Alistair was woken by a knock. He could feel Nessyra wishing to enter, but due to both Alistair's and Riseth's state of dress, he had to wake her up, and she let out a grumble.
"Just a little longer," She groaned.
"Your sister is at the door," Alistair let her know.
"Then let her in," She retorted as she curled up under the sheets while Alistair made his clothing appear, giving her the side eye.
"Come on, at least put on some clothes," Alistair requested as he lightly shook her, she acquiesced but refused to come up from the covers, and Alistair let Nessyra in.
Nessyra appeared in the room and looked at him, then glanced at her sister, curled up into a mass under the covers, before shaking her head.
"What do you do to her?" Nessyra asked jokingly.
"Nothing she did not ask for. Also, she's always like that in the morning," Alistair quipped as Nessyra sat down on the nearby couch.
"While you two were sleeping, I had some of my assistants comb through the libraries while I had a chat with Mitania. I got the report right here," Nessyra said before throwing him a small bundle of documents, which he deftly caught.
Riseth finally righted herself and looked at her sister with a tired frown before snatching the documents out of Alistair's hand.
"I thought we would be doing this together?" Alistair questioned, glancing at the document in Riseth's hands.
"I couldn't resist. This was too crucial, and waiting felt like agony. And if there are still open questions after this, you can, of course, do some independent research. But this was too crucial, and unlike you two, I can't sleep with something like this over my head," Nessyra said with slight annoyance.
Alistair looked at her apologetically. "So what's the situation? On earth, we usually do good news and bad news," Alistair offered Nessyra tilted her head.
"Which comes first?" She asked.
"Usually, one offers what they wish to hear first, so let's start with the good news," Alistair requested instead of reading the report.
"The good news is that Sol is, at best, something we would consider a demi-god; they are restricted and not all-powerful, at least for the foreseeable future. He can't harm or kill low-grade beings directly without drawing incredible amounts of bad karma onto himself, and honestly, we are not worth that trouble. Also, mind control isn't something we have to worry about. There's no risk of you getting captured or any other funny business, as the same rules that apply to us apply to him inside the [Nurturing Ward]. So, it's safe to meet him," Nessyra explained to Alistair, who felt a great sense of relief as he let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.
"What's the bad news then?" Alistair asked and noticed Riseth also put down her report and looked up with interest.
"The bad news is that he can interfere with us coming or leaving the planet, which is his domain, although it will also cause a Karmic impact made worse by your resonance. Mitania confirmed as much, apparently, willfully keeping you two apart will incur a lot of bad karma, and he knows that. But it won't stop him from keeping you two on Earth if he really wants to, and his followers may attack us with little repercussions," Nessyra explained before elaborating a little more on what she had learned.
Nuk had already told him most of what Nessyra had found out, but it was nice to have it confirmed. Most interestingly, when questioned on the contribution points, Nessyra told them that during the Trial, the natural gods benefited from a special system as well. Every individual originating from their domain is counted as one of their followers and provides them with contribution points based on their actions and progress and accumulated records. The gods could spend those points on various things during the trial, like increasing certain dungeon rewards or terraforming worlds within their domain; unlike the rest of the universe, inhabited systems changed based on the wishes of the natural gods as it was their domain, which made them some of the more coveted planets.
Interestingly, after the Trial ends, they are required to convince individuals to become their followers, though with near god-like powers and having full control of the empty planets during their inhabitant's absence, leaves them with a handful of strong advantages. Alistair was very glad that they could not go around and kill weaker individuals at will and force them to follow them without incurring karmic wrath; with enough bad karma, they could invite their own death, and most gods were smart enough not to risk it.
"Anything else worth noting?" Alistair asked.
"Yes, other gods may take notice and interfere on our behalf to gain our favor and in the hopes of endearing themselves as our patrons," Nessyra added.
Alistair considered everything he had been told. It was too early for Sol to put pressure on him as he benefited from him doing well in the Trial; perhaps he wanted Alistair's attention no matter what, or perhaps Enya had been a little overzealous and acted on her own accord regardless of whether he would go meet Sol and see what he had to say.
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"I don't think Sol wishes to make enemies of us or sacrifice a bunch of his followers fighting us or have another god swoop in. Sol needs every soul that is willing to follow him. He will probably try to buy my loyalty or try and convince me to stay," Alistair mused aloud.
"I think so too; whatever he offers, don't accept without talking with us first," Nessyra requested.
"You wound me, Nessy; I thought I have proven that I'm not a fool by now," Alistair said theatrically, earning him a light jab from Riseth beside him.
They continued discussing the situation for a little while longer, and Alistair copied the report to his [Akashic Link] so he could display it if needed. Eventually, Nessyra had a different business to attend to, leaving Riseth and Alistair to figure out what to do with the rest of their day.
"We could finally check that slayer trial world. I'd love to get out a little, and so would King, and I sure as hell don't want to sit around another day doing cultivation again," Alistair suggested.
