Wait, am I forgetting something?

“That’s great!” the stone giant booms.

I’ll be stuck here with them for who knows how long, helping them get a trait. Oh! What do I get out of it? Yes, my trait will become upgraded, but does that really count?

“Ahem, actually,” I cough awkwardly to the side, bringing attention back to me, “what will I get out of this?”

Was that too blunt? I hope it wasn’t. I’m not being pushed into the ground under that pressure, so it’s probably fine.

“Ah, of course. We wouldn’t let you be without an appropriate reward! What is it you wish for? As long as it’s within my power to grant, you may consider it done.”

Oh, now that’s unexpected. Maybe I really underestimated how much they need that trait. Or its value.

Anyway, what do I want? There’s not really that much. And what I don’t have I’m able to, or will be eventually, get through skills and magic. So, information. About skills, traits, tiers, the System in general, and most importantly, magic.

Because as useful as it’s been so far, I have the feeling that I’m missing something rather big. Magic shouldn’t be so limited that I can only have one spell and at the same time so broad that casting a spell is as easy as imagining it. Sure, it’s weaker when cast in that way, but it still works.

“I seek knowledge.” Won’t hurt to speak a bit more fancily. I’ll just have to make sure not to turn into a Mr. douche.

For whatever reason, this doesn’t surprise the stone giant. Perhaps there have been multiple advena here already? I can imagine that most of them would also seek knowledge. There isn’t much more to look for once one has the power to freely travel between worlds.

“And what kind of knowledge would that be?”

“System knowledge, mostly.” It almost seems as if the giant relaxes at this statement. “Along with information about magic.”

“Our studies about the System shall be open to you, but magic,” the giants tone shifts, becoming heavy, “well, we’ll have to see about that.”

Got it. Magic is a sensitive topic. Might as well stop while I’m ahead. The System info is already a lifesaver. Finally, I’ll be able to make some proper plans and not stuff based on half-remembered media knowledge.

And it would seem that I’m not the only one who reached this conclusion. The stone giants’ eyes slowly fade until they are no longer glowing. What remains is the same lifeless statue as before. I wonder what it really is.

“So, what now?” I ask the crowd of people that is slowly dispersing.

One of the shouts something. And I remember that I can’t understand them. But I could understand that one person during my audience with the giant? Strange skills must be at play.

I sped a little while just awkwardly standing there, looking around. Is nobody going to help me? Seriously?

Just as I’m tempted to go explore on my own, the same person who guided me here arrives. The young man once again gestures at me to follow him. I shrug my shoulder and do so. It’s not like there’s much else for me to do.

We return to the maze of stone corridors. This time I’m paying more attention to our path, but it’s still too much. Maybe with some luck I’d be able to navigate back into the throne room, but it’s not a guarantee.

After a while, we arrive in front of a big, but much less grand, pair of doors. I look to my side, but my guide had already disappeared.

How does he do that? It has to be a skill of some sort. But the question remains, why would a servant need such a skill.

Without many options left, I open the door and enter.

Into a library. Shelves upon shelves with rows upon rows of books fill almost every free space. It even stretches high above my head!

Now this is a proper collection of books. Is this my part of the deal? Are all of these books about the System?

“Hello? Is there anyone here?” I shout out into the room.

All I get in answer is someone aggressively shushing me. Huh, I guess even that doesn’t change between worlds.

Heading in the direction of whoever shushed me, I browse the selection of books. And realize that most of them don’t have titles. And those that do are in an unfamiliar script I can’t read.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Uh, I forgot about that. Again. Let’s hope there’s time in whatever experimenting they have planned to upgrade the trait for me to learn the language. And keep practising my other skills.

I round a corner and see a familiar figure. Croce.

She’s huddled behind a desk, reading from a thick tome. Once I get closer, I realize that the tome is not only thick and huge, but also that the letters inside are absolutely tiny. And Croce is turning the pages every minute or so, as if it were a normal sized book.

I cough lightly into my fist.

She shushes me again.

Well, this is really awkward. Am I just supposed to wait here under she finishes reading whatever it is she’s reading? That hardly seems fair. But understandable. I would know how it feels to get sucked into a good story. Though I suspect she isn’t reading fiction.

It takes a while for her to reach some kind of break point in the tome and turn to me.

“What do you want?” she addresses me not quite harshly.

“I’m not really sure? The guide took me here, so I assume we’re supposed to work on that trait.”

She sighs a sigh of frustration. “Right, right. Yeah, how about this. You can do whatever you want for the rest of the day and we’ll begin tomorrow. Deal?”

Nor exactly what I expected, what with her being so excited to talk to me previously. But this is actually better for me. Gives me more time to work on pressure resistance and prepare for if things go south.

