The stone pillar lted like a candle, slowly descending.
Was it a win or a loss?
Seeing the inquisitive expressions on his companions' faces, Hoenheim showed a faint, bitter smile, stepped down from the stone platform, and walked onto the grass.
"A bet is a bet."
Claude, who also stepped down from the platform, tossed three suspicious burlap bags towards Hoenheim with an indifferent look, maintaining so distance.
The latter activated the Mage's Hand, catching the three suspicious burlap bags from a distance, without placing them into his Spatial Storage Device.
"This ti, I lost."
Claude clapped the dust off his three hands, twisted his neck, and said indifferently: "The bottom of these three bags has one, two, and three black dots respectively.
The timing to open them is when you encounter evil filth attacks;
when you hear unreasonable requests;
and when you are about to leave this place;
Strictly follow these three ti points and open the bags in order, according to the number of black dots, and you should overco the upcoming challenges.
If you open the bags at inappropriate tis, or repeatedly attempt to explore the contents of the bags,
so rather terrible things will happen...
Don't bla
for not warning you."
With that, he glanced at the ground, where a boar's carcass had been dissected by David, neatly placed on plastic sheeting, and said in shock: "Why did you dismber it? That was my dinner!"
"Hmm?"
David was startled for a mont, then said a little apologetically: "Uh... I thought you killed it to show off to us.
But now it should be fine, I just helped you dissect it."
"You know nothing, I was going to use it for soup. Earlier, I smashed its brain with my fist to ensure the original taste of the ingredients stays locked beneath the skin, and now you've ruined it all..."
Claude muttered with red eyes for a while, then cald down, took a deep breath, picked a few pieces of boar at, wrapped them in plastic sheets, and tied them into a bundle.
Bang.
He hoisted the bundle onto his back, turned to look deeply at the players, and said with a stiff face: "Start from here, go three kiloters in the eleven o'clock direction, then five kiloters in the eight o'clock direction, and then two kiloters left..."
Claude quickly rattled off a long route, summarizing: "Follow the route I described, and you should avoid wild beast attacks.
If you stray from the path, do not respond to any sounds, head towards where the sunlight is until you reunite with others.
Once you exit the forest,
you'll know the next destination..."
Saying this, without giving the players ti to question further, Claude hoisted the bundle of pork, stepped on the ground, darted into the dense forest, and his figure vanished swiftly under the shadows of the trees.
"What kind of pot would you need to make soup with such a big boar..."
Ding Zhensi clicked his tongue in place, looked at the others, "Should we chase?"
"No need."
Standing at the forefront, Hoenheim shook his head, turned to his companions, "Let's follow his route, I'll tell you about what happened along the way."
The group of players set off along the road, just as Li Ang guessed, the explorable area of this forest was quite vast, and the route Claude specified was intricate, yet overall it pointed in the eleven o'clock direction,
At the players' pace, knowing the path, it would take about an hour.
Along the way, Hoenheim began narrating the coin-tossing experience just now.
In the first two rounds, he won initially, then Claude imdiately won two rounds, bringing it to a 2-2 match point.
"In the fourth round, I had calculated almost all interference factors, including surrounding air density, wind direction, wind speed, the coin-toss angle, and force, yet I still lost that round."
Hoenheim explained: "From that mont, I realized, this wasn't simply about luck or a mathematical ga competing on probability calculations.
The essence of coin-tossing was, in fact, a contest of whose skills were more advanced, who could influence and interfere with the coin without the other noticing."
David raised an eyebrow, "Cheating?"
"Exactly, cheating."
Hoenheim nodded, "The coin itself was fine, the problem was Claude himself.
When I tossed the coin, making it fly up and spin in the air for that brief mont,
his gaze fixed on the coin, causing its spinning trajectory to subtly change — this was sothing I discovered before the fifth round, after repeatedly replaying prior footage in my mind."
Every ti he tossed the coin, deep within his eyes would light up with an almost imperceptibly tiny red dot.
Though I didn't yet understand, at the start of the fifth round, the connection between the red dot deep in his eyes and the coin, but knowing his cheating thod, I could disrupt and counter it."
