ALEXiThymiA: Chapter 122 Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself

<<<<Author's Note: This chapter has been amended to have the title referenced in the last chapter added to it.>>>>


Chapter 122

Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself

Friday - Saturday

Only once she was out of the way did Alexa begin to allow herself to relax. While this duel had been a lot easier to handle than her duel with Countess Rojas, the duel that first earned her the First Royal Duelist title, it had also opened her eyes about the deadliness of weaving attack spells. She had been fortunate to this point, only having met people who either only had one school of magic, or who did not know how to weave spells together to form a greater effect. That understanding alone was enough of an eye opener to let Alexa realize she had more than a chance against the dragon.

Looking back it should have been obvious, as it was something she had been doing almost instinctually, as magic and its uses seemed to come fairly naturally to her. In a way she had been blessed, as she just thought about weaving spells together and they did. Looking back, her initial attempts were crude, often just being layered spells, that is taking one spell and then stacking the benefits of another over top of it. That was how her Arcane Wind Blades had been, at first they were just layered on top of each other, the Wind Blades creating a structure that the Arcane powers could adhere to, really sloppy, but effective.

Now, after seeing a master, like Ryelifa, at work, despite just having two schools of magic available, Alexa could see the direct impact that interweaving spells together had. In fact she was still feeling the aches from the way her resistance to Death and Illusion magic were being sidetracked by the interwoven nature of the spell. Her natural resistance to Illusion magic came from the fact that she knew the spell was fake, while her resistance to Death magic came from her Titles that afforded her a 60% resistance to Death magic directly, yet when the two spells were woven together, the end result was a lot tougher to deal with. Even now Alexa could feel the phantom pains coursing through her body, but these were good, as they let her feel the rush and thrill of adrenaline coursing through her body. She could still feel the way the energy burned in a tingling way that was just bearable. Had it been two other interwoven spells, the results would have been far worse of that Alexa was certain, but this did give her some ideas of what to do.

In fact, it was only after seeing the way that Ryelifa wove the spells together to cause such an impact that caused Alexa to rethink and rework her own attack. Using the Illusion as the outer shell to obfuscate her real attack had been something she thought up only on the spot, but it had been surprisingly effective as Ryelifa seemed to not take anything she did as being serious. This also pushed the idea that spell supremacy was something that Alexa needed to focus on. Currently she had only four classes of spells that were at the maximum tier threshold, this afforded her some protection, but not an excessive amount of protection against magic practitioners who were better trained, higher in level, and had more years of experience. Realistically, she knew that she had been lucky thus far, but soon she would be up against monsters and creatures that had been casting spells for centuries, that she would be forced to go against creatures that were more powerful than the mere aspects she fought against in dungeons.

I need to be better. Alexa thought to herself, then after she let the pain linger, as a lesson to stop being so cocky, she finally allowed her aching body to Heal.

Ahh.

Within moments the sedative effect of her Healing spells to alleviate the pain receptors in her mind, while her body forcibly began knitting itself together.

Finally able to relax slightly from the tension that had been building up within her, she took a moment to look over the system notifications that had appeared in her mind as a result of the duel.

Yes, Alexa had seen the fact that she won the duel, but there was more to it, especially given that she only went as far acknowledging that there was a duel and that she was the noted winner.

Title Awarded: Solo Assassin: You single handedly slew an enemy species 100 levels higher than your own. Reward: +10% attribute bonus when engaging any enemy in single combat.

The title was a nice addition and one that she had not quite expected, as she had killed many creatures much higher level, but only then did she realize most were just aspects of the actual creature. Then thinking back to the dragons, the only dragon she actually saw that was above level 100 was Magdala the one that had somehow turned a dungeon to her cause. Realizing that, she took a second to realize how much of an actual accomplishment it was to truly kill a monster that was that much more powerful than herself. Not only had she realized that the danger was more intense, but she had also been rewarded by the system for her struggles. This only made what she still had to do that much more enticing.

You have been given a choice. Since your world is at the pre-integrated status, not all wagered resources are available. Most notably, Ryelifa Dragon Slayer’s holdings on planet: 2W89751. Do you wish to claim resources on current planet, wait until your planet is fully integrated in 1 Month, 14 Days, 8 Hours, 05 Minutes…

Seeing the question, Alexa instantly chose “Claim now.”

Very good, holdings of Ryelifa Dragon Slayer have been transferred to the Alexa Thyme faction. System resources recalculated.

Resources Available:

Oricalcum: 512

Mithril: 10,143

Gold: 20,623

Silver: 68,187

Iron: 106,112

Warning: While you do have resources, your planet currently does not have access to the system shop.

That was an interesting update, as it implied that she would later have access to a system shop, and that she could likely use those resources, many of which she remembered gathering on Stage III of the Trials of Ascension, well all but the Oricalcum, that much was a new substance that she had neither seen nor heard about before. Still the access to a shop did help and gave her another objective to complete during her dungeon runs, at least during future dungeon runs. From there eve more details of what she had gained came to her mind.

Number of holdings: 4.

Garrisons: 2.

New Personnel: 12.

