Part 6 (1/2)
This world had no equivalent for that parameter called 'mana points' in ALO. Any variant of the magic here, named 'sacred arts', could be repeatedly used without cease, as long as the user's system access authority qualified for it.
However, that didn't mean that it could be used infinitely, anywhere and anytime. The rule of this world, that each and every act of creation required resources, applied just as strictly to sacred arts. Usage of the arts must consume precious catalysts, the Lives for living beings, even humans, or the ”s.p.a.ce resources” stored around the user.
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Chapter 10 - Integrity Knight Alice.
This s.p.a.ce resources thing had no numerical value to go by and was truly a troublesome matter to deal with. Basically, it was supplied through the sunlight or the fertility in soil. A place with fertile soil and basking in sufficient sunlight would be rich in sources, enough for even continuous casts of advanced sacred arts, but on the other hand, s.p.a.ce resources would be rapidly depleted in the room the sun cannot reach, of a building made from stone, requiring a long period of time before the resources would be recharged.
And abiding by the rule, Alice's and my present circ.u.mstances-stuck five hundred meters above the ground and the sun sinking into the horizon, were close to the worst possible conditions. To sum it up, the surrounding resources would be exhausted by the sacred arts I had repeatedly chanted and we would fail in creating those indispensable pitons for scaling the wall.
”System call! Generate metallic element! ”
Atop my palm, stretched out straight and seeking the dim afterglow remaining, drifted desolate beads of silver light which vanished in a puff of smoke.
I sighed and Alice spoke in a voice just as worn-out from two meters below.
”...Creation of those apparatus must have greatly drained the sacred power in the area... We could even consider ourselves
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Chapter 10 - Integrity Knight Alice.
lucky if we could create one every hour after Solus sets... - How much have we climbed thus far?”
”Erm... I'm pretty sure we're almost done with the eighty-fifth floor.”
”It is still far until the ninety-fifth floor, isn't it.”
I stubbornly gazed at the vanis.h.i.+ng shade of violet in the skies, then nodded.
”Yeah... one way or another, it'l be too dangerous to climb when it's completely dark. Still... we can't exactly rest in this situation even if we were to settle down for the night...”
If worst comes to worst, we would have to rest while dangling off the chain, but with how we couldn't make any pitons and how they vanish after tens of minutes, we could only resort to our swords again as the support. But it was questionable if our swords' Lives could even hold until morning.
In hope that I could find something to hang the chain upon, like some protrusion, I glared at the wal overhead, unwilling to give up. And- ”Ah...”
There were elaborate silhouettes sticking out from the wall, s.p.a.ced out regularly, just around eight meters above, weren't there. It appeared the mist coiling around the tower
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Chapter 10 - Integrity Knight Alice.
disappeared upon sunset and revealed the hidden objects'
visages.
”Hey, over there... do you see something?”
After I shouted out while pointing, Alice, near my feet, raised her face as well. Her blue eyes squinted and she answered.
”I do... could those be statues or something similar? That said, why would they be at such a high... There wouldn't be anyone around to look at them.”
”It doesn't matter what they are as long as we can sit on them and rest. Still, there are still eight met... eight mel before reaching there. I could climb up there, but I guess I'll need another three metal rods...”
”Three... I see.”
Alice could be seen pondering for a moment before she immediately nodded.
”Understood. I had planned to save this until it truly came in necessary, but... it appears now would be the time.”
She leaned against the wall the moment she said thusly and removed the gauntlet equipped on her left hand. Staring at the armor that radiated a faint, golden light even in this shadowy darkness, she chanted the starting phrase for sacred arts.
A fleeting flash of light shot out as the chant, done several times more fluent than I could have, ended-the gauntlet had