Alas, the Will of the Battleworld didn't respond to Murai's words, since it wasn't one to do that, yet. It continued with what it had to say regardless of Murai's anger.
[With the addition of the 800 points of your time and your efforts, you are free to take what you see fit]
[Availability of your choice out of the surrounding around the World Essence are slim]
[enchanted Mana Flower Acacia - Grade A - 1 leaf for 100 points]
[enchanted Pouch of Mana Dust - Mana Crystals of Grade B - 200 points per pouch]
[enchanted Crystalis Alamander - Grade A - a handful gem for 200 points]
.
.
.
.
[And at last, World Essence known as Everflower - Grade? No need for that. Price? 10 000 points]
----------------------------------------
The list was surprisingly simple, and even Murai was getting tired of listening to each and every one of them.
However, what he learned was something that he expected, albeit the last listing angered him greatly.
Everflower for a freaking 10,000 points?! They don't really want to give it away, yet made it into the points regardless of that? What a bunch of fuckers. What is wrong with them? How could someone defeat th... Nevermind. I think too much of it. It is just an excuse for this treasure. This dogshit Trial is also out of its mind. Murai complained, and even Lisa, who sighed and shook her head, felt someone disappointed in hearing Murai's thought.
After all, what did this imply? A lot, frankly speaking. The core of what 10 000 points meant was a rule and Murai was yet to recognize it. In a most truthful manner, it was a rule stated by this system, making the Everflower purchasable from this part of the Somalis Dungeon. As for how? That was the problem of the balancing, but it was a possibility, which was frankly speaking... a ridiculous challenge that would cause God's Descent for sure. Lisa recognized it for sure.
Who would manage that since the degree of needed points was absolutely terrifying?
Lisa understood it, as well how important this sort of treasure seemed, albeit she never heard of World Essences before, let alone a specified Everflower. She didn't understand the agitation that Murai went through, but it was not like she could offer him any encouragement.
After all, he didn't need them. The rewards that were available for his 800 points were worth the effort, and Murai got many of them. They weren't any godly materials, but they should be useful in any regard. He can even choose them, which was much more precious than one would guess.
It's not like the rewards were up to the Battleworld's decision, as usual, so that was at least good in her opinion. Freedom of choice was always good to have.
Murai forced his anger away, feeling that the rewards of this grade were great, but not something that would blow his life away. At least his own power improved in the following gust of powerful boost from the World. He got whole 3 levels towards his Beak's Fury, and many improvements in abilities spoke for themselves.
Lisa, I didn't get any Attributes... yet this gust of power jolted my body as if it did.
“But strengthened they become, Murai Hisagi,” Lisa said. “They aren't always given, and you have got some, so whatever. Sometimes, Level gives effects of Strengthened Attributes from this boost. It strengthens your core of them, and their number becomes more important. Got it?”
Murai nodded, feeling it seemed to make sense. Then he complained for a long time about the gates even though his energy was limited.
He got his boost, but the Will of the Battleworld was yet to finish its message.
[For the sake of the Somalis Dungeon and the Battleworld, you have cleared the one-life event. You will never be able to come back to this place, so choose the things that you can take away according to your desires]
[Your following of the Gate of Combat leads you to the Throve of the Acaman Family. Any kind of tome, weapon, and scroll from their storage is up for your choice and your future fate]
[As for the sake of Somalis Dungeon, your privileged attempt led to satisfying results]
[You have been gifted with the Key of Remembrance according to the following desires of the Somalis]
[New Equipment gained]
[Key of Remembrance - it is a mental mark of the Somalis Dungeon, allowing you to reach, and get to the higher stage of Somalis Dungeon depending on your fate, or direct confrontation. It is a key as well as an optional entrance required to unspecific dungeons. It will be able to discover a random location of one kind of Somalis Dungeon like this one, but only if you are close enough]
[You have a new Status]
[Explorer of Dungeon - It is a small passive ability that acts within the range of your Anatidae lineage and its past. It's in shambles with the Beast Core, and Wisdom, furthering the ability of the Mana Detection to new lengths]
[Mana Detection is improved by 5 levels by the definition of your Wisdom, your Soul, and Shaping]
[Soul Read - additional 3 Level up by your familiarity with the detection]
[Mana Detection is bigger than your own level! What a stroke of luck!]
[With the end of the Dungeon, you have reached the end of this path. You may leave the dungeon after getting your rewards]
[Good work, citizen, and may the Battleworld give you plenty of other challenges]
At last, Will of the Battleworld reached the end of its messages, leaving Lisa glad, and Murai somewhat restrained in his anger. By this point, he stopped complaining and rather walked towards the Gate of Combat in order to think of something else.
