Chapter 88: Two Days

Two days passed faster than Jet expected.

For once, there were no monsters trying to tear him apart, no Dungeon walls surrounding him, no temporary camps beneath the impossible canopy of the Thousand Boughs and no need to keep one hand near the Vorpal Blade.

Jet had promised himself three full days of rest after returning from the Beyond, and although he couldn’t completely stop preparing for what came next, he made an effort to keep that promise. Most of his time belonged to Inez.

She took advantage of it mercilessly.

The morning after their long day outside began with Inez appearing in Jet’s bedroom before he was properly awake, climbing onto the edge of his bed and informing him that he had promised to spend time with her.

Jet couldn’t remember making that exact promise, but apparently his agreement to remain home for three days had been interpreted as complete ownership of his schedule.

He was dragged into breakfast, then into watching two episodes of an animated series about magical princesses, which somehow became four because every episode ended with Inez insisting that the next one was important.

By midday, they were sitting on the living-room floor surrounded by cards from a children’s game whose rules Inez seemed to change whenever she was losing.

Jet stared at the cards in his hand before looking suspiciously at his sister. "You said that card could only be used once."

Inez didn’t even hesitate. She placed another card on the floor and replied with complete confidence, "That was before I activated the Princess Castle."

Jet looked toward the brightly colored cardboard castle she had positioned between them. "And what exactly does the Princess Castle do?"

"It lets me use it again."

"Since when?"

Inez pointed at the castle as though the answer should have been obvious. "Since it’s my castle."

Jet stared at her for several seconds before surrendering to the realization that he was participating in a game whose legal system was controlled entirely by his opponent.

He lost three rounds.

The fourth somehow ended with Inez declaring herself Queen of Everything.

Jet demanded a rematch, which turned into a pillow fight after he accused her of corruption. By the time they finished, cushions covered half the living room and Inez was lying across the sofa laughing so hard that she couldn’t properly defend herself when Jet threatened to revoke her imaginary crown.

Those hours were simple.

Jet treasured them precisely because of that.

He knew the three-day break couldn’t last forever. Tomorrow, he and Frey would resume their progression, and this time their focus would shift back toward Earth.

The Beyond had strengthened their Divine Runes and given them resources they hadn’t expected to obtain so early, but neither of them could neglect their Star Rank. They needed Mana Crystals. They needed Star Saturation. Eventually, they needed to reach 2-Star.

For Jet, that requirement now carried even greater importance.

Ilios was waiting.

Whenever Inez became occupied with schoolwork, games or one of her shows, Jet retreated to his bedroom and opened the private collection of notes he had begun maintaining after regression.

He had relied heavily on memory during the first month.

That couldn’t continue indefinitely.

Ten years contained too much information.

Some events remained painfully clear because they had changed the world. Others were little more than fragments: names he remembered hearing, disasters whose exact dates had become uncertain, Guilds that rose suddenly, Awakeners who became famous years after their first important achievements, Dungeon Breaks that devastated entire districts, strange discoveries from the Beyond and rumors that hadn’t seemed important until much later.

Jet began writing everything down.

He didn’t trust digital storage with the most sensitive information, so the truly dangerous details went into handwritten notes using references only he could easily understand. He separated confirmed memories from uncertain ones rather than pretending ten years of hindsight gave him perfect recall.

Dates came first.

Then locations.

Then names.

Some events were only weeks or months away. Others wouldn’t matter for years unless his regression had already altered enough variables to change when they occurred.

That possibility bothered him most.

Jet understood that the future was no longer guaranteed.

The Second Red Moon had happened exactly as he remembered, but his own actions had already diverged enormously from his first life. He possessed ten SSS-Rank Divine Runes.

Frey had awakened Vritra because of the preparation surrounding the Second Red Moon. They had entered the Beyond far earlier. Every person they influenced created another point where history could shift.

His memories were an advantage.

They weren’t prophecy.

Jet treated them accordingly.

He marked events according to how confident he was in their timing and details, building a rough sequence he could update as the months passed.

Anything involving major disasters received particular attention. If he remembered enough to prevent something without exposing his regression, he wanted the information available before it was too late.

Yet the notes weren’t his only research.

