Rise Of The Infinite Sovereign-Chapter 399: Alchemist Tomb

The sudden change in atmosphere had Ezra moaning in delight as energy filled his pores.

The look in his eyes changed as he beheld the surroundings.

The soil was an endless grassland, vast patches of rich green plants spread as far as the eye could see.

In the distance he could see buildings spread far apart.

Built in exactly the same format, they looked like huts built with concrete and painted a plain butter cream color.

Each building was only large enough to have one room, which was where the pills were kept.

’It’s exactly as described’ Ezra thought.

The Alchemist’s Tomb is a secret realm that opens once every year for two weeks before closing.

It is presumably built by a Constellation-rank being who was also a Grandmaster Alchemist to preserve his legacy and act as a fertilizer for the growth of later generations.

Placing the same one room building across the endless plains, he then placed puppets in front of them to guard them and also act as trials for those who wanted his treasures.

Each puppet is said to have the origin energy capacity of a rank five Transcendent at the very least.

When added to their other skills, each puppet holds the power of at least a rank six Transcendent, sometimes even a half-step Nascent.

To get the treasure, one must first defeat the puppets, which are programmed to kill any invader.

This is why the Transcendents are scattered into groups upon entry, as very few Transcendents can fight the puppets one on one.

In cases where one bypassed the puppet and stole the treasure, the puppet would then subsequently chase after them until it killed them.

A look in all directions revealed that he was the first one to have arrived at this particular destination.

’Should I wait for others to arrive?’ he wondered.

’No’ he shook his head.

Ezra still wanted to fight the puppets one on one to ascertain his chances.

’If it’s truly not possible to do it alone, there should be no problem joining a group at that point’

Decided, Ezra took to his feet, racing off.

Just as he began running, he sensed a presence behind him.

Taking a glance behind, he saw a forming apparition.

Someone else had arrived.

Instantly, he activated <Universal Concealment> and picked up the pace, passing by the first few buildings in his way.

They were without guards, which meant someone had already killed the guards stationed there and most likely taken the treasure.

He also didn’t want those he left behind to see him going against the guards.

Running for a bit, Ezra tried to take flight but his legs rose no more than three inches from the ground.

Ezra nodded, expecting it.

’Flying restriction confirmed’

He picked up the pace even more, racing past multiple buildings with guards in front of them, intent on heading deeper where fewer people would wander to.

Although, he didn’t dismiss the chance that others could have the same idea as him.

It is speculated that the further away one travels in this secret realm, the more powerful the guards become, though that is argued to be untrue by many who claimed to have met very powerful guards not far from their starting point.

Still, those who tread deep enough to reach Ezra should be of outstanding prowess.

In the first place, ninety five percent of the Transcendents that entered were either of rank five or rank six as very few rank fours attempted it.

"Whoo"

Even after running at full speed for ten minutes straight, he didn’t see any sign of an end in sight.

’Like Musad said, the place seems endless’

Stopping to relax his lungs, Ezra got into a lotus position and began meditating, using energy to revitalize his stamina.

With the entire place filled with origin energy, the process took little time.

Getting up, Ezra places a <Gatemark> on the floor.

This was one of the things he looked forward to testing out, but only after the secret realm closed in two weeks. freeweɓnovel.cѳm

After all, wouldn’t he just be a joke if he exited the secret realm now only to discover he can’t get back in?

Until the secret realm closed, Ezra would only focus on grabbing treasures.

’Now then’ Ezra stretched his arms, walking towards the building nearest to him.

Upon getting within three meters of the building, a seal in the ground lit up and the puppet’s face snapped in his direction, staring.

This let Ezra properly examine the puppet.

Made of metal, probably some kind of alloy, its body gleamed and shone.

Though shaped like a human, the puppet held only two beady eyes on its face while its forearms and hands were shaped as swords rather than fists.

Its feet were simple slabs of metal outlined in the shape of a human’s foot.

Ezra took out a large one handed ax and walked forward, the seal’s outline receding.

This was the weapon Musad lent him.

Stepping within two meters of the puppet, its eyes let off a red glow and it charged at him without a word.

Ezra held his stance, awaiting the imminent clash.

*Kang!*

The two swords hit his ax and the floor below his feet cracked.

’Powerful’ Ezra acknowledged.

With a groan, Ezra pushed the swords back and slashed at its exposed belly, to which the puppet promptly retreated, earning a small scratch instead of a large gash.

’But slow’

Using his higher speed, Ezra arrived behind it, swinging his ax to split the puppet apart in one go.

In that instant, the puppet turned its upper body to meet his attack, parrying with both of its sword arms before retreating once more.

Aiming to finish the fight quickly, Ezra attacked again, but this time he used a feint to make the puppet respond before subsequently freezing its movements with ice.

With its movements sealed, Ezra struck, this time tearing deep into the puppets skin.

Unfortunately, the attack was not enough to take it down as it broke out of the ice soon after, distancing itself a third time.

’Tch’

Ezra went at it again with the same tactic, but this time the puppets heated up his body to repel the ice.

Retreating, it reduces its distance to the building as cover for its back that had been breached.

Ezra was annoyed.

’If I could use <Universal Concealment>, this battle would already be over’

Then he paused.

’Can’t I?’

Normally, stealth techniques are canceled once near the building as an effect of the seal in the ground.

But the seal was made by a Constellation, whereas his <Universal Concealment> was a Sovereign skill.

