CHAPTER 49: The 'Great Venerable'.
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After that, I took out several weapons and armour parts that I scavenged from the monsters from the storage space of [Limiter Ring], placed them in front of Dante, and told him to pick the suitable ones.
Dante was awestruck when he saw them appearing out of nowhere but didn't pry about how I was able to do that.
He hesitated for a second before curtly rejecting my offer, "Please, I couldn't accept these. I am already indebted to you."
Then MJ who floated beside me chuckled and said, "It seems like you misunderstood Master, the reason for offering you Spirit Items is because Master requires three particular armour type Spirit Items, a helmet, a pair of Gauntlets and a pair of Greaves."
"Thanks to your Innate Talent, you could get a random Spirit Item that you need the most at that moment whenever you kill a new race monster, at the expense of a few Fate Stats. But what you didn't know was that you could select any Spirit Item type you want, instead of letting the system do it for you."
Upon hearing what MJ said, Dante was enlightened to find that there was also such a way, and politely bowed as he called him, the 'Great Venerable'.
I rolled my eyes at the chubby baby, who had a pleased expression on his face.
Back when MJ taught Dante about the Trial Program's purpose and other necessary things, Dante got curious about MJ's identity and asked him.
I nodded at MJ, suggesting he reveal himself as a Soul A.I since Dante will be together with us until he finds the Grade-4 Spirit Fruit that I need.
I didn't worry about him leaking it to others since he couldn't do that, even if he wanted to
Because I adjusted the [Mask of Nihility]'s ability so that if Dante wanted to say anything related to me, except for my name, every other detail about me or MJ would be like a dream that he couldn't remember even when he had it on the tip of his tongue.
MJ didn't exactly reveal to Dante that he is Soul A.I, and instead, he claimed that he was a 10,000-year-old soul that was once a Tier-8 lifeform.
If not for my lack of emotions in the state of Harmony, I would have regretted leaving MJ with Qew during most of the 18-hour rest period after Day-1.
It seemed that she spoiled MJ with web novels. I couldn't blame MJ since I even had to read a few of her favourite web novels back when she continuously insisted.
I listened as MJ made up a story, where his friends backstabbed him, and that he used some life-saving technique to separate his soul from the body at the verge of death.
MJ continued with his fabricated story that he then drifted in space for an unknown amount of time before getting sucked into a wormhole and ended up in the Trial World, where he found me.
Also as time passed MJ's soul grew weaker, and when he was about to dissipate, the Day-1 of the Trial Program led me into finding MJ and forming a contract with me in exchange of MJ's help for revenge on those that backstabbed him.
The chubby baby even portrayed several emotions that matched the character description in his made-up story.
With that, Dante didn't even question the loopholes in the story and even scolded those imaginary backstabbing friends.
From MJ's poker face, I could tell that he was trying to control himself from bursting into laughter.
After hearing the entire story, I was sure that MJ also went through the same web novel that Qew once made me read.
Since Dante bought MJ's story, I didn't correct it.
After that, I mentioned my 'Third Condition'. It was to provide me with the specific armour type Spirit Items required for upgrading the [Centauri Kavach].
Since '1 Fate Stat' will be consumed every time he kills a new race monster to reward a suitable Spirit Item, I asked him to choose anything from my Spirit Item collection to cover the losses.
Like the previous time, he accepted my third condition without any hesitation. After I mentioned that it was a part of the third condition, Dante chose a few of the Spirit Items I brought out from my ring's storage space.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
He selected four Common grade Spirit Items including a chest armour, a pair of wrist guards, a belt and a Bow.
Under MJ's suggestion, Dante accepted the Safety Mode notification when he bonded with them.
With those Spirit Items Stats added periodically, it would take three hours before it ends.
The best way to get adjusted to those improvement stats was to train in some Weapon Mastery.
Unlike me, Dante didn't have any martial arts training or any considerable fighting experience beforehand.
Just in case of emergencies, where Dante has to defend himself against monsters, I told him to first train his [Minor Dagger Mastery] instead of [Minor Bow Mastery].
Since the space within the underground maze centre was not suitable for training with Bow and arrows.
