SSS Awakening: I am the First Legendary Mage

According to the testimonies of those who had encountered them, the items sold by the Merchants were extremely useful, and their selection was surprisingly large. More importantly, the Merchants had apparently mentioned that they would soon be able to establish permanent shops, which meant Ascendants should start preparing enough money, preferably in the form of Origin Coins.

Alex immediately understood the opportunity.

He opened his own Dwitter page and began preparing his daily post, which he scheduled to go live at midnight. He had already been sharing information with the public, and there was no reason to stop now when he had information that could significantly help other Ascendants while also allowing him to collect Origin Coins from others.

He began writing about the changes that occurred after reaching Adept rank. Unlike the previous ranks, Ascendants would gain more stats from each level at Adept rank, although the exact stats gained would depend on their Class.

Alex then added another important piece of information. Mages would gain two additional spell slots upon reaching Adept rank, which made the advancement even more significant than they would’ve thought.

He stopped after writing that sentence and stared at the screen for a moment. There was something else he could share, something that would probably attract even more attention than the information about Adept rank.

Alex thought about the reward options he had received after completing the Additional Class Evolution Requirements. After considering the matter for a moment, he began writing those options into the post as well.

He didn’t know whether the reward options he had received were unique to him or available to every Mage who completed the Additional Class Evolution Requirements, but either way, revealing them wouldn’t cause him any problems.

If the options were unique to him, then nobody else would receive them, so there was no reason to hide them. If they weren’t unique, then everyone would eventually discover them anyway, which meant revealing them now would simply give people useful information a little earlier.

Of course, Alex didn’t reveal which option he had chosen. There was no reason to give away information that could make it easier for others to understand his abilities.

Still, revealing the options would further establish his image as a powerful Mage who had completed the Additional Class Evolution Requirements. It would also increase his popularity.

The more popular he was, the more people would know about things he posted on his page. The last thing he added was the information that Return skill’s cost would increase after Ascendant Rank up, but not after Species’ Evolution.

After putting the post on a timer, Alex made and put another post on timer. This one talked about training for mages. He was going to train them online for Origin Coins, since Origin Coins could be transferred over the distance. He had gained a Mana Training Book as reward from a Reward Box, so this was no problem.

He then returned to Dwitter and continued scrolling through the latest information. He wasn’t particularly interested in arguments about which Ascendant was strongest, but the information about the Merchants had caught his attention, so he searched for more posts about them.

Eventually, he came across a post written by Ole, an Ascendant from Brazil. The post appeared to contain information that Ole had obtained directly from one of the Merchants.

Ole: I paid the Merchant extra money to get any information I could. The Merchant didn’t give me information, saying it was forbidden by the System. However, he did give me some hints.

Ole: This is what the Merchant said: "You need to be mindful of your conduct. Growing strong is obviously important, but how you grow strong is also important. When the doors open, you wouldn’t want to be invited by a malevolent <Monarch>."

Alex frowned as he read the final sentence. He was still trying to understand what the Merchant meant when the post suddenly disappeared from Dwitter, leaving him staring at the screen.

Alex was surprised and immediately refreshed the page several times, but the post was gone. He couldn’t tell whether Ole had deleted it himself or whether Dwitter had removed it, and that uncertainty immediately made Alex more alert.

He thought back to the Merchant’s words.

’[When the doors open.]’

’Does that mean when our planet finally completely ascends to the Land of Origin, or does it mean something else?’

Alex felt that the second possibility was much more likely. If the Merchant was talking about Earth’s complete ascension, there would be no reason to warn them about it now when nobody knew how long the process would take or how many people would even survive until then.

That meant something else was coming, and judging from the Merchant’s warning, it might happen much sooner than Alex expected. The wording also seemed to imply that Ascendants wouldn’t necessarily have complete control over who invited them after the doors opened.

If that was true, then their conduct now could determine which entities would take an interest in them later. This clearly suggested that the people and entities in the Land of Origin didn’t necessarily have good intentions toward the people of Earth.

Alex couldn’t help feeling grateful that, when he had received the reward options from the Additional Class Evolution Requirements, he had not chosen the option involving a meeting with a powerful Mage. What if he had met a sinister Mage instead and that Mage had reported him to some dangerous < Monarch>, whatever it was?

Alex might have been in serious trouble. However, that wasn’t even the most unsettling part of the Merchant’s warning.

’[You need to be mindful of your conduct.]’

The more Alex thought about those words, the deeper his frown became. Did that mean several <Monarchs> were already watching them, and that their actions could potentially attract the attention of <Monarchs> they didn’t even know existed?

’No, there could be another explanation.’

Alex leaned back slightly and continued thinking. Perhaps these <Monarchs> couldn’t observe them directly right now, but once the ’doors’ opened, they could somehow look through their past and see everything they had done, almost like watching a CCTV recording.

Both possibilities were unpleasant. Alex didn’t particularly mind the System watching him, even though it was obvious that the System knew far more about him than it revealed.

To Alex, the System was closer to a program or some unknown phenomenon like rain or clouds. He didn’t know why, but he felt like this. He had talked to others, and they felt the same. So being observed by it didn’t feel the same as being watched by another person. These <Monarchs> were different because they were clearly intelligent beings with their own intentions, which meant there was a huge difference between being monitored by the System and being watched by someone who could potentially decide to interfere with his life.

Alex suddenly remembered Xithali, the one who had conducted their First Assessment. Xithali’s behavior had always seemed strange, especially the way he sometimes spoke as if he were addressing an audience that wasn’t present.

At the time, everyone had assumed that he was simply speaking to the people of Earth. But what if that wasn’t the case?

What if...

..

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