Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 62 Causing Problems For Oneself, Breaking Records

An hour and a half after Jane's emergency operation began, Elizabeth could be seen with a hazy blue glint in her eyes, directing cold energy across Jane's body to allow her a breakthrough even through her unconsciousness. She could even confidently declare that her management of Jane's breakthrough was progressing better in her hands than if Jane herself was the one to do it, evident by virtue of her going back to fix the same problems with Jane's foundation that she had discovered on Sun.

Elizabeth couldn't really improve Jane's spirituality as that was something one could only accomplish alone through perception and comprehension. But, perfecting the physical side of her foundation was as easy as breathing to Elizabeth; especially with the cold energy that never seemed to end.

Like she had done for herself during her breakthroughs and level ups, Elizabeth made sure to bore Jane's energy deep into all the pores of her skin, then through all the fibrous muscular tissues on her body, followed by penetrating the entirety of her skeletal system's outer bone layer.

Elizabeth finished doing all she could for Jane at the moment. She had already stopped and reverted the Dantian Implosion into what could now be considered an excellent breakthrough out of the Soldier Stage. However, there was still a ton of cold energy uncontrollably sp.a.w.ning off Jane's Dantian, thus, Elizabeth helped herself to some more free Inner Strength as she felt her reserves double, triple, and continue increasing without reservation; this was, after all, the least Jane could do to pay her back...

At one point, however, it seemed like she'd taken in "too" much energy as her manipulation of Jane's energy seized and she felt herself crash into a wall of sorts. A notification from her functions nearly scared Elizabeth to death as she thought for a second that she'd misdirected her energy somehow. But, unlike the past couple events thus far, the notification reported rather good news; at least that was true for the first half of its contents.

[Alert! Breakthrough in Affinity!!!

Innate Skills:

*New) Ice Affinity

Tier: Trash-tier

Description: Now possessing the ability to generate ice energy/magic, active ice skills and spells are usable.

Current Effect: Cultivation of energy remains unimpeded until Level 10. Low Mortal Grade Ice-type buffs are 50% more potent.

*New) Temp Drain

Description: Ice energy's natural function is just the ability to cool things down. With your Ice Affinity reaching the first level of proficiency, direct manipulation of cooling temperature becomes available.

Current Effect: Any and all objects in direct contact with the user may have their temperature fall. The degree of the temperature change exponentially increases for each new increase in Ice Affinity proficiency.

*New) Yin Affinity

Tier: Trash-tier

Description: Now possessing the ability to generate yin energy/magic, active yin skills and spells are usable.

Current Effect: Cultivation of energy remains unimpeded until Level 10. Low Mortal Grade Yin-type buffs are 50% more potent.

*New) Spiritual Connection

Description: Upon establis.h.i.+ng an affinity for Yin, energy and spirituality become evidently easier to comprehend. Yin being an abstract concept for the metaphysical, darkness, negativity, and femininity among other things, all things related become easier to perceive.

Current Effect: For each higher level of Yin Affinity, the rate of acquiring Intelligence and Inner Strength increase exponentially. Trash-tier yields about 50% more Intelligence and Inner Strength via cultivation.

ALERT!!! Energy Fusion Imminent And Unavoidable!!!

**********: Mhmm? It seems like that Demon *** ***** is already providing you with tangible benefits~ You little dummy! Absorbing all that cold energy? It's a miracle your still even alive! Well, miracle or not, you're gonna need even more of that insane luck that's been following you around if you want to get out this scot free… Anyway, by the time you finish reading this message, you'll probably be embroiled in yet another life or death tribulation, so just try your best to not give up...]

Elizabeth couldn't read any more of the notification, as her connection to her functions seemed to vanish from whence they came. She found herself one moment paralyzed in the real world, and in the next, she was back to the small domain she had claimed at the core of her Soul Land. She could clearly recall the fierce juxtaposition her Soul Land's domain possessed; it being extremely hard to forget that starry pure sky paired with the h.e.l.lish black and yellow earth.

But, outside the range of her Soul's core, in the static void of infinity and beyond, a seemingly endless and dooming cold could be felt advancing towards her small paradise in hateful stride… It was at this moment, that Elizabeth noticed four sources of light within her Domain. One colored red, another cyan, a third colored white, and the last a crystal clear blue. All of these lights originated from "special" Stargazer lilies within her domain, and two of them were especially active.

Whereas the cyan and white lights, seemed to glow at mild and stable rates, the red light blazed with inextinguishable might, while the blue light threatened to devour everything around itself. Elizabeth intuitively understood that these lights represented her Affinities, and the current climate also made it easy for her to guess what she would be doing. So, with a shake of her head and another myriad curses voiced through her subconscious, she walked right into the red light and sat down to meditate on the mantras and pa.s.sages of her Blaze Black Spirit Art.

