Living Life As A Game: Through And Through
/ Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 82 The Strangest Bartender
To her back, the white room materialized a door out of light locking away any chance she had to enter again. On the door of light, Elizabeth's score of 97.8 was boldly engraved in a mix of mostly gold and a hint of red. Elizabeth walked over to the table, took the ticket into her hand, and called for its status.
[Status
Name: Unmarked White Ticket (Legacy Currency)
Description: A pearly white note used in the legacy trial's exchange hub for equipment. Equivalent to 100 Clear Tickets or one Peak-tier piece of Equipment.]
'Exchange hub?' Elizabeth thought to herself as she closed off the status screen and tried to locate where she could spend her ticket. She looked all around the round room and found nothing but the substations and stairway from before, along with the new grand table. However, as she checked the hallway which she took to get to the round room from the castle's entrance, she found that new rooms had appeared.
Along with the "Exchange" room she had been looking for, Elizabeth also found rooms labeled "Meditation, Rest, Practice, and Challenge." All the new rooms except for the exchange hub had doors barring Elizabeth's entrance. Thus, the first thing Elizabeth did was investigate and enter the exchange hub.
Walking into another white room reminiscent of the asylums created for the mentally ill back on Earth, this time, Elizabeth watched as the room morphed into a lively bar-like scene as there was no sudden door-shutting noise that scared her into turning away. After watching the manifestation of a bar, Elizabeth turned around to check if she could leave and sure enough, she found no door to stop her from coming and going as she pleased.
Elizabeth ignored the exit as she turned once more to face the bartender. Even though the bartender was the only other living thing in the room aside from Elizabeth, there was music playing and a couple TVs; hence the lively atmosphere. However, all would probably pass for normal if not for the bartender's… appearance. It definitely wasn't human as it moved uncannily like a robot. A humanoid? Maybe, as it definitely looked just like a naked man, but only if said man had gold leaf for skin.
Cautiously, Elizabeth approached the gold man. She stared at him intently as he washed some dirty drinking glasses over by the bar's sink. Once Elizabeth got to about five meters away from the gold man, the busy humanoid stopped with its cleaning, washed its hands, and flashed an unbearably disturbed smile at Elizabeth. Its attempts to seem human failed spectacularly, but the gold man didn't seem to notice the look Elizabeth gave him. Perhaps it knew and just didn't care, but regardless of the case, it initiated the conversation with Elizabeth, saying, "Oh? Yet another lucky soul has come across Master's Compound?"
Stunned by the words of the gold man, Elizabeth stayed quiet as the humanoid started to speak again. The gold man said, "Right… You probably have no clue what's going on. Wait! You… You're not… Huh? No that can't be right… Why don't you have spiritual energy? Could it be… But it's impossible for Mortals to fly! How did you get here..."
As the gold man kept questioning his judgment and losing his mind, Elizabeth found the whole ordeal to be amusing. However, she didn't even need to say anything for the gold man to accept her, as immediately after he appeared to have stopped in wait for Elizabeth to say something, he said, "Actually, it doesn't matter… In any case, you're what? The 6th? No, you're the seventh person to come across my Master's compound! Among those seven, you're the first to even make it this far along, which means you've proven yourself talented enough to earn a White Ticket!
Compared to the other six, while your strength might be the worst off, and not by a small margin, you're definitely the most talent to have appeared before me, first! Anyway, this place is where you can trade in the tickets you've earned by proving your talent in exchange for resources, equipment, methods, and a few other types of tickets. Right now you only have one Unmarked White Ticket which can be exchanged for a piece of equipment from the hub's catalog, or, if you would like to exchange for Clear tickets, you can also spend those, along with any of the other inferior tickets, to visit the rooms adjacent to the exchange hub. Would you like to make a transaction, or do you have any questions?"
Elizabeth's eyes had long since entered a squint of death as all sorts of questions crossed her mind. To start off, she asked, "Mhmm… I have a couple questions about this place..."
"Ok, what do you want to know?"
"First off, who is this master you keep referring to?"
"I am not allowed to give away that information. If you wish to find out, then I would suggest you stop wasting time here and get to advancing in the legacy trial. What I can say for sure is that the higher up you go, the more likely it is that you'll find that kind of information."
Nodding in understanding, Elizabeth further asked, "Mhmm… You mentioned the rooms adjacent to this one… Can you explain what those rooms do?"
"Certainly~ To start off, let's begin with the Meditation room; or chamber if we're to talk properly. In the Meditation Chamber, you can spend Clear Tickets to train for hours in an environment saturated with dense spiritual energy. Because you have Unmarked Tickets you only have access to the Mortal-tier Meditation Chamber. One Clear Ticket will get you an hours worth of time in the Meditation Chamber.
The Resting Room is simple enough to understand. You just need to pay ten Clear Tickets and be treated to an Immortal's Paradise for relaxation. You'll be allowed into a little dimension where all your frustrations and pent up tension will melt away.
As for the Practice Room, much like the Meditation Chamber, you'll spend a ticket per hour that you wish to spend inside and within, you'll find equipment of the highest grade which you can use to practice your occupational skills.
The last room, the one labeled "Challenge," it's kind of like the practice room, only you get to practice your martial or mage skills instead of your occupational skills. There are some nuances to what I said about all the different rooms, but you'll just have to experience them personally to fully understand. Other than that, you need anything else?"
"Uh… Yeah, so… Look, I'm not trying to be mean or anything, it's just… I don't know what you are so, like… can you explain that?" Elizabeth really didn't want to form a bad relationship with this weird golden man, but his appearance was too bizarre for her to continue ignoring.
"Oh me? I'm a construct of energy much like this room as well as all the other rooms within Master's castle. If what you're curious about is my appearance though, I can tell you that I was modeled after a race known as the Ehcus. But if you'd like, you can refer to me as Scion. Anything else?"
"...Just show me the catalog of things I can buy with my White Ticket..."
"Right away~" Then with some light gathering at the tip of his hands, Scion materialized a small crystal before gesturing for Elizabeth to take it.
Of course, Elizabeth had no idea what the crystal was. However, as she was about to ask Scion what she was supposed to do with the crystal, a familiar prompt sounded off from her status functions.
[Alert! Jade Slip Detected!!!
Would you like to copy its contents and store them metaphysically in your soul? Yes/No]
Very intrigued by the crystal after learning that it was a Jade Slip, Elizabeth declined her functions request to copy over the content held within. She had heard of Jade Slips from several of the grimoires she had already digested, and even in her [Saintly Forging] there were methods to create Jade Slips of her own. To summarize, Jade Slips were gems that were spiritually refined to hold outrageous amounts of information. However, only Cultivators could read the secrets that Jade Slips hid, as one would at the very least need Inner Strength to scan the information inscribed within each Jade Slip.
Now, unlike most Mortal Stage practitioners, because Elizabeth possessed a Seamless Magic Connection, her scanning speed would cause others to question reality. To put into perspective how absurd she read through the catalog, there were around 34,000 unique pieces of equipment which Elizabeth could choose from. Those 34,000 unique cases were a mix of Low, Mid, High, and Peak-tier pieces of equipment. Yet all it took for Elizabeth to go through each individual case was a staggering 77 seconds…
Unfortunately, even though Elizabeth found many interesting pieces of gear she would very much like to possess, she felt it would be best to save her ticket for now. For this legacy trial Elizabeth thought it would serve her right to stay reserved and use her tickets only when absolutely necessary, as she never knew what kinds of twists and turns this wacky castle might have lying in wait.
Chapter end
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