Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 44 Calamity And Fortune Come Hand In Hand

Name: Inert Graviton Bismanthium

Grade: High Mortal Grade

Description: A piece of raw Graviton-type Bismanthium. Grown from a spiritually deficient area, this piece of Bismanthium is almost too impure to count as actual Bismanthium, yet the quality just about meets the standard…

Effect: Can be used in forging or enchanting. Has Bad affinity with s.p.a.ce and Time.]

Elizabeth started shaking with joy as her thoughts came to fruition and she confirmed the nature of the black crystals before her. She eagerly retrieved her blade and started chipping away at the cave wall around the crystals doing her best to not damage them in any way. A couple minutes later, Elizabeth had to stop again as her heart nearly jumped out her body.

The Graviton Bismanthium should have been the ultimate gain she received from this first trip to the Shadow Realm; all things considered. Yet this excavation turned out to be much more complicated than Elizabeth initially thought it to be. She immediately stopped digging into the cave wall, as the discovery of some new types of crystals and a new sidequest clearly spelled danger along its path.

Instead, she chose to leave the cave to conduct her breakthrough as the time had come. Her internal clock stated that it was around 7:00 AM, meaning the sun should already be out and fully illuminating the dangerous forest for her.

Yet as she walked over to the entrance of the cave, Elizabeth could not help but go over her discovery as the now familiar feeling of peril struck her dead-on.

[Side Quest Alert!

Side Quest 6: Spelunking The Mysterious Cave

Difficulty: (Estimated) B

Objective) Fully explore the hidden cave system by the creek within the Forest of Beginnings.

Optional Objective 1) Strip away all the goodies hidden away within the cave system.

Optional Objective 2) Clear the quest before encountering people from the Societies of the Shadow Realm.

Description: P has given you a quest upon your discovery of the hidden cave system. First, you found Graviton Bismanthium, then various other types of Bismanthium along the walls of your temporary cave home? Common sense dictates that where there are fertile lands, crops will grow, and a new ecosystem will come to life. You already knew it was impossibly rare for just the standard and neutral type of Bismanthium to grow here, so after making this discovery, the complex nature of the situation became a bit more apparent. Surely there is something within the hidden cave system that is supplying energy to all the Bismanthium crystals growing within. Go find that source and steal it for yourself! In this dog-eat-dog world, letting such treasures go unused will surely come back to haunt you! But, be wary… fortune and calamity come hand in hand.

Deadline: None

Status

Name: Diffused Fire Bismanthium

Grade: High Mortal Grade

Description: A piece of raw Fire-type Bismanthium. This piece of Bismanthium is the typical low-level ore found within the core area of a natural treasures ground; of the Mortal Realm, anyways...

Effect: Can be used in forging or enchanting. Has Mediocre affinity for Fire.

Name: Diffused Earth Bismanthium

…

Name: Diffused Wind Bismanthium

…

...]

As Elizabeth dug out more and more pieces of Graviton Bismanthium, she found traces of purer forms of Bismanthium. And though the size and quant.i.ty of crystals of the Diffused Bismanthium she found paled in comparison to the Inert Graviton Bismanthium, they were actually much more valuable.

Elizabeth stopped her excavating journey because along with the notification of her side quest initializing, she could start to hear thudding noises come out of the rock she was cutting into. If she cut much further into the walls they would probably collapse into the hidden cave system that the sidequest mention, and given the quest difficulty rating, it would be sure death if she confronted whatever it was that claimed that area as its home.

Elizabeth naturally came to the conclusion that there was something or somethings living within the hidden cave system. If not for its B level of difficulty, then by virtue of the fact that she had found it within a day of roaming around the Shadow Realm. If she could find it so easily, then what of the wildlife that grew up in these parts? Granted, luck played a large role in her making this discovery. There was still a rather high chance for other creatures, especially those more spiritually inclined, to be familiar with the hidden cave system.

Elizabeth stopped her pondering as she came face to face with the seal she had set up at the entrance to her cave. She moved the rocks that blocked her way to the side. As she did so, she could swear that the rocks felt lighter than before. In any case, the change was not significant enough for her to look into, as the sight of the outside world inspired extreme levels of vigilance to possess her body.