First, he should check the Gate of Wisdom, but he wasn't willing to do so after hearing he couldn't get the Everflower at all. That was a small disappointment, but a rather unreasonable desire. He could live with that. It wasn't as if he could steal it. That would be a death wish since this place was under the protection of Pakutan, or perhaps someone else, since God's Statue had no Chaos within it, unlike Pakutan.
Murai wasn't sure what to think of this Eveflower but knew why it was here. This sort of thing should be sought out by the Gods like a precious treasure so why was it here? He couldn't guess that. Maybe for it to act as a farm? A small way to improve and fuel up the surrounding materials or the Dungeon as a whole?
He could be thinking all he wanted, but that was the end of it.
Going with the second thing that interested him, he reached the library beside the Gate of Combat.
Viewing the many kinds of books, scrolls, and weapons around, he wasn't sure what to think of his choices. There wasn't anything strange to this corner, unlike the Everflower. Everything seemed fine, as if no time passed in this place, even though centuries passed since the destruction of the Acaman family.
Murai noticed that this corner was under time regulating kind of spell, making the books nor weapons form no deterioration. It was a kind of tough spell to do, let alone fuel for a long time. Only an extremely powerful mage should do this sort of spell to last this long. That, or this was the work of time manipulating God? Pakutan have some hands in this, or did someone else? Murai guessed this may have something interesting.
Looking around in the most redundant and passive manner, Murai flipped some books and scrolls on the lower shelves, and on the tables. Sneering, he wasn't satisfied.
Basic... Meh. This? That? What is this? Dog's shit. Is this really a trove of the Acaman family? They seemed plenty good if God would find them interesting. What a waste of time and effort.
“What do you mean!?” Lisa said, floating above him and viewing the content as well. “Those are great, as far as I can see. Many are good, and usable for your level, but maybe not for your... high control, or whatnot. Is this why you are complaining? That it isn't good enough?”
“Damn straight. All of them are intermediate, but even a beginner with high aptitude can learn advanced stuff. I don't want to waste too much time, you know?” He said, kicking a bunch of tomes lying on the ground.
“If that is so, then pick a fighting technique, or a weapon, and not something that you consider "simple" from these tomes. Your experiences may be good for your Shaping and everything. I also noticed some of your familiarity with runes that you used against the golem, so that also put a lot of other things forward. Mana Runes, Mana Roots, and others should be to your liking in these tomes, or a simple specific spell tome should be sufficient?”
“Give me a break with those hints. I know what I can do, thanks for asking. hm!” Murai unhappily quacked, ignoring Lisa, yet she kept talking.
“You shouldn't feel bad about any choice. Taking something unique may end up being much better than something normal. The tomes are one resource that one can buy in any kind of city. You should pick something that is well outside of the normal kind. Most Delvers do this sort of thing with the rewards from accomplished Dungeon, you know? It's one of the best ways to get your hands on ancient magic.” Lisa explained, looking through a bunch of Tomes and scrolls at the high-raised bookshelves that Murai had no access to.
“Yea? For once, I agree.” Muruai unwillingly replied. “I don't want something simple, but not something I had to worry about either. Look at the shelves above and tell me the name of the tomes. I can't be bothered to check everything, and I can't even reach that far.” he ordered and Lisa couldn't help but agree.
“Fine. I can do at least that much.”
“Wait. Wait a second.” Murai stopped himself, looking at Lisa as if he noticed something.“ Did you just say that the tomes can be bought? How expensive those can be? I have no idea about the monetary value of this world, and I bet the mana and stuff surrounding the magic are nothing but expensive. Do you know the worth and valuables of this world?” Murai asked, knowing that this sort of topic should be quite important, but he forgot to mention it.
“Oh? That? Worth, and value. They all depend on the context. Mages usually rely on the mana materials with grades, and their rarity and needs. Something can be cheap or expensive depending on the seller and the market. Mostly, it depends on the grade of things. Everything resolves about it. In a Tome, its value, history, and how the quality of its internal structure is looking like, all play an important part in values.
“Stop spouting common sense, and tell something specific.” Murai barked at her.
“What specific? I am still explaining things as I want. I get that you know the basics of the tomes, so let's leave it there. Just so you know, there are a lot of mages in this world thanks to the Battleworld and its system. Humans base their value on any kind of monetary value they have. Gold, or haggle with other mana materials. For example, the shards, potions, dust, and so on. Depending on their Grade, of course. Something can be cheap for others. Its basic economics of interest and demand.”
