Chapter 54: The Guardian's Mark

"Pumpkin Dream Spirit?"

Qin Yuan chewed on the words just brought by the Eye of Revelation.

The amount of information was quite substantial.

Judging by the sound of it, the space he was currently in used to be called the Pumpkin Dreamscape, and it was tied to the soul spirits—an entity that had appeared multiple times before.

In fact, regarding why this "game" called the Land of Soul Spirits had emerged, Qin Yuan and the Whispering Grimoire could say with absolute certainty that it was closely related to that soul spirit.

It was even very likely the ultimate mastermind behind everything...

Recovering from his gradually scattering thoughts, he finally began to observe the items on the shelf in front of him.

Currently, there were a total of three items displayed on the carriage.

[Hunter's Mark (Twisted Forest Dreamscape Exclusive Item): An item sold by the carriage merchant. This item will intermittently mark other surrounding players and reveal their locations. While holding this item, the damage you deal to players is increased by 20% and the damage you take is reduced by 20%. Killing a player allows you to obtain all the pumpkin candlelight and pumpkin essence they carry. As a price, upon death, you will similarly drop all your pumpkin candlelight and essence. This item cannot be possessed simultaneously with the "Guardian's Mark", and once chosen, it cannot be changed again (Untradeable).]

[Price: 1 Pumpkin Coin.]

......

[Guardian's Mark (Twisted Forest Dreamscape Exclusive Item): An item sold by the carriage merchant. This item will intermittently mark other surrounding players who hold the "Hunter's Mark" and reveal their locations. When eight consecutive hunts are successful and the holder has not died even once, a special reward will be unlocked. This item cannot be possessed simultaneously with the "Hunter's Mark", and once chosen, it cannot be changed again (Untradeable).]

[Price: 1 Pumpkin Coin.]

......

[Resurrection Coin (Twisted Forest Dreamscape Exclusive Item): A consumable sold by the carriage merchant. Dying in the Twisted Forest will not end your journey immediately; you can use this item to instantly respawn at the starting point of the current dreamscape without consuming a resurrection count. The item disappears upon use, and you will still drop items such as pumpkin candlelight upon death. With each purchase, you will receive a piece of intelligence determined by the pumpkin merchant's mood (Untradeable).]

[Price: 1 Pumpkin Coin.]

Qin Yuan had a total of three pumpkin coins.

As for the first item, the Hunter's Mark, Qin Yuan had already witnessed its related functions from that player earlier.

He had to admit that this was indeed a means to accelerate the collection speed of pumpkin candlelight.

Besides that, there was another item called the Guardian's Mark, which apparently seemed designed specifically to hunt down those who held the Hunter's Mark.

He had enough money on him, but he could only choose one of the two items; they could not be possessed simultaneously.

After a brief consideration, Qin Yuan leaned more towards choosing the Guardian's Mark.

Mainly out of curiosity regarding the reward after successfully completing eight consecutive kills.

After all, he actually still had a lot of confidence in his own strength.

The reason it had been so thrilling earlier was entirely because he had been ambushed and taken advantage of by someone prepared.

And even so, having fallen into a natural class disadvantage zone, he had still managed to successfully counter-kill in the end.

With the remaining two pumpkin coins, Qin Yuan chose to buy two Resurrection Coins.

After all, there was nothing else left to buy.

Qin Yuan handed over all three pumpkin coins in his pocket.

"I'd like to buy the Guardian's Mark and two Resurrection Coins."

The Pumpkin Spirit did not reach out to take them.

A gust of wind blew past, and the pumpkin coins in Qin Yuan's hand simply vanished.

The Guardian's Mark and the two Resurrection Coins appeared in his palm.

Then, the emotionless voice of the Pumpkin Spirit reached him.

"When the Twisted Dreamscape enters the second round, aside from the monsters' strength being enhanced, the biggest change is that all entering players are categorized according to their average levels. This is the first zone, which is the highest-level region, randomly assigned and composed of the top 1% of players. Because there are too many players, there are ten first zones, and this is just one of them, with no mutual connection between them."

"When the Twisted Dreamscape enters the fifth round, the 'Reaper' will appear."

"The above is the intelligence provided this time."

After listening quietly, Qin Yuan nodded and still politely said:

"Alright, thank you."

As a result, he was completely ignored...

