She continued. Taking out the Origin Skill Primer, she drank the white-blue liquid, and the bottle disappeared from her hands. The Origin Skill on her status flickered, but unfortunately, the awakening level didn’t change. She then tried drinking a stat potion she selected to be a DEX potion, and was pleased to find that it functioned, meaning the stat potion’s abilities overruled her ‘no-interaction’ glitch thing she had going on, adding 5 DEX which she felt in the way her mana strands became finer. She couldn’t see it on the screen however, so with a bit of a push from spiritual energy, she managed to adjust her Status, so it showed the 5 new DEX stats in brackets next to the glitch. Spiritual energy was the energy of customisation.
Thinking about what she would be doing now, she decided to add the rest to CON. She did this because CON was responsible for the defence and vitality of the body, and it seemed she was going to be rather squishy if poked the wrong way for the next few years. Looking at her status again, she noticed that, with an HP of 1350, she was finally in full health again. It seems the shard wasn’t considered ongoing damage anymore.
She took out the final reward and held it curiously in her hand. She knew nothing about this reward, never having heard about it before. It had a rarity of Epic-, and that little dash to it meant there was something other about these things that made them different to everything else within the same rarity, Rank, or even race. They typically had a unique connection with the System too.
The matte black mask was interesting. It covered half her face, the edge running from right down the centre at the hairline over her nose bridge, leaving her nostrils uncovered, to end up mostly down her right cheek. It covered her right eye completely and was perfectly smooth apart from the fleur-de-lis reminiscent pattern bordering all the edges, slightly raised from the otherwise flat surface. The System brought up its item sheet for her.
[Accessory – Type: Mask, Soulbound ]
Name: The Shadow Herald’s Vision
Rarity: Epic-
Desc:
Acting on behalf of a greater being, the Shadow Herald has worked to fulfil its master’s desire for the future for aeons. While his efforts have gone unseen and unheard throughout all of the time, everything in the Tower beholds the consequences of his actions every day. He works even now, although his present title does not do justice to his glorious identity that existed before the Tower had been but a concept.
Abilities:
Formless Shadow - This mask has absorbed the nature of its past owner, acquiring the ability to suit his whims.
* The mask will change form to what you desire. A mask is not necessarily all it can be, and all it will be.
Willingly Forgotten Origins - To complete his master’s desire, the Herald must work without acknowledgement or reward. To do so, he needs to ensure he is but a fleeting memory in the Realms.
* Whatever is covered by the mask will be easier to be reduced in other’s perception, appearing lesser or not as important to the observer.
Singular - When the Herald adopted his position, he was gifted a blessing by his master. Becoming the first of his kind, they all bow before him, whether he is known to them or not.
* Grants unfettered access to the Demon Realm.
[ ]
Hmmm.
Lucille was two minds about this. One was to throw it into the furthest reaches of the void and never even think about it again. The other was to study it as much as possible, then throw it into the furthest reaches of the void and never think about it again. The second option was only there because she had never heard mention of an item existing before the Tower.
She knew the System and the Tower were two separate things, even if the Tower was a creation of the creators of the System, but the fact this incorporated ‘unfettered access’, an authority only used by owners of their Factions, and by the System itself, meant a few things. Firstly, it meant the System was around to see this item be created. Secondly, the owner of the mask had a very high authority acknowledged or given by the System.
Thirdly, the System knew when the Tower became a concept, which means it knew who the creators of the Tower were and was very not-so-subtly implying this ‘Shadow Herald’ was involved in the creation of the Tower. Therefore, the System seemed to be the ‘Master’ of the Herald, which made sense, as whoever the master was had the power to change the entire race of the Herald. Which brought up the last point. It was unfettered access to the Demon Realm, which meant the Shadow Herald was the very first demon. And the description said this guy was still alive.
Lucy really wanted to throw away the mask now.
However, she just sighed and left it on. Considering it ended up as a reward, the mask must not be too important for the Herald, and he must’ve allowed the System to grant it to someone. The mask was also obviously given to her to conceal her eye, so she would make use of it for the time being. Maybe with time, she could learn to keep her right eye open without activating the shard.
