Reaper's Resurgence: A System Reset

Everyone ignores him, simply focusing on moving as fast as they can so that they can have more time to prepare for the dungeon dive. The first field excursion of the year for us first years at the Royal Academy. And something I\'ve personally been looking forward to for a while now.

Because why wouldn\'t someone want to go to the Royal Dungeon? It\'s the best place to level in the entire kingdom after all. And the King is very much known for hogging his dungeon to his loyal retainers and the Royal Academy students, simply to keep accumulating more power and as an incentive for others to attend his academy.

Typical Ascendant.

Which is all the more reason to dream of becoming one myself one of these days. So I can do what I want without a care as well. Not that I really believe that it\'s possible.

I shake my head at that as I stand up, pulling my laptop bag over my shoulder and beginning to make my way towards the aisle of the classroom. But before I can reach it, I hear a familiar voice shout from the entrance, bringing my eyes over to find my twin standing there with her hands on her hips as she patiently taps her feet. "Lexi, hurry up! I won\'t be missing this!"

That has me letting out a short sigh before I continue walking towards the aisle while ignoring some of the looks people are sending either me or my sister, some amused, others not so much. Thankfully most of the students in my class are just ignoring us as they go about their own business.

Once I reach the door of the classroom where she\'s standing, I tell her, "Would you mind not shouting at me in a room full of other students?"

She raises a brow at that, only to shrug and turn around, beginning her trek down the hall without a word.

That\'s a yes then. Good.

Still wish she would voice it more often though.

I begin following her as I glance around at the students we pass in the hallway, each wearing their own armor instead of any sort of stuffy uniform. Something I\'ve heard the academies from other kingdoms often require of their students.

A rather stupid thing if you ask me. Another reason why my sister and I chose this academy instead of going to a different kingdom and attending theirs. Well, that and it\'s where the old man went.

Speaking of my sister, I glance at her to find her wearing a set of armor mirroring my own enchanted black leather armor, the both of us taught by the same Magic Knight who adopted the two of us when we were just five years old. And he always talks about how we got our preference in armor from him, which he seems to be rather proud of.

Most likely. He mentions it at least once a month, so he\'s probably proud of that fact.

As we walk, I open my status.

We round the hall heading in the direction of the training field, at which point my sister, Astrid, pauses slightly, only to continue walking again. And as she does so, I find the reason she had paused.

Great. The nuisance.

I subtly slow my steps to build up a little bit of a distance, totally not abandoning my sister to her would-be suitor as I focus on my General Skills.

[General Skills]

|Pain Resistance Level 3(46%)(T1)|

|Swordsmanship Level 5(57%)(T1)|

|First Aid Level 3(61%)(T1)|

|Stealth Level 3(21%)(T1)|

|Mana Manipulation Level 5(62%)(T1)|

|Archery Level 3(31%)(T1)|

|Survival Level 4(25%)(T1)|

|Student Level 3(29%)(T1)|

|Healing Magic Level 4(71%)(T1)|

|Enhancement Magic Level 5(20%)(T1)|

Hmm. Got a few percentage points for Student from that class.

Not bad. Even if it was boring.

I understand that learning about plants can be helpful when you\'re out in the wild. I really do. But I don\'t care about plants.

Nothing against the photosynthesizing sources of oxygen, but I just don\'t care about them.

My thoughts about plants are interrupted when I hear Rodrick, some noble son of a Baron, trying to woo Astrid again as my sister ignores his very existence and walks right by him. And I try very hard to keep a straight face at the sight of the idiot tripping when he tries in a rush to catch up with her.

Yeah, that didn\'t turn out very well for him. But it\'s probably for the best. He\'ll likely leave after embarrassing himself like that.

While noble children do have quite a bit of power if they pester their parents, they don\'t have much sway in the academy. Since all the academy really cares about is making powerful people who might serve the kingdom.

It\'s also one of the reasons why the first mission we were given this year was a bandit hunting mission.

