Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 122 Caught Completely Off Guard!

Name: Cored Mortal Qi Replenis.h.i.+ng Pill

Grade: Mid-tier Mortal Grade Pill

Description: Once ingested, replenishes a sizable portion of already galvanized False Qi. Containing a Refinement Rate of 90%, dozens of pills of the same quality would have to be ingested before seeing the effects of Pill Toxicity.

Current Effect: Restores the equivalent of 33,000 units of Inner Strength. Pill Toxicity develops after consuming 39 similar pills.

Name: Perfect Mortal Qi Replenis.h.i.+ng Pill

Grade: High-tier Mortal Grade Pill

Description: Once ingested, replenishes a sizable portion of already galvanized False Qi. Containing a perfect Refinement Rate of 100%, no amount of pills ingested — of this quality — will develop Pill Toxicity

Current Effect: Restores the equivalent of 50,000 units of Inner Strenght]

Reading through the pills' effects, Elizabeth no longer hesitated. She pretended to be gauging the effects of the pills by taking one at a time, as she would have no other way of knowing without the use of her functions.

Seeing her eat the pills, Lady Keter smiled behind her mask. She said, "Clearly you saw me use the same amount of time to refine both pills, yet the result was so drastic because of the Alchemical Principles! The same unbelievable result happens when I change the degree of proficiency in other Principles, and I've personally seen similarly unbelievable changes take place with Formations."

Up until this point, Lady Keter was nothing but enthusiastic. However, as she came to address the point of all this, she helplessly sighed whilst saying, "Unfortunately, even though we've been hard at work researching these principles we haven't even scratched the surface of what there is to offer in the Mortal Rank. Even though I've been leading the way with regards to Alchemical research, I don't think I'm even close to reaching the first tier of proficiency…"

Upon seeing Lady Keter grow silent, Elizabeth flashed one of her trademark smiles as she asked, "And what exactly is it that you want ME to do?"

"..." Elizabeth couldn't see it, but Lady Keter was smiling helplessly at the moment. Never had Lady Keter taken such a visage and if any of the higher-ups in the Martial Society knew this to be the case, they wouldn't know how to react.

After not receiving a response for several seconds, Elizabeth asked, "Are you asking me to share my methods and 'research?'" She had a feeling a fallout would break at any moment, so her already stressed magic became all the more active after she spoke.

Finally, Lady Keter answered back. After sighing, she said, "No… Rather, I came to you for two things~" With the tone of her voice slowly changing to fit a much softer pitch, Elizabeth slowly started to feel anxious for some reason. "Initially, I had planned to talk with you after the Tournament ended, but after you showed off your knowledge of Principles, I just had to confirm it ahead of time."

A sudden pain threatened to overwhelm Elizabeth as she felt shortness of breath and began to grow red in the face. Still, as an Acupoint Master, Elizabeth held her deteriorating body back as she felt her anxiety grow in recognition of Lady Keter's voice. Taking this small gap that had formed in Lady Keter's speech, Elizabeth attempted to ask, "You… Are y..."

However, before she could respond, Lady Keter slowly unveiled her mask as she said, "Ah, Adrian~ You should have retained your specialty in laying low..."

Caught completely off guard, Elizabeth's entire body shut down even worse than when she cultivated death! "Wh-" With words stuck in her throat, Elizabeth's hair stood up to defy gravity as an unreasonable fear virtually stole her motor functions from her soul. 'How did she know?!' As she comprehended the way she was addressed and looked at the appearance of the woman before her, the fear that paralyzed her strengthened in magnitude as her head started throbbing in pain equal to that of the worst of the tortures she'd survived.

Then, before she could even register the actions of the woman before her, she was embraced in a manner all but forgotten in her recollection of past interactions. This embrace… It was more than physical, as Elizabeth felt the fettered chains paralyzing her vanished as a tear ran down her cheek. Going by instinct, Elizabeth used her freed up hands to return the embrace and whilst still being in that position, she asked, "Mom… How long did you know?" She could scarcely believe that the VIP before her was her very own mother; Maria Keter!

"Heh… About an hour ago, I was clued in about your arrival. But it wasn't until I came to see you face to face in the VIP area that I recognized you from your soul signature."

