19 Strange

This location could be reached by going in the opposite direction of the Rudis Forest. Slightly farther than the exit gates of Ulya.

Ulya had three branches from its exit gates. The road to Rudis, Yale, and Valda. The road to Valda was considerably longer than the other two.

The reason he aimed for this place was because Cecily recommended him to train his magic powers.

This place came to mind as he thought of things to do to fill his waiting time, reminding Elgin of a well known discovery he had heard before.

Information seemed to travel faster than light itself when it came to hot stories.

Even though Elgin never left his home, he was able to hear the story of the Yale Lake and its magical properties.

A seemingly ordinary place that would later be famous for being a wondrous place for beginner to intermediate magic users to frequently visit. Having properties that boosted one's training.

The perfect place to train one's magic capabilities for the current Elgin, who planned to stay around Ulya for a while longer.

_____

"...So, yeah. We'll just go there. Unless you have other places to recommend?" Elgin made sure to consult Cecily, not wanting to miss out on better advices.

[The Yale Lake, hmm...?] Cecily thought.

She knew the connotation behind it, what Elgin tried to do, and the cause of it's special qualities in the first place. A thought flashed through her mind. A possible golden chance for Elgin to prove himself even further.

"Why? Is there something about it that bothers you?"

The more Cecily went silent, the worse he felt. Could it be, his decision was not as great as he thought it would be?

[Rather than being a bother, I'd say that.. You might encounter an unexpected surprise over there. Or you might pass through without triggering anything out of your expectations.]

"What's with that secretive kind of tone?"

It wasn't like her. Cecily was very open towards him except for some really unspeakable stuff.

He had once asked about the Goddess' matters, and the small faerie seemed to be prohibited from discussing that with her.

He shrugged it off as him still being far from a dependable agent, and continued forth.

What was in Yale that made Cecily act like that, though?

Yale wasn't originally a spot known for training.

It was a normal lake that people rested around when they entered the forest around it.

[Nothing. You should check it out yourself. If the surprise really pops out, then I'll help you out. Maybe.]

Cecily decided to play a little game with herself.

A game of luck and chance.

Such a game wouldn't be fun if the main participant got to know the surprise before it actually happened.

She wondered how this young man will entertain her this time around.

Elgin absent-mindedly stared at the faerie, who was chuckling in delight.

He tried to rack his brains up for any details he might've missed in the past regarding Yale.

As far as he was concerned, after Yale's helpful discovery, the craze didn't last for very long.

It still got forgotten by the Players as they carried on to the higher levels. The lake no longer gave them substantial benefits, and they couldn't linger around the earlier areas forever.

There were many other locations that were known to be quite normal up until the Players travelled the world and encountered these places. Opened up the mystical effects they contained.

Come to think of it, that in itself was weird.

How come none of the original residents could find these things by themselves? As if they were purposely prepared to only get triggered after the Players came into the world..

But if that was the case, then the world needed to be designed to accommodate the Players from the beginning.

That didn't seem likely.

The entire reason he was here was because the world got thrown into disarray, and someone needed to fix it. Put things into place and prevent huge disasters.

Elgin knew that something wasn't right but couldn't narrow down what it was.

There must be another reason why that kept happening.

As Elgin was thought about that, Cecily interrupted his train of thoughts and spoke.

[Hmm, I will just give you a hint! There is a treasure inside Yale. One that.. can't be seen, but can be felt. I want to see how you fare against this, so I won't tell you anything more than that!]

Elgin bore her words in mind, but didn't place much importance in them for the time being.

His current priority was to unlock the Yale Lake's magical properties.

There was one major reason on why Yale could give out so much aid to one's magical constitution.

It was because of the numerous magical crystals buried under the bottom of the lake.

The Yale Lake was a relatively known body of water to have existed for thousands of years before the timeline of each reset occurred.

The magical crystals below the lake weren't particularly strong or special. Thus, the properties that Yale carried weren't at all legendary compared to the later 'sanctuaries', which were essentially holy sites where mana gathered and clumped up together.

Yale was a great option for beginners to speed their growth.

Again, beginners!

By the time this secret was discovered, most Players have already moved up the ranks and left Ulya.

In the past, the one who found the secret were usually people who lagged behind the rest of the group.

They were either incapable of keeping up with the others, or took it really slowly and explored every single inch of the world in detail.

Through some stroke of luck, they would then figure out the secret behind Yale.

Elgin reached the entrance of the forest and walked in, tracing the path until he arrived right at the lake.

His next training spot, the Yale Lake.