Probably no more than a few hours, but maybe as much as a full day later -- as long as Kestra's stamina bar stayed over two-fifths full she didn't experience tiredness, which made judging time a little difficult -- Yorgin, Vostler, and Graemire exited her private realm. They took down the mana shields and broke their medallions.

You have cleared a dungeon trial!

[874,395] Challenge Points awarded. You will now be transported to the Rewards Stand.

Kestra felt a tug and pull sensation as the world around her shifted . It resolved itself into a small room, comfortably cozy for her current size. Along one wall was a fancy looking, engraved door. Along the wall she faced, to the left of the door, was a counter that supported a silvery metal sheet. Words floated just over the metal.

Reward Stand

874,395 CP Remaining

Touch the flower to select a rewards category.

❀ Weapons

❀ Spells

❀ Techniques

❀ Skill Manuals

❀ Tools

❀ Ingredients

❀ Miscellanea

❀ Random

Graemire had warned Kestra, and apparently Vostler, too, about the dungeon reward stand. The points they earned were very close to the experience they gained for completing combat trials, and were used to pick rewards.

Novice grade items were usually between 100 and 500 points, Apprentice grade between 1,000 and 10,000. Journeyman grade items began at 50,000 points and ended at 100,000, while Expert grade started at 500,000 and ended around 1,500,000 points. Master level items cold be obtained after accruing at least 5,000,000 points.

Weapons and Spells were self-evident categories, with subcategories for weapons based on types of weapons before being listed by grade. Spells just went into grades, and had signifiers beside them if they had an elemental affinity, had internal or external affects, and then whether they had permanent affects.

Techniques would only be listed for skills one already possessed, so if there was a forging technique, but one lacked the Smithing skill, they would not see the technique.

Skill Manuals didn't actually confer skills, but did provide additional information one could absorb to improve the results of their craft. They were one-use items, however the information they contained was supposed to be all akashically verified -- meaning truthful--, which might not be the case with manuals written by the inhabitants of the Ten Horizons.

Tools also related only to one's own skills.

Ingredients, on the other hand, were basically a sm örgåsbord of everything one might use for any given craft.

Miscellanea was the hodge-podge of everything else, and included devices like chronometers, wind-up mechanical guardians, and spirit summoning contracts.

Random, though, was for the gambler. For 50 points, one was guaranteed something at the least equivalent to a Novice grade item, but there was no guarantee what it might be, or whether one could make use of it. Each grade cost a factor of ten more for a base guarantee, which made half a million points sound like a bargain to guarantee one would receive something to the equivalence of Master grade. Whether that item was a weapon or a spirit contract, no one knew.

There was also the ability to increase the amount of points one spent to get a certain type of random item. It was cheaper to narrow down by applicable skill than to request a category like spells or tools, though cheapest of all to bet on ingredients.

Kestra quickly nabbed scrolls for the Apprentice grade control spells for Earth, Metal, and Wood, a scalable [Novice] grade Remove Poisons spell, found Journeyman spells for controlling Air, Lightning, and Gravity, and then got skill manuals at Novice, Apprentice, and Journeyman grades for Alchemy. The general books were at the top of the points cost, but there were also several more specific manuals that were closer to the lower end, like the Apprentice grade Refining Rocks manual.

Inspri happily copied the documents, stored the originals, and added the knowledge from the originals to Kestra's knowledge bank. The specific manuals did have some duplicate information from the more general ones, but they went into greater depth about their topics. They wouldn't take the place of an experienced teacher, but they gave Kestra enough of an understanding for her to develop some interesting experiments and see what she knew from her prior realm that would apply to this one.

She took a moment to let Inspri sort through the new Alchemy information to identify the common tools of this realm's Alchemists, and then bought out the most basic versions at the Journeyman grade. She wanted to learn, not have her tools carry her, but she also wanted her tools to be up to the tasks she would be taking on, so none of the fancy cauldrons that increased the Fire potential of her pills, or anything like that. The gourds and alembics, mortar and pestles, burners and cauldrons were in their nature familiar enough, but quite a few were made a of a substance called "tempered glass".

