Chapter 617: Starry Meal
Taking the short silence that followed after Jamie spoke as their cue, the two automations who had stepped aside when Byrant appeared came over to the table and bowed before speaking.
"Apologies for the late welcome, esteemed Guests, and Congratulations on Discovering the Garden of the Stars."
"As this is your first time here, would you like a brief introduction?"
The two spoke respectively, with the female automation’s focus on Arthur as she asked her question.
They somehow seemed to be aware that this was his first time here. Either because they had seen Jamie before or some other special means. Anyway, Arthur nodded and had her give the introduction since he still didn’t know exactly what about this place made it special.
"The ’Garden of Stars’ is a secret area of the ’Regal Void Expanse’ realm; a naturally occurring treasure-filled domain with rewards for those whose stars of luck, fate and destiny align and let them discover it.
A reward awaits all those who discover this garden, there’s a low probability of having an Audience with the Master of the Regal Void Expanse."
"The Realm Lord? Does that give extra rewards or something?"
Arthur asked with a raised brow and Jamie answered with a light chuckle.
"Depends on if she takes a liking to you."
"That so? Well, I’m not exactly eager to meet with the Realm Lord."
The boy gave his honest thoughts and Jamie looked at the starry sky above them before responding.
"That’s good. She doesn’t seem to be awake."
With his Spatial Authority, it was easy for Jamie to tell if the ’Master’ of this Realm was present within it or not, unless they were hiding themselves exceptionally.
Not concerned about the Realm Lord’s absence, Arthur asked the automations what the rewards were.
"The rewards for coming here differ depending on the existence, but they are always related to ’power’.
Some gain new skills, others unlock dormant abilities. Some have long-forgotten injuries healed, while others find their bodies enhanced in ways they never imagined, acquiring more energy cores, and having long-forgotten bloodline powers reawakened.
For some, they gain a deeper understanding of the laws that govern the Universe or gain a connection to energies and forces they didn’t know they could wield."
She paused for a moment, strings of letters moving across her eyes as she went through the list of possible rewards.
"There are those who emerge with mastery over entirely new elements and others who walk away with powerful Soul Bound Weapons.
It is even possible to increase one’s causality index and gain more freedom on how much of the Universe’s laws they can go against."
Some of the things she listed interested Arthur, particularly the deeper law comprehension involved.
Seeing his interest, a slight smile touched her lips and she concluded.
"But you shall know what reward you get after having your ’Starry Meal.’"
As soon as her words concluded, the male automation stepped forward and lowered his hand to the centre of the table, snapping his fingers and releasing a streak of light into the skies.
Before their very eyes, two of the three wineglasses began to levitate, and as Arthur expressed mild surprise at this, two stars in the sky above glowed with a bright light and indigo threads descended from the starry sky.
Each one poured itself into one of the wine glasses, filling them up halfway, before which the glasses descended back to the surface of the table.
"That’s flashy."
Arthur commented as he looked inside the glasses and saw miniature starry skies, bearing resemblances to the sky above them.
Like the skies above, stars sparkled, clouds drifted past, and between those clouds floated a crescent moon.
"Please do note that one can only partake of the rewards of the Garden of Stars once. The moment you do, the Realm shall record your existence and even if you return, you will not be able to get any rewards."
After saying this, the female automation glanced at Arthur and the boy nodded. His gaze flickered towards Jamie’s empty glass, understanding why it hadn’t been filled up when his and Evan’s were.
Then, the automation carried on, clapping her hands twice and the plates on the table took flight up into the skies just like the glasses had done earlier.
Following this, the Male automation pulled out an artifact from an inventory and with a wave of his hands, tiny flames flew into each of the plates.
Then, just like before, a duo of stars sparkled and two drops of pale iridescent light fell from the sky and into the plates’ centres, spinning around and forming spheres in their centres.
When the plates settled back onto the table, each one had three spheres in all atop each one.
The colour combination of the spheres differed for each person; as Arthur had one red, one blue, and one silver.
Evan on the other hand, had one gold, one red and the last was a swirl of prismatic colours.
"The colours don’t seem to be random."
Arthur voiced out his observation and Jamie nodded, confirming his words.
Just then, Byrant and Evan returned to the table and the Spirit King patted Evan on the back and spoke.
"Keep my words in mind, Kid"
He then turned to Jamie and continued.
"Hey, J-man. I’ll catch you later. I wanna go finish running the maintenance on those automations."
"See you later."
After fist-bumping with Jamie, the man switched to his spiritual body, disappearing from view while Arthur turned to Evan who had a slightly melancholic look and asked.
"What happened?"
"Well, let’s just say that a more experienced Rogue Hero told me something that hit hard."
Evan responded, then turned to Jamie and asked.
"How long has he been a Rogue Hero?"
"It’s around a thousand now, I think. That’s around the time his home world got destroyed."
The boy nodded, sinking into his thoughts for a few moments before sighing. He shook his head as if trying to shake off his dull mood and then focused on the table in front of him.
"Huh? I got a Starry Meal?"
