“Well then,” Arceus grabbed the four skills books and three items he planned to reward Alex with, “Time to do some creative magic…”
He muttered a series of unintelligible words, his tone low and deliberate.
The air around him shimmered, and within moments, a vibrant, glowing box materialized before him.
[The Reward Box]
[After every quest and milestone reached, Arceus will draw an item from the box randomly to reward his student.]
“Perfect,” Arceus grinned, his expression reflecting a mischievous satisfaction.
He carefully placed the skill books and items inside the glowing box, sealing it with a gesture.
“Now, let’s see how well this works.”
A sharp ding resonated in the air.
Ding!
[Reward Box activated… drawing a random object from it…]
“Huh,” Alex was perplexed, he expected Arceus to give him the items, but it seemed like he decided to make that more fun for himself.
In the end, it didn’t bother Alex, as it guaranteed an item or skill, no matter what.
And the first he got was…
Ding!
[“Mask of Concealment” (Divine) has been pulled!]
A white mask appeared in Alex’s hands. It was sleek and unassuming, covering only the upper half of the face.
Yet, as he examined it, a description popped up in his interface.
[Description: Once equipped, this item hides your status window, name, and face. The mask seamlessly blends into your skin, becoming invisible to others, ensuring it doesn’t obstruct or annoy the wearer.]
“…” Alex stared at the mask for a few seconds.
There was no chance such a convenient item would be here, and even less chances for it to be the one that was picked.
After stealing the [Vial of Undead Blood] right in front of the [Hatred Sect]’s eyes, he had given up on participating in the [Golden Star Academy Examination], but with this, it would be possible.
As said before, being a student in the academy would mean that he would be detected as a student and thus be allowed to roam around freely.
He could theoretically enter from the outside using the [World Map], but it was simply too risky; the academy was heavily monitored, and his identity would have been exposed in an instant.
The academy held many secrets and the examination in itself also had some interesting items to take.
“Now fuck off,” Arceus groaned, waving Alex off as he returned to his cluttered desk.
“But what about my next task-”
“Your next task is to leave me alone for the next month, I’ll think of a way to help you enhance your skills in the meantime.”
Arceus seemed to be cold, but Alex noticed that he wasn’t as genuine in that hatred as before.
Maybe seeing Alex’s efforts moved him a bit…?
‘Nah, old guy just likes to experiment alone,’ Alex shrugged.
And so with the [Mask of Concealment] in hand, he finally left the [Mage Tower].
He would often visit to make sure that everything was alright, but he was sure Arceus wouldn’t help him more.
“And here I was, thinking I could learn a forbidden spell directly…” Alex sighed, though he knew even the players at level 1500 in his previous life had a hard time with those.
Forbidden spells were the top of the top, only a small fraction of players and NPCs able to master them.
In fact, one of the requirements to become a Grand Mage was to master not one, not two, but THREE forbidden spells.
If Alex wanted to become one of them, he had a lot of work to go through.
“Fox Tribe Village,” he tapped on the [World Map], teleporting out of the tower.
As soon as he appeared in the square, he immediately put on the [Mask of Concealment] to check out how it worked from the perspective of other people.
Then he advanced toward Alera’s house.
“H-Hey, who’s that…”
“Another man…!!”
The fox girls around him were confused, and Alex couldn’t help but find that funny.
Or at least, that was the case until Alera suddenly used her skills and agility to summon [Ice Shards] sending them at Alex, who was forced to avoid them by a hair’s length.
“Holy shit…”
Alera then dashed forward, ready to pierce the intruder’s throat.
“Only one man is allowed inside of our village, anyone else is an enemy, begone!” she shouted, ready to kill.
And though Alex was fast enough to do it now that he could clearly see her he still decided to simply remove his mask.
“!!!” noticing that it was their savior, Alera suddenly stopped using her own momentum and spear to stop the attack, arriving right in front of Alex, “D-Dear!”
“Haha, sorry for the surprise,” he grinned before smacking her buttocks again, making her face go red, “I just want to see your reaction.”
“Please don’t do this again, the other fox girls were scared,” Alera sighed.
“Yeah, sorry.”
At least, with that, Alex knew that even the people that were closest to him still couldn’t manage to pierce through the identity of the [Mask of Concealment].
He didn’t know if it would work for someone at level 1000 like Dominic, but if it was a Divine item, and even the description said it, then maybe it would.
Suddenly, though, right as Alex was about to head inside Alera’s home to maybe teach her a lesson about trying to attack him, a notification popped up.
[Exceeded allowed playtime, please log off.]
“Oh.”
The 24 hours limit had been broken for the first time.
He would usually take short breaks to make sure to replenish the timer and rest, but right now he was so excited about leveling up that he simply didn’t leave, even preferring to explore the cities while waiting for the monsters of the [Cave of Oblivion] to respawn rather than log off.
‘Well, that limit’s going to be removed in a week anyway, so who cares,’ he thought before turning toward Alera, touching her back from behind and sending shivers down her spine, “Sorry, I can’t teach you a lesson right now, maybe later.”
“Oh…” The Fox Ice Queen looked disappointed, but in the end she simply smiled, “Alright, but next time I’m gonna be the one teaching you a lesson.”
“That would surprise me if you did, but I’ll take you up on that,” he grinned.
[Warning! Log off now!]
“Yeah, yeah.”
He tapped the panel and after a few seconds vanished in a flash of blue light.
In around a week, many things would happen inside of [Universal Descent] and the real world.
First of all, the beta testers title would be removed, meaning that everyone would get a [Rune Bracelet] to log in inside of the game.
Second, the time between [Universal Descent] and [Earth] would stabilize, meaning that the time inside of [Universal Descent], which went twice as slow as the real world, transforming 12 hours into 24 hours, would also go back to normal.
And third, the limit for logging in would be removed, meaning that if you felt like it, you could stay inside of the game forever, as eating and sleeping inside of it would be possible to replenish your hunger and exhaustion.
The world would enter the TRUE era of [Universal Descent] from there on, and that’s also when the real dangers would reveal themselves.
Alex trained a lot simply for this moment, as it was the first part of the massive plan of the gods to take over the earth, and then the universe.
But first, he needed to wait.