Arriving back home, Cely sat down on her meditation cushion, exhausted.
Although she had succeeded with all five refinements and had energy to spare, it was still tiring. Taking out the final pill that she had not sold, she admired her own craftsmanship. She hadn't made pills in over a millennium, and it seemed she still had not lost her touch.
On this note, although professions are mostly divided into tiers, there's also mastery. Mastery is an expression of how well a craftsman does their job. A craftsman of a tier can make things of that tier, but how well they do it depends on mastery.
In alchemy, mastery relates to the likelihood of success. Cely, as a Tier 6 Alchemist Master, can succeed with Tier 6 pills around 90% of the time. Anything below that is nearly guaranteed.
Above masters, there are grandmasters, and above those are transcendents.
Grandmaster Alchemists can guarantee success at their level, while Transcendent Alchemists not only guarantee success but further surpass the theoretical limit of the ingredients, resulting in either more pills from the same amount of ingredients or more effective pills.
Cely actually has no clue if there is a transcendent-level craftsman anywhere within this plane. She had simply heard of the differentiation from her parents.
After admiring her craftsmanship, Cely didn't hesitate before swallowing the pill in her hand. A warm, pleasant sensation quickly started spreading from her tongue to the rest of her body.
Outside of mending the core, this pill also had some positive side effects. It also mended issues in her body that might have occurred during her time speedrunning live levels. After all, the leveling she did with the system was a kind of cultivation as well.
Similarly, it was as rushed as her actual cultivation, and so it was filled with issues from going too quickly. This warmth spread through every part of her root mycelial root system that made up her body, bringing with it, as always, pleasure.
There are cultivation techniques and systems that are painful. But they are so by design.
If you cultivate, it should be pleasurable, as the body is strengthened and purified of past weakness and damage.
If it's painful, the creator of the technique was a masochist.
Considering how Cely was a sadist, not a masochist, it was clear she would not be using one of those techniques. So, the efficacy of the pill kept on flowing through her body, loosening her "muscles" and "tendons" as it nourished her energy pathways.
Finally, it reached her dantian. The flow of energy was gentle as it wrapped around her core. Cely felt heavenly. The small crack, which had formed on her core, slowly closed as it was filled with energy.
The whole process lasted only a few minutes, and then it was already over. Enjoying the bliss for a second longer, Cely looked back at her system interface. Of the other functionalities of the system, she knew she would never be able to open the shop.
The shop only opened after the system performed a hostile takeover of the host, so she was not really interested in it either.
The lottery, however, would open after this next evolution, so she was excited for the benefits.
The system lottery had multiple tiers. Bronze, silver, and gold. Each one had different items it could theoretically drop. Most of them were decent enough, but she knew there were diamonds in the rough.
On the question of why she knew so much about systems? Well, it was one of her deepest research projects before she died, so it was par for the course.
Anyway, now was not the time to get sentimental about the past again, and so, Cely finished the last of her prep before she clicked "Yes" on the evolution option.
What would this evolution bring?
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As Cely quickly fell into a slumber under the system's power, a black substance began to emanate from her body. It seemed the same as her previous evolutions, yet there was something very ominous about it this time.
The surrounding energy began to get drained quickly, rushing into the black mass. The energy gathering formation, though, easily kept up. It was Tier 6 after all.
As it absorbed energy, the mass began to rapidly expand out of the confines of the meditation room. It flowed over all the walls and furniture, yet none of them seemed to be affected, as if the mass was searching for something.
Quickly, it reached outside of Cely's residence, yet the second it tried to flow further, an invisible barrier blocked it. The residence's protection formation. The mass started leaching the formation's energy, attempting to exhaust it to get outside, yet the formation held firm.
No matter how much energy the mass, which by now had filled the entire formation, absorbed, nothing changed. This whole charade lasted for a few hours before the mass finally receded, back to the mediation room.
And finally, into Cely.
Due to the obstruction formation of the residence, none of the normal people in the city noticed the anomaly.
