Yeah, it's been a while. All I can say is that a combination of external factors, pure procrastination, and me playing even more Genshin since 3.0, then 3.1, then 3.2. Yikes.
Well hey, at least I have Ganyu now. I can finally clear 12-3 if I don't die in the first half. Heck, I decided to pull for Xiphos' Moonlight for Kazuha (which I got, fortunately), as well as the Primordial Jade Cutter. I ended up getting the Primordial Jade-Winged Spear instead…
Anyways, I'm finally shaking off the cobwebs of this fic. Without further ado, here's the next chapter of this slightly insane crackfic.
Text Guide
You don't need it anymore
The long road to AR 10 - Part 1
"So you're telling me that we can't come back to Mondstadt and report to 'Jean' about our progress?"
"Not until we hit Adventure Rank 10, yeah…"
Aether awkwardly replied to Noelle's query.
"...isn't that bad, though? I mean, Acting Grandmaster Jean is waiting for a progress update. Shouldn't we give it as soon as possible? I mean, who knows what the Abyss is up to right now? We have to hurry!" exclaimed Noelle, who was starting to panic a little a lot.
"The Abyss isn't going to do anything."
"Wait, how are you so sure?"
Aether had to pause for a moment. While he did have an explanation in mind, he wasn't sure if he could say it without running the risk of;
a) causing a party-wide existential crisis,
b) garnering suspicion that he's actually a part of the Abyss,
c) driving them even more insane than they already are, (see: Jean)
d) all of the above.
Therefore, Aether was presented with the following options;
a) deliver the truth and nothing but the truth, risking a cataclysmic breakdown of his party members, (see: Jean)
b) come up with an excuse that the abyss is still building back their forces and resources using logic to back the claim up,
c) brush off what he just said and rush Adventure Rank 10, risking burnout from everyone,
d) "I could tell you, but I don't know if you're ready to hear the truth."
He went with the last one. It was the most convenient for him at that moment.
"As much as I want to say that we're prepared for the truth…well-"
"What's next? Maybe we'll be told that the sky isn't real? Hahahahaha…"
Amber was interrupted by a slightly hysterical Jean, whose statement we can neither confirm nor deny. Maybe some shorty with a big hat can tell us more about it.
"Right. For now, let's just say the system won't do anything as unfair as not letting us make progress while the Abyss do whatever. In any case, I want to hit Adventure Rank 10 as soon as possible."
Aether navigated to his quest menu, where he was greeted with additional possible quests. One caught his eye, though.
Welcome to the Adventurers' Guild
"There's an Adventurer's Guild in this world too?"
"You mean the Adventurers' Guild exists in other worlds?"
"Well…the concept does. I'm not sure if it's the exact one you're used to, but they're surprisingly common among worlds. From personal experience, they're pretty useful for earning money gathering info."
"Huh. Guess other worlds aren't that different after all."
"Depends. Some worlds are pretty similar, and then there's worlds like that one filled with big sentient robots engaged in civil war. I've lost count as to how many times my sister and I nearly got shot in the knee then."
Amber was secretly thankful she wasn't born in that world.
"Anyway, we're doing that. Guess we're heading back to Mondstadt then."
"Oh, if I may, Aether?"
"Yes, Noelle?"
"You might have seen them already, but you should meet Outrider Captain Kaeya and Librarian-Administrator Lisa. They're currently…not in the party, I guess?"
"Oh right, I did see them in action. In that case…"
Aether harnessed the power of imagination (also known as his system's controller, why couldn't it have been something cooler, like a nunchuck?) and brought up the party setup menu.
"Now who should I replace…I guess I need Jean to introduce them, but she's not in the best shape right now… so I guess Amber can do that instead? Alright."
He promptly swapped Jean and Kaeya.
"Oh, I'm looking forward to this."
Wait, what the heck? Was that Kaeya?
"Kaeya, was that you?"
He received no response, and was left to stare at him, who merely stood there in his menu, as if nothing ever happened. He chalked it up to the system glitching, as impossible as that sounded.
After that, he swapped Noelle and Lisa.
"Ooh, you're taking me out?"
And it happened again, this time with Lisa. Was that actually them, or was the system being a troll? If it was the latter, then he had to admit that that was slightly terrifying. Only slightly.
He confirmed his party setup, and exited the menu.
"-and so basically, we're at a standstill until we can…hit Adventure Rank 10?"
"I don't understand why the Adventurers' Guild can impede the operations of the Knights of Favonius, though. Then again, this entire system makes no sense."
"As much as I want to say that I understand this…I have to say that even the sages at the Akademiya wouldn't be able to comprehend this system…"
Ah. They were still confused about the system. Of course they were. Guess he had to explain it to them.
"Yo."
