Week 1, Day 2
There were no classes the next day, so Ethan explored the vast compound that would soon be his home for the next six years.
After yesterday’s little encounter, and the spars during class, it dawned on him that he was severely outmatched and needed to get stronger, and find ways to improve his own powers, and also the powers of the goddesses.
The first building he visited, were the cultivation chambers.
“You may use the Low-Tier cultivation chamber for 5 GP.” Ethan eavesdropped as the attendant at the counter explained to a lost student.
Cultivation Chambers were useful for students to move up the stages of their core’s cultivation. It’s especially useful for anyone who swapped to a new core and so had to rebuild their new core’s cultivation. He looked around and noticed even the older students still continued to use the Cultivation Chambers, though they had access to the higher-tier versions.
The chambers themselves were just multiple rooms, each could be customised to a specific energy type. It was not unlike a hotel or an inn.
The summoner had zero GP, but made a note to return to this place once he was able to afford it.
He continued to explore the Garden, and eventually reached one of the many shopping districts in the Garden. He browsed through the shops, and felt slightly annoyed that everything seemed expensive.
“You have money?” Someone noticed, and walked close. He whispered, and stared at him in a way that made him feel uncomfortable. “I can give you GP for money.”
“I... can?” Almost every shop listed their goods in both GP and gold at an exchange rate of about 50gold per GP, though some shops were strictly GP only.
"200gold per GP."
Ethan choked. It’s daylight robbery! “Sorry man, I ain’t got that much.” Ethan even took out his wallet and show him he only had... nothing. The man frowned, and walked away.
After the shopping street was a central tower, the tallest tower in the entire Garden, the Tower of Rifts. Within it contained the ‘generated’ rifts, ‘moved’ rifts, collected and captured from across the nation and the region. Rifts are ‘gates’, ‘doors’ to other worlds and are inhabited by monsters and many other resources. Stronger rifts have stronger monsters, and stronger resources.
Around the tower, were a litany of equipment and supply shops, a massive healing institution located around the tower, and many other smaller specialist shops. The tower was packed, with older students all attempting some kind of rift... and some of the first-year students too.
He remember seeing their faces in the class, and tried to listen in.
“Please present your student card.” The Tower’s attendant stated and scanned the card. “You’ve been cleared to attempt the Level 1 to 3 gates. I recommend starting with any of the Level 1 gates if it is your first time. Completion of each Level 1 Gate earns you 10 GP, divided by the number of members in your party in accordance with the allocation ratios.”
“Level 2?”
“50GP-70GP. Each gate is rated differently. Please collect the Core from the boss, and we’ll award you the GP according to the Core’s energy rating.”
“Can I take the Level 1 gate alone?”
“You could, but I recommend against it, unless you’re in the 2nd realm.” Attendant laughed.
Ethan looked at the seniors taking the gates, most of them were in parties of 3 or 4, and decided it was probably best not to go against conventional wisdom. He'll give it try with some party members, and once he had some certainty, he'd go for it alone.
After the tower was more gardens and parks, and he eventually chanced upon a temple dedicated to the goddesses.
It was old, but still grand. The shrine itself was made of white marble that still gleamed in the sun.
The main chamber of the shrine was home to five massive statues of the goddesses. The air felt different, cool and serene. He felt a sense of calm, and wandered the temple, admiring the fine workmanship of the statues.
Eventually, he stopped before one of the largest statues and noticed this particular statue had a marble toe that looked a little worn. He touched it-
[Five-Goddess Temples and Statues Side Quest unlocked]
[You’ve visited 1 of 128 Five-Goddess Temples or Statues in the Kingdom]
[You’ve restored 0 of 487 damaged Five-Goddess Statues in the Kingdom]
[You’ve gained 5 fragments of divine energy. 10 fragments have been combined. You now have 1 Shard of divine energy]
“...what.” Ethan rolled his eyes at the side quest. “Wait, what’s the highest level they can go?”
Ethan calculated that if each temple granted 5 fragments, and 10 fragments became 1 full shard, that there were at least 260 shards from visiting temples alone. That’s not including the shards he could get from defeating the dark goddesses’ creatures. Could his abilities go up to such a high level?
He brought up the menu to his divine powers.
[Summon Master - Summoned Warriors - Level 1]
[Goddesses’ Outfitters - Level 1]
[Eavesdrop - I hear everything in the room - Level 1]
[Administrative Control (School-office) & Academic Pass - Level 1]
He lacked combat power, and so, he selected the first one.
