Grey watched Sir Kulin vanish into the distance, cursing under his breath. Even if he poured all 289 of his Free Stats into SPD right this moment, it probably still wouldn’t be enough to catch up to a Vector Class in raw speed alone.

While he wasn’t sure how the stat scales worked at that level, what he did know was that if the peak of Proving Class was around 100, even if the scale was perfectly linear, the peak of Vector Class would be around 300.

Logically, scaling almost never worked like that, not to mention the fact that Class strength was more than just raw stats.

The supplemental Abilities that Sir Kulin had definitely made every stat point he had far more valuable.

On the one hand, that made it all the more shocking that Grey had handled him so easily. But on the other, there was just no way he was catching up to the man with his straight-line speed.

’I have to get out of here.’

Having another person who had seen the type of mask he was wearing would definitely make it harder to luck into flying under the radar.

’Fuck me, I wore the mask to meet the squires too. Hopefully because I wore the mechanical jaw back then it’s different enough to not raise eyebrows.’

There was no point in pulling out the iron jaw this time because its Energy Reserves were too low, so Grey hadn’t needed to. But at this point, he felt like he was just coping.

’I’m so screwed.’

Grey sighed.

First things first, he was going to try and get back to Baron Giyoto and at least clear this damned Quest. Then he would consider other things.

’This way, I guess.’

...

Grey started walking in the vague general direction of the only other part of his map of the catacombs that was lit up.

At first, Grey was going quite slowly, all things considered. He wasn’t exactly at a snail’s pace, but he was still walking.

If there was a straight line between where he was and where Baron Giyoto’s treasure stores lay, it would only be about three to four hundred meters.

Considering this was under the Church Palace, it was enormous. The sheer magnitude of the building was shocking. But in terms of just general distance, it was a matter of a minute or two even at walking pace.

However, the continuous winding and shifting of the tunnels made what should have been a pretty straightforward journey become more and more complicated. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

After about three minutes or so, Grey came to a complete stop.

’What the hell?’

He looked down at his map and he could swear that the gap of darkness between where he was and where the treasure store was had remained exactly the same.

Yet, there wasn’t anything more lighting up in his supposedly newly explored tunnels.

Had he really just been through tunnels he had only gone through before? Or was there something else?

Grey ran a hand through his hair.

’Hm...’

Before he even set out, Grey knew there had to be a reason why Baron Giyoto dared to hide his things right under the church’s nose. He had been expecting to find some sort of danger. What he didn’t expect was something like this.

It was almost like he was back in that Vampire Lord Instance again, but this feeling was a lot more subtle.

’There are probably a ton of mental blocks and illusion type stuff around here. That should be why I needed Center of Balance to direct me to where Baron Giyoto’s more important stuff was. In that case...’

Grey took a breath and exhaled.

He communicated with Center of Balance and his body began to radiate a holy energy.

The strength of it was immediately far more than ever before. Grey could even feel like his Paladin Frame wanted to absorb it a lot like it had Paladin Spirit, but there was a barrier.

Grey knew that barrier was the fact Center of Balance was only at Passive Link right now, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to improve it. He really didn’t like the feeling of control it seemed to have over his mind.

To Grey’s surprise, though, that overwhelming feeling of kindness wasn’t there at all this time.

He blinked and stood in silence for a moment, really feeling out for it. But even after a handful of seconds, the situation didn’t change.

While yes, he did feel calmer, and almost like his Neural Frame was being drawn out right in front of his eyes, like the entire world was in the palm of his hands, the "side effects" were gone.

’Is it because of the Paladin Frame?’

Grey had no idea what was going on. This world seemed to have more questions than answers for him.

—

Lv4 Abyssal Anchor > Lv5 Abyssal Anchor

—

Grey saw the notification, but he didn’t think that this was the reason.

Abyssal Anchor was a Mind Resistance that formed an anchor in his mind and rooted him in reality. It made him far more immune to external mental attacks.

But Center of Balance was something of his own doing. The only reason Abyssal Anchor had ticked up was because he had focused a great deal just to make sure he wasn’t being subtly manipulated.

Now that his mind wasn’t being co-opted, the other abilities of Center of Balance were becoming more obvious. He could feel his Neural Frame more clearly, he felt like using Abilities at the same time was simpler than before—it was almost like an amplifier that slowed everything else down.

And under its effects, he finally saw the illusion blocking his path forward.

Every time he made a move to go down a certain hallway, he would suddenly turn and go in another direction, looping him endlessly around the same route again and again until he actively chose to go down another road.

But if he pushed against that feeling...

Grey slid right through the barrier, vanishing into the darkness.