Chapter 199: The Storm (1/2)
Rakna sighed. ”All of these privileges are nice and all but… I once again have too many things to get used to. And here I had finally finished reaching Exceled with most of my abilities…”
”Poor you,” Higure said sarcastically. ”What did you get anyway?”
”A bunch of skills, abilities, and a title. I'll check them out tonight. I prefer to focus on my Quest for now. The good thing though is that with this, I reached level 97.”
”Damn, you're super close to 100 already. You're ahead of us.”
”Yeah, when I killed Aster, I jumped to over 80. This is to be expected,” Rakna said.
Aster was the name he had given to the Nightmare Chimera of the labyrinth. He sometimes used him when he needed a strong vanguard similar to Tyran. And, while slow, Aster was incredibly powerful as a Lv.300 Undead.
”You haven't told us about your Quest yet, by the way,” Nyx commented. ”What is it about?”
He glanced at her and shrugged. ”It's related to the task given to me by Eva. It's better that I do it alone since it requires a bit of secrecy and stealth.”
She snickered. ”I see. It is true that none of us can possibly be better than you at stealth. Sometimes I still get surprised when you speak up from a place I didn't expect you to be.”
”Same,” Allan agreed. ”It's true that I'm not the one with the most senses in the group but damn, it feels like you're more of a ghost than Evelyn. But still… I don't believe you. That's just your secret code to say 'I want to go solo'. How much you want to bet that you're going to raise hell?”
”I don't partake in unfavorable bets.”
”…seriously? That's an admission, you know?”
Rakna ignored him. ”Alexa, can you start the transfer to the 34th?”
[Affirmative. It will only take ten seconds with your newfound privileges. Where do you wish to be dropped at? Even if you do not know any location, you can specify the overall type.]
”Hm, let's go to a large city. Preferably, one that has the most chances of being related to my Quest; you know what to base it on.”
[Understood. You will be transported in ten seconds.]
Rakna nodded and turned to Pronos who was drinking at the edges of a pond with liquid chocolate in it with both Tyran and Higure. ”Little guy, we're going,” he said and the snake hissed softly and fizzled in a flash of blue from his position right onto his master's shoulder.
”Be careful exploring this Plateau. It's not because it looks picturesque that it's not dangerous,” he said to his group and they nodded. ”Also, I'm counting on you Nyx to bring Higure to the awakening room.”
”It will be done.”
”Mhm. Later,” he said and was teleported away.
[Transferring to the 34th Plateau - The Storm.]
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Thunder roared, wind raged, and rain struck the land with incredible force. At every step, there was a risk of suddenly getting caught in a spontaneous tornado.
Rakna appeared right outside a large city made of buildings specially made to resist winds and the most persistent of rains with enchanted materials.
The design was fairly medieval but it had several advanced contraptions monitoring the weather on the roofs and which would then make the necessary changes to the array that surrounded the city, which adjusted temperature and wind direction to avoid the biggest disasters.
The second the therian was transferred, he freed his aura and reinforced himself at a level he could recover from in real-time. The effect was largely more powerful than last time on the 10th Plateau.
The cold was transmitted from a wind flow to another, one drop of water to another, and one cloud to another. After a few minutes, it was snowing, the water at his feet had iced, and the storm had turned into a chilly winter weather instead.
”Volcanic might be better for this but it works the same,” Rakna commented as he lit a cigarette and slowly walked to the entrance of the city of which the ground had been coated with water-proof material to avoid puddles and redirect all the rain into the drainage.
When he reached the entrance of the city, the guards at the front wearing thick and warm clothes stepped back from him. They could see his white fur and hair releasing crystallized air with each movement and the cold would get worse when near him.
”Don't worry, I'm here for a Quest. I'm just passing by and I'll leave after I'm done,” Rakna said to them since they didn't seem eager to go through the usual process to welcome him.
”T-that is fine. We will just need your name,” the one in charge said from a safe distance.