[Summon Master - Summoned Warriors - Level 2] (+1)
[Overall level of Summoned Warriors upgraded. All summons gained a level.]
‘Oh. So that’s how they gain a level!’ Ethan thought and then touched all the other statues. Nothing happened. The entire temple was considered one single location.
Some priests conducted a prayer at a chamber attached to the temple, and Ethan joined while he wondered whether there’s some blessings from attending prayer.
But nothing happened.
After his visit to the temple, he visited the library!
The library and the office of the Cultivation Core research team was housed in a large four-story building with high ceilings, built in the Gothic style. The office of the research team focused on optimizing cores to maximize their core performance, and discovering what gave each core their unique qualities.
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Past the large doors, the library was crowded, but Ethan noticed they were mostly the juniors and seniors. The Garden received one intake every two years, and so, the Garden currently has three batches.
The freshmen group, which includes Ethan as one of its members, just started their first year. The juniors are in their 3rd year, and lastly, the seniors in their 5th year.
They were frantically studying, a sight he found rather surreal, and reminded him of something from a hazy past.
“I’m so fucked. I’m going to fail the Accounting and Trades examination next week.” He overheard a student curse to the one next to him.
“We’re all gonna fail.” His partner replied.
Ethan momentarily saw visions of a hazy past, these kids were cramming for their exams. Everyone had some kind of textbook in front of them-
“Sorry, we’ve lent out all the accounting textbooks-” Ethan picked up a conversation at the corner. The librarian answered to a frantic student around the corner.
“What? That’s unfair! How could you lend out all the books? How could we study-”
“I’m sorry, we understand the exam is next week, but we only have 120 copies of the text-”
“Shit! Shit shit!” The frantic student cursed. “I’m not failing this paper-”
“Who can?” Another student joined in. At that point, a shady looking person approached the student, and whispered.
“I can help you with the textbook, but it’ll cost ya.”
“What will it cost?”
“Let’s talk about it somewhere quieter.” The sun was setting outside, and the student followed that shady person to a small alley along the library. “Here. I have a copy of the textbook.”
The student reached out to take it-
“200GP.”
“I can’t afford that.”
“180GP. That’s final.”
“...I can’t afford that.” The shady looking man turned away- “Alright fine, fine. I’ll pay for it.”
They both took out their student cards, and tapped a little crystal embedded in it to transfer the money. Grifters existed everywhere, and Ethan was about to leave when his goddess-enhanced ears noticed that one of the heroines was here.
She was in another section of the open hall of the library. “Lady Everfrost, these are our latest publicly available research books, mainly on cores and magical interactions.”
“Publicly available?”
“Yes, milady.” Ethan walked briskly through the library, much to the annoyance of the students, and got closer to the source of the voices. The far side of the library, the ‘Magical Research’ section, where Lady Everfrost was accompanied by two Senior Librarians.
She glanced at the titles, and frowned. “Do you have anything on... magical possession?”
The librarians looked awkward. “Possession research is forbidden, milady.”
“Past research?”
“We do not have a copy. The Grandmasters may be able to guide you.”
Camelia sighed. “Leave me. I’ll start with these.”
“As you command, milady.” The two Senior Librarians retreated. The two continued to talk once they were a distance away from Camelia.
“We should report her request to the Grandmasters.”
“Are you stupid? The Grandmasters won’t believe us, and will say it’s slander. It’s just a question, and there’s no harm in asking a question, even if it’s forbidden stuff.”
“Oh. Yeah that’s true. We need evidence, then?”
“No. I’m going to forget about her request and pretend she never asked.” Ethan pretended to look at some books, as the two senior librarians walked past him. Camelia Everfrost sat alone, and started reading.
She quickly flipped through the books, and then browsed through the other books on the shelves. “None of this is useful.” She quietly read for a while, occasionally scribbled on her notes, and frowned.
She looked up, briefly, and Ethan stopped.
She flicked a finger, then a spear of ice flew outward and smashed into the wall next to Ethan. He was a whole alley away!
“I know you are there. Come out.”
Ethan gulped, and reluctantly decided to come out. He raised his hand and did his best to pretend to be a simple regular nobody. “...apologies milady, can I know what happened?”
“Don’t pretend to be stupid. I noticed you were watching me for some time.”
