บท 80: Returning to the Paradox Planes

Adrian was waiting for the prisoners to calm down before he broke the locks on the cage. The prisoners were also looking at him with wary and fear in their eyes as they fear that the demon in front of them will feed them to his pets. Adrian sighed as he realized that may have been scared by him because he saw his image reflected on a prisoner's eyes and he was in original form. He was thinking casting Glamour again but that may become a poison to his race as humans would know that their race could deceive the eyes of humans.

Adrian then did not wait for the other prisoners to get relaxed as he crushed the lock of the cage. When he inspected the lock on the cage it said that it had details on how to open it.

Item: Common Lock

Tier: Common

Description: An iron lock that can be forged by any beginner blacksmith. It is made using a combination of metals but mostly iron. A specific key or master key is needed to open it. In order to break it using force, at least a hundred strength points is needed.

Since Adrian's strength stat already exceeds a hundred, he casually crushed the lock with his bare hands which increased the fear and terror of the prisoners that kept inside the cage. Some started prostrating and some cried to be spared. Due to their reactions, Adrian frowned as in their eyes he was a terrifying being able to kill them just with his bare hands. Adrian then decided to command them rather than tell them amicably on what they should do.

"All of you leave this place and be careful on the way out. A few minutes of walk from here would be the main road on which would take you about an hour to reach the nearest city."

When Adrian spoke those words, the prisoners started thanking him but there was still fear in their eyes because some think that the demon was only spouting sweet words before he kills them all. Despite Adrian telling them they could leave, the prisoners were still rooted in place because of the fear that those who leave will be struck down and become fodder to the demon's pets.

Adrian could only sigh because he could read the prisoner's faces and could more or less guess their judgement. Adrian could no longer linger around here anymore since he already looted everything and the surrounding barracks were devastated because of the black hole his skill generated. The only things rooted were the heavy objects like lumps of metal in a bundle and the metal cage which housed the prisoners.

Adrian decided to bid farewell to them first by just walking away from them since he already broke the lock anyways. He was walking away from the prisoners about thirty meters away from them when a notification popped up in his field of vision.

[You have successfully cleared the hidden mission in the "Save the Prisoners" in Secret Thrall Plateau Goblin Encampment Outpost.]

[You have been given 100% experience points as a result. Due to your experience points multiplier you have gained 300% experience points]

[Player Equinox has leveled up three times. Congratulations you have now increased your level to 51.]

[Sirius has leveled up three times]

[Kanlaon has leveled up three times]

[Saena has leveled up three times]

Adrian was very happy with the unexpected reward that he was given. No wonder there were prisoners there in the dungeon. It was set up as a hidden mission for those who finish the instance dungeon as a reward if they were observant enough. Adrian tore up the teleportation scroll leading to the Paradox Planes because he would as Ascalor on how to refine his core.

Little did Adrian know that saving the prisoners would give a small ripple in the country that the dungeon was located because he did not investigate that one of the prisoners was actually a daughter of a noble that was reported missing. If Adrian did not wreck the place, he would have seen the piles of armor and weapons bearing a crest of a noble but alas he concluded that walking away was the most he could do since the prisoners feared him.

Adrian and his soulbounds was teleported back to the Paradox Planes. Adrian was still exhilarated at the site of the Paradox planes because the place felt mystical in a way. The sky was like gazing at the cosmos itself and the houses were of a crystal that absorbs light and twinkles that gives the effect that the stars themselves fall down and shine their beauty to the surroundings.

Adrian was supposed to head straight to Ascalor's abode when he realized that he is running empty on potions department so he first headed towards Jianna's shop. Due to the hotfix, the potions were also updated. Back then healing and mana potions could sustain a player's health and mana every 25% interval up to a hundred but now the developers scrapped that ever since players hit the upper hundreds in terms of level.

Potions were now updated to heal a specific health or mana point number unlike the previous percentage health or mana restoration. There was tension between the player and the developers at first because of the big change but the developer's reason was valid.

"We updated the restoration potions because we concluded that it was not productive to rely on potions as a measure of healing oneself. We hope that by updating and adding more potion recipes, the players would think more and plan more of their upcoming battles rather than charging head on since they knew that they have a fallback plan."

The developers did not erase the percentage health potions but only increased the crafting mastery for the creation of one. At the beginning Low Recovery potions that healed a person's health or mana by 25% can be crafted by a beginner alchemist. Now only Intermediate Alchemist Mastery VII can craft Low Recovery potions. Only Master Alchemists can craft Medium Recovery potions and so on.

The players who stock up on these percentage health potions thought they could score an easy way of getting money and they did but realized that they lost more since now only NPCs can craft them and these NPCs only craft about a hundred. There was only a handful of players in the Intermediate Alchemist department which some are already affiliated with guilds. Also there was still no one who has achieved Intermediate Mastery VII in Alchemy according to the player base. The highest known is a player known as Smoking Grass that is an Intermediate Alchemist Mastery III.

Sub Job classes that focuses on production was difficult to increase in mastery unlike some adventurer type sub job classes like the explorer or forager sub job class. In order to increase to an intermediate mastery in production classes, one needed weeks or a few months of successes and failures in crafting. But once someone hit intermediate mastery, one would need perseverance and a lot of resources which is why only large guilds could hire these types of players because the large guilds could give them access to resources.

Adrian arrived at Jianna's shop and was greeted by the same promiscuous person herself. Adrian chatted a bit before looking at the things that are for sale. As he suspected, the potions were changed and now it included different potions that restore both health and mana at the same time or potions that increase a bit of health and damage. The shop's catalogue is now full of different potions. The percentage recovery potions were still there but only low on stock and now more expensive than before.

When Adrian mentioned a golem core that he got when he defeated a golem, Jianna's eyes sparkled and told Adrian to show her the core. Jianna took great interest in the core and decided to buy the golem core from Adrian since she told him that it was still usable since a bit of life force is retained which was rare for golem cores. Once a golem "dies", the golem's core would just become an empty husk with no life energy inside but the mud golem core was different. Adrian exchanged it with five complete recovery potions that was increased from three due to Adrian haggling the price.

Adrian also bought a lot of potions worth 100 gold which two of them was the Low Health Recovery potion. He thinks it was a good investment as he might not have more chances on stockpiling potions when he spends a lot of time at the field. In 30 minutes anyway, the Execution Blade skillbook would be sold since its price did not increase anymore for the past hour. The cost now exactly is 18,500 gold which is quite hefty for an epic skillbook. Adrian wanted to sell the legendary skillbook in his inventory but decided to put in a player auction instead as the commission fee would only be dependent on the merchant hosting the player auction.

Adrian chatted a little more with Jianna before bidding her goodbye and walking towards his Scribe Master's workplace. Adrian decided to ask his mentor, Aernas, if he knows how to form his core since Jianna's answer was "It is about love or something" which Adrian did not understand since she was either being cryptic or teasing Adrian.