168 Speedrun 21
(The Gamer – Olivia POV)
The world shuddered and trembled, distorted by my presence alone.
"Finally..." I muttered with a satisfied smile as I successfully condensed the first of my nine so-called dantians, ascending to a higher cultivation realm. I reveled in my newfound strength and the mastery I had gained over it, eagerly delving deeper within myself to explore its potential. However, my excitement was short-lived, for my teacher's voice pulled me out of my reverie.
"As I thought, little girl, you're terrifying. However, you're far from done," he said casually, engrossed in his video game. I squinted at him a hit of annoyance appearing on my face.
Most of the time, he simply sat in front of his gaming console, shouting instructions when he felt like it. But he was anything but lazy.
"I understand, sensei," I sighed and replied with respect. I could continue being annoyed by him, but without his guidance, I knew I wouldn't have made any progress at all.
It might have been his system-enhanced teaching skill or simply the way he explained things, but thanks to him, cultivation had become crystal clear to me.
The fancy words that described Heaven and Earth, Yin and Yang, were nothing more than metaphors, describing the intricate balance of opposing forces within the human body.
Cultivation, in essence, was a process of optimizing one's physical and mental faculties through rigorous training and meditation. Like a scientist fine-tuning a complex experiment, a cultivator honed their body's energy to enhance their martial prowess. Ultimately, cultivation was a journey toward self-optimization, unlocking the extraordinary capabilities hidden within each individual.
However, Jihan's techniques didn't work for me. They assumed that one would have a dantian and little to no Ki in their system, whereas I didn't have a dantian and was generating Ki at a pace that even shocked him.
That's where the techniques I had brought from my previous world came into play.
When I showed them to him, he became extremely excited, spending hours scanning and analyzing them. Then, out of nowhere, he dropped off a stack of papers titled "Nine Heavens" and without a word returned to his game.
I was surprised, and after reading through it, astonished, and I couldn't be more thankful to him. Not only had he altered the technique I had brought over, but he had also improved it by leaps and bounds.
The technique was tailored to suit my needs, allowing me, and in the future, Andy if he wanted to, to create nine separate Ki containers within our bodies. This would enable us to condense, refine, and allow our bodies to imbue our Ki with an affinity.
It took me two days and countless attempts, during which my [Ki Manipulation] skill levels had soared, to successfully craft the first of these nine containers—a bubble of intricately woven Ki, serving as a dantian. The technique made it simultaneously solid and malleable, preventing someone from easily destroying it, and as soon as I completed the first of the nine, I received a new skill.
[Nine Heavens LVL: 1/100]
- Grants the user the ability to create and manipulate nine Ki containment units, each representing a different aspect of their inner energy.
- Grants the user the ability to accumulate and condense Ki over time, boosting overall Ki power and martial abilities with increasing efficiency as skill level advances.
- Grants the user the ability to merge energies from multiple units for versatile Ki applications, with greater control gained at higher skill levels.
- Grants the user the ability to temporarily bolster physical attributes by tapping into condensed Ki, with enhancements growing more potent as mastery increases.
The only issue with this skill, and essentially the technique itself, was my inability to choose the kind of affinity to imbue within those containment units. And the first one I received was somewhat intimidating...
"Is this truly a part of my inner being?" I couldn't help but wonder aloud.
"Condense the remaining eight, and we'll explore techniques that can utilize Death as a weapon," my sensei said, seemingly aware of my momentary distress, pulling me out of my thoughts.
Biting my lip, I reluctantly nodded and returned to the cultivation pedestal, sinking into a deep meditative state.
"I hope the others won't be as unsettling," I thought to myself, before refocusing my attention on weaving.
(Arifureta – Andrew POV)
I allowed another snowball to impact the back of my head and sighed as I rolled my eyes.
"Could you stop doing that?" I voiced my annoyance.
"N-never!" Aletia, whom I recently started calling Aly, replied while shivering from the freezing cold.
"I already said I'm sorry for pushing you into the water," I said with a deadpan voice.
"Y-your apology didn't sound s-sincere!" She replied fervently, gathering another snowball.
"Because it's not," I retorted with a snort. "You were in extreme need of a bath," I added with a grin.
"I was not!" She countered, her voice rising, temporarily forgetting her discomfort from the cold. "And even if I was, the monster-infested water of a dungeon wasn't the place to take one!"
"Oh, come on..." I said, rolling my eyes. "You and Fluffy handled the situation perfectly."
"But we wouldn't have been in that situation in the first place if you hadn't pushed me into it!" She huffed, crossing her arms and looking away, her body still shivering.
I rolled my eyes again, waved my hand, and cast a heating charm on her.
"You've already had your revenge at the volcano. Stop throwing snowballs at me, or I'll start doing the same," I said, giving her a deadpan stare.
