Keynes and Kora exchanged the snake’s parts and the quest for two elixirs called the Touch of Sublime Nature. They were prohibitively expensive but their guardian advised them to do it. The elixirs would vastly improve their connection with the dream tree and their gardens.
The effects were semi-permanent as their connection improved, they would be able to learn as much as they could and retain gained knowledge. Unfortunately, they were left with no more favour to ask about other contenders.
On the bright side, the marketplace wasn’t all about trading favour. They spent the better part of the day at the marketplace, tasting marvellous food and drinks prepared by the Children. Meanwhile, other contenders ventured to the Dark Forest to fulfil their own quests. Keynes and Kora lingered until their opponents returned, finding out how they had fared in the forest.
In general, the other contender didn’t do well. It appeared that the Dark Forest was far more formidable than Keynes and Kora realised. Their guardian didn’t say it out right but Keynes’s [Chaos Aura] skewed their perception of what was dangerous. The only contender more or less unbothered by the escapade into the Dark Forest was Sophia.
Zephyr didn’t show up in the marketplace at all.
“He’s an arrogant prick,” Sophia complained when she met with Keynes and Kora, despite them trying to keep to themselves. “To think he can just skip the marketplace.”
She fumed, which made Keynes wonder what was between her and the old man Zephyr that made her hate him so much.
Unless she’s lying, Alice chimed in, uncharacteristically. Her aura control is on par with yours. It’s nigh impossible to read her so she can easily hide her true motives. What if she works with Zephyr and is faking her hatred toward him to gain your trust?
Alice’s insight gave Keynes a pause. He didn’t consider this angle, which was a massive oversight on his part. After all, Sophia and Zephyr had arrived before him and Kora at the Inner Sanctuary. They entered separately, but who knew what connected these two.
Sophia asked them about their encounter in the Dark Forest and Keynes told her about their quest but explicitly omitted to mention the elder snake. She seemed satisfied by Keynes’s answer. Perhaps, she didn’t encounter the snake, which in itself was an important information.
Shortly after that, Keynes and Kora bade their farewell with Sophia and returned to their house. Kora reverted to her quiet self when Keynes told her about Alice’s insight. The other ascender usually did that when she was troubled or was working on a problem.
She took her elixir with her, changed into a comfortable colourful sweater and sweatpants and holed in the middle of her garden, which thanks to the guardian had gotten considerably lush.
Keynes opted for his company’s uniform which was made out of Level 3 materials. While it was official, it remained comfortable, mixing together durability with sharp look.
He then followed Kora’s steps and drank the elixir. His mind expanded together with his perception of the physical world but with strict focus on nature. Anything that didn’t belong to nature became a blur of unimportant details.
Leaves shuddered, twigs swayed, vapours and odours suddenly permeated the air. All of these little things were always there, only Keynes had failed to notice them.
Keynes let in to an urge to touch leaves, stalks, grass and soil around him. Through touch, a faint echo of emotions appeared in his mind. He understood that each plant has its own preferences and needs and some of them were spiritually powerful but for the first time he contemplated plants and trees as individuals, with their own character.
So strong was the suggestion that Keynes gave several plants a name.
It was a turning point.
The moment Keynes did it, his perception of nature shifted. The change wasn’t one-sided though as nature finally ‘accepted’ him. Keynes discovered that the plants he’d named were undergoing a spiritual change, their spiritual matrix was evolving. Despite his Mind attribute and the Pure Body buff, he started to get overwhelmed but he wasn’t going to waste the incredible insight.
The elixir lasted several hours. Keynes refined his insight and together with Alice, they delved deeper, coming to a conclusion that the identity was the centre-point of the paradigm. The fact that Keynes named a plant, worked as a sort of acknowledgement that singled out the plant from the rest of its kind, setting off a process that made the named plant unique.
But the naming wasn’t as simple as Keynes suspected. Once Kora emerged from her garden, Keynes shared his insight with her and she failed to replicate his achievement. Clearly, there were prerequisites that had to be met to kick off the process. They suspected it was Keynes’s Trait of Shamanism that allowed him to connect on a deeper level with nature.
That said, Kora’s elixir-induced insight was more technical and less ground-breaking than Keynes’s. Her insight revolved around [Nature Aure], making it more integrated with her spiritual core.
Okay, less ground-breaking my ass, Alice said, being affronted by Keynes’s thoughts. Do you have any idea what she almost did?
Improved her skill. I have done the same with [Flight] and [Telekinesis], he replied, shocked by her outburst.
Like hell you did! [Flight] was barely a structural adjustment and [Telekinesis] you trained but didn’t touch on its spiritual structure. On the other hand, Kora moved [Nature Aura] closer to her spiritual core, almost integrating the skill and permanently improving it.
Wait a minute, integrated like [Spiritual Wraith] and [Purify]?
Yes. Integrated skills also capacity to evolve but for non-Perfect State ascenders it isn’t as simple.
Why didn’t you mention it earlier? Keynes asked, considering what else Alice knew but didn’t share with him. Granted, she only had undergone the change during his absorption of the Trait of Nature, which resulted in the Trait of Shamanism. Since then her behaviour was erratic but her insight improved substantially.
Stolen novel; please report.
It has never come up, she replied.
Right.
***
“The next challenge is called The Strongest. You will create a monster-incubating plant and then you will have to defeat the incubated monster in order to earn points. You have only one try so choose wisely. Failing to defeat the monster will earn you 0 points.”
It was a tricky challenge and like with the first one, Keynes and Kora couldn’t cooperate. But both of them really liked the challenge. Considering their strength, they should top the ranking this time. From what they had gleaned, most of their competitors were Level 6 so the difference was negligible for these two.
