Ambrose Academy’s Modifier

As the system notifications faded, a giant crystal appeared, floating above the centre of the boss chamber.

The crystal shone with brilliant golden light, signalling the floor had been cleared.

Ari approached the giant crystal and placed his own against it, synchronising with the golden light.

Hum!

Following the synchronisation of crystals, a purple portal appeared at the back of the boss chamber.

Ari glanced at the Tenahu.

He had yet to recover, but even at full strength, retrieving the boss's core was beyond his current capabilities and gear.

The only option would be to store its corpse for dismantling and core retrieval later on.

The only question was whether to store the boss in his inventory, or the obsidian ring Maya gave him.

‘It would be difficult to explain where I encountered the Tenahu, much less how I defeat it...’

For now, Ari decided it would be best to store the Tenahu in his inventory to avoid unnecessary questions from Maya.

With a thought, the enormous creature vanished without a trace.

Ari turned to the portal.

As he approached, the portal’s natural vibration intensified, distorting it’s shape momentarily.

‘What’s this?’

Confused by the sudden changes, Ari halted his steps.

Changes to portals in the tower signified one of two things:

Fortune, or misfortune.

Historically, there has never been changes to portals on the first floor.

Even when the first group of ascenders granted the opportunity to select a difficulty cleared the first floor, no changes occurred.

‘Is this another effect of Hell Difficulty?’

To Ari’s knowledge, he was the first ascender to select Hell Difficulty. Even up the last chapter he read, Nightmare was the highest difficulty selected.

The portal flashed, changing colour from the standard purple, to orange.

‘The colour of fortune...’

Typically, when the portal’s colour turns orange, it leads to a fortuitous opportunity for ascenders, and may come in various forms.

Conversely, when the portal’s colour turns red, it leads to adverse conditions for ascenders, and they too, come in various forms.

In both cases, ascenders may be transported to higher floors, or separate spaces entirely.

Portal changes within the tower occur randomly and are very rare, garnering world-wide attention whenever one occurs.

Ari wondered if it really was a coincidence, since he became a victim of an equally random and rare event involving portals in his backstory.

‘Since it appeared, might as well test that method.’

Ari recalled a certain question posed by a high level ascender.

“Since the orange portal represents fortune, if one knows what they want or where they would like to go, could thinking about it before entering the portal take them to that place?”

Ari already had a destination in mind.

The Malen Forest.

If the method worked, it would save him a lot of time finding the location following the normal route.

An image of the Malen Forest appeared in his mind. He held the image for one minute before stepping through the portal.

Hum!

Once Ari left the boss chamber, the portal flashed a bright crimson before closing.

A refreshing breeze welcomed Ari as he exited the portal.

Lush grass and majestic trees surrounded his field of vision.

‘Where is this?’

Ari inspected his surroundings, disappointment steadily creeping in his heart with each passing second.

The view before him, and the image of the Malen Forest from his memories did not line up.

For one, the Malen Forest was in ruins. At least 90% had been destroyed when the protagonist arrived, and it had been that way for a long time.

Ari did not detect any signs of that at all.

He sighed. ‘It was worth a shot, I guess...’

His disappointment did not last for very long, after all, he arrived in this forest through an orange portal.

Determination and excitement now fuelled his heart.

‘Let’s see what fortuitous opportunity awaits me.’

Ari proceeded through the forest slowly, using Detect to scan his surroundings.

Zero red dots appeared near him, allowing him to cover a considerable distance unimpeded.

As he exited through the tree line, his eyes widened in awe.

If the view from the cliff overlooking the Lake of Rebirth gave off a feeling of entering paradise, then the current view gave off a feeling of tranquillity.

A majestic snow-capped mountain towered in the distance. The valley below it had many hills, trees and grassy areas that spanned for hundreds of kilometers.

A herd of ten, what appeared to be deer-like animals, grazed a few meters from a pristine river.

‘That water should be safe to drink, right?’

Ari didn’t realise how thirsty he was until he heard the sounds of rushing water.

‘I should save my supplies for now and use as many natural resources as I can.’

He was surprised to find the river to be completely transparent. It had quite a collection of strange-looking fish, but he ignored them for the time being and formed a cup with his hand.

The water felt colder than he expected it to be.

As he brought his hand towards his open mouth, something zipped by his ear. He looked up and saw the back of an arrow sticking out of the riverbank across from him.

'What the hell?’

He summoned his sword and turned around immediately.

A figure approached from the tree line, holding a bow with a drawn arrow aimed at him.

As the sun reflected off the arrow's tip, the figure emerged.

"Oh, thank God!"

The figure tilted her head in confusion at the strange display, but she remained on high alert.

As for Ari, relief filled his chest.

Instead of an expected monster encounter that would ultimately lead to another deadly battle, he encountered a beauty.

A blonde bombshell whose race rhymed with shelf.

Standing before him was an exceptionally curvaceous, fair-skinned blonde, wearing a tight-fitted sea green crop top and mini skirt, paired with white knee-high boots.

'Oh, wait, she shot at me.'

Ari stared at the tip of the arrow, then shifted his gaze below it.

The Elven woman coughed, which prompted him to look up at her flushed face.

‘Goddamn.’

She was beautiful beyond words.

A long, thick braid of silky blonde hair rested over her left shoulder.

She narrowed her piercing blue eyes at him, shifting her gaze between his face and the sword in his hand, with his face stealing most of her attention.

‘She’s adorable.’

He dropped the sword and slowly raised both arms in the air.

"I mean you no harm. I simply want to have a drink of water, if that's alright with you."

He flashed charming smile.

"I-It most certainly is not!"

‘Oh? So elves are not impervious...good to know.’

"I don't mean to offend, but would a simple sip of water be that big of a deal?"

She took a deep breath, then exhaled.

"You are trespassing on Soato territory. All resources within our borders belong to our tribe. No outsider is permitted to partake of them."

‘Soato... Why does that sound familiar?’

"I understand. Please forgive my intrusion; it was not intentional."

"You say that you understand, yet you still intend to drink," she remarked, pulling on the bow string.

Ari sighed. "That's not what I meant. Hey, can we start over? What is your name? Can you at least tell me that?"

"I swear that I am no threat to you.”

Ari kicked the sword to the side while maintaining eye contact.

He kept his hands in the air, smiling as he slowly sat down in a meditation pose.

She glanced at the sword, now completely out of his reach, then back down at him.

He noticed subtle hesitation in her eyes.

"Why did you enter the Malen Forest?”

Ari’s eyes widened.

‘What did she just say?’