Finally, she opened the last System function.
[Directory: ]
1. Beast Realm
2. Demon Realm
3. Tartarus Realm
4. Mystical Realm
5. Heavenly Realm
[ ]
Lucy was going to go to the Beast Realm. Not because she wanted to rank up, but rather because someone she considered her best friend was there, and she wanted to find him. There was also a possibility he would know who she was, and she needed more allies for the future. Selecting the Beast Realm, she scrolled through the regions.
[Directory – Beast Realm ]
Region Selection:
1. Ancestral Land of the Dragon-blooded
2. Phoenix Empress’s Paradise Enclave
3. Wolvenheim Royal Glade
4. Everfrost Airborne Fortress
5. Aquaristel Capital
6. Endless Jungle
7. Ver……….
8. ……….
9. ………
[ ]
She kept scrolling. There were over a hundred thousand regions, and every few years, a new one was added. Every realm kept expanding, as new places were put under the banner of the System. The place she was looking for was several thousand digits lower. She wasn’t planning on going to any of these high-level ascendant cities, because anyone there was capable of squashing her like a bug. The Directory did have a search function, but she needed an Obelisk for that, and she could remember which region she wanted anyway. Spiritual energy’s benefits were endless when you weren’t a war-mongering metal stick owner investing stats into strength.
On average, a region was about the size of a smaller continent. And the Beast Realm had thousands of the things. At least those from the Beast Realm liked keeping the names simple, because if she had to scroll through a thousand ‘Verdisandel Ve Reschtin City’ or ‘The Anciente Supreme Abode of Archmagus Aerost Runestar Medolin the 2nd of the Highest Seat of the Violet Order’, she just might decide the System needs to be deleted.
Her eyes glanced at the region of the ‘Distorted Depths’, sitting stably at 100, and her eyes narrowed as she remembered her plans, but she kept on scrolling. Finally, at rank 21076, she found it.
[Directory – Beast Realm ]
Region selection:
21075. Th….
21076. Violet Luminosity Jungle
21077. Gh….
[ ]
The Violet Luminosity Jungle was called such because the area was filled with purple-white fluorescent plants, naturally formed illusion phenomena and a host of creatures that thrived by pulling unsuspecting humans into their dens with tricks of light and manipulation of the senses while they were entranced by a particularly pretty looking glowing flower. It was also where she would find her closest and longest-time friend.
Luckily, even though they had an average size reaching half a large continent, regions in the Beast Realm only had 3-4 cities, and she was quickly able to select the one she wanted. It was a low-ranked Ascendant city that went by the name of the ‘Supreme Serpent’s Silent City’, supporting most Ascendants up to Rank-2.
She wouldn’t have a clue which supreme serpent it was named after, as there was probably 5,000,000,000 serpents that used the title of ‘supreme’, and it was probably called silent because it was placed out in what was essentially the countryside, but it was the closest place to where she needed to go in the region. It also had enough access to equipment for her to purchase, as it was considered a ‘frontier’ region, which meant it was a popular place many others came to so they could gain new unexplored resources. All the stronger places, while prosperous, had items that cost far too much and had far too few ways to gain money to afford them.
These ‘unexplored resources’ all belonged to the current inhabitants of course, but none of the explorers cared about that.
Selecting the city, a notification popped up.
[User has reached a Completion Rate: MAX in the Tutorial and is now on the Leaderboard. ] What shall you call yourself?
[Leaderboard Identity: ______________ ]
She had forgotten about this. A User’s ‘Identity’ was their nickname that went onto Leaderboards, such as the highest-level User, strongest User within rank, Faction with most credits, strongest Faction, highest Completion Rate on stages or the winners in Events. Some people used their names, but it was typical to use an identity that couldn’t be connected to their real-life identity. Essentially, it was a game username. A User only needed an Identity when they made it to the top 10,000 of the population of competitors. She was one of the best elites among the elites doing the Tutorial.
She thought for a bit. She could use her old Identity, however, there was someone who would recognise it, and she had plans for that Identity anyway. No, she needed a new one. She thought about what was different about her this time round and considered her plans, then looked at her Status and Origin Skill. She smiled. It could possibly be arrogant, but she could never be worse than him when it came to these things.
