Chapter 19 Wilderness Mission (2) Get out of the way, this guy can only be with...
A flash of white light, characteristic of teleportation magic, and Fafnir and Xia Ying appeared before a magnificent, unfamiliar building.
It was a majestic, pure white temple. Hundreds of tall stone columns stood side by side on marble steps, their volute capitals, adorned with laurel leaves, palm leaves, and papyrus, supporting a square cornice. Light filtered through the neatly arranged columns, casting solemn, long shadows in the forecourt, like the strings of a giant's lyre.
Despite having already witnessed many wonders in Cocytus, this scene still made Xia Ying hold her breath. As she hesitated whether to step onto the stone steps, a breeze carrying a sense of spaciousness blew from behind her.
She turned around and saw a cliff behind her, with an endless wilderness below.
Xia Ying asked him, "Have you been there?"
“Of course.” Fafnir curled the corner of his mouth. “But even I have never reached the end of the wilderness. It is said that only Tartarus knows where its boundaries are… However, we did not come here to explore the wilderness this time.”
After saying that, he turned Xia Ying's face to make her look straight ahead: "This is the Wilderness Hall, we need to go in together."
"Okay!"
Xia Ying brushed his hand away impatiently and walked up the stone steps.
She passed through the outer colonnade and the forecourt before stepping into the inner sanctum of the "Hall of the Wilderness".
The moment she entered, the scene and atmosphere around her changed dramatically. In stark contrast to the intriguing, ancient exterior, the interior space was paved and divided with a unique, smooth material, exuding a sharp and precise aura unique to technology.
The hall is spacious and simple, without any superfluous decorations, including lighting fixtures. A giant silver tree, constructed purely of data and light, stands in the center of the hall, its vast and intricate root system resembling billions of shimmering digital blood vessels, pumping data flow from the center to all sides.
These silver waves, after touching the boundary, rolled back up to the dome and landed again in the lush canopy of the giant tree, illuminating the hall as bright as day while completing the data cycle.
However, in reality, this desolate hall is neither as solemn as an ancient temple nor as desolate as a technology base.
The hall was filled with the cacophony of demonic chants, as countless abyssal creatures thronged about, with monsters appearing and disappearing every moment through teleportation magic. Some abyssal creatures circled around the giant tree, craning their necks to observe something within its dense, cloud-like canopy, while others gathered in small groups, forming several groups that acted in concert.
However, since they appear in Cocytus, calling them a monster guild would probably be more appropriate.
Thinking this, Xia Ying unconsciously took a step forward.
As she left her first footprint on the floor of the Wilderness Hall, the Student Handbook notification sounded: "Ding! Mission: [First Encounter with the Wilderness] has been triggered! Participants are interns and mentor Fafnir."
Just as Xia Ying was about to take out her phone to check the mission details, she suddenly heard a buzzing alarm. She looked up alertly and saw four or five winged silver sprites rushing towards her while emitting sharp screechs.
"Index Wizard #109..."
With a thought, Xia Ying equipped [Spring of Persephone] and then nimbly jumped out of the encirclement of the index sprites, leaving these beautiful little creatures who couldn't stop in time to collide in a heap.
Elf #39 flapped its wings, ready to charge at Xia Ying again, but was grabbed by the hair by #72 and immediately turned around and swung its fist in a rage.
"I found it first! You bastards, get out of my way!"
"You're the one who's △△'s ○○○! Everyone, hurry up! We can't let number 39, that □□, be the one to form a team this time!"
Just as the elves were spewing profanities and the fighting escalated into a chaotic melee, several more groups of abyssal creatures approached the scene of the disturbance. Xia Ying, who was watching the spectacle with great interest, suddenly realized something was wrong. An index elf had already pointed her out from the crowd at the top of its lungs.
"The eligible team target is over there! Don't let her get away!"
Several groups of abyssal creatures turned to face her simultaneously. Xia Ying was stunned for a moment, then turned and ran.
But this time, her escape was met with numerous obstacles. A strong, red-faced, one-horned demon wielding a spiked club chased after her. Xia Ying quickly ducked to avoid the sweeping force of the club, only to be met with a ball of blue fire. She rolled to the side, only to find her hands and feet bound by a spider web that had been lying in wait.
A red-faced, one-horned demon wielding a spiked club and a Jorogumo, whose lower body was a spider and whose upper body was that of a beautiful woman, approached her step by step. Xia Ying subtly jumped back a little: "Why are you chasing me? Do we have a grudge?"
The red-faced demon and Jorogumo exchanged a glance, then stepped aside, revealing a fox-eared boy behind them wearing a hunting robe and carrying a demon-slaying bow.
"Of course not, we just want to invite you to be our teammate and take on Wilderness Mission #39 together."
The boy squatted down in front of Xia Ying with a smile, his fox ears twitching slightly.
"There's no way around it, it's too hard to find teammates who meet the criteria. We and the Index Spirit have been camping out in the Wilderness Hall for days... Here, my name is Tamamo, they are Unicorn and Spider Woman, what's your name?"
Xia Ying didn't answer hastily, but asked warily, "Why me?"
"Because you meet the requirements."
"What are the conditions?"
He stood up and turned to the back: "Excuse me, could we talk to this lady about the cooperation first?"
