For a Legendary Diamond Rank Ring

When you enter the real world, right after finishing in Cosmic Order, sometimes you aren't used to your body. It's kind of like turning an engine on a new car or waking up in a different dimension. The

Alchemist, however, had gotten used to it. He was now down on one of the drifts. It was his first time setting foot on one in sixty years.

The drifts were these places owned by either the Pacific, or Atlantic company. And they were sort of like a cut off piece of a sunken continent. For example, a lot of the east coast had sunk, but the helm of the one he passed had the Statue of Liberty on it. There was a lot of other drifts like that: there was one with the Eiffel Tower and one with the pentagon and one with the Washington monument. These were all repurposed when the continents split. The Alchemist was looking for one with a small statue from the Metropolitan. It was where Tao Lin grew up.

Now, The Alchemists real name was Robert Lee. He was one of those half-and-half babies that popped up everywhere in the 21st and 22nd centuries. Actually, at least half of the world was mixed in some way. One of the reasons it was so hard to find the 300 cultivators for the pods was because of all the mixing. Regardless, he finally found the statue he was looking for. But when he landed, no one was there for some reason. He had no idea that they thought he was a missile, or a wasp. Since he couldn't find anyone, he walked over towards a restaurant and went inside. Apparently, Tao Lin's mom was supposed to work there.

"Who are you?" A meek voice asked.

"Hungry."

"Well, you're going to have to eat somewhere else. We're closed today."

The Alchemist squinted his eyes. "Are you Tao's mom?"

"You know Tao Lin!"

"Give me a tomato, and some good food please." The Alchemist loved tomatoes.

…

Tao Lin brandished the tiger crane spear into one of the beast's eyes. Next, he spun out three little fire frisbees that split the monsters running away into three slices. It looked like porkchops were sliced from a pig. The monster rolled over in the snow as some of its red 'jelly' poured out onto the snow-white ground.

"Intruder! Intruder!" A little mouse monster yelled with a high-pitched voice.

Tao scratched his head and tried to find out where that noise was coming from. "Is someone in here?" He couldn't see where the mouse was, and it sounded like someone was plucking a viola. It barely even reached his ears, and he imagined the rest of the pack didn't hear it.

"Now, you've insulted me!" The little pipsqueak was very fast, and his face bar shot up.

"You've insulted the great pipsquak's honor. You're face bar will go up one hundred points."

Tao Lin stared at the side of his vision, and noticed he was only fifty points from calling over the boss, 110/160. However, that wasn't his only problem. The little mouse was going berserk, sort of like a pesky rodent, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't kill the monster quietly.

"I'm not something you can just step on, jerk!" The mouse Tao would later name mighty mouse shot at him. His little paw met Tao's fist, and one of them ricocheted right against the cold glass ice on the wall.

"It's not over, you hear me human!" The mouse wiggled his little body trying to get out of the hole in the wall.

"Well, at least finally you can't move." Tao Lin fired a ball of fire right at him.

"You've acquired the ring, quiet's speed ring."

Quiet's Speed Ring

Rank: Sapphire

Usefulness: It boosts your speed by a hair.

Perks: It's kind of nice looking.

Comments: You killed a mouse to get this. Aren't you ashamed!

Tao put on the ring. As far as he was concerned, the quicker he could get to the boss the better.

Alas, the system wasn't so kind. Of course, the dungeon would have obstacles along the way. But not only that, there would be a surprise spawning right in the middle of him and another set of monsters. Tao popped a few pills into his mouth, and his body started suffusing red light.

….

Diana Hong walked forward into the room and noticed a crown with a lady on top of it. She had run into one of the queens of the shadow realm, and she hadn't bowed.

"I'm sorry, I'm not from these parts," Diana Hong said, "Please Ginger, tell her that I didn't mean it."

"Well, the giants did it. Why, you can't figure out something so simple. I don't believe you," Ginger said.

The Queen floated down as her shadow slowly and slowly shrunk. Oddly, she had her throne all the way up by a window to extend her shadow. So, basically, when the sun hit her the shadow would spread to the entire space. However, she was quite a tiny girl. And when she finally appeared in front of Diana she was only standing at about 5 feet tall.

"Hmm, should I forgive her Ginger. It really is her first time here."

"Hmph, she insulted us mom. We were going to give her a gift too. Maybe we shouldn't give it to her anymore."

The Queen walked over to Diana and leaned in. "Let me look into your pretty eyes, dear. Let's see if you have it."

….

Back with Tao's mom and The Alchemist at the Cafe.

The Alchemist sat down at a table with Tao's mom. She was just as Tao described, but also as stubborn. And he wasn't sure if he should go through with his plan of dragging her into the pod.

Frankly, he had only gotten two new cultivators in four months. If he didn't get his mom to try it, he would feel defeated. But she was staring at him, and just served him a delicious sandwich. She even complemented his unkempt red hair, praised him for being in his 60's, and introduced him to the entire community. If that wasn't bad enough, let's not forget the kids he wanted to test were baking food for him in the kitchen. Well, there was also the picture of Tao on the wall smiling. The scales were slowly shifting, but he would feel bad about what he did.

….

Ginger stared at her mom with her mouth agape.

"She has it, oh dear I don't believe it! We must give her the treasure."

Ginger crossed her arms. "Well, if you're going to give it to her. At least give her the test."

"Diana," the queen said, "I have a Legendary Diamond ring for you if you pass the challenge. Would you like to accept?"

"What ring are you talking about?"

"Well, let's just say if you wear it you'll be overpowered." Ginger sighed. "If momma likes you, then I like you again."

"Well, fine I'll accept your challenge my Queen." Diana humbly bowed.

"Hmm, you catch on fast girl. Follow me to the portal will you."

Diana Hong didn't mind doing what she said. Nope, for a diamond ring she'd do just about anything. However, she wondered if anyone would ever give her another ring. And for some reason, what Ginger said about Tao kind of stayed in the back of her head. 'Well, mom and dad, I'll try for you guys', she thought. The portal was right up ahead.