Spiritual City Upgrade [Slightly Large] Lake Parime Description

The lake's original name is unknown to the system, however, it was created by the Mayan god Chaac, who sacrificed their fourth and strongest aspect, the aspect of rain, to create the lake which bars entry.

What an odd culture. All about sacrificing things, huh? No wonder they died out.

Upgrade Prevents people from locating [Lake Parime] or [El Dorado] without the use of special means. Should someone stumble upon either [Lake Parime] or [El Dorado] on their own then the lake shall transport them away in the same direction that they came from.

"Huh. Maddy, the large thing was the lake," Daz said.

"Lots, water," Madison replied as she felt herself drifting off again. She really did want to converse with Daz, but the car's seats were just far too comfortable.

Daz chuckled and stopped talking. He saw no reason to force Madison to continue speaking to him when she so clearly wanted to sleep. 'Hey, System, please show me my status.' He didn't ask it to omit anything so the system did as was requested of it without question.

Host's Status Basic Information Name: Daz Species: Reaper Race: Archreaper Age: 20 Sex: Male Class: Crystal Digger Affinity: Lawful Neutral Energies Lifeforce: 100,000/100,000 Death Energy: 95,000/105,000 Worldforce: 17,500/17,500 Stats Strength: [LR] 1,500(2,250) Dexterity: [LR] 2,000(3,000) | Item Boost: +50. Constitution: 2,533(3,799) [+200] Intelligence: 983(1,474) [+200] Transparency: [LR] 780(1,170) Agility: [LR] 1,500 Charisma: [Limit Reached!] 2,000 | Item Boost: +15. [+137] Defense: [LR] 2,000 | Item boost: +3,000. Immunity: 1,748 [+200] Soul Power: 29,000 Luck: [LR]1,250 | Item Boost: +375. Justice: 5,340 Corruption: 0 Wisdom: 2,133 | Item Boost: +250. [+200] Regeneration: 1,433 | Item boost: +100. [+200] Mana Sensitivity: 974 [+200]

Over the past 3-weeks, Daz's Justice and Soul Power had grown quite a lot. His Soul Power still paled in comparison to Mu's, but that only made sense seeing as how his fellow reaper was of the deathly variant.

'Wait... 95,000 Death Energy? that's 4,500 more than it sh- ah. Shit. My clones got unsummoned... I never even considered that. Of course they would disappear when my connection to the system is cut off... That's dangerous... Maybe the first thing I should make permanent when the altar is ready again should be my Death Energy Manifestation, huh?' Daz wondered. 'I guess the good news is that the bindings of the spirits of both Edward's daughter and Ellie's mother aren't affected by me losing my Death Energy. I wonder how that works. Maybe a timer of some sort triggers?'

'Anyway, more and more of my stats are reaching my racial limits... I need to make a decision soon; either focus heavily on trying to naturally evolve since Rose claims using my Fruit of Limitless Evolution now would be a mistake or I invest in a bunch of stat fruits to artificially raise my stat caps...' Daz seriously thought.

On one hand, buying fruits was as easy as a single transaction, however, on the other hand, evolving came with many, many benefits with a stat cap increase being just one of them.

'I should at least try to evolve first before I spend any merit points. I still have a strong feeling that to survive I'm going to need as many points as possible when the tests end,' Daz decided.

With that out of the way, he reached into his Industrial Item Box and pulled out his new gem that was automatically brought into his service upon being given to him by the system.

It was a red alexandrite that nervously lay on his palm. It was roughly the size of a baseball and he could immediately feel that it held sentience with his new Sentient Ore Collection skill. It was hard to tell, but it seemed like the thing was scared of him.

Daz was aware from his other contract gems that 'young' usually correlated to the pebble-sized crystals, not one this large. He had a feeling that the timid jewel was somehow... special.

"So, little guy, what exactly can you do?" Daz asked rhetorically as he used Master Identification and Secret Override on the jewel before doing anything else.

Young Moss and Raspberry Alexandrite [Small Spheroid] Description

This gem is over 100-years-old and it had sentience upon its formation.

This gem was reared by a group of sentient gem rearers known as the IJF - or International Jewel Farmers - and it surprisingly offered itself to the system only 5-years into its relatively short life.

It is a timid jewel and has worries about its first master, Daz, but it still remains hopeful for its future. Above all else, it doesn't want to be turned into a piece of equipment or refined in any way, shape, or form.

Ah, such raw innocence... Now to watch you defile it like everything else you touch.

Abilities When red it will give the host the temporary skill [Unshakable Bloodlust]. When green it will give the host the temporary skill [Calming Aura]. If destroyed, it shall return to the Astral Crystal Plane to recover (only applicable if it is contracted to a host).

"Wow, you're pretty awesome, aren't you?" Daz whispered as he stroked the red gem carefully with his free hand. Thankfully, the Ridomochi Final Model was more than capable enough of driving on its own without the driver's input.

Randomly selected [Young Moss and Raspberry Alexandrite] secret: It used the farmers that reared it to kill each other, resulting in the system taking notice of it which gave it the opportunity to gain access to its rightful home, the Astral Crystal Plane. Consequentially, it fell under the service of the system.

'Huh. That's interesting. So it, like, what, gave them all the bloodlust skill forcefully and made them all kill each other or something? Scary. Well, my instincts aren't warning me, so I doubt it'll do that to me since I'm its master, but there's no harm in warning it,' Daz thought.

"Hey, you can give me two temporary skills, right? Don't give me either of them unless I ask you to if you don't mind. Do that and I'll treat you well," Daz said in a soft tone so as to not arouse Madison from her slumber.

