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The Lake was really as effervescent as its name implied, a truly fantastic scene in front of us. The beautiful lake was bubbling with rainbow bubbles, largen streams of water were coming from the ground constantly, sometimes hot, sometimes very cold. It was said this Lake was formed by the combination of underground sediments of Fire and Water Attribute Spirit Stones.
As the land was eroded over time, water began emerging and then boiling, and then remerging again. Eventually the rivers connected to this immense lake, bringing living organisms that filled it with life. In an area, it is constantly letting out boiling water from the underground, in the other area, cold water filled with life greets our sight.
The surrounding area of the Lake became the Rocky Valley due to the constant erosion of the water into its surroundings. And well, that this entire Lake is located in what seems to be a giant crater from a meteor doesn't make it less beautiful, in fact, it only makes it even more amazing to admire.
Decorating the valley there were large growths of red and blue crystals. Fire and Water Spirit Stones of varying qualities grew in here like a beautiful sanctuary. Aside from that, there was also other ores growing here, sometimes whole chunks of metal could be found. There could be seen sometimes a group of miners going with adventurers in here to mine for resources.
However, the reason why only adventurers come here is… because there's obviously a lot of dangerous monsters. Tier 2 Monsters is the minimum in this place, with Tier 3 everywhere and Tier 4 Monsters roaming around the vast territories they take.
This place has a lot of water, so therefore lots of monsters would come here to make it their home, especially when there's tons of caves and crevices to hide and sleep inside across the surrounding Rocky Valley.
"Woah there's a ton of monsters here. The entire Lake's immense too, we can barely see the end of it from here!" Aquarina said with fascination.
"T-Those are Four Tusked Ruby Boars! Fire Salamanders! Oh, a herd of Crystal Horned Deer!" Zack was fascinated, filled with the intent to hunt.
"What is that big yellow thing down there?" Celica wondered, pointing at a creature stalking the herd of crystal horned deer.
"T-That a Tyrant Tiger… So these things are here as well, damn." I sighed. "Well, as long as we can manage things properly, we shouldn't engage in too many monster fights, we came here mostly for materials, alright?"
"Ninhursag always says that fighting stronger monsters will give us a fragment of their essence once they're hunted. That's how our Physiques can develop further, so of course I'm going to hunt them!" Zack was rather not obedient today.
This world has Physiques of course, they grow more upon physical activity and the enchantment of the body through magic and mana flow techniques and meditation too. Of course, there's also another method, depending in our specialization, whenever monsters are defeated we gain a piece of their strength which make our specialization stronger.
Usually it should give us a bit of magic power and strength, depending on how strong the foe we defeat is compared to us, this tend to change from monster to monster. Usually, if we fight something with a higher tier than us and we win… then we usually get way stronger or accumulate enough power to grow faster as well.
It is something kind of similar to EXP and Level Up mechanics, but way slower and less… erm, "numerical" to say the least. It is something way more loose, it is something that we only "feel" that it happens. My father and mother told me it was as if a piece of the defeated monster's soul became our strength, this hasn't been studied too deeply as anything can be barely seen.
But yeah, those that tend to fight monsters a lot tend to grow stronger faster than others. This is a reason why my friends are all so strong even without a System like me, although my System has made me vastly stronger anyways… Nonetheless, for me it doesn't happen like that because the "essence" of the monsters becomes my EXP instead.
Which then I can later on distribute into leveling up skills or acquiring skills that can level up, or obtain new system functions, grant systems to my familiars, amongst other things. Perhaps later I might be able to raise my stats using EXP or something… I don't know, although it would be pretty awesome if I could eventually be able to do that.
Nonetheless, we can't waste any more time in here, we have to get down there! I've already made a list of the materials I want for this. And the Rocky Valley is our first stop in this journey.
The list of materials I want are
Fire Spirit Stones, at least forty pieces of them. I've got a few from the temple where Nephi resided, but that's not near as enough.
Water Spirit Stones, I got very few of these as I've used them for Aquarina's gift, so I need to harvest a ton more. This place has the highest quality ones in this region, so I'll be picking as many as I want. But usually, fifty pieces would do fine.
Mithril Ore, I've heard Mithril grows in the depths of the Fishman King's Lair, silver-colored crystal-like growths of ore down there are some Lesser Quality Mithril, any quality would do, if I can reinforce the Aqua Rings with Mithril, they'll be near indestructible.
Water-type monsters Magic Crystals, minimum of Tier 3, but Tier 4 would be ideal. Also, their materials, fish scales, bones, flesh, eyes, anything they can give me that is water attribute, to better make the rings capable of harboring the element within.
And lastly, Aquarius Crystals, super refined water-attribute crystals that also grow in the depths of the lake's dungeon, protected by the Boss. They grow in very little quantities and are said to be the highest quality of purity a Water Spirit Stone can reach, comparable to an A Grade Material!
I'm going to grab them all!
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