[Leaderboard Identity: Archetype]
[‘Archetype’ has reached Rank 1 on the Tutorial Leaderboard]
As the city selection activated, she fancied she could still see the massive white-blue cogs of the System working behind the scenes of the white space as her physical body dematerialised to be transported within the first realm of the Tower.
...
[General Quest: Enter the Tower by picking a city in the directory – COMPLETE]
[+100 xp, Beginner Ascendant Title, System Obelisk Access]
[Level Up!]
[+1 level]
[+5 Free stat points]
[User has reached Level 1]
Her vision clearing to find herself in the middle of a wide flat open area, Lucille took in her first view of an Ascendant city. With a wince, she had to pull back the size of her perception field as the quantity of information she was receiving from it was way too much for her weak constitution. For her, it was a rather underwhelming experience seeing the city, but she supposed for anyone else from Earth it would be rather shocking.
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
The city was primarily built out of a stone that came in several light shades of grey and white. Lucille was standing in the central plaza, a wide open area built around the Obelisk that acted as the centre of the city. The tallest buildings, reaching several stories in height, were built around there, before slowly decreasing in height the further they went out. The building closest to her was the largest one, a Greco-Roman-esque townhouse structure with white marble pillars and coloured silken banners hanging from its balconies. The embroidery on the banners indicated the building was the City Lord's manor, the local equivalent of a city council estate.
Lucy looked around and after and after exchanging her tokens for some of the Mystical Realm’s currency using the Obelisk interface, with a total of 1000 crystalline tokens, 999 rose crowns, 999 silver crowns, and 1,000 bronze, she started heading down a path that led to a road lined with shops built under low-hanging strips of multi-coloured silk. She inspected the wooden signboard of the shops which were often decorated by small trinkets or works of craftsmanship that denoted what wares the shops were selling. Most of the tradesman in the bazaar only bartered their wares for monster parts and materials that could be obtained from the region, as the xp they could obtain from crafting items with them were more valuable than any currency from another realm. As such, she needed to find places that dealt in crowns.
She put her hands behind her back and whistled tunefully, not feeling like she was in a rush to get anything done. The only objective she had that was on a time limit wouldn't happen until the following month, so she could spend as much time as she wanted exploring the city she had spent a few months in in the past. But maybe it was a better idea for her to have lunch before she started investigating anything.
Stepping through the open doorway of a large tavern, she walked up to the bar where a woman dressed in a leather outfit was cleaning some cups. The woman looked up as she saw Lucille. "What do you want for lunch? I'll take it you're not here for any drinks at this time of day."
Lucy nodded with a calm smile. "I'm fine with something simple. And a glass of water would be nice too."
"Sure." The bartender gestured to a table. "Pull up seat. I'll be there soon."
Lucille walked over to the round table and sat down, waiting patiently. She looked around the tavern to entertain herself, observing the people in there. Most were adventurers dressed in mismatched leather and metal gear, while some seemed to be guards judging by their full-body sets of armour. The general style of clothing here consisted of coloured leather clothes and silk sashes that made them all vaguely resemble cosplaying pirates. Although one table with two people caught her attention. A young man with curly brown hair and green eyes, sitting opposite a woman with long wavy dark hair and a black leather outfit. She had a longsword sheathed by her waist.
Her gear is exceptional quality for someone in an outer region. And the crest on her sword sheath... she's a member of the Black Hand's Shadow Blade Division. I wonder why she's here?
Lucy moved on though, because she had no reason to involve herself with a member of the Mystical Realm's strongest Mercenary Guild. Although she could draw some conclusions about the mercenary's identity, considering her travelling companion...
The bartender came over with a plate of food and her drink. "Here's your meal. Twenty bronze crowns, or an Uncommon natural treasure if you have any."
Lucille retrieved the lowest denomination of the Mystical Realm's currency out of her dimensional bag and slid them across the table. The bartender pocketed them and walked off, giving her a wave. "Enjoy," she said, with her tail swinging behind her.
This was the Beast Realm. And its local inhabitants weren’t human. Making up around three quarters of the realm's population, Magical Beasts were its native race.
