Elizabeth walked out of the Time-testing substation and went over to the grand table in the center of the round room to check the use of the new tickets.[Status
Name: Unmarked Gold Ticket (Legacy Currency)
Description: A note of true gold used in the legacy trial"s exchange hub for methods. Equivalent to 100 Yellow Tickets or one Peak-tier method or technique.
Name: Unmarked Cyan Ticket (Legacy Currency)
Grade: Low-tier Divine Enchantment
Description: A note of temporal cyan used in the legacy trial"s exchange hub to trade for other tickets or re-entry into the legacy trial. Equivalent to 10 Superior-grade tickets (Gold, Black, or White) or 1 additional day in the legacy trial.
Current Effect: Tears a stable rift into the void of any dimension and transports the user back to the round room of the legacy trial.
Name: Unmarked Grey Tickets (Legacy Currency)
Description: Bland and dull grey notes used in the legacy trial"s exchange hub for resources. Equivalent to 1/100th of a Black Ticket.]
Upon reading that the Cyan Ticket was endowed with Divine-level inscriptions, Elizabeth"s eyebrows rose in query, as she reached over to see if she could make out the general meaning behind the ticket"s inscriptions. At first glance, the ticket looked just like all the others; similar to a banknote, though only colored in one hue. However, as Elizabeth strained her eyes, she could just barely start seeing the intricate patterns that lined the surface of her Cyan Ticket.
As she started to see the base layer of the patterns, she activated her Timeworn eyes. But, shortly after further augmenting her sight, she had to stop as protective measures used in the ticket"s creation were starting to deal ma.s.sive damage to Elizabeth"s soul. Elizabeth came out of this probe with blood trickling down her eyes as if they were streaks left behind by tears, yet she didn"t show a pained expression. Rather, she stood gazing at nothing in particular, as her thoughts raced.
In the end, she shook her head and wiped the blood from her face, helplessly sighing at the futility in her actions. Just the base layer of inscriptions were nigh impossible for her to understand, so for an enchantment rated as Divine… Elizabeth drew in a deep cold breath as she tried to imagine the level of complexity her Cyan Ticket possessed.
Still, her efforts weren"t entirely pointless, as she could just about pick up on the foundational signatures of s.p.a.cetime and Neutral Inscriptions. She wasn"t entirely sure if those were the only types of inscriptions used in the construction of the ticket, but their presence was virtually confirmed.
Elizabeth released her Cyan Ticket, letting it float back over to join the other tickets on the grand table, before she continued with the legacy trial substations. She had gained another 6 hours from the Time substation and with all the exciting things around her, that obsessive nature of her"s had its integrity challenged.
After Time, Elizabeth thought it would be fitting to try s.p.a.ce. Thus, after entering the s.p.a.ce Legacy Trial Substation, Elizabeth cracked her knuckles in antic.i.p.ation for what was to come. She watched as the white room disintegrated once more, and in its place, she found herself in… a vast and endless black expanse?
Not at all expecting this frankly anticlimactic result, Elizabeth held her hands up as if to ask, "What the f.u.c.k?" However, as she held that disappointed posture, she noticed that the room hadn"t just changed colors. Rather, she could feel a faint trace of spatial energy of to the north yonder. Just as the sensation of spatial energy hit her, the instructions for the legacy trial manifested in her psyche.
[Locate as many Spatial Spirit Stones as possible. Performance will be graded on the number of quality of Spirit Stones collected. Time Remaining: 1 Hour, 59 Minutes 59 Sec...]
"Oooh~" Elizabeth felt like she couldn"t contain any more joy as she read the term "Spatial Spirit Stone." She wasted no time and practically flew towards the source of the spatial energy she previously discovered as if her life depended on it. Spirit Stones were a luxury she didn"t expect to see for a long time, hence her overjoyed reaction at the mention of special Spatial-types. As for what Spirit Stones were, it was best to think of them as the culmination of spiritual energy so dense that a solid form materialized to contain it all.
On Earth, there was absolutely no chance that one might sp.a.w.n as the land was as spiritually inert as can be, and even in the Shadow Realm, Elizabeth didn"t expect to find any Spirit Stones for herself until she crossed into more dangerous territories. Right now she might find it relatively easy to get by in the Forest of Beginnings, but even then, the chances of finding Spirit Stones was abysmal…
Elizabeth ran supernaturally fast as evident by the impressive 60 attached to her Speed Stat. But, it would seem that the distances in this black room were hyperbolic to the extreme, as it took Elizabeth a solid two minutes to find the first spirit stone. Granted, she spent about ten seconds trying to distinguish the pitch-black rock from the equally dark expanse around her. With the stone on hand, Elizabeth quickly read through its status before consuming it.
[Name: Worthless Spatial Spiritual Stone
Grade: Peak-tier Mortal Grade
Description: A travesty of a miracle, this is a Spirit Stone that isn"t well… Spirit Grade? Due to its exceptional instability, this Spirit Stone is losing energy at a saddening pace.
Current Status: Less than 20% of its estimated original energy is contained, and the remaining energy is still bleeding through.]
"Heh..." Elizabeth laughed to herself as she thought, "Funny. For a Time Mage, it seems that Time is my greatest enemy..." She bit her tongue as her body was starting to break from the ma.s.sive spike in energy it was taking in. However, she had the resolve in her heart to die before wasting an opportunity as great as this.
Fortunately, her s.p.a.ce Affinity was already at the brink of forming even before this trial. So, after a couple seconds into her refinement of the pure spatial energy of the Spirit Stone and the creation of her Trash-tier Energy, the pressure she had to bear was dampened by a couple degrees.
