My Roleplay System

Chapter 242: Chapter 242: Armored Overlord

Lake overlooked the city from atop a ruined high-rise building.

His eyes and ears passively surveyed the area while his attention remained on exploring the Web of Fate. It had been over an hour since they entered the rift, and he had roughly mapped out the entire city in his head by this point. The first thing he did was send the third years a list of high-priority targets to keep them occupied while he surveyed for resources.

After all, the rift wouldn’t stay open forever, and he needed the extraction team to be as efficient as possible once they arrived.

Luckily, he did manage to find a few different facilities and shops that looked promising, but nothing major. After a quick estimation, the total profit from this rift so far would only amount to around ten million if he were to extract all the resources from his marked locations.

It was certainly a great sum, but was still less than 1% of what he needed.

"Hm?"

As he explored the Web of Fate, he came across something that caught his eye. It was a unique-looking fate resembling an iron crown. At first, he thought it was a King’s fate, but upon closer inspection, realized it was something else entirely.

Observing the past of the fate holder, Lake discovered something that made his eyes light up.

’To think I would be this lucky.’

Lake smirked as his figure shot off the top of the high-rise building, gliding through the air toward the location he had found through the creature’s fate. Not long after, he arrived at an old abandoned agricultural facility. The area covered approximately ten square kilometers and was surrounded by a large fence.

Vines and debris common across the city also covered the facility, with vine covered fences and partially collapsed facilities.

Lake landed right next to a hole in the fence, leading into the facility. Without hesitation, he walked in while activity applying the effects of stealth and an invisibility spell, making his way deeper inside.

Most of the area was surprisingly covered in warehouses and sheds despite being an agricultural facility, with various pieces of walls blown open or entire buildings collapsed. Lake merely took a glance at the surrounding before silently moving forward, eventually reached a building deep within the facility. This building was about three to four times the size of the others, with several large garage doors open for entry.

Lake didn’t think much of this and entered, his senses spreading out as the various details and structures of the building flooded his mind. The building was one big open warehouse with partition walls separating various rooms.

The opening he entered from led to a room that had its surrounding walls collapsed. Rubble and debris covered whatever the purpose of the room might have been, but Lake didn’t waste time investigating. Instead, he followed the path of destruction, which led him deeper into the warehouse.

The further he walked, the less destroyed the facility appeared. He could now make out several pieces of lab equipment and measuring devices, along with the destroyed remains of what appeared to be flower pots.

Lake took a glance at some of the research notes that had survived until now but ultimately couldn’t understand the language, so he gave up. After following the path of destruction for another few minutes, his eyes flared a bright blue as he felt a strong mana signature not far ahead.

Despite the intensity, the mana was deeply concentrated and dense, feeling as if an invisible weight was pressing down on him the closer he got.

’No doubt about it. It’s a Rank Three creature.’

The moment Lake thought this, he turned the final corner and saw the creature that possessed the extraordinary mana signature.

"Brrrrr....."

Its throat released a low rumble as it snored, causing several of the standing metal tables in the room to rattle. Standing less than ten meters away, Lake could finally see the creature that possessed the iron crown fate.

The creature was massive—around the size of a small cargo truck—and completely covered in armor from head to toe. It resembled an ankylosaurus, with a spiked armored shell on its back. It had eight legs and a long tail ending in a massive spiked ball the size of a wrecking ball.

Lake took only a brief glance at the creature before his eyes landed on the row of half-destroyed pots beside it. Most of the pots were smashed, but a few remained untouched, allowing Lake to finally see just what the facility had been growing all this time.

It was a flower. One that grew from a cluster of light-blue foliage covering the surface of the pot. A single stem grew out from it and blossomed into a crown of velvet purple. Each petal had tiny luminescent veins pulsing with light that flowed toward the central pistil, where a small blue gem was being condensed.

Lake’s eyes instantly locked onto the blue crystal, for he could tell with just a glance that it was made of highly concentrated mana—the very same mana that the armored behemoth sleeping next to it had been absorbing for the last several months.

’It’s so pure...’

Lake was able to see the mana flowing through the plant and gathering in the crystal. Unlike natural mana, it lacked many of the impurities mixed with the natural elements. Such pure mana, if directly consumed, could instantly restore a martial warror’s mana, and if used for training, could even greatly accelerate practice speed! Not to mention that this was just the raw gem.

If he brought the crystal back to a lab and had Harper and her team process it and further enhance its effects, Lake could hardly imagine how extraordinary it could be.

Thinking up to this point, Lake had already made up his mind. If he could successfully extract the Mana Crystal Flower and use his Gardener role to cultivate it outside the rift, he could easily turn a massive profit. With the money from that business, he could fund Bloom’s development and still have change to spare.

With that said, his next course of action had been decided.

His gaze returned to the sleeping behemoth. This creature had been feeding on these plants for months, growing greatly in that time and advancing to Rank Three from its initial Rank Two stage. Now, it treated the facility as its lair. And if Lake was to successfully extract the plant, he would have to deal with it first.