The First Store System

Chapter 1360: Pagoda(28)

“Welcome to Fring Fortress, my Lady!” The man respectfully greeted Laney. He then extended his right hand, asking for Laney’s hand.

Laney nodded and extended her hand. The man suddenly smiled and shook his head. He then pointed toward her right hand.

Laney awkwardly took her left hand back and extended her right hand. The man gently held it and looked at the pattern on it.

The man then let go of her hand and saluted her, with his left palm touching his chest and his right hand touching his forehead.

Laney nodded in response, and then, without wasting any time, the man turned around and left the scene. Laney, who wanted to take the man’s help in the quest, stood there in surprise, watching the man’s back.

Laney stood there for a while and then left the scene, taking a deep breath. As for her direction, it wasn’t random, but she was following the path shown in the pattern.

Only after the man left did Laney notice the change in the pattern. A direction symbol had appeared on it, asking Laney to follow it. If not for the direction being opposite of where the man went, Laney would have thought that she was going to follow the man, and since she wasn’t quicker than him, she needed the help of directions.

Laney had to walk for around an hour, and the pattern finally returned to normal. In front of her stood a pagoda consisting of nine floors. Laney felt a sense of closeness toward the structure, and it didn’t take long for her to find the source of the feeling.

She felt the same connection to the pagoda that she did to the crystal when she linked it with her blood. The pattern at the back of her hand also glowed, showing that she had found the correct answer.

Laney then walked toward the pagoda, soon reaching its gate. The door was closed, but unlike the last time, it didn’t open on its own.

Laney had to put everything into her push to push the door open. When the gates opened, a dark inside greeted his sight.

Laney took a deep breath and stepped inside.

Thud!

The next moment, a loud sound rang in her ears, and the darkness around her intensified. But it was only for a moment, and soon, flame torches began to appear on their own, lighting up the room.

Laney turned around and found the exit had disappeared. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves. The day had brought many changes for her, and everything had happened so quickly that her nerves were tensed all day.

Laney understood that there was no point in being anxious when she had already accepted the quest. But it was easier said than done. Laney didn’t fear death since there was no death in Panagea for the customers, but what tensed her was the time.

She wouldn’t be able to leave Panagea as long as the trial was active, and she only had three years of time in the Sacred Dimension to reach the True God level.

Laney took continuous deep breaths, and her nerves finally calmed down to some extent. She then focused on what was ahead of her.

Even though Laney had entered the pagoda, she found herself standing at the edge of the forest with an invisible barrier blocking him from moving any further.

What surprised Laney even more was the fact that the forest ahead of her was the same as the barrier between Fring and Gring City.

‘Am I teleported to the forest?’ Laney couldn’t help but think in her head. But her confusion didn’t last long as a piece of information appeared in her head.

The pagoda was specially made for the participants to prepare them for the quests. The creator knew the difficulty of the quests she created, so she tried to help the participants.

Learning about it, Laney frowned instead of feeling excited. If the two participants still could not finish the trial with that kind of assistance from the creator, then the difficulty must have been extremely high.

***

The forest ahead of her was a mini version of the forest where Laney needed to complete the quest. There were enemies spread across the forest she needed to hunt, and that would give her different rewards.

If Laney wanted to ask for the help of the city’s soldier, she would need to collect a recruiting token. The token would be randomly found after the successful killing of enemies inside the forest.

Without the recruitment token, Laney wouldn’t be able to ask for their help and would have to complete the missions on her own.

Laney walked forward, entering the forest. Her primary goal was to find as many recruitment tokens as possible.

Since the leader of the Geronics tribe was a level 200+ being, there was no way Laney could defeat him, so she didn’t need a weapon or a skill for the second quest.

A blast of wind hit her face as her first step landed inside the forest. She thought there was an enemy attack, but it was simply wind.

Laney then walked inside the forest, and after walking for a while, she came across a settlement of Orcs. The settlement was small, with only around a hundred Orcs.

It seemed more like one family than a group of families. When Laney saw them, they also saw her.

Every life inside the forest was an enemy that Laney needed to hunt, and the same was the case with those living inside the forest.

Whoever killed the participant would be eligible to become the city’s resident as well, and they could also allow five more people beside them to become residents.

Since both parties had something to gain from each other, they attacked. Laney couldn’t use any weapon or any skill, so her weapon was her fist.

The group charging at Laney consisted of even children Orcs. Laney felt no sympathy and attacked.

As her punch collided with the closest Orc, the creature’s shoulder exploded, knocking him out.

In no time, the battle came to an end. It was less of a fight and more of a massacre.

Except for two children, who couldn’t even utter complete Orc words, everyone was dead.