Endless Extraction in a Game-Like World

Chapter 95: Mythical Skill Holy Disintegration! Zither Girl’s Ascension Quest

"Caelus?" Sylvia called out with a dumbfounded look on her face.

Boom!

The following moment, a blinding, golden holy light erupted from the exact place where Caelus stood.

[Combat Score: 2.03 -> 4.03 (Bronze I)]

His initial combat score had already risen by leaps and bounds due to the immense amount of beasts he had slaughtered around the Divine Region of Fire. The awakening of his Fighting Spirit provided an instant boost of two more combat score points.

[Ding!]

[You have obtained new traits.]

[Fighting Spirit Projection (Locked) (Epic, 1-Star) - Project your fighting spirit to the outside world. Reach Tier 10 in Aura Manifestation to project it outward.]

[Holy Ignition (Locked) (Mythical, 1-Star) - Fuse the fighting spirit with your body and cells to ignite the body and exceed its limits. Will allow one to achieve flight and exceed their combat score threshold once at Tier 10.]

[Cost: 5 Aura]

[Duration: 10 Minutes]

[Cooldown: 10 minutes]

---

[Your SS-Rank Fighting Spirit has given you a new skill.]

[Holy Disintegration (Mythical, 1-Star) - Summon the divine power of the Ancient Dragon God to unleash a power that can destroy the world.]

[Special Attribute: Dragon’s Divinity]

[Mythical Effect: Deals +2 Damage to all beings that are not connected to the Dragon God’s Divinity. Those who get hit with it suffer the status effect, Holy Burn. Holy Burn chips away the HP of a person based on the amount of sins they have committed. The lowest being -1 HP per second, the highest being -10 HP per second. Holy Burn ignores all damage negation.]

[Cost: 15 CA]

---

However, just as quickly as it appeared, Caelus subdued the Fighting Spirit’s oppressive power and turned to Sylvia.

"I awakened a Fighting Spirit, but now is not the time to talk about that."

"Should we do it?" Caelus asked Sylvia in a serious tone. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

He was talking about the Ascension Quest.

"It is better than waiting until tomorrow," Sylvia said with a small, eager smile. "Let’s reach the Bronze Rank today."

"Then, let’s do it," Caelus said as he accessed his interface and initiated the quest.

There was a special mechanic where, as long as you were inside the domain, even if you were on the verge of leaving it due to the time limit, you could still attempt and complete the Ascension Quest.

The instant they initiated the quest, the other players and the surrounding town completely vanished. They were violently pulled into the isolated space of the Ascension Quest.

Caelus’s vision rapidly blurred. When it cleared, he found himself standing near what appeared to be a tranquil river stream. Next to it was a small, intricately carved pavilion where people could sit, rest, and take cover from the rain.

Inside that pavilion sat a lone girl with her eyes completely covered by a silk blindfold.

She held an elegant zither in her lap, gently plucking the strings to play a melancholic tune without caring one bit about her surroundings.

Caelus was dumbfounded.

Is this the boss?

Would he really have to beat up a beautiful, gentle, seemingly blind girl like her? That was highly unethical!

He couldn’t possibly do that. That was not like him at all!

But he had to admit, the music she played was exceptionally good.

He instinctively scanned the woman to see her HP, but to his absolute surprise, his Chaos Perception Eyes were completely ineffective against her.

As if sensing his probing gaze, the girl abruptly stopped playing her zither and looked up in his direction. "Oh."

"What do you mean, ’Oh’?" Caelus was speechless.

She said it in a tone that clearly implied: Oh? It is just you? Hmph, weakling.

The girl stared right at him as if she could perfectly see through her blindfold. She stood up, and her zither vanished into thin air.

"Greetings, Young Wanderer. I am the Zither Girl. Nice to meet you." The girl gave a polite bow to Caelus.

"Looks like my wishes were heard by the Axiom Origin; it brought you directly to me."

"Are you the boss?" Caelus asked cautiously. He could not afford to let his guard down.

To be able to completely negate the appraisal of his Mythical eyes, she was definitely not ordinary.

This was the Ascension Quest; one single mistake could force him into a lengthy cooldown period.

And most importantly... Sylvia wasn’t here!

Could this be some sort of separated party quest? He was absolutely sure she was touching him when he initiated the teleportation.

"Please calm down, Young Wanderer. I am but a common, beautiful girl from the suburbs. I cannot hurt anyone... But if you do anything to me, I also will not be able to do anything to resist..." Zither Girl said as she subtly lifted the hem of her dress, showing off her delicate ankles.

