Kingdom Building: Civilization Starts with Divinity-Chapter 89: No Wrong Way!

"Not possible? That’s different from what you said earlier. Is there some arbitrary restriction on what you can and cannot do?" Alchemy questioned.

|<Notice: It is the Trial Ground. Something is interfering with the System’s capabilities.>|

Alchemy’s eyes widened.

"Interfering? Wait, you’re not omnipotent? Huh, my dreams of beating you over the head with a rusty pipe don’t seem too far off. Wait, no, that’s off-topic. What is interfering with you? Or rather, how powerful of a spell does it have to be to manage that?"

It was apparent enough to Alchemy that the cause was a magical spell of some variety.

|<Notice: Unknown. It has also taken effect upon Mercenary Gravana and Hero Nera entering trial grounds. Everything but the base functions is currently blocked.>|

"That’s... Worrying. Keep me updated on this interference."

As fun as disabling the System’s functions sounded, Alchemy would prefer if the cause was known. The only one allowed to abuse the system is her. If someone is deliberately messing with it, then she’d need to have a very polite conversation with them.

Whatever the case was, Alchemy needed to get going. She looked at the map and saw both Nera and Gravana sprinting toward the eventual end of their hallways. Nothing was stopping them.

"Okay, I’ll stop bothering you in a second, but did the Trials do something to the monsters?"

She understood Gravana to an extent. He seemed like the type of guy who’d manage to slaughter the monsters while running at full speed or just outright ignoring them. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Nera was a different matter. Alchemy was relatively confident that Nera wouldn’t leave potential threats like that behind, nor would she use up Mana to enter her Gigant Form. As far as she knew, Nera wasn’t strong enough to shrug off the Dire Tooths while flying at full speed like that.

|<Notice: The Monster Population has severely lessened after the completed trials. Correlation is likely. The mechanism is unknown.>|

"This place is too bizarre. I really don’t like it."

Shaking her idle thoughts off to the best of her ability, Alchemy leaped over the counter and headed for the exit.

While she did, she grabbed some of the Light Mana Shards since even the all-powerful Kuff Wood went out after being thrown with the force of a panicked Goddess.

Alchemy took a closer look at the scattered tables as she grabbed them.

Some of them had trampoline-like structures built in. Curiously, Alchemy placed her hand on one, and it shot upward, lifting her entire body a small distance into the sky.

"Woah."

Quickly, she corrected herself in the air so she didn’t fall on her face.

"So that was the gimmick? Just using jump pads to dodge rats for an hour? Isn’t that more of a trial of agility than finesse?" She hummed to herself.

Not that it mattered to her. They should have made the summoner unkillable if they didn’t want her to brute force the trial... Or tell her she wouldn’t get the proper rewards.

Daring to punish her for using the tools at her disposal.

Before she left the trial ground for good, Alchemy looked at the Ruinous Bloom flowers around. She intended to break them so she would have full HP before the boss, but that wasn’t necessary since she got the full heal.

She wondered if they would stay and heal her while she fought the boss if she left them for long enough.

She shrugged, dashing into the hallway. Unfortunately, it barely took a minute before she got the notification of them wilting and healing her.

Unfortunate but expected.

...

A dozen minutes later, Alchemy had arrived at the end of her pathway, connecting it with the other two. Her allies had reached the end a while before her.

"Sorry, I’m late~! I was collecting rocks, " she said as she met her accomplices.

"Mother Goddess! Did you have any trouble getting here?" Nera questioned, looking Alchemy up and down.

This caused Alchemy to look at herself. Did a Dire Tooth latch onto her without her noticing or something?

Just as the system said, she didn’t run into anything more

"No? What about you two?"

"No, but this damned thing is annoying!" Gravana growled, swiping at the system.

"Oh, you don’t know the half of it. Think about what I have to deal with constantly." Alchemy chuckled

Speaking of the System, Alchemy had yet to look at Gravana’s information since she evolved.

|<Name: Gravana>|

|<Species: Adult Gale Werewolf(Hero++)>|

|<Inclination: Omnivore, Neutral(True), Interested>|

|<Thought: This weird floating panel... It’s definitely related to that Disciple’s rapid growth.>|

|<Estimated Level: ?>l

|<Highest Stat: BTL>|

|<Estimated Danger: SS+>|

’Oh crap, he’s onto me. Maybe I shouldn’t tell him about the full features of the system? If he learns about leveling up, he might willingly follow me. Or destroy everything I love because I cheated for my strength.’

Alchemy quickly decided against telling Gravana the full extent of the system for now. Chances were he’d figure it out soon enough anyway.

"Ah, Mother Goddess! Here, I’ve got a gift for you."

"Ooo, I like gifts."

Nera opened a portal to the storage and grabbed out a necklace, tossing it to Alchemy.

|<Would you like to Equip Dire Tooth’s tooth necklace for 10% Armor Pierce? Y/N>|

"This is... Where did you get an AP accessory?"

"After completing the trial, I got it as a reward," Nera said matter-of-factly.

"About that..."

Alchemy and Gravana looked at each other, both empty-handed.

"Did you... Not do the trial?"

"Okay, look, in my defense, nothing told me I had to do it properly!"

"Bah! What "properly" did you beat that trial or whatever? There’s no wrong way to do it as long as you’ve won!"

"Yeah! What he said!"

Nera looked at the two as she rolled her eyes.

"In the future, if something looks like a puzzle, just leave it for me. The solution couldn’t have been that hard to figure out."

"Yeah, yeah, I got it. That aside, are you sure you don’t want this? You should be able to equip it in your Gigant Form, right?"

"Is there any reason for me to have it when I’m already defeating everything instantly?"

Alchemy paused for a moment before nodding.

"Fair enough."

She could give the Skill Shard she got from the quest to Nera as compensation.