Examining the first such piece reminded Kestra of the ball of molten crystal Vostler had played with while Ralouf had used her Water Extraction technique to pull apart the components of his rock while the Fire Elemental melted it all.

Suddenly, Kestra had a new skill she wanted to explore.

After her tool purchases, Kestra was down to 51,640 challenge points to spend, and no good idea where to spend them. She decided to see what the Random options would give her, and went for eight each of Novice, Apprentice, and Journeyman grade, unfiltered.

The results were quite random, lots of scrolls related to various crafts, some ingredients contained in different grades of jade boxes, a summon contract for a High Foundation grade pixiu, and a box of "love aids".

Kestra finished out her shopping by finding a scroll for the scalable [Novice] grade Summon Allies spell, which appeared to be the basis for all summoning contracts.

She didn't bother trying to use up the last six thousand odd challenge points. Graemire had mentioned that they would constantly accrue, the points related to the Ten Horizons more than any particular dungeon.

She exited through the door and met up with the Honorable Divine Creatures back just outside of the Frozen Hopes dungeon.

Graemire and Yorgin were waiting, but Vostler had yet to appear. He came out twirling a very fancy looking spear.

"Back in now?" he asked.

"Yes. The antechamber should be safe enough for our purposes," Graemire said.

So back in the four went. The same welcome notice and list of trials was before them. Kestra ignored the notice and brought up her gate. All the Divine Creatures exited, leaving just the sprites, and Kestra closed her gate.

Eilith and Ambrose wrinkled their noses while Nicada had an eager light in her gaze. Ralouf cast a wistful look back at the gate. "The cabin's in a habitable state now, but there are more than a few improvements I would like to make, after we're done with gathering enough cores for a continued stay down here."

Kestra piped up. "I have an auto-loot perk. I think I can stop it, but do you want me to?"

"No need, Miss Kestra," Ralouf said. "We can get a divy report of the loot at the end of our challenge, and it will move us through faster. We might even get you up the Transcendental realms after this, which will be kinder on our cores."

"I hit level 30 with the last run," Kestra said. Then she smacked her forehead. "I forgot to see if there was a guide book to quests or cultivation stuff in the Reward Stand!"

Graemire said, "You can look after this run. Are we ready for the Strength Challenge?"

"Yes." "Yep." "As ever." "Eh. Fine!"

Kestra agreed to go in with her party and was teleported back into the run.

This run through time, she mostly focused on her Mana Manipulation, Marksman, Stealth, and Throwing skills. She saved her arrows, not that they were of much use against the celestial beasts of the Trial of Strength. Instead, she plucked out different bits of wood or stone, used her control spells to mold them into the correct shape, Imbue Mana technique to harden them, and then worked with her different control spells to try altering the affinity of her improvised arrows or missiles.

After the tenth room, the creatures began appearing in duos, and all dropped High grade Celestial elemental cores. By the time they left, they had collected some twenty of the cores. The creatures died faster than before, and a few times Kestra's attack was still in the air when the challenge beast died. She gained no credit for the kill in those circumstances, and someone had to loot the corpses. She did, however, get up into the Expert ranks for the skills she used, and got an achievement for teaching herself the Affinity Infusion Expert grade technique for her Mana Manipulation skill.

This time, she focused entirely on finding information that would help her plan her development and learn new skills. She found: A Compendium of Common Quests for the Novice, Hidden Rewards of Body Cultivation, Considerations for the Mana Cultivator, Overview of Tool Use for Crafts of the First Horizon, Novice Blueprints for Archers, Novice Blueprints for Alchemists, and A Novice's Formulary for Alchemists.

After that, she had forty-thousand and some challenge points and no real desire to spend them when the Compendium of Common Quests for the Apprentice ran near one million points. There had also been a Survey of Useful Skills, but that price tag had been up to two million points.