Everyone has to gain some kind of mastery to satisfy the Tier Evolution requirements. It can be either Elemental Mastery or Weapon Mastery or Martial Mastery.
That's usually the case for those Elemental, Weapon and Martial Category Innate Talents.
As for Variant and Unique Category ones, the Mastery depends on their Innate Talents.
But, unlike the other four, the Unique Category Innate Talents doesn't give knowledge on how to reach higher levels of Mastery.
The best example for that was Dante since he gained 'Fate Mastery' once he got some understanding of how to use Fate.
When he gained Lv.1[Fate Mastery], he didn't receive any knowledge to help him reach higher levels in [Fate Mastery].
Dante has to learn how to level up his [Fate Mastery] by himself.
But with having many Fate Stats to expend along with MJ helping Dante on the various uses of Fate Stats, increasing his [Fate Mastery] wouldn't be much of an issue.
According to that logic, I should be having something like [Loot Mastery], but for some reason, I didn't have that.
After that, I had MJ to project the virtual map that he scouted in the past 9 hours.
Within that map, an area of 30 sq.km was shown in great detail. But my goal was to create a complete map of the 10000 sq.km area of the Trial Zone we were in.
I had MJ re-enter the Hobgoblin Shaman's Corpse and sent him to scout the terrain and expand the virtual map.
Following that, I started training in [Greatsword Mastery] with the two-handed Greatsword as my stamina made a complete recovery.
4 hours passed since then, and my [Greatsword Mastery] reached Stage-2 as it increased from Lv.1 to Lv.11.
Other than me, Dante also managed to reach Stage-2 in his [Minor Dagger Mastery].
Unlike me, Dante didn't have high Stamina to keep up with the non-stop training.
He wanted to rest, but instead of that, I had him eat the [Lesser Stamina Fruits] to see if he could gain [Training Manic-I] Achievement Title like me, and it worked.
These kinds of information on how to gain Achievement Titles would later be beneficial to my family and even the entire humanity once the system assimilates with the Earth.
Just then, Hobgoblin MJ's voice reverberated in my mind, "Master, right now I am 23 kilometres from your location and nearby me there is a battle ongoing between a group of Alpha Chosen and a few monsters. Master, look at the real-time projection I am sending you now."
I knew that eventually Hobgoblin MJ' might come across the other Alpha Chosen, but I didn't think that would be so soon.
Then, my vision changed into Hobgoblin MJ's point of view.
From the angle of the view, I could tell that 'Hobgoblin MJ' observed their clash from a treetop that was 100 meters away.
From MJ, I realised that the race of the monsters in the clash was 'Shadow Leopards'. There were 6 of them with four being High-Phase Tier-1 monsters.
Each of those Lesser Shadow Leopard's skin was so dark that they resembled a shadow. If it was dark, it's hard to notice them even if they were close.
Except for their bright yellow irises, the remaining portion of the eyes was dark like their skin.
It's hard for those who don't have Night Vision Skill to notice them in darkness even if they are close.
Unlike the leopards on earth, they were as large as an adult horse.
But they were considered small compared to the other two Tier-2 Greater Shadow Leopards.
One of them was in the Low-phase (Lv.11 to Lv.15) of Tier-2, and It was a bit larger than the Dire Wind Wolf which stood 1.8 meters tall and 3 meters long.
The other Greater Shadow Leopard was in the High-Phase (Lv.21 to Lv.25) of Tier-2. It stood at 2.2 meters in height and 3.5 meters long.
A characteristic that all of them had in common was their long and sharp canines protruding from their teeth.
Even under the combined attack of those monsters, those three Alpha Chosen were able to hold their ground against them.
There were four in total, but the other three were protecting someone in a shiny crystal Orb.
I could tell that the person in it was undergoing evolution since I have been through one myself.
But it was clear that they cannot hold on much longer.
I recognised all of them with one look since I went through the information MJ gathered on the other 10 Earth's Alpha Chosen, during the 18-hour rest period.
What caught my interest was the battle prowess of that male Alpha Chosen.
When I thought back to what he used to do for a living and his identity, I was not at all ashamed to admit losing to him if our combat instincts and experience were taken into consideration.
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