Sometime ago, Leon met Ren Nora again and this time, he simply asked to know all information that the General knew about the 5 Ascended Classes of the world and their Class Specializations.

Since he was F Rank, Leon already learned long ago that to survive in this world, he needed knowledge about other Classes, their nature and their abilities.

This way, he would know exactly how to fight against them to conquer them.

Afterall, in Neo-Tokara, every Class was unique and no single Ascended was omnipotent. Arrogance can easily lead to your death.

And since Ren Nora was essentially the most knowledgeable person in the world, what better person to learn from than him?

This is why Leon asked and Ren Nora willingly passed on everything that he knew about the Ascended Classes and Class Specializations to him.

And now, he zeroed down on one of them... the Quantum Shaper Class.

At D Rank, Quantum Shapers are called Causality Shapers and they branch into 3 different Class Specializations: Gravitionists, Chrono Masters, and Fluxmancers.

Back in the battle of Iron Reef 131 years ago, Leon already saw Gravitionists and Chrono Masters in action, he even saw a C Rank Chrono Master in General Murphy in action and that was a memory that was forever embedded in his head.

The horror of seeing a C Rank Quantum Shaper wreak havoc was still fresh in his head like it happened just yesterday.

The only Class Specialization of D Rank Quantum Shapers that Leon was yet to see in action was the one he didn’t know previously, and when he met Ren Nora, the General filled the knowledge gap in his head.

He learned about Fluxmancers from General Ren Nora, including everything that made the elusive Quantum Shaper Class Specialization deadly.

Of the 3 Quantum Shaper Class Specializations of an already rare Class, Fluxmancers were the rarest and most elusive, but they were not the weakest.

While a Gravitionist manipulates gravity and mass and a Chrono Master works with temporal distortion, a D Rank Fluxmancer of the Quantum Shaper Class works with energy fields and matter.

The 3 Class Exclusive Fluxmancer abilities are Plasmakinesis, Radiation Bending, and Quantum Assassin, while they still have access to the general D Rank Quantum Shaper skills like Spatial Rend and Phase Step.

Plasmakinesis is the ability to create, shape, and manipulate plasma- the fourth state of matter consisting of ionized gas.

Fluxmancers can use this ability to solidify superheated ionized gas into constructs like blades, shields, and tendrils that can cut through matter.

They are natural plasma weapons!

That alone was frightening enough, but with Radiation Bending, Fluxmancers can absorb, redirect, or amplify radioactive decay and ADE corruption!

They can also unleash concentrated beams of Gamma and X-ray radiation.

These 2 abilities alone already made a D Rank Fluxmancer a force to be reckoned with, but Quantum Assassin gives them a different edge entirely.

Quantum Assassin make Fluxmancers the most insidious Class Specialization among all D Rank Class Specializations.

When activated, Quantum Assassin gives Fluxmancers the ability of enhanced dream and reality control. They become capable of assassinating through dreams!

Killing a quantum body is equal to a real death!

"...!" Leon felt a chill crawl down his spine.

He could feel that the customer sitting at the Eastern end of the restaurant was no longer just looking at him, but that only made him feel even more unnerved and tense. ’F*ck, f*ck, F*Ck...!’

In that moment, he finally realized that a Quantum Assassin was sent after him and his team.

’Since when?’

’Did he follow us from Neo Solace?’

’Is our hideout already surrounded by the Federation Army?’

He simply couldn’t wrap his head around how they were discovered, their contingency plan was almost perfect and undetectable, so how?

These worrying thoughts filled his brain, pushing him into a somber mood. Then for a moment, he remembered and worried about his teammates.

’Are they already dead?’

’I believe the Lt. Colonel may be able to put up some resistance, but for Daren and Brick,’ the thought of his 2 friends and teammates facing this monster left him with a feeling of dread and anger.

Leon carefully dropped the spoon containing the food as all his enhanced senses became heightened, he was at alert for any attack.

’But can I even defend myself in a dream?’

He already tried to circulate his ADE but there was no response.

Without ADE...

He scowled. ’I’m screwed!’

As Leon was busy thinking feverishly on how to survive and escape this dream assassination, from his periphery vision he suddenly saw the customer at the Eastern end of the restaurant stand up.

BA-DUMP!

His heart jumped and skipped a beat.

Gritting his teeth, he stayed absolutely still as he hoped and prayed that he was mistaken about the identity of the assassin, but he was wrong.

The customer was walking right at him!

’F*ckkkk!’ Leon snarled in his mind.

And finally, he stood up. It was more like he stumbled to his feet unsteadily, knocking the table down in the process.

Crksh!

He turned around and faced the man, stumbling back.

What he saw made his face tighten in a grimace.

He saw a man wearing all-black attire and a robe, including black gloves and socks that covered his entire body.

He couldn’t tell if he was a Synth, an A.I Construct, or a Geneform because he wore a full-face ghost mask that covered his entire face.

He looked like some alien.

Looking at this man, only one thought entered Leon’s head. ’Ghostface...’

Leon stumbled backwards, moving towards the opposite wall even as the man walked menacingly towards him.

The man clearly wasn’t in a rush though. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Instead, he asked. "You’re lucid right?"

"How did you do it?"

Leon didn’t sense any anger or hatred in the man’s voice, all he felt was curiosity towards something that this man didn’t understand.

’As if you’d understand if I told you,’ he thought with a scowl as he kept on backing away from the man.

And then, his back hit the wall.

Leon froze.

The man tilted his head slightly and out of nowhere, a dagger appeared in his head. "I’d love to know how you’re lucid under my influence, but sorry, I have a mission to accomplish".

He lunged at Leon.

WHOOSH!

He was so fast that he left a blur and in that moment, Leon felt his life flash before his eyes.

He saw death, he knew he was going to die in one hit.

But he didn’t want to go yet, he didn’t want to give up yet, there were so many things that he was yet to achieve!

’Damn it!’

Despite losing access to all his superhuman strength and ADE, the instincts that he already honed across 4 months of staying in this world remained.

And they were what enabled Leon to move his head slightly just in time as the dagger stabbed, cutting the right side of his forehead instead of stabbing through his skull completely.

Blood flowed from the cut.

Gritting his teeth, Leon quickly rolled out of the way but as a mundane human now, there was no way that he was escaping a D Rank Ascended.

The ghostface-masked man followed right behind him like a dog.

His struggle was meaningless as...

BAM!

The man kicked him.

BAM!

He smashed his head against the wall.

BAM!

He stabbed him in the abdomen, making him bleed.

Leon suffered over a dozen cuts within seconds! And yet, every time the assassin tried to stab a vital spot to end the battle immediately, out of stubborn willpower, Leon dodged and kept on living, enduring the biting pain.

He was bleeding all over and in a world of pain, giving up felt like the easy option at this moment but Leon refused.

’I can’t afford to die yet...!’

It was not even a minute since this man moved, and yet Leon was already teetering on the brink of life and death.

It was clear that this assassin had no intention of playing with him, his every move was to kill.

Yet Leon survived through sheer stubbornness, but this was not going to last. He would not be able to evade death by the skin of his teeth forever, not against this man, not against a D Rank Quantum Shaper.

One way or another, he was going to die in the next 10 seconds!

But despite death being closer than ever before, Leon never gave up hope. Despite the debilitating pain, he never stopped thinking and finally, desperate and on the brink of death, he got an idea.

It was a desperate idea.

He had no idea if it was going to work, but right now he was already out of choices and means and he would grab any idea available to him that could potentially ensure his survival.

DING!

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[You have made use of Character Summon Card...]

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