[Limited Banners "In Quiet Murmurs" and "In Harmonious Echoes" have been opened.]
"Are you a traveler who just arrived in Rinascita from somewhere else?"
In front of the fountain at the center of Liberty Plaza, the young female cleric tilted her head up. Only then did her line of sight pass under the wide, long brim of her white hat and clearly see Noah's face:
"Sorry, I should introduce myself first. My name is Phoebe, a cleric of the Order of the Deep. Welcome to Ragunna."
"You're too polite, Cleric Phoebe. My name is Noah, from Huanglong's Jinzhou."
Noah carefully studied Phoebe's small, round face. He suddenly had the urge to reach out and pinch it.
This face was really so round, full of collagen. If he could just pinch it once, it would definitely be super bouncy and Q.
He recalled Phoebe's character profile from the game story:
Pure, naturally airheaded, always eager to help others, a friend to Echoes, possessing the Resonance ability to materialize light into physical form.
Her character was very strong at high constellations, but at low constellations she was only suitable as support for Zani. Still, she provided an excellent open-world exploration experience. He decided — never mind, he wouldn't pull on her banner for now.
"Eh!"
Phoebe suddenly let out a small exclamation:
"You don't have a Rinascita terminal on you?"
"Nope." Noah shrugged.
"Ah… this… logically speaking..."
The girl lowered her head and murmured softly. Her expression, hidden beneath the wide brim of her hat, shifted several times.
Ever since the Order developed mass-production technology for terminals not long ago, the rule had been that every traveler arriving in Rinascita must be given one.
So how could the person in front of her not have one?
It must have been a mistake by the apprentice cleric in charge of the city entrance.
"I'm sorry, it seems there was an error in our Order's work. May I ask where you'll be staying? I'll deliver a terminal to you later."
"Thank you for your kindness, Cleric Phoebe, but actually… I already have a terminal."
Noah slowly reached out and gave a light shake in the air. Like a magic trick, the Pangu Terminal from Huanglong instantly appeared in his hand:
"Can you tell me how to unlock the soaring ability unique to Rinascita?"
"Oh, oh! That's easy. Please follow me."
Seeing that Noah already had a terminal, Phoebe finally relaxed.
She didn't think too deeply about it; she simply assumed Noah had already pre-registered his terminal, which was why he didn't need to hand it over and also didn't need a Rinascita terminal.
"Just place your terminal on the central beacon of Ragunna — the Origin Beacon — and it will activate the soaring Echo."
"However, this ability can only be used within the boundaries of Rinascita, because only Rinascita is protected by the power of the Sentinel Imperator."
"Earlier, when you spoke of Imperator and Threnodians in the same breath, it might have offended the believers of the Sentinel Imperator. Please don't mention it again."
"Understood."
[Exploration Module "Soaring" — has been activated.]
After retrieving the terminal from the central beacon, Noah couldn't help but smile slightly.
He could finally fly!
If it weren't prohibited to fly inside Ragunna City, he would have taken off right here on the spot.
"After interacting with the central beacon, your terminal will now function normally within Ragunna."
Phoebe took out her own terminal:
"People from outside always find it hard to adjust to the complicated rules here when they first arrive in Rinascita, and they run into all sorts of problems."
"Let's exchange contact information. While you're traveling in Ragunna, if you ever run into any trouble, you can come find me for help."
After exchanging contact information with Phoebe, Noah couldn't help but speak up in praise:
"Miss Cleric, are you always this kind to everyone?"
"Kind?"
Phoebe blinked in surprise, then gave a sweet smile. A faint aura of devout holiness seemed to shine from her small, round face:
"You flatter me. I'm simply following the will of the gods and fulfilling the duties of a cleric. This is a trial from the Sentinel, and also part of my cultivation."
"I see. What an admirable Cleric Phoebe."
"Hahaha, you really know how to compliment people. If you're interested in learning more about the Order's faith later, I'd be happy to explain as much as I can."
