Chapter 41: Can This Bunch Really Save the World?
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Now that he knew the effect of this Enhancing Machine, he didn’t continue to enhance the normal shortsword, instead pulling out a sacred item called the Magic Converging Staff.
This sacred item was a rare short-ranged sacred item from the Tower of Trials. Because it had an extremely small range for a sacred item, its effects were inversely quite strong. Within a one-meter radius, all the magic that a mage could release was more than two times than before, and the magic itself was strengthened.
In Sacred Souls terms, it meant that the user’s MP would be doubled.
Due to the setting of the game, sacred souls could only be placed in manors or guilds, and so the use of this magical staff was extremely useless to players.
After all, a one-meter radius wouldn’t even be enough to reach outside the main city, so what was the use of doubling the MP in this area? To beat up the city guards?
This magical staff actually contributed a lot to Segman breaking the sacred records two days ago.
As he was about to throw this staff into the Enhancing Machine, the old mage finally arrived.
“Your Highness! Your Highness! We must return!” The old mage’s wrinkled hands gripped Segman’s shoulders tightly.
“Mentor, what’s wrong?”
Segman was about to continue stuffing the sacred item into the Enhancing Machine, but his arm was pulled back forcefully by the old mage.
“The apocalypse is arriving! The prophecy is true! It’s going to be the end of the world! The deity of the Tower of Trials told me everything, the devil’s star… The devil’s star is approaching our plane!”
“Mentor, are you absolutely certain?”
Looking at his twisted expression, if anyone else said these words to him, Segman would definitely think they were going to scam him.
But the person standing in front of Segman was the greatest sage and prophet in Aquaflow, and the reason why he was so revered in their country wasn’t because he was that versed in magic, but because of his ability to commune with the gods.
Ever since his youth, the old mage had prophesied three calamities that would befall the country of Aquaflow.
The first time, the king didn’t believe in his words.
That time, it wasn’t so disastrous as to destroy the country, but it still took a massive toll.
And so, the second time, the king chose to believe in him, and Aquaflow was able to evade the calamity unscathed.
The third time, he was already seen as the greatest sage of the country, and so the king followed his directions, turning Aquaflow into one of the strongest countries in the world.
This all happened thirty years ago, and after thirty years of smooth development, this prophet prophesied that the world would be destroyed.
“It’s true! Quickly, let us return to inform His Highness!” Blood started to leak from the old mage’s mouth, and it gave Segman the impression that the old mage exchanged this prophecy from the hands of the gods at a great price…
Well, it was quite the heavy price—the old mage’s hips were sprained by the spirit of the tower, but the old mage was too panicked to realize it.
“What about the way to resolve this?” Segman asked about the key point that they needed to know. “Have the gods told you the solution?”
Every time the old mage made a prophecy, it would come at the cost of his life force and magical energy. This was also one of the reasons why he was revered by the people of Aquaflow, but he wasn’t the strongest in the country.
“A solution… A solution…” The old mage muttered, and his neck suddenly twisted at a strange angle. Immediately after, his eyes became pure gold again.
Seeing the old mage’s golden eyes, Segman quickly let go of him, guessing that some holy being had taken over the old mage.
“Sacred souls.” The old mage’s voice became emotionless as he muttered, “These warriors named sacred souls are heroes that I have summoned from a faraway plane. They will reclaim their power from the Tower of Trials, and they… will help you defend the world from the apocalypse!”
Sacred souls? Heroes? Heroes that God had summoned?
Segman looked over at the place where the old mage was pointing, which was where the players were converging around the Faerie Merchant.
“F*ck! I’m only thirty magical stones away from getting a Maned Horse Headmask, how did those high-ranked players get the Rainbow Unicorn Headmask?”
“Bro, give up on getting a headmask and try getting a mount! The Chubby Chocobo is a limited edition mount!”
“Is anyone up for a dance battle? No one?”
