With that unnerving realization, the incident with the monster swarm at the walls came to an end.

However, even though the two monster swarms had withdrawn, they didn’t leave Alice’s mind.

Monsters had worked with each other. Monsters had used some sort of facsimile Perks during a fight. Monsters were potentially using some sort of knockoff system now.

Alice wasn’t sure which of those pieces of information was more terrifying, but combined, they spoke of an entirely new threat to humanity. This was on top of everything else that had recently gone wrong.

Alice was starting to feel more than a little exhausted and frustrated.

After the trio returned to Illa’s manor, she threw herself onto the bed Illa had provided, flopped over, and laid down as waves of emotions started pounding at her head.

For two weeks, she had been running off of stress and a vague sense of responsibility. She had at least some ability to interact with the crisis, and she didn’t want to be the kind of person that stood by and watched as people suffered and died. Alice wanted to stay safe and take care of herself first, but when push came to shove, she was happy to help other people, as long as it didn’t greatly inconvenience her.

But everything was just starting to feel like it was too much for her.

Every single time she started working on a solution to one problem, another problem appeared. Every single step Alice took, it felt like she was still five steps behind the unfolding crisis. Every single solution needed days or weeks of planning to execute, while new crises appeared one after another, like the many heads of a hydra. Alice kept searching and hoping for some sort of magic-bullet that would cure the whole situation, but unless Alice found a way to restore the System tomorrow, she had no idea how to fix everything.

For a few moments, Alice simply laid on her bed and stared at the ceiling, trying to put the intrusive thoughts of how frustrating everything felt aside. She also tried to push aside the nagging voice in the back of her mind, reminding her of just how much failure would cost her – and how much the collapse of the System needed to be resolved somehow.

And for the first time, Alice curled up and cried in her bed. The number of different problems, issues, and catastrophes in the making just felt overwhelming, and she needed a few hours to just… not think for a while.

After several minutes of losing control, Alice slowly pulled herself back together. She took a quick look at her eyes and cheeks, to make sure her eyes weren’t too messy.

Even if Alice was starting to feel overwhelmed, she knew what Ethan would say if she walked around looking like she had just spent several minutes crying. She was a potential Immortal, and one of the key researchers in figuring out how to combat the collapse of the System. If it looked like Alice was losing hope, it would definitely lead to a huge morale problem among the [Guards] and Cecilia’s Mages. She needed to look like she had everything under control, even if it definitely didn’t feel that way to her right now.

She took a few minutes to collect herself, and ate some snacks that she had stuck in her storage Perk. Alice had stored a few rations and miscellaneous supplies in her storage Perk for if she needed some food quickly, and she had also bought a few treats using some of the money Ethan had paid her.

She took a cake out of her storage, used her kinetic mana to carve out a slice of it, and took the time to eat a slice before she felt herself start to relax a bit.

Then, feeling slightly more collected, Alice left her room and went to find Ethan. A few minutes later, she found his room and knocked on the door.

“Alice. Come in,” said Ethan, his voice flat and controlled as usual.

Alice opened the door, and saw Ethan sitting on the other side. He looked far more composed than Alice – he had several pieces of paper in front of him, which, Alice realized with some surprise, seemed to list the combat classes and Perks of several people in Cyra.

This certainly caught Alice off-guard. People usually guarded their combat information very closely. People didn’t tend to know about other people’s combat abilities unless they were either close to each other, or had been spying on the other party.

Yet, right in front of Ethan, the combat information of thirty of the [Guards] in Illvaria was neatly listed out. Some of them had scouting related Perks. Some of them had direct combat related Perks. Some of them had antimagic Perks. However, all of the Perks the [Guards] of Cyra had were listed in front of Ethan, with detailed explanations of the Perk’s text and all of the uses each [Guard] had found for their skillset.

“Combat information?” asked Alice. “From [Spies]?”

“No, from the [Soldiers] themselves,” said Ethan.

Alice blinked in surprise. “Really? I mean, if people were advertising noncombat abilities, that would make sense, since that’s normal, but… they gave you information about their combat abilities?” Alice still didn’t quite believe it.

Ethan nodded.