“The actual fight would take place in the designated location, for safety and privacy reasons,” their guardian explained.
“How are we going to test our monster-plants?” Kora asked.
The guardian pointed with his staff at the house.
“The dream tree.”
“Indeed. It will have perfect copies of monsters you create. But each time you fight against a particular monster, points would be deducted from your score.”The guardian turned to go. “Good luck.”
“I have a question,” Keynes said. “Are we permitted to fight more than one monster at the same time?”
“No. But the ceiling for how strong the monster can be is equivalent to Level 10. Though I would advise against going that far. You’ll not survive such an encounter.”
The guardian’s warning didn’t discourage Keynes. He was going to give his best.
***
“Shit.” Keynes spat blood as he rolled out of the monster’s falling paw. The monster didn’t give him a chance to catch a breath, instantly charging him. The hybrid of a cat and tree was nimble, durable and freakishly strong. Its movement, while awkward, possessed mesmerising grace that had almost caught Keynes off-guard in the beginning of the fight.
The thing about deduction was that it would still deduct points for monsters with similar attributes and level of difficulty. It prevented abusing the rules. Without it, Keynes would be able to prepare heavily for the strongest monster, then slightly alter it to avoid deduction. To that end, he’d decided to create the strongest monster he could and not fight against it, which he was starting to regret now.
The hybrid was misleadingly called the Sorrow-Sowing Seed and had an appearance of a lion made out of mismatched types of wood. Its mane was a mix of moss and bushy leaves. Its six onyx marble eyes stared at Keynes with hunger.
It stood twice as tall as Keynes and its front paws were thicker than Keynes’s waist, but their physical appearance was deceptive as the monster could extend them several metres with the speed of a bullet.
Keynes had found [Spiritual Wraith] ineffective against this calibre of creature. It didn’t even notice [Telekinesis] and [Mana Shot] at half mana pool left only a scratch which the monster healed over a few seconds.
Spiritual aura at full blast didn’t faze it either.
This thing might be a problem, Keynes realised. But I have no choice, I have to defeat it. Alice, any idea?
I told you, you’re reckless, didn’t I? Alice snorted.
Kind of, you used a different adjective though, Keynes replied, trying to keep the conversation light-hearted.
Oh, yes, I said you’re stupid to fight an equivalent of a Level 10 monster without fighting it once. You know what, you aren’t stupid, you’re a total moron.
Keynes smiled at Alice’s antics, considering using his trump card and ending the fight here and now. On the other hand, this is the only chance to learn more about the capabilities of a Level 10 monster.
Or dying, Alice chimed in.
I’m not dying today, he assured her.
The monster roared, rooting Keynes in place. Shit… The monster’s spiritual aura was absurdly strong and it didn’t end there. The freaking aura possessed several different affinities which imbued it with effects like spiritual roots creeping over Keynes’s spiritual core. They were paralysing him, while their sharp spikes inflicted spiritual damage.
Again, shit.
Keynes flared his spiritual aura tearing himself out of the monster’s spiritual grip. Why didn’t the fucking Pure Body buff activate?
Because it only prevents attacks of mental and physical origin, not spiritual, Alice explained. Don’t play with fire and use [Chaos Aura] now. You cannot even be sure if it is going to be enough to defeat it.
You can’t be serious… Keynes murmured.
He threw himself to the ground as the paw slashed the air centimetres from where he’d stood. Even though he dodged the attack, his HP dropped by 3%.
It appears to be its passive ability to deal some damage ahead of physical attack, Alice deducted and Keynes agreed.
The other paw immediately followed the first one, like a snake attacking its prey and Keynes grimaced as additional 4% of his HP vanished. The problem with the monster’s skill was that it didn’t inflict any obvious damage.
Keynes checked his HP and found only 56% left. What the fuck… when?
Despite half of his HP gone he felt absolutely fine.
Instead of withdrawing its paws, the monster’s paws buried in the ground and the rest of its body shot toward Keynes. Keynes jumped into the air forcing [Flight] to boost the jump. It still wasn’t enough to evade the monster’s passive skill and this time, Keynes lost 10%.
Keynes, stop messing around! Alice snapped.
As the monster’s head snapped upward, likely preparing an airborne attack, Keynes’s slammed [Chaos Aura] with all his mana and spiritual energy at his disposal into the monster’s open jaws, praying it was enough.
The worst thing was that the whole ordeal didn’t even feel real.
***
Kora’s hands shook from exhaustion. Even with the Heartwood buff, her body was slowly shutting down. She had used her Talent, [Empower], [Conjure Weapon] and [Nature Aura] to the fullest and still, her victory was very, very slim. She’d have never admitted it but at some point she considered surrendering. But she couldn’t do that to Keynes and so she pushed herself beyond her limits and she won, somehow.
The snake-like monster had powerful ability; when sufficiently damaged, its body would temporarily become resistant to the highest damage type dealt to it. One of the worst fights Kora ever had.
But she won and only that mattered.
She stepped out of the arena, the Grand Druid and her guardian welcomed her with warm expressions.
“Congratulations, contender,” the Grand Druid said. “Quite a feat defeating a Level 9 monster at your Level.”
She didn’t share the festive mood with the druid. She had been too close to death to celebrate.
The guardian handed her a glass vial with blue liquid.
“Drink it, it’ll help you recover.”
She did so and felt her body and mind regain strength and sharpness, which led her to immediately ask.
“Where is Keynes?”
“Still fighting,” the guardian replied and Kora detected a note of sadness in his tone. “Come, you need to clean yourself and change clothes.”
“I want to wait for Keynes first.”
“Why?”
“I want to see his face when he sees that I finished the challenge quicker than him.”