-Extra chapter today-
My return to my Teyvat was as abrupt as my disappearance. One moment I was watching as my body finally faded, and the next I returned to the door leading into Guizhong's personal lab. I could hear Guizhong's excited ramblings from beyond the door, her words continuing exactly from when I last heard it.
I took a small breath. I felt…fine. The physical exhaustion that'd accumulated due to my fight with Durin was gone, and I was back in tip-top shape. Of course, my mental exhaustion remained, and right now I wanted nothing more than to find my bed and collapse for a good week or so.
But I didn't. Instead I began walking out of the building, politely greeting the handmaidens I passed. And once I was outside, I took a moment to just bask in the sunlight. I spent only about a week in that Adventure, and already I missed the sight of the bright blue sky.
I found a nearby bench and sat down. I sighed slightly as I forced myself to relax, trying my hardest not to think about what I'd learned about the potential future I'd experienced. When that didn't work, I instead turned to my Genshin System to see the Rewards I'd gotten from my Adventure.
[The Adventure -Embers of the Crimson Witch- has been completed!]
[First Adventure completed. Achievement -Honorary Trailblazer- has been received]
[[Perks] are now available]
[Statistics: Main Mission (✓), Submission 1 (✓), Submission 2 (X), Submission 3 (X), Condition: Lawful Good, Achieved Ending: Savior]
[Rating: B-. Rewards and Perks can be chosen below]
I raised an eyebrow at the sudden influx of information my System had dumped onto me, but I dutifully continued to see my Rewards. And my eyes went wide.
Hiss! I might've gotten a B- on my Adventure, but the Rewards were quite amazing. Several unique Talent Scrolls, a heap of enhancement items, and even a 5★ item. I gulped slightly as I read the items, before I quickly closed my Inventory. I could give them a more thorough look later—right now, I wanted to check out what these Perks were all about.
And they sure were interesting.
[The User may pick 1 out of the 3 options]
[Mystical Storyteller (Rare): Greatly increases your Charisma and allows the User to seamlessly attract the attention of others]
[Dragonslayer (Uncommon): Increases damage against Dragon-type enemies by 50%]
[Renowned Archer (Uncommon): Increases Arrow-damage by 25%]
"Hmm." Fascinating. I assume these Perks were made in response to my actions during the Adventure. Me introducing myself as a Storyteller, my act of slaying Durin, and the powerful archery I showcased to the people; all of them crystalized into bonuses I could carry out into the real world.
[Dragonslayer] was naturally out. While many of my more powerful enemies were indeed dragons, I faced just as many enemies that were not. I considered [Renowned Archer] as well, but eventually decided not to. A 25% increase in Arrow-damage is massive, but it wasn't something crucial.
Which left [Mystical Storyteller] as the only choice. And it'd be a good Perk to pick for future Adventures. After all, if the people of Mondstadt hadn't been so welcoming of me, who knows if I'd even have been able to progress the Adventure like I did. Further bolstering my Charisma should help get me out of sticky situations in the future.
I didn't really feel much when I absorbed my new Perk, but that made sense. It wasn't as if the Perk made me stronger in any tangible way. Though I could probably just test it by taking a walk to the harbor and observe if I attracted more attention than normal.
I…wasn't going to do that. At least not now. My mind was still tired from my recent otherworld Adventure, and I needed to do something to destress. And I might as well go to my Personal World and fish. I hadn't entered my Personal World in a while, since I was out exploring with Lumine.
So I brought out a [Serenitea Pot]—a replica I bought some time back—and opened the lid. Smoke billowed out from within, and soon I faded from Liyue Harbor and reappeared on the floating island with the massive lake. Chubby was there to greet me, and I greeted them back as I sat down by the lakeside and began fishing.
I spent a good few hours just sitting there and fishing. I didn't catch much, but that was fine. I just spent the time talking with Chubby more than anything else.
…
Hours later, I returned home after eating some dinner with Morax. I walked right into my room, and slamming the door behind me, I leapt onto my bed and screamed into my pillow.
See, Morax had planned to invite Guizhong and I to some dinner at his favorite restaurant. However Guizhong was still busy grilling Lumine for her extraterrestrial knowledge, which only left me. Of course, I easily agreed. My stomach was quite empty after the hours of fishing I did.
So we went in, dressed as we usually were. We sat down, ordered our food, and then it didn't take long before I realized that everyone was staring at us. Or specifically, at me. It wasn't even the usual gossiping the people liked to do whenever they saw me alone with Morax. It was just silence, awed and reverent.
"Is…something wrong?" I'd asked Morax in a whisper, wondering if my new Perk had that much of an effect. Surely not, right?
And then the blockhead just-!
"Your beauty is glowing tonight." He said calmly. To my face. His voice loud enough to be heard by most people. And all I could do was gape and stare as Morax calmly began drinking his tea.
