“Did you target them for this skill?” Ria asked while commanding ten teams of rats at the same time.

“Sort of. You’re improving pretty fast by the looks of it. It won’t be long before you get that skill,” Zyrus spoke while scanning the area around them.

Half a day had passed since they arrived in the event area. During this time, they had obtained enough blessings to summon all the 300 rats.

Unlike using mana to detect the camouflaged plants, Zyrus’s eye of annihilation was far more effective. Even the plants hanging in the air and the ones hiding underground were discovered by him.

Leaving aside the ones in the air, they had managed to obtain a new offering from the underground plants.

“I guess there aren’t many here either,” Lauren spoke while hitting the plants that Zyrus pointed at. With their impeccable teamwork, she was able to determine the exact location without him speaking.

It wasn’t like Zyrus was the only one who had mana. With a bit of training, both Ria and Lauren also learned how to spread their mana in a certain area to detect any anomalies. However, due to their crude usage of mana, it wasn’t efficient to search for the hidden plants on their own.

But once Zyrus pointed out their location, they were more than able to kill them in a blow.

“Why don’t we go to another area?”

“Not yet. I have a feeling that we won’t be able to come back once we leave,”

“You’re going for the ones in the air?”

“Indeed.” Zyrus nodded as he finished off the last plant by himself.

He had learned a lot about this event in the past couple of hours. First of all, each stele could only accept a certain amount of offerings. They wouldn’t react once that limit was reached, not even with a different offering.

Secondly, the amount of blessings given by all the offerings was the same.

And for the third and most important part, there was a time limit in each area. Once they reached the boundary, they were given an option to venture further into different desert areas. It was a risky gamble as they could potentially go to a place where their other teammates were.

Zyrus already knew that apart from the rat kings, all of his crowned subordinates were summoned here. He wasn’t conceited enough to think that people like Jacob and Kyle would be unable to complete their events.

Thus, it was very important to get the best out of the current area before venturing further.

Only 3 steles were left untouched in this 15 Km area.

[Your offerings have been accepted by ######]

[##### is very pleased with the delicious fruits]

[Congratulations! You have successfully performed the ritual]

[You can obtain rewards listed below]

Cost: Crown holder = 20 blessings (1/1 left), A subordinate = 1 blessing (50/50 left)

Note: You can obtain a portion of the blessing from the ones who were summoned by you

Cost: 10 blessing (5/5 left)

Cost: 10 blessing (5/5 left)

Current Blessings: 107

Zyrus approached the one closest to him and used his blessing to summon the goblin riders. Just like the rats, they too appeared out of thin air in the nest second.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Aren’t you going to greet them?”

“Shut up!” Lauren pouted as she glared at Zyrus.

“Don’t discriminate because of their looks,”

“Not you too Ria!”

Ria and Lauren bickered while Zyrus rounded up the goblin riders.

“Alright, I’ll deal with the ones in the air. There aren’t many of them, so we'll be done in an hour.”

“What about us?”

“Take this, and use them however you want,” Zyrus called them over and transferred dozens of ‘Giant peanuts’ that were gathered by the rats.

“Great, we can level up with this,”

“Yeah!”

“Buy some potions too, they’ll be helpful later on.”

“Okay. What about them?” Lauren asked curiously as she looked at the hundreds of rats that were standing behind the rat kings.

“I’ll give my peanuts to them since I’ve bought enough Exp and HP potions,”

“They want to eat it?”

“Nope. They can purify their bloodline with the rewards.”

“I see,”

“Well, see you later,” Zyrus waved his hand and ran along the goblin riders. Now that his primary goal of getting the blessings was complete, it was time to work on the second objective.

That was, of course, to improve his skills. And while he was at it, he also wanted to train the goblin rangers in archery.

It wasn’t because of his stupidity that he didn’t summon the goblin riders before. He could have summoned half of the goblin riders along with just burrow rats. This way he could get the offerings from both the underground and the air at the same time.

The overall time required would remain the same due to the decreased speed of collecting offerings. But in turn, he wouldn’t have to run around the area.

