Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 154 Hitting The Motherlode! Chance At Becoming Saint Champion

"Wow..." Upon digesting the information about her two new Mystic Arts, Elizabeth took a moment to appreciate the potential her new skills carried. Now being able to incorporate Time Magic into her sword and Death magic into her Muay Thai in an intelligent manner instead of just brute-forcing her way through attacks, just that alone was worth the exhaustion of her Energy-Technique Integration Cubes; yet the good times didn't end there. In fact, they got better as she was introduced to the new concept of Stages within her Mystic Arts.

These Stages as she understood from her status functions effectively conveyed where she stood in the progression of her Mystic Arts. Although her Mystic Arts in themselves could improve without using their subset of skills, she would need to individually master the skills held within the Mystic Arts as a subset if she wanted to improve their Stage progression. Only after both her Mystic Arts and their subset of skills reached a certain Stage would she gain access to increasingly powerful methods.

Now, since she had just risen to the 110th spot, practically every other compet.i.tor was being challenged and with the quality of Saints rising, Elizabeth felt she would have enough time to fix Tristan. So, when her excitement over the new skills died out, she materialized her set of acupoint needles and once more removed Tristan's s.h.i.+rt. She had put it back over him after treating him so as to not needlessly shame him, but since she needed access to his navel region to operate on his Dantian, his toned upper body had to bless the world with its presence once more.

After setting up a Taiji Formation of acupoint needles on around the navel area where the Dantian normally sat, Elizabeth activated her needles with a bit of Neutral Magic and let her eyes feast on the veritable motherload that was Tristan's about-to-explode Dantian. 'Holy f.u.c.k! I've hit the motherf.u.c.king jackpot!' She knew from the [Introduction To The Path Of Medicine] that cultivators who chose to suicide via implosion of their Dantians would see an "unusual" increase in Qi being galvanized in the moments before they died, but seeing the results first hand, she felt that it could not be understated any lower. He didn't have just an "unusual increase" of Qi, but to truly put it into perspective, if a Peak Phase Saint usually had an energy reserve of 50 Million units of Inner Strength, Tristan at the time when he decided to blow himself up, at Peak Phase King Stage, had double that of a Peak Phase Saint!

Elizabeth attributed part of the reason to the activation of his forbidden technique and didn't dwell on the matter for too long as there was a large meal laying prepped before her and she counted as a starving tiger at the moment. Happily, she went berserk as the energy Tristan prepared to kill both himself and her with was being absorbed at a rate of hundreds of units of Inner Strength per second; it was slowly rising as Elizabeth Innate Strength Conversion Skill improved. Before the seventh minute into her operation of Tristan ended, his Dantian was fully sucked dry. Elizabeth's 7th Seal of Chaos was just over 50% filled after consuming 80% of the energy, while the rest of her stats saw a moderate boost from quickly converting 20 million units of Inner Strength into Fire and Ice Magic and supplementing internal refinement with Inner Strength Conversion.

[Status

Name: Elizabeth Ultimatia

Bloodline: Human 100%, G.o.d (Fallen) 100%, Ancient G.o.dslayer Fiend 0.0028%

Level: 20 (25/26)

Rank: Peak Warrior Stage (100%) [Perfect Chaos Mage Warrior]

s.e.x: Female

Strength 320

Endurance 333

Speed 366

Defense 323

Intelligence 391

Luck: 10

Inner Strength ~5.05 Million

Innate Skills

Inner Strength Conversion

*New) Grade: SS

Description: Approaching the peak of possible performance, this Skill allows the user to convert hundreds of units of Inner Strength to Stat points with light exercise and thousands when pus.h.i.+ng the body to its limits.

Current Effect: Depends on the activities and intensity of training.]

"This is getting out of hand…" Elizabeth committed involuntarily as it was ridiculous even for her to improve her Stats in this manner. This morning she broke through from the Peak of the Soldier Stage to the Peak of the Warrior Stage and now, before midnight of the same day, she had elevated her Stats to the point where she could reach the peak of the King Stage.

