"So strong. It's on a completely different dimensional level."
Could a warrior's sword really achieve this level of power? Mia couldn't believe it. Not even Claire's magic could reach such destructive force.
"What a show-off," Claire said, maintaining his stance with his staff. "Just who exactly did he learn that childish pose from?"
*Was it too childish? I'll just do a JoJo pose instead.*
It was hard to reconcile the man standing before them with the warrior who had just cleaved a dragon in half with a single strike. He was absurdly strong, yet sometimes he acted just like a kid.
With zero casualties, the caravan quickly returned to normal, though their merchandise now included an entire dragon corpse.
The way people looked at Zenith gradually became tinged with awe. Inside the carriage, Claire absentmindedly pulled out his game console, but after turning it on, he found it completely dull.
Zenith's sword strike flashed through their minds over and over again.
"How can I become as strong as you?"
Mia's knuckles turned faintly white as she gripped her sword hilt. If it hadn't been for Zenith, they would probably be dead by now, and this merchant caravan would have become the Shadow Dragon's spoils.
"Me? I guess I just have good luck."
Zenith looked at his thoughtful teammates. If he hadn't accidentally acquired the Minecraft world, he would still be an ordinary office worker, living a mundane nine-to-six life.
Zenith took out his frequently used enchanted Netherite Sword and handed it to Mia hilt-first. "I promised you guys earlier. This is a parting gift before I leave."
"Claire gets one too, of course. This is a staff inscribed with Explosion Magic; just channel mana into it to activate it. But I believe you'll be able to analyze it and learn the spell yourself eventually, Claire."
"Tolkien, I really don't have anything that would be useful for a priest, so I'll just give you a Gold Ingot. This way, the party won't have to scramble for money anymore."
The air fell silent. After a long moment, Claire reached out a trembling hand and touched the Gold Ingot. It was real gold. Pure gold. *What does he mean 'because of luck'? It's purely because he's filthy rich!*
"Are you leaving?" Mia suddenly asked, staring at the enchanted halo glowing on the sword.
He was leaving. It made sense. For a warrior of Zenith's caliber, staying with a third-rate party like theirs was a massive waste of talent. He belonged on a much grander stage.
"Yeah. When we reach the next town, I'll prepare some enchanted armor for you all, and then we'll part ways until fate brings us together again."
The caravan owner came over to express his gratitude, and during their conversation, he mentioned encountering a white-haired elf mage in the past. Obviously, that was Frieren.
People are bound to meet and part ways. The friends you say goodbye to today will always bring you surprises the next time you cross paths.
Zenith didn't know it yet, but the next time they met, this little party would be the world-renowned Dragon Slaying Adventure Party.
Mia, the great warrior famous for her ultimate technique "Dragon Slaying Flash"; Claire, the one-hit mage specializing in Explosion Magic; and Tolkien, the divine priest who carried an entire choir with him to cast ritual magic at a moment's notice.
But that would be some thirty years in the future. Right now, Zenith was heading south based on the caravan owner's intel, searching for a nameless forest.
It was too hard to find. This undeveloped world was covered in forests; trying to find the specific one hiding an elf was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
*Time to change tactics. If I can't find you, I'll just make you come find me. Frieren shouldn't be too far from here anyway.*
She would eventually need to leave the forest to buy daily supplies. When she did, she would hear the local rumors and learn about a powerful warrior possessing an indecipherable magic grimoire.
Zenith opened a magic item shop and stocked it with all sorts of bizarre goods.
Vanilla Minecraft potions, scrolls from the Wizardry mod, mana flowers from the newly unlocked Botania mod, and magical amulets and brooches from the Baubles mod.
Waiting was too difficult. An elf's concept of time was vastly different from a human's. After staying in the shop for a week, he fled back to the main world, planning to study his newly unlocked mods first.
As for watching the shop, he'd just let the SPW Foundation staff handle it. He opened a portal inside the shop so they could notify him immediately if a customer resembling Frieren showed up.
As for whether anyone would invade, Zenith was much less worried now. At the very least, he had confirmed that even entities on the level of Alaya couldn't so much as sense the portal, so there was basically no need to worry about such issues.
Botania, Blood Magic, Enigmatic Legacy, and Sophisticated Backpacks.
Among these four newly unlocked mods, Zenith was most familiar with Sophisticated Backpacks. This mod provided upgradable backpacks, which could even be reinforced with Netherite at the highest tier.
A Netherite Backpack would not only give Zenith 120 extra inventory slots but also allow him to install 7 upgrade modules. These could increase the stack size of individual slots, smelt items on the go, enchant, automatically feed him to restore hunger, and so on.
In short, it was the kind of fantastic item that lowered the game's difficulty and massively improved convenience.
Botania and Blood Magic were also incredibly famous mods.
Botania was more like a tech mod disguised as a magic mod. The sheer variety of mana flowers and magical devices acted like industrial components, making one's scalp tingle just looking at them.
Blood Magic was relatively simpler, using blood as a source of power and referring to it as Life Essence.
The main benefit of these two mods for Zenith was expanding the breadth of his abilities, ensuring his methods were no longer so one-dimensional.
However, truly developing these two mods would require a lot of time and energy. In other words, Zenith's laziness was acting up; he kind of wanted to slack off on these complex mods that didn't offer an immediate, massive power spike.
"I'll start with the Enigmatic Legacy mod. It has the fewest items, and the crafting recipes are the simplest."
For Enigmatic Legacy, the core mechanic was choosing a progression route. You could choose to wear the Ring of Seven Curses, enduring seven eternal curses to gain the right to use immensely powerful items, or you could opt to equip relics with slightly weaker effects but no side effects.
*Only an idiot would choose the Seven Curses route.* Zenith browsed the JEI crafting recipes for a bit and quickly made his first move.
"The easiest combat power boost—here it is! Etherium Ore spawns in End City chests. Yours truly will be right back."
To be honest, after leaving the main world and especially after encountering various types of magic, the defensive and offensive capabilities of his Netherite armor were gradually starting to fall behind the meta.
In particular, its near-zero magic resistance was something Zenith found a bit hard to accept.
Exploring the map, smelting ores, crafting—the most primitive and simplest operations. Zenith loved this kind of simple, highly efficient mod. It was brimming with the beauty of raw stats.
He upgraded his armor to a fully enchanted Etherium armor set. Aside from having significantly higher stats than Netherite armor, the Etherium set provided magic resistance equal to its physical resistance. Furthermore, when his health dropped to 40%, it would generate a shield that knocked back all surrounding creatures and attacks.
For his weapon, he switched to a fully enchanted Etherium Broadsword. The blade was wreathed in a tempest, reflecting a pale blue-white light.
In the weapon's item description, there was the following line:
"Fast attack speed, high damage, and more importantly, it's way cooler than a Netherite Sword!"
The style points were off the charts. Being strong is temporary, but looking cool is forever. The Netherite armor was officially retired; Zenith's gear had entered the Etherium Era.
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