Chương 58: The Mysterious Island. ~Part 2~

~Part 2~ The Mysterious Island is a documented phenomenon that appears… mostly every 10 or so years on the central continent. There are a few times it has skipped a decade, but those times are theorized to be when it appears in other continents. No one knows why or how the Island appears just that it does. All the adventurers from level 40-80 that can reach it are… given notice that it has appeared. It is theorized that the island itself is a living being that sends off invites.

It is theorized that the island is a dungeon that has mutated to be able to teleport itself. Either way invitees are brought to a random dungeon and then once they "accept" the invitation they are teleported to this mysterious land. The island is always generous, but the variety and number of monsters means those that are invited are always challenged. Finally, there is an open quest from the adventurer's guild on any information about this strange phenomenon.

Information from the adventurer guilds "information pamphlet" on strange events in the world. Innearth was finishing up a "spiralling fractal pattern on the side of a wall" when he noticed a trio of "multicoloured leather" wearing humans wander through the corner of the area considered "his territory". They were all dual wielding different weapons/items and talking animatedly. One had a thin T-shaped shield and a spiked flail. One had a short sword and a spiked metal... wand? Charm?

The third and final had two asymmetric daggers that looked like they were part of a whole. All 3 had leather clothing with various metal shapes that gave some sort of mana effect. Wandering through the side of his territory was less noticeable than if the area he was working in was his influence. The only reason Innearth noticed them was that he was currently "decorating" in a dozen spots at once and they clipped the corner of one of the areas Innearth was focusing on.

Innearth froze and watched them, a strange feeling coming over him as all of his attention dropped and homed in on the group.... those are real adventurers…... just like that. It felt like every single molecule in the area became granular and textured as Innearth focused all of his attention through his panel at the adventurers that moved past. The event panel was slightly more advanced than the normal "shared editing" panels and let Innearth move the "focus" or camera of the area around.

It was almost 3 dimensional and when he made the panel big enough and focused enough on it was almost like he was actually there… but it wasn't quite the same as being in person. … it was enough however. Innearth watched the group with the greedy attention of a starving man in front of a buffet. As they wandered through the side of his territory a nagging worry began to creep up on Innearth. Are… are they going to walk all the way through the side without hitting all the important bits?

All the details I've spent the past few days designing? Should I have made that section taller? They should be able to see it from where they are. Skies above I should have made a giant tower that people from every side of the island could see. Is there still time? No poking it up above my territory slowly will take ages. Is there a smaller option I can use? – Innearth panicked and started thinking he should have designed arrows pointing to where they should go.

As he imagined ways to ruin the ambiance he had cultivated, one of the humans slowed down and pointed towards what appeared to be a ruin. Turning the three peered over and then started talking once more while gesturing about. Atta boy. Come on. Here adven' adven' adven'. Here adven' adven' adven'. Who's a good adventuring party. You're a good adventuring party. YES! RIGHT THIS WAY! You are doing great. You chose right. Yep. In. You. Go!

The group wandered into the "ring" that encircled the North of Innearth's territory. As the last of them stepped into the crumbling mini colosseum, a metal grating slid shut behind them trapping them within. Perfect! Ehehehe. No running away from me this way. The ring was roughly 30m in diameter and was shaped in a closed dome metal grating covered the sky. Faint motes of dust floated about and there was an almost enchanting atmosphere as soft light illuminated the group. In the center of the room, a bull snorted.

Steam mana poured out of two glistening nostrils while beady crystal "googlie eyes" looked on crazily. Shaking its head angrily, flecks of spittle shook in both directions before the mad bull started charging towards them. It's really happening!!! Moving with practiced ease the group shifted into a triangle formation attempting to meet the bull head-on. Shaking its head the bull accelerated towards them. A faint sliding sound accompanied its charge as it thundered forward.

The human with a T-shaped shield stood in the middle pushing their protective item out hoping to halt the bull's movements. Hints of a skill were visible in their almost unnatural movement. Crunch. Despite the faint flickering yellow barrier that formed in across their shield. Despite their confident stance and the mana that focused around their feet to hold them in place, the adventurer was tossed.