Thinking about it, Ezra activated <Universal Concealment> and vanished right in front of the puppet.

’It worked’ Ezra cheered, channeling energy into the ax as he closed in on the puppet.

Met with such a situation, the puppet could only look in every direction multiple times, confused.

The seal itself soon deactivated after not being able to sense Ezra, rendering the puppet dormant.

Just as the puppet entered its dormant state, Ezra struck.

The upper and lower body split cleanly.

Done, Ezra released the skill, reappearing in front of the building before pushing the metal door open.

Entering, he found it lit up with a yellow orb hanging at the top.

Its size was, as speculated, not big enough to accommodate Ezra if he wanted to lay flat on the ground.

But his rewards awaited him without fail.

A tall but small table stood at the room’s center, hosting a small black box on top of it.

Twice as big as one you would use to hold a wedding ring, it was deep black with a small Dragon logo stamped in yellow on it.

Prying it open, a lovely fragrance engulfed Ezra’s nostrils, followed by the sight of a pill with pinkish hue resting on a small red cushion.

Thankfully, the name of the pill was written in black on a small patch of white paper glued to the stool.

"Energy Purification pill hmmmm"

Nodding, Ezra closed the box and placed it in his space ring.

Normally, it would’ve been better to use this pill to strengthen himself before challenging another puppet, but with <Universal Concealment> as a sure fire method to defeat the puppets, Ezra was determined to grab as many pills as possible during the next two weeks!

Excited, Ezra raced to the nearest building nearby while keeping his energy active at all times to spot anyone nearby.

Reaching the next building, Ezra activated <Universal Concealment>.

Just as before, the seal did not activate and the puppet remained dormant, allowing Ezra an easy win with one strike to the head.

This puppet was larger than the last ones and its hands were halberds instead of swords, proving it would’ve been quite the opponent in a proper fight.

But what did that matter?

They were strong in their active state, but much weaker in their dormant state, so dispatching them while they were off duty is a much simpler matter, and Ezra was never one to complain about having advantages.

’That aside, I should thank Musad more when I get out of here’ Ezra thought.

’This ax is really well made’

Entering the building, he found that it looked the same.

The yellow light covered the stool that stood at the center of the building holding a small black box with a Dragon logo, but the pill held a light blue hue this time.

"This one is a Soul Concentration pill. They’re different"

Ezra frowned.

This posed a conundrum.

While for now he had only taken two pills, if he continued to pile them in his space ring like this...

’How am I going to differentiate them later?’

Ezra scratched his head.

Taking the case, he broke the table, prying up the platform where the name was pasted to.

’Now, how do I stick it together?’ he wondered, looking at the case and the wooden platform.

[Use metal]

"Zydrax, you’re here!" Ezra exclaimed.

[Of course I am. Where else would I be?] he replied.

Shaking his head with a smile, Ezra got back on topic.

"What do you mean by metal?"

[Exactly that. Melt the alloy of the puppet and use it to stick them together]

"Oh!"

Enlightened, Ezra nodded.

"I’ll do that"

Grasping the overall picture, he moved quickly.

Using the ax to pry off a small piece of the puppet’s metal skin, Ezra heated it up and melted it onto the wooden board.

He then placed the case atop the pool of simmering metal before rapidly cooling it off and thus making it stick.

With a solution found, Ezra was about to head to another building when Zydrax stopped him.

[Take that puppet with you]

Ezra shook his head.

’If I put that in my space ring, it’ll be filled in no time’

[Do I have to remind you that you can induct them into your universe?]

’That won’t work-’

Zydrax cut him off.

[If <Universal Concealment> works fine, why do you still think the rest won’t work?]

’That...’ Ezra was lost for words.

Why did he still think that?

Placing a hand on the puppet, Ezra activated <Absolute Induction> and a familiar scene occurred.

The space around the puppet rippled before it then disappeared.

’It does work’ Ezra confirmed.

He wondered whether to head back to obtain the body of the last puppet he killed, but shook his head, that was a waste of time.

Instead, with his win against puppets practically guaranteed, Ezra raced deeper in.

He couldn’t tell exactly how the secret realm was constructed, but wasn’t it likely that the pills placed further in would be of higher quality on average?

In any case, he had confirmed that he wouldn’t be needing any teammates, so there was no need to stay in a place that others could arrive at.

As he ran, Ezra decided to only clear out the buildings nearest to the path he was traveling.

Each building held a substantial amount of space between them so it could take a whole day to clear out the buildings placed on the same line, not because of the puppets but because of the distance involved.

Without much threat from puppets, Ezra was no longer frugal with his energy, using it lavishly to shorten his travel time instead.

He soon reached the next line of buildings.

As planned, he went invisible once near them and dispatched the puppet in one strike.

Taking the pill, he pried off a piece of the puppet’s skin, preferably from a part he’d cut off earlier.

He then melted it and used it to glue the pill to the wooden platform holding the description, before placing it in his space ring, thereafter sending the puppet’s body to his universe with <Absolute Induction>

It was roughly five minutes of work per house.

Elated, Ezra rushed to the next one, doing the same thing, but this time he did things a bit differently as per Zydrax’s request.

Instead of dispatching the puppet, he simply passed it by to open the door, to which nothing happened.

Upon taking the elixir though, the yellow light in the building started flashing red.

"Hmm?"

Ezra watched as the puppet barged in, its eyes glowing red.