As a former mage and current magical beast, Murai was intrigued by the prospect of the magic material. Of course, Murai wanted to pick a road of greatness, and not some basics. They weren't up to the task to his standards, as he wasn't used to regular roads in the past. Using this opinion would lead to a faster rise to power and that was something he desired in recent lives.
He liked to do things by force, trying to overcome the hurdles of the many lives with knowledge, power, and wisdom. Especially right now, he wanted to continue doing that since he had so much on his mind, and his possibilities were endless.
Murai heard her words and considered it as nothing surprising. Within his heart, he was kind of impressed by the Battleworld and the possibility of strengthening oneself from this sort of system. It had a rather interesting and unique power dynamic that the worlds before this one lacked. It made him appreciate help in regard to information and the structure of power, but it wasn't as simple as that.
After all, it also included being a duck, albeit only to a certain extent since he was a demonic beast, with mana, and some unknown demonic roots.
Murai figured that Lisa finished, so he started to look left and right, turning the lower section of the library upside down. He was curious to find any kind of interesting thing, that could be either old or older. He wasn't interested in some basic elemental spells that a mage could learn from simple things, but the question was, would there be something for him?
Spells were easy to figure out in the shape of mana tomes. They were structural magic, with intentions, elements, and flow of the spell or anything at its source. How they were written and created by magic, was dependent on the finalized product and intentions of the maker.
That meant anything that mage had in their Path or anything within their magic. If a beginner mage would learn and consume the tome that held a basic structural magic of the Fire Ball, the tome would allow the mage to comprehend the basic form of the Flame Affinity. With it at the Mana Core, it can lead to comprehension of the Fire Ball in a couple of days.
That was one of the reasons why Lisa was so surprised when she saw Murai conjure the Flame from nothing else than the mana. It was kind of strange since he held no Flame affinity before, yet he gained one from nothing. In the principles of mages, that she was familiar with, Murai was unique.
Minutes flew by and even Lisa was forced by Murai to help out. She handled the old, and ancient tomes and scrolls with great interest, and expertly told him their brief content.
Murai always grunted in displeasure, dismissing even Grade A magic Tomes of space, lightning, earth, water, or fire.
“Then what the hell do you want? Are you looking for something specific? You haven't even been satisfied with the Blessing of a God for devil's sake, so tell me,” Lisa shouted from above, eyeing Murai with unhinged frustration. “WHAT do you want?”
“There wasn't any Grade S stuff, am I right?” he asked, unbothered by her issues.
“Oh, a tiny duck wants a Grade S, or wishes for one? Even if you got one, it would be hardly used by you, since its content may be too much for your current progressions and tiny little legs to carry this sort of thing. In fact, those should be rare, with hints of god's hands, or top-tier mages behind their creations. Considering the end of the Acaman lineage, I doubt they had any of these.” Lisa guessed, following what she assumed to be the most likely reasoning.
Murai couldn't help but agree with it too, so any idea of Grade S Tomes went out of his mind. So, he remained listening to Lisa and continued looking for something that would pique his interest. It came later when Lisa shouted the name of a tome, which was kind of interesting, and caused him to recall something from his memory.
“What? Repeat that,” he asked, glancing at Lisa, as he wasn't sure of her words the first time.
“Mana Inferno - Shaping and Conjuring of Rudolf the Great. Grade A Tome.” Lise repeated.
“That one! That will do.” Murai said, smirking with a strange glint in his eyes.
Lisa didn't know what was up with that, nor did she care all that much. Grade A shouldn't be that bad, and considering the Inferno, which was under the premise of the Flame, she probably understood why Murai found this so interesting.
With some difficulty, she forced the tome to fall from the shelf, falling a bit away from Murai. He looked at it with great interest as if he were looking at a precious treasure that he desired for a long time.
What was before him was a simple book with regular physicality. Though, hidden underneath the leather cover was a mana tome or something entirely different. On top of it, he noticed all kinds of diagrams, and runes around the exterior of this cover, creating a rather strange and locked mechanism behind a crossed rope around it. Behind the rope, there was the name of this tome, which had strange elvish symbols depicting its name.
Murai could read it, meaning the elves in this world were the same as the ones he met on other planes of existence.
Well, this is a rather surprising old friend. I wonder if you ever thought I would come here, or if you were the unlucky one instead. Murai thought in a rather strange melancholy, learning, and finding the source of this familiarity rather hilarious.