Chapter 139
“Honored Immortal Ethan, Lady I is at the door of the manor. She has requested to see you, and also requested to schedule a meeting with her former [Student],” said someone from the shadows, startling Alice out of her discussion with Ethan.
“I?” said Alice, suddenly feeling very confused. The first person she thought of when she heard the name ‘I’ was the leader of Cyra, who had spent a few months training her when she was new to this world. However, the idea that I would have shown up here and requested to see her was very strange. Why in the world would I havee to Metsel in order to see her? Didn’t she have a town to run?
Alice turned towards Ethan, and hoped that he would exin what was going on. Ethan, instead of telling her what was going on, simply looked at her and grinned.
Alice stared at Ethan some more, until Ethan finally burst outughing. “You need to work on controlling your facial expressions, Alice. Yes, the I outside is the same one you know. I admit, I haven’t confirmed why she’s here. But I assume she gathered some sort of information about the copse of the System, and then came here to ask you what you knew?” Ethan grinned. “There’s a reason she lived through so many close scrapes in the military. She has good instincts, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she figured out that you’re the best source of information about the current crisis. Although I’m a bit surprised that she managed to get to Metsel so quickly. Perhaps she has a Perk that lets her move more quickly? Or perhaps she simply got information about the copse of the System more quickly than I expected. I wasn’t sure if I woulde to see you, but I had thought it would take her another week or two to arrive if she did.”
Alice felt her memories of I spring to mind, and after a few moments of consideration, she nodded.
During the time she had spent in Cyra with I, Alice had shown herself to be extremely interested in mana, the System, and how this world as a whole worked during the time she had interacted with I. Heck, Alice had explicitly told I about the Achievement she had gotten for observing the interaction between Attributes and mana. Even if Alice hadn’t outright said she was studying the System, it wouldn’t be very hard for I to put two and two together, especially if I knew that [Priests of the System] were talking about the copse of the System and how people should mitigate its impact. The information about the System and how it worked would have had toe from <em>somewhere</em>, and I was certainly smart enough to put all of the information she had together and realize Alice had been researching the System all this time.
“Are you willing to meet with her?” asked Ethan, breaking Alice out of her thoughts. “If you aren’t willing to see her, you are free to leave the room for a while,” he said. “I intend to speak with her, since she is your former [Teacher] and she could have a role to y in stabilizing this whole mess. But you are naturally free to make your own decisions. I will not force you to see people you don’t want to.” Ethan paused. “Although I do think that speaking with her would be beneficial.”
<em>And so Ethan will still encourage me to meet with I, even if he won’t actually force me to</em>, though Alice,pleting the rest of Ethan’s words in her mind.
Alice thought about it. <em>Was</em> she willing to meet with I?
While most of I’s reasons that she had helped Alice in the past were pragmatic, it was also true that Alice had received a fair amount of assistance from I during her initial months in this world. Not to mention, I had been very fair in her dealings with Alice during the time Alice had worked with her. She had always made it as clear as possible what consequences Alice could expect to deal with if she worked with the woman, and even raised Alice’s payment during the expedition to see the broken mana zone outside Cyra, once it became clear that Alice was in more danger than expected. In Alice’s mind, that action proved that I was a fair person.
Alice could also see some benefits to working with I. Alice was currently in desperate need of weird enchanting materials. The south of Illvaria was known for producing enchanting materials, even if it was currently rather underdeveloped. I was the leader of one of the best maintained towns in the South, since it was ruled by a massively overleveled [Warmage] with connections to the military and a surplus of Mages. While most southern towns struggled to draw in Mages, I had managed to hold on to the Mages in her town. Her city was also positioned on a river that many trade routes from the south to the north passed through. It seemed likely that I could help Alice resolve her pressing needs for enchanting materials.
“I’d be happy to see her again,” said Alice after she finished thinking.
“Good,” said Ethan, giving Alice a curious look. “Well, potentially good. Why did you agree?”
“I was thinking about the potential for getting enchanting materials, and the fact that the previous cooperation I had with I turned out well. I is fair and easy to work with,” said Alice. “And she also has direct ess to several southern trade routes, and direct ess to the southern Illvarian wilderness. I know that that a lot of Illvaria’s enchanting materials used toe from the south, so I is in a position where she could help us get ess to arge quantity of weird and potentially useful enchanting materials. I know that you said that you would have a set of sample enchanting materials for me to work with tomorrow, but getting ess to more raw materials could be critical if we want to get arge number of [Enchanters] working on this problem. And having more options is never a bad thing.”
