Victor woke up in the morning feeling surprisingly refreshed. The fatigue and pain that had accumulated from the battle against the queen spider were long gone, like they had never been there. Still, to say that it was morning when the sun was slowly making its descent into the horizon would be a touch of sarcasm. From the window, he could see the players, except those on the night shift, returning to the main building.
“How long was I asleep?” Victor inquired, noticing a fairy dozing off on the bedside table near the window.
The fairy had flowing hair split evenly between striking black and luminous white and porcelain-white skin. Her golden eyes and pretty dress complemented her doll-like face’s charm, further accentuated by her sleepy figure. Had she been awake this whole time?
“Mm… Nearly twelve hours,” she answered, breaking her sleepy demeanor. “You’ve been sleeping for almost twelve hours!”
Is there a need to say it twice? Sheesh. Though her reaction did confirm his suspicion… But what was she doing that for? How unusual of her.
“Ahem. How are the players faring, Liz?” Victor questioned further.
“Ho-ho!” As if waiting for him to ask this, Lizbeth puffed her chest and explained in a slightly smug tone, “They’re managing their tasks just fine: cleaning the battleground, hauling the corpses lying around, and extinguishing the remaining fires. Although, the gruesome sight doesn’t seem to have affected them much; I suppose it’s thanks to the mental shielding they received.”
“As expected…” he muttered and said to her, “That’s good, then.” This mention of pain and mental shielding brought to mind a Korean comic he had read in the past — it was about a guy who suddenly acquired a gamer’s unique abilities in the real world.
After that, Victor asked about the dead players who were soon to be revived. Previously, as soon as the first ten players to perish from the arachnid horde logged out, they were immediately eligible for resurrection. However, subsequent deaths necessitated waiting for the first ten resurrection CD to finish. But there were two problems.
Right now, the first ten were already undergoing the incubation process. However, due to variations in individual playing times, delays could occur between players logging in and the subsequent incubation of other players’ new bodies. In the future, perhaps there was a need to allocate some of the incubation pods for resurrection and others for summoning new players. But really, he would want more incubation pods to increase the speed of increasing the total number of players overall. It was since the game was not a game but a reality.
The second issue revolved around selecting the following ten players for resurrection. With a significant number of simultaneous deaths, even if the System recorded the sequence of deaths, some individuals, like those who had promoted to real acolytes, were more valuable than others, which posed a dilemma. If Victor prioritized some people over others, it might backfire from the other players complaining.
Wait, maybe I should set up a raffle system to make it fair. Oh, how genius I am! Although choosing them through skills was more logical, Victor opted to use a raffle system since it would prevent complaints from the players. Thus, he told Lizbeth to make one on the official website forum.
On second thought, Victor realized he had overlooked another significant issue — the duration required for incubating powerful bodies. It was unknown how long precisely it would take a first-state Initiate Attunement acolyte to be incubated, thus prompting the consideration of designating some of the incubation pods for them after all.
Victor sighed. “If only it were possible to revive players without the need of incubating new bodies for them… This problem won’t be such a headache.”
“Well, it’s not entirely impossible,” Lizbeth chimed mischievously, a glint in her eyes. “It’s actually rather simple.”
“Are you onto something?”
“Listen well, if the deceased bodies remain intact and are still in good condition, you could attempt to resuscitate them within the energy pool, although that would require high-level healing magic and a profound understanding of the soul.”
Victor made a wry smile. “Yeah, that’s impossible.” Aside from the requirement of a rare Bio elemental affinity for high-level healing magic, the study of the soul was considered taboo in the Luminos Kingdom, the very kingdom they resided in.
As far as he knew, the neighboring Demornial Kingdom, with which the Luminos Kingdom had a contentious history, was backed by a Magus academy specializing in the Necro element. While the elements of both academies were not necessarily opposites, and the appearance of Magi from both elemental affinities in each kingdom was not uncommon, their biases and interests often clashed. Maybe this was why studying the soul was frowned upon here, even if it wasn’t forbidden.
Of course, Victor had no knowledge of the soul, let alone the capability to harness its power. While the Arcane Radiance College did not explicitly forbid the study of the soul so long as they followed the academy’s strict regulations, it was a relatively unpopular field of study among the students.
“Anyway, thinking over this won’t help. Guess I should take this chance to claim the rewards from the System,” Victor mused, getting on his feet.
“Where are you going?” asked Lizbeth.
“To the basement. You coming?”
“Nuh-uh, I’m a bit drowsy at the moment. Do come back soon, though.” She yawned, rubbed her eyes, and settled back onto the bed, ready to doze off once more.
Victor was about to ask why but concluded it was unnecessary at this point. He simply nodded and made his way down to the lower floor through the concealed door, his footsteps echoing from his boots meeting the stony floor.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Confronted by a floating cuboid structure encircled by intricate ring-like magic patterns and resting atop a pedestal, Victor rubbed his hands together eagerly. He couldn’t wait to get the promised rewards from the System, particularly the breakthrough insight, wondering how that might help him.
Shortly thereafter, as if sensing his purpose for coming here, the intricate rings encircling the structure began to glow. A purplish grimoire materialized, gently levitating toward him. Adorned with intricate engravings and pulsating with latent magic, the book's cover displayed the title “Spatial Mirage,” inscribed in the Seraphian language.
{Spatial Mirage} grimoire
A grimoire that contains the spell “{Spatial Mirage}.” It grants the caster the ability to craft illusory mirages that confound even the most astute minds. When cast, the caster can twist perception, deceive foes, and navigate through the unseen, creating a mysterious veil around them.
