Chapter 617 - Ancient World

After entering the portal, Nie Yan was sent hurtling through the river of time as countless scenes from Conviction’s history flashed before his eyes. A wealth of information flowed into his mind.

Nie Yan felt like he had transcended into a higher realm as he watched history speed by while overlooking the world from space.

So long as the player’s mind was capable of enduring, the system could impart information directly into their brain. This was Conviction’s most advanced technology.

After an indeterminate amount of time, Nie Yan regained consciousness. As he opened his eyes, the scene before him caused his mouth to gape in shock.

Nie Yan found himself standing halfway atop a mountain. As he gazed up ahead, he was greeted by the sight of a vast forest stretching out as far as the eye could see. It was almost as if he had been transported to a world of giants. The trees were over 60 meters tall with trunks so large it would take 10 grown men linking arms to fully wrap around their circumference. Their crowns were lush and dense, blocking any light from filtering through and reaching the ground below. The sky was home to all sorts of flying creatures, most of which were types of dragons.

These winged dragons were much larger than the Darkwing Dragon resting in Nie Yan’s pet space.

“So, this is the Ancient World!” Nie Yan’s eyes gleamed with curiosity. “Hmm.. I wonder where I’m supposed to go to get the Luminous Dancer class advancement quest started.”

Nie Yan swept his eyes over the landscape before him. “I can probably trigger a quest hint by fulfilling some sort of condition.”

Nie Yan discovered different rules dictated this world. For instance, he couldn’t summon Lil’ Gold. The explanation from the system was that the rank of his pet was too low to enter the Ancient World. He could still summon his Darkwing Dragon, but doing so was basically asking for trouble. The flying creatures in the air were simply too powerful. His Darkwing Dragon was just an afternoon snack in their eyes.

Apart from this, the Unknown Transfer Scrolls and Return Scrolls in his bag became useless. Their runes gradually faded away until not even a trace of magical energy could be felt on them anymore.

Nie Yan felt a deep aching in his heart. His Unknown Transfer Scrolls and Return Scrolls had become nothing more than scrap paper. He didn’t care about the latter since they were cheap, but as for the former... He couldn’t help but sigh. Fearing he would be stuck in the Ancient World for a long time, he specifically prepared more than 20 scrolls. Now they had all gone to waste.

Another person in the same shoes would’ve probably spat out blood and passed out from anger and shock. To Nie Yan, however, it was simply a bitter pill to swallow.

Nie Yan found that many of his magic related items couldn’t be used in this place. His supply of scrolls in particular took the heaviest losses. He could only hope and pray they would return to normal after he left this map.

It appeared this world had its own rules. Anything outside of its rules couldn’t be used.

“A brand new world to explore!” Nie Yan gripped his dagger. If you’re going to do something, do it to the best of your ability! This was his motto in life. As someone who returned to the past, if he couldn’t reach the apex, he would consider himself a failure.

Nie Yan entered stealth, then made his way forward.

All around him were towering trees. The dense canopy above resembled an enormous umbrella blotting out the sunlight. The forest floor was covered in lush patches of grass. It was wide and spacious. After travelling for a few minutes, Nie Yan felt the ground shake.

Nie Yan’s face paled in fright. A large monster was probably approaching. He quickly ducked behind a tree.

Looking toward the commotion, a giant dragon appeared in the distance. This land dragon resembles a giant lizard. It was over two meters tall, eight meters across, and covered in ash-gray scales. Each step it took shook the earth.

“Don’t tell me all the monsters in the Ancient World are like this...?”

Transcendent Insight!

Health: 72,000/72,000

“Rank 5...? It’s the same ranking system used for flying mounts!“ Nie Yan muttered. The Blazing Land Dragon might only have 72,000 health, but judging from the metallic lustre coming off from its scales, its defense was surely astonishingly high.

“Should I try taking it down...?” Nie Yan thought for a moment, then shook his head. “Better safe than sorry. I should find a weaker monster first to test myself against. There’s bound to be a few around here. I only have one chance in this Ancient World. If I die, I lose the chance to become a Luminous Dancer forever. I need to be careful, especially since I can’t rely on most of my scrolls anymore.”

His Darkwing Dragon, a Rank 6 creature, possessed frightening battle prowess. Its health, attack, defense... everything was only a bit higher than that of the Blazing Land Dragon. Nie Yan had to remind himself not to judge the strength of these monsters based on his previous common sense.

He took a detour around the Blazing Land Dragon, then made his way deeper into the forest.

After exploring for about 10 more minutes, Nie Yan arrived at a clearing. He was just about to continue forward, when he discovered three plants growing at the foot some trees. They were scarlet red, resembling a blazing flame.

“Red Dragon Herb!” Nie Yan’s heart shook. “I can’t believe they grow here!”

Nie Yan had a bit of knowledge on this alchemy ingredient. It was incredibly rare. Most players would never be able to afford it in a lifetime. Back when he was Level 160 in his past life, he had heard a top ranking team had acquired two Red Dragon Herbs and traded them to a Grandmaster Alchemist for five Scarlet Flame Potions, which could exponentially increase the damage dealt by fire magic. A potion had once sold for the astronomical price of 60,000 gold. Generally, such a precious item could only be traded for not sold.

Red Dragon Herbs could be used to concoct extremely dangerous poisons. It was one of the best materials for Grandmaster Alchemists to raise their Alchemy skill. After reaching Grandmaster rank, gaining even a bit of skill proficiency was as difficult as ascending the heavens.

These Red Dragon Herbs were growing around here like common weeds!

Nie Yan knew his Gathering skill was too low, but he refused to accept reality. He walked up to one of the Red Dragon Herbs, bent down and tried harvesting it.

Your Gathering skill is not high enough. Gathering failed...

“Hah... Well, at least I gave it a shot.” Nie Yan felt vexed. Why bother putting these things here if you knew no one could harvest them!

𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Since he couldn’t gather the Red Dragon Herbs, Nie Yan turned around to leave. After travelling around the forest for another 15 or so minutes, apart from the Red Dragon Herbs, he encountered many other rare materials, including an enormous ore deposit of Scarlet Flame Crystals and six Black Serpent Trees whose wood was the best for crafting staffs.

These materials would drive countless guilds mad with greed. However, they were just sitting here in the forest of this closed off world.

Nie Yan felt his stomach churn. If he knew it would be like this, he would’ve raised his various harvesting skills before coming here!