Chapter 284: The Orchard 1

No, it couldn't be. If the Refinement God had been an Origin God, there was no way Draco would even qualify for such a quest. An Origin God was an entity that could wipe out the main plane on their own, so how could they leave their treasury behind?

Not to mention the fact that Origin Gods spent every waking moment of their life stabilizing the ever-expanding universe. How could they have the time to acc.u.mulate wealth, only to lock it up in a Treasury for someone else to steal?

So then how...?

'Ah!' Draco nodded as he made a sudden realization.

Wasn't he forgetting that there was a stage between True God and Origin God? Of course, it was Semi-Origin God. In other words, this Refinement God was in the same category as Hikari's dad.

They were entities that were able to produce small wisps of Origin Energy. Definitely not enough to stabilize the universe or destroy a plane, but certainly enough to suppress all True Gods.

Even one molecule of Origin Energy could make every lower energy in the universe follow it like a dog, so the gap was clear. Just like how Divine Energy suppressed Aetheric Energy brutally, the same also happened to Divine Energy as soon as it encountered Origin Energy.

Draco suddenly gulped. To think he had been ballsy enough to expand his Void of Perfection wantonly when he entered... he felt himself lucky that the only thing that happened was a minor limitation.

If his Void of Perfection had been damaged in any way, the consequences would be dire. Unlike his subjective magic which only relied on his concentration and willpower to work, his Void of Perfection was directly connected to his brain, an expanding of his senses and brainwaves over an area to govern it.

If he was damaged while using defensive magic like mana shields, he would feel pain but his resilience made it negligible in small amounts. Not to mention the fact that subjective magic was an external means, so the damage suffered would be low.

If his Void of Perfection was shattered though, he might turn into a vegetable! Best case scenario was that he would be knocked out for a long period, and the worst case was that his brain would turn into soup.

Of course, this also meant his real body in the pod. Unlike others, Draco had always possessed a more intimate connection with the system, which was how he had unlocked his bloodline, and was also why the ascension ceremony had been so perfect.

He could certainly recover from such damage with his Horned Demon Inheritances vitality, or the Serpent God Inheritances Serpent God Array - Ouroboros' Eternity.

Nevertheless, either one would require a high price to be paid, probably making him burn bloodline source and all his bloodline energy to survive. Hopefully, it would never come to that.

Draco summoned Qiong Qi and Clarent. The two fellows came out and observed the area carefully. Draco had already filled them in on his quest details, so they were suitably serious about the matter.

Clarent had been a True God in the old era and Qiong Qi was the only son of a True God, who became Rank 7 just by eating and sleeping. If he reached his peak, he could even try for divinity!

The two of them were knowledgeable enough about divinity as well as divine entities to know when to get serious and when to fool around. As such, they followed Draco around quietly for the most part.

Draco concentrated and tried to find any sign of life aside from static organisms like trees. His 1 km suppression for the Void of Perfection was truly a bummer here.

1 km in the real world was still a very good distance, but in a game like Boundless where everything was magnified by almost 1,000% in terms of distance, it was as useful as having only 10 feet in the real world.

Draco switched to his Eyes of Caelo, and found that they worked fine. In fact, much to his joy, it appeared that they were strengthened here. He could see much better than he could outside, at least after the rebalance.

Draco tried to guess why this was the case, and his first thought was due to the location. His second guess was due to the wisps of Origin Energy floating around.

Certainly as an 'Origin God' in the lore of Boundless, Caelo's eyes would be more powerful when in an area where such energy existed. Unfortunately, Draco couldn't actively use or absorb such energy as he had no clue how.

However, just this effect was good enough. He just kept his Void of Perfection in passive mode to make sure he wasn't ambushed by any monster that hung around this area.

He searched for any settlements, locations or landmarks with his Eyes of Caelo. Despite their buff, this was quite hard to do in this place. It wasn't as smooth and easy as it had been in the Flora and Fauna Unique Quest.

Still, Draco was able to pinpoint three locations that fit his search. The first was a large garden that had thousands of reagents lying within. Most of them were Epic Rank, while just under a quarter were Legendary.

What shook his soul was that there were even some Divine ones there, meant for Alchemy and other Tradeskills. If he could grab them, the kinds of potions he could make at the time would shake the world.

The second locale was a strange pathway with many trees swaying in a gentle manner. Their boughs were full of ripe fruit of different grades, being around the same Rank as those from the garden.

This was an orchard that had fruits meant for Brewing! If he could get them and use them for various drinks and juices, his throat would never be parched again!

The final area was an animal pasture. There, Draco saw many different animals of different grades. There were no common ones like cows, or sheep. Every animal there was at least a Rank 2 monster with a few being Rank 3. After some observation, he counted a total of 10 Rank 4 ones.