After the noble kid makes it back to his feet, he glances at me with a frown and then shakes his head before walking away, taking a different hallway than the one we\'re taking to get to the training field.

Yep. Thought so.

He\'s honestly rather annoying, but at least he doesn\'t push things too far. A typical noble in a lot of ways.

I quickly catch up to Astrid to find her looking at me with a raised brow. But I just shrug.

The number of times he\'s mistaken me for Astrid is already annoying enough and makes things quite awkward in general. Although I don\'t really blame him.

I glance at my sister, who looks identical to me in just about every way. The main telling sign of who\'s who between us being that I wear my hair in a braid while she doesn\'t, simply letting her long black hair flow straight. We also have the same blue eyes and are both the same height of about five foot five inches tall. Not to mention that our armor is identical.

"When are you going to deal with him?" I ask with a light frown. But she just shrugs and says, "I don\'t really want to cause Gramps any trouble."

Hmm. Guess she\'s right there.

Idiot or not, that nuisance is still the son of a Baron.

Can\'t be too rude to the guy without him raising a fuss. Not that Gramps would have any trouble dealing with them, but it would be annoying, and I don\'t want to make him deal with it in the first place.

I reach into my bag to grab my phone before looking at the time, then I put it back away again and stretch a little as we walk.

"You warmed up yet?" I ask her, since we\'ll need to be as prepared as possible for the dungeon dive. If we don\'t want to die that is.

She just nods, ever the quiet and stoic type.

We continue walking through the halls of the academy building in silence until we finally make it to the training field where dozens of other students are already waiting.

"Find your assigned group and wait with them," the instructor for our Dungeons class calls out when he sees us, the young looking man with bright red hair appearing slightly annoyed at having to deal with so many students at once.

I pull my phone out before going to the class\'s website to find my assigned group, soon finding the groups to be in alphabetical order by last name for some stupid reason. Or at least, stupid until I realize that we\'re separated into combat categories along with the alphabetical order.

Either way though, it leaves me and Astrid in the same group. Which is good.

She tugs on my arm slightly, bringing my attention to her before she points at a group standing off to the side consisting of four people. One of which is currently waving at us with a smile on their face, his black and blue robes swaying slightly in the wind as he leans his staff tipped with a crystal at the end against a rock.

Aidan. Didn\'t expect him to be in our group.

The man is the same age as us at 20 years old, albeit just a few months older. Something he used to like pointing out to us back when we were kids and he was losing an argument. But he stopped doing that a few years back, when we were around fifteen or sixteen years old, and hasn\'t done it since.

He does still point out how much taller he is sometimes though. Which is annoying.

As we walk, I glance at the others in the group to find people I don\'t actually recognize. One of them has red hair and looks similar to the instructor though, so that\'s interesting. And she looks rather impatient too as she repeatedly rubs the pommel of her sword, the girl wearing a simple set of red armor matching her hair color with an equally red sheath.

The other two are happily chatting amongst themselves, either showing that they know each other, or that they\'re just very friendly people in general. Although they couldn\'t be more different in attire. The boy is wearing a blue robe and has a staff, likely denoting him to be a light magic healer, and the girl is wearing dark green leather armor and has a bow draped over her shoulder and a quiver sitting on the ground next to her full of arrows.

After we get within a couple meters of the group, the healer and archer interrupt their conversation to look over at us, and the other swordswoman girl does the same. And right away, they all look between the two of us for a few seconds before the swordswoman girl starts ignoring us and the two chatty people walk up to us.

"Hi! I\'m Shelly, and this is Rob," the archer girl says while indicating the healer next to her with a smile.

"Astrid," my sister says, and I answer a second later, "Alexia."

The two look between us for a second, likely trying to figure out how they\'ll tell us apart in the future, before their gazes finally land on our hair.

"They\'re identical twins," Aidan comments from the side as he joins us.

And that sets the two off, asking question after question and quickly making me realize they\'re chatter boxes and very curious.