Note: All claim to resources on planet: 2W89751, have henceforth been denied. All links to external resources have been severed.

With that, a mental map of twelve different minds began to pulse in her mind. Somehow, Alexa knew them to be elves, as they felt off, bound in some way. Shaking her head, she realized she would deal with that in the future. Then thinking back, this was likely why Ryelifa accepted Alexa’s statement as fact so readily, Ryelifa’s connection to Delantha was likely cut off. Also, she felt that in her mind she didn’t have an actual distance to each target, but rather a general direction in relation to her current location. This was odd, and something she realized she wouldn’t be able to work out right away.

Thinking about this tracking, a quick thought crossed her mind, she wondered if this connection worked underground. Maybe that’s why the elves seem to have a severe aversion to going underground. With that in mind, she decided to try out her theory by going underground, but only after she first took care of her last system message, though this was the one she had expected to remain from her class.

Absorber Class Material Found: Would you like to absorb essence of Master Illusionist Hunter?

Seeing the message, Alexa chose “yes.”

Energy gained. Do you wish to convert energy absorbed into class experience? Attributes? Or Master Illusionist Hunter only powers?

Seeing the new prompt for “Master Illusionist Hunter only powers,” Alexa made her choice easily.

You have chosen Illusionist Hunter only powers. Powers available: Night Sight, Allure, Mimicry, Voice of Command, Illusion Magic, and Death Magic.

This time just like the others more and more options were marked out, of note there was the new option for Voice of Command, and Death Magic, both of which had not been available previously. This went to show that the master elf likely had more powers than the subordinates, something to keep in mind. Mentally Alexa wondered just how high up the totem pole Ryelifa was to have the Voice of Command available to her. While she had previously chosen Enchanting Voice, this didn’t appear to be an option, also this made Alexa wonder about the different powers and variants available to the different parties of elves? Did they all have diverse and unique skills and powers? If so, it made sense, as diversity would likely be required for the different sets, but she didn’t quite expect it to be showcased in powers like this, but then again she was far from the leading expert on elves, unless it came to how to kill them, in which case she was now one of the leading experts at two.

Mentally she chose, Voice of Command.

You have chosen to use 10 of your 110 current Absorbed points on Voice of Command, is this correct?

Seeing the choice, Alexa paused only for a moment, but then realized that the 110 were likely the 75% synthesis of powers gained from killing Ryelifa. Seeing that she got the full 75%, Alexa concluded that she might have likely been a bit too extreme with trying to Absorb more of Delantha’s power, as there clearly seemed to be a set limit to how much she could consume. Still, this was good to know, killing an elf as quickly as possible was just as potent as killing them slowly. Knowing that time was no longer an issue, or at least likely not an issue, Alexa mentally swore she would take a few more tests, but felt this to be correct. With the 10 down, she was down to 100 Absorbed points. With that, she purchased as many Tiers of Illusion magic as she could.

You have chosen to purchase one Tier of Illusion Magic, six times for 42 points.

Seeing that she was done with everything she wanted, she opted to send the rest towards increasing her attributes equally. Mentally she paused, hoping that this would be enough to let her gain another tier of her Title, but alas this was not the case. The number of points left behind were just enough to give roughly ten points to each attribute. The end was soon, she knew that her chances of improving the percentage increase from her Increase Attribute titles were going to end here shortly. She had a personal goal of one week from today. As it was, she planned on completing the ninth stage of her Trials of Ascension on her way back home, well to Dawning Light Academy, the place she now considered to be her home. Then over Thanksgiving break, she made it a plan to finish the tenth and final trial, allowing her to fully unlock her class. A class that she had spent so long working towards.

But first she had one obstacle, well technically two obstacles. First, she had to take care of this dragon.

Choosing to go a circuitous route, Alexa first decided to go down below the surface, to hidden tunnels that were readily present to her Earth magic. Once below the surface of the earth, she could feel something, a slight tickling sensation in her mind.

Tingle.

The more she moved underground, the more she felt a disconnect between herself and her newly acquired assets. She knew she still had them, but the directions to them were not readily apparent. Feeling this, it was clear to Alexa why so many higher ranking elves refused to go underground, the rest likely followed the pattern, thinking that only the lowest ranking should be subjected to head underground. Alexa didn’t quite know why this was, but she was glad that her theory had been proven correct, also Alexa’s Earth magic, let her find the most direct path to the tower that had previously been noted.

As she approached the building, it was clear that it was a recent renovation, one that was built with different standards for construction than the older English homes that she was used to seeing. First, the most glaring difference was the use of warding runes on the base level of the house. These were oddly complex and likely done by an elf, at least that is what Alexa thought as the level of detail was more than the ones Mr. Mackie used on campus and according to all records he was one of the best human runesmiths. Of course, this only went to further Alexa’s personal contempt for the elves, it was clear they had more knowledge than they were sharing with even their most trusted of assets. Then again looking at the broken building, and the way the runes were no longer being powered by the innate magic of the surrounding areas, Alexa felt that this was likely a form of karma to the elves. They go spend all their time building up a secret base, filled with secrets of advanced rune working, only to have the fortress broken and destroyed by a dragon. For that reason alone, Alexa felt she should thank the dragon. Of course, she would still have to kill said dragon, but she would definitely be grateful for the anecdote.