Ethan grinned incredibly widely. “You’re learning to think properly about how and when to interact with people. I’m very d that some of my lessons are sinking in.” After that, the two of them fell into afortable silence as they waited for the new visitor toe to the meeting room. A short timeter, I Weissaurus came to the room, before giving Alice and Ethan curious nces.
“Honored Immortal Ethan,” said I, giving Ethan a respectful nod. “I thank you for being willing to meet with me, and allowing me to see my old [Student].”
Then, she turned back towards Alice, and Alice saw a brief moment of confusion on I’s face, as if she wasn’t quite sure how to address Alice now. Ultimately, she gave Alice a quick nod. “Lady Alice,” said I. “I am d to see that you are doing well.” Then, Alice saw a little bit of the pragmatism and bluntness that had characterized all of her interactions with I fade away, and I gave her a cheeky grin. “Perhaps saying you’re doing ‘well’ is an understatement. Honored Immortal Ethan does not take in many apprentices per century, and I imagine that you’ve levelled quite significantly. The way you sit is much more poised as well. Is your [Dexterity] simply much higher than before? Or have you taken some kind of {Etiquette} lessons?” I’s grin widened. “If you weren’t <em>very</em> promising, I doubt Ethan would waste time helping you learn {Etiquette}, so you must be doing quite well, both as far as levelling speed goes and as far as societal position goes.”
Alice felt a hint of pride as I mentioned her levelling progress and the strides she had made over the past six months. When she had left Cyra, her highest level ss had been level 47. She had already felt decent about her progress at that time – after all, the average adult in Illvaria was somewhere between level 40 and level 60, depending on their age, Achievements, and work ethic. For Alice to reach the same level in only a few months had felt quite good to her at the time, even if she knew that a lot of her sess came from the advantage of being born on Earth and picking up the {Outworlder} Achievement right after arriving on this.
However, Alice’s status screen had grown leaps and bounds since thest time I had seen her.
Alice nced at her Status Screen again, to see just how much she had grown.
Name: Alice Verianna
Age: 16
Strength: 117 -> 119 (122%)
Perception: 139 -> 140 (165%)
Dexterity: 119 -> 120 (124%)
Intelligence: 169 -> 170 (128%)
Endurance: 134 -> 135(121%)
Willpower: 148 -> 152 (108 -> 109%)
Charisma: 132 -> 133 (107%)
Magic: 164 -> 167 (122%)
Primary sses: 6/6
Survivor: 56 -> 59
Explorer of Magic: 75 -> 78
Schr: 55 -> 60
Scientist: 58 -> 62
Kic Manabinder: 41 -> 44
Careful Enchanter: 27 -> 30
Evolved sses: 2
Student of Kic Magic: 25
(Apprentice) Enchanter: 25
Secondary sses: 2
Fisherwoman: 3
Student: 8
Student of Organic Magic: 11 -> 24
Courtier: 1
Perks:
<strong>Survivor Perks:</strong>
Foraging (Survivor 5)
Microbe Resistance (Survivor 10)
Extremophile (Survivor 15)
Camouged (Survivor 20)
Enhanced Training (Survivor 30)
Moderate Tissue Regeneration (Survivor 40)
Adrenaline Rush (Survivor 45)
Extended Organics (Survivor 50)
Enhanced Senses (Tier 2) (Survivor 55)
<strong>Explorer of Magic Perks:</strong>
Enhanced Regeneration (Explorer of Magic 10)
Seeds of Magic (Explorer of Magic 25)
Broken Seed (Upgraded) (Explorer of Magic 35)
