Child of Destiny

Chapter 1419: An Unexpected Bonus (Part 2)

...…

Within the instant dungeon, Alice encountered a series of puzzles that needed to be solved. Most of them were simple ones, which also concerned her in-game procession, particularly about Elemental Beings.

She was able to answer most of the tricky questions and puzzles regarding them, but she encountered a few problems when it reached the middle stages of the dungeon. In this stage, she had to solve a series of puzzles written in elven runes, which varied from ancient to modern ones.

She had to solve a series of magic sequences with missing parts, where she had to find the right answer within a set amount of time. The questions started in the most basic sequences, where they focused on the regular elven runes that were familiar to most of the players.

But it later became more difficult, especially when the next magic sequences required some ancient and long-forgotten runes, which she was not familiar with.

Moreover, her little time was quite short, making it hard to complete each sequence.

At first, she thought that it was some random puzzles that she just needed to solve, but she later realized that these magic sequences were from a set of elven spells that varied from the most basic ones up to the advanced ones, then to modified ones.

She realized that these puzzles were records of a skilled elven researcher, who loved experimenting with elven magic, particularly in spirit and elemental magics.

She realized that these puzzles were not only a test to find if she could free the Earth Spirit Queen Gaia, but also meant to find a suitable successor that would inherit their legacy.

It was a test for an inheritance of a fallen elf magic researcher.

When she realized this, she slowed down her pace and took her time solving each of the magic sequences as well as studying each rune that she encountered.

It was at this moment that she also realized that she was inside a special dungeon where the time difference between here and the outside world flowed differently.

She also noticed that the timer for the spouting of the 'Flora of Death' had 'slowed' down by a great margin, so she did not have to be hasty.

With that, her mind entered a study mode, where she was constantly learning and absorbing all the knowledge and purpose of each rune and magic sequence that she encountered.

When she was done with the basic, intermediate, and advanced sequences, which also reflected the magic spells that they represented, and learned all the ancient, modern, and modified runes, she was struck by a sudden eureka.

Then knowledge from ancient times and modern ages came out of nowhere and flooded inside her head while a series of memories flashed in front of her eyes.

At the end of everything, she also gained some insights regarding spirit and elemental magic along with the more advanced set of magic circles that she had seen for the first time.

She knew that she could not cast these powerful spells with her current strength and level, but she could learn quite a lot from studying them.

A few moments later, after she successfully absorbed all the knowledge and insights that were flooding inside her head and flashing in front of her eyes, a sudden notification from the system woke her up.

*Ding*

System: Congratulations! You have learned the lost knowledge of the forgotten hero of elves, the Philosopher Andrea, the Half-Elf Half-Human Sage of the Repelling Era!

System: You have successfully inherited the Legacy left behind by the great philosopher.

System: You have learned the 'Sorcerer's Magic Runes'.

*Ding*

System: Congratulations! You have acquired the Secondary Combat Class: Sorceress of the Origin Runes!

System: You have acquired the Legacy Item: 'Grimoire of Sorcery'.

…

Alice slowly opened her eyes after hearing those notifications. Then she was suddenly greeted by a glowing book floating in front of her, which was continuously releasing a pulsing light that was illuminating the entire place.

The book had an exquisite design that seemed to be a combination of ancient and modern engravings. There was also a series of magic sequences engraved on the steel cover in an overlapping manner. Each magic sequence was glowing alternatingly, making them distinguishable from each other.

At the center of the book, there was a magic circle at the center of the book cover that looked a little simple compared to the rest of the design. But upon closer inspection, the complexity of this magic circle would be revealed to the eyes of an expert.

The magic circle was composed of multiple runes that varied from ancient times, modern ages, and the personal insight of the previous owner, which were also a set of modified runes.

This magic circle was no different from an advanced magic formation. It could even be considered as a magic formation compressed into a basic magic circle.

There were also eight sockets on different parts of the magic circle, dividing it into equal parts. Alcie could even see that the magic sequence containing these parts was already enough to form a powerful advanced spell, so she could not imagine how powerful the complete magic circle itself was.

Each socket had different sizes and shapes, seemingly indicating that different kinds of objects could be put in them, particularly special gems.

There was also a round socket situated at the center of this magic circle, which was also the center of the book cover. Its size was a little larger than the rest and it seemed to indicate that the gem required for it was slightly special.

She stared at it for a couple of moments before stretching her left hand to grab it. The moment her hands touched the book, there seemed to be a connection being built between them. Stay connected with m-v l|e'-NovelBin.net

This Sorcerer's Grimoire seemed to have become connected with her soul.

The process lasted for quite a while until the grimoire fully integrated itself with her. She then felt that something within her changed right after the process ended. Her mind became much shaper while her focus became steadier and firmer.

Under these conditions, she felt that she could cast all basic spells with brief thought and any intermediate spells with a small gesture of her hand. As for advanced spells, simple chants would be more than enough to cast them.

She no longer needed to chant a long set of phrases to cast most of her advanced spells aside from those most advanced spells just like the one that she had used to end the Green Dragon earlier, which required a lot of concentration and great mana control to cast.

