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Crystalline Peak

This place was currently one of the most famous in the Primal Kingdom because it was one of the newly discovered maps. But unlike the common maps in the game, this particular place was not filled with monsters that the players could hunt.

The Crystalline Peak was known for the series of puzzles that could be found in its area. And solving these puzzles would give a bountiful reward such as players' experience points, reputation points, and fame points.

There were even some puzzles that could give the players some high-rarity weapons and equipment.

In a sense, this place was a huge map filled with quests. And it was currently the place to grind experience points to level up faster.

The Crystalline Peak had a lot of floors that had different difficulties. And each of its floors had a guardian who was guarding the gate to the next floor.

If a player wanted to proceed to the next floor and look for much harder puzzles with better rewards, they needed to pass the test of these guardians first to proceed to the next stage.

But at this point in time, there was a particular pair who was speedrunning all challenges provided by these so-called guardians.

When the players who were grinding in the Crystalline Peak heard about that news, they immediately dropped what they were currently doing to see how this duo passed the tests of the guardians of this place.

They were planning to watch how they took the challenges and see if they could get something from it to also pass for the next floor.

But contrary to what they were expecting, this pair of players were not doing any kind of tricks to pass those challenges. Instead, they took the simplest and most straightforward way to proceed to the next stage.

They were directly challenging the floor guardians of the Crystalline Peak to proceed. Such a brute method was beyond the capabilities of the majority of players in the Primal Kingdom.

Of course, there were still some players who had thought of that method before. In fact, there were a lot of crazy players who tried to challenge the floor guardians directly, trying to see if they could bypass the so-called tests.

Unfortunately, the floor guardians were too strong for them to handle as each of them was a strong NPC with a very high AI. So, now only were they strong, but they were also smart enough to trick the players who were trying to challenge them.

There were even some cases where the leading guilds and organizations tried to conduct a raid against these floor guardians by bringing their most elite groups.

But that was just a terrible mistake since the so-called guardians were becoming much stronger depending on the number of opponents that they were facing. Meaning, the larger the group challenged them, the stronger they became.

Due to that, the players of the Primal Kingdom immediately dropped the idea of challenging the guardians since it was pretty much useless. They were strong enough to overpower a single player, which was also going to become a much stronger opponent when facing a larger group of players.

At first, the players of the Primal Kingdom were thinking that it was practically impossible to defeat the guardians and the only way to proceed to the next floor was to pass their tests.

But at this point in time, they were currently witnessing a pair of players who were slaughtering their way towards the next floor. It doesn't matter how strong the guardians were, all of them were being defeated left and right by these players who came out of nowhere.

And what made the scene even more ridiculous in their eyes, the battles couldn't be considered as a decent battle. Instead, it was a one-sided beating where the guardians didn't even have a chance to defend themselves.

Seeing such a 'strange' scene in front of them, the players even doubted if the guardians were really strong as the previous reports had said.

So, right after the duo proceeded towards the next floor, some of the players who watched from the sidelines tried to challenge the floor guardians. They wanted to see if they could also pass the test in the same manner.

But alas, reality immediately slapped them really hard as they were beaten black and blue. The sight even looked like the guardians were venting their frustrations out of them for being shamed by the duo who were 'passing by' earlier.

...…

Meanwhile, the pair who attracted a lot of attention due to the recent event finally arrived at the highest point of Crystalline Peak.

"Tsk! That guy really loves to give us all of the hard work while he is taking some shortcuts," said Arthur who seemed to be 'complaining'.

Hearing that, Leonard couldn't help but roll his eyes at him since he knew that his guy was actually enjoying all of the attention directed to them. "Stop the act already, we all know what you really want. Just do your job and stop faking some complaints."

But Arthur seemed to be not listening to Leonard's words, as he was currently browsing at the online forums and was currently reading all of the articles written about him. "Yeah! This is what I'm talking about. The great me should be the one attracting all of this attention."

Seeing that, Leonard could only smile bitterly while also sighing helplessly. "There is really nothing that can save this guy."

After that, he slapped Arthur's back hard enough to wake him up from his daze before saying. "I said enough of that already! We are here to do some tasks at hand."

"Ah! F*ck! What's your problem, dude! Can you at least let me enjoy this moment for now? It is quite rare for me to have moments like this since Shin is always stealing the spotlight!" said Arthur while glaring at Leonard.

"Yeah, yeah! Whatever! Let's proceed now. If you want more spotlight directed to you, then there are more of it waiting for you in the Sky Island," said Leonard in a nonchalant manner while walking towards the edge of the peak.

"Tsk!" Arthur clicked his tongue for a moment before flooring Leonard while asking. "So, what are we doing next? Do you even know how to summon that stupid NPC?"

Leonard shrugged his shoulders before saying. "I also don't know. But Shin Bro said that all we need to do is to place this seed in front of the altar and everything is going to be fine," while raising the small cloth bag that Crazy Jiang had given them.

"And where is this so-called Altar?" asked Arthur while turning around as if he was looking for something.

Unfortunately, there was nothing on top of the Crystalline Peak aside from the huge rock boulders with some moss and snowflakes wrapped around them.

But at the same time, the ground beneath their feet started shaking violently as if an earthquake with high intensity was currently occurring right after he said those words.

At the same time, the center of the peak was suddenly split open before an altar slowly emerged from the ground.

"And there is it," said Leonard right after the earthquake stopped. He then walked towards the altar immediately after.

The so-called was quite simple. All it had was a statue of an eagle which seemed to be trying to soar towards the sky with a pair of torches on each of its sides.

Right after arriving in front of the altar, Leonard immediately crouched on the ground while placing all of the seeds in a bowl below it. After that, he did a ritual that Shin had instructed him to do.

The ritual was something that Shin had seen at the murals inside the cave, so he was suspecting that it was meant to summon the gatekeeper or something at the very top of the Crystalline Peak.

And just like what he had expected, a beam of light suddenly shot down from the sky right after Leonard finished doing the ritual.

Swoosh!

Bang!

And when the light subdued, the pair immediately saw a man with a pair of golden wings on his back.

"So, there are new Challengers this time? Moreover, you even summoned me instead of the other keepers. I'm guessing that you two know something about our culture," said the Wingman that suddenly appeared right after being summoned.

Meanwhile, Arthur and Leonard suddenly realized something when they heard the latter part of Wingman's words.

'So, there are different keepers that can be summoned in this place, huh?' thought Leonard and Arthur at the same time.

After that, both of them immediately gave a salute unique to the Wingmen Race. Leonard learned it from Shin while Arthur saw it from the murals inside the cave.

Arthur also learned quite a few things from the murals earlier. And even if he hated studying, he was still interested in the things inside the game. So, he practically knew what to do next whenever he encountered a situation like this.

'It looks like this is a hidden quest waiting for us,' thought the two with a huge grin while maintaining the salute.

And just like what they were expecting, a system notification appeared in their notification panel as the Wingman greeted them. "Greetings adventurers from the other world! As the head keeper of the Sky Island, I'm tasked to test your skills whether you are worthy enough to be invited to our homeland."

*Ding!*

System: Conditions are all met, a hidden quest is initiated!

System: Please pass the Gatekeeper's test to see the details of the quest!

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