Andrew Robinson Leinbach
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Chapter 143: Back to Earth
🕑 Added 2023-07-04 23:30:07 +0000 UTCMila
“Here’s some food. Don’t eat too much each month or it will be harder to clear out the resulting impurities.”
“Don’t stay away for too long. If you can reach E rank before five years are up, you have a guaranteed spot to participate in the War of the Chosen.”
“Try not to die.”
A lot of people, both seniors and most of the core disciples of her same level crowded around Mila as she prepared to leave the Violet Mountain Blessed Land for several years. Arl Gremin gave her some servings of Foundation Establishment Soup to go. Pimala Kelmin, the chief trainer, finally told her she had a guaranteed spot in the universal E rank competition called the War of the Chosen. And Orianthi Hewin tried to hide the fact that she really, really wanted Mila to die.
The bit about the War of the Chosen was especially something Mila was excited about. That competition, like the Trial Tower for F and D ranks, was the best place for Earth’s leadership to gain access to the level of resources they would need to advance to D rank, and, while she probably wouldn’t be able to get anywhere close to the level of resources they’d received from the Trial Tower, given what they’d achieved at F rank, they wouldn’t need resources of the same level for E rank.
“Good luck.” Corin Val, the stern and taciturn leader of all the E rank core disciples, shook her hand just like everyone else and the aura of most of the others seeing her off changed to show surprise, the man very rarely talking or showing any sign of emotions.
“Make sure you’ll be ready to lead me when it comes time for the War of the Chosen to start, Corin.” Mila smiled at him, causing the man to blush slightly, and then she exited the courtyard where everyone was seeing her off and jogged to the portal to the Carium Galaxy Cluster’s capital planet.
There, she spent the 12 F rank credits required to teleport to Epecteos’s main planet of Toril, where Epecteos met her. Then they spent 144 F rank universal credits and 144 D rank universal credits to teleport to Earth, using Epecteos’s authority over the planet to make it look like they were teleporting to an E rank world in a neighboring galaxy cluster instead.
When they arrived, however, they found more people than Mila was expecting waiting for them. Diana was there, likely having been told the exact time of their arrival by Nana Xara, but Nitya and Irena Krol, Mila’s friend and maternal grandmother, were there as well.
Mila just looked at Diana and raised an eyebrow.
“My brother is not that good at hiding his identity.” Diana pointed to Nitya. “He met her when they were both trying to advance their Laws in the center of a hurricane and, when he managed to advance his last Law, he got too excited and forgot to hide the fact he knew her before running away.”
Diana then pointed to Irena. “Given Nana Xara’s criteria for him to stop getting dragged to sword practice, he’s been challenging her at least once a day for the last three years with one of more than twelve different identities he made for himself on the soul net.
“Nitya came to me asking if my brother was somehow still alive and Irena wanted to know if the Heavenly Spark Soul King was actually an F rank, so I figured I’d just explain the truth rather than making up any more convoluted lies.”
Mila looked at both women in turn. “Have you told anyone?”
“No.”
Both women said the word, but Irena’s aura showed a slight abnormality, making Mila think she wasn’t fully aware if what she was saying was true.
The extra sense Mila’d gained from her Third Eye Princess uniqueness’s interaction with her Law Larva of The Courtesan, however, detected Irena’s denial as a lie. The extra sense was a lying detection ability she hadn’t yet found much use for as her true Aura stat was generally higher than most of the people she interacted with, but it worked a bit differently than aura detection, not measuring emotions at all but more the speaker’s belief about their own statement, so it was still useful. For example, with its help, Mila was pretty sure Irena thought she was lying, but wasn’t very concerned about the lie.
Given the data she had, Mila guessed this meant Irena had technically told someone, but that someone wasn’t anyone Mila would care about, and, given the woman’s circumstances, Mila’s guess was the person she’d told wasn’t among the living.
Just to be safe, however, she locked eyes with Irena and made it very obvious she didn’t believe her.
“I told your mother and grandfather, but there wasn’t anyone else around.”
Mila nodded at that and then turned back to Diana. “So, are these the two who will be joining us in the Trial Tower?”
As with Mila’s contract skill allowing her to bring in a familiar or slave to the Trial Tower so long as its race had not evolved to E rank and its level was less than half her own, Diana’s lord skill provided special benefits for the Trial Tower as well. And, as a lord skill provided almost no use by itself, unlike a contract skill, the benefits were better.
