Chapter 335 The Crucible!

Chapter 335 The Crucible!

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/Chatter!/

"Hm... There's quite the crowd." Dale whispered to Roger as they approached their destination

'Hum... It's a bit hard, but if I focus, I think I can hear them...' He thought as he squinted his eyes

After a few moments, Dale closed his eyes in deep thought.

'... Surprisingly, what I heard the most was Spanish, followed by Portuguese of course.'

'I can somewhat understand Spanish thanks to my classes in school, but it's too cluttered for me to make sense of anything. Portuguese looks similar but I can't make sense of it all.'

'There are English speakers here and there as well, but they aren't speaking about anything interesting.'

'They're mostly waiting for their turn or complaining about the time...'

In front of them beyond the crowd was a tall, tower-like temple a few stories tall, standing atop a wide stone pyramid decorated with all kinds of stone carvings from statues to small depictions of creatures and people.

Next to it, a crowd of about 100 people stood, waiting in a disorganized way as they surrounded a pair of iron doors that led into the pyramid.

"This is the entrance to the Crucible... It's quite full today, usually there aren't so many lying around."

"Is this abnormal?"

"Not quite, over the years its expected for the number of qualified people to increase... They must be waiting for their turn to enter just like us..."

"Or for an opportunity."

"Opportunity?"

"There are cases where the conditions align to permit the passage of an individual or a group even when outside of Schedule... Some of them may be waiting for one such chance to reenter the Crucible."

"In truth, nothing is impeding the crowd from entering apart from the self-imposed laws of this place, but the reason they don't force themselves in is... Well, obvious."

"Let's not waste any more time, it's almost 11:13, that's our scheduled time, we shouldn't waste any more time," Roger said after he checked the time with his wristwatch

"That's quite specific, why does it have to be so precise?"

"To enforce control and order, as I said before, it doesn't matter how many enter as long as they do according to their own rules."

"This often causes conflicts since not everyone is keen on waiting, but that is not our issue to solve."

/Step step.../

Silently, they both approached the Crowd.

"..."

Even from afar, Dale could feel that these people weren't ordinary. But now that he was up close, he could better quantify their abilities.

If he were to say, most of them weren't exactly impressive, they seemed weaker than he was when he first logged into Azimuth.

But it would be foolish to stop at that, it is true Dale's body has always been exceptionally sturdy, as even now, he's stronger than many at Resko...

Yet that doesn't mean he can defeat them, these people could be very much like them.

It is about how well they utilize their resources, but if Dale was to estimate their Level, he would say they would be around Level 40.

Solely based on the intensity of their Prime Origin.

Even if they hadn't awakened it, under the eye of a trained individual, it was still possible to feel their inner fire.

Albeit that alone wasn't enough to quantify one's ability...

"These people..."

"From their looks, they're likely Disciples maybe some Adapters."

"None of them seem to belong to a Generation, however." Roger said as he looked around

"I recognize some of them but not all."

"You do?"

"I've lived quite a long time boy... But it's nothing special, there's no one here I know in person, nonetheless, identifying the forces they belong to is not hard."

"How can you say only some of them are Adapters?"

"Hm... Adapter is a term given to people that have 'adapted' to these changing tides."

"Babies born with unusual features, not deformities but abilities beyond the scope of modern science and medicine to be understood..."

"Children who manifest strange abilities, from unnoticeable to catastrophic..."

The doors began to move, but Dale saw nothing on the other side, just pure black, so thick he couldn't see anything past the frame of the door.

"Follow me, never stop walking forward."

"That's ominous..."

"It's nothing special, it's just to avoid the embarrassment of you getting lost and having to be rescued." Roger said as he stepped into the darkness

"Why is it so dark though?" Dale asked as he stepped over the door

/Silence.../

With that, pure darkness enveloped him, and even the world became silent.

/Baddum.../

So much so he began to hear his heartbeat...

Still, for some reason, Dale could still easily hear Roger, but he could not feel his presence.

"Heh, it's nothing worth talking about it." Roger replied with a chuckle

"It's for ambiance... They went bald a few times figuring out how to set this up but they eventually did, a bunch of idiots with nothing to do."

/Step.../

As Roger said that, Dale stepped out of the darkness, standing face to face with a glass mirror, giving him a light startle as he saw his reflection stare back at him.

He looked around but saw nothing, not even Roger so he tried touching the mirror...

But...

"HAHAHAHA! Really Kid? That's just glass!" Roger said as he laughed out loud as he walked out of the darkness

"..."

"Haha..."

/Crum.../

/Tremble.../

As Roger laughed, the entire room began to tremble, and Dale felt immediately felt it move...

Downwards.

"We're almost there, excited?"

"... I just want to find my answers and move on."

"Cold and direct... But efficient, well, try to enjoy it while you can, it's not that bad of a place."

/Caddum... Caddum.../

As the elevator went down, Dale heard the sound of grinding gears and engines echoing in the background as he tried to calculate how far they had descended.

"How deep is this? I feel as if we already moved 100 meters... And this doesn't sound nor feel safe, I feel as if I'm in a mineshaft elevator..."

"Relax, nothing will happen... Just sit down and wait, we'll get there soon enough." Roger replied as he pointed at a seat on the side

He laid his head on the wall and closed his eyes, causing Dale to frown as he crossed his arms.

"..."

/Caddum.../

/Caddum.../

/LIGHT!/

"Urg..."

Suddenly, intense golden light blinded him, and as he grew used to the light, Roger said:

"Ahh... Here we are..."

"?..."

As his vision returned to him, a massive Golden City manifested in front of his eyes, thousands of meters wide standing at the bottom of a massive cavern.

"Welcome, to El Dorado, the city of Gold."

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Notes