Chapter 322 - Episode 322: [Star Core]
I'm sitting on top of the wall where the three sovereignties built a week ago as soon as Saintess Aria informed them about Letrax. There are so many layers of walls and the closest one is near the crater, there are a total of ten layers and I'm standing on the furthest one which is a mile away from the crater. More and more NPCs are coming here to help build the walls and artilleries because the news has spread around the three sovereignties, not just because of the news but also a painter drew the monster and put the drawings all around the cities and villages.
There are so many players and NPCs mining the glasses because it's a high-quality glass that can be processed into anything. Grisell is offering 1 Gold for a pound of the glass and players are willing to mine those glasses so they can get easy money. Grisell has already made a shield that's made of glass and other material, it has quite high magic immunity property, she also made a staff made of the glass and it amplifies the magic power. That's why she wants as much as the glasses so she can experiment with them on other things.
Ivonna approaches me and looks at the glasses around the crater.
"Do you know when Letrax will wake up?"
I shake my head while leaning on the wall.
"I don't know, I think something might trigger it but I don't know what. Maybe if we break the glass and free Letrax? I'm not sure, but I guess it's better to keep it that way for now or at least until we are ready to fight it."
Ivonna looks at me while raising her eyebrows.
"Should we ask Becker?"
I scoff and shake my head while smiling.
"No, it will spoil the fun even though he might willingly tell us everything."
Ivonna smiles and nods with understanding.
"Ivy! When are we going to explore the crater?"
We both look back and see Grisell is holding so many glasses in her hands.
"We can go now if you want to, are you interested in the shiny thing in there?"
Grisell is nodding repeatedly.
"Yes! Can we?!"
Ivonna nods and then she summons Aegis, she looks at me while brushing on Aegis' mane and raising her eyebrows.
"Do you want to join us?"
I look at her and nod.
"Yeah, sure."
We get on Aegis' back and fly toward the crater.
I look down and I can see it from above here, the see-through glass where Letrax is buried deep down is sure looks terrifying because we can tell how big Letrax is from up here.
We dive down to the middle of the crater and Aegis feels a bit scared to land on the glass where those gigantic eyes and claws from underneath the glass.
We get down from Aegis' back, Grisell is too scared to look down since it's a dark hollow pit. The three of us stand in front of the fragment of the meteorite, Grisell slowly walks toward it and when she tries to touch it, it shines so brightly as if it's alive.
I look down and I feel like it's a bad idea to interact with [Star Core].
"I think we shouldn't do that..."
Both Grisell and Ivonna look at me with worried expressions.
"What do you mean, Trev?"
I look down and tilt my head, they both look at Letrax and immediately understand what I mean.
Ivonna crosses her arms while she's staring at the [Star Core].
"So, what's this thing?"
I rest my hands on my waist while staring at it.
"It's a Star Core, I don't know what it does, but from here and out, all the invasion beings will be hunting for this thing. I stopped playing before I can find the answer to why this thing exists."
Ivonna raises her eyebrows.
"I see, I guess we do need to extract the Star Core from the crater."
I nod in agreement.
"Yeah, the problem is that we can't touch it, so we have to bring this massive boulder out from the crater as well. The glasses are blocking our path and I don't think Aegis is able to carry this thing on her own. We need to mine all these glasses so we can extract the boulder out."
Grisell is giggling proudly.
"Well then, leave that to me! I will raise the price of the glasses so players will mine all these glasses in less than 3 days!"
Ivonna and I are looking at each other while chuckling and shaking our heads.
We leave the crater and Grisell immediately announce the new price for each pound of glass through the community. More and more players are coming to the desert and mine the glasses for her. I'm surprised that it would work that easily but I'm a bit worried that she would run out of Gold even she can pay for their hard work."
(3 days later.)
The glasses around the crater are now being mined by the players, it's only in a matter of time until they mine them all. By Grisell's prediction, in less than 6 hours, we will be able to extract the [Star Core] from the crater. Grisell still has a lot of gold that I believe the amount of gold she has is equal to millions of dollars in real life.
All the Ophiuchus and their clan members are mining the glasses as well since they want Grisell's skill to create new equipment for them.
4 hours have passed and it's earlier than Grisell expected, the path is now open for us to extract the [Star Core]. Kingstar and the others are coming with us to help carry it out from the crater. I have already told them about the [Star Core] and they're all curious about it as well and will let the expert examine it for us.
We are tying down the boulder, Kingstar and the others are connecting the rope to their own Amruchis.
They're trying to pull it so slowly and they do manage to pull it off but then I can see a crack on the glass.
"Stop!"
Everyone looks at me with confusion but then I point my finger at the crack, they're all surprised and immediately stop their Amruchis from moving.
Kingstar approaches me and he leans down to see the glass beneath the boulder, the crack is quite huge and it's dangerous if they try to keep pulling the boulder.
"What should we do?"
I raise my eyebrows and look at him.
"I think we should make a pulley and lift this boulder up at then pull it through the edge."
Everyone is looking at the glasses above them and finding the strongest and best spot to create a pulley.
After they find the right spot, they start to build a crane so we can extract the boulder out from the crater.
All the players are carefully pulling the rope while Kingstar and the others are standing underneath the boulder so if the rope can't hold the boulder, they can try to stop it from smashing the glass. Since I don't have any strength, I'm just watching from the side with Grisell.
After a very intense 30 minutes, they successfully extract the boulder from the crater. Everyone is staring at the [Star Core] and curious about it, but Kingstar forbids anyone to touch it since it's dangerous.
We are pulling the boulder using their Amruchis and horses, Kingstar looks back at the boulder and then looks at me.
"Do you know anything about this thing, Trev?"
I look at him and shake my head.
"I don't have any idea and even if I know, I should have told you guys about it."
I tried to use my [Understanding] skill but it just shows a lot of question marks, I believe the [Star Core] doesn't belong or is originally from Orion since it can't be translated. Even Grisell's max [Apprisal] skill couldn't find a single clue about the [Star Core].
On our way to the last layer of the wall, we see the two emperors and all the kings from the Alliance Kingdoms are waiting for us. We are all surprised to see them here since they weren't there before. Saintess Aria is standing in the middle and then all of them approach us while staring at the boulder behind us.
We all get down from our mounts and greet them, Saintess Aria stands in front of me while keep staring at the boulder.
"Is that the thing that you mentioned yesterday, Master Trevor?"
I nod and turn around.
"Yeah, I believe that's a Star Core and we have no idea what that is."
The Aarus Empire's emperor walks toward Kingstar while staring at the boulder.
"We have prepared all the people that you asked for, now let us handle this from here and we will do the research at the camp behind the wall."
We all nod with understanding and let the soldiers carry the boulder through the gate.