Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Two days passed. Lin Jie had forgotten how many times he had entered the Crystals Ruins. During these two days, other than going offline for meals and getting his necessary rest, he had spent his entire energy on this map.
Through his trial-and-error attempts, Lin Jie made a conclusion: the chances of the Magic Stone blocking Elemental Magics and Arcane Magics were definitely not 10%. Or else, he must have missed out some steps to activate that 10% chance by the Magic Stone.
As this key and Magic Stone were discovered on the Crystal Giant, and there was only this one creature in the entire Crystals Ruins, this made Lin Jie wonder, ‘Could the crux to opening the door lie in the Crystal Giant?’
This was very possible!
Forming this deduction did not make Lin Jie stop trying to open the door. While waiting for the Crystal Giant to be respawned, he attempted to open the door continuously, but each time he was being thrown out by the Space Spiral mercilessly. This did not dampen his spirits but spurred him on instead.
After 48 hours, the sleeping Crystal Giant was finally respawned. However, the Treasure chest on its neck was not refreshed—this made sense. After all, Dark-Gold Treasure chests were rare commodities! A wave of pity gushed over Lin Jie, but he still crept silently towards the door behind the Crystal Giant.
In case he might meet any monsters after opening the door, Lin Jie did not take off his equipment this time round. This was the correct way a qualified adventurer should think.
Lin Jie threw a look at the Crystal Giant’s back and took out the Magic Stone with his left hand. He stretched out his hand to the mysterious door.
Like a wave of ripples spreading out on calm water surfaces, there was a silent wave radiating from the door. The Space Spiral appeared again! With a flip of his right hand, Lin Jie caught hold of the key, thrust it into the keyhole and turned it!
Creak—
A sharp screeching sound was heard, which caused Lin Jie to feel dizzy. The door began to open gradually!
“This…” Looking at the door in front of him, Lin Jie discovered in shock that his body was being attracted to the space behind it—but he knew very clearly that he wasn’t the one stepping forward! This made it seem like the door was moving towards him instead!
His surroundings went dark. Lin Jie’s eyes lost focus, and even with the Wolf Soul Necklace, he was unable to see anything at all.
‘I… Surely I am not being eaten up by the space behind the door?’
Lin Jie fished out a Fire Torch. The burning torch only gave out heat, but no light. He frowned and had a conjecture. ‘This space must have devoured the ‘Light’ attribute.’
This kind of situation was not rare in The New Age.
Lin Jie calmed himself down, stretched out his hands, and proceeded forward like a blind person. It was torturous to feel nothing and lose all sense of direction. After a prolonged period of time, Lin Jie’s palms suddenly came into contact with an item. That item seemed rough like sandpaper, and there seemed to be a lot of strings attached to it. Lin Jie could not feel its edges even if he spread out his arms wide.
Guzz—
There was suddenly a faint, almost indecipherable sound in the space. This scared Lin Jie—he was very familiar with this type of sounds, it was the sound made by spiders! Putting two and two together, cold sweat dripped down from Lin Jie’s head as he thought of what he might possibly have touched—a sandpaper-like, rough gigantic spider’s leg which he could not hug within his arms!
No! He was definitely not that unlucky—it didn’t make sense that the system would design such a map and then just place a big spider here! There must be some kinds of secret mechanisms which he needed to activate.
Lin Jie tried to discard the idea of how he had previously touched the black, enormous leg of a giant spider—urgh, he meant how a healthy spider overlord had stood in front of him—from his mind. He started exploring around that leg, even though he was extremely terrified and disgusted.
Ultimately, Mr. Lin Jie here was not Superman—he was unafraid of killing small spiders, but he couldn’t contain his fear when he faced a spider overlord that was multiple times his size! It was just plain terrifying—imagine how humongous the spider monster would be if he couldn’t even hug a single leg within his arms!
In fact, he was now too terrified to move anymore—who knew what he might come into contact with next! What if there was some trap waiting for him in front?
