Chapter 363: Stasis (1/2)

Zac stepped through the Port Atwood teleporter and immediately rushed toward the government buildings. After he left under the guise of darkness he had been rushing without sleep for almost three days. Without adjusting his speed to the slow-moving army he was able to cover ground quite a bit faster, but he did take a circuitous route to keep a lookout for any threats lurking ahead of the army.

Luckily there was nothing apart from the occasional beast pack, nothing that would prove to be more than a small training excursion for the Port Atwood army by this point. His relief over the fact that his people were out of the woods was unfortunately overshadowed by the constant worry over whether he would find Alea waiting for him or if he would find a gravestone with her name on it.

“She is alive,” Adran immediately said when he saw Zac enter his office. “Calrin and the Tal-Eladar Healer has moved her to the valley with the Tree of Ascension. The energy is denser over there and the tree seems to bring her comfort.”

“Anything important that’s happened since I was gone?” Zac asked.

“Nothing major that can’t wait,” Adran said with a shake of his head, allowing Zac to head out without worries.

He immediately set out for the restricted area containing the valley hidden between the four mountain peaks. It had been a while since he last was here, and the area had largely recovered from being drained of energy then poisoned during the battle for the Fruit of Ascension. New vegetation was sprouting up everywhere, though Zac was a bit confused when he looked at them.

It almost felt as though Zac was having a hallucination as he walked among the unfamiliar flora. The plants and trees were not of species he had seen before, most of them donning various bright colors. The only answer Zac could find was that the poisoned Tree of Ascension had caused a chain of mutations in the area, making the vegetation toxic.

Soon enough he reached the core of the valley and immediately spotted the Sky Gnome fiddling with a Divine Crystal next to a glass display while Tylia stood next to him. Zac's heart was gripped by fear when he saw the unmoving form of Alea inside the glass case, making it seem like a coffin. But he breathed out when he noticed her taking slow breaths, and immediately walked over to Calrin's side.

“How is she?” Zac asked after greeting the two.

“She is stable for now,” Tylia said as she looked down at Alea. “I'm afraid we couldn't find a solution to her fractured soul though.”

“This is a Stasis Array,” Calrin explained when he noticed Zac's confusion. “It is used to keep mortally wounded people alive. But it doesn’t completely stop the wound from worsening.”

“How long does she have?” Zac asked with a sour feeling.

“Five years at the most,” Tylia said after some consideration. “But the faster you find a solution the better. If you wait too long there will be repercussions even if her soul is healed.”

“Like how?” Zac asked with a frown.

“Lost memories or crippled cultivation,” Tylia sighed.

Zac silently digested the information, trying to figure out what to do. His back-up plan was to get the soul-mending fruit from Yrial if he couldn’t heal her any quicker, but it looked like that option was out. Alea would be long dead before he could access the Inheritance Trial again.

“How confident are you of getting your hands on an item that can heal her?” Zac asked Calrin who stood to the side.

“I’m sorry, but there is no chance,” Calrin said with a shake of his head. “I only have access to a few merchants, and I only have the lowest access to their wares. On top of that, there are the restrictions put in place by the System. Even if I manage to expand our business enough to have a monopoly of all commerce on this planet I won’t get enough credits to get access to people who can provide those types of pills or treasures.”

“So it's impossible to find a solution on Earth?” Zac said with disappointment.

Ogras put forward the possibility of finding a cure in the Tower of Eternity, but Zac had hoped that the problem would be solved before that. It would allow him to climb the tower without worries, but it truly looked like there was no better option at this moment.

“Well… There are a few ways. You might find one in the Tower,” the Sky Gnome said, echoing Ogras’ idea. “Or if you manage to travel to an established Empire. Perhaps you can find an alchemist who can concoct such a pill there. But there is also the issue of cost in the short term.”

“Cost?” Zac asked.

“It cost 25 million Nexus Coins a month to keep this array going,” the Sky Gnome explained. “It continuously uses Divine Crystals and E-Grade Nexus Crystals.”

“I’ll pay for it,” Zac said without hesitation.

It was a steep price that might bankrupt most forces on Earth, but Zac didn’t care. Just the Beast Crystal mine alone was worth more than keeping the array running for a decade. And he would just keep getting wealthier as time passed. Besides, now was not the time to get stuck on trifling sums of money.

“Is there anything else we can do to improve her state? What about the Tree?” Zac asked, remembering Adran’s words.

“We are not sure the reason for this,” the Tal-Eladar hesitantly said. “Normally one’s constitution and soul are two separate aspects. But the tree seems to be helping her somehow. I am not sure about her class, but staying close to it seems to have a positive effect on her. But it is not to the point that it actually heals her. ”

“She is working on gaining a poison constitution,” Zac said. ”Can that have something to do with it?”

It was a bit of a secret, but he didn’t want to hold any important information back if it might help heal her. Tylia looked a bit surprised, but not overly so.

“Gaining a constitution without having a natural aptitude is extremely hard,” she said. “She must have had a lucky encounter that allowed her to take the first step at all.”

“Would it help if I got something that might complete the process?” Zac asked.

“No idea, this is far beyond my knowledge. But you should know that treasures that would allow you to gain a special constitution or bloodline are even rarer than soul-mending treasures,” Tylia said. “My work here is done. The young human and I are no longer needed, the array is doing the same thing we did, but better. If it is alright with you I’ll return to the side of Lady Verana.”

Zac nodded with a frown hearing that it might not work, but it was still worth trying in his opinion. Those kinds of treasures might be rare, but what Tylia didn’t know was that Zac might have just the thing in his possession.