While they could appear wholly and partially human as they pleased, their true forms were that of beasts capable of using magic deep from within their bloodlines. Like normal creatures had species, magical beasts had their individual races such as cats, dogs, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and so on. They typically had traits such as white fur that glowed, feathers made of flames or shells made of metal that made them visually different compared to mundane creatures.
Normally, a race having such diverse forms would make… procreation slightly difficult. But that was why they were a ‘race’ and not individual species. As long as they had gained a human form, they were capable of having children that were also magical beasts. This created millions of different variants and sub-races such as a ‘flaming wolf’ or ‘ice wolf’ within their main race. There was a hybrid race known as beastmen who existed as well, typically either descendants of magical beasts who hadn't inherited their beast form, or someone of the mortal races who wished to increase their strength by absorbing the bloodline essence of a magical beast.
The bartender seemed to be some type of tiger beast, judging by the long tail and shape of her ears, but the colouration of her fur was indigo with luminous blue stripes, as opposed to orange and black. She was probably an illusion element beast. Which reminded Lucille of the individual she had come to the region to meet...
Lucy finished her meal and left the tavern, beginning her exploration of the semi-permanent marketplace. While there was a particular shop she wanted to eventually locate, she set about buying the basic necessities she'd need for her journey into the Violet Luminosity Jungle. She needed to go to a certain enclave, which was the name for the cities magical beast subraces lived in. Unfortunately, said enclave was also in the thickest, most dangerous part of the jungle.
There wasn't anything special about the items she bought. They were things like a magical lantern, a well-crafted bed roll, and a canteen to hold water among other things. None of them reached greater than Uncommon level in rarity, but that was mostly due to the lack of spells and skills within them. Who needed a sleeping bag that could cast fireball? Although, she did manage to discover that her shard functioned the same way as an Inspection skill. That was a skill every User obtained as it was in-built into their Status, but the shard was already performing better than the most upgraded Inspection skill. It also revealed... unusual details when focused on Users.
One peculiar creation did catch her eye though. One of the permanent shops along the side of the main road has a signboard decorated by a logo of a wing made out of metal. When she walked past, she paused as she saw what was inside through her perception field, so she stepped in as the bell alerting the shopkeeper to a customer rang. She walked to the front desk and looked up at the item hung on the walls. She crossed her arms and waited around five minutes for someone to come to the bench.
A young man hurriedly entered the room through the door behind the bench. "Oh, um, a customer! I wasn't expecting one yet!" He awkwardly came up to the bench and gave her a slight bow. "I'm the owner of this shop, miss. My name is Revas." He smiled and gestured to the items on the shelves around him. "I only obtained this store a few hours ago, so I ask that you excuse my original absence. I hope I haven't kept you waiting for long."
Lucille smiled and shook her head. "There was no issue. It gave me time to admire your craftsmanship." She gestured to the item on the wall, a glider. "Are you a magic engineer?"
"Engineer? Oh, um..." He rubbed his neck sheepishly. "You could say that. My current class was built on the foundation of an engineering class." He glanced at the glider. "But the System calls me an Aeronautical Mana Mechanic." He grinned at Lucy. "Flying beasts always fascinated me. But the stuff I sell in this shop is more broad. I have skills in other areas too."
"Really? That's a shame." Lucille propped her chin up on the bench with her arm and smirked. "Because I was going to buy it."
Revas blinked. "Sorry? You said... buy it?" He glanced at the glider then at her. "I... well, I didn't expect someone would want that. I mostly built it to be some fancy showpiece for my shop."
"Does that mean it's not functional?" Lucy asked.
He shook his head. "Oh no, it is. Tested it out myself." He shrugged. "It's just not too practical. I've got better ones in the back."
"Hmm..." Lucy held her chin, thinking, before gesturing to him with a smile. "Well, where I need to go just so happens to require a safe method of descent. If you're willing to part with one of your other ones, then I'd be willing to give you several hundred silver crowns for it."