Lin Jie only dared to feel around his surroundings, blindly with his hands. Suddenly, he touched a smooth, well-polished object! He grabbed onto it hopefully.
Ding~
——’You received a Character Card.’
Shoosh! His surroundings were lit up suddenly! Lin Jie discovered that he was standing in a small study room filled with books. There weren’t any spider legs in front of him—what he had previously touched was a postmodern style frosted mural. All the terrifying things he thought he faced were non-existent.
‘Cheh… I was just scaring myself!’
Nevertheless, he still wiped away the cold sweat that was formed on his forehead. The Character Card he held in his hands was initially covered in a faint layer of dark mist, but when he turned it over, the mist dissipated.
Scrutinizing the Character Card, Lin Jie felt as if he could faint in happiness.
[Lady Priestess Gillian]: This is a Gold Character Card.
“Horhorhorhor—” Lin Jie let out a series of laughter that didn’t quite sound like a human. He actually found a Gold Character Card?! Of course, this explained why this space was so deeply hidden and inaccessible then! His hard work for the past two days did pay off well!
Excited, Lin Jie immediately activated the Character Card on the spot, without giving a damn to his current location.
The Character Card floated up in the air when Lin Jie gave a wave. It gradually transformed into a Lady Priestess donning black robes. Though it was impossible to make out her figure beneath the spacious robes, one could clearly see how beautiful she was just by her long, waist-length silver-white hair and the pair of Elvish pointy ears.
She looked like an Elf by her appearance, but she did not seem like a Night Elf.
Due to the influence by the Powers of Nature, the hair color of Elemental Creatures like elves was normally compatible with the type of elements they could control. A white-haired Elf… only Dark Elves had white hair!
Dark Elves liked to name themselves as ‘Masters of the Dark,’ and they studied Shadow Spells and Dead Spells all the time. Their expertise of the Powers of Death was the best among all creatures in The New Age. This was expected—after all, their main stronghold was the Dark Shrine! This was also the reason why the Dark Shrine was hidden from the persecution by the Guild of Light’s authorities, and hence could progress thus far, even though they were known for being an unstable reactionary force.
“Gillian?” asked Lin Jie, “are you a Dark Elf?”
Gillian bowed down her head in a respectful manner and denied. “No, Master, Gillian is a Night Elf.”
“Then your hair color?”
“My hair… My hair has always been this color since I was born.”
To dismiss Lin Jie’s suspicions, Gillian took up a withered seed from the table. She squeezed it lightly, and pale-greenish Powers of Nature flowed into the seed. Within the next few moments, this seed began to germinate and form sprouts.
This was indeed the type of Natural Magic that could only be performed by Night Elves, who embraced the Powers of Nature! The Powers of Death embraced by the Dark Elves would not support any life form.
Lin Jie finally relaxed. He smiled and said, “Is there anything I can help you with?”
While secretly hoping that this little loli who came out of the Gold Character Card would assign him advanced-levels missions, Lin Jie also took a quick look at her Stats.
[Lady Priestess Gillian] (Gold Elite)
Level 20
Health Points: 70/50,000 (Weak)
Mana: 100/??? (Weaken)
Magic attack: 45-62
Defense: 10
Note: Gillian is a Night Elf Priestess.
Lin Jie rolled his eyes secretly. That system’s note might as well had explained nothing.
However, this girl’s Stats were strange. Even if one tried to ignore her maximum health bar cap of 50,000 points, what kind of creature could have a “???” maximum cap for her Mana?
‘Forget it, what matters is that I have control over this Lady Priestess now. As long as I get a mission from her, I will be a winner!’
“I’m hungry,” said Gillian in a serious tone.
“Find me something to eat.”
Lin Jie’s lips twisted, and he passed a loaf of bread to her.
Gillian looked down at the bread for a long while, then lifted her head and asked, “Do you have meat?”