"If you dislike body cultivation, why do it? It could be very harmful if it bothers you," Riseth warned him,
"Sorry, that came out wrong. It's not that I dislike it; I actually love puzzling out how to modify my body further with the essences and treasures I have, but I do need a change of pace every now and then," Alistair explained.
Riseth eyed him for a second before she relented with a smile.
"Let's go then, but we gotta make the stop at Mitania to get our rooms sorted," Riseth proclaimed as she walked towards the entrance.
After a quick stop at Mitania's desk, they entered the gate address and stepped through the portal before being greeted by cold air and the smell of snow and wet rock as they found themselves in a small cave. Stepping out of the cave, they found themselves in a small stone fort seemingly abandoned. Most notable was that most of the structures and walls were adorned with spikes as if to ward off large flying monsters, as some of the spikes were as big as a person.
"If they prepped spikes of this size, we might want to take this slow," Riseth said, inspecting one of the spikes near the cave entrance.
Alistair nodded in agreement as he looked around. His Instinct told him they were fine for now, though he kept an eye on the sky. It was early morning, and the sun was rising. He had explained the concept of cardinal directions to Riseth, and with the sun rising, they decided to label that direction east, making it easier for them to coordinate directions with each other.
"Alright, how about you take to the sky and scout the surrounding area while I investigate the structures?" Riseth suggested, intertwining her fingers and raising her arms towards the sky, stretching her body to shake off some of the tiredness.
"Alright, but let's stay in contact over the link and share vision when we find something," Alistair said, giving her a kiss on the cheek before flying skywards.
Alistair could see her leisurely strolling around the central keep as he gained altitude. He could feel the cold air clashing against his armor, and he slightly adjusted his [Comfort] enchant to counter it. The keep looked slightly makeshift, particularly because of the spikes and wooden planks and beams reinforcing the structure all over, but in its foundation, it looked like a medieval fort you would find in Europe. Given the keep's proximity to the mountain's peak, it didn't take Alistair long to soar above it and survey the surrounding terrain.
The environment looked artificial; the mountain chain stood at the center, and surrounding it was a hotbed of different environments, both alien and familiar, each with its own massive section. He could see both a regular jungle and a blue one near the horizon, separated by deserts, hills, and swamps. The sections separating them were not smooth, as they seemed to have no rhyme or reason for how they connected. A web of rivers and waterways flowed throughout the different biomes, connecting the occasional lakes and sea biomes. It looked as if the system had cut out chunks of land from another world, shuffled and glued together randomly, and preserved it all by magic. Alistair started sharing what he saw over his link as he spotted many wyverns and other monsters flying through the skies, climbing the mountains, and stalking the forests and jungles.
"Are you seeing this?" Alistair questioned over the link.
"Guess after the first set of trial worlds, the system ran out of patience. Also, I can't sense any dungeon in here." Riseth responded.
Alistair clicked his tongue. Now that she pointed it out, he noticed it too. Most worryingly, many of the monsters were solidly in grade 9, and they did not care for the other trial world's rules of getting stronger as they went further out. The monsters were sprinkled around just as much as their environments. Alistair could see some of the beasts migrate as they pleased in the distance, which wasn't very hard as many of the monsters were house-sized. He could see a caravan-sized drake fighting an even bigger snake and losing as the snake beast devoured it.
Alistair began mapping the trial world by combining their cardinal direction with a number for each chunk of the environment, numbering from closest to furthest away.
"You don't happen to have some stealth skills?" Alistair asked over the link.
"I do, actually. I started with one as it seemed like the best call when trying to survive alone, but I hardly needed it. It works by manipulating light waves to bend around me. Why though? You're not exactly the hiding type," Riseth questioned.
"Well, It's great utility to have, and I'd rather not fight every damn monster I come across, and it could save our ass if these higher-tier beasts can drain our resources or bypass our ability," Alistair explained.
"Sounds reasonable. I can teach you before we head out," Riseth offered.
"That would be great. Did you find anything in that fort?" Alistair asked as Riseth shared her vision as well, showing a dark room where he could make out a conveyor belt that looked to be some kind of automatic forge.
"Looks like a more primitive version of Nuk's forge," Alistair said as he descended. The map had begun filling itself out, and he only ran the risk of drawing attention to one of the flying wyverns nesting nearby if he stayed in the air any longer.
"Yeah, I suspect this is some monster hunter outpost the system generously enough provided for us to use, though I'd rather have a real craftsman work on my equipment than use a ramshackle forge on a partially wooden conveyor belt," Riseth said as she entered a side room absolutely filled with documents and books, the bookshelves on the wall and the tables all already overflowing.
"Well, at least you got something to do while I figure out how to turn invisible," Alistair said jokingly from behind her. She turned and frowned as she summoned a small fireball.
"I'll burn it." She threatened causing Alistair to laugh and raise his hands over his chest letting the tips of his fingers touch in a gesture that roughly meant sorry about that or please forgive me.
She let out a sigh as the fireball disappeared. She then picked up one of the books before instructing him to sit down.