Expanding Comprehension (Tier 2) (Explorer of Magic 55)
Combat Seed (Tier 2) (Explorer of Magic 60)
Intuitive Magic Modelling (Tier 2) (Explorer of Magic 65)
Seeds of Ambition (Tier 2) (Explorer of Magic 75)
<strong>Schr Perks:</strong>
elerated Thinking (Schr level 15 (-5))
Rhetorical Flourish (Schr level 20)
Photographic Memory (Schr level 25)
Improved Multitasking (Schr level 30)
Schr of Magic (Schr level 35)
Lesser Organic Vision (Schr 40)
Sleep Reading (Tier 2) (Schr 55)
Delve Memories (Tier 2) (Schr 60)
<strong>Scientist Perks:</strong>
Precise mana Measurement (Scientist level 5)
Sample Collection (Scientist level 10)
Safety Analysis (Scientist Level 20)
Shared Memory (Scientist Level 25)
Advanced Mana Measurement (Scientist Level 30)
For Science! (Scientist 45)
Speed Experimentation (Tier 2) (Scientist 55)
No_Mana (Tier 2) (Scientist 60)
<strong>Kic Mage Perks:</strong>
Object Control (Student of Kic Magic 5)
Above Average Mana Sight (Student of Kic Magic 10)
Folds of Magic (Student of Kic Magic 15)
Split Mind (Student of Kic Magic 20)
Improved Object Control (Sensory Enhancement) (Student of Kic Magic 25)
Mana''s Binding (Kic Manabinder 5)
Enhanced Focus (Kic Manabinder 10)
Vastly Improved Kic Vision (Kic Manabinder 15)
Overclock (Kic Manabinder 20)
Kic Enchanting (Kic Manabinder 25)
Reflection (Kic Manabinder 30)
Kic Tendrils (Kic Manabinder 35)
Speed Analysis (Kic Manabinder 40)
<strong>Enchanter Perks:</strong>
Enchanter''s Vision (Apprentice Enchanter 5)
Monstrous Enchanting (Apprentice Enchanter 10)
Faster Enchanting (Apprentice Enchanter 15)
Faster Mana Regeneration (Apprentice Enchanter 20)
Speed Enchanting (Apprentice Enchanter 25)
Repurposing (Careful Enchanter level 5)
Blueprint (Careful Enchanter level 10)
Enchanter''s Basic Magic Seed (Careful Enchanter level 15)
Pride of a Craftswoman (Careful Enchanter 20)
Enchanter''s Armory (Careful Enchanter 25)
<strong></strong>
<strong>Organic Mage Perks:</strong>
Improved Organic Maniption (Organic Mage 5)
Patient''s_Yes (Organic Mage 10)
Skills
<strong>Academic Skills:</strong>
English (Language Proficiency): 100
Illvarian (Language Proficiency): 100
Sigmusi (Language Proficiency): 7
Russian (Language Proficiency): 1
Verinthian (Language Proficiency): 0 -> 1
Basic Mathematics: 123 -> 124
Intermediate Mathematics: 79 -> 81
Advanced Mathematics: 19 -> 22
Basic Human Biology: 38 -> 39
Mana-biology: 11 -> 21
<strong>Magic Skills:</strong>
Kic Maniption: 70 -> 73
Mana Control: 52 -> 54
Mana Precision: 53 -> 55
Kic Force: 51 -> 53
Projectile Awareness : 32 -> 33
Divided Attention: 34 -> 38
Basic Enchanting: 31 -> 37
Broken Mana Purification: 18 -> 19
Mana Filtering: 24 -> 27
Seed Formation: 19 -> 22
<strong>Crafting Skills:</strong>
Weaving: 27
Woodworking: 28
Cooking: 12
Stoneworking: 11
<strong>Physical Skills: </strong>
Dodge: 31
Etiquette: 21
Spearmanship: 19
Sprinting: 22
Riding: 15
Climbing: 9
Fishing: 9
Digging: 8
Stealth: 4
Basic Medicine: 3
Dancing: 6
Magic Seed: 1/1
(unused seed has 15% conversion rat. Max)
Kic Seed 154 -> 157%/159%
Healing mana seed 55% -> 58%/60% (Deactivated - you may link this to a Perk if desired!)
Electromaic Seed (15%) (Deactivated)
No_Magic (33%/35%)
Lesser Magic Seeds
(Base Max 25%, Achievements now apply as usual)
Disy Seed (11%) -> 14%/16
Organic Seed 74% -> 77%/79% (6% Exp. Comp.)
Pure Mana Seed 44% ->47%/49% (12% Exp. Comp.)
