"The power of the healing rune array is limited by my own strength. The toxins in my body are too potent, entrenched like maggots clinging to bone. I can't dispel them at all."
Leo frowned as he searched for a solution. He did not sigh over the damage to his body; his mature mind made it easier for him to accept misfortunes that had already happened.
Besides, he had traded that damage for ten precious years of study. Even given another chance, Leo would have done the same.
An opportunity to study like that was far too precious!
The healing rune array continued to glow, but it could remove only a tiny amount of the toxins in his body-not even one ten-thousandth of the total.
"'Old Grandpa,' are you there?"
With a thought, Leo's voice echoed through his mind.
He was someone with a cheat, after all. When trouble struck, the cheat had to step in!
But a long while passed without a reply, as though no one were there.
"Are you there, 'Old Grandpa'?" Leo asked again, unhurried.
Ever since he had asked how to advance back in Gavarci Tower, "Old Grandpa" had not spoken again.
"Don't call me that anymore." A voice finally rang out in his mind, its tone filled with helplessness.
"If I don't call you 'Old Grandpa,' what should I call you? You're my cheat! You promised to make me surpass the gods." The corners of Leo's mouth rose slightly, as though he had remembered something funny.
"Ah, just call me Benji. Don't bring up that 'Old Grandpa' business again."
The voice in his mind sighed softly. What a mess this was. He had thought he had picked up a piece of gold, only to discover he had picked up a land mine-one that could explode at any moment.
"You're a Demigod, a being just one step away from igniting divine fire. From the introductions to other worlds I've read, Demigods like you are powerhouses whose might has inspired awe for centuries. What could possibly make you so miserable?"
Leo continued questioning him like a clueless newbie, as though he knew nothing, but the amusement in his eyes said it all.
"Stop pretending. You must already know where I came from."
"I won't lie to you, either. Whatever knowledge you learn, I can learn too, and I know what you've experienced. That should explain why I'm like this, shouldn't it?" Seeing that Leo was still pretending, Benji simply spelled it out.
During those ten years in Gavarci Tower, the private library on the second floor had taught Leo no particularly profound knowledge, but it had been enough to reshape his views of the world and the universe.
Of course, Benji's worldview had been reshaped too!
As Benji leafed through the Wizard World's history books, his reshaped view of history was one of despair and trembling.
Those were no history books. They were chronicles written in the blood and tears of countless enslaved worlds!
Every world took care to hide itself from the Wizard World, terrified of leaving the slightest trace that might let the wizards locate it.
Yet he had not only failed to hide-he had actually delivered himself to their doorstep...
Benji no longer wanted to live.
"Heh, so what do you want to do?" Leo chuckled. This fellow had stopped playing dead and was getting desperate.
"The consciousness in your mind is merely a wisp of my avatar. I'll dissipate myself shortly, and you and I will never meet again."
Benji's sigh carried despair, and within that despair lay resolve. If he could choose again, he would never have answered that day's communication. Curiosity really did kill.
"Dissipate yourself? You don't want the strength you'll lose?" Leo asked.
"..."
"Heh, what are you thinking? Now that I understand your situation, do you think you'll have a chance to dissipate yourself?"
Leo smiled, baring his gleaming white teeth like a wolf opening its jaws to tear into its prey.
"What do you mean? Are you threatening me? Do you want us to die together? With your measly strength, I could kill you dozens of times over even as a mere wisp of consciousness."
Benji was furious. Now anyone dared bare their teeth at him, no matter how weak. Did Leo really think his Demigod strength was nothing? Even a wisp of his consciousness could unleash a strike approaching Saint Level.
"You misunderstand. How would I dare threaten a Demigod? I probably couldn't withstand even a breath from you. But you can try dissipating yourself. Test what I said first. If you have any questions, we can discuss them afterward."
"I promise I won't interfere or tell anyone. I wish you success." Leo smiled with utter confidence, looking nothing like someone urging another person to commit suicide.
"Hmph."
Benji snorted, then fell silent in Leo's mind. He had heard the gloating in Leo's words.
Leo was in no hurry either. He simply activated the healing rune array on his chest again and again to heal his injuries. It was no great matter; he could still dispel a little of the poison.
Only a few minutes passed before chains of runes suddenly appeared across Leo's body. The instant they appeared, the mana circulating inside him solidified, unable to move. All his energy was frozen.
"What is this? This damned thing! When did you prepare it?"
"You actually kept it hidden from me! How scheming. You were preparing to deal with me all along, weren't you?"