As she made her way up, she could begin to feel the presence, the malevolent aura that all but radiated off of this dragon. It wasn’t just the way the acid seemed to burn away much of the foundation, but also the way the acid spray seemed to corrupt the very ground. Looking at the corruption, Alexa realized that she would likely not be thanking this dragon. As she moved closer, she focused on trying to produce as small of a presence as possible, it was clear that this aura was some form of detection by the seemingly resting dragon.

Alexa felt she was doing a good job of moving as silently as possible, but then there was a stirring, as the entire building, or what was left of it, began to rock.

Rumble.

Sniff, sniff.

The dragon moved about and whipped its head about violently shaking the area and causing Alexa to momentarily freeze in place, lest she give away her position.

“Who’s there?”

Hearing the line Alexa smiled a little to herself as she figured she would both distract the dragon and try out her ability to cast while moving.

Focusing on a spot just outside the building, she focused her will and projected an Illusionary Voice outside the window, for practice, she fused the burst of sound with Light, and Arcane magical energies.

Starburst.

“I am the ‘who’ when you call ‘who’s there.’” Alexa’s projected voice said, both blinding the dragon and forcing it to momentarily cover its eyes. Alexa used this time to climb up a back staircase from where she thought the beast was resting. She still didn’t have line of sight to the beast, which was the only thing holding her back from attacking at the moment. While she felt she could cut a hole through the ceiling and force the dragon to fall, so she could then attack, she didn’t know how much impact that would have on the already rickety building. For now, she decided to not destroy the building she was currently climbing up, at least if she could avoid it.

“You dare mock me!” The dragon roared.

Stomp.

Rumble pulse.

Alexa felt a surge of kinetic force flow through the ground. Feeling the blow, Alexa realized it for what it was almost immediately, a form of sonar. Realizing that was what this little stomp was, a form of echolocation, Alexa quickly spun her own spell, once she created on the spot. This time using both Earth and Illusion magic, she wove together a spell that gave the silhouette signature of dozens of figures standing up, all while letting her own soundwaves continue past her.

“What is this! An ambush.”

Smash!

The dragon let down a massive paw over the spot where one of the elven silhouettes were situated.

Rumble, crack.

The dragon smacked the ground so hard that tears began to form in the ground. By now Alexa had managed to move the last few steps up from the back stairwell, just poking her head through the well, before facing the dragon.

Like a giant cat swatting at a laser pointer, the massive dragon felt Alexa’s false pings and echo locations. Always swatting the ground more and more around it, until finally, the inevitable happened.

GGGRRRROOOAANNN!

Metal and steel girders began to moan and stretch, as joints that had been held together for years under the most intense forms of human and elven engineering began to crumble and break apart. At this moment is where multiple things began to happen all at once.

Alexa realizing the building was going to collapse made her move, charging forward from the stairwell and charging directly towards the fully exposed back of the dragon who easily fell for the echolocation Illusions she had cast.

The dragon was itself not stationary, as it too began to move.

“Wha!” The Dragon roared in its draconic tongue, as it spread out its wings wide in an attempt to fly away from the collapsing building. This was not the first building the dragon had toppled over since its arrival, and it would not be the last, at least that was its plan.

“Not so fast.” Alexa shouted, once again using Illusion magic to project her voice right in front of the great beast. This time, she also made sure to include a massive burst of Light, Arcane, and Creation magic, forming a giant pulsing ball of burning plasma that formed just in front of the dragon’s eyes, and fell instantly to its long snout.

GRAAHHH!

The dragon roared, the burning ball was not much, just enough to burn the beast and little more. Still the plasma seemed to be too much for the dragon to handle as it began clawing at its nose instantly. At the same time, Alexa approached from behind and with a glowing fist, infused an interwoven connection of Arcane and Creation magic over her hands, that burned anything they came in contact with. In this case, her glowing hot hands made quick work of the long thin membrane of skin the dragon had for wings.

SHRRIEEEK!

A high pitched wail of pain billowed out from the enormous beast. The sudden pain enough to cause the beast that had been trying to take off a moment ago to collapse once more with another booming thud.

CRRRUMMBLE!

The last jolt was the final straw needed to send the building toppling over and down to the ground. Alexa for her part took her glowing hands and dug them deep into the back left haunch of the terrible beast, as she rode the monster down to the ground.

KABOOM!

A giant cloud of dust arose covering the air, and for a second all was silent.

Rumble.

Then from beneath the cloud of dust first one black wing appeared, then another torn wing spreading ichor appeared from the rubble and dust cloud.

Alexa for her part had hung onto the beast for as long as possible, only being thrown away at the very end, when the sudden impact with the ground forced her concentration to lapse and her glowing hands to be allowed to rip free from the beast, only to die a slow quiet death a moment later.

Smiling brightly to herself, Alexa forced her way up to her wobbly legs, as she prepared herself for round two.