Chapter 509: Temple and Food

Aubrey hummed happily as she rummaged through the dropped stuff from the assailants. Like usual, she wasn’t able to take off their storage rings, but on the bright side, she found four tokens in total.

This meant that between the two of them, they now had plenty of tokens to access the trial or whatever was supposed to happen at the end of the second stage. She also found a small pendant she removed from the spearman’s neck.

It must have been from this realm because she was able to take it. He didn’t know what it was, but she seemed happy that she got something at the very least.

Only after she made sure she got everything from these people did she decide to stand up and look at him.

“Do you think we should head toward the center now?”

He shrugged. “Probably. There are only a couple more days left until the realm closes, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get as close as possible. But if you don’t really care about passing the second stage, then we can stay and see if we can find any other goodies.”

He really didn’t care too much for the final stage if he was being honest. As much as he wanted to fight some strong people, he could also do that against Tier 4s. The crown had already given him a lot to work on.

That, on top of his imminent advancement to Tier 4, meant that he had his plate full. He admitted that a big reason why he felt reluctant was that he just wanted to laze around and play with the crown. If he continued with the tournament, he would have less time to do that. But he also had to think about Cain.

If Julius didn’t get to the third stage, Cain might actually beat him up until he was a smear on the training ground. He wasn’t lying either. Cain hinted as much before he wished him luck—something about not being an embarrassment to the Shattered Winter School.

Aubrey glanced at the pillar of light that was still visible even in this dense forest as she collected her thoughts.

“I think we should go toward the center. That little pearl is actually much better than I suspected it to be. I feel like my willpower has already increased significantly. I also notice that its effects have not yet been fully drawn out. It is gradually helping me improve over time. If we didn’t find the Challenge Rift, then perhaps I would be more antsy to search for more treasures, but now I am simply curious what lies at the end. Also, who’s to say we won’t find any treasures along the way?”

She actually made a good point. With the Challenge Rift, he had also gotten something quite good. Knowing his luck, he was a little surprised that he got something quite valuable, albeit a little cursed. But who knows? With her, his luck might turn around, and they might find something along the way.

***

He tried to hide his disappointment when they weren’t able to find anything else. The two places he had seen that might have housed some kind of treasure had already been poked around by other parties.

If there was a treasure there, it wasn’t there anymore. They were too late.

Both of them silently pouted as they rode the flying board. It wasn’t that surprising that they were too late. There were a lot of people around them now. Everywhere they looked, there was someone else.

A lot of groups, but a good number of solo people as well.

They got plenty of envious looks when they flew past. It would appear not everyone had an item that could transport them—the ones who did typically had a device that could only transport themselves, but that was it.

He laughed loudly when he saw a person literally flying on a broomstick. There were other items for travel, but for the most part, people were traveling on foot.

The pillar of light was really close, and they spotted the actual source of the light. From what they could determine from this distance, the light was coming from some kind of man-made structure.

It was curious to see, and before long, they arrived at what looked like the front of a temple. They weren’t the only ones there, though. There were a lot of people scattered around the area. Most of them were camped by the temple entrance.

He scanned the crowd and spotted several familiar faces. He saw Liam and Irene off to the side. He wondered whether they had found each other during their journey here or upon arrival.

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He wasn’t that shocked to see them. Liam and Irene were pretty strong, and they must have gotten even stronger after the tournament. When he had seen them the other week, their auras had been very different—Liam’s in particular.

Julius was curious if Liam’s loss to him had motivated him. He was also curious who would win in a fight between Liam and Derek at the moment. From what he had heard about their four years together, Liam and Derek had been neck and neck. Nobody really knew who was stronger, but it was agreed that they were the two strongest fourth years.

Although Julius had spotted them, they hadn’t seen him so far. They were busy talking about something, so they didn’t notice. He would have to remember to go and say hi later. He didn’t want to do so right now; there were a lot of eyes around, and he didn’t want others to start drawing conclusions.