Chapter 368: Prototype S16ir112... Part-4.


    ?


    "I literally have no idea why he woulde to this ce... He must have taken that token to copy it or something..."


    While walking through the garden, Liam keptining to Rio with an annoyed look on his face.


    "Sigh, if Principal Raji had arrived on time, I wouldn''t have agreed to give that token to him at all; I was already feeling it that he was up to no good..."


    While walking beside Liam, Rio couldn''t think of anything to say.


    Liam was letting out his frustrations, and there was no point in talking to him at the moment, so Rio was just lending his ears to listen to thoseints.


    ''If even Liam doesn''t know what he could be aiming for... then what might Neo be nning?''


    Rio has read through the whole novel, and Neo was always a mysterious type of character who kept supporting Fade for no apparent reason from time to time and never really showed his face in public much.


    ''An SS-ranker with evil schemes in mind can definitely do a lot of harm for the entire world...'' As the plot has nearlypletely deviated from its original path, Rio has no idea what Neo is trying to aplish by illegally trespassing into the dragon valley.


    Illegal trespassing is a crime in every country, and if SS-rankers trespass into your nation, then it can basically be considered that the other party is dering war on you.


    After all, SS-rankers are a country''s trump cards; if they illegally enter a country, that literally means that the other nation has dered war and you need to respond ordingly.


    The only relief is that the dragon race is not part of the world alliance, so they can''t use the whole human empire of illegally letting their SS-rankers enter the dragon valley.


    Still, this is no small matter; if this isn''t solved properly, the dragon king has the right to put them all in jail.


    Then this matter will turn into an international matter, and things will keep escting.


    And once Ashtel Rex leaves seclusion, he will obviouslye over to rescue his son.


    That would create friction between the world''s two strongest people, and that''s not good news for the whole world.


    Just the mistakes of one SS- ranker are enough to cause massive chaos in the world; that''s why there are so many restrictions ced on them by the world alliance.


    ...


    "Yo! We met again, Rio!"


    When the group arrived at the garden, Fenix was already waiting there while leaning his back against a tree.


    He was chewing on the apple he plucked from the apple tree.


    Seeing Rio arrive, he patted him on the shoulder and gave a big smile to the rest of the group.


    Link and the others rolled their eyes at the sight of Rio being so friendly to a random SS- rankers who popped out of nowhere.


    In the first ce, it''s already very rare for Rio to make friends, so the group was quite surprised to see him being so friendly towards Rio.


    "Oh, by the way, I forgot to say it, but I would love to drink some more of your handmade tea if there''s a chance for it in the future..."


    "Also, I found an old artifact I liked to use in my younger days; you can have it; I don''t have much use of it now, but it mighte in handy for you..."N?v(el)B\\jnn


    Fenix handed over a wooden mask to Rio.


    The mask seemed very ordinary, and it didn''t even have a mana stone embedded in it to show that it''s a magical artifact.


    It seemed more like a randomly made mask created out of wood by a novice craftsman.


    But Rio didn''t reject the generosity; he epted the mask with the same expressionless face


    as ever.


    Even if the mask is useless, Rio can keep it as a memento of his journey to the Dragon Valley. Maybe he can even show it to his children in the future and brag about it in front of them.


    "Ah, I forgot to introduce myself to the rest of you. I am Fenix, a humble servant of the dragon king... Let''s not dilly-dally now; the dragon king has given urgent orders..."


    "We need to head towards the location where Neo Aldif''s presence wasst sensed..." Fenix opened a portal for the group, and all of them entered it without hesitation.


    ...


    Next, they directly appeared in the forest area of the Aku River basin. The group walked out of the portal and found themselves standing near a giant hole in the ground.


    "Hmm, Dragon King must have headed ahead of us already; let''s go; we will need to explore the area ourselves, it seems..."


    Fenix jumped down, and the rest of the group followed behind him obediently.


