Moving back to upside-down world

It has been a week since I came back from the underground city and Layla was still getting used to her new life as my maid but really she just wanted to eat the food I'd cook everyday.

Kristine was also acquitted of her charges once we 'proved' that she was under a curse. She joined NIGHTFALL becoming the sixth member of the group. But I had been worried for the last week wondering when Ace would leak the information or if he had already done that. My anxiety keep getting worse as the days pass and I can't hold a single thought properly... Even eating or sleeping is too difficult. If the information is leaked, my entire class could become a target since they were chosen by the Gods too.

I have to get rid of the ascendants and regulators but it's a hopeless situation. I can't even dream about winning against Ace let alone others. He always makes it clear that he is the weakest but his reason makes sense. Others have been alive for longer and had more time to level up.

If I can't even win against Ace, I have no chance against other members of Ascendants.

…

I walked out of my dorm wondering what to do... It's all going downhill. Gods are not to be trusted, Ascendants only care about their own agenda and would throw the world into chaos if need be and in all of this, my friends and classmates would get involved simply because of that king summoning us.

What am I even thinking... I can't start playing the blame game at this point.

I left the dorm building with Layla following me calming without making any noise. She was a maid so this was to be expected. I wanted alone time right now. This problem can't be solved by brute force so I can't use Layla for anything. I can't even have her track down Ace and kill him because he must've already given away the information so it might work against us.

"Kenji, what do you plan to do?" Layla asked.

"I don't know. I don't want to rely on my team because this could land them in trouble. I have to quickly increase my level and stop ascendants. I think I should leave the team and go on a journey to level up to at least level 51. Ace is not that much older than me so it can't be impossible, right?"

"Level 51? I know a few monsters who can get you to that level quickly. But it comes at a price. You can easily die against them."

"We can form a duo and fight." I responded and checked the guide. There was a page: Divine level enemies (Confrontation highly discouraged till all party members are level 70). I checked the pages and one was The Avant-Courier of Thunder.

Enemy Level: 90

Threat level: God-class

Passive: Lock away magical abilities if opponent doesn't one-shot it

Reward: God-class artifact of thunder and 3 thunder crystals

Recommended strategy: Fighting is not recommended whatsoever. A fire magic user and a shield magic caster are a must. Healer needs to have at least 5/5 rarity class.

"This sounds scary. The fighting is straight up discouraged."

"Avant-Courier is a survivor from the great war when the four gods got humans to wage war against non-humans. He was... a class of his own. He single handedly drove away a whole army sent by the gods secretly. He is one of the few who knows true nature of this world. He is impossible to win against. He is a mortal who comes closest to being a god. But you don't have to kill him to get rewards. He is a mortal after-all and has consciousness of a normal human. You can set up a condition and defeat him based on those conditions and if you do win, you would get experience. You don't have to kill him." She said.

"That's better. I can use both shield and fire magic. But why is it recommended?"

"Because he has an attack that he charges outside of his body while he continues fighting. It first takes a form of a ball and if he does manage to land that charged attack, it's over for you. Only fire can overcharge it and destroy it before he gets to use the attack."

"Why am I even doing this?" I sighed and walked into a restaurant of sorts and took a seat. Layla dragged the other chair and sat next to me.

"Plan on fighting him?"

"Before that what is this divine class artifact?"

"These are just accessories that increase specific stat. There are a few of them per enemy fight. These can be found in dungeons but divine class artifacts can only be received from divine class enemies and floor 5 of dungeons. As far as I know, divine class artifacts are so rare that no one even knows about them. But this group regulators might know... That Ace possessed seven of this artifacts. One increased his water magic attack by 150%, other increased his attack by 300 and some random artifacts but all were divine class nonetheless." She answered.

"So that's why could beat those level 80 or whatever dragons so easily?"

"He asked you to use magic for reactions. He possessed one artifact that gave him 1,000 magic mastery... and on top of that he had his own magic mastery and even his weapon was 5/5 rarity. No wonder he defeated them. Even without you, he wouldn't have had a single problem with those dragons."

I slammed my fists onto the table. There is literally no way I could defeat him then.

"Also, how strong do you think Avant-courier is?"

"If compared to me, maybe under some situations he could win if he goes all out."

All out? Layla's stats were literally immeasurable. So this man is just as strong as her? There are too many overpowered people in this world.

Being told that the highest level attained by anyone is 40 sounds like a lie. Well it's not like I can trust Gods anyways.

"Are you planning on embarking a journey?" She asked and I nodded.

"I would be the main target so if I'm on a run, maybe people might spare my teammates... Hopefully. Even though brute strength might not be the solution, I would prefer being as strong as possible."

"There is a location known as the Mourning valley in Nation of Samaha. It would take us a couple weeks to get there, but in that valley, you can find adequately high levelled monsters. Going against Avant-courier of thunder might not be reasonable. Those monsters are strong but not too strong. I think they're around level 55 or something."

"That sounds like a much better plan. I might reach level 40 by the time we get to this valley and I also need some enemy drops for levelling up past level 40. It's something called... Lustrous septenary jade." I said hoping Layla could tell me about it because this particular item isn't dropped by any boss.

"Interesting. That was once possessed by the sovereign dragons and we might only find it in upside-down world. That place could be a good place to train too since the remaining lower dragons are level 50 or so."

"I don't really want to go back to that dark place." I clicked my tongue. It was dark and lifeless.

"I can teleport us there. I would recommend getting used to all elements before attempting to get septenary jade. Dragons are quite good at using elemental attacks so, they use their knowledge of elements to create safety equipment too." She told me.

"It can't be helped though. Ascendants are a big issue we have to deal with urgently. I will void the pact and we will move to upside down world."

She nodded.

I have to let go of my love for Kristine and others forever, maybe. The ascendants are not here to play. They're carefully planning each and every step and I can't even imagine how much progress they have made in order to destroy this world... They want to rid this world of those Gods but in order to do that, they'd inevitably cause a grand scale war... Maybe even a world war.

In order to protect those I love, I have to take decisions that are hard. Leaving them like this pains me too but telling them exactly what is happening would put them in trouble too. They may know of Ace and his plans but they don't know how to reach upside down world so they won't be able to find me nor would they try to stick with me. I may hurt them now but in return, I could save the world so, it's a fair trade-off.

Layla then helped me to void the pact which sent the message: "NIGHTFALL pact is now void." I was the leader so I had the privilege to do so. The Layla teleported us to upside down world, in the room where we first met.

From here begins my training... to become the strongest in the world.