[A/N: Welcome to Supreme Lord's fifth volume/arc. I hope everyone enjoys reading the story. If not...just curse me in your hearts x) ]
The first thing Michael, Masked Saber and Tiara did upon stepping out of the golden gate was to vomit.
They spend ten minutes emptying their stomachs until there was nothing left inside to throw out.
"That was a hell of a ride," Michael cursed, trying to control his shaking legs.
Entering the Lord Rift by traveling through the golden gate was supposed to be a great experience, but Michael and his companions had the worst experience.
The moment they stepped inside the golden gate they were flung around like ping-pong balls at a professional table tennis match. Even someone with a strong stomach such as Michael couldn't control his body anymore. He could barely hold it in until they stepped out of the golden gate before he fell on his knees and had to empty his stomach the wrong way.
Masked Saber's condition was a bit worse than Michael, but he got better quickly. His issue was just that he had to move away from the rest to remove his mask before he started to vomit. Nobody was allowed to see him, after all.
However, Tiara looked the most miserable. Her hair was disheveled, her tail was stiff like a stick, and she was shivering like a leaf caught in a typhoon.
Almost half an hour passed before she regained her composure.
In the meantime, Michael and Masked Saber looked at their surroundings.
They had emerged in the middle of a small plain patch of land that was void of trees and monsters.
The plains were covered in morning dew, creating an illusion as if stars were twinkling on the ground as the bright sunrays of the morning sun reflected on the grass blades of all sizes.
Even though the grass blades and the morning sun weren't anything special, the star clustered grass field created a certain charm that bewitched everyone observing the scenery around them.
Michael was one of them. He took a deep breath of air, dispersing the nausea caused by the trip to the Lord Rift at once.
The air around them was fresh and filled with origin energy, invigorating the flora and fauna all around them.
'It's even fresher than the Untamed Jungle, and the amount of origin energy permeating the air is both purer and more in quantity as well. This is the perfect place to nurture unique plants, rare treasures, and exotic monsters.' Michael realized, activating Eagle Eyes to look further ahead.
Since there was no obstacle in his way, Michael didn't face any issues scanning through the entirety of the small plains. He didn't see many monsters, but he learned a lot more about the surrounding regions.
They emerged in the center of a small plain that was surrounded by a large forest and a mountain range. The mountain range was ginormous, making it impossible for Michael to see the mountain's upper area, let alone the tip. It spread far across the northern area, creating a natural border.
The forest in the east didn't have many huge trees, but it spread from the eastern side of the plains all over to the south. A wide variety of trees could be found, and Michael even knew some of them since they were quite rare and hard to nurture.
"Not far from here is a large town, but it seems to have been abandoned a long time ago. Nature regained ownership of the land that has been taken from it for quite a while. Moss covers the buildings and dense vegetation has grown inside the artificial structures, destroying them from within," Michael pointed out after he told Masked Saber and Tiara about the regions surrounding them.
With Eagle Eyes he could see much further than anyone else – with great detail at that.
"We'll probably encounter more Lords in the town since everyone will be looking for treasures there. Should we focus on searching for invaluable plants and ores using your Soultrait in the forest and the mountain range, or do you want to face our opponents immediately?" Masked Saber asked after he digested the information he had obtained.
Within rifts, man-made constructions were always a sign of invaluable treasures. It was common knowledge that the Will of the Origin Expanse would use cities and all kinds of other constructions to hide heavenly treasures. That way, it was easy to find the presumable location of the treasures, which led to bloody battles.
The Lord Rift had opened less than an hour ago, but it was likely that several Lords had already found their way to the abandoned town.
Thinking about what to do, Michael saw a white wisp conjuring in front of him. The wisp entered his mind through his forehead, transferring vital information straight to his mind.
Every Lord who had entered the Lord Rift was given all necessary information about the Lord Rift.
[Welcome to the Lord Rift, dear Lords. 100 Lords entered the Lord Rift during the 242nd Rift opening. Congratulations!]
[You'll be given a one-time opportunity to collect invaluable treasures, obtain unique loot from defeating your opponents, and various valuable materials that can be found all over the isolated dimension in the next 100 hours. After the countdown hits zero, you'll be thrown out of the Lord Rift, whether you're alive or not.]
[Remark 1: The countdown can be accessed with a mere thought.
Remark 2: The Will of the Origin Expanse will reward the surviving Lords after the Lord Rift closes. Their actions and contribution in the battle for survival inside the isolated dimension will be taken into consideration, and an appropriate reward will be granted.
Remark 3: Everything collected in the Lord Rift will drop upon dying.]
The voice entering his mind was ethereal and gender-neutral. It sounded like the voice of a man at one point but switched to a higher frequency until Michael realized that there was not only one voice. There were dozens of overlapping voices.
However, Michael was more focused on the content the ethereal voice forwarded than trying to decipher who it belonged to. The pieces of information he and the other Lords received were pretty helpful, providing just enough to know what to do to leave the Lord Rift with as many benefits as possible.
"Actions and contribution in the battle of survival will determine the rewards given after the Lord Rift closes. That can be interpreted in many ways;" Michael murmured before averting his attention to something more important, "100 hours…that's much shorter than I expected. That only means the fight for the treasures inside the abandoned town will be even fiercer. The pressure weighing on the Lords will force them to move as soon as possible."
Even Michael felt a little bit pressured by the short amount of time they'd been given in the Lord Rift. If he had more time, he wouldn't have a problem spending most time inside the forest and mountain range using Extraction to harvest rare ores from deep underground, and collecting unique plants and herbs that cannot be found easily outside the Lord Rift.
But the crucial point was the third remark made by the ethereal voice stating that everything collected in the Lord Rift will drop upon dying.
"If killing others will reward me with all their loot, I don't really have to rush. Most Lords, who've gotten a taste of the Lord Rift's treasures will desire to obtain more. They'll hunt others to plunder their corpses instead of working hard to gather treasures on their own. That intensifies the fierceness of the battles in the Lord Rift even further, especially closer to the end of the 100-hour period. Not many Lords should be focusing on harvesting plants, herbs, and ores," Michael strategized, which attracted Tiara and Masked Saber's attention.
"How about we spend the first three days collecting information and harvesting materials in the forest and the mountain range before moving over to assaulting and assassinating other Lords? That way, we have the rare materials from the Lord Rift, in addition to the treasures dropped by the Lords we killed," Masked Saber suggested, indicating that he was ready to hunt other Lords at any time.
Meanwhile, Tiara was a lot calmer. She listened to the information Michael forwarded and tried to come up with a proper plan to make the most gains.
"Rifts are always filled with plants, trees, and ores that need lots of nutrients and origin energy to form and grow. If we're focusing on harvesting materials, we might be able to find the missing ingredients to complete a teleportation array or upgrade the Summoning Gate to the intermediate rank. I think we should avoid other Lords for the time being. After all, we don't want to sustain heavy injuries so early in the quest. We don't have someone with a healing Soultrait by our side, and potions are not omnipotent," She pointed out, which received the approval of the others.
"So harvesting and avoiding Lords it is?" Michael asked before pointing toward the south, "Because I doubt that we'll be able to avoid the monsters in the Lord Rift." His subordinates nodded to that and their gazes followed his pointed finger to see that far away from their position, a group of monsters was pacing through the plains.
They held their heads high to get a whiff of the scent that filled the air.
The monsters turned in Michael's direction and began to charge.
"Prepare for battle. We have to deal with a bunch of Werewolves!"
