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Chapter 456: Growth - Markets and Multiverses
🕑 Added 2025-10-16 23:25:25 +0000 UTCWhen I saw my father’s worried and anxious expression, I started to feel a little bit guilty about my actions.
Based on the time I had spent spying on the front lines, the soldiers there had held out admirably. Very few monsters had slipped through the defensive line, and the city defense force had quickly wiped out the few monsters that bypassed the front lines entirely. The archers and mages had worked hard.
Despite their hard work, due to my influence, their attempts to keep the city perfectly safe had still failed. I had teleported over twenty different monsters, before Anise and I wiped them out. Of course, I had watched the monsters for a while and probed them before I made my move - I didn’t want to teleport over a monster that I wasn’t sure I could handle, afterall. However, once I confirmed that they weren’t fast enough to escape extinguish, and that extinguish could instantly destroy monsters, I had decisively dragged over a few monsters to turn into levels.
The adult who had been in charge of protecting us had been incredibly confused when multiple tiny monsters appeared out of thin air. He was a defensive specialist of some kind - which also meant that he didn’t have a good way to wipe out the attackers. Based on his Feats and the massive iron shield he carried, he probably could have kept everyone safe if this had been a real emergency - but before he even got a chance to move, all the monsters were dead. Anise and I knew exactly where the monsters were going to appear, after all, and the instant a monster appeared, one of us would hit it with a spell that instantly killed it.
Even though I felt a bit guilty about worrying my father, the gains from my actions were extensive. Anise and I had hit level 20. I was the first one to hit level 20, and I had gotten there after killing five monsters. I left the other fifteen to Anise. After she hit level 20, I stopped pulling in more monsters, because there was no point. If Felix or Sallia had been nearby, I would have been happy to grab him some levelling fodder too… but he and Sallia were still living in nearby towns, which we had no access to. We could hear news about them from times the stronger townsfolk leapt between wandering towns, or when we were stopped, but meeting them officially would still need to wait a while.
I hadn’t just gotten levels from the battle. I had also gotten Achievement from killing the monsters, and more interestingly, I had also gotten a level in {Basic Ice Manipulation} from the battle. My level 10 Feat wasn’t very efficient at translating the sonic attacks from these creatures into fodder for my skill… but surprisingly enough, I still received a small wave of insights every single time I killed a monster.
Power: You have levelled up (X5)
Slaughter: You have killed a talkite swarmer for the first time, You have killed a Talkite Swarmer for the Fifth time
Skill: You have raised basic Ice Manipulation to Basic Grade
Achievement +500, Achievement +500, Achievement +600, Achievement +1000
In total, that got me a wave of 2,600 Achievement, bringing me from 131,224 to 133,824. Of course, far more important was the skill Evolution I had acquired when my {Basic Ice Manipulation} moved from Tier 0 to Tier 1.
Since you have trained Ice Manipulation to [Basic] Grade for the first time, upon your death you will have the option to purchase [Ice Manipulation] as an ability, for the cost of 5000 Achievement.
This Ability has the following effects:
Keywords: None
This Ability will create a shared pool of essence using your manifestation and binding essence abilities. You may use essence from this shared pool to manipulate nearby ice, or create it from scratch if no ice is available. Ice can be moderately hardened, flung around at medium velocities, and gain moderate flexibility based on essence input.
It also enhances the speed at which you can regain [Basic] grade for this skill. Reaching [Basic] grade will enhance your manifestation essence grade by 5.
Glut Penalty: 10
Note: This Ability relies upon binding and manifestation essence, but contains no way to generate more of either type of essence. Please keep this in mind before purchase.
The local System also gave me a reward for reaching Tier 1 {Basic Ice Manipulation}.
You have raised basic Ice Manipulation to Basic Grade
Mana Stat +10
This boost was nothing incredible - a stat boost of ten points was about equal to a single level, and not a very impressive boost. It also threw some of my earlier assumptions about my stat points and overall strength in this world off, although I was glad to know about this sort of minor reward from the System. It meant that boosting Skills was valuable for more than just raw combat efficiency - it was also a way to farm a few extra stat points.
