283 Ruined Sanctum
A day before the sighting of the World Boss, Ren, Evie, Leonel, and Ragnar had come to a halt at their conquest for grinding spots. Just in time for the chaos that was about to begin, their subclass leveled to the second tier, and they gained skills and spells along the way.
Now, it was time to release the World Boss and wreak havoc in COVENANT.
“I kind of feel sorry for the little piglet, but we needed those EXP,” said Leonel, “They would be missed.” They were kinda cute, though.
“Aren’t you going to ask me how I know all those grinding spots?” Ren asked Ragnar. The latter was awfully quiet, and Ren knew that he was thinking about it. If not, curious about it.
“I’ll save my breath,” replied Ragnar, “I know that you wouldn’t give me a straight answer. I have long gone treated you as a bug.”
Ren chuckled. Deep inside, he was thankful that Ragnar helped them. Another extra hand was welcomed.
Too bad about Isolde. She really wanted to come, but she had an obligation first to her family and guild before them.
“What are you going to do with those meats we’ve acquired?” asked Evie, keeping the conversation going.
In exchange for bringing them to the grinding spot, Ren hug all the [Pelka Meat]. It was safer with him since he had a Bank account in Arcadia. The others were still in the process of getting one.
Millions has been applying ever since he stole the [Rare Class Ticket] and [Class Advancement Scroll] from Beatrix of Ferocious Ravens. So there was a bit of delay in processing for applying an account in the bank nowadays.
Ren was glad that he got that out of the way.
Thinking about that meat put Ren in a good mood. “Keep them until the time is right to sell them,” he said.
He got a whopping +4 777 of those meats. Adding to his previous haul, all in all he acquired near +5 000. But he wasn’t going to keep all those money for himself. He would share what he got in the auction with Leonel and Evie in the future. Ragnar didn’t need it since he was already rich.
However, in exchange, all the Pelka Grinding spots he knew were gone. He wasn’t worried, though, since, from this day forward, they would get their EXP from bosses, rare quests, and clearing dungeons.
It was time to get serious and speed things up.
“Is that so?” Evie looked over at the horizon. Dancing rays of light dapple the ground in an ever-shifting pattern. The leaves above stain the sunlight green, and everything around them took in an emerald hue.
With a tearing crack, a dead branch crashed on the forest floor as they walked. Everyone caught the whiff of fresh animal dung mixed among the earthy scents of the woods.
“Are you sure we’re headed in the right direction?” Ragnar asked. “We have been walking in circles here.”
“Pii knew what it was doing,” Evie defended Pii, eyes on the little creature who was leading them in the forest.
“I’m tired of engaging beasts here. They don’t rack EXP like they used to. What’s the point of engaging them?” Leonel pressed [Flee] when another horde of beats barged their way.
“Keep going, and we’ll eventually reach it.”
“How do we go about this again?” asked Leonel, leading the front in Roselake Forest, in the continent of the Humans.
“Simple, we’ll find the World Boss’s lair and free it,” Ren said without batting an eyelid.
“You made it sound like a World Boss is a little kitten trap in a lair,” Ragnar muttered to the side.
“Of course, in reality, it isn’t that easy. Finding that lair alone would probably take weeks since we have to do this strain of quests and talk to a bunch of NPCs to get here,” explained Ren before he beamed at Pii.
“Luckily, Pii could detect those things. We just need the general location, and Pii will do the rest for us.”
The good thing about baring his other persona with the others was that Ren could free Pii in the open without anyone questioning him.
Evie briefly shot Ren a look. “Are you sure that’s allowed? Aren’t we going to miss something? Or cause a bad ending?” Just like what happened with Twin Moon Axe Clan.
“No worries. This isn’t a World Quest, so there’s no bad or good ending here. Although . . .”
“. . . Although?” Evie, Ragnar, and Leonel asked when Ren didn’t finish his sentence. The three of them suddenly had a bad premonition.
Ren beamed. “If this World Boss is not defeated, the continent of the Humans might get wiped out.”
“. . .”
“. . .”
“. . .” Leonel released a long blast into the horizon. “And you said that this World Boss is easy.”
Pii!
