[Ascension]

[Solstreus Magic Academy: Exchange Area]

Hecate got a total of 1,000,000 ACP from the exchange.

With this, she came to know that the exchange rate for Gold coins and ACP was 1:1, about the same with the exchange rate at the Genesis Guild, except the price of materials here were cheaper.

If she wanted to, maybe she could make a profit by exchanging materials from this place to the Genesis Guild. Although unfortunately, the materials that can be exchanged in this place are mostly easily obtained materials with a rarity ≤ 3★. As for materials from high-level monsters and dungeons, they were nowhere to be seen in the list.

Those cheap materials were mostly useless for high leveled Players, except for increasing the proficiency of Subclass skills.

"Well then, let's upgrade the badge."

Hecate placed the badge onto the plate and immediately after a confirmation window popped up, letting her know whether or not to spend 1,000,000 ACP to upgrade the badge.

Without further ado, she clicked the yes button.

At that instant, the surrounding lights on a small scale gathered on the badge, oscillated for a moment and then was absorbed into the badge. The shape of the badge gradually took on a more refined shape and the color changed from silver to gold.

'Oh... Is this the so-called Material Transmutation?'

Transmuting silver into gold theoretically is possible in the real world, but it requires a series of nuclear reactions. Thus, the cost of the process will be much more expensive than the gold itself. But in this game, this process can be simplified by magic.

Of course the gold badge wasn't the end of it.

"Exchange another 5,000,000."

"Exchange another 10,000,000."

She spent another 5,000,000 ACP to upgrade the badge from gold to platinum, and then another 10,000,000 ACP to do further upgrade from platinum to diamond.

The clerk went numb every time Hecate pulled out a bag containing 1,000,000, then a 2nd bag, a 3rd bag... In the end, he just mindlessly operated the instrument in front of him, giving Hecate the ACP she needed.

Looking at the item information window, Hecate nodded in satisfaction.

'So sweet! Behold, this is the power of money!'

Fortunately, she had brought enough Gold coins before she came, barely enough to upgrade the rank of the badge twice.

Now the bonus stats on the badge have been significantly improved, from an increase of +8 INT stat to +10 All stats, the +10% MP regen effect has now become +50% HP & MP regen, and the +10000 Max MP effect has become +30000 Max HP & MP.

Apparently unlike Silver Badges, Diamond Badges also increases the user's health bar, as well as their overall stats.

The Fixed Warp Portal spell limit of once per day has replaced by free use, but with a cooldown limit. There was also the addition of Fixed Warp Corridor spell which was equivalent to Corridor Crystal, which requires the use of a Teleportation Gate.

Most likely these effects were meant to be used by the veterans in this place, who personally went into the field.

'This is very good, now I can go to this place whenever I want.'

Hecate equipped the badge and opened her status screen.

After Hecate wore the badge, her Max HP now changed from 14,245 to 46,545.

That was about the standard of a vanilla Lv100 Lord Knight without wearing any HP boosting equipment. There's nothing wrong with more blood packs, as it means Hecate will be less fragile and able to take a few hits from enemies. Now, the Ghoul Slaughterer wouldn't be able to one-shot her anymore, even if she wasn't wearing the Cloak of the Fallen.

In addition, now that she had so much HP, she would be able to use some skills that requires HP to activate.

And most importantly was her Max MP, which has now changed from 77,570 to 99,870, which almost broke the 100k record she had dreamed of before. But of course, 46.5k HP and 99.8k MP was not the final number.

"Heart of Life! Heart of Mana!"

PSHAAW! PSHAAW!

The skill Heart of Life and Heart of Mana can temporarily increase Max HP and MP by another 37% for 65 minutes. With this, her Max MP easily surpassed the 100k mark. If all this MP were used for Mana Explosion, the results would definitely be fabulous!

There was also the +10 increase in overall stats, which caused her STR, AGI, and DEX to met the requirements to equip some of the equipment she previously had to leave behind.

Seeing her new stats, Hecate quickly came up with a plan to make efficient use of them.

'With some equipment changes, it seems possible to create a Battle Mage build without needing to reset stats.'

But that can wait for later.

Since she was already here, she might as well exchange the resources needed to practice engraving Glyphs.

"Exchange another 100,000, then I want to get some resources as well."

"...Okay, please tell me what do you need."

The clerk replied her with a complicated expression.

