Nightmare Realm Summoner

It took Alex just about two hours to condense all the magical power into water in his basin and drain it entirely. He spent every single drop of the energy empowering his Mind Palace.

Curiously enough, he didn’t trigger a falling star this time around. Perhaps more energy was needed every single time one of them fell. That would align with just about everything else he’d seen under System thus far.

But even without that, Alex’s results weren’t insignificant. The partially exposed pillar within the dark lake finally rose up to its full height, joining the prior three that already stood in wait. A second one followed after it — spaced between two of the original pillars — as did the very beginnings of a third, in a similar spot between final open spot between the three pillars holding his Aspect Gems.

It was pretty clear that they were forming into a circle of sorts. Berith’s bindings kept him just on the outside of the circle, a fact which Alex was quite amused by. Something about the massive, impossibly powerful demon being chained up in the corner like some incredibly rude child that had been placed in ultra-max-level timeout was hilarious.

His efforts had also brought up more distant chunks of marble in the depths of his Mind Palace. They were definitely building materials. Alex was certain of that, but he couldn’t have said any more yet. The pieces were just too deep.

That was just fine with him. There were more than enough things to think about at the moment. It was clear that advancing through Adept was going to be a hell of a lot harder than the previous Tier, just how Initiate had been harder than Novice.

Which makes sense. The rewards are getting bigger too. The next major step within Adept is going to be unlocking my true Soul Manifestation. Maybe those chunks down there are pieces that I can use to modify the gate that leads into my domain or something?

He didn’t have the faintest idea. And, unfortunately, the one most likely to know anything about that was also the one that Alex had the least desire to speak to any more than he had to. Berith had his little corner. That was where he planned to leave the demon.

Alex looked around his soul one last time. He could feel the changes working through his body. The improvements, both from the Cultivation Array and from the increased power infused into his Mind Palace, were changing him.

He flexed his hand. A smile pulled at his lips. Then he glanced over his shoulder. He could have sworn that Berith’s gaze was burning into his back, but the demon remained silent. Alex wasn’t one to question good fortune.

These advancements had been good, but he was far from done. He summoned forth his monsters, splitting the various Soul Flames that he’d gotten in the Ancestry amongst all of them. It was a little unfortunate he hadn’t managed to get his hands on any particularly powerful Soul Flames aside from the one he’d used to modify Spark.

Then again, the biggest kills were both stolen right out from under Crimson’s nose. All things considered, I definitely can’t complain at all.

Alex fed the last of the flames to Princess. Then he returned the Spatial Mirror he’d been using to the silver box at his side. None of his monsters had evolved, but a fair number of the flames had gone into Spark, who had only just reached his new form.

It would be a little while before any of them got another major advancement. That or he’d have to kill something pretty nasty. Something told Alex that, of the two options, the latter was a little more likely.

He took one last look around his Mind Palace, but there was nothing left to do right now. The new strength was already working its way through him, but it would still need to be properly refined in the Cultivation Array.

He’d really yet to get full use out of the building. The potential it promised to unlock was enormous. Alex still remembered just how many parts of him had been filled with impurities and poorly refined magic. The idea of working all of them out and perfecting his form nearly made him salivate.

It was probably going to take him at least a few days to get through everything — and that was assuming he managed to spend all the time he could in the Cultivation Array. But Alex was pretty sure he’d earned himself a break.

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And there were few better ways to spend a break than getting stronger.

***

The next week flew by.

Alex had been wrong. A few days weren’t anywhere enough for him to purge all the impurities from within himself. There were so many more than he thought. Every single time he went into the Cultivation Array, to fix up one location, he found three new weak points.

It was tempting to just ignore them and sprint back into the Mirrorlands to keep power leveling. The call of more monsters to kill and energy to claim was certainly a strong one. But Alex restrained himself.

Meiderly’s old advice still rung in his head. The foundation was the most important thing he could invest into. That was why advancing one’s Mind Palace was so important — and he got the feeling that making sure his body was up to the task was equally as important.