Probably some of my sister\'s least favorite types of people, so I answer the questions for her as we get settled in waiting for it to be evening.

After the appointed time comes, we all gather up for a brief discussion from the instructor on how everything will go. The whole \'don\'t get yourself killed, the instructors can\'t help you inside due to the limited number of people allowed in each instance, and make sure you know each other\'s general abilities and levels\' thing the instructor – who told us to call him that instead of professor – says in a lot of our classes.

Then we get a few minutes to plan as a group before we\'re all teleported to the dungeon entrance, a large cave with a fancy looking entrance that looks like some sort of ancient ruins with various pillars outside and a large, round stone door that slides open when we arrive to reveal a purplish blue portal made by the System leading to the dungeon itself.

"Everyone enter with your groups, and make sure to leave a few seconds between each group entering," the instructor says, his voice carrying over the entire clearing in front of the dungeon. "Enter in order of the highest ranking group."

With that, I notice several groups formed up of nobles including one with the crown prince of this kingdom lining up in front of the dungeon first. Then after that the children of the higher Tiered individuals of the kingdom who aren\'t nobles, which technically includes us even if we\'re not his biological kids, line up next. And lastly, behind us, the few groups of people who barely managed to scrape their way into the academy line up at the end.

The line progresses into the dungeon group by group until it\'s our turn, at which point I draw my sword from its sheath alongside my sister the moment before we enter, finding ourselves quickly teleported into a place akin to a castle\'s dungeon. Just one full of skeletons.

{Skeleton – Level 11 – A low level undead summoned by a higher leveled undead.}

{Skeleton – Level 13 – A low level undead summoned by a higher leveled undead.}

{Skeleton – Level 14 – A low level undead summoned by a higher leveled undead.}

{Skeleton – Level 12 – A low level undead summoned by a higher leveled undead.}

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"Everyone, form up!" the red haired girl whose name is Alara and turned out to be the instructor\'s daughter shouts with her own sword drawn and covered in flames. "Aidan, Rob, and Shelly, stay at the middle of the group! Astrid, watch their backs! Alexia, with me in the front!"

We all follow her orders strictly because she clearly knows what she\'s doing. Especially after showing her planning during the few minutes we were given earlier.

Then we begin cutting down the skeletons with ease. Mostly due to their low levels as they can\'t even break past my Mana Barrier. A passive skill all Magic Knights get.

[Level 11 Skeleton Defeated – User\'s earned EXP has been significantly reduced due to killing a being whose level is far lower than their own with assistance.]

[Level 12 Skeleton Defeated – User\'s earned EXP has been significantly reduced due to killing a being whose level is far lower than their own with assistance.]

[Level 14 Skeleton Defeated – User\'s earned EXP has been significantly reduced due to killing a being whose level is far lower than their own with assistance.]

Time passes as we cut our path through the dungeon, the monsters gradually getting stronger with each floor until we finally find a real challenge on the fourth floor.

{Skeletal Necromancer – Level 37 – A higher undead with the intelligence of a lower ranked sapient. They can summon undead at will and use basic death magic spells.}

And the creature is surrounded by a few dozen skeletons at lower levels than itself by about ten.

"Aidan, use a wide area freeze skill on the minions," Alara shouts as she rushes forward, her sword blazing to life with a much stronger flame than before. And I join her while using my enhancement magic to enhance my body beyond what would normally be possible at my level. "Shelly, distract the necromancer. Wound him if you can!"

"Got it!" both of them shout, following which Alara continues while cutting her flaming sword straight through the bones of one of the skeletons, lighting the thing already weak to fire magic on fire, "Rob, you know what to do. And Astrid, protect those three."

She doesn\'t bother giving me any orders as I\'m already alongside her fighting the skeletons with my blade, parrying one hit after another before cutting into their weak spots, their joints, and removing entire limbs from play.

Overall, I\'m rather pleased with my group. Although I wouldn\'t be surprised if Gramps had something to do with putting us in a good group.

