Endless Extraction in a Game-Like World-Chapter 27: The Sudden Game Mode Triggered! Discovering Tier 1 Maple Town
He took it back, his luck was incredibly good today, wasn’t it?
First, he had managed to acquire excellent loot from a treasure chest along with a rare, unseen treasure map. Then managed to experience a talent resonance!
Resonance and merging were extremely rare occurrences.
A player usually needed a highly expensive Merge Crystal to do such a thing, and even then,
it only worked for skills, not Talents.
"So my SSS-Rank talent can actively merge other extracted talents," Caelus muttered thoughtfully.
As expected of an SSS-Rank Extraction Talent. It had so many hidden functions. From extracting pure combat experience to seamlessly merging talents. Wasn’t he already getting a little too overpowered?
Caelus could not help but sigh in deep emotion.
He had been ridiculed his entire life for having an E-Rank affinity. But he had directly bypassed that fatal flaw by extracting powerful talents from others!
Of course, the harsh penalty on his combat score while using magic still existed. All of his attacks that heavily utilized mana hit for two full combat score points less. But his base combat score was naturally so high now that the difference was not actually that significant.
Still, he did not want to stay cursed with an E-Rank Mana affinity forever.
He wanted to quickly increase his natural affinity, and for that, Caelus already had a working plan. If his theory was correct, he could extract affinities too.
If he could extract pure combat experience and raw talents, then what was stopping him from extracting a target’s affinity? He had already decided to actively test this theory out on the right target.
But for now, his current plan was to acquire the resources strictly necessary for the Level 2 Cabin upgrade. He swiftly moved forward and took the physical saber teeth from the tiger carcasses. They had two massive fangs each, and by harvesting from all five beasts, he perfectly managed to get the required ten.
"Good. Now comes the Ironwood," Caelus noted.
He slowly turned towards the northeast. In the distance, there was a densely packed forest area shrouded in a mysterious, thick fog. It stood out prominently within this vast, rocky grassland.
Since that was his target, Caelus directly rushed towards the foggy zone. Time passed swiftly, and he soon arrived at the tree line. The area held strange, silver-colored trees with vibrant pink branches and leaves.
"These should be the Mana-Infused Ironwood trees," Caelus smiled brightly.
But just as quickly, Caelus became deeply confused.
"How am I going to actually get the logs? Do I have to manually chop them down and cut them neatly into lumber?"
He had absolutely no idea how to properly process wood. But then, a brilliant idea struck him. He swiftly stepped forward and placed his bare hand directly against the silver bark of a tree.
[System: Extraction Successful.]
[System: You have obtained 10x Mana-Infused Ironwood Logs.]
"It actually worked." Caelus heaved a heavy sigh of relief.
Thank God, or else he might have had to spend hours here awkwardly chopping down trees and whittling them into usable logs.
As the massive tree in front of him vanished into particles of light after the extraction, he immediately turned to the nearby ones and began spamming his talent.
[System: You have obtained 10x Mana-Infused Ironwood Logs.]
[System: You have obtained 10x Mana-Infused Ironwood Logs.]
[System: You have obtained 10x Mana-Infused Ironwood Logs.]
[System: You have obtained 10x Mana-Infused Ironwood Logs.]
After the repeated extractions, there was only one material left to gather. Refined Stone Blocks.
Considering this entire second area was naturally very rocky, he should in theory be able to get them by using the exact same extraction process!
Caelus wasted no more time. He shot forward deeper into the zone. There had to be a more concentrated rocky region ahead, and since he already knew exactly what was behind him in the open plain, pushing forward was his best decision.
Swoosh!
His figure blasted out of the foggy woods, and after traveling a bit further into the rocky terrain, he found the perfect spot and immediately began extracting.
[System: You have successfully obtained 10x Refined Stone.]
[System: You have successfully obtained 10x Refined Stone.]
[System: You have successfully obtained 10x Refined Stone.]
[System: You have successfully obtained 10x Refined Stone.]
[System: You have successfully obtained 10x Refined Stone.]
[System: You have successfully obtained 10x Refined Stone.] 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮
"It is complete." Caelus heaved a sigh of relief.
And the best part was that he directly received the Refined Stones instead of raw stones!
His talent was OP!
At the same time, his attention was drawn to something not too far from his current location. There was a hidden cave, and a pristine white screen of light completely blocked his vision from seeing inside.
Without a single ounce of hesitation, he went right in.
If there was a white light, there must be a treasure! This was a logic he came up with just now, but who cared? What mattered was that there might be a rare chest waiting inside!
But as he stepped through the barrier, he suddenly descended into somewhere he completely did not expect.
It turned out to be a bustling, paved street?
There were tall buildings that looked like they came straight out of an era even older than the Victorian age. Wooden carts, busy merchants, and playing children roamed around the lively streets. If he looked straight ahead, the main road led directly to a massive floating crystal resting atop a grand stone foundation.
Caelus was completely dumbfounded.
"Did I accidentally manage to reach a hidden NPC area?" He looked around in pure amusement. The locals were giving him strange side-glances as they walked past him, treating him like a complete anomaly.
He looked behind him. Indeed, he was not mistaken. He had stepped through some sort of invisible boundary. He swiftly took a look at his system map. He was now on the extreme opposite side of the second area.
And on the map, glaring golden words appeared.
[Location Discovered: Maple Town (Tier 1 Town)]
As soon as those words registered on his map, a string of new quests was violently initiated.
[System: Quest Updated!]
[Objective 3: Gain the trust of the Maple Town NPCs and convince them to migrate to your personal town as its first citizens (0/1)]
[Reward: Calculated after completion.]
Just as quickly, an entirely separate, urgent event quest popped up.
[System: Sudden Event Triggered!]
[Event Quest: Participate in protecting the Town Heart from the fierce beast invasion Game Mode. (0/1)]
"A Game Mode." Caelus immediately became highly serious.
Just as quickly as the prompt appeared, loud sounds of panic and blaring alarm bells echoed throughout the peaceful town.
"Everyone! Run! It is a beast tide! They have breached the outer walls!" an armored guard screamed at the top of his lungs. "They are heading straight for the Town Heart! If the crystal gets destroyed, our entire town will be broken to bits!"
As the helpless civilians and merchants panicked and ran around like headless chickens seeking shelter, Caelus was incredibly quick to move.
A Game Mode. It was an incredibly rare world event that randomly appeared in the Domain. It had strict, absolute rules that players had to follow, and after successful completion, participants received all sorts of unique, high-tier rewards from the system.
And didn’t this specific Game Mode initiation appear at the absolute perfect time?
While heroically protecting the town, he could easily gain the absolute trust of the civilians here. Then, he could confidently recruit them back to his own settlement and establish a highly lucrative trade route.
With this, not only would the final objective to become the Town Leader be cleared, but he would also gain a dedicated population strictly under his name!
Swish!
With a crackle of blue lightning at his feet, he swiftly managed to reach the central fountain area where the glowing crystal hovered.
Roar! Screech!
By the time he reached the plaza, he quickly realized his precarious situation. There were four main avenues directly connecting to the fountain in the center of the city. And from all four directions, a tidal wave of massive Saber-Toothed Tigers and vicious Purple Rodents began to pour into the square.