Hoenheim shrugged, saying: "Controlling the bouncing force of the Mage's Hand was ineffective, it would definitely be interfered with by the other party.
Manipulating gravity, wind, and the like would likely be imdiately detected by the other party and caught in the act.
So my thod was to utilize light."
Ding Zhensi furrowed his brows, "Light?"
"Precisely."
Hoenheim nodded, "Although light has no rest mass, it does have montum, manifesting in the macroscopic world as what is commonly known as radiation pressure.
The thrust generated by this radiation pressure can usually be ignored,
but in special situations, such as when I use magic to enhance sunlight exposure, forming macroscopic optical tweezers, the thrust from radiation pressure can interfere with the coin's rotation.
At the start of the fifth round, I pretended to toss with conventional force, then suddenly increased the strength, causing the coin to bounce high, quickly passing through the canopy, and flying into the sky.
Claude didn't foresee this; when he suddenly lifted his head to focus his gaze on the coin, I had already used magic, above the canopy layer, to complete the radiation pressure interference, altering the coin's rotation angle.
The coin's potential energy started converting into kinetic energy, descending straight into my Mage's Hand.
Not giving Claude sufficient opportunity to interfere using his gaze.
Ultimately I won that round, without breaching the rules — I rely tossed with slightly more force than usual."
Hoenheim paused, then slowly said: "Thinking back now, Claude's gaze fixation should be an ability based on the principle of causality.
When he enters observation mode, the coin will rotate in the direction he desires.
Perhaps aside from using radiation pressure interference, I could have also chopped surrounding trees, altered wind direction and speed, or blocked his view to win the match.
After all, he was overconfident, choosing the sa result repeatedly in the fifth round.
Among the first three tosses, as long as one heads ca up, he would have lost."
"So that's how it was."
David nodded, looking at the three bags Hoenheim held using his Mage's Hand, asking: "Aren't you tired from continuously casting spells to hold the bags? Why not put them into your backpack?"
"These things appear as bound items, they can't be stored in the backpack."
Hoenheim's expression turned a bit strange as he revealed the description of the bag's items.
[Na: Suspicious Burlap Bag]
[Type: Task Items]
[Quality: Ordinary]
[Special Effect: Containnt. A strange bag containing the treasured items of the three-ard Claude]
[Consumption: None]
[Cooldown Ti: None]
[Usage: Untie the bag]
[Note: The task items cannot be placed in the inventory or spatial storage device]
[Note: A long ti ago, the three-ard freak Claude was a famous chef, whose every dish he developed could start a trend in the kingdom. Until one day he was discovered that his culinary secret was adding parts of his own body into every dish, such as nails, dandruff, bath scrubs, saliva, snot, etc.]
[Note: The fad chef Claude, who was banished from the kingdom, went to the Sacred Mountain for pilgrimage and repentance, trying to make a clean break and reform. However, his personal hygiene worsened. Personal advice... best not to touch anything he gives with your palm]
"This...."
David froze for a mont, slling the eerie scent emanating from the cloth bag and his mind instantly flashed with countless possibilities, "Okay, I understand why you held it with the Mage's Hand..."
"But if it can't be put into the backpack slot, you have to carry it all the ti."
Ding Zhensi thought for a mont and said, "Mr. Hoenhem, didn't you use a spell to observe what's inside?"
"I tried, but it didn't work."
Hoenhem said, "This bag can absorb energy. Detection spells are ineffective, but based on shape, weight, sound...
The first bag seems to contain tal products, the second bag has stones, and the third bag contains a piece of at or rubber product.
Considering this is a task item, it will be useful later on, it's best to follow Claude's advice and not destroy or dismantle it."
As Hoenhem explained, the group soon walked out of the dense forest without encountering additional trouble.
They stood outside the woodland and looked back, the deep and dark forest seed like a huge magical beast, silently opening its bloody mouth, ready to devour.
"We're out."
Ding Zhensi took a deep breath, glanced at the remaining power in the cockpit, still at ninety percent.
