Chapter 71: Chapter. 63: Deepest Desire

“You’ll know when you get there.” She shrugged.

I digested her words carefully and remembered things. Given that tiering up was something she had vaguely answered, I couldn’t help but ask a different question, one that had been in my mind for some time.

“Glim had mentioned that a Prophecy could solve my race being… question marks?”

“Oh, about that.” She thought for a second. “I suppose so? But it will remain like that, unless you just decide to rename it when going up in the evolutionary chain? There are quite a few specimens with question mark races though, that blue demon was one.”

I paused. “The emperor?”

She nodded. “Yes, that person. Lots of people had their eyes on him during bidding.”

“Bidding?” I asked with growing confusion.

She coughed. “Basically a small assembly is formed.” She gestured with her hands and fingers as if they were walking. “Those who want a piece of the Skirmish reunite, and the overseer overlord of the star cluster just holds an auction for the rights to essentially invite an initiator to be their Champion.”

I frowned. “So, The Illusionist paid to be able to bring me here?”

“Essentially, yes.” She beamed.

“What did he pay?”

“I cannot answer that.”

I rolled my eyes. Of course. Right⁠— when I first met him. When I fainted, he had mentioned some sort of investment, but at the same time I didn’t know what kind of investment he spoke of. Perhaps it referred to the assembly Elasia spoke of, but at the same time it bothered me⁠—

“So, are we just like products?”

Elasia shrugged. “Maybe? You can say no and eventually return, but most people have their methods to get the Champion to agree.”

I felt a small amount of anger that was quickly quelled by the thought of the fake trial. Methods… I sighed feeling apprehensive about The Illusionist once more. The terms of the contract, save for wanting any Prophecy I acquired were rather generous. At least, given the fact that the Prophecy I got from him was⁠— the best. I didn’t want to admit it, but it felt just right for me. I didn’t want to change my battle style, no. What i wanted was⁠—

I stared at the empty room, finding a lingering amount of spores in the air.

Instant destruction? I was unsure if that was the right description of my Prophecy. But it felt just right for me after adjusting to it. Yes, perhaps I still barely understood things about the Prophecy such as: how to discover more plants, how to get more seeds, what kind of skills would I even learn? And there was also the question. How did it exactly tie in with my affinity-attunement? They were related, but I did not see what a level signified on the attunement other than an increased familiarity with the plants within my Prophecy.

I shook my head.

“Well, anyway, no need to worry about Champion things,” Elasia said, making me turn towards her. Her green hair shimmered under the mixed light of the room, and her golden eyes sparkled. “You are with me and us now.”

At that moment I couldn’t help but awkwardly shift my eyes to the floor, the tone just⁠—it still did not click well with me to be tied to someone, but at the same time it was for the better. Or so I felt. My stats had⁠—increased.

Name: Blair | Level: 18

Race: ??? (E-Grade)

Feats: [Lone Survivor], [Bottomless Ambition], [Champion Of Champions], [Champion Of Illusion]

Prophecy: Scarlet Bloom (D-Grade)

Basic skills: Universal Understanding (NaN),

Universal Inquiry (NaN)

Free attribute points: 0

VIG: 50 | END: 42 |

STR: 35 | AGI: 47 |

PER: 43 | WIS: 54 |

Skills: [Proficient Archery (Uncommon Passive)], [Explosive Shot (Rare)], [Power Draw (Uncommon)], [Penumbral Instinct (Rare Passive)], [Frictionless Slide (Rare Passive)], [Burrowing Shot (Rare)]

Prophecy Skills: [Seed Manipulation (Rare Passive)]

Attunements: Dark plants (II)

Prime Currency: 100

It was amazing and a bit underwhelming at the same time. Mostly the fact that having a Prophecy did not seem to do anything for me at the moment, in terms of stats or apparent sense of progression. I could in theory progress my Prophecy but The System itself provided no hint whatsoever on it. At least, it was related to my attunement somehow.

And my wisdom was high. After putting back the cloak and pauldron once more, it had once more soared. I only had one Prophecy skill and yet only that was enough to allow me to almost kill the Toothless Fangtooth in a single shot. That said, it was also different from a Guardian, the Worm Guardian could certainly just kill it without too much trouble.

In the end, the difference between a common monster and a Guardian was immense.

I sighed at the thought.

“I see you’re down.” I felt a bump on my shoulder. She was now rubbing shoulder to shoulder, but her⁠—skin, flesh felt as tough as metal. “You know what would change that?”

“What?” I asked, finally separating myself from her.

“Testing your Prophecy some more, of course.” She smiled.

I frowned. “Why are you⁠— like this?”

“Like what?”

“Like this.” I gestured. “What happened to the image of fanatic Illusionist secretary, now you’re like⁠— you’re like Glim!”

[Did someone call?]

“You mean endearing?”

“Annoyingly endearing,” I corrected. “But without the endearing part.”

She snorted. “I am simply getting on good terms with our Champion, since I cannot have you think I am trying to take advantage of you. If anything you’re taking advantage of us.”

“Sounds manipulative.”

She laughed. “I am just lonely, that's all, my lord doesn’t speak to me that often. Anyway, I ignore that, I just feel a familiarity with you because you’re a kind of elf I suppose.” A shrug came my way. “Do you want to keep testing?”

Getting called a kind of elf made me feel weird, but I couldn’t dwell on it. “Yes.”

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The supply of Toothless Fangtooths seemed endless. Everytime one got grievously injured a new one would be summoned. At the same time, the golems would just keep every single one of them pinned down with their rock net, making them nothing but free targets to shoot. It was perfect for testing, but I guess she had called it that.

I tested all the arrow types I had available except for the spore ones⁠—Lyco Puff variant.

