In the end, Talia was the only one who rolled 20 right after Natalia rolled 19.
“Tsk. But this is only a matter of time,” Natalia hurrumped.
“Sure, but this one’s mine,” Talia grinned and opened the chest as a bunch of orbs spewed out containing different items, along with a hologram containing the list of rewards.
— 500 Million gold coins.
— 1 x Legendary-rank Gear Set (Low-tier)
— 1 x Legendary-rank one-time use item (low-tier)
— 1 x Epic-rank Gear set (High-tier)
— 2 x Epic-rank one-time use item (high-tier)
— 1 x Random Artifact Box (Tier-2)
— 1 x SS-rank Mystery Box.
— 10 x Insight Stones.
“Holy crap!”
“We are getting a legendary-rank set already?!”
“I don’t think anyone has a freaking Legendary set even outside!”
Everyone was shocked and pleasantly surprised as they read the list of items.
“Putting aside other things, let me distribute the Insight Stones,” Almond said as he waved his hand and grabbed the orb containing ten Insight Stones.
“These stones are good, but their benefits depend on the user,” Almond said as he made the ten stones float in the air. “Inspect them.”
[Insight Stone]
-Rank: Special.
-Effect: Infusing the Mana in the stone will send the user’s consciousness into a mysterious dimension with a specific phenomenon. If the user manages to get an insight into that phenomenon, they may benefit greatly.
“So this is not anything that guarantees a benefit, huh? Interesting,” Kira muttered as she read the effect.
“You have five more from the chest you opened in front of everyone if I remember correctly,” Eliara said.
“Yeah,” Almond nodded. “That makes a total of 15 stones, so I’ll give one to each of you. And I have a suggestion, which I’m not sure if it will work, but there’s no harm in trying it. When using this stone, think of something related to what you want to improve or just imagine something you desire regarding power, skill, or technique. Who knows, the stone might create a phenomenon related to that?”
“Woah, that’s an interesting idea. I will try it,” Kayla said with shining eyes. “I really want to learn Flora elemental mastery since it’s suitable with my primary class.”
“Yep,” Xavier nodded. “That sounds good.”
Everyone was already thinking about what they wanted to do with the stone as Almond handed out the Insight stones.
“Alright, now moving on, let’s open other random boxes,” Almond said as he grabbed the orbs containing the SS-rank Mystery Box and Random Artifact box.
Everyone rolled the dice again to decide who would open it.
Natalia won the unboxing of Mystery Box, while Kayla won the unboxing of Random Artifact.
The Mystery Box gave an SSS-rank Skill Learning Chance stone, a one-time-use item.
[Skill Learning Chance Stone]
-Rank: SSS
-Effect: Infusing the Mana in the stone will send the user’s mind into a phenomenon that displays a random SSS-rank skill for 10 hours.
“A chance indeed. I’m going to keep this stone,” Almond said as he put it inside his storage ring.
Next, Kayla opened the Random Artifact box, and it spewed out a dark green feather with fiery orange patterns.
[Dark Renegade Phoenix Feather]
-Type: Artifact.
-Tier: 2
-Use: one-time use.
-Effect: This feather can be used on a dead body, intact or in pieces, to revive the fallen under some conditions.
—> 1. If the feather is used on the fallen who had died for more than 24 hours, it will revive the fallen only temporarily for 24 hours and also boost the fallen’s overall stats by 50% for the duration.
—> 2. If the feather is used on the fallen who had died for less than 24 hours, it will make a complete revival of the fallen, giving them life once more and also boost their overall stats by 50% for 1 hour.
“This is amazing,” Lily’s eyes glinted.
“Yeah,” Almond nodded.
“That’s freaking broken!” Marcus shouted.
“A revival item…” Kira blinked. “It’s said that the Patel family has a lotus who can do the same, which is why they retreated to a secret location nobody knows since they’ve been attacked a few times by underworld forces who covet their artifact.”
“I heard it wasn’t just the underworld, but some a few other renowned families too who helped them in the dark,” Talia’s eyes glinted. “Well, it’s just a talk, nobody knows for sure because of no evidence.”
“Ahem,” Lily coughed loudly as everyone looked at her, and her smile that looked icy, “I’m sure everyone understands how secret works. The information about this artifact better not go into the ears of anyone not present here.”
“That’s right,” Almond narrowed his eyes. “If that happened, I’d be very disappointed.”
