Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 156 End Of The Road

Level 86

Experience: 534,110/560,248

Grade: S

Primary Effect: Armed combat with a blade at the Saint level yields a 64.26% buff to Strength and Speed. Due to the user not yet being in the Saint Stage, only the King Stage buff is applied (Total Applied: 300%; Total Achieved: 864.26%)

Secondary Effect: Distills the essence of Time into one's blade.

Wielder of Time

*New) Stage: 1

Current Effect: All Time related abilities become 5% more effective by simply using a blade. The more the Mystic Art is cultivated, the higher the Stage of this skill becomes, and the more Blade-Time abilities become available.

*New) Sands of Time

Stage: 0

Description: Whilst using Time Magic in conjunction with a blade, a thin layer of Time Magic will manifest, encapsulating the user. Upon entering this state, the user's body partially erases the negative effects that have happened to it. Simply stated, part of the damage the user receives will be lost to Time, while expended stamina, willpower, and any other energies will be partially ignored, as though never used in the first place.

Current Effect: 2% of all damage dealt by Saint Stage practitioners of the Mortal Realm is negated. This effect doubles for every Stage below the Saint Stage e.i. 4% of King Stage damage is negated, 8% for Warriors and so on. Additionally, 0.1% of any energy source the user uses is not consumed.]

"Dear god..." Having just finished fighting against the 15th ranked Saint, Elizabeth's face lit up at the mention of her new [Sands of Time] Sub-Skill. 'Won't I just become invincible if I train this skill to its max? 100% damage negation and 0% energy consumption is the definition of invincible, right?' She asked no one in particular, but her sponsor goddess P, was quick to quench her ridiculous fantasies.

"Um… no. You will never achieve 100% damage negation or 0% energy consumption. Nor will you become invincible… at least not through a single skill. Besides, you think either of those two boosts will grant you invincibility? Ha! What use is 100% damage negation in the face of absolute power? Getting trapped is all that will be required to defeat you! As for 0% energy consumption… what could you do against a higher form of energy like True Qi right now, if you had infinite Inner Strength?" Stopping there, P felt she had done enough just taking Elizabeth off her high horse. The last thing she wanted was for Elizabeth to think of herself as invincible and attempt suicidal actions.

…

As the night deepened and Elizabeth entered the top 10 Saint rankings, life for her became close to what could be defined as miserable. No longer did she have to just challenge and advance, rather, because everyone who had made it this far into the competition was hellbent on progressing as far as possible, her threat lost all its effect as people started challenging her.

After entering the top ten she practically never left the arena! Upon advancing, her position would be challenged and though the ability of her Seamless Qi Connection and Talent Stealing Blood Seal rapidly restored her energy, she had been through one hell of a day; barely resting as she progressed from one event to another. Having fought dozens of battles, even she was starting to feel tired.

'Mhmm… I better stock up on Spiritual Meals. I wouldn't be this tired or wasteful if I had the foresight to see this tiresome trial...' She meant wasteful in the sense that her Talent Stealing Blood Seal's ability to near instantaneously make use of the energy in Monster Cores was being used much more often as her energy consumption shot through the roof from fighting against these Peak Phase Saints.

Without the use of her Cold Flames, Enchantments, or Chaos Seals of Physical Augmentation, she had finally met her match against the fourth-ranked Saint, William Wilson. By himself, William could just barely defend himself against Elizabeth's combined fighting prowess. However, as the Martial Representative of the second highest ranked Enchantment-type Faction, his unending supply of Enchantments of every conceivable type left Elizabeth unable to so much as touch him.

Boosting himself with Augmentation Enchantments, defending himself with Defense and Barrier-type Enchantments, attacking with Pressure, Bomb, and Energy-type Enchantments… William relied on his Enchantments to do 90% of the work as he attempted to metaphorically kill Elizabeth with money…

Sighing at his shamelessness, Elizabeth had a burning desire to annihilate her opponent with her own "Extreme" Blazebomb Enchantment. But in the end, she saw the futility of such actions and decided to stop there. If she followed through with the idea, she would inevitably get caught up in the explosion within the enclosed arena and potentially kill her opponent… and for what? To rise one more rank in the Martial Event? She would still need to fight the Saints ranked 3rd, 2nd, and 1st.

'Life-saving treasures should be cherished… Wasting them on inconsequential mobs like him? It ain't worth it...' With only 30 bullets left in each of her guns, Elizabeth crossed the limit she had given herself for the Second Stage of the Martial Event. Though it pained her to say it since she was essentially admitting defeat to someone who could not best her in a true battle, Elizabeth amplified her voice with Neutral Magic and tiredly said, "You win. I give up." As Elizabeth dodged away from her opponent, the supervising judge took just a moment before he interfered with the Enchantments still flying towards Elizabeth.