Now was not the time to try and defend against the cold with a tame and moderate cultivation technique such as the Basic Flames Control Sutra. Rather, a Spirit Art would probably raise her chances of weathering through the cold and coming out with the least amount of scars. Fortunately for Elizabeth, in her Soul Land, the limits of her body wouldn't restrict the power of her mind as she wouldn't need to be a cultivator in the Spirit Realm to attempt using the Spirit Art's methods.

She just sat down in the center of the Stargazer Lily which held the embodiment of her Fire Affinity. The flower grew with her will to sit on it, as its stamen and pistil moved to make s.p.a.ce for her on its center. Then, as Elizabeth prepped for the impending cold storm to overthrow her from her domain, her Time and Yin affinities started acting up with the use of her Innate Skills.

Timeworn Eyes slowed down the rate with which she perceived time while Spiritual Connection allowed her to quickly process through as many insights into fire as she possibly could during the tight span of time before the storm arrived. Elizabeth even used her Temp Drain in coordination with the Touch of Temp Innate Skill to restrict the unyielding and berserking strength of her Fire Affinity, not at all willing to spend any more of her strength before the storm arrived than what was needed.

Alas, this time… she was definitely screwed and destined to suffer no matter what tricks she pulled. When the storm of endless coldness finally descended upon her little world, literally everything from the sky to the earth and all things between them were frozen over without a moment to indicate progress.

Elizabeth herself was frozen over within the Stargazer Lily representing her Fire Affinity with the only thing signifying her status as living, being the small stable red flame that burned where her Dantian ought to be. Now her Soul Land was comprised of two distinguishable sides. The first and most obvious was the endless cold and frozen world that extend to G.o.d knows where outside the limits of the void. The other was that small fire within Elizabeth's body and though it seemed like there was absolutely no chance for the flame to persist alongside the terrible environment all around itself, that flame held the culmination of Elizabeth's abilities and intent. The flame though infinitesimally small when compared to the scope of the cold storm, definitely held an unG.o.dly amount of energy…

Thus, for a very, very… very long time, Elizabeth's Soul Land stayed with just these two ent.i.ties interacting and trying to get the best of the other. The cold storm wished to extinguish Elizabeth's flame, while the flame threatened to persist in perpetuity no matter how long or strong the fierce cold winds kept striking against itself.

However, after what felt like an eternity, Elizabeth's body which had frozen over suddenly had her eyes snap open in reaction to a very special kind of breakthrough. From the red flame that had calmly burned and preserved her life all this time, an odd transformation occurred, wherein the flame turned as blue as the crystal clear blue glow of her Ice Affinity's embodiment, before it was consumed by the cold storm.

This new blue flame seemed to invert the setting of Elizabeth's Soul Land, as it spread through the frozen world as if the cold was gasoline. In a matter of minutes, the cold h.e.l.lscape that trapped Elizabeth all this time evaporated away as the cold flame directly burned up all the invading cold energy within Elizabeth's Domain, and before an hour pa.s.sed, even the cold that stayed out in the static void was burned away as if it was never existed to begin with.

Elizabeth could be seen squinting her eyes, lost in her thoughts after witnessing what had just transpired. As she gazed upon her Soul Land and measured its growth, a bit of wonder glittered across her eyes as the change truly was more than she bargained for. Previously, her Soul Land's Domain could be said to have around 100 square meters to its name, yet now, it had easily crossed over fifty times that amount…

More ridiculous than that was the notification she received upon feeling out that her cold flame had finished erasing the last dregs of cold energy previously present in the void s.p.a.ce outside her Soul Land.

[Hidden Quest Alert!

Hidden Quest: Manifesting Energy Fusion (Complete)

Degree of Completion: TRANSCENDENTAL

Difficulty: Dependant on the user

Objective One) Fuse two or more energy types for the first time. (✔)

Description: Uh… Well, the prerecorded message for this quest was, and I quote, "Sometimes, having control over just one energy type at a time just isn't enough..." However, you haven't even come remotely close to reaching the limits of what you can currently achieve with your level of affinity; regardless of energy type! Bruh… you just set a new record, actually fusing fire and ice energies at the very first Stage of cultivation? Who are you trying to impress exactly?

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

Reward: Innate Skill: Cold Flames

Bonus: G.o.dking Gabriela's Book Of Ice And Fire

**********: Mhmm? Fusion? You sure are one insane kid… I hope you realize that this will only make your suffering worse than it already is after leaving your Soul Land. Nevermind the fact that you broke a multi-dimensional record, you actually chose to do so by fusing Ice and Fire? Hahaha… Those other partic.i.p.ants in the Cataclysm better watch the f.u.c.k out. Well, most of them anyways… I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think you've earned this extra bit of information. Just know that a few others are running on par with your current level of performance. That kid currently standing at the peak amongst you Cataclysm Chosen, is actually… Well, on second thought, that bit of information will come out soon enough… Anyway, keep up the good work and try not to die after coming back to the outside world. I'd be a shame if you lived through a successful fusion only to die of pain or shock upon waking back up...

Pending…

Other Hidden Quests…

Status...]