“Sure, I don’t mind. Is there a room assigned to me or something?”

She just points in a direction, already enthralled by the book.

Shrugging my shoulders, I head in the pointed-out direction.

What awaits me there is a small corridor between two shelves that I wouldn’t have spotted otherwise. Inside are a couple of doors, one of which is presumably my room.

It doesn’t take me long to figure out which one. It’s the only one that’s unlocked.

I enter and lock the door behind me.

Oh, thank fuck that that’s over! Finally, some time to relax, more or less properly. Can’t discount the possibility of them watching me, but that’s a worry for future me. Yeah, I’m not going to deal with that.

The room itself is nice. A bit sparse, but a far cry from the emptiness of my cell. And yes, I’m realizing that it was definitely a cell.

Maybe the only thing that’s worse here is the fact I won’t be able to hone my mana sense by searching for the hidden door.

I lay down on the bed and let myself relax. Still not quite as good as modern-day Earth, but miles better than camping in the woods.

Okay, that’s enough of that. Sometimes I really curse my improved mind. Can’t even relax properly.

Well then, let me see what I’m working with.

Level Up!

Silent step – level 49 -> 50

Fortified mind – level 69 -> 70

Languages – level 45 -> 46

General knowledge – level 46 -> 48

Focus magic – level 30 -> 33

Meditation – level 54 -> 55

Digestive system – level 28 -> 29

Pressure resistance – level 0 -> 6

Alright, six levels from just that moment under the giant’s pressure. Yeah, I’m so outclassed. And the System doesn’t even have classes.

Right then, let me just repeat my trick from earlier and cast a form fitting distortion on me. There, that’s good. I’ll keep it on the weaker side for now.

I think I figured out a great feat I can do. It should upgrade visualize, which isn’t the most useful of skills in this situation, but perhaps the upgrade will surprise me.

Either way, I doubt I’ll be able to actually do it tonight. I suspect I’ll need multiple tries to accomplish it, but I might as well start training. And if I combine it with pressure resistance training, it should also be pretty effective for meditation.

I begin with slowly increasing the pressure I’m under. Then, leave a small part of my consciousness to regulate that while I turn to visualization.

Utilizing meditation to ignore my body straining against high pressure, I begin with the same exercise I attempted just a couple hours earlier. It’s actually what inspired me into attempting this great feat.

I start off simply, visualizing a rough sketch of the lakeside clearing I settled down on. Once I have that going, I add detail. Except that I don’t stop.

Once everything is in colour and looks pretty much exactly as when looking at it, I zoom in and begin imagining every single individual blade of grass.

At this point it doesn’t take me long to hit a wall. Maybe a couple dozen blades of grass in, my mind begins to strain. It getting difficult to keep all of the details in mind while adding new ones.

So, I pull deeper on meditation. It helps, even if only for a moment. After a while I’m once again stuck, unable to expand this inner world.

But it’s fine. Visualization isn’t only about imagining things in great detail. It’s also about maintain that image through adversity.

I focus more thoughts on the spell. And increase the depth of the distortion.

Sure, my mind can’t handle adding more onto the mental image. But I can still train it by maintaining that image while distracted. For example, by a huge pressure from a spell.

Even that doesn’t last long though, and I have to let it go. As well as the spell. By now my body is aching quite a lot, mostly my ribs and organs. Fortunately, I remember to first lower the pressure before cancelling the spell. Trauma truly is the best teacher. Not!

I lie back down on the bed. I suppose that’s another benefit of this super mind. Although I recover easily and can push myself to my limits, that also means that I can take multiple rests within a shorter amount of time. Yeah, look at the positives.

Ten minutes later, I’m back at it again. My mind recovers faster though, so I’m already constructing the clearing before I cast the spell.

Once I reach a limit with detail, I once again move onto endurance. And when I hit a limit there, I rest. Over and over again. Each time a couple more blades of grass, a couple more second under increased gravity.

At one point I must have passed out, because the next thing I remember is waking up in the bed what feels like many hours later.

Now that’s what I call an intense workout session! Let’s see them gains!

Level Up!

Fortified mind – level 70 -> 74

Visualize – level 56 -> 64

Focus magic – level 33 -> 35

Meditation – level 55 -> 60

Digestive system – level 29 -> 30

Pressure resistance – level 6 -> 21

Ooh, goodies! But maybe I shouldn’t push myself to the point that I pass out. No matter how much my mind improves, that can’t be healthy. And I also have to give my body time to recover. It’s no use improving it if it’s left broken in the aftermath.

Now then, it is a new day, probably, and I’m hungry. Let’s see if they have anything good to eat and then it’s off to do some research! The secrets of the System await!