Pii’s cries broke the chatter between the four, and they hurriedly went after the furry black creature when it flew towards a clear area with nothing but overrun grass and scattered boulders and rocks.
Based on the rubbles and shattered walls, it seemed like it used to be some kind of a building before.
“Wow, he really did find something.” Leonel inspected the area to search for clues when he stumbled on a rock in his haste. He fell on the broken stone floor, armors creating clanging noises as he did.
“Watch your step,” Ren said and casually walked away to another area.
“Thank you for the late warning.” Leonel pushed himself up and patted the dust from his armor.
“Pii is really handy.” Evie chortled when Pii went to her shoulder and rubbed its neck against her cheek.
Ren threw a pointed glare at his pet, and the latter shuddered and quickly flew away from Evie.
“I’m surprised that it really did find something from all those twists and turns.” Ragnar was impressed. There was no path nor any signs in the forest, and without some kind of a guide or map, it was impossible to know where they were going.
Leonel picked up the scattered rubbles and inspected them. Hoping that it would trigger something. “But now that we’re here. What are we looking for exactly?”
Ren went over to the center of the area and swept the rubbles and leaves away from the broken tiles.
“A door,” he said.
The others went in his direction, and they were surprised that there was something off about the floor.
“Help me clean it,” Ren said, and the others quickly removed the boulder, leaves, and everything that hindered the stone slab.
When they were finished, they were surprised to find that there was a circle carved on the stone floor surrounded by weird markings with unknown origins. From the discoloration and the patches of dark color around the stones, everyone deducted that it was burned.
A notification then popped on their screen.
[Ruined Sanctum
The Wizards who summoned Jibblinplip were not important enough to merit a name. Their towers were gone, and the only thing that remained was the glyphs of the summoning circle they used, burned into the ground.
The burns were hundreds of feet deep. Scorch marks run even through rocks and stones.
How to activate it? Only one knows.]
Leonel’s head tilted to the side. “Jibblin-what?”
“Is that the name of the World Boss?” Evie inquired.
“Why does it sound funny?” Ragnar fisted his hand over his mouth to hide his laughter though his mask was already preventing anyone from seeing anything pass his eyes.
“Its name might sound funny, but the creature inside this thing isn’t.”
Evie, Leonel, and Ragnar all looked at each other when they heard Ren’s serious voice and the smile on their faces disappeared.
“So, how do we open it?” Leonel questioned. “Can we break this thing?”
“It’s supposed to require a special magical incantation from an NPC. But since we didn’t undergo the quests, we can only use the short cuts.”
“And what’s that?” Ragnar asked in a bored tone.
“It’s just a door at this point. We can bypass that using this.” Ren snatched the [Crystal Key] he got from Hubert.
[Consumed Crystal Key x1
Remaining number of Crystal Keys: 3]
Everyone held their breath and waited for something to happen with unabated attention. But five seconds had passed, and still, nothing happened.
“I thought so. We shouldn’t have bypassed those quests.” Leonel lamented, and before he could say more, the ground shook, and the leaves fell from the rumble.
The strange marking on the stone slab glowed in a transparent light before it twisted and turned, forming words they couldn’t decipher. They heard a loud crack like something went into place, and the stone floor broke into tiny pieces, falling into the dark pit below.
No one moved a muscle, and the three held their breath. The loud thud of their hearts rang in their ears as their eyes strained in focus at the newly opened hole, waiting for what was about to happen.
While the three were on edge, Ren was relaxed, like he was just watching a movie. The thrill and excitement of the unknown were totally gone from his system since he already knew what would happen.
When fifteen seconds passed, and nothing happened, not even an eerie whisper of a sound, Evie, Ragnar, and Leonel steadily crept towards the aperture.
However, they couldn’t see anything past the darkness, past the few sets of stairs leading down below.
“Are we . . .” Leonel gulped, “. . . going in there?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I told you we shouldn’t fight a World Boss in its lair.” Ren then swiped on his screen.
“It’s time to log out and let the boss do its thing.”
“Huh? Are we just going to leave?” The three asked in unison.
“Our job here is done.” Ren stared at the three with an evil glint in his eyes and a concerning smile on his lips.
“Let’s go home and enjoy the show, shall we?”