Chapter 281 - Red Stone
There are only 2 months left for Alex to freely do whatever he wants before he has to go to Bali Island to attend the scheduled meeting. So, that was why he planned to do something the rest of the time, something that could assist him immensely in the impending tribulation.
After he and Aria managed to kill the three Cerberus and get two red spirit stones from their dead bodies, Alex couldn't stop thinking and calculating how to make the most of the two red spirit stones.
'How do I use these two red spirit stones to their maximum potential?' Alex thought as he turned his hand slowly and looked at the red stones in his hand.
A yellow spirit stone is worth 100 white spirit stones, while a red spirit stone is worth 100 yellow spirit stones. So that one red spirit stone in his hand is worth 10 thousand spirit stones.
There are only two choices he can do with the red stone at the moment. The first solution is to directly consume these stones and increase his Sky realm level while the second is to buy necessary equipment from the Doomsday Pillar's store.
Alex currently had reached level 34 of Sky realm stage, and to reach the next level he will need more than 100 yellow spirit stones. Alex is pretty sure that in order to reach level 35, he would need to consume more than that one red spirit stone, which really wasn't bad considering his previous situation in his last life..
Increasing his realm level certainly makes him stronger and strength is the main thing needed to carry out the mission of destroying the Abyss pit in Bali with utmost success and facing the first tribulation in three months.
However, raising his realm level by one wouldn't actually have much effect because as you go higher through the level, the amount of spirit stones you need will also increase. Meanwhile, the amount of strength that you get is still the same. So instead of wasting his red spirit stones to raise his level, Alex prefers to wait until he has a breakthrough in his understanding of spirit elements before he reaches level 40. He decided to raise his level through the next floor challenge in the Doomsday Pillar later, so that he could quickly breakthrough the high stage of Sky realm stage.
The most significant increase in power for a Magus fighter was still a breakthrough in their understanding of spirit elements, which one should focus their effort into. In Alex's previous life, many fighters who had reached level 40 of Sky realm stage were faced with obstacles and were blocked from reaching the high stage of cultivation because their understanding of spirit element didn't reach an adequate level. So Alex decided to keep these red stones for other purposes.
Regarding the second option, Alex can use the red spirit stones to buy expensive artifacts that are available at the Doomsday Pillar's store. For example, one red stone can buy a [Stone Golem - Tier 2 Artifact] like the one he previously owned. As the golem was his first artifact he always thought to buy another one as a replacement. The same golem did save his life many times. But thinking of the 10.000 spirit stone price tags. He never yet bought it.
Another useful artifact with a price tag of 10.000 spirit stone is the [Defensive Formation - Tier 2 Artifact], which was very useful. It is an artifact that can be used to save many lives. Each of these two items would be more useful than a slight increase of strength by consuming it.
But out of these two options, now that Alex has the Seven Star Sword, he was thinking to save the spirit stones to create more artifacts and magic scroll. It appears that these will be the best choice at the moment. With more people having tier 3 weapons, facing the pack of gargoyles will be easier.
Nevertheless, these red stones were extremely valuable and generally hard to come by at this point in life, so Alex had to be careful about using them. Currently, Alex is seen standing in front of the main access panel in the Doomsday Pillar's hall. Seeing the familiar access panel in front of him, a faint smile appeared on Alex's face. 'Long time no see.' He thought.
Without wasting any more time, Alex immediately swiped his fingers on the engraving and gave the command to open the access panel. In a split second, a holographic display opened in front of him with something appearing inside. If one could take a closer look, he could see that red, green, and black dots appeared and filled the entire hologram.
"What's your plan, Alex?" asked Aria hurriedly and anxiously.
"Just like what I said before, Aria." Alex calmly answered her question. "We're going to Sergei's team in Western Australia, but this is the route we're going to take." He said as he dragged his finger across the hologram display and drew a line towards the city of Perth in Western Australia, past some of the red dots. Seeing that, Aria shook her head quickly.
"Are you sure about this, Alex?" Aria asked worriedly.
"Don't worry. If the two of us did it, I'm sure we could do it. We will just do a quick detour, going in and out quickly. You'll help me right?"
"I mean… Of course I will. But, I'm worried about Sergei and the others."
"Just relax and have faith in Sergei. I am sure he will manage the situation. We went there just to give some reassurance." Alex explained calmly. He then turned around and looked directly into Aria's eyes. "If they couldn't handle this much, how could they face the tribulation later?"
"O-Okay then.." Aria reluctantly agrees.
"That's great!" Alex then turned his attention to the hologram again. "1, 2, 3… 8! It will take two or three weeks at most until we reach Perth."
Aria shook her head. "A simple detour then.."
-
In the middle of somewhere in West Australia.
A vehicle was seen speeding through the vast desert without a care in the world. A man and woman are sitting inside the vehicle, moving towards the black spot that looks alone in the middle of the yellow sand sea. After yesterday's discussion, this morning Alex and Aria drove westward, heading to the first red dot located just 3 hours from the Alice Spring Doomsday Pillar.
Naturally, the red dot that appeared on the map was the location of an Abyss hole. The current location of the Abyss hole is very different when compared to the location 6 months earlier. The desert soil around the hole had turned into black rock like charcoal. Alex and Aria could see the area around the Abyss was swarmed by critters and hellhounds. Although there were hundreds of monsters in front of them, Alex was not afraid, instead he was excited.
In Alex's eyes, he saw hundreds of spirit stones clustered in front of him, ready to be harvested. In a split second, Alex immediately stopped the vehicle and jumped out. He then charged towards the horde of monsters.
"Let's go!" he excitedly shouted.
Alex lunged forward to attack and slaughter all the creatures in front of him, followed by Aria who used her AoE skill, aiming it towards the densest part of the crowd. None of these creatures was able to resist their teamwork attacks, only to be killed. After collecting spirit stones from the massacre, Alex and Aria enter the hole and find that the gate is in the same condition as the previous one.
"At this time, the conditions of the Abyss around the world are all the same."
[Gate of Abyss]
[Status - Open - stage 2]
The two of them sprinted along the antechamber, blazing through and finishing off all the critters and hellhounds in the place. When they finally found the same gate. The gate where the hell guard dogs await.
Even though they had been able to defeat these dogs before, Alex was wise enough to never underestimate a tier 4 being. This time it actually took them more effort to kill the three headed creature. And from their bodies, Alex found 1 red spirit stone.
"So unfortunate! Only 1 out of 3." he sighed
"Hopefully, we can get more in the next Abyss."
Alex proceeded to store their remains in his storage rings again, not letting these precious materials slip from his hands. They then quickly returned to the surface and headed for the other Abyss pit.
That's how Alex and Aria's journey continues. They continued to rapidly enter and exited the Western Australian Abyss' hole, clearing any Cerberus inside the pit. After 2 weeks and 7 Abyss holes later, they managed to get a total of 10 red spirit stones and a lot of Cerberus' dead bodies, all of which were stored in his storage rings.
Finally, they arrived on the outskirts of Perth in Western Australia.
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