Chapter 419: Beginning of the First True Journey
Aftermath of the intense struggle that just finished was terrible, but redeemable.
People died. Lots of people died, but only their physical bodies. Their souls were still within Blessed Island, so Erix could re-create their physical bodies.
Since the Blessed Island successfully integrated with the planet, a whole new array of powers unlocked.
Rin was barely alive, so Erix healed her first, but aside from him and Amu, the entire Blessed Island was eerily silent. 90% of people were dead while 10% were hanging at death's door.
Erix sat down on a chair while souls of those thousands started emerging from the ground and floated near the Dreanox Tree.
Amu appeared before Erix and said, "Erix, we will need a lot of energy to create the bodies of everyone who died. Now that the Blessed Island is basically this whole planet, let's cut a major part of it and shrink it."
"We can shape it into a small floating continent with enough biodiversity and enough space for people. 10,000 kilometers radius sounds good, what do you say? Shrinking it to this size will also give us more than enough energy to revive everyone's physical bodies."
Erix nodded, "Let's start."
"The kids are still safe under the ground in a bunker you made. Let's keep them there until we are finished since I've already made them fall asleep," Amu said.
"Alright."
The following work required focus.
At the moment, this planet was no longer a part of the Sun's star system. It had its own closed self-sustenance system ever since it upgraded and now that the planet integrated with the Blessed Island, Erix could shape it however he wanted.
The entropy of this planet was in his hands and it increased as Erix started destroying parts of the world without disturbing other things.
The total population of the planet at the moment hung at 2.4 million. Over a million people were captured by the Blue Maw pirate group, but Mystic Root had now entirely removed itself from this world, so those people could no longer benefit from it.
No more events. No more daily world boss. No more leveling up.
The labyrinth towers were automatically modified after Mystic Root left and only a single one remained with 100 floors max. Their power level requirements were adjusted along with the rewards.
Erix erased 70% of things and areas and only kept 30% of what was originally established on the planet, which equated to roughly a 10k-kilometer radius of area.
Within that, 3k kilometers radius was a single water body and the rest of the 7k was patches of various lands with different climates and small water bodies.
All people were transported to Phoenix City and the surroundings because it was the most developed area.
After doing all that within ten hours, Erix acquired a lot of entropy energy that he could use and started making physical bodies of people who died on the Blessed Island.
Amu was also helping Erix in that.
They first built Lilith's body before her soul resided back inside and she successfully revived.
Her bloodline source and power sources were in her origin region, which was anchored to her soul, so Erix only needed to create a sufficiently powerful physical body and she successfully revived.
One by one, Erix and Amu started reviving people starting with the Pillars.
Aria, Isabella, Lily, Sameira, Kenshin, Maleina…
After four hours, Erix and Amu successfully revived everyone on the Island.
The following days were peaceful but busy.
The World Council was still intact since it was the planet's feature after it upgraded and the five positions worked towards developing the Space Continent—Unfettered Kingdom, along with everyone doing their part.
As it slowly moved towards the deeper universe, the scenery around the Phoenix city changed during the week.
Buildings stood up, dungeon gates appeared, and the economy started with Prana crystals being the main currency. Rin also found another pocket dimension as she was the dimension door manager.
The previous one she found was small and didn't have a high power and life ceiling, so no resources or monsters. It was good for sparring without holding back, which was why they held the sparring match with Barak, Kristy, and Maze there.
But the second pocket dimension was big with a high power ceiling up to peak Empyrean-order.
Rin established its door near Phoenix City for people to explore at their own risk and earn resources and training against powerful and exotic monsters.
Kenshin regularly set dungeon gates to appear, with 10 every day for now. This was a very low amount as these dungeons were one-time dungeons unlike ones produced by Mystic Root.
Once cleared, their gates would disappear.
After a week, everything settled down and it was finally time to move forward.
Erix, Rin, Lilith, Aria, Isabella, Lily, Sameira, Kenshin, and Amu sat at a round table under the Dreanox tree.
