---Third POV---
In the Chronicles of Aeltia official forum, a post appeared:
[Shocking! To fulfill the conditions of achieving the first monster kill and clearing the Blackrock Toad dungeon, a player actually fed themselves to the Blackrock Toad egg!]
[As the title suggests, this thread isn't about a gameplay diary, it was about finding someone.
Who the heck was it?! That egg already swallowed one player before, and now it's hatched!
Have you ever seen a tadpole the size of a sandbag? We were completely ruined because of you!]
Other players who also died in the dungeon quickly chimed in below the post.
[+1, don't let me catch you!]
[What happened? Grabbing popcorn and waiting for details!]
[Ugh, yesterday I went to kill a beast, revived today just to enter the dungeon, and died again.]
[Thank goodness LootGoblin brought enough explosives, or we'd have ended up with a Level 4 adult Blackrock Toad!]
[Ughhh, I spent two weeks saving up for that much gunpowder…]
One by one, players pieced together the incident. Swearing to identify the traitor in their party, they vowed to expose them on the forum for all to see. What they vaguely remembered was that they had already penetrated the deepest part of the hatching nest.
At the center was a huge open space resembling the central nest of ants, with an upside-down sculpture hanging in the middle. It was hideous and oddly aggressive-looking. The last few toad eggs were hidden inside it.
Due to the eggs' significantly increased power, regular fire attacks no longer worked. Players had to endure constant attacks while waiting for fire-based players to charge their skills.
The mutation happened at that moment.
The upside-down sculpture fell, dropping the eggs with it.
The eggs, covered in a gelatinous outer membrane, could only slowly squirm around. Without the chance to immediately hide, players seized the opportunity to attack. But then, the eggs suddenly fused together, growing larger and hatching at an accelerated rate. They didn't even stop at the tadpole stage.
Before the players' very eyes, it developed hind legs, forelimbs, and shortened its tail, fully evolving in mere moments.
Horrified, the players decided to go down together with it. They could only be grateful that this game's bosses didn't have the irritating habit of locking their health bars.
[I was at the very back and started running the moment I saw it! ]
[Deserter!]
[I had a $100 heat-resistant magical device from the shop. If I log in now, I might still find its remains.]
[Hardcore!]
[You know me, I was one of the ones rushing forward with explosives.]
[Maniac!]
[…Maybe we should mute cloud players. No need for a hype squad here.]
[I object!]
Now the original poster was stuck.
[Of the 26 players who made it to the end, either they've stepped forward to prove their innocence, or someone else has vouched for them. So who's the culprit responsible for the sudden difficulty spike in the dungeon?]
Despite the beta players trying to maintain a serious tone, the combat system in Chronicles of Aeltia was notoriously strict. Such abnormalities must have a cause and must be understood.
Otherwise, if this happened again, they might not have a narrow mine to fight in and ensure mutual destruction next time…
Still, some cloud players jumped in to make jokes.
[Couldn't it just be the boss going berserk?]
[Like what?]
[Imagine watching you slaughter its unborn siblings day after day. Overcome with grief, the final boss shouts about friendship and bonds, instantly powering up! Then…]
[Then it got taken down anyway in a mutual destruction scenario.]
[…Ahem, sounds kinda tragic when you put it like that.]
Suddenly, a new comment popped up.
[Stop guessing. You guys hit the jackpot and unlocked an extremely rare hidden reward!]
A flood of question marks followed.
[???]
[A new troll?]
[Wait, this game has a bonus chest for dungeon clears?]
If the commenter hadn't had the Beta Player badge, which gave their words natural credibility on the forum, no one would've taken the absurd claim seriously.
[LootGoblin]: I've played this game for half a month and have never seen monsters drop rewards.
[Apple]: Exactly, even hunting requires you to manually dissect the carcass. Since when did the lazy devs let monsters self-drop materials?
The player who had logged off to report this scratched his head.
"Huh, when you put it like that…"
Had they guessed wrong? Just as the thought crossed his mind, he shook his head vigorously and quickly typed a reply.
"No way, what is it then?"