As she thought back to what she had done in the day, partic.i.p.ating in the various Secondary Occupational Events, treating June's nephew, a Peak Phase Saint, and absorbing his energy, fighting in the Martial Event, and the most recent event of absorbing the energy in Tristan's Dantian, it made sense for her stats to have grown so quickly. But, without her status as a pract.i.tioner of the Path of Perfection, and the ability of her Chaos Requiem skill, it would be impossible for her to stand the potential of her cultivation with her body and soul.

Elizabeth's body s.h.i.+vered in excitement as she realized she might actually be able to win the Saint Division after all; without resorting to pyrrhic warfare. In fact, recalling the state of her Time Blade Skill… She had a decent to good chance at winning, actually. At the moment, only the Warrior Stage bonus of 200% was applied, but for the King Stage, the bonus rose to 300% at the peak of its rank. Elizabeth had surpa.s.sed that peak and trained her Blade Skill to the standard of Saints. She would instantly get the bonus upon breaking through!

With a base Speed Stat of 366, the 300% bonus would cause her speed to rise into the Realm of Spirits. Adding on her s.p.a.ce, Time, and Armament Speed Bonus, she would probably be able to escape from actual Spirit Realm Elders. Imagining herself using the 6th Chaos Seal on top of all that, Elizabeth felt a fire light in her soul at the thought of standing a chance of killing a Spirit Realm being.

"Ranked one hundred ten, Elizabeth Ultimatia and ranked ninety…" Hearing her name being called to re-enter the arena, Elizabeth snapped out of her daydreams and quickly disabled the formation she used to do surgery on Tristan. She left him covered in needles as she jumped back onto the stage, as she set out to advance as quickly as she possibly could and didn't see the point in deliberately taking out her needles only to reinsert them moments later.

Thus, with her Inferoria blade manifesting, Elizabeth appeared for the thirteenth time in the arena for the Martial Event. Her opponent was a spear-wielding young man who was relatively strong for an Early Phase Saint, probably either about to break into the Mid Phase. She found him one of the most challenging opponents to date, with his long reaching weapon and Earth, Wind, and Water Qi abilities effectively making him a tank. But, with her new skills, Wielder of Time, improving her already existing Time Spells and the Time Blade Mystic Art itself attributing her sword the properties of Time, he lost sooner rather than later.

Elizabeth found it strange, but as she fought, she found a consistent trend. For some reason, the various martial artists around her consistently used Martial Arts that were below their cultivation. She expected the Saint Division to start pressuring her after she began fighting against Early Phase Saints, but after these past two fights, she noticed the problem lay in their Martial Arts proficiency. In her previous fights in the King Division, her fights had ended too quick for her to notice, but when she looked back and recalled other King Stage battles she watched and compared them to the level of proficiency expected of their level, she found that usually, pract.i.tioners possess proficiency for Martial Arts from anywhere as low as one Phase to two Stages from their appropriate level.

But, P soon clarified this mystery to her by saying, "Gee, you really think everyone is like you? A mixed bag of nuts, intent on cultivating thought the day and sparring all night? Obviously, those regular people can't train like you, nor can they afford to expend their Qi by fighting at their max all the time. If they did, their lifespan would probably halve or worse… Moreover, the Dimensional Upgrade only changed the world like three weeks ago. Naturally, these pract.i.tioners haven't been able to elevate their Martial Arts to the level of their cultivation base."

"Mhmm..." Elizabeth put away her blade as she was given the win after holding it against her opponent's carotid artery; effectively putting him in checkmate. She returned to the needle ridden Tristan and without a shred of guilt, she ignored him in favor of making a quick five-phase long breakthrough.

Smirking as she thought of completing her fifth Main Quest, Elizabeth closed her eyes after settling into a lotus meditative pose and initiated her breakthrough. With a monster core in each of her hands in preparation to keep her personal energy use to a minimum, Elizabeth began to gradually increase the rate with which she fused Magic into her internal organs. At first, only using the Magic equivalent of a couple hundred Inner Strength units per second, it only took a minute to officially enter the Beginner Phase of the King Stage.