None, but the 99 members of the COG and Edward, who were currently in a meeting. The special thing was that Edward was present in the meeting.
"Sir Edward, is that... thing... really to be trusted?"
The voice came from an Elven man with golden hair and blue eyes. His name was Sarith, the head of the Talisman Association in Grimm.
"Don't call her a thing, Sarith. I think we can trust her. Not to mention that we were warned by His Majesty to not provoke her."
Klein retorted. His voice was still slightly muffled by his beard.
"You're only saying that because she gave you Maria's rapier. You saw that black mass yourself. And she provoked Orioth, which caused me a huge headache!"
Orioth is the name of the Chaos Hydra, and the one who called out was a human in a guard's uniform. His name was Erik, and he was the guard captain of the northern gate that bordered Nimmer Forest.
Before Klein could snap back, though, Edward, whose sunken eyes had been closed till now, opened them. The mere gesture seemed to stop all movement, as every member of the council stopped to look at him.
"Cely is trustworthy. If you don't want to listen to His Majesty, listen to me. There are more important things, though. Dan, how is the investigation going?"
"Nothing. The method in each case is the same. The murderer used a sword to pierce the victims, dissipating their cultivation in one blow. So far, we have found 345 bodies. 12 of them, Immortals. All of them, without struggle. They never saw it coming."
The room stayed quiet, but tension could be felt throughout the rows.
The murders had rapidly increased in frequency over the last days, and there was no sign of a stop to it.
"The Divination Department has tried and tried again. We have yet to get results either. It is as if the victims just died without a cause when inspecting their past."
The speaker was Ezath. One of the only non-humanoid beings in this room and the head of the Divination Department. Their kind was called Awarez. Their bodies were snake-like, and they had two membranous wings. To see, they used a singular eye located at the back of their throat, forcing them to have their mouths open most of the time.
"I am at a loss as well. Even though I have kept an active eye on the city over the last few days, the murders did not stop, and I could not catch a glimpse of the assailant. You all must understand that our enemy is most likely a Great God. If you find out anything, don't engage. Notify me."
Edwards voice commanded in a raspy tone. Though the room was less concerned by the tone, and more by the content of what he said. None in the room but Edward were at Tier 8. If a Great God attacked, all of them could become collateral.
"If we work together and use the city's formation, we should be able to avoid most of the harm when the ancestor engages the killer."
Dan's voice calmed the room. How could they have forgotten the formation?
"So, what about that thi- ahem, Cely?"
"Leave her. She doesn't warrant any more special attention. Just don't provoke her and make sure your subordinates don't either."
Edward's voice calmly refuted Sarith.
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Waking up, Cely could feel the difference right away.
Her body felt much lighter as her roots started swaying in the windless room to feel the difference. Her body had become more dextrous and agile, and with a thought, Cely seemed to blend into space, becoming practically invisible.
As she felt her bloodline memories, Cely understood what this ability was. She could now bury herself in space and absorb its energy. Seems powerful, and it is. There are three things Cely can do with this.
First, what she was doing right now: to blend into space, becoming untouchable and invisible to any normal being.
Second, she can keep part of her root system permanently buried in space, ensuring that, even if her body was destroyed, she would stay alive and could flee with that remnant.
And third, she could use this to launch sneak attacks on enemies by striking them with her roots out of space, instead of coming from predictably from walls, floors, and ceilings like before.
Truthfully, Cely was amazed. She hadn't heard of any bloodline capable of doing this, but she knew the system was capable of creating its own to suit its user.
Speaking of the system, Cely took a look at her panel with interest.
Name: Cely
Cultivation: Tier 4 - Golden Core Realm: 4th Stage
Level: 0/100 | Not Ready To Evolve
Shop: Locked
Lottery:
Bronze Lottery - 6 Tickets Available
Silver Lottery - 3 Tickets Available
Gold Lottery - 1 Ticket Available
Her eyes had a twinkle in them as she looked at the lottery tab.
Let's go gambling!