I scanned all of my System notifications from both the Market’s System and the local System, before I dismissed everything. I didn’t think the [Ice Manipulation] Ability from the Market’s System was very valuable, so I probably wouldn’t take it unless I got a much better version of the ability. I would just accept the local System rewards and move on.
While I was scanning over the results of my battle, my father finally managed to collect himself after seeing all of the monster corpses. His mouth, which had fallen open when he saw the monster corpses, finally closed, and then he shivered, before he dashed towards me and stated checking my arms and legs, as if trying to find any injuries.
“Miria… what happened?” he asked, as he poked at my arms again.
“A few monsters suddenly appeared at the edge of our vision. Anise and I killed them. We both hit level 20!” I said. Then, I felt another pang of guilt, and I lowered my head a little bit. “Don’t worry, it wasn’t too dangerous. They couldn’t dodge our attacks very well, and they all died in one hit. None of them even got the chance to fight back.”
“Failed to dodge?” My father gazed at Anise and I with an expression of greater surprise. This time, I knew exactly why he was confused - the monsters on the front lines had displayed remarkable agility and prediction abilities, and the soldiers over there had seriously struggled to kill the flying creatures. Of course, the monsters Anise and I had fought were severely disoriented from being teleported around, and we had killed them before they could reorient themselves. That was hard to explain to my father, though. I decided that distraction was the best way to handle this question.
“Can we get our next spark? Please? We’re both ready!” I said, doing my best to open my eyes as widely and cutely as possible.
Anise nodded beside me.
My father took another deep breath, before he gave me a crushing hug.
“I’m just glad that you’re safe,” he said. “Anise, you would need to to talk with your parents about scheduling an appointment with the [Priest] to get a new Spark. After all, parents like to make sure their kids have some kind of plan for each Spark, or at least most parents do. Miria, do you know what you want?”
“I want an [Ice Mage] spark again,” I said. “I might take a different third spark, but I want at least two [Ice Mage] sparks first. It seems very useful in our current environment, and it also matches well with my gifts.”
My father narrowed his eyes, and glanced at the corpses of monsters strewn about our house. “We really do need to talk about your gifts sometime. They’re usually private information, but if you’re willing to tell me, I’d really like to know how to keep you safe and help you grow.” Then, the tension on his face disappeared, and he grinned. “What about your second feat? Have you already taken it?”
I blinked in surprise, and then realized I had forgotten to look at my new feats. I pulled up a System notification for my level 20 Feat selection. This time, I only got three choices.
Level 20 Feat Choice (Pick 1)
Dreams of Frost:
You have slain at least five creatures that are all stronger than you, all using some form of ice or water.
Your {Basic Ice Manipulation} Skill transforms into {Ice and Water} manipulation.
Born for War:
Your first and last levels within your very first spark were all gained from massacre.
You gain a small boost to mana and stamina each time you kill an enemy. (Note: This restores physical strength and mana pool, but CANNOT restore things like mental fatigue).
Shadow of Oblivion:
You have forcibly teleported several creatures around, then slain them.
You create a new compound spark that is only available to those with this spark combination and this Feat.
Spark combination: 3 [Ice Mage] Sparks, all maxed out.
Will Convert to ‘Frost Void Mage’.
This time, I didn’t think much about it. I was very interested in creating a new, powerful compound spark, since I wasn’t quite sure what direction I wanted to go in the future. This world seemed to rename most spatial abilities and spells as ‘void’ spells. However, I was quite interested in spatial manipulation. My runes were all built around spatial magic, and if I could somehow enhance my spatial mage in this world, that would definitely give me a big leg up during our fight for more lives.
I chose {Shadow of Oblivion}, and grinned.
“I picked my feat, dad. It’ll let me get a compound spark I want.”
My father nodded. “Those can be hit or miss, but I know some people who have gotten really good compound sparks out of that kind of Feat. If it’s what you want, you should take it. Now, let’s go get your next Spark.”
Author’s Note:
Join my Discord! (I’m at least sometimes active there, while I admit that I don’t generally check the comments section. I’m not very active anywhere, though - writers are antisocial people, okay!)
