The Glorious Evolution

Chapter 508: The Tithe Aspect.

DING!

The moment the last Rifter finished their Dice Round, the two gigantic dice vanished from the board.

[DICE ROUND CONCLUDED]

Gamemaster Gamble appeared above the board again.

”Dice down! For the next round, you’re free to use your tools, activate whatever nasty little advantages you’ve collected, or challenge another Rifter if the opportunity presents itself.”

He extended his arms wide as he announced passionately.

”Welcome to the Freedom Round.”

Akira’s name was the first to light up; the system still followed the dice order... it might have been called the Freedom Round, but that didn’t mean the Rifters could do whatever they wanted or move outside their tiles.

It was still a restrictive game mode centered on a board, and the Rifters were nothing more than the pieces.

Akira wasted no time as she brought out the Loaded Dice and activated it... the tool shattered into particles and sank into her hand.

[LOADED DICE... ACTIVATED]

[EFFECT RESERVED FOR NEXT DICE ROUND]

[Choose the exact result of both dice before rolling.]

Akira closed her hand and glanced toward the tiles ahead... the road split into three paths. Two led to dead ends, one with a Fortune Tile and the other with a Mystery Tile, while the main road didn’t have anything noteworthy nearby.

Although she knew that taking the side roads meant she would have to retrace her steps, Akira still locked onto the illuminated Mystery Tile on the right path.

She understood that at the start of the game, what mattered most wasn’t moving as fast as possible, but gathering as many useful tools or Fortune Points as possible.

The Mystery Tile being the rarest on the board could only mean that it offered some serious rewards... along with serious challenges.

”Done.”

With her decision made, the Borrower’s turn arrived... he straightened his clothes slightly inside his cage and then...

[IMPRISONED]

[FREEDOM ROUND SKIPPED]

”...Of course.”

He cringed while the damning countdown above his prison continued ticking.

The next Rifter’s name appeared.

Nothing.

They passed.

Another followed.

Nothing again.

Most of the Rifters had opted to save their tools, while the others had nothing and could only skip as well... Levi included, despite not being on the map.

Just like that, the Freedom Round moved much faster than the Dice Round, with one name after another appearing and disappearing without incident.

Until...

[THE TAXMAN] [THUNDERSAP]

Their names lit up simultaneously, and so did the tile they were standing on... they were the only Rifters who had landed on the same tile during the Dice Round!

Now that the Freedom Round had arrived...

DING!

[SHARED TILE DETECTED]

The archer’s expression remained stoic while the Taxman merely adjusted his cuff... both of them had already anticipated their battle and mentally prepared for it.

Without wasting a second, Gamemaster Gamble lifted his arm, and the tile separated itself from the board, rising into the air until it was hundreds of meters above it... Then it expanded rapidly, stopping only when the arena was wide enough to contain a battle between two Baron Rankers!

Since the tile they shared possessed no battlefield environment of its own, nothing special accompanied them... only a vast stretch of flat ground.

Thundersap swiftly reached for the enormous bow strapped across his back and retreated a few kilometers until he reached the edge of the tile.

DING!

[MANDATORY DUEL — BEGIN!]

Thundersap reacted the instant the notification faded away, pulling the gigantic bow from his back and planting one foot behind him as he drew the string.

He was of elven descent as well, but unlike Akira, he had signed a Daywalker Contract with a nightcrawler... his appearance resembled a slender, sharp-edged humanoid bolt of green lightning, if someone were to picture such a thing.

Green lightning surged through the bow and raced along his arms before concentrating around the arrowhead, filling the surrounding air with tempestuous sparks.

The Taxman’s eye shifted to Thundersap’s featureless face before focusing on the massive thunderstorm gathering around the bow’s tip... he kept one hand in his pocket while the other carried the briefcase, not bothering to assume a fighting stance.

Seeing this, Thundersap felt like he was being taken lightly... he sneered coldly and let go of the bowstring.

