Chapter 346: Price
[Life Element Rune (A Rank)]
[Price: 1 Gold.]
Alex stared at the notification, feeling somewhat disappointed by the result. He had expected an A Rank Rune to be worth considerably more, but rather than immediately dismissing his chances of completing the Trial, he decided to calculate how many Runes he would need to construct.
There were approximately eighty-six thousand seconds in a day. Even if he somehow managed to create one A Rank Rune every ten seconds, he would only earn around eight thousand six hundred Gold Coins, leaving him fourteen hundred short of the required amount.
’And that’s assuming I can construct a Rune every ten seconds, which is completely unrealistic,’ Alex thought, remembering how long the process normally took him.
Under normal circumstances, creating an A Rank Rune took him approximately three to four minutes, even when he worked at his fastest speed. Moreover, after consuming the Star Plum Arasia, his weakened Will had reduced his mana manipulation efficiency temporarily, making the process even slower.
In other words, he couldn’t complete the Trial within one day through ordinary Rune construction. Still, Alex wasn’t ready to draw a final conclusion without gathering more information, so he decided to examine the prices of Runes belonging to different elements.
After submitting them individually, he received the following results.
[Fire Element Rune (A Rank)]
[Price: 95 Silver Coins.]
[Lightning Element Rune (A Rank)]
[Price: 96 Silver Coins.]
[Kinetic Element Rune (A Rank)]
[Price: 1 Gold.]
Alex examined the results carefully. Assuming that one hundred Silver Coins were equivalent to one Gold Coin, Life Element and Kinetic Element Runes were currently his most profitable options.
Unfortunately, the difference was nowhere near enough to solve his problem.
’My construction speed should improve if I keep practicing, but I doubt I can reduce it below two minutes within a single day,’ Alex considered, running through the numbers once more.
Even at that speed, he would only be able to create approximately seven hundred Runes before his time ran out. Compared to the ten thousand Gold Coins required to complete the Trial, that amount was practically insignificant.
After considering several more possibilities, Alex finally accepted that he had no realistic chance of completing the objective through his current methods. Strangely enough, however, the realization didn’t bother him nearly as much as it should have.
He understood perfectly well that failing to complete the Trial within one day would likely result in the destruction of his Earth body. However, despite recognizing how serious that consequence was, he couldn’t summon the urgency or fear that would normally accompany such a situation.
’This Desire Independence is genuinely disturbing,’ Alex thought, examining his own mental state.
His desires weakening made his emotions less intense, as he had lost his drive. Even the possibility of losing one of his bodies failed to provoke much of a reaction, which made him realize just how dangerous the fruit’s effects could be.
However, just as Alex was considering the implications of that change, he suddenly noticed something unusual.
’Wait… am I feeling excited?’ he wondered, blinking in surprise before carefully examining his thoughts.
Since the fruit had suppressed nearly all his desires, experiencing such a noticeable emotion seemed rather strange. Alex mentally retraced his previous thoughts, attempting to identify exactly what had triggered the excitement.
After repeating the same train of thought several times, he finally discovered the reason. He was excited because he couldn’t find a way to complete the Trial within one day, or rather, because that seemingly impossible situation suggested something extremely interesting.
’The System scanned me before generating this Trial. Considering how powerful it seems to be, there’s no way it doesn’t know about my second body and its Mana Heart,’ Alex realized.
The System had given him thirty days to earn ten thousand Gold Coins, but Alex couldn’t actually afford to spend that much time inside the Trial. His Earth body’s Mana Heart would reach its limit long before then, meaning his effective time limit was closer to a day or two.
Surely, the System already knew that. More importantly, this place was supposed to be a [Trial], not an [execution ground].
’Which means there should be a way for me to complete it within my actual time limit. System knows my time limit is one day, and this place is a Trial, after all,’ Alex thought, becoming increasingly interested in the possibility.
Of course, he couldn’t guarantee that the System had designed the Trial to be fair. However, considering that it had specifically generated the challenge after examining his abilities, he found it difficult to believe that the situation was entirely hopeless.
If his current methods couldn’t possibly earn ten thousand Gold Coins within the available time, then perhaps the Trial expected him to discover a completely different method. And that meant something inside this library might hold the answer.
’There must be something here that I’m supposed to learn. Some piece of knowledge or technique that will allow me to complete the Trial,’ Alex concluded.
That was what excited him. If his theory was correct, the System had deliberately placed something inside the Trial that could help him develop his understanding of magic.
Alex found it rather amusing that his interest in magic remained strong enough to produce genuine excitement despite the effects of the Star Plum Arasia. However, he quickly pushed that observation aside and concentrated on identifying the most likely source of this hidden knowledge.
Fortunately, he already had a suspect.
’It’s pretty obvious when I think about it,’ Alex realized, turning toward the center of the library, where the enormous board containing the strange spherical diagram stood.
The sphere was composed of countless tiny wisps arranged in an intricate structure. When Alex examined it again, he experienced the same instinctive fascination he had felt during his first encounter with it.
More importantly, the diagram was the only thing in the entire library that actually contained any meaningful information. Every book he had examined was completely blank, despite their covers displaying titles related to various aspects of magic.
’Maybe the library itself is a hint,’ Alex considered.
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