“Before you reached the walls, some people noticed a few other ‘odd’ monsters. The two monsters that used Perks that you noticed during the fight weren’t the only monsters to display unusual abilities – there were three more. One had a self-healing ability, one more seemed to have something akin to a mage Perk that let it use two different kinds of magic at once, and the final one was abnormally physically strong. I shared your speculation that the monsters are using some sort of knockoff System Perks with the [Guards]… and that got quite the reaction out of them. Plenty of [Guards] have family members that live in the town, after all, and with things already being chaotic, people are naturally nervous about hints that things will get even worse.

“I asked Illa to persuade her [Guards] to share information about their combat Perks, primarily because we need to make any enchantment-material gathering parties far more resilient against monster attacks than before. She’s running a bit low on funds right now, so she and I came to an agreement about funding Cyra and increasing the number of combat professionals in the area, in exchange for Illa’s town almost entirely dedicating itself to harvesting the enchanting materials we need,” said Ethan. “The information on what people’s Perks do and what Classes they have was an extra program initiated by Illa, and encouraged with the help of some money and a few other benefits. Normally, [Guards] just give a general overview of what they’re good at to their [Commanders], but with exact descriptions from the [Guards], we can put together much better balanced and efficient teams. Of course, not all of them agreed – but about half of them did.” Ethan shrugged. “Honestly, it’s more than I was expecting. It seems people are more scared than I thought they would be.”

Alice nodded, but Ethan’s words brought to mind another problem that she needed to think about.

Enchantment materials were going to be harder than ever to come across. Now that the monsters in the area were stronger than before, it wasn’t going to be as simple as rounding up a few [Adventurers] and having them scrape away the tree bark Alice needed anymore. Now, anyone who was in the woods without armed [Guards] protecting them would probably get eaten alive. Obviously, that would make it harder to get tree bark or other enchanting materials, which meant that getting the materials Alice needed for enchantments would be even harder to acquire than before.

Possibly even [Messengers] between cities would be affected, shutting down the flow of information and goods within Illvaria. As if there weren’t enough logistical and communication problems already.

Alice felt her stress and frustration start to build up again, and took a few deep breaths to calm herself. If she started crying in Ethan’s room, Alice would probably die of embarrassment afterwards. Alice sighed.

Ethan looked at Alice for a moment, and frowned.

“Are you all right?” He asked.

“Just stressed out,” said Alice, resisting the urge to rub her forehead in frustration. “There are too many things going wrong at once, now that the System is gone. When I first arrived on this world, I just thought the System was incredibly weird and fascinating, and I enjoyed exploring it and poking and prodding it, to see how it worked. But now, it feels like every couple days, something else implodes because the System isn’t handling it anymore. Now we even have to worry about monsters using perks from the System, a problem that has never once plagued this world before as far as I know. And it’s just…” Alice shook her head. “Anyway, I’ll get back to it. We need to get a proper enchantment prepared, for whenever we finally get an enchanting material that can handle filtration mana set up.”

Ethan looked at Alice for a moment, and then sighed. “Alice… while I do forget what it’s like to be more… normal sometimes, I can see that stress is wearing at you. A lot. How about you take the rest of the day off?”

Alice blinked in confusion. “What?”

“Look… your psychological state is important as well. We don’t have a lot of time… but a lot of your work relies more on creativity than simply putting more hours in. I didn’t bring a [Psychologist] with us to help treat mental issues, but… I believe that at some point you mentioned having a few acquaintances in Cyra, right? One was named… Milo, I think? And the other was father Friedheim, the person who runs this town’s church? Why don’t you visit them? Leave the problems of monsters and Perks to me – in the first place, you’re a researcher, not a [General] or a [Commander]. Troop management issues aren’t really your domain to handle in the first place. If you get the time, I’d still appreciate you looking over a few spidercrabs once I round some up, just to see if you can figure anything out. But I also imagine that with the number of other problems on your plate, throwing another one at you might not really be the way to go,” said Ethan. “One of Cecilia’s Mages succeeded in forming a display magic seed with your help, right? They should be able to start taking over a little bit of your workload. Leave them to handle the process of figuring out an enchantment for display mana and mass-producing it. That’s why you and Cecilia chose these Mages in the first place, right? To share some of the workload? You’re trying very hard to do everything yourself despite actively training a team to help you manage these problems. You could turn over what progress you’ve made so far and let the Mages you brought with you hash out some more of the details.”

