“Minus the 10% fee and the 1,400 gold you paid for that tablet, we owe you 7,600 gold,” Bethany said with a smile and passed her a massive sack. “The item you bought will be shipped by tomorrow morning, so do not forget to come and take it.”
Kiera took the sack in her hands, an uncontrollable grin on her small, artistic face. “Thank you, happy to do business with you.”
Truthfully, Kiera had nothing to do with such a huge sum of money, as she had no thought of settling down in the Darium Isle, but she thought that having money was always nice.
“No, we should thank you, now our Blue Rose Auction House’s already great reputation will skyrocket even further. We never sold two Mana Armaments at once, no matter the grade, as they are too rare to casually find in pairs.” the enchanting woman replied, her soft hand taking Kiera’s into a handshake.
“By the way, I have an unusual request…” Bethany spoke, “could you attack me with your strongest move?”
Kiera’s head tilted in puzzlement, taken aback by the woman’s weird request. “I have no problem, but the room might be destroyed.”
Bethany laughed, “if I could not disperse a small apprentice’s power, it would be a shame.”
“If you say so,” Kiera shrugged and took off her cloak, activating Eruption.
“She could kill me easily anyway, so might as well show all my cards.” Kiera thought as lightning and violet enveloped her small body, making the temperature around her rise exponentially.
She bent her knees and took her right leg backward, lightning gathering in her fist. She unleashed Destruction toward the woman, her fist splitting the air.
A muffled sound echoed in the room as Kiera was surprised to see her fully powered fist firmly grasped in Bethany’s delicate palm. She raised her head to look at the woman’s beautiful face, only to discover the latter’s eyes were widened in shock.
“Unexpectedly…” she murmured before her astonished expression was quickly replaced by a wide smile. “Fantastic, you are overwhelmingly powerful for your age!”
“I want to extend you an invitation to an important event,” she continued. “Would you be interested to hear about it?”
“Proceed,” Kiera said with a frown, unable to cope with the woman’s peculiarity.
“The Avelot Empire holds an annual tournament to commemorate the battle that turned the nation from a kingdom to the only empire in Darium. The tournament has three divisions, from the Silver Apprentice Division to the Diamond Apprentice Division. Each branch manager is required to send a participant to at least one division, and I’m interested in sponsoring you.” she explained.
“What do I get from this?” Kiera bluntly replied.
“The prize for the top three spots in each division is Experience Pellets, a rare resource that can instantly level someone up. The first spot gets enough to level an entire twenty levels, the second spot fifteen levels, and the third spot ten levels. Also, I will pay all your expenses in the trip, including the registration fee, so I think you don’t lose anything in this deal.” Bethany replied with a convincing tone.
Kiera was too attracted by the prizes to decline, pellets that could level her up an entire circulation? Why would she refuse such an offer? “You have a deal; when is that tournament?”
“In a month, but we need to depart at least three days before.”
“So 29 days…” Kiera mused, “I don’t think I’ll still be a Silver Apprentice by then. Or Copper Apprentice, to be exact...”
"What do you mean?" It was Bethany's turn to be surprised.
"You'll find that I tend to level up quite quickly," Kiera casually said before going to the door. "Well then, goodbye for the meantime."
She returned to the Redfly Inn and tried to level up Tyrant Regeneration by hurting herself, but to no avail. She discovered that the skill’s current level was too advanced for it to be improved by such tricks, so she decided to pass the time by just sleeping.
The next morning she checked out of the Redfly Inn and took the stone tablet from the Blue Rose Auction House. Holding the tablet in her hands, Kiera felt a deep connection stemming from her bloodline, her mana turning restless from the contact.
She bought a big backpack in a clothing store and put the things her inventory couldn’t store inside. Boarding a private flight to Lanvale, Kiera bid a temporary farewell to Ironfront City.
Three hours later, she arrived at Lanvale and rented a room in an inconspicuous inn in the outskirts of the town. Then she ran at top speed directly to the ancestral platform, reaching its place within a few minutes.
She took the stone tablet out of her inventory, confident the two were connected. She remembered how she activated the stone platform the first time and climbed it, placing the tablet on the violet floor.