Szlzlzlz!!

A potent streak of green lightning crossed half the distance separating them almost instantly, blasting loose fragments of stone into the air along its path.

The Taxman merely raised one hand in the direction of the arrow.

”Speed.”

Levi was the first to pick up on the sudden change, following a spiritual thread as it touched the arrow... he frowned, noticing that the lightning arrow had become considerably slower.

Its speed dropped so drastically that the Taxman casually stepped aside, avoiding the arrow like it was nothing more than a pebble thrown at him by a child.

BOOOOM!

Yet, its destructive power remained just as potent, blowing a giant chunk off the arena upon impact... the ignorant viewers were left confused by the scene, having no idea what the Taxman had done to avoid the arrow.

’The Mandatory Taxation Arts... Tithe Aspect.’

Levi also couldn’t believe the information surrounding the Taxman the first time he read it during the preparation phase... Taxation Arts, Tithe Aspect.

It was one of the weirdest Aspects he had read about, as it seemed like a joke at first... but then, Ash’Kral explained that the Tithe Aspect fell under the foundational Laws of Exchange & Conservation.

The Tithe Aspect was quite simple... Nothing could be taken without going somewhere, and nothing could be gained without coming from somewhere.

Tithe merely allowed its wielder to decide where that somewhere was... in the case of the Taxman?

He used an ability to siphon or ’tax’ the speed of the arrow the moment contact was made... in simpler terms, he stole a percentage of the arrow’s speed!

How much? Only the Taxman and the Gamemaster knew.

Thundersap understood this much and knew that the only way to win against the Taxman was to overwhelm him, making it impossible to tax everything he threw at him.

He was already pulling a dozen electrified green arrows between his fingers, aiming them at the sky.

THRUM! THRUM! THRUM!

The arrows disappeared into the high heavens, and Thundersap ignored them, already drawing the string with another dozen arrows.

This time, he fired each arrow in a different direction, confusing the viewers when they noticed that the arrows flew beyond the arena’s edges.

”You can siphon my speed and power... but I can siphon the life right out of you!”

The moment all the arrows disappeared from everyone’s sight, Thundersap aimed his bow at the Taxman and fired a small lightning bolt.

”Withering Thunder Arts: Lifesap Thunderstorm!”

Before his voice could reach anyone’s ears, half of the arena was suddenly engulfed in a storm of green lightning bolts that came from everywhere!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The arrows Thundersap had fired beyond the arena returned from different angles at once, some falling from the sky while others came sweeping over the edges... each one splitting into branches of green lightning the moment it struck the ground and connecting with the others until the entire half of the tile became one massive thunderstorm!

There was almost nowhere to dodge.

Levi’s expression turned serious as his senses followed the lightning spreading across the arena... he realized that Thundersap hadn’t fired those arrows randomly... he had surrounded the Taxman first, then used the final bolt as the center point that pulled everything together.

Worse, the green lightning wasn’t merely destructive... every bolt carried Thundersap’s vitality-sapping ability thanks to his niche Lifesap Aspect.

During his research, Levi had found that Thundersap’s green lightning possessed the property of vitality conduction... Whenever his lightning established contact with a living being, it created a temporary channel through which vitality flowed from the victim into the lightning and ultimately back toward Thundersap.

In a sense, these two shared similar aspects’ properties... just one was focused on vitality exclusively, unlike the Taxman’s aspect.

The Taxman finally removed his hand from his pocket, realizing that getting struck once wouldn’t matter much to someone at their level, but standing inside that storm for several seconds was a completely different matter.

He crouched and placed his palm against the ground.

”Toughness.”

The ground around the Taxman’s feet cracked and weakened as he drained its toughness. The effect spread for hundreds of meters, leaving the stone so brittle that it crumbled under the lightning strikes.

At the same time, the Taxman’s gray skin visibly hardened.

’He taxed the arena itself...’