Alistair looked back at the closed double doors before walking down the corridor. As he got to the halfway point, Caleb came around the corner with another individual meant to meet with Sol. It was a very young-looking Japanese man in his late teens wearing futuristic-looking samurai armor. He was not very tall, and he and Caleb would have loomed over him significantly. He had fair skin and short black hair, and besides his strong aura, he looked unremarkable. Alistair nodded politely as he passed, sending a quick [Identify] [Ryōsuke Sasaki - lvl 49].
He reached the balcony, the tension of facing a god slowly seeped out of his body as he glanced down, scanning for familiar faces. His stomach rumbled in protest, which was odd as he did not feel hungry, and the [Sunforge Stomach] should not be doing that unless he ate something rather intense for essences. He froze, realizing what he had been consuming. He turned his focus inward, and both his sunforge organs were working overtime, trying to extract the essence from the ambrosia he had consumed. Under the pressure, he had not even realized Sol had given him another incredible gift he had almost overlooked. However, he couldn't shake the feeling that it was somewhat wasted on him as his grade 10 organs struggled not to let the ambrosia go to waste.
An incredible amount of rare and powerful essences were accumulating in his essence vessel among them [Divine] [Ethereal] [Transendent] [Arcane] [Celestial]. To make the load worse, he had been passively breathing in the presence of a god. That alone could have added a strain. Alistair immediately called Riseth over the link.
Alistair hurried towards the exit, weaving and teleporting past the colorful gathering as he urgently spoke over the link to Riseth. "Riseth, we need to utilize the [Dual Cultivation] technique. I'm practically overflowing with rare essences, and if we don't refine them together, we'll miss out," he explained.
Riseth's voice sounded slightly amused over the link. "This is the first time you've outright demanded we engage in naughty activities, and you're doing it for practical reasons?" He could hear her do an overexaggerated sigh over the link. "Alright, I'm coming,"
Alistair smirked at her response. "I'll meet you at the entrance," he replied, resolving to be more assertive in the future as his initial hesitancy was misplaced with Riseth.
They rendezvoused at the entrance and headed for their quarters at record speed, ignoring most of the perplexed calls from the others telling them something urgent had come up. They never returned to the party, and instead, Alistair and Riseth called the still confused rest of the family over their [Akashic Link], informing them that they were preoccupied with a time-sensitive cultivation thing on Alistair's request as he wasn't going to tell his mother and the rest of his family what exactly they had been doing.
It took them the whole day before the ambrosia had been refined by the two of them, providing an incredibly bountiful harvest of rare essences for the both of them as they lay in their bed recovering.
"I think I somehow increased the capacity of my synergy pool without even boosting my related stats. We should do this more often," Riseth teased, rubbing her leg against Alistair's.
"I am not sure your body's capacity to contain sin increasing is a good sign," Alistair commented. "Also I'm no lust demon, Trouble," Alistair remarked, a weak smile on his face as he held the back of his hand against his forehead.
"Could've fooled me," Riseth quipped, her tone playful. "I knew you said you were tempering and strengthening your whole body, but I didn't realize the implications of that. You've been holding out on me."
Alistair responded with a chuckle, observing her playful attempt at feigned hurt. He checked the small pop-up he had been ignoring, which informed him that the [Dual Cultivation Technique] had been added to his [Supreme Heavenly Essence Body Cultivation Technique] compound skills. It denoted the efficiency as enormous due to Resonance and racial bonuses provided by the succubus race.
Alistair refocused his attention on his essence vessel, which was filled with lots of rare essences, just as many obscure ones he did not even recognize, and he had no records of them from his manuals. He would need to spend a good amount of time just figuring out what they were, as some of them did not feel familiar at all, so he could not draw upon his knowledge before the initiation. This was the first time he consumed such a high-value treasure, and a good amount of the ambrosia had gone to waste. He cursed at himself for not realizing its value and storing some of it. He could have integrated it into his array and benefited from it indefinitely. However, he presumed it would have taken him years at the current efficiency to get the same quantity of the rare essences variants he had gotten today, and perhaps he could trade Sol for more ambrosia down the line.
Alistair turned to look at Riseth. She was still clinging to him, but she seemed busy. Alistair presumed she was talking over her [Akashic Link]. The transference of emotions and tone over the link had gotten a lot better and could be compared to a phone call. Alistair let a small window appear, asking her who she was talking to, and a small window appeared, letting him know she was talking to her sister. Her sister was against Sol's proposal to have everyone spawn at the same location, as he could trick the entire Ryser family into appearing in one place and capture them with his followers.
He readjusted himself slightly, shifting his arm over her shoulder as he gazed up at the ceiling, allowing his body to relax. He focused his attention on tempering his skin further, intending to continue until Riseth received an update from her sister.
Eventually, she turned her attention back to him, letting him know what happened during their absence. Apparently, his mother had gotten a lot of unwanted attention from suiters. Nessyra and James had intervened and opted to leave the gathering shortly after. Simon had sent his regards. He was disappointed Alistair had left as he had a blast at the gathering, making both friends and enemies. Nessyra, on the other hand, has made some valuable connections to individuals from Earth, though she did not find anyone trustworthy enough to join them properly.
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After being caught up, they started discussing possible uses for the new essences they had gotten. They had found that they could not only refine and enhance essences better but also exchange them with each other through [Dual Cultivation]. However, they would need to refine certain body parts to make the process even more efficient.
