Liu Ye immediately felt a different sensation as soon as the Earth Stone entered his mouth. His mind buzzed and the earth gave out a silent tremor as if welcoming a new member of the family. Even though they were in the bank with a wooden floor, he could still feel the ground underneath. It was calling for him just as the water in his surroundings.

He sighed in relief as he saw a number of notifications filling his inbox.

[Ding! The Earth Stone has been consumed. Awakening has succeeded.]

[Ding! You gained Earthbending Art.]

[Ding! Your Vitality increased by 2.]

[Ding! Your Health Points increased by 50.]

[Ding! Your Physical and Elemental Defense increased by 10.]

The Vitality turned out to be not that bad as each point increased his HP by 25 and his Defense by 5. If anyone wanted to be a tank, having Earthbending and high Vitality was a must.

“Congrats! Now it’s my turn,” Xu Yue called out happily and swallowed her own Water Stone.

Liu Ye didn’t have his hopes up, considering he failed two times. “Don’t worry if you fail. I have one more—”

He paused mid-sentence after seeing Xu Yue’s eyebrows shoot up. “Did you get it on the first try?”

“Yup, it went smoothly,” Xu Yue nodded coolly as she checked her profile. “It even gave me one Elemental Point. Nice.”

Liu Ye would lie if he said he wasn’t jealous but he couldn’t do anything about it. “It seems like your affinity to nature is all-round higher than mine. We can test it later when we get more Elemental Stones.”

“I think it’s only easy on the second Element,” Xu Yue commented. “If I could awaken all five Elements just like that, we could get Elemental Stones of all Elements right now and the game would end within a week. The whole goal of the game is to become an Avatar after all, so the difficulty should rise each time you awaken a new element.”

“I figured as much,” Liu Ye nodded. “Even Avi has only awakened two Elements after playing for months. Affinity should play a major factor but your body can only take so much. I’m guessing you need to improve first to awaken the following Elements.”

Liu Ye lowered his voice after hearing the footsteps of players entering the bank and decided to cut it short. “Anyway, now that all of us have two Elements, we should have three Dungeon Keys. We can clear this dungeon later tonight.”

“Wait, something is wrong,” Xu Yue pointed out as she suddenly displayed her inventory. “Did you get your Dungeon Key?”

Liu Ye gazed at the bottom of his inbox and he immediately noticed a change.

[Ding! Quest Avatar – Act III Completed! You received a Dungeon Key.]

He completed the third Act but a new quest didn’t show up while the Dungeon Key he received was disabled.

[Dungeon Key] [Locked]

[Description: A key to open a Dungeon Portal. The Key will be restricted until at least one player completes the first main Quest.]

“I thought the Avatar Quest was the main Questline,” Liu Ye mentioned as he remembered the quest he received yesterday. “Could those stolen weapons be the key to start the main quest?”

Liu Ye was supposed to follow Muhamut and meet with the Royal Family today. He was willing to bet it was the main quest.

“Why else would the game boost the first drop and give everyone similar items,” Xu Yue replied as she took out a necklace with a single red fang. “I have this necklace made by Arron in the Fire Land. I wanted to visit and return it to him. I guess now we know that’s the right path.”

“Oh,” Liu Ye’s eyes brightened as he returned to the storage window to withdraw his own. “I have the same one.”

He passed it to Zhenzhen who was listening quietly on the side and ordered, “You can follow Xu Yue today and try to claim the same Quest as her. This way you can finish it together.”

“You are not coming with us?” Zhenzhen asked back unhappily but cheered up with a pat on her head.

“I already claimed my Quest in the Earth Land but you can call me anytime you need me,” Liu Ye assured. “Especially if you are bothered by those Black Coffins. I will drop everything and save you.”

Xu Yue peeked at his storage window and her eyes widened at the number of items stored. “How did you get so many of them?”

“You know how,” Liu Ye replied with a shrug as he got up. “I actually had a whole inventory of Player Bags and only just opened them. I don’t think we will lack potions for now.”

Liu Ye only skimmed through all the items and he actually found ten main Quest items among the pile of Potions and Monster ingredients. They were similar to his own Mazamut’s Ring and required him to visit famous crafters across the Mainland. Even though he had one more ring slot available, he didn’t plan on wearing a stolen item.

His whole inventory was filled with potion stacks so Liu Ye sent them both a few before they finally parted ways.

“Look! It’s Grind God!”

He was momentarily recognized as soon as he left the Teleportation Station but this time no one was brave enough to simply approach and stop him to chat. They didn’t have time to check the forum yesterday but Liu Ye was sure it was another storm after so many players died.

Huh?

[Captain Ra – Lvl. 95]

[Royal Guard – Lvl. 70]

Just as Liu Ye reached his destination, he noticed a suspicious number of green uniform guards standing in front of Mazamut’s store. The middle-aged owner was standing at the front and talking with Capitan.

“Young man! We have been waiting for you all morning!” Mazamut scolded him as soon as he saw him. “Let’s go. Those gentlemen will escort us to the palace. We cannot be late for the meeting with the Queen.”

The Royal Guards were much more polite as they nodded at him in greeting while the Captain even introduced himself. “I’m Ra, the Captain of Royal Guard. Thank you for cooperating with us. Our Queen doesn’t belong to patient women so let’s talk on the way.”

“Sure,” Liu Ye nodded as he followed them. “Are you already aware of what happened?”

“That’s right. Mazamut informed me yesterday and I set up a meeting with the Queen for you,” Ra replied calmly as he brushed his long black hair. “This matter involves the safety of our country so the Queen will oversee this case.”

Thankfully, they didn’t need to walk all the way to the Palace on foot and instead used a special stone cart attached to a set of bridges. The guards used their Earthbending and pushed the cart on the rails before they skimmed the city in a blink.

That was the first time Liu Ye saw the richest district where only grandmasters could enter and he held his breath as he watched the beautiful architecture. Even though the lower districts weren’t stinky, the difference was colossal. One could actually smell the aroma from the Royal gardens no matter where they went.

“Are there any customs I need to follow while meeting the Queen?” Liu Ye asked as they stopped in front of a massive door after walking through the whole Palace. “I don’t want to offend her.”

One only needed to be good at persuasion and smooth-talking to get a Quest. He was good at talking but it was always better to be safe than sorry.

“Don’t worry, our Queen doesn’t really follow old traditions,” Ra assured as knocked on the door. “Just answer her questions honestly and you will be good.”

Liu Ye raised his eyebrows curiously when the door opened and he heard a sweet voice.

“You can come inside without knocking. I am not naked this time.”