Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 173 Setting Up A Base

Bloodline: Human 100%, God (Fallen) 100%, Ancient Godslayer Fiend 0.0028%

Level: 25 (26/27)

Rank: Peak Phase King Stage (100%) [Perfect Chaos Mage King]

Sex: Female

Strength 410

Endurance 450

Speed 477

Defense 423

Intelligence 498

Luck: 10

Inner Strength ~5.05 Million]

"Well, that's certainly new..." Feeling insane growth her body had undergone in the past two hours, Elizabeth almost didn't want to go to the Shadow Realm. A sizable portion of the increase to her physical parameters came from the fights she partook in the Martial Event and with her party members earlier, while the increases to her Intelligence came from the almost day-long crafting session. But, with her Constitution of Ice and Fire Mystic Art, she definitely saw her physical parameters rise in the tens of units after just two hours of training; and that was just with King Stage Beast Cores or additional exercise!

Still, she had postponed her return to the Shadow Realm enough. There were still several Side Quests that could only be completed in the Shadow Realm and she couldn't deny her feelings of wanting to interact with the humans there as well. 'All this time, I've been the only Mage and to compare myself with the Martial Practitioners of Earth… it's not really fair at all. Now, however, I should have the strength to roam around the Forest of Beginnings and hopefully come across a human territory with a Mage Society!' Elizabeth thought, with a shine of resolution flickering in her crimson eyes.

Elizabeth stood up from her spot on the first floor and walked over to her room. True to the stereotype of practitioners being punctual, she was the last to arrive as she stood by her door exactly two hours after the announcement she made. Walking the group into her room, Elizabeth materialized some storage enchantments that were filled with some of the food she had made earlier.

As she gave each person their own set of talismans as she said, "Now… before we go, I need all of you to know that this enchantment here..." She stopped speaking as one of the Time Enchantments she had used for the race to get to Miami from Sharktop Island appeared in her hand. Continuing, she said "This will mark our residence in the Shadow Realm. It's not a guarantee that we will meet with other humans or similar sentient lifeforms. So, before we wander to conduct our individual training, we'll travel as a group and designate a home base. This talisman has already been synched up with the bunch I gave all of you at Sharktop Island, so if ever in doubt, just check your position relative to the enchantment."

When Elizabeth came to a stop, Sun asked, "And for how long will we be in the Shadow Realm?" He asked something everyone else wanted to know.

"Mhmm… Let's call it a day. After a whole day passes I want all of us to meet at the home base and discuss whether to continue training or to return to the outside world. But! The question is whether you want to spend a day's worth of time in the Shadow Realm or a day's worth of time on Earth. With the special Gateway Magic I have, I can change the rate of time we experience in the Shadow Realm relative to the time on Earth."

"Should we have a vote, or just settle for whatever time you want?" Jane asked, as she, like everyone else there, would without hesitation chose to follow Elizabeth's choice.

"Um, I can go either way. While I'm still in the Mortal Realm, there won't be much of a change in the range of time we experience either way. At most, it should be the difference of a couple extra minutes." Elizabeth responded honestly.

"Ok then, I'll vote for a day's worth of time on Earth." Liam started. "Agreed..." Sun responded, followed by Tristan and then Jane. Thus, with no votes going for a day's worth of time in the Shadow Realm, Elizabeth nodded in acceptance of their request.

She said, "Well, without further ado… everyone, hold hands..." Admittedly embarrassed as they looked like a bunch of idiots holding hands, Elizabeth initiated her Gateway Magic the moment Liam and Yrre interlocked hands as their "ring of friendship" had been completed.

[Name: Time Art: Shadow Realm Gateway

Grade: SS (Based on the user's Mediocre-tier Time Affinity)

Cost: 0 (1D) 1,000,000 units of Inner Strength (Active)

Description: Upon activation, the caster can transport themselves into the Shadow Realm. Passive activation requires a cooldown of one day, at no cost to the caster's time energy, while "active" activation requires one million time energy units to activate the spell at no cooldown cost.

Special Effect: The user's understanding and control of Time Magic can be used to manipulate the time differential between the Shadow Realm and the outside world.

Current Effect: Ratio of 25:24 [Shadow Realm: Earth] (Based on the user's Mediocre-tier Time Affinity)]

'What a nice number! I guess that means I get a whole extra hour for every day I spend in the Shadow Realm. Mhmm… I wonder how that works though… Can my shoddy Magic really affect an entire dimension? Mhmm...' Lost in thought, the world around Elizabeth and her party turned monochromatic at a startling pace and in the instant where only black and white existed on Earth, they were teleported to the spot Elizabeth last stood upon as she fled from the various wild beasts that wished to consume her.