Revas stared at her, then at the glider. He glanced back at her, looking like he wanted to make sure she was being serious. Then he dashed out to the back of his shop, rifling through chests for his constructions. Lucy leaned to the side and watched curiously as he let out curses, trying to extract one of the unwieldy devices from its storage. He rushed back out with the arrow-shaped item in hand, made of thick beige canvas and bronze metal fixings, then placed it on the bench in front of her.
"Let me just begin by saying..." he said, sounding slightly out of breath, "that this glider is probably not worth the amount you're offering."
Lucy untied her dimensional bag from her belt. "Yet the fact you barely hesitated before retrieving another glider suggests you expect that I'd be willing to spend that much even after you've told me this."
Revas rubbed his neck. "I'm not one to ignore good fortune when it comes my way. And..." He gestured to her. "One thing I know about people like you is that you typically know what you're doing. I'm fine not asking questions when it benefits me."
She smirked. "I expect you'll live a long life with that outlook, Mr. Revas."
It wasn't long until she left the shop, having stashed the glider in her dimensional bag. The normal rules of physics would imply that getting the glider into a bag of that size would be impossible, but in the Tower, she wasn't dealing with the normal rules of physics. It got sucked straight into the bag. But now she decided it was time to find that shop she had made plans to locate.
Making her way to a luxurious shop that happened to be a branch of a rather large chain of stores in the Mystical Realm, she was prepared to have quite a bit of fun messing with someone she knew from the past.
Standing in front of the glass shop front, she could see the showpiece magic items put up to draw attention. The building lacked doors, but that didn’t mean it was unprotected. An oak signboard above the door read ‘Abbott Everett’s Magisterial Treasure Emporium’ in curly gold font, and the logo of a stylised golden hourglass drawn with a particularly long flourish sat beside it. She stepped through the open doorway of the stereotypical fantasy shop and was met with the chime of a bell, revealing that there had been magical arrays guarding the front door.
The Magisterial Treasure Emporium franchise was famous for one thing and one thing only. It was extraordinarily overpriced. While they had high-quality goods, they were mass-produced, common items. Most people with money would go to a quality craftsman for a custom order. The emporium also dealt in the trading of items and was what Abbott Everett’s hobby was. Disgruntled and unsatisfied with his deportation out into the ‘uncivilised’ wilderness, and annoyed at the optimism of young Ascendants, he took to scamming lucky young adventurers out of their chance good fortune, and replaced it with extremely overpriced items by passing them off as ‘rare treasures’.
She looked across the room and there Everett could be seen with a frown, sitting behind the front counter with a walking stick by his side. He was a reedy, short man with a hunched back and a partially balding head. His arms were as thin as sticks and his skin had a grey pallor to it that could make her believe he was an undead if she did not know otherwise.
His frown could be attributed to the fact that the few adventurers in here were well-equipped and in the know of what a good price for the items was, not people he could readily prey on. She could see a few snicker at the price on the labels underneath each item on the shelves and the corners of Everett’s mouth drooped even lower. Then she saw his eyes brighten when he saw her, an obviously naive young girl, but like every good businessman, he didn’t eagerly rush over to pander to her.
Lucille had made a show of inspecting the most expensive items in the storefront and continued to look around with wide eyes and curiosity obvious on her face. Walking up to the shelves, making sure he could see her face, she made sure her expression was unaffected when looking at the prices, and when he was within earshot of her, she even mumbled, “It’s cheaper than I expected.”, just to sell the image she had more money than sense about these things. As Everett started to wander closer to her, the other adventurers gave her glances of pity.
When she had finished viewing all the items he began the conversation.
“Anything catches your fancy, young lady?” he said with a slow drawl, his smile giving her an unwelcome glimpse of aged teeth.
She smiled back.“These goods are very high quality but I’m finding them a bit… subpar when it comes to my needs,” she began, hesitating a bit to appear like she didn’t want to insult the shopkeeper’s items.
The shopkeeper’s smile widened, and he beckoned for her to follow him. “Well, we wouldn’t keep the kind of items that suited your kind out the front, young lady.”
Lucy blinked. “What do you mean when you say my kind, Sir?”
He gestured for her to lean down so he could whisper into her ear, “You don’t think this is the first time I’ve served a noble in my time, do you?”
