Abyssal Awakening-Chapter 963: Figuring Out Secrets

"Did it work?" Miki asked with a slight frown.

After spending a while helping Alice get some easy kills, they wanted to see if it’s possible for her to follow them to the fifth zone.

However...

"I... I think it’s a little stunted." Alice frowned.

The limit of each zone’s Embryo arrived much sooner than what she had expected. Not only that, but levelling up didn’t give her any new spells either.

She was still stuck with Pale Lance and the skill she gained from Adela. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

"Stunted? In what way?"

Before responding, Alice threw out a punch towards Miki and she tilted her head to the side.

"Tell me, does this feel like the stats of someone who should be at the limit of tier four embryos?" Alice smiled helplessly.

Miki froze.

The speed of the punch that Alice threw out just now... it was barely enough for the mid ranges of the fourth Zone...

How can that be the limit?

Clenching her fist a few times, Alice let out a sigh.

"Stunted isn’t the only thing either. This feels... Fleeting. Fake strength that’ll disappear the moment I step back into my own Zone."

It was a similar sensation to drinking blood. When she expands her Sigil limit and stole someone else’s strength.

The timer that kept ticking down.

Alice could feel it.

Perhaps this was a way of them balancing the fact that she can travel to other zones. Or perhaps this system was never meant to accommodate such an anomaly.

Another theory could be the fact that Zones are also created based on the host.

Even though she was here, she wasn’t the ’real’ host. Killing monsters here doesn’t advance her own zone.

However, with this discovery, Alice couldn’t help but wonder.

With this fleeting strength, this sensation that was oh so familiar...

Was there a chance that she could steal the power of others in this nightmare?

What if, she was able to ’drink the blood’ of the bosses.

Would she be able to steal their essence? Use their power for herself?

"Seems like you have a few ideas." Miki noticed the look in Alice’s eyes.

"Just a few. Bosses don’t respawn right?" Alice glanced up as Miki shook her head.

"Bosses and mini bosses don’t respawn. Their arenas become a sort of safe zone for people."

Since that was the case, it’ll be hard for her to test out her theory.

She didn’t exactly want to expose her unique constitution either.

Though...

At this point in time, what was more important?

Her secrets of getting help in figuring out how to best make use of her talents?

Alice tightened her fingers.

She enjoyed the process of discovery but now wasn’t the time.

Miki has a dedicated group of people prepared for experimentation.

Therefore there was only one right choice...

"I have a theory." Alice opened her mouth.

"Hm?"

"You’re aware of my connection to the Zenia family right? At least... my old one." Alice sighed, leaning back.

"I’m aware yes. What theory are you thinking about?"

Alice hesitated.

"What do you think... About the possibility of me stealing stats from monsters or bosses and their skills?" Alice scratched her cheek.

". . ."

Miki froze.

Alice waved her hand in front of Miki’s face a few times but there was no reaction.

It was only after Alice started to poke her did she finally react.

"Sorry, hang on. I’m not quite sure what you’re talking about." Miki massaged her eyes.

"What do you mean by stealing stats?"

"Hmm... how do I even explain this urgh..." Alice groaned.

In the end, she decided to reveal the fact that she can siphon power from other beasts due to an experiment within the Zenia family. The existence of hybrids and downplayed herself as somewhat of a ’prototype’ of the hybrids.

It wasn’t wrong but it wasn’t the truth either.

However, with this, she’s able to explain some of her abilities without directly revealing everything.

Miki had to take a seat.

If everything Alice said was true, and that this place was partially caused by the Zenia family, then it would indeed make sense that Alice’s body would have a unique reaction to the location.

If so...

"How much do you want me to reveal to the experiments group? I can have them see if they’re able to figure out how to stimulate this ability and activate it in the Zone."

Since this was a private matter, Miki didn’t want to reveal too much without Alice’s permission.

"You can tell them everything I told you. We lack the time after all, the sooner we start figuring this out, the better." Alice shrugged.

