Chapter 40:

The walk only took him a few minutes before they found what was essentially a clone of the shop they went to last. The clerk was the same unassuming, blond man-ish thing that looked to be an NPC. They didn't talk to him, though, as they just each pulled up a window of the shop's offerings and began scrolling through.

Alice started looking for something that would help her avoid the mana drain. She first filtered for anything that she could afford related to mana, using the useful quick filter options, vastly limiting the list of thousands of possible entries down to something that she could actually read in a reasonable amount of time. She began skimming through the items, most of them being some type of mana recovery potion of various strengths. There were mana density gathering arrays, as well as different ways of respecting mana: storing it, expelling it, purging it, purifying it. But nothing useful.

I thought that I could get something like the mana-gathering array and make it mobile. Or maybe... An idea struck her. Perhaps there's something in the center of the anthill. Like a mana-gathering array, artificially lowering it in the area around and boosting it inside. It makes sense in many ways, but how can I defend against it? I can mostly keep my mana in my own body, but as I get closer, would that still be true? Maybe the best thing I can do is not have to worry about fighting against it. Some sort of fortifying object, then.

She removed some of the filters, keeping the ones related to mana, and started searching more narrowly on the list. Eventually, she found what she sought, but it wasn't reasonable. The issue was not that she couldn't equip it; it was acceptable for E grade. But a mana-fortifying amulet, which would strengthen her control over mana by order of magnitude, cost about ten times what she currently had. She didn't know how anyone at E grade was ever supposed to afford it.

As she read through the description, she noticed that it was oftentimes used by people in D grade as a weaker form of mama manipulation. An interesting idea, although she didn't think anyone had ever reached D grade yet.

Alice poked at the description, trying to figure out more. She found out that it was an enchanted piece of material, something she had seen before, something actually related to Titus's skill with projectile weapons. That gave her another idea.

"Titus!"

He was still poking at the air but turned to look at her with one eye, his attention still divided. Seeing that he was listening, she asked her question. "Anything about the ants?"

He shook her head. "Nothing we can afford. There is a potion of pheromones, though."

Alice mumbled something under his breath before speaking up. "I think the System is trying to get us to learn something here."

"Really?" Titus said as she closed the window, giving her his full attention. "What do you mean?"

"There's an amulet that could help with the mana issues, though not entirely. I would probably have to bring mana recovery potions with me if I wanted more mana. Still, I could prevent it from being drained from me even as we got closer to the effect. But it's too expensive."

Titus grimaced. "Oh."

Alice turned to the shopkeeper, who finally looked at them. "Is there an enchanting guild or school nearby?" she asked.

The shopkeeper nodded in disinterest and motioned. "Yeah, the crafting guild hall is a few streets over," he said and pointed.

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Titus nodded and turned to Alice. "Show me a map."

Alice went ahead and purchased a few mana recovery potions and handed them to Titus for him to store in his inventory. Then they left, the shopkeeper not even acknowledging their departure, and they didn't return the favor either.

"So, you think the System wants us to learn how to brew potions and enchant them?" Titus asked.

Alice nodded. "It seems like it. Doesn't that go against everything we've been thinking about, though? Why would it be trying to help us overcome this problem and reach our goal?"

Alice tapped her lips in thought. "The System is self-aware in many ways, and I think it has instincts of self-preservation. Perhaps what we're doing won't work. Perhaps... I don't know.

Think about it this way: the System is training. It's meant to teach the players and help them level up and get stronger. Of course, we're not really players in a game or anything, but its core function is still for efficiency, forcing us to get stronger. Also, I think that it might not be so much for this instance in particular, but just the idea of giving us items that we couldn't hope to purchase unless we made them ourselves by gathering. Purchasing the ingredients is just a way of forcing us to get stronger."

"Yeah, but what if they want us to learn how to make potions, enchanted weapons, alchemy, spell work? You know, anything?" Titus said, waving his hand, illustrating the vast inventory this shop had.

Alice shook her head. "No, I don't think so. I think we'll find that if we learn one of those things, we can make stuff, sell it, and then have enough money to buy from the other shops and professions."

Titus nodded. "Mhm, yeah, it makes sense. And well, the pheromone thing makes sense. It seems like this is some sort of common monster, and their biomass is greater than that of humans."

He noticed Alice reading something on her phone that she had been searching for. The Wikipedia page she had pulled up on the ant species closely resembled a small version and held some general facts about ants. It was a bare HTML page, and the full stylesheet took too long to load over the extremely shoddy connection.

Titus grimaced. "I hate ants," he said, and Alice patted his arm.

"I do too, but you know, if they think we're one of them, hopefully, they'll leave us alone, and we can just move through the nest with impunity."

"So we need to learn alchemy and enchanting?"

"Yep."

They stopped by the entrance of a building that had the words "Guild Hall" emblazoned over the front. With a push of the door, a bell chimed, and they walked into a common room-looking area with a counter and an NPC behind it, along with several tables.

"Welcome to the Guild," the NPC greeted with an airy voice as she waved from behind the counter.

Alice returned the wave and stepped up. "Hello. We are looking to learn some things about professions."

"Certainly," the NPC said. She pulled out an honest-to-God pamphlet and handed it to Alice and then one to Titus. She leaned over the counter and pointed. "We offer classes starting at noon for these different disciplines. The cost is 1000 credits per hour, and materials will be provided for the basic introductions. For intermediate and above, though, we have lists of requirements for materials that need to be procured."

She continued, giving her a spiel about the different classes and services the guild offered. Apparently, not only could you buy finished equipment from them at a reasonable rate compared to the shop if you were willing to deal with student projects, but you could also sell your work to them at a decent markup.

Alice and Titus listened before they took their pamphlets over to a table to decide what they were going to do.

"I think enchanting is going to be for me," Alice said as she looked at the specific section. "It looks like something that's up my alley." It reminded her of learning how to program—not exactly languages in the same way, but the same sort of puzzle of drawing out diagrams and connecting them.

Titus nodded. "I guess that leaves me with alchemy or potion brewing. Hmm, I'd say alchemy as a starting point. Also, reading the description, I don't think the pheromones are technically a potion. However, there does seem to be some overlap."

After signing up with the NPC attendant, Titus looked over to Alice

"Well, we got a few hours to kill. What do you say we go level up?" Titus suggested.

Alice shook her head. "Yeah, in a little bit. Give me a few minutes. I want to do a tiny bit of work," she said, pulling out her laptop. "This is something I should have done a while ago."

She booted up the two projects that caused the end of the world: both the AI and the more illicit resource procurement protocol she had created.