[But Viktor specifically said there's a hidden reward for you guys! Even though you barely managed to exploit the Blackrock Toad's invulnerability period during its growth phase, it still counts as defeating a Level 3 monster. This time, there's only a cooldown penalty for reviving, no material costs! Your experience points stay at their pre-death maximum, and you'll even get bonus experience points. Everyone should level up at least once! Plus, you get a voucher for a mid-tier magical device from the shop and a 30-day trial card for the new feature test!]
A long string of text dropped, leaving a stream of question marks in the comments. Eventually, even the indignant original poster chimed back in.
[Guys, check your forum DMs, it's true!]
[Hahaha, I'll hit Level 10 as soon as I log in tomorrow!]
Because the game's official website is gradually integrating into the in-game player panel, players can communicate through forum private messages and even view some game information, albeit with a delay.
A few of the involved players tentatively confirmed the claims.
[No way, I don't believe it!]
[Come on, we were just consoling you guys earlier!]
[Pfft, so what if it's just a mid-tier magical device and lots of experience points? I don't care at all.]
[Why couldn't it have been me who died?!]
---
Yannik, better known as LootGoblin in Chronicles of Aeltia, stared at the massive experience points surge, something that would've taken him a week of grinding to achieve, and felt his heart racing. He almost broke into a spinning leap of joy right there in his room.
Barely managing to contain his excitement, he stared at his computer screen, grinning like a fool.
"Hehehe, this is what they mean by 'a blessing in disguise!'"
Ever since he started playing Chronicles of Aeltia, his luck had swung wildly between extremes.
The downside? Emotional roller coasters.
The upside? Everything always ended on a relatively perfect note.
From outside his room came a sharp, high-pitched voice.
"What's so funny in there?"
"Nothing, nothing!" His laughter stopped abruptly, and he hurriedly called out in response. If his mom found out he was spending all his time gaming, his vacation would be over before it even began.
At this point, the "safe period" in their mother-son relationship post-break had already passed…
After staying quiet for a while, he continued browsing through the posts. Since the dungeon mutated in the end and the results exceeded expectations, it was clear that the players' contributions must have been significant. Considering the efforts made in the past few days, he figured he wouldn't have to worry about securing a slot on the new map.
So, his attention shifted entirely to the hidden rewards at the end of the dungeon.
But the new comments were all fluff, with no useful information.
Annoyed, he directly tagged the player who had first reported the news.
[You still haven't told me what the hidden reward is. What's so special about it that it made those lazy devs rewrite the base code of the game?]
The player replied honestly:
[I'm not sure either. It's just a shiny little ball. Viktor said it's a fragment of some divine artifact or something. The name was too long, so I didn't catch it. While it's just a fragment and can't be used, Viktor still seemed pretty shocked. I guess this might be why they gave out a special reward?]
A divine artifact? The players buzzed with curiosity. They'd heard the term "divine artifact" plenty of times before.
LootGoblin, for example, had practically been brainwashed by the goblin priest claiming their altar was crafted from a divine artifact. It turned out to be nothing but a random trinket picked up by a Level 3 Terror Beast, imbued with a trace of divine power. Back in the Age of the Gods, these things were as common as dirt. This time, however, a genuine divine artifact fragment had appeared.
Who knew what impact it might have on the game?
---Viktor's POV--
Giant Pit Ruins... Well, there was no ruin anymore, just a barren crater. The ruins had been reduced to rubble and scorched earth scattered across the ground.
I stood at the edge of the crater, in front of an old stone tablet. Its surface bore two clear and striking lines of text.
---
[Welcome to Saequs. Let this serve as a reminder of the great God of Sky, Kalil.
The Wolcen Mountains will forever protect the children of the sky, carrying their final hope.]
---
Some of the players had propped up the tablet after discovering it, and now it stood upright at the windy edge of the crater, weathered and ancient. It looked exactly like the kind of mysterious stone tablets that bards described in their tales of prophecy and adventure.
From my pocket, I took out the small, palm-sized ball. The ball was pure white, with black square patterns encircling it. One central square could be pressed like a button.