Tossed backwards with a jolt of the bull's head the adventurer hit the wall beside the entrance and caused soft flakes of the old-looking stone on the wall to shatter. Bellow the "aged" stone harder stuff was in place preventing the whole wall from collapsing. Continuing to charge forward, the bull crossed the area towards him snorting – bloodlust positively pouring out of them. Ohno! My first adventurers! I hope they survive. You can do it!

Rolling to the side in the split second of time between being tossed into the wall and being squished, the adventurer fell forwards with the impact of the bull smashing beside him. Hands fell forwards to catch themselves as their weapons slid out of their arms. Spinning forward, the dagger-wielding human seemed to flash with a skill that looked like something air adjacent but with hints of sharpness floating about.

Like an inside-out blender, the daggers slashed into the bull's flank a dozen times, faint lines that rapidly closed appeared all along it as the bull's excessive regeneration kicked in. In the rear the paladin raised their talisman high. Sparkles of light ran down their arm like electric water and flowed to both themselves and both of their two partners. Multiple strikes were released against the bull and each flashed with a warm glowing light as they landed.

A sort of "aftershock" damaged the bull half a second after they landed as the skill bounced off the insides of the bull's body. Eesh. If the inside of the bull was more than just 40 healing sacks that might have killed it right there. Skipping backwards once, the bull started to turn shuffling slowly and awkwardly in a wide circle. The trio watched its strange movement as it shifted to face them fully and snorted. Steam billowed out of its nose before the bull started charging again.

This time, none of them tried to stop it. The group preferred to wait till the last possible moment before flashing to the side. Each step moved them easily 4 meters sideways a blur covering their body as they did so. Not being able to turn quickly the bull thundered past before smashing into the wall a second time. In the moment before the bull started turning around and the group made to attack, the paladin yelled something out – pointing towards the ground. Ha! Figured it out! I knew you could do it!

My first adventurers are observant! Well of course they are. They are great! Couldn't ask for a better trio. I hope they visit the void rose next! Below the adventurers was a thick crystal floor with crisscrossing lines of increased friction. Down below that floor, a simple track was laid out. Less a maze and more of a winding spiralling linear path with the occasional offshoot, it was simple enough to follow from one side to the other.

Partway down the track, a large solid black ball was rolling slightly from its previous motion. Staring down at the ball the group's brains seemed to collectively churn as they traced the path to the end with their eyes and saw the very obvious pressure plate. The bull once more charged towards them, but this time the group was paying attention to more than just the monster. As the monster passed diagonally above the ball it seemed to be pulled forwards away from the pressure plate as if touching the bull somehow.

Almost there. You can do it! I believe in you! Carefully dodging once again, the group flips their head between the bull and the ground one by one figuring out what they needed to do. Grimly looking at one another the group seems to radiate the wish that they would prefer to simply fight than compete this "puzzle". Turning to look at the smashed wall they considered their odds and then made a decision. Moving back and forth the group taunted the bull and then dodged.

Each time the bull ran past the gravity materials on the bottom of its body pushed and then pulled the metal ball in its passing. The skill the paladin was using on the group kept them from getting hurt – but it was clear as they progressed more and more stamina was taken from them. Occasionally if they could, they would stick to manually jumping to the side.

Finally, after over a hundred dashes and more than their fair share of close shaves – and devastatingly sad backtracks as they failed to guide the bull and its passage reset work – the ball was finally deposited at the end. Several things happened as soon as the ball rolled onto the pressure plate. First, the bull's movements slowed and locked. The air around it seemed to twist slightly and then the bull disappeared. Next, the grating slid upwards leaving the group with a way out of the colosseum.

Finally, a reward and event clear was given to the group. The mysterious island pulls images and echoes from long forgotten places and cultures. It is in this manner that the colosseum mimics an ancient story for many used it to train and reinforce their strength before seeking to end the witch king. Countless fell to the violence within but you prevailed. And with that you have been given a chance forward in your quest. The beating heart of an endlessly raging beast of anger and hate is now yours.