"I already told you! It was an accident!" She said, turning her head to face me. "I did not push you into lava on purpose! I tripped!"
"Uh-huh, like I'll believe that," I said with a chuckle. "Let's go, we're almost at the final room," I said, waving for her to follow as I continued forward.
"Oh, come on, believe me!" She whined, speeding up to catch up with me.
Contrary to what I initially claimed, it didn't take just an hour to complete all of the Labyrinths. In reality, we had been exploring them over the past few days. Thankfully, Aly didn't seem to mind the extended adventure. We had already completed four other Labyrinths, and this one was the last one we needed to visit before completing the set of seven.
The first one we visited after the Great Orcus Labyrinth was the Great Reisen Labyrinth. After entering and scanning through the place, to the dismay of a certain golem, I simply teleported us up to the reward room.
The golem was quite annoyed at our blatant cheating and sidestepping all of her carefully laid traps and escape rooms. When she finally caught up with us and confronted us, her frustration turned to protest as I froze her in place. After scrutinizing the magic that kept her alive, I simply ripped out her soul from its artificial container and sent Miledi Reisen to the afterlife.
My reasoning was simple: she was an annoying person, and I didn't want to interact with her.
The magic we received there was the so-called Gravity Magic, although it was much more. This magic allowed one to interfere with the mass of an object, the energy of stars and planets, and gravity itself. It could allow a user to interfere with earth veins, terrestrial heat, bedrock, or magma. In essence, it was an earth manipulation magic on steroids, allowing one to control earth, heat, gravity, and even magma.
Yet, to my surprise, the magical circle at the end didn't simply give me Gravity Affinity as I assumed. It granted me something more interesting: the ability to control the mass of anything in the local area.
[Mass Affinity LVL: Max]
- Increases the effects of Mass-related skills, abilities, and spells by 25%.
- Allows partial control of Mass in the local area.
It was quite strange, albeit a welcome surprise.
Next on our conquest list was the Haltina Labyrinth, located near the Reisen Gorge, deep within the heart of the Sea of Trees. The Labyrinth was inside a gigantic world tree, in a middle of a forest that affected normal minds. To gain entrance, one had to conquer four other Labyrinths, show proof of it, and use a specific type of restoration magic to restore the entrance itself.
However, I hadn't collected the necessary baubles, nor did I possess this particular form of restoration magic. So, I took a shortcut and rewrote the enchantment on the entrance, skipping the authentication process and opening a portal to the labyrinth.
Upon stepping through the portal, my mind was assaulted by magic as the Labyrinth attempted to read my thoughts, memories, and feelings to assess my affiliation and personality. Yet, with my mental shields in place, it was unable to do so.
Space behaved oddly in this place, and despite my mastery of space-time and dimensions, I couldn't teleport us directly to the final room because, as if it simply didn't exist, I couldn't locate it. Requiring us to trek this labyrinth in the good old-fashioned way.
After a flash of light, I found myself separated from Aly and teleported to a random room, where waves upon waves of monsters attempted to assault me. I say "attempt" because the moment they appeared, they perished.
With Fluffy still within Aly's shadow, locating them wasn't much of a hassle. After reuniting with Aly, who had been temporarily transformed into a monster, we were teleported into another room and encased in amber-like pods.
Once again, the Labyrinth attempted to manipulate us mentally by showing illusions of our deepest desires. But it had no way to pierce my mental shields, so I simply shattered the amber surrounding both of us, freeing Aly from her torment.
The Labyrinth continued to challenge us. Next up was a room filled with an airborne aphrodisiac, requiring us to overcome our strongest sexual desires and resist giving in to our carnal instincts toward each other.
For me, thanks to [Unwavering Resilience] and my innate resistance toward such substances, it wasn't much of a challenge. For Aly, it proved difficult. She had practically thrown herself at me, raising her skirt and presenting herself, her glistening womanhood on full display, in hopes of satisfying her body's intense craving.
Yet, I turned her down and forcefully calmed her down with a swift application of [Mental Domain]. While the temptation was alluring, especially given the way she presented herself on all fours, I didn't want to betray the trust I had built with Olivia.
A bit of flirting was one thing, but blatantly cheating by going all the way was not something I was willing to do. With a wave of my hand, I cleared away the airborne substance and cast Cleanse on Aly to rid her body of the aphrodisiac.
She felt deeply embarrassed by her actions, her cheeks burning with shame, as she secretly gave me calculating glances. Her mind was all over the place, thankful I didn't take advantage of her, yet simultaneously grumbling that I hadn't done so.