Filtration Seed -> 37%/40%
Dimensional Seed -> 37%/40%
Achievements:
Outworlder (Rarity: 10)
Seeker of Truth (IV) (Rarity: 10)
Baptized by Broken Mana (Rarity: 6)
Survivor of Winter (Rarity: 3)
Monstrous Encounter (Rarity: 1)
Monster yer (III) (Rarity: 2)
Well Trained (Rarity: 4)
Murderer (Rarity: 4)
Bookworm (Rarity: 3)
Kic Manabinder (Rarity N/A)
Careful Enchanter (Rarity N/A)
Capable Enchanter (Rarity: 5)
Seed Creator (Rarity: 8)
Scientific Discoveries (III) -> (IV) (Rarity N/A)
Immortal''s Apprentice at the battle against the Society (Rarity: 4)
Legendary Healer (Rarity: 7)
Creative Healer (Rarity: 4)
Alice’s highest level ss was now level 78. Level 75 was already considered the level of a properly elite craftsmen or warrior, and was a level few people would reach, even with an entire lifetime of hard work. It was only when seeing I again and thinking about her progress over the past several months that Alice could truly feel how much she had grown in a short five or six months. She hade a long way from the scared teenager who was dumped into the middle of the Illvarian forest nearly a year ago.
Of course, as much as Alice was happy to see her levels steadily increasing, she also felt the urge to wince. Most of her sses had gone up by 3-4 levels… which was pretty good when one considered the fact that her highest level ss was above level 75. At the exact same time, almost every action that Alice had taken recently was primarily focused on exploring magic, and despite that fact, she had only gained three levels in the ss. If it had been before she reached level 75, Alice was willing to bet she would have gained six or seven levels in [Explorer of Magic] instead of three. Trying to level up sses after level 75 was incredibly painful if one didn’t have the Achievements to support it.
“I’m indeed doing very well,” said Alice, giving I a smile. Then, feeling just a little bit cheeky, she gave I a slightly more mischevious grin. Since I was dropping a bit of formality around her, it felt right to do the same. “I might even be higher level than you now.” Then, Aliceughed. “Thank you for all of the work and time you put into training me when I was in Cyra and had no connections or abilities to fall back on.”
I chuckled. “A sixteen year old who might be higher level than me… that would really be something.” Then, she shook her head. “We both benefitted from your actions in Cyra. You don’t need to thank me – your current state is a result of your own hard work and your willingness to pursue your interests to the very end.” Then, slowly, the mirth faded from her face, as she adopted a more serious expression. “Now, for the reason I came here. I’m sure you’re aware of it already, but recently, things are quite… odd. A little over a week ago, I got a very strange feeling, as if something important had simply vanished into thin air. Shortly after this, people started to notice all sorts of oddities regarding their Status Screens. People couldn’t read their new Perks anymore, Achievements started to incorporate strange glitch symbols into their words, andst I heard, there are also issues with Mages forming new Magic seeds?” I frowned. “Thest one is harder to verify, since there aren’t that many Mages forming new magic seeds on a regr basis. But I am greatly concerned by these changes. And as far as I know, you are probably aware of how and why these changes have ured,” she said, nodding at Alice. “I would greatly appreciate more information.”
Alice nced at Ethan, who simply gave her a curious look. Alice realized Ethan was testing… how well she would handle this interaction?
<em>Maybe he’s testing me, to see how I handle trading with I,</em> thought Alice, frowning. I had something that Alice needed. I had alsoe all this way to see Alice, so she certainly wanted the information Alice had.
Or at least, I <em>had</em> wanted that information. Alice and Ethan had gone to a decent amount of effort to get more people informed about the current state of affairs, and even if they weren’t giving away every shred of information avable, they were still making a veryrge part of Alice’s research results freely understandable to the public. Almost everything relevant to regr people regarding the crisis was currently avable in some part of the city. I had likely already found some of this information out herself, if she had done any investigation into the city at all.
Alice resisted the urge to sigh. If Ethan <em>was</em> testing how well she tried to bargain with I, her position would definitely be weakened by these facts. Of course, I wouldn’t give her a terrible deal – after all, Alice was confident in I’s long-term nning abilities, and it was obvious that dealing with the current crisis was priority one. But that didn’t mean it was fair to ask I to spend huge amounts of time and manpower helping to solve the current crisis without beingpensated for her time and effort, either.
