Chapter 166: Six hours of privilege

The ranking board above the Lava Sea did not change again.

Ethan remained in first place, while Laira and Ruo Yan occupied the two positions behind him. As for the nonhumans who had just spent a large amount of Rank B Energy Crystals to buy points, they could only remain outside the top three and stare at those three names with extremely ugly expressions.

When the countdown finally reached zero, the Lava Sea, which had always been surging, gradually became calm.

The surrounding pillars of fire shrank one after another, and then the dark red sky suddenly lit up with an enormous notification.

[First Challenge Round: Lava Sea has ended.]

[Ranking rewards are being distributed.]

[Rank 1: Ethan Ashford. Privilege to enter the second challenge round six hours early.]

[Rank 2: Laira. Privilege to enter the second challenge round three hours early.]

[Rank 3: Ruo Yan. Privilege to enter the second challenge round one hour early.]

[All remaining participants will be allowed to enter the second challenge round after six hours.]

The moment the notification appeared, the atmosphere on the stone island immediately became heavy.

The nonhumans who had still been trying to comfort themselves that they had at least exchanged enough points to continue deeper into the ruins suddenly realized that the gap between themselves and Ethan was not limited to the ranking board.

Six hours inside an ancient ruin could mean six hours of searching for resources.

Six hours of obtaining rewards.

It could also be six hours, more than enough time to claim every Fortuitous Encounter before anyone else even had the chance to see them.

The horned nonhuman was the first to lose patience.

He quickly walked up to Ethan, followed by several Dark Elves, Beastkin, and Harpies who had traded with him not long ago.

Although they did not dare attack first while the rules of the Lava Sea had not completely disappeared, their eyes were filled with resentment, as though one wrong sentence from Ethan would cause them to tear him apart with their gazes.

"You deliberately tricked us."

The horned nonhuman clenched his fists, his voice hoarse with anger.

"You knew you would split the points with those two in the end, yet you still sold points to us."

Ethan did not answer immediately.

He stood at the edge of the Lava Sea and looked at the blazing red surface, which was no longer nearly as turbulent.

The Eye of Truth swept through layer after layer of lava, passed through the remaining schools of ordinary fish and the molten stone trenches at the bottom of the sea, but found no more rare creatures that could interest him.

The Undead Mage had already been thrown very deep by Laira, and Mumu had continuously provided buffs, yet during the final stretch they still had not managed to catch another special target.

That could only prove that rare fish in this place were already extremely scarce.

As for the chance of obtaining another Fragment of the Lava Emperor’s Heart from inside a fish, it was so low that it could hardly be relied upon.

Ethan let out a soft breath.

He was not particularly disappointed.

He simply felt that if he wanted to collect the remaining heart fragments, continuing to rely on luck within such a vast region filled with fire-element energy was clearly not the best method.

The Lava Emperor had once been a retainer of the Primordial God, but even his lingering will could not locate his own heart among countless similar sources of fire-element energy.

Ethan possessed the Eye of Truth and Decomposition, but those two abilities could only work once the item was already in front of him.

If the heart fragment did not actively appear inside a creature or within another Fortuitous Encounter, he could not exactly turn the entire world upside down searching for it.

’This can only depend on luck or fate.’

Ethan thought to himself before finally turning toward the nonhumans surrounding him.

Seeing Ethan remain silent for so long, the horned nonhuman became even more convinced that he felt guilty.

He stepped forward again, raising his voice.

"You have to return our crystals. Without you, we could at least have kept those resources in our own hands."

Laira, who was sitting on a nearby rock, immediately frowned.

She was just about to stand up when Mumu on her shoulder also turned toward the group, its round golden eyes slowly narrowing.

However, Ethan merely raised one hand, signaling that the two of them did not need to interfere.

Then he looked directly at the horned nonhuman and smiled.

"Where exactly did I deceive you?"

His tone was extremely calm.

"The sign was right here. The price was publicly stated by me. One Rank B Energy Crystal for one point. You voluntarily brought the crystals, and I voluntarily sold you fishing points."

"Throughout the entire transaction, I never once said I would guarantee you second or third place."

The horned nonhuman choked.

He wanted to argue, but Ethan was completely right.

Before the transactions began, Ethan had only said that they needed points to continue deeper into the ruins.

He had also said that the Fortuitous Encounters in later layers would not wait for those who were eliminated.

He had never promised them a top-three position, nor had he ever said that he would not distribute points to Laira and Ruo Yan.

"But you knew what we wanted," a Harpy said through gritted teeth. "You knew we were buying points because we wanted the privilege of entering the next round early."

"I knew you wanted to enter the next round," Ethan replied. "Wanting to reach the top three is your problem. I sold fish, not promises."

The answer made the expressions of the nonhumans even uglier.

They could accuse Ethan of being greedy.

They could say he had deliberately taken advantage of the situation.

But they could not deny that the transaction had been voluntary from both sides.

If they truly had not wanted to trade, they could have gone back to using Crabfolk meat as bait.

It was simply that in the end, none of them had dared gamble with their own chances.

Now the crystals were already in Ethan’s hands and the points had already been exchanged.

Wanting their resources back merely because they had failed to obtain the positions they desired was an argument even they knew could not stand.

The horned nonhuman ground his teeth so hard that the skin around his jaw trembled.

He secretly glanced at the remaining lines of rules in the sky, the killing intent in his eyes nearly spilling out, but in the end he still forced himself to step back.

The rules of the Lava Sea were about to close, but the teleportation gate had not fully opened yet.

If he attacked now, he could still be punished by the challenge and lose his qualification to enter the next layer altogether.

Ethan did not care what they were thinking.

He bent down, picked up the small crystal Mumu had accidentally dropped earlier, tossed it into his storage space, then looked toward the teleportation gate that had just appeared above the surface of the Lava Sea.

The gate was not large, only a little over three meters tall.

Inside was a red-black vortex that continuously rotated.

Unlike previous teleportation gates, a faint line of text floated outside it.

[The recipient of the Rank 1 privilege may enter.]

[Partner units and summoned entities recognized by the System may accompany the privilege recipient. Waiting rules do not apply to these units.]

Ruo Yan looked at the notification with some surprise.

She had been preparing to wait until her third-place privilege activated, but when the Soul Threads at her fingertips trembled, the System automatically identified the Undead Mage as a summoned entity accompanying Ethan’s team.

Laira was also marked through the Partner interface.

As for Mumu, at some point it had already climbed onto Ethan’s shoulder, hugging a Rank B Energy Crystal of unknown origin with its two short arms.

"So we can leave now?" Laira stood up, her silver hair gently moving in the final hot wind blowing from the Lava Sea.

"Let’s go."

Ethan nodded.

"There is nothing left here worth waiting for."

Ruo Yan pulled the Undead Mage along behind them.

The instant the puppet heard that it could finally leave the Lava Sea, the blue flames inside its eye sockets immediately brightened considerably.

Ethan had no idea whether it truly possessed consciousness or whether it was merely a random reaction from its deathly energy, but looking at it, he still felt that if the Undead Mage could speak, the first thing it would say would definitely be thanks to the teleportation gate.

They stepped into the red-black vortex one after another.

The nonhumans behind them could only stand there and watch Ethan, Laira, Ruo Yan, Mumu, and the Undead Mage disappear from the Lava Sea.

Only after the final figure vanished did the horned nonhuman finally lose control and punch a nearby rock.

The rock did not break.

Instead, a bloody crack split open across his hand.

Several nonhumans beside him watched the scene with expressions that looked ugly to the extreme.

But no one dared say anything else.