Alice paused, then nodded. Ethan was right. She was still trying to do an awful lot of different things on her own – which was probably part of the reason why Alice felt so low on time. If Alice tried to do everything herself, in the future, no matter how many minutes and hours she had in a day, it would never be enough. Alice had already found a way to use her Perks to get a full 24 hours of work done every single day. Of those, Alice spent about 20 of them working, with 1-2 hours of pleasure reading and 2 hours of meals, bathroom breaks, and other bodily necessities set aside. There really wasn’t much left that Alice could remove to work more unless she stopped needing to eat in the near future.

“I’ll go visit my acquaintances in Cyra,” she said, after a few moments. “While we aren’t the closest, I might as well still see how they’re doing.”

Ethan nodded, and Alice left Illa’s manor.

* * *

Even though it had been months since Alice was last in Cyra, thanks to her memory boosting Perks, she still perfectly remembered the way to the church of the System, and also remembered the areas Milo usually worked.

Alice hesitated for a while, before she decided to find Milo first. She had always enjoyed chatting with the simply [Kinetic Mage], and seeing him again might be good for her mind.

She searched through town for a while, and asked several passerby if they had seen Milo. After several minutes of walking around, Alice finally found Milo – on his way to the church of the System.

“Sir Milo!” said Alice the moment she saw him.

“Lady Alice,” he said giving her an easy grin. “It’s been… months, hasn’t it? A pretty long time. I’m glad to hear that you’re doing so well.” Milo chuckled. “it’s a bit odd, thinking that in just six months, you went from working on the docks with me like any other construction Mage to becoming the apprentice of an Immortal. Funny how life works sometimes, isn’t it?”

“Indeed,” said Alice, feeling a bit of weight fall off of her shoulders. “Are you heading to the church of the System right now?”

“I am. I wanted to borrow the holy book for a while – I know that recently, it’s hard to see our Perks properly, but I was thinking about planning my build, for whenever that gets fixed. I also like to look at the higher rank Achievement sometimes and dream…” said Milo, before laughing. “Not that I’m eager to tackle some of the more ridiculous Achievement requirements listed in the holy book. But a man can still daydream, right?”

As Milo spoke, the two arrived at the church of the System. Alice took a look at the church, since it had been months since she was last here. The walls of the church seemed a bit less vividly painted than they had been when she was last in Cyra, but the depictions of various Immortals using impressive Perks were still as clear as before.

Now that Alice had met three of Illvaria’s six Immortals, she was pretty sure she could at least vaguely recognize a few of the paintings. The Immortal drawn on the outer wall of the church using magic tendrils to heal someone looked kind of like Ethan, and another of the paintings of a woman singing looked like Allira. Of course, there were still several paintings on the walls of the Church of the System that didn’t seem to correspond to any Illvarian Immortal.

Alice took a deep breath, and then stepped into the church with Milo.

There weren’t any other people in the church besides the other person Alice wanted to see. Inside of the church was a [Priest of the System] Alice knew well.

“Father Friedheim,” said Alice.

“Lady Alice! It has been… quite a few months now. I heard that you were doing quite well in the capital. Apprentice of an Immortal?” Father Friedheim gave Alice a warm smile. “I’m glad to see that life in the capital agrees with you.” Then, he turned towards Milo. “And Sir Milo. It is good to see you. Are you here to see the book of the System again?”

Milo gave Father Friedheim a friendly nod.

Father Friedheim turned back towards Alice. “You should tell me more about how you’ve been doing in the capital! I’d love to hear about how you became the apprentice of an immortal firsthand. I’m sure it must be quite the story.”

Alice nodded, and gave father Friedheim a slightly strained grin. “It was a bit… stressful. It involved a Society attack and a few near scrapes with death, but I’m glad Honored Immortal Ethan opted to take me under his wing. I just find myself quite short on time these days.”