The rest of that dinner was just a blur, but all I knew was that I was dedicating all my energy not to combust right then and there. Because the damn blockhead just mentioned that nonchalantly. Did the guy not care about all the rumors this was going to cause!? It would be a bloodbath for all the fledgling writers!
Argh, the guy probably didn't even know about those rumors. He only had two braincells—one dedicated to rocks and the other to tea.
I growled, ears burning red as I remembered that dinner. I took a deep breath to calm myself. Then I took another slow breath. Then another.
And once I'd calmed myself enough, I turned around to face the ceiling instead, staring listlessly at the window. Somehow, I felt even more tired than I was after I survived Durin's final blast.
Hah. Alright, enough about that.
I held my hand out, and the [Astral Token] flashed into my grasp. I rolled it around my fingers for a good minute, before I gave the side with the four-pointed star a good look.
The coin looked pretty much the same, but the colors almost looked…faded, for a lack of a better word. The usual shine it carried wasn't as bright as I remembered it, and considering what my Genshin System told me, it made sense.
[Astral Token in cooldown. 364 Days and 19 Hours remaining]
So I needed to wait a whole year before I could go on my next Adventure. Which-, was fine. It wasn't as if there was much to do right now; Liyue itself was at peace, but the rest of Teyvat was still deep in the Archon War. It wasn't as if we could just stroll up with the intent to help—other gods would see it as us breaching into their regions. And who knew what Celestia would do if we tried that.
I suppose the long cooldown was an incentive to make sure I did everything I could during an Adventure. Though it would've been nice if I at least knew what the Submissions of the Adventures were. I'd been lucky that Rostam had sought me out to slay the Golden Riftwolf, which just happened to be one of the Submissions.
It was a shame though, considering the great Reward I'd gotten from just a B- Adventure.
[Sapling of the World Tree 5★
The sapling of a branch that grew from the World Tree. The energies of creation lies within it, and it is capable of sprouting into an entirely new world when given enough time and care.
When planted, it slowly gathers the surrounding energy to grow, and will fully mature after 500,000 years. Growth can be accelerated by feeding it any form of Energy. Reduction in growth time is based on amount and quality of the fed Energy]
If I wasn't wrong, this Reward was based on that giant oak tree I saw back in my Adventure. It didn't have an official name, if I remembered right—they just called it the 'Symbol of Mondstadt's Hero'. Of course, as massive as it was, it certainly wasn't big enough to support entire worlds.
Though maybe that was because that oak tree was still fledgling. After all, this sapling needed half a million years before it matured.
It did make me wonder what'd happen if that tree continued to grow though. Would it eventually become big enough to actually support entire worlds? What'd happen then?
When I first saw it, I debated planting it in my Personal World. After all, my Sublime Spicewood was flooding with energy, still fresh from its creation. The tree would no doubt flourish if I planted it there.
But I hesitated. Somehow, I felt like it'd be better for me to wait. As if this sapling had to be planted somewhere else. And while the feeling was vague, I decided to listen and stopped myself from planting the sapling.
I hummed gently as I placed the [Astral Token] back into the Inventory. I cast my System away, and I sighed as I stared at the ceiling. There was little for me to do now, and I was still mentally exhausted from my fight with Durin and my recent dinner with Morax.
And so it was inevitable that my eyelids would become heavy, and before I knew it, I slept into a deep sleep.
.
.
.
The thing was, I'd misunderstood something. Or, to be more accurate, the Genshin System had obscured the truth.
The Adventure I'd gone on wasn't false. It wasn't just some simulation I'd undergone. That Teyvat, that Mondstadt—they were all real in some way. Branches of a possible future that greatly diverged from my own Teyvat.
My Teyvat was lucky. The Genshin System was actively fighting against Celestia's hold on Destiny, and now with Aeon Lan's help, it was inevitable that the false sky would soon shatter, allowing the people of Teyvat to soar past the skies and out into the infinite confines of the Universe.
That other Teyvat wasn't so lucky. The collective that later gave birth to the thing known as Celestia would ensure these aberrant worlds would never mature, pruning them like a gardener would prune a sickly branch from a hedge.
But while I couldn't permanently be there to stop its destruction, my actions still mattered. They did something.
Or more accurately, they attracted the attention of something.
I had proclaimed myself a Storyteller, and within me I hold the Stories of that other world, even if filtered through Rosalyne's eyes. And what were Stories if not Memories that belonged to that now destroyed world?
As I peacefully slept in my bed, I'd unknowingly attracted the attention of a great figure carved from the crystals of thousands of ancient stars. One dedicated to preserving the tales and memories of the Universe, ensuring that they could be brought over once the next incarnation of the Universe came to be.
That night, a grand aurora shone across all of Teyvat, its grand significance lost to all.