Chapter 39: Elite Mission
Around 3:30 in the afternoon, Leon completed his daily task and arrived at the designated location. This time, the location was no longer the same as before but rather a point on the trajectory Leon had discovered.
Leon roughly understood that the Seven Knights IV Master Control Core, which looked like a pig's head, usually flew aimlessly through the sandstorm but never left the range controlled by the Aurelia Pinehold base.
Every time the storm stopped, the pig head would land, and this was the only chance each day to see the Master Control Core.
Over the years, the residents of Aurelia Pinehold had recorded the range where the Master Control Core would land each time. They basically knew where it landed the last time and where it would land the next day.
Today, Leon didn't encounter anyone trying to seize control. After waiting for the pig head to land, Leon made a small leap and jumped onto it.
At the moment of jumping, Leon subconsciously swung the spear in his hand and noticed that a small cluster of yellow sand appeared in front of the spear.
Leon was surprised as he recalled his action. He found that his move was somewhat similar to the movement of the pig head that he had previously noticed. Leon's spear technique had been learned from a soul fragment, and after long-term practice, he unconsciously incorporated breathing and meditation into his spear use. It was this breathing and meditation, combined with the discovered trajectory, that caused this effect.
The abnormality before him made Leon feel that the pig head's movement method was compatible with his spear technique, even producing some unexpected changes.
Leon didn't have much time to dwell on the differences. He forcefully imprinted the pig head's movement in his mind and then focused his attention on the pig head.
At this time, Leon felt something different from the day before. The storm in the sky had stopped, and large amounts of dust had fallen to the ground. Leon could understand this, but what puzzled him was why this dust carried negative energy and an aura of the undead.
With questions in his heart, Leon didn't have time to investigate further. He still had a heavy task today. He carved the corresponding summoning magic circle on the pig head's forehead again and began the final work.
Perhaps due to Victor's advice, Leon carefully sensed the flow of dark energy while using the summoning spell.
Soon, Leon discovered that although the dark energy couldn't fully turn the pig head into an undead, it was being guided into a certain core position through a special channel.
Leon wanted to further sense the direction of the dark energy, but he found that everything was blocked.
Leon tried many times, and each time the result was the same. After an hour passed, Leon still couldn't trace where the dark energy went, so he let the pig head be swept into the air by the storm.
This time, Leon didn't hurry back. Instead, he followed the pig head in the storm for about thirty minutes, relying on his sense of dark energy.
In these thirty minutes, Leon had almost walked around the outer edge of Aurelia Pinehold. He found that the sandstorm wasn't always so strong; sometimes it was big, and sometimes it was small. When it was big, it would sweep up some of the ground's sand into the air, and when it was small, some sand would fall from the sky.
The falling sand carried some negative energy, and the negative energy on the ground was slowly accumulating in this way.
Leon hadn't walked far when he saw Victor approaching slowly from a distance. The two stopped simultaneously when they saw each other from afar.
Leon spoke first, "Senior Victor, did you feel it too?"
"Yes, judging from the current situation, the negative energy outside Aurelia Pinehold will erupt in about four days. By then, we'll be in trouble."
Leon was speechless. At this moment, Victor asked, "Why did you come all the way out here?"
Leon explained his work from the past two days and pointed to the sky, "I feel the Master Control Core is now in that position."
"The Master Control Core caught in the sandstorm?" Victor thought for a moment and said, "Looks like I know which two Seven Knights IV units they're going to use."
Leon wasn't surprised by Victor's words. He figured Victor had already gathered some information before coming here, unlike himself, who knew nothing.
However, Leon still asked, "Is there anything we need to do?"
Victor shook his head, "For now, just focus on completing the daily tasks. I feel it'll take at least eight more days before they can summon those two Seven Knights IV units."
The two quickly returned to the Aurelia Pinehold base. Leon didn't converse much with Victor afterward. He resumed his daily training, while Victor went off to handle his own matters.
For Victor, his path was already set. What he lacked now weren't the basics but some resources.
What Victor needed wasn't daily training but to spend every second acquiring various resources.
Leon, on the other hand, was the opposite. He had started reconsidering his career path, as many of the things he had learned before were no longer applicable. Now, he needed to use every second to train.
Fortunately, aside from Leon, the other players here had all reached Victor's level, so no one disturbed Leon's training.
Thus, Leon trained until about nine o'clock. When he returned to his tent to meditate and rest, he found Victor standing outside the tent with another player waiting for him.
Leon recognized the player. He was a junior to Lady Ember, a fire-attribute player who practiced both magic and martial arts. Compared to dark or metal attributes, fire-attribute magic and martial arts dual-practice players were relatively common at Sun City High School.
The two fire-attribute dual-practice players who had come this time were juniors close to Lady Ember and trustworthy. Leon didn't believe they would appear here with Victor without Lady Ember's approval.
Leon nodded to Victor, "Senior Victor, Senior Emberhart, hello."
The fire-attribute dual-practice player, Caden Emberhart, was polite when he saw Leon. He directly said, "Junior Leon, we came here to ask if you'll be free tomorrow after completing your daily task. Can you join us in completing a small mission?"
Leon didn't immediately answer but looked at Victor.
Victor explained that while using the summoning spell, he unintentionally discovered something unusual about the area where he was summoning.
Upon investigation, he found that there was an elite monster there. After confirming its attributes, Victor sought out Caden Emberhart. Emberhart went over today to check on the elite monster and received an elite mission.
The two of them estimated their strength and realized they couldn't handle the elite monster alone, so they turned to Leon for help.
After hearing this, Leon nodded, "An elite mission? No problem, but what about the rewards?"
Emberhart quickly explained, "The system's reward for this elite mission is fifty units of high-grade sulfur. I'll give ten units to Victor, and you can have ten units as well. As for the elite monster's body, I'll only take the mission item, and the rest can be split between you and Victor."
Leon thought for a moment and then asked, "What about any other items we find along the way?"
"Whoever finds it keeps it," Emberhart replied straightforwardly.
"Deal."