“First level of the Tower of Trials! Any strong tanks up for dungeon-crawling? With more than HP4000! Come in quick!”
As Segman glanced at this scene, he could only describe the scene as a bunch of demons raving…
Oh great god of Aquaflow! These bunch of people were the saviors of the world summoned by the gods? Why was it…Hard to believe…
He felt like a random bunch of people from the asylum in Aquaflow would be better than them!
Even though what he saw and heard all told Segman that this bunch of adventurers didn’t have the ability to save the world, but his rationality told him that they did.
The most direct showing of this was when they broke Segman’s sacred record, and quite easily, at that.
This wasn’t something that Segman wanted to admit to himself.
That being said, the wellbeing of their country stood higher than his personal feelings.
“You go report this to my father, Mentor. I have matters to attend to here.”
“What?” The old mage finally returned to his senses, and the spirit of the tower had already left his body.
“I…” Segman looked over at the players who had already started a dance battle, and continued confidently, “I want to…No, I will be a hero too!”
“…Don’t push yourself too much, Your Highness.” The old mage sighed. He knew that Segman was his best student, and the one with the most potential in Aquaflow, but if he had a fatal flaw, it was that he was too ambitious.
His ambition didn’t allow anyone to be stronger than he was, and whenever such a person existed he would use any means to make himself stronger.
Those players that broke the sacred record he set undoubtedly stimulated his pride.
Segman acknowledged that these so-called sacred souls had the potential to be the heroes of this world, but he did too!
The old mage disappeared in front of Segman, and the latter looked back at the Enhancing Machine with his staff in hand.
“I can’t put shame on myself tomorrow!” Segman muttered to himself, and threw the sacred item into the Enhancing Machine.
Jiang Qiao was spectating on the conversation from a side invisibly, and Ocean Blue floated over to him.
“I’m hungry,” Ocean Blue puffed her cheeks and said these words that made the spirit of the tower squeak and cower with fear.
“I know, but I need a little while more.” Jiang Qiao pushed the goddess’ puffed cheeks away, and looked back thoughtfully at the prince that was in a battle of guts and wits with the Enhancing Machine.
According to the conversation between the duo just now, Jiang Qiao guessed that the old mage was somewhat like a prophet of their country.
If that was the case, then it would be easier to have them believe in his words. Probably not long later there would probably be a bunch of NPCs sucking up to the players quickly. Of course, Jiang Qiao didn’t exclude the possibility that they were sent to spy on the players, or test whether players had the ability to be the saviors of the world. They would probably send a bunch of troops as vanguards to protect the front-lines.
This was only a world mission to players, but to these natives, it was life and death.
No matter what…Jiang Qiao needed some time to prepare for the upcoming battles to contest Ocean Blue’s divinity.
But before that, Jiang Qiao had something to deal with.
“Ocean Blue, can our world still be invaded?” Jiang Qiao asked.
“Of course. There are lots of invading planes on the star map, and some invading planes seem to have already found the existence of Bluestar.” Ocean Blue was quite worried about it too.
At this point, there were two ways to resolve this: The first was by sending players to the invading planes to destroy them before they arrived at Bluestar, but that would bring a lot of unforeseeable consequences.
Every plane had different natural laws, and back when Jiang Qiao let players come to the Tower Plane Fragment, Jiang Qiao spent quite a lot of energy to manipulate the natural laws of this plane so that it could be assimilated into the Sacred Soul system.
The invading plane wouldn’t give him the chance to do this.
And so, Jiang Qiao thought of his backup plan.
“Perhaps we should start building an Inner World on Bluestar.”
This was the backup plan that he came to.
“Another new world?! I don’t have so much energy!” Ocean Blue heard that Jiang Qiao was about to create a new world, and she bristled up like an angry cat.
“Not creating a whole new world, but an inner world based on the natural laws of Bluestar…Well, it’s hard to explain, but more of this later when we get offline. Your ginger lobster is here.”