Markets and Multiverses (A Serial Transmigration LitRPG)

When I woke back up, I felt piercing pain throughout my body. That wasn’t great - but at least nothing had eaten me while I was asleep.

I spent a few seconds analyzing my own condition, before I groaned.

I still had several broken bones, and my body hurt a lot. I felt like I had been hit by a train - even existing hurt.

Luckily, during the time I was unconscious, I had regenerated some of my essence. I glanced around, to make sure that nothing else had been attracted to the area while I had slumbered, and then poured most of my alteration essence into a Renewal.

Bones knit back together. Flesh restored itself, and even grew to cover some chunks of my arm that I had lost sometime during the fight. Cuts stitched themselves over my raw flesh and blood, and my pain gradually shrank. By the time I ran out of essence, I wasn’t quite fully healed, but I could definitely walk and move around again - I just needed to be careful, since some of my bones weren’t fully recovered yet. If I moved too fast, or put too much force on my body, I would probably break a few bones again. However, another hour or two of essence regeneration would bring me right back to perfect condition.

I gingerly sat up, and inspected the body of the giant centipede again. This thing had really done a number on me - its resistance against spatial tripwires had been incredibly troubling, especially when paired with my lack of friends to help manage the fight. If Sallia had been here, I had no doubt she could have started shearing off its legs one after another, until the accursed creature couldn’t walk, and then we could’ve just whittled it down from a distance… I sighed.

The fact that the hero trials separated me from my friends was really frustrating.

My friends!

I had been so focused on the fight that I hadn’t told them what I had experienced! What if they ran into their own dangerous monsters and died because I didn’t let them know that they needed to be careful? I immediately focused on my communication bracelet.

<Guys! Just so you know, I think there’s something wrong with the trials. My trial introduction said that the monsters in mine weren’t very mobile, but I ran into a fast monster right after entering. It was really strong, and I broke a lot of bones during the fight. I just woke up. There aren’t any other threats in my area right now, but you need to be careful. I don’t know what exactly has changed, but you shouldn’t trust your mission introduction completely. Something is wrong with this place,> I said.

I felt a distinct pause from my friends, before Felix sent a message. <That actually makes sense. I’ve been running into a few issues with my ‘material collection’ trial. There are these really annoying little blood-sucking monsters that keep flying around. Do you remember mosquitos from our last world? Imagine those, but, like… five times bigger, and venomous. They also glow for some reason.

<Honestly, they’re a massive pain in the neck. I thought that maybe it was part of the trial, but since the first part of my trial explicitly mentioned that I would be fighting against environmental hazards, and I was getting Achievement for killing these things, I was a bit confused. Also, I keep getting the feeling that something is watching me. I thought I was overthinking things, since the trial said I shouldn’t be fighting any strong monsters during the first part. However, if the trial introduction might be wrong… well, I’ll need to keep an eye on my surroundings.> Then, I felt a wave of worry from Felix’s side. <If the thing watching me is too strong, I’ll need to be really careful with my trial.> Felix sent the mental equivalent of a sigh through the communication bracelet. <I wish you were here, Miria. Your soul-sight is ridiculously useful for scouting. I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated just how valuable it is to see every form of life in the area, and how powerful they are relative to us. Needing to scout by myself is awful. I can’t even be sure if I’m losing my mind when I think something is watching me, while you could just turn on your soul sight and look around.>

<My trial also has some oddities,> said Anise. <The first part of my trial is supposed to be making my way through the workshop of the ‘twisted artificer.’ My trial told me that it was filled with traps, but that there weren’t any monsters in it. However, I’ve been running into a few weaker monsters. They aren’t that strong - but the problem is that they attack while I’m navigating traps sometimes. I’ve also run into a few corpses of bigger monsters - I wasn’t really sure what to make of them. That explains a lot.> Then, I felt a wave of worry from Anise. <Are you okay, Miria? You said that you broke a lot of bones.>

<The fight was hard, although I came out on top,> I said. <I fought a centipede that was pretty big, and had some kind of attack method I’ve never seen before. I don’t know how it was getting me, but it kept cutting me despite not having any direct interaction with me. I was on the lookout for essence, and I could feel it doing something - but the essence was nowhere near me. It was… odd.> I shuddered. <Well, I did win, although I got pretty desperate towards the end. But I have a better idea what to do now.>

<Stay safe,> said Anise. <If you die, we’ll have no hope of completing the sun. And I don’t want you to get hurt either.>

<Yeah, be careful, Miria,> said Sallia. <My trial probably has stronger monsters in it than it’s supposed to have, but honestly, I’ve been doing fine. But at this point, you’re a lot more geared towards support than one on one combat, so this’ll be harder for you and Felix. Stay safe.>

<You too. Don’t get overconfident and die,> I said.

