Closing her eyes as she closed the final tome marking the end of her reading frenzy, Elizabeth sighed. "That… that was something else," she thought before she reviewed all the information she had gained on the Shadow Realm.At the moment she was currently on a planet called The Endrin World. The planet only had a single continent — or supercontinent by Earth"s standard — and by and large, it was about 20% larger than her home planet of Earth. Within the continent also t.i.tled Endrin, Elizabeth was in the Irealian Region, a ma.s.sive plot of territory that occupied a whole third of the world. She was in the Ulterean Province, the smaller of the region"s two provinces, and the rest was already known; Tyre City, within the Guild.
Apparently, the Endrin world was deemed as a very low-level speck in the rest of the universe, which was what surprised Elizabeth the most; the fact that galactic and intergalactic conquest was rather widespread in this alternate dimension. The words Zhenlang shared with her and Belle were starting to make a bit more sense as Elizabeth now knew the cla.s.sification hierarchy of locations; astronomically speaking.
At the very lowest level, there were Worlds which were the same thing as individual planets. Above Worlds, there were Galaxies, which held the same definition as the galaxies of Earth — a system of millions or billions of star systems held together by immense gravity, usually a black hole. Above Galaxies were Realms, which were the same as supercl.u.s.ters of galaxies, and finally, there were Planes, which encompa.s.sed the entire universe — or dimension.
At first, Elizabeth was shocked that she could find this kind of information in what could only be described as one of the lowest leveled areas in the entire universe. But after she began reading about the history of the Irealian Empire it started to make sense. In the Shadow Realm, it had long since been established that cultivation should be the prioritized profession. Everyone able was doing their best to make a name for themselves as powerful cultivators since anything and everything could be gained by progressing through the ranks of cultivation.
Money, power, youth… All the things man sought on Earth could be gained by cultivating, but there were only so many resources. Not everyone could rise up the ranks equally and even if they could there wouldn"t be enough resources for everyone to reach the end of the road. Thus, talents were groomed and nurtured, and in return, they would become the military force of a faction. There would never be too many talents for one faction to hold. Thus, this kind of information was decla.s.sified, resulting in more and more talented youngsters striving to get stronger in hopes of chasing the never-ending adventure of cultivation.
Alas, the limits of one"s talents made advancing stages nigh-impossible. Making an example of Tyre City, a Guild member only reached the King Stage once every couple decades. Reaching the Warrior Stage was already a praiseworthy feat, so most adults were content with reaching the Soldier Stage as they could sustain themselves in better-than-average conditions.
Sighing, Elizabeth finished sipping the last bit of tea she had in her cup. "Well, I"ve finished what I set out to accomplish here and… oh? I still have over fifteen hours! Let"s take a trip to Tyre Academy before going back to Base Camp." She stored away the book that was in her hand along with the now empty cup before her eyes snapped open.
"But not before we have this talk that my oh-so-glorious bonus reward so graciously granted me," Elizabeth said much to the amus.e.m.e.nt of her sponsor G.o.ddess.
"Mhmm? You finally want to talk? Wowzers~" Persephone spoke with palpitating sarcasm.
"Oh! It"s been a minute since you said your catchphrase; NICE." Elizabeth flashed an "ok" sign with her fingers as she closed one of her eyes.
"Right… So, which Divine Transmission would you take right now if I were to keep my mouth shut?" Persephone asked. She was talking about the rewards to the Spellsmith Hidden Quest Elizabeth completed right before she entered the Guild for the first time.
"Mhmm… I guess my initial reaction would have been to ask you. But since I can"t in this hypothetical situation, then I don"t really see the appeal of learning about Truth and Insight or whatever, while the ultimate evolution of my Basic Translation Spell would definitely be useful. I"d go with the Divine Transmission for Translation."
"Your reasoning is solid enough, it"s just… In my "humble" opinion, I think you"d be making a mistake." Persephone stopped to giggle at Elizabeth now bemused expression. She continued, "I can"t give out too much information otherwise it wouldn"t qualify as a reward worthy of the t.i.tle Divine Transmission, but you can think of it like this: If you picture your skills in the traditional skill tree fashion of RPGs, then getting Divine Transmission for the Translation Spell would be like having the previously obscured and hidden away progression path for Translation become completely illuminated. However, if you get the Divine Transmission for "Truth, Insight, and Beyond," while none of your skill"s progression paths along the skill tree are illuminated, you will be able to see the requirements for each of them to become illuminated."