Elizabeth cautiously left her cave and walked over to the creek. After a thorough examination of everything around her, Elizabeth found nothing that could threaten her. If she were still following through with her plans before experiencing the harshness of this world first hand, then she would have started taking off her clothes to not stain them with the byproducts of her breakthrough. But at the moment, she wasn't in the security of her cave and predators could strike at any moment. Naturally, that idea was thrown out the figurative window which represented her choice of actions.

Elizabeth would much rather breakthrough with some added protection on her, and spend an extra bit of time cleaning in the creek, than risk getting mortally wounded because of some stains. So, she sat down in a shallow part of the creak, where her head would be the only thing not submerged in water, and the breakthrough began.

Inner Strength started rus.h.i.+ng out of her Dantian and into the last couple pores on her skin which had yet to be saturated in energy. Yet before a couple seconds into the breakthrough came and went, an unbelievable phenomenon to Elizabeth manifested. If she could look at her Status at that moment, she would see that at only 81% completion of the Mortal Stage, her Magic/Qi Connection took form.

She had been at 80% completion of the Mortal Realm before the breakthrough started, yet with just another percentile point added to her cultivation, she had achieved one of the prerequisites needed to cross over to the p.a.w.n Level; or Level 6. Technically speaking, if she weren't required to develop perfectly through the guidelines of her Status Functions, she could theoretically breakthrough to Level 6 right then and there. But such actions would cripple her foundation needlessly.

In any case, with the Magic Connection set up, that basically translated to her Inner Strength saturating enough surface area across her body to house Magic. If she were a Martial Pract.i.tioner, the connection would be called Qi Connection, and for the entirety of the Mortal Realm, this seemingly inconsequential part of one's foundation would actually be what separated the "geniuses" from the "trash."

At this exact moment, mere moments after Elizabeth manifested her Magic Connection, if she were to stop her breakthrough and continue on to Level 6, she would without hesitation be called utter trash by anyone with even an inkling of understanding along the Magic or Martial Paths. If the average Mage's Magic Connection had the thickness of a centimeter, Elizabeth's at this very moment would be less than a millimeter thick.

But, because her foundation was perfect and the stingy G.o.d looking after her only allowed perfection, the further along into her breakthrough she progressed, the thicker her Magic Connection grew. Slowly, as Elizabeth's skin kept saturating with Inner Strength, and her cultivation grew, a glowing manifestation of her Magic Connection outlined her body in a sort of aurlike projection.

At 83% Completion of the Mortal Stage, Elizabeth's Magic Connection was about equal to that of the ordinary p.a.w.n Level Magic; the kind that were doomed to never pa.s.s into the Soldier Stage in their lifetimes. At 85%, the aura around her body lit up to a dim white light. At 90%, the white light around her expanded to about half a meter and became about as bright as a light bulb.

At 93%, The Magic Connection Elizabeth manifested was comparable those of the greatest geniuses of the Shadow Realm Mage Societies, and at 95% even those geniuses seen once every couple hundred years could not compare with her. At 96%, things started getting dangerous as the intensity of light Elizabeth was emanating shot a ridiculous beam of energy straight into the skies.

At 98%, The beam of dazzlingly bright white light Elizabeth was emitting started fading into a dim cyan and pale golden gradient as its brightness surged closer and closer to the heavens. At 99%, the colors of s.p.a.ce and time began bleeding into the surrounding sky as ancestral chimes and heavenly music slowly started to play around Elizabeth.

And at the final moment, upon achieving the completion of her breakthrough at 100%, Elizabeth looked like a G.o.ddess parting the void and descending from the heavens, as a t.i.tanic shockwave concluded the event marking "her" return to the cultivation world. The beam of light that pierced the heavens faded with the shockwave, as waves of water came cras.h.i.+ng onto Elizabeth's body after being disturbed so tumultuously.

Yet now was not the time to celebrate or even question the absurdity of her breakthrough, as Elizabeth could already hear the sounds of a horde rus.h.i.+ng at her.