructs slowed.

”Where?”

Janet’s expression became less playful.

”Well... everywhere?”

Damian stared speechlessly.

The Halfling clicked her tongue before sitting on a nearby stone.

”Blackroot Den is practically empty. Whoever took command after everything went wrong realized staying together was suicide, so they scattered before the guild could tighten the net.”

Damian’s smile disappeared. ”They ran?”

”Scattered like birds and bees.” Janet confirmed with a tut.

”Their leader, that Varkas fellow, knew an organized retreat would still leave a trail large enough for Rangers to follow, so he broke the survivors into small groups and sent them in completely different directions.”

Janet threw her hands around to show directions. ”Some went east, some west, others deeper south, and I found signs that at least a few groups are deliberately crossing through dangerous monster territories.”

Julia frowned. ”To discourage pursuit.”

”Exactly!” Janet exclaimed as she pointed toward the elven princess.

Janet sighed and leaned back. ”Nobody can simply follow every trail. You’d need dozens of independent teams pushing deep into regions where the local monsters become dangerous enough to trouble even experienced Gold Adventurers.”

Paulina scratched one ear thoughtfully. ”It’s not a bad idea. Annoying, but clever. As long as even one group survives, they can rebuild somewhere else, reproduce, gather strength and eventually return for revenge.”

Julia nodded. ”The Guild could continue hunting them for weeks and still miss some. Only a Legend could realistically cover enough ground to find every scattered group alone, and what Legend has enough free time to spend days hunting fleeing Goblins?”

”Hmm.”

Damian rubbed his chin.

”I might be up for that.”

Four heads slowly turned toward him.

Janet, Paulina, and Julia stared with speechless amusement.

Heck, even Eunice forgot her earlier distraction as her lips twitched.

Janet finally pointed at him. ”No! Absolutely not!! I’ve seen what you call Legend-level power now, and exploding one enormous area does not qualify you for Goblin hide-and-seek!!!”

Damian frowned. ”I possess more than one spell.”

”That’s exactly what someone planning to explode a second area would say!” Janet accused with a suspicious look.

Paulina gave a reluctant nod. ”She does have a point. This isn’t about destroying something powerful. You’d have to find small groups spread across an enormous forest without killing everything between you and them.”

Eunice hesitated, then stepped forward.

”Damian...”

Her tone became painfully gentle.

”Please don’t destroy Moonveil Forest.”

Damian stared at her, then at Julia, then Paulina, and finally... Janet.

”...What kind of person do you all think I am?”

Nobody answered quickly enough.

Damian looked offended.

”For the record, I had absolutely no intention of destroying the entire forest because some Goblins ran away!”

Janet slowly lowered her finger. ”Hey hey, we’re just making sure you know.”

”Your lack of faith wounds me!” Damian muttered with dramatic hurt.

Julia snorted, unable to stop herself from laughing a little.

Damian rolled his eyes before turning toward Janet.

Still, the Goblin problem could wait several minutes, because there was something else far more pressing.

His expression slowly changed, something that Janet noticed immediately as her cunning smile thinned.

Damian folded his arms.

”Speaking of people doing things they think nobody noticed...”

Janet’s eyes shifted sideways, while Paulina looked between them.

Damian smiled knowingly.

”So, Janet. What did you think about this morning’s conversation?”

The Halfling froze into absolute stillness.

Julia frowned, Eunice’s golden eyes narrowed, and Paulina’s ears rose.

Janet slowly pointed toward herself.

”...What conversation?”

Damian’s smile became sinister.

”Oh, you know.”

He stepped closer.

”The conversation you were eavesdropping on from the shadows while apparently believing nobody could sense you.”

Janet’s face stiffened.

Paulina’s head turned toward her with almost mechanical slowness, Julia’s expression became murderous while Eunice stared wide-eyed.

”You were there?!” Paulina demanded.

Janet shrank her neck. ”I-I can explain!”

”You listened to everything?!” Julia asked, her face already becoming red from remembering exactly what she had confessed.

”Cough, well... define ’everything’.” Janet answered with shifty eyes.

”JANET!” Julia roared with pure killing intent, her lovely green eyes blazing.

”Okay! Okay!”

The Halfling raised both hands as three women surrounded her with expressions suggesting they were several seconds away from discovering whether Halfling skin made good leather.

Damian remained behind them, thoroughly entertained.

Janet looked toward him for rescue, but Damian only smiled maliciously, looking like a dollar store Gin Ichimaru.

’Ah!! Traitor!!’ Janet roared inwardly.

In the end, she sighed dramatically.

Then her entire demeanor changed.

Janet lowered her hands, folded her arms and looked between the four people surrounding her.

”Fine!”

Her usual mischievous smile faded slightly.

”If everyone else is coming clean... then I suppose it’s my turn.”

Paulina stopped advancing, Julia narrowed her eyes and even Eunice became quiet.

Janet took a breath.

”The truth is... I’m also... not who I seem to be.”

Damian’s eyebrows rose.

Janet looked directly at them.

”I’m actually...”