MMORPG : Ancient WORLD

After the meeting with the Realm Ruler, Alex was on cloud nine because now he knew where to find the sword he needed, and while the path to it was quite challenging and would take time, it was still easier than he expected it to be.

Alex did not clearly understand the value of his legacy sword or the unknown dark blade, but he knew they were both of immense value because if their value was not clear to him by their mysterious origin, it was made clear once he learned about the Tesseract Collection.

The Tesseract Collection was an artifact that was a treasury that held artifacts of all forms and nature, from extinct creatures sealed in cryonics ready to released to the world or weapons of immense value taken from pivotal moments throughout the history of the cosmos.

The treasury had a spirit of its own, known by many names throughout the centuries, that made people believe that there was more than a single Tesseract treasury, but since no two individuals were found to be its holder at one point, it was just speculation.

The Tesseract Collection was famous because it was a very special artifact, as it chose its owner at random, but being chosen did not mean having access to the stored treasures.

The chosen individual was given the right to give something of equal value to gain something he desired from the entire treasury, and the said right was only available to him, but he was given free rein to exchange as many items as he wanted.

So historically, every time an individual was chosen, he offered his services to earn valuable artifacts for his own benefit.

However, there was a catch to this whole exchange system, as the one to decide the value of artifacts was the Tesseract spirit, and in her eyes, a complete garbage could be worth a lot, and a mythic artifact could be worth little over some trash.

Another restriction, maybe the most important one, was that at one point, only a single trade could take place, and the Tesseract spirit only opened a trade once the chosen had selected an item, so the chosen could not just randomly pick items that he liked or the grand opportunity he had will be turned to waste.

The silver lining for the chosen was that if he did pick an item of great value and could not offer something of equal worth, he could get help from the Tesseract spirit in locating items that she would take.

However, if the chosen did take help from the spirit, then the trade would not be like the regular trade of one against one item, and instead, the chosen would be gathering items until the spirit was satisfied, and knowing what he knew, Alex believed that Zarach was on one such mission.

As for the intel Alex received from the Realm Ruler, he did his research to get familiar with everything, and there were quite a few obstacles he needed to deal with to get what he wanted.

The first major obstacle was the entry token, and from the intel he received as his main reward, the first piece of the token was collecting dust in the space ring of an elder of the Starfall Sword Sect.

The man named Vykan Zeld was a titanic figure, holding the title of Monarch of Whispering Shadows, but Alex did not need to worry about him since someone stronger than him would be dealing with him.

Alex did not find any intel about Elara Winterfell having any daughter, let alone her being kidnapped and held prisoner, but since the realm Ruler had told him, he knew it was certainly true.

Alex also figured from her words that Madam Elara did not know that her daughter was a prisoner under Vykan, or else the city Nocturna would have become a frozen tundra long ago.

One of the students under Madam Elara was captured by the Coiling Dragon Sect, a faction proudly ranked seventh among the seven peaks of the Cultivator Domain, but once she gave them a visit, they were reduced from an Imperial Sect to an Ethereal Sect, and even that only because of their ancient heritage, otherwise their rank would have dropped further.

So, while Alex was not worried about her not dealing with Vykan, he realized that getting close to someone of her status would be anything but easy.

Alex was contemplating to join the Magi Empire army to get close to her, which would take a lot of work, but he realized that was the only good option to secure his entry into the pocket dimension compared to spreading the rumor that she had a daughter who was imprisoned by one of the most hated men.

Alex had many things to deal with, and time was not on his side, so the first thing he decided to do was advance to Sixth Rank since he was so close.

Alex decided to prioritize it rather than the last quest of the Epochal trial because strength and the addition of skills would greatly assistance him in the champion's games he would participate in the future.

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"Five Weeks later,"

In a chamber enveloped by an impenetrable darkness, where the absence of light rendered everything invisible at first glance, a sphere darker than the surrounding darkness hovered leisurely above the polished floor.

Thanks to the law tokens, it took Alex less than a year to enter the Sixth Rank and do so by learning 75% of Darkness and Chaos Concepts, so as much as the ancestral realm was hell, it was also a blessing.

While the time ahead was as immense as nine years, if everything went decently well and those nine years could truly change Alex, it would make him stand on the shoulders of the giants but shoulder to shoulder with them.

However, the path ahead was anything but easy because, till now, he was playing on easy mode and had already suffered a tragedy, and only time would tell what fate had planned for him.

But now it was a moment of celebration because Alex had taken a step closer to the dream he saw when he entered the ancient world, just like every player and living being who walked the path of strength.

As moments passed, the pitch-dark cocoon gradually dissipated, its energies seeping into the curled-up figure floating inside of it.

Alex's hair, which had grown to reach the midpoint of his back, swirled wildly in the dense, swirling darkness surrounding him, and his naked, curled-up figure unconsciously floated in that open cocoon for close to a dozen minutes before all of the buildup energy was all but gone.

Alex landed on the floor, his muddled senses slowly returning to normal, and once he was fully conscious, he did not quickly open his stat window or get excited over his Rank promotion.

"I feel like I forgot something of importance, but strangely, I also feel I did not," Alex uttered aloud, confused by the strange feeling he felt once his senses returned.

"Maybe it was a dream,"

"Let's forget all this and select some good skills," Alex thought, shaking off the strange feeling and shifting his focus to the system screen that displayed a much smaller list of skills than the one he was familiar with after each Rank promotion.