Feeling slightly speechless at having brought this on himself, Qin Yuan headed off in another direction.

On the way, he fiddled with the mark he had just acquired.

The structure of the Guardian's Mark was very simple, consisting merely of an ash-iron colored shield.

A prompt appeared in his mind.

[Searching for nearby players holding the "Hunter's Mark". This will take some time.]

There was still a little over an hour left before the end.

Qin Yuan was not in a rush; he farmed monsters while waiting.

[Prompt: You have obtained two points of pumpkin candlelight. Current total: one hundred and fifty points.]

About half an hour later, the mark reacted.

It began to vibrate violently, pointing vaguely in a certain direction.

"Has it come..."

Qin Yuan's gaze sharpened, and he immediately moved quickly toward the indicated location.

A few minutes later, he arrived at his destination.

A player was leaning weakly against a boulder, wiping a bloodstained dagger in his hand while vigilantly scanning his surroundings.

"It's you..."

Qin Yuan's appearance naturally caught the attention of that player.

"Brother, what's going on?"

Seeing another person approach, the player hurriedly squeezed out a friendly smile, put away the bloodstained dagger in his hand, and said with a beaming, cordial expression.

Seeing this, Qin Yuan could not help but roll his eyes.

On the way over just now, the feather in midair provided some information: just a few minutes ago, you ambushed and killed another player.

Who are you trying to fool now...

Therefore, he did not waste any more words and directly took out his staff.

Fiery red magic runes rapidly condensed.

Noticing Qin Yuan's actions, the player quickly realized that the newcomer meant harm.

He immediately stopped talking and once again drew his weapon, preparing to charge.

Suddenly, a fierce gust of wind came from behind.

"You... an ambush..."

His final sentence barely started before his head was severed from his body.

The feather that had circled around behind him delivered a single Soul Blade, instantly taking his life.

[You have killed an unknown player (LV4).]

[Detected that this player was a holder of the "Hunter's Mark".]

[Hunter's Mark (Twisted Forest Dreamscape Exclusive Item): An item sold by the carriage merchant...]

Heh, didn't expect that, did you?

Qin Yuan hurriedly put away the make-believe spell in his hands.

He had already discussed the specific action plan on the way: he would hide in the front to attract attention, and then let the feather hide in the back for a sneak attack.

The reason it worked so well this time was due to several factors.

The primary reason was that this player seemed to have used some kind of overexertion method to attack another player just moments ago, and his condition was not very good right now.

Secondly, his level was not high either.

[Prompt: You have obtained one hundred and twenty points of pumpkin candlelight. Current total: two hundred and seventy points.]

"Robbery really is a fast way to make money..."

Seeing this, Qin Yuan muttered to himself.

Pity that this player didn't have any pumpkin essence.

"Will things spiral into a vicious cycle like this, bullying all the honest people away until everyone is just hunting players, resulting in not being able to get a single point of pumpkin candlelight..."

After thinking about it, he figured that situation shouldn't happen.

After all, the mark required time to lock on, and during that period you couldn't possibly do nothing.

Even if your level wasn't high, you could still specifically hunt those low-level creatures and harvest at least some pumpkin candlelight; mosquito meat was meat after all.

For the next hour, the Guardian's Mark continuously indicated that it was searching for other players.

This matched Qin Yuan's initial thought.

The reason this item had a cooldown was precisely to avoid a scenario where players stopped farming monsters altogether to a certain extent.

"It's over..."

Feeling the countdown drawing to a close, Qin Yuan relaxed his long-tensed nerves.

The harvest this time was quite good.

The total number of pumpkin candlelight reached two hundred and eighty-seven, and the essence reached seven.

It could be considered the completion of his established goal.

[Returning...]

Inside the tavern, Qin Yuan opened his eyes.

He quickly looked at the injury on his left shoulder.

To his discovery, the pierced wound had completely healed, without even leaving a scar.

"That so-called twisted dreamscape is quite special. Whatever is used inside is gone, but the injuries sustained within will directly recover once you come out."

Qin Yuan judged.

Otherwise, even with his health potions, he couldn't have healed this fast.

The current time was one in the morning, but he had already fed the Nightmare Slime earlier today.

So he simply went straight to bed to rest.

Tomorrow, upon waking up, he would return to reality right on schedule.

At that time, he could have a proper rest and readjustment.