"Ah. If it isn't Aether. We thought you were dead, you know."
"Yes. I saw the entire thing unfold, Kaeya. Thank that whopperflower that launched me off into a pit for "killing" me."
"Are you talking about the pit near the Temple of the Wolf? That would have been an unfortunate way to go out.."
"It was, yes. How'd you know?"
"I passed by that area on my way to that temple. That's the temple I was assigned to, after all."
"Huh. Good to kn-"
*ahem*
Aether and Kaeya's conversation was cut short by a certain librarian.
"Aren't you forgetting someone here, cutie?"
"...Ah, right. Hello, Lisa."
"And hello to you, cutie. I must say, you had quite the effect on the party after your apparent death…"
"And so I've heard…my bad?"
"In any case, at least you're alive, thankfully. I still have many questions I have to ask about you. For instance, how do you wield Anemo without a Vision?"
"That…is a very good question. I just touched the Statue of the Seven over at Starfell Lake, and bam! I have Anemo powers."
"Interesting. I wonder if-"
*ahem*
Aether and Lisa's conversation was cut short yet again, this time by a certain outrider.
"Lisa, I know you're curious and all, now's not the time."
"Alright Amber. But I'll talk to you later, cutie. I have many questions for you."
"Right…"
In any case, they had to get moving. Checking his menu (summoning Paimon will never stop being weird), he saw that they had somehow ranked up to Adventure Rank 7 already.
"Alright, so here's the plan. I'm goong to head to the Adventurer's Guild to do that quest. Knowing thr system, we'll be able to increase our rank by doing quests. We then do as many quests as we need. Got it?"
Everyone agreed with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Which was fair. If this was anything like a typical RPG, he was so going to become an errand boy.
Aether made his way back to Mondstadt, where the dark clouds no longer reigned above. Hopefully, all the citizens had recovered from the attack. It's not every day that a dragon attacks your city. Hopefully the place had a good therapy facility.
He finally arrived at the familiar bridge when he saw the pigeons fly away, along with a visibly irritated Timmy.
Yeah, no. He wasn't dealing with that today.
"Ah, poor Timmy. Looks like his 'friends' flew away again."
"Yeah, it's kind of depressing seeing him like that…"
Kaeya and Amber gave some comments about the incident as he walked in.
He finally passed through the gates and entered the city. Ah, civilization! He can finally relax a little.
Aether had the Adventurer's Guild quest on navigation, so that golden trail was able to lead him to a small booth where someone named "Katheryne" stood.
"Hey Aether. There's a lady there waving at you."
Paimon materialized from nowhere yet again.
"Yes, I see. Hello."
"Hello. I've had my eye on you for quite some time."
"Eh? You had? Is it because of that incident with Stormterror?" That was Paimon.
"Being on the lookout for great adventurers is my job. When I look at you, I see someone who has the potential to rival the great adventures of legends."
"Uhh…thanks?" Aether replied, unsure as to how to respond to the unexpected compliment.
"Well aren't you flustered, cutie?"
"To he fair, he did just drve off a dragon and saved our city. Katheryne has a point here."
Kaeya chuckled. "I guess we have a front seat ticket to the show that is the Traveler. Let's see how this goes."
"Do you guys mind…? My head is starting to hurt again…"
While his party was talking, Aether was processing what Katheryne was saying about Adventure EXP and benefits. He was listening to two conversations at once and it hurt his head like hell.
Anyways, his party shut up after that, much to his relief.
After Katheryne finished talking, he opened up the option Adventure Rank Rewards and promptly collected an assortment of items, ranging from Mora, enhancement ore, and even some food and xp books.
After collecting everything, Katheryne spoke once more, this time about the handbook and the things he had to do to rank up his Adventure Rank (he was going to call it AR from now on, Adventure Rank was so tedious to say). After some more dialogue, the conversation ended and he could finally stop talking to Katheryne-
Adventre Rank 8 achieved!
Nevermind. Time to talk to Katheryne again.
Meanwhile, somewhere in a rift in space associated with a certain traveler…
"So this is where we go if we're not in the party?"
Noelle looked around curiously. The entire space was surrounded by the stars and the night sky, with constellations dotting the background. There was no visible roof to speak of, neither was there a floor she could see. For all she knew, she could take one step and end up falling into the abyss.
She wasn't alone, though. Acting Grandmaster Jean was also in the rift, after the party decided to give her a break upon seeing her uncharacteristically break down in a hysterical laughing fit.
"It seems so. Wow, the more I see, the more I feel myself breaking down…"
Jean had composed herself now somewhat, though Noelle could visibly see her straining to keep up her facade. In reality, she was one moment away from losing it again.
"Acting Grandmaster, maybe you should get some rest. The recent events may have been just a bit too much for all of us to handle."