I pressed the switch while aiming the ball at the tablet.
A beam of white light, only slightly brighter than the sunset, poured out of the ball and illuminated the tablet. More hidden markings surfaced on the tablet, forming what appeared to be a map.
"I knew it."
From the moment I discovered the tablet at the crater, I had sensed something unusual about it. Compared to a typical stone boundary marker, this one clearly held deeper secrets. At the time, however, no matter how long I studied it, I couldn't figure out how to activate it. All I could deduce was that a specific magical device was required as a key.
But who would have thought that even a magical device wouldn't suffice, it had to be a divine artifact.
I crouched down, scrutinizing the tablet as the map continued to glow faintly.
"This is… the Wolcen Mountains?"
Although the artifact was shattered and could only illuminate one-third of the map, the part starting at the tablet was clear. It depicted a range of overlapping mountains to the northwest, dominated by a massive, snow-covered concave peak.
It had to be the Wolcen Mountains.
"Could this be some kind of treasure map?"
As I stared at the minimalist map, my thoughts began to wander. Collect divine artifact fragments, follow the final map, and embark on a journey to reach the endpoint… It felt like those divine treasure-hunting games I'd read about in my early days after transmigrating to this world.
"The God of Sky, Kalil, the God of Snow, Wolcen…" I muttered their names, my gaze deep and contemplative. "What are you two trying to achieve?"
A ruin dedicated to Kalil somehow concealed two divine artifacts imbued with the Wolcen's power. And the newly discovered artifact fragment not only held pure God of Snow energy but was also the key to activating the tablet?
My grip on the small ball tightened.
It was clear: to uncover the truth, I'd need to find the other two fragments, piece together the complete map, and venture into the Wolcen Mountains, a place overrun with Level 7 and Level 8 magical creatures and untouched by humans for over 600 years.
I'd have to wait until my full strength was restored before doing such a venture.
After a long silence, the fierce wind whipped my cloak, causing it to flutter wildly.
I slowly raised my hand and switched off the small ball. The map on the tablet disappeared along with the light.
I let out a cold laugh.
"What kind of idiot would risk their life for some 600-year-old dead gods' treasure hunt?"
The tablet was found in ruins controlled by goblins. One artifact fragment came from the nest of a Blackrock Toad. The two had no connection whatsoever.
The other two fragments? They were probably embedded in the lairs or stomachs of magical creatures. Searching for them in the vast Great Oak Forest would be like finding a needle in a haystack. Even if the divine artifacts were crafted during the Age of the Gods, the final reward would likely involve becoming some deity's servant. And who would care about that?
Those gods had been dead for 600 years, reduced to food for magical creatures. Even in their prime during the Age of the Gods, I would have found such games pointless.
After glancing one last time at the text on the tablet, I turned and walked away without hesitation.
A message popped up on my system panel:
---
[Do you wish to convert the Divine Power in the 'Unknown Artifact Fragment'? Predicted loss: 25%.]
---
"Convert it." I replied without hesitation.
After all, I had no intention of risking my life in the Wolcen Mountains. The ball's sole function was as a key, so keeping the divine power inside was pointless.
---
[Successfully converted Divine Power: 3,623]
[Divine Power: 29,596]
---
"Whoa! Nearly 4,000 divine power?"
The amount surprised me.
Even with a 25% loss rate, the fragment still yielded four-digit divine power. It seemed the God of Snow had poured significant effort into creating this artifact. Despite their holy and exalted image, gods, ancient or new, were notoriously stingy when it came to granting divine power to their followers.
Artifacts capable of holding thousands of points of divine power were typically reserved for high-ranking religious leaders during the Age of the Gods. Today, such relics would be treated with extreme care, locked away for decades without ever seeing the light of day.
Yet here I was, draining its power.
For a brief moment, I felt regret. Then, I shrugged.
"Whatever reward lies at the tablet's endpoint, the initial bonus was already worth it."
A sweet deal upfront was more reliable than vague promises of future gains.
"Besides, 10,000 divine power can't even heal my injuries, let alone convince me to risk my life for the Wolcen Mountains."
---
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