Father Friedheim laughed. “Being short on time is the curse of those searching for divinity by following the path of the System. The System demands much from us, in exchange for the blessings it gives. It is the way forward. One cannot get anything without first putting in hard work and effort, as well as overcoming the trials in front of them.” His eyes shone. “In recent times, I hear that you have been overcoming the trials of our current times exceptionally well. And you’ve even made some progress on shining a path towards the System’s trial?”

“System’s… trial?” asked Alice. She glanced at Milo, who seemed to be suppressing the urge to shrug.

Father Friedheim nodded eagerly. “The System’s trial. The fact that currently, our status screens display gibberish when we try to pick a new Perk, and that Mages are in danger if they form a new seed, and monsters have grown stronger. All of them must be trials of the System,” Father Friedheim said.

Alice felt a little bit surprised by Father Friedheim’s interpretation. He seemed to approve of Alice’s work and progress towards reaching immortality. At the same time, he also didn’t seem to take the current crisis very seriously, and didn’t seem to think much of Alice’s research. His stance was rather… odd.

“So… how do you feel about my… studies?” asked Alice, more curious than afraid.

 “I’ve heard from several reliable sources that the System itself has approved of your research,” said Father Friedheim, giving Alice an amused look. “It gave you an Achievement for it, no? If even the System itself approves of your actions, who am I to question it? Though I do think you’re misunderstanding the current situation. The System is surely giving people more room to grow without its benevolence. I fail to understand whether this is a trial given to the world by the System, so that we may grow stronger because of it, or whether this is a warning to us, if we have taken actions that displease the System, perhaps by being overly lazy. But it would make no sense for the System to give you Achievements if it disapproved of your actions. I fail to see why some of the other [Priests] of the System don’t understand this. Ignoring the signs and words of the System is, perhaps, the true reason the System has seen fit to give us this trial.” Father Friedheim sighed. “It is a shame, but I’m sure we can all pass it and things will return to normal once the System feels it’s time. Either way, I’m glad to see you again. You have grown much from your original days here in Cyra, and it’s always nice to see an acquaintance doing well. Come, tell me about your time in Metsel. I will make some tea.” He turned toward Milo. “Would you like some too? If Lady Alice is going to have a cup of tea and chat for a while, you’re free to grab a cup of tea as well and join us.”

At Father’ Friedheims’ words, Alice felt herself relax a bit. She had never been particularly religious – on Earth, she had been an atheist, and that hadn’t really changed since coming to Luliv. Alice felt the existence of mana and the System was basically indisputable, but she didn’t really feel that either were gods.

But even though Alice wasn’t religious, Father Friedheim had still given her a fair amount of emotional support during her first few weeks in Cyra. She was surprised to learn how relieved she felt that the [Priest] didn’t hate her for her research.

Milo gave Father Friedheim a nod, and Alice and Milo quickly seated themselves at a table in one of the side rooms, obviously meant for entertaining guests.

The three settled down over a few cups of tea, and Alice started telling Father Friedheim and Milo about her studies in her magic academy, her run-ins with the Society of Starry Eyes, and her time learning under Immortal Ethan. Father Friedheim seemed fascinated by Alice’s tales about her run-ins with the Society of Starry Eyes, her attempts to make mana baptisms safer, and Alice’s stories about mundane life in a magic academy. Milo instead seemed to be caught up in old memories when Alice talked about the magic academy. At the end of Alice’s story about rescuing Samantha from the Society, Milo gave her a gentle grin.

“You did a pretty good job, kid. It takes a lot of guts to put yourself in danger to help someone you care about.” He gave her an approving nod.

Eventually, Alice ran out of stories to tell about her time in the capital, so Milo and Father Friedheim began telling Alice about what she had missed in Cyra. There hadn’t been any major events that Alice had missed, but there had been plenty of steady growth and minor events.

Eventually, Alice pulled a board game out of her storage Perk, and the three played a round of The Settlers before it started to get dark.

As Alice walked back towards Illa’s manor, she reflected that it hadn’t been a very productive day, but she felt much less tense and strained afterwards.

All in all, it had been good to take a break.