Aidan performs some chant thing that\'s required for the particular skill he\'s using, a short one at least, before a wave of ice mana shoots out of him and freezes just the lower halves of the skeletons around us, giving me the opportunity to sprint through them towards the necromancer. And while the necromancer doesn\'t exactly like my actions, all it manages to do about it is send several necrotic bolts of death mana at me that I simply cut through with my enhancement mana enhanced sword before I eventually make it to the fragile skeleton and cut its head off entirely, quickly crushing it under my boot afterwards.

The skeleton tries to attack me despite its head being destroyed, but it gets a flaming arrow to the chest from Shelly in the attempt, setting it and its black cloak on fire with a screech. Then all of the other skeletons begin losing control of themselves, their guiding hand having fallen in a pile of ashes to the ground.

Which gives Alara the perfect opportunity to set them all ablaze with a powerful arc of fire that just barely goes over my head by the time it reaches me.

[Level 37 Skeletal Necromancer Defeated – User\'s earned EXP has been increased by a small amount due to killing a being whose level is above their own with assistance.]

Shouldn\'t be long before we find a boss where I can finally start getting some System equipment from an actual dungeon instead of just lower end equipment made by a lower level crafter. It isn\'t very rare after all, so I should get something.

After looking around for a few seconds and finishing off the last few skeletons, I sheathe my sword and pop my neck before walking over to join the others. But before I reach them, I notice something odd in the corner of the room. So I draw my sword again, making the others tense up after they\'d just relaxed a bit.

I slowly make my way over to the corner before standing in front of what looks like an odd rift in reality. Like a tiny little hole in the middle of the air that\'s glowing with purple and blue colors.

Trying to identify it doesn\'t give me any sort of result though, which is odd in and of itself.

"Lexi?" I hear Astrid ask, bringing my gaze to find her standing a couple meters away from me with a frown on her face. "Is everything alright?"

That has me frowning harder as I glance at the rift which is very obviously in the corner of the room before looking at her and asking while pointing at the thing, "You don\'t see this?"

She and the others all share a glance with each other, only to look at me again and shake their heads. Then Alara glances at Rob and says, "Check her for the effects of any mental skills the necromancer may have used."

He nods and walks to me, using some sort of skill that makes a golden light shine over me, giving me a warm feeling. But then he looks at Alara with a frown and says, "There doesn\'t seem to be anything."

Out of nowhere, I feel a sudden urge to touch the rift. An urge that feels unnatural even to me, but I can\'t resist it.

Almost as if my hand is driven by something other than myself, it reaches out and touches the tiny rift, following which a large flash of violet and dark purple light shines out of it and I suddenly find myself in some strange laboratory. Or at least, that\'s the only thing I can think of it being, considering the many signs pointing towards that conclusion. Such as the large glass cylinders and the tables and counters each with different tools and some vials of liquid.

But what catches my attention the most is the person floating in the middle of the large cylindrical tank in the center of the lab staring at me with their strange eyes. The person doesn\'t look to be having a pleasant time and for some reason has tubes strapped and digging into their body all over. Meanwhile their eyes themselves are varying shades of purple with some flickers of blue. But what strikes me as odd about them is that they\'re flickering as if they were a glitch in a video game.

And it\'s not just their eyes. The blood I see flowing out of the tubes also looks to be glitching for some reason. Even their hair, which is black with a strong tint of purple, appears to have some minor glitching once in a while. Although nowhere near as much as their eyes.

Like this person isn\'t fully in reality or something.

Weird.

They also appear to be in intense pain if the look in their eyes and the occasional groaning I hear is anything to go by.

I try to identify him despite knowing it\'s generally considered rude to identify another sapient person without having their permission or being their enemy. Because I\'m simply too curious about this.

{The System\'s Architect – Class: Quantum Architect – Undetermined Level – The creator of the System and the architect of the universe and the quantum realm itself. He was locked away by the League of Ascendants and experimented on, his access to the System restricted thanks to his falling into their trap and being sent to the void where the System does not exist.}

My jaw drops open at that.

