Chapter 133

Chapter 133

Alice spent the next day skipping school and observing the Church of the System’s reaction to the increasingly noticeable crisis of the System’s disappearance. She also took the time to use pure mana and unclog what parts of her class seeds she could unclog, although it was a very frustrating and tiring process.

You have leveled up!Ñ00v€l--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

Kinetic Manabinder 42 -> 44

Alice learned that nearly two levels of [Kinetic Manabinder] had been ‘stuck’ trying to integrate with the wrong class seeds, although none of her other classes levelled up this time. Which made Alice nervous about just how much worse people’s minds and Status Screens were going to get before the crisis was resolved. Alice at least had some tools to combat the issue of her Status Screen getting frozen and her class seeds failing to process the mana they needed to. Despite that fact, at least right now, Alice’s pure mana seed was frequently overtaxed dealing with minor issues she noticed cropping up in her class seeds. If she didn’t have {Lesser Organic Vision} and {Intuitive Magic Modelling}, Alice would have struggled to even maintain her own class seeds, since she would have had a hard time ‘looking’ at her brain and moving around chunks of mana as needed.

She was getting the feeling that the System’s collapse was going to be even more of a mess than she had imagined.

At the very least, Ethan’s subordinates and the [Enchanters] at the palace had been working to churn out as many rings of mana-blocking as they could reasonably make per day. The number of rings they could make at once was pitiful compared to the number Illvaria as a whole would need, since there were around a million inhabitants in the country, and pure mana seeds weren’t a very popular magic seed choice for most Mages. When Alice and Ethan had originally discussed the use of mana-blocking rings, they had assumed that it would only be needed for children below the age of six, to prevent them from absorbing mana they didn’t have a way to get rid of. Even creating enough rings for all of the children in the country would be practically impossible, although making as many rings as possible would at least help.

However, given what Alice had learned about Class Seeds getting clogged up after the System collapsed, it was obvious that Illvaria’s supply of mana-blocking rings was going to be so utterly and completely inadequate that it would barely make a dent in the pool of people who would need one. And even the people who managed to get ahold of a mana-blocking ring would stop levelling up, which would certainly make the ring less popular. People in this world highly valued gaining levels. Even if it was ultimately the best way to safeguard their mind from corrosion, there would certainly be some people who refused to wear mana-blocking rings because they wanted to keep gaining levels.

Alice felt an even greater headache coming on every single time she thought about the aftereffects of the collapse of the System.

She took a deep breath, and tried to calm down. At the very least, rings were being made. Even if supply would be nowhere near what was needed, it was better than nothing.

Alice also briefly wondered if she was being selfish, by continuing to level up and sort out her own mana instead of spending all of her time constructing anti-mana rings. Each anti-mana ring would be one more person who would be safe from the aftereffects of the System collapse, after all.

When she shared her concerns with Ethan, he flatly stated that the ‘best’ thing Alice could do with her time was to find a permanent solution to the problems caused by the System’s collapse. The rings were just a stopgap measure – ultimately, the main issue hadn’t been dealt with at all. Which, after some thought, Alice realized was probably a logical statement, even if it felt wrong to be wasting her pure mana levelling herself up and unclogging her class seeds, instead of just grabbing an antimagic enchantment ring and then churning out as many copies of the enchantment as she could manage.

However, Ethan’s argument was that if Alice got a few more Perks, that might allow her to fix the System, or find a way to make class seeds artificially and get them to filter mana on their own, or... something. Alice wasn’t really sure what a ‘permanent’ solution would look like yet, and it seemed that while Ethan had some ideas, he wasn’t sure what the best option was either. However, Ethan still made a good point. Every single Perk Alice got was an investment in fully solving the problem, instead of just treating a few of the symptoms. Alice couldn’t say she felt great about that, but she had to admit that it made sense.

Apart from waiting for more news about the Church of the System and unclogging her class seeds, Alice took the time to work on some enchanting. Even if it would clog up her seeds for her enchanting classes, Alice was mostly sure that she could fix the issue, even if she had no way to make the solution widespread right now. And she really needed to be using every possible moment she had to level up. For now, Alice just made a few mana-blocking rings with the pure mana she had left(while leaving a bit of mana to unclog her class seeds again), as well as making a few more offensive kinetic bracelets. Since the Society could attack her at any moment, she wanted to have as many disposable magic items on hand as possible.

You have leveled up!

Careful Enchanter: 27 -> 29

Finally, on Tuesday, as Alice ditched school for the second day in a row, reports started coming in, and Alice finally got an idea what the Church of the System was doing.

And after reading it, Alice felt... depressed.

