Chương 21

Priest Corin blinked. He looked totally lost for words. Then, a warm chuckle escaped him.

"The trial of the ocean takes much out of a mortal body," Corin smiled.

"There is a tavern just two streets over called The Salted Hearth. Tell the barkeep the temple sent you. They serve a hearty seafood stew."

"Thank you, Father," Rudra sighed in relief.

"I'm heading there right now." Corin nodded, respectfully taking the statue. As he did, a grand golden notification dropped into Rudra's vision. [Hidden Quest 'The Legacy of the Submerged God' has been updated!] [Progress: 2 / 113 Temples Cleared] Rudra smiled, offered a quick bow, and bolted out of the temple, completely fixated on getting that seafood stew. That single bowl of stew was the start of his massive coastal grind.

The remaining months of the Beta phase flew by in a blur of fighting, exploring, and an absurd amount of cooking. For a normal player, the goal of a Beta was to hit the max level to test the end-game zones. Rudra easily hit Level 40 within a week, beating up high-level mobs along the coast with his crazy stats. But then, he purposefully hit the brakes. He didn't want to hit Level 45. He still had the [Barnacle-Encrusted Key] sitting in his inventory with one charge left.

The description said it wouldn't work if his level exceeded 45. He had planned to return to the Forgotten Tidal Cave on the last day of the Beta, and he refused to let a good plan go to waste. So, he locked himself at Level 44. Instead of leveling up, he spent all his time grinding his skills and expanding his pantry. He purposefully handicapped himself to make fights harder—equipping heavy weights, trying to clear camps without taking a single hit, or setting speed limits just to see if he could do it.

The other players grinding on the coast started calling him the "Training Maniac" and the "Crazy Staffsman". Rudra just ignored them. Small talk with random players drained his energy anyway. He tracked down field bosses just to harvest their high-tier meat. He bought out recipes from the Craftsman's Guild and scoured the areas around the Asterion temples for rare ingredients. By completing the temple trials, he systematically ticked up his hidden quest progress.

By the final week of the Beta, Rudra got ridiculously good at the game. His active skills—[Minor Tidal Push], [Crushing Strike], and [Iron Guard]—had all hit Level 5. They weren't maxed out, but the buffs were incredibly strong. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. More importantly, his two core passives, [Basic Staff Mastery] and [Basic Cooking], were both sitting at Level 9, stuck at exactly 99% proficiency.

He had also successfully hoarded exactly thirteen [Forgotten Skill Fragments] from all the temples he cleared. The salty breeze of Seabreak Town felt oddly nostalgic. It was the final day of the Beta. A glowing red timer sat in the corner of his vision. [Server Shutdown in 16: 42: 15] Rudra stood on the northern beach, his heavy oak staff resting on his shoulder. His inventory was bursting with high-grade monster meat, rare spices, and his stack of weathered parchments.

He waited patiently until the moon hit its highest point. The tide retreated, revealing the dark entrance to the Forgotten Tidal Cave at the base of the cliffs. He stepped into the shallow water, opening his status window one last time. [Name]: Rudra [Level]: 44 [Class]: Apprentice Staffman [Title]: Unyielding Staff Initiate [Health: 1, 240 / 1, 240 | Mana: 410 / 410] [Strength: 167 | Stamina: 124 | Agility: 176 | Intelligence: 82] [Persistence: 105] [Stat Points: 85] [Crushing Strike (Lv. 5): Channels heavy momentum to the tip of your staff for a devastating overhead or horizontal swing. - Deals 190% of your physical attack power. Resource Consumption: 30 Stamina. Skill Cooldown: 12 seconds] [Iron Guard (Lv. 5): Brace your staff with both hands to absorb a heavy impact. - Reduces incoming physical damage by 80% for a single strike. Resource Consumption: 20 Stamina. Skill Cooldown: 8 seconds.] [Minor Tidal Push (Lv. 5): [A foundational spell created by the Temple of Asterion. It channels a sudden, highly pressurized burst of water from the tip of the user's weapon. - It deals water magic damage equivalent to Intelligence x 0. 9. - It applies a [Stagger] effect to the target, forcefully pushing them backward by 1. 5 meters. Resource Consumption: 15 Mana. Skill Cooldown Time: 4 seconds.] Everything was set. He had the stats, the skills, and the fragments. He walked up to the massive stone door and pulled out the dark iron key. [Item: Barnacle-Encrusted Key (Reinforced)] [Uses Remaining: 1/2] Rudra jammed the key into the slot and turned it. The heavy stone doors ground open. A blast of freezing air hit him, smelling of rotting seaweed. But this time, the system didn't lock the dungeon to Level 20. [The trial of the God of Forgotten Knowledge adapts to the challenger.] [The First Discoverer has returned to the depths.] [The dungeon difficulty has been forcefully scaled to the maximum limit of the key: Level 65.] [Warning: You are entering Solo. The risk of death is extreme.] The air inside grew instantly freezing. The chittering sounds of the low-level skeletons were gone. Instead, he heard the deep, terrifying breathing of something massive waiting in the dark. Rudra gripped his staff, a wide, thrilled smile spreading across his face. Rudra whispered." Let's see what you've got."