Endless Extraction in a Game-Like World

[Fredrick: A Mana Core Connector already? Are you the infamous boss Player 555 that took down the global world quest on his own? Greetings!]

[Player 555: Hello to you too. Do you want to join my town? If not, I will destroy your town.]

[Fredrick: ...]

[Kaiser: ...]

[Varon: ...]

Caelus burst out laughing upon seeing the terrified silence in the chat.

"Prime. Go scout out this Town 633. Let’s gauge their exact strength."

Prime nodded slightly. His golden boots ignited, and he shot into the sky like a streak of golden lightning. Having reached an Iron II Level of Combat Score, the mechanical knight possessed a truly impressive level of power.

"Having fun?"

Just then, a figure appeared right beside Caelus. It was none other than Sylvia.

"What do you think of the new town layout?" Seeing her, Caelus smiled warmly.

"It is very good," Sylvia said with an appreciative smile, looking over the neon-lit metropolis. "You really put a lot of thought into the infrastructure, did you not?"

"Yes. But it also completely emptied out my pockets," Caelus sighed.

The Mana Connector Core alone was priced at a staggering 25,000 Origin Credits in the global store. Yet, he managed to get it for incredibly cheap strictly through Allstar’s hidden back channels, the pricing for other items were just as much as well.

Speaking of which, that mysterious merchant was supposed to be on a long vacation. However, he did mention that Caelus could summon his trusted associates using a specific phrase: The Celestial Master’s Tree.

This time, he was going to summon them for a completely different reason.

He wanted to ask exactly how to force an Ascension. It had to be known, the Endless Expanse in this beginner world only featured wild beasts capped at Iron II Level 1. There was a strict, hard-coded reason for that. To find higher-tier monsters and better loot, a player needed to officially ascend. Ascension was usually achieved by naturally leveling up to the absolute cap and completing a grueling Ascension Quest.

But Caelus wanted to bypass the grind and get in early.

He swiftly chanted the phrase to summon the Celestial Master’s Tree.

However, after chanting the name three times aloud, no one appeared.

"Where is this guy?" Caelus and Sylvia looked at each other and blinked in confusion.

"Hufff... Hufff."

Just then, the sound of someone breathing heavily rang out from behind them.

"Why are you both standing all the way up on the walls?! Can you not chant my summoning name while standing on the ground like a normal person? I had to climb all those stupid stairs!"

The one who spoke was a very fat man with an incredibly round face, stuffed tightly into a modern business suit.

"..." Caelus looked at the strange entity speechlessly.

"This guy is so perfectly round," Sylvia blinked in awe.

The man literally looked like a football. His head was shaped like a football, and his portly figure matched it perfectly.

"Hey, lady! How can you insult me like that right to my face? All my beautiful wives have constantly told me that I am very handsome."

"Oh... I did not mean it like that," Sylvia said with a dry, awkward chuckle.

"Hmph, whatever. I know I am very handsome. You may officially address me as Handsome Tree." The round man stood up straight, wiping a bead of sweat from his wide forehead and slicking his greasy hair back. "Now, tell me. What exactly do you need? I just got an urgent ping from another sector, so I need to go there quickly."

"We need to artificially ascend to the higher Tier 2 Endless Expanse early. Is there any hidden method to bypass the lock?" Caelus got straight to the point.

"Hm? No." Handsome Tree shook his round head. "There is absolutely no way to bypass a hard lock like that, not even in the higher expanses."

"But..." Handsome Tree squinted his small eyes, scrutinizing Caelus and Sylvia like pieces of meat. "You guys just need EXP to trigger the Ascension, right? I can arrange something for that. We can get it done today. I can guarantee you six full levels before you log out of the Domain today."

"There is actually a shortcut like that?" Caelus raised an eyebrow.

"Of course," Handsome Tree said with a greedy, capitalistic smile. "But before I reveal the hidden location, you need to pay the toll."

He flashed Caelus and Sylvia a blindingly bright smile.

"How much?" Caelus asked cautiously.

"100,000 Origin Credits."

"..." Caelus’s and Sylvia’s eyes equally darkened.

Fuck! 100,000 Origin Credits for just five measly levels?!

"Damn fatty, I will literally beat you to a pulp right here," Caelus cursed, instantly brandishing his new Legendary dagger. "Are you trying to blatantly rip us off? Can we not just level up by ourselves by grinding? I will be telling Allstar exactly about this extortion."

The instant the fat merchant heard the dreaded name ’Allstar’, his greedy expression turned grim.

"F-Fine! 4,000 Origin Credits," Handsome Tree loudly clicked his tongue in defeat.

"So you are terrified of Allstar," Caelus smiled triumphantly.

"Of course I am," Handsome Tree admitted with slight panic leaking into his voice. "He is a very scary person when he gets mad. I do not want to get him mad."

"I will pay the discounted amount," Sylvia said with a sweet smile, instantly transferring the 4,000 credits to the merchant.

"Go to the exact location I am pinging on your map. There is an ancient, instanced tower there. It has six individual floors. If you manage to clear the specific mob waves on each floor, you will obtain a Level Fragment."

"There is also a premium loot chest waiting at the very top floor. It should be Mythical or Legendary tier," Handsome Tree said, rubbing his hands together.

"Say less," Caelus immediately checked the pinged coordinate on the map. It was located deep in the second sector of the Newbie Plains.

He glanced at Sylvia, who swiftly nodded in agreement.

"We are heading out then. Bye." Sylvia cheerfully jumped directly into Caelus’s embrace. He pulled her into a tight princess carry, activated his Projection Frame, and his figure violently blurred, launching them far into the sprawling forest outside the town walls.

Handsome Tree stood alone on the wall, staring at the rapidly departing figure of Caelus and Sylvia.

