Ryonen rushed forward towards the Hobgoblin settlement.
He glanced at the two iron gauntlets of Mid-grade First-order quality and frowned in disdain. From the satchel on his waist he took out the storage bag given by the Saint and brought out the coin case.
There were three dozen imperial coins neatly placed in it. The currency of the empire has long since been digitized and these coins are no longer in circulation. They are all treated as precious antiques by some people.
He grabbed two coins from it and slammed the two on his iron gauntlets.
As soon as he did so a flowing light enveloped the items and mysterious words were engraved on it. The next moment all the changes disappeared and it returned to the ordinary appearance it previously had.
If an Artifact Refiner of this Azure Planet had witnessed it then no doubt they would scream in disbelief as to how it suddenly reached the level of a Holy Weapon!
Only those who are proficient in the craft could see the shocking changes brought by that mysterious light. The ordinary iron gauntlets had actually hidden all its splendor as the highest level weapon of this world.
Ryonen nodded in satisfaction after the upgrade and put aside the coin case and storage bag he previously took out. Now that a fine weapon, at least in this realm's standard, was in his hand he should be able to enjoy the fight.
His rampant charge has been discovered by the patrolling wolves and sentries on the watchtower. A number of arrows broke through the night wind and headed to his location while the wolf monsters howled as they ran towards him with a face full of ferocity.
Ryonen snorted coldly and kept his pace unchanged. A faint layer of translucent light enveloped his entire body. The arrows hit him one after another but it failed to pierce the light layer sticking on his clothes and exposed body parts. The fastest wolf monster has arrived in front of him and lunged forward with a bloody mouth.
He plainly punched forward.
Boom!
Monster's head exploded in a blood mist!
There was no obstacle of flesh or bone. It was as if he punctured a water balloon that had no resistance factor. With the first wolf dying instantly its remaining companions who were a step behind hurriedly tried to pause in their charge.
There's something wrong with this human!!
All the wolves thought but unfortunately Ryonen had no intention to dilly-dally with these pups. He stimulated the absorbed Cosmium on his body and made some of it circulate in his legs.
His speed suddenly increased by a notch and he appeared in front of the nearest unlucky one like a ghost. This wolf didn't even understand what happened to it. It faintly saw the human suddenly disappear and then a whistling shadow covering its field of vision.
Bang!
It died in confusion.
Ryonen was like the wind of death. Everytime his figure paused, an explosion of blood mist would appear in front of him. Less than four breaths of time all the wolf monsters are dead and the sentries on the watchtower were petrified from utter shock and fear.
They were frantically shooting arrows throughout the process but it was so difficult to lock on the target which was flickering on and off. Even if one of them was lucky enough to hit the intruder the arrow couldn't pierce this human's body.
Ryonen had already clashed with the Hobgoblin warriors who came in front of the main gate after being alerted. One of the warriors with a broad sword slashed at him while another chopped at his head with a battle axe.
His response to these attacks were also simple.
Clang! Clang!
He directly punched at the swinging metals and deflected the attack. The sheer recoil from his punch made the warriors drop their weapons.
This change was enough for Ryonen to harvest their lives. After deflecting the attack he kicked at the chest of the Hobgoblin warrior who had the battle axe.
Boom!
Chunks of flesh and blood splattered and the warrior died with eyes wide open!!
The remaining warrior was horrified and instinctively tried to retreat. Unfortunately, a whistling sound came from behind and a head floated in the air.
The warrior was decapitated.
Ryonen successfully entered the gate and began his next round of slaughter.
Xar and the three watched the battle in the distance with some amazement. This guy really knows how to fight! Simple but effective. This was the evaluation that popped up in their mind.
Xar got a good understanding of his quality as an evolver through this fight. He had to say that Ryonen was very talented in the art of close combat. Every move he made was targeted towards highest efficiency and the entire rhythm of the battle was firmly grasped by him.
Sure enough, they are worthy prodigies personally introduced by Saint Luskey.
Xar patiently waited. The scenes inside could no longer be seen from this distance. He was waiting for him to finish up and give them a call.
The cries and shouts from afar became less and less. The night wind was a bit chilly and the clouds hid the full moon.
A quarter of an hour later, the metal badge vibrated.
Xar took it out and looked at the simple message: "All clear" that appeared on the side where the party name was engraved. This metal badge not only serves as the Adventurer License identity card but also as the simple communicator for short distance communication.
"Let's go. He is done over there."
He said as he walked ahead. The three followed behind. Xar hasn't forgotten that there is something in this quest that pointed to Dazzling White road so he was extra keen on checking the surroundings as he moved forward.
While thinking of the possibilities the peculiarity of this world came to his mind.
The secret realm of Azure Planet has an odd background.
This realm was originally on the path of science and technology development. The modern era of this realm had already progressed to the point where they began to experimentally build houses on the moon. This was actually a century ago before the Great Catastrophe, as called by the locals, that swept through the entire planet.
There was a VRMMORPG that became a global hit. The name of this game was "Unending Adventure" with the setting of adventurer parties clearing monsters, exploring labyrinths and fighting against the Demon Lord's army.
This simple gameplay ended up becoming a global hit purely because it was the first VRMMORPG produced successfully in Azure Planet. The gameplay itself was not important but the significance of that status is.
What no one ever thought was that just after a month of its release the world gradually began to change. It wasn't abrupt. First, some strange animals were discovered by various countries' governments and then many materials such as crystal ore veins were found one after another.
