Chapter 119: Core Level 5!
Back in the caves.
“Eih! Eih!!” Thrum! Thruum! Arrows whistled up and accurately nailed the giant spiders raining from the darkness above…
Dangling off the foot of the archer, the torch carrier noticed the quickly approaching water surface and hollered out a warning, “Prepare for impact!”
Then without further warning, the hitchhiker let go!
Losing the extra weight, the little archer’s fall magically slowed down.
On the other hand, gravity dragged the man down even faster!
The water quickly approached! Just when his toes were about to spear the surface, a barrier of light enveloped the man!
SPLASH! That golden bubble hit the water like a boat, making a big splash before bobbing back up…
Inside the bubble, Jack locked onto the nearby shore and quickly pushed to roll the bubble forward like a hamster ball…
Plop! Plop! Plop! All around, the dead finally rained down like rocks and sunk into the spring...
“Wheeeee~” Above, the little Miss Archer “parachuted” down to the shore and her boots landed light as a feather.
“Eih~!” Xiao Shuling balanced herself and her bright, excited eyes scouted around. “Captain Jack, coast is clear!”
Behind her, Jack waded over to shore and grumbled, “Aight, good to know, little missy.”
“Ehe~” Xiao Shuling made a cute face then looked at the scruffy uncle’s shaky legs, “Hum? Is Uncle alright?”
“Bah! No need to worry about me. I’ve done crazier things during my service.” Jack waved her away. “Now go on, little missy. Follow our emergency plan. We’ll be camping out here tonight.”
“Aye, aye, Captain Jack!” Xiao Shuling did a little salute, took out a pickaxe, then skipped ahead to dig out a hole to be their little hideout for the night.
Left behind, Jack stopped acting tough and shook off his sore legs. “Hisss…”
“Damn, I must have gone crazy to actually take such a gamble.”
Even in the army, they don’t go skydiving without a parachute!
But the circumstances forced them to do the unthinkable here. It was that or becoming dinner for a swarm of spiders.
Good thing there were only two of them and water to break his fall. Otherwise, even that featherfall boot can’t save them both.
But it wasn’t right to say they were completely safe either.
While taking off his wet boots to pour out the water, Jack observed the circumstances they’ve landed in.
Good news? There’s plenty of water. Worst case, boil it and their drinking problem should be solved.
Bad news? They’re most likely stuck here. At least, for the night, and perhaps even longer!
And it’s still unknown if their long fall actually threw off the hunt of the spider swarm. They can only hope so.
Still, it’s better to prepare for the worst.
After noting down the blood-polluted spots in the spring where spiders had turned to mush on impact, Jack took out his own pickaxe and went to join the little Miss Miner.
“Damn, I just hope the tips Steve gave about surviving out here overnight actually works…”
In survival games, putting too much trust in others was a bad idea, but it’s not like they had a choice.
They’re lucky to have made it down safely. Whether they could survive the night was anybody’s guess.
Jack sighed. “Hope Steve won’t miss us too much. Hey… wonder if he’ll be fine alone...”
Well? Will Steve be fine alone?
If anybody asked Yu Zhiye that right now, he’ll say never better! Why? Because...
“Finally, finally, finally! Enough points!”
In his secret hideout, Yu Zhiye excitedly rushed over to the shack to access the dimension cube.
[Main Core (Lv.4)]
The core of this pocket dimension that stores all energy collected.
[Core Energy Units]
x101
[Upgrade]
x100 core energy
This time, his fishing spree went peacefully. Not only did he meet the requirements, he even earned a spare point just in case there’s another accident with his portal.
“Well, what am I waiting for? Upgrade!”
A single command set off an earthquake…
The pocket dimension started its expansion once more! But just when Yu Zhiye thought he would be stuck watching this boring cutscene...
Buzzzz~!!! His consciousness buzzed and his entire world seemed to glitch out like his screen was getting hacked...
“What’s hap—ack?!”
Suddenly, a sharp, scalp-numbing pain coursed through him… almost like a big, sticky bandage got ripped from his hairy skin!
As quick as it came, the glitchy effect disappeared, and a mysterious power seemed merge into his very being…
At that moment, Yu Zhiye felt the pain get washed away by a very warm and comfortable feeling… like taking a warm shower after getting soaked in cold rain.
A few breaths later, that mysterious feeling faded away.
By that time, Yu Zhiye realized the changes to his dimension had finished.
Quite obviously, the borders stretched out once more, and by the looks of it, he estimated his little dimension might’ve just surpassed an acre in size!
That left lots of empty land and much, much more space between buildings.
This made his dimension feel even more barren, especially since there wasn’t any new construction foundation this time.
But this time, there was a noticeable new landmark that unearthed itself at the northern border.
Directly opposite to the portal at the southern side, there was now another stone arch!
[Mysterious Portal [N] (Inactive)]
A secure magical gateway to other dimensions.
[Available Anchors]
[Ward A] [Soul 1]
“Sweet Stars above, another portal!”
Yu Zhiye could already imagine what a second portal could achieve!
Will portal-to-portal travel become possible? Will his little dimension finally become a transit station? Maybe he’ll gain access to a different world?
Even if those fantasies doesn’t become reality, this new portal will undoubtedly still be an extra anchor in the world outside. Essentially, another safety net!
Just this was enough to make Yu Zhiye feel waku waku excited! Yet… this wasn’t even the end of the changes!
Like with every other core upgrade, he gained +1 Mysterious Barrel, upping his total resource generators to 4.
Besides that, many items bound to the core also underwent significant upgrades.
For example, the luck buff on all his fishing rods now got upgraded from +1 to +2 when equipped! Which translated to a [Luck of the Sea II] enchantment.
That increases the chance of fishing up treasure and debris... yay?
Then there’s the daily passive income of the Mysterious Altar, which doubled from 8 to 16. The altar also gained a new effect called [Essence Bowl]. What that does… still TBD.
But the main point of interest weren’t those. It was what changed in the main core itself!