Then, she used her dagger to cut her palm, dropping her blood directly on the tablet. The platform suddenly shone brightly, the light concentrating on the stone tablet before it enveloped Kiera.
The scenery immediately changed as Kiera found herself standing in a violet world. In the distance, Kiera saw hundreds of mountain peaks bombard by constant lightning bolts; the noise of the devastating collision could be heard even from her position.
Kiera couldn’t process what she saw before she noticed a notification at the corner of her eyes.
[Tynan’s Secret Realm. Note: drop your blood on the key to exit.]
“Tynan!?” Kiera exclaimed, “did he find this place? No, if it’s named after him, he might even be the creator!”
“How powerful do you need to be to create such a place…?” she mumbled, gaining a newfound recognition of how big a deal the Tyrannical Lightning Lineage was.
Her instincts were overwhelmingly drawn to the mountains on the horizon, it was an insuppressible attraction, stemming from her blood and runic tattoos, and so she went on.
For a long while, all she saw around her was a never-ending violet desert, but as she got closer to the mountains, Kiera spotted what seemed like a forest in the distance.
Using Vanishing Step, Kiera arrived at the forest within half an hour. Her gaze froze as she stared at the giant violet trees, or rather the dozens of violet fruits that were on each of their massive branches.
“A-all of these are Ancestral Fruits?!” the little girl raised her childish voice in wonder, immediately testing her theory. She bit on one of the fruits, its soft, juicy flesh entering her
stomach. A warm feeling spread in her body as she felt a familiar power regenerate her lost mana and stamina within moments.
“Those are really Ancestral Fruits— a whole forest of them, goddammit!” she laughed frantically, “if I can bring at least a few hundreds of these out, I won’t need to worry about running out of mana for a long time!”
“I guess the mountains are beyond this forest,” she said and vanished, speeding between the trees.
Kiera was soon irritated by how big the forest was; she spent hours moving at her full speed in a straight line, passing thousands of kilometers, yet the end was nowhere in sight. Her mana and stamina were drained completely three times already, replenished by the fruits.
A whole day seemed to pass before Kiera could see the exit of the limitless forest. The deafening sound of thunder echoed near her ears as Kiera reached the foot of the mountain range.
But what welcomed her sight was quite different than what she expected. The base of the tallest mountain was actually a massive violet door exuding an extremely profound aura of Tyrannical Lightning.
The aura resonated with Kiera’s own, absentmindedly drawing the girl toward the metallic door. She carefully placed her palm on the smooth surface, triggering a notification to appear in front of her.
[‘Trial of the Three Vampiric Kings,’ enter? Y/N.]
Kiera mused, a trial seemed out of a blue, why should she be tested all of a sudden? Then again, trials had rewards, and she didn’t think such a powerful magician would do anything without a reason.
As it was her senior, she could at least conclude it wasn’t a trap— her whole being was drawn to whatever was beyond that door, and her instincts, she trusted more.
“Yes.”
[Individual {Kiera Ashborn} is not eligible to enter the ‘Trial of the Three Vampiric Kings.’ Passive skill {Lightning Resistance Lv.15} required, 300+ for each battle stat required.]
“Fuck,” Kiera read the notification and instantly understood what her senior meant by putting the resistance requirement. She moved her gaze to the natural disaster above, her pupils narrowing at the catastrophic spectacle of the lightning crashing on the rock.
“I’ll be blown to smithereens if I even try to get close to the peak,” Kiera judged. “But I think I can handle the scattered bolts that reach the middle.”
However, her stats were also insufficient, meaning she had to level up. Well, she was already here, so she might as well work on the resistance requirement first.
She emptied her inventory from anything that was not an ancestral fruit and filled the newly blank spots with more ancestral fruit, placing her items beneath the shade of a tree.
"High risk-high reward, I guess." Kiera convinced herself what she was going to do was not absolute lunacy. Then, she vanished, climbing the 10,000 meters tall mountain.
She could feel bits and pieces of Tyrannical Lightning energy even at the 500 meters mark, understanding she wouldn't need to climb too high for the aftermath to properly affect her.
By the 1,000 mark, she already felt numb pain, and by the 1,500 mark, her skin slowly charred from the energy. Only at the 2,000 marks did she got seriously injured, deciding it was time to stop.
