Jun watched everyone from the second resting area. He doesn"t know why they couldn"t keep up with him but he could take a few guesses. It may be about the purity of the soul or something. Or they"re just so weak that they can"t climb anymore.He looked around the second resting area and found a small flower garden. The garden have various flowers with different colors.
Though he wasn"t knowledgable, he knew for sure that this flowers couldn"t be found in Earth. Some have mixed colors while others had solid colors. The garden was arranged that those single-colored flowers were on the outer-parts of the garden while as it get closer to the center, the more varied the colors get.
The flowers were so small that they barely rose up to his knees. In the middle, he could see a unique flower that hasn"t bloomed. It changes color from time to time but usually stays at several mix of colors, just like a rainbow.
Jun walked towards the garden and the unique flower slowly blossomed. It randomly changed colors as its petals opened outwards. A small rainbow seed dropped and flew towards Jun.
He gasped at the scene but managed to keep himself from running.
This should be the reward. Calm down! Calm down...
Jun was already used to monsters but mystical events were still incomprehensible to him. Sudden events like this still surprises him.
He caught the seed and quickly examined it.
[Rainbow Seed]
[Description] A seed from the Rainbow flower. Can increase all of your stats by 0.1.
Instead of being happy, Jun thought of something else.
Can I plant this?
And unlike the first reward on the first resting area, the seed doesn"t have an expiration date.
After the short break, he decided to climb further.
Every step he made felt lightweight like he was on a regular hike, he didn"t feel troubled or burdened as he advanced unhindered.
Until he climbed halfway at the 44th step out of the remaining 88 steps.
He finally felt what the others were feeling.
The heavy feeling on his feet as if someone was pulling him down.
He exerted more effort and grind his teeth before finally reaching the 50th step.
From that point, he truly experienced what the others who barely climbed upto the first resting area felt.
His breathing slowed down as if being suffocated. He looked up and gazed at the top. He could see the upper portion of a huge gray stone.
He got befuddled at the scene. Wasn"t it the statue of the Calvary up here? Why did it changed?
Then he remembered that the world has changed, so it wasn"t really that unusual that part of the world also changed. Does this only apply here or everywhere?
He finally started panting when he climbed upto the 60th step. He gnashed his teeth as he forced himself to climb forward. There wasn"t anything important for him at the top, but he was curious about what he can find there.
With all this changes on the world, a place like this should have something good, right? He already got his answer from the first resting area. Those berries weren"t that good for him, but for the people who doesn"t like fighting, it was a precious item. Also, everything he received so far on the way up were extraordinary items that couldn"t be found anywhere. Well, not that he know of.
As he climbed, he thought whether other places like this existed nearby. Are cultural sites changed too? What about landmarks?
Jun then remembered the statue at the munic.i.p.al plaza. It changed to a portal and could be used by everyone. Well, to those who knew of how to use it.
When he climbed at the 80th step, his legs started shaking. His ardious climb drained most of his stamina.
At this moment, he wished that he learned something that could help him enhance his strength or prolong his stamina. Jun kept in his mind that he should excercise more to actually be able to use every strength in his body.
As he kept on pondering what he could have done to strengthen his body, something flashed in his mind. He actually know of a skill that temporarily raises his stregth!
Empowered Strike!
Well, in this case, he should call it Reinforce.
Jun hastily gathered energy onto his lower body. The energy flowed into his leg and circulated to his feets.
As the energy circulated on his lower body, he could feel the strain on his legs, lighten up. The feeling of being pulled down gradually decreased as he gathered more energy on the sole of his feet.
Jun smiled as he stared at the remaining steps.
With renewed vigor, he ran up the remaing steps even though that increased the rate at how he expended his energy.
When he stepped on the flat ground, he saw the path that led to the Calvary statue. Jun stared wide eyed at the center of the resting area. Instead of a statue, there"s a huge gray monolith, with strange scriptures, standing tall at the center. Further behind it was a 15 feet tall metal cross that glinted slightly with holy aura.
Towards the left and right were benches were people could take a seat and observe the surrounding.
The gra.s.s were trimmed accordingly and various dirt paths led to different parts of the resting area. As he walked closer to examine the monolith, a voice came from the side.
"Whew~ what a great view! Hahaha. Look Jun, we could see our house from here!"
On a nearby bench, there sat an old man. He was staring at the distance, past the local cemetery, just right after the construction supplies shop.
Before Jun could even see the figure, tears were already on the sides of his eyes.
The voice alone was enough for him to recognize the person sitting on the bench.
He slowly turned his head and finally saw the silhouette of the person he cherished and missed the most, his father.
"Dad..."
Tears finally dropped and travelled to his cheeks.
He walked towards the bench as he ingrained this scene into his memory.
"Brother..."
Jun turned around and saw his sister, Anna. A little girl stood five meters away from him.
"Brother... am I alive?"
The twelve year old version of his sister clutched her hand in front of her chest and stared at him filled with worry.
The scene caused futher memories to resurface from his mind. At the time when his little sister always relied on him with everything, when he always stood by her side and protected her from everything.
But now they were separated.
And he has no clue where to start searching for her.
"It"s my fault. I shouldn"t have left you. I should have taken both of you."
Jun felt his body become paralyzed when he heard the person speaking. It was still the same caring voice like just he always remembered.
"Mom..."
Different emotions clashed inside him as he stared at his mother. He wanted to ask her why but he couldn"t. He wanted to know the real reason coming directly from her but he was too afraid if he could ever accept it.
He then laughed as if crazed.
Tears continued escaping from his eyes.
At the same time, his surroundings started to crack like how a brittle gla.s.s breaks when something hit it. When it fully cracked, the surrounding gra.s.s, land and even the sky shattered.
Gla.s.s shards slowly fell and turned to stardust before reaching the ground.
Jun turned towards the center of the resting area ang stared at the gray monolith.
"Hey... can you send me back there one more time? I promise I won"t realize that it"s an illusion, so... send me back one more time."
***
Nik"s group at the first resting area noticed something wrong at the top of the hill but couldn"t do anything about it.
Nothing visibly changed but instinctively, they knew that something was wrong.
Nik gazed at the top while he practice energy control. His enhanced sight couldn"t see anything on the top of the hill.
***
"Yes, yes. That"s what happened."
"Okay, thank you for relaying his messages as soon as possible. Here take this, its nothing much but you should relax some times."
The islander just finished reporting to Bernard on what happened to the group. He then received a 1000 CP gift card from Bernard and the two went on their own ways.
Bernard relayed Jun"s message to Marianne which made her further worried after learning of the reason why he would be delayed.
***
"Did you found the lawyer?"
"Yes, we got him."
"Okay, let"s go."
***
Back at the top of the Calvary Hill...
The sun was already setting down on the west.
Jun hasn"t searched the area for treasures but chose to sit down at the bench where his father sat. He watched the setting sun as he caught a glimpsed of their house in the distance.
Jun wiped his eyes, then smiled.
"Yeah... it"s truly a great view."