'She recognized my… soul signature? But that could only mean…' Elizabeth separated from the embrace as she seriously said, "You… Just how long have you been in the Spirit Realm?" Apart from using True Qi, only Spirit Realm pract.i.tioners would be able to begin messing around with the aspect of souls. Going by their last interaction almost seven months ago, it stood to reason that Elizabeth's mom had been in the Spirit Realm at the very least at that time!

Sighing, this response was well within her expectations as her son — or daughter? She hadn't come to terms with this issue just yet… — never knew about this side of her life. Maria said, "This… It would take too long to explain in detail. So much so that you'll very likely miss out on your next Event if we sit here and chat… But, don't worry yourself too much. Later tonight, after the curtains of the Tournament close, we'll talk about everything."

Moving in to embrace Elizabeth for a little longer, Maria said, "In any case, I don't know what prompted your, uh… change, but to me, it doesn't matter who or what you become. As long as I know that you are on your way to living a fulfilling life, I don't care if you want to be called Adrian or Elizabeth."

Letting her mom do as she pleased, as Elizabeth was slowly flus.h.i.+ng the emotions out of her body, A dangerous flicker of light made its way through her eyes as she took note of this extreme overreaction. If there was something she was sure of, its that before all these events, she wouldn't have cared what her parents thought of her. If they were accepting as her mom had been, she would welcome the change, but if not, then it wouldn't have been the end of the world. Yet, now that she finally experienced revealing her transformation for the first time, she had been caught completely defenseless.

These unstable emotions and reactions… First it was her friends, now it was her family? Elizabeth couldn't help but think, 'These changes… are they natural, or could the G.o.ds be involved? Is it normal to develop a personality this way? Has my time spent in isolation truly prevented me from becoming this way, or is my true self fading…'

Half-worried for what she would become in the future, Elizabeth did her best to ignore these thoughts as her mother was right. The two of them had already wasted enough and the next Event would start in just a couple minutes. Feeling the same way, Maria stroked Elizabeth's hair for the final time as she said, "Now, before I let you go… I have to warn you, the people in the Martial Society are cut-throat. You're going to want to watch your back during the rest of the tournament after that insane performance you displayed for forging. The elders I can restrain, but your fellow compet.i.tors? They may injure you out of 'necessity' or look for other ways to take advantage of you..."

After being let go, Elizabeth returned a nod in complete understanding of what she meant, as she could already feel the hostility against her from the various probing attempts she suffered during the end of the Forging Event. Elizabeth watched on as her mother concealed her face in the mask from before, but she didn't bother asking why she took such precautions as it would probably be revealed later at night.

Led by her mother out of the isolated room, the Tournament Arena, and the Tournament Square as well, Elizabeth was told how to reach the site of the next Event before finally leaving her mother's side. Walking over to the Northern Forest outside of Sharktop Village, Elizabeth found another full-size arena. After entering the waiting room for this second arena, she could hear people gossip and talk about her constantly. Luckily, the time spent with her mother cut the time she would have had to spend listening to others in the waiting room, as the same announcer from the Forging Event very quickly called for the compet.i.tors to leave the waiting room and enter the arena.

Following the crowd in the same way she had done for the first Event, Elizabeth soon found a little area claimed by her name. Walking over and sitting in her area within the arena, Elizabeth shook her head as the number of people talking about her exploded. Part of the spectating crowd recognized her from the first event and those that had yet to know of her quickly founding out, as the reaction from the other group prompted her accomplishments being reiterated dozens and hundreds of times over.

Soon after everyone settled into their areas, the announcer addressed the mic to get the second Event underway, saying, "Ladies and Gentlemen, after that amazing first Forging Event of the day, we'll now be moving on to the Beast Taming Event! To start off, all the compet.i.tors on the stage will be given Clearlight Sparrow Eggs to compete in the Nurturing Stage. To first-timers, Clearlight Sparrows are the perfect litmus test for gauging the nurturing potential of Beast Tamers as the unborn sparrows not only quickly hatch after being nurtured by Qi, but the colors of their feathers which quickly develop after birth accurately gauges the nurturing potential of Beast Tamers. Now, for the qualifying rules, only the top 500 get to pa.s.s on to the next stage, and Sparrows that don't at least develop orange feathers will be disqualified."