Lily knew a lot more than Kael expected her to know.
While he expected someone who worked at a boutique to know a lot, the quality and amount of information she knew was rather for someone who simply worked at a clothing store.
"Well, that's pretty much everything I've learned about the guilds."
Kael took a few moments to process everything he just heard.
Firstly, guilds had a power ranking that changed depending on a number of factors.
Also, clans were old families that mostly rose at the start of the appearance of the system. which makes them very influential; he knew that.
But what he didn't know was that there were power struggles between the clans that involved the gates they could access.
Gates that appeared within the territory of a clan could only be used or challenged by people permitted by the clans who ruled the territories.
Another piece of information that wasn't revealed to the public was that the gates were also used by inhabitants of other realms to establish connections as well as political alliances with the clans for certain reasons she didn't know.
Cleared gates were supposed to vanish. Some didn't.
He finally knew why—external influence.
They could be kept open if someone killed the gate guardian and seized control of the gate.
This meant that depending on his growth rate, he would most likely come across at least one of these clans, or even worse—need to join one of them temporarily to gain passage to the other realms.
Then there was the last piece of information he got, which was that some spatial tears often occurred under certain conditions, which led to unpredictable parts of any realm.
These temporary gates didn't open for long and mostly led to a corrupted area, which meant instant death.
'That one's definitely no better than a last resort.'
Then she also added information about top members of different guilds, which guild was in charge of which area, even known abilities of some popular awakened, and even a few ascended.
She also gave him information about some of the power politics that went on between guilds, clans, transcendents, and the government.
He gave her a curious look.
"If you know all this, then how come you don't know anything about the challenge?"
It was rather suspicious even.
The information she gave him wasn't something just anyone knew.
"Well, my aunt works as an analyst for AEF.
But she's an ordinary human, actually.
While she knows quite a bit about clan relationships, news that she knows about the spell isn't really useful to me."
"What if the information I'm about to give you is something you already know?"
Lily sighed a bit.
"Well, it was a gamble, honestly.
And from what you've been saying, I think you know quite a few things that can be of use to me."
Kael sighed.
He was surprised at how naive this girl was; he could have even chosen to leave without telling her anything useful.
Such actions weren't new to him since noble actions were practically myths where he came from.
He remembered how Altair gave him life-saving information without asking for anything in return, and suddenly the thought of not telling the girl information that could save her life made his stomach turn oddly.
"Well, since you've held up your end, I also have to do my part."
"I don't know if you know this, but the spell doesn't choose your ability based on the challenge," he said quietly."It chooses based on you."
Lily looked rather confused by the statement, meaning she at least didn't know it already.
After hearing everything she said, he wasn't sure she didn't already know all the things he wanted to use for the bargain.
"What do you mean by that?"
"What I'm saying is that your personality and way of thinking greatly influence what kind of ability you get; that's why some famous families have multiple awakened with similar abilities."
This is something he deduced after thinking about the people he had met and considering his own unique ability.
For example, there was someone he met once whose dad owned a flower shop, and he ended up with an ability that lets him control the development of flower plants as he wished.
"Wait, so I might get an ability that reflects my own personality?"
"Yeah, that's basically it.
Of course, your personality affects how you influence whatever situation you're in – which results in a different variation, even among similar abilities.
Also, the core rank is something that is actually determined by how well you perform in the challenge.
Though it won't really make much sense to you right now.
But based on what he heard after his challenge was done 'extraordinary change to the challenge scenario,' meaning that the actual outcome was very different from the expected outcome.
"I'm not following; please explain better."
"I mean, if you do more than is expected, your resulting core rank will be higher.
But please don't do anything stupid, okay?
And last is that you just need to survive."
She gave him another surprising look.
"Isn't the main goal to survive?"
"Yes, that is very true, but they didn't tell you something important.
You can literally run away, hide, or do anything you want and wait for it to end.
There isn't really a right way to end the scenario; the baseline is just to survive until it ends."
In reality, it was the most important piece of information she needed to know.
Most guilds and even the government don't talk much about that fact.
People and even many embrace the idea of "conquering the challenge."
Well, they weren't wrong; awakened leave a very good life by many standards.
But you have to live to enjoy those benefits.
"But you didn't really explain what you meant by 'doing more than expected'?"
Kael let a soft grin appear on his face.
'The ambitious type, I see.'
"Think of your challenge like a movie you watched, but now you're put into a character in that movie; while your primary goal is to make it till the movie is over, you can also try to play the main character and change how things should go.
The only thing is, you don't know what makes the most changes to the movie.
And you can also lose your life if you play wrong."
Most people probably didn't realize this; that's why there are fewer people with multiple cores.
Lily thought for a bit before replying.
"So, that's why most simply focus on surviving."
"Anyways, that concludes our deal.
Goodbye."
He turned around and walked away.
"Excuse me, I didn't even get your name though."
He turned around and smiled again.
"It's Kael."
She paused for a bit.
"Thank you."
He waved as he left.
`"No need to thank me; this is just a trade.
For now, there was barely anything that could make him cross paths with the clans, so he didn't have to worry.
The problem was if he began to rise to higher levels, he would most probably have to come in contact with them one way or another.
Before all that could pose trouble for him, there was still a primary problem that he had not really solved yet.
He had yet to cement how he would make use of his ability, let alone advance to a new level or rank.
At first it seemed rather unsuited for combat, but if one took a closer look—if used well, it could be an unrivaled ability.
He just had to break down how to use it.
'Okay, let's get the basics down first.'
The negotiator ability was a bit of a mystery; it works by convincing individuals to form a contract with him willingly.
The black market was an option.
He dismissed it immediately.
There were lines he wouldn't cross
'That's definitely out of the question; even I'm not that evil.'
His other option was to tame or subdue low-rank abyss creatures and form contracts with them.
[Contract details] meant that he could specify what kind of contract he wanted.
While [contract skill] meant he could temporarily use the abilities of whatever creature he was contracted to, albeit at the cost of essence.
Which he seemed to have a lot of compared to most awakened, meaning he could potentially have access to a lot of abilities.
[Linguist] was more useful than he thought.
Even in the outskirts, there were different languages among the people.
The general English language made things easier, but the NUSC was comprised of a number of fractured countries that joined together.
Meaning the skill would be extremely helpful.
"Well, let's think about the rest tomorrow then."
'Things are going to get hectic.'