A week later, Draco and Eva left the mountain cave with satisfied expressions. Their faces were glowing with radiance, and their hearts were filled with joy and fulfillment as they left behind the trapped Local Lord.
Over the past week, a few NPCs and players who had passed by had been chilled to their souls by the horrific screaming and wailing coming from the mountain. News had spread and the area had eventually been cordoned off as 'Wailing Mountain'.
It had become quite widespread in the Paradise Lands to the point that even the AI had appended the name to the mountain, and now treated it as a level 50-75 Rank 2 dungeon with ghosts.
One man's agony became another robot's content.
Upon exit, they were surprised to find out that the entire terrain had changed. The mountain that had been situated in the midst of a lush valley now had a layer of fog over it, while the formerly lively trees and critters had become both silent and ominous.
From bright green, they had turned a shade darker and the Evil Duo could sense that the monsters below were now different forms of vengeful spirits roaming in the darkness, searching for unsuspecting prey.
It's wasn't hard for the Evil Duo to guess the reason behind all of this, leaving a bitter smile on their faces. Draco turned to Eva and suggested: "We'd best move him out of the cave to avoid him getting trapped in an instance forever that we might not be able to access."
Eva pondered a bit and nodded. "You're right, that's too mild of a punishment for him, but where are we going to seal him then?"
That was a good question. This random mountain had initially been fine because it had been close enough to Vita City that they could rush here in mere seconds, but far enough away that they could put him out of their minds for the longest possible time.
Draco then shrugged. "We can just set something up then."
Eva felt that this was fine too. If they didn't have anywhere specific to house him, they could simply make such a place or have one made, but in the interim…
"I'll use an Advanced Spatial Creation Device to keep him until it's ready." Draco decided, taking out one such device and transferring him over.
As they left the mountain on Luxia's back, the Evil Duo looked over the lovely Paradise Lands below them. Unlike most Area Zones, this place was one of the largest, most fertile, and lushest lands available.
They silently admired the land that was theirs. Soon, it would be time to expand Vita City this far, or even better, turn their player-made settlement outside Vita City into proper towns in cities in order to qualify for promotion to a kingdom.
When Draco and Eva reached the Aether Hall, they dismounted the Light Phoenix and walked into their home with huge smiles. They were quickly welcomed in by Zaine, Hikari, Roma, and co who were happy that they were back.
They knew the Evil Duo had set out to accomplish a task close to their hearts, and were glad to see the two back safe and refreshed.
As Eva was busy contacting Sublime to get her to hire builders to create a sealing tower, Draco sat down on a sofa and began pondering over his future actions.
Making a mental list, the things he needed to accomplish were the following;
- Find the necessary materials to expand the space of his Inner Universe, at least enough so that it could become habitable.
- Upgrade Vita City-State into Vita Kingdom
- Use the five platinum-grade Upgrade Tokens to take 5 buildings to Rank 7
- Create a maritime industry for Umbra using his Privateering Tradeskill
- Explore his two new Legendary Tradeskills, Skill Fusion and Dungeon-Making
- Further his research and work into Divine Tradeskill Refinement
- Reach Rank 3
Draco rubbed his face when he considered that half of his goals would require him to dedicate more of his precious time to his Tradeskills. It wasn't stressful for him, but having spent so much time for them in the midst of the Refinement God's Treasury's objectives had left him feeling stifled.
Draco mentally ordered them in order of importance. First and foremost was getting the necessary materials to expand the inner world, then reach Rank 3, then use the five upgrade tokens, upgrade Vita City into Vita Kingdom, create a maritime industry via Privateering, explore his two new Legendary Tradeskills, and finally research Refinement.
With his priorities set and goals listed, Draco felt energy course through him again. He then gazed at Eva with a light smile, the Celestial Beauty smiling back as she had long understood what he wanted to do.
Zaine, who also had some insight into this thanks to her mental prowess, sat down on Draco's lap as she spoke. "The next Divine Auction will be held 12 days from now. Our own Rank 7 Shop has gathered some of the materials you need, but unfortunately not all of them."
Draco held her supple waist and pulled the succubus closer. "Well done. Contact the shop and have them do the exchange. As for the Divine Auction, Eva and I will personally attend it this time, so reserve a place for us."
Zaine nodded as she got to work. In the meantime, Roma was teaching Rosella how to sense Prana, a green glow surrounding both of them as they concentrated.
As for Loki, the little tyke was currently causing Rila endless troubles, leaving the lovely little tot aggrieved. However, as the big sister, she felt it was her duty to maintain order and take care of her younger siblings.
Hikari was currently in the Anomaly Realm, using the Aether Conversion Orb to pass the time and also getting to know the silver wyrm that had followed her brother home.
Apart from that, Hikari had asked the Rank 7 Shop to place a request for various materials that could help the young wyrm awaken and upgrade into a True Dragon, for she too had sensed the powerful bloodline that made her intrigued.
Draco then headed out with Eva, having decided to browse for resources. Eva first suggested that they check out Shinoka Continent in case they had anything Draco needed. Draco immediately agreed to her suggestion and they both jumped atop Luxia to appear at their destination after 5 flaps.
