Living Life As A Game: Through And Through
/ Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 140 Double-Edged Sword Of An Ability
He wasn't insane, at least he didn't think he was insane for considering Elizabeth's suggestion to operate his Dantian. It's just that as he considered Elizabeth's words, that he might be able to compete in this year's Wushi Tournament, the irrational and daring side of himself couldn't help but agitate him to accept Elizabeth's proposal. Thus far, Elizabeth had brought nothing but inconceivable results in practically every Event she had participated at. Granted, her performance in the Medical Event, the one that really counted, was objectively the worst performance she had shown thus far. But, anyone could see that she lost because of the patient she chose, not the capacity of her abilities as a medic. Moreover, as he recalled the final results of the Final Event of the Medical Event, both he and June realized that Elizabeth must have done something to the little girl's, Amy's, Dantian. To not only restore her to a perfectly healthy state, but to also grant her an affinity. Suddenly, her words of performing a "simple operation" on his Dantian didn't sound as farfetched…
In any case, Elizabeth didn't complain as the operation would cost her nothing. Moreover, with the deal concluding how she envisioned, it set her up to try something new… Something that was perhaps unorthodox, but considering her relationship to these people, she felt it was warranted.
Thus, with no further delay, Elizabeth drew yet another Taiji Formation around Henry's Dantian. She used her Magic Connection to share some Neutral Magic. As she worked in conjunction with Henry to stabilize every aspect of his cultivator anatomy, unbeknownst to both Henry and June, a small heptagram Magic Circle imprinted itself on Henry's exposed Dantian.
Now, June would have to think twice should she have any thoughts of rescinding the favor she offered Elizabeth. After all… she should care a great deal about Henry if she went out of her way to request Elizabeth's services and after taking an analytical view of the situation, Elizabeth immediately saw the situation as being completely against her favor. Both Henry and June were practitioners stronger than her and they weren't at all close, so what was preventing them from taking advantage of her? To Elizabeth, setting this extra chip of leverage made complete sense.
A couple more minutes passed, and after about a thousand cycles of regular Qi flow with Elizabeth's guidance, the effects of the Saint's Qi Deviation was all but gone. With everything complete, Elizabeth materialized a plate of Jambalaya she had kept for her patient and left him to recover his energy. She turned to June and said, "Now… about that favor. How can I go about looking for you whenever I require your assistance?"
June was still settling out of the shock she received from watching Elizabeth treat Qi Deviation like a mortal doctor would a simple cold, so it took a couple seconds before she said, "R-right… Let's trade phone numbers…" As she gave her phone to Elizabeth and took Elizabeth's in return, she added, "Also, if ever you come to Italy, you can find me in the Centurion Faction. Just ask for "Grandmaster June," and someone should be able to point you in my direction."
'Mhmm… it seems she didn't blow me off as expected...' Still, in the mindset that the real world ran like a game world, where most people only cared about their own personal gain, Elizabeth was surprised to see that she didn't require using the ace she had planted. But, since she had yet to get her owed favor, the Talent Stealing Blood Seal imprinted on Henry's Dantian stayed there; inactive but primed.
Once Henry finished his food, he and June thanked Elizabeth for her time and went on their merry way. Once alone again, Elizabeth feed her tamed bird another fire-type herb and left it to play around the room as she tested out her three new Chaos Seals. Intuitively, she understood their use, but she wanted to see their effects in action.
Starting with the activation of the fourth Chaos Seal, Elizabeth found her body instantly enveloped in a skin technique film of light grey energy; barely visible even to a concentrated eye. For 10 seconds she felt all aspects of her body become 50% more powerful. After the effects of the fourth Chaos Seal wore off and the film evaporated, Elizabeth was left unable to tap into the power of her fourth Chaos Seal for twenty seconds. In this period of cooldown, she felt her fifth and sixth Chaos Seals slowly drain away a portion of their own power to hasten the speed of the used up fourth Seal.
