Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 23 Preparing Another Breakthrough Event, Accepting Rewards

Elizabeth could feel a mild heat cover her entire body, while the heat's source, the center of her navel, felt like a boiling ma.s.s of lava. Strangely, the absurd heat at the center of her body didn't put her off, as it was rather comfortable to bask in. But, before she could enjoy that sensation for all its worth, Sun was still not exactly healthy. Thus, it was time for round two of healing Sun.

Elizabeth picked herself up from the floor, sat back up, and tried to drive her Inner Strength to continue cycling through the acupuncture needles that were still embedded on Sun's torso. She eased into the process by gradually increasing the intensity of her outputting Inner Strength. But, as she kept at it, eventually, the Inner Strength she was trying to drive started to actually damage her skin; its power being too much for her to handle.

Confused and astonished by the red marks that were forming under her palms, Elizabeth took a quick glance at her [Status] and froze into complete stillness.

[Status

Name: Elizabeth Ultimatia

Level: 1 (4)

s.e.x: Female

Status Points Available (0)

Strength 15.2 → 18.2

Endurance 22.36 → 27.36

Speed 22.76 → 24.26

Defense 15.2 → 18.2

Intelligence 21.2 → 30.2

Luck: 10

Inner Strength 198/198 → 595/633]

"P… What happened to my stats? I mean, there good and all but… isn't this a little too ridiculous?" Elizabeth asked the only person she could think of, when all the ongoings of her life were so unintuitive.

"Nah. Their about right for the effort you gave. Take for example the most absurd change to your Intelligence. Sure It might seem like getting 9 whole points is a lot, but you did in fact breakthrough your limits in meditation like three consecutive times before your own body had to shut you off.

Then there's the fact that you fought for the first time with real power behind your every move. Every time you hit that other girl and your arms or legs were burned by her lightning, a part of that chaotic energy shredded apart your previously weak muscles and promoted the growth of newer, more durable ones. Your Endurance only increased as much as it did because of your constant treatment of Sun, through the breaking of your limits, as your fight would have barely done jack when you were practically hemorrhaging Inner Strength.

Hopefully, you already know why your Inner Strength grew as much as it did..."

Elizabeth though for a second before saying "It's because I exhausted my Inner Strength Reserves and filled them back up so quickly, right?"

"That's part of the reason. The other part being that you had a *** ***** consummate your Soul Land's foundation." P said, before returning to complete silence.

"..." Elizabeth stood up from her sitting position and walked over to the bathroom. She was sorry for having to keep Sun suffering, but there was nothing she could do without breaking through to the next couple levels. Her body was literally at the brink of collapse from having so much Inner Strength. She was like a gla.s.s bottle filled with pressurized air, that was about to explode. If she continued trying to use her Inner Strength, while she might not explode, it was entirely possible that her own energy would fry her from the inside out after every use.

Not one to mind "normal" thoughts, Elizabeth went to the bathroom to complete another breakthrough, without first going to her room and bringing clothes with her to change after she was done. It was her usual routine to just walk from the bathroom to her bedroom in the nude and that hadn't changed even after she became a girl. Only, now that there was another person in the house… things might get a bit complicated if the right variables fell into place…

She set up another warm bath in preparation for the total s.h.i.+t-show that would momentarily ensue. As the water was filling up her bathtub, Elizabeth took a moment to go over the rewards of her previous couple quests. To do that, she had to call for a status overview of her quest function, and as she willed for the game like quest hub to scroll down, she found some "new" quests that never directly made their way through the flaky notification system of status functions…

[Status

Quests:

Main Quests:

Main Quest 1: Reach Level 5! (Incomplete)

Side Quests:

Side Quest 1: Elegant Return (Incomplete)

Side Quest 2: Get More Clothes! (Complete)

*New) Side Quest 3: VS Ice (Incomplete)

*New) Side Quest 4: Returning The Favor (Incomplete)

Hidden Quests:

Hidden Quest: Martial Arts Milestone #1 (Complete)

Choice Quests:

Choice Quest 1: Choice Of Character (Complete)]

"Mhmm..." Elizabeth became visibly upset as she noticed these new quests popped up without her noticing. She was about to flip out and go on an internal rant, when she reviewed the quests and had her worries disappear.

[Side Quest 3: VS Ice (Incomplete)

Difficulty: C/B

Objective One) Defeat Jane.

Optional Objective 1) Win by using only Time powers

Optional Objective 2) Defeat any other Martial Soldiers who are of Ice alignment.

Description: Along the road to ascension you will be facing all sorts of enemies. Consequently, all manner of energies and styles will be thrust your way. Go out there and claim dominance over Ice!

Deadline: Unlimited (Completed upon finis.h.i.+ng all primary Objectives)

Side Quest 4: Returning The Favor (Incomplete)

Difficulty: (Estimated Minimum) B

Objective One) Find out who was behind your would-be kidnapping.

Objective Two) Defeat the perpetrator.

Optional Objective 1) Defeat the four would-be kidnappers as well.

Optional Objective 2) Kill everyone involved or spare them all.

Description: Hmph! No one gets away with messing with a mage; especially not a Time mage! Get stronger and avenge yourself!

Deadline: Unlimited (Completed upon finis.h.i.+ng all primary Objectives)]

"Oh dear..." Elizabeth did a double take upon reading the words "kill everyone involved," but considering what they had done to her and Sun, it wouldn't really be that unjustified. She tossed the idea of taking lives to the back of her mind, as a matter to take care of some other time, and proceeded to look for what she originally searching for.

