21st December, 7 in the morning.
[The third and final stage of the training is for you to feel and grasp the intent of any medium that contains knowledge. There are carved stones, tablets, scrolls, books, symbolic language carved platforms, and everything else you see in this hall.]
[Do not touch them. You must feel their intent, hear their whispers, and grasp their knowledge. Depending on your performance during this stage, the starting rank of your passive skill—Whispering Knowledge—will be determined as this stage is the most important.]
‘What the actual fuck?’ Almond was dumbfounded.
…
Meanwhile, the grand meeting once again began as Rudra sat in his chair with a huge screen in front of him with small sections, each showing the top guild leaders, old monsters, and other top heads of families and organizations.
“The auction list is here. I won’t publicize the effects of items, but only their appearance, name, and rank.”
“That’s better. We don’t want anyone to find their effects after buying them.”
“That’s right.”
“I’d also buy some for research if they catch the eye.”
“Indeed. The legendary items are quite complex and have much knowledge in them that we can extract in regards to mana applications and crafting.”
Admiral Rudra saw everyone’s expression and internally snickered. He knew their jaws would drop once they saw the list of items.
“That said, I think we should start the auction on 25th December, morning,” Viktor Volkov said while caressing his thick beard.
“I agree,” Bianca Moretti nodded. “The monthly event of the Labyrinth is going to be announced and start on the 25th, we’ll likely get the notification at seven in the morning. Once the auction concludes and some of us are armed with new legendary items that Rudra promised to put on the auction, we’ll be able to perform better in whatever event the Labyrinth throws at us.”
“Indeed. Rudra, you told me there’d be a Legendary sword,” Silvester grinned. “I’m gonna buy.”
“You have no chance unless there’s two of them,” Hiroshi Ryugiri calmly quipped in.
“Dream on, old fart.”
“Just stating a fact.”
“Alright, here’s the list. You all take a look first,” Rudra posted the list, seeing the duo begin to bicker.
Everyone’s eyes went to the panel with a list of items, their names, appearance, and rank.
And in the next second, everyone’s eyes flickered with surprise and shock.
“Old man, so many items?!” Aryan was dumbfounded.
“Admiral Rudra, this number of Legendary Gear sets… it’s crazy…”
“An SS-rank skill stone that can let someone learn the skill instantly?”
“That’s big!”
“It seems that Heroic Challenge’s rewards are way more than what we initially assumed.”
“If this is on the sale, then what else rewards they must have gotten?
Every single person’s mind was shifted to the Heroic Challenge from the list because that was the one thing that produced these powerful, high-ranking items and much more that ate away at their curiosity and ignited their desire and greed to have the same.
What other kinds of rewards does Heroic Challenge give?
Some of them already knew about Advanced Skill Scrolls because of other party members who showed it to their guild and clan after returning.
“A party of my clan tried something yesterday, but they couldn’t invoke that Heroic challenge on the 7th Floor,” Theo Gabris said while shaking his head before saying a faint smile. “Rudra, how about you disclose the information on how to invoke that challenge to me privately, considering our old friendship?”
“Indeed, it’s better if more people can succeed in getting rewards and becoming powerful,” Lemur Peng said with a sharp grin. “This information should be public.”
Lemur Peng ran one of the biggest companies of adventurer products like potions and items and adventurer training centers through different cities. The company ran with the backing of five top 30 families, three guilds of the top 20, and the 9th rank Lightstrike Guild.
“I have to agree with Lemur, Admiral Rudra,” Ruyi Hexing, the leader of the 2nd rank Blackstar, said with a faint smile. “We would greatly appreciate the information.”
More people spoke in agreement, as all of them wanted to eat the bountiful cake that was Heroic Challenge.
“I hear you all,” Admiral Rudra nodded calmly, his expression deadpan. “As of the moment, only Almond’s party receives the invitation to Heroic Challenge. Some of your members are in his party, as you know, as well.”
“But brats also don’t know. They just know it appears because of Almond.”
“Indeed, we wish to know what he did to receive the Heroic Challenge option.”
Admiral Rudra conjured an envelope with his Mana and showed it to everyone, “This envelope contains the information.”
Everyone’s eyes focused on it.
“But you just produced it with your Mana…”
“…”
“Indeed,” Admiral Rudra nodded. “It’s empty for now, but this envelope will be presented as an item to buy in the auction. Inside this will be the information on conditions required to receive the Heroic Challenge invitation.”
“Damn, you crafty bastard. You want to play that game?”
“Admiral, why don’t you just share it?”
Rudra crushed the envelope as it scattered and smiled, “You can buy it and then release the information to the public.”
“Since you all talked about generosity on how we should share the information, I’m sure one of you big-hearted fellows will buy it and release the information.”
“…”
“…”
“Alright, the meeting is adjourned. The auction building will be constructed in two days by GAA in Firefly City’s northwest ocean bay. You all do whatever publicity you can and get sellers if you want to. We’ll discuss this in tomorrow’s meeting.”
…
Admiral Rudra turned off the monitor as he got up.
“Astra, show me the research progress on Almond’s flying ship. How is it going?”
“Very well. I’ve made a rough blueprint of the ship and am now adding the structural and formative details as per the research team’s progress in analyzing its magic formation, engine, and function runes. In my estimation, we will extract all details in the next 19 hours.”
“Good. Make sure the team gets enough rest and energy. It’s fine if it takes a bit more time.”
“Understood.”
But just as he was about to begin his daily training session, an alarm rang, accompanied by Astra AI’s voice.
“Admiral, a meteoroid impact just entered our earth’s mesosphere. It’s coming down at 71 kilometers per second, and it will crash in the Frozen Tundra sector in approximately 62 seconds based on atmospheric factors and the high surface of Frozen Tundra.”
“The meteoroid will survive based on its size and crudely estimated structure definition and result in a meteorite of some unique material.”
“The impact is going to break the frozen tundra and affect the ocean belt of the planet. I’ve started calculation of tsunami chances at coastal areas and other factors that could affect population due to weather.”
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“We couldn’t detect this coming in?” Rudra frowned.
“Yes, we couldn’t, Admiral. This has never happened before.”
“Something’s wrong.” Rudra’s guts churned. “Scan it, photo it. I want all the details since it entered the atmosphere.”
There was no chance of stopping that meteoroid from crashing because Frozen Tundra was one of the highly affected areas by magic, and its atmosphere was dangerous enough. Sending even the closest guild there would take an hour.
Meanwhile, the rats had already arrived at the Frozen Tundra and were at a certain mountain digging holes to find something according to the emissary’s instruction.