His worldview was greatly influenced by what this girl does today. This was the first time he had seen so many  Gold coins, and also the first time he had seen someone converting them into points.

He looked at the gold badge at his own chest. After seeing Hecate upgrade her badge three times in a row, he couldn't help but think that he had been living like a dog.

But, what does his thought matter to Hecate?

"1 liter of Magic Ink, 300 gram of Fairy Dust, 20 Low-Grade Ruby... also, these Knives, Wands..."

Hecate spent another 100,000 ACP to exchange for lot of materials, as well as some cheap equipment for practice, before leaving the Exchange Area.

♠♠♠

 

[Virtual Space: Stellabucks Coffee]

At the same time.

In the sea of the Quantum Network, there are many Virtual Spaces where people hang out. One of them is the VR-Cafe, Stellabucks Coffee which was visualized as an indoor-outdoor cafe built on a floating island.

In here, people can enjoy the taste of coffee from all over the world, including coffee that costs a fortune per cup at an affordable price, such as Kopi Luwak, Black Ivory, Finca el Injerto, and many more. It was said that the founder of this Virtual Space was a coffee enthusiast, who tries the taste of every coffee available on earth.

Two women could be seen sitting at one of the outdoor table cafe.

"Emi-cchi is late, did she overslept?"

"It's still 8 AM, about 30 minutes before the time agreed. I didn't think you will come earlier, Rena-san."

"But, arriving early for the appointment is the common sense, right?"

Naturally the two of them are Rena-cchi and Astrid.

Currently, they were not using their Ascension avatar, but using their live avatar which had been periodically synced with their resident ID.  No blonde hair, no dragon tail, no Paladin full-plate armor.

Just a normal high school girl and a normal office lady.

Rena-cchi drank the coffee she ordered in annoyance, but then noticed that Astrid didn't even touch her cup.

"Do you not like coffee, A-cchi-senpai?" (Rena-cchi)

"Well unfortunately, the coffee in this cafe is not to my liking." (Astrid)

Astrid replied calmly.

Naturally, being in the VR Space, all drinks served are virtual and not real. People still need to drink water in the real world to keep them hydrated. But it also means people don't have to worry about caffeine issues even if they over drinking.

Of course not everything was perfect. Many factors affect people's taste, such as the quality of the ingredients, the brewer's skill, the surrounding environment, and many more. Nevertheless, every taste of coffee served here was based on one person's perception.

This results in a difference in taste for people who have also tasted the same brand coffee in real life. 

"If the opportunity arises, I will invite you to taste the real coffee at our 5-star hotel."

"Really? Then I'll be honored."

Some people even think that the virtual coffee tastes fake, and not as good as the real thing. They claim that drinking virtual coffee here will only pollute their taste buds.

But that's another matter.

A few moments later, the cafe's Transfer Gate shone brightly, and a figure emerged from it.

Emilia came out from the gate, and quickly found the table where Rena-cchi and Astrid were sitting. At this moment, her appearance was not Ranger Elf Emilia, but high school girl Nayaka Emi.

She immediately walked to their direction.

"Emi-cchi! You're late! (Rena-cchi)

"Sorry I'm late... But I thought the promised time was 9 AM. Did I remember wrong?" (Emi)

"No, you're not wrong. Since we've gathered here, let's get down to business." (Astrid)

Hearing Astrid's words, Emilia nodded and took a seat.

Astrid waited for Emilia to sit properly before starting with self-introductions. Even if they had been guildmates for a year and a half, this would be the first time she had revealed her true name to them.

"Let's start with my introduction first. I am the secretary of the Tenz Company, Amamiya Asuka (雨宮明日香). You can call me Asuka, or Astrid as usual."

With a hand gesture, she materialized a holo screen displaying her ID card.

"Ah, I'm Kashiwagi Rena (柏木玲奈)."

"I'm Nayaka Emi (奈矢カ恵美)."

Both of them was surprised by the formality Astrid showed. They originally thought it was just a casual gathering between guildmates, but it seemed the situation was much more than that.

The Tenz Company... Isn't this one pretty big company with billions of assets?

They do as Astrid did and showed their holo ID cards as well.

"Thank you. By now you may be wondering why I called you two to meet here. Today, I would like to invite the two of you to work as interns in our company. Ah, by the way, the CEO is someone you know very well, that is... our leader."

"Eh!?" ×2

The two of them couldn't help but be shocked.