New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Everything shifted again, and he ended up back in his apartment. Only this time, he still knew he was in an illusion.

He looked around in disappointment.

"Let me out, Aberon. I've had enough of this mental torture." Alexander yelled, alone in his home.

There was no answer.

"Fine! I'll break myself out then!" He shouted again, sitting on his bed cross-legged.

He focused his mind on meditating like he had been training in the cave for days.

It only took him a few minutes to reach absolute peace of mind and he visualized himself being in the void of space again.

Around him, his surroundings started distorting. It was like the surrounding space was twisting on itself, with him at the center.

The scenery changed, as he reappeared in the little street the thugs had beaten him up in, a few days prior.

He was on the ground getting pounded, but he never opened his eyes. He had zoned out everything.

The scene changed again, switching to his workplace. His colleagues around him, all mocking him for his dream.

But Alexander was not paying them any mind, still locking his mind to external stimuli.

Around him, the scene changed many times, bringing him into situations that would have normally angered him greatly, but his eyes were closed and his ears heard nothing.

He was concentrating on getting out of the illusion, and the illusion was fighting back. Changing constantly, trying to make him angry, trying to make him go into a fit of rage.

After half an hour of this, the scene around Alexander finally cracked. The noise of glass shattering filled the surrounding air, and he was assaulted back with condensed mana, a sign that he was back in the cave with the shield artifact.

Astaroth opened his eyes, taking in the familiar sight. He rubbed his cheeks, which felt wet and got up to stretch.

That is when he noticed Aberon, staring at him wide-eyed.

"What?" Astaroth asked.

"How?" was Aberon's only response.

"How… What?" Astaroth replied, now confused.

"How did you get out of the illusion?" The old man asked, looking at him incredulously.

"Was I not supposed to get out?" Astaroth questioned, getting more confused by the second.

"No… Yes… No… Not that way at least!" Aberon stammered.

"What way?" Astaroth asked, still puzzled by the conversation.

"You broke out! You were supposed to tame your emotions, but you brutally forced your way out. How?!" Aberon replied, finally giving a clearer answer.

"I shut out everything." Astaroth answered like it was the simplest thing in the world.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Aberon questioned, his face a big question mark.

"I knew I was in an illusion. I ignored it." Astaroth said, turning to pet Genie, who was lying in a corner of the cave.

"You… Ignored it? How is that even possible? The illusion affects the mind foremost." The old man said, sitting down, his back to the artifact's pedestal.

"I knew it was an illusion, so I just stopped paying attention to it." Astaroth shrugged.

"I don't think you understand the amount of willpower required to brute force out of that level of illusion, young man." Aberon said, looking at him like he was a monster in human flesh.

"Does that mean I passed your test?" Astaroth turned around, excited.

"Test? Ahh… Yes. You pass." Aberon replied, still rattled at Astaroth's answer.

Astaroth smiled at the answer and was preparing to leave. But before that, he looked at the attendance window for the tournament.

The window popped open before him, and a look of disappointment appeared on his face.

*Tournament Attendance*

996/1000

His hopes of joining it were dashed. He could never level up fast enough to join now.

His shoulders dropped as he sighed loudly. He started walking towards the exit, bummed that he would have to wait longer before getting a chance at shining.

Aberon finally snapped out of his stormy thoughts and saw Astaroth was leaving. He jumped up and yelled.

"Wait! I have something for you."

He walked towards Astaroth, all the while pulling something from within his robe.

Astaroth turned around, watching the old man walk to him while searching his robe for something.

'What could he have for me?' He wondered.

The mage finally pulled out a vial from his sleeve. It was slim and about ten centimeters long.

He stretched his arm towards Astaroth, with the vial in his hand.

"Here. Drink this. It's from Captain Kloud." Aberon said, handing him the vial.

Astaroth inspected the item before taking it.

Exp Potion

Grade: Legendary

Description: This potion will give its consumer a boost in experience points. The amount of Exp gained depends on the quality or grade of the potion consumed.

Astaroth's eyes went wide when he saw the grade of the Item.

"I… I can't accept this, sir. This is too much." Astaroth stuttered, trying to push the vial away.

"Listen, young man. This isn't from me. So I'm not taking no for an answer. I also don't think you deserve such an item just yet. But I was told to give it to you, so accept it." Aberon said, pushing the vial back at Astaroth aggressively.

Astaroth could guess that the old man didn't want to give such a precious item. Which brought the question, why did Kloud want him to have this?

He carefully took the vial in his hands, not sure when he should consume it.

Aberon could read the question in his eyes and answered it for him.

"Kloud said you should consume it here, away from prying eyes. This thing is worth enough to make good people bad." He said, walking towards the passage back to his abode.

"I'll make sure no one comes down here in the meantime." He added, before walking away.

Astaroth went back to sitting in front of the pedestal, still eyeing the potion in his hands.

This could give him the Exp he needed to enter the tournament.

"No. It can't be." He said out loud.

He could guess the rough amount he needed to get to level thirty, by deduction of his prior levels. And that amount was not small.

He calculated he needed over a million points of Exp to level up to thirty, and that was excluding his Exp share with Genie. White wouldn't benefit from this, since he hadn't been summoned out.

But then again, maybe he should summon him. The Exp share had changed when maxing the level of his summoning skill.

Maybe he could benefit too, without him losing anything.

He went through with it. He summoned out White Death and breathed loudly.

"Here goes nothing!" He exclaimed, before drinking the potion.