Chapter 5: System's restriction

Looking around, Shane noticed that it was dark and nighttime, exactly the same as on Igra and he smiled lightly.

'Perfect!'

Had it been daytime, he would have had to change his plan and wait for a few days, because the day and night cycle of the Soul-Onyx Jungle Dimension was 3 days daytime and 4 days night.

One could say that Shane was relatively lucky, but it was still slightly problematic seeing that it wasn't raining.

Inwardly, he began to lament his decision of purchasing the items that he now owned in exchange of his ten gold coins.

Even though there weren't many citizens in the BlackSoul shelter, Shane was currently inside, there were still quite a number of guards patrolling through the empty streets and alleys, eyeing Shane with suspicion.

But, Shane didn´t look like a beggar, rather his dark clothes stood out under the mana-operated prismarine lamps, as they were made from extremely rare silk. It had certain runes intertwined within, empowering itself through the mana inside the Primordial Dimension.

The long robe he wore could even deflect rain, sand, and other small particles, while it would cleanse itself of blood, and other fluids splattering on it if the deflection wore off.

Shane's looks were also not bad either. He looked neat with his short black hair, deep black eyes, clean and fair skin while his athletic build was covered by the long black robe.

The runes on his robe had to be empowered, and usually, Shane would have a small mana stone inside his pockets.

The mana stones he always carried along were mostly Tier-3. While their quality was mostly trash, they were neither extremely pure in mana nor excessively expensive, compared to other, high-quality items.

However, being reminded about the mana stones grade, Shane frowned and regretted his decision..

'I'm so stupid!!'

Not only beasts with a higher stage other than the Dimension allowed were prohibited by the System, but also items at a higher grade were forbidden to enter lower Dimensions.

And a Tier-3 mana stone was definitely not something one could find in a Basic Dimension.

Shane deeply regretted his loss, as he wasn't able to absorb the mana within any mana stone owing to his current limit..

With mana absorbing and refining techniques, he would be able to absorb mana, but his current limit was most likely a Mortal-grade mana stone with higher quality because his body wouldn't be able to handle the vast, concentrated, and pure mana within a Tier-3 mana stone.

Even if that was the case, Shane would still be able to absorb at least a minuscule amount of a Tier-3 mana stone, which would most likely be equivalent to a normal Mortal-grade mana stone, which was still better than nothing.

There was also a function preventing excessive nurturing of youths, by restricting the support that parents, elders, and rich companies could provide to their offsprings.

After the system was activated, the system was completely synced with the soul and body of its host.

As such, it would immediately detect if someone was to gift something excessively strong, which would destroy the balance within the Basic-Primordial Dimensions, and adjust it if needed.

There were further restrictions, but the most important was something else.

External items like weapons and so on were not under this restriction, and one could use all kinds of weapons outside the Primordial Dimensions.

As long as they didn't enter the Basic-Primordial Dimension, the system wouldn't intervene.

Operating such weapons or items would be possible, as long as one could provide enough mana.

However, it was different for Skills that were internal matters.

They would break the balance within Basic-Dimensions once someone learned a high-tier technique while being at a low stage.

For example, if Shane received a passive Tier-3 skill tome as a gift, which could normally only be used by someone at the Master stage at the earliest, its strength would be adjusted to the individual's stage who wanted to learn the skill tome.

In the end, such a skill could be upgraded only a certain amount of times until it reached the High-Tier-2 rank, which was equivalent to Peak-Expert stages.

The System would deduct some of its might to prevent loopholes such as purchasing multiple high-tiered skills to nurture their offspring into powerhouses after upgrading their skills, which would cost additional resources and a fortune.

It would still be a huge waste, and cost much more than purchasing the skills once ready, with the exception of a few unique skills.

Nevertheless, there were still quite a few clans doing that.

They paid the price for a high-tiered technique, gave it to their descendants or disciples, and told them to learn the technique, thereby giving them an unfair advantage of being able to keep the proficiency with the learned skill.

It would also be an utter waste to absorb a high-tiered stone while being at the Mortal stage, as the efficiency would naturally be adjusted due to one's body's limits. But, right now Shane did not own even a single bronze coin to purchase gradeless mana stones, as such anything would be better than nothing.

Muttering curses to himself, he reached t the shelter wall that looked slightly demolished and bleak.

Blue moss was already growing on the wall, with rain clouds covering the whole Jungle 90% of the time. Shane began to wonder if it was going to rain, at least he sincerely hoped so.

When Shane was about to go outside, he was stopped by human guards, who checked his ID and enquired about the estimated period he wanted to spend outside. Satisfied with his answers they let him go through without further ado.

The shelter was built on a small hill, with dark green grass that prevented all kinds of flowers and trees from growing there due to the innate domination of the dark green soul grass.

It was extremely aggressive towards other plants and would even devour some of them.

As such, humanity liked to use them for terraforming and to prevent obstacles like trees from erecting over the course of time.

After walking for ten minutes, Shane felt a raindrop fall on his black hair, and upon looking up, he saw grey clouds covering the whole sky.

Smiling, he was thankful for the rain, and roughly half a kilometer away from the jungle, Shane took out the two potions he had previously bought.

[Mortal(Common) Nightsight-Potion]

<Allows consumer to see better within darkness Period: 3 hours>

[Mortal (Trash) Mana concealment-Potion]

<Conceals the mana radiations of the consumer to a certain degree Period: 3 hours>

With these potions, Shane would be able to see through the darkness to a certain degree, and his shallow or rather non-existent cultivation was now completely concealed.

Taking the rain into account, the beasts inside the Soul-Onyx-Jungle shouldn't be able to either smell or sense him at all, except a few stronger beasts, who had their habitat in the center of the forest, and not on the outskirts, where Shane wanted to work.

During the next three hours, he would have to gain a fortune of at least two gold in order to walk away without any losses, and Shane started to descend into the jungle, with the alloy dagger in his hand.

The alloy dagger that he now gripped firmly in his hand, was the same dagger his father had given to him when he was eight years old. Shane had it on his person, always, even when he was forced to attend dance balls and other important events.

The dagger was always tucked beneath his clothes as a lucky charm and was the only gift that he had ever received from his father in his entire life.

With his System, Shane could even scan the alloy dagger and it was even better than his initial estimation.

[Tempered Shiolite Dagger-Tier-1(Rare)]

<Endurable dagger, tempered within an Origin flame, creats an extremely thin but also razor-sharp blade>

Looking at the holographic screen, Shane smiled with satisfaction.

Even though his father didn't gift him anything except the dagger, this present alone was already enough for him to feel contented.

Tier-1 weapons were mostly sharp enough to injure beasts at the Elite stage, and with his dagger being [Rare], it was stronger than common Tier-1 daggers.

Maybe it was even able to injure newly advanced awakened beasts or some with extremely low defenses.

With that in mind, he could only smile dryly as the dagger would probably be his main weapon for the next few months until he outgrew it.

He opened up a small path by severing vines and small, thorny bushes in order to enter the forest while searching for certain distinct marks and spots all around the trees.

Ten minutes later, he was still unable to find anything at all. He was beginning to grow restless when his eyes suddenly saw something.

A small smile played on his lips despite him being drenched in the rain causing his hair to stick to his temples except for his robe that was still completely dry.