She found a small cliff and sat there, activating Tyrant Regeneration. Her elegant skin turned into ash at a pace even her Lv. 13 Tyrant Regeneration could barely keep up with. Areas of flesh and muscles repeatedly exploded, revealing broken black bones a step from turning into dust, Tyrant Regeneration the only shield keeping them from disappearing until their flesh armor regenerated.
Kiera clenched her teeth at the searing pain, or whatever was left of them, frequently screaming in agony before her vocal cords became ash. Her hair, the weakest part of her body, repeatedly vanished and sprouted while the doll-like face beneath it melted, transforming into the stuff of horrors.
But the torturous training proved to be fruitful, as after a few minutes, Kiera was pleased to see the first notification turning in.
[Skill upgrade! {Lightning Resistance Lv.5} advanced into {Lightning Resistance Lv.6}]
However, though Kiera had the means to replenish her mana dozens of times, she needed to consider the mental fatigue such extreme training did, so she decided to take a break after several hours.
She descended the mountain and checked the last few notifications she received, her Lightning Resistance and a few other skills leveled up nicely, but there was one notification she did not expect the receive.
[Skill upgrade! {Lightning Resistance Lv. 8} advanced into {Lightning Resistance Lv.9}]
[Skill upgrade! {Physical Resistance Lv.10} advanced into {Physical Resistance Lv.11}]
[Skill upgrade! {Pain Resistance Lv.11} advanced into {Pain Resistance Lv.12}]
[Skill upgrade! {Tyrant Regeneration Lv.13} advanced into {Tyrant Regeneration Lv.14}]
[Due to your long exposure to lighting, your body is tempered and your manipulation of Solar Lightning improves. +10 for all battle stats.]
Realization clouded her eyes when she saw the message— there was never a need for her to level up! The Tyrannical Lightning constantly broke down her body, while Tyrant Regeneration constantly healed it back. Therefore, the process was akin to maniacal muscle training.
As Kiera’s Strength stat grew, her Agility and Dexterity were naturally affected as her body improved. And the constant exposure to her attribute also improved her control of it, affecting her Wisdom stat.
She rested for a while before impatiently returning to her training, taking newfound joy in the consistent self-harm. The more the lightning and power energy broke her body, the more she looked forward to the later harvest.
Kiera spent what seemed to her like days in an extreme routine of long training and short resting. When she felt her body became too strong for her spot, she climbed another dozen meters, slowly closing in on the 2,500 mark.
However, every good thing had to end, and Kiera discovered that the lightning energy intensified far beyond what she could take with her current strength at that mark, prompting her to reluctantly end her training there.
“Open Status Window.”
[Name: Kiera Ashborn
Race: Human (Dimension Crosser)
Gender: Female
Age: 0 (physical age: 10)
Magician Rank: Copper Apprentice Magician Lv.5
Attribute: Tyrannical Lightning
Titles: Voidborne (command ‘Voidborne’ to show details)
General Stats:
Health: 46,845/46,845
Stamina: 47,115/47,115
Mana: 46,845/46,845
Battle Stats:
Strength: 347
Dexterity: 348
Agility: 349
Wisdom: 347
Skills:
Active:
General-
{Identify Lv.1}
Attribute Skills-
{Tyrannical Regeneration Lv.20} {Eye of the Tyrant Lv.4} {Eruption Lv.5} {Destruction Lv.9} {Flashburst Lv.5} {Vanishing Step Lv.12}
Passive:
General-
{Crafting Lv.1} {Lightning Resistance Lv.15} {Physical Resistance Lv.18} {Pain Resistance Lv.16} {Heat Resistance Lv.12}
Attribute Skills-
{Tyrannical Lightning Body Lv.7} {Way of the Tyrant Lv.6}]
All her resistances made an explosive leap, as they were all connected to the effects of the Tyrannical Lightning energy Kiera suffered through. She was joyed to see her Tyrannical Lightning Body also leveled up, but when she thought about it again— it was only logical.
The Tyrannical Lightning Body was not just a skill; it was a skill that represented her body’s type. So it was only natural that when her entire being was strengthened, the skill would advance as well.
Feeling prepared, Kiera touched the giant violet door, replying “yes!” to the notification.
