Chapter 85: Approval
"To claim an unowned Epic Relic, there’s only one thing you need to do..."
"Since unowned Epic Relics have instinctive reactions, they can barely be considered sentient. All you have to do is obtain their approval."
Selene’s voice was the only sound in the entire plain.
Yet Aurelius was not happy to hear her explanation.
Such an answer was far too vague.
With his memories of Earth, he somewhat understood what it meant to gain the Relic’s approval.
However, this raised a certain doubt:
How should he go about obtaining a Relic’s approval?
It couldn’t be that he needed to start chatting with it, establishing a relationship between them, right?
Shaking his head to suppress these inexplicable thoughts, Aurelius turned to Selene, looking for a more detailed answer.
To his disappointment, though, Selene shook her head.
"Don’t ask me how to do it."
"Every Epic Relic has different requirements that you need to satisfy in order to obtain its approval."
"Some require a certain amount of strength. Others a related Class. There are even some unique Relics that judge the Awakener based on their appearance..."
Selene chuckled near the end.
Although she had never seen such a Relic, she had heard of them in the past and had found them extremely interesting.
If this trident also had the same requirement, she would wait for Aurelius to make a fool of himself! And if it required him to be ugly, that would be even more interesting!"
Aurelius didn’t know what the female Assassin was thinking.
He carefully weighed her words.
After several long seconds, he gritted his teeth and moved forward, hesitation clear in every movement.
The moment his foot landed again, he sensed the temperature around him plummet.
A thin layer of ice formed around his body, which shattered as his muscles tightened.
Seeing himself intact, Aurelius breathed a sigh of relief.
He was about to take another step forward when he sensed something approach him from behind.
It was Selene.
Surprisingly, she had decided not to remain at the edge of the plain, choosing to follow him toward its center.
"Don’t think that I’m trying to help you."
Seeing him glance at her, Selene sneered mockingly.
"I just want to see if I will be able to obtain the Relic’s approval before you."
"If I succeed, you should be careful... Heh."
She didn’t finish her words but stared at Aurelius sinisterly, like a monster looking at its prey.
Aurelius paid no attention to her teasing.
Ever since the battle of the Sunless Sect, Selene had stopped disguising what seemed to be her real personality.
She had become far livelier. At the same time, though, she had become somewhat of a jokester, seemingly taking great pleasure in teasing him.
Aurelius shook his head.
He turned around and continued his walk.
He didn’t charge forward recklessly.
Instead, he took one step at a time, pausing after every one of them.
Perhaps his caution paid off, or perhaps his strength was higher than the monsters that had previously attempted to gain control over the trident.
Aurelius soon passed several of these creatures.
Although he was feeling cold, the cold was nowhere near enough to freeze him in place.
In contrast, Selene did not fare very well.
Aurelius glanced over his shoulder.
Selene stood several dozen steps behind him, showing no signs of moving. She tightly wrapped her hands around her chest, her teeth clattering as she tried her best to suppress the cold.
Unfortunately, her efforts proved futile, evidenced by her pale face.
"Step back. There is no need to take a risk." Aurelius suddenly spoke up.
"This might be the trial for obtaining the Relic’s approval."
"You should have sensed that using skills to fight against the cold is meaningless. It can only be resisted through sheer physical strength."
Although Assassins were a fighting Class, their Vitality and Strength were far lower than those of other close-quarter combat Classes.
Meanwhile, even though Aurelius was an Arcanist, his upgraded Awakener’s Physique made up for this drawback, as did his Sub-Classes.
After reminding her, Aurelius didn’t care whether Selene would follow his advice.
He had already seen that it was possible to retreat from the plain before it was too late.
The reason these monsters had ended up in such a state was that they had recklessly charged forward.
Had they moved as cautiously as he had, they could have escaped before it was too late.
Aurelius shook his head. He lifted his foot and took another step.
His speed was slower than before. Yet his footsteps remained steady.
One. Ten. One hundred.
Before long, he had left Selene far behind him, passing by several more frozen prisons.
Aurelius noticed that the stronger the monsters within them were, the closer they had gotten to the Epic Relic, confirming his earlier guess.
The distance from the edge of the plain to the trident was not too long, but it took Aurelius several minutes.
Even so, shortly afterward, he had found himself not far away from the trident.
Twenty feet, he judged.
But after reaching this point, he didn’t walk any further.
His gaze moved toward the side. A few feet to his left stood another frozen cage.
Inside it was a giant serpent.
It was by far the strongest, having advanced the farthest among all the monsters in the plain.
Its aura fluctuated between Rank 2 and Rank 3, as though it were caught halfway through an advancement.
Given its strength, it should have been capable of escaping.
Yet it hadn’t.
Not because of the cold in the plain.
Aurelius had discovered the true reason the moment he stopped twenty feet away from the trident.
From this point onward, the Awakener no longer had to only withstand the freezing temperatures.
The real "trial" of the Epic Relic had begun.
And it seemed to be far more dangerous than the journey to this point.
As Aurelius raised his head, several azure symbols entered his sight.
They were intricate, extending out of the white mist and floating through the air.
The instant his gaze instinctively settled on one of them, a torrent of information poured into his mind.