The red jewel shook anxiously though Daz could tell that it was trying its best to promise that it wouldn't hurt him or the people that he cared about.

With that settled, all that was left to check was his new shovel, but that was obviously too big to take out of his item box in the car. Even Hamson had to return to his seal when travelling in the car due to the speed, so the new shovel would have to wait until they had returned to Fort Skip before Daz would decide its fate.

"Well, I didn't expect this," Daz muttered upon seeing the massive collection of people that were surrounding the outer wall of Fort Skip to - presumably - welcome him back. "I bet they're all riled up because Rimmy disappeared."

Regardless of his somewhat bitter thoughts, Daz lowered the car to the ground and got out a fair distance away from the few thousand citizens.

He woke Madison up and helped her out before storing the Ridomochi. Daz then immediately summoned Rimmy, though only his core. He was very thankful that he could choose which of Rimmy's two bodies to summon. That was a very useful hidden bit of information to know.

"Rimmy!" the floating man of crystal happily said as he wrapped his cold and stiff arms around Daz's back.

"I missed you too, Buddy," Daz responded in kind as he returned the hug.

A few moments later, the two friends separated. Daz then retrieved Hamson from its seal on his right hand and he then summoned his entourage of gems. "Well, let's go greet our people, huh?"

"Mmm! Let's!" Madison excitedly replied as she cuddled Mr Barrier.

"It's the Guardian!"

"Welcome back, Guardian Rimmy!"

"I was so worried... Thank God you're back, Guardian Rimmy!"

"It's good to see you again, King Daz!"

"Did everything on your business trip go well? I hope it did, King Daz!"

"Ah, Madison. Seeing you heals my soul..."

"It's such a relief that you're all okay."

Everyone was behaving very well, surprisingly. No one was mobbing Rimmy and they all happily made way for them to enter the base. Of course, there were plenty of guards present to keep the peace just in case.

'Business trip? I guess that's how Rose explained it to Lyle and Crosius so they entered damage control mode as soon as the clones and Rimmy disappeared. Still, more people are happy to see me than I expected.' Daz smiled and offered kind words to everyone as much as he could while he, Madison and Rimmy pushed through the crowd.

It wasn't until they had made it all the way to the inner fort that the citizens were forced to disperse entirely. This was because the inner fort was strictly off-limits to anyone that didn't have express permission to be there.

More than enough houses had been built to accommodate everyone now, so no one lived in the dungeon anymore, making the only visitors to the inner fort ones lobbying suggestions or complaints to Daz on days that he had chosen to address such things.

Upon nearing the keep that was resembling a castle more and more after every modification that Daz purchased for it, a girl on a wheelchair quickly sped towards them.

"Hey, Rose. Nice to see you again," Daz casually said when they were a few feet away from each other.

Rose didn't reply. Instead, she sighed and pushed a button under the left armrest of her wheelchair. The next moment a few straps coiled out of the thing's back and wrapped around her waist. The chair then... transformed into a vertical stretcher of sorts.

Rose willed the thing to move forward and she then hugged Daz and Madison. A few seconds passed before she reverted her chair back to its normal form. She sat there awkwardly as she played with her hair. "I missed you both too..."

Daz and Madison stood there in shock. "Well, that's certainly new..."

Madison was just about crying. She let go of Mr Barrier who quickly flew to Daz's head, resulting in Reika accidentally entering the fluffy monster's body which upset the spirit to no end.

Madison flung herself onto Rose and cuddled her fiercely. "First, hug, years. Grateful."

Rose's cheeks were burning like a summer fire. "I was worried... I'm just happy to see you both again, that's all. It isn't anything special..."

A heavy sigh escaped the girl's lips as she was being held by her mother-figure. "By the way, Daz, looks like we have a lot to talk about, huh?"

He smiled knowingly. "Yes. Quite a lot, in fact. But first, I have a shovel to inspect."

"What? You're as incomprehensible as ever, I swear..." Rose mumbled in response.

"Ah, ah, ah!"

"What on Earth are you doing, Sten?"

"Getting the pitch right, of course, you foolish boy."

"... Is that why you bought a lute? You're going to take up singing?"

"Why of course! Gertrude was confiscated from me a month ago, don't you recall? I swear, we really do need to arrange an appointment with Doctor Wethers for you. I fear for your health, Leston."

"Urg, you're still calling it that? Anyway, go ahead. Don't let me stop you. I can't wait to hear how bad at singing you are."

"I'll have you know that I, in fact, once won first place in the annual singing competition for the entire kingdom back home!"

"... I've never heard of that competition before..."

"I may have been the event's coordinator, judge, and sole participant, but I'll have you know that it was entirely legitimate!"

"Just start singing already. You give off the aura of someone that seems bad but is actually really talented."

"Oho? Being kind to me for once? I see you're finally warming up to the idea of myself and your mother... Well, it'd be uncouth of me to say such things in front of a child..."

"... I'm 32. Shut up and sing. Either that or just put that lute down and let's get back to cards. I can actually beat you at this when you're not cheating."

"Ahem! Very well... Kehum."

The moment Sten started strumming his lute and singing was the exact moment that Leston felt like his ears were about to bleed and his brain was going to drip out of his nose. He unconsciously reached over the desk they had laid out in front of Fort Skip's keep and he then smacked his older colleague across the head.

"In the name of the king! Bloody hell, Leston, that hurt! What would you do if you'd damaged my moustache?!"

"Bloody wish I'd damaged your vocal cords to the point that they can't make a sound instead... Were you about to summon the devil or something?"

"Oh, come now. We both know the devil is about as real as angels are. Don't talk such hogwash again! Now, where was I..."

"I am going to kill myself if you start singing again."