After the gate contention battle, the Kui Ox cha underwent a comprehensive upgrade, the overall power increased considerably. In his backpack slot, there are two large-capacity energy devices, sufficient to handle the upcoming mission script.
"Hmm."
Li Ang nodded slowly, "Standing outside and looking at the forest, its movent is quite evident."
From the players' perspective, the entire dark forest was changing in a strange way. One second the crowns of trees at the forest edge rustled in the wind,
the next second, those trees suddenly changed completely,
The types, shapes, and colors of trees, shrubs, and grasses all transford,
yet no obvious anomalies could be seen, as if the new trees naturally belonged there.
"These trees change with the land below them, but the leaves falling from the air don't shift."
Liu Wu Dai observed for a while, calmly stating, "Perhaps the position change is based on ground occurrence.
If we hadn't encountered the NPC Claude, or lost the coin toss ga, we could possibly float through and out of the forest.
Maybe even faster."
"But finding the floating pattern might take more ti."
Hoenhem said lightly, turning to look ahead, "The sacred mountain should be up ahead."
The group turned around and saw a majestic snowy mountain, situated far away.
The craggy rocks on the mountainside were dark blue, the snow on the peak was thick, pure white and flawless, clouds swirling around, as if a fairy tale land.
And atop the snow-capped mountain stood a tall, bizarre building.
That building was entirely cubic, completely black, with intersecting golden lines covering it, segnting it into blocks,
like a magic cube, abruptly inserted into the mountain surface,
The volu of the building below the snow layer was unknown.
"Sacred Mountain..."
Hoenhem squinted his eyes, "Let's go."
The first phase task goal was [Pass through the forest and reach the sacred mountain foot]
The first part the players have completed, the second part still requires continuing, looking up at the mountain tends to tire out even swift travelers, best to hurry a bit.
After a brief rest, the group resud their march.
After exiting the forest, the lightning barrier still existed,
since modern vehicles and summons couldn't be used,
Li Ang simply used the soil of this world to release Alchemy, crafted a few sled cars with spring shock absorbers for everyone to sit on,
by Ding Zhensi, activating the Kui Ox cha's wheel function, leading the rope in front, pulling the sled cars forward.
The Kui Ox cha was made to adapt to harsh environnts, even in energy-deficient locales it could adjust to the "altitude sickness" low energy setting,
being faster than others and saving effort for the team.
For the high-level players present, it evokes a "ordinary is the best" feeling.
Soon Ding Zhensi pulled his companions over several small slopes, approached the foot of the Sacred Mountain.
When the Kui Ox cha's foot stepped on the dark blue rocks, the system prompt sounded instantly in everyone's ears.
[First phase mission complete]
[Second phase mission goal: Find a way to enter the sacred mountain]
[Mission ti limit: 5 hours]
[Mission reward: None]
[Mission failure penalty: None]
"Find a way into the Sacred Mountain?"
Ding Zhensi paused, releasing the sleigh rope, turned to other team mbers, "Doesn't this an we can't just go in directly?"
"It's about entering the Sacred Mountain, not climbing it."
Hoenhem frowned, "We're already within the snowy mountain range,
the system's task description, interpreted literally,
might an to enter the Sacred Mountain through that cubic building?
Or directly dig a tunnel."
"Again, 5 hours limit... "
David squinted, slowly said, "Digging a tunnel seems unlikely. The stones beneath the mountain have a hardness far higher than regular stone in the real world.
Probably can only go through the magic cube building.
But the cube building's height was above our previous detection of heights causing lightning strikes.
Reckless climbing might trigger lightning.
Besides, there's risk of encountering monster attacks or avalanches on the mountain.
Hmm?"
Suddenly, David seed to have noticed sothing and instantly drew Judgent Spear from his backpack slot, and power surged from his body to his right arm,
strong electric currents penetrated the Golden Spear, the tip sparking, crackling in the air.
"Who's there? Co out!"
David shouted at a certain empty space at the mountain foot, spear poised to throw any mont.
"No attack, no attack."
An elderly voice sounded from the blank space,
light flickered and changed, revealing a small mountain village made of wood and stone, along with a group of emaciated... Blood Clan?
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