Monument For The Worthy
When that happened, Tongqiu was glad to see that nothing really happened to the infant twins he just treated, after all, besides being his fourth time in his life and done so a decade later after the previous one; it was the first time for Tongqiu to take care of people who weren't related to him. As well as the fact that were they to suddenly die or something, then it would all heavily fall onto them. And that would feel way worst than failing to have successfully 'heal' them.
Fortunately, the servant that conveyed the message wasn't as dull as Tongqiu, so Tongqiu was informed that the twins were more than perfect. That even their body composition and intelligence had soared above those of ordinary infants in ways that amazed every single neuroscientist to almost death, heaven and back to New Earth again and again.
Some Tarn Clan elders even came to evaluate the Jones Clan's Clan Head's children; only to end up in a fluster and excitement out of this world. The Tarn Clan elders behaved like little kids before prompting to leave right away to re-evaluate their investment on the Peaceful Rain Corporation' All-Mending Misery.
Just like that, two days later, the Fosk Clan's representatives arrived on the evening of the second day after that, followed a day after by the Flick Clan's representatives on the evening as well.
As they then, Tongqiu and company in their temporary residence, received the message from another visiting servant. In which they were informed that the meeting will be held two days later from then on.
At the same moment, Tongqiu was finally arriving before the monument that Zyv had wanted to bring him to since quite a few days ago inside Rising Essence.
***
Two horses ridden by a man in a full suit armor and a young girl with pale-white hair and features that would make anyone believe she was a fairy immortal; they were riding down a dirt road on the prairie, though at this time, those horses were slowly moving forwards as the more or less young couple held each other hand while riding at a minimum distance from each other.
"Is that one it?"
Zyv opened up her resting eyes to answer Tongqiu's inquire: "Yep! That's exactly where we are going~! Doesn't it look intriguing? Hehe~."
Tongqiu's eyebrows jumped lightly in response to that, he had already given it a quick scan and besides sensing the magical particles around it, nothing else was understandable under his 'radar'.
"Oh, well. It may be fun."
"Mn." Nodding like a cute little kitten, the little wolf cub then fell into a silence with her eyes closed once again for the rest of the ride.
. . .
As they got closer to it, the surrounding of the 'monument' and its appearance became clear at sight at last. Tongqiu knew of its appearance and knew that were they to follow another path that wasn't marked by this dirt road, they would be ganged up into meat paste by some LV80 mobs. There weren't many, but there were some small groups every 50 meters or so, enough for them to be alerted should a party's battlefield with one of the groups extend even slightly.
Tongqiu was LV52, even if he wanted to, he was growing lazy just thinking about how an absurd amount of MISS here and there would pop-out from trying to farm these mobs. Either, he also knew he was going to try it, such an easy way to gain Experience, no player would give it up just because of laziness. As long as they or he -the player/s- had the ability, dps and resources to take on these mobs, there is just no way it would be given up even if it took them half an hour to clear even just one group of these LV80 small groups, if the probability of dying and losing a level was possible to avoid almost 100% of course.
The rest of the mobs here were of low levels, but though they were small and inoffensive when acting as the children of these big bad LV80 mobs, it was easy to ignore them. There was a much larger amount of those low levelled mobs though, who knows, maybe they were meant to be used for a strategy when levelling around here.
The first visible structure, was an almost completely shattered and touched by nature stone gate consisting in 4 simple column-like structures acting as the entire gate. There was a big step separating the outside from the inside, while the upper column-like structure of the gate was already blown off a bit from where the gate was standing. The column-like structure to the right from Tongqiu and Zyv's point of view was more than halved by seemingly a powerful strike, its remains nowhere to be seen. While the left column-like structure was not only complete but even had a bit of the upper part of the stone gate. The material of this stone gate was lookalike to that of quartz, except in grey color.
The gate summed up to being as tall as 7 meters more or less, while as wide as 4 meters in total, it was seemingly made most likely for the sake of transporting devices having the capability of entering into this 'area'.
Crossing the broken stone gate that had some green on it from the passing of time allowing the vegetation to extend towards it; they then saw 3 columns of a colossal size, it was probably as thick as what 20-30 people grouping up would amount to, while it went up into the air by dozens of meters. These three 'pillars' seemed to be in a formation, while a circle with a 30 meter radius was in between them, them acting as a perimeter.
One 'pillar' was stationed at the north, another was stationed at the south-west while the other was stationed at the south-east.
From the looks of it, this used to be at the very least, some kind of portal. Tongqiu could deduce this by having been sent to numerous different places; when he went down onto the Mysterious Hidden Grounds, as he was moving between floors, when leaving the Mysterious Hidden Grounds, using Fiornyo's portal for the first time to arrive at the Somber Tree region as well as when he stepped in the middle of the Somber Tree's previous position; in that platform that it was previously in and so on.
Zyv, on the other hand, felt that kind of inexplicable sense of familiarity that one would only get a hold of what was going on when pondering hardly about it.
At the moment both of them entered the area behind the broken stone gate, they received a notification.