Joyfully, the Alchemy blueprint book gave Kestra an idea of how to get the Glass Making skill, and the Tool Use book combined with her own observations of smithing pointed a good direction for that skill.

Again, Graemire was waiting, as were Eilith and Ambrose. Yorgin and Ralouf exited shortly after Kestra, then Nicada. Vostler came out wearing a breastplate that seemed made of liquid fire. He hadn't used his new spear, but now he brought it out and postured a bit before sending the spear into his storage device.

"So, loot dividing?" he asked.

Graemire looked over Vostler with an obviously assessing gaze. "Yorgin should probably hold onto the cores you'll be using to return to the Divine Horizon."

"Yeah," Vostler agreed. "Probably smarter that way. But, hey, Yorgi, want to do some wandering around the Seventh Horizon?"

"It might be fun. Sure, let's see what other new things are out there," Yorgin said.

Kestra asked, "Am I good to lay out the loot now?"

"Yes," Graemire said, and Kestra made two sets. "This group was with just Graemire, Yorgin, and Vostler, and that group is with everyone," she pointed out, then stepped back.

The cores were easily divided up. There were seven Divines, seven cores left over from the first dungeon run, and another twenty three from this run. Graemire insisted every Divine get four of the cores and Kestra's mana well receive the remaining two. While the Divines picked over the rest of the loot, she dropped the cores off with her mana well, and got a blue screen in return.

[COMPLETED] Quest: Grow Your Mana Well

Requirements: Grow your mana well to Middle Base Grade

Rewards:

‎ Quest: Grow Your Mana Well II

EXP: 10,000

Quest: Grow Your Mana Well II

Requirements: Grow your mana well to High Base Grade

Rewards:

‎ Quest: Grow Your Mana Well III

EXP: 10,000

As the haggling over the rest of the spoils started up, Kestra got the impression the Divines would be a while, so she began to meditate on the information Inspri had pulled out of the various books. After a few minutes of this, though, something needful became obvious to Kestra.

«Inspri, let's add notes about sources to our knowledge bank. Let's group them as personal observation, akashic source, mortal source. Also, let's go through what I know about Alchemy from our home realm, so we can set up a good compare and contrast source and develop a plan of experiments to run. Since we have plants that came from home, we'll also want to keep notes about how the transmigration has affected their alchemical properties.»

The Inventory Sprite bubbled back joy.

Graemire's hand on Kestra's shoulder roused her back to focus on her surroundings. Her belly burbled and cramped for hunger before the Emperor of Wood spoke, and Kestra blushed.

He ignored her tummy noise and gestured to a pile of odds and ends of loot. "This is your share of the proceeds. It is less than I would like, but--."

Kestra giggled. "I was level 5 when we met, and I'm now level 41. I'm not going to complain if you have use for materials beyond my skills. Better to honor the dead and not waste their remains."

"Yet you can also sell these items if you cannot personally make use of them. It is offensive to withhold rightful wealth," he said, frowning.

That got a head shake from Kestra. "Wealth which you all earned. I was merely present. If you choose to share more than the experience, I will appreciate the generosity, but given my own contributions to the fight, I would hardly presume to expect any more than I have already received."

The Emperor Elemental sighed. "Fine! This is yours. We'll be leaving for Matala and the realm anchor there as soon as you're ready."

Kestra sent the goods over to Inspri, not bothering to look at them as she stood, stretched, and pulled out her last travel loaf. She bestowed a gentle smile on Graemire. "You're a generous and kind hearted person, and I do my best to not take such generosity for granted. I am only owed that which I am owed, and I am blessed when those around me joyfully share their prosperity with me."

He shook his head, but she caught the smile he tried to hide.

She ate a few bites of the travel loaf before tucking the rest of it back into storage.

"I think we'll just fly to the anchor, see off those who need to return to the greater mana densities of the Immortal Horizons, and then see about preparing you for the first Ascension Tribulation," Graemire said.