The following week passed swiftly; Riseth dedicated herself to cultivating in order to change her race and take advantage of the last few levels before reaching grade 9. Meanwhile, Alistair registered for the adept tournament himself in between teaching hand-to-hand combat and defensive magics in the [Nurturing Ward] and the regular cultivation sessions. Concurrently, whenever he went to the arena, he registered both Fluffy and King for the beast arena. Which did not require his constant presence as both were intelligent enough not to cause trouble. Fluffy struggled while King excelled in the arena. Alistair encouraged the snake to keep going and told her if she kept struggling, she would eventually evolve into something much more powerful.
To Alistair's disappointment, his own matches were hardly worth mentioning. The strongest opponent was a Frostkin that had used absurd quantities of ice and frost magic and an unknown pool of energy. Alistair could not effectively counter the Frostkin's magic with his [Kinetic Skinguard], forcing him to rely on his barriers.
Alistair had signed up for an upcoming team-free-for-all tournament, which was the first event tournament popping up since he had entered the [Arena Dungeon]. The tournament would be split by grades rather than levels, and it had some variations for different team sizes from two to five individuals. Alistair planned to join with Riseth if she managed to change her race before the tournament, which was a great motivator for her. Simon had teamed up with Esta, while Zathron and Desily both had reached grade 9 recently and planned to join as a team for that tournament. Alistair himself had reached level 42 after winning the adept tournament.
According to Simon, the next tier of the tournament marked the beginning of facing genuinely formidable opponents. The veteran tier was where both strong newcomers and those who worked on battling their way to the expert level could be found, a testament to their skill and determination. However, Alistair had his doubts since he was pretty confident in his foundation.
During one of their trips. Desily and Zathron discovered another [Growth] natural treasure, which they subsequently sold to Nessyra for a significant sum due to its high demand among various factions. The duo had become a regular team, and it was rare to see one without the other. Zathron expressed his gratitude to Alistair for his part in forming their team, further reinforced as they occasionally hung out together with Simon. Zathron chose not to join the clan as a member and was content to be considered a follower and friend because he had his own family to watch out for, and most of them were not keen on joining a clan of upstart strangers. He promised to reconsider once his personal matters were resolved after the trial.
After receiving the [Growth] treasure, Alistair spent a whole day creating arrays for the two growth treasures to increase their efficiency and maximize the yield of the clan's Lomie farm and largest greenhouse.
After learning of her proficiency with space magic, his mother focused her efforts on learning how to utilize it. She had recently figured out how to make a space storage skill for herself without needing a storage item. She had also weaponized the magic, something Alistair had considered after obtaining his storage bracers but had not found a good opportunity to do so. She was currently working with James and Jessica to reverse engineer one of the storage cubes.
Alistair still had roughly three days before the arena event kicked off, so he decided to check his three left-over trial worlds to see if he had one from which they could scavenge some tech which they badly needed to expand both their technical know-how and create valuable treasures without having to buy resources from third parties. Skills, techniques, especially magical ones, and technical knowledge were among the most closely guarded secrets within the trials. Buying topics in the [Study Dungeon] was not feasible for most due to the incredibly high prices that only successful merchants and larger groups could afford.
Alistair looked at the gate as it spun. Symbols flashed to life one after the other, creating a small magical vortex in the center of the gate before solidifying into a stable portal. This would be the first of the three trial worlds. Alistair would need to be careful as he was alone this time around, particularly since his stealth skills were not that great. He would have to retreat if the trial world were similar to the slayer world and filled with grade 9 beasts or worse.
As Alistair stepped through the gate, he was engulfed by the familiar darkness of teleportation. However, upon reappearing, he found himself surrounded by a different kind of darkness. Unable to see anything, he sensed the moist air and detected a musty smell. An eerie stillness enveloped him as not a sound could be heard, and for a moment, he worried that something had gone wrong with the teleportation or that the address was a dud.
Alistair's [Conceptual Awareness] made him aware of the earth-rich environment surrounding him, leading him to suspect he was underground. He adjusted the skill to enhance his vision's conceptual perception while retaining its intuitive aspects. Initially disorienting and overwhelmingly bright, he eventually adapted. Though it felt akin to makeshift night vision, it offered a colorful, rather than monochrome, perspective. He considered just using some sort of light, but he did not know what was down here, and he would not become a beacon of light until he knew what to expect.
He glanced around; behind him was the gate and its console. The surroundings were rich in both earth and water concepts. He took a few steps, and the ground beneath him made a loud, squelching sound that echoed around him as it was the only source of noise. Alistair cursed internally as he waited for anything to react. His heightened senses picked up a faint, irregular clicking sound bouncing off the cave walls.
"Fuck. That's echolocation," Alistair thought grimly as he dropped a large light crystal illuminating the wet, muddy stone chamber he was in as he steeled himself for what was to come. Then he saw it, his heart pounding in his chest as it slowly revealed itself.
The pale, naked, and incredibly muscular sinewy body of a monster shuffled effortlessly and soundlessly over the ceiling. Its transition from pale skin to bone-plated head and claws was distinguishable only by texture. Its head was elongated, showed sharp fangs, and was devoid of eyes, its nostrils were slits, and it had some flaps of skin that vibrated and moved independently. It appeared emaciated yet powerful, standing roughly three meters tall, with arms and legs that were disproportionately long compared to its torso. The creature exuded a thoroughly nightmarish presence reinforced by the odd dark and swirling coloration of concepts surrounding it. Dark tendrils of magic lashed out at Alistair faster than he could react, instilling immediate fear in him as his armor warped. Bracing himself, he activated [Identify], revealing it to be a [Cave Wendigo - Level 47].
"That's a whole lot of fucking NOPE," Alistair cursed inwardly as the creature tilted its head towards him. Sound waves bounced off his armor; it seemed the creature couldn't perceive the light, and Alistair suspected it believed he hadn't noticed its presence. He stood there motionless as the eerily silent creature measured him up, ready to pounce.