"An Ender... and not just any standard Ender, but the Ender of Origin. That ancient, terrifying dragon that once forcefully shattered the barrier of time. Is the Axiom Origin about to witness a drastic paradigm shift again? What exactly are you planning, Master?"

"An Ender’s momentum... it simply cannot be stopped through ordinary means. Oceans of blood will spill across the world."

He sighed softly, as his figure glitched out of reality and vanished from the server.

----

"This should be the instanced tower, right?" Caelus tilted his head, eyeing Sylvia in his arms before looking up at the towering, worn-down stone monolith. A glowing purple fissure pulsed aggressively at the ground floor entrance.

"Let us go in," Caelus suggested, confidently stepping into the fissure with Sylvia still in his arms.

As soon as he crossed the threshold, the spatial instance locked. Sylvia’s figure instantly blurred out of his embrace, forcefully separated into her own instanced trial.

Caelus found himself standing alone in a dark, enclosed gladiator arena. Soon, a thick, putrid black mist gathered in the center. A terrifying, canine-like beast with absolutely no face but a massive, jagged jaw shot out of the shadows, charging directly toward Caelus.

[Monster: Common Darkspawn]

[Level: 20]

[Combat Score: 80]

"A baseline Combat Score of 80?!" Caelus was genuinely stunned when he saw the beast’s raw stats. This thing had to have a heavy Mod equipped to reach those numbers!

GRRR!

The faceless Darkspawn lunged at Caelus with terrifying, blinding speed. However, Caelus merely smiled.

It was time for combat!

Explosive energy roared to life around his hands as he thrust his palm forward to meet the beast mid-air.

[Talent Activated: First Generation: Spark Ignition]

Boom!

His palm landed perfectly against the Darkspawn’s chest. In the following millisecond, a blinding, superheated explosion violently tore out from the beast’s back, completely vaporizing its internal organs. The charred corpse collapsed to the stone floor, dead before it even landed.

"At my current state, you are absolutely nothing," Caelus smiled as a pleasant notification rang out.

[System: You have eliminated a Common Darkspawn.]

[System: You have received +29 EXP, 10 Origin Credits.]

[System: You have received a Level Fragment.]

As the final chime rang out, he felt the spatial dimension forcefully shifting beneath his feet.

[System: Proceeding to Floor 2.]

Boom!

The black mist on this floor was exponentially thicker than before. Almost fifteen Darkspawns of the exact same level and high Combat Score spawned simultaneously. They opened their jagged maws and fired condensed, armor-piercing dark bullets straight toward Caelus from all directions.

However, to Caelus, who had already activated his Mythical Chaos Perception Eyes, the incoming barrage looked like a slow, lagging slideshow.

His draconic eyes flared with a supreme red light. The fifteen charging Darkspawns were instantly paralyzed by it’s effect.

Caelus then snapped his fingers.

[Talent Activated: Laser domain]

Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt!

Hundreds of blinding red lasers materialized from the air, crisscrossing the arena like a deadly grid. The beams sliced effortlessly through the paralyzed Darkspawns with ultra-fast precision, instantly dicing them into burning chunks that collapsed to the ground.

[System: Proceeding to Floor 3.]

This time, exactly one hundred Darkspawns materialized from the shadows, their combined roars shaking the stone walls.

Caelus’s figure cracked with golden-black lightning as he tightly clenched his fists.

Boom!

His figure easily shattered the sound barrier, entirely disappearing from their line of sight. With his Projection Frame fully active, Caelus’s afterimages danced violently across the sprawling floor. The horde of Darkspawns stood frozen, completely unable to process or match his heaven-defying speed.

He moved like a phantom of death, his legendary dagger cleanly severing a dozen heads with every passing millisecond. Precisely one second later, he skidded to a halt on the other side of the arena. Behind him, all one hundred Darkspawns simultaneously collapsed into dust.

A few minutes of relentless slaughter later, he stood alone on Floor 6.

GRRRR! SHRKRRR!

A colossal, towering Minotaur covered in dark, glowing runic inscriptions stood before Caelus. Its massive bloodshot eyes glared down at him, and it dragged a rusted, building-sized greatsword behind it.

[Monster: Common Darkspawn Minotaur]

[Level: 21]

[Combat Score: 2.0 (Iron II)]

"What the hell?" Caelus was genuinely stunned. Why the hell was a monster possessing a true Iron II Combat Score stationed in a newbie tower?!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The Minotaur screamed at Caelus, charging forward like an agitated, unstoppable bull. It raised its massive greatsword, intending to cleave the entire arena in half.

However... Caelus looked at the towering behemoth with absolute indifference.

Swish!

He did not even bother moving. A sleek dagger radiating a supreme golden hue shot forward from his hand like a bullet. Golden-black lightning coiled violently around the blade as it instantly pierced straight through the Minotaur’s thick skull.

The colossal beast froze mid-step. The explosive lightning detonated inside its brain, frying its nervous system instantly. The towering giant collapsed backward, shaking the entire tower.

[System: You have eliminated a Common Darkspawn Minotaur.]

[System: You have obtained a Level Fragment.]

[System: You have successfully cleared the Tower of the Olden Days.]

[System: You may collect your rewards now.]

Seeing this, Caelus swiftly pulled out all the collected Level Fragments from his inventory and crushed them simultaneously.

[System: Level: 15 > 21]

[Ding!]

[System: You have officially reached the threshold of Iron I. Please proceed to your Ascension Quest.]

"Yes!" Caelus smiled excitedly.

His red eyes immediately fell onto a massive, glowing rainbow chest that had materialized in the center of the final floor.

[Item: Treasure Chest (Mythical, 1-Star)]