[Several skills have advanced or fused!

Arcane grimoire (G) Lv 241 has become Keeper's grimoire (B) Lv 241.

Legendary (B) has become Alexandria's records (I) Lv 1.

Congratulations! As the first to break the Blue grade barrier in your universe....

Improved earth affinity (O), Improved wind affinity (O), Improved fire affinity (O), Improved water affinity (O), Improved shadow affinity (O), Improved light affinity (O), Improved arcane affinity (G) have all fused into Record’s affinity (C) Lv 1.

Embers of creation (G),Spring of eternity (G), Breeze of fall (G), Sediments of endurance (G), Beacon of light (G), Maw of darkness (G) have all fused into Will of the keeper (B) Lv 1.

Powerful arcane body (Y) Lv 192 becomes Keeper’s boundless body (C) Lv 192.

Sinergy detected! Deal with the devil (B) has been assimilated by Alexandria's records (I) Lv 1, Psychopath (Y) Lv 281, Arcanum (C) Lv 292.

Psychopath (Y) Lv 281 has become Psychopath (G) Lv 281.

Arcanum (C) Lv 292 has become Arcanum (B) Lv 292.

Cold calculation (O) Lv 198 has become Decisiveness (Y) Lv 198.

Mana orb (O) LV 153 has become Arcane missile (G) Lv 153.

You have killed Aurora, The White Warden {Lv 75 (Lv 100)}. Due to spe… You receive a titanic amount of experience.

You have successfully overcome your tribulation.]

Reading through his notifications, Aki couldn’t help but question how many levels he'd get for killing the angel as both his summons gained more than five levels each.

Considering the fact that the current distribution was 9:1 with the dungeon getting more XP because of it's ridiculously high requirements, it was ridiculous to him that Lea gained eight levels still.

For her that ment around a hundred twenty stats and maybe an extra skill. Really, if not because she herself had asked to not hit the cap right now then he’d have shoved everything towards her, as there was no way having a level 100 individual by his side would be a downside when considering they were supposed to go through tons of trials and tribulations anyway.

He was not dumb enough to believe something like that would not come without the corresponding responsibilities, but he didn't expect… Well, anyone but Septima, to even understand his willingness to throw himself against a possible end for power.

At the moment, he was just pretending to live while trying to be smart about survival. It was honestly not that bad compared to normal, but there was simply nothing which he really wanted or envisioned himself doing.

He could die the next instant and his only real regrets would be how he handled his first time and not leaving more behind for Lea and Septima.

To fix that, his best hope was to create a good enough set of images and then live for a long time while avoiding any more regrets on the way.

Pretending his life was that meaningful and important was far more easy when you could partially overwrite reality with your own will and manipulate constants and powers far beyond the normal reach of a single mind.

His way of achieving it was likely not the norm, but after explaining his development plan to Lea, she then proceeded to have several meditation sessions where he could feel that something about her was changing for the better, so it was unlikely he had gone about it in too bad a manner.

The path had been simple enough on his mind, having been there ever since he found himself in a reality where magic existed for him to command. Then again, his first path had crumbled when his mother died, but somehow he'd been able to figure out a way to create an image with himself as the center.

Summoning his grimoire, he thought about a random chapter from The Prince, then one from The art of war, the date of the Battle of Waterloo, the formulas for theoretical time dilatation, how to enrich Uranium, some random restaurant bill he'd helped estimate the value of when his five years old self tried to brag about his math skills, a cake recipe he had childishly tried to learn to help in it's confection when he was three, every random story his parents ever told him about…

All of it appeared in front of him as if he had opened a new book whenever he thought about trying to read about it, all of it in different styles, fonts, but easily readable and seemingly even boosting his learning speed in some way.

The very world seemed to help him recall the information he had no way of remembering, though he could still use it to imprint information and cast spells, so there wasn't even a loss to eat up because of this.

The sheer amount of useless information made him wish he had better abused his former access to internet, but he also couldn't help but smile at the books his mother had forced him to read as some kind of cultural repertoire or another, as now he could directly read them again and actually understand the boring stuff despite having such a small impression of the damn things that his system enhanced memory could not come even close to allowing him to review them.

Better yet, he effective knew around a hundred elements of the periodic table to a good enough degree to use them with magic now, all thanks to his random teen ass searching for the info.

Making a shit ton of liquid oxygen only to condense it and allow for his mad science to work it's magic would even reward him!

[Alexandria's records (I) Lv 161:

The records grow, and as they expand, so do your understanding and memory.

Your soul requires less to grow. Acquiring records of existence increases soul quality according to the event's Weight and the record's veracity.

Skill growth slightly increased. Acquiring new knowledge and understanding increases the growth of related skills to a relevant degree.

Increases mana regeneration by 1% per skill level.]

One did not need to be a genius to notice that soul quality was definitely better than extra XP.

He was pretty sure he would have to search for it's other uses, but not even he was bratty enough to complain about something like that. Instead, he decided to capitalise on the advantages he acquired.

[Congratulations! You have completed the Vital trent path (100/100)! +10 Vitality and Endurance. Health, Stamina, Health regeneration and Stamina regeneration are multiplied by 1.1x.