Other task forces searching for their teammates also arrived at the location. The trio who first captured Xia Ying immediately went on high alert, protecting her in the center.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Xia Ying shrank behind the group, trying to minimize her presence, and secretly summoned the [Ama-no-Murakumo Sword].
She tried to shrink the sword with her mind, turning it into the size of a dagger, and quickly shattered the spider silk binding her hands and feet.
Having completely forgotten her original purpose for coming to the Wilderness Hall, Xia Ying stood up confidently. Just as she was about to jump up and break through, a black cloak suddenly fell over her head.
Xia Ying was instantly enveloped in it, and then, confused and surprised, she lifted the hem of her cloak and discovered a fleeting fire pattern on the corner of her clothes.
Moving her gaze upwards, she saw fiery red hair.
Before she could even call out the other person's name, a commotion broke out in the crowd.
"The King of the Crimson Crown?"
"How could the Crimson-Crowned King be here?!"
The dragon casually shoved Xia Ying's head back under its cloak and said nonchalantly, "Get out of the way, everyone. This guy can only stay with me."
The mission team members, who had been preparing to launch a preemptive strike, looked at each other in dismay and had no choice but to back down. The other abyssal creatures spontaneously retreated to both sides, making way for each other in the hall like Moses parting the Red Sea.
The dragon patted Xia Ying on the back: "Let's go."
Xia Ying quickly strode to catch up with Fafnir, and at the same time, she pushed aside her cloak and glanced back.
The fox boy, who had remained where he was, noticed her gaze, smiled, and waved goodbye to her lightly.
Xia Ying made a face at him and then crawled back under the dragon's cloak.
Then, Xia Ying opened her phone; now she finally had time to check the task details:
"[First Encounter with the Wilderness]: Trainees and their mentors complete any wilderness mission together. Upon completion of this mission, trainees will be qualified to independently challenge wilderness missions and meet subsequent combat requirements."
This looks like a prerequisite quest to unlock the series of dungeons. Xia Ying thought that after completing this step, she should be able to challenge Wilderness Quest #63.
Very good, things have progressed smoothly up to this point.
In the brief moment that these thoughts flashed through her mind like shooting stars, Fafnir had already led her to the giant silver tree.
Xia Ying brushed aside her black cloak, looked up at the giant tree, and discovered clusters of multi-dimensional data clouds hanging on the branches like fruits, each cloud showing a different scene.
An elderly female goblin slowly walked up to her, raised her withered hand, and pointed to the clusters of data clouds directly above them: "This area contains the wilderness quest channels for numbers 50-70. Would you like to check out any of them?"
Xia Ying replied naturally, "I want to see Wilderness Mission No. 63."
"Number 63... Number 63..." The goblin searched among the leaves with his dim old eyes. "Found it, it's there."
Xia Ying looked in the direction she was pointing and saw a surging ocean in the data cloud numbered 63. In the midst of the storm, a large ship was struggling against the giant waves.
“That’s Wilderness Mission #63: [The Argo].” The old goblin pursed his toothless mouth. “This mission requires at least thirty people to start, and it’s been a long time since anyone has attempted it.”
The number of interns assigned to the Crimson Crown Ring was also thirty, which was exactly the number of people who could start the mission. The Wilderness Mission No. 63 seemed to have been tailor-made for them.
Just as Xia Ying was about to ask further, Fafnir interrupted their conversation: "Lobby Manager, give us Wilderness Mission #70."
"Number 70? This kid is still a newbie, right? Do we really have to choose Wilderness Mission Number 70 as our first challenge?"
The goblin grandmother, who was in charge of the management, first opened her eyes wide, and then slowly narrowed them.
"Never mind, after all, we have the assistance of the Crimson-Crowned King..."
Xia Ying suddenly sensed something was wrong, turned around and grabbed Fafnir's sleeve: "Hey, wait..."
"That's it," the dragon commanded gleefully. "First, complete the wilderness qualification registration for my intern."
The old goblin nodded, raised a branch that resembled a walking stick, and a small stream immediately branched off from the canopy of the silvery-white giant tree, trickling into Xia Ying's [Student Handbook].
The phone screen lit up, displaying the download interface, and after a moment, the words "Installation Completed" appeared.
"Beep! Wilderness qualification registration completed."
At the same time as the [Student Handbook] issued the notification, a new message also popped up loudly on the large screen in the Wilderness Hall that scrolled through mission challenges and member information:
"The succubus [Xia Ying] has completed her Wilderness Qualification Registration and will soon begin the Wilderness Mission #70 challenge!"
The sudden arrival of the dragon Fafnir has already attracted much attention, and the legendary "succubus," which has disappeared for a long time and has reappeared, has further aroused the curiosity of the creatures in the abyss.
Xia Ying, who was instantly drawn to countless gazes, froze on the spot.
The words of dear Mr. Cerberus seem to echo in my ears again:
I'm sorry, Cerberus.
Xia Ying thought to herself.
Things seem to have taken a slightly unexpected turn.
The data cloud representing Wilderness Mission 70 began to spin, and Xia Ying felt a powerful force pulling her into it.
"Wilderness Mission #70: [Golden Apple Sanctuary] has officially begun."
Challengers: Xia Ying, Fafnir.
A note from the author:
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Xia Ying: Listen to me, Cerberus, this is 200% Fafnir's fault...
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