Chapter 213. (Patreon)

It was close to 9 am and Zac stood ready in his courtyard, his sister and Ogras accompanying him.

[Treasure Hunt commence in 5 minutes – Be advised, no Cosmic Sack allowed. A temporary sack will be provided upon arrival. Failure to comply will result in forfeiture of Cosmos Sack]

Zac’s brows rose in surprise, and he quickly took off his Cosmos Sack while the other two curiously looked at him. Even though he’d handed off most of his things to the contribution administrators he still was using the large Cosmos Sack he snagged from Mhal, and it contained all sorts of things.

It seemed that the System wanted to level the playing field a bit, or at least make money a smaller part of the calculation. Perhaps it was afraid someone would bring a mountain of Nexus Crystals or even large war machines or arrays into the trial, messing things up.

It seemed that it would only allow everyone to bring the stuff that one could carry. That still didn’t mean that everything would be equal. Zac quickly ran over to his bed and ripped out his linens and placed it on the floor.

Next, the took out a various assortment of things he wanted to bring, ranging from healing pills to thousands of Nexus Crystals. Essentially he put everything cheap on the linens and tied them up into a huge knapsack that could barely hold under the weight of its contents. He simply planned to hold it in his arms upon teleportation and hope that the system would allow it.

As for everything valuable, such as his prepared E-Grade Crystals, [Verun’s Bite], his top tier healing pills and his Automatic Map, they were all placed on his person. He also placed a couple of filled water canteens and fasting pills on his person as well.

He still had no idea what kind of environment he would end up in and needed to be prepared for anything. The fasting pills were given to him by Ogras yesterday. There were ten of them, and each of them would allow him to keep going without eating for a couple of days.

He used one of the Demon’s ranger knapsacks that snugly ran along his back to store his valuables, apart from a [Verun’s Bite] and a couple of tomahawks that he put on his belt.

“I wasn’t allowed to bring a Cosmos Sack,” Zac explained to his sister after he'd packed everything, afterward handing her his pouch. “Hold on to this while I’m gone.”

With his preparations done Zac sat down and just waited. When thirty seconds remained until the hunt started he stood up and hoisted the huge knapsack over his shoulder, holding the token in his other hand.

“Take care,” Kenzie said as she looked upon her brother with some worry.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine,” Zac said with a smile.

His gains the past two weeks had been tremendous, and he couldn’t help being filled with confidence. He almost felt like a fox let loose in a henhouse. He was already at the forefront of humanity before his explosive gains as of late. With the help of his new Class, Titles, and Dao improvements he was just a monster in human form.

Next he turned to Ogras who stood close by as well, still looking a bit petulant.

“I know you’re eager, but please wait until the shapeshifters are dealt with,” Zac said with a shake of his head.

“Don’t worry. I’ll find that snake even if I have to turn the whole island upside down,” the demon said with annoyance. “Ruining my good things.”

Zac only snorted in response. The reason the demon came by his courtyard yesterday was to share the fact that he had decided to enter the Mystic Realm in search of opportunities. He would pay for the stabilizing array himself as well, which would save Zac millions of Nexus Coins.

However, Zac had told the demon to wait until the shapeshifter problem was dealt with. He wasn’t sure of the cultist’s power, but he was afraid that the cultist would be able to cause a lot of damage if both he and Ogras was missing from the city at the same time.

At first the demon had been a bit unwilling to go with his arrangements. But after Zac promised that Ogras could finally enter the Inheritance for The Umbra after Zac was back from the Treasure Hunt, provided the demon rooted out the shapeshifter first, he was quickly filled with energy again.

Actually Zac had planned to allow the Demon inside the inheritance in any case. As soon as the hunt was dealt with he planned to go on an all-out assault against the foreign invaders, and he needed his allies as powerful as possible. But Ogras didn't know that fact, so using The Umbra as a motivator worked pretty well.

“The two of you will act as my proxies until I’m back,” he continued. “I have given you the ability to enter alliances in case someone wants to approach us while I’m gone. Abby can buy arrays if needed.”

“Just go and get some more titles. I’ll be counting on you for the Towers later,” Ogras said.

“Stay close to Ogras until the shapeshifter problem is dealt with,” Zac said as he turned to his sister, who nodded.

The next moment the scene in front of him was simply gone, replaced with blackness. It was reminiscent of the weird space he’d found himself in right at the moment of integration. Hopefully this didn’t mean that there was another roll for survival though.

This time the System didn’t speak in his mind, but a large screen soon appeared in front of him.

[Welcome to the limited treasure hunt.]

[Struggle for supremacy.]

[1. Duration of the hunt is 1 month.]

[2. Kill for points. Higher attribute targets reward higher amount of points. Higher level targets reward a higher amount of points. Higher value targets reward a higher amount of points. Rewards depend on points accumulated at the end of the hunt.]

Point rewards:

1st Place | +10 levels,   250 million Nexus Coins.

2nd Place | +7 levels,   150 million Nexus Coins.

3rd Place | +5 levels,   100 million Nexus Coins.

4th-10th Place | +3 levels,   50 million Nexus Coins.

10th – 100th Place | +1 level,   10 million Nexus Coins.

[3. Hunt for treasures. Rewarded Titles depend on accumulated value at the end of the hunt.]

[4. Temporary ladders added for Hunters and Gatherers.]