Inferior or Common grade lord skills allowed for the trial taker to bring in one subordinate so long as the subordinate’s stats were weaker than the trial taker’s by more than 33%. Uncommon and Rare grade lord skills allowed for two subordinates so long as the subordinates’ stats were weaker than the trial taker’s by more than 50%. And Epic and Legendary grade skills, like Diana’s, allowed for three subordinates so long as the subordinates’ stats were weaker than the trial taker’s by more than 66%.
It had already been decided Mila would be one of the subordinates if she could make it back to Earth, which she had. And Aalam wasn’t a possibility as he’d have to advance his race before the Trial Tower started, while Isaiah was already an E rank. So, this left two slots and, when Mila asked, Diana confirmed her choices were Nitya and Irena, which made sense.
Of those on Earth, Nitya and Irena were the best mage and front line combatant respectively, and they could be trusted far more than Javier Garcia or Anton Smith, the other two who’d contributed in the top five when fighting off the invasions.
“Alright then.” Mila nodded at all three of them and then tossed her spatial storage ring to Diana, receiving a second spatial storage ring holding things like her token for accessing the local teleportation network and the last several years of intelligence reports in return. “Let’s practice soon. First, though, I need to go cultivate with Aalam.”
Mila then left the three of them with Epecteos and activated Shadow Stride at full power to run to the nearby local teleportation platform, teleporting directly to the enlightenment zone and then running into Aalam’s crafting hall.
Inside, Aalam was telekinetically crafting some kind of spear, but, when he noticed her, the half-formed spear dropped to the ground and Aalam jumped up and rushed to the side of the room. There he grabbed what looked like a sniper rifle hanging on the wall and then he rushed up to her and placed it in her hands, a big grin on his face.
Yin Striker (F-Heroic)
A ranged triforce-powered sniper rifle created by the Heavenly Spark Soul King designed to fire triforce-created bullets empowered by mana of all twelve elements and the Law of The Reaper, with accuracy improved by the Law of The Tactician and shots hidden by the Law of Shadow
Effects: Conductivity, 12 Element Mana Bullets, Stealth Shot, Empowerment of The Reaper, Accuracy of The Tactician
Requirements: At least a Law Larva of Shadow, a Law Larva of The Reaper, a Law Larva of The Tactician, and having cultivated to at least the 6th level of the Twelve Element Primal Code
“Your weapon for use in the Trial Tower. Legendary grade or above as promised.”
“Thanks.” Mila looked at the weapon in wonder, not having received such an awesome gift in years, and she immediately wanted to test it out. Sadly, however, she didn’t yet meet the requirements.
By cultivating with Aalam, however, and using his resources and Laws through the effects of their bond and her second class, she could cultivate a weakened version of each level of the Twelve Element Primal Code once Aalam cultivated the level’s main version, benefitting them both as it would allow them to share their resources more easily.
Putting the rifle away, Mila sat down in the center of the hall, right in front of where Aalam usually sat, and Aalam then joined her. As time was of the essence, he entered one of his minds into the inheritance of the Twelve Element Primal Code attached to her soul while she focused on analyzing his channels to see if there was anything she could help clean up with the resources from her sixth level of the mixed version of Yin Yang Cosmology.
Thankfully, due to his high grade Law Larva of Cleansing and already having practiced the Twelve Element Primal Code to the third level, the impurities from the natural treasures he’d absorbed were almost all gone, unlikely to slow his cultivation time by more than maybe a few days at most, so, given how long Nana Xara projected it would take the two of them to practice the Twelve Element Primal Code up to the seventh level, it seemed they would be done at the latest about a week before the next F rank Trial Tower started.
“So, how was the Violet Mountain Sect?” Aalam asked when he was done fully understanding the fourth level of the Twelve Element Primal Code. “You must have years of stories. I want to hear them all.”
He wasn’t lying, actually interested in her life in the outside universe over the last few years, so, using one of her minds, she started telling him. And, using one of his minds, he listened. Then she started asking him questions and he told her all about all the various artifacts he’d created as well as lamenting the mistakes he’d made which allowed Nitya and Irena to see through Mila’s lies, seeming very interested in getting better at not making such mistakes in the future.
To that end, Mila explained in detail some of the strategies she’d used to avoid people even asking questions about her identity in the Violet Mountain Sect, and they ended up talking for over a half a day.
After the first few hours, they didn’t need to cultivate in the same room, Mila being anywhere on Earth having pretty much the same effect, but, for Mila at least, it was really nice to see him again after so long apart, and he seemed to feel at least somewhat the same, not showing any signs of wanting her to leave.
