Two weeks later.
⠀
On the 45th Plateau, the Garden of Hesperides, the only thing one could see thousands of meters to the horizon was a magnificent and natural garden of all sorts of flowers and plants. It is a place devoid of any trees and where only enchanting and beautiful greenery resides amid limpid rivers.
Somewhere on it, in a field of tall grass, Allan ran after a rabbit with incredibly longs legs. He nearly caught up to it and tried to tackle it… only for it to accelerate and jump over dozens of meters.
"That little-!" The blond grumbled as he pushed himself back on his feet. "Who designed this damn Trial?! And who thought it was a good idea to implement it?!"
"Definitely someone who's out for you," Marie kidded as she watched from the sidelines with the rest of the group.
Allan groaned as the rabbit turned around and stuck out its tongue. "Little shit…" He clicked his tongue and rechecked the rules of the Trial.
'Can't use magic or items… this is freaking rigged,' he complained silently and slowly circled around the rabbit. "I blame this on you, Rak! If you had finished making out the formation for Flash Step, I would already be done with this."
Rakna snorted, Allegro covering his body but without the hood and Scherzo. "Even if I had already cracked it, I would have needed time and materials to make one card. Blame your luck for not getting any movement skills until now."
"There's nothing wrong with my luck! What I lack in mobility, I make up with defense," the blond retorted and kicked the ground in the rabbit's direction. He had reached level 80 recently and he had two attributes reaching that same cap but his speed was down at around 40 while the rabbit he was meant to catch to finish the Trial had 50.
He tried to take the animal off guard but it once again slipped out of his grasp. "Okay, that's it. I'm done," he uttered and stood up again. He tightened his gloves with a glare and a red glow appeared around his hand. He breathed in and tightened it into a fist before punching the ground at his feet with all of his strength.
"Red Diamond," he muttered right before the impact, which rapidly created a depression twenty meters large. The ground shook for a short second before erupting. Rocks, grass, and soil suddenly flew up in the air and a shockwave spread around the field, flattening the tall grass.
Rakna's group merely squinted their eyes but the rabbit took the full brunt of it and was knocked back. Its vision was also so obstructed by all the dirt and grass that he failed to see Allan leap from under and grab one of its legs.
⠀
❮ ◈ ❯
⠀
45th Plateau: Tag Trial Completed!
You have gained the right to leave.
⠀
Do you wish to exercise it now? You have 26 201 hours to make your decision.
Yes/No
⠀
---
⠀
The party's strength has been evaluated. You have met the minimum requirements for several Plateaus. A skipping right has been granted. Party leader, Rakna Xiorra Blade, please select:
⠀
- 46th Plateau
- 47th Plateau
- 48th Plateau
- 49th Plateau
- 50th Plateau
⠀
❮ ◈ ❯
⠀
Everyone received the same System window at the same time and the rabbit Allan had caught was automatically teleported back to a small platform where it would await the next challengers.
"Fucking hell," Allan cursed as he waved the dust away. "Finally done," he said and put his hands in his pockets as he walked back to the group. "That was a pain."
"And you once again get the record for the longest time," Marie joked and he groaned.
"Not my fault…"
"Well, honestly speaking, it is true that most Trials do not fit your skill set," Rakna admitted. "But then again, they also push you to focus on other aspects without dedicating yourself to it."
"I guess that's true… still irritating."
Everyone chuckled and Rakna opened the selection window. "All right. Let's go."
⠀
❮ ◈ ❯
⠀
The selection has been confirmed.
⠀
The Host, Rakna Xiorra, and his party will now be transferred to the 50th Plateau, Wonka World. You will be automatically dropped at a random location in thirty seconds.
Brace yourself for the spatial transfer.
⠀
❮ ◈ ❯
⠀
"Let's hope there are high-level enough monsters on the 50th," Nyx commented. "The increases in Wilden's levels have considerably decreased since the start. Without Pronos, we would all be stuck at around level 65 at best."
"Indeed. Though, they're getting comparatively stronger the more we go up," Evelyn added.
'Anything about this one?' Meanwhile, Rakna asked internally.
"{That's my favorite one!}" Higure said with a laugh. "{I used to spend at least half my time in that Plateau when I was alive.}"
'Why is that?'
"{Because it is a literal heaven for people like me.}"
'People like you?' Rakna responded confusedly but before more could be said, the transportation engulfed them and brought them out of the 45th Plateau.
⠀
* * *
⠀
The first thing Rakna saw was something red and white that took up all of his vision. He scowled and stepped back. Then, the place he put his foot on let out a cracking sound and he looked down uncertainly.
He frowned when he saw what it was; grass. He had literally stepped on grass and it had cracked somehow. But it also looked like some sort of glossy object… Then, Rakna sniffed the air and his eyes widened when he picked up the scents of his surroundings.