Alice sighed. She had been in a vastly inferior bargaining position thest time she was in Cyra, and almost all of her deals with I had been rather one-sided. I had still treated her fairly, but it was also unquestionable that Alice hadn’t had much of a bargaining position at the time.
Now, she needed to bargain with her former mentor from a very different position. This was also the most freeform test Ethan had given her so far. Usually, he asked her how she should respond to something, and would then give her ‘the answer’ right afterwards. This time, she needed to do this on her own.
“I do, indeed, know quite a bit about the current situation. I’m in the midst of developing countermeasures for it at this very moment, in fact,” said Alice. “For this, I would very much appreciate some help from you.”
“Oh?” said I, sounding genuinely surprised. “What can I offer to the apprentice of an Immortal? I’m sure you have much better tutors avable if you want training for magic orbat, and Immortal Ethan certainly has more resources than me when ites to experiments…” I trailed off, giving Ethan a curious nce.
“I need enchanting materials. Specifically, I need a material with certain properties, but I haven’t found anything suitable yet. For the other, I need a specific kind of tree bark that Cecilia purchased in your town several months ago. Will you permit me to use a certain Perk to give you an image of what tree bark I am looking for?”
I hesitated for a very long moment, eyeing both Alice and Ethan, before she finally nodded. Alice quickly grabbed I’s wrist and sent over an image of the tree bark she needed, before retracting her hand and waiting for I to process the information Alice had sent her. After a few moments of processing, I nodded at Alice, indicating that she could continue. “As for the other enchanting material I need, I would like something that allows me to use a certain kind of mana with it. The mana type is… somewhat simr to pure mana, but has a few different characteristics. It needs to work with filtration mana, which, as far as I’m aware, isn’t a mana type that is particrly well known…” Alice started describing what kinds of mana were at least simr enough to work as a ‘starting point’ for what materials she might need, while I nodded.
“And in exchange, I suppose you’re willing to give me information on whatever is going on?” said I, giving Alice a grin.
Alice nodded.
“I’m afraid that’s not good enough as a trade,” said I. “I want to know more, but it’s also obvious that you’re already taking efforts to spread this information far and wide. I would like a little bit more out of this deal. After all, you’re asking me to tie up a bunch of my own funds and manpower finding weird enchanting materials.”
“I don’t recall you having any [Enchanters] in the south since Cecilia left,” said Alice. “Meaning that we’re still going to need to do a lot of the testing and processing on our end. Even if nobody else is likely to have ess to filtration or disy mana, most [Enchanters] still have Perks that let them gather information. And if you don’t have an [Enchanter] on your end, that still leaves a <em>lot</em> of work for us. Unless you’ve lured another one to your town?”
“I have found a recement, yes,” said I, grinning. “It took a pretty penny to get a new [Enchanter] toe to my town, as well as a sponsorship for one of the woman’s children into a magic academy. But do indeed I have a new [Enchanter] that can help gather information for you… for a price.”
Alice nodded, trying to think. I still probably wanted information, and Alice could give her some unique information that wasn’t avable to the public. But what else could she offer I?
As if sensing Alice’s thoughts, I leaned a little bit closer. “I’ll tell you what I want,” said I. “Right now, it seems like you have a lot of information about the current crisis. I want a more in-depth discussion of exactly what’s happening, straight from the source of the research herself. And I also want first priority for whatever you’re making with your enchanting materials. I don’t know <em>exactly</em> why you need enchanting materials that can hold filtration mana and disy mana… but I imagine it’s somehow rted to solving the current crisis. I want you to prioritize Cyra as the first town that gets ess to these solutions the moment they’re implemented.”
Alice thought about it. That was… fair. Probably. And if Cyra turned into the main supplier for Alice’s enchanting needs, keeping Cyra stable would ensure that future supply shipments weren’t disrupted. By bing a usefulponent for solving the current crisis, I was basically guaranteeing that Alice would need to keep the town safe and up to date until the crisis was over.
Alice looked at Ethan, who simply shrugged.
“I think I would probably need to prioritize the capital first,” said Alice, after some hesitation. “But after that, I could put Cyra as the next priority for this?”
I thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. “That’s reasonable. I ept.”
A deal was struck.