Chapter 40: Ruins of Marten part-1

Will a.k.a. TimeTraveler, SnowDew, Flame Emperor, level-126 Remia, a level-151 NPC Healer, a level-153 NPC Guardian, and a level-156 NPC Blademaster were walking together as the three NPCs don't have wings and can't fly.

As they were progressing to higher-level zones, no one from the 15 guilds dared to stop them after looking at Time Traveler's name and also their solid line up.

They reached the Great Wall and proceed to pass through the portal ignoring everything.

As they continued to walk in the new zone, Will and the other two were glancing around to look at the mobs while the NPCs were just massacring them.

Looking at them gaining free exp and him getting none, Will sighed as he simply started to walk.

...

One hour later, in the deeper region of the forest, they saw a piece of land that was devoid of normal soil and was filled with black soil and have a few ruined structures and statues along with a huge dead tree with no leaves.

As soon as Will stepped on the soil with everyone else, he and the other two received two notifications.

*Congratulations, you found the Ruins of Marten. You received 167 fame.

As three of them are in a party, 500 fame reward is also distributed between the three.

*You received the curse of Aerona. 20% stats reduced.

"What!" All three of them panicked and Will jumped back in reflex and saw his stats were normal again.

"Don't worry. It looks like a temporary one."

After checking it themselves, SnowDew and FlameEmperor sighed in relief and they proceed to walk further.

As a part of the quest, Will inspected one of the broken statues, which is far away from the rest and has broken pillars around it too indicating that it might be a special statue.

Statue of Life.

Description: The statue belongs to the goddess of life, who is worshipped by the bey tribe, who used to live here.

Looking at the description, Will mumbled, "Bey Tribe? I guess Bey leaf's name came from them?"

Then, he inspected the tree.

Ablorn Tree

Description: A special tree that absorbs magic energy from the surroundings and produces a special leaf once every millennium.

"F***. Now, this tree is dead. Where should I get the bey leaf now?"

Just then, Remia shouted, "Lord TimeTraveler, look at this."

The Healer NPC, Hiro, who was near her walked towards her and looked at the ruined structure before her.

As Will made his way, Hiro spoke, "there's a way here."

Upon hearing him, everyone stopped their inspections and went there. Flame Emperor knelt and looked at it carefully and asked uncertainly, "this structure is actually, a passage to the underground, right?"

The BladeMaster NPC, Valdis nodded, "you are right. If I'm right. The underground might be the place where the bey tribe used to live in. After all, even back then, the outside here in the deep jungle isn't safe because of the monsters. We need to move these rocks away."

SnowDew then opened her mouth with excitement, "let me do it."

She raised her Epic grade Laser Cannon and shot an energy beam, which completely cleared the ruins and Will saw a clear path of stairs that is leading down.

The seven of them started climbing down the stairs and eventually reached the bottom only to see a portal.

Looking at it, SnowDew asked Will, "Big Brother TimeTraveler, is this a dungeon?"

Will replied, "not sure. The quest doesn't say it is cleared though."

FlameEmperor then said, "But, if it's a dungeon, they can't enter and we will be doomed for sure."

"Let's test it, then. Remia, try to enter the portal." Will ordered Remia to see whether it's a dungeon or a normal portal that leads to somewhere.

But, to their surprise, Remia then passed through the portal and stood on the other side.

Everyone nodded and they too entered stepped inside the portal.

*Ding. You entered the Tomb of Marten.

*Ding. You were discovered by Aerona.

The NPC guardian, Huxley shouted, "everyone, prepare to fight."

As Huxley, Remia, and Valdis stand in the front, Flame Emperor, SnowDew, TimeTraveler, and Hiro stand in the back and raised their weapons as the first wave of the twenty-five mobs arrived.

Looking at those level 150-160 common grade mobs with 320K-360K of HP, which looked like corrupted dead humans, in other words, zombies, Will smirked as he conjured an ice arrow in his bow, "I really love these undead creatures."

As he released an Ice arrow, it struck a zombie and froze the forty-meter surroundings for a while, which includes the mobs, the Blade Master Valdis, and the other two took advantage of it and started hacking them.

As they finished it quickly, all six of them except Jun received around 13-15k exp per mob and with around easy 400K exp, SnowDew finally leveled up to 90.

Meanwhile, Williard checked the skills panel to see which skills aren't fully maxed yet.

Dragon Fire (Level-9): Breath fire continuously and burn the targets to ash with a 300% attack every second. Apply the burning effect on the target. Cost 2 MP per second; 30m range. CD: 120 seconds.

Ice Arrow (level 7): Conjure an Ice Arrow and shoot down your enemy with a 240% attack. Freeze the surroundings of 40m from the point of impact. 35m range. Skill doesn't affect Ascended players, NPCs, and legendary above grade monsters. CD: 30 seconds.

Bubble (level 1): Create a bubble around you to breathe and swim underwater without losing mana or stamina for 30 minutes. CD: 1 day.

Resurrection (level 1): You can revive one of your fallen comrades. CD: 22hours.

Aura of Zenon (level 1): Call the spirit of Zenon and increase your stats by 50% for five minutes. CD: 60 minutes

Available Skill points: 9

***

"Hmm, I have enough skill points, right now. Should I maximize both Dragon Fire and Ice Arrow? Or Should I invest in the new skill? I should also leave some for the future. Who knows what kind of overpowered skill will I get after I leveled up."

After thinking for a while, Will then proceed to maximize the skill of Ice Arrow using 3 skill points. Then, he used another 5 skill points and invested in the resurrection skill, so that, he can revive the six of them at once just in case if they died here. He invested the last one into Dragon Fire and maximized it.