Cyril Sarnath
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Chapter 163
🕑 Added 2023-04-24 23:15:54 +0000 UTC“Do you want to stop?” Kora inquired with a timid smile as she stared at Keynes from above. They were training hard the last couple of days as they ventured back into the forest but were stalled by growing unease and Alice’s warnings. Something was up with the dominion’s debuff, though they couldn’t pinpoint it yet.
“It’s unfair,” Keynes replied, getting back to his feet, while Kora returned to a fighting stance. “Your speed of improvement is faster than mine.”
“Like your Rapid Learning buff?”
“Hey!”Keynes protested. “But yeah. How’s that possible?”
“Maybe it’s my essence cultivation that affects it?”
“My guess is as good as yours,” Keynes replied as he, too, took a fighting stance.
“You and your false modesty,” Kora said. Keynes had noticed that fighting put her in a better mood and relaxed state. She also opened up a little bit to him, now that they had been alone for the past two weeks.
They clashed. Despite being equal in attributes and having the same degree of synchronisation, Kora continued to whoop his ass. If that ended there, Keynes wouldn’t complain, but Kora got better at a rate Keynes couldn’t match. He improved as well, but everything he thought he got her, she surprised him with new moves. With scarce input from Alice, they theorised it must be something to do with forming a technique.
Keynes huffed in frustration as he missed a sequence of punches and found himself off balance. Kora didn’t hesitate and kicked low. Keynes hit the ground a second later.
“You keep moving like Level 1, Keynes,” Kora said.
“I know.” Keynes agreed. “But harder to adapt to heightened attributes than it sounds.”But I will get a hang of it, don’t you worry.
Their sparring lasted for another hour before they called it a day.
“You’re doing much better today.”
“Thanks,” he accepted praise with a tight smile. Despite it being only training, it grated on him to be constantly on the losing side. If they were right and Kora’s abnormal improvement was the effect of acquiring a technique through natural means, then Keynes wondered how much had he handicapped himself by getting the cultivation technique from a scroll.
They left the clearing at the bank of a river and returned to their small camp. Keynes used [Purify] on them, removing dirt and stains from their clothes and bodies. He loved the spell. It was cheap enough to be used several times a day. Technically, he didn’t need to use it on their clothes as they were enchanted with self-cleaning but the enchant worked over time and required an hour to return clothes to a pristine condition. It also had to be fed mana, although the amount was pittance in comparison to spells.
Their camp was located in the peace zone as the dominion called them. These zones seemed to be randomly scattered and were offered safety. Why would a global sub-boss dominion give challengers safety neither Keynes, Alice or Kora could tell. Everything about this dominion was different and so they accepted and used it to their advantage. Because they were going to need it. In the last two weeks since the appearance of the dominion, they moved toward the centre barely by 20 kilometres. Most of the dominion monsters were common Level 1 and 2. They posed no threat to either of them. The slow pace stemmed from something else. The first thing was the aforementioned dominion debuff. It made them feel welcomed and at peace among trees. The second thing was plants. Because the dominion was open, they had access to the Web and to Untainted Paradise’s network.
By randomly using [Identify Plant] Keynes discovered many rare and unique plants. Pucci actually assembled a team and was enroute to enter the dominion himself. Pucci’s people had quite a number of plant-related skills and Keynes was excited to learn of what they would discover here.
It was a shame that Keynes didn’t have time to focus on his gardening hobby. Possibilities presented by magical plants were seemingly endless. The dominion plants were proof in this regard. There were small circular patches of the same species of plants scattered in similar fashion as peace zones. Plants from these patches were finished products though. The variety of benefits granted by them was astonishing and ranged from spells to exotic modifiers, sounding awfully close to Talents.
Powers granted by these plants were only temporary, with clearly listed limitations or drawbacks. Keynes hadn’t encountered anything like this outside this dominion and it convinced him to get a better look at these plants. There was a reason why they were here and he wanted to discover it before others.
The Web was flooded with the content about the dominion. It was in complete contrast to the first one that had gone nearly unnoticed to the public eye. This one was a show, according to Kora.
Their current ranking dropped from tens of thousand to almost a million-something rank. The top 1 was two hundred kilometres ahead of them. But again, they were in no rush.
Unlike any other place, this dominion had enabled monster-drop. From what they saw, the rewards were limited only to items and skills. No raw materials or things like rift orbs.
Upon their return to a igloo-like self-assembled house, they carried in their dimensional pouch, Kora went immediately back to cultivation. Lem Solaris wanted her to reach the Medium stage before she levelled up. Without [Essence Sight] Keynes couldn’t observe Kora’s progress and his spiritual aura was still a risky tool. He would get to train it later on. First things first; he was hungry after their sparring.
He wasn’t nearly as good as Bill when it came to cooking but he did his best to learn the basics. Plus, he had one Level 4 dimensional pouch full of food prepared by best chefs from Untainted Paradise. That wasn’t something to scoff at. Almost all fruits and plants in Keynes’s storage were personally grown by Hugo Horta. His Talent made their taste many times better. With an addition of monster meat they hunted, Keynes learned to appreciate spirit-rich food anew. He only wished they found a way to preserve the monster meat for longer. The dimensional storage did a good job as long as the monsters were more or less intact. Once meat was partitioned, the use by date decreased dramatically.
