Chapter 71

Having left the trials behind him, Aaron was met with nothing but a notification screen in a sea of darkness. Worst of all, it went on for a while, calculating and blinking.  Then again, he figured a decent amount of compute was required to run a System across an entire multiverse, and perhaps his impatience was unwarranted. Not that it made waiting any better.

Also, he looked around and realized Sooty was nowhere to be seen. That said, he knew that the soot goblin was somehow magically bound to him, and figured he would show up once he returned to Superearth.

I’m pretty sure he’ll be fine…

For a brief moment, he feared the soot goblin getting stuck in a void again and felt bad for the little guy. He was already starved for attention, and a few thousand more years of floating the stars in a void wouldn’t do him any favors.

The Shadow Trials have officially ended, and with them, the time dilation over the newly integrated world has been removed.

Note: The people from your world have now been released to their new world.

Aaron blinked at the notification. It was a little surreal now that it was happening. The trials had been his entire life since Earth was integrated, and this felt like something of a graduation.

Title acquired: Shadow Trials Hall of Famer

Be inducted into the Shadow Trials Hall of Fame.

Reward: +10% All Stats

“Another one. Not bad.”

Totals Calculated!

[ Name: Aaron Dober ]

[ Age: 23 ]

[ Race: Human [ Awoken ]  ]

[ Grade: E ]

Trials Completed:

Endurance (10/10)

Dominance (10/10)

Challenger (10/10)

Travels (9/10)

Magic (6/10)

Wit (4/10)

Survival (4/10)

Companionship (3/10)

Grading:

Trial Completion: S

Time Spent in Trials: SSS

Style: SSS

Improvements: SSS

Blessings Received: SSS

Trial Success Rate: F

Trial Completion Speed: C

Final Score: S

Congratulations! You have unlocked the complete version of the Shadow Trial’s point shop for getting a final grade of S!

Points rewarded:

Bonus points: 350,000

Points rewarded: 978,000

Total points: 1,328,000

“Can’t complain with that. I just wish I could show Douglas.”

As soon as the notifications cleared, they were replaced with a shop menu, leaving Aaron speechless as the massive list of items was displayed before him.

Comparing the item list prices and how many points he had been rewarded, he figured he had a decent amount to spend. Nonetheless, Aaron took his time going through what was available. And while it sounded like everyone was returning to Superearth now,  he wasn’t in a rush. 

What were a few minutes in the grand scheme of things, anyway? Besides, he had gained some newfound confidence after beating Mo’han, and really doubted giving people a tiny headstart would do anything significant to change that, even if they did get a lucky opportunity.

Besides, this shop in and of itself was an opportunity. And so, with that thought in mind, he took his time, going over everything in detail, and musing over what decisions made the most sense.

And it didn’t take him long to find one purchase in particular that stood out to him. He had scrolled all the way to the end of the shop menu to see what the most expensive items on offer were, and he came to a final page with half a dozen million-point items. Of them, it was the Divine Temple that stood out to him.

 This item could be placed in claimed territory from the System screen, and provided a weak link to the user's patron god, as well as a weak divine aura, and a statue. But more than that, it could also be upgraded.

Aaron wasn’t entirely sure what all of it meant, but even if none of the other traits provided him anything useful, having a link to Yendal was. If it allowed him to speak with her, then that alone was invaluable. Her guidance and training were the reason he had gotten to where he was, and it made the decision to purchase the building easy. And if it provided additional boons? Well, there really wasn’t any questioning its value.

A million points cut away at what he had, but he was steadfast in his decision-making and added it to his shopping cart before moving on to the other options available.

There was just about everything he could think of, but with the temple under his belt, he decided to scroll across to the Skills section. In particular, his racial Skills.

There was no limit to the number of racial Skills one could acquire, and whilst they weren’t combat-related, from what he had seen, they could be massively useful, especially since they didn’t take up any Skill slots.

As he scrolled, he noticed Lingua Multiversa—the universal language Skill he got as a trial reward was one of the more expensive ones. He was pleasantly surprised to see he had actually hit the jackpot with that one, considering how many of his trial rewards had turned out to be useless. After scrolling up and down, he decided to settle on the Skill World Map. It wasn’t necessarily the best option available, but most of the really tempting ones were now out of reach, and he wasn’t about to remove the temple from his shopping cart.

However, that didn’t mean it wasn’t a useful Skill. World Map description said that it gave him a System-integrated map that would automatically fill out as he explored. And by exploring, it meant everything. Worlds, dungeons, you name it. If it existed in the muttiverse, this Skill could record it on a map for the user. And since Superearth was an entirely new and unfamiliar world, and it was going to be many, many times larger than Earth, this seemed like a pretty sound purchase.

World Map put him back another 100,000 points, which left him with a solid 228,000 points remaining.

He continued scrolling for a while after that. There were other items that interested him, but many were either too expensive or just not that important. To help him decide, he delved into his memories of Elvanas, since that was his only experience of a post-integration world.

And he immediately got several ideas, and when searching for solutions. 

