Pantheon Online

Chapter 39 - Speculations

[Milestone Reached… Milestone Updated]

[Lost Soul (Weakened): 100/200]

[You have received +1 Stat Point]

Colt heaved a sigh of relief as he finally reached the top of the staircase. A few of the Lost Souls had fallen over the edge, but he had been careful enough to make sure that enough remained to reach the Milestone goal. 'Another stat point, what should I dump it into?'

Colt decided to wait until they at least got out of here first before he gave any of his stats an upgrade. There was no telling if any more mobs were hiding in the dirt walls of the staircase after all.

"So what now? How do we get this thing to open?" Donna asked as she eyed Colt sceptically.

Beans wore a concerned expression on her face as she glanced over the edge of the stairs. She could see the Lost Souls that had fallen making their way back up. At this rate, it would not take long for them to arrive at their position.

"Don't worry about it," Colt smirked as he looked at this side of the horizontal doors.

Eventually, he found what he was looking for. It was the hole that he had inserted his finger into when they were on the other side. It would have taken longer to find if Colt did not have prior knowledge about this trick of the developers. The hole was situated next to the dirt wall. Colt quickly moved over beside it and ran his hand over the rough, gritty dirt. 'There you are!'

He felt a small smooth area in the dirt. This was the button that unlocked the doors, so Colt made sure to hide what he was doing from the women behind him. The pair frowned at his back before they heard a clicking noise, which was soon followed by the grinding that came with stone rubbing on stone.

Beans bounced on the tips of her toes as if the doors could not open fast enough. The second that sunlight streamed in and the gap in the gates were large enough, Beans jumped up onto the ground outside. Donna shook her head at her friend's antics. She was overreacting to the mobs and was evidently afraid that they might kill her.

It was one thing to have to fight your way out, but if you had a choice to make it out with your gains safely, most gamers would take that option. Lest they lose more than they bargained for because they were too confident or greedy.

Colt and Donna quickly joined her as the Lost Souls howled in outrage. Looking down into the pit with the Lost Souls rushing up from its depths made it feel like they were looking at a staircase to hell.

The three of them could not be happier to see the doors closing behind them. Just as they slammed shut, several hands had attempted to reach through the gap to grab them. Needless to say, these blackened limbs now lay severed on top of the sealed tomb. Only Donna did not flinch at the sight before the limbs faded into motes of light.

Beans sighed in relief now that the threat was gone. Moments later, she broke into a wide grin! "Woohoo! I can't believe we did it! Do you think we're the first to raid a tomb?"

Colt chuckled when he heard her. "It's hard to say. Maybe we're the first around here, but I doubt we're the first in the whole game."

"What makes you say that?" Donna honestly looked surprised as she raised an eyebrow at his comment.

"There are just too many unknowns. Like for example, we have no idea exactly who amongst the famous gamers are playing the Beta. There's a few I can think of that specialise in speedrunning as much in the early days as they can. In all honesty, I expect that if even one of them is in the game that they may already be level five." Colt's mind wandered to a few of the other people he had competed against in the pro circuit.

"Then there's the pro and amateur teams. You can't underestimate how quickly they can unearth secrets as well due to the amount of manpower they have compared to us." Colt continued after pausing for a moment. "To top it off, we don't know what the situation is like for the other races that we could have chosen. All I've seen are fellow Human players so far."

Donna tilted her head as she thought about it before realising that he was right. "Does that mean that each race has their own starting area in the Divine Realms too?"

"Of course, don't you remember the map when we first entered the game? I doubt we'll be seeing anyone from the other races for a while. Especially since we don't know where exactly in the Human Divine Realm that Valheim is located." Colt hummed as he thought about something else. "What sub-race did you two choose?"

"Skardian…" They both replied in unison, causing Colt to frown.

"It seems like we might even be divided by sub-race." Colt's eyes narrowed as he realised what that actually meant. 'Damn! Everyone here is our biggest competitors to build a foundation for our Divinity! It should be easier to convince the Skardians to believe in us since we're one of them!'

Colt quickly turned his attention towards Valheim in the distance. 'It seems like we might need to buy some information from those who explored the city. There's a good chance it has other functions that we don't know of yet.'

"By the way…." Colt began as he glanced at the two women. "Do either of you know anything about registering a guild in this game?"

"Why? You trying to recruit us or something?" Donna asked suspiciously with a frown on her face.

"I don't think that's a bad idea." Beans replied to Donna's comment as she absentmindedly stroked her chin. "But, no… We haven't found anything related to that."