Ascension of Chaos

B2 | Chapter 4

Ashley

After we finish catching up, over an entire hour has passed. And thanks to potions of all sorts, I'm fully refreshed once more. So I leave Blake to continue catching up with his teacher – the Primordial of Magic – as I head down to the shops below.

I've collected a massive amount of monster parts from the Unique Domain, and there's no way I'll be able to use all of them.

There's so many filling my storage rings that I literally don't have any more space.

Of course, I made sure to cut off some parts of the King of Destruction himself as well before I left. Because I'm sure those will be very usable if I ever find a smith able to work with the parts. But I won't be selling those parts.

That would be stupid if I did after all. Not only would it decrease the material I have to work with for when I want gear made for myself – if I ever do – but it will give other people a way to defend better against destruction magic. Which at this point is one of my specialties.

If not my main specialty, since it's the only magic that I have a perfect mana manipulation skill for – or will have after I purchase it right before attempting the trial. Not to mention a Unique Skill Tree for.

"Technically Assimilate is a Unique Skill as well," Chaos comments offhandedly as I continue walking down the Spire, making me pause for a very brief moment before I just resume walking.

Didn't think about that.

Guess it is.

Although I didn't get any sort of Title for it like I got for Queen of Destruction.

"That's because it's just a single Unique Skill," Chaos explains. "A Title isn't given out by the System unless you get a Skill Tree with the usual one hundred Unique Skills. But your natural Skill Tree only has one Unique Skill in it, so it doesn't count."

Hmm. Makes sense.

What's your Unique Skill Tree called anyways?

"Chaos," Chaos answers rather obviously.

Okay, that was… forget I asked. Stay connected via empire

"Forgotten," he states right away, almost making the corner of my lips raise a little.

After I reach the shop area of the Spire, which literally has shopkeepers here assigned by the System as another potential job to avoid having to participate in System Events, I go ahead and walk over towards the self-service counter. Specifically so that I can avoid the people behind the counters who probably look rather eager to speak with me. Even if I can't see their faces right now with my eyes closed.

None of them are allowed to leave their counters into my Spire without my permission though, so they're just kind of stuck there unless they teleport out after clocking out of their hours.

Overall, it must be a rather boring job being stationed in my Spire.

I might open up the first floors of my Spire to other people eventually, but right now I'm not planning on doing that. Because I need to focus, and having people flooding the first few floors of my Spire – and I know that's going to happen if I do it – would be annoying.

Although there's also the issue of my eyes. Since I'm walking around with my eyes closed and only using Enhanced Perception to move around. And if I invited a bunch of people to the lower floors of my Spire, that would be…

Bothersome.

Anyways, when I reach the self-service counter, I go ahead and dump monster bodies on the counter without hesitation.

One, five, ten, fifty, a hundred, and more. With each corpse just disappearing after dumping them.

Eventually I run out of corpses I'm willing to sell, leaving me the corpses and body parts that I want to keep. Along with a lot of empty storage rings.

It's rather unfortunate though. I would've had more, but the storage rings I had on my fingers when I was fighting against the King of Destruction were kind of… vaporized.

So I lost a lot when that happened.

I still had plenty of extras in my jacket pockets though, and those actually transferred over to my new jacket when I got my new armaments.

After making sure I have everything in the counter, I focus on the icon in the corner of my vision stating sell with a credit symbol. Giving me a rather large sum of credits all at once.

Unfortunately, you can't really sell most regular monsters. Or rather, they sell for such an abysmal amount that you'd have to sell an entire Domain's worth of monsters just to get a small amount of coin from it.

So generally it's not worth it to take monster corpses. Assuming the dungeon in question even lets you, since some don't.

But it's different for Unique Domains.

Those give a lot of money for the corpses. What with them being unique and all.

And with these credits, I immediately purchase dozens of mana and health potions.

But that's all I purchase for now. Since there aren't really any items that I want now anyways, what with my new gear.

I open my eyes and glance upwards in an attempt to see the crown on my head, only to fail miserably when all I can see is my own hair. Following which I immediately close my eyes again when crimson cracks begin spreading on the wall and ceiling where I looked past my hair.

Yeah, that's going to get old real quick.

At least I won't have to worry about it during Official System Events though.

And speaking of those, I turn around and begin heading straight back to my living area. Where I find Blake already waiting for me.

"You ready?" he asks, almost making me frown a little as I wonder what sort of expression he has.

I really miss being able to see without having to rely on Enhanced Perception…

"Yeah," I answer him before beginning to make my way up towards the top of the Spire with him following next to me.

How long do you think it'll take to build up the Skill Points necessary to purchase Visual Focus?

"Most likely a couple months at the least," Chaos answers, making me grimace a little. "You might be able to save up enough for it if you're labeled the MVP of the Planetary Official System Event though."

Oh? Interesting.

Then I'm in.

I want to be able to see again. And to actually see what expressions people have when I'm talking to them.

Blake and I continue walking until we reach the top of the Spire. Then I tell him that I'm going to be purchasing the skills from my new Skill Tree, after which he goes ahead and enters his trial.

We don't want to be in the same trial after all. Because then we'd end up in a fight against each other.

And while we could theoretically team up, some events make that harder to do. Even if they're all generally similar according to Chaos for the trials. Plus I would have to be careful with my eyes again.

More importantly though…

My eyes narrow as a slight smirk stretches across my face the moment I purchase several new skills, making a slight pain radiate through my body from the adaption process. With me pulling up the skills' descriptions afterwards to reread through them.

{Perfect Destruction Mana Manipulation – UNIQUE SKILL – This skill grants the user the ability to turn their natural mana into destruction mana and use the mana to perform destruction magic spells of all kinds. Additionally, the user may experiment and create new runes of their own for spell-crafting purposes.}

{Fangs and Claws of the Queen – UNIQUE SKILL – This skill grants the user retractable fangs and claws that are filled with pure destruction mana from the Queen of Destruction herself.}

{Royal Perception – UNIQUE SKILL – This skill enhances every last aspect of the user's vision-based perception, granting them the ability to see various different spectrums with their eyes alone.}

{Indestructible Fangs and Claws of the Queen – UNIQUE SKILL – This skill makes the user's claws and fangs completely indestructible.}

{Physique of a Ruler – UNIQUE SKILL – This skill passively significantly increases the physical strength, constitution, and dexterity of the user.}

{Scales of a Ruler – UNIQUE SKILL – This skill grants the user retractable scales befitting the Queen of Destruction.}

More importantly, if I ended working with him in the trial, it would mean one less person in the trial for me to take the Skill Tree from.

And I want more Skill Trees.

Specifically a Skill Tree that lets me see more than just Enhance Perception gives me without opening my eyes.

On that note, once the adaptation of my body finishes and the pain fades, I take a deep breath and reach out to touch the Spire. Making a System Message play out in my vision.

A bold and crimson one.

Would you like to attempt the Trial to reach Class D? Yes/No

Without hesitation, I select Yes, making a bright flash of crimson light shine from the Spire. After which I find myself appearing inside of one of the usual pre-event rooms for an Official System Event.

Officially marking the beginning of my first Official System Event in over a month.