[Phoebe has sent you an invitation to join the faith (Accept / Decline)]
Decline.
Noah shook his head slightly, a trace of pity appearing in his eyes.
The god this girl believed in had already fused with a Threnodian. The doctrines she revered were nothing more than tools the Order used to control the populace.
Even the sour green branch fruit she ate every day was merely something casually mentioned as "divine oracle" by a certain Sentinel-Threnodian dual Resonator trapped in a high tower.
If one day this pure and devout Cleric Miss learned the whole truth — when her faith and values collapsed — what kind of expression would appear on that clean, sincere little round face?
For some reason… he was a little curious to find out.
"Miss Cleric, I'm planning to find an inn to stay at. Do you have any recommendations?"
"Yes, yes!"
Phoebe immediately recommended no fewer than three inn locations in Ragunna. Before parting, she kindly reminded him:
"In two hours, there will be the Order's weekly prayer ceremony here at Liberty Plaza, praying for the happiness of everyone in Ragunna. If you're interested, feel free to come and watch."
Another event he had never seen in the original story.
No problem.
Noah nodded slightly and asked:
"Will Miss Cleric be there?"
"I will."
"Then I will definitely attend."
Noah nodded lightly, turned, and left. After walking several steps, he looked back and saw that the golden-haired girl in the round hat had already been surrounded by a group of small puppet Echoes.
To be fair, whether in the game's character design or in real-life interaction, Phoebe was an extremely likable character.
Unfortunately, the Order she belonged to would definitely not remain peaceful in the future. He didn't know what kind of life awaited this kind Cleric Miss.
Shaking his head slightly, Noah withdrew his thoughts.
The plot of Wuthering Waves 2.0 involved intricate scheming among the Order of the Deep, the Montelli family, the Fisalia family, Fractsidus, and many other factions — extremely complicated and brain-burning.
Carnevale was still a distant twenty days away. He had no interest in waiting that long and planned to skip straight to the 2.2 main storyline.
He would rest for the night today, then tomorrow go directly to pay a visit to the Fisalia family.
As for the 2.0 main quest? Could those meager task rewards possibly be more important than the Black Shores?
If he kept waiting, there was a chance the Slaughterblade of Carnage inside the Black Shores might find a way to break free early — and if that happened, the entire Solaris civilization might not even last 265 minutes.
Noah was absolutely not the type of person who couldn't tell what was important.
Tomorrow he would switch to the Rover character, draw the Tyrvine sword from the Fisalia family, charge up to the Inverted Sky Tower, obtain the power of Imperator, deal with the Leviathan, and then return to the Black Shores to finish off the Slaughterblade of Carnage.
The whole process would be seamless.
Perfect!
Now there was only one question standing before Noah.
Could he defeat the Leviathan?
He hadn't fought it yet, so he didn't know.
Although he had previously beaten the Sentinel — Jué — senseless up on Mt. Firmament, Jué was in a state of severe injury for thousands of years, its health bar critically low, and even its time-sequence power was incomplete.
The Threnodian Leviathan had been sealed all this time, but no matter what, it should still be several times stronger than Jué.
"I should be able to beat it… right..."
Noah rubbed his chin and tossed the thought aside:
"Whatever. If I really can't beat the Leviathan, I'll just do what I did in the Black Shores — use time-sequence power to rewind time. No big deal."
He opened the quest list and glanced at the newly unlocked main quest:
[Main Quest: The Sacred Breeze So Often Breathes has been activated.]
[Quest Description: The magnificent city of Ragunna now lies fully before your eyes. After a few small incidents, this city of Echoes greets the arrival of the foreign traveler with an astonishing appearance.]
[Complete the main quest The Sacred Breeze So Often Breathes to receive rewards: Radiant Tide ×20, Lustrous Tide ×10, Astrite ×1600, Shell Credits ×100000.]
At this moment, Noah still had no idea just how valuable this main quest really was.