Chapter 344: Event Unlocked

When Eleena reached the tortoise’s long neck, it seemed to have recovered from the explosion before and was slowly rearing its head.

There was certainly no telling what happened to the old man who had infiltrated the Faint Crystal stratum.

Although the colossus was somewhat bothered by Eleena running over its nape, she relied on her fine balance to cross its neck between stumbles and arrive on its head.

The tortoise colossus’s head-or indeed its braincase was quite vast, but a careful look would be enough to make out a small platform sticking out.

Considering that the high elves wouldn’t construct a useless platform on the miniature of their Synchronized Intellect Nation (SIN), it was likely that it was a control panel.

Noticing that, Eleena’s heart danced with hope.

“Totem, keyhole… Got one. Is this it?” She exclaimed, finding the totem that Mufasa had mentioned after a brief search.

There were five rhombic openings on the totem itself, which definitely looked like special keyholes.

But Eleena soon found that it doesn’t work.

Her key just doesn’t match any of the holes, and couldn’t be inserted no matter how she tried.

“Maybe not this one?”

She began looking for other places to see if there were any spots that resemble keyholes, but that was also the moment a chill prompted her to shiver.

She didn’t even need to look to guess where the chill was coming from.

Down the colossus’s nape, the undead elf was slowly making its way here. A closer look would reveal that a small notch of its HP above its head was gone, which corresponds to a smooth cut over its left hand at the wrist which was missing an entire palm. Even though the tortoise colossus was still shaking its neck, the elf would frost and defrost its feet into the ground with every step, keeping its movement unusually steady.

The creature had reached her so quickly-to think that even Mufasa, the best Player couldn’t hold it back for too long.

Gritting her teeth, Eleena kept searching for any spot that the key could be inserted even as her little mind spun furiously in hopes of finding another solution.

It was only a pity that she couldn’t make a breakthrough even as the undead elf was within casting range at the platform.

She would be mostly frozen even if she raised her barrier.

That was when the elf opened its jaw and mouthed several words awkwardly.

“How… regrettable…”

“You can talk?!” Eleena did a double take.

***

Ever since the undead elf had shown its face, it had only acted like a zombie that relied entirely on instincts, which was why Eleena didn’t expect it to talk like an intelligent creature.

“That one… was quite formidable…” The undead elf appeared to be in awe even as Eleena blanked out slightly, before realizing that it was talking about Mufasa. “Even if I freeze off… one hand… one leg… did everything to take my palm…”

Despite the space between its words, Eleena could understand how hard Mufasa had fought. Even if he had lost his limbs, he determinedly unleashed one last blow before his death to claim the palm of the undead elf.

“Wanted to fuse with him… in salutation… but his corpse… gone… regrettable.”

A nameless flame of wrath ignited within Eleena at the words of the undead elf.

“Salutation! Stop kidding around you’re just defiling a body!”

Though Players don’t really die, the young girl who had personally witnessed every last corpse in her village being thrown into a single pile was enraged at the thought of such defilement.

No wonder necromancers are never welcomed. No one would want the remains of friends and family-or even their ownbeing toyed around by someone else.

“Human… foolish… unable to understand… our tragic will…”

The undead elf raised its hand. All at once, frost rose into the air like mushrooms after the rain, enveloping the girl as if it would drown her.

Even if she wasn’t really drowning, Eleena could see her HP decreasing rapidly, her shield seemingly unable to keep out the chill that cuts into the marrow.

In fact, she wasn’t a Player but a normal human, her body would have been frozen stiff by now, her lost mobility denied.

“I don’t care what your tragic will is!”

Knowing that only death awaits if this continued, Eleena resolved herself.

Almost every first-rate Player who had come to Crookes were all killed in battle—it was the toughest fight they had, with no exceptions. And even if Eleena were the Saintess-in-training, she never considered herself different from other Players: she would be sad if their campaigns go sour, would laugh when there’s a feast and quietly shed a tear when she remembered the day her village was destroyed.

“… This is going to my last stand! If I can’t play this event with the others, I would at least die like a Player!”

Dispelling her shield, Eleena drew out the ancient key as the ice shell outside began to creep inside and climbed up her ankles.

“Give me… that!” The undead elf suddenly became emotional.

But Eleena ignored it.

When she thought about it, she realized that her grandfather had left her a clue.

Though the old man was the mayor of Crookes, activated the Faint Crystal Stratum of the Elven SIN and obtained the elven stone, he never showed any superhuman abilitieshe had no special abilities and never showed signs of having used magic, just as he didn’t have the scent a person from a church’s hierarchy would have (In fact, Tyler Meredith was a believer of the relatively weak Grimund, the God of Arts and Travel, and his rank as a ranked believer was bought with the money he gained from becoming the mayor of Crookes).

So how did the old man activate the Faint Crystal Stratum of the Elven SIN in his youth?

Eleena would be the first person to doubt that he had triumphed over waves of obstacles and dangers in the Faint Crystal Stratum with his own ability

And by extending from that hunch, she could make a bold deduction.

What if there was actually a very simple way to activate the outer stratum of the Elven SIN and obtain clearance over it?

…Such as…

“Please, give me something!”

…blood identification…Eleena hence stabbed the key firmly into her own chest.

All at once, the ancient key started to draw her blood-Players won’t bleed, but that did not mean they had no blood.

[Elven SIN–Faint Crystal Stratum activated]

(The God of Games’ great power has stopped the external movement of the Elven SIN)

[New event—’Elven SIN: Ancient Atrocities’ unlocked]

[New spawn point-‘Elven SIN: Outer Platform’ established]

And with that came a blue radiance that shot into the sky.

After just a split second, vague figures of countless other players appeared behind Eleena. Though they wouldn’t have made it here before, they were all now here, revived through various items!