While she was trying to digest everything inside her head, she suddenly sensed a gaze observing her from the dark.

Casting her gaze toward the source of the gaze, she saw a beautiful woman with long and deep green hair suspended in the air with her arms wrapped with iron chains that had ancient runes engraved on them.

This woman had a deadly figure yet was also quite muscular with properly toned muscles across her body. She was wearing something around her busty chest that seemed to have been made of black clay molded into armor.

There were also earthen gauntlets on each of their hands that extended to her forearms; the material seemed to be the same as the armor protecting her chest. A long and thick mantle was wrapped around her waist with the length reaching her knees while an earthen set of combat boots covered her feet.

The black clay molded into a set of armor was filled with ancient engravings while the mantle seemed to have been made of a huge leaf of an ancient tree.

Alice did not need to use her observation skills to know who this person was, especially when the dense element of nature surrounded her.

The Nature Elemental Mana in the surroundings were gathering toward this woman, seemingly attracted to her naturally or showing their respect toward her greatly. This alone was more than enough to confirm her identity.

At this point, before Alice could even say anything, the three elemental spirits in the form of specks of light behind her suddenly took the initiative to transform into their respective humanoid forms and paid their respects to her.

"Spirit Queen Gaia."

Even if they were as powerful as her in their peak forms, they still humbly showed their respect to the sovereign who had absolute authority over elements.

Gaia took away her gaze from Alice before turning to the three and nodding at them. She smiled gently as she greeted them. "It seems like I have been sealed in this place for a very long time for such powerful Elementals to emerge."

"We are known as the Storm Brothers during our active time," said F?jin before pointing to himself, then to Raijin. "I'm known to this realm as the Wind God F?jin while this brother is called Lightning God Raijin."

"I am Suijin, great queen of earth and nature," said Suijin as she introduced herself.

After listening to them, Gaia turned back to Alice and smiled full of care and love. "How about you, child of Elune? What is your name?"

Alice was slightly taken aback at how Gaia had addressed her. But she still introduced herself, nevertheless. "I-I'm… I'm Charlotte." – her in-game person more specifically.

Rumble!

While they were talking, intense tremors suddenly shook the entire place, disturbing them.

The Elemental Spirits stood firmly as they looked at the surroundings while fragments of rocks started falling toward the ground.

Alice, on the other hand, was having a hard time keeping her balance with the intense shaking. She decided to use a levitation spell to separate herself from the ground and floated in the air.

"It seems like that demonic seed from Hell is already on the verge of sprouting," commented Gaia as she was clear about the current situation, which was why she remained calm.

She then turned to Alice and said with an amiable smile. "Child of Elune, you already know what to do."

Alice nodded her head as she also realized that some of the runes and magic sequences were similar to the ones that were engraved on the iron chains wrapped on the arms of Gaia.

She also remembered what they were for, so she immediately understood that the legacy that she just got earlier had something to do with this seal – or at least some part of it, particularly those modified ones.

If her guess was right, then the legacy that she had gotten was some sort of research about these ancient runes or a study of them. It might be to free Gaia from these iron chains or something else.

She did not know how it ended, or what happened to Philosopher Andrea. But she knew that whatever research or study it was, it bore a positive result as she had already received the final products. One of them was the insights and knowledge about those runes while the other was the grimoire.

However, they still did not save Gaia in the end. Something might have happened in between that led to such a result or saving Gaia had never been their purpose.

Setting that thought aside, Alice quickly went to work.

***

While Alice was busy inside the instance dungeon, a literal 'war' was currently happening outside, where Shin and his Reaper's Retainers were currently fighting.

A horde of crazy monsters were charging at them as they protected the entrance of the dungeon.

These monsters were both from the ones that were corrupted by the demonic seed of the 'Flora of Death' and the mutated ones that were influenced by Gaia and lost their minds due to the aftereffects of the deaths of the four guardian monsters.

The guardian monsters were the centers of the sealing formation that was trapping Gaia. That was the main role that they had within this mountain range. But aside from that, they also served as leashes that kept all the powerful monsters residing within the region under control.

Now that the four guardian monsters were dead, these powerful monsters started running toward the dungeon gate. They could sense that the source that was granting them mutation was coming from there, so they wanted to get it for themselves.

Fortunately, these monsters were not strong enough to make Shin and his Reaper's Retainers helpless, so aside from a large number of the horde, they did not have that many problems.

On the brighter side, he was able to loot quite a lot of Mana Cores, both Elemental and Beast Cores alike, after killing a large number of high-level and high-rank monsters from the horde – most of them were even of Nature Element that he would need for the hatching and conversion of the green dragon egg in his possession.

Boom!

After quite a while, a mana storm suddenly erupted behind Shin and the others, where the dungeon entrance was located.

Shin did not need to turn his head around to know what had happened. But he was quite relieved that they did not have to hold against this monster horde any longer as he was already reaching his limit after the series of battles he went through.

"I guess it is finally time to relax a little."

...