With her rank finalized as the 5th Ranked Saint, though she was sad she didn't take the Champion's title, she made it much farther than what she had expected going into the Martial Event. Silently, Elizabeth left the arena, leaving a wavering crowd that didn't at all expect her to lose so anticlimactically. She withdrew her needles from Tristan's yet-to-be restored body and as she threw him onto her left shoulder, preparing to leave the arena. From behind her on the arena, William's jeering and trash talking comments registered.

"That's fucking right! Fuck outta here, you peasant bitch!" It was evident to the people that closely knew him that this trash-talking was something out of the norm from William. But, upon recalling just how much money and resources the man had used up to get Elizabeth to give up, it made sense for a Spirit Realm Elder to get upset; never mind a mere Saint like him…

Stopping momentarily, Elizabeth turned around and flashed William a devilishly charming smile. No words were exchanged, but soon after making eye contact, William began faintly trembling as an ominous feeling plagued the air around him. He felt like he had just done something that would come to bite him in the ass sooner rather than later as he sobered up and his frustration was replaced with regret.

After making sure to remember who the idiot was that trash talked her after being so shameless, Elizabeth turned around and walked with Tristan out of the outdoor arena. She had confirmed with the medical staff that she could stay in the waiting room to finish up restoring Tristan. So, upon picking the closest table to her after entering the waiting room, Elizabeth lied Tristan down, restored her own energy reserves to their max, and focused wholeheartedly on repairing his Dantian.

Without having to get up to participate in any more fighting, Elizabeth's ever-increasing Acupoint Skill rose, allowing her to treat Tristan at an increasingly fast pace. There was a TV above her showing what fighting was currently being settled and with occasional glances at the screen, Elizabeth kept track of how much time she would have before the Factions Stage of the Martial Event would start.

Two fights settling the 4th and 3rd ranking Saints passed before Elizabeth had a prompt attract her attention. At long last, her Acupoint Skill had been mastered — According to the methods of the [Introduction To The Path Of Medicine] anyways…

[Alert!

Acupoint Level 20 (7,236,875/CAPPED)

Description: Using needles to cure any ailment and promote the body's healing. The Acupoint skill allows the user to resolve almost all medical ailments with just a couple needles and energy.

Current Effect: Requires 100% less energy to resolve High-Peak Grade Mortal-tier ailments and wounds.

Hidden Quest: Medic Rank Milestone #1 (Complete)

Difficulty: SSS

Degree of Completion: Excellent

Objective: Reach the pinnacle of the Master Rank along any branch of medicine✔

Description: Mhmm… This is about par for the course considering you have a Talent for Medicine. But hey, you achieved a feat for Peak Phase Saints as a Peak Phase King, so...

Reward: Acupoint: Spirits, The Soul, and Qi

Bonus: Blueprint: Soulstiching Acupoint Needles.

Status

Name: Acupoint: Spirits, The Soul, and Qi

Grade: Peak-tier Spirit Grade

Description: The second installment of the [Acupointress' Guide To Healing Life.] Covers just about everything a medical practitioner following the path of acupoint might need to know to stand uncontested in the Spirit Realm.

Effect: Guides a practitioner all the way through to the zenith of medical prowess in the Spirit Realm.

REQUIREMENTS: Without the foundation of a peak level Master Rank Acupoint Skill, this manual is essentially worthless. Furthermore, integrating the knowledge of this manual without a capped Level 20 Acupoint Skill might lead to damage to one's soul core.

Would you like to accept [Acupoint: Spirits, The Soul, and Qi]? Y/N]

Elizabeth accepted the technique and immediately felt like throwing up. In her head, the images and information of highly esoteric and arcane topic melted into her very soul, almost twisting and molding it. She remained in this disturbed state for over a minute before the knowledge she digested slowly started decreasing in volume and after two minutes, a stressed out and sweat-ridden Elizabeth could be seen gasping for breath as she lied powerlessly next to Tristan, on her own chair.

Even with her exceptionally well-cultivated body, it took another minute for her to feel strength return to her body and get up to shake off what remained of the disturbing feelings. With her body quickly returning to normal, Elizabeth grumbled under her breath as she moved to continue healing Tristan, "Fucking shitty technique… Why'd it have to simulate all those fucking soul ailments? I could have done without the suicidal feelings..." Though she complained, in her heart she understood just how much of a boon resolving all the simulations of soul ailments her new Acupoint technique "blessed" her with, would turn out for when she encountered real soul ailments in the future.

Chapter end