Novel Toon
Chapter 163: Deadline
Chapter 163: Deadline
"Not yet. The layer is still too strong."
The Aurocrist-race elder determined after inspecting, the news dousing everyone's excitement. They wanted to go to the other side and explore that new world, but it seemed impossible for now.
"Elder, how long until we can break it ourselves?"
"It shouldn't be too long thanks to those cracks appearing right?"
The elder narrowed his eyes as he looked at Aleron and others through the crystal orb, his gaze meeting Aleron's, finding wariness and curiosity in them.
"Four months until it becomes breakable."
...
[Gachapi: They are members of the Aurocrist race. They are born Exceptional-rank right off the bat, and they have an innate talent of high resistance against arcane powers, especially elemental ones, they awaken various innate talents. In Arcane Path, Aurocrists are one of the more talented races.]
[Gachapi: We have two options right now, either we abandon this secret realm or destroy this crystal orb.]
"Do you have a rough estimation of when they will be able to break that layer, Gachapi?" Aleron asked after seeing that those crystalized race members leaving.
[Gachapi: Maybe in three or four months, they might be able to break the layer, depending on the level of the strongest Paragon-rank powerhouse they have.]
"So, what will we do, Master? Destroy it?" Yueha curiously asked.
"I want to go inside and explore it too. It would be a pity to just destroy it right now," Aleron pondered and weakly chuckled. "Well, that is only if I have the power to defend against that Paragon-rank Aurocrist, which I have not."
[Gachapi: Master, to destroy this semi-crystal orb without beginning self-destruction of this secret realm, you have to become its master first. In short, refine its core and make it yours. It shouldn't take long for you now that you are powerful enough.]
"Good. I'll do that. As for you all," Aleron smiled and conjured a screen showing a roulette.
It was not the Gacha Roulette, but a simple round spinning roulette he designed on his Magic Board with four sections on the board.
Each section displayed the name of a major secret region in Eldertide Sanctuary. Out of seven, three were already explored: the Underwater Abyssal Kingdom, the Obsidian Tower that Aleron cleared on his own and acquired the legacy, and this Crystalspire Auroraville.
The remaining four major secret regions were as follows and displayed in the roulette:
The Eldertree Sanctuary.
The Serpent's Spine Mountains.
The Shimmering Lagoon.
The Twilight Glade.
"You all can rest or you want to do some activity, then explore the remaining secret regions, starting with..." Aleron spun the roulette and it landed on the Serpent's Spine Mountains.
"We'll do something interesting once I am done refining this secret realm's core, camp at the Serpepnt's Spine Mountains for now. Let's make sure there are no dangers in other secret regions."
Aleron left after saying that, directly connecting his consciousness to the secret realm's core and beginning to refine it.
The refining process had two steps: Step one, infusing his Magilore into the core to take control of the untamed energy nexus within it. Step two, create his soul brand using soul energy in the now-controlled nexus after completing step one.
...
Yueha, Enorin, Rin, and others went to the Serpent's Spine Mountains and soon arrived there by riding on Zords who were way faster than them at full speed travel speed.
Serpent's Spine Mountains was indeed a suitable name for this region. As the group arrived at the location Aleron pointed them to the secret realm's map, they immediately recognized the unique set of mountains.
In constructive terms from a higher view, it looked like two columns and forty-nine rows of mountains: the first row's mountain on the first column, the second row's mountain on the second column, the third row's mountain on the first column, and so on.
They were in a zig-zag shape in a vertical line as if a snake was slithering forward and suddenly turned into a statue, but in this case, a set of 49 giant mountains, each one around five thousand meters tall.
To the left and right of the Serpent's Spine Mountain was a barren dry land, but the aura of resources on those 49 mountains was abundant. Actually, the entire island was completely dry and barren aside from these 49 mountains.
"Such a rich aura," Rias was stunned as the section of the sky above the mountain actually had a magical phenomenon appearing and disappearing due to the high concentration of magical energy there.
"The danger is also higher. Such a resource-rich area must have powerful monsters," Ying said, but despite his words, his eyes showed eagerness to fight as he was also a bonafide fighting maniac like Hua.
"It's time to reach the peak of primeval rank here," Enorin said with a hint of excitement in her eyes. "Let's camp at the first mountain and collect resources."
"Look at you getting giddy about becoming first to reach Ascension rank," Yueha snickered. "But I am also close."
"I first," Enorin was determined as she turned into a streak of light and vanished, eager to collect resources and directly absorb them to increase her stats. Although it would be a waste, they didn't have any other choice. Not to mention, this secret realm was truly resourceful with no lack of natural treasures up to Primeval-rank.
Yueha also shot into the first mountain and immediately entered a meditative state, diving deep into meditation to awaken her first Concept.
"Yorin should be able to make Primeval-rank pills soon. Let's collect a big batch of Primeval- rank resources first and send him so he can train," Fang said and everyone nodded.
The group flew towards the first mountain and spread out to scavenge for resources while killing monsters birthed there.
Surprisingly, all the monsters they had encountered were unique types of snake, lizard, and dragon-like.
After half an hour, they routed all seventeen Primeval-rank monsters and in the next half an hour, the entire first mountain was cleaned off every single flower and fruit.
Even the lowest-ranked resource was Legendary-rank and they found plenty of Exceed-rank and Primeval-rank resources.
The Zords were just flying around or digging down, exploring, and doing whatever they wanted without using their core energy.
Enorin was already on the second mountain, sitting on a big boulder and absorbing the resources she collected on the first mountain to increase her stats to the peak of Primeval
rank.
Absorbing resources raw had two problems. First, the efficiency and effect would be lower in comparison to pills concocted from the same resources. Second, after absorbing raw resources, they would also need to consolidate their physical body and magic source
foundation.
Soul-type resources were different as one had to properly refine and extract pure soul power from them before absorbing them because absorbing soul-type resources raw was not
feasible.
Arran'tel and Nerathi were already at high stage of Primeval-rank, near the pick, so they also absorbed the resources raw.
"Finally, I can increase my stats..." Nerathi said with teary eyes as she looked at the golden- plated fruit with red and blue patterns as if it were the most valuable treasure in the world.
"Haha, I wasn't expecting this as well," Arran'tel heartily laughed. He had stayed in the Northern Star continent ever since his arrival, and he knew that the situation there was extremely dry for Primeval-rank beastfolks.
It had been decades since they had laid eyes on a Primeval-rank resource! Well, Elysia had completely blocked them from acquiring resources because Beastfolks were the highest in numbers and also the strongest among the three races of the planet, so she needed to stop their growth.