Refusing My God’s Advances

The object was a crescent wedge, but there was a half-circle gap in the center missing. I suppose this was the dungeon core, or island crystal as everyone in this world called them.

The problem was that I didn't know what I was supposed to do here. No one had really said anything about this part.

"Leon Briar, please step forward."

The sound came from the orb, but I was still trying to figure out how it knew my name.

Shaking my head, I cautiously approached the glowing orb, its red hue pulsated gently, illuminating the stark white room with a soft, otherworldly light. The air around it seemed to thrum with power, a silent testament to the profound significance of the moment. The orb's call, imbued with a deep resonance, felt both inviting and commanding, a beckoning to step into a role I had only begun to comprehend.

"Leon Briar," the orb repeated, its voice echoing around the room imbued with an ancient authority that seemed to pierce straight to my core. "You have overcome trials that few could withstand. The legacy of Ember, and now Vaedos, marks you as a guardian of balance, a wielder of tempests, and a craftsman of the future."

I stood before the orb, feeling the weight of my journey settle around me. The battles, the strategies, and the moments of levity amidst chaos had all led to this point. I extended a hand tentatively towards the orb, unsure of what to expect, but driven by an innate curiosity and a desire to see my quest through to its end.

The moment I touched the orb, I received a golden notification. Every other one had been blue and transparent, but this one was solid gold.

[Crystal Cavern has been cleared! Receive the following rewards:]

1. (Legendary) The Heart of Vaedos: A divine crystalline core that enhances your magical and physical abilities significantly. It also grants you the ability to manipulate crystal and earth elements with unprecedented control and power.
2. (Legendary)The Arcana of Engineer's Insight: Reading this tome will evolve an Engineering class-related skill to its legendary rank.
3. 500,000 Gold
4. Access to Vaedos's Forge: A mystical forge that can be summoned once per month, allowing you to craft or enhance weapons and armor with divine crystal properties.

[Title: "Guardian of the Crystal Cavern," which bestows upon you a revered status among the denizens of this world, opening up new dialogues and quests.]

[New Quests Available:]
[Ember's Legacy: Open all of Ember's Vaults. 0/4 | Reward: Access to Ember's 5th Hidden Vault.]
[Vaedos's Forge: Craft at least 1 divine-rated piece of equipment with Vaedos's Forge. | Reward: (Unique Legendary) Vaedos's Crystal Forge Hammer, Unlimited access to Vaedos's Forge.]
[Crystalline Chasm 2/3: Find and conquer the dungeon, Crystalline Chasm. | Reward: Dungeon Core Rewards, Receive quest: Crystallized Abyss 3/3.]

Well, there were some interesting things in this pile of goodies. The first time looked like I could use it like a golem core, or just keep it as an item. The second item was a book, but it was crazy powerful. I just had to read it, and I could pick any one of my engineering skills and almost max out its rank. Half a million gold was nothing to turn my nose up at either.

The last thing was access to Vaedos’s Forge, which sounded pretty wild since I could only use it once a month. On top of it, I got a quest to go with it, but crafting a divine-rated item wasn’t going to be easy. Yet, I was finally well over level 200 now, and I could finally work with legendary and divine-rated material.

The rest was just new quests. The first being Ember’s Legacy, which I planned to do, quest or not, but I didn’t know about the 5th vault. The next was Vaedos’s Forge, but I had already looked that over, leaving the last one. It seems that clearing this dungeon started a quest to clear two other similar dungeons, but the rewards were just what I would get for defeating the dungeon anyways, aside from what looked to be the last part of the quest.

There was a good chance that all the good rewards would come from the last part of the quest. It was standard video game logic, and a lot of the time, that was how I felt like this world was. Just a super realistic video game that you could die in.

With a sigh, I let go of the red wedge, but then it and the room around me vanished, and I was standing outside of the Crystal Cavern entrance. The women were all out here as well, and they all turned to me as soon as I appeared.

“So? How was your first time clearing a dungeon?” Aria asked as everyone gathered around, and I smiled.

“Well, it took much longer than I had thought it would, but I got it done. I also got some pretty good stuff from it,” I replied with a grin, and Mary frowned at me.

“What did you get?” She asked, narrowing her eyes on me for some reason.

“The items and quests don’t really matter to any of you, but I did get half a million gold coins! I was thinking that after we got back and ate, we could all go and check out the Interdimensional Hamazon Shopping Reality together” I suggested, and all the girls lit up with excitement, except for Mary.

“Are you sure that is wise? You just had a long battle, right?” Mary asked, crossing her arms, and then added, “I can tell that you have less than half of your Magical Power left over.”

I smirked at her. “Yeah, but you don’t know how big the top is, right?”

Mary’s frown deepened. “I know you have grown a lot, but you can’t be more than level 200 from this cave. Even if your Magical Power is higher than normal, that is barely 12000. If you have less than half of that, there is no way you can last more than ten minutes in IHSR!”

I didn’t want to burst Mary’s bubble too badly, so I waved her to come over as I opened my status screen. The five-tailed fox spirit came over with her arms still crossed, but dropped them the moment she seen my stats.