The words that had occupied part of his mind since leaving Zenith Citadel remained painfully simple.

[Condition II — Kindling: Obtain and absorb a sufficiently powerful Fire-aligned Origin Treasure.]

Jet spent hours searching for one.

Public O.R.D.O. databases contained more information on Origin Treasures than he had expected, although access depended heavily on license level.

The basic records explained known classifications, documented Dungeon discoveries and warnings surrounding unverified supernatural materials.

Commercial Awakener marketplaces listed some lower-value resources, while auction houses advertised upcoming items without revealing everything publicly.

Fire-aligned materials weren’t especially rare as a category.

Fire-aligned Origin Treasures were another matter.

Jet quickly learned that plenty of merchants used the word "origin" loosely when advertising expensive materials.

Fire-aspected monster organs, Mana Crystals exposed to volcanic environments, elemental minerals and various alchemical ingredients were all useful, but the System had specifically demanded an Origin Treasure powerful enough to serve as Ilios’s Kindling.

He wasn’t going to gamble his heart on marketing language.

The legitimate records were much more interesting.

Several Fire-aligned Origin Treasures had been documented over the previous decades. Some had emerged from Red and Violet Dungeons. Others came from unusual regions of the Beyond.

Their effects varied considerably. One strengthened Fire affinity.

Another permanently altered Mana pathways to tolerate extreme temperatures. A particularly famous treasure discovered years ago had supposedly allowed a high-ranking Awakener to survive injuries that should have destroyed most of his torso.

The problem was availability.

Nearly every powerful example Jet found was already consumed, belonged to a Guild, sat inside a private collection or had disappeared from public circulation years earlier.

He searched auctions anyway.

Nothing currently listed gave him confidence that it could satisfy Ilios.

Jet didn’t find that discouraging.

He hadn’t expected the second condition to be solved by typing a few words into a marketplace search bar and pressing purchase. Ilios was an SSS-Rank Divine Rune. If releasing it required nothing more than buying an expensive Fire flower online, the condition wouldn’t deserve the warning attached to it.

Instead, Jet began building another list.

Names of known Fire Origin Treasures.

Regions where they had appeared.

Dungeon environments associated with their formation.

Guilds known to specialize in Fire resources.

Historical auction records.

Anything that might eventually give him a lead went into the notes.

He was careful not to search too aggressively from a single account. An eighteen-year-old F-Rank Raider repeatedly researching extremely valuable Fire-aligned Origin Treasures could eventually attract attention if someone had reason to examine his activity.

Most people would probably assume he wanted something compatible with his Divine Rune, but Jet preferred not to create patterns unnecessarily.

The second day followed much the same rhythm.

Research whenever he had time.

Inez whenever she wanted him.

She returned from school with enough energy to erase whatever peace the apartment had possessed. Jet helped with her homework, made dinner and endured another animated movie before she decided they should build something from a box of construction pieces she hadn’t touched in months.

Their intended castle somehow became a crooked fortress with three towers of different heights.

Inez loved it.

Jet took a picture before she could accidentally destroy it.

Later that evening, when Inez finally went to bed, Jet returned to his room and spent another hour reviewing everything he had written.

The future events remained spread across several pages beside his computer, while a separate document contained his growing research on Fire-aligned Origin Treasures.

No miraculous answer had appeared.

That was fine.

He had a direction.

More importantly, tomorrow would restart the other half of his progression.

Jet eventually closed everything and rose from his desk.

The apartment had become silent. He walked toward the floor-to-ceiling window and stopped before the glass, looking down at Zenith City.

Thousands of lights stretched across the darkness beneath him. Vehicles moved through illuminated streets, towers disappeared into the distance and somewhere beyond those buildings stood the O.R.D.O. headquarters, Dungeon facilities and countless Gates connecting Earth to places where humanity had spent fifty years fighting for power and survival.

His reflection stared back faintly from the glass.

One Star.

That was where he still stood.

Asura had advanced, but Ilios’s first condition demanded something else entirely.

2-Star.

Jet slipped both hands into his pockets and watched the city for another moment, already thinking about Mana Crystals, Dungeon selection and how much progress he and Frey could make before their next return to the Beyond.

A small smile appeared on his face.

"Tomorrow, our first official Dungeon raid."