"Young one, please," a voice echoes in my head, making me narrow my eyes on the being who is apparently the creator of the System itself. "Release me from my suffering."

Oh. That\'s… huh.

This is a lot to take in at once.

"Um, could you answer some of my questions?" I ask as politely as possible, not really knowing if he can do anything to me in his state.

He doesn\'t look surprised as he answers, still talking directly into my mind, "As long as you swear an oath on the System to kill me when you\'re done with your questions."

I lift an eyebrow at that before asking, "Won\'t the people who locked you here know I did it?"

He answers quickly, as if in a hurry, "They will not know as they have stopped coming here over three centuries ago."

"And you can swear on that?" I ask, only to frown as I remember he\'s the one who created the System in the first place. Not to mention that we\'re apparently in the void. So it won\'t be able to accept-

"I swear on the System and my eternal damnation to the System\'s Pits that you will not face any consequences directly from killing me, and that you will be sent out of the void with my last sliver of power once I am killed," he states before a powerful surge of quantum mana fills the area, surprising me.

Weren\'t we in the void? How can…

"I have managed to bring a small sliver of the System through to this specific location of the void, so oaths will work here," he says, once again seeming to be able to read my thoughts, just like his last statement.

I stare at him for a few seconds, picking apart his words to see if there are any loopholes.

"Aren\'t you the System\'s creator? What if you just bend the rules to not have to follow your own oath?" I ask while crossing my arms. "And what\'s this about no \'direct\' consequences?"

"I could just force you to kill me now and not give you a choice in the matter or answer any of your questions," he openly threatens me, which, I have to admit, is a reasonable statement considering how he\'s likely the one who forced me into that rift in the first place.

Guess I don\'t have much of a choice. Especially since I don\'t see any sort of exit to this lab, and the rift is gone or closed at this point.

I don\'t particularly like the idea of being forced into this situation, but I also don\'t see any way out of it considering we\'re in the void and all.

Plus there\'s his power that he can clearly still use some of despite being locked away.

At least he\'s offering me some answers before having me off him. And if I keep asking him questions like this, he might not do that anymore.

After a few more seconds, I shrug and declare, "I, Alexia Knight, swear to put my best efforts into killing the System\'s Architect in front of me after he answers my questions."

A strong fluctuation of quantum energy flows through the area as my oath sets into place, making it so that should I break it, I\'ll lose ten levels and two skills. Which is a much lighter punishment than the one he put on himself, which is far worse than just death, but who cares about that.

"You may ask," the being says, his voice suffused in pain.

I move up to one of the tables and sit on it while meeting his rather disturbing eyes as I ask, "Considering what your identify result told me, why aren\'t the Ascendants still experimenting on you?"

"They realized it was a fruitless endeavor as a being from the natural plane cannot become a quantum being without already having a quantum affinity and the System\'s direct interference," the being states, his eyes practically drilling into me with their pain. "Furthermore, there was no way to force me to make the System obey while I am in the void and sending me out of the void would free me from their grasp to take revenge."

Okay. That makes sense.

"Why didn\'t they just kill you after failing?" I ask, curious about that.

"They fear the System may fall apart without me still being alive, which will not happen," he explains, making me purse my lips.

Well, that\'s certainly something to think about. Not like I have a choice in killing him anymore, but certainly something.

Then again, assuming the System does survive, I should at least get a legendary feat for doing this. Which will be very nice.

I blink at the realization of that.

A legendary feat. One that will be broadcast to the entire universe.

Meaning it\'ll spill the beans to everyone that I killed him.

Shit.

"If I get a legendary feat from killing you, will everyone hear about it?" I ask, feeling a little bit of panic set in as I realize just how screwed I am here.

He blinks slowly and answers, "I will have the System hide the feat from the universe."

Oh. Assuming I can trust him, which I\'m kind of doubting, there goes that problem.

