" Good, now that everyone has made their purchases.... except for the random and mostly retarded few." The woman muttered, her roaming around their group with a mocking smile." We can now begin your first scenario."
' Oh yeah, there were those that didn't buy anything...' He thought, remembering that a few of the players had chose to not buy anything, thinking this as nothing but a dream before they all slowly disappeared.
" Infront of you, you'll find a screen that will tell you of your scenario and world—please read carefully before accepting."
And just like that a screen materialised before him, and just as quickly he saw people quickly disappearing in the numbers not even bothering to read through it.
' Idiots, the lot of them.'
He wasn't surprised really, having seen such people do things like this on impulse thinking that 'if they are first then they will be special'.
Not knowing that is stupid as time worked differently here.
' Never mind that, let's see whether my trial scenario is the same as before.'
[—Name - Marvel - Dimensional Abyss.
—Genre - Action, Supernatural, Magic.
— Difficulty - A+
— Description - In the far reaches of the Marvel Multiverse, there lays a universe that has been invaded by beings called constellations—Beings of unimaginable power using it to entertain themselves by using the humans of the Earth of that universe. Playing live games where they choose their toys and make them champions while they put them through trial after trial.
— Mission - Complete the Tutorial of this world's setting.
—[-]—
Seeing the description and mission he breathed in a sigh of relief.
It was still the same universe he had went to first.
A fictional universe that definitely shouldn't have had anything to do with beings like constellations.
But he didn't care about that.
What he cared for was that he had meta knowledge stacked upon future knowledge, meaning that he could game this trial and obtain as many benefits as he could from this world.
So with that thought in mind he accepted the mission, quickly finding his senses overwhelmed by pure nothingness before appearing right inside an alleyway.
' Just like last time, good.'
He didn't waste time, quickly he shuffled behind a dumpster and with a thought a window screen appeared.
This was their soul space, given to all participants of this game. With the only downside of it being that it only stored items bought or received from the Elysium Games.
But he didn't dwell on that, rapidly moving as he withdrew his first item.
The Mana Seed fell into his hand with no fanfare, simply floating in his hand in a purple light.
Already knowing what to do, he threw it in his mouth.
' Now to wait.'
As soon as the seed reached his mouth, it dissolved, the energy contained inside rushing throughout his entire body etching across his very bones, veins, muscles and skin pathways.
When all the pathways which were important for him to channel mana were complete, the energy ran through them before settling just before his stomach.
The Dantian.
The energy coalesced slowly, reforming back into a single seed floating in an empty void.
It being its sole resident.
It floated there for a moment before slowly, a single root grow at the bottom and then he felt the mana around him rushing into his body, flowing through his pathways and into the seed.
That was not the full process though as Jason knew, so he waited and watched as the root absorbed the mana and seconds later the seed produced its own mana from it, formless and unaligned in its purest state.
" Good." Jason muttered, his eyes shooting wide open before looking at the end of the alley where civilians marched on their daily lives, unknowing of what the world would turn to in a couple minutes.
But that was not his problem, so he focused back on the window screen infront of him and pulled out the second item.
Varices grasp floated into his hand in the form of a ball.
A pure black ball the size of a tennis ball, unassuming but incredibly versatile in its uses.
He then began applying pressure on it, slowly squeezing it before in a burst of energy it exploded.
An explosion that caused the energy to rush into his hand and into his body, guided by his veins into my Dantian.
And there he watched in anticipation on whether his plan would work, even when he knew it would.
The black formless energy as it entered his Dantian floated right into the seed, fusing with the roots as it's energy fed his Mana seed.
And moments later the seed started shaking, right until the seed pod broke open, letting out a beautiful black sapling out into the void.
And when it did Jason smiled, he had not only managed to mutate the Mana seed but he had also made it reach its first stage.
From seed to sapling.
He didn't know of what effects the sapling now had even if he had his guesses from how he heard this worked, but he would soon find out.
So he detached again from viewing his Dantian, focusing again on the window, calling out the third item.
As soon as he made the withdrawal, a vial of clear blue liquid fell into his hand.
The Basic Conditioning Potion.
" Well, bottoms up." Jason muttered, uncorking it before downing the entire potions content into his mouth.
The rush that he felt almost took him out seconds later, only by the sheer will of his ego did he not.
He experienced his bones breaking at an atomical level, restructuring and reforming, his muscles tearing and healing in an infinite agony of pain, his body suddenly shrinking as if drying up a bit.
Just as everything in his body that could be used as protein to facilitate the conditioning was gone, his Mana seed reacted.
Mana poured out of his Dantian, riding the pathways like fish in water even when the said pathways broke alongside his body only to reform stronger.
His mana quickly fed into the potion rewriting his very genes, quickly he experienced again the pain for a few minutes, each time the pain growing just a bit intense.
But he didn't collapse or faint, doing so would be death— he knew that, those that had bought it though aside from him would be in for a nasty surprise.
It was 10 minutes after the entire process started that his body stopped the process, living his body slimmer than it was but compact.
His body had the required swimmers physique that would allow him both speed and strength in tough situations, he was sure that there was other things that were improved but he didn't have the time to check.
So for the final time he focused on the window still in his peripheral vision.
And this time he took out two items.
Both the Shattered Primordial Core and the Devouring Soul Gu.
And as he had been told, he began the process by channelling a small amount of his already dwindling mana into the pure white Primordial Core, it's cracks slowly radiating with his mana.
Then he looked at the Gu which floated inside a bubble of energy.
He channeled energy into it two for a moment and watched as the Gu squirmed.
But that didn't matter to him, so not allowing himself to take anymore time than he had, he forced the two together.
Causing an effect that he wasn't too familiar with, as the two glowed together and slowly coalesced into one being.
" Wow...." Jason muttered, staring at the Core which had turned from a ball into the shape of what the Gu had been.
And just before he could think more, the crystal shot right into his body, phasing into it easily.
" Fuck! I hope this shit works!"
Quickly focusing on his Dantian, Jason was surprised to find that his Mana Sapling had grew again, growing bright black leaves.
Though what happened next had him pausing, a smile gracing his face.
The Gu Primordial Crystal as he would now call it, slowly nudged itself towards the sapling.
Not making any means to seem aggressive, then nudged itself under it, floating just under the growing sapling.
And right infront of Jasons eyes, the sapling simply allowed and accepted it.
The saplings roots elongated, using more of his mana to do so and wrapped the Gu Crystal with its root, feeding off the expansive energy inside the crystal and giving back inturn in a form of symbiosis that Jason didn't understand.
" Well that was surp—"
[—Ding! The System is booting up.....]