Quest item [Raging Bull Heart] obtained. 1/10 items needed to summon the witch king. You have found a hint to the secret of this island. Following that hint to the end will allow you to figure out once and for all the full secret of how this island came to be. Due to your quick thinking and guile you have determined the secret of the colosseum. For beating it using your wits additional rewards have been obtained. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

[The Scissors of the Nether] obtained. These shears are not of this world. With it the void can be shorn for nothingness recognizes its own. Will you continue on your quest or end it here? Warning: If you seek to take your final reward now without beating the witch king, your rewards may be vastly decreased. To end and take a reduced reward simply smash the heart you have obtained (not recommended). A rubbery beating ball that threw off steam with every beat appeared in the shield bearers' hand.

The Knife wielder shoved his weapons together with a click then grabbed a large pair of scissors with his other hand. Turning the group started conversing. The paladin seemed to want to end and get out of here his pantomime of squishing the heart causing the other two to yell. Outnumbered however the paladin finally relented and the group wandered out and directly away from the other end of Innearth's area. Dammit. Well at least they completed half of my area.

If they are following the shared questline they will be back for the rose stem eventually. That was… less anticlimactic than the dwarf was. No, it was more than that. Innearth craved more. The trio had simply whetted his appetite and instead of being satisfied, he wanted more. More groups, more adventurers. I wonder if those adventurers got me any experience. Let's see, last I checked I had 89/4140 I think? Innearth Level 59 305/4140 exp to next level. System Access Level 5 0/2 requirements met to advance.

-3/50 sapient delves. -Level 64+ Stats Mana Regeneration 82. 45 personal unit/min Mana concentration 2. 79 AMU / personal unit Mana Storage 11566. 38/11566. 38 AMU Physical Storage 56% Capacity Age 919 days 2 years Distance underground 293 meters Number of floors 14 floors Titles. Earth Mana Specialization, Crystal Mana Specialization, Void mana Specialization.... I definitely got experience. I think it might have been the first-time bonus that pushed me up.

There's also the fact that I'm 90% sure we are getting more experience than usual in these "dungeon games" I'm levelling up faster than I have in... 3/50? Innearth stopped and stared at a single number almost disbelievingly.... that... yes. I... Innearth felt a strange emotion deep within his core as he stared at the system advancement requirement. It had gone up by 3 at some point and he checked his whole dungeon once to make sure it was definitely because of this event.

For the first time in ages, Innearth didn't know what to think. His emotions were... overwhelming his logical thoughts momentarily. He didn't know what to do. Finally more conscious thoughts started filtering in and crystallizing in his mind.... I need more adventurers. It's not that I want them anymore having adventurers at this event has shifted to a need. I need them to advance. This is… This is my reward for working hard. … Innearth was almost too excited while watching the two robe-wearing adventurers fight.

They both had spinning metal-bladed disks they were using to attack the bull in his colosseum. Lines of mana radiated out of their heads and attached to their weapons as they held hands and stared silently. These two had instantly noticed the secret of this room and then promptly ignored it preferring to slaughter the monster in front of them first.

Disks whipped around like violent frisbees as the pair chopped off the bull's legs again and again, their fingers waving slowly at their side as they pushed harder and harder. Finally, the massive regeneration spluttered out and they ripped the bull apart. Looking at their quest notifications in a pleased manner they then started waving their hands and controlling the ball below pushing it towards the end. … Oh no. I didn't actually expect this as a win condition. Is… is this a perfect clear?

I've written something for both killing the bull and completing the puzzle why didn't I set something up for doing both. Ahh! Quick. New flavour text. Add a random item as an additional reward lets go! This sort of problem was a good problem to have. There were already a dozen variations of the text that could be given and the pair had a dozen secret titles based on their actions in his friend's bases. Abe had converted his rhino schematic into the "blast cow"…

a large lumbering 4 legged creature with an "udder" full of incredibly fragile and explosive regrowing rods. The story they had come up with upon FED's urging, was the bull in Innearth's puzzle colosseum was the mate of the explosive cow. If any adventurers killed the cow instead of simply harvesting the explosives, the bull would be even more enraged when they met and had an even faster charge and turn. The flavour text for the quest was also changed depending on which you visited first.

