Living Life As A Game: Through And Through
/ Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 33 Before The Jump
As if insulted right to her face, P said "Wh-Are you retarded? Of course I will! You think this is a game?"
"..." It literally was a game; at least to Elizabeth...
The silence Elizabeth responded with only further escalated the annoyance in P's heart as she yelled "It isn't! I need you in constant cultivation of power!"
Without hesitation, Elizabeth asked "Why?"
"Che! You literally wouldn't be able to comprehend the reason even if I told you..."
"Mhmm… Whatever, I've already accepted this, but at the moment I'm more concerned over if you'll give me another tight deadline..."
"Tight deadline? You were given a week to get through the easiest Stage of cultivation and you can complete it at any moment! With over a two days worth of free time remaining! It would be more than two and a half days if I didn't divulge the secrets of attaining blood armaments!"
Honestly, Elizabeth just didn't want to be stressed over the deadlines; especially with the idea she had cultivated over what penalties she would receive, should she fail to meet them. Remembering, that she was so ahead cooled her jets, but not entirely…
Elizabeth said "Whatever… Anyhow, can you go over what will happen when I use the gateway magic to enter the Shadow Realm?"
"Ho~ You want to go into the Shadow Realm already? And here I thought you were one to dislike adventure~"
"Tsk, Tsk. I'm only asking because I don't want to ruin the dojo's bathhouse with a breakthrough..."
An eerie silence pervaded Elizabeth's mind for a while, as P though to herself how stupid a reason Elizabeth had found for wanting to go to the Shadow Realm. 'Fuck! She really thinks this is a game!'
But, even though P internally mocked and judged Elizabeth because of her ridiculous reason, she didn't voice any of it. From P's perspective, the faster Elizabeth enters the Shadow Realm and begins her crusade as a Time Mage, the faster she'll grow and the quicker she — P — can get what she wants.
P said "When you use Shadow Realm Gateway for the first time, you'll be randomly sent to a remote corner of the Shadow Realm. Naturally, we wouldn't you to die by sending you straight to the key areas populated by the more powerful entities. Consequently, you'll have to get used to living in the backwater areas with the weakest beings of the Mortal Realm. There, you'll probably have to fend for yourself for a while until you are strong enough to wander out of the absolute most weakest areas and find an entry level Village. After your first transmission to the Shadow Realm, you'll be teleported from there to where you teleported from on Earth, and vise versa should you chose to enter the Shadow Realm again."
"Ok… Can I survive in these "most absolutely weak areas" you mentioned?"
"Probably… I mean you definitely have all the power needed to survive, as the most dangerous creatures around you will be around Level 10. But I don't know how you'll react when confronted with real life or death situations..."
Black lines of depression appeared on Elizabeth's face as she said "The strongest beings are Level 10 and you say I can survive? Are you trying to kill me?"
"Uh… no? First of all, not only are you pretty decent yourself at Level 4, technically Level 5 with your stats. You also have three fucking blood armaments, nice armor, medical knowledge, and even Time and Space enhancements! Not to mention two of your blood armaments are dual pistols, which will be extra helpful now that no serious Magic or Qi abilities will be thrown your way."
"Oh!" Speaking of her dual pistols, Elizabeth pulled out her phone to order some metals to craft bullets. The last thing she wanted was to make the jump over to the Shadow Realm and be stuck with her blade and a couple of dirt bullets…
As Elizabeth ordered about a kilogram of Iridium, she completely ignored the ridiculous 50,000 dollar price tag associated with the order. Instead she became a bit hopeful after recalling a certain mechanism that existed in most of the games she played. Elizabeth's eyes shined as she asked "Do I have an inventory?"
"Inventory? No. You do not get an inventory. At least not the one you're probably thinking of right now. Just because you live as a game character doesn't mean you get an infinite area of space to put away your junk. But don't get too bummed out. In the future you'll probably get something similar in the form of a Space Ring or a Cosmic Bag. It's even possible that you'll forge them yourself!"
Though Elizabeth temporarily slumped down as her thoughts of running around and purging the world of its valuables was shattered by the confirmation that she did not in fact have an Inventory. She cheered up when she learned that things similar to the Inventory she dreamed of, existed.
Elizabeth continued talking with P for a while to plan out exactly what she would be doing in the Shadow Realm after making the jump. The two of them talked for so long, that evening rolled around and Elizabeth received a message from her phone that both her orders were waiting to be picked up by the dojo's entrance.
Naturally, Elizabeth left her room to pick up her two packages. Only, on her way to the elevator, she found Sun and Jane walking side by side. The two of them greeted her, but she declined to spend too much time with them before leaving to pick up her packages. She told them that she would be gone for a day and then left to retrieve her package.
As Elizabeth left, Sun looked at Jane and said "What was that about?"
"Tsk. Your guess is as good as mine..."
This was their first taste of what Elizabeth normally acted like; a one-track-minded uncaring person. If she had nothing to gain from interacting with others, she would normally opt to have nothing to do with those "others." Them wanting to make small talk and stall her from her current task naturally counted as an interaction where she wouldn't gain anything. Thus, they faced unadulterated rejection.
Elizabeth eventually reached the delivery person that had been waiting for her. She signed some papers and took her packages before returning to her room. She put away the clothes and set aside most of the refined iridium she purchased. Elizabeth traced one small chunk of iridium from the main source and experimented in crafting bullets for the first time.
For one bullet, Elizabeth followed the guidelines of the [Saintly Forging] method to a tee. She took the already refined metal in her hand and re-refined it with her Inner Strength. Though, because her energy levels weren't much, by the time she ran out of Inner Strength the Iridium only shrunk by 2% of its initial volume. Elizabeth meditated to recover her energy before continuing to the next phase of bullet forging, Engraving.
She soaked the chunk of Iridium with her Inner Strength and simultaneously engraved intricate patterns into the surface of the metal as she worked to get a bullet-like shape. Of course, because she neither had the experience nor the appropriate tools for this forging process, her first attempt was abysmal. But, for a complete novice it was good enough.
She lamented not choosing the Forging talent when she was creating her "character" before her life became a game, as maybe then, she might have received some energy conductive tools that would let her forging yield less horrid results. In any case, this first bullet's purpose wasn't to become the most insanely powerful hyper ammunition of all time. Rather, Elizabeth just wanted to compare "decent" bullet stats with a trashy bullet made of dirt, sand, or gravel; the kinds of ammunition she was preparing to be using for the time being.
But, before that she would need to make the jump over to the Shadow Realm, and her preparations were not complete at the moment. She would eat one more meal before leaving to keep herself full of energy for the day horrible day she was expecting and stock up on more bullets before actually using her gateway magic for the first time.
Elizabeth checked the stats of her Iridium Bullet before leaving to fix herself a final meal.
[Status
Name: Disfigured Iridium Bullet
Grade: Low-tier Mortal Grade Bullet
Description: Crafted by the user, this is a piece of magical ammunition imbued with Inner Strength and various Sub-Basic level principles of the path of forging. Crafted with absolutely no experience nor appropriate tools, just the bare hands and energy of the user, this bullet is extremely ugly. Yet, without a doubt, ammunition of this caliber would lay waste to most in the mortal world. Even Soldier-level practitioner better be careful with these kinds of bullets, lest they wish to suffer significant injuries.
Effects: Damages entities up to Level 15. Typically fatal to beings Level 5 and below.]
Chapter end
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