In the second minute into her breakthrough, she was channeling the equivalent to tens of thousands of units of Magic into her body, saturating her visceral organs to the point where they glowed with a faint sheen of vitality, characteristic of the Mid Phase of the King Stage. In the third minute, Elizabeth was still in the Mid Phase of the King Stage, but her organs functionally operated dozens of times better than before the start of her breakthrough as they reached the peak of potential in the Mid Phase.

In the fourth minute, Elizabeth internal organs reached the equivalent to regular pract.i.tioner's peak phase — meaning the state most pract.i.tioners would reach in the King Stage before deciding to breakthrough into the Saint Stage. She was only 72% through completion of her own Perfect Path cutlivation's route; technically cla.s.sified as a Late Phase King Stage Mage.

After five minutes pa.s.sed, Elizabeth's internal organs were infused with enough Magic to cross into the Peak Phase of her King Stage cultivation, and at just 90% completion, they filled up with the maximum amount of Magic her organs could safely withstand. At that point, it took a sixth and final minute to complete her King Stage cultivation, by infusing Magic with her nerves and blood vessels.

With her cultivation base increasing to the peak of the King Stage, Elizabeth had one final step to take before she could consider her breakthrough complete. She stopped focusing on her body and turned her attention to the Peak-tier Mortal pseudo core in her Dantian. Without opening her eyes, she called for Inferoria to materialize in her right hand. Making use of her Time Blade Skill's effect of making her Time Magic abilities 1% more potent, she drove and cycled enough Time magic into her core to evolve it into a Mortal True Core, only stopping after reaching the Mid-tier for Mortal True Cores; the limit for Peak Phase King Stage cultivation base.

Seven minutes pa.s.sed before Elizabeth's snapped open. She blew a trace amount of ashes, courtesy of her burning up the final dregs of impurities left in her mortal body. While she was still getting used to the overwhelming feeling of pleasure, the end of this breakthrough brought her, a prompt from her status and quest functions appeared, bringing with it a heartfelt smile on her face.

[Status

Status

Name: Elizabeth Ultimatia

Bloodline: Human 100%, G.o.d (Fallen) 100%, Ancient G.o.dslayer Fiend 0.0028%

Level: 25 (25/26)

Rank: Peak King Stage (100%) [Perfect Chaos Mage King]

Innate Skills

Name: Perfect Mortal's Body (Evolution of Mortal King's Body)

Description: Upon reaching the Peak of the King Stage with a perfect foundation through and through, the user has gained double the lifespan of a regular Mortal; that's twice as much as what a pract.i.tioner would receive for reaching the peak of the King Stage.

Effect: Natural lifespan rises to 200 years.

Main Quest 5: Reach Level 25! (Complete)

Degree of Completion: Perfect

Difficulty: A

Objective) Seamlessly Integrate Magic with all your visceral organs. (✔)

Hidden Objective) Nurture your internal organs to the limit and achieve the true peak of the King Stage. (✔)

Reward:

Choice of:

1) 1 Spirit Grade Reforging Crystal

2) 2 Good Tier Elemental Affinity Stone

3) 1 Good Tier Affinity Stone

Bonus:

Choice of:

1) Extra Break Time (15 Days)

2) Mid-tier Mortal True Core equivalent worth of Fragmented Grandmist

Main Quest 7: Reach Level 30! (Incomplete)

Difficulty: SSS

Objective) Cleanse your meridians and acupoints of postnatal filth to prepare for the Spirit Realm.

Description: Yes, yes, yes! Keep going, la.s.s! You're THIS close to reaching the Transcendental record for fastest rise in Stage of cultivation. Don't disappoint me now!

Deadline: 54 Days (Locked via Break Time: 1M 2D 8H 5M)]