She had apologized countless times, but to be honest, I didn't truly care, and neither did the Labyrinth. It ignored our discomfort and swiftly teleported us to the final test, where we faced a powerful cockroach-like monster. Aly vented some of her pent-up frustration on it, bombarding it with magic even after was clearly dead, while the Labyrinth attempted and failed to manipulate her mind to turn her against me.
After disposing of the monster, we were teleported to the rewards room, and, as with all previous Labyrinths, it contained a magic circle, which, after my swift alteration, skipped the discussion with a Liberator and granted us what was unimaginatively called Evolution Magic.
It was then that I understood why I couldn't simply locate this place; it was surrounded by runes that both erased its existence from the world and allowed it to simultaneously exist and not exist. This paradox made creating a shortcut to it impossible.
The runes, spells, and magical matrices uploaded to our minds granted us the ability to interfere with the information of existing things. In essence, it was a combination of Reality Manipulation, Existence Manipulation, and Existent Information Manipulation.
This magic allowed us to alter not only the information regarding someone's or something's being, which would reflect on reality by changing their physical traits, but also to manipulate knowledge, records, memories, and physical evidence of a person or thing's existence, changing or even erasing them. This could change how others perceived the target, or even erase the target's information from everyone's minds, making them unknown to all. It was an extremely powerful magic, closely resembling what Dr. Strange did in the movie "Spider-Man: No Way Home."
But the additional reward I received was even more exceptional.
[Information Affinity LVL: Max]
- Increases the effects of Information-related skills, abilities, and spells by 25%.
- Allows partial control of Information in the local area.
This skill was a blatant form of reality manipulation, and the only reason it didn't elevate me to a higher tier was its limited range, bound to the extent of my will's influence on reality.
Unlike the magic we had received, it didn't just allow me to alter how someone perceived information but the information itself on a fundamental level. I could transform a lie and turn it into the truth, turn fiction into reality, simply by manipulating the information of what was and what would be.
It was an incredibly potent ability, and when combined with my temporal and spatial powers, I could retroactively modify a timeline as I saw fit.
At that very moment, I could have erased Ehit's existence from the annals of time. However, I refrained from doing so for two simple reasons: Aly might cease to exist, and the Liberators might not have created the Labyrinths in the first place.
The next two Labyrinths were where the previously mentioned incidents, involving a pool of lava and a water basin happened, the Sunken Ruins of Melusine and the Grand Gruen Volcano.
Both places were fascinating, each with its unique biosphere, that were the polar opposites of each other. One was located deep within the sea, in a sunken city, while the other was nestled inside a desert, within an active volcano.
The Sunken Ruins of Melusine were inhabited by sea-based creatures, including Kraken, octopi, mermaids, sharks, and more. On the other hand, the Grand Gruen Volcano was home to creatures made of metal and molten stone, such as golems, lava minotaurs, and lava snakes. Unfortunately, Fluffy couldn't gain anything from the Volcanic dungeon, as she physically couldn't consume creatures made of molten magma or stone. She wasn't too disappointed, though, as she had already enjoyed a feast in the aquatic dungeon.
We didn't explore much of these dungeons, only a few rooms and a single floor in the case of the volcanic one. I simply teleported us to the end of each labyrinth, as I had no interest in spending too much time navigating them.
Now, you might be wondering why I'm grouping these two dungeons together. It's because they provided Spatial Magic and Restoration Magic, which is a fancy way of saying Temporal Magic.
Since I already had Space and Time Affinities, I didn't acquire new skills from these labyrinths. However, the magic they provided was a reward in itself.
Spatial Magic allows one to manipulate, expand, shrink, and traverse space. But its true power lay in its ability to interfere with and break down boundaries, allowing the manipulation, creation, or erasure of boundaries between concepts, such as races and even dimensions.
Restoration Magic, on the other hand, enabled the restoration of anything to its previous or original state. Its true strength, however, was its time manipulation abilities, allowing the user to control the flow of time for any object, location, or even individuals.
At this point, I had almost collected the full rune lexicon of this reality, and the magic that should become accessible after learning all these Ancient Magics was taking shape within my mind. While I had an idea from the series of what it should entail, its true purpose was a surprising revelation.
Even though I didn't have all the components yet, I was confident that with the combination of all these magical abilities, I could potentially alter the laws of the world and the very concepts that held it together.
There was no way in hell that I would remain a tier 4 after gaining such power.
At that moment, I stood at a crossroads, torn between the desire to attain this immense power and the uncertainty of its consequences, particularly the potential reduction in rewards.
I faced a pivotal decision: should I copy the circle and gain this power a bit later, taking into account the future cost of extracting the potential multiverse companion who was trailing just behind me? Or should I simply ignore it, ascend, and then begin the process of merging the skills I had yet to combine?
"Come on, Aly, the reward room is just around the corner!" I shouted, urging her to follow, all the while engrossed in the decision that could redefine my path.
