Way of the Knights

Chapter 486 - First Step

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Three days passed by after Unit-17's distribution of their rewards. The whole team went on several errands and had couple of meetings in order to familiarize themselves to the sect and it went surprisingly smooth. 

The members who had planned on switching their cultivation techniques paid a visit to the Repository Hall to ask for opinions. At first they thought that they'll have a hard time picking and that the staff weren't going to give them any suggestion. Surprisingly however, it turns out that not only they were willing to help, they even gave them many options to choose. 

The advice weren't free, they had to pay a small amount of Merit Points for it but none of them were surprised. In fact, it makes sense like this. And it's not like they were scammed by doing so. The amount of Merit Points they paid for it was worth it since the opinions and options they got were plenty. All that's left for them to do is to pick which technique was the most suitable for them and start switching to it. 

On a different note though, during their tour Unit-17 discovered an important matter that was revealed to them by one of the older disciples in Tartarus. It turns out that at least 90% of the disciples around here were dual cultivators with the minority being triple cultivators. 

Only a very small part of the sect's population were composed of one-trick-ponies, which was very surprising for them but its something that they should've seen coming. In truth, with how fearsome the enemies are, those who were stronger survives longer, and compared to being a one-trick-pony, being a dual-cultivator is better. 

This was an unexpected news for everyone in the Unit-17. A meeting was called for it and it was decided that the members who will switch would do their best pick a dual-cultivation technique from the Repository in order to get more benefits out of it. As for the those who wasn't planning on switching, they too started deciding whether to buy an additional technique and cultivate it or to remain as they are right now. The choice was left for them to decide. 

Apart from visiting the Repository Hall, the team pretty much roamed the entirety of Tartarus. They decided to explore in batches in order to cover more ground and through several discussions, they all reported what they saw, allowing everyone to know what they experienced. 

Tartarus follows the shape of a ring, its surrounding the Devil's Cradle, acting like a seal to prevent the ugly creatures from escaping the interior of the mountain. There are several entrance and exit points on Tartarus. Within it are multiple infrastructures which has different functions, but all are important for the sect and its residence. 

The ones near Unit-17's base are the Repository Hall, Hall of Enlightenment, Merit Exchange Market, Missions Hall and other offices for older disciples. Aside from those, there are other infrastructures such as the Hall of Challengers, Churches of Gods, Cleansing Chapels and etc. 

After touring Tartarus and familiarizing themselves with it, the unit then decided to take it easy for a bit while Jason and Raven visited the Mission Hall to pick some Missions for the team to accomplish. 

They originally planned on taking as many missions as they could but they found out that it doesn't work like that. Just like what they predicted, there are rules and requirements needed before claiming a mission from the hall. 

Missions are divided into different grades: D, C, B, A, S, SS, SSS. 

Freshmen Units or individual, with 0-5 years of tenure in the sect, are only permitted to do D - C ranked missions and they are also limited into claiming five per month. The only way for Freshmen to apply for higher ranked missions is to have a 10 successful mission streak or for them to remain in the sect for more than five years. 

A new batch of Missions will be issued in the hall during the 1st of each month. According to what they heard, the hall will be immensely populated during those times since missions with better rewards will always be swiped by the older disciples, leaving the boring or more complicated missions behind. 

Nevertheless, neither Jason nor Raven were really affected by this. They weren't in any positions to be picky for now anyway. They're just here to claim missions in order to gain experience, they weren't here to compete with the older disciples for the better missions just yet. 

The two went inside the Hall in order to check for missions they could get. After looking for a while, they realized that, even though there are still a lot of missions remaining, they were either too dangerous or have rewards which were too low for anyone's liking, which is why no one's claiming them. 

In the end, they managed to find one missions for the team. It's a C-ranked mission, and their task is to kill 20 Imps. For this mission, they need to take back their victims' ear as a proof. The rewards were 250 Unit Merit Points. It wasn't a lot but it's a nice starter for the Unit to gain experience. It also has a time limit of one month.

The two decided to apply for it, after doing that, they remaining inside for some more time. It was Raven's request since he wanted to look for Missions that gives Personal Merit Points. After roaming around inside the Hall, he ended up not getting any but a certain mission really piqued his interests. Unfortunately, he isn't qualified for it…yet. 

Both of them would've loved to register for more missions but unfortunately, they can't do that just yet. Their credibility is non-existent yet, therefore they could only claim one mission at a time. 

Upon returning, they reported their journey to the rest and even though most of them were bummed out by it, there's really nothing they could do for now. 

Next was to decide on who they will be sending for the mission. For this, Raven decided to sit out on it since he had other things to do. No one contradicted him at all, they just let him return to his room while the team decides who's going to be sent out to finish the mission. 

Raven returned to his room, and as soon as he did so, he immediately formed several hand seals and flicked his finger at the corners of his room. 

He did this as swift as he could, seal after seal flew from his fingers and landed at wherever he was pointing. After the room was filled with seals, he wiped away the sweat forming on his forehead. He sat down on his bed and inspected his work, double checking it for errors. When he's satisfied with his work, he closed his eyes and sensed the connection on his psyche. As soon as he did so, he disappeared from his room. 

When his vision returned, he found himself standing in front of a majestic door glittering with a soft golden glow. Solemnness were present on his face as he stared at it.

It has been a long time coming but the moment finally arrived. Raven was finally standing in front of the doors of this majestic palace. 

After fighting and defeating 100 strong men who were once possessed the Ancestral Divine Crown, he finally arrived here, one step closer to the throne. 

Raven defeated the final challenger last night, and to say that it had been a tough battle was a severe understatement. He had completely lost count on how many times he fought with the guy and tasted defeat after defeat. If it wasn't for the fact that he managed to accidentally took advantage of the environment, he wouldn't defeat that guy. 

Nevertheless, a win is a win. The 100th pocket dimension disappeared for good within the Crown Space and no one's preventing him from approaching the doors of the Palace. Raven wanted to open the doors last night but he decided against it since he was tired and his time remaining was nearly over, therefore he could only delay it. 

Now that he's no longer fatigued from the fight and had rested properly, it is time to see what's inside. 

Raven took a deep breath in and placed his hands on the handles of the door. The moment he did so, his whole body trembled. For the briefest of moment there, he had seen the backs of several silhouettes doing the same exact thing just now. That feeling was incredibly profound, it was as if he could see his predecessors memories just before they entered the palace themselves. 

Nonetheless, he wasn't trapped within that moment for too long. He eventually regained his senses and felt that the time was ripe for him to follow their footsteps and see what's beyond these doors. 

Raven pushed the doors, feeling great resistance coming from it. He could his strength and energy being sapped away rapidly from his body but he didn't budge, instead it only made him feel more determined. 

He held nothing back and pushed with all of his might, slowly but surely the doors moved and once he finally managed to fully open them he found himself bathing in golden light and stunned speechless from the first spectacle he witnessed inside the palace.