Upon sensing her counterpart, Amaterasu directly appeared with Tsukuyomi beside her. The Divine Duo hadn't changed much, but this was Draco's first time seeing in-game Amaterasu.
While she did resemble Eva somewhat, he was surprised to find that his bloodline didn't react much. Apart from a bit of bubbling that showed surprise, that was it.
It couldn't be helped, apart from being bonded to the real Eva, the digital Amaterasu was molded from a different version, so apart from Eva and her sharing a soul bond of sorts, Draco felt nothing.
He assumed that if Eva ever met in-game Lucifer, she would similarly feel nothing after an initial surprise, whereas Draco would feel the resonance that existed between two copies of the same thing.
After chatting for a bit, Amaterasu revealed that she did have some of the items Draco was looking for. Draco originally planned to exchange some things for it, but Amaterasu insisted on gifting them to Eva free of charge.
They were basically twins in her eyes, so she didn't see the need to be stingy with herself/her sibling. Not to mention, Eva had helped her greatly by patching her relationship with her husband, so some earthly resources weren't a big deal.
When Draco and Eva left, Draco was left smiling wryly. "Why does the game Amaterasu seem to be a lot more magnanimous than the real one?"
Eva coughed when she heard that, realizing that it was true. Real Amaterasu was a lot more aloof and faux-benevolent, while the game one so far had behaved like a normal Sun Goddess who was also quite kind.
Eva quickly changed the topic. "Right, so what else is left?"
Draco checked. "According to Zaine's list, after the things Amaterasu gave us, we only need three more things to expand the Inner Universe by one grade."
"A 100kg Primal Soil, 100 Seeds of Wind and 300 cubic meters of Soul Energy."
After Draco listed these things, they both frowned. Primal Soil and Seeds of Wind were difficult to acquire because they were typical materials needed to upgrade super mini small worlds into mini small worlds.
It was possible to acquire if they bargained with the Church of Light or the Merchant Guild, but the problem was the amount Soul Energy.
Soul Energy was not exactly difficult to harvest, Draco or Eva could easily slaughter an entire Area Zone and gather the souls into Soul Stones.
But to gather 300 cubic meters? That was a lot.
One Soul Stone contained only a single ounce of Soul Energy. A single ounce was worth 0.0000295735 cubic meters so to reach 300, Draco would need 10,144,217 Soul Stones worth to make the cut.
That clearly wasn't just a little bit. Draco frowned as he pondered his options before Eva gently chuckled as she flipped off Luxia's back since they had reached Cario City.
Draco jumped down after her, gazing at his Celestial Maiden with curiosity. For her to laugh like that, she had likely divined a solution to the problem.
"Well, aren't you pretty much the new Refinement God? Why not Refine the necessary Soul Energy? Or even the resources you need?"
When Eva said this, Draco slapped his forehead as if he had just realized that he was the biggest idiot in the world. He had placed Refinement at the back of his mind since it was incomplete and he had no desire to partake in any Tradeskills anytime soon.
However, this Divine Tradeskill was the answer to all of his problems and had been since day 1. He had the tools and refused to use them because of laziness and dislike.
Draco and Eva landed on the ground, the former smiling bitterly while the latter smiled playfully. Draco could only hang his head low as he entered the Rank 7 Shop after Eva, looking like the whipped man he was.
Until his IQ could return to above C-level, he no longer had the face to hold his head high. After taking three steps though, Draco raised his head and swaggered arrogantly, reminding himself that not thinking about that was not a sign of ignorance, but wisdom!
By letting Eva say it, he was giving his babe a chance to shine! Hahaha, he was so thoughtful kind, and benevolent! Truly, a dream man!
When Eva noticed his thoughts, her victorious smile froze and she nearly tripped as she felt blood welling up in her throat. She could only pat her chest and swallow it back, deciding to never read Draco's thoughts so openly again.
The duo then perused the first five floors idly, shopping for whatever they liked as a couple. When they reached the sixth floor, the serf player in charge, Janet, quickly rushed to greet them and had drinks brought.
Zane had already informed her about the two of them arriving soon, so Janet brought over the trade resources she had acquired and handed them over to her Guildmaster. When Draco asked what he needed to pay, Janet waved her hand and stated that the Guild had already made the necessary trades.
Blinking with surprise, Draco guessed that with the number of resources he got from Norma, there really was nothing he couldn't trade in the main plane.
How could one compare those raw materials that were used to upgrade a super mini small world to one of the Divine Fruits? Or even just the flesh of a Divine Chicken?
Draco had so many of these types of things that he didn't even know what to do with them. This also reminded him of something very important he had to do after upgrading his Inner Universe, which was to use his other Origin Crystal to upgrade and plant the Seed of Yggdrasil.
So much to do!
Draco only spent a little more time in the Rank 7 Shop before leaving with Eva. He wanted to begin work on his final resources and see what he needed to accomplish before achieving his goal.
However, before that, they still had to stop by the Merchant Guild to negotiate for some Primal Soil and Seeds of Wind.
If possible, he also wanted to get some Essence of Water and Essential Tinder, because Refinement required him to know about the properties of what the final product would be before changing it.