    Sin was the only one who immediately recognized the ce just by seeing the type of trees nearby.


    "Hmm, this species of trees... They are unique to Aku River Basin..."


    She nced at Fenix and asked in a confused tone,


    "Is there anything special about this ce? I remember reading somewhere that there aren''t many dragon nests in this ce..."


    Dragons of the Dragon Valley make nest at any random ce of their own choice.


    But most dragons seem to be avoiding this ce for some reason, and you won''t find a single older dragon staying here either.


    "Hmm, how do I say... It''s basically the ''intuition'' of an SS-ranker... Staying in this ce


    makes you feel ufortable, and it doesn''t feel pleasant to stay here..."


    "It''s as if your intuition is telling you to leave fast... And as even SS-rankers don''t stay here, others also avoid it too..."


    Hearing those words, Rio couldn''t help but feel weird in his mind.


    If not for his expressionless face, he would have been frowning deeply right now. ''Something that can make even SS-rankers feel anxious? In the novel, there was only that SSS rank dungeon, which posed the greatest threat to all SS rankers...''


    ''I don''t think anything else of such caliber was ever mentioned in the novel...''


    The group walked inside the hidden cave, and Fenix spread out his mana detection to guide the group through that maze-like underground cave.


    Although he could have easily destroyed the walls and the floor to make his way down even faster, he didn''t do so as he wasn''t sure if that might damage the cave and things might go wrong.


    Using his excellent mana detection ability, Fenix was easily able to determine which path was better and which one was leading to a dead end.


    The group followed him closely, and after walking for about half an hour, they arrived at the deepest part of the cave.


    The Dragon King was standing there; a deep frown hung over his face.


    Fenix nodded his head as a sign of greeting, and Idri also did the same to return the favor.


    In front of the public, they are master and subordinate, but in private, these two arerades who have worked together for a long time; they don''t need to use long and tedious greeting methods to acknowledge each other''s presence.


    Just a simple nod of the head is enough.


    Idri nced at the group and said,


    "No wonder Neo came to this ce... It turns out, the divine prototype is located in this


    ce!"


    Rio and the others had no idea what this so-called divine prototype actually is and why it''s so important. Not even Fenix knew about it, and it seems the only person who knows about it in the whole dragon valley is Idri himself.


    Seeing the confused look on the group''s faces, Idri exined things in short.


    "Once upon a time, my father told me about a legend... He said that when Mana first descended to this world... a strange building also appeared in the world out of nowhere..."


    "Whoever entered that building and came back told stories that it was made up of extremely rare materials and it was named ''Prototype'' of some sort..."


    "My father said that this building used to exist in the Aku River Basin area at that time, and


    it disappeared eventually..."


    "Even I had considered this to be just a mere rumor, but who could have thought that all this


    was actually true..."


    If not for the fact that Neo found this ce by some means, even Idri could have never found


    it, as even the mana detection of an SS ranker wasn''t able to detect this hidden underground


    building.


    "It''s as if this building ispletely immune to detection type skills. I have been to this region many times before, and I never noticed this ce before..."


    No one knows the dragon valley more than the dragon king himself, and if even he doesn''t


    know about something that''s hidden in the dragon valley, then there''s no way others will


    know about it.


    Which brings up the question: how in the world did Neo manage to find this ce without even being a dragon and not even knowing about the local legends.


    "Forget it... Let''s not waste time here; we should head inside..."


    The whole building is buried underground, but this teleportation circle that is located on the rooftop of the building can be used to teleport inside the highest floor of the hidden tower.


    The whole group stood on the magic circle, and Idri embedded his mana into it to activate the magic circle.


    The whole group got teleported instantly as the circle lit up brightly.


    ...


    ...


    Author''s Notes.


    Yo! It''s your beloved author here!


    Question of the day.


    What do you think this hidden underground tower is hiding?


    (Tell me your thoughts in thements)


    By the way, don''t forget to use those power stones!!