*PING*...you've entered a special area, 'Ruined Temple', only the worthy will be elected to enter this area while those who are not will be severely punished, proceed with caution.
'Oh? Not a private dungeon, huh.' Tongqiu gave Zyv a side glance as he though of it, before starting to take steps towards the 'formation' made by the columns that were missing a ceiling, or simply more structures.
"Mmm. Do I have to step on it, then?" Tongqiu refrained from stepping onto the formation as he then asked Zyv an obvious question; looking at the 'formation', it had a lot of moss here and there and it seemed as if the floor of this Ruined Temple had even disintegrated, let alone 'just' deteriorated. There were also tiles that were loose and looked totally broken, they even gave Tongqiu the feeling that should his presence be even slightly felt, they would turn into dust.
'Now, that is something that is truly old.' Thinking of that, Tongqiu then heard Zyv's answer right after: "Mn! Let's go, dear Big Brother, it should be fun~."
But before they could step forwards onto the formation, Tongqiu and Zyv received yet again another prompt from the system.
*PING*...attention players, you're about to enter into an unknown formation. Only parties consisting from 2 to 7 players will be allowed entrance. You'll be given the option to accept the task of this Ruined Temple, should you desire to accept it, head towards the center of this formation. Regardless of if the task is completed or not, an 8 hours cooldown will begin after being trasnported back.
"Let's gooo! Big Brwotheeer! Hurry up, we only have 8 hours, who knows if we'll have time for another round? Oh... hehe, that sounded so baaad, you won't get mad at me, right Big Brother Wolfy? Hehehe." By the time Tongqiu finished processing the system's newly given information and warnings, that were much MUCH better than before, Tongqiu then saw Zyv pulling on his right arm by his wrist over and over again.
"Oh, oi! Alright, just stop pulling me or I'll pull your flower."
"Eeeh." Zyv immediately after hearing Tongqiu's words became blank and dull, before amply melting slowly on his body, she said in a honeyed to the utmost tone: "Ehee~, Big Brow~~, stop tempting me~. You are always bullying me with your hands, wuuu, aiya."
She was slightly 'interrupted' by having her bum patted lightly, to which she 'woke up' and took a slightly more proper posture while still leaning on his body. Barely proper, as she even put her hands on top of the one Tongqiu was now permanently cupping her little bum.
Like this, the pair of silly wolves made their way to the very center of the formation.
*PING*...you have accepted the task of 'Southern Wonder Region's Little Test' trial as the party leader, you and your party will now be transported to the trial's space.
Tn-shn!!
Rumble~~... Rumble~~...
An ear-piercing sound came to be as Tongqiu and Zyv's unnecessarily and hotly close bodies disappeared from the middle of the formation with a colorless glow that looked like a distortion of space. After they were gone there was even some small earthquake thing going on for a little before subsiding, no visibly damage was made to the surroundings whatsoever.
***
Pa-chin!!
A sound that could easily be called as 'magical bell sound' resounded before a white glow was emanated out of nowhere atop a platform that was seemingly in movement all the time, and at great speeds at that. Yet, it was also impossible to feel a thing from it, even with his vast Mental Power Tongqiu was still unable to feel the slightest of movements from the platform. As for where the platform was moving around, it seemed to be at all times flying around unceasingly on some sort of sky, a normal one, where there were any shape of small sized clouds which the platform would move around from nonstop.
'Wow, this place is pretty different to any dungeon, even from the Mysterious Hidden Ground, though I do feel some kind of fam-' Before any more thoughts could be formed in their heads, both Tongqiu and Zyv received another prompt from the system.
*PING*...you've entered the Southern Wonder Region's Little Test trial space by accepting this task. Your task at hand is that of cleaning the trial space of enemies, all of them and in less than 5 minutes. There are 5 waves for each entry; players from your party that are LV49 or less will receive a considerate amount of Experience, while those LV50 or higher will be granted materials instead.
Before even that notification had 1 second from being prompted, another came in right after.
*PING*...clean out the first wave of the trial to receive rewards and proceed to the next wave. Time left: 00:04:57.
And as soon as Tongqiu read the time left from completing the task, a few mobs spawned out of nowhere, seemingly by an obscure portal that only showed up once those mobs' back in question stepped on the platform. It was also at this moment that Tongqiu realized that this platform moving around a sky was capable of holding 3,000 people at once, yet only a total of 80 mobs appeared right now, it could be more than easy to guess what number of enemies would the subsequent waves bring about. Even for a person with extreme Mental Power stat like Tongqiu, it was much easier to figure it out.
"Oh-wo-wo-wo-wo! Big Brother, they're all LV30!" Tongqiu took a quick look at them all before nodding towards Zyv as he then took out his Light-Absorbing Flaming Gladiuses: "Mn!"
Zyv similarly posed with her hands as if she was to use her imaginary claws to gut these mobs herself, luckily she didn't tried to show her imaginary fangs as well, otherwise Tongqiu would've lost his immense and indomitable concentration at once!
Anyways, Tongqiu took in the one type of mobs that came out of nowhere with just an instant of gazing at them.