Everyone couldn’t help but wryly smile.
Almond had already checked everyone’s important attributes with his Riftveil Eyes periodically before they entered this area, so he knew that they weren’t such types, but people’s desires and thinking could change based on circumstances, though he believed none of the people present here were foolish enough to disregard him.
He had shown plenty of his power and potential, enough for them to understand that following him was the greatest benefit and opportunity they could ever have.
“I’ll be keeping the Legendary and Epic set, and also the one-time use items. I will distribute them when we meet at the 5th Floor’s floor boss area, but until then, we all don’t need any extra power to explore the 5th Floor. It would just reduce the difficulty and make you reliant on them, which would hamper your real progress instead.”
“True,” Maya nodded, her eyes determined, “In fact, I don’t want any items, even the ones I have right now.”
She took out the Oathbound Gauntlets and gave them to Almond, “I’ll explore the 5th floor with nothing but my skills and combat ability.”
Seeing her, everyone decided to do the same because it was true. If they wanted to get better and perform better in the next Heroic Challenge, they better improve their overall combat ability and their own skills.
“That’s very good,” Almond smiled as he took all the items.
“Now, I’ll open the party chest that we for taking the first rank in the 4th floor Grimworld leaderboard. It will give each of you some kind of reward into temporary storage, which you can access in your status with a new tab.”
“There’s something like that too?” Talia was dumbfounded. “Damn, we are getting so much riches with Heroic Challenge.”
“Hehe, that’s why it’s better to follow Almond,” Natalia cheekily said. “Low effort, high reward.”
“And a high chance of death,” Lily added with a smile.
Everyone weakly smiled.
Almond proceeded to open the Party chest as everyone heard a notification.
[Congratulations. Each member of the party has received a supreme quality assortment of potions and 1 x Advanced Skill Scroll.]
“This scroll again! Let’s fucking go!” Marcus was excited, but rightfully so.
“It’s so good, I wish we could use it right away,” Natalia pouted. “But we can’t. Sad.”
“True,” Maya said while smiling. “But I don’t mind. I’ll use my two scrolls once we exit.”
“What’s so special about this scroll?” Noah curiously muttered as he inspected the scroll.
The others also did the same after taking out the scroll from their temporary storage.
[Advanced Skill Scroll]
-Rank: Special.
-Effect:
—> Upon opening the scroll, a random growth-type skill is generated on it. It could either be an Active skill or a Passive skill.
—> To learn the skill, the user must infuse Mana into the scroll, which would send the consciousness inside in a special dimensional and complete the training tailored to learn the skill.
—> The skill’s starting rank will be determined based on the training result.
Reading the effect, everyone was dumbfounded as well as excited.
“Or hold on, how about I use it right now?” Marcus said as he looked at Almond as if asking for his advice. “The five of us, two each, and I am willing to use one to see how long the training lasts. You are going to rest here for seven or eight, anyway, right?”
“I am, but I’m leaving you behind after I wake up if you aren’t done by then,” Almond said with a heartless smile. “I’m not wasting time needlessly.”
“Fair enough,” Marcus nodded with a firm expression. “I don’t mind, and so I am going to start right away.”
Marcus walked a few meters away and sat down cross-legged.
“Well, thanks for becoming our experimental pig,” Natalia snickered.
Marcus’s lips twitched, but he didn’t respond and used the scroll right away as his consciousness drifted away.
Almond chuckled and said, “Sylvia, transform into the Mother of Nature Tree. Might as well give him a boost since he is using the scroll.”
“Yes, master,” Sylvia smiled.
“Alright, I’ve decided!” Amir said as he thumped his chest. “I’ll join brother Marcus. Even if you are gone by then, we’ll enter the 5th Floor together with an awesome skill in our arsenal.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Almond nodded. “I will start Heroic Boss Challenge 1 one hour before 1st cycle’s end, which means….we have thirty-five hours until I start.”
“Almond,” Xavier said as he frowned, “What if a party started a boss fight before that?”
Almond almost forgot about that as he wryly smiled, “That’s true, we have to do something about it.”
“Indeed,” Lily agreed as she glanced at others. “I say a few of you can leave shortly after recovering here and grab one of the items required for floor boss spawning. We only need to keep one to prevent others from spawning the floor boss.”
“I’m going to rest for a couple of hours first,” Almond said as he turned around and waved his hand, “You all make food and decide who will go after eating.”