Legendary Traveler: By Earning Progress Points I will Become Supreme!-Chapter 244: Expedition to Destinations Unknown (2)
"I love how you casually dropped that you can use chantless magic; however, given the other surprises you dumped on me this morning, I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised." Tossing 9 Low-Grade Energia Crystals into the Array-Bowl, Aoni looked over his shoulder and snorted upon seeing his brother was ignoring him."
Instead, Anthony's attention was solely focused on the nine crystals Aoni had carelessly tossed into the Pylon Bowl.
"Dude…they're just Energia Crystals and not even good ones at that."
THWACK!
"NOT THAT GOOD? Aoni, are you aware that you're tossing away almost 100 thousand CryptoDollars like theyre common rocks?" Smacking Aoni upside the head with enough force that even Nyria felt the vibrations from his shoulder, Anthony scolded.
"But…but they are common for me!" Rubbing the back of his head, even though it didn't hurt in the least, Aoni still defended himself.
Deep down, he was fully aware that each crystal carried a minimum price tag of 10k CD a piece, but they REALLY were common and not even remotely close to the best he had in his collection.
In fact, each of the nine was practically drained of Energia, and apart from using them to activate the Array, they basically had zero use for Aoni.
"Tsk, not even a traveler out of diapers yet and already throwing away money like a spoiled rich kid, Baby brother; I thought we taught you to be better than that."
"Oh shut up, now I know you're fucking with me, Ant! I know damn well you can tell exactly how much Energia remains in these useless crystals. If I were to toss Fully Charged crystals in like this, and word got back to Mom, I'd be a dead man walking. NO THANK YOU SIR!" Rolling his eyes, Aoni reached up and scratched Nyria under her chin before tapping the side of the Array Pylon and activating it.
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With a bright orange flash, the trio of Aoni, Anthony, and Nyria appeared in the mountain peak cave.
"Holy shit, you weren't kidding; this place is FREEZING!"
Of course, the first person to break the silence was Anthony, who immediately ran across the room to a wall-mounted coat rack housing five large hand-crafted coats made by Aoni.
"… yeah, no shit, pretty sure I warned you about that ahead of time, but sure, use one of my jackets, whatever floats your boat." Rolling his eyes and pulling his own jacket out of his inventory, Aoni slipped it on and walked toward the door leading out of the cave.
"By the way, it's only gonna be worse outside, so if you wanna, I don't know, use Energia or something to make the rest of your body warm, go for it." Ignoring the chattering happening across the cave, Aoni and Nyria unlatched the wooden door and stepped out into the fort's courtyard.
{'The tide should be coming soon; go ahead and scope it out for us, Nyria.'} Glancing at the birb, Aoni braced himself as Nyria nodded and jumped off his shoulder, then took to the sky.
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It took Anthony about 5 minutes to acclimate to the frigid temperatures of Aoni's Territory, but once he did and finally left the cave, only then did he head toward the stairs leading to the top of the Fort walls.
"I can't believe you survived your first day. Is it always like this?" Walking up beside Aoni and looking out over the mountain, Ant asked, only to earn himself a chuckle in response.
"Honestly, I don't have a single clue how I did either; all I know is that by the time I woke up that first night after nearly dying, I probably already had my Cold Resistance passive. Oh, fair warning, this is a good day, too."
"Anyway, welcome to Erula, the Land of Snow, Ice, and Mountains as far as the eye can see." Spreading out his arms with a self-mocking gesture, Aoni tilted his head to the side and found the joking and chattering form Anthony had been showing since teleporting up here was long gone and replaced with a look of total seriousness.
"20…30…65…100, Aoni, just from up here I've already located over a hundred monsters over 4-Stars in the surrounding area, but tell me something…what the fuck is that barrier?" Pointing off in the distance, Anthony turned his head and stared directly into his youngest brother's eyes.
"Ah…that…would you believe me if I told you I have no fucking clue how that happened?" Clearing his throat and scratching the back of his head sheepishly, it wouldn't be a lie to say Aoni had completely forgotten that he'd yet to tell his family about the Adaptive barrier.
"Don't even try and play off a 52-circle 5-Star Scaling Anti-Lifeform Barrier as a random occurrence!"
'52 circle 5-Star?????'
| False information: it is much stronger than what Anthony Thurston has surmised, but that isn't surprising considering his strength. The Host should be aware this will be much more difficult to explain than anything else so far; good luck |
'Thanks for nothing, you useless piece of shit chatbox!'
"Well, to be honest, no matter how much I study it, I still haven't been able to come up with any conclusive evidence about how it got there. What I do know is that the moment my Newbie barrier collapsed, this thing randomly appeared, and well, that's how it's been since, just existing."
"Let me make this perfectly clear: if I had any proof that it would still be standing upon my return from Terra last month, I would have long since told you guys about it, but I truly didn't think that would be the case. On the upside, it stops anything stronger than 2-Stars from entering my Territory." Shrugging his shoulders and pleading with his pores not to begin sweating, Aoni stared back into his brother's eyes.
In a sense, his words weren't full of lies, just…Aoni omitted A LOT of information. At the end of the day, he truly had no idea how it was created, just what it was and what it did.
Realistically, the only lie he told was about believing it would vanish; no, on an instinctive level, Aoni was 100% certain this Formation was a permanent fixture.
"I'll say it stops monsters; I honestly am speechless; I've never even seen anything this intricate before. As for whether or not it will break down anytime soon, I have no idea, considering I A) have zero practical experience in reading Formation Arrays, and B) Can't find any type of power source sustaining the thing."
"All I can tell you is that if it hasn't shattered by now, it probably won't any time soon…I think…"
