Doomsday Pillars

Before the apocalypse, Cinday was an assistant of a renowned professor at Harvard University. She had followed the professor as the man travelled across the globe in order to study relics and the strange engravings that appeared. 

Therefore, when she expressed her intent to study the engravings inside the Chimera's nest, Alex agreed because he was also curious about the meaning of those engravings.

After receiving Alex's approval, Cindy didn't waste any more time and immediately dived into the nest later that day. Inside the Abyss, she had spent the last few days studying the engravings inscribed on the pillars, where the Chimera's nest was located.

"So, Cindy. What did you find?" Alex asked.

Alex was inside a meeting room at the Bali hotel, together with Devita and Cahya. Currently, the three of them were listening to Cindy's report about her findings.

"Here's what I've found. I have noticed a similarity between the engravings in the Chimera's nest and those on the Doomsday Pillar. But this time, the engravings on the nest had an ancient language tucked between them."

"Ancient language? What does it say?" Cahya asked in curiosity.

Turning her head towards him, Cindy said, "It's mostly talked about a place for those who had committed unspeakable acts against god or humanity: the Tartarus. Thus based on this, I believe those Abyss were like prisons…" she dwalded. "And if you think about it, it could be true as in the ancient lore, it was mentioned that Cerberus and Chimera were the offspring of those beings locked in Tartarus."

Upon hearing that, Alex opened his mouth as he asked the important question. "How is that related to the Doomsday Pillar?" 

"That, I don't know yet. I can't seem to find anything about it yet. However, I did find another piece of information which I believe is no less important. Unfortunately, the information appears to be incomplete."

"What kind of information? Let us know even if it's not complete."

"It's like parts of maps showing the location of a place of importance and how to access it. Based on the things I already inferred, I believe this place could be of some help for us."

"What is it and where is it?" asked Alex immediately when he heard that.

"I'm not sure, boss. That's why I wanted to search for more information about it, so I need your approval."

Alex folded his hand and placed them in front of his chin. He then said, "What's your plan?" 

"I want to go to the other Abyss pits outside of the island. I want to compare the engravings between the pillars and see if there are more clues I can find."

Alex was silent as he thought about the idea. After a while, he said, "Alright then, I approve this plan. As for where you will go, you can follow the expedition troops who went to Java Island."

In the end, Alex gave a group of fighters to Cindy to act as her escort. She then immediately set off to pursue the expedition group. After saying that, he immediately ended the meeting.

After all the military matters were finished and people were already on their way, Alex finally had time to do other things, such as the artifact orders. He couldn't help but sigh when he remembered the sheer number of artifacts and magic scrolls he had to make. Shrugging his shoulder, Alex immediately jumped into the matter to finish it as soon as possible.

-

When he entered his workshop, Alex was immediately welcomed by the sight of piles of weapons and yellow spirit stones. Looking at the mountains of materials, Alex stretched his body and took out his tier 5 artifact.

"Let's do this, Strokes. We have so many things to make."

[Yes, Master]

Grabbing a random sword from piles of weapons, Alex immediately engraved the weapon. Few moments later, a notification appeared.

[Used the skill: Draw]

[Enchantment Successful!]

[Due to successful enchantment of the item [Long Sword], its name has changed to [Flame Sword] and the item tier was upgraded]

[Flame Sword - Tier 3 Weapon]

[Length : 90 centimeters, Weight : 4 kilograms]

[Increased attack speed]

[Added Special Skill : Flame Touch]

[Coating the sword with layers of fire element to increase its lethality]

Seeing the bright luster on the surface of the blade, Alex happily said, "Alright! A smooth success on my first try." Putting the sword aside, he added, "Just 4999 more to go…"

[Enchantment Successful!]

[Enchantment Failed!]

[Enchantment Successful!]

[Enchantment Failed!]

[Enchantment Failed!]

…

The amount of spirit stones Alex had to spend in order to use Strokes' ability was 1,000 stones. However, Alex's current rate of success in engraving was around 1 to 3. Therefore, the greatest possible cost of making one tier 3 artifact was 3,000 stones. Combined with the price of the sword itself, the total cost would be 3,500 stones. Whereas, the price Alex set when selling the artifacts was 5,000 stones.

This made the profit he got from every artifact sold 1,500 stones. Therefore, if he could increase his engravings success rate, the costs would be much lower and the profits would increase.

Five thousands worth of artifacts required a minimum capital of 15 million silver. A fantastic number that some countries in the world couldn't even dare to dream of. But of course, Devita wasn't worried about it. For the sake of 'assurance', she stated in the contract the buyers would need to pay a certain amount of spirit stones before their orders were processed. Thus, on the third day, the down payments began to appear.

From that day on, Alex spent most of his time every day just engraving, while he spent the rest of his limited time with his family. Alex used this rare opportunity and time to spend his day with Devita, Tiffany, and Tiarra, because he knew he would be going far away again and won't be able to come back for a while. He was sure his two daughters would not be happy about it. But fortunately, as they were getting older, they were starting to understand what he was going through at the moment.

[Enchantment Failed!]

[Enchantment Failed!]

[Enchantment Successful!]

Day by day, the pile of weapons in his workshop swiftly turned into tier 3 artifacts, while the spirit stones were slowly spent. 2000 pieces, 3000 pieces of tier 3 weapon artifacts,muntil finally, on the fifth day, Alex finally finished creating 5000 pieces of artifacts.

However, Alex's struggle, or rather his labor, was not over yet. After he finished engraving 1000 of the tier 3 artifacts on the first day, he decided to switch the things he worked on, so as to not get bored. He proceeded to make the magic scrolls when he felt too stuffed with artifacts making.

On the sixth day, when he was focusing his effort on creating the magic scrolls, Alex suddenly felt a change in his body, more precisely in his spirit core.

Feeling the sudden sensation, Alex immediately dropped the skin piece in his hand and concentrated his mind as he swiftly went into meditation. He felt the light element spirit energy inside him was undergoing an evolution as it rapidly flowed through all parts of his body towards his spirit core.

Suddenly, a burst of energy appeared inside him when the energy reached his core as Alex felt a comfortable sensation across his body. His attention was then caught by a notification that appeared from his bracelet. Alex rejoiced when he saw the information stated there.

[Your understanding of the light element has increased]

[You have reached the high stage of light spirit element]

[Alex]

[Sky realm level 41 - high stage]

[Sky Magus - Light - high stage]

"!!!"

Alex did not expect he could reach the high stage of Sky realm this quickly. It was indeed true it had been more than a month since Alex had reached level 40. However, it was not easy to break through the limit of understanding the spirit element, especially for him who was someone with an aptitude B. Alex previously estimated that he would need at least 3 months before he could break through this stage. Therefore, this situation truly shocked him.

There was only one reason why this could happen, the engraving.

In the past month, Alex had been continuously making weapon artifacts and equipment. And every time he did an engraving, he used his ability of light element. For the last one month, Alex had been using the [draw] skill for more than 30,000 times. Thus, this was the reward for his hard work.

Thanks to this breakthrough, Alex felt the energy he possessed had gone up one more level and he could also start learning tier 4 spells.

'What a wonderful feeling.' Alex happily thought.

"It's time to upgrade myself. And then, I'll be heading out tomorrow."

------------------------------------

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