“Food’s done,” Keynes said an hour later. He was thankful for a mana-powered grill they had been given before leaving with Columbus to open rifts for the Resistance. They had come to South America with not exactly this scenario in mind but their contingency plan worked and so they were equipped to live in the jungle for as long as there were edible monsters around.
Kora shook her awake from a cultivation trans. He got a good look at her. He rarely paid attention to such things like physical appearances. It didn’t mean girls didn’t attract him. Vivena certainly had.
Oh, what am I hearing? Alice laughed. Have you just realised it?
You’re the one talking!
I am a girl!
So what?!
Their silent argument was noticed by Kora who was now used to it. Whenever Keynes went quiet and still for a minute, she knew he was having a conversation with Alice. Keynes hoped to find a way to include Kora into their silent communication but so far their efforts were fruitless.
Kora brightened a notch when Keynes’s attention returned to her. Her facial features were sharper since they’d met and her stare acquired a small degree of confidence—she still was a long way from being arrogant. After Keynes had intervened about the wetsuits worn by the carry team, the company introduced new uniforms and armours. Kora apparel was a sharp and futuristic armour in dark floral pattern, designed for a jungle. This particular set was created with comfort and everyday use in mind. They had several sets. Some were combat-oriented with as high as 20 points to all attributes, though equipping 44% of their existing attributes wasn’t pleasant and would hurt them if they wore it for over an hour.
Keynes realised that his thoughts were wandering again while Kora’s eyes watched him closely.
“Sorry, got distracted.”
“What is it this time? A singing tomato?”
Keynes made an outraged expression.
That is a good one, Alice agreed. You are obsessed with these plants. I bet they taste bad and you just pretend to like them.
“Alice just agreed with you but then she got weird.”
Hey! I am not weird!
“Agreed with me?” Kora’s brows climbed higher and though she kept a smile at bay, it slowly crept to the edges of her lips. “And how weird?”
“She thinks that making fun of my plants is funny. Also she thinks we pretend to like them.”
“Oh, that is weird. But yeah, it seems she saw through our ruse. We do not like them.”
Keynes stared at Kora, confused.
I knew it! Alice said triumphantly in his head.
What was going on?
“What do you mean…a ruse—ah! I get it.”
What do you get? What happened? It was time for Alice to get confused once again. He would regret it later on as she would play pranks on him but they were mostly harmless.
Kora’s laugh was always timid and measured even when she was at ease. Keynes himself wasn’t the most open person in that regard either…
This is not true, master, Alice said. You are very sociable and liked.
Really?
The only answer was a silly laugh that got quieter as Alice fled. He wondered what she was afraid of as he couldn’t actually harm her in any way. And if he wished to dissolve the bond, he could do it at any time regardless of her presence.
“Alice again?” Kora asked.
“Yup. She went full weirdo and fled. Let’s eat.”
“Good idea. Cultivation makes you really hungry, isn’t it?”
It did as well as training a spiritual aura. Now that he thought about it, there was some sort of feedback loop between monster meat and training a spiritual aura.
“Keynes?”
“Sorry.”He would have to work on his focus. Since the last outbreak, it was getting easier to get distracted. But this was a topic for another time.
The self-assembled house and a mana-powered grill weren’t the only things they carried in their dimensional pouches, although a number of dimensional pouches on a person was unfortunately limited and it was impossible to place a dimensional pouch inside another one.
They had two tables, one of them could extend two metres wide, and four chairs. It was such a nice set up. Of course, these things were by design. People at Untainted Paradise had been hard at work to make sure that Keynes and other high ranking ascenders could go on live an extended period of time by themselves while they were hunting. The only critical thing they were still lacking was security. While the peace zones were very useful, they didn’t want to rely on them.
For their meal, Keynes prepared the meat of a Level 2 monster looking like a very hairy pig. By itself the meat was quite bland and using Level 2 seasoning on the monster meat wasn’t a straightforward thing, Keynes had discovered over a week ago. He and Alice had noticed that the two reacted to each other on the spiritual level. The issue was almost unnoticeable with Level 1 materials but at Level 2 there was a jump in spiritual energy.
Once Keynes had sorted out the basic combinations of meat and seasoning, the rest was a matter of time.
The meat was complemented with a salad made out of Level 2 vegetables and Level 2 juice. They found it interesting how the System classified ascender-made liquids. Technically, there was no difference between potions and juice when it came to ingredients, you could have made a potion and juice out of the exact same ingredients and they would be drastically different.. It all boiled down to preparation.
Keynes wondered if the same applied to solid foods. If yes, what would be the equivalent of food elixir? He had no idea.
They finished their meals in silence then went down to plan their next move. Were they ready to move closer to the centre or should they stay here and farm items and skill shards?
