As the tigress had claimed, there were neither any bright lights nor were there any shocking sounds, as Max felt himself get stronger within but an instant.
And that was it.
There was no fire crawling through his veins, no blood boiling to temperatures hotter than the sun, no sudden growth spurts, nothing of the sort.
"Well that was anticlimactic." (Max)
Then came the Server announcement, making his eyes shine.
"Right, all of you got special rewards too, didn't you? What are they?" (Max)
His words seemed to have reminded the three of something as Amy took out something which looked like a perfectly spherical ruby.
"This is what I got. Every time I or my familiars kill a creature, it's progress fills up a bit. I don't know what it does though." (Amy)
She shared the description in the Chat.
. . . . . .
[Jewelled Scarlet]
Type : Unique Item (Incomplete)
Description : An incomplete item which has been badly damaged, and requires enormous quantities of unique resources to recover. Kill creatures at or above your Tier to increase restoration progress.
Progress : 10/100
. . . . . .
Amy seemed to have thought of something as she sent a trade request to Emilia.
"Try to see if you can do something with it." (Amy)
Emilia nodded as she agreed to the trade, and held the crimson crystal sphere in hand, but her Talent's response made her frown.
"Well? What happened?" (Adeline)
Rather than replying, she shared a pic of the notification in her vision.
[Unique Items remain unaffected by any and all Talents]
"Oh, well, guess that's that huh?", Amy shrugged helplessly as she got the marble back from her sister.
Meanwhile, Adeline took out something too. A bottle containing what appeared to be some sort of liquid.
"This is what I got. A pretty good item, but I can't use it at the moment." (Adeline)
Looking at the shared description of the item, the trio nodded in understanding.
. . . . . .
[Spirit Cleansing Dew(S)]
Type : Item
Description : A naturally formed treasure that can cleanse the spirit of those who ingest it, giving them the talent 'Pure Spirit'. A Spirit of 'S' or above is required to use this. If Spirit requirement is not met, consuming the item will have no effect.
. . . . . .
"Talent seems to be the most important aspect in this 'Game', so this item should be incredibly rare. Not to mention, it's grade is high too. But I can't use it now." (Adeline)
Adeline shrugged helplessly.
Then, three pairs of eyes turned to Emilia, who took out a weird golden balance.
"This is what I got.", she said as she sent the description through the Chat.
. . . . . .
[Golden Balance(S)]
Type : Item
Description : Any type of resource at or below grade S can be placed in one of the discs of the balance, and can be sacrificed to create any other resource of the same grade.
. . . . . .
"Resources are basically wooden planks, meat, water, bread, metal ore, and the like. So I can't sacrifice 1 G grade wooden plank and get a G grade fishing rod in return. But it's pretty useful, especially for me." (Emilia)
The three who read the description nodded thoughtfully. One of the major disadvantages of Emilia's talent is that it can only promote or duplicate available resources. Meaning if she had never come across a certain resource from the very beginning, her talent would obviously be useless.
But with this…
"Wait! Can you…", Emilia didn't wait for Max to finish his words as she shook her head.
"Resources made from the Balance aren't subject to my Talent." (Emilia)
Max nodded, feeling slightly disappointed, as if it were possible, then she would be able to turn a single resource into ten, a hundred, a thousand, and literally infinite resources below S Grade.
Obviously, the Game wouldn't let such a loophole exist, though their Talents are really no different from cheat-codes already.
"Then I guess only my reward is left huh.", Max muttered as he looked at the Mail and opened it.
. . . . . .
[System : Congratulations!] (!)
. . . . . .
Selecting the new Mail, he read it carefully.
. . . . . .
System : Congratulations!
You have achieved something that no one has managed to yet. By being the first to reach Tier 1 in your entire Server, consisting of a nigh-infinite number creatures, from all different races and worlds, you have proven your capability as an excellent Player of the Game!
This is your reward, receive it! We hope you enjoy your playing experience, and continue to surprise us as well as s the other Players.
Good gaming.
. . . . . .
There was an item attached to it, which Max selected, making a prompt pop out.
((Add-on to the Function [Dungeons] detected. Confirm installation?))
"Uh, sure?", he replied unsurely, and the next moment, a new window appeared before him.
. . . . . .
[Dungeon]
Conquered : [None]
Failed : [None]
Dungeon Passes : 0
Add-on : [Randomised Dungeon Exploration]
. . . . . .
Looking at the window before him, and going through the information that strangely appeared in his mind, Max nodded as he fully understood what the 'Dungeon' function's purpose was.
Then, looking at the curious and confused expressions of the three girls, in whose views Max had simply been staring into nothing for almost five minutes, Max smiled as he explained.
"My special reward is an additional function to the 'Dungeon' function. Just like in video games, the 'Dungeon' function lets you explore dungeons, separate worlds that are full of unique resources, monsters, traps, treasures, and the like. There are all kinds of dungeons, from forests to caves to canyons to even entire stars, but I doubt we'd be going to such high tiered dungeons any time soon." (Max)
"You need 'Dungeon Passes' which i don't know how one can find in order to unlock dungeons. Like, you need a 'Forest Dungeon Pass' to unlock the forest dungeon. Once you unlock them, you need to complete certain missions, after which you can say that you 'conquered' the dungeon. If you fail to complete the missions, give up half way, die, or anything else happens, the dungeon disappears permanently." (Max)
"Of course, there are special rewards for conquering a dungeon, but I don't know what those are." (Max)
"And as for my special reward, it's an add-on that lets me explore a random dungeon of my tier without needing dungeons passes. But if I use that function, I wouldn't be able to explore any other dungeon, even if I had another dungeon pass, till I conquer it. And if I fail, I'll have to start from the very beginning of the dungeon." (Max)