"Alright, give me a second then."

Standing up, Miki started to summon and unsummon her staff.

She would bring whole groups, brief them on the situation, order then to inform certain members before summoning a new group.

In this moment, Alice saw the entire network that Miki had worked hard to create within the Nightmare.

Scouters looking for bosses, mini bosses and elites to test on. Mappers to find the perfect routes to get to each monster as quickly as possible.

Even people to get into contact with any civilians who have bosses available to be killed.

She was putting the entirety of Grand Cathia to work in order to figure out the most optimal usage for this information.

And within moment, Miki has already gotten report after report.

A route that kills as many bosses in as little time as possible while also avoiding stray beasts.

Nearby civilian zones where they haven’t departed from zone one yet, thus giving them entire areas to work with.

Possible item combinations that can be gained without needing any skills, natural traps and even merchants with unique loot.

All of it was documented and soon they had a guide in hand.

"We have a bit of time before the Nightmare ends. If we can get through half of this list, it’ll be good progress.

"And if it doesn’t work... We can still use someone of your experience." Miki mumbled while flipping through the reports.

"There are builds that only require you to use items rather than skills, armour or stats. Just buying items and throwing them out should be fine since they don’t scale off of your stats. The only question is how much we can carry and if that’s enough."

She had even given Alice several ’build’ options to see which suited her best should this test come to a failure. If she couldn’t steal a boss’s stats then this was their best option.

But before Alice even settle on one that she liked, Miki has already summoned the main group.

Two experimenters and one caster.

With Miki and the caster focusing on clearing out the mobs, it gave them plenty of leeway to test out their theories against monsters and even bosses with no risk of death.

"We’re not done yet. Alice, you can summon people as well right? How many people can you bring?" Miki asked as Alice blinked her eyes.

"Probably the same as you since I’m technically a co host."

"Perfect. Bring this guy to help clear out monsters and these two for testing." Miki wrote down three names for Alice to summon.

With her commanding aura, Alice found it hard to reject and did as she was told.

Once everyone was gathered, Miki did a final role call and a quick refresher on their roles.

The four people responsible for experimenting wasted no time and began barraging Alice with a bunch of questions to try figure out the details.

Alice was overwhelmed in an instant and looked towards Miki for help.

"We’ll travel down this route. There are four ranged units on top. Can you deal with them? I’ll target the elites on the bottom. With those guys gone, I should be able to round up the stragglers without issue." Miki glanced at the map.

"Can you deal with them?" She looked at the caster who gave her a thumbs up.

"Alright! Everyone! We’re setting off! Alice, answer the questions while we make our way to the first boss!" Miki shouted once everything was confirmed.

Without getting the chance to protest, Alice was hoisted up once more like a sack of potatoes and dragged along.

It was in this moment that Alice realised what she was feeling.

This dread.

It was just like when Velouria dragged her away for clothing!

Her eyes widened, she glanced up at the experimenters who had the same grin as Velouria did on that day and paled.

"W-WAIT!"

They didn’t.

###

Enris sat upon the peak of a snow capped mountain, a grin plastered on her face.

She was originally planning on messing with Alice when she invaded this place a while ago.

But who knew the Queen of the North would also be dragged here.

With their combined presence, this zone was created.

An anomaly within Nyer’s realm.

But within this anomaly, she found something rather interesting.

A hint to what Nyer was trying to accomplish.

The laws he was trying to put into place and...

The potential waiting to be claimed.

Depending on how things go... she might even get what she wants.

But to reach that stage, she had to wait.

Yet waiting didn’t mean being idle. She can still move however she wanted.

"Ah~ I wanna mess things up." Enris chuckled.

She wanted to sow chaos as much as she wished but that’s a mistake.

She had already learned the consequences of losing herself in short term pleasure.

In the moment, she felt euphoric.

But the emptiness that followed was torture. She won’t repeat what happened with Velouria again. This time, she’ll carefully cultivate a maelstrom of chaos that will give her the most beautiful end.