C20 First Stage of the Mysterious Realm

"Look, a stone tablet!" Matthew exclaimed as he spotted a towering stone tablet in the distance. He pointed it out, and everyone turned to look. Indeed, there stood a stone tablet.

Upon closer inspection, they saw three large words etched at the top: Leaderboard. Yet, the space beneath remained blank.

Curious, Matthew reached out to touch the stone tablet, and as his fingers grazed the surface, his consciousness blurred. When he came to, he found himself possibly atop one of the nine stars.

The sky above was a deep black, and the ground was uneven with pits and craters. At his feet lay a smaller stone tablet inscribed with the words "First Stage."

Soon after, Tina and the rest arrived. They surveyed the area with caution, noting that all team members were present.

The man of silence and two others remained quiet, their gazes fixed on Tina, seemingly awaiting her command. After a brief moment of thought, Tina instructed, "This appears to be a place of trial, yet there are no clues. In that case, Scott, you lead the way, Matthew in the middle, Derwin and I will flank the sides, and Wendy will cover our rear."

With that, Tina produced a card and summoned Matthew, "This place drains the energy of Heroes, so let's not summon any more."

They then proceeded towards the heart of the colossal star. The journey was eerily quiet, which unsettled Matthew. The dim lighting of the test area only heightened his sense of foreboding.

But soon enough, his fears materialized. A series of floating red dots emerged ahead.

"Halt, everyone on guard," commanded the man of silence, readying his bow and arrow. Matthew wielded his Red Flame Battleaxe, and the burly man brandished a fierce-looking wrist guard. The tall, slender man stood still, while Tina drew a pair of sleek daggers. As they braced themselves, the red dots drew nearer.

They were eyes—puppet eyes. These towering puppets were like murderous machines crafted for slaughter. Each had jagged sawtooths in place of hands, and their bodies were sheathed in needle-like armor. Upon closer inspection, the blades bore dried bloodstains.

The sight of dozens of puppets startled Matthew. Was this their trial? It felt more like an attempt on their lives!

Yet Tina seemed unfazed, her composure offering Matthew a sliver of comfort.

"Wenwen," Tina called out, and in an instant, a blinding blue streak shot past—it was the man of silence's arrow! But with so many adversaries, could arrows really make a difference? Matthew was skeptical.

His doubts soon dissipated as he witnessed the effectiveness of Tina's strategy. The arrow might not have taken down many puppets, but it threw them into disarray. Seizing the opportunity, Tina led the group swiftly towards an area with fewer puppets.

The burly man's gloves appeared to be protective gear, unscathed despite the onslaught. The man of silence provided cover with his arrows, while the lean man astonishingly fended off the puppet attacks with his bare hands, straining but impressively resilient. Tina moved with a spectral grace, her twin daggers slicing through the puppets as if they were the world's sharpest blades.

The team's apparent ease bolstered Matthew's confidence. Gripping his massive axe, he cleaved a puppet in two with a single swing, surprised by the lack of resistance.

But complacency proved dangerous. A momentary lapse allowed a puppet to slice a deep gash across his body, instantly snapping Matthew back to high alert. These puppets had abandoned all pretense of defense, designed solely for relentless assault. Unclaimed and uncontrolled, they were formidable enough, but in the hands of a master, their potential for destruction was unimaginable. Their lackluster defense was no match for the team's arsenal of top-tier card weapons, rare enough to rival orange cards in value.

As they pressed on, the puppet ranks thinned until they reached what seemed to be the rear guard.

"Move out, don't get bogged down in battle," Tina instructed.

They hastened forward, and Matthew glanced back to see the exit they'd used now swarmed by puppets. The thought of what could have happened had the puppets been under someone's command sent a shiver down his spine. Who had crafted these creatures, and for what purpose? As they dispatched the puppets, badges dropped to the ground. Matthew examined the badges in his hand—everyone had gathered a few, yet their purpose remained a mystery.

Upon emerging, the group kept their weapons drawn, remaining vigilant. The inexplicable encounter with a horde of puppets had clued them in that this place wasn't going to be a walk in the park.

They continued on without facing any further dangers akin to the puppets and reached the center in silence. There, Matthew found a glowing circle, which upon touching, revealed itself to be an exchange board.

Orange Hero Card: Randomly 10 Badges / 1

Purple Hero Card: Randomly 5 Badges / 1

Blue Hero Card: Randomly 1 Badge / 1

Below, there were numerous weapon and treasure cards, though they required a hefty number of badges to claim. The fine print at the bottom indicated that defeating mechanical puppets, dimensional beings, and roaming specters could yield badges, with the drop rate increasing at higher levels.

A few sentences in, and Matthew had grasped the lay of the land. The mechanical puppets they'd encountered were likely uncontrolled due to the absence of Starfall Sanctuary's master, and their large numbers suggested they had been amassing over a great deal of time.

Beside the circle of light was a structure resembling a teleportation circle, presumably leading to the second challenge.

The consensus was to backtrack and hunt the puppets for badges. They had already collected four badges in a short span, a testament to the astonishing drop rate. The puppets' assembly, while posing a greater challenge, also made them easier to locate and, lacking any intelligence, they were certainly not impossible to hunt. The second level could wait; after all, it could hold untold dangers.

It didn't take long to relocate the puppets. This time, Matthew didn't find their mechanical faces and limbs frightening. On the contrary, he found them endearing, as each one was a potential badge, a symbol of the adorable Angela, the valiant Tyler, and the stunning Pleione.

Now, they needed a strategy to dispatch the puppets. With such a large group clustered together, they had to tread carefully. The first step was to divide and conquer.