Chapter 390: Lending

As always Giliath demands your power stones!

*****

"Not exactly. It's better you get used to this now. Tio and Lechter already have seen this, but seeing as you might be with me a lot in the coming future, it's best to show this to you now. Less surprises, the better. I'll invite you to a Party another day.", I said.

As much as I wanted to see what Princess Alfin would look like using the Gamer System's Party function, that would remain to be seen for another day. Tio started out at Level 1, and Princess Alfin likely will too. I'm sure she's held self-defense lessons at St. Astraia, but just that.

Instead, the trick I wanted to show her was using the Inventory. With but a single will of a thought, my Inventory activated. Princess Alfin raised her eyes seeing a small little black hole appear out of nowhere beside me. I suddenly reached my hand inside.

"That...", Princess Alfin asked, not expecting to see this happen. "Where'd your hand go?", Princess Alfin continued to say, seeing my hand appear cut off inside the small hole. It was as if it was getting sucked into a miniature black hole.

"This is just one of the abilities I can do. It creates a dimensional space that allows me to store items in it. It's why you rarely see me carrying items around. I just store 'em in here instead.", I answered.

"Wow, talk about convenience! Can all Witches do this?", Princess Alfin mused.

"Haha, I don't think all of them can do this. I'm sure there's a spell out there that can create a little pocket space like this one, mine's different. Let's just leave it like that. More importantly, this is what I wanted to show you.", I said, changing the subject. My Inventory only lasted for a moment.

I brought out a dark, black sphere that had a unique pattern inside of it. It was as if a sword was striking down its center, waiting to deliver its judgement. And this particular sphere had a couple different iterations. This one was the Time variant, seeing the sphere was entirely black. Of course, this was a Master Quartz. I've accrued around a handful of these guys from my Quests and increasing Favorability during my down time.

Vermillion was my latest addition to the ones I have. I personally plan to use this one down the line. How I got this one, you might ask? I didn't spend yesterday idly. I hung out with none other than yours truly, Prince Olivert. I see Van as a true bro, but I also see Prince Olivert as one. I can even tolerate most of his passing jokes, haha!

As to where this black Master Quartz came from, it was the reward I got from increasing Tio's Favorability all the way to 100%. On top of a hefty boost in my ATS. That overall reward was pretty nutty, but Tio's an extremely overpowered character in the Trailsverse. It took her several games of nerfing her power to where other characters could outshine over what Tio could do.

I originally intended to save this Master Quartz for Tio. But seeing as Princess Alfin wanted to strengthen herself by becoming a Witch, I decided otherwise. Besides, Tio's elements don't exactly align with this Master Quartz I have in my hand. Sure the effects of it are insanely strong, but Tio's one of few characters who is aligned to all water, like Kloe is. There's a better Master Quartz out there for Tio.

And while this Master Quartz might mostly support the Time element, it additionally supports the Mirage element, which would allow Princess Alfin to cast higher-tiered Mirage Arts. She'll be able to cast three main elements by using this Master Quartz. Its name? Criminal! And its iteration? It's the one that came out of Trails of Azure!

This one has more than one iteration, and I'm sure I'll be able to get all of them. In fact, the one that shows up in the Cold Steel games might even be a better fit for Princess Alfin. If I get my hands on that one, I'll likely present that one to her instead. The primary element that one features is the Fire element, after all.

For now, she can use this Criminal, instead. Most Arts casters used either one of two Master Quartz in the games. Criminal, which I currently have in my hand, or Pandora. Both Criminal and Pandora showed similar end results. Criminal allowed its users to land critical hits easier when using Arts, which dished out high amounts of damage. Pandora, on the other hand, increased the output of Arts, but at a cost. Arts cost more EP. Both damage outputs were similar.

There was a third Master Quartz that displayed similar effects to these two, but it was more restrictive. In fact, the one I'm talking about has a similar effect to my newly-acquired Master Quartz, Vermillion. What Vermillion does is boost my physical damage two-fold, as long as my HP remains high. The Master Quartz I'm referring to increases one's Arts damage by two-fold, if their HP meets a certain threshold. It's around 50% HP remaining.

I don't want to put Princess Alfin in those kinds of situations, so I've decided to give Criminal to Princess Alfin instead. It's not like I have that other Master Quartz anyways.

Seeing me place Criminal into her hand, Princess Alfin's eyes lit up.

"I'll give this little guy to you for safekeeping. You can hold onto it, right? The name is Criminal. It's called a Master Quartz. These won't start circulating the market for another couple years at the earliest, so I'm afraid it won't see much use until then. But when the time comes, you can use this however you see fit.", I replied, smiling at her.

"So it's called a Master Quartz, huh? Sounds like the Epstein Foundation is going to start releasing a bunch of interesting goods in the coming future then! Let me guess, Tio let you in on this and gave some to you, Big Brother?", Princess Alfin asked, wondering how I got them.

"Sure, let's go with that.", I retorted. I mean, Princess Alfin's words likely weren't wrong. I'm sure Tio joined the project in creating those Enigma and Arcus Combat Orbments. With them came the Master Quartz. The reason Tio even came to Crossbell City was so she could test the Orbal Staff development. I'll need to have a side-chat with Tio to see how that's been progressing. If it's going well, I'll see if I can snag an Orbal Staff and give it to Princess Alfin. She had one custom-made later on, but if she can get used to using one earlier than that, then that'd be great.

But yeah, Princess Alfin's words weren't entirely false. That's a good pretense to use too. The less chances I have to refer to my Gamer System, the better. Hell, even Professor Schmidt doesn't know how I acquired these. All of them came through Quests and my progress with Favorability, haha!

"Why do I get the feeling you're hiding something again?", Princess Alfin retorted, seeing me dodge the question.

"Heh. Don't sweat the small stuff, Alfin. This one's yours. It might be a while until it's actually being used, though. Why don't we talk about this with Tio later?", I decided to ask.

"That works for me! I was planning on opening the indoor pool today. Brother Olivert's also planning to join in on some fun. You'll join us, right?", Princess Alfin asked, which drew my interest.

I looked over to my laptop, and saw that my writing had finished for the moment. I nodded back at her, proceeding to close it for the day. I can resume writing once my training excursion with the Thunder God finishes.

"I suppose a little swimming action doesn't hurt anybody. Count me in--?", I tried to respond. But once my eyes landed beyond the laptop, I saw three sealed letters nearby.

"Oh, right. I've drafted three more invitations to send out. You can help deliver them, right, Alfin?", I asked.

"I sure can. Just leave it to me!", Princess Alfin happily responded. Her eyes wandered over to where the letters were. I grabbed them and passed them her way. Once she saw who they were addressed to, Princess Alfin raised her eyes.