He hastily looked up and to his shock, what he was standing in front of was a giant candy cane that ended in branches with static leaves on them. His eye twitched and he looked around more. There were hundreds more of these canes and amidst them, he spotted gleaming rocks, a waterfall with brown-colored 'water', and animals of all colors that resembled living wax statues.
But their actual nature was revealed to him through his nose.
"Holy crap… is this actually what I think it is?" Allan was the first to speak, out of his stupor. He crouched and picked up a few strands of grass. He broke them into pieces and tasted them. "This is solid mint…"
Rakna also looked at the ground and noticed something else. He moved the grass away and picked up a handful of the 'soil'. It was a mix of brown and white grains. He dug his finger in them and the moment it touched his tongue, he felt like laughing.
"And this is brown and white sugar," he said amusingly and the others made their own discoveries about the surroundings. The fruits, the flowers, the animals, the water… and when they looked up, they saw that the clouds were pink and oddly close to the ground.
"How much do you guys wanna bet that those are cotton candy?" Allan jested.
"No need to. I can smell it from here," Rakna uttered and the blond laughed.
"{Aaah! I'm already getting hungry!}"
'So, that's why you love this place…'
"{I wish I had a way of tasti-}" The lioness abruptly stopped.
'Hm? What's wrong?'
"{I had forgotten! My corpse! Get it out. Now!}"
Rakna's eyes widened. 'Will that work? I did eat your heart, after all.'
"{It's actually worse. You don't know how voracious your Nirvana Skill is. When you eat hearts to assimilate them, you use it as a catalyst to absorb the power out of the body until there is nothing left. At this point, my carcass is an empty husk. But it doesn't matter. If you make the undead now and put me in, I should be able to semi-resurrect at level 1. However, you will still have to use the same amount of mana as my level when I died. And you can do it now with Andante.}"
'How high was it?'
"{1256.}"
Rakna visibly flinched and the others stopped exploring the surroundings when they noticed.
"Is something wrong?" Evelyn asked and he shook his head with a sigh.
"Is it just me or does that sound absurdly high?" He said out loud and the rest of the conversation was shared with the rest of the party.
"{I was a Dusk Lioness at the end of the day,}" Higure said. "{I was born at a high level and I died at an even higher one. It's only natural for some Wilden to be stronger than Hosts because we are supposed to be challenges for you. In System terms, I was classified as a Wild Raid Boss.}"
"I see… I guess Verias truly lucked out when he found you weakened," Rakna said and gestured at everyone to move away. He then waved his hand and his spatial ring flashed. The body of Higure appeared with the faint traces he had left from when he extracted the heart.
He walked toward it and placed his hand on its head. He closed his eyes and the mana contained inside his gloves burst out and cloaked his body. "753 MP in total," he muttered and opened his glowing eyes. "[Raise Undead,]" he muttered and the mana entered the carcass.
It was rapidly converted into death energy under the eyes of the spectators and Rakna pulled out Higure's soul from his mindscape simultaneously. Her body shone red and black and black tendrils of energy enclosed it. They gradually compressed it entirely until it shrunk to about half the size.
The cocoon-like formation pulsated until it broke apart with a strong force backing it up. Rakna reflexively deployed one of his wings to protect himself while he erected a buffer barrier around so that it wouldn't affect his group.
The death energy that resulted from that very concentrated explosion blanketed the area before being siphoned right back to the epicenter. Rakna hissed quietly and lifted his shoulder, shifting and retracting his wing.
⠀
❮ ◈ ❯
⠀
Raise Undead has reached Exceled Level!
⠀
---
⠀
You have raised a Legendary Rank Creature!
You have raised a Raid Wild Boss!
You have raised a creature originally more than 13 times your level!
You have been awarded 5 Instant Levels.
⠀
---
⠀
You fit the requirements for the title; Ruler of Legends!
⠀
---
⠀
Ruler of Legends resonates with Wolf King!
Ruler of Legends has fused with Wolf King!
⠀
You have gained a new title; Legendary Wolf Emperor!
⠀
❮ ◈ ❯
Before Rakna could even react to the prompt or even lay his eyes on Higure's form, another system window popped up. But this was one was vastly different.
⠀
❮ ◈ ❯
⠀
This is a System Missive! We repeat! This is a System Missive! ||
⠀
The Host, Rakna Xiorra, has awakened as the Legendary Wolf Emperor. ||
We repeat! ||
⠀
The Host, Rakna Xiorra, has awakened as the Legendary Wolf Emperor. He will be offered a seat in the Myth Council as soon as he reaches the 100th Plateau! All affiliated organizations are required to pay their respects. ||
⠀
Survive well, Hosts. ||
⠀
❮ ◈ ❯