Awakened Talent: 10,000 Exp Converter! - Chapter 158

Chapter 158: Exploring Tier 2 Labyrinth
Chapter 158: Exploring Tier 2 Labyrinth

After separating with Valyn, Vincent slowly explored the Freedom Swift City.

At this moment, he was currently walking around the busiest area of the city, the market area.

There were shops on both sides of the road and some simple stalls set up by rogue vendors.

Not far from him, he overheard two male voices, one young and the other old, arguing over something.

“Don’t you try to scam me, old man! Who would believe that key belongs to a hidden ruin?! Do you really think I’m that easy to fool?!” the young man uttered in a loud voice.

“Hmph! If you believe this is a scam, then forget it! I’m not gonna sell this to you! Leave! You’re scaring my customers away!” the old man responded in a similar tone.

“Customer? Where? You should be thankful that I even checked your stall!” The young man then left after clicking his tongue.

At this moment, his eyes met Vincent’s.

“Magnus?” the young man muttered with a slightly surprised expression.

Vincent also recognized the young man.

He was one of his schoolmates.

Franco Bullocks.

He could still remember him during the Annual Battle Ceremony, as this guy had awakened a B-rank Talent: Sharpshooter.

Franco was wearing a set of brown-leather equipment and a cowboy hat on his head. Over his shoulder was a long rifle.

Unsurprisingly, Franco had already broken through Tier 2 (1★). It wasn’t surprising since he had been at the peak of Tier 1 during the annual ceremony.

Vincent still hadn’t responded, but Franco approached him.

“You’re Vincent Magnus, right? Where have you been? What happened to you last time?”

Franco was asking about the incident when he fought against Arnold — The Alpha. Since no one knew at that time why he suddenly left amidst the battle aside from Dean Thorne.

Vincent simply ignored his question. He wasn’t close with him, after all. They didn’t have that kind of relationship to be having that kind of private conversation.

He simply responded with a question.

“What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I got here yesterday with my guildmates and challenged the Tower of Speed. But who would have thought that when we just got in, we realized that the Tower’s Exchange items were empty!”

Vincent didn’t know how to react upon hearing his response. He didn’t know if he should feel guilty or laugh. He was the mastermind, after all.

“How about you? Don’t tell me you’re also here to challenge the tower? Let me advise you, you better go to the Tower of Combat instead. At least there, it still has items to exchange for.”

That was a fact since Vincent didn’t have the chance to challenge the Tier 2 because he couldn’t find a match, as the Tier 1 challengers decided to leave the tower when he cleared the Tier 1 items.

“…but you gotta be at least Tier 2,” Franco added as he observed Vincent. He couldn’t sense Vincent’s strength as Vincent was using the effect of his Shifting Visage mask.

Stoic, he replied, “I’m just casually roaming. If that’s all, I’m leaving.”

Vincent didn’t wait for Franco to respond and started walking away.

However, before he could walk far, Franco called out, “Wait, would you like to go with my team? We’re going to explore a new Labyrinth. It’s a Tier 2 Labyrinth. We need more support.”

Vincent halted, slightly furrowed his brows, and contemplated.

“Where is it?”

“It’s approximately 200 km northeast from here…”

“Hmm…”

“Do you wanna join?”

Vincent shook his head.

“I appreciate your invitation, but I have something else to do.”

And just as Vincent was about to leave, Franco stopped him again.

“Wait, do you have a prismstone? Can we exchange contacts?”

Vincent considered it for a short moment before deciding it wasn’t a bad thing to have a connection with his fellow schoolmates.

It might come in handy in the future.

After the short encounter with Franco, Vincent left Freedom Swift City along with Mochi on his shoulder.

He was naturally heading towards the labyrinth mentioned by Franco.

Although a 200 km distance might be considerable to a normal human being, Vincent was able to traverse it in just over an hour.

Within a dense jungle, he discovered a pathway separated by thick and intertwined roots.

Vincent casually followed the path, and he soon found an over-a-hundred-feet-tall ancient tree, and under it was a green portal.