Repeating a similar test with the fifth Chaos Seal, Elizabeth found that after the grey film of grandmist energy darkened to a more visible opaque shade, her power effectively doubled for 25 seconds while the cooldown rose to 33 seconds. Lastly, the sixth Chaos Seal covered her in an almost black cloak of grandmist as her power multiplied by four and lasted a whole minute at the cost of a 2-minute long cool down. However… Even with her completely excavated hidden potential for the current stage, tapping into the Chaos Seals of Physical Augmentation still took a horrifying toll on her body. It was so bad that even the pain-resistant Elizabeth regretted carelessly testing out the effects of the sixth Chaos Seal as she suffered a harsh pain the likes of which could only be matched by the tortures she'd endured whilst literally bringing her body to the brink of implosion back when she was at the Sky Seizing Castle.
Ending up as a bloody mess with half her body barely functioning, Elizabeth took a full ten minutes to heal herself and that was after eating the plate of Jambalaya which heightened her natural regeneration several times over.
Needless to say, she barely had any time to get some last minute cultivation completed as the main event of the evening would begin in just a couple minutes. As was the case, Elizabeth settled for restoring her body to the peak of possible performance for her current abilities as she prepared her weapons and donned her unparalleled Mortal Grade armor set.
After treating herself to a final cup of Iced Tea, Elizabeth resolved to brew her own everlasting supply of tea as she had grown addicted after the day's cathartic release. Walking along the streets of the Tournament Square, Elizabeth found that virtually all the practitioners attending followed suit as all the able-bodied practitioners within the Mortal Realm had a moral obligation to their faction to represent their strength by vying in the Martial Event.
They all gathered at the tournament arena, but because almost everyone in attendance would compete in the Martial Event, only the Pawn Stage practitioners made their way to the waiting room as they would be the first to compete as a division. Elizabeth wished she could have avoided wasting her time by watching people far weaker than her compete, but because the Martial Event was very sporadic with regards to how long each division would take, she had to play the part of a spectator at least until the Warrior Stage division of competitors were called to participate.
Making her way up the spectator area, Elizabeth experienced what it was like to watch a live event for the first time as she took a seat in the Tournament Arena's coliseum-esque seating arrangement. Of course, with her distaste for wasting time, even if she couldn't meditate, Elizabeth didn't hesitate to start using up some of the energy from the various magical cores she possessed. Thus, her strength slowly improved while her personal reserves of energy stayed completely full.
However, the streak of productivity lasted for ten, maybe twenty minutes, before several members of Atid's dojo found her. Although most were still extremely hesitant as they had suffered nothing but constant belittlement and trash-talk throughout the day for "daring" to keep the seemingly omni-talented demon Elizabeth hidden away from the world, Sun and Jane were among the few that didn't let the comments from strangers effect them; at least not in the way that would cause them to distance themselves from Elizabeth.
Spotting Elizabeth, both Sun and Jane shared a knowing look before making their way over to Elizabeth's side. Watching her in apparent cultivation, they shared a sigh, both thinking in sync, "No wonder she's so extraordinary… She never takes a rest..." Taking a seat to either side of her person, both of them waited for her to wake up as they had something they wanted to say.
Off with the other dojo members of Atid's Dojo, both Atid and Luca, though not as reproachful of Elizabeth, they were a bit hesitant to see how she would respond. Sighing as he looked in Elizabeth's direction, Atid said, "You really think she'd abandon ship?"
"Mhmm… I don't know. I mean, she's got four Champion Titles, not to mention the fact that she took second place for the one Event she didn't completely dominate. There'll probably be hundreds of factions much bigger and powerful than anything the two of us together and even if she did come from your faction… Let's be serious, either of us would take the chance to move to greater heights."
Returning a helpless smile, Atid said, "You're right… She's still so young and I'd be lying if I said I'd feel comfortable pressing her to stay when I've barely done anything for her. Aside from giving her a place to stay for a couple days and letting her learn the dojo's Muay Thai, there's hardly anything I've done to truly warrant a die-hard following..." Ending his words there, even though Atid recalled the fact that she had given Elizabeth a scroll, he didn't know how well it worked out for her; if it worked out at all…
Moreover, as he really thought about it, Atid felt guilty as the reason Elizabeth had a feud with Jhan was likely her association with his faction. After all, a talent like her showing up and then immediately being targeted by a rival faction a single day later practically confirmed that he was either part of the reason or the whole reason entirely. If he had upped the security or had at least shared with her to the fact that she would be taking a risk by training with his faction, perhaps things may have been different, but there was no changing the past now.
Chapter end
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