[5. Talents are forged through battle. Every three days Gatherers who have avoided battle will be teleported to an arena to fight for supremacy. Only the winner will remain in the hunt.]

[6. Hunters can leave at any moment by crushing their token, except when fighting in an arena. Wealth brought back depends on the duration of stay in the hunt. Those who leave early disqualify for any ladder rewards.]

Zac felt some powerlessness when he looked over the ruleset. The method the System used for cranking out powerhouses was quite direct as usual. This would be a blood bath. Not only would killing people increase one’s standing on the hunter ladder, but it would also allow them to snatch the riches that their victims had accumulated.

The rewards for killing others were quite extravagant, and even he couldn’t help getting enticed. Ten levels was a huge boost, especially for him who was so close to the limit of his class. His leveling speed had greatly slowed down lately in his human form, apart from the insane gain when he formed his core.

But between battling for a month and gaining the first place reward he’d perhaps reach level 75 in one fell swoop.

Of course, he wouldn’t be the only one eyeing that reward. It was the same for everyone by now, leveling was getting exponentially harder. A boost of 10 levels would help most pass a level threshold, not only giving them a bunch of additional attributes, but also a new skill.

That together with the awarded titles it would be like giving a tiger wings. And there were men far more scrupulous than Zac that would try to kill everything in sight. 

Perhaps people would focus on finding various treasures in the beginning, but soon it would turn into a crazed battle, since killing others was a far better source for treasures than arduously searching the area. Becoming a top name on the hunter’s list would likely give a top spot on the gatherer list as well, doubling up on the rewards.

Besides, the system had even put a failsafe into place to ensure people wouldn't hide from fighting. Those who only focused on finding treasures would be forced into what seemed to be a deathmatch, where they couldn't even use their token to escape.

Another interesting point to Zac was that judging by how the calculations worked, he might have just turned into a juicy target. It was clear the system wanted to incentivize battling strong people rather than rounding up a ton of weaklings to kill.

He could only pray that greed wouldn’t go to people’s heads and that Earth would lose too many of its powerhouses. There were strong enemies waiting at the home front after they got back.

The Zhix was the largest risk in that regard. Those people were simply crazy, and if a couple of Dominators were thrown into the mix this thing could turn into a tragedy real quick. The Dominators were a large reason why he so desperately wanted to get stronger before the start of the hunt.

But with all his new power-ups he had some confidence, even if he came up to the real monsters at the top of the Zhix ladder.

Zac didn’t have time to go over the ruleset any longer, as the darkness was replaced with a blinding light, forcing Zac to close his eyes.

The moment he opened them again he found himself standing in the courtyard of a dilapidated temple that emitted an aura of solemnity and vicissitude. He was happy to see that he still carried his large knapsack, and he immediately put its content into a cosmos sack he found already fastened to his belt.

The space of the temporary Cosmos Sack was enormous, tens of times larger than even the one he looted from the Corpse Lord. It might mean that the area was just filled with treasure if the System thought everyone needed enough space to fit a mountain inside their Cosmos Sacks.

After he had stowed away his items he turned toward the temple again. It was uninhabited, but it was clear that it wasn’t simply abandoned once upon a time. A huge diagonal cut had cleanly chopped off a large part of the roofing, and even part of the cliff the temple stood on.

Judging by the state of decay it had likely been thousands of years since this place was assaulted, but Zac felt a terrifying sharpness emanate from the sword scar just by looking at it. It was clear that the battle had involved some extremely powerful people to leave such a lasting effect.

The scene wasn’t really something he had expected, and he quickly turned around to get a read on the situation. The sight that entered his eyes made Zac’s eyebrows rise in shock.

A seemingly endless number of mountains of various sizes stretched all the way to the horizon. That wasn’t the shocking thing though, but rather that all of them were filled with various grand structures. There were everything from enormous palaces residing on the top, to hanging structures that ran all along a mountain side. Some of the mountains even seemed mostly decorative, housing statues rising hundreds of meters in the air.

It was a wide array of architectural designs and level of grandeur on the thousands of buildings that he could see, but one thing was the same for all of them. They were dilapidated or had clear signs of battle scarring.

At first Zac thought he was looking upon the ruins of a lost civilization that had fallen to war. But remembering the depictions from the demons he was starting to suspect he wasn’t standing on a mountainous capital like the ancient Aztec cities.

It was more likely that this was a large Sect that had fallen due to some sort of tribulation. However, just what sort of tribulation was slightly confusing. The scar on the temple behind him indicated attack from a cultivator, but most of the damage seemed to come from beasts.

Zac could only hope that it was a beast horde that attacked the sect. If cultivators were responsible for the fall of this faction everything of value should have already been pilfered. That very fact made it seem even more likely beasts were behind the desolation, since otherwise it would be an odd place for the System to arrange a treasure hunt.

The theory that it was a sect also made it quite easy to guess where the best valuables were. The higher status someone had, the higher up on the mountain their residence would be placed. The peaks were reserved for the elders, sect master and true genius disciples.

Of course, knowledge of multi-verse sects wasn’t really needed to guess that fact, as the structures on the top of the mountains were clearly far more extravagant compared to the ones at the foot.

Bloody battles would likely take place at the peaks Zac surmised with a sigh. But he didn’t hurry to a peak himself, instead turning back toward the temple behind him.

He took his axe from his belt and vigilantly started walking toward the entrance.