There was even an impromptu hidden quest by bringing the two monsters together. While Abe and Innearth had collaborated Doc and Amy had worked together as well. Surprisingly Doc had been the one to reach out. He was fascinated by Amy's ability to make viruses and they had cooked up some variants that briefly transformed adventurers into animalistic hybrids. FED however had his influence in every one of their territories.

A spiderweb of questlines surrounded the group while an overarching "main questline" to "summon a boss so powerful it needed to be suppressed with other quest items after summoned" linked them all. The benefit of making an interconnected quest was obvious. It helped lure even more adventurers towards Innearth. In only 2 days of the 8 Innearth had completed his advancement requirement and had even managed to experiment a bit with it. A "delve" was a complex and fuzzy sort of requirement.

Someone could walk across his whole territory and not be considered to have delved him while someone else could fight his one section and then come back a few hours later and complete his second section counting as two separate delves. They didn't even have to fight his monsters for it to count as a delve just interact with the territory in certain ways. For example: sneaking in and stealing the hidden chest in his "void flowers surrounding pool" counted as a delve.

So did coming in and fighting the flower for a bit, then leaving without beating it or gaining anything. Innearth expected that "fuzzy" requirement was also part of why adventurers delving his territory counted towards the advancement. He didn't want to question it too much however in case the system decided he was cheating and took it away. He didn't think it was possible but a faint part of him worried a dozen different things would go wrong.

As more and more adventurers "delved" "him" instead of becoming satisfied he just became greedier and greedier. His brief childlike glee was replaced with a more restrained sort of excitement as he watched an endless variety of groups and strengths pass through his area. At some points, he even had multiple adventuring groups delving him at once! If more than 2 groups were active the atmosphere started getting weird, however.

A lot of the danger was lost when a group was sitting around right outside of the battle catcalling or providing a running commentary the whole time they fought. The storyline was broken slightly as well if the group could watch the monster respawning. At another point, his friends realized they could switch their "creation" panel for their tutorial into a "streaming" one to show off what was happening to each other.

Innearth briefly glanced at each area his friends had made before returning to watching groups in his own territory. Abe was right beside Innearth on the north end. He had left the rocky ground alone but had built a formidable-looking "vault" in the center of his area. It looked like an ancient bank with marble floors and pillars aged to a point just before "crumbly".

They had actually somewhat matched the architecture between the vault and the colosseum and had hidden a few "stepping stones" between the two of them as if there had once been a path. Amy was on the opposite side of Innearth and her jungle bled into the side where his void flower lived. There was surprisingly not a lot of water in Amy's jungle just a lot of plants to accompany her claim that she wanted "to try something different".

Between the two of them, they had warped plants on the edge so the gradient between jungle and "void" was filled Fed was between the two of them in a huge moon-shaped chunk of territory that had several pillars covered in ancient script around it. The centrepiece was a dais with a black cauldron that set off the final step of the quest.

Every group that managed to reach that far was split off from the rest of the world with a swirling mist that slowed down anyone who entered it preventing them from reaching the middle before it ended. Doc was on the opposite side of FED with one of the largest areas of the group near the center of the island. He had set up various traps that released magical viruses and was treating this whole event as a way to experiment in a way that might have gotten him in trouble with his overseer back home.

Finally, on the other side of Innearth – beside both him and Amy – was Brutality Queen's area. She had "plonked" down beside him and was annoyingly building right beside his territory. Even worse she had also spread Amy's jungle around herself and moved to POACH HIS PRECIOUS ADVENTURERS. Every time someone moved from his territory to Queen's he seethed. Finally at one point he snapped and started building a hill on that side as a make-shift wall.

Queen took that moment to ask "What's your problem" causing his whole… issue to suddenly seem silly. Innearth: Ambiance. I feel like my territory is too flat. Giving it some nice rolling hills might make it more realistic. Brutality Queen: Oh is it just that? I'll help. It's good to keep the edges of our territories similar you know? Makes it more realistic. As Innearth worked on smoothing his hills out into less of a wall he noticed Queen had built her own hills each slightly larger than his own. …

Annoyed Innearth pushed the tops of the hills he was filling outwards up once more and watched as hers slowly rose as well. Gritting his metaphorical teeth Innearth pushed higher and higher the space taking up the base of his hills growing wider and wider as he refused to give up. Placing a crystal point on the top of his hills they slowly formed into miniature mountains that poked above the "territory" he could work in.