Ethan wracked his head. What was the best thing to say that won’t get him killed? A high-noble could easily kill a commoner, with just a slap on the wrist, they say. The only reason they don’t is because the other high nobles function as a counterbalance, and could easily use the negative press to suppress them.
“What do you want? Who sent you?”
Ethan decided to take the angle of the secret admirer. She didn’t seem like a person that would kill over a one-sided unrequited love. “No one, milady.” Ethan did his best to fake an admiring stare, and after a while, Camelia awkwardly turned her face and looked away.
“...what do you want?” She asked, her voice slightly unsure. “Why were you spying on me?”
“I... I’m just admiring your beauty, milady. I’ve... never seen such beauty up close.” Ethan did his best to say it earnestly. Camelia flinched, and almost fell. She decided to adjust herself and sat back on her chair.
“...what?!” Ethan immediately noticed that it worked, as her pale face started to look a little flushed, the magical spear of ice vanished.
“I’m admiring your exceptional beauty, milady. I must say, you are certainly more beautiful up close. Your skin's gorgeously smooth and the color of it just so even. Your hair looks healthy and vibrant and really accentuates your face-” He repeated, trying his best to sound serious, and the tinge of red on Camelia’s face turned even more red.
“Go- go away!” She immediately tried to hide her face.
Ethan nodded, and quickly walked away. It was almost as good as running, and the librarians pointed fingers at him. “As you command.”
He was just relieved he dodged a flying spear of death. He half-expected a spear of ice to smash through his head as he ran.
***
“Hey, Ethan! You’re here! Want to join us for dinner? I’ll introduce you to some of the other dudes and gals!” Andrew saw him as he exited the library, and waved.
Ethan saw a larger group of students behind him, and nodded. “Yeah. Sure. But uh... can you pay for me? I’ll pay you back.”
He was broke, and Andrew nodded. Andrew seemed well-off, if not rich. “Fine, you’ll pay me back once you get some gates done, yeah?”
“Okay.”
They ate at Sallus, a restaurant next to the library. Ethan never had food with such exceptional freshness, it was significantly better than the free stale bread and the simple pastas from the canteen, even if the food’s cooking wasn’t just slightly above average.
“Ethan has a common-grade core, like Alia.”
“That makes four of us.” Another of the students present, Megan Whiteriver added. Of the group of eleven students, all commoners, four had common-grade, and seven had rare-grade. Their parents saved money, and had somehow called in favors to acquire a rare-grade core. Some had family members that were part of the Kingdom’s Professional Army, and they sponsored the rare-grade core.
“The four of you got to work harder, the nobles all of them start with a rare or titan grade, the exceptionally powerful ones even have dragon-grade.”
Alia sighed. “Yeah. We’ll need to get started on the Gates asap. The cheapest rare-grade is 300GP, a good one with the right compatibility is about 500GP. A titan-grade starts at twenty times that, at 10,000GP. A dragon-grade is not listed, but a few years ago, there was one that went for 250,000GP. Dragon-grades are usually found in the wild, in actual wild-rifts, not the manufactured rifts of the Garden. It’s probably easier to get a Titan-grade from the excursions.”
“Shit.” Ethan cursed at the price. That’s at least 1,000 rift-raids if he wanted a Titan-grade, and he’d have to take all of them solo. “How many rifts can we defeat in a day?”
“Normally... two a day?” Andrew answered. “But I think that only applies to our level of rifts. According to some of the seniors, it sometimes takes two days to finish a manufactured rift at the higher levels.”
Ethan considered his plan. He’d have to start getting a rare-grade, and see how he could move on from there.
“Are you planning to hit the rifts soon?” Alia looked at Ethan.
“Yeah. I need to get started if I want to upgrade from the common-grade core.”
Basil nodded along and then teased. “Fair point. Actually, why not the two of you attempt a rift together? I was told two people is sufficient for the level 1 rifts.”
Ethan looked at Alia, and she looked back. He nodded. “Sure.”
Alia looked away. “...okay.”
“Two common-grades together? Will they be okay?” Megan asked and Andrew immediately ribbed her, and gave her an offended look. “Ohh. Yeah, you’ll be fine.”
***
“Did you find anything?” Kaname shook her head.
“All quiet tonight. Violet’s meditating in her room, trying to increase her core’s cultivation. No one tried to attack her today.”
“Ah well. Thanks.”
“No problem, boss.”