If he could kill them, their flesh could be used for cooking, their skin for leatherworking and their parts for various other Tradeskills that needed it.

Even though he saw all this and was tempted, Draco did not dare to rush for anything. He knew in his heart that if he even wanted the soil around these three locations, he would have to face some sort of trial.

This was a treasury left behind by the Semi-Origin Refinement God. It seemed like it was geared towards crafting, but he was sure that the tests would be in the form of combat.

After all, at a certain level, even Tradeskill masters would have to resort to combat. As they always say, it was one's personal power that decided one's standing.

In the real world, this was muted thanks to society and the law, but in a world where stats and skills existed, where a human could perform feats no real human could, things became messed up.

Draco pondered over his next choice. Should he try and attempt one of these three trials? He could certainly use it to test his viability in looting this Treasury dry.

After all, he had some doubts. If given the chance he wouldn't hesitate to pry floor tiles and dismantle wall decoration in this place, but things wouldn't be so easy. It was more that he could claim a large majority of things, but a good amount would have to be left behind due to time constraints.

Whatever the case, seeing was believing. As such, he informed his two companions of his choice and blinked towards that area he had discovered with his Divine Eyes.

Thankfully, it really was only his Void of Perfection that got suppressed. His equipment and skills were fine, which was a relief. He needed about four blinks to reach the location of the Orchard, which he chose as his first location.

Naturally, this wasn't done for fun. It was solely because an orchard like this would give him a power boost in a very minor way, through an item that was usually forgotten.

｢Passive 1 - Nature's Resonance: All attributes are boosted by 30% when in a forested area. Health regeneration is allowed during combat, and is boosted by 100%.｣

This was a passive skill from the Heart of the Woods, which he used more for its active skill to summon the Wood Monster Army than its passive. Yet now, this would make him a God of Regeneration on the level of Local Lord when merged with his Draconic Superiority from his class.

Having his stats boosted by 30% would negate the level penalty most likely. As for the damage and defense suppression, there was no way around that, so he could only hope for the best.

Draco arrived at the orchard with Qiong Qi and Clarent in tow. Both fellows narrowed their eyes when they saw the goodies in the orchard, but they didn't rush forward.

They sat down with Draco and made some speculations and theories on how to go forward. It was truly bizarre to see these three fellows being so serious for once, but after Draco had told them that there were wisps of Origin Energy, they had lost the will to play.

Until they could find a safe zone, they would much rather clear what lay ahead of them. Even though as a mount - and as a combat pet - they could be revived, they certainly did not want to die.

Draco too didn't want that. They did not possess Immortal Spirits, so their method of revival was truly painful and resource consuming. Most players from the previous timeline would just leave their mounts or combat pets for dead, unless they had already attained a certain level of power.

After assessing what should be done, the three walked into the orchard. Immediately, the world behind them became a blur, like the orchard existed in the only 'real' place and everything outside was poorly rendered, inaccessible background graphics like in an old game from the 2000's.

This was something the trio had expected, as it was kinda predictable. What they didn't expect though, was that the orchard would look very different on the inside compared the outside.

When outside, they had not seen any other lifeform in the orchard, but now there were hundreds of beasts that strolled around, occasionally chomping a fruit down.

They were a mixture of predator and prey beasts, and they seemed to be a part of this orchard's ecosystem. The orchard itself seemed to be three times larger than it had appeared from the outside, spanning longer than even the whole Paradise Lands.

Even if there were no beasts around and Draco intended to gather every fruit here, it would take more than a month to do so normally. This made him doubly sure that it was impossible to take everything at once.

However, Draco was not bothered. In fact, he even smiled widely, taking out the Hawkeye bow as well as the Phoenix Cry arrow. Clarent moved onto Qiong Qi's back, while Qiong Qi himself entered a predatory pose.

After all, they were intruders to this zone, so the nearby beasts started approaching them with malicious intent. It was not possible for them to let Draco and co. barge in on their territory, so a fight was inevitable.

There was a noticeably long spell of silence as both sides stared at each other, tense and ready to fight. They were each waiting for the other party to make a slight slip, and then the fight would begin.

In the crowd of monsters, Draco was able to use his Eyes of Caelo to identify a few thanks to its empowered state.

｢Name: Lithe Stalker - Specialist Rank monster

Level: 74

HP: 750,000/750,000｣

｢Name: Killer Boar - Specialist Rank monster

Level: 72

HP: 710,000/710,000｣

｢Name: Ferocious Charger - Specialist Rank monster

Level: 76

HP: 790,000/790,000｣

｢Name: Long Snapper - Specialist Rank monster

Level: 73

HP: 730,000/730,000｣

｢Name: Silent Spinner - Specialist Rank monster

Level: 70

HP: 700,000/700,000｣