[Alert! Breakthrough in Affinity!!!
Innate Skills:
s.p.a.ce Affinity
Tier: Trash-tier
Description: Now possessing the ability to generate s.p.a.ce energy/magic, active s.p.a.ce skills and spells are usable.
Current Effect: Cultivation of energy remains unimpeded until Level 10. Low Mortal Grade s.p.a.ce-type buffs are 50% more potent.
*New) Kinesthetic Acuity
Description: The embryonic form of one"s absolute domain. Currently only affecting the user"s immediate sense of s.p.a.ce, eventually, as the user"s affinity for s.p.a.ce increases, the range of this "domain" will increase and its abilities unveiled.
Current Effect: Spatial attunement triples, and a thin and permanent extension of the user"s senses covers up to a millimeter away from the user"s skin.]
Once Elizabeth finished devouring all the energy left in the Spatial Spirit Stone, while still seated, she continued dwelling on the pa.s.sages of her [Spatial Meditation] technique and within seconds, she found the energy signatures of dozens of other Spatial Spirit Stones. The benefits of her newly acquired Kinesthetic Acuity were a G.o.dsend for this trial as Elizabeth didn"t even have to focus to recall exactly where the new Spirit Stones lay. She didn"t have P with her to stimulate eidetic memory, but it would seem like that wouldn"t hinder her progress.
Since she had taken a good five minutes to use up the initial Spatial Spirit Stone. Elizabeth chose to go pick up all those she had discovered before stopping to absorb the stones" energy in one fell swoop. Another benefit of Kinesthetic Acuity was discovered as Elizabeth started running, as she felt a couple flaws in her running form. Once corrected, her already car-like speed, shot off even faster, and within ten minutes, she found all the Spirit Stones her meditation discovered.
Elizabeth stopped for just a moment to consider whether it would be best to consume the spirit stones or continue searching for more to improve the score she got from the trial. She knew for a fact that consuming all these new Spatial Spirit Stones would cause her to run out of time. But they were already more than she imagined she would get out of the trial to begin with. Going out in search of other Spirit Stones would improve her score, but she couldn"t guarantee that the stones would stay with her after the trail and not just vanish along with the dark room.
It only took a moment for Elizabeth to decide as she prioritized her accomplishments in the legacy trial as a whole, more than she did a mere substation for s.p.a.ce. Perhaps if she majored in s.p.a.ce energy, there would have been a bit more fight in her actions, but since that wasn"t the case, Elizabeth sighed after a quick glance at her little pile of Spirit Stones before sitting back down to meditate and locate more stones to improve her score.
Alas, she sat down and meditated only to find… nothing. A minute into the first meditation, Elizabeth quickly moved herself to the other side of her little pile of Spirit Stone, hoping to find more signatures from the side that might have been overwhelmed with the signatures of the stones she had already collected. But the result was the same; no more new Spirit Stones.
Hatefully, Elizabeth practically dove into the pile of Spatial Spirit Stones as she rushed to consume as many as she could before the time expired. With a stone on each hand, Elizabeth"s energy circulatory pathway threatened to split from all the pressure generated by the spatial energy entering her Dantian. However, Elizabeth would rather her meridians break altogether now, as she could always heal them back up later with acupoint needles.
The feverish nature in which she devoured energy actually crossed a dangerous threshold after the eleventh stone as Elizabeth reserves of Inner Strength broke into Soldier Stage territory. But there was still a bit of time left over and a couple spirit stone left untouched. Thus, like the reckless number-obsessed idiot that she was, Elizabeth ignored the warning her Dantian issued out and continued on. Of course, even if she mentally told herself that death would come before inefficiency, what was left of her humanity would pull the breaks if she really were to ever arrive before the figurative abyss.
As the legacy trial entered its final few minutes, Elizabeth could be seen perspiring blood as she had suddenly made another reckless decision. After the second and final warning of her Dantian came and rocked her soul into stopping forcefully, Elizabeth coughed a mouthful of blood before deciding to change where the energy she devoured would end up. She actually decided to start another session of internal refinement so as to continue using up all the energy she could.
Sure, her Dantian, meridians, and acupoints, were just before the point of collapse, but her muscles, bones, and organs could take a bit more punishment before caving in. As unhealthy as that thought sounded, it was word-for-word the pep talk Elizabeth gave herself before actually going through with the decision.
First, it was her skin that started to fissure, then her muscles, and just as the pressure was starting to overwhelm her bones, time had run out and various notification flashed through Elizabeth"s head.
[s.p.a.ce Affinity SubstationPerformance: 100Reward: 1 Gold Ticket, 78 Grey Tickets
Innate Skills:
s.p.a.ce Affinity
Tier: Bad-tier
Description: s.p.a.ce has become much easier for you to resonate with. You"ll find manipulating spatial energy to be several times easier than when your Affinity was at a mere Trash-tier. Generating s.p.a.ce-type energy from Inner Strength is also several times easier and s.p.a.ce-type spells and skills are less demanding on your energy reserves.
Current Effect: Cultivation of energy remains unimpeded until Level 20. Mid-High Mortal Grade s.p.a.ce-type buffs are 50% more potent.
Inner Strength Conversion
Grade: A
Description: Subconsciously activated along with the internal refinement of contrarian energies, the user has evolved their most basic ability to augment their stats with Inner Strength.
Current Effect: Depends on the activities and intensity of training.]