At first, the government wanted to keep the matter a national-level secret and wanted to monopolize the new resources to better arm themselves or go leaps and bounds in their domestic technological fields but later the spies planted by them in other countries eventually discovered the same situation happening on the neighbors side.
This shocked them greatly and after more careful investigation they finally found that this phenomena wasn't particular in one specific region of the continent but it was happening throughout the world. Alarmed, there were full-scale research teams and investigation groups that finally found some determining factors with the then found resources and animals.
They were all obscure things coded in the game "Unending Adventure"!!
Four months later, when the governments throughout the world were cooperating with each other secretly and still haven't made any decisions to make the matter public or shut down the game, monsters appeared and along with those monsters came the Demon Lord's army.
Next part was nothing but a tragic war described as the Great Catastrophe where humanity's proud thermal weapons and even nuclear weapons which were treated as a trump card became a joke in front of the Demon Lord's army.
Demon Lord, the final boss, didn't even bother showing up but his Four Demon Generals directly massacred cities after cities, countries after countries. Even when nuclear weapons were used in desperation on one of the Demon Generals it couldn't even be launched and was directly blown up from a distance through unknown methods used by the opponent.
Humanity of Azure Planet despaired!
What's the point of a trump card which can't even be used!? Sure enough, everytime nuclear weapons were decided to be launched it faced the same situation where it was directly blown up before it could set off.
All the programmers, designers, producers and basically all personnel related to that game were detained by the government of the home country as early as when the first abnormalities source was discovered. When the Demon Lord's army attacked and monsters appeared most of the people had already figured out that "Unending Adventure" had somehow descended in reality.
What kept the general public confused was how the governments of those powerful countries still haven't come up with a strategy to deal with the threats by consulting with the development team of the game.
Here's the second blow that humanity suffered in the Great Catastrophe: All of the development team members and also their families and even pets have turned into ashes simultaneously in the very next hour after the detention!!
This was an incredible event for the humans of that year. After all, they still haven't learned, magic, as they called it. Obviously, the final boss or someone related had taken action. The puzzling thing was that Demon Lord's army was actually lurking since earlier even though they possessed such terrifying strength.
With the erasure of such a vital asset humans found that they could only deal with this matter in a conventional manner.
Pulling the game out of the market or cutting off the servers no longer had any effect. They could only go to war. Of course, it wasn't all hopeless. With the arrival of this game, "mana" in the air became detectable but as the concentration increased electronic equipment or anything non-mana related became either unusable or greatly unstable.
Since the game completely became integrated with the reality of the world then obviously various settings related to players also became available to humans. Leveling up by hunting down monsters, exploring the secrets of labyrinths and completing quests that became available with the arrival of game NPC's, adventurers became mainstream and the hope of humanity's survival.
Because thermal weapons and nuclear missiles were ineffective most of the land in the only continent of this world was occupied by the Demon Lord's faction while the rest were divided by very strong monsters and NPC factions. Native humans were forced to live in underground bunkers or hidden shelters in some remote mountains.
That being said, humans are tenacious creatures.
By fully optimizing the game knowledge they soon began to level up sneakily and accumulated strength. Many years later, when over a dozen S-rank adventurers appeared in the shelters the counterattack began. Holy Weapons were used by the S-rank adventurers who were the limit of this secret realm and the previously undefeatable Demon Lord's army suffered heavy losses, only the peripheral soldiers though.
Any strong monsters or hostile NPC factions were eradicated one after another and humanity reclaimed a decent size of territory for their development. Just as everyone was thinking that they would charge towards the center of the continent and uproot the Demon Lord's castle, the Demon Lord who never appeared in public finally made a move.
A huge palm fell from the sky!!
More than 80% of human territory that was just captured earlier was pulverized. It was unknown how many people died in the originally dwindling human population but in history it was clearly recorded that only two S-rank adventurers were able to keep their lives, all other died under that palm.
If not for the fact those two were especially focused on defense as they increased in level and their Holy Weapons were also forged towards that direction then the result could only be imagined. Horrified, the two seriously injured S-rank adventurers quickly took as many humans as they could before reverting back to the lifestyle of living in hidden shelters in some remote mountains.
The Demon Lord was too strong! Though no one completed the game before the Great Catastrophe, it shouldn't be so strong in the original setting, right?
After learning a bitter lesson, humans no longer dared to overreach even if dozens of S-rank adventurers appeared in later years. They honestly developed quietly in the corner of the continent and at a later date cleared out the nearby monster nests and those hostile but weak NPC factions.
They obviously got some understanding of the Demon Lord's temperament.
As long as they didn't make too much noise like they did in that year or tried to head towards the center of the continent then this terrifying being was typically indifferent towards the human race. The first war against humans was purely because the entire continent was occupied by human countries and the later palm was because S-rank adventures brazenly showed their malicious intention.
The fact that this Demon Lord didn't massacre the entire race which dared to provoke him despite insufficient strength was already a great form of mercy or so Xar and other Pangaea humans thought after learning this secret realm's century old history!
In the Cosmic Sea, complete annihilation of one's race is very common when certain idiots provoked a strongman. When you are weaker than the opponent, be humble! This is the cruel reality and solid fact known to all those who are sensible enough in that universe.
Either it be revenge or some payback it's only possible when you have the bigger fist!