Versatile: Alternate World

So far, the enemies I meet are not that strong. I am not in my best condition to fight as my Versatile Weapon is still doing its amalgamation process so all of my stats are just relying on my own main stats, armor, weapons, and every single accessory that is attached to my body to increase my stats and compensate it for my low level. Leveling takes forever so if I wanted to get stronger, I have to either rely on my Versatile Weapon for the stats that only high-leveled players can possess, or rely on my instincts and be a better player of the game.

BANG!

One tree fell down the moment I swing my battle axe at a monster, killing it instantly. The tree that fell down also smacks a nearby monster, also killing it in the process so it was a double kill. The enemies are not that troublesome so killing them with just my stats is a bit easier but it is also not good timing at times since there are some cases when the monsters that appear are either a horde or too strong for me to handle without the Versatile Weapon. It is clear that without the Versatile Weapon, the Versatile Class is doomed to be forever a dead class that will never be able to progress. Might as well change classes instead.

I occasionally hear shouts, gunshots, and explosions behind me, meaning some players are also taking this route to reach the Highland Plateau. They were quite chaotic and were always doing more chaotic stuff that leads to the monsters charging to their location making it very annoying especially if you are in a big rush.

A few Buffalang appeared running towards me, running down all of the trees it charges into.

"Damn it. The monsters are getting crazy."

I had to go on another way to evade the Buffalang. Once it charges, there is no stopping it unless it hits on something hard to break and cannot be taken down. RIP whoever is following me. If they have not faced a Buffalang before, I won't be surprised if they die while they are still going through the trail. This is a natural culling, after all, limiting those who reach the Highland Plateau is a good strategy to select those who can participate. Those who successfully arrived without dying on the Highlands Plateau will be viewed as the strongest people.

A few more minutes passed by of killing monsters and traversing the trees blocking my way, I finally arrived on the next road to reach the Highland Plateau, the Deep River of Alynas. This is the second obstacle that will stop players in their tracks.

It is a river that is situated between two cliffs. The river is deep and it's not easy to traverse but I already passed here in the past timeline and I will do the same thing here. I jumped down to the river without hesitation and swim through the water. The danger here though is that the moment you jumped down, one of the monsters living in the Deep River of Alynas, the Devourer of Swimmers will appear and will try to drag you down.

There are two ways for you to avoid confronting this guy as this monster cannot be killed unless you dive deep and personally hunt it. First is to swim as fast as you can and reach the other side as soon as possible. It will only be viable if you are a good swimmer and if you belong to the latter, the only thing you can do is to prepare one single item.

Salt.

Yep, salt. We are not cooking but we will be using salt. I have salt in my inventory and although I am confident in swimming away from the Devourer of Swimmers, I don't want to expend too much stamina doing so instead, I will use the easier part.

Splashing into the water normally, I tried my best to get to the next side while waiting for the monster to appear. And like a scripted scene, my foot got dragged by a vine and I am submerged underwater. I didn't wait for the monster to keep on dragging me deep and pull out the salt and grab the vine that is taking me and put the tip of it into the bottle of salt that I quickly opened before the water came inside of it. Once the vine was in and the water also enters the bottle, the salt immediately got dissolved and it happened.

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

The Devourer of Swimmers screamed and the vine that is entangling me freed me due to the pain it was feeling and wriggled as it was feeling all the pain sinking through.

I didn't care what is happening to the f*cker and swam away as soon as I can and reached the next area. And with that, the second obstacle is now gone. The third one is easier but a bit more challenging and that is to climb the steep cliff. Thankfully, I am good at climbing in places like this and I am not afraid of heights so this is easy for me. Of course, it's different for those who have fear of heights, they have to find a way to get to the other side without scaling this cliff.

The climb took me around 10 minutes to scale which I thankfully completed. While climbing, I can hear the other players already considering how to scale the area and avoid the water entirely.  By the time I reached the next area, I hear splashes of water from behind me, meaning some of them have decided to jump off the water. Well, it's no problem of mine now, good luck against the Devourer of Swimmers, I have definitely angered it by putting salt on it.

My equipment is wet from the water and it's pretty cold so I have to change my equipment to my spare clothes and armor as it is very uncomfortable to fight with this cold equipment attached to my body. Even if I am in the game, being cold will be giving us a debuff if we get sick so it's better to avoid that to avoid getting weakened.

Thankfully, the next obstacles coming are all just a big joke. They don't even make me feel like they are obstacles at all. But still, it took me around 30 minutes to reach the Plateau. I felt tired after arriving there as that was very troublesome even for me. It was the right choice to save up my energy rather than spend it trying to swim so fast back into the river or else, I would have died immediately.

"[You have discovered the Highland Plateau]."

The view was great if you are coming here for the first time but if you have seen it multiple times, it loses its charm. That's why when I arrived at Highland Plateau right now, I wasn't feeling amazed by the view now. Of course, I am not the only one there. I see a few familiar faces from before. Some of them are part of the previous Expedition and also a pioneer. They arrived here so fast that I think they used the easy way to reach here and that is to use the flying mounts to reach here.

It would have been fine if they used their land mounts but the mounts that can fly seems very unfair to me as they can easily bypass all the challenges that are given just to reach the Highland Plateau in one go. As much as I wanted to at least complain, they have found their way here so I guess I have no call on that.

We waited for a while and a few more minutes later, the next players arrived and I was surprised since the three players who arrived are Sigma, Mr. Teddy, and Harmless Sparrow. It seems they came together here and since Sigma is with them, it was a lot easier to arrive at the plateau.

"You guys, congrats for reaching here," I welcomed the three of them.

"Did the selection start already, Bladeheart?" Harmless Sparrow asked.

"Not yet. We needed to wait till the allocated time ends before everything starts."

"I see. Sigma helped me reach here alongside Mr. Teddy. I managed to reach here much easier with their help."

"It's nothing. We are going to participate in this so we just needed to hope we get selected."

"Oh, you two, this was your first time in the recruitment phase right?" Harmless Sparrow looked at both Sigma and Mr. Teddy.

"Yes. Looks like you guys already knew the protocol already. I heard that you two are part of the pioneers, yes?" Sigma looked at us.

"Indeed. We have the badge of the Pioneers given to us. With this, we can be immediately recognized by Queen Titania as she was the one who handed-" before Harmless Sparrow can show the badge of the Pioneer to Sigma, a guy suddenly nabbed the badge away from Harmless Sparrow.

"Thanks! This is mine now!"