Lucy paled and made to move away, for they were now back at the countertop at the back of the room when he chuckled and put a finger to his lips.
“Please, I couldn’t harm you anyway. But I do have… special wares that are only brought out for people like you, so at least wait for me to bring them in case they may suit your taste.”
The hunched man shuffled out to the store room for a few minutes, before coming back with a bunch of items in his arms. He gently placed them on the counter one by one so Lucy could see them, and she leant in to look, curious. He spread out his palms to show her.
“I believe these may suit someone of your… position, young lady, and this one,” he said, tapping a finger in front of a bronze knife with a particularly large pigeon-egg sapphire on its pommel, “Isn’t even brought out for others like you. I’m only bringing this out because I can see something special to you, something I haven’t seen in anyone else to come by me so far. I believe this knife will only suit someone who has a great future ahead of them.” He leant back, confident she would bite. She avoided eye contact at the flattery but inspected the items.
She spotted others looking at them in her perception field. Surprisingly, there were two people she recognised.
An adventurer behind her with messy nut-brown hair heard what Everett had said and looked amused when he saw the knife. “Isn’t that weapon the birthday present the old man scammed off the local City Lord’s son last Saturday?” he muttered, digging his elbow into the dark-haired woman next to him.
The woman whacked him on the back of his head and hissed at him to be silent but likewise appeared entertained. The shopkeeper glared at the both of them, but Lucy pretended she didn’t hear them and continued inspecting the items.
“Could you explain the items more in-depth? I’d like to know as much as possible about them before I make a purchase,” she said, still watching the items. Her eyes drifted to the bronze knife.
Everett’s grin widened, and he went into an exaggerated description of every item’s ‘glorious past’, with the knife being given the wondrous background of the first weapon of a famous Mythos from Glory Pantheon. He refused to tell her which Mythos it was though, saying it would ruin the knife’s power to tell her.
Making sure the man was distracted, her eyes flickered up to the board above him, where she could see an ornate shield and 2 swords crossed in front of it. Very, veeery carefully, she sent out a single strand of spiritual energy up to it. Behind her, she sent out several other strands to grab a few objects off the shelves with the spiritual energy and even from the window area and lowered them down out of his sight. One of the items, the most important to her plan, happened to be an expensive dimensional bag that was sitting on the shopfront.
The brown-haired adventurer spotted the moving decorative shield and pair of swords behind the shopkeeper first and was about to point at it and shout in surprise, but the older female adventurer wrapped one arm around his mouth and the other around his waist and dragged him out. Everett almost looked up to see what the commotion was, but Lucy excitedly pulled him down to ask him more about the symbols on the bronze knife.
She gently shuffled all the items into the dimensional bag sitting on the floor behind Everett, then dragged the dimensional bag back onto its stand in the front of the shop. She abruptly looked up at Everett and announced, “I want to buy them all.”
If she had thought the man’s grin couldn’t get any wider before, than the moment after she had said that was the happiest day of his life. With all the energy his aging body could muster, Everett rushed to gather them up and take them to the end of the counter where he could use the box where he stored his money, complete with the quill and paper for him to write the receipt. Lucy’s plan was almost complete, but she needed to do one more thing.
“Before I buy them, I would like something to store them in.”
Everett nodded enthusiastically and went to the shelf where the dimensional bags were kept.
She shook her head and pointed at the front of the shop. “Actually, I was thinking of purchasing that one. It’s the only one that caught my eye.”
Happy to increase his profits even more, he grabbed the lavishly expensive pack. He went to look inside to make sure it was in perfect quality, but she hurriedly grabbed it off him and went to the front. She assumed he would just attribute it to an overeager girl acting how she wants, and she assumed correctly, Everett shaking his head in slight amusement. He marked the prices down on a piece of paper and placed the items on a white square on the desk, a System-made balance. After the magic items and the pack had been placed on the balance, he placed them inside the pack and handed the pack to her. Both of them were full of smiles, they waved goodbye, one being happy at his successful scam, and one being happy at the reality check she would be giving him. She calmly turned the corner of the street with the dimensional backpack.
Then she bolted.