"I appreciate the sentiment Noelle, but I have to be ready in case I'm called up again."
Noelle sighed internally. If only she had something to help Jean calm down.
What would get her to calm down and relax anyway? Maybe she should do all her paperwork? Not impossible, but there was probably some confidential information that a maid like her wouldn't be allowed to see.
Maybe if Jean got some sleep, it would help. But seeing as how she refused earlier, that wasn't an option. The idea of forcefully knocking her unconcious to get her to sleep popped up in her head, but she quickly dismissed that idea.
Hmm...what if she had an experience that cleared her mind? Like doing a hobby, or eating some of her favorite food!
Suddenly, a table materialized between the two of them. On the table was a cup of coffee, along with several additional packets of coffee powder, as well as some water. There was also a plate of…was that Mushroom Pizza?
She was about to exclaim her surprise at the sudden appearance when she noticed Jean's face notably light up.
When questioned later about how Jean calmed down, she would say that she just had a good nap, all the while Noelle's face was ever so slightly strained. When asked about it, she only had the following to say.
"As wine bottles are corked, so too are my lips sealed."
As whatever happened between Jean and her coffee and pizza happened, Noelle just stood there and smiled.
"Now if only we could see what Aether and the rest are up to…"
The Adventurer's Handbook had, so far, been hard carrying their entire mission to hit AR 10.
They've gone around, activating teleport waypoints, wiping out hilichurl camps, opening chests, and collecting those Anemoculi to level up the Statue of the Seven. Each goal they completed gave them something called Adventure EXP, which helped them rank up. As they went along, Aether was bombarded with tutorial after tutorial, mostly about new elemental reactions.
Thankfully, Lisa was in the party, and she was pretty good at explaining them (questionable explanations aside. I mean, her description of Overloaded as "An explosive love gone wrong" was…yeah.) They were now working on killing an Abyss Mage.
"So you're telling me that they have elemental shields we have to break down using reactions?"
"Yes, Aether. It's usually why we always bring a party filled with Vision users of different elements to deal with them. Personally, I'm great at dealing with Electro and Hydro Abyss Mages."
"Sounds like you're speaking from experience."
"Oh, the stories I could tell."
The Adventurer's Handbook also served as a handy tool that pointed them to the locations of selected monsters. Aether was still engaged in conversation with Kaeya when the former spotted their target.
"A Cryo Abyss Mage, huh? Amber, looks like you're up."
"Gotcha. Baron Bunny is ready and waiting."
"After Amber's explosion, she can fire her pyro charged shots. Lisa can then follow with her Violet Arc. All the reactions will wear down the Abyss Mage's shield. Since it's on water, Kaeya can switch in to freeze it. Then I'll switch in to finish it off."
(AN: Violet Arc is the name of Lisa's skill)
A chorus off agreement rang in the party.
This would be a good time to introduce the new battle strategy the four had developed.
Since Aether was the one most familiar with the system, he'd been made the party leader. From there, they spent some time devising the most effective tactic avialble to them, given their resources.
Eventually, they settled on making use of the Physical Damage Bonus of his Prototype Rancour. With Kaeya and Lisa in the party, they could create (or proc, as he insisted it be called, much to the confusion of everyone else) Superconduct reactions to reduce the enemy's resistance to physical damage. Amber was just there for the taunting ability of Baron Bunny, but they agreed that they would swap her out for either Jean or Noelle so they had a healer.
He had also given Kaeya And Lisa the proper equipment. Kaeya had the Cool Steel, which conveniently had a bonus against enemies affected by Hydro or Cryo. Meanwhile, Lisa was sporting the Magic Guide, which not only had an Elemental Mastery stat boost, but also had a bonus against enemies affected by Hydro or Electro. Both weapons were slightly leveled up.
Back to reality, where Amber was currently rushing the Abyss Mage. She placed down her Baron Bunny before stepping back to fire charged shots, trigger Melt and wearing down the Abyss Mage's shield.
Lisa then stepped in and prepared to cast her Violet Arc, when…
"Gang Gang Woo!"
The Abyss Mage triggered one of its abilities. Icicles spun around it, before they all homed in on Lisa, who was forced to interrupt her skill in favor of dodging.
"Hey, why can't your icicles do that, Kaeya?"
"I'd rather you not compare my skills to that of an Abyss Mage, Aether. Mine are clearly better."
"Just saying. Also, we really need to do something about how long it takes for Lisa to use her skill."
"'I can always just attack it normally, you know?"
Oh yeah. Lisa was an electro catalyst user, so her normal attacks are infused with electro. Amber's shots had done a good number on the cryo shield, so a couple more electro attacks should do it.
"Do it."
