Chapter 96: The Forgotten Ruins! (2)

Even though he understood this world was magical and anything was possible, he was still caught off guard reading this piece of information. It completely changed the reality and danger level of ruins. Kaiden sat up in a more serious posture than before, gripped the booklet with both hands, and kept reading without blinking.

The more he read, the more surprised he grew. Inside ruins, only system alerts, the basic detection feature, and the Lord's inventory would function. Things like system interfaces — the World Market, chats, and other windows — wouldn't work. His Regional Talent wouldn't function inside ruins either. Fallen enemies would only drop Artifact Equipment and Ruins Coins, if they happened to possess any. So the idea Kaiden had entertained less than a minute ago, of potentially gathering multiple crown shards this way, had just fallen apart.

The booklet also mentioned an extremely important piece of information:

*Upon entering ruins for the first time, novice ruins challengers will be offered the chance to purchase an artifact tool called: the Protection Bracelet, priced at 999 Origin Points.*

Kaiden drew in a breath of cold air. That price was steep, but as he kept reading, he changed his mind.

*The bracelet's function is not revealed before purchase, and if the offer is declined, it will not appear again upon entering ruins. The Protection Bracelet's function: when the wearer takes a fatal blow inside ruins, the bracelet will automatically activate to protect the host by forcibly teleporting them out of the ruins, after which the bracelet will shatter. The bracelet only functions inside ruins.*

Kaiden let out a sigh. Even though the bracelet was single-use and restricted to functioning only inside ruins, its function was still incredibly valuable — at the very least, inside ruins, it meant an extra life. So he changed his mind, and even felt the price was a bit of a bargain. Even at three times the current cost, he'd buy it without hesitation — his life was worth that much.

*The only other opportunity for a ruins challenger to obtain a Protection Bracelet is either through exploring ruins, as a reward for clearing a ruins trial, or by purchasing it with Ruins Coins from a ruins vendor, if available. But the odds remain slim, so it is recommended to accept the offer when first presented.*

So it was a one-time opportunity? Kaiden murmured, and discovered something the booklet hadn't explicitly stated. This offer was only available for purchase by lords, since they were the only ones authorized to use Origin Points — since Origin Points held no physical form, lords couldn't hand them to their forces and ask them to enter the ruins to buy the exclusive offer themselves. The offer likely wouldn't even appear for non-lords at all. But lords could buy the Protection Bracelet themselves and hand it off to one of their forces after leaving the ruins.

He decided to purchase the exclusive offer and kept reading. The next section of the booklet described common ruins types and their tiers. Kaiden read through the information with growing excitement. Every ruin was essentially its own separate world, with its own environment and rules, and ruins danger levels were divided into: Safe/Low Risk, Dangerous, and Extremely Dangerous.

It has to be said, this small booklet was a treasure trove of intelligence for Kaiden's current situation. For instance, there was a page in the middle of the book listing several titles and the requirements to earn them, obtainable by lords through successfully completing ruins trials, such as:

—Title: Trailblazer of Achievement!

Effects: +5% Ruins Coins earned.

—Requirement: Be among the first 1,000 lords to successfully complete a trial at any ruins tier.

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—Title: Professional Challenger!

Effects: 20% chance to raise the tier of one piece of Artifact Equipment obtained as a ruins trial completion reward, by one tier.

—Requirement: Be among the first 100 lords to clear three ruins of any tier with a rating of Grade A or higher.

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Kaiden wasn't confused seeing this requirement, since the booklet's introduction had mentioned that upon successfully completing a ruins trial, the Ruins Administration would rate the challenger's performance based on time, method of completion, and other factors. Ratings ranged from Grade F as the lowest, up to SSS+ as the highest. Even though the booklet explicitly stated that achieving the highest rating was nearly impossible, Kaiden figured that reaching the required Grade A, which was significantly lower, wouldn't be an especially demanding target. The real difficulty lay only in completing all three trials quickly enough to be among the first 100 lords.

There were dozens of other titles listed on the titles page. Kaiden read through every single one, along with their effects and requirements, committing them to memory. He also discovered something interesting: earning these titles required the lords' personal presence and participation inside the ruins exclusively. In other words, lords who never entered the ruins themselves wouldn't earn these titles. Sending in troops alone wasn't enough — the lord had to participate too.

Kaiden wasn't bothered by this requirement regardless. With the Protection Bracelet in hand, he wasn't afraid of anything. He finished reading the booklet, whose final section briefly covered information about the types of Artifact Equipment and weapons, along with a few other details. Because of all this information, the importance of ruins had grown enormously in his eyes.

Ruins were treasures worth pursuing. Beyond the chance to obtain all kinds of high-tech, strange Artifact Equipment, exploring ruins meant entering entirely self-contained worlds where you could take everything inside, provided you had enough storage capacity — and that included plants, potions, and every other kind of strange resource or mineral.

The moment he grasped the importance of ruins, Kaiden expected lords would turn into hungry wolves, sparking a chaotic rush reminiscent of the 19th-century gold rush from his previous world. Either way, he wasn't going to be an exception. The moment he had enough free time, he'd rush in alongside his forces to try his luck.

Kaiden closed the plain blue-covered booklet with no title, his feelings a tangled mess. The world of Orandra was far more complex than he'd imagined, but he remained certain of one thing: if you had the courage to take risks in this world, you might die — but if you didn't have that courage, you were certain to die!

These were his last scattered thoughts before sleep took him. It had been a long day... but for some... it had only just begun!

The stillness of the night was a great lie, one that lulled the sleeping lords, the fiercest of hunters, into a false sense of calm.

End of Chapter 96.