The Summoner's Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

Chapter 88: Bizarre Dungeon Reward

"Four.. you say?" Aria frowned. She only knew three of them, turns out there was another one she wasn't aware of?

"Yes. Me, big sister Aria, Yoo Jin, and one of the <Players> in the list I gave you. I am still trying to figure out who this last one might be, but as of now.. each of them has the same probability of being the one. They are all foreigners, quite well known ones. It's hard to figure out why any of them would have a reason to come here to South Korea," Alena answered.

Aria looked back at the paper in her hands. Leticia, Cain, Dion, or Maria. One of them was in the same country as them.

"Have you tracked down any of these four?"

"I'm starting to research their identities, but I've only gotten the information two days ago? I think that's right. I should be able to crack down their locations by tomorrow or overmorrow,"

"..Is that so. Then, their flight details.."

"Yes, I should be able to get those too using the right connections. However, two of those names belong to powerful families.. and one of them is even more powerful than my own family. Dion Allegra and Cain Arthur, both are renowned people in the underground section. There might be a chance that they are using private flights,"

"Then... will there be any effect if four of us are gathered like this in one country? Won't South Korea be hit hard in terms of the changes?" Aria worried.

Alena once said that the change will practically be perpetual to the <Players>, as if the world itself adapted to the seven chosen humans.

If there were four individuals cramped in South Korea, how terrifying would the dungeon outbreak be? There needed to be enough resources for each of these seven lions' growth. The small nation would be shaken up terribly. At the same time, more strong Hunters would come out of South Korea as a result of it.

"That.. would be hard to say. The change will happen all around the world, I assure you. It will be balanced somehow, but going by our theory of how the world bent around the <Players>, then yes. Dungeons should be higher in South Korea to accommodate for all the <Players>,"

"So.. theoretically, if we went ahead and ate up all the resources meant for other <Players> too.." Aria dragged her words out, watching for Alena's response.

"That will be extremely profitable for us," Alena nodded in return.

Aria furrowed her brows as she contemplated the situation. It was beneficial for her to attain as many dungeons as possible, as all of her abilities clearly needed endless grinding in order to be pursued to the highest level. If so, then how should she react towards this matter?

Be happy that resources are going to fall towards her? On the hindsight, casualties and victims are going to start popping out endlessly, and notorious high ranked dungeon anomalies are going to come out.

Sighing, she rested her thoughts on the terrifying scenario, pushing it to the back of her mind.

She then moved on to a different topic that has been lingering inside her heart for quite some time recently.

It was the dungeon reward she obtained.

Pursing her lips, she looked back at Alena. "I have another question.. that you might be able to help me with," her expression was dark as she spoke.

"Do tell?" Alena tilted her head, wondering what made Aria so hesitant when she had clearly stated that she would help Aria unconditionally to best of her abilities.

There was a reason why she did not inspect the reward right after getting out of the dungeon.

The dungeon rune was in her hands, still intact. She had learned that she was still able to take the stone out of the dungeon compared to the first times she entered these dungeons, where she made the decision on whether to 'Conquer' or 'Absorb' the miraculous stone. But aside from that, she also received an extra reward, like she did when she received [Halvargg].

Only, this time, it wasn't a straightforward item like the sword she had used and abused, but a bizarre object instead.

Aria truly began to wonder what went on inside Leonis' dungeon for it to be this deranged. The dungeon master, the slime cluster, and now even the reward itself was strange.

She sighed as she looked at her inventory space, where the 'reward' was sitting snugly and occupying the capacity.

Even before she took it out of the space, the object was already looking disgusting and not something you would want to approach.

However, the main problem was that everything about the item was in question marks. From the name, the abilities, to the descriptions. Everything was filled by question marks, which made Aria crazy every time she tried to ponder upon the item's identity.

Thus, she wanted to ask Alena about the item. She carefully took it out of her inventory and presented it to Alena, whose expression twisted right away.

To say that it was a solid would be wrong, a liquid was also wrong, a gas was not right. It existed somewhere in between all three.

It was a black mush, containing an eerie and disturbing aura. Black gas seeped right from the object's surfaces, and the object itself kept changing shapes. Sometimes, it would be a compact cube, and all of the black gas would be absorbed back into the thing. Sometimes, it would spread out, almost like a gooey slime.

It was hard to describe what this item truly was. In addition to the many question marks attached to it, Aria couldn't help but shrug this reward off until she was able to find any type of clues. The current her did not have any inspecting or analyzing skills. She had the knowledge of such spells, but she was afraid that she wouldn't be able to accommodate for it, in the same way as how she hadn't used a single spell that was outside of her status information after she experienced Mana Depletion right after coming into this modern era.

Now that she met Alena, she planned to ask her about this particular object, hoping that the girl could bring any sort of clarity to her.

Aria had asked Rallaka, wondering if the spirit with extensive knowledge had any clues about the object. He replied with a negative answer, leaving Aria with the unanswered blanks up to this day.

She once wanted to use force to find out what this was, wondering if she could just stab her sword into it and some other kind of mechanism would trigger as a result. However, considering that the item could potentially be a deadly safety hazard, she refrained.

Observing from the previous rewards she had gotten, everything had been positive. The encounters she had were also ones that helped her growth, and she hadn't met any real disasters that impacted her in a negative way yet.

However, in face of this particular reward, anybody would be skeptical and wary.

"Big sister, where did you pick this up at?" Alena questioned, her expression slowly turning ugly.

Upon seeing this thing, normal people would definitely be squeamish. The object was probably inanimate, but it had the properties of a living thing. Its fluctuations, Aria couldn't tell what it was triggered by, but the shape didn't just randomly change. The pattern was hard to figure out, but upon staring and observing it for a long time, Aria suspected that it reacted to those who held it and something about mana fluctuations.

As if it was waiting for the correct mana configuration to trigger whatever was hidden within it. It changed with every different sets of fluctuations, making Aria even more confused.

Talking about mana configurations, there were so many things that had to be discussed. The location of the mana concentration, how she should use the mana, how the object should be held and placed at, all of it would come out to produce billions of possibilities with its shapeshifting capability. Trying to find it out manually was maniacal, unless she had Godly luck that allowed her to strike the correct answer with just random guessing, it was pointless.

"In the dungeon that I went inside with [Lichte]. This was the final reward," Aria answered aptly.

Alena looked apprehensive to touch it, but she slowly extended her hand and held the object, turning it around. It continued its shapeshifting abilities, making Alena's expression twitch with confusion.

"This thing.. What do you want me to do with it?" Alena seemed to be bad at handling the object, as her normally calm disposition started to waver with each passing second.

"You see, I don't know what that thing is. The status on that thing are all written in question marks. When the System notification came by, it was also all question marks. My question is, are you able to find out what it is?" Aria carefully asked.