Desolate World

"Okay," Gon answered Mars's order with an unhappy tone.

"And if Eric and Erica came back, tell them to go directly. I don't want our schedule to be affected," Mars said flatly without caring about Gon's attitude.

"Yeah. I will surely say that to them," Gon said.

"Then, let's go!" Mars then walked to the North. The rest followed him.

Adrian said the entrance was behind the waterfall. So everyone had to walk around 10 km because they were at the southernmost of the lake.

Looking at the calm lake surface, Ace still thought about Geo's attitude. When they first met, although he was a little proud, his attitude was not as negative as now. 

'Something must happen when he came back to Dragma Valley. But, it's inappropriate for me to delve into it. After all, I'm a stranger,' Ace said in his heart.

After walking for a few dozens of minutes, Ace could already see a line of 10 meters cliff. 

"Over there!" Adrian pointed to the waterfall. Because it was only 10 meters in height, the current wasn't too strong. However, because the river above the cliff was pretty wide, the current couldn't be called weak either.

"Be careful. It is pretty deep," Adrian said while stepping on a very narrow and slippery path beside the stone wall of the cliff carefully.

Everyone walked carefully. Ace tied a rope to Geo's and Mia's waist and then tied it to him in the front and Sampson at the back to ensure the two's safety.

After all the people arrived inside the cave, Ace had a chance to observe the cave. It couldn't be called a large cave, it was comparable to the entrance of the cave on the hill in the ant's territory. 

A small stream of water flowed from inside wet his feet. Ace guessed it was a branch of an underground creek.

Sofia then summoned two shining spheres to illuminate the dark passage. Ace couldn't imagine how Adrian and his family could travel in the dark passage. The cave was different from the outside. 

When they entered at some distance from the entrance, the sunlight wouldn't reach it, so they wouldn't be able to see anything at all. Ace couldn't help but admired Adrian's and his family's determination.

Every day, Sofia always took a short time to make some shining sphere summoning scrolls because they were very helpful in the night and misty environment. Without them, Ace wasn't sure if they could find the lake.

They then started their expedition inside the underground passage. Ace and the rest didn't enjoy the journey because of the difficult path and the cool and damp environment. The air circulation inside the passage was also rather bad because of the lack of ventilation. 

Sometimes someone slipped because of the slippery rock floor. The passage also had many branches. Adrian would search for some clues each time so they wouldn't get lost. The clues were made by Adrian deliberately when his family decided to leave the place to help the others if they wanted to leave in the future. He never imagined that the traces would help them to come back to the underground place today.

It took them three hours walking until they saw a dim light at the end of the passage. 

"We arrive!" Adrian said with an excited voice. 

As everyone approached the hole, they saw many crystals shone on the wall of the cave. A fresh and nice smell made Ace's and everyone's mood improved. It's the scent of nature.

"It's amazing!" Aria exclaimed.

The rest also had the same opinion. It was amazing such a space existed. It could be called one of the wonders of the world.

"The mana density of the room was so rich," Sofia said in low voices. As everyone was amazed at the scenery, no one listened to her murmur.

"Be careful! Outside of the passage is pretty deep," Adrian warned Ace who wanted to exit the passage.

"Oh," Ace exclaimed. He didn't realize that in front of him was a deep underground river. He thought it was just a creek like the passage that he had passed.

Ace then tried to measure the depth of the river, and he found out that it was pretty deep.

"Let's swim from here on," Ace said.

He then tied his waist with a rope. Not like what he said, he used his shoes' effect glide to cross the river. He planned to go to the shore first and with the rope, the others could swim more safely.

Looking at Ace who could 'walk' on the surface of the water, Sofia seemed to have an idea. She then turned her head to Geo and said, "Geo… Take out Blue and Red! We didn't have to swim."

Geo looked at his mother with a question, but he still did what she had asked. He then took out his two skates.

The two pets then appeared and floated on top of the river surface.

"Let's go! It will burden the two if we ask them to carry us while flying. But it will be easy for them to carry us by swimming," Sofia said.

Everyone nodded, except Aria and Mars.

"Thanks, but I can fly. I want to examine one of the crystals up close," Aria said and started to fly to the nearest crystal from them.

On Mars's back grew a pair of bat-like wings. Mars then flapped his wings without saying anything and flew to the ceiling.

As everyone else got on the two skates, the two pets began to swim to the shore.

Ace who had crossed the river then turned his head to the direction he came from, to only found that everyone had already halfway to his place riding the two states.

He couldn't help but click his tongue, "I should think that!"

As he waited for the rest to come, he got the system notification.

*Ding*

[Congratulations, you successfully arrived at the crystal garden. You get 10,000 experience.]

[Alternative Quest: mysterious place (part 2) is triggered]

[Mission: Find a Lord NPC and convince him/her to build a village close to the crystal garden (±15 km) and develop the crystal garden.

Crystal Garden is one of the natural wonders of the world. Every plant that is planted in it will grow at a rapid pace and its grade will increase one degree. 

The settlement that is built near it will be blessed by the world.

Reward:

• 30,000 Exp

• Random useable grade A Equipment 

• Luck +3]

Ace was stunned by the following quest. He never imagined that this place was so special. He was also entranced by the rewards he would get if he completed the quest. 

He read from the forum that materials and equipment in the game were no longer classified by rarity but grade. Rarity was only used to classify the jobs and items that were gotten at the game interface. It meant that those jobs and items couldn't be required inside the game. They could only be bought at the game interface.

The grade of equipment also showed how precious it was. Grade A equipment was categorized as high-grade equipment. Above it, there were S dan SS and below it were B, C, D, and E. 

What surprised him was the increase of 'luck' attribute. He never heard about it. He guessed that it was a hidden attribute. As for what it represented, he could only guess it would affect the drop rate after he killed a monster and the possibility to trigger some special circumstances.

'I wonder if my initial luck is good. It can be said that I have always been lucky until now. This quest that should be difficult and annoying also seems to be too easy,' Ace thought.

He imagined if he didn't know Mars, a lord dragon. Where will he find a lord NPC? And it was a coincidence that Mars also wanted to build a village nearby. If he had never known Mars, this quest maybe would take a long time to complete.

He just had to make sure the location of the village was 15 from the Crystal Garden. He needed to talk to Aria. She was the one that would determine the place of the village that would be built.

'Is it because of my job? It can be seen that Joker is a gambling-related job. And gambling is always related to luck,' Ace contemplated.

'No! It's not just me. Sofia's job as an SS rarity job should have high initial luck. Maybe it is because of our cumulative luck,' Ace said in his heart. 

He then remembered that the one that had found the lake was Sofia. And she could find the lake with the help of Geo's two pets.

However, as he thought further, this situation wouldn't happen if he didn't save Gon and Adrian. 

If he didn't save Gon, the dragon would be dead in the ant's territory. And without Geo's role, he wouldn't get Mars's trust easily.

And then Adrian. Without saving Adrian, he never knew this place. He would go East just like Gon's advise. Or West if he never met Geo. He would do an arduous journey that deserved to be called hell difficulty.

'Whatever it is, I should be thankful for this opportunity,' Ace ended his contemplation, as he saw the rest of his and Adrian's family were approaching the shore.

***