And so she did. Quite conveniently, this also produced Superconduct, meaning that once the shield was finally down…
"Alright cutie, you're up."
Aether wanted to find out why Lisa called him that but the current situation did not warrant that. He switched in and started hacking away at the Abyss Mage's health. The creature had fallen down and was making no attempt at self defense, other than a couple of cries of what could only be presumed as agony, as slash after slash left it closer and closer to death.
"Man, are all Abyss Mages like this once their shields are down?"
"They get back up eventually and redeploy their shields, which is why you want to defeat it before it can do so."
"What if I just don't let it get up?"
"What do you mean?"
Aether responded to Kaeya's question by unleashing a charged attack. Two quick slashes and the poor Abyss Mage was sent flying, before it landed. Before Aether unleashed another charged attack after it landed, sending it flying yet again.
The entire party bar Aether watched as he effectively stun locked the enemy into oblivion. A couple of charged attacks did fail to launch the Abyss Mage. However, that was immediately followed up by another charged attack which did send it flying, so the endless cycle continued, before the poor Abyss Mage finally died.
"…"
"…"
"…"
"What?"
"Well…that's one way to end a fight…"
"I didn't take you to be such a merciless fighter. Aether."
"Wow, cutie. You continue to impress me."
"I mean, if it doesn't get up, it can't attack me, right?"
No one had the heart to disagree.
Never had Lumine seen such a pathetic way for one of her subordinates to go down.
She had been trailing Aether (again) when she witnessed what was probably the most one-sided smackdown between an Abyss Mage and Aether & Co.
Oh yeah, she was also wondering what was up with that too.
Different people kept popping up in Aether's place. First was that Outrider…Amber, was it? There was also the Purple Witch of Rose and Administrator-Librarian, Lisa.
Then there was that Cavalry Captain, who she was 99.8% sure was from Khaenri'ah.
(The other 0.2% was reserved for the possibility that he was just some imposter posing as him, but she doubted that. She did once witness a whopperflower posing as a certain alchemist, but that matter was dealt with by some adventurers.)
Damn game mechanics! She was going to have to design a whole new training regime to help her subordinates counter whatever Aether came up with.
Then again, knowing the system, that wouldn't work anyway. If what she suspected was correct, this was all some game, and they were all players in it. Who knows? Maybe that Unknown Goddess had something to do with it.
Sighing while clutching her forehead, she checked how her Operation was going. Sure, the temples with the dragon's breath may have been shut down, but at least Dvalin was still on their side.
Next up was dealing with that cursed bard. Maybe she should get him drunk to knock him out. Or surround him with a legion of cats.
The image of taking down the Anemo Archon by surrounding him with a hundred or so cats briefly entered her mind, and she had to stifle a laugh. Now that would be a sight. Unfortunately, the Anemo Archon could fly, so unless she could produce flying cats, that idea was out the window. Plus, what would that do to the Anemo Archon? Make him sneeze to death?
Her thought process was interrupted when she noticed the location where Aether was heading.
Was he…going to the cave of the Cryo Regisvine?
She scanned her brother's power levels and compared it to the Cryo Regisvine's Level.
Aether - Lvl. 6
Cryo Regisvine - Lvl. 36
What the hell? Was her brother crazy? He was going to get himself killed!
She did not know that Aether had already died and come back to life.
In any case, she knew she had to stay close. Worst case scenario, she could unleash a shot of Abyss Power from somewhere hidden and one-shot it, though she really didn't want to reveal her hand so soon. Her plan, after all, required Aether to travel across the seven nations.
In any case, she had to make sure Aether didn't die.
Aether…why did you have to come back now…?
"You want to defeat a higher-level boss to get more Adventure EXP?"
"Well, yeah. You usually gain more EXP if you beat a boss that's stronger than you. More so if the level difference is higher."
"So you want to fight the strongest boss to gain the most EXP?"
"Yep."
"You're certainly an interesting one, Aether. Let's see how that goes."
"A Cryo Regisvine is heavily resistant against Cryo attacks, so you'll have to swap out Kaeya."
"Got it. I'll bring in Noelle for the shield. See ya later, Kaeya."
"Don't die this time."
"You got it."
Aether made the necessary changes.
"So Noelle-"
"You want to fight a Cryo Regisvine? Leave it to me."
"…how did you know that, Noelle?"
"Apparently, your subspace has some very interesting properties, Aether. We could summon whatever we imagined, so I imagined a way for me and Jean to watch you guys. Then this screen appeared with a note saying that it was…'recorded with a Kamera?'"
Since when could his subspace do that? Actually, scratch that, his subspace was still active?
Last he checked, his spacetime powers were sealed. Everything else, such as his ability so summon his sword from thin air, was done with game mechanics. He was pretty sure none of the tutorials covered his subspace.