[Rewards:

1* Trash Tier Elemental Affinity Stone:

Description: Choose an element and you'll receive trash-tier talent for the chosen element as an innate affinity-based skill.

Would you like to use this item? Yes/No?

Grimoire of Smithy: Basic Forging

Description: Teaches the utter basics of crafting armaments to the user. Builds up a perfect foundation up to Level 5 in the Forging Skill.

Would you like to use this item? Yes/No?

Grimoire of Smithy: Saintly Forging

Description: Imparts highly technical and superior crafting methods of the forging path to the user. From the use of inferior Inner Strength to that of supreme Magic, all levels of Mortal Forging can be trained — upto Level 20 — with no flaw built within the user's foundation.

Would you like to use this item? Yes/No?

Grimoire of Cooking: Saintly Chef

Imparts highly technical and superior cooking methods of the gourmet path to the user. From the use of inferior Inner Strength to that of supreme Magic, all levels of Mortal Cooking can be trained — upto Level 20 — with no flaw built within the user's foundation.

Would you like to use this item? Yes/No?

Grimoire of s.p.a.ce: Spatial Meditation

Description: A Mortal Grade meditation technique of the highest level. Just like Temporal Meditation it allows the user to gain 0.01 point of Inner Strength per Intelligence stat per minute, only instead of generating time energy/magic at the breakthrough point for Mages, its use generates s.p.a.ce energy/magic.

Would you like to use this item? Yes/No?

Creed of s.p.a.ce: Mage Enchantments

Description: Gives the user a myriad of formulas to apply s.p.a.ce enchantments to: one's self, others, weapons, armor, and ammunition.

Would you like to use this item? Yes/No?

Creed of Time: Mage Enchantments

Description: Gives the user a myriad of formulas to apply time enchantments to: one's self, others, weapons, armor, and ammunition.

Would you like to use this item? Yes/No?

Creed of s.p.a.cetime: Mage Enchantments

Description: Gives the user a myriad of formulas to apply s.p.a.cetime enchantments to: one's self, others, weapons, armor, and ammunition.

Would you like to use this item? Yes/No?]

To all except the Trash-tier Elemental Affinity Stone, Elizabeth said yes. Thereafter, a pile of multicolored tomes materialized atop the cabinet sink next to her. Elizabeth took a look at the water in the bath and noticed she still had time. So, one by one the grimores were "digested" as they burst into bubbles and the knowledge held within each one was absorbed.

As if to make the experience all the more game-like. This time, as Elizabeth absorbed the knowledge of "formal" methods of Cooking and Forging, within her mind she could see a skill tree of sorts expressly containing within each chunk, a section of skills she could unlock by practicing each respective occupation.

For Forging, after she took the [Basic Forging] grimoire, she could only see seven or so skill blocks in the tree. But upon digesting the [Saintly Forging] tome, the number of chunks she could see, expanded to fourteen. When she took the Cooking grimoire, a new skill tree, which contained ten new skill blocks, appeared. Each Creed of enchantments also sp.a.w.ned a skill tree of its own, yet all the skill trees had exactly twelve skill blocks.

After the final book on Spatial Meditation was digested nothing else seemed to unfold. But, just when it seemed like the process was over, a new notification gave more stimulation to Elizabeth as she slumped in waiting for the water to fill up her bathtub.

[Alert!

New Crafting Recipes unlocked!

All Initial Mortal Cooking Unlocked!

All Initial Mortal Forging Unlocked!

All Mortal Bullets Unlocked!

All Initial Mortal Enchantments Unlocked!

Would you like to review the new crafting recipes? Yes/No?]

"OOooOOooOO~" Elizabeth happily confirmed, very excited at the prospect of knowing what kinds of things she could create. As she willed for the prompt to show her all the new crafting recipes she had learned, a seemingly endless list of recipes surged in her mind. The sudden appearance of a wall of words that seemed to go on forever, momentarily stunned Elizabeth. But as she regained focus and looked more deeply into the matter, she realized that a grand majority of the recipes in the list were just types of bullets.

It was no joke when the status function claimed that she had learned EVERY recipe for Mortal-tier bullets as the list droned on and on with each subsequent bullet being more ridiculous than the last. Apparently, knowing all the recipes in this case was terrible as there were thousands of not dozens of thousands of bullets types Elizabeth would never even think of creating.

Seriously, the list seemed to record every known material that could be used to make bullets as among the list there include a recipe to create "Dirt Bullets, Manure Bullets, Gla.s.s Bullets, and Plastic Bullets" just to name a few of the more worthless ones.

In comparison to the ridiculousness that was "All Mortal Bullets," when Elizabeth checked the rest of her Forging, Enchantment, and Cooking crafting recipes, the results were more tame. Instead of the countless useless recipes she had unlocked for bullets in particular, only some basic metal, wood, and animal based weapons and armor appeared for forging; all being at least useful to the current Elizabeth. Just a handful of diverse dishes were unlocked through the Cooking Skill, and even less enchantments were unlocked.

Though the Enchantments she learned were the least in quant.i.ty, with regards to quality and practicality, they were without question the most important. Elizabeth didn't have the time to study her newly learned enchantments at the moment as it was a profession that heavily burdened one's time, but she made it a priority to understand the effects and uses of enchantments after she finished dealing with Sun and completed her Main Quest.