My friends sent me a chorus of acknowledgements, and I ended the conversation with them. After that, I finally turned my attention to the System messages I got from killing the monster.

Only 2,000 Achievement? I frowned. That was lower than I had expected. It took me a few seconds to remember why.

In this dimension, I had gotten somewhat used to monsters offering up rich rewards when we fought them. Every single monster we killed seemed to offer an abnormally high amount of Achievement - but after several decades here, I had gotten somewhat used to it. It wasn’t that 2,000 Achievement was abnormally low for a monster as strong as the centipede. 2,000 Achievement was probably about normal for a monster of that strength, even though there were always oddities in Achievement rewards. However, the Achievement rewards did seem to indicate that I hadn’t benefitted from the abnormally high Achievement rewards most hostile creatures offered here. Even more evidence that these things weren’t supposed to be here.

The Achievement reward still brought me from 50,681 Achievement to 52,681 Achievement, but that wasn’t enough to make me happy about the situation. Not only was my trail far more dangerous than it was supposed to be, but my entire body still ached, even if it was faint now.

I sighed, before I turned my attention to the next System message. This one was quite a bit more hopeful, and actually made me a bit excited.

Was this the ability that had cut me while I was fighting the centipede? I had been incredibly bothered by how hard it was to track the attack that had cut me up - it was part of the reason I had panicked and resorted to a desperate move so quickly. Looking at the ability, it wasn’t quite as terrifying as I had thought it was - but it was still potentially devastating if I used it well. I had the umbrella, so I could fly around already. This skill meant that I could weaponize higher flying speeds. I would still need to test how much damage this skill could actually do, but it had potential. The other important aspect of this skill was the fact that it did soul damage - even if the quantity of soul damage was quite limited. I hadn’t noticed any soul damage, but I had also spent decades slowly using {Eldritch Soul} to toughen up my soul. I seriously doubted most other creatures in the multiverse had that advantage - meaning that I now had access to a nearly untraceable deadly soul-attack. Unlike extinguish, this thing actually targeted the soul, instead of the connection between the soul and the body.

I was already working on an eldritch evolution for my primary ability, so I wasn’t quite as excited about this skill as I otherwise might have been. However, it was a path to dealing soul damage if the Eldritch evolution didn’t work out for some reason. It meant that I potentially had options for my next ability evolution. It was useful both during this trial and for setting me up for the future.

I didn’t hesitate as I equipped the new skill, then considered my next action.

The enemies in this trial were far more dangerous than anticipated… but I wasn’t under any sort of time limit. I could spend years in the trial if I wanted to - in fact, the faint records we had of pre-sanctuary times indicated that a few heroes had done just that in order to maximize their gains from the trial. Given how much I had struggled to dispatch one enemy, that was starting to look like a better and better idea. The sanctuaries had endured for seven thousand years - it was unlikely that they would fall if I spent an extra year or two here. My {Inventory} ability was loaded up with food, water, and camping supplies, just in case they were needed. I was still injured and nearly out of essence, so getting into another potential fight was suicidal right now anyway. As long as I didn’t leave the trial, I wouldn’t need to restart, nor would I be considered to have failed the trial.

With that in mind, I withdrew from the depths of the forest and retreated to the outskirts. I took a few tree branches and fallen trunks, and fashioned myself a very clumsy lean-to shelter. I covered it with mud and dirt, both to keep any potential rain off of me and to keep me out of sight of monsters. It might not be very effective at the latter objective, but it was better than nothing.

After that, I checked in with my friends one final time for the night, scanned my surroundings with soul sight, and then drifted off to sleep.