"…uhh, Aether?"
"I think cutie has short-circuited, Amber."
Amber groaned internally at the electro-related pun.
"Aether?"
"I'm fine. Just…surprised. I'm pretty sure my subspace was supposed to be closed."
"Oh? Me and Kaeya were there some time ago. Very empty, I must say. Nothing incriminating, though."
Ah. Right. His subspace inventory was stashed away in a hidden spot. He could summon stuff from his inventory at will while he was in that subspace. Unfortunately, he couldn't take that stuff into Teyvat. Plus, the stuff he could summon in the subspace was only limited to what could be found in the world he was in, presumably a rule to prevent overpowered items from making its way to other worlds.
(Apparently, Aether from another story didn't get that message. He's currently running around Teyvat dual wielding lightsabers.)
"Is that so…? Well, in any case, that means I don't have to explain anything, so I'll be relying on your shield."
"Leave it to me!"
"Also, how's Jean?"
"She's…recovering. Last I checked she was back to normal. You can swap her in if you want."
"Nah, it's fine. I need a shield, anyway. Plus, I heard you can utilize Geo to produce Crystallize shields."
"I can do that."
"Cool, we're going to need as many shields as we can."
"So what's the plan, Aether?"
"I'm glad you asked, Amber. The plan is simple; we make things up as we go."
"…"
"…"
"Is that it, Aether?"
"Ok fine. What attacks do we know it can do?"
"Never fought one before, so that's an 'I don't know' from me."
"All I can advise is that it's weak to Pyro since it's Cryo."
"I unfortunately do not know. My apologies."
"Great! 'We improvise as we go' it is."
"Wait. What if you die again?"
"Oh yeah, about that, Amber. Lemme show you guys something."
Aether opened up his inventory and navigated to the Food Tab, before selecting the Delicious Teyvat Fried Egg.
"Read its description."
"An egg fried on one side. With a taste of the summer sun, it invigorates you from the first bite."
Aether mentally facepalmed after Noelle finished speaking. That was his bad on that one.
"No, the other one. The effect."
"Revives a character and restores 150 HP."
"Yep. A Fried Egg can bring all of us back from the dead, so don't worry about that. Also, you'll enter some kinda ghost mode while dead, but don't wander off too far. You'll come back eventually."
Everyone was very confused by the fact that eggs could now bring people back from the dead.
"So…we just feed it to a dead party member and they come back?"
"Yup."
"…What the hell?"
Everyone figuratively turned their heads to Amber.
"Researchers have been looking for the secret to immortality for decades, and the answer is a FRIED EGG?"
Amber had apparently reached her limit of video-game logic comprehension. Poor girl.
"It's on the system, not me, Amber."
"Of ALL THE THINGS it could've been, it was a FRIED EGG?"
"…yup."
"I am so done."
If they didn't need Amber for the Pyro, he would have switched her out by now.
"If only I could study the properties of the egg…unfortunately that's not possible, is it cutie?"
"Nope. I can't even place it down."
"That's a shame…"
"Anyways, just imagine feeding it to a fallen party member, because that's apparently how it works. Or you can use the inventory."
At the very least, everyone could comprehend that the system could be navigated and used with the power of imagination/menu management.
"Any more questions? No? Let's go!"
And so Aether entered the cave where he had previously died. Damn, it felt weird to hear that.
The Cryo Regisvine looked like it had been resting when it suddenly got up and roared. A health bar appeared at the top of his vision.
Cryo Regsivine
Giant Frostbreath Calumnus
Level 36
Well damn. He did not expect it to be a full 30 levels higher than he was.
"Do we retreat?"
"Let's see how hard we can hit it first."
Aether went in and smacked the Cryo Regisvine with his sword. To nobody's surprise, the HP bar barely moved.
"Well, shoot."
"What did you expect?"
"A number bigger than three."
"Three? That's how much damage you did?"
"Yep."
"We're screwed."
Aether sighed at Amber's apparent declaration of surrender. Either that, or she was really done. Guess she could put her in the subspace once this was all over.
The Cryo Regisvine was not happy about being slashed with a sword. It promptly slammed its head against the ground in an attempt to crush Aether. Fortunately, he dodged in the nick of time.
Unfortunately, the thing face planted two more times, and Aether was out of stamina before the third one came. His HP bar immediately shrunk down to a fraction of its former self.
"Well hey, at least we know we can take one of its attacks without dying."
"That's what you got from all this?"
"Be sure to watch your stamina, cutie. There's a pause between each faceplant."
"Need some healing? Leave it to me!"
"Wait."
A system message flashed across his vision.
"The corolla has appeared at the roots. Attack it!"
Ah. So it was one of those types of bosses.
"Noelle, deploy your shield, then have Amber switch in! We're taking out the core!"