Evan was confused. He seemed to be aware of the details of this Garden and the rewards given from the Starry Meals, but he did not seem to expect that he would get one.
"Yes. The Regal Void Expanse does not have any record of you having partaken in a Starry Meal before, so you are eligible."
The female automation responded to Evan and he looked up at her and spoke.
"I mean, it makes sense that It doesn’t have any record of me..."
Considering he was from 10,000 years in the future, that made perfect sense. But something else seemed to bother Evan about the Starry Meal in front of him.
"You can only partake once, right? And is there a level limit?"
"Yes, every existence can only partake once.
No, there is no level limit. However, the higher level you are, the less effective the rewards are. Do rest assured, that this only applies to Deity Realm Existences."
"So, it was just in the game..."
Evan muttered something under his breath, before shaking his head and asking another question.
"Is there a possibility that by some force of nature, one can partake in a Starry Meal twice?"
"Negative. Unless any records of your existence are erased from the Regal Void Expanse’s Archive, it is impossible."
To anyone else, Evan’s questions seemed strange, but for Arthur and Jamie who knew he was from the future, they could deduce the reasons behind his questions.
’He must have taken a Starry Meal in the future...
If you can only take once, he’s probably worried if taking one now would mess with the timeline and make him unable to take in the future, causing him to lose the benefits he already has from that one in the future.’
Such were Arthur’s thoughts and Jamie also came to the same conclusion.
"Take it, Evan."
"Huh?"
The boy turned to Jamie with surprise and the man smiled lightly as he repeated his words.
"Take it. What you’re worried about would not happen."
He then switched to telepathy to continue his statement so the automations would not hear him.
’Your existence is an anomaly in this time period. And you’re a Grade 7 Singularity as well.
The laws of ’Knowledge’ which are responsible for ’Records’ are bent out of sync around you, disrupting the records. When you return to your time, the law of time will attempt to rectify the blank spots you’ve left.
Basically, you’d be fine even if you’ve taken it in the future.’
Jamie’s reassuring words calmed Evan’s apprehensions as he nudged the plate closer. He then turned towards the automations and made an order for normal food.
"I’ll have the Synthetix Burger, medium rare, with a side of Nova Fries. And bring two glasses of Hydra Ade."
The automations bowed and left to prepare Jamie’s order while the man returned his gaze to the two teens before him.
"Alright, boys, finish up your Starry Meals and let’s see what you get."
Arthur glanced down at the plate and as if sensing his intention, the silverware floated up for him to grab.
"Why, thank you."
He spoke with a light smile as he grabbed them, using the silverware to cut the silver sphere and taking a bite out of it.
The moment he tasted it, he was struck by the harmonious blend of sweetness—a perfect balance that avoided being overwhelming, just enough to delight his senses.
Arthur felt the flavour resonate through his body, flowing deep into his energy core and a gentle sensation coursed through his energy circuits.
Newfound vitality pulsed through his circuits, with all unnecessary substances within his energy core gently expelled and replaced with clear luminous energy that radiated all around.
"This feels like cheating..."
Arthur muttered under his lips as he looked at the tiny bits of energy escaping from his body in the form of silver mist. Jamie, catching the remark, chuckled in agreement.
"It IS cheating."
Evan laughed as well, glancing down at his hand where faint wisps of black and gold energy dissipated into the air like a shimmering mist.
"Seems we got the same thing."
He spoke to Arthur and the boy nodded in confirmation.
As for what they had gotten, it was a simple yet powerful boost.
"My energy quality increased..."
Arthur spoke as he flexed his arms and roused his energy. He noted that there was now more ’space’ within his core and the space was gradually filling with this newly refined, higher-quality energy.
Now then, why had he said it felt like cheating? The reason was due to his default circumstances.
Normally, Arthur was someone who possessed higher energy quality than average due to a combination of many factors.
His Race Breed, his Singularity nature, his Pseudo-Authorities, Universal Law Comprehensions and lastly, his personal efforts to increase his energy quality.
Circulating one’s energy and spreading it through their entire energy circuit, then retracting it quickly to create a denser, more compact form of energy.
Compress the energy, making it far stronger while freeing up space for more growth.
It was a tedious process that was harder the more energy one possessed, and for Arthur who possessed deeper energy reserves, it was even more so.
However, Arthur still did this despite how exhausting it could be, and this was the reason why he was always many times stronger than other existences on his level.
As explained many times before, if the average person needed 10 units of energy to deal 10 units of damage, someone with 2x energy quality could use 5 units of energy and deal the same 10 units of damage.
Arthur’s energy quality...was 5x the universal energy quality constant for a Sovereign Realm existence. So, with 2 units of energy, he could deal 10 units of damage.
That was before he ate the silver sphere. Now, he could use 1.5 units to deal 10 units of damage.
The increase seemed slight at first glance, but at Arthur’s level, where energy quality had already hit a natural cap, gaining an extra 1.67x boost for free seemed nothing short of miraculous.
That’s why he said it felt like cheating, and why Jamie agreed with him.