Benji cursed furiously in his mind. Although Leo could not see what was happening to him, he imagined it was nothing pleasant.
"All right, stop cursing. What does this have to do with me? You've gone through all my memories."
"Did you ever see me learn some powerful sealing technique?"
"Get a grip. Is a mighty Demigod capable of nothing but cursing like a shrew?"
Leo's words silenced Benji's curses. Just as Leo had said, he had gone through Leo's memories more than a dozen times. He understood Leo better than anyone.
He knew Leo did not know a sealing technique like this. Besides, with only a dozen or so years of cultivation, Leo could not possibly have set up such powerful wizardry.
A sealing technique capable of restraining a Demigod like him would have to be cast by someone at least on his own level.
"I think you must understand the plan revolving around me too. You can't escape it either. Although I don't know when this seal was laid or who laid it, I know that once the plan begins, not a single mistake will be permitted."
"Your suicide was predicted long ago. I dare say even if you have other methods, none of them will work. What do you think?" Leo asked leisurely. The initiative had changed hands the moment the sealing technique appeared.
When even someone willing to die could not manage to do so, what initiative was there to speak of?
"What are you trying to say? Can you help me?"
Now that he had calmed down, Benji sounded somewhat panicked. If this wisp of consciousness could not die, his main body was in danger. Worse still, it was not just his main body—his entire world was in danger.
"Put away those little schemes. You have no chance left. The moment you attached yourself to me and failed to flee immediately, you lost your chance. Your fate was sealed long ago. Struggling will only make you suffer more."
"You say you're a Demigod, which only makes you equivalent to a Level Three Great Wizard in the Wizard World. Think about the wizard history books I read. That level of strength isn't worth a damn."
"I mean your main body, not the consciousness avatar hiding inside me."
Leo went straight for the heart, hammering Benji with one harsh reality after another until he fell silent, because he knew everything Leo said was true.
"If you want to survive now, your only chance is to rely on me. Only I can save you. My identity is enough to save you."
"Think it over. I'm not asking you to agree to anything right away, and I can't give you any guarantees."
"But I can tell you this: as long as you follow me, I guarantee your safety."
"You're even more certain of that than I am."
Faced with Leo's unequivocal words, Benji was filled with conflicting feelings. He had never imagined that a mighty Demigod like himself would one day be told by someone who did not even rank among the weakest that he would protect him.
If anyone had dared say that to him before, he would have laughed and killed them a hundred times over. Now, however, he said nothing, because he knew that, however unpleasant the words, they were the truth.
After saying his piece, Leo paid Benji no more attention. Once the rune chains vanished from his body, he activated the healing rune array again, cleansing his body over and over.
Even though each pass could remove less than one ten-thousandth of the toxins in his body, Leo never tired of it.
The seed had been planted. Sprouting and harvest were only a matter of time.
It sprouted quickly, sooner than Leo had expected. He had originally prepared to wait ten days, but Benji took the initiative to speak to him the very next day.
"Leo, I know what you want, but I can't do it yet. Until it comes to that, I will never give up." Benji lowered his stance. The terrifying reality left him no choice but to bow his head while under another's roof.
"I understand. If it were me, I'd look for other opportunities too," Leo said.
"I've thought through the matter between us. I'll do everything I can to help you grow stronger. After all, only when you're strong enough will you have a say. With your current strength, your guarantee is worthless. It's not that I don't believe you. You're simply too weak."
Benji struck at Leo without the slightest courtesy. Dreaming of swallowing an elephant like a snake was one thing, but a tiny grass snake could not swallow an elephant. Even if the elephant agreed to be swallowed, at the very least, the snake's belly had to hold it.
"You've made the right choice."
Leo smiled silently. The plan had succeeded.
Those wizards' scheme was very simple-so simple that even Leo, who had only just encountered wizard civilization, could detect it, let alone a being like Benji who had cultivated to the Demigod level.
Those wizards had not concealed anything and did not care in the slightest whether Leo noticed. That could mean only one thing: their strength had reached the point where concealment was unnecessary. They could lay everything out in the open, and you would still be the one left in despair.
This was the Wizard World, powerful enough to leave countless worlds suffocating!
What Leo needed to do was secure a little benefit for himself in the meantime.
"Your problem now is the large quantity of mixed toxins in your body. Relying on your healing rune array alone, you couldn't cleanse them all even in ten years."
Having reached a preliminary agreement with Leo, Benji immediately stepped into his role and began helping him devise solutions. Helping Leo meant helping himself; he could not afford to be anything but attentive.