"So…we are stuck with slow progress for now," Erix said, his palms crossed under his chin as he sat with a contemplative expression. "The next step would be to use Tenebria's token and visit Shadow Bamboo Sanctuary."
"Yep," Lilith nodded. "But before you go there, it's time that you all use the important resources you've been saving and power up."
"Insight Scrolls, Elemental Stones, and clearing the Labyrinth Tower's remaining floors for more," Rin nodded.
"We also have a big dimension anchored to our world, so resources will keep coming as people explore there," Isabella said.
Lily nodded, "We can leave this dimension to the rest of the people and take 5% of what they earn in exchange for letting them use our Blessed Island's benefits."
"5% is good," Sameira smiled. "It's not much to them, but once everyone gives it to us, we'll start amassing general resources."
"The maximum Tier of resources in that dimension are Tier-8, with one in a million Tier-9 material. There should be many Prana veins there, so we'll take 10% of Prana crystals and give ownership of the vein to whoever that discovers it," Erix said.
The group talked for half an hour and then announced all the changes after gathering the guild leaders and clan leaders.
The actual guilds and their functions were already dissolved since Mystic Root left after Planet Integration, but the model structures they got from Structure-dungeons remained, which was a plus.
The guilds still worked in their way like before, progressing and powering up gradually but everyone's lives became more peaceful and less intense.
The top guilds were still competing with each other because they knew that this was just the start of the grander adventure and if they wanted to remain relevant, they needed to work and progress like Erix and others.
After informing everyone and announcing the changes, the world, and people continued living their lives while Erix and others started using their saved resources for power-ups.
Erix and Rin had two insight scrolls, and using both scrolls could require over half a month's time.
The others had one Insight Scroll each that they bought from Mystic Shop. Everyone could only buy from it, and it was everyone's top priority.
They had gotten one previously from Labyrinth Tower and had already used it to comprehend Exotic Elements.
As such, the period of progression began after the period of development was over.
After ten days, Isabella, Aria, Sameira, Kenshin, and the top guild leaders finished using their Insight Scroll.
Some awakened another Exotic element while some progressed in their existing Exotic Element for a direct power boost.
They began their adventure in the new dimension for further progression and clearing Labyrinth Tower's floors for more rewards.
Under the Dreanox Tree, Rin and Erix sat beside each other as they opened their eyes on the 11th day after finishing using their first insight scroll.
They didn't awaken another Exotic or Super Exotic element. Instead, they progressed greatly in Nihilir and Chronace elements respectively.
"Erix, we've been stuck in our Patron points since they constantly increased and decreased, but after ejecting those pirates and fighting against them, we finally gathered over two thousand Patron points," Rin said with a grin.
[Patron Realm]
_Leaderboard Rank: Unranked.
--> Yet to enter any challenge.
_Patron point: 2187.
_Patron shop.
—> [ Open - Close ]
"We can buy the one-time boon now," Erix nodded as his eyes flashed and he opened the Patron Shop.
[Patron Shop]
->1. Talent Bless Sigil — 100,000 Patron points.
->2. Slice & Dice Slate — 60,000 Patron points.
->3. Opaque Mystery Rune — 300,000 Patron points.
->4. Divine Surgent Veil — 180,000 Patron points.
->5. Pandora's Box — 10 Patron points (0/5 monthly limit.)
->Special One-time Buy — Boon Tree Awakening — 1000 Patron points.
Only Erix and Rin were members of the Patron realm here, so this was exclusive to them.
"Let's see what kind of boon it is," Rin smiled. "After that, we'll use our 2nd Insight Scroll and then clear the Labyrinth Tower's floors."
Both of them bought the Boon Tree Awakening as they lost 2k Patron Points.
In the next second, their origin regions slightly shook before a mysterious source of power sprouted there in the form of a sapling.
Afterward, an archaic voice rang in their heads before both of them lost their consciousness, entering in a mysterious realm.