"Mhmm..." The first thing Elizabeth did after returning to this environment was to activate her various detection abilities. Deathspan Watch scanned the area for any traces of life while her spatial ripples gave a crude method for omnidirectional sonar.

'Oi! Go to the left! TO THE LEFT!' From her Soul Land, Belle had been jolted into action as her soul resonated with something nearby; something familiar. 'Wait… I'll get to it after setting up the group's residence in this place.' Elizabeth sent the unruly soul a message to calm down, but was met with only partial success as the cyan incarnation was still excitable to an uncomfortable degree.

Detecting nothing that even resembled a threat, Elizabeth asked, "So… where to?" She had to wait for a couple seconds as her party, even though trusting of her words, need a moment after they experienced the teleportation into an alternate dimension.

"Where to? I mean, we could set up the base right here if you want. After a bit of landscaping to clear the forest foliage and wildlife, I think this could be a good place. Alternatively… we could move a couple kilometers to the east as I can sense some water in that direction with my Affinity for Ice..." Without realizing it, Jane had alerted the group to the area that held the waterfall which Elizabeth had to jump a couple weeks ago.

Adding his two cents, Tristan said, "Nah, I think it's better if we just set up here… Setting up near the water will bring wildlife to us and it's not like we're low on water. Nevermind the fact that all of us could probably go weeks without water and we're only planning on staying a day or so."

"I agree… The trip to the water source is only a couple kilometers, right? Any of us could easily reach it in minutes or seconds, so I don't see the need..." Liam added.

Looking at Sun and Yrre shrug their shoulders, Elizabeth nodded, saying, "Ok then! Let's get to landscaping then~" While she turned her back to them, she added, "I'll take care of this area; half a square kilometer should be good, right?" Then, without waiting for an answer, Inferioria appeared in her hands and the white-haired, crimson-eyed lass was no more. In her stead, only the sounds of falling trees and the afterimages of her form could be sensed as she ran around "her area" and began clearing up the place.

With her strength, the trees were cut up like a hot knife running through butter and with her absurd speed, dozens of trees were felled by the second. The others in group didn't slack off either, as they each took one direction and treated the landscaping exercise as actual training to produce results similar to Elizabeth's.

"Mhmm? A cluster of Metallic Tulips?" Temporarily putting a stop to her wanton destruction, Elizabeth reached down and picked up a herb she recognized. She put the herb in a storage enchantment and continued felling trees. It wouldn't be long, however, for her to stop again as she recognized yet another herb.

During her time in the Hall of Treasures on Sharktop Island, when she was picking a medicine based technique, she had left the choice up to a guide that had followed behind her. When she made a sideways comment about how she didn't really know much about alchemy or herbs used for medicine or alchemy, she was given a compendium of spiritual herbs free of charge. Thus, she was nothing like the novice that came three weeks earlier and ignored the countless treasures around her. Of course, it was good that she didn't mess around with the herbs at that time as she recognized more than a few poisonous or toxic herbs as she cleared the forest.

By the time she had cut down all the trees in the half a square kilometer's worth of area she had earlier mentioned, she was a kilogram of Mortal Grade herbs richer than before. Now, to complete her task of actually clearing the area, all the trees that were cut down were "moved" to outside her newly established territory. Though it could be better described as chaos as Elizabeth used her raw strength to pick up whole trees and chuck them dozens of meters out of her way…

Turning back to see that the other side was wrapping up their landscaping as well, Elizabeth walked over to the center of the square kilometer-spanning territory to pull out the camping gear she had requested from her father. After unlocking the drone's security with a piece of hair she kept from her previous male form, Elizabeth was met with a small disc-shaped capsule.

Looking over the disc, she found a button labeled, "Set Up," and promptly clicked it. Suddenly, a feminine voice originating from the disc began repeating, "Caution, Caution, Caution… Stand at least one hundred meters away from the device! Imminent construction will begin in one minute!"

'A hundred meters away? Mhmm...' Elizabeth had a sneaking suspicion, but for now, she followed through with the device's instructions and placed it on the ground while retreating about a hundred meters.

One minute later, through some sort of magic, Elizabeth — A real Mage — couldn't comprehend how a small tent-like building could slowly build itself up from the small disc. After about another minute the automated construction of the build ceased as what looked to be a fortress was constructed. 'How the fuck is this supposed to be a tent?' Evidently peeved by her father's creation, Elizabeth sighed, 'At least there's enough room for all of us in there...'

Chapter end