Spell Tier: Aleph
Elemental Type: Cosmo
“Sweet!” Victor held the grimoire tightly and carefully stored it inside his interspatial ring. One must know that the value of an illusionary spell like that was at least triple that of a standard offensive spell. On top of that, its versatility and potential applications far surpassed those of a common spell, making it invaluable in more ways than not.
“Now, onto the juicy part.” He shifted his focus back to the Nexus Beacon.
As the ambient mana pulsed around him, a radiant glow emanated from the mystical device, gradually seeping into his consciousness. In that moment, a profound realization washed over him, as if the very essence of the elements was being unveiled before his eyes. Arcane knowledge danced within his thoughts, revealing the underlying secrets of elemental manipulation and the profound interconnectedness of the natural forces.
With each passing second, the boundaries of his understanding expanded, and the elusive concept of becoming an Elemental Adept transformed into a tangible reality within his grasp. As the knowledge coalesced within his consciousness, he felt a newfound sense of power and clarity, as if the universe itself had granted him the key to unlock the deepest mysteries of elemental magic.
After what seemed to be a long time, Victor opened his eyes and let out a long exhale, an expression of realization dawning on his face. “Ooh! So that’s how it is!”
To ascend to an Elemental Adept rank and become an official Magus, one had to undergo the intricate process known as “elemental fusion” — a process of fusing their elemental affinity with their infused mana. Victor was still a considerable distance away from reaching the peak of the third-stage Initiate Attunement rank, so he hadn’t initiated this crucial process. What the insight reward gave him, however, was a comprehensive and foolproof method for achieving elemental fusion.
Armed with this newfound knowledge, all he needed to do was to continue his diligent accumulation of mana and strive toward reaching the pinnacle of this stage. Everything else from there would be straightforward — maybe he wouldn’t have a single bottleneck from reaching the Elemental Adept rank!
Furthermore, he could feel his body was subtly adapting and assimilating the newfound arcane knowledge. Progress from this point onward was bound to accelerate exponentially; this insight reward from the System was better than anything he could hope for. Even the most esteemed professors back in his former academy might not possess such profound knowledge.
Still, there’s a need to absorb this knowledge and use it to the fullest extent possible. The battle with the queen spider also gave me a bit of personal insight… With that in mind, Victor assumed a cross-legged position on the floor and began to practice the Myriad Elements Method, allowing the intricate techniques to flow through him.
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Under the shadow of the charred trees that had turned into charcoal, a group of players gathered to clean the aftermath of the recent battle. The stench of charred flesh and blood still lingered in the air even after being washed from the rain yesterday.
Wearing cloth masks and armed with tools, these players worked diligently. Their movements were coordinated with each other, seemingly used to doing manual labor together. The crackling sounds of smoldering embers and the occasional splatter of liquid filled the air as they toiled away, each lost in their own thoughts.
Among the group, a young man with brown hair and a youthful countenance briefly halted his work to mop the sweat from his brow. He took a moment to cast his gaze upon the mound of charred arachnid corpses nearby. “No matter how you look at it,” he mused, “seeing these incinerated arachnid corpses up close is a world apart from observing them at a distance.”
The young man, who went by the username “Prominence” in the game, spoke with a touch of contemplation in his voice. His real name was William.
“I know, right? Isn’t this game supposed to be PG-13?” quipped a player beside him. It was SuperNovaX, a good in-game friend of William.
“I guess so.” Another player with red hair — ZeroXScyth — nodded his head.
“Then why is the gore so damn detailed? It’s practically R18 content. I mean, why bother keeping it PG-13 in other aspects… Get what I mean?” William grinned like a perverted idiot. Please, game devs, add those sexy and cute female NPCs into the game!
“R18 your head! But I must admit, the level of detail in this game is off the charts. I should head over to the official website and give props to the developers for creating such an immersive experience,” praised Zero. “I just hope they won’t tone it down in the public beta phase.”
“Damn, we got one bootlicker here!”
“Bootlicker alert!”
“Shut up.” Zero pushed the others away, looking determined to continue. “But then again, this game is unlike other games; others would have their monsters despawn after a certain period, leaving nothing but loot behind. Here,” he touched one of the charred arachnid corpses and resumed, “the corpses persist, and we have to dismantle them to get what we need. It’s a mechanic that adds complexity and depth to the overall experience.”
“With Storm not here, you’re our reviewer now, boss.” SuperNova tapped Zero’s shoulder. “Still, it’s unfortunate that he couldn’t make it through the final confrontation. This mess needs more people to clean up.”
“But hey, we raked in a load of merit points in return.” Mike, a handsome player with the body of a teenager, smiled optimistically.
“Mm. But I heard he’s just uploaded the full arachnid invasion video and is busy working on some ‘big’ project. He said that the devs are collaborating with him on this one and sending him in-game footage to promote the game,” answered William.
“What kind of project?” queried one of the players. “Another cinematic masterpiece, maybe the official game promo video?”
“Though if that’s the case, why didn’t the devs make one themselves?”
“Well, who knows. All I’ve heard is that Storm’s psyched about it. He’s been spamming the Discord server, going on about how it’s such an honor,” William added.
“I see…” the other player responded, filled with curiosity.
Just as William prepared to resume clearing the area near the forest, a sudden, intense premonition of crisis seized his entire being. He felt shivers down his spine, fast, cold sweat oozing from his back. His sense of surroundings had become better ever since he’d promoted to true acolytes, but this was the first time this sensation appeared other than when facing the queen spider.
Swiftly drawing the spear at his side, his reflexes honed by experience, he intercepted the dark shadow hurtling down from the sky with a forceful swing.
Bam!
A cloud of ashes billowed, and a one-meter-wide claw mark was gouged into the ground just inches away. William felt the tremors in his hands — the pain from the clash just now was intense. From the very spot where the mark now marred the earth, a shadowy beast glared at them menacingly.
“A magical beast!”