The first type I chose to test was. Silver Azalea. I held no hopes for the arrow, but I tested two types of shots. Explosive. Burrowing. The first test; Explosive Shot:

The arrow streaked through the air, breaking the sound⁠ barrier—exploded on the Fangtooth and⁠—the seeds vanished from existence.

Second test: Burrowing⁠— The arrow pierced into its chest and dug, the remainder of the mana allowed me to blossom the flowers. The Fangtooth thrashed but⁠— nothing happened? I waited as much time as possible, and after close to an hour it thrashed once more, this time desperately and eventually⁠; it was unsummoned by Elasia, it was probably close to death.

Poison. Though, it seemed slow acting, very slow.

I kept it in mind, perhaps it was a useful arrow, but⁠— it wasn’t what I was ultimately looking for. However, I still told Glim to remind me to make a few dozen later, just in case. Next was the other Azalea, Ayas Azalea. It was similar but different. This time around however, I decided to keep it at one test. Power Shot.

I drew the bow, with flashing green. The arrow too was filled with mana, but it served no purpose other than to be a receiver⁠—a connection for me to the seeds. The Toothfang snarled, but it was pressed onto the ground, unable to move or dodge. The arrow was shot onto its limb, and I quickly identified the mana within it.

Bloom. With a single command the seeds exploded onto its leg, flowers bloomed⁠—crimson, they were small akin to little flies, spreading as if they were the veins of a pulsing heart, akin to a raging maelstrom it whipped, coiled around its leg until it became nothing but a patch of small red flowers. Its leg became nothing but red, and for the first time across all of these⁠—it howled, pained shrieks and thrashes, but its leg had stopped functioning in an instant. As soon as the flowers spread past a certain point, they spread onto the ground but found nothing and eventually died. The leg became nothing but a black paste, a carbonized bone dried of any life or semblance of vitality.

Just like that⁠—its leg had died to the flowers.

“Ah, for the record,” Elasia called my attention. “They don’t have much vitality in spite of being D rank, maybe about fifty points?”

I paused. I had fifty points. Wouldn’t that have been my arm? I shook my head, feeling scared of the powers of the plants now.

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Nefarious Wisteria. It penetrated into the Fangtooth’s flesh and wrapped vines around its limbs, slowly bleeding it.

All-consuming puff however...

The arrow exploded⁠—broke into a myriad of small spores⁠—puffs, touching anything and growing bigger as they suckled on the Fangtooth, clearly draining its vitality away to gain more themselves. Eventually ballooning into great puffs and draining the life away until they reached their limit⁠—exploding into nothing but mana that was linked to me for some reason.

I made sure to keep that in mind.

All of the plants however, were just lethal and short lived, most of them doing deep damage to the Fangtooth, that said it still had non-existent vitality, but I had grown⁠—so much stronger. Based on my calculations the Fangtooth could take about two Explosive Shots before eventually dying. Maybe a few burrowing shots⁠—

Eventually the testing stopped and Elasia seemed more than pleased with it. Happy even.

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I was given both kinds of potions and warm food along with a spoon. It was soft and mushy but nice to eat, back at my room. I managed to get a bath before eating. Time slowly ticked down as I began to gain increased awareness of my impending return to the Skirmish. Meanwhile, Elasia just sat across the nightstand from me watching me eat.

“Are you just going to be here till I can leave?”

She nodded. “I have to see you off at least.”

“I suppose?” I ate more food. It was quite good, and I had been in prolonged starvation for some time now. “So what happens after?”

She pondered. “Well we might only see each other until you make a city I suppose? Which, well, that’s kind of if you want. It’s not really enforced per se.” She gave me a lazy shrug. “The Illusionist truly went to great lengths to give you a fair contract rather than some kind of slavery thing. A city is good for you too.”

I shifted a bit uncomfortably hearing his name. I didn’t trust the man at all.

“Oh, right.” She brightened for a moment. “The trial I gave you.” I nearly dropped my spoon. “Er sorry, once more. What I wanted to say is that, you will most likely need to get stronger so you might want to go back there. The New World needs to be claimed after all, and I don’t mean by you or the dwellers of other planets, more like it needs to be…” she pondered. “Tamed.”

“Tamed?”

“The wild is untamed. Ferocious and without limits.” She shook her head. “Well that is all my advice about it.”

With those words she stood by the door, opening it readying herself to leave.

“And Blair,” she called once more, her expression more sincere than ever. “Do not disappoint Lumina.”

She closed the door, leaving me to ponder once more.

Do not disappoint her.

I dwelled on my thoughts, slowly eating at the paste in front of me.

Time passed, until eventually a notification rang in my ears.

[A day has passed since the invitation has been accepted. Do you wish to return to the Skirmish space? Refusal will extend the invitation for an extra day.]

I had finished my food just barely. I stood up and grabbed my bow from the wall, I stowed my spear and put my cloak on. I had about ten potions of each kind inside the ring. I looked at the warm bed and the room in itself. I wasn’t excited to return, but I wanted to keep moving forward. I wanted to get stronger. I had already taken a day of rest, now it was time to return

The Illusionist. He scared me.

I wanted to be strong enough to break from his shackles.

If they were even that to begin with.

I wanted revenge in some form.

I accepted the prompt.

My vision became nothing but a white light. And soon, chilliness enveloped me. White mist. Deep rattles entered my ears, squirms of death with crackles of frost. I heard the roar of both guardians, the nest was a mess of stone and ice. I found myself standing in the middle of an encirclement of ice, and not too far away I heard fighting.

There was something I desired more than revenge or the shackles.

I stepped past the ice and saw the two guardians fighting.

[Guardian Empress of Crystal. Lvl. 27]

[Guardian Monarch of Rime. Lvl. 26]

I wanted to…

Live.

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