"Holy s.h.i.t… Are you serious?! If it"s like that, then yeah, I"d be r.e.t.a.r.ded to not take that option." Elizabeth said as the "game sense" she hadn"t had to use for a while, now unconsciously activated. To her, it was obvious that long-term gain was much better than explosive growth in a small period of time; though her cultivation trends didn"t exactly line up with those beliefs…
"You understand? Good. Trust me, you"ll be glad after you find out how much of a head start you"ll get for learning about "Truth and Insight" this early on in your cultivation career." Persephone said, before leaving Elizabeth to her devices. She could be seen proudly nodding her head as her gaming a.n.a.logy struck a chord with Elizabeth.
Navigating her Quest Functions to redeem the reward, after Elizabeth selected the option "Divine Transmission: Truths, Concepts, Insights, and Beyond," she was left with a mild migraine for a couple minutes as her head was flooded with dozens of terabytes worth of information. Even with her Soul Variation technique running on full steam, she could just barely hold on as all the abstract information contained in the Divine Transmission flooded her system.
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Eventually, the pain in her head stopped and a look of utter shock dawned on Elizabeth"s face. "No f.u.c.king way..." She had just taken in information that would be critical for progressing in the Stages of the Spirit Realm and beyond, and her entire perception of the world had changed. Looking around, everything seemed more vibrant and interesting as if every piece of dust or dirt had a profound story to tell. For the ensuing moments after Elizabeth came to digest the information of the Divine Transmission, she took on a child-like wonder of curiosity where everything around her brought about seemingly infinite excitement.
Looking down at her own hands, a small yet pure wisp of orange flames manifested. If it were before she had experienced the Divine Transmission, then perhaps she would see nothing but a weak flame. But now, that same weak flame looked like a trillion-piece jigsaw puzzle with less than a couple hundred pieces arranged correctly. Thinking back to the conversation she had with Persephone about the "purpose" of fire, Elizabeth helplessly smiled in self-loathing as she now knew just how stupid and wrong her answer had been.
"Life really is just one big game, isn"t it…" Muttering to herself, Elizabeth had no idea, but she had experienced her first moment of enlightenment. Nothing much happened on the surface and even Elizabeth herself was ignorant of the changes taking place in her Soul Land as she kept playing around with the manifestation of her Magic. But at the core of her Soul, the Domain of her Soul Land was expanding at a terrifying pace.
The expansion only stopped when it reached 25 kilometers in diameter with both the starry sky and the black and yellowish soil of her Domain growing richer. Many more Stargazer Lilies bloomed in the otherwise bland-looking earth, with the special Lilies that held the incarnations of Elizabeth"s Affinities growing the most when it came to their l.u.s.ter. While the incarnation of Affinities themselves didn"t grow, as Elizabeth had yet to start training, their potential to grow in the future was certainly impacted.
Lisa — the G.o.dslayer Fiend Incarnation — who had been meditating within the Stargazer Lily that held Elizabeth"s Death Affinity was startled by the changes within the Soul Land. Looking at the environment that had become much larger and beautiful in scale, she could only grin psychotically as this would mean that her source could be cultivated faster.
Taking a look at the Cyan light which held Belle in stasis as well as the third Embryonic Vessel of Seraph that had yet to move, Lisa scoffed. She took pleasure in the fact that she was the only one present to witness and take advantage of the progression in Elizabeth"s soul.
Outside of her Soul Land, the now entranced Elizabeth kept herself mesmerized as she continued to silently piece together parts of Insight as she played around with her Magic. Starting with Fire as it had been the first thing she manifested, Elizabeth ran the gamut going through Ice, Yin, s.p.a.ce, Time, Death, and finally Grandmist Magic before finally coming back to her senses.
Sighing as she thought, "To think that I was proud of the measly firepower of my Cold Flames earlier… I have so much to learn…" As she humbled herself, her mind reached a state that her Status Functions deemed safe enough to send the notification of the breakthroughs that came with the enlightenment.
[Enlightenment Complete!
Innate Skills
*New) Blazebreeze Affinity
Tier: Sub Trash (Concept: Discovered)
Description: While you had previously fused Ice and Fire, your lack of understanding as to its mechanisms resulted in this Affinity never developing. Now, with the Concept of Fusion between Ice and Fire formed in your soul, you may begin developing this Affinity.
Current Effect: Proves you understand how to begin improving your fire and ice fusion or Blazebreeze Affinity. Also slightly increases your control of and resistance towards Blazebreeze energy.
*New) s.p.a.cetime Affinity
Tier: Sub Trash (Concept: Discovered)
Current Effect: Proves you understand how to begin improving your s.p.a.ce and time fusion or s.p.a.cetime Affinity. Also slightly increases your control of and resistance towards s.p.a.cetime energy.
Yin Affinity
*New) Tier: Mediocre
Death Affinity
*New) Tier: Mediocre]