Novel Full Chapter 1574: Realm of New Horizons
Chapter 1574: Realm of New Horizons
After Ataraxia confirmed the guild’s intentions of participating in the Realm of New Horizons, it did not take long for the other members to get ready, even more so after hearing that their guild leader was accompanying them.
Whoosh!
Utilizing all the status buffs and movement skills available in their arsenal, the entire group soon began to zoom through the wilderness, eventually achieving a speed that was comparable to the average speed of a sports car.
“How far till we get to the agreed upon spot?” Standing at the forefront of the group, Ataraxia glanced at Thomas and the others.
“Roughly 300 kilometers,” said Meria after a bit of thought, bringing up a chat screen in front of her. “If we maintain our current speed, we’ll arrive there in around two hours.”
“Shall we inform them that we’ll arrive at around that time?”
“Tell them we’ll arrive in around three hours,” replied the young man, giving the question a bit of thought. “Though I know we can reach the spot in that much time, it’d be better to give everyone in the middle a break, especially in case of an ambush.”
Although none of the other members voiced any complaints about having to run 300 kilometers straight in one setting, it still did not stop them from looking at the young man with admiration in their eyes.
After all, as far as they’ve heard, the other guild leaders would push their members beyond their limits while traveling instead of letting them rest.
’The Realm of New Horizons…’ Oblivious to how his guild members were looking at him, Ataraxia decided to take this time they had to obtain more information on the place they were heading to.
With that, he began to rummage through his treasure trove of memories, inwardly thanking Adam and Eve in the process.
Thankfully, with [Soul Entanglement] indirectly improving their memory searching capabilities, it did not take long for him to bring up information Valyr had from the past about the place.
’Being an inheritance-type dungeon, the Realm of New Horizons was considered the best dungeon for guilds starting out.’
As the young man read this line from the memory he brought up, he could not help but briefly wonder why that was the case.
Though, once he recalled the information that was shared to him before, as well as the things Thomas and the others said to him about the place, it did not take long for him to understand.
Even more so with the addition of his original self’s memories.
The reason why the Realm of New Horizons was given that kind of title was due to the fact that it allowed a guild to amass all of the necessary items that were needed for a guild to prosper, which were set equipment and skills.
Aside from that, the layout of the dungeon benefited guilds greatly, with the monsters in the dungeon being arranged in certain layers.
For each layer, the Realm of New Horizons would reward the group with equipment and skills that corresponded to the difficulty of the monsters they killed.
Though the quality of the items one would get from the dungeon weren’t outstanding at first, once one got deeper into the dungeon, the rarity of the items gradually improved, with rare treasures even beginning to appear as drops if one were to spend enough time in it.
’With how the dungeon was laid out, not only was it a good way to obtain equipment and skills for fledgling guilds, it was also a good way to gauge and categorize a member’s level of strength,’ murmured Ataraxia to himself, recalling how players back then used it as an aptitude test of sorts.
As far as he remembered, the guilds eventually made an official aptitude grading system based on how far one got through the Realm of New Horizons.
If one were to reach the 5th layer of the dungeon, one would be given E-grade aptitude, which was considered the lowest aptitude grade one would need to have to be accepted by any guild.
On the other hand, if one were to reach the 15th layer of the dungeon, one would be given D-grade aptitude. During the early stages of the game, that was enough for one to be considered an elite member of a guild.
For one to be given C-grade aptitude, one would have to reach the 30th layer of the dungeon. At that point, any guild would be willing to recruit someone with that aptitude, with the majority of guilds considering these people as their core members.
As for B-grade aptitude, one would need to reach the 60th layer of the dungeon, where the monsters were powerful enough to start posing a deadly threat to an unranked guild.
At that point, any unranked guild would decline recruiting such beings. After all, given enough time, a player with that kind of aptitude would be poached by the ranked guilds, being given the spot of a pillar member at the very minimum.
And lastly, if one were to reach the 100th layer of the dungeon, one would be given A-grade aptitude, the highest grade devised for the Realm of New Horizons.
Although this kind of aptitude test would eventually be replaced with more objective and more standardized tests in Greater Beyond later on, achieving A-grade aptitude on the Realm of New Horizons was still a feat many wore as a badge of honor even until the game’s later versions.
That was because… 9 times out of 10, anyone that achieved A-grade aptitude before ascending to Rank 6 was certainly going to make a mark in the game’s history.
…
“…We’ve arrived.”
After spending close to three hours traversing the wilderness at near full speed, the Azure Coalition group eventually arrived at a clearing where a large stone gate could be seen on one end.
Looking around, Ataraxia noticed that six other groups had already arrived at the clearing before them, the auras they gave off causing his expression to become somewhat solemn.
Although none of the other groups in the clearing would be competing with them in the Realm of New Horizons, the young man still felt like it was his duty to obtain more information on them, especially for the guild.
However, just before he could ask some of his group’s members to collect some information on the other groups, a familiar person appeared before him out of nowhere.
“Ataraxia! Long time no see!”
“Wait… is that you, Malutar?”