ALEXiThymiA: Chapter 49: Choosing a Path Forward

Chapter 49

Choosing a Path Forward

Alexa arrived to see the standard wall of text that appeared when she entered a dungeon. Then she was met with two new entries.

Now beginning Stage III of the Trials of Ascension.

Quest: Resources for War: Now that you have chosen a race (Human) to support in the upcoming conflict, you must now procure much needed supplies.

Warning: The supplies gained here will have a direct impact on your world when the Integration occurs.

The message of the quest was clear. The Integration would happen. Also from context clues, the integration would likely start a war between humanity and the other races Alexa had met this far. This did not bode well for her, or humanity, as she was certain very few people chose humanity. At least, that was the impression she got from her interactions with fellow survivors of the Trials of Ascension.

No, Alexa realized that she would need to probably work twice as hard to gain resources for these trials. Worse, being here, this close to the dungeons and the unique weaves of energy coming from the dungeons caused her Eyes of the Architect to show her just how close she was until the integration.

Countdown Timer until World Integration: 00 Years, 2 Months, 1 Days, 4 Hours, 24 Minutes, 22, 21 seconds.

Looking at the timer, Alexa could determine a few things. First, the timer was set to go off on Pacific Standard Time, as her own time zone put midnight in three hours and twenty-four minutes. The extra hour implied that it would happen at midnight on PST.

There was also the concern that in a little over a day would be Halloween. While her Eyes didn’t tell her that anything would overtly happen within a little over a day, she did have to wonder if there was something to the old myth that the veil between universes would be less on that day. Also, if that was the case, then what did that all mean?

Still, that was all conjecture on her part. For now, she realized the only thing that she could truly affect was this trial she now found herself in.

Looking around she saw a beautiful landscape. Or at least she knew it was supposed to be a beautiful landscape, but now it looked more like she was thrust into a three-dimensional movie set. There were items and shapes that were being created in all directions, but they had a thin coating of magic on them to give them a different look.

The entire thing looked fake. Almost like she had her childhood blinders removed and could now begin to see the cracks and wrinkles of the world around her. This was an odd sensation for her, for up until now the dungeons had all been real. Not just real, but like she was being teleported to another dimension.

Now that she had her Eyes of the Architect, she could notice the flaws of this world.

There was also a different function granted to her by the Eyes of the Architect. While most of the world around her had begun to fade into muted colors to imitate plant life. She could now also see strands of colors.

There were strings of Red, which just looking at Alexa found herself somehow innately understanding that that meant conflict. The most obvious example of this was a rather large tiger looking creature that was even now trying to stalk its way up to Alexa.

Then there were strings of Blue, which Alexa thought meant untapped resources. This was noted as a blue chunk of ore sat in a hill not one hundred feet away.

Then finally Yellow, which meant other humanoid creatures. These were noted by the different shades and colors that surrounded her in different settlements.

While each settlement seemed to be miles away from her current location, she could somehow tell that each settlement was meant to represent a different race she could befriend.

Judging by the size and complexity of this stage, Alexa knew she would need to hurry if she wanted to complete everything within a timely manner.

However, first thing was first.

Turning her attention to the red monster coming forward, she cast out Arcane Wind Cutters at the beast.

Within a second the creature dropped into a few different components.

Oddly enough, once she killed the beast, the red glow around the monster disappeared, revealing the creature for its true form. Also of note, was the way the red energy around the monster slowly began to congeal.

Her mind instantly associated the congealing of energy with the creation of an augmentation crystal. The only difference was that now she was seeing this on a whole different level. Reaching out her hand, she tried to touch the red energy.

Energy form already chosen. Form of Physical Growth Power Crystal.

Would you like to change form of Physical Growth Power Crystal from primary focus: Strength?

Seeing the message shocked Alexa, as she had not seen such a prompt before. Out of confusion, she pulled her hand away from the congealing red stream of energy. The moment she pulled her hand away, she saw that the prompt disappeared and the energy that she had seemingly stopped, now continued its reaction.

She stood there in fascination, watching as the red energy slowly condensed into a green augmentation crystal. A crystal that she now knew the system called a Physical Growth Power Crystal.

Touching the crystal, she noted that it felt just like any other crystal she had touched. The thing even glowed like the others.

With a pause, she decided to consume the power crystal.

Munch.

The crystal dissolved into her hand, and then she felt the warm glow of energy fill her body as she was met with a prompt letting her know that her Strength had increased by +1. Of course, she didn’t notice the increase on her status page, as she was still capped out on her pre-awakened attributes. But she did wonder if there was more she could do.

Alexa then made her way over to the glowing blue stone under the ground. Reaching out her hand, let her realize that the dark film between her and the ball of energy was stone of some kind.

In her mind, she wondered if she was supposed to go to one of the villages find mining equipment, then come back to this spot and dig out the resources. That’s what this was, this was a valuable resource of some kind, of that she was certain.

She paused and thought about the problem for a moment, then did what came naturally to her. She thought outside the box, some people might call her unconventional methods cheating, but that was because those people assumed that there were set laws to dungeons.

There weren’t any true laws to dungeons, aside from the ones the dungeons themselves established.