By pushing the mountain upwards and then filling in the space underneath he could continue expanding although as the weight above grew higher and higher his speed slowed. At the top of her highest peaks, she had planted a… plant mana? A pillar of some life adjacent mana that grew into a sort of beanstalk upwards.

Despite her best efforts it just barely grew to the same height as Innearth's crystal peak and with a final heave, he pushed upwards by just a bit more watching satisfied as the tip shook and then stopped 20cm above his competitor. Brutality Queen: heh. You've won! That was fun but I have to get back to some adventurers. We should do this again sometime! See you around. … Innearth rested looking at his mountain triumphantly for a bit and then stared at Queen's message trying to wrestle with his emotions. She… I…

Innearth: Sure, I'll see you around. When did this become just a rivalry? I thought I hated her. Innearth: Hey the mountains are eye catching but its going to make it hard for adventurers to get between us… I don't want to remove it even if it's cutting into a lot of my space but… do you want to make a tunnel through them? I'll join up on your side. Brutality Queen: Done! Give me a moment okay? I'll join up with your section when your tunnel reaches my territory.

Innearth dug his tunnel and watched as it was "taken over" as soon as it reached Queens section. He then started building a round hollow section right where the two caves met watching as Queen silently did the same on her side. Working his way around until the cave was near the side of his "mountain" at nearly 20m wide he watched as her side finished up adding another 20m. Staring at her area he created a single crystal snake and watched as a wooden beetle formed on her side.

Continuing to silently watch the two charged forward and fought one another, wooden spikes sliding off crystal scales and crystal walls penning in beetle flesh as they attacked. As soon as Innearth's snake won, Queen made a second monster this one a sort of… Innearth couldn't think of the animal this monster resembled. It was a sphere with a hundred living crystal spikes covering every one of its sides and it rolled and attacked further. Back and forth the two fought before the snake fell.

A notch was placed on Queen's side of the room and Innearth gave himself one for the time his snake had won. Continuing on Innearth created a void tipped snake that killed her fuzzy ball and was in turn defeated by a mud golem. This whole time Innearth spent watching adventurers flow in and out of his territory.

Only a small portion of his attention was on this strange sort of competition where they each designed monsters to counter one another's previous winners but despite being a small portion of his attention he never once stopped. A dust devil backed by two controllers dried out and killed the massive mud monster. Then three stone golems with endlessly spraying water distracted the dust creature and killed its handlers.

As Innearth made to make the next fighter he watched two adventurers pass through and kill the stone golems… almost being annoyed they had stepped in and prevented him from continuing. Staring at the scoreboard he saw they were tied. … I guess that's a good point to leave it? Watching as the group that killed the stone golems were rewarded with strange living armour Innearth blipped in a previously made tightly bound spear of void and kinetic thrust and a shield of "kinetic absorption".

Ecstatic with the extra gifts the pair seemed shocked they had gained so much from this cave and left to tell other adventurers about it. While whatever rumours the pair spread wasn't nearly the same as the amount of adventurers that heard of the long questline, it still caused a dozen groups to pass through the cave before the end of the event. At some point, the competition transitioned into cooperation.

Their monsters could travel through the territories with ease and they started taking turns to make bosses the adventures had to fight. There was a certain experience that Innearth could gain by integrating designs and testing them against real adventurers. Three of "his turns" in and Innearth started making ice golems to test out ideas for the boss of his ice zone.

It didn't look like Brutality Queen had chosen a rank 3 mana type in the past affinity section and Innearth delighted in making items and monsters that were impossible for her to even try. That competition was still muted however. It didn't seem to matter anymore – at least to Innearth. And with that the mysterious island event ended. All of Innearth's friend group won the [customization] reward but more importantly than that, Innearth had something else to focus on. I think we might now be friends?