[Underwater Ape]: Type: Beast, Level: 30, HP: 17,500. A species who had been developing under the sea, rivers and even ponds; whether in caverns, out in the water or simply on top of a submerged island whose depth would range from 100 to 250 meters deep. Though these different species of ape have a slight Water Core Element affinity, it is rather deplorable.
Skills: Underwater Body and Heavy Fur.
[Underwater Body]: Movement Speed and Attack Speed+40% when in any type of body of water.
[Heavy Fur]: Through many dozens of thousands of years, these species have developed an inherited ability to absorb Water element into an outside armor, Physical and Magical Defense+20% and Water element resistance+20%.
'Okay.' Indeed, Tongqiu's evaluation of such useless cabbage was nice, not many LV30 mobs had that many skills, it was obviously a special race trait or race talent even. Unlike his, it was rather useful directly and not situational and even at that, by being triggered. Sigh, in some ways, the Human Race in Rising Essence was rather pathetic as well, well at least for now.
-4,212, -4,212, -10,614, -4,212, -10,614, -4,212, -6,543, -4,212, -4,212, -10,614, -4,212, -13,011, -10,614.
*PING*...you've killed a beast 'Underwater Ape', 33% of the Experience given has been distributed to your party member 'Zyv' and your pet 'Rosey' respectively.
*PING*...you've killed a beast 'Underwater Ape'...
*PING*...you've killed...
*PING*...your party member 'Zyv' killed a beast 'Underwater Ape', 33% of the Experience given has been distributed to you and your pet 'Rosey' respectively.
*PING*...your pet 'Rosey' has killed a beast 'Underwater Ape', 33% of the Experience given has been distributed to you and your party member 'Zyv' respectively.
It was only after a minute and a half where the first waves was cleared up entirely, Little Wolf Zyv didn't use Endless Charge, yet her passive AOE skill was too helpful in these situations, she also used Coldblooded Stare at last though it was for the fun of it only. Meanwhile, Rosey was killing a few of them every now and then, she didn't had fund since these mobs with the Element Core alignment were completely passive when she grew close to them and even when she attacked one that was directly beside another, the other wouldn't react at all. This made her pretty boring as she depressingly massacred them, not even being able to chase some of them, sigh poor Rosey indeed.
As for Tongqiu, he wasn't anxious nor overworked, it was a simple task. He would rather spend a little time here to start considering the possibilities of not only the next waves but it rewards!
Tongqiu made no use of Transient Divine Burst or Combustion, and even used Cosmo Omega Shot for fun, since though they could be stacked over the required limit which allowed him to perform such a skill multiple times in a row with no cooldown, but could not be 'hold' or maintained for long. At least not yet, that was the only let down for this burst skill of Tongqiu that he has become rather proficient and relaxed to use.
Then, as soon as they cleaned up the area, they both received optimistic notifications from the system.
*PING*...you've completely cleaned up the first wave of the trial, because you've already reached LV50 you'll only be granted the corresponding materials.
*PING*...you've received x100(10) Wood.
x1,000 [Wood]: Type: Material, Grade: Useless, Properties: Used for the most basic and fundamental for the construction of buildings, structures and simple creations. Can still be upgraded into something greater if managed by a Peak grade master.
Right then, Tongqiu spotted 10 new stacks of Wood, 100 for each stack.
*PING*...your party member 'Zyv' has levelled up to LV47.
"Oh! Congratulations, Little Zyv!" Before he even finished his words, he felt a familiar little body trying to similarly tackle down his body to no avail, he then heard a soothing, immortal-like voice say: "HEEHEE! I know right? Hnnn~~."
Her eyelashes fluttered softly with her eyes closed, after so many damn days spent travelling from one point to the other, taking and completing some quests on the way; Zyv's Experience though slowly was ultimately filling up.
In short, Zyv's Experience bar was already pretty much filled up, only needing a little pat in the back to level up, as she was now LV47, she may even reach LV48 before dealing with the last enemy of this trial!
It was extremely low, since those quests were mostly low in level, to Tongqiu, not even 5% was added up after so much days, but to Zyv it was rather acceptable with almost a half of her Experience bar being filled up. To be honest, most of the time, the only reason they still kept on completing them besides Natalia's influence on Tongqiu, was that, it would give Zyv and Tongqiu some AP/Mental Power. Though he now knew that AP couldn't be used to add points to hidden stats like Mental Power or Ancestral Bloodline and Nature Connection like those of Zyv's.
Even then, the system would convert every single AP into Mental Power for him, while Zyv herself would receive AP instead, points for Tongqiu!
*PING*...clean out the second wave of the trial to receive rewards and proceed to the next wave. Time left: 00:05:00
Time left: 00:04:59.
Time left: 00:04:58...
At that instant, many more dozens of other type of mobs started pouring out from nowhere once again, with some sort of portal appearing behind these mobs' backs once their bodies were fully on top of the platform. This time, however, instead of 80 of them there were 115 of them; and instead of LV30, they were LV35 instead!
...
Author's Note: I think I will let out a batch of 10 chapters in a few days...
