Terra Nova Online: Rise of The Strongest Player

Chapter 31: A kind heart

A kind heart

( Luke’s POV )

Unlike Leo, Luke’s beginner town was a coastal town which had a very special dungeon in its vicinity.

In Cervantez’s previous run, it was this dungeon which gave birth to SkyLion’s legend and just like in his past life, even this time around, SkyLion was the first entrant in the Panjim Town’s ‘Dungeon Of Waves’.

There was a simple reason behind why in the past as well as the present it was only Luke that managed to enter this dungeon and it had to do with Luke’s personality as an individual.

As he roamed the streets of Panjim trying to figure out how to earn money just like thousands of different players, he came across the beggars street where several old people, cripples and orphans begged for money to survive.

A normal player would have ignored their pain, avoiding them like they were the plaque or mistreating them for information, however, Luke was different.

Truly compassionate and level headed, he bought lots of food for the poor using his own money and gave everyone a loaf of bread so that they did not sleep hungry tonight.

Some players laughed at his foolishness as they tried to remind Luke that these beggars were NPC and not real while some others pestered him and asked if he was doing a quest to help the poor and what the rewards were?

When those people came to know that Luke was genuinely doing this out of good will they deemed him to be insane and moved along, however, while Luke never aimed for any rewards, when he passed the 100th beggar some bread, he met a hidden condition within the game and was issued a secret quest.

[ System Notification – You have fed 100 homeless people food with your own money and proved that you have a compassionate heart.

But to truly help these poor, you must make them independent and provide them with means to earn a consistent living and to do so, you must clear the hidden dungeon ‘ The Dungeon Of Waves’ in Panjim town.

The dungeon location has been added to your map, it can only be entered during low tide which will last for the next 2 hours ]

[ Quest Notification – Clear the hidden dungeon!

Time limit – None.

Rewards – ???? + ???? + ????

Failure Penalty – You won’t be able to alleviate thousands out of poverty ]

Luke was suddenly issued a hidden quest as his eyes widened in surprise watching the system screen in front of him.

He had not helped the poor because he wanted a hidden reward, instead, he had helped the poor because he could resonate with their pain.

While Leo was too young to remember the incident clearly, Luke remembered it as quite clearly as to when they had to leave their old mansion and move into the small apartment back on Earth after their father suddenly disappeared.

Their mother Elena was not always a housewives who had learnt all sorts of skills but rather an inexperienced noble who did not even understand the basics of cooking food herself.

Even then, when their family had lost everything, on the day that they shifted from the urban mansion to the back alleys, Elena donated some 50 dollars to the homeless, enough to buy a warm meal as she smiled at Luke and told him to always be kind regardless of their monetary circumstances.

It was an incident that left a deep impact on Luke and growing up whenever he had money he always made it a point to secretly sponsor a single meal to the poor and it was exactly what he was trying to do today.

He had no idea that his act of kindness would turn into a hidden quest but he was extremely happy that it did.

Although he had no idea what the quest clear rewards were or if he could even clear it alone, he headed towards the location on the system map which told him to venture deep into the sea shoreline towards a particular point in the ocean.

It took Luke about 30 minutes of fast walking to reach his destination and thankfully it was still low-tide so despite being quite far from the safe shore, he was able to find the hidden entrance to the dungeon which was a stone stairwell that suspiciously led one underground although it was constructed on a sea bed.

Naturally, as Luke walked just two steps into the stairwell, his feet felt wet as he stepped into sea water which was filled upto the brim in this dungeon.

[ System Notification – You have entered the hidden dungeon, ‘The dungeon of waves’ . Since you are the first adventurer to enter this dungeon, you can get a bonus reward if you clear the dungeon in your very first attempt ]

A system notification told Luke that he had entered the hidden dungeon and although Luke did not really want to explore an underwater dungeon, since this mission was for a noble cause and since because he was in a desperate need to improve his evaluation to escape sector E, Luke took a deep breath and dived into the salty seawater and swam downwards into the dungeon.

As Luke barely swam two strokes, he realized that there was a guard railing on the side of the dungeon walls and although it looked like the stairwell was leading downwards, it seemed to have a dramatic U-turn after going down about 10 steps which led to a hidden chamber on the other side, accessible if one just used the railing to go down and then through the partition to the other side.

*GASP*

Luke gasped for air as he crossed the hidden partition and swam upwards to catch a breath of air and much to his joy, the hidden dungeon was not actually an underwater dungeon as after entering and swimming through the entrance compartment, one came out the other side on dry land as apparently this dungeon used the principles of air pressure to create a dry air pocket in the middle of the ocean.