She nodded. "About that. There's something I want to see about here on the First Horizon before leaving, and it might take some time."

"Oh?" Graemire asked.

"Ramakith of Sortalheim enslaving the other transmigrators," she said.

That got more than a few head snaps.

Graemire's eye widened. "There are more transmigrators?" he asked.

"Yeah. I swore not to talk about my source, but still the description Manager Mardu gave of the travelers just fits too well. Even if they're not transmigrators, though, random enslavement is a bad precedent to let stand, don't you know?"

Quest: Free the Slaves!

Requirements: Free those Lord Ramakith Ard of Sortalheim has unjustly enslaved.

Progress: 0 / 132 Freed Slaves

Rewards:

‎ Rewards vary by completion

EXP: 5% to next level

"A quest! Let's go!" Vostler crowed, bouncing up in the sky.

Kestra's head tipped sideways as she stared at the screen. "Did everyone just get a quest to Free the Slaves?"

"Yes. I'd guess this is the Blessing of Benevolence at work from Graemire's Enlightenment," Yorgin said, sighing.

"Vostler's one of the ones who needs to head up the Horizons soon, isn't he?" Kestra asked, unconsciously moving next to Graemire.

Graemire picked her up in his favorite hold and launched skyward, toward Sortalheim. "Yes," he said.

Yorgin and the others quickly followed them.

"We could really use whatever communication pieces the Auction House managers used," Kestra mused aloud. "Though I'm not sure if they make them such that Vostler wouldn't melt it in his enthusiasms."

Graemire made a noncommital noise before asking, "Did you have a plan of action?"

"Well, for starters, we need to understand the situation. The enslavement is just not acceptable, not to me, but the city lord may feel he's working to the interests of his people. I'm oath bound, but I think it's safe to say that if you get me back to the White Swine Woods I can get some more information. I may need you all to hang out in my realm while there, or at least not follow me."

Vostler rejoined them while Graemire considered her words. "Ah, where is Sortalheim?" the Fire Elemental asked.

"We're heading that way, Vost, and plotting how to fulfill the quest with the least amount of collateral damage," Yorgin said. "Come keep me warm in this wind, yes?"

Vostler slipped to his fire snake form and wrapped around Yorgin's neck. "Okay. So, what's the plan?"

"Kestra will take the time during our flight to apply her leveling boosts," Graemire said. "Then she will do some scouting near Sortalheim to better determine the situation. Some of us will return to her realm so that we are near to hand while others of us pursue other information sources. And we shall stop at Matala to purchase some of the lower Horizon communication devices so that we may better coordinate as we go about our separate tasks."

"Alrighty, then," Kestra said, and set about boosting her stats.

She thought they should have an hour at least till they made it back to Manager Holla's Jade Pearl Auction House, so she experimented with boosting more than a single point at a time, applying two boosts across the whole of her stats. If before it had taken a single boost five minutes to work through her system, then twelve total boosts should take an hour, she posited.

It took twenty minutes, so she applied three more boosts across all her stats. That, too, took twenty minutes, so for the last bit of the approach she tried it with five across the board. They were just flying over the city walls when her body returned to her control.

Congratulations!

You have applied 25 boosts to your Strength statistic!

≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈

Rewards:

≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈

Title: Heightened Strength

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≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈

Heightened Strength

≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈

You have applied 25 or more boosts to your Strength.

≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈

+5 to Strength

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[COMPLETED] Quest: Mana Cultivation II

Requirements: Reach Liquid Mana Cultivation Stage

Rewards:

‎ +5 Mana

EXP: 10,000

Quest: Mana Cultivation III

Requirements: Reach Solid Mana Cultivation Stage

Rewards:

‎ +5 Mana

EXP: 50,000

«You reached a mana recovery of 20 per second. At 60 per second, you will naturally reach the Solid stage. After that, you'll have to put in effort,» Inspri murmured to her, answering Kestra's confusion at the quest completion.