We board the elevator, and it brings us up a dozen floors in what feels like no more than half a second.
After a light ding and the door quickly opening, all three of us walk out following Abby's lead into an oval-shaped room with six cylindrical metal pods lining the back wall. There's nothing else in the room but these.
Five of them have green lights above them, while the pod all the way to my left side has a blue light above it and a timer counting down. It's currently at [1:51:44], the seconds continue to tick down as I watch, showing that there's just under 2 hours left on it.
Abby stops in front of the middle pod, glancing over to the blue-lit pod, then back to us.
"Looks like Lith is doing a long session. He must have a lot to think about if he's in here for so long. If he's been in isolation since we started farming, he must have been in there over a full day already."
I raise an eyebrow at her words, but Maria just nods and agrees, walking over to an isolation pod of her own.
"Yeah, I don't know about you guys but an hour will be more than enough for me."
Abby shrugs and nods.
"Yeah, an hour is fine with me."
They both press small buttons on the sides of the pods, and the cylinders split in half the long way, opening up and exposing a bright white glowing inside.
The intense mana radiation that pours out is overwhelming, giving me an eerily familiar feeling, but I can't quite put my finger on what.
Abby walks inside first, pressing a small number pad on the inside of the pod, then giving us a smile as she closes the heavy-looking door.
"See you all soon."
It clicks closed and all of the mana that was pouring out moments ago disappears from my senses.
The green light above the pod turns blue and a one-hour timer counts down right below it.
Maria looks at me next, typing on the small number pad just as Abby did.
"Just hop in and relax, time moves a bit slower inside, so in an hour outside, about 6 or 7 passes in the pod. Soak up all the mana you want too, it's really relaxing."
She smiles and the large metal casing clicks around her too, showing the same blue light and 1-hour countdown begin.
Curiously, I walk over to the next pod down the line and open up the door with a click. It swings open with little to no friction, and I step inside to be surrounded by warm mana tens of times more potent and dense than the mana in the restaurant in the gold district.
As I type in the code to begin a 1-hour session, the metal door clicks shut and my vision turns completely white.
Everything around me begins to hum and buzz, and I can't even sense the world around me.
I whisper to myself.
"This really is like I'm in total isolation..."
It gives me a really familiar feeling now that I'm inside.
The noise from my mouth doesn't bounce off the close walls as it should, it just fades off into the artificial domain that surrounds me.
As I take a deep breath in and out, starting to passively plunder MP, I reach into my item storage and pull out the small metal container containing Qi pills and the bar of Black stone.
I'm careful not to touch the stone, and just take a single pill from the casing before snapping it shut again and placing it into my storage.
With a gulp, I take the pill and feel a rush of energy restore my Qi.
After the fight with the Ghoul last night, I was drained down to about 40% capacity, losing 60% in minutes. From training all night with Maria and Abby, I only lost another 10% or so of my Qi in over 6 hours. Fighting monsters that don't have Qi is much easier than ones that drain me and evaporate my power after every hit.
I chuckle to myself as the warm sensation fills my body and brings me up to full again.
"Maybe that's how most monsters feel fighting me."
I let out a satisfying breath and close my eyes to let the domain around me fade away.
There are tiny particles of Qi within this chamber, but their concentration is no greater than it is outside or at any other place in the outside world.
I would take this moment to plunder as much MP and gather as much Qi as possible right now if it was worth my while, but the minuscule gains I could make in the next few hours compared to the trade-off that an actual good 7 hours of sleep would do me is not worth it.
Without thinking any further, I fall asleep standing up in the Isolation pod. As I drift off, my body feels weightless, and it's the most relaxing sleep I've gotten in ages.
*Ding*
A light dinging sound wakes me from my slumber and the metal door I forgot even existed swings open to reveal Abby and Maria both standing out in the open room stretching and looking around with relaxed expressions.
I feel equally refreshed, practically overflowing with Mana and Qi.
As I leave the pod and it clicks closed, Maria points to the elevator door.
"So, seems like it's finally time to go!"
The wall opens wide as we get close to its motion sensors, and while it closes I look at the numbers on the one pod left in the room still with a clock ticking down.
[0:50:09]
As the elevator door shuts, the familiar feeling of inside the pods washes over me again like déjà vu.
"That's what it reminds me of..."
I remember being trapped inside the mana-powered time prison that was the Titan's domain. The blessing and curse that helped me bond with Ember, train my mana control up, but also scar me with some of the worst mind-bending torturous experiences of my life.
I reflexively shudder at the thought of going back to that Great Plains Dungeon, but as the elevator stops and we approach the teleport platform that leads away from the city, I think of the possible benefits of bringing my teammates there too.
Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if we planned everything out in advance.
Abby's voice breaks my train of thought.
"Here catch, we'll need these to get back here once we're done."
I catch the teleport crystal she throws to me, adding it to my handful of others in my storage that I took just in case earlier and nod.
I put my ring of concealment on and change my face with my skill, and I watch both Maria and Abby do the same with identical rings of alteration.
We all step onto the platform together and end up in the bustling train station down below the mountain right where I started my journey in Sector 1.
Not that much time has passed, really only a couple of days at most, but it feels like I was a much different man the last time I stepped off this platform.
The three of us step off and make our way through town and up the mountain in a rushed manner.
The breeze is cool and the weather gets chilly as we climb the mountain path back up to Valor City, but the sun above occasionally sends warm waves of light that make the constant breeze more refreshing.
The crowd outside the first Silver wall is fairly long, just like the first time I entered this city, but it moves fast and we each get registered with new wristbands, and I load 5 Platinum into my credit account. There's still over 60 Platinum profit in my storage from my last time through these outer walls.
My teammates load the same amount into their bands, and we all get a few jealous stares from a few passersby, but the guards don't bat an eye. They get rich folk coming in with much more than this all the time.
Once we step through the inner walls, it's a quick walk from here. After passing through the high-end shops and going through checkpoints at the gold and platinum wall, it only takes another few minutes before we finally make it to the Platinum District. The privately owned skyscrapers loom above us as we make our way past the large auction house and approach the black stone monastery.
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Author's Note:
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Thanks for reading:)
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