The reality was, he wouldn’t always be around. His future was that of a warrior and an adventurer, and as such, he would be off fighting and conquering challenges across the multiverse as he chased growth.

But just because he wanted to scale the peaks of the multiverse, he didn’t want to live a life of solitude. He wanted to do all of that whilst hanging on to his humanity, and everything that came with it. And that meant being a part of a community.

However, he couldn’t expect everyone to be as strong as himself; Elvanas’ life had taught him that much. And he certainly didn’t want to come home one day to find everyone he knew and loved slaughtered.

And that meant he needed a means of keeping them safe whilst he wasn’t around.

It took a while of searching back and forth for appropriate options, but finally under the building tap, he found something that ticked the boxes. For 150,000 points, he could purchase a D-grade barrier pylon. It wouldn’t do much against the freaks of the multiverse, but based on its description, it sounded as if it would be able to keep some wandering D-grade beasts from slaughtering a settlement… at least for a few days, which would hopefully be long enough for him to return.

It wasn’t a perfect solution. There were more versatile options, like death bots, as well as more powerful barriers, but they were all well out of budget. For example, a C-grade barrier would have put him back 750,000 points, and he wasn’t giving up the temple for a barrier. From what he could gather, the D-grade barrier was about as good as it was going to get, and so he added it to his shopping cart.

He had just 78,000 points left, but there were still a decent number of items he could purchase with that, albeit weaker ones.

After another hour or so of back and forth, there were several ingredient packages and others that sounded useful. But ultimately, they were either well out of budget or just not that good. In the end, he settled on the resources tab. Within it, he found purified high-quality soil for 50,000 points. There were some other better options, but nothing that stood out enough to remove any of the other items he had chosen, although he did come close to surrendering his World Map. However, it just sounded too handy to just give up. Settling for the soil, he added the thousand cubic meters of purified soil to his cart. Just like the temple, it could be placed straight into the territory he controlled from the System page.

This seemed like a perfect purchase for him. Sure, if he killed a beast, he’d probably collect the meat. But he didn’t want to be stuck hunting and gathering all day long just so he could cook. What he needed was reliable and sustainable sources of ingredients, if he was going to keep his spatial storage stocked at all times, and that was going to need some kind of farming, which was what the soil was for.

But he needed more than just soil for a farm. However, most of the equipment didn’t need to be anything spectacularly valuable. And so, he used his remaining 28,000 points on various equipment to turn the soil into a useful farm. He wasn’t getting super rare items with that many points, but he could get plenty of Common, and also a few Uncommon pieces of equipment, which seemed good enough for their intended purposes.

Of course, he didn’t buy all of this because he, himself, intended to become a farmer. No, he certainly didn’t plan on settling down on a plot of land. But he knew enough about what awaited them on Superearth to know that there would be plenty of people looking for safe work within settlements, and was fairly certain he could get someone to work his farm. Probably a few somebodies.

He kinda wished he had completed the Tutorial, as the trial points could be added to the Tutorial points. But there wasn’t any point lingering on the thought.

Going over his shopping cart selections a final time, he felt pretty happy with the selections he had made. And perhaps more importantly, thankful most of them remained in the System construction tab, waiting to be placed, as his spatial storage certainly wouldn’t have stood a chance at holding everything he had just bought.

However, his umming and ahhing over the huge list of options had taken a while, and a good few hours had passed by as he went back and forth through his options.

Eh, it was worth it.

He mentally clicked check-out and felt the System’s power warp around him, and an incredible force dragged him through the void.

Within seconds, he could see it. A new world. Through some kind of magical vessel, he was shooting through the cosmos, aimed at a star-sized world that looked rather similar to Earth, except the continents were completely different.

“Well, at least we won’t have to call it Aquatica,” he smiled as flames whipped around the magical barrier, and he passed through the atmosphere.

Epilogue 1: Mo’han Khan

Mo’han clenched his fists as he watched the notifications pass by in the shadowy, post-trial abyss.

He was frustrated with himself. He had missed his chance to ask Aaron what he had won from completing his patron god’s quest.

Annoying.

He gritted his teeth and wondered what exactly the tournament ticket was all about. It wasn’t just because they both had similar quests that he wanted to ask Aaron about it, but his patron god’s peculiar comments about Yendal. But it seemed he would have to wait until a later date to get an explanation.

It is what it is. 

Shaking his head, he refocused on what he was doing and flicked through the trial point store options. With a grading of SS, he had a decent number of points to spend, and he was thankful for it, as the Divine Temple sounded too good to pass up.

A million points… but how can I say no to such a purchase?

Confirming his selection and adding it to his cart, he was left with just 250,000 points, which was, coincidentally, exactly what he needed to purchase a wormhole gate building.

This store turned out surprisingly fruitful. I hope it serves you as well as it has me, A-ran! I would hate for my good friend and rival to fall behind.

A smile creased his lips as he went to check out. He was in no rush, but he also saw no point in sitting around once he had already selected obvious choices. He needed what he needed, and he had it.

“Time to see what this new world has in store for me,” Mo’han murmured as he mentally selected check-out.