Since it was a new labyrinth, he found no one outside at the moment. But perhaps there were several groups already exploring the labyrinth.

Vincent didn’t enter the labyrinth immediately.

He sat down and took a rest, quickly replenishing his Origin Energy.

Although his Origin Energy had also increased since he broke through Tier 2, using his movement skill continuously for over an hour was quite exhausting.

With his eyes closed, Mochi, sitting on his shoulder, suddenly perched as her nose twitched.

Vincent didn’t need Mochi to say anything, as he also sensed a group of five Origin Warriors that had just arrived.

The moment this group noticed Vincent, alone with a fat black rabbit resting on his shoulder, they were at a loss for words.

Curious, they approached Vincent. A middle-aged man with a well-built physique called out loud enough for Vincent to hear from yards away.

“Are you alright, young man? What are you doing here alone? Where’s your party?”

Vincent slowly opened his eyes. He wasn’t surprised as he saw the party of humans in front of him: three males and two females wearing fitted robes.

Since Franco already had information about this labyrinth, he had already expected that there should be more from the human race that had learned about this labyrinth.

The middle-aged man who asked him seemed to be the leader of this party, a Peak Tier 2 Origin Warrior.

Vincent replied curtly, “I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? It’s rare to encounter someone from our race. If you need our help, don’t be shy about it,” the middle-aged man continued.

“It’s alright. I’m fine. I don’t need help,” Vincent replied.

However, Vincent’s response seemed to displease one of the two young men standing behind the middle-aged man, making the young man click his tongue.

“Tch! Forget about him, Leader. If he wants to die out here, then let him be. Let’s go and clear this labyrinth! We have to go now, or others might beat us to it.”

The middle-aged man turned to the blonde-haired young man who had just spoken.

“Don’t say that, Phart. We humans should always help each other out in the Origin World. We are one of the weakest races; you must remember that! You guys are the future of our human race, so learn to be compassionate.”

Phart’s face turned slightly red as his leader continued to lecture him.

This caused the other young man next to Phart to laugh loudly.

“Haha. You never learn, Phart. It’s still early in the morning, and you’ve already activated our leader’s lecture mode! Haha!”

At this moment, one of the two ladies approached Vincent.

“Hi, handsome. Don’t mind those idiots. But why are you here alone?”

Vincent glanced at the red-haired lady in front of him, who appeared to be in her early thirties.

“I’m here for the labyrinth.”

“Alone?” the red-haired lady asked, raising her eyebrows.

Vincent didn’t respond. He just stood up and stood in front of the labyrinth’s portal.

He reached his hand into the portal.

Ding!

[Do you want to enter the Corrupted Jungle Labyrinth?

Minimum of 5 party members.]

Right. He needed more members.

He turned to the red-haired lady, who smiled at him.

“Would you like to join us? It’s alright if you want to separate ways when you enter the labyrinth.”

Vincent didn’t decline the offer this time. He was here after all, it would be a waste if he couldn’t even enter the labyrinth.

“I’m Amy, nice to meet you.” She said before turning to her leader who was still reprimanding the embarrassed Phart, she exclaimed, “Leader, he’s going to join us!”

Hearing her, the leader glanced at her and responded with a simple okay with his fingers before going back, lecturing the poor Phart.

After a while, they entered the Corrupted Jungle Labyrinth.

As soon as Vincent felt his surroundings regained its clarity, he smelled a nauseating odor. Without hesitation he activated the function of his Shifting Visage Mask, blocking the nauseating odor.

However, the others were not as fast as him.

“Ugh! Fuck! What is that smell?”

“Urk! It smelled like an otaku’s basement!”

“What?” Amy exclaimed looking at Jake who was standing behind their Leader, Phaker.

At this moment, party leader Phaker alerted them, “Incoming! On your guards!”

At the same time, Vincent noticed a group of humanoid figures approaching them at a quick speed.

With his perception, he could clearly see the appearance of the incoming group of humanoids figures.

They stood like a human but their appearance was made of tree branches, emitting a rotting smell.

Wood Corpse Tier 2(1★)