Chapter Eighty-Three: Hidden Truths

Two days later, inside Oz's castle.

Zhao Nan was locked in a gaze with the castle's master. Oz sat upon his enormous throne, a gigantic wine bottle in hand, and burst into laughter. "Zhao Nan, I never thought you'd come looking for me to drink so soon!"

The invitation to drink together had been made before Zhao Nan left Oz's castle, in front of Ulysses.

Because he possessed the Proof of Honesty and had passed the highest-difficulty trial set by Oz, the castle's master was delighted to regard Zhao Nan as a friend, a friend worthy of sharing a drink.

Zhao Nan sat before Oz, cross-legged on the floor. At the words, he only smiled faintly. Beside him, Ulysses was lowering its head and devouring the fresh flesh Oz had provided, its mouth smeared with crimson fragments of meat, eating with great relish.

"Ulysses seems to be growing quite well," Oz said, taking a deep gulp and wiping the liquor from the corner of his mouth with a hand. "Handing it over to you back then was clearly the right choice."

After roughly a day and a half of intense leveling, not only had Gao Mingyang and the others all reached level twenty, even Ulysses had risen to level seven. Its size had not increased, but the keratin on its body had become harder, and it had begun to grow scaly plates like armor.

"Oh, right. How much time has passed?" Zhao Nan could not help but frown as he asked.

"My friend, not much. Less than half an hour." Oz replied casually. "Are you worried about your companions?"

"Isn't that only natural?"

"Hahaha! Do you want to see how their trials are going?" Oz suddenly said, narrowing his eyes.

Zhao Nan's brows lifted. "I can?"

"Of course..." Oz deliberately dragged out the words. "You cannot. Hahaha! Even if you are my friend, I won't break my own rules."

He was being toyed with... absolutely toyed with.

Zhao Nan lowered his eyes and shook his head helplessly. Following Zhao Nan's advice, Fenina and the others had each chosen different trial difficulties, and more than half an hour had already passed.

Gao Mingyang and Xu Feng had been directly told by Zhao Nan to choose the hard difficulty. With their strength, a pet obtained through a high-rated clear on hard difficulty would be far better than a low-rated pet gained from nightmare difficulty.

As for the others besides Fenina, they could only choose normal difficulty. After all, they were not hidden classes yet; apart from their equipment being a little better than that of ordinary players, the gap in strength was not so great as to leave ordinary players far behind.

Moreover, as Zhao Nan knew, attack-oriented classes and support-oriented classes had different trials. It was impossible to expect a priest or sage, for example, to face a hundred monsters at once.

As for Fenina, after long consideration, Zhao Nan had tried to have her choose the legendary difficulty. The Sky Sword Saint was also a unique hidden class, and Fenina's potential was no weaker than his. Even if she could not obtain a perfect rating, it probably would not be too poor.

"By the way, Castle Lord Oz... have you ever heard of the Path to Heaven?" Zhao Nan asked suddenly.

Oz frowned. "Zhao Nan, why would you know of the Path to Heaven's existence?"

"I heard of it by chance."

Zhao Nan had no intention of revealing the secret of the two keys he possessed to open the Path to Heaven.

Oz suddenly fell silent. No longer wearing his cheerful expression, he seemed somewhat resistant to that name. He took a hard gulp of wine and closed his eyes.

After a long while, he said softly, "Thousands of years? Tens of thousands of years? In that annihilated age, the ancestors of our races once tried to build a tower, hoping to use it to reach the world where the gods dwell... Our ancestors sought to challenge the authority of the gods. In the end, the moment that tower was completed, the gods were enraged and brought down a terrible punishment. That punishment did not merely destroy the tower, but also erased our ancestors' creativity as well... Since then, the ancestors of the various races have rarely given birth to powerhouses who could even touch the realm of gods."

"The tower's name?" Zhao Nan's heart stirred.

"The Tower to Reach the Heavens." Oz sighed. "As for the Path to Heaven you mentioned, it is actually the ruins left behind after the Tower to Reach the Heavens was destroyed. In legend, the Path to Heaven contains the creativity stripped from our races, as well as many inheritances and secret treasures left by the ancestors of the various races during that glorious age."

Oz looked at Zhao Nan and suddenly became extremely serious. "My friend, I do not know where you heard this legend of the Path to Heaven. But I hope you will not try to approach it. Our ancestors used their own fate to leave their descendants an exceedingly painful lesson... Never, ever try to challenge the gods!"

Zhao Nan gently stroked Ulysses' head, while in his mind he wondered whether the Path to Heaven was a map after level fifty, or level sixty, or perhaps even higher... But no matter which it was, to him at present, it was an exceedingly distant matter.

But... who exactly were the so-called gods in the natives' mouths? The system? Or beings created by the system?

"My friend, it seems my words have dampened your spirits quite a bit," Oz said apologetically. "Actually, I only came to know of this incident by chance when I was traveling in my youth. How much of it is true and how much false, I myself have no way to judge. But there is one thing that can be confirmed: even if all races were stripped of creativity by the beings, it would not affect you chosen ones in the slightest."

Because they were never the same kind to begin with, Zhao Nan thought silently. At the same time, a thought flashed through his mind: perhaps if he took out the two keys he had on hand now, it might well trigger some never-before-seen quest.

However, at this stage, he did not intend to continue discussing this matter with Oz. Since the Path to Heaven could be confirmed as a place beyond level fifty and the like, holding it in hand brought him no benefit at all. In any case, seven keys were required to open the Path to Heaven. Whether he spoke of it sooner or later, the two keys were still in his possession.

"Ulysses' parents... are they already dead?"

Dragons were a race that placed great importance on bloodlines. Even with the castle master before him, whose level was displayed as LV??? , Zhao Nan did not believe the other party would be able to keep a dragon egg safely by his side if it had not come from deceased parents.

Ulysses suddenly fell silent. Lowering its head, it leaned against Zhao Nan's side, its wings tightly folded.

"They died of natural causes. Rest assured," Oz said, his expression unchanged.

Yet it was precisely that unchanged expression that made Zhao Nan feel strange... Based on his dealings with the other, he knew Oz was the sort who would readily show his emotions over small matters. Moreover, Oz had once said that Ulysses' parents were his friends. Mourn the death of a friend, and it would be impossible to remain so calm.

There seemed to be many secrets hidden within this castle lord, secrets worth unearthing.

But at this moment, Zhao Nan did not continue pressing the matter because of Ulysses. It was rare to become friends with the master of this castle, instead of leaving in disgrace as he had before his rebirth, receiving an ordinary pet egg from the other's indifferent gaze and being swept out of the castle gates. Naturally, Zhao Nan was unwilling to miss such an opportunity, and began asking, one by one, the questions in his heart about this world.

Although players had already explored this world for three years in history, there were still many things they did not understand.

Players had the players' worldview. The natives had the natives' worldview, and they were the group who knew the world better.

The time spent talking about all things under heaven passed quickly.

Before long, Oz stopped speaking, waved his hand, and the great door before them slowly opened. Fenina stepped lightly across the red carpet and walked up beside Zhao Nan with a smile.

"Another perfect rating, even so..." Oz looked Fenina over seriously, his face bright with delight. "Let me think... what sort of pet should I give you!"

Seeing the sweat-dampened girl before him, Zhao Nan stood and asked softly, "Are you tired?"

"I'm fine." Fenina smiled. "The final boss was a bit troublesome. Fortunately, I've already advanced, or I probably wouldn't have made it through."

"Oh, I've got it. There's a pet that's very suitable for you."

Oz slapped his hand, and a flash of golden light appeared before them. A giant egg, pure and immaculate white throughout, appeared before the two of them.