In the parallel world, the world of Nexus.
"Yes! Take that! Bow before the greatest! Bow before Nyx!"
Beth cut through the ranks of a small pack of orange goblinoid creatures, slashing those that dared to cross her in two with the ice daggers in her hands.
The minute she was done, Axon's prompts popped up like a stalker.
The [Notification] bar beamed in blue light.
"Open notification," she instructed Axon with a thought.
[You have slain 5 orange goblins]
[+100 XP]
[+100 Coins]
«Quest Completed»
[You have completed the side quest «Liberate the Pinana Village»]
[+50 XP]
[+100 Coins]
"That's a first," Beth breathed when she saw the inventory update notification.
Beth scoffed. "Tch! No skills or level ups, stingy much? I wonder when that will happen."
The goblins that she had slain crumbled into shining particles, each one leaving behind an orange diamond-shaped jewel like a crystal stone that gleamed and floated in the air.
"What are these?" she wondered, as she grabbed hold of one.
The orange gem impressed into her palm and entered her body before engulfing her in a shining pillar of light.
Beth yanked backwards in shock from the unusual occurrence.
[You have absorbed an orange mana core]
[+20 Energy Points (EP) Gained]
"Seriously!"
Axon came through once more by offering her the information she requested.
—––
MANA CORES:
[Mana cores are gems with mana stored within them. Every creature capable of using magic has a mana core within them from where the mana is produced and harvested for usage. The mana cores come in seven colours — Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Obsidian. Mana cores are important for building Energy Points (EP) which is a marker for mana usage]
—––
[Click «HERE» to continue reading]
Beth clicked and the next pop up screen discussed the grades of mana cores.
—––
MANA CORE GRADING:
Red core: +10 EP
Orange core: +20 EP
Yellow core: +30 EP
Green core: +40 EP
Blue core: +50 EP
Indigo core: +60 EP
Obsidian core: +100 EP
—––
'So an orange mana core like these ones gives only 20 energy points and equivalent in mana core value. That's not a lot considering I need 1000 mana core value to activate my ice magic to another tier.'
Beth sighed in disappointment but still proceeded to absorb the rest of the floating orange gems before they, perhaps, disappeared and left her with no benefits.
"Open avatar profile."
Her profile dropped down and she could monitor her progress so far.
—––
Name: Nyx
Race: Elf
Level: 1
Class: Mage
Skills: None
Inventory: None
Coins: 200
Mana Cores: 5
Mana Core Value: 100
Experience Points (XP): 175/250
Energy Points (EP): 300
Health Points (HP): 200
—––
Nothing about Beth's avatar made her happy except the energy points, but even that was for a short time.
It ticked her off that she was a mage class player with a measly 100 points in mana core value.
That was not a good development for a character like hers.
She was yet to have access to any reasonable ice spells and it was irking to wield blades since her character was not built for that.
She was a mage class player and as expected her physical stats were not optimum as opposed to the ones that were based on mana.
All she could do at best was make daggers from ice like she had already done against the goblins… and maybe a few ice shards.
That was the limit of tier 0 ice manipulation in Nexus.
Before she can handle real and massive quantities of ice, she needed to be at least tier 1 and that required that she garnered extra 900 points in mana core value.
"That grind will have to wait."
Beth stretched her arms over her head and bent her back to ease her tensed muscles.
She felt a bit relaxed and then she yawned.
She was getting tired of playing.
"I have played enough for today and I have an early shift tomorrow. Can't afford to lose my job over this. I should at least have up to 500 bucks for this much.
"Log out."
The blue holographic screen popped up and in a split second, the colour changed and it shone brightly with red colour that meant one thing.
A terrible news — Beth's command failed.
[COMMAND FAILED!]
[You are unable to log out]
"Huh? Log me out now!"
[COMMAND FAILED!]
"What the fuck is going on here!"