“Left,”

*Awoo*

Zyrus sprinted around the area as he commanded the goblin riders to shoot the floating vines in the air. They didn’t have the ability to detect them, but with a hundred arrows, they didn’t need one either.

[You have found an offering!]

[You have obtained Floating Kiwi x 23]

He ran at his full speed while keeping his Eye of Annihilation active. His senses were stretched to the limit as they took in the surroundings that passed by in a blur.

Why was he doing all this when he could’ve obtained the same result by just standing? To get achievements of course.

‘Sanctuary rewards all of your efforts. Leveling up is just a part of it. A good portion of your strength will come from your achievements,’ These were the exact same words he had spoken to Lauren and Kyle.

By doing things the hard way, Zyrus was building up his feats to get three achievements. Of course, Just this little practice wasn't enough to achieve that goal.

But as they say ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.’

…

The day passed by as they cleared one more area. The floating kiwis gave mana recovery potions. It was a pleasant surprise which Zyrus picked up without a second thought.

With just a day’s hard work, all of them had managed to reach level 15. They weren't the only ones who benefitted from this. Along with the rats and goblins, even the wolves were able to purify their bloodline.

“Isn’t this too easy? I feel like something is sketchy,”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Well, If you say so” Lauren reluctantly agreed with Zyrus and went back to her tent with Ria.

Zyrus would have liked to train more, but the steles had disappeared once they used the last offering. Thus, they had no other choice except to rest for the night.

Of course, Aurora had no plans to let them sleep just like that.

...

[Ding! The Final event will start in 00:01:00]

It was past midnight when this message rang across the entire desert.

“Ugh, why now of all times,” Lauren cursed while rubbing her eyes as she tumbled out of her tent.

“Get ready to fight,”

“Didn’t you say it was a non-combat event?”

“Well, not anymore,” Zyrus replied to Ria as he looked around the desert. He wasn’t sure why, but his instincts were warning him of an ominous presence nearby.

All of a sudden, a giant pyramid surged out from the center of the desert. And they were teleported to its entrance even before they had a chance to exclaim.

“What the fuck is going on?”

“Lauren!”

“Kayyyle!”

“As I thought, you guys are here too,”

Zyrus’s group wasn’t the only one that was teleported this time. Jacob, Shi kun, and the group of 300 players were also summoned at the base of this gigantic pyramid.

“Nice to meet you again Zyrus,”

“I’m glad as well. You’ve gotten quite strong in the meanwhile,” Zyrus bumped his fist with Kyle as he observed him with curiosity. Just the mana coming off of him was strong enough to put him on the same level as Jacob.

“I got a unique item, and a pretty good skill as well.”

“I see. Is that her pet?”

“Yeah,” Kyle sighed as he looked at Lauren who was hugging a ten feet tall bear.

Although Zyrus was curious about how they managed to tame a field boss, or why they named him ‘Pouka’ of all things, he didn’t have the leisure to catch up with them.

“Will you follow me?”

“Of course. For better or for worse,” Kyle smiled and accepted his request without hesitation. Along with the new addition of a hundred bears, Zyrus had a total of 800 subordinates under his command.

“Does anyone know what this is?” Ria asked as she pointed at the pyramid.

“No idea. Why does it say the final event though? Wasn’t there only one?”

“yeah, We had to kill plants all day”

“Plants?”

“Did you guys have different events?” Zyrus raised his brows as he heard Jacob’s question.

“We protected a temple from salamanders to get blessings,”

“I burned some snakes,”

He heard everyone’s explanation and came up with a conclusion: All of them had different events that were suitable for their personal development. Once they finished an area, they could go to a different one and play the same event.

He was quite curious as following the same logic, this pyramid should have something that was beneficial for all of them.

“Well then, let’s go in,” Zyrus declared with a spear in hand.

Bears and rats walked in front along with the goblin riders, followed by the humans’ organized teams.

All were led by a single Sylvarix as they made their way towards the thousand-foot-tall pyramid.