Gazing at the Mana Geyser before them, the first thing that Blake wanted to do was make a list of what they wanted to accomplish. Now that the world had been fully discovered, it was time to become stronger. Clashing with the Lava Snakes made Blake realize that, while the world used to be desolate, it was rapidly changing. As far as Blake could tell, in only a century, the influence of the Magic Source Meteor had created new life. If you could define hostile magma that could shoot fireballs as a living thing. While traveling the planet had been fun it made Blake feel a new sense of danger. If mere molten rock could have such a drastic change in a relatively short amount of time, what about the rest of the world over the eons? Massive Titans composed of their respective elements, hybrids with dangerous tricks, or even passive spirits might be born. Anything and everything was on the table now with magic in the mix. The best way to survive would to become the strongest, craftiest, toughest stone in existence.
But the Administrator had brought up a good point. It was safe to assume that they were an immortal being given how casually the passing of eons only seemed to be a source of boredom. Speaking of which, they gave them a Module to contact them whenever possible. Bringing up the Status, Blake could see that in their "Perks" section was something called a "Contact Local Administrator Module". However, it was grayed out. Upon closer Inspection, it seemed to have a cool down of 500 years!
"What's with this huge disparity of time between the two of us? Is a century like a day to an Administrator? Wait, does this mean that to them, today was a Monday, and they want me to give them a call on Friday? That's…might just be my imagination. The grayed-out box must mean that they aren't available. Must be napping."
As the last word of the thought passed, inspiration struck. Quickly opening up the Point Store, another round of furious scouring occurred. Within the Skill section, Blake found what they were looking for. Clicking on the unusual skill, the System gave out the description.
"Napping (Lv.1): Allows the user to sleep anywhere for any duration. Higher levels assist in long term hibernation. Can be upgraded. Cost: 1,000 points."
Looking at the skill, it seemed pretty useless at first glance. How hard was it to take a nap? Before trying to buy it, Blake first just wanted to see if they could obtain it by themselves. Truly how hard could it be? Emptying their mind, a calm washed over them. As the seconds ticked by, Blake was entirely aware of their surroundings. Magic Vision couldn't be turned off since they didn't have eyes and it was listed as a perk. Still, people managed to sleep with their eyes open in the human world. None of them, however, had a blinding geyser spewing all sorts of colorful elemental particles. Needless to say, it was quite distracting. Not to mention the wind blowing fiercely around due to the high elevation. Blake didn't really want to have to climb back down just to try to take a nap. Plus, this was possibly the safest place to be. While it seemed improbable, the Lava Snakes might get bold and try to attack from the shoreline. Or worse, grow legs and come up onto land! Seeing no alternative, the strange skill was purchased.
Sensing the new information flow into their head, activating the skill felt like resting in games to pass the time. The amount of time to pass, when to end the skill, emergency wake up triggers like being attacked, level ups, or proximity alerts were all part of the skill. They could even use the Calendar and Advanced Watch Module to ensure that the skill wouldn't fail! Curious to try it out, Blake selected 1 hour to pass. Anything trying to move, attack, or approach Blake would cut the skill off prematurely. Alerts for any changes to the body like skills or perks would be muted until waking up again. Once all the parameters were set, Blake started napping.
And woke up a second later. Confused, the surroundings hadn't changed nor had any notifications gone off. In this vast desolate world, there weren't things to easily show that time had passed. Thankfully, the Watch that Blake had installed might have some clues. Setting a timer, Blake activated the Napping skill again for another hour. Again, it felt more like blinking and then seeing that nothing had changed. The timer in the watch, however, showed that exactly an hour had passed since it started to keep track of time. It dawned on Blake that napping wasn't so much as a more efficient way of resting; it basically allowed the user to become completely unconscious. Since this occurred, nothing would seem to have changed to the user on the inside. But just like a video game, the lone rock had just spent two hours laying in front of the geyser not doing anything to an outside observer.
This skill could be extremely helpful! Not only could it allow what was effectively terrible time travel for the user, but it would also ensure that the eons that Blake had in store for them could be skipped without having to experience them directly! Perhaps this is what the Administrator did. Instead of sitting around waiting for the next task, they simply napped in set intervals, checked on what changed during the nap, then went right back to sleeping. When it was time to work on something, at most it would take a few years before having to nap again. Blake couldn't wait to watch the world around them change while they dropped in to see what was new in the world. Imagine not having to wait for release dates for games, manga, or movies ever again. And if someone had a vast amount of wealth and just invested it, they could do whatever they wanted when they woke up. For someone with a limited lifespan, this skill might be dangerous. If someone's finger slipped during the selection, they could go from being a youthful individual to an old person with the click of a button.
With the trouble of time now out of the way, skills were the next thing that Blake needed to train in. Aside from Telekinesis and some basic elemental skills, Blake couldn't do anything impressive like shoot a ray of death or summon an otherworldly demon to protect them. Things like that would be the most helpful. Yet, if Blake wanted to train, all they had to do was start playing with different elemental particles to unlock the skills. Based on the technique book, there were 13 basic elemental magics, divided into two categories. In no particular order, they were Fire, Metal, Water, Ice, Earth, Wood, Wind, Lighting, Light, Dark, Gravity, Time, and Space. All these elements could be either part of the Chaos or Order division. This was just under the elemental school of magic. Many other forms of magic existed, as well as non-magical powers as well
For example, the planet that Blake was currently on was dominated by fire and earth elemental particles with a smattering of wind. There was no organic life anywhere to be found and destruction reigned. Most of the planet would be categorized as being in a Chaotic state. These states of Chaos and Order cycled, much like nature itself did. As for skills, they also fell in these divisions. With Telekinesis, this was a gravity magic skill. Because it was purchased through the Store before magic was in the world that Blake was on, it was Blake's soul that was enacting their will onto the world. Now, the manipulation of gravity magic made the skill easier and more flexible to use. However, the act of buying the skill left Blake at a disadvantage. They had never learned how to manipulate gravity elemental particles. It was like knowing how to put in numbers in a formula to get an answer for a test, but not knowing what the logic or fundamentals were behind it.
In essence, Blake had cheated. This was the biggest advantage to the point store, and why everything cost so much. If students had to pay hundreds of dollars to successfully cheat in class, why couldn't the System charge an arm and a leg for services that gave out superpowers? Using the time that one had and the limited amount of points that could be earned, it was better to try to earn skills through one's own efforts. This was exactly what Blake had intended to do over the course of the next few centuries. Staring at the Mana Geyser, they slowly lifted themselves into the pillar to begin their journey to become an expert elementalist.