Arcadia— Heroes Of Relics
Updates every 10:00PM UTC+7 Centuries ago, a mysterious meteor descended upon the Earth. Instead of wiping all life forms on the planet, it terraformed the Earth, transforming both living and non-living things alike. This event was called the Great Meteor Fall. Monsters and Beasts appeared and proliferated on the land, causing a shift to the ordinary lifestyle people once knew. Humans also underwent changes thanks to the meteor. Some were granted supernatural powers, and some were granted strength. With these changes, mankind concluded that life will never be the same. The rise of adventurers and guilds was only a few things brought about by the change. Those who wielded great power became prominent figures. But this was just the beginning. The ground zero of the meteor, where it descended, became the territory of a powerful entity known as the Dark One. No one knew where he came from, but rumors said he was inside the meteor when it landed. The energy levels in ground zero were so potent that an average human wouldn't be able to survive it. As such, only high-ranking adventurers could enter it with great difficulty and survive. However, no one came close to the fortress of the dark One, built on top of the meteor itself. As years passed, the monsters and beasts became more powerful, and the adventurers struggled to keep up. But there was no real threat. The Dark One didn't seem to care for Earth's inhabitants, or maybe he was in deep slumber, awaiting his awakening before he invaded Earth. It was foretold, however, that the Dark One was close to awakening, and the powerful monsters and beasts were a clear sign of it. Backed into a corner, the countries were forced to rely on forbidden technology to combat the upcoming invasion. Messing with the space-time continuum, mankind was able to summon influential and powerful people from the past. They became known as Heroes of Relics. These heroes partied up and became Earth's last line of defense against the oncoming invasion. Albrecht Stein was part of the Heroes of Relics. However, he was kicked out of the party since they no longer needed a porter. His only particular skill was spatial storage space, and he was just an additional headcount, so they kicked him out. Just like the other Heroes, he was transported to the future with the sole purpose of defeating the Dark One. But now that his purpose was gone, he decided to live a quiet life in the countryside. That is until the final countdown was issued, and the world's destruction drew near.
Preparations and Return To The Seventh Outerlayer
A couple of days later,
With the necessary assistance of the System, Albrecht was able to find one of the artifacts needed to increase his chances of conquering the Eighth Outerlayer.
Thanks to his chance encounter with someone from the Lycanne Tribe, he had a rough idea of their collective strength.
Then again, there was no way to know exactly since the System could be inaccurate at times. And it's not like he could always rely on the data he garnered from the other Albrechts.
Despite the similarities, it was obvious that this dimension was drastically different compared to the others. Somehow, Albrecht only realized that after facing certain inaccuracies and events that never happened in the other dimensions.
At present, instead of solely being reliant on the System, he opted to use it as his collection of knowledge instead. That way he'd be prepared to deal with emergencies, unlike before when he'd get flustered at the minuscule change in an event.
Adding to that, instead of preparing just enough for the Eighth Outerlayer, Albrecht was determined to prepare as much as he could before the deadline.
To do that, he had to take care of one thing first.
"You're heading out?" Yukina Medusa came out of the Summoner's Ring to greet Albrecht.
"Yes, I'm going to the Seventh Outerlayer," Albrecht said as he picked up the pace.
A bright morning greeted the City of Caharsa as the first rays of sunshine shone from the horizon. The once-cold air shifted into a warmer atmosphere as the Forest of Chythyllu came to life.
From afar, Albrecht saw Yulie Rosethorn heading out as well for her daily morning patrol. Seeing Albrecht heading to the entrance/exit of the city, Yulie Rosethorn frantically waved her hand at Albrecht.
"Take care!" Yulie beamed before resuming her duties.
With a single nod, Albrecht greeted Yulie back before exiting the city.
"Seventh Outerlayer? Why?" Yukina asked.
"You'll see," Albrecht smiled as he picked up the pace.
Since they just conquered the Seventh Outerlayer, Yukina Medusa wasn't at all shocked that Albrecht was going to visit it. Although she was weirded out about it, she silently followed Albrecht as they took a carriage all the way to Rilegarthe, and then proceeded to enter the newly-built Artificial Zecian Portal that leads straight to the Seventh Outerlayer.
Once conquered, an Outerlayer will have certain monsters on it, like a conquered dungeon that would permanently remain. However, if there are certain tribes that live there, then the adventurers would have to either coexist with them, drive them away, or cleanse them to extinction.
Howevee, since the adventurers were running out of time as it is, and they had no time to deal with the tribes that would generally be more formidable than them, it would be far easier to just coexist with them if it was possible.
Nevertheless, right now the tribes in the lower-numbered outerlayers didn't bother going through the peace process. It's as if there was a unanimous decision that the tribes wouldn't touch the adventurers as long as they don't do anything to the tribes.
This had become the norm in the earlier conquered outerlayers. To be fair, everyone wondered if the Great Meteor Fall or the Dark One had any effect on them. Then again, there was no way to confirm that so everyone just concluded that such was the case.
It's as if something was restricting everything in Ground Zero, as if unwritten laws and rules bound everyone who ventured therein.
Albrecht thought of this in the past, and he was well aware that the other Albrechts came across the same train of thought already. Then again, there was nothing they could do about it except assume.
After all... not a single dimension had conquered the entire Ground Zero. Albrecht had an inkling that something like this was plausible, but since he could only see as far as the System and the other Albrechts would allow him, he was left with a pressing feeling that such was the case.
That's why he felt an underlying sense of duty to go out of his way to prepare as much as he can. And in order to do that, he had to do something painstakingly difficult to achieve what had been unachievable for the other Albrechts.
Unbeknownst to Albrecht, little by little, he was changing the course of the future. Slowly, he was diverting from the path that the other Albrechts took.
Fwooosh~!
Once again, Medusa Yukina gave Albrecht a side glance, wondering why he came back to the Seventh Outerlayer when they just conquered it a couple of days ago.
"We're going to set up camp here." Albrecht let out before Yukina could ask anything. "We're going to wait."
Without further ado, Albrecht started setting up a makeshift tent on an empty part of the field where they once fought the Earth Sand Golems.
To Yukina, the memories of the Earth Sand Golems and the other ones were much more vivid... to the point where she expected to see an Earth Sand Golem at any point.
Once again, Yukina started questioning Albrecht in her mind. She didn't dare ask him anything though since Albrecht seemed to know what he was doing.
He had always been confident, and that confidence had never failed him. Just like right now, Albrecht knew that he was going to succeed.
It would take some time, but he would succeed— or so thats he positively viewed it. He only need one chance, and once that chance presented itself, he wouldn't miss it.
Since the conquer attempt of the Seventh Outerlayer was successful, it was only a matter of time before a dungeon appeared.
Usually, claiming a dungeon is on a first come first served basis. That's why most kingdoms would have some of their adventurers camp inside an outerlayer so they would be the first ones to enter the dungeon.
This time, Albrecht wanted the dungeon for himself, that's why he went there on the first place. Essentially, he was planning to gatekeep everyone who would try to fight over the dungeon.
"It's about time." Albrecht let out as the first cracks of a Zecian Portal appeared right above him, marking the appearance of a certain dungeon.
a lot has happened these past few weeks, sorry if I wasn't able to update due to a lot of factors... Specifically family and personal matters that I've been dealing with.
In any case, here's the preview of the next chapter, please wait for the update tomorrow :))