Whoosh!
Entering the rift that would lead him to the Four Pillars' Inheritance, Valyr felt space pulling on him from all sides for a brief moment. Though, after having experienced the process of teleportation a few times already, the young man decided to close his eyes and endure the pulling sensation for a bit longer.
Opening his eyes once he felt like his feet landed on solid ground, the young man was somewhat surprised by the fact that walls were all around him, expecting to encounter a vast land in front of him instead. With the walls being made out of metal and fastened with rivets, Valyr felt like he was inside the hull of a ship for a brief moment.
Then again, he could not fully delude himself into believing that as the ground was made out of pure dirt.
"You took quite some time to arrive here." Just as he was about to explore the corridors that extended out of the place he appeared him, the four that came before him appeared and waved at him. "Did something happen in the outside world before you came here?"
Hearing the question Hal asked him, Valyr softly shook his head. "I just forgot to send a couple of important messages to some people, that's all."
"Anyways, what have you guys discovered so far?" As the others nodded in understanding, the young man asked this question.
"Not much," replied Faulus. "So far, we've come to the conclusion that we're in a labyrinth made out of metal of some sort. As for the mana issue Elder Faulerei has reminded us time and time again, that doesn't seem to exist here. The concentration of mana here is more or less the same as the concentration in the outside world."
"Is that so?" In response, Valyr could only nod.
After that, the others shared the findings they've found so far while exploring the place, which more or less matched up with what Faulus had told Valyr. Nevertheless, they still told him what they found out since he was the acting leader of the group.
Listening to everyone's experiences within this place so far, the young man felt an inclination to explore the place on his own. However, just as he was about to do so, a disembodied voice resounded throughout the entirety of the space.
"All of the necessary prerequisites have been met."
"All of the additional prerequisites have been met."
"External factors have been added to the equation."
"Opening up 100% of the Shattered Lands of the Four Pillars."
Rumble...
With the attention of the five focused on the words spoken by the disembodied voice, the entire space began to rumble all of a sudden, prompting everyone to stabilize themselves to the ground by manipulating a bit of mana. Though, rather than expecting something to be opened within the space or for something to appear...
What happened instead could only leave the five at a great loss for words.
Swoosh!
Gradually, the walls surrounding the five began to hover, eventually allowing them to find out that a vast landscape existed beyond the walls. Then again, all of their attention was still focused on the floating structure, which eventually stopped by the time it had reached an altitude of a couple dozen meters.
Whoosh!
Then, without any warning, the floating structure darted in the direction that went deeper into the landscape, leaving the five no choice but to look at the sight before them.
'Huh...' At the very instant Valyr laid his eyes upon the landscape in front of them, all he could think about was the fact that the entire landscape resembled the cityscapes Earth had aplenty. However, compared to the cityscapes of Earth, the cityscape that existed before him was in ruins, only being a shell of its former glory.
"I see." While everyone was left in awe at the sight before them, Hal took note of the mana surrounding them, attracting everyone else's attention with his words. "Now I see why Elder Faulerei told us to ascend."
Looking at Hal, Faulus raised his eyebrow in curiosity. "What do you mean?"
"I feel like the structure we were in earlier had been storing most, if not all of the mana that was in this space," said Hal in response. "However, now that the structure had gone off into the distance, this mana has begun to scatter. The only reason we haven't taken good notice of the change is the fact a considerable portion of the mana is still lingering around us."
Listening to Hal's words, Valyr briefly closed his eyes as he sensed the mana that existed in their surroundings. After a minute or so, he opened it once more, looking at Hal as he nodded in agreement. "If all of the mana in our surroundings eventually spread throughout the space evenly, I'd say the concentration of mana here is around 1/100th of the concentration in the outside world."
"So, using magic here is only 1% effective compared to using it in the outside world?" asked Loreina in response. After all, among them, she was the one who relied on magic the most when it came to combat.
In response, Valyr could only shrug his shoulders. "We'll find that out when we get there. For now, let's do what Elder Faulerei said and ascend to the next rank."
At those words, everyone nodded in agreement before proceeding to distance themselves from one another. After that, everyone sat cross-legged on the ground before going through their respective ascensions.
"System, I would like to ascend." Taking a brief look at everyone engrossed at the choices the system had given them, Valyr went ahead and commanded the system to begin his ascension process to Rank 3.
Ding!
[2,908,993 XP has been consumed. You are now Level 41.]
[As you have ascended to a higher class, your VIT to HP coefficient has changed from 1:18 to 1:24.]
[As you have ascended to a higher class, your INT to MP coefficient has changed from 1:18 to 1:24.]
[Please select the species and class you would like to ascend with.]
Hearing a series of notification sounds resound in his mind, a faint smile appeared on the young man's face as a screen appeared in front of him. Looking through the choices that had been made available to him, Valyr eventually raised his eyebrows in slight surprise.
"Well... that's something I definitely wasn't expecting."