"You got it!"
"I just have to shoot down the core?"
"With your pyro shots, yes. Throw in Baron Bunny if it'll help."
"Alright."
And so Noelle switched in and deployed her shield, before she performed the strangest healing process he had ever seen.
She hefted her claymore before spinning around and around like she was gonna toss the thing. Every other spin he was getting healed.
Unfortunately, the spin-to-heal method left her with no stamina, so when the Cryo Regisvine did its own spinning attack, she also couldn't dodge. Her shield absorbed a but of the damage, but she was still down to about less than half.
"Noelle, get out! The floor is ice now and it's damaging you! Amber, deploy Baron Bunny and step out of range!"
Amber switched in and threw the humanoid bunny doll, before retreating. She aimed at the core and landed a couple of shots, before finally, the sucker's core went down, along with the giant plant.
"Alright! It's vulnerable! Lisa, use your burst!"
Lisa switched in and summoned some kind of purple lantern. A sizable purple circle expanded outward at her feet.
"Surrender and I'll be gentle."
…right. He was pretty sure Lisa was only slightly sadistic.
In any case, taking down the core worked wonders for their damage. Instead of doing three, they were now doing about twenty.
The HP bar was moving. Sort of.
Right then and there, Baron Bunny finally blew up, triggering Overload and doing some more damage.
"Alright, I'm going in."
The icy floor had since worn off, so Aether went up close and personal to use the charged version of Palm Vortex. Waves of wind slammed into the Cryo Regisvine, as it took more and more damage, before his skill ended. After throwing in a few more normal attacks, it finally stood up.
"Alright, how'd we do?"
He checked the HP bar.
Cryo Regsivine
Giant Frostbreath Calumnus
Level 36
Well damn. This was going to take a while. At least they were all still alive.
"I can't believe they're actually making progress against that thing."
"I can't believe they actually thought fighting that thing was a good idea."
"Aether continues to impress me. At this rate, I might actually consider making him an Honorary Knight."
"That's what your other self said in that temple, right?"
"I'm glad you remembered."
Kaeya and Jean were exchanging words while watching the live feed provided by the Kamera. Apparently it was the latest technology from Fontaine. Still didn't explain how it was capturing the thing live. Last they checked, it could only capture pictures.
Must be a prototype. Or maybe something from Snezhnaya.
In any case, they were watching the party fight the Cryo Regisvine. And they were semi-successful so far.
"Aether and Noelle had taken some big hits. They still have to be careful."
"True. Wait, is the Regisvine…spraying some kind of mist?"
Sure enough, the overgrown plant had done a 360 while spraying some mist. The ground it hit turned to freezing ice. It looked like Aether had been caught in the crossfire somewhat.
"Aether! Switch out and heal!"
"Jean, they can't hear you."
"Ah. Right."
Awkward silence followed as they watched Noelle switch back in and deploy her shield. Then Amber switched in and shot at the core at its corolla, probably in another attempt to knock it down and deal more damage.
That's when it started to rain ice. Kind of.
"Is the Cryo Regisvine summoning fallling icicles?
"Looks like it. Amber is dodging for her life out there.""
Sure enough, Amber was running and weaving as death by cold rained from the sky. Suddenly, she stopped running and started getting hit.
"Why did she stop running?"
"Don't tell me…she ran out of stamina?"
"They'll switch her out, right?"
Sure enough, Amber was promotly switched out and Lisa was now on the ground, trying to hit the core with lightning. Was Superconduct effective here?
Thankfully, the lightning was just enough and the Cryo Regisvine was knocked down.
Noelle switched back in and deployed her shield, before…
"Is that how Noelle fought during her tryout?"
"I recall her doing sweeping attacks, but I don't seem to recall a spinning attack of this kind."
They were also confused by Noelle's method of healing.
Eventually, the Cryo Regisvine stood back up again while Noele was still attacking, and began trying to faceplant Noelle. She frantically tried to dodge, running around the battlefield. However…
"It was my honor…serving…you…"
"NOELLE!"
Damn. He knew he shouldn't have asked Noelle to heal them to full.
"Quick! Revive her!"
"Hold on."
He casually opened his inventory mid-battle.
"Alright, navigate to food, Teyvat Fried Egg, aand…"
"Cutie, aren't you beinn a bit too casual with this? We could be attacked at any moment."
"Time stops when I open my inventory."
"Really? This system is much more powerful than I thought."
Lisa said this as Aether casually revived Noelle.
"Sorry about that Noelle. I'll heal you right up."
"It's fine. At least I'm still alive, though I must admit, that was a bit jarring."
"Welcome to my world. Here, have some Chicken-Mushroom Skewers."
The sound of Noelle eating could be heard while the rest of the party just…waited.