Congratulations! You have completed the Arcane progenitor of the end path (5000/5000)! +30 Efficiency (Y). +35 Search (Y) and Knowledge (Y). +40 to Archives (Y) and Madness (Y). +30% spell efficiency. Skills related to mana receive 1.50 times more XP. Percentage bonuses from related paths doubled. +1 to all mental stats per level.

Congratulations! You have completed the Base soul bond path (100/100)! Affinity with Salear increased! She will have increased access to your thoughts and emotions. Communication between you two has become easier. Resource exchange with partial efficiency has become possible through your bond. In addition, blows that reduce the Health of one of you below 0 will instead take Health from the other.]

……………..

The days before the duel were some of the worst the camp goers had suffered. After his obvious power up and subsequent demonstration of his dreadful library image, no one was able to think that the concept was an abstract or ridiculous notion.

They had all felt like ants being stared down by thousands of judging eyes, evaluating their worth, their history, their fears. They had all seen the considerable increase in magical might and mental capabilities that their encouraging tormentor had gained.

The cheerful explanation about said power had hounded them for the rest of the sudden free day as well though.

"An image is a part of you, fed by your willpower, needs and wants. It's a way to focus your influence from the burning flame of a campfire into the explosion that moves the pistons in an engine." He'd explained before casting a spell purely with mana and a spell backed by his image.

Although many could perceive and understand that the same thing had happened to create both reactions, the second spell… almost no mana had moved to create it compared to the other, yet it was bigger and brighter than its counterpart.

Septima really wished she didn't understand the power that could grant someone, though it was less shocking to know that each image would grant it's specific benefits and said benefits were determined by how it was constructed.

Everyone's problem began with the way Aki suggested for creating an image.

First, understand why you need an image. As in, question the answer of that, and the answer to that question as well, repeating the cycle anywhere between five to fifty times until you truly understand what you need.

Just that had already stumped the whole camp. As that had apparently been expected however, they had then spent some time questioning existence itself and any understanding of reality through some methods that a couple of philosophers from earth.

For some reason, the exercise seemed to have a lesser effect on the humans.

Secondly, they needed to think of who or what could help them fulfill that need. and how they could incorporate those aspects to what they already were.

“The name of my image is Alexandria, the library of humans. It stems from my curiosity, doubt, pride and wish to obtain control over fate and reality through understanding them. For the benefit of those that don’t know, it is a myth related to an old and extensive library that existed long ago, having been burned down by a natural disaster already. The thing is that despite the physical place having been encased in volcanic rocks, ash and soot, the idea of a place reuniting all of humanity’s knowledge was so important that it came into existence somewhere. Recording everything in the life of every individual to have ever existed, every discovery ever made. THAT, is Alexandria. An embodiment of human curiosity and hubris made into a place. An amalgamation of will and significance so grand that it developed it’s own way of being alive, to want for more knowledge, to share it’s blessing so it may be envied, praised and helped further it’s goal.”

The sheer mania in his eyes had already been scary, but when he actually started speaking, his words held a weight and complexity that dazed many, their infectious nature conveying what they wished to show either way.

"For those feeling afraid of me at the moment, I beg you to think of how long you’d have taken to figure this much about what images feel like without my intervention or even if you would have felt it at all to begin with. Don't think I don't know how most see me, but please, understand that I am simply not powerful enough to allow for this chance to go by. Heck, some of the people present wouldn't even be here if I followed my normal selection." Shrugged Aki, the young man who didn't look like the harbinger of some eldritch horror.

After some time to digest everything that they had just experienced, they were told the last step. Figure out what your image wants, feels and how you affect one another. Then, and only then, should they begin to dive into the image’s form and try to make it as real as possible, slowly increasing its influence in reality as it became what it should be, supported by both the concepts understood by the individual and that of reality itself. Apparently the latter was related to society, as their images would begin by taking influence from the consciousness of those around them as well, and then go onto become a universal constant, much like the theorized speed of light or time.

The postulates in question had pretty much been proven correct by magic and dungeons, so Aki had not shied away from having the whole camp read and study about it.

“I will now distribute some notebooks with examples of simple images, adding the pros and cons of each, and I want everyone to study them to both figure out your own images and how other people would fit into each one. Don’t be afraid to share your doubts, fears and findings, the view of others can many times help you figure things about yourself, as much as voicing out your own understanding. When in doubt ask either me or Lea. When some of you start figuring out your own images i ask that you share your findings with your colleagues and help them as well. We are all forced to be in a fucked up apocalipse after all, so don’t forget that there are many things that are infinitely more scary than me. By the way, i’d be honored to have an image based on me, so put on all your emotions about this great leader of yours into your search as well, just remember to not waste your time on something that works specifically on me as that will immediately become useless the moment i die or become recognisable to your perception. Be sure not to push too hard when trying to form your images. Even with me arranging all the energy for the process through our contracts your souls can still overextend, so treat it like exercise and don’t push too far beyond your limits even if you think you can. If you see some dumbass trying to do that just break their concentration and call for me, the scene they will make will have their condition be quite obvious. Don’t…..”

And so on and so forth.Honestly, if he wasn’t so scary she’d have thought him the most dedicated young man she’d ever seen. Probably would have been a hit target if he’d been born a farvit.