"Why are you showing me your ankles?" Caelus was utterly dumbfounded.

"Nothing, Young Wanderer. It is just too hot in here," Zither Girl replied smoothly, as if this behavior was entirely normal.

"Anyways," Zither Girl said, completely disregarding the bizarre interaction that had just occurred.

She pointed a slender finger toward the towering peak of the mountain, right where the stream of the river originated.

"Young Wanderer, at the very top of that mountain, there is a stairway that leads directly to the sky. I accidentally dropped my hairpin up there, and the stairway claimed it. Can you find it for me? If you retrieve it, you will pass the Ascension Quest."

"What?" Caelus was even more baffled than before. A grand Ascension Quest that allowed one to pass simply by fetching a lost hairpin?

He had never heard of something like this before!

Is this perhaps a Middle Expanse mechanic?

"Also, are you really blind? How did you so accurately point at the exact top of the mountain?" Caelus looked at her with heavy doubt.

"Please do not doubt me, Young Wanderer. I am truly blind. And... if you decide to do something to me, I really will not be able to resist," she repeated softly, though this time she kept her ankles hidden.

"Back to the topic. First, you must climb the mountain. The mountain path is fraught with countless lurking beasts and venomous snakes. If you get bitten, you will be teleported right back to square one. Many powerful warriors come here to climb the mountain, but most never make it to the top."

There it is! Caelus exclaimed inwardly. Of course the Ascension Quest would not be that simple. The hidden, lethal conditions were slowly being revealed.

"But... I happen to know a backdoor, Young Wanderer. You can get to the top in just five minutes. There is an elevator hidden right behind that waterfall."

"...." Caelus almost choked on his own breath.

"Fuck, what sort of place is this? Why is there an elevator here?"

"It is not a mechanical elevator from your world, Young Wanderer. It is a natural elevator woven from nature itself."

"The mountain spirits will guide you there."

"Once you reach the stairway, you will be subjected to immense pressure. There are said to be exactly 10 stairs. Of course, I wouldn’t know for sure; I never went up there. With each step you take, the pressure exponentially increases. You will have to use all your power to fight back the pressure just to take another step."

"Once you reach the top, you will find my hairpin. So, please hurry up. You only have 20 minutes to complete the quest."

[Ding!]

[Ascension Quest Started!]

[Countdown: 20 minutes.]

[Please get the hairpin before the timer ends, or you will be disqualified.]

Caelus clicked his tongue seeing this. Only 20 minutes?

He turned back to the Zither Girl and then looked skeptically at the rushing waterfall. "There really is an elevator behind there, right?"

"Yes, Young Wanderer. Safe travels!" Zither Girl gave him a small, encouraging smile.

Caelus, however, had no time to waste. He shot straight through the crashing waterfall. Inside the hidden cavern, he saw the place softly illuminated in green by what appeared to be the so-called mountain spirits. In the dead center of the cavern was a makeshift platform woven entirely out of thick tree roots.

The instant he stepped onto it, several mountain spirits gathered beneath the platform. The following moment, the root elevator shot straight up the hollow shaft of the mountain with terrifying speed.

"Fuck!" Caelus yelled, tightly gripping one of the thick tree roots as he felt the intense G-force. Wouldn’t he instantly die if he fell from here? This was way past balcony height!

Soon enough, he reached the summit area. There it was: a pristine white stairway. Each step was massive, as thick as several people laid down flat, and wide enough that at least five people could comfortably stand on a single step.

The stairs led straight up into a thick, foggy cloud bank.

Off to the side of the first step stood two burly warriors wearing red headbands that fluttered dramatically in the wind.

"Let’s go, Number One! We will be the first to reach the end of the stairways!"

"Once we do, we will achieve boundless riches!"

The two warriors spoke with burning determination as they took a synchronized step forward, only for their bodies to violently bounce back, repelled by an invisible wall of pressure.

"That’s harsh," Caelus mumbled as he eyed the two men deadpan before casually stepping onto the first stair.

He felt absolutely zero resistance around him.

The reason he knew there would be no resistance for him was that he had appraised the two warriors. They only had a combat score of 50 (Iron III).

"This..." The two warriors’ eyes widened like saucers.

"Wizard! He is an evil wizard! Ahhh, run! He actually climbed the stairs!"

The warriors panicked, running around in circles before completely fleeing down the mountain path. Caelus didn’t pay any attention to them; he simply continued walking up.

Second step, third step. By the time he reached the fourth, he finally started feeling a slight resistance pressing against him.

But it was still well within a range he could easily manage.

However, as soon as he stepped onto the fifth stair...