There were several smaller churches dedicated to the System in Metsel. After all, the capital had over a hundred thousand people living in it. It would be almost impossible for one church to meet the needs of the entire populace. However, there was still one ‘main church’ that acted as ‘main church’ for all smaller System churches in Illvaria. Basically, all churches of the world fundamentally responded to the main headquarters of the Church of the System, but since that was located on the Central continent, it was rather impractical for nations like Illvaria to receive news from there in a timely manner.

So most countries had a smaller, local System headquarters that managed smaller, day to day administration, such as replacing heads of smaller churches when they died, recording new Immortals after reaching Immortality and becoming a saint of the church, and so on. And local headquarters were usually tied to the crown or the local nobles in some ludicrously tangle web of politics, which Alice was admittedly unfamiliar with. For now, it wasn’t that important.

What was important was that the local headquarters of the Church of the System seemed to have totally melted down in the wake of the ‘silence’ of the System.

The main [Priest of the System] had retreated to his quarters yesterday, in wake of the strange, garbled Perks and Status Screens that were starting to show up. He had not left his quarters since then. He had not issued any words of comfort to the believers of the System, or come up with any idea why the System had suddenly glitched out, or even told people to ‘have faith.’ Instead, as more and more people stopped by the Church of the System to ask what the heck was going on, the head of the Church of the System decided it was a good time to have a crisis of faith.

“I understand. I don’t think I’m qualified to make decisions for Cecilia, though. She’s her own person, and she should decide whether she’s willing to bear the risks associated with trying to get good Achievements like this,” said Alice. “Being targeted by the Society is nothing to scoff at.”

“Fair enough,” said Ethan. “I’ll arrange a meeting with the [Priests] for tomorrow. Cecilia can come or not come as she prefers. And for now, I’ve sent your magic academy word that you’ll be taking a leave of absence for some ‘special training.’ Given the fact that the Society attacks aren’t too difficult to learn about, most of your [Teachers] will probably decide that you’re being placed under house arrest so that I can keep you safe until further notice,” said Ethan. “You can still attend classes if you want to, but I do suspect that this is going to take up most of your time in the future.”

Alice sighed, but nodded.

She had fought tooth and nail to get into a magic academy, but only got to spend most of one semester inside before moving on. In a way, it felt strange that something she worked so hard for would be placed on the sidelines so easily. On the other hand, it also represented her growth, and her larger and larger impact on the world. At the start of summer, she had been unimportant enough that she could barely get a sponsor to help her attend a magic academy. Now, she was arranging meetings with a third of the [Priests of the System] in Metsel, and was the apprentice of an Immortal.

Life was strange.

Alice shook her head, brushing her thoughts away, and started walking towards Cecilia’s room.

* * *

After knocking on the door, Cecilia opened it and gave Alice a quick glance.

“Come in,” she said.

Alice quickly entered the room, and looked at Cecilia. Alice tried her best to smile at her best friend in this world, and realize that her lips weren’t moving quite as fluidly as she wished they would.

She felt... nervous?

Very nervous.

Alice realized that she was very worried about how Cecilia would answer her question. On one hand, Alice was worried that Cecilia would die if she joined Alice in talking about researching the System. After all, the Society would definitely target Cecilia if it was known that she was involved in Alice’s research. And while Ethan was trying to protect Cecilia, Alice was very sure that Ethan would prioritize her over Cecilia if push came to shove. Ethan’s primary goal was to add a new Immortal to Illvaria’s ‘family’ of Immortals – and Cecilia was currently highly unlikely to join that family. While Ethan might feel some sadness if she died, it seemed to be mostly in relation to how it would affect Alice’s mental state.

On the other hand, Alice also didn’t want to see Cecilia get older and older and then pass away. Alice was growing more and more aware that her odds of reaching Immortality were excellent, if she could survive the Society of Starry Eyes. And if she reached Immortality and Cecilia didn’t, she would ultimately have to watch Cecilia die of old age sooner or later. No matter what Cecilia chose, it had a chance of backfiring horrifically.

She took a deep breathe, trying to push her erratic thoughts away, and then looked at Cecilia. She realized that after entering Cecilia’s room, she had simply stood there, lost in her thoughts, and snorted.

“Cecilia, how do you feel about going at least somewhat public about researching the System with me?”

Cecilia looked baffled, and stared at Alice.

Alice started explaining her reasoning to Cecilia.

“I think it’s a good chance to really reach towards Immortality,” said Alice. “It would give you an excellent Achievement, and it would also really help me to have someone there to back me up. I mean, you know me – I’m good at research, but my people skills are definitely on the weaker side. Having you there would help a lot,” she said.

Cecilia seemed to consider Alice’s words, mulling them over. Eventually, she sighed.

“All right. Let’s explain your research to the church members that it seems possible to work with,” she said.