"Oh, sorry. Am I taking too long?"
"Nah, it's fine. We need to evaluate how we're doing so far."
"We've somehow brought it to around 70% of its health."
"So by my calculations…we have to so another 5 cycles of this?"
Lisa did some quick math given Amber's info.
"That's assuming it doesn't suddenly get stronger when it's on low health. I've fought some elite monsters that did that."
"Seriously? That sounds annoying."
"Wait until you hear about the creatures that suddenly regain all their health after being near death. So annoying. Hopefully I don't have to deal with those here."
If only he knew…
"You good, Noelle?"
"Yep."
"Let's go."
"Good. We gotta be careful. Our revival food has a 2 minute cooldown."
"Can' we wait out the 2 minute cooldown in the inventory?"
Aether stared at the timer for a few seconds. It did not move.
"Nope! Let's go!"
On that cheerful note, Aether exited his inventory. Time resumed. The Cryo Regisvine roared.
"This is gonna take a while…"
(Around three and a half Teyvat hours later…)
"WE WERE THIS CLOSE TO KILLING IT!"
"I guess we have to take down the core again…"
A collective groan was heard within the party.
The Cryo Regisvine stood back up with but a sliver of its health remaining. Aether and the party tried to kill it after stunning it and knocking it down for the 7th or so time, but it managed to stand back up just in time.
Through the clever use of strategy, the time-stopping inventory, and a lot of healing, they had gotten to this point.
Spells were cast. Bunnies were blown up. Party members were faceplanted on. Chicken-Mushroom Skewers were eaten. It was a long and messy fight.
And the Cryo Regisvine seemed hell-bent on annoying them as much as humanly (regisvinely?) possible before it died.
"This better be worth it, because I am NOT doing this again!"
Amber was out yet again dodging the icicles that nearly killed her several times. Seriously, where did those icicles come from?
She threw her Baron Bunny. She fired at the core. She dodged the faceplants. She ran out of stamina and was promptly slammed by the Regisvine after Noelle's shield dissipated. She switched out.
Lisa switched in. She cast Violet Arc. The core was almost down. She really wanted to go back to the Library and relax. Maybe sip some tea while reading a book.
Finally, the core was broken.
"Cutie…just finish this."
"Gladly."
For the final time, Aether switched in. He cast Palm Vortex.
And finally…the stupid plant went down.
"IT'S FINALLY OVER!"
"Good job, guys!"
"I went through so many Baron Bunnies…"
"I am so tired…"
Amber and Lisa did not share Noelle's enthusiasm.
"Alright, time to collect that sweet EXP."
Aether noted the sudden small plant that popped up at the Cryo Regisvine's place. He interacted with it.
Collect Rewards?
Resin: 160/40
Hell yes.
And then he got his rewards.
- x1 Shivada Jade Silver
- Lucky Dog's Hourglass (1 star)
- Lucky Dog's Silver Circlet (2 stars)
- Exile's Flower (3 stars)
New Artifacts? Sweet. He checked the other drops.
- x3,450 Mora
- x30 Friendship EXP
- x138 Adventure EXP
The party fell silent as Aether closed the Rewards window and watched the Adventure EXP bar increase.
And stopped, making little headway towards AR 10, or even AR 9.
"THAT'S ALL WE GET?"
"All that…for this little?"
"Cutie…I thought you said we'd get more than this…"
"ME TOO!"
"Then how do you explain this?"
"I blame the system."
The entire party fell silent. The tension was pretty apparent at Aether's declaration.
"We aren't doing this again."
"Not until we're at the correct level."
"That's three plus hours of my life I'm never getting back…"
That was Amber, Noelle, and Lisa, respectively. Damn. They were that upset, huh?
"Alright, I'm sorry. I legitimately thought we'd get more than this."
"Don't be, Aether. Despite how ridiculous your idea was you had our best interests at heart…"
"Plus, at least we were able to do some training!"
"As much as I want to be mad…yes it IS the system's fault, not yours. At least we know its attack patterns now."
Aether had to admit, he was pretty relieved they weren't super mad at him.
Still though, he felt like the party deserved more.
An incredibly stupid idea came to his mind.
"How about I make it up to you by getting us some more party members?"
The gacha realm is a place few knew about and even fewer (read: none) have ever visited.
As per the system, every 160 primogems/1 Acquaint Fate/1 Intertwined Fate entailed giving 1 item or character.
Usually, that item was a 3-star weapon of sorts. Occasionally a 4-star weapon or character would be selected to descend to the world below and join the party of whoever wished for them. And very rarely, a 5-star item would descend, blessing the lucky traveler with its bountiful gift.
Or an unlucky curse, if you lost the 50-50. It happens all the time.