He wasn’t the only one spending a lot of time within the Cultivation Array. Claire was in it nearly as often as he was, and the other members of Mirrorwane, both new and old, frequented it as well. It turned out to be a good thing that nobody could spend too long within the building at any time. Everyone was able to use it to their heart’s content.

But Alex couldn’t help but feel like this wasn’t quite enough. The Cultivation Array was incredible. There was no doubt about that. And his body had certainly improved. He was more aware of every part of himself than he’d ever been before.

Alex could tense muscles that he’d never even known that he had. His stamina had magnified so many times that he could barely even remember what it meant to get winded from anything other than the most intensive training sessions, and his resilience was inhuman.

Minor wounds healed within seconds after taking them. Papercuts may as well have been a thing of the past. Even larger wounds didn’t stick around for too long, though serious blows were still threats.

Pretty much all of the injuries in question came from Claire. Whenever Alex wasn’t training in the Cultivation Array, he was sparring with her. He practiced with his chainsword and his white anchor as well as his magic, pushing every ability he had as hard as he could.

It was good practice. With the increased control Alex continued to gain over his body, fighting was a thousand times more effective than any training that could have been done before the apocalypse. Not only could he move exactly how he wanted to, but Claire could also point out the exact muscles he was using incorrectly and he could adjust accordingly.

But it would have been lying to say he was anywhere near the level of a master swordsman. The biggest thing their training showed Alex was just how terrifying a swordsman could become. If he’d gotten this far with just a weeks total of training… he couldn’t even begin to imagine how deadly someone could become with months or years.

Vincent’s terrifying power was starting to make more sense. The System had obviously repressed him when he’d arrived on 274-50. And sure, he’d likely been so powerful beforehand that he was coming in at the peak of what the Outworlders were capable of at this stage in the world, but there was more to his strength than that.

Combat experience couldn’t just be forgotten. Vincent had probably been using that snake-whip sword of his for so long that it was second nature to him. And the longer Alex trained, the more questions arose about just what the limits of power were.

There was the Mind Palace. Skills. Titles. Domains and Soul Manifestations. But there was also what Rhyss had informed him to be known as Body Refinement. And if there were all of those, then who was to say there weren’t more?

Who was to say that there weren’t ways to train the body to such an extent that you could infuse magic into your very movements, creating physical attacks that carried magic within them to move so fast that they were practically invisible?

Unfortunately, Rhyss hadn’t confirmed if that last part was true. It was apparently outside of the bounds of a Town related question, which meant an Advisor couldn’t answer it. Finley hadn’t said much on the matter either. He was still busy trying to pay his debt to the System off, and it seemed there were still some topics that the merchant didn’t dare touch.

That didn’t stop the thoughts from catching in Alex’s head.

But he wasn’t the only one working. Mite had collected just about everything he needed for the Mythic Building Blueprint that Claire had brought back from the Ancestry. He’d stacked it all up in an open plot of land but was still apparently short a few pieces that he had the townsfolk all searching for. He’d also made several new cabins — these ones out of bones and monster parts — so everyone had a place to stay.

Things were progressing smoothly.

It was almost too smooth. Alex wouldn’t have said he was getting bored. He wasn’t a complete psychopath. Progress was good. So was getting stronger. It was all good. But he wouldn’t have exactly said he wasn’t getting bored.

So, it was somewhat fortunate that 9 days after his return from the Ancestry, Finley snagged Alex before he could make his way over to the Cultivation Array.

“Hey,” Finley said, a small frown pulling at the merchant’s lips. “I’ve got something you should see.”

“What is it?” Claire asked, stepping out from the cabin behind him.

“A letter,” Finley replied.

Alex’s eyes widened. “From Teddy?”

“No. An Outworlder called Hazel,” Finley replied, his features grim. “Hazel, of House Crimson.”