Looking around, Alexa could tell that the Trials of Ascension followed their own even more warped sense of rules. This was why, Alexa decided to take things her own way.

Focusing on a spot just below the ore. Alexa focused her will and imagined a tree growing right there.

Nature Magic.

Probably the least utilized school of magic, and the one with the most overall benefits, if used correctly.

Alexa first imagined the creation of a tree seed, that she then infused with power. From the power she imagined a vast network of roots growing down, under the the giant blue ore. From the roots she established a base that was able to more than hold the entirety of the ore plus some.

From there, she had the tree grow up and around the ore, covering the core in a protective shell. A shell that then dug through, and split holes into the rock. Within minutes, Alexa managed to create erosion and weathering events that would normally take years to accomplish. But she wasn’t done.

She forced the tree to grow up, and out. A rocky hairnet covered the mighty trunk of the tree. Alexa kept fueling the tree to grow taller and stronger. The energy she applied to the tree allowed the tree to split the rock apart. Then mighty branches grew, sprouting leaves.

Only once the tree was up and safe, did she begin the next stage of her plan. Slowly growing layer after layer to push the ore out, until finally it was fully exposed. As a thank you, Alexa let the tree live, letting it grow from its efforts to help her.

The minute she grabbed the glowing blue ore, she was met with a prompt.

Resource Energy Found. Current state Mithril: 143 units. Would you like to convert from Mithril for Gold (715), Silver (1,430), or Iron (7,150)?

In her mind Alexa also realized there was a tracker of the different resources she needed.

Current Quest Needs:

Mithril: 10 units

Gold: 50 units

Silver: 100 units

Iron: 500 units

Judging by the display, Alexa figured this was likely to get her used to the system in some way. Mithril was likely the rarest, but judging by the conversions she saw, it was clear that there was a ratio. Iron was the most common resource, and 500 units of Iron were the equivalent of 10 units of Mithril. Thus the 143 units of Mithril currently available could be converted to 7,150 units of Iron. Or 715 units of gold, which was five times more abundant.

Idly Alexa wondered if she could change it to a different ore type, maybe something rarer. When she tried, she was met with a system message.

Other resource options have been disabled for this Tutorial.

At that, a few things clicked.

First this showed that the Trials of Ascension were really just a tutorial, she had her suspicions on what the purpose of the tutorial was for but didn’t want to get too far into that process. For now, she was given four option and she needed to fill all four. Thinking that she would start with the hardest first, she removed her hand from the blue energy and was met with a message.

Resource Found: 143 units of Mithril.

Current Quest Needs:

Mithril: 143 / 10 units

Gold: 50 units

Silver: 100 units

Iron: 500 units

Nodding to herself, Alexa looked around the area. Out here, it was clear to see that different clumps of resources were spread throughout the area.

There were also dangerous monsters that seemed to make their lairs near resources.

Either this meant that the animals were attracted to the radiating energy of the resources, or this was something designed by the dungeon masters, these so-called architects, to help people identify areas of interest.

Regardless, Alexa began making her way around the different collection sites.

She had a lot to do and experiment with, especially with her two new cheats: Hands and Eyes of the Architect.

In all, these had to be the two best things she stole with her class’s abilities. Well, the second and third, she really liked the idea that she could help others through Healing. But these were definitely the next two on her list.

Especially as she realized she could revolutionize the way she delved dungeons in the future.

For now, she made it a point to first gather the resources needed here. Then she would make her way to the different settlements. Out here, this far away from all civilizations, there were pockets of resources all over.

The OCD part of her brain told her to collect every possible resource available. Which she did.

She would go into a new region, quickly slaughter the red animals nearby with different forms of her magic. Then go about harvesting the clumps of blue energy from deep below the earth.

In her mind, she almost wondered if Earth magic would be easier for this task. Unfortunately, Alexa had not met a practitioner of Earth magic. In her mind, she wondered if one of the yellow villages would have Earth magic users, or some other form of magic that she had not seen before.

Still, these were thoughts for a different day, or rather thoughts for later today. Before she knew it, she was greeting with a quest notification.

Quest Complete: Resources for War: You managed to gain more than the required number of resources needed for your chosen race.

Current Quest Needs:

Mithril: 143 / 10 units

Gold: 623 / 50 units

Silver: 1,187 / 100 units

Iron: 6,112 / 500 units

You have managed to gain more than the minimum amount of all resources. A completion bonus of 1,200% has been added to your marker. You may leave the third stage at any time.

With that, a rift in space appeared right where Alexa had entered the zone. The only reason she was even aware that the exit was at the same spot was she found her first tree standing there, not a dozen paces away from the dungeon exit.

Still, Alexa had not done nearly enough. At least, she felt that leaving now would just be a waste. With her primary objective for this stage complete, Alexa began focusing on the other intended portion of the dungeon. The dreaded social part.

With a deep breath she calmed herself and began walking towards the nearest village filled with yellow highlighted people. Alexa took this to mean that they were distrusting, but not overtly hostile. Still, it was worth trying to figure this color coding now, rather than later. As such Alexa moved forward and tried to see what other treasures she could unearth from these trials. It was going to be a long night, but Alexa was ready to discover what would come next.