"And why did you choose to bring me here instead of someone else?" I ask, knowing that if he could force me here, he could probably force others.

"Because while it may be the worst possible Class of affinity, Class E, you do have an affinity with the quantum element, and no one else near the rift I made had any amount of quantum affinity to be able to see the rift and interact with it," he answers, startling me into silence for a few moments.

I… what? That shouldn\'t be possible… no one has ever had that affinity before that I know of!

"While it is an extremely rare affinity, people have had it," he states, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that he can read my mind. "But those born on the natural plane have no ability to control the element even if they have the affinity, so they\'re only able to have the worst Class of affinity in it."

Before I can ask anything else, I feel my hand reaching for my sword on its own before drawing the blade.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" I exclaim. "I haven\'t finished asking my questions!"

"You only asked me to answer some of your questions," he states, making my eyes widen. "And I agreed. But the rest of the questions you have are not things I wish to answer."

I try to shout, but I can\'t move my mouth anymore.

Damned bastard! I still haven\'t asked anything important!

Maybe if I ask them in my head?

Why did you create the System? What are the consequences for the System should you die?

My feet reach down, and I jump off the table onto the ground against my will.

Okay, should\'ve guessed that wouldn\'t work.

I try to use my skills to fight against the compulsion, but nothing I try to do works.

Why the hell did he even make me swear an oath if he was just going to do this anyways?! Just to toy with me?

I don\'t get the feeling that he was lying when he answered the questions that he did, especially since his answers make sense. But can I really trust that feeling considering that he\'s forcefully controlling my body right now?

No matter how hard I struggle or how much mana I expend, nothing works. I just keep stepping towards the man in the tank. And before I can think of anything else I could possibly try to break free, my sword arm strikes forward in a thrust, cutting through the glass and into the center of his chest, his health stat clearly being at zero if someone of my level can even hurt him.

"Thank you, Alexia Knight," his voice echoes in my head one last time. "I wish you luck in the new dimension."

I blink at that in confusion, but a loud shattering sound echoes throughout the laboratory, and quite possibly the rest of the universe. Then a legendary feat echoes in my head the moment the light leaves the man\'s eyes and they stop flickering, his body slumping while being held in place by the tubes.

I let out a sigh of relief at the sight of the note on the feat.

Guess he was telling the truth about that part after all.

Wait a second. What did he mean by \'new dimension?\'

My answer comes in the form of a System notification.

Oh shit, what have I done…

I blink at the thought before frowning.

Actually, it\'s not really my fault when he didn\'t exactly give me a choice. Plus this might not be a bad thing. Since it\'ll give everyone a fair chance at growing stronger and ascending. In fact, even I might have a chance now…

Although the ascendants will still have a single Legendary Feat giving them an advantage over others, not to mention whatever knowledge they already have. But still.

A chance is more than what they had before. More than what I had before.

And now I have a Legendary Feat too.

I still can\'t help but wonder why he didn\'t just have me free him instead of killing him. Unless that wasn\'t possible for me to do?

Guess I could see that as a plausible reason.

I smile as I wipe my blade on the table and sheathe it, simply watching the number slowly tick down.

Then I find myself suddenly appearing back in the dungeon next to the others, and surprisingly they don\'t seem to have moved much at all. Almost as if very little time had passed since I entered the void.

Which I guess is true in a way, since I believe others have mentioned that time works differently there.

"Lexi, you okay?" Astrid asks, and I nod.

"How long was I gone?" I ask as quickly as I can while everyone else is seemingly mentally preparing themselves for the reset. Or just plain freaking out in Rob\'s case.

She answers without missing a beat, "You vanished for almost half a minute and reappeared just seconds after the countdown started."

Okay.

I look at the countdown to find two seconds left, so I quickly meet my sister\'s eyes and state, "Stay safe, sis."

Assuming we\'ll be separated, which might not happen.

She nods back, "You too."

Then everything goes white.

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