“Yes… But not now,” Lin Jie let out a weak smile and kept Gillian back into the card. It seemed like he would have to feed her if he wanted to activate her plot. The NPCs nowadays were indeed snobbish—why, they wouldn’t give out any missions unless they had something good in exchange…
In any case, Lin Jie was already very satisfied with being able to get this Gold Character Card. He continued searching the room, hoping he could find another Gold Character Card again. However, he was proven utterly wrong…
Lin Jie gave up eventually and went back to the Crystal Ruins from the magical door. He killed the Crystal Giant once again using the same method and then teleported out of the Crystal Ruins from the magical door. This time round, he returned to the Cave of Crystals, and he killed all the monsters there once again. He only left the place and returned to the City of Light in satisfaction after he collected 20+ gems and increased his EXP bar to 30%.
“She wants meat, hmm…” Lin Jie wanted to feed this mysterious NPC as soon as possible, and thus he immediately went to the restaurant and booked a luxurious private room with two gold coins. This was the only method to avoid being disturbed by others in the restaurant. If someone guessed that he had obtained a Gold Character Card, he most probably would become the target of jealousy and invite hostile intentions. In fact, he might even be chased down and murdered.
Not that Lin Jie was afraid of being hunted down anyway, but he just found it too hassling to be chased by others all the time.
After ordering an entire roasted lamb, Lin Jie waved his hands and let Gillian out. He pointed at the aromatic roasted lamb and said, “Go on, tuck in.”
Gillian looked at the roasted lamb and screwed up her nose.
Lin Jie stared at her. “What’s the matter?”
“I want to eat beef,” replied Gillian.
Ignoring Lin Jie’s stares and silent protests, Gillian called for the restaurant’s waiter and said, “Give me a whole roasted cow.”
“Alright, Madame. How well should your steak be?”
“Umm… just about 10%?”
“Poof…”
Lin Jie almost spat out the tea he was drinking onto the beast skin sofa which he was seated on.
“10% done? You might as well tell him to fetch you a living cow and eat it raw!”
“Can I do that?” Gillian’s eyes sparkled, and commented excitedly, “Okay, I want a living cow!”
The waiter looked in surprise at Gillian, but still nodded and conceded to her request. Not long after, he really fetched a live cow to the room. This was a wild cow from the Morby Plains, and it was still chewing on a piece of grass in its mouth, totally unaware of the fate that it would face in a while.
Following which… Gillian pounced onto the cow.
“I… what the f*ck!” Lin Jie couldn’t believe what he witnessed after that. This silver-haired, dainty little elvish girl took a huge bite out of the wild cow’s neck and started eating it raw, without caring about the blood which spurted out and stained all over her face. Yet it was obvious she was totally enjoying her meal—one could hear her muttering comments like: “This meat’s a bit stale…”, “It will be best if they had given me a calf, I could even eat its horns!”, “Aish I wished I had put some condiments…” amidst the excruciating moos given off by the wild cow…
Lin Jie decided to turn away from this ghastly scene.
He only turned back when the chewing sounds behind him ceased.
If Gillian had once looked pretty in his eyes, it was all gone now—her face was like a ghost’s face, and it was all covered in blood and cow’s fur.
‘What the…? What kind of creature is this?! She can even eat a whole living cow? Was she a glutton who had not eaten her fill in her previous life? Aren’t elves supposed to be gracious and full of grandeur? I… I really… Who will believe what I saw just now…’
Lin Jie couldn’t hide his contempt at what he saw, and splashed the whole jug of water at Gillian’s face, rubbing hard on her face until it was finally cleaned! He then stood up, panting. “What help do you require from me, tell me now!”
Gillian looked weakly at the wild cow—the bones that were left of it—and said in a piteous little voice, “Umm, I… I still want three more cows, can I? I won’t eat them raw—I will just take the 10% done beef, so that blood won’t spurt all over the place this time round, I promise…”
Lin Jie: “…”
