Azimuth: The Elden Throne

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/About twelve hours later…/

Three hours before Babylon's Gates close…

"Huff..."

Looking at the far distance at the edge of a precipice, Dale breathed calmly as he adjusted his breathing.

His forehead slowly became dim as the faint light surrounding it dissipated into nothingness...

[Manifestation of the Perfect Self 1-??? has deactivated]

"Phew… That was tough." Dale said with a tired expression as he looked at the horizon

'Arg... My head hurts...' He thought as he touched his forehead

"I'll never grow over this feeling, every damn time I start to get somewhat used to it, the Reflection does something to make it even more unbearable than before."

"At this rate, I'll just die... Which may be the case..."

"One day, after deactivating it, the difference between us will be so great my body will likely just burst apart due to my lack of self-control."

"Nonetheless... Babylon will soon close and with it, this Skill will vanish..."

'Though I wonder if that's a blessing or a curse.'

/Shuaaaa.../

For the next few minutes, Dale looked at the far distance and at the setting sun in the horizon.

"Hum..."

'Another Quest down... Time passes rather quickly when one's busy.'

'With it, the last one of my seeds has been consumed, now the only thing that's left is to actually use the 'Special' seeds I got.'

'But there's only about three hours left.'

'With the time I have left, there are a few things I need to get done:'

'... First, all of these Seeds need to vanish, I don't know if they'll carry on with me, but I don't see a use for them back on the Continent.'

'This should be easy to solve, I'll just look for an appropriate mission and use the respective seed then.'

'From there on it's just a matter of completing the challenge.'

'Second, I need to use my 'Key', the one I got in the Beta Tester Box. I'm not sure what will happen once I use it, but I've already confirmed it I can do so whenever I want.' .

'The Key will likely lead me to a greater Challenge, maybe even my hardest yet, something to surpass even what I felt when I fought that girl...'

'Third, I have to use the Envelopes I got.'

'The problem is that I got two of them, which raises the possibility of a choice.'

...

[Hidden Achievement: Acknowledged by the Red Court]

[You have been awarded the Red Envelope]

[Hidden Achievement: Acknowledged by the Gods of Old]

[You have been awarded the Blue Envelope]

...

'From their descriptions, it seems I may have to make a choice between both, or maybe it's a chance to meet them directly?'

'This envelope looks like an invitation of some kind, certainly something to think about...'

'Albeit I'm not too keen on making a choice when I know so little of what's at stake, which could also be their original intention, like a game of sorts.'

'To watch me squirm as I try to make sense of something that doesn't really have any... Hopefully that's not the case.'

'Fourth, to use the remainder of my time to grind Favor to buy some of the more expensive items in the shop or just buy everything I want.'

'I would certainly enjoy to buy some gifts for the Villagers... It would definitely be hard to explain, but maybe with some tongue articulation, I can convince them all to accept it without any questions.'

/FLASH!/

…

Despite being teleported suddenly, Dale's thoughts did not stop.

He was so used to the process that it couldn't even interrupt him anymore.

"Ahem... Cough."

He cleared his throat and adjusted his thoughts.

'Last time, after I conquered the Arena, I went to the shop and checked, this time once and for all for the highest-priced items available, but I was left disappointed.'

'I expected to see something over 100 Million... I thought it would be possible to get a Legendary Grade item with what I had... Even if it wasn't a 'real' one...'

'But that's not how Babylon works.'

'There is no way to acquire any item directly above Unique Grade from the shop unless they are some sort of special consumable like the Loot Boxes or if they're given as direct rewards from Quests and similar.'

'For example, most of the Top 10 Duel Rankers received items and equipment for their incredible Achievements, while I only got 3 measly Favor...'

'I get it that my reward came from my actual victory, but it feels like they're rubbing salt on my wound...'

'Anyway, maybe the reason the shop was organized like this is a way to try and reduce the gap between players, but even that seems farfetched because it fails at doing so… At least at closing the gap with the top players.'

'Perhaps it works if one looks solely at the average and casual players.'

'In any case, amidst the items priced the highest, Skill Books are without a doubt the top rankers, and even then, they only go so far.'

'The highest priced Skill Book cost about 2 Million for me to get, which wasn't much, and this is compared with the other Top notch Skill Books like Doom Target, Light of Icarus, Divide Damage, Fall of Partur, and so on.'[1]

'Still, that's nothing when put on a scale with the theory books I bought before…'

'This gave me a certain impression… That compared to a Skill Book, which is like a simplified… Martial Arts book, the theory that leads to it, and the knowledge behind its principles and specialties is valued very highly by the beings in charge of the shop.'

'And I can certainly understand why if I were to compare, a Skill Book most of the time is like a catalog of Math Questions with the way to solve them, but it doesn't really explain why or go into much detail… Generally at least.'

'The Theory Books are different, as they're... Well, theory.'

'Both go very well together but both can be read separately as well, however, it is still true that in order for me to to fully understand the techniques of the Southern Corps, I'm being "forced" to go through training first.'

'Although, at the same time, it's not like all of these expensive books were Theory.'

'Maps of the Continent, History Books, Diaries, and all of that good stuff… If I could, I would grab them all, but the price on some of those is ludicrous.'

'I once questioned if it was wise to share so much, but maybe, in the grand scheme of things, it all doesn't matter much.'

'The highest Quality item you can buy is the Original Myth Loot Box, and even then, I've opened over a hundred and received a grand total of 0 Mythical items.'

'Though I also rolled no dice over 97...'

'Nonetheless, if I were to count the amount of players that can grind over 10 Million Favor then that number would likely not surpass 100K, and although that may seem like a lot, there's the need to take their own perspectives.'

'Not only would they have had to ask for the books since they're not on display, but they would also need to be willing to pay for them because out of those 100K, likely 60K+ have just gathered that amount and they wouldn't spend it on something that won't help them immediately.'

'Because comparing it to everything else… There's no point in it.'

'It's the choice of the filthy rich to splurge on such a useless task, it's an investment with no signs of being profitable in both the early and mid-term.'

'But at the end of the day, I went on with my day grinding for those books, especially the history books and the kind that could potentially aid Resko's situation and the development of my Quests.'

'However, I've met with a problem… My inventory is getting bloated.'

'Even with my High physical strength Stat, most of my inventory is now occupied by miscellaneous materials and items that serve me no purpose as of now, not to say all of the trash I accumulated from opening 100 Loot Boxes.'

'I may be able to lift a mountain, but if I have one of shit on my back…'

'And that's by far the end of my troubles.'

/Tic... Tac... DIN!/

"Hm?"

/DIN DIN.../

'The clock?'

Just when Dale was about to fetch another Quest, the massive hanging clock atop the Plaza started to sound, indicating the passage of another hour.

'Now it's confirmed, three hours left.'

[Ding]

"Hm?"

Once again, Dale was surprised as a notification sounded in his ears.

[A Special Event is now Underway]

[From now...]

[Ding]

But before he could read and listen to the notification, the bell chime of the System interrupted him once more.

[Would you like to participate in the Special Event?]

"What?"

Pondering over what to do, Dale was about to read the notifications to understand the situation better when...

[You have accepted the mission, moving to…]

"Huh?! Wait a minute I..."

/Flash!/

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Notes

[1] The Books he saw on Chap 256

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