If one were to visit it, high above the clouds, they would see every single playable character currently in the system, managed by a being only known as P.A.I.M.O.N, who was also in charge of selecting what dropped from the gacha, as well as the one in charge of the entire "game".
A common misconception was that the characters themselves actively chose if they were the ones to descend. Really, it wasn't. Otherwise, all the whales would have Ningguang in their party, and Mona would choose to be with all the F2P people. Every player with Jean would have been blessed by Klee, and Childe would be in everyone's party because he loved fighting that much.
Instead, it was the RNG system, yet again managed by P.A.I.M.O.N, that chose who went where.
Another concept of note was that each "player" had a different gacha realm. Basically, the multiverse. Otherwise there would be pulls nonstop.
But back to how the gacha realm looks like.
Currently, Klee and Kazuha were the 5-star characters on their respective featured banners. Alongside them, Ningguang, Thoma, and the newly added Shikanoin Heizou were the featured 4-stars. They were all chilling in one room. The banner splash art poster was hanging one one wall. There were a couple of sofas where people sat.
Also there were Qiqi, Mona, Keqing, Diluc, and Jean, A.K.A the 5-stars that blessed (plagued) the poor souls who lost 50-50.
There was another room for the weapon banner. Several copies of "Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds" and "Freedom Sworn" were piled up, alongside some other 4-star weapons.
The other 4-star characters and 5-star weapons had their own room in the Standard banner area. Also there was a massive stockpile of 3-star weapons.
Finally, the limited 5-star characters and weapons basically had their own suites since they were rarely up for wishing.
As for where the primogems go? The genesis crystals are stored? The Shop items are placed? Those are secrets only P.A.I.M.O.N knows.
But back to the limited banner area.
Currently, Kazuha and Heizou were together talking about Anemo fighting styles, Ningguang and Keqing were trying to teach Mona how to manage her Mora properly, Thoma was going around cleaning the room, Qiqi was sitting on the couch forgetting where she put her coconut milk, and Diluc and Jean were talking while watching over Klee, who would probably blow up the room by accident if left alone.
"I'm surprised the system chose you to go down, Jean. It's pretty rare for a 5-star to be picked right off the bat."
"Well, that's the way the system works. Some are lucky, some aren't. I guess our traveler is one of the lucky ones."
"Nothing will beat that guy who pulled 3 Ganyu's, a Qiqi, a Mona, and a Bennett in one 10 pull, though. A 7 in 10 billion chance? That's insane."
"Yep. Klee, don't disturb the others!
Jean had to grab Klee to prevent her from grabbing Thoma's cleaning supplies.
"She's quite lively, isn't she?"
"Yes. Yes she is."
Thoma gave a quick smile and a wave to Klee after talking to Jean.
Suddenly, an announcement went off.
"Thoma, please report to the Wishing Station to deposit your Stella Fortuna."
"Ah, I'm up, Guess the traveler did a single pull on the limited banner and got me. Be right back!
When a character is chosen, they themselves don't descend. Instead, they deposit a Stella Fortuna, basically a copy of their soul, for it to be given to the Traveler. The Stella Fortuna, if given for the first time, becomes the character (without the memories of the dacha realm, of course). If the Traveler already has the character, they get the Stella Fortuna as is, which is used for Constellation Material. After the 7th Stella Fortuna, no more are given. Instead, additional Masterless Starglitter is deposited.
This is the process that all characters go through when they are summoned by a wish. (except for the characters given for free. They have a similar but different thing.)
And this is the process that blessed this Aether with Thoma, and the process that will later bless Aether with many more rewards. It will cause him both joy and suffering. Pain and agony. And a lot more.
What a system, huh?
Well damn. I didn't think we'd actually get here.
It's Author's area! Welcome!
It's been a while since I've written one of these. Truth to be told, I might've abandoned this story had it not received so much support. But I'll be damned, we're near the first page for most favorites and follows. Thanks guys!
Oh, my other story? Yeah…I'll get to that eventually. I still have no idea what half of the items you guys suggested are. Guess I'll have to research.
But enough about me. The adventure to AR 10 has begun! Jean loses it! Amber also loses it! Noelle dies and comes back to life! And Lisa and Kaeya are still trying to find where Aether put his…valuables.
But Thoma being summoned, huh? Guess he's getting an early trip back to Mondstadt.
I actually tried fighting the Cryo Regisvine as a low level party on my alt. It's pretty easy if you know its attacks, actually. That being said, you also need healing, as you will still get hit! It's much easier to fight the Electro Hypostasis if you're underleveled. I'm pretty sure it's possible to do damageless.
With all that being said, this ends the latest chapter! I sincerely hope the next chapter won't release after another long wait.
Anyways, as usual, have a nice day. Until next time, peace.
-Author