Gaming Sword Magician

"Haha, maybe you are right. Anyway, since Nina is busy opening the golden door formation, I will tell you the stories of my adventures if you are interested."

Zachary felt that it will be too boring to silently pass the time while waiting for Nina to open the Golden door formation. Thus, the old man expressed his intention to tell the tales of his adventures to Whitaker.

"Yes, I wish to listen to them," Whittaker readily agreed and sat near Zachary's wheelchair.

"Our party had a lot of internal fighting but we never backstabbed each other, no matter how great the temptation of greed. We challenged powerful dungeons, one after another, and our teamwork and trust in each other helped us get through many life and death situations. There were a lot of times when I and other members of the party found themselves merely an inch away from death but a member would always be there in time to save our neck from the grim reaper..." Zachary never had grandchildren, but he was glad to meet Whittaker at the end of his life. Unknown to the young boy, as the old man spoke with a smile on his face, he was dying inside.

Whittaker was seemingly impressed by Elder Zachary and his party. It was an impressive task to complete so many natural dungeons. He became more impressed as his teacher explained his adventures in the natural dungeon.

"I also want to make a trustworthy party and complete lots of dungeons," Whittaker exclaimed after he finished listening to Zachary's natural dungeon tales. He continued by saying: "Elder, I have only read about natural dungeons in books and heard about them in your tale but never encountered one myself. I have a question, how are natural dungeon measured into rank. Why is the mana source of high-rank dungeons bigger than low-rank ones? And how does the rank of the dungeon increases?"

"The natural dungeon absorbs the life essence, mana, and battle energy from the magical beasts and adventurers to become stronger. You may not know that magical beasts are drawn into the dungeon because of the mana crystal. If they eat an entire mana crystal then there is a high chance for them to rank up. However, they are either starved to death or gets killed by the Guardian. Also, the adventurers are foolishly drawn to natural dungeons. They think they can challenge a natural dungeon but are not strong enough to do so. And die a miserable death in the end. Most of the magical beasts and adventurers die in the natural dungeons, and the dungeon absorbs their essence of life, battle energy, and mana to expand itself, create stronger monsters, and a stronger guardian to protect itself. The stronger the dungeon monsters, the higher the rank and greater the size of a dungeon will be." Zachary explained how natural dungeons are classified into ranks.

Hearing his words, Whittaker's eyes sparkled in thoughts as he came to a conclusion that there must be a lot of treasure left behind by adventurers. Nonetheless, he needed to verify it. Thus, the young snowy-haired boy asked Elder Zachary:

"The adventurers that die in the natural dungeon must have left behind their equipment. Does that mean there is a huge amount of treasure in different parts of a natural dungeon?"

Whittaker was certain that he was right. The natural dungeon only absorbs life essence, mana, and battle energy, after all, and not equipment. Equipment is sold for a tremendous amount of money. And this just made the natural dungeon more enticing in Whittaker's eyes.

Elder Zachary simply nodded his head in agreement, and he then explained: "There is indeed a huge amount of treasure sleeping in the natural dungeon but it is fraught with danger. The sight and thought of equipment cause many to get drunk on the dream of getting rich overnight. However, natural dungeons use the equipment and give them to their monsters, or set up traps around the equipment. So you must be careful when venturing into a natural dungeon. Never let greed get the better of you."

Whittaker was thankful to have an experienced person as his teacher and he thanked him.

Whereas Nina unlocked the last lock of the Golden Door Formation.

"It's done. We can now step inside the inner treasury," Nina notified before pushing open the golden door.

The shut door immediately opened and multicolor light dawned on them

'Damn…' Whittaker's eyes were nearly blinded when the Golden door opened.

There was a lot of equipment of various grades on each side of the inner Treasury. They were stacked on top of each other and created small mountains. In the middle, there was a round raised platform and three golden diamonds were embedded in the center of the raised platform.

«Awakening stone»

[Rank: B-rank

Description: It's an item unavailable in the awakened continent. This is a super rare item. It's a special stone with a lot of Life Force. The absorption of the stone creates a battle core in the body. Can be used by both awakened and non-awakened.

Effect: Fuse into the body of a person to create a battle core with B-rank potential. It can absorb battle energy!] Noah notified when Whittaker took a look at one of them.

He was shocked out of his existence!

Whittaker remembered that Hera always wanted to awaken a class weapon and become a mage or a battle master. But he was not lucky enough and Whittaker could feel that Hera was living a life of regret.

It's like seeing others possess a superpower but possessing none. Whittaker thought, 'If possible, I must get one for my older brother!' 

"Don't just stand there. Get to the raised platform." Zachary said.

"Oh, okay," Whittaker replied as he woke up from his startled expression and followed after Nina.

"Do you see these three golden diamonds? These are called Awakening stones. That's what I like to call them. They are a destiny changing item for mages and normal humans who didn't awaken during the awakening ceremony. Do you wanna know what these three do?" Zachary said that when they all stood atop the round platform.

Whittaker saw that out of the three, two were C-rank and only one was a B-rank awakening stone. He already knew what the Awakening stone do and he didn't decline in order to hide the existence of Noah.

Elder Zachary mysteriously smiled and said: "This awakening stone creates a battle core in a person's body. The potential of which is determined by the rank of an awakening stone. The rank of an awakening stone is determined by the amount of golden line etched on it. One golden line means F-rank. Two mean E-rank and so on."

"But I have never heard of awakening stone existing in the awakened continent. Did Elder get it from another world?" Whittaker asked with a curious look on his face, but he already knew the answer.

"Little brother, father indeed got it from another world. And the platform we are standing on is the gateway to the other world!" Nina announced

Whittaker was shocked and he looked down on the platform. Noah didn't notify him of anything. Plus, the platform seemed no different than a normal stone. 

"Is this really a gateway to another world?" He asked.