(Altura-MC)

Altura awoke to a System notification. Quite literally. It was right before her face and was going ‘ding ding ding’ stupid thing wouldn’t even shut up.

Element gained!

Royal Lightning added to the status screen.

Stats gained +15 to all stats!

+3 to Aura Force

+9 to Combat

+6 to Intelligence

What! I nearly doubled all of my stats. Not only that, but I more than doubled Combat? What was this lightning? I took a deep breath in as my body suddenly changed. Again. I felt my muscles grow leaner, stronger. The world sharpened around me. The System notification blocked my sight, but I was sure that I would be able to see far better than before once it was gone.

And my eyes weren’t the only sense heightened, I could feel my sense of smell, hearing and touch get stronger too. Taste I was sure was also heightened, though I wasn’t eating anything right now. And then the world changed around me. Becoming much more…malleable. No. That was not the right word. I don’t think there is a right word in the English language.

The world seemed as if it would be much more responsive to my spells now. That I might even need less Qi to do the same thing. And then there was the fact that I was noticing these things. I was sure that they were before also. I was able to feel spells happen after all. It just hadn’t been so…detailed.

Had I crossed a threshold of some sort? I dismissed the notification, ready to make my way to the City. I had some questions for Aswelth.

But as soon as I dismissed one notification, another appeared.

Qi gained!

Elemental change- 3000 Qi gained

Change in seed structure detected.

Processing…

Qi threshold increased. Level up initiated.

Mid-Sapling (60/1200) → Late Sapling (3060/4800)

Stats gained! +3 to all stats

I sighed as the little Sapling grew a bit more. Even more stats. At this rate I would get addicted to stat gain. The world grew even clearer. The changes were less pronounced this time. But I also had one very important thing I wanted to know. But first I had to know my surroundings. I did not want to clear the System messages to some beast slobbering on my face.

Skill progress!

Magic type skill [73/100%]

…come on System. I need to see where I have ended up.

Notifications archived. Please think ‘unarchive notifications’ to unarchive.

Oh. That works. But wait, there were more notifications? Exactly how things did the System have to say? Whatever, I had better things to do.

Thankfully, I did not have any beast slobbering on my face. Instead, I was back in the City, in my treehouse in fact. Hmm, should I step out or deal with the notifications. I think it was best to deal with the notifications.

Seedbonded item gained!

[Staff of Royalty]: Created from the wood of a simple mortal tree, this staff adorned by a single gem of unknown origin. The staff holds great power, tough its body flows the power of royalty. As long as its wielder remains royal the staff shall not break. The more royal the wielder the harder the staff and greater its power.

Current bonuses: Grants Element [Royal Lightning]

A Seedbonded item? System, what exactly is a seed bonded item

A Seedbonded item is an item that has bonded with the seed of the wielder. It cannot be stolen or traded until the wielder’s seed is dead. A dead seed is often a result of the wielder dying, though that situation may be avoided.

The item may be stored within the seed or summoned from within the seed. The [Staff of Royalty] has been stored within your seed, you may retrieve it by use of will.

Oh. I shall have to try that…later. Now for the next one.

Criteria met!

Royalty Seed

Royal Element

Landed Nobility

Trait gained! [Royalty]: As a royal you gain further access to the Royalty SubSystem and your lands gain a boost of Qi.

Class upgraded! [Archduchess] → [Royal Archduchess]: As a royal Archduchess, your lands gain a boost of Qi.

Multiple boosts detected! Qi boost increased to large Qi boost.

Qi boost? Are you trying to confuse me System? Or is my education so bad? Oh. Memory. There were still a few remaining? Apparently a Qi boost was something that increased the Qi level in the area. It made beasts more likely to appear, but increased crop yield, reduced the time it took for crops to grow, increased the odds of citizens gaining rare seeds and all sorts of nifty things.

Apparently each of the duchies had gained a large boost. The Capital even had a massive one. Only the Selrin duchy didn’t have one. In fact, when the Founder of the Kingdom had still ruled, the Capital had boasted a humongous boost. But that had been reduced when the Founder retired.

Which meant that if I ever retired then the valley would lose its boost. Hmm, did the boost land yet? There did not seem to be any big difference… System?

Qi boosts increase the Qi in the area slowly. The changes will take place over the next few days.

Oh. Made sense considering the System was around to regulate Qi changes. Now for some more questions. System, what is the Qi threshold, and what exactly did increasing it change?

Qi threshold is the amount of Qi needed to achieve the next level. Each seed has a base of 75Qi that doubles every small realm.

A threshold value of two doubles the base value to 150Qi.

This also doubles the stat gain of each small realm.

Due to the [Royalty] trait that gain is further increased to three times each realm.

Due to above-normal stat growth in a small amount of time the System has chosen to limit the stat gains in favor of physique stability.

So the System had been holding back information on the traits too. And these weren’t even all of them? Wait. Kerrin had threshold 2 also. Did he have more stats too? Since he wasn’t royal it would just be twice as many as normal.

Did that mean there were higher levels too, System?

The System has never granted a threshold value higher than two. It has been calculated by the System that higher threshold values could be dangerous.

Ah. well, that did make some sense. Higher threshold values could give a extravagant number of stats. Though the lack of beasts could serve as a natural limiter. It would make levelling up itself impossible, especially in later realms.

But that was enough for that. Next up I needed to know about the stats I could gain in each realm, but that would be left for after I dealt with whatever those two had been up to while I was away. Wait. How long had I been away exactly? Couldn’t have been more than a couple of hours right?

Marcus (Now caught up to Altura timeline)

“What do you mean the pass is untraversable?” Marcus asked.

“Avalanches. Lots of them. There is literally no end to them. Every few minutes they erupt again. There is no way to cross it, not without a cultivator protecting us." A man replied.

"So we are stuck? Is there a pattern? Sometimes we can cross? " Eugene asked from. Besides him.

"Not one we can see. The avalanches might stop in a while, but we cannot wait for that. The nobles will be catching up any minute." The man replied. "So we are stuck, yes"

" Have you tried searching for other ways in? Perhaps there is some other pass? Something" Marcus asked.

"Again.time. Doing any of these things would take too much time." The man replied, looking at Marcus as if he were stupid.

" And what would you have us do then? Go back to the Cilanthria? Plead for mercy? " Marcus asked, curtly.

"I don't see how we have any other option. " The man replied, "I should never have followed you stupid miners. "

" Well no one forced you, oh noble shoe seller to come with us. I, for one, will not be returning. I'd rather die than have my child be subjected to the same horrors I was. " Marcus replied.

"Then you can remain her al-" the man began before he was interrupted by a scream that pierced through the nervous silence of the crowd.

Marcus turned around to find a woman fussing over a something on the ground.

"What happened" he asked as he moved towards her.

"Vioras! This hole appeared in the ground and swallowed Vioras whole! Run! The nobles have found us! " The woman screamed in reply. The crowd shifted at her words, ready to make a run for their lives.

"Stop. If the nobles had found us we'd already be dead. It could simply be a sinkhole. The ground is unstable here, as it was in the mines. Sinkholes are rare, not unheard of. " Eugene shouted to murmurs of agreement. That was one crisis averted.

“I’m ok mom! It's just a tunnel!